Free cheese...

Wow, my last post was in Feb.  I have not stopped being frugal or getting free stuff just had not made time to document it.  Last nights shopping trip is worth documenting.  In an effort to save time and gas I decided to try and take advantage of Food Maxx's price matching policy.  Normally I go after the kids are sleeping and hit three or four different stores to get the best deal, but I was too tired to do that last night.  Instead I took the time with the inserts for the week and made my list.  I was a little anxious not knowing how it was all going to work or if it would work at all.  Some of the items were already cheaper than the price match so that was great.  The ones that were not I put all together in the cart and when I loaded them on the belt I made sure to tell her ahead of time so she could adjust the price.  My big score was the Kraft Cheese (pre-shredded cheese).  Foods Co had them for .98 if you buy 10 and I had two manufacture coupons for $5 off 5 Kraft cheese making these free.  She had to have a managers key for all the price adjustments, which was a pain, but over all it worked.  It did take some extra time to check out, but for me it was worth it.  I was under the impression that they took competitors coupons as well, but they would not, so I had to go to some other stores this morning anyway.  After I was all done my receipt said I saved $82 which sounded great to me.  I will be doing this again especially with the stores that are not really close to me.   

$50 VONS GiftCard Giveaway from The Sassy Saver site

http://www.thesassysaver.net/safeway-50-gift-card-giveaway/

Melissa at the above site is giving away a giftcard for Safeway (Vons).  Check out her site and enter.  Thanks.

Old Navy $2 Lace Camis-

I had some coffee this morning, which I normally do not do, so I have a ton of energy.  You know what makes me even more excited???  Super fab deals.  I found out that Old Navy has Lace Camis (super cute under stuff) for only $2 and there was no limit on how many you get.  I also went to the website and printed off a $5 off $25 for even better savings.  I got there just before they opened and was one of the first ones in.  They had a bunch of colors and sizes but they were going super fast since you can get as many as you like.  I got a few for me and a few for gifts.  My total before sale and coupon was $115 and after was only $23 and some change.  Not too bad for 9 tanks and 1 top(which I am returning...arm holes are too big).  Go get them fast before they are all gone.    

I'm Back...Check out these deals

I know it's been a while...but I am back with a bang. I needed some me time yesterday so I had Matt take care of the kids while I found some deals. I was gone for a long time but I went down almost every aisle in the store to see what clearance deals there were in order to match them up with my coupons making them FREE or almost free. I figured it out last night and I made about $9 on this purchase once Rite Aid sends me my rebate check. You read this correct I made money off of these items. Here is the break down.

First trip was to Rite Aid where I bought the following:
Huggies-11.99 (had a coupon for a free pack of Huggies plus I am getting a $3 rebate from this)
3-2 Liters of soda(sale $1.99 for all three with coupon)
1-Candy Bar (.88)
2-Dawn Liquid Hand Soap (sale .88 each but I had 2 coupons for $1.00 off each so I made some money on this)
1-Toothpaste (2.99 sale, but I am getting $2 rebate and I had a $1 off coupon making this free)
1-Contact Solution($7.99 getting $7.99 rebate making this free...Matt uses this all the time so now I never have to pay for it)

I also had a $5.00 off purchase of $25 (this is before coupons) and a $10 off gift certificate making my total -$.83 Yes they paid me 83 cents for this purchase. I will be getting my $13 in rebates in about a month and I also received 9 new Game for Life game pieces for a chance to win some great prizes. By the way...the gift certificate was from the last month deal they were having. When you spend a certain amount before coupons you get a gift certificate. I think I spent $50 so I got a $10 GC. The great part is I didn't even spend anywhere near $50. Since the $50 was before coupons, sales, and rebates I think I maybe spent $10(if even that) to get that gift certificate. I HEART RITEAID.

After that I went to three different Walgreens since they were all near where I was going and I had some time. I looked through all the clearance stuff and came home with the following:
2-cans of Beef Broth(34 cents each)
2-Keebler Cookies(2 for $5 and then you get $1 RR for your next purchase plus I had two $1 off coupons making these 50 cents each)
Carmex Lip Balm(sale for .99 and I had a coupon for 75 cents off making this 24 cents)
Another Lip balm($1.99 but you get $2 RR making this free)
Blink Tears(7.99 and you get $8 back plus I had $1.50 coupon making money on this one)
Zicam($10 minus the $3 coupon and the $7 RR means this is free)
2-Post cereal($1 on sale but I had a $2 off coupon making both free)
5 candy bars(paid $1 for these)

I did have a $5 RR to use towards this purchase from last week so I spent a total of $17.28 and got $17 in register rewards for my next purchase. Sounds like a money maker to me. You can lower your out of pocket cost by doing separate transactions and using your RR to pay for your next purchase but it's just too much trouble for me so I do it this way. Next week there is a great deal on diapers so I will be using my RR to pay for these.

Finally I headed next door to CVS for this stuff:
Huggies(sale for $9.99 rec'd $2 ECB plus $2 deposit to upromise acct and I had a $2 off coupon making this pack only $3.99)
Toothpaste(sale $2.99 rec'd $2 ECB and had a $1 off coupon making this free)
Baby Wipes(2.99 ECB $1 minus 75 cent coupon total $1.24)
Hair Dye(clearance $4.50, I had $4 in coupons making this only 50 cents)
Cookies(sale 3.49 rec'd $1 ECB, and I had $2 in coupons making this 50 cents)
2-Men's Dove Body Wash (5.49 each Rec'd $10.98 in ECBs plus I had $3 in coupons making this a money maker)
Perfume($11.99 rec'd $5 ECB and I had $5 in coupons making this only $1.99)
2-Cough Drops (only 19 cents afer coupons)
As seen on TV Product(9.99 rec'd $5 ECB and I had $1.50 coupon making this $3.49)
2-12 ct eggs(77 cents just a good price)
1-Gallon of milk(1.49 after coupons)

I had some ECB's from last week to spend plus a $5 off $20 coupon so I spent a total of $23.82 and rec'd $19 in ECB to spend on my next purchase. Not too bad. You can also do separate transactions here to make your out of pocket less, but too much work so I just use the ECB from this week to pay for next weeks deals that will produce new ECBs. Love it.

When I figured this out, if my math was correct, after I receive my Rite Aid Rebate I will be making about $8 on this purchase. Can you believe it. I know its a lot of info and maybe confusing so let me know if you have any questions.

Deals Of The Week

I know it's been a while since my last post.  Just too busy to document my successes.  I was really excited about a great deal at Vons today.  I came home with 5 boxes of Fruit Snacks (fruit by the foot and gummies), box of Quaker Oatmeal, and two boxes of cereal all name brand for $4.10 out of pocket and then I got a $3.50 coupon of my next purchase...so only 60 cents for 8 items.  All the coupons were printable coupons that anyone can get.  I used (2) $1.00 2 fruit snacks, $.40 of 1 fruit snack, $1.00 off oatmeal, (2) $1.00 off cereal. Also I loaded ecoupons onto my Vons card for the fruit snacks at Shortcuts.com and Cellfire.com which can be used with printable coupons so that took off an addtional $1.00.  The printables are found at smartsource and coupons.com and the cherrios website.

Also if you are in need of makeup CVS is having 50%-75% off lots of makeup.  I found some really good makeup on sale for 75% off for $3.25 and there was a $3.00 off sticker on it making it only $.25.  Lots of Loreal lip glosses and lipsticks for 75% off and I used coupons from the Fresno Bee from the last few months.  Nice to stock up on these things if you are not brand loyal.

Any questions let me know.  Thanks.       

Thanksgiving Day Deals

I normally do not venture out on Thanksgiving or even Black Friday, but since I've had a break from the drug stores lately I thought I would check it out. I am glad I did. The stores were pretty empty so I didn't have to deal with a ton of people. I went to Walgreens and CVS actually made money on all the stuff pictured here. I figured it out to be about a $10 profit. Check out Iheartwags and iheartcvs sites for the coupon matchups. Also moneysavingmom.com gives you some great breakdowns. For those of you who do not know how I came out ahead remember I used manufacture coupons, store coupons and store sales to do this. One example is the Infusium23 leave in treatment-On sale for $4.99 and then you get $4.99 back on your next purchase. When you use a $2 off coupon you make a profit. Here is a breakdown of all my stuff and their retail value to give you an idea of my savings:

Johnson& Johnson Softwash-5.99
Dove Deodorant X2-3.99
Infusium Hair TreatmentX2-4.99
Nivia Mens Shave Gel X2-2.49
Christmas OrnamentsX2-.99
Toothpaste-1.99
Christmas PencilsX4-1.00
Bic Solie Razor-6.99
Kit Kat-.89
King Size Milkyway-1.59
Lotion-7.99
Remote control-6.99
Men's razor-9.99
Just for Men Dye-8.29
Body Wash St. Ives-3.99
Ear Buds-6.99
Degree Deodorant-4.00

Total Value is about $91.00

I may try Rite Aid tomorrow but we'll see. Happy Thanksgiving.

We're Debt Free (besides the house)

I am so excited because I just made the last payment on our van.  We paid it off in less than one year with a lot of hard work these last few months.  We did make some sacrifices such as budgeting, eating out less, meal planning, skipping some recreational activities but now that I've done it for almost 6 months I don't think I can go back.  I never want to finance anything ever again.

Our next goal is to establish our fully funded emergency fund of 6 months of living expenses.  If we continue what we are doing we should have this goal met by mid year 2010.  After this we plan to invest, save for kids college and tackle the house.  We would love to have the house paid off in 7 years or less, but we'll see how that goes.  There was a point in time that we wanted a new house but now that we want to live debt free lifestyle I am ok with what we have.  We do plan to have one more child and having only one bathroom is going to be a challenge.  We are also planning to save for maybe an expansion of this house and a bathroom update once our ER fund is fully funded.

In the next five years Matt is going to have several surgeries on his mouth that is not covered my insurance, so we are saving for this as well.  It is going to cost about 25K over the five years.  That is a lot on money, but I know God will provide.  He went for a consult the other day and we found out the oral surgeon is going to charge us less than the original amount he proposed saving us nearly 5K.  We are so blessed to have an awesome God that provides beyond what we can imagine.  All praise to Him.  We plan to start the first series in March and then on from there.

We are excited to see what God has in store for us this upcoming year.  We are also excited to have our goals set and ready to tackle them.  There is just something about accomplishment that gives me such a high.  WOOHOO!!!!  What are your goals for this coming year?