Suntan Lotion and Target

Target has suntan lotion on sale again this week.  If you buy two of the ones listed on sale you get a $5 Target Gift Card.  Last week I did this deal, I bought one Hawaiian Tropic and one Banana Boat.  I picked up the ones I thought was on sale and they came with free things.  Headed to the check out, handed the cashier my two manufacturer coupons and two target coupons (one mf and target for Hawaiian Tropic and one mf and target for Banana Boat), but I did not get the gift card I was suppose too.  Oh and she forgot to scan one of the coupons.   I headed to the customer service desk to get my dollar back and find out about the gift card.  Come to find out I bought the right size of each lotion, but they could not be the bonus packs.  I now had to head back to the suntan lotion display and pick up two of the same lotions without the bonus attachment.  They did the necessary adjustments gave me money back and my $5 gift card.
After telling you about the issue I had, I will say that if you pick up the correct suntan lotion the sale with coupons is a good thing to take advantage of.  Read the signs carefully, if for whatever reason you did not get the gift card upon check out go to customer service and see why not.  The Target coupons are still available to print at Target.com.  If you are unsure what would be the cheapest way to work this deal, check out couponmom.com to see how she has the deal broken out.  She will tell you the final cost after you subtract the $5 gift card. So your out of pocket will be higher, but you can use that gift card for a future purchase.
Check this deal out your skin will thank you.

Try Before Stocking Up...

Over the weekend I picked up a bag of Ore-Ida Sweet Potato fries.  I knew that I had a coupon I could use if I bought two bags, but since this is something new my family I only picked up one.  I didn't want to stock up on it if we all thought it was horrible tasting.  As it turns out, two in the house thought the fries were tasty and two didn't like them at all.  It's good I didn't stock up on these.  I would recommend before stocking up try one.  If your family is able to adapt easily to new foods then go for it, if not spend wisely.

Savings Highlight

I didn't do a whole lot of shopping this week.  That might be because I did the majority of it yesterday, but I still managed to rack up quite a bit in savings.
So I waited until the 26th to use my $6 in Rite Aid Up Rewards that were expiring that day. I got 4 bottles of Pantene Shampoo which before coupons was 4.99 a bottle.  I had two buy 1 get 1 free coupons and the $6 in Up Rewards.  Out of Pocket I spent 4.23 and I saved 80%.  If you use Pantene then you know that $4.23 out of pocket for 4 bottles is a good deal.
Next stop Old Navy.  They had some tank tops on sale plus I had a $35 rewards certificate I wanted to use.  I carefully planned out my trip.  I wanted to spend no more than $38 before the rewards certificate.  So to make sure I did not go over my set amount as I added things to my cart I punched in the amount to the calculator to add to my running total. I did it I managed to spend $36.06 before certificate.  Out of pocket I only had to pay $1.06.  The cashier thought she did something wrong when she put my certificate in since the total went from 36.06 down to 1.06.  Nope nothing wrong there.  She complimented me on my savings.  If all the merchandise I purchased was full priced I would have spent $71.06-sales and certificate total out of pocket $1.06 for a 99% savings.  OH YEAH!!
Stop number three Shop Rite.  I thought I only went in for a few things, how did my total jump to 102.33 before sales and coupons.  Wow that must have been some expensive stuff :-)  Well those few things turned into 20 items for a total out of pocket 43.24.  Not everything did I have a coupon for, but everything was on sale and I managed to save 58% that shopping trip with coupons, sales and bottle receipts.
After the first three stops I needed to come home grab a glass of tea and something to eat.  Once I was recharged I headed to Target.  Earlier in the week I noticed that House M.D. Season 7 was on sale for 16.99 which is awesome.  The original price for the DVD set is 44.99.  I made sure I went and picked one up. I should have picked it up earlier in the week when I saw it, but I didn't.   While at Target I did pick up two other things that were not on sale so my percent of savings was not as high.  I only managed to save 43% on my Target purchases.
Overall I have to say I had a pretty good week savings wise.  Wonder what kind of savings I will rake in this week!!

Healthy eating and couponing???

I have been presented with a new challenge this week, finding coupons for healthier eating.  I was able to find a tear off coupon for White Cheddar Cheetos right on the display, but when I was purchasing the snacks I didn't care about the price just went looking for things I thought would be enjoyed. One thing that we really enjoyed was Sweet Potato Chips.  I helped polish off a bag of Sweet Potato chips and can say that for me personally I enjoyed those more than a regular potato chip.  Not on sale they are about $4 a bag, sadly to say the bag did not even last a full day in our house with the four of us having some.
I know that Stop and Shop this week has some healthy snack food on sale, but are there really coupons out there for the health alternative?  I do know that Whole Foods offers coupons at times for items they sell and normally have various things on sale.  
While the family dived into the healthy snacks I realized that a lot of the coupons that are printed in the inserts are not geared towards the health conscious person.  I wonder why that is.  As I find the coupons I will be sharing with you the sites I found them on.

3 Local Businesses

I am taking a break from talking about deals to shed some light on 3 local businesses.  None of them have asked me to promote them here, but when I see talent I like to tell others about the talent.  Since I don't want to play favorites, I am going to discuss them alphabetically.

With the warm temperatures upon us you might find yourself wanting pictures taken, why not check out AGAPE Photography or Interlude Photography.  I have seen pictures that each have taken and they are both simply amazing.  It is incredible how you can capture a moment, emotion, scene with a push of the button.

You can check AGAPE Photography out here https://www.facebook.com/agapephotography.ct

Interlude Photography has a few links you can check out their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Interlude-Photography/137642012962278, their website http://www.interludephotography.com/ and if you want to buy any of the awesome note cards she has for sale you can purchase them here http://interludephotography.blogspot.com/p/merchandise.html.  I have ordered a set of the Floral Note Cards, they are amazing.

Take a minute and check out both businesses.  Share the word about them with your friends, family, co-workers, etc.  Call them and book photo shoots, you won't be sorry.

The last is a business that will be up in running in the next few weeks.  The Whimsy Turtle, was started by another friend of mine who is hard at work making things for you to buy.  Check out her facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Whimsy-Turtle/162126667222999 on there is a link to her website.  I can't wait to see what creative things she makes.

 

Savers and Books

Over the weekend I brought some books to Savers to donate, since this was the first time I have ever been to Savers I decided to take a quick walk-thru to see what types of things they had.  They had a whole lot of books.  To be honest that is really as far as I got.  I noticed they had VHS tapes for those who still have VCRs, cassette tapes, and bookcases filled with books. I looked through some of the books and was very tempted to buy some.  I did leave empty handed, but the books were priced at less than $5 per book.

After I thought about the books I was going to buy, I thought of the eleven books I have recently taken out of the library.  If I had purchased those eleven books at the store at say $10 per book I would have spent $110 just for my reading entertainment.  So, I saved $110 by utilizing the library, still got to read the books I wanted, but never had to take anything green out of my pocket to get them.  Before you buy that "must" have book at the store, check to see if it is available at the library.  Think of all the money you could have in your pocket by passing up the "must" have book in the store.  

A benefit besides saving is you get to try out different authors, types of books, series all for free.

Another thing I do is lend out the books I have purchased to friends of mine.  Some have in return lent books to me.  It opened the door for me to explore new authors that I would not have otherwise picked up.

What are you currently reading?

Compare Your Lists

For the second week in a row I am finding that multiple stores have the same item on sale.   Since it's the time of year to stock up on BBQ sauce, mustard, mayo, ketchup and suntan lotion the stores appear to be competing so you will buy it from them. In order to get the cheaper price I am going to have to compare my lists to figure out which is the best deal.  Some of the stores have just straight sales, but others have if you buy so many of a certain item you get register rewards, a gift card, etc.
Don't jump at the first sale you see, it might not be the cheapest.

Enjoy

There have been times lately that I have dreaded cutting the coupons and filing them.  I love the savings I get, but at times I dread the work I have to put in just to get the savings.  My weekend vacation helped me to get onto a different path with couponing.  I need to enjoy what I am doing in order to really make any progress.  I started yesterday cutting my coupons in spurts. I don't cut more then two inserts at a sitting.  Once those inserts are cut, I might make a neat pile of the cut coupons on my binder, go do some other things for a while, come back later and file them.
My goal is to make sure all the cut coupons are filed the day I cut them before I head to sleep.  So far this is working out good for me.  I don't feel overwhelmed looking at the small pile of inserts that needs to be cut, but instead am looking at what I accomplished.  I haven't gone shopping with my coupons yet this week, but it's ok.  My life does not revolve around coupons and deals.
If whatever you are doing is starting to lack the joy, take a short break from it.  Hopefully when you return from the break, you will enjoy it again.
 

Tripped Up

My family and I went away for Mother's Day weekend.  It was a great trip filled with sight-seeing, beaches and relaxing.  The one thing that was missing from the trip was couponing and planning for the upcoming weeks shopping.  We saved a lot by bringing the food from home, so there were no trips to the store.  I brought my coupons with me in anticipation of cutting the small pile and filing them, but that didn't happen.  I didn't check to see what was on sale this week.  When I got home I did look at the sale papers, but couldn't tell you what  I read.  I'm a little behind on e-mails and still haven't checked couponmom.com to find out what's on sale this week in my state.  The trip seems to have thrown me for a little loop, thrown me off course some.  It's great to get away even for a day or two, but sometimes hard to get back into the normal routine of things.  The one thing I do know is that Target released new coupons, head over to Target.com and check them out.  If you see any you like be sure to print them because when you are actually ready to use them the coupon may no longer be found on Target.com.

Prepare ahead

Friday was one busy day for me.  Work, schooling my son, errands and such.  Running from one thing to the next, I was grabbing what I needed and going.  However, one of the errands I needed to run was using my Rite Aid Up rewards.  I grabbed my whole binder and headed out.  I really had no time to waste on anything, but I did waste time.  Boo..I headed to Rite Aid, parked and went to get my rewards from my binder I was about to spend only to find I had half of what I needed was home waiting to be filed.  I was not happy at all, however if I wasn't in such a rush I would have realized that I didn't have everything I needed when I left the house.  I didn't prepare ahead.  I just went.  When you don't prepare you are likely to forget something.

Something I am Learning

In the process of saving money or just enjoying my shopping trips, I am learning something important.  It is a great thing to be organized.  Why do I say that?  Currently I have $11 in Rite Aid Up Rewards and $6 in CVS rewards to use between now and the first week in June.  They do not all expire on the same day, actually they expire on four different days.  How do I keep track of what expires when?  I decided to add my rewards expiration date to my calendar along with the amount that is expiring that day.  This way all I have to do is look at my calendar and can plan accordingly.  If I did not add these facts to my calendar I might forget about them, they expire and then I remember.  I would not be a happy shopper if that happened.  Staying organized helps you to stay on top of things.

Track Your Savings

I have been trying to track spending and savings to see overall how much I am saving.  I don't always put every receipt into my spreadsheet, but while inputting some receipts today I took a look at my totals.  For what I have recorded I saved us $445 so far in 2012.
Track your spending and saving for a week, see how much you saved.  Now track for 2 weeks, etc.  Before long saving is going to be something automatic and not something you have to think much about.
How does it feel to see how much you saved just by purchasing things on sale or with coupons?

Watermelon and Sales

I had to run to Stop and Shop yesterday for bread and managed to come out with more than just bread.  One really tasty thing was a whole seedless watermelon.  I love watermelon this time of year...Wait no I love it all year round, but only seem to get it in the spring/summer time.  I glanced at the display last week and saw the whole seedless watermelons were still at full price of 7.99.  However, the watermelon was the first thing I grabbed this shopping trip since it is on sale for 3.99.  I will probably pick up one more before the sale goes off on Thursday at close.  

Besides Stop and Shop's great sale on watermelon :-)  Shop Rite appears to be having a rockin' sale this week.  I am really going to have to take a better look at the sale, but I have a long tentative list of things I plan on picking up at Shop Rite this week.  Take a look at the paper and see if you can come up with some awesome deals for you and your family.

Starbucks and another App

I am excited to see that Starbucks is having Happy Hour from 3-5pm May 4th thru the 13th.  If you go to Starbucks during the  happy hour time and purchase a Frappucino blended drink it will be 50% off.  Since this is a guilty pleasure of mine I am pretty excited about this.  I will be going during 3-5 on at least one of these days to get a Frapp.

My pleas for an app that you can put all of your keycards into instead of having them dangle from your ring has been answered.  I have stumbled upon the CardStar app that I installed on my ipod.  I have successfully used it at the majority of the stores I shop at regularly.  I was unable to scan it at Best Buy and Gamestop, but in both places told me they have an old system and haven't upgraded yet.  Check the app out if you are looking to manage all your savings cards or membership cards all in one place.  I would recommend carrying the cards with you for a while just in case you run into a store that the app won't scan.

Learning or Shopping Trip with Me

I have been thinking lately that it's great that I am able to get things and share them with others, plus it's great to share my shopping experiences and tips here, but there is nothing like seeing it done in person.  I don't get carriages full worth of groceries for nothing, but I'm content with what I do get.  So, if you are someone I know beyond cyberspace tap into my knowledge.  Instead of grabbing a coffee maybe we can go shopping so you can see firsthand how it's done and how it feels.  Maybe you are not yet at the stage where you want to actually shop, but want to pick my brain some.  We can do that too.  Send me your questions.  Ask me over coffee while we are cutting our coupons out.  Somehow we will find a way to fit couponing and saving into your life.  I'm willing to lend a hand, share my knowledge, go shop with you, etc....Give it some thought.  

Apps are a Great Invention

I took my son shopping yesterday partly so he could look around and spend some birthday money and also to hunt for a magazine.  I figured if anyone would have the issue of Nintendo Power we were looking for Barnes and Noble would, but they didn't.  However, looking around in various parts of the bookstore I picked up a puzzle and Z picked up some books for himself.  Now, if only I had my Groupon with me.  I would have saved $10 on all of this.  I wasn't going to tell Z to put the books he wanted back, so what was I going to do.  Wait, I recall that when I bought the Groupon for Barnes and Noble it told me I could download the app.  Good thing I brought my Ipod with me and it was able to pick up an internet signal.  I took a few minutes downloaded the app, put all of my information in to sign in and checked with an associate before I got in line to make sure they take Groupons from electronic devices.  Hooray they did!  All the cashier had to do was type in the long number that was displayed on my Ipod from Groupon and my total became $10 less.  Plus I was able to use my educators discount and saved 20% on each item.  Awesome!!!

My Rite Aid Shopping Trip

I set out to go and get the Dawn since my coupon was expiring on 4/30, but realized that I should just get everything that is on my list for Rite Aid.  I didn't take my binder with me, but instead took 2 Dawn .50 off coupons and my $2 Up Rewards.  I left my other Up Rewards home.  Why am I telling you all this?  Even though I got the above pictured for $3.08 Out of Pocket and received $3 back in Up rewards.  If I had taken my $4 up rewards instead I would have only paid $1 Out of Pocket instead of $3.  Everything is a learning experience, I still got a great deal and had a rush all the way home.