Rite Aid Lotion Deal

I did a lot of my shopping online.  I got just about everything I wanted without having to set foot in a store.  However, I did have to go to a physical store for a few things.  One deal I missed out on because I waited to long to go.  Rite Aid has a deal I took full advantage of.  At Rite Aid they have the Nivea Blue Tin Lotion which normally retails at .99 per tin on sale 3 for .99.  I didn't run into any limits on it, but it could be up to each store as to how many of an item they allow you to buy.  Since both my son and myself use it, I should him the amount I bought and asked him if he thought it would be enough.  I have my doubts so I might head back to Rite Aid tomorrow and get some more.  This is a deal too good to pass up.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving.

As the food is digesting and you are deciding if you are going to head to the stores, take a minute to check online.  I did some shopping online today for items that I would have gone out tomorrow for.  I didn't have to stand in lines and I was able to get the merchandise I wanted.  An added bonus for my shopping was I went through ebates.com to get cashback on my purchases.  If the items you are heading out to purchase are not available online, check other stores.  I have been comparison shopping a lot today online.  One item I was thinking of heading to Target tonight for, I found on a different website for the same price.
Now all I have to do is wait for the packages to be delivered.  Try and find a hiding spot for my son's things that he does not know about and I'm all good.

Happy Shopping everyone.  Stay safe out there!!!

Wowed a Cashier today

I knew there was a few more things on my CVS list that I wanted to get this week before the great extra buck sale ends.  I got out my list, crossed off what I already purchased, found the coupons for Carmex and Glade PlugIns Scented Oil Warmer was going to decide if I was going to use them when I got to the store.  Almost left the house without my Extra Bucks that would have been a big no no.  

Before I left the house I also printed a coupon for Staples that was ending today.  With the coupon I was able to receive a free bag and 15% off the items I put in the bag.  There were probably some exclusions, but I wasn't planning on purchasing anything so I didn't pay much attention to it.  All I wanted was the free bag.  

I picked up the items I set out for at CVS and picked up some "filler" items.  I really didn't stop to do the math with the "filler" items, but thought knew there was nothing else I wanted.  The cashier rang up my items, I handed her my coupons,  then the extra bucks.  The $1.00 and one .99 extra buck went in no problem.  The last .99 beeped telling the cashier that the amount of the extra bucks was more than my total.  The remaining total was only .96 cents.  I had a decision to make, hand the cashier a dollar or tell her it was okay for her to bring the extra bucks down to .96 cents.  After some thinking I told her to bring the extra bucks down to the .96.  I kept my dollar in my wallet.  Seeing the zero total the cashier said wow.  Then she realized I was getting extra bucks back on at least one of the items.  I told her that I was getting extra bucks back on everything, but the candy.  When the extra bucks were done printing the cashier was impressed.  I wish I could recall exactly what she said, but you knew she liked seeing savings and deals like the one I just did.  

So exactly how much in extra bucks did I get back today, $3.24 ($1.25 + $1.00 + .99).  I saved $7.53 on my shopping trip today.  The best part besides  spending none of my own money, coming out with more extra bucks than I went in with today.

Here's what I got today:  

A Glimpse at Our Storage Closet

I chose to not go to any stores today, but instead I took some time to organize our storage closet.   For the most part it was already organized, but it didn't flow.  Now the flow is good and everything has a place.  It looks great!  I can tell what we are running low on and what we have enough of.  

I couldn't figure out how to whole room shot, so I had to take the pictures in sections.

Take a look.....

                                              

CVS and Shop Rite Shopping trips

I went to CVS and Shoprite today.  At CVS I did three transactions and only spent $3.23 which includes tax.

CVS transaction #1 
Advil 10 CT $2.99

Out of Pocket with tax I spent 2.99
Received $2.99 back in Extra Bucks

CVS Transaction #2
Coca-Cola 1.25 Liter $.99
Hot Wheels car $1.00
Play Dough $1.00

Out of Pocket .05(Bottle Deposit)
Used my $2.99 Extra Bucks and received $2.99 back in Extra Bucks

CVS Transaction #3
Kraft Mac and Cheese $.99
Kleenex 3 Pack Slim Wallet Tissues $1.00

Out of Pocket $0
Paid with Extra Bucks from Tranaction 2 and received $1.99 Extra Bucks

Total Out of Pocket $3.23 
Total Savings $7.91

Extra Bucks Still have to spend $2.98


Shop Rite has Jell-O 2 pack Snack Packs on sale for $1.49 this week.  I had a $1.00 off coupon expiring today.  I headed there and got the snack pack for $.49.


Not bad for a day of Shopping and Saving

This may not look like a lot to you, but raking in the savings brought a huge smile to my face.

CVS this Week

If you haven't checked out the CVS ad for this week, do so.  They have pages of items on sale that will in a sense be free after the extra care bucks.  Plan your shopping so you only pay for the first item and have your extra bucks pay for your next items.  If you need to split your shopping trips into multiple transactions.
 I am still trying to figure out what is going to be my first transaction to make it more profitable for me.  I am planning on doing two transactions when I go, then split the remaining up during this week.  Keep an eye on the end date for this flyer it appears that the sales might end on Wednesday.  However, in the past I know that they continue some of the sales until Saturday.

Some highlights from the ad:

Scooby Doo Fruit Snacks on sale for $2 get $2 extra bucks back
Kraft Mac and Cheese .99 get .99 extra bucks back
Play-Doh Soft Pack $1 get $1 extra bucks back
Hot Wheels $1 get $1 exra bucks back
Carmex $1 get $1 exta bucks back
Air Wick Scented Oil Warmer .99 get .99 extra bucks back
Starbucks Refreshers $1.50 get $1.50 extra bucks back

That is only some of the many good deals at CVS this week.  Check out the ad for the rest.   The one drawback is that you are only allowed to get one reward per item.  Say you want to purchase three play-doh's you pay the $3, you will only get $1 back in the extra bucks.

With all that said I am off to figure out my first transaction then to make it happen!!!

Good FREE Apps

Have you ever noticed that there are no coupons for Apps?  Many of us download apps daily, weekly, monthly.  Do we have to pay to get a good app?  In my opinion you don't.  If you ask my son, he might tell you yes.  Actually I did ask him for help with this blog post...So far he hasn't given me any of his top picks for free apps, but I hope by the end of this post I will have wrangled three free apps from him.

My son and I both have an Ipod touch and a Kindle Fire, some apps I have found on both.  Where others are exclusive to that device.  One app that I have on both devices is Words with Friends.  I prefer playing that on my kindle, but probably play it more on my ipod.

One app that my son uses everyday for his Ipod is AppsGoneFree.  I have to thank a good friend of mine for telling us about that one.  Each day the app updates with various apps free for hours, a day, etc.  Not only do they have apps for the ipod/iphone on there, but also for the ipad.  I really wished they had an app like this for Kindle Fire.  Instead the Kindle does offer free Apps of the day.  You can view the free app on both Amazon and your Kindle Fire all you have to do is head to the appstore.

I personally don't need the full version of games so it's great that games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Minecraft offer Lite versions.

Our Top Free Apps for ipod/iphone(in no specific order)

• Angry Birds (any) 
• Fruit Ninja
• Cut the Rope
• Jetpack Joyride
• Mega Jump
• Pac-Man
• Temple Run
• Skylanders Cloud Patrol
• Lost Winds

Our Top Free Apps for Kindle

• Angry Birds
• Free Flow
• Vacation Quest The Hawaiian Island (Loved the trial version so much bought the whole adventure)
• Tetris
• Dragon Story
• Eye Illusions
• Empress of the Deep The Darkest Secret

Some of our top paid apps

• Angry Birds (for those of us who like the full version)
• Kingdom Rush
• Infinity Blade
• Minecraft
• BattleHeart
• Plants Vs. Zombies

Additional apps Words with Friends, Netflix, Optimum, IHeartRadio, the various stores, CardStar....

There are so many apps out there, what are some of your favorites?

Which Ads are Available

My last post was sort of a tease, but I didn't tell you which ads were available to view now.  Here are the ads that I have viewed

Best Buy
Target
Walmart

Are there any other stores that have released their ads early?

Black Friday Ads

Most of this week I have been thinking I should sit down and type out a quick blog post.  I haven't gotten or seen any really noteworthy deals, but I have seen a lot of Black Friday Ads being released.  Some of the major stores have released their ads early.  I was scanning the ads for one select deal, a Wii U, however so far that is one item I have not seen pictured in any ads.  One store I saw some DVD's for $1.  Lounge pants for $5, $10. TV's.... 

It amazes me that when walking in Target you can already pick out the lounge pants that will be a door buster or at least part of their black friday deals.  It seems like this year stores started much earlier putting out the Christmas things.  Can't we enjoy one holiday before we start thinking about another.  

Rain check for Batteries saved me how much....

The Hurricane seemed to help deplete our stock of AAA batteries.  With the portable radio going most if not all day during the storm and a snow storm in the forecast I did not want to be left in the dark without a lifeline.  I knew we had a rain check for AA and AAA batteries from Shop Rite.  I stopped back home and grabbed the rain check before I made my way to Milford on Tuesday.
The rain check was for a 20 pack of AA or AAA batteries originally priced at 3.99.  I got them for $1.49 a package.  The great part of this was that I was able to get 4 packs of AA and 4 of AAA if I so choose.  Since AA is a battery we do use a lot I got the limit of 4 of those.  At first I was only going to get 2 AAA packs of 20.  40 batteries should be more than enough.  However, at the last minute I changed my mind to get 4 packs of AAA as well.
I was hoping not to need to use them during the Nor'Eastern, but in fact our power did go out and we turned on the portable radio.  Thankfully the power was only out for an hour and we did not have to dip into our battery stash.
If something is on sale and they are out of stock and offering rain checks get one.  Know how long the rain check is good for, and maybe some coupons will come out to use along with the rain check.
Here's to getting great prices....

Loving These Deals

My son and I headed to what he thought was only going to be a stop at Toys R Us.  However, what he didn't know was that his dear sweet mom had a list of places to go.
First stop the library.  I am reading a good Iris Johansen series and noticed on my authors spreadsheet that I do not own books 3 and 4 of the series.  Check my local library and sure enough they had them available for me to check out.
Next stop Toys R Us.  My son found what he was looking for, I browsed at the board games.  I almost picked up a Monopoly Championship  game on sale for $5.00 regularly $14.99.  However, I know how many different Monopoly games we already have and I decide to pass on it.  It's still a great deal for those who love Monopoly or board games. Behind the Monopoly display was an empty display for Toy Story 3 Memory Game.  Although my son is too old for this game, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and track down one in the store.  My searching paid off.  I found one stuck in the memory game section of games.  This game regularly goes for 9.99.  However, this week it is on sale for only a $1.  Now I just have to keep my ears out for someone who has a child that is the perfect age for this game and loves Toy Story 3.
Next stop was Barnes and Noble.  Since Nintendo Power will be ending it's publication after the December issue we want to make sure we don't miss it.  They don't have that issue on the newsstands yet, but it was worth the stop. We did browse around a little.  I picked up a book from one of the bargain shelves and was pleasantly surprised that my educator card worked on this particular book.  Hey it saved me $4, so I'll take it.   
Quick pit stop to Rite Aid.  I wanted to see if a deal I read about really worked.  If you buy any fragrance you get a $5 up reward(There are some exclusions).  Well the 2.5 oz of Love's Baby Soft or Love's Rain Forest Body Spray are regularly priced at $5.50.  I thought I would  pick up one box of each.  The cashier rings them up and the Love's Baby Soft rang up at 11.99. Turns out it was the 1.5 oz of the Love's Baby Soft I picked up.  I did not get that one.  Wow though what a difference.  A bigger bottle in this case is cheaper than the smaller.  Anyways, I paid $5.85 and received a $5 up reward that I can use towards a future purchase.  The Up Rewards do have expiration dates so be mindful of this when you figure out what deals are the right ones for you.
My last stop before home was to BJ's.  Although I did not use any coupons, I found it interesting that the same book I purchased at Barnes and Noble was also there.  They both had the same starting price of 19.99 too.  However for me, using my Educator card at Barnes and Noble saved me extra so in the end I am happy with my decision.  It is a good fact to keep somewhere tucked away that some bargain books at Barnes and Noble might be also found at BJ's.  Who would have thought?
Stay tuned tomorrow to find out how a Rain Check from Shop Rite saved me on batteries.

Hurricane Sandy and Getting Back to Normal

I did not do much shopping last week and what I did do was in preparation for the Hurricane that came this way.  We were without power for some days, which is why I posted nothing last week.  Sorry to all you faithful readers.  

Now that power has been restored to a lot of places I am starting to look at this weeks sales.  I found myself in need of two storage bins, checked Target's sales ad and noticed they have them on sale this week.  I ran there yesterday checked out the ones they had on sale and also noticed they had select colors on clearance.  I went with two that they had on clearance that was cheaper than the ones on sale and just a little bit bigger as well.  

Today, I put to use the Christmas Tree Shop coupon I received in my e-mail and saved 20% off my entire order.  I have to say that this was the cheapest trip there in a while.  If I recall after savings I spent somewhere around $25.  Not bad.  

As I am looking at my e-mail from Krazy Coupon Lady today I noticed that they highlight dental floss only .40 cents after coupon and Glade Plug-Ins Scented Warmer Free after coupon, both items are at Target.  I think I have enough dental floss, and what good is the warmer without the insert to go with it.  Is it worth it to get the warmer for free if you still have to pay for the fragrance for it?  Should you still stock up on dental floss even though you have some in reserve?  

I know the answer to these questions for myself, but you need to come to an answer that works for you.  Unless I hear of someone needing Dental Floss, I don't think I am going to pick up any for myself this week.  The Glade it will all depend on how much the plug-in refills are.  Does anyone have the refills and are looking for some warmers?  

Before buying an over abundance of something, set limits for yourself.  Know what realistically your family can use.  If you still find yourself getting it, know who you're going to give it to or what organizations will take donations of items. 

Remember enjoy what you are doing.  When it starts feeling like a job or something you HAVE to do, maybe it's times to take a week or two off.