Frugal Made Fun

Deal of the Week: Wine? Yes please!

2012-02-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

There was an awesome wine deal at CVS this week which resulted in 6 bottles of wine for $0.78 each after discount and rebate!! I took a gamble waiting to go until later in the week, thinking most people don't waste their time with rebates so there would be plenty left. Wrong. I bought the last 6 bottles at my local CVS!
Spent $33.24
Submitting for$25 rebate
Total $8.24 (including tax) after rebate for 6 bottles of wine

Deal of the Week: Friday Fun Dominicks Deals

2012-02-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

I stopped in at Dominicks on the way home from work on Friday to grab a couple of deals.
Spent $30
Saved $29
Submitting for $4 rebate from the champagne

More Deals of the Week: Jewel & CVS...again

2012-02-04T19:13:00.000-08:00

Jewel was having their awesome Double Coupon event last Sunday through Wednesday. They would only double 5 coupons per day, so I went once each day. (Luckily it's on the way to/from work and very close to the apartment)! Here are my totals from Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!

Spent $15.73
Saved $45.39

I also went back to CVS because I found another good deal I couldn't pass up!
Spent $4.44 (On giftcard, so $0 OOP)
Saved $17.22
Received $6 ECB
Submitting for $5 Colgate/Palmolive rebate

Deal of the Week: Target Trip

2012-02-03T17:45:00.001-08:00

I went back to Target this week and scored some awesome deals. Bought: 3 bags of Iams dogfood (which were free with coupons), 2 Lipton pasta sides (I tried looking for the Buffalo Chicken variety that was pictured on the coupon, but they didn't have it), 3 Vicks Vapoinhalers, 3 Coffeemates (I grabbed a fat-free one by mistake...barf), 1 pair of sweatpants (Only $2 after coupon!!), and one 2-pack of baby pants ($1.90 on clearance, my coworker just had a baby and realized she had a ton of newborn onesies but no pants to go with them!!)
Spent $10.76
Saved $27
Received $5 GC

Deal of the Week: Free Shopping Sunday

2012-01-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

I ran out today to get a few things at various stores for free.

CVS items on the right: I paid for everything on a giftcard and I'll be submitting for a $10 mail-in rebate from the Advil. Spent $8 (on GC), Saved $19, Received $10 in ECB's.

Jewel in the middle: Spent $0.70 (tax) with Jewel's Double Coupon event.

Target on the left: Free Iam's dogfood with three $3 coupons in today's P&G Insert

Deal of the Week: Dominicks shopping

2012-01-21T13:01:00.001-08:00

Not great, not horrible. Bailey was more interested in whatever was on the back counter :)

Spent $28.28
Saved $36.05

Deal of the Week: More Holiday Cheapies at Target!

2012-01-14T17:04:00.001-08:00

Bought: 2 Burt's Bees Chapsticks (my fav) for $0.29 each, 1 can of Plantars Creme Brulee Almonds for $0.59!

Yay for 90% off!!! Sorry about the giant picture and poor quality...blogging from my phone.

Deal of the Week: CVS

2012-01-02T09:57:00.001-08:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I *big puffy heart* CVS!! Today I went to score a bunch of free stuff (great Nivea lip care ECB deal that matches up with some coupons in this past Sunday's paper and some Pantene S&C are on clearance which makes them free (or about $0.07 a bottle after coupons from yesterday's P&G insert). Anyways, are you ready for this? There also happened to be an unadvertised Pantene ECB deal so I unexpectedly got $6 ECB and I also received a $3 ECB from the magic coupon machine (I'm assuming for my Winter spending?). Spent $3.42 ($1.25 before tax) put this on a giftcard I had from previous purchases so $0 OOP
Saved $52.84
Received $14 in ECB's

Deal of the Week: Post Christmas Shopping

2012-01-01T14:11:00.001-08:00

I can't believe I never knew about this before. At Target, (almost) anything that has "Christmas" or "snowflake/winter" themes on it goes on clearance with the rest of the holiday items. I went yesterday to peruse the 70% off items and thought I would check the "regular" aisles becaues I heard not all of the clearance stuff will be in the Holiday section nor will it be clearly marked. I decided to scan a couple of items and I'm so glad I did! The plates scanned at $0.89 each and I had two $0.75 off coupons I could use with them. The aluminum foil also scanned for $0.89 and I had a $1.25 off coupon that adjusted down to $0.89 for free foil! So, total spent $0.28!!

Deal of the Week: Christmas Eve Jewel Shopping

2011-12-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

So I didn't really intend on going to the grocery store on Christmas Eve, but I wanted some champagne for Christmas morning mimosas and I had a few coupons that were expiring on Christmas. The savings/spending numbers below are after my $15 liquor rebate. I love that there are rebates available for buying alcohol in this state! A concept that we would never see in PA or AL! We needed some rum for our eggnog and Tom plans on making hot pepper shots for NYE. Yikes!! Spent $52.48
Saved $46.21
Received $3 coupon to use at next visit

Deal of the Week: I can hardly even believe it Jewel Shopping!

2011-12-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

Over the course of this past week I've been to a bunch of different stores for one reason or another, but Jewel was BY FAR the best trip!! I had a bunch of great manufacturer's coupons and a couple of awesome store coupons. Which combined for the best deal ever. (Well, maybe not ever).

Spent $12.82
Saved $56.48
Received $2 coupon to use on next trip and a $1 off apples coupon to use on next trip.

Deal of the Week: Dominicks sans coupons!

2011-12-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

I ran into Dominicks real quick this week on the way home from work. Only got a few things, didn't use a single coupon (wooo!), and saved over 50%!

Spent $13
Saved $17

Deal of the Week: CVS, I just. can't. stop!

2011-11-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

So thanks to Thursday's awesome CVS trip, I had a lot of "free money" (ECB's) to spend at CVS. At first glance I didn't think they had many great deals this week, but after closer inspection I managed to put together an awesome scenario.

Spent: $21.29

Saved: $92.11

Received: $9.99 in ECB's and a $10 CVS Giftcard

CVS Thankgsiving Deals!!

2011-11-24T08:05:00.000-08:00

After last year's awesome Thanksgiving steals at CVS, I decided I would check them out this year too. I'm so glad I did, because I got some amazing deals, and used a giftcard so I didn't spend ANY money OOP!!

Spent $5.59 ($3.14 before tax)

Saved $62.09

Received $33.80 in ECB's!!

Here is how I did it. First, I read this post that already listed out all of the available coupons and where to find them. Next, I gathered my ECB's leftover from this trip. Last week when I scanned my CVS card at the magic coupon machine, it printed out a $5 ECB from hitting $50 in beauty purchases from the same trip (CVS Fun Fact: I barely spent any money at all on that makeup, but the full price counts toward your $50 goal). Finally, I used part of the $10 giftcard that I also received from this trip. I sure hope CVS has some good deals over the next month...I've got a lot of money to spend there ;)

Deal of the Week: Jewel

2011-11-20T17:15:00.001-08:00

We spent a lot this week, but we bought a lot too. We're stocked up for Thanksgiving and a little after as well!

Spent $64

Saved $67

Received $5 coupon to use on next visit

I'm also submitting for a $10 rebate for buying Miller Lite and a Butterball turkey. So really we spent $49. Yay :)

Deals of the Week: Dominicks and CVS...again

2011-11-13T17:31:00.000-08:00

We did our weekly shopping again this weekend and scored some good deals. We also went to Aldi for some produce, yogurt, and our beloved Key Lime waters (no pic though).

Dominicks

Spent $41.92 and saved $52.51

CVS

Spent $5.50 Saved $22.54 Received $6 in ECB's

Deals of the Week: Dominicks and CVS

2011-11-06T16:33:00.001-08:00

Another good week! Didn't buy a whole lot in terms of actual "groceries" but did score some good deals! I've been on the lookout for some glass "tupperware" containers for a while. Dominicks was having a sale on them, and I had a measly $1.50/2 coupon so I figured I would just bite the bullet and buy 2. Well, when I went into the store, each of the containers had coupons inside!! And good coupons too! $3 off for the "big" containers and $1.50 for the "smaller" ones.Spent $27.45

Saved $46.36

And over at CVS (we were out of Pledge!!) Spent $6 (Would have been $16 but I used a $10 giftcard I bought from Savemore for only $5!! So technically I spent $11, still a good deal!)

Saved $40

Received $15 in ECB's!!

Deals of the Week: Back in the swing of things

2011-10-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

So we haven't done one of our "regular" grocery shopping trips probably since the end of July. The past few months have been so busy and our weekends have been occupied with other things so we've just been pretty much getting whatever we needed at Aldi. Thanks to small trips here and there and a huge stockpile, we haven't felt like we've been out of food at all.

Today we went to Dominicks, Aldi, and CVS. At Dominicks I only used ***drumroll please *** a total of 4 coupons. Spent $58.61
Saved $59.44
Received a coupon for 2 free movie rentals from Blockbuster Express. (Anyone want to take any bets as to whether we actually use this to rent movies before the coupon expires? It expires December 10, and let me just tell you that the last time we went to the theater to see a movie was to see Star Trek in 2009 and the last time we rented a movie was in the Spring of 2007 when Tom's sister Jackie came to visit us).

We did some damage at Aldi too, spent more than I would have liked but stocked up on a lot of stuff. No pics.

And now for CVS, where I basically got paid to shop there (love when that happens!)

Spent $14.31
Saved $57.14
Received $12 in ECB's and a $10 CVS giftcard. Love it!!!

Deal of the Week: CVS

2011-10-23T18:09:00.000-07:00

We're stocked up for all of the Trick-or-Treaters next week!

Spent $11

Saved $22

Received $10 in ECB's

Deal of the Week: $10 Coffeemaker and $10 Blender

2011-10-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

There are a small handful of "frugal blogs" that I follow on Google Reader, but to be honest, I miss most of the deals because they post SO MANY times a day that it gets to be overwhelming. I randomly check them at night and sometimes come across a deal that's still good. Last night, I saw Money Saving Mom's post about JCPenny.com's deal on Cook's blender, coffeemaker, and waffle iron.

Click on the link for all of the details and How To's, but basically they are having a sale on the above mentioned products, there is a coupon code for $10 off, there is a $10 rebate (if you purchase online until tomorrow, 10/16), and if you shop through Shop at Home you receive an additional 9% cashback on your purchase. So after all of the rebates and savings (with free ship-to-store), you can get each one of the above for $10!

I ordered the blender (originally $60) for Tom (he likes to use it for his protein shakes) and our blender recently passed away in a crab-bisque explosion. I also bought the coffeemaker (originally $50), because, let's face it, our current one has been used almost daily for the past 5 years and it's not going to last forever. For $10, this one will be an awesome backup and only costs a few dollars more than if we had to go to Starbucks for our morning coffee (should our current one break).

Deal of the Week: Urban Outfitters

2011-10-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

So, as I mentioned the other day, the Urban Outfitters by my work was having a HUGE sale. Almost every single thing in the store was marked down to pretty reasonable prices (reasonable for Urban Outfitters at least), and then there was an additional 50% off of the sale prices! I tried on a handful of items, but only came away with 2 that I really liked.

The first top ended up being only $4.99!! Originally $59 (see, ridiculously overpriced)! It's perfect because I've been looking for something longer that I can wear over leggings, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a longer top that I would only wear once in a while.

The second top was a little bit more, ringing up at $15, but it was originally $89!! It's big and flowy and will be a nice breezy top to wear during the summer!

Who is Frugal?

2011-10-07T15:54:00.000-07:00

Confession: I've kind of taken a break from being completely frugal. I haven't cut or used coupons to go grocery shopping in probably a little over a month! *gasp* I have, however, cut the occasional coupon for a cheap/free drugstore deal on the way to/from work.

So, what have I been doing that's not making me frugal? Well, for starters, there was the iphone. Which, as stated, I don't regret at all, but still, not completely frugal.

Then come the boots. I've been on the search for tall tan boots for the past month. I found a pair that I LOVED, ordered them on a whim, and have yet to return them. In the meantime, I've searched high and low and tried on MANY boots that just don't quite fit the bill. They cost more than I ever imagined I would spend on boots but I LOVE them (and look forward to wearing them when it's no longer 80 degrees in Chicago this fall!)

Then there was the incidental green flip flop purchase from the clearance section at DSW (while I had intended to go there only searching for tall tan boots). Oh well, I have A LOT of green so I've had my eye out for some comfy flip flops with green on them for a while now. Not a bank breaker, but not on SUPER clearance either.

That brings me to today. When I went out after work just to make sure there weren't any tall tan boots in the Chicagoland area that I hadn't tried on. Urban Outfitters was having a ridiculous sale....and I actually scored an awesome deal on 2 tops....so I'll save that for another post, since this post is about paying full price for items and NOT getting good deals. So anyways I went into a store that I've been meaning to check out for a while, and came out with this ridiculously overpriced (but totally awesome) jacket that I already have fallen in love with.

So that almost sums up my out of control spending. If you add about 70 Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks then I think that completely covers it :)
But hey - the benefit of being frugal 95% of the time? There's plenty of money to cover these little splurges and coupon breaks from time to time :)

Deal of the Week: iPhone 75% off!!!

2011-09-22T17:03:00.001-07:00

Well, I did it. I bought another thing on my "Five things we don't mind going without" list. No worries though, because it is very quickly moving it's way onto my "Five purchases I don't regret" list!

Without sounding too much like a complete drama queen, I do have to say that it is changing my life. Okay, not really, however I LOVE it and the organizing/list making side of me (which seems to get more intense as the years go on) LOVES the functionality of all of the different apps!! It is so easy to organize shopping trips, plan meals, keep track of the budget, and just jot things down as they come into my head.

Oh! I got so carried away I almost forgot to tell you how I got it for 75% off! It was originally $200. I had my $50 "upgrade credit" since I haven't bought a new phone in 2 years (which came off instantly...that was nice because in the past you always had to submit for a rebate which came in the form of a giftcard). Because the iphone 5 is coming out soon, Verizon is doing a promotion if you upgrade to a smartphone and trade in your old phone they will give you a $100 giftcard. I can use the giftcard to pay bills, so I will just use the $100 budgeted for next month's bill toward the phone and voila! A $50 iphone!

Deal of the Week: $0.48 Capri pants!

2011-09-18T10:39:00.001-07:00

I LOVE Target's coupon website. They often have coupons for various clothing that they carry, and you can often find super cheap items in their clearance section. This is how I got my free jeans, $2 jeans, and now $0.48 khaki capris!

Deal of the Week: Jewel Fun!

2011-09-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning on going grocery shopping today, but we got some Jewel coupon booklets in the mail and I had a few "$1 off your next shopping trip" coupons to use up by Tuesday. I scanned the flyer, gathered my coupons, and spent a few minutes making a list. I'm so glad I went because I scored some awesome deals!!

They had random 6 packs of beer taped together that were on clearance for $3. I probably would have just rushed right by the cart, but the Sam Adams caught my eye...Tom's favorite beer! So for $0.50/beer I couldn't really pass it up!
Spent $23.77
Saved $40.72 (the savings from the beer didn't get added up in the savings area of the receipt, so really I probably saved closer to $52)

Deal of the Week: Jewel Trip and Target Outfit

2011-09-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

Ran into Jewel quick before work one day this week to grab a few freebies and cheapies.
Spent $2.25
Saved $11.80
Received $2 coupons to use at next visit!

I went into Target after we got back from vacation to buy a few things we were needing (dog food, new lamps, etc). I have this nasty little habit of always perusing the clearance racks when I'm there...and this time found some really awesome deals! I got the outfit pictured below (minus the shoes) for $17!! The pants are a nice pair of dress pants - light gray, and the shirt is a sleeveless black shirt with tiny ruffles around the neckline and arms.
*Dog not included :)

Deal of the Week

2011-08-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

Before we left for vacation last week I ran into Jewel to take advantage of one of their sales. They had Peter Pan peanut butter and Chefboyrdee on sale...two of Tom's favorites! Spent $22.53
Saved $23.55
Received $8 in Jewel coupons to use on next visit!

Deals of the Week: Progresso Deals = Awesome!

2011-08-19T17:41:00.000-07:00

This week we had another big trip at Dominick's. Not horrible. Spent $56.45 and saved $78.99.

Also, Jewel was having an awesome sale on Progresso Soup. It was extra awesome for us because the other day I said "Tom, what "snack food" do you want in the house?" His reply? "Soup." :)

Bought: 20 cans of Progresso Soup.

Spent $6.46

Saved $33

Received $5 catalina to use on my next visit!!

Deal of the Week :Entemann's Outlet!!!

2011-08-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

So we've driven by the Entemann's outlet that is right around the corner from us several times before, but have never actually gone in to check it out until today. Boy were we missing out!!! All of the bread/snacks/etc are SUPER cheap AND they had a ton of $0.50 clearance items with any purchase!

Hellooo people, bread freezes beautifully!! We bought 1 package of bagel thins, 2 honey wheat english muffins, 1 whole wheat english muffins, and 2 packs of hamburger buns and we spent $4.45!!!! Love it!!

Deals of the Week: Big trip

2011-08-06T05:51:00.000-07:00

Remember last week how I said we haven't really done any big shopping trips lately? Well, this week we managed a decent sized trip from Dominicks. Not bad either!

Dominicks

Spent $53.95
Saved $82.61
Received $2 coupon to use on next visit

CVS

Spent $6.19 (On gift card)
Saved $24.59
Received $9.99 in ECB's

Aldi

Spent $15.62

Deals of the Week: Jewel & CVS

2011-07-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

I didn't post last week because #1 I had to work all day Saturday and I was exhausted, #2 our internet went out sometime Saturday and wasn't restored until Tuesday night (crazy storms), and #3 to be honest I'm not even sure I scored any good deals! We've been doing a little grocery shopping here and there but haven't had many big trips in the past couple of weeks...which has actually been kind of nice, because in return we haven't been spending much money (and our previous stockpile has allowed us to be just fine and not really need anything except milk and fresh stuff). Anyways, here are our Jewel and CVS trips from this past week.

Jewel

Spent $9.18
Saved $ 11.40
Received $1 coupon to use on next visit

CVS

I cashed in some credit card reward points to get a $50 CVS giftcard. I wonder how long I can stretch it out for!?

Spent $10.35 (On gift card, so $0 OOP)

Saved $26.53

Received $17 in ECB's

My trip for Flour

2011-07-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

I decided I wanted to make homemade pizza crust on Saturday. I was excited because I had 1 yeast packet left, so I started making it. Then I checked the flour bin...and it was almost empty! I grabbed my purse (and a few coupons) and darted off to Jewel (on a Saturday afternoon...yikes!).

Spent $16.70
Saved $15.20
Received: 2 Free Milk coupons, $2 coupon on next visit, 1 Dr. Pepper Cherry 2 Liter (they were giving these away for free at the register)

Deal of the Week

2011-07-16T07:10:00.000-07:00

Soooo, I think I'm going to start calling my "Weekly Savings" posts "Deal(s) of the Week." It seems more logical since I'm only posting the good deals and not posting every single thing I buy each week.

So for this week's Deal of the Week? $2 Target jeans!! On clearance for $4.98, used $3 off denim coupon from Target.com/coupons, and voila! $2 jeans! Not as good as free jeans, but hey, I'll take it!

Fun but not Frugal Shopping Trips

2011-07-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

We didn't really do much shopping last week because my family was in town. I did, however, stop at Trader Joe's and Jewel to pick up a few things I've been craving lately. Of course I had NO coupons for any of it and most of it wasn't on sale...but oh well!

Jewel

Spent $12.32

Saved...are you ready for this? $0.20!! (eeep!)

Bought:

2 bags of Skinny Pop

2 bags of brown rice

1 bag of popcorn kernals

Trader Joe's

Spent $10.78

Bought:
4 bags of edamame

2 bags of Wasabi peas (only one is in the picture because the other one was in the living room being torn into)

Weekly Savings

2011-07-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Wooo wooo! Stopped at Jewel after my birthday dinner because I had some cheese coupons that were expiring that day and there was finally a good sale to match them up with!Spent $5.66
Saved $47.40
Received $7 catalina (coupon) to use at my next visit at Jewel!

Also, here's the rest of our shopping trip from this weekend: Jewel (again), Dominck's and Aldi. I normally don't post everything we buy each week, just the best deal shopping trips (I always leave Aldi out), but today I figured, what the heck? Here's everything!

Jewel Trip #2

Spent $8.73 (used $7 catalina from last trip)

Saved $23.40

Received $12 catalina to use at next visit

Dominick's

Spent $45.74

Saved $60.85

(These numbers will actually end up being a lot better because I'm submitting for a $10 meat rebate and a $5 Gas Gift Card from the cereal. So it will be more like Spent $30.74 Saved $75.85).

Aldi

Spent $23.59

Saved $5ish??? Who knows but everything was pretty cheap!!

So total spent this week $83.72, total saved $136.65, received $12 off next visit to Jewel and will be receiving $10 rebate from ground beef purchase at Dom's and $5 gas gift card from cereal purchase at Dom's.

Weekly Savings

2011-06-26T14:06:00.001-07:00

Now, before all of you who know my husband start to freak out, know that I had his approval to buy the Miller Lite...and it was only purchased in anticipation of a few cookouts and some upcoming visitors. Also, the sole reason it was purchased was because if you bought a case of Miller Lite for $12.99, then you got a package of Hillshire Farm sausage, buns, and yellow mustard for $0.01! (For those of you who don't know, Tom doesn't agree with Miller Lite's advertising techniques and statements, it's a long story). Anyways! Just Jewel and Aldi this week. Here's how we did!

Jewel

Spent $23.06
Saved $49.81
(Not bad considering we got a case of beer and a gallon of milk!)

Happy 5 Year Anniversary of.....

2011-06-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

....having only 1 car!! Five years ago today we hopped in our friend Anne's jeep (that she was kind enough to lend us since we were carless) and drove to the Saturn dealership and stupidly leased a brand new Saturn Vue. We had just gotten married, returned from our honeymoon, and I had moved across the country. Tom sold his jeep right before he moved to Birmingham and we didn't think my 1996 Ford Contour would survive the drive from Philadelphia. Leasing a car was probably the dumbest financial move we have made as a couple, but fortunately we've learned and grown since then.

Last year we were able to buy our car when the lease was up and thankfully we have not needed to buy another vehicle. I feel like living 5 years with only one car is going to be one of those things that we tell our kids about whenever they complain that they don't have their own car. We've certainly been fortunate in the fact that our work locations and schedules coincide so having only one car is an option. It's a little bit more of a challenge now that I work in the suburbs 2 days a week but thank goodness for public transportation!

Thanks for hanging in there car....here's to another 5 years!!

Weekly Savings-ish

2011-06-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

I did a mish-mash of shopping this week because there wasn't really anything we needed. Just hit a few sales and picked up a few essentials, so no pictures. Except for this one from CVS.

Spent $7.32
Saved $31.37
Received $9.99 in ECB's.

Weekly Savings: CVS and Dominick's

2011-06-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

Woo! Another awesome week :) I forgot to scan my "Green Bag Tag" at CVS....after every 4 scans you earn $1 in ECB's. Bummer. The Dominick's trip would have been better but the 4 gallons of milk put us over the top. Whatever, milk was cheaper at Dom's this week than Aldi. Also, they charged me $1.99 each for the avocados when they were supposed to only be $1 :( Oh well, you can't win them all ;)

CVS

Spent $6.87($4.69 before tax!)
Saved $45.24
Received $11.50 in ECB's!!

Dominick's

Spent $29.52
Saved $31.46

Weekly Savings: Saved more than we spent even with beer!

2011-06-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

Whenever we would buy beer at Publix I would take it out of the equation because it always messed up my savings ratio. However this week at Domick's we still managed to save more than we spent, even with a 6 pack of Sam Adam's and a 6 pack of Hamm's. Of course, the percentage would have been better without the beer, but oh well.

Dominick's

Spent: $37.70
Saved: $48.01

We also went to Aldi to stock up on milk and key lime waters. Not too bad of a week!

Weekly Savings: Jewel and CVS

2011-05-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

This week we are finally back in the normal swing of things. We went to Jewel and CVS.

Jewel

Spent $19.43

Saved $25.85 Bought:

2 bottles Ranch dressing

12 Yoplait yogurt

1/2 pound deli cheese

1/2 pound salami

1 loaf wheat bread (this was free with the deli purchase)

1 bottle of soy sauce

1 dozen eggs

Asparagus

Whipping cream

6 Lunchables (these were free with coupons)

CVS

Spent $63.85 ($13.85 if you take away the Old Navy gift cards!)

Saved $16.71

Received $7.99 in ECB's

Bought:
6 four packs of Izze's
2 gallons of milk
2 stride gum
2 $25 Old Navy gift cards (You received $5 in ECB's wyb $50 worth of ON/BR/Gap gift cards)

Retail Therapy

2011-05-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

When my friend came to visit a few weekends ago, the weather was miserable...so we decided to do a little shopping to cheer us up. We went to Banana Republic, which I love, but think most items are a tad overpriced. Fortunately, they were having an extra 40% off all sale items before 1pm. It was a close one considering we finally got through the giant line to the register at 12:55! I would have easily put everything back though if we wouldn't have gotten the extra 40% off, which I felt pretty good about.

I didn't buy much, but I did save a lot! I bought a nice gray shirt for work, a fun flowy sleeveless shirt for summer, and a 2nd pair (but different color) of gray pants for work (I have the same style but in navy blue and I love them!)

Spent $52.18
Retail $144

Weekly Savings: Free is Better!

2011-05-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Our regular shopping deals haven't been that great lately. So boring, in fact, that I didn't even take a picture! We spent $50 at Dominick's and saved $31...not too great. On the other hand, I ran into Jewel this week to "buy" a few things that ended up being free after coupons. I bought 6 boxes of pasta, 8 Fuze drinks, and 2 Propel drinks.

Spent: $0.75 (Yes...as in seventy-five cents!)

Saved $29.99!!!!

I also swung by Target and paid $1.99 (plus tax) for the items pictured below! Not a bad week!

Weekly Savings: Everything for Free!

2011-05-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

This week was a bit hectic again...we had friends in town last weekend so we didn't really do any shopping, then we had more friends in town this weekend so again, we didn't have time to do much shopping. I had a few "Free" coupons for various items that were expiring soon, plus a B1G1 free coupon (that I paired with a B1G1 free sale), so I got everything below for free! Just paid tax!

Weekly Savings: Target trip

2011-05-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

This week was a bit of a blur! We had friends from out of town visiting this weekend so we were pretty busy all week. Went to Dominicks and Aldi (no pics) and I ran to Target for a good deal. Spent $46 at Aldi, spent $29.58 at Dom's (only saved $22.91!!) and drumroll please......

Target

Spent $15.55
Saved $23.15
Received $5 Target gift card, 2 booklets of coupons with $30 in coupons EACH!

Weekly Savings

2011-04-30T10:53:00.000-07:00

I skipped last week because I didn't feel like blogging. I'm back this week! Here are some totals from my coupon only trip to Target and our trip to Dominick's. At Target I had a coupon for each item making my subtotal $0.00!!! We also went to Aldi to buy a few essentials (milk, fruit, bread, etc) but I don't have the receipt or a pic from that trip.

Target

Spent: $0.14 (just tax!!)

Saved: $12.02

Dominick's

Spent: $16ish
Saved: $25ish (I lost the receipt)

Running out of stuff

2011-04-20T17:36:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of depressed. (Okay, not really). Remember this crazy trip? Where I got $57 worth of peanut butter for $25? Well, we're finally out. We've been out for a couple weeks, and honestly since that sale I've not seen even close to that good of a deal on peanut butter. We're also out of some other things that I got for free at Publix. Rice. Hot sauce. Bread crumbs (almost). These things are so cheap, so with a coupon and a sale I should be able to get a good deal on them, but free is so much better ;) I miss Publix and the land of double coupons!!!

Weekly Savings: Dominicks

2011-04-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

I've strongly resisted the urge to go to Target and CVS today, because we're kind of over budget for the week. I puchased an unexpected Groupon a few weeks ago (very good deal though) and instead of just taking money that would have gone to Savings and paying for the groupon, I'm trying to shuffle things up and take a little bit from the grocery budget each week....which is causing more stress than if I had just use some money earmarked for savings. Oh well. Anyways here is what I got at Dominick's this week
Spent $22.77
Saved $30.33 Bought:
Broccoli
Sweet onions
Zucchini & Squash
3 lbs of Strawberries
2 Del Monte fruit cups
2 bottles of hot sauce (Tom was out of his favorite condiment)
Wheat bread
Hickory smoked ham (there was a $10 off coupon, so this was under $5)
2 bags of spinach
Daffodils (these make me happy)

Oddly enough we spent more at Aldi than we did at Dominick's. Perhaps it had something to do with the 4 gallons of milk???

How rolling store rewards saves you A TON of money

2011-04-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why I am able to get so much stuff from CVS for dirt cheap? I always have anywhere from $5-$10 in ECB's (their store reward coupons) that I use to purchase products that yield me more ECB's. Walgreens has a similar thing (called "Register Rewards), except Walgreen's registers suck and usually beep and the cashiers don't know how to override them to get legitamate coupons to work. Anyways.

Another great example of this is Target. They frequently have deals where you buy a certain item (or number of items), and you receive a $5 Target gift card in return. The beauty of all of these transactions is that you can use manufacturer coupons on the items as well. Remember when I got A TON of frozen food for super cheap at Target last month? Well, every transaction I did, I would use two $5 Gift cards to pay for my purchase, and each transaction would yield me two more $5 gift cards (when I purchased the required number of items).

So far with my $10 in Target gift cards, I have "rolled" them twice, meaning I took advantage of two other deals which produced $10 in gift cards, while allowing me to use coupons and pay with my gift cards. I bought 10 Glade candles for $8 out of pocket (making them $0.80 each) and I received $10 in gift cards back. More recently I bought 2 bottles of Olay lotion and 2 bottles of Olay face wash for $1.40 OOP!!! And then I received $10 in Target gift cards!! Crazy! I used the gift cards in another transaction to buy 2 bottles of Olay moisturizer...and didn't get quite as awesome of a deal (the moisturizer was more expensive than the other items, but I needed it and after coupons and gift cards it was still more than 50% off!)

So for everything above I spent $8.78 (plus tax) and saved $26 and received $10 in Target gift cards!

Weekly Savings

2011-04-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

Went to Dominicks and CVS this week and did okay. I went to Jewel too, which I swore I wasn't going to do but 1) I had to get my free milk with my coupons from last week and then 2) they had milk (and a few other things) on sale today so we ran in real quick.

CVS

Spent $7.45
Saved $34.03
Received $10 in ECB's

Dominicks

Spent $26.48

Saved $40.35

Jewel

Spent $21.50

Saved $27.33

Recieved $2 coupon to use at my next visit

Weekly Savings: I'm a hero!

2011-04-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

I knew it was going to be a good shopping trip when I got in the car to go to CVS and "The Final Countdown" was playing. This song reminds me of my friend Kelly who was a CVS expert long before I was.

Today was a little crazy. I went to CVS, Jewel, and Dom's. I normally wouldn't have gone to Jewel but they had a good cereal and free milk deal going and guess what? Tom goes through AT LEAST 3 gallons of milk a week and eats cereal like it's going out of style. Don't get all excited about the diapers in the CVS picture. 21. That's how many people I know who are currently pregnant or have given birth in the past month. Diapers make great gifts. Enough said. And finally, when the cashier at Dominicks told me my total, the girl in line behind me said "Wow, you're like, my hero!" Without further adieu...

Jewel

Spent $14.19
Saved $20.86
Received 2 coupons for a "Free Gallon of Milk" (on your next visit)

CVS

Spent $26.98
Saved $82.21
Received $10 in ECB's

Dominicks

Spent $16.43
Saved $72.84

Everything combined!

Spent $57.60
Saved $175.38
Received $10 in ECB's from CVS and 2 "Free Gallon of Milk" coupons from Jewel

Jewel & CVS Trips

2011-04-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

Stopped in for a few things at CVS and Jewel this week because there were a few super cheap items after coupons.

CVS

Spent $5.12
Saved $27.36

Bought:

4 Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice (clearance to $0.99 each)
4 boxes Stovetop stuffing mix
6 M&M eggs

Jewel

Spent $6.30
Saved $13.50
Received $1.50 OYNO* coupon from McCormick Grinders

Bought:

2 McCormick Grinders
2 Hartz Crunch & Clean treats
2 Pedigree treats

*OYNO stands for "On Your Next Offer"

Money in the bank

2011-03-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been in the mood to save money. I guess it's a good mood to be in :) Last month we had to buy a new phone for Tom since his old one died. There was a $50 rebate on the phone, which I was excited to put into savings as soon as we got it. I forgot that Verizon has struck a deal with the credit card devils or decided to do their own part to stimulate the economy. Instead of a nice $50 check addressed to me, we got a prepaid $50 Visa debit card. But they can't trick me! I deposited $50 of our weekly budget into savings and used the $50 rebate card for our regular weekly purchases. Every little bit counts!

Weekly Savings

2011-03-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

Not my best trip ever, but stocked up on a few things that we needed. This is from last Monday. We usually go to Dom's today, but they just didn't have anything good on sale and we don't really need anything. I did stop at Aldi on the way home on Friday and pick up some milk, eggs, and fruit.

Dominicks

Spent $30.48
Saved $42.55

Bought:

4 lb bag frozen chicken

2 Ritz/Wheat Thins Toasted Chips

2 bags shredded cheese

1 apple

2 lbs of asparagus

Strawberries

3 frozen pizzas

4 bottles Kraft salad dressing

2 Pillsbury Crescent rolls

1 Greek yogurt

1 jar Mayo

I heart CVS and Izze's!

2011-03-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

The magic coupon machine at CVS spit out a couple of awesome coupons for me the other day, so I decided to use them to stock up on some more Izze's for dirt cheap.

Spent $5.87
Saved $16.52 Bought:
3 4-packs of Izze's
1 Physician's Formula lip plumper/gloss

Here's how I did it! The magic coupon machine gave me a $5/$15 coupon, and last week gave me a coupon for $6 off any Physician's Formula cosmetic. I noticed on Sunday that Physician's Formula cosmetics are all 40% off this week so I began formulating a plan.

Physician's Formula Lip gloss $6.77 after 40% off (originally $11.29)
3 Izze's at $3.49 each
Equals $17.24 + tax
Minus $5/$15 coupon
Minus $6 Physician's Formula CVS coupon
Minus $1 Physician's Formula manufacturer coupon
Equals $5.24 + tax

Old couch, New couch: Pics

2011-03-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

Before After

Weekly Savings: I've relapsed

2011-03-20T11:32:00.000-07:00

Man, ever since those awesome Target Freezer Deals a few weeks back I've relapsed into a complete deal junkie. After today, I promise it's going to be JUST the weekly Dominick's trip and maybe a bi-weekly CVS trip (to keep the ECB's rolling). Earlier in the week I went to CVS, the rest of the deals are from today (I ran out this morning before it started raining and thunderstorming!)

CVS Trip #1

Spent $3.57
Saved $17
Received $7 in ECB's
Bought:
1 bottle Irish Spring hair and body wash
1 Dial lotion for men
2 Herbal Essences Shampoo & Conditioner

Jewel

Spent $11.91
Saved $21.75
Bought:
2 Six and a half pound chickens
6 Propel Zero
1 Heinz Ketchup
2 Bullseye Barbeque Sauce
1 Kraft singles

CVS Trip #2

Spent $2.81
Saved $9.00
Received $6.99 in ECB's (and some awesome CVS coupons that I'm going to go back and use later in the week!)
Bought:
1 Four pack of Izze's
1 Five pack of Allegra Allergy
1 CVS Green bag tag (WHY have I not bought this before?! Every 4th time you use it you get $1 in ECB's. And I always use my own bags anyways!)

Walgreens

(Don't get too excited about the prenatal vitamins. I'm NOT pregnant. I just couldn't pass up the awesome deal and why wouldn't I stock up on these at a rock bottom price? They don't expire until December of 2013 so I have PLENTY of time to use them)!
Spent $8.36
Saved $36.51 Bought:
2 bottles of 90 caplet Prenatal Vitamins
1 Cream of Chicken soup
3 Hunt's Tomato sauce
1 Cadbury Egg
1 Almay mascara

Total Spent $26.65
Total Saved $84.26

New Couches!

2011-03-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

This is how frugality can pay off...and be fun! We've been saving money and sticking to our budget for a solid few years now. I've wanted new couches for more than a few years now, but we were patient and kept saving because, let's face it, new couches are most definitely NOT a priority, let alone a necessity.

We are so thankful to Tom's sister for the sectional that we have now. And we have certainly gotten our use out of it! But honestly it's very old and Bailey's hair gets intertwined in the fabric SO easily. The mattress in the sleeper sofa has worn thin and if you sit too "forcefully" in the corner of the sectional it sounds like the whole thing might break. When we moved here I tried to take the cushion covers off thinking I would somehow try to clean them. I unzipped the covers only to find that taking them off would result in completely ruined cushions. The foam had disintegrated and is in a million tiny pieces.

Soooo, we decided it was finally time to buy new couches. It was definitely warranted and we had saved the money to pay cash for them. Originally we wanted to get another sectional, but not knowing the setup of our future (yet-to-be-determined) living space, we opted for a couch (sleerer sofa) and a matching loveseat.

We found a set that we both really liked and bought them a few weekends ago. They are being delivered on today and I can't wait! I would love to say that we're not going to let Bailey on the new couches....but really, who am I trying to kid?

Weekly Savings: Can't stop shopping!

2011-03-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

Last week was crazy. I just couldn't stay away from the deals! OK, so I only went to 3 stores (CVS, Walgreens, and Target) but still! I only managed to get a pic of my Target trip.

Target: Spent $11.85, Saved $36.10.

CVS: Spent $10.10, Saved $30.69, Received $7 in ECB's.
Walgreens: Spent $1.32, Saved $16.40, Received $2 in Register Rewards (to use next time at Walgreens).

We are playing catch-up today so no grocery shopping for us. We're planning to stop at Dominick's and Aldi on the way home from work tomorrow. Fortunately, there isn't a whole lot we need. I think I need to take a break from deals this week...although I might run into CVS for a few super cheap items...stay tuned next week to see if I ended up taking a break or not!

Dominick's Trip: New Record?

2011-03-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Dominick's for our weekly shopping trip. There was a $10/$50 coupon on their Just For You site that I loaded onto my card before we left...but I wasn't holding my breath that it was going to work. The last time they had that coupon the $10 came off before sale and coupon prices (which is awesome, but kind of surprising), so I figured they would have fixed it for the second time around.

I'm not sure if this is a PR or not (I have to look back through old Publix posts), but at the very least it is pretty freaking awesome:

Spent $28.02

Saved $90.73!!! (That's a savings of 77%!!)

Bought:

4 boxes Cinnamon Burst Cheerios

4 boxes Quaker Oatmeal Squares

1 bottle maple syrup

3 boxes Eggo's

2 Lysol wipes

2 boxes Toaster Streudels

2 bags Ore Ida Hash Browns

1 CPK single size pizza

1 bag sugar snap peas

2 pounds of asparagus

5 pound box of clementines

2 gallons of milk

2 boxes Celestial Seasonings tea

2 bags Fresh Express Spring Mix

Weekly Savings

2011-03-05T05:46:00.000-08:00

In addition to my CVS Izze madness, I also went to Dominick's and Jewel this week.

Dom's

Spent: $19.93
Saved: $40.20 Bought:
5lb box of clementines
3 cans tuna
2 Lipton pasta sides
2 steaks
3 bottles Ken's salad dressing
2 jars Pace salsa
1 loaf wheat bread
several heads of broccoli

Jewel

Spent: $21.84
Saved $42.32

Bought:
4 boxes spaghetti
27 cans of tuna
12 bags of egg noodles
4 boxes ziti/rotini
8 cans of Red Gold tomatoes with chili peppers/cilantro
1 red pepper
2 sweet onions

I'm so excited because we were literally on our last box of pasta! I had been waiting and hoping for a good sale to stock up! (I'm used to getting it for free or close to free at Publix). Also, I've been on the lookout for egg noodles to go on sale FOREVER and they are usually never included in the sale. Each bag was only $0.50 (after coupons) so I figured I better stock up!

February Challenge Weeks 3 & 4

2011-03-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

Eek! Sorry I've been slacking on posting about the remainder of my February Challenge...I'm sure all 3 of my readers have been waiting anxiously for the results!

Week 3: Not so great :( We would have only spent 66% of our budget during week 3 but we found khaki's on sale and Tom desperately needs new khaki's so we bought 3 pair...making us spend exactly 100% of our budget.

Week 4: We still managed to save SOME money, but spent 56% of our budget.

Overall I think I would call our February Challenge a success! While I didn't save 2/3 of the budget like I was originally hoping to, we still saved some money every week (except for week 3). This is a huge improvement because (like I mentioned in my first post), we consistently spend 100% of our budget every single week. If we can turn this February Challenge into a monthly event, I'm hoping we can sock away more money every week and reach our goals a little faster!

Izze Obsession

2011-02-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Izze's went on sale at CVS so I bought a few 4-packs of them to try them. I fell in love with them! They were instantly my new favorite drink. I consumed them all in a matter of days and have been waiting patiently for them to go on sale ever since.

So you can imagine my excitement Sunday when I found out they were on sale at CVS this week for $3!! I had some ECB's leftover from before so I figured out a couple of scenario's where I could buy a few other items that produced ECB's and save even more money on the Izze's (plus come away with some ECB's so I didn't diminish my stock).

We got to CVS and *gasp* they were out of Izze's! I asked the guy if they had any anywhere else in the store, and he checked the stock room for me. He came out with the glass 4-packs...which were not the ones that were on sale :( They were actually double the sale price. I apologized to him for wasting his time, and said I was looking for the ones that were on sale. He said because they didn't have the cans in stock, he would give me the bottles for the sale price!

This was especially awesome because the bottles were bigger than the cans...so I was getting more for my money! I was thrown off by this, so it messed up my scenario that I had worked out with coupons and ECB's before going to CVS, but I didn't care. I actually ended up spending more out of pocket, but I was getting Izze's on super sale so again, I didn't mind.

I ended up with about $15 in ECB's after this trip, so we ran into another CVS and they had the cans in stock. I bought four 4-packs of the cans and still ended up with $6 in ECB's leftover.

Spent: $24.57 (yikes!)
Saved: $55.86!!!
Received: $6 in ECB's

Bought:
5 4-packs of Izze bottles
4 4-packs of Izze cans
2 Crest toothpaste
2 Oral B power toothbrushes
1 Revitalens contact solution

Target may be my new Publix

2011-02-26T19:40:00.000-08:00

Ok, I think I might need a Target intervention. I went a fourth time :/ Here are the details:

Spent: $11.78 (It comes out to $0.53/item!)
Received: $10 in Target gift cards
Bought: 5 cans frozen juice, 2 boxes Boca burgers, 7 boxes sausage links, 6 boxes Green Giant frozen veggies, 1 box Red Baron Singles, 1 package baking chocolate (on clearance)

Target Finals

2011-02-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

So, after my first huge success trip to Target, I kept thinking about all of the awesome deals they were having with the buy 7 frozen items, get a $5 Target gift card sale. Paired with coupons and gift cards from previous transactions, I realized I could get a lot of free or ridiculously cheap food. And the best part? Every time I bought 7 items, I got another $5 Target gift card!

So I went back 2 additional times and scored some pretty awesome deals. I didn't get a picture of my 2nd trip but I did get one of my 3rd trip.

Trip #2:
Spent: $3.50
Received: $10 Target Gift cards
Bought: 14 bags Steamfresh frozen veggies, 1 Vaseline Lotion for Men

Trip #3:
Spent: $1.61 (I couldn't help but smile when the cashier said this was my total!)
Received: $10 Target Gift cards
Bought: 6 bags Steamfresh frozen veggies, 8 Tony's pizzas, 2 Dentyne Pure 3-packs of gum, 1 set wall hangers for our living room mirror.

The extra good news? Our freezer isn't even full!! So for $12.73 OOP (out of pocket) including tax I got:
24 bags of frozen veggies
8 Tony's pizzas
10 Smart Ones frozen meals
2 three-packs of Dentyne gum
1 pack wall hangers
1 Vaseline for Men lotion
1 pair of jeans
And I still have two $5 Target gift cards leftover!!

Thanks Target!!! The sale ends today...anyone want to take any wagers on if I'll go back a fourth time???

Holy Weekly Savings Batman!

2011-02-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

Sorry. That was the dumbest title ever. I skipped posting about last week's grocery trip because we were out of town and we didn't do our shopping until Monday. We went to Dominick's and Aldi and I was so tired by the time we got home that I didn't snap any pics. At Dom's we spent $32.06 and saved $39.53. I forget what we spent at Aldi ($20ish maybe?).

Fast forward to this past week where we did awesome. Target had this kick-a** deal where if you bought any seven frozen food items, you would get a $5 gift card. The frugal bloggers of the world were going crazy about this so I started gathering my coupons. While I was printing Target coupons, I saw one for "$5 off women's denim" and bloggers were reporting that women's jeans were on clearance at Target for $4.98....free jeans! So one day after work we stopped and we got everything pictured below!
Spent: $28.56
Saved: $38.58
Received: $10 in Target Gift Cards!!!
Bought:

10 Smart Ones meals (I don't usually eat these but they were practically free and make for an easy lunch if we don't have enough leftovers)
4 bags Target frozen veggies
1 box clementines
2 bags shredded cheese
2 bottles of bleach
2 packages pantiliners (sorry to the men who read my blog)
1 twelve-pack Charmin TP
100 count bag of cotton balls
and...................*drumroll*........
1 PAIR OF FREE JEANS!!!!

I also ran into CVS earlier this week to take advantage of their Purex deal with coupons from this past Sunday's paper. Each item below ended up being $0.99 after coupons, for a total spent of $5.13 and a savings of $24.60!!! (Ironically, I can't even use this detergent because it irritates my skin but Tom doesn't mind it and we can use it to wash things like Bailey's towels).

Buying a House

2011-02-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

Soooooooooooo, remember when I said how I feel strongly about putting down a 20% down payment when we buy a house? Apparently I felt super strong about this, because I just couldn't shake it as we started to really analyze our finances and look at a few houses. We have had several in-depth discussions weighing the pros and cons of buying a home.

We didn't feel comfortable only putting down 10% and having to pay PMI which doesn't go toward interest or principal. We definitely didn't feel comfortable having our savings dip that low. One or two unexpected major repairs and it would have been nearly wiped out. And we would be in dire straights if something happened to one of us and we weren't able to work.

So as bummed as we are that we're not able to live in a house where we don't share walls with anyone, have a fenced in back-yard for Bailey, and have slightly more space, we're quite comforted by the fact that we still have a pretty sizeable emergency fund if we were to need it for anything.

We actually have a pretty nice apartment, aside from the shared walls, a somewhat creaky floor (in some places) and having to walk down a flight of stairs to take Bailey out, we're pretty lucky to have scored this apartment in the first place! And just last week we got a space in the garage out back (one of the neighbors moved out) so we don't have to deal with street parking anymore and it's SO much easier to come and go through the garage and back entrance.

In light of the fact that we made the decision to stay in our current apartment for at least another year from when our lease is up in September, we decided to do a few things to the apartment to make it more "home" like. We're not allowed to paint, which sucks, but there were a few minor things that we were just doing without figuring there was no sense in buying them if we're trying to save for a house and not planning on being here more than a year.

We bought a big throw rug for the bedroom, some long dark (light blocking) curtains for the bedroom, an extra large mirror for the living room (and we moved the old mirror we had in the living room above our dresser in the bedroom). We bought some pretty spring flowers to sit in the fireplace, and there are still a few other things we want to get. We have a pretty long hallway so we'd like to get a long runner/rug (we currently have two 8 foot runners but they always slide) and I would love to get a new couch. I know which one I want and how much it goes on sale for so it's just a matter of saving up "new couch money" and then finally getting around to purchasing it!

We're a little bummed out by all of this, but I like I said earlier, the comfort of knowing we will be okay in a financial emergency is worth putting off owning a home for a few years!

February Challenge: Week 2

2011-02-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

Well, we didn't do as well this week as the previous week, but the good news is we still had some money left over! We spent 72% of our weekly budget. I'm glad that we decided to do this Challenge this month since we spent some "unplanned" money last week at Ikea. The good news is the leftover money from this month's challenge should cover it! So we don't have to touch any money that was budgeted toward our savings!
This coming week has the potential to be right on target...we shall see!

Weekly Savings

2011-02-15T16:58:00.000-08:00

Hmmmmm. We did pretty good this week when you only look at "groceries." Add in a Valentine's date, a trip to Ikea and a stop at HomeGoods and it's more like Weekly Spending...but I'll save that for later in the week.

On the way to Ikea we stopped at Walmart because we've been missing our Key Lime sparkling waters since we don't live near a Walmart (which other than missing the waters, I'm not complaining about it!)

We skipped out on Dominick's this week (because they didn't have anything on sale in the flyer) and hit up Aldi on the way home from work on Monday. Here is what $27 buys you at Aldi!

February Challenge: Week 1

2011-02-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

We are at the end of Week 1 in my February Savings Challenge. As a reminder, I am trying to cut our weekly spending budget (which encompasses basically anything we spend money on in a week except for bills) by 2/3.

This week we spent 38% of our weekly budget. So slightly over the 33% I was aiming for but still pretty awesome considering we usually spend 100% of it!

Weekly Savings: So far so good!

2011-02-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

We had a really good day shopping today! Which definitely makes up for last week....Dominick's has been having so many issues lately and they overcharged me by $20 last week. Fortunately I was able to get it refunded but there was really no rhyme or reason why it happened in the first place.

Anyways! Back to this week, which was awesome. We got everything pictured below for $37! (Retail value $110!)

Breakdown:
Dominick's: Spent $20.57, Saved: $49.34 (72%!!!!)
2 Gallons of milk
1 Simply Limeade
8 Campbell's Chunky soups
3 Jack's pizzas
4 Blue bonnet butter
4 honey tangerines
5 Fuji apples
1 bottle creamer
2 bags Tostito's
1 jar of salsa
5 cans of black beans

CVS: Spent $10.98, Saved: $18.00 (Received $8 in ECB's!!)
2 Nivea aftershaves
2 Jergens lotions

Aldi: Spent $7, Saved ? maybe $3 by my estimate
1 gallon of milk
Blackberries
Grape tomatoes
1 dozen eggs
Butter

Short month = Extra money?

2011-02-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

So, for years now we have had a set amount of money that we can spend every week. This money can be spent on groceries, dog food, toiletries, household items, eating out, going out, stocking up on sale items, clothes, shoes, etc, etc, etc. Basically, we only try to spend this set amount of money every week, regardless of what our needs are.

For about 6 months now I've been inconsistently trying to cut this weekly amount by 1/3. But it never happens. We always end up spending exactly what we have budgeted (or maybe a few dollars more, in which case it just comes off the next week's budgeted amount).

Every February, I find myself thinking about going on a "spending hiatus" for a month and only buying things we really, really need. And every February, I never actually do it. This year I thought about it, and thought it would be pretty hard to not stock up on sale items, etc if they are a rock bottom price. So instead, I've decided that I'm going to cut our weekly budget by 2/3 for the month of February only.

My hope is that by setting a goal to only spend 1/3 of the original amount, even if we go over we still won't be spending more than 2/3 of the budget, and either way we end up saving more money this month.

I'll let you know how it all turns out!

And so it begins

2011-01-31T17:16:00.000-08:00

What begins, you ask? The house buying process! We are in the very, very, very beginning phases. Our lease isn't up until September, so we're not really looking to move until late summer/early fall.

Allow me to give you a little insight and background into my thoughts and feelings on buying a home. I've announced publicly several times that I would not buy a house unless I had a 20% down payment saved up. That was our goal at least...and we're looking more at only being able to put down 10%. It would take us probably another 3 years to save up enough for 20%.

I have absolutely nothing against renting. It has allowed us to have fixed expenses over the past 4 and a half years and has allowed us to save a lot. In fact, if we were currently renting a little house with a fenced in yard and a garage we would be pretty content renting for another 3 years until we had saved up 20%. Our apartment now is nice, but it's not conducive to raising a family (if we decide to start that in the next couple years) and it's a bit more expensive than our rent was when we lived in Alabama.

So far, we're on the right track. Remember when I ~~went crazy obsessing over trying to find a place to live in Chicago before we moved~~ methodically and calmly looked online for a place to live in Chicago before we moved? Well, we met this really awesome realtor who showed us a few rental properties. None of them panned out, but we've been in contact with her again and she's going to be our realtor for this process. She's really great, and we both got a really good vibe from her and have heard good things about her. We've also been in touch with a mortgage broker, who ran some numbers for us and gave us a good idea of what we can afford. I had originally wanted to get pre-qualified (instead of just pre-approved) for a mortgage but since we're so early in the process she would have to be pulling our credit to extend our pre-qualification every 90 days until we closed on a house.

We've looked at a few places online and plan to go to a few open houses in the next month or so. We are very excited, but I have to say I'm really not sure how anyone affords a house, ever! We have some savings, have no debt (other than student loans), and combined we have a decent salary and it still seems like it's going to be an expensive endeavor! Wish us luck and stay tuned....I'll update as we go along!

Weekly Savings

2011-01-23T17:16:00.000-08:00

I actually snapped a pic this week! We still managed to save 58% at Dominick's this week. That's the third week in a row we've saved between 56% and 58%. Today we spent $22.67 and saved $30.67.

Bought
3 boxes of blueberries
2 gallons of milk
1 giant thing of OJ
2 Ken's salad dressing
1 box Celestial Seasonings sleepytime tea
1 sparkling key lime water
1 bunch of cilantro
1 box frozen fish fillets
1 bag Steamfresh broccoli
2 Tombstone pizzas

Good shopping deals today...no pics though :(

2011-01-16T16:19:00.000-08:00

We decided to run into Old Navy before our weekly Dominick's trip since they are having an extra 40% off of their clearance items. We got $185 worth of clothing/stuff for $56. I think my favorite deal was a halloween costume for Bailey for $0.74 (Oh I forgot, I did get a pic of this)!

Then I went next door to Bath and Body Works to check out their sale items since I received a gift card for Christmas. I got $74 worth of candles, socks, and hand sanitizer for $23, paid with the gift card, so nothing OOP.

We saved 56% at Dominick's....spending $45 and saving $55. We bought A TON of veggies, some juice, eggs, milk, tea, bread, yogurt, cereal, napkins, and Qtips (we were out).

Not too bad at all but still more than I'd like to spend in a week! Although we don't typically make trips to Old Navy every week either....so if you subtract that from the total I feel a little better.

Just what I needed!

2011-01-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

It's amazing sometimes how things work out perfectly if you just stop trying so hard! I had been trying to skim all the flyers/deals of local grocery stores and find the best deals at each store instead of focusing on just one. After one week of forgetting the rest of the stores and concentrating on shopping at just one store, I think I have cured my grocery store blues!

We chose Dominick's to be our main grocery store, mainly because it's cleaner/nicer than the Jewel that's right around the corner from us, but also because they accept expired coupons (up to a year!) and have ecoupons on their website that you can load onto your shoppers card and sometimes stack with regular coupons.

So last weekend we went through the Dominick's flyer, gathered and loaded our coupons, and went shopping. Our cart was literally overflowing and I thought I might have a panic attack because of the amount I thought our bill was going to come to! It was a HUGE trip, so we spent a lot, but we saved a lot too and every trip won't be quite as big. We spent $98 and saved $134. I really wish I would have snapped a pic, but I didn't think I was going to blog about it so I didn't.

I also went to CVS and got three 4-packs of Starbucks Frappacino's and two 4-packs of Izze's for $5.95 plus tax and I received $10 in ECB's for my next trip!

We have another Dominick's trip planned for tomorrow. Lots of veggies are on sale so I'm not sure if our savings will be more than what we spent, but that doesn't matter as much as getting the things we need for a decent price and not having to get stressed out about trying to find the "best deal" at every store!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled programming....

2011-01-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

...to tell you that I am 100% overwhelmed with life and I'm going to be taking a break from obsessive couponing and blogging about everything. If you didn't notice, there was no Menu Plan Monday post this week because I didn't even plan our meals for the week! (Luckily we had a TON of leftovers from the weekend and for the rest of the nights we were able to eat out of the freezer).

I feel like my life shouldn't be this busy....AT ALL. I'm 30, happily married, no kids, great job, great family, and great friends. I definitely wouldn't say that I'm stressed out, but somehow my life got BUSY! I miss being bored!! (but only for short amounts of time ;)

I'm going to stop trying to get "every deal" and really start shopping at only 2 stores, Dominick's and Aldi. I was on a CVS run for a while, but quite honestly I probably don't have to buy any toiletry items for another year! I think we'll be okay. Tom is going to get more involved in the planning process since we're trying to keep it simple. He says it's too "complicated" when I plan everything out...which I tend to agree as I think I have a slight control issue with couponing!

Anyways, here is when I realized how overwhelmed I was on Sunday when we got an extra paper delivered to our door and then we got the "Weekend Spanish Paper" that had coupons in it as well.

There still may be sporadic posts when I have time and don't feel obliged to blog just because I'm supposed to blog on a schedule. In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy relaxing a little bit more!

Recipe of the Week - Pizza Rice Casserole

2011-01-06T07:01:00.000-08:00

I made this last week. It was SO easy and so good! I kind of improvised slightly with the ingredients and cooking time. Here is what I did.

Pizza Rice Casserole from Fix it and Forget it - 5 Ingredient Favorites

1 lb ground beef (browned with onion and garlic)
1 jar of pizza sauce (I may use 2 or 1.5 next time)
1 8 oz bag of shredded mozzarella cheese (may use 1.5 next time)
Some cut up pepperoni
1 bag rice
3-4 cups of water

Mix all ingredients together in crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with ranch dressing on the side if you are a ranch-o-holic like me :) Oh, and of course, a salad :)

Weekly Spending - Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

This week's post will be similar to last week's....in that the 2 main stores we went to were Aldi and CVS. We also made a stop at Binny's Beverage Depot to get a few choice beverages for NYE. I made one other stop to Bed Bath and Beyond last Sunday to stock up on Yankee candles that were 50% off and I used a couple $10 off $25 coupons I had printed a couple months back. I got 4 large jar candles and 2 tarts for $35 (including tax). These candles are normally $25 for ONE jar candle!

Aldi: Spent $25.65

CVS: Spent $2.61 ($0.85 before tax!!) Received $7 in ECB's!

Total spent (minus Binny's): $63.31

Recipe of the Week - Lemon Glaze Lemon Bars with Blackberries

2010-12-29T11:25:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, am I motivated enough to start a new feature on this blog....Recipe of the Week? We shall see. I tried this a while back on my regular blog but I never could keep up. For this blog's Recipe of the Week, I plan to either elaborate on a recipe I posted on Menu Plan Monday or offer up something new and different that I made but didn't post on Menu Plan Monday.

Last week when I made tons of cookies for Tom's lab, one of the things I decided to bake was Luscious Lemon Bars. I happened to have some leftover lemon drizzle from a box of lemon-poppy seed muffin mix (I made the muffins without the drizzle). I heated up the lemon bars in the microwave for a few seconds, drizzled a little lemon glaze on top, then added some blackberries, and drizzled a little bit more lemon glaze. Nom nom nom. A sweet snack with a tiny bit of healthiness!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-12-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

I *heart* turkey leftovers! There are so many yummy things to make and I love that the meat is already cooked!

Sunday: Best Ever Turkey Noodle Soup
Monday: Chicken Casserole from an Amish cookbook Tom's mom gave me last year for Christmas (But with leftover turkey)
Tuesday: Crockpot Pizza Rice Casserole (from Fix it and Forget it), salad
Wednesday: Company Mac & Cheese, Garlic Cheddar Chicken, Sauteed Apples
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Dinner with The Drankas! Happy New Year!
Saturday: Stuffed Pork chops, Some sort of veggie mix, orzo

As always, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday over at Org Junkie's site. Over 300 bloggers link up which means lots of new recipes and ideas!

Weekly Savings - Christmas Edition

2010-12-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!! We only did a little grocery shopping at the beginning of this week. Notice I said "We." Tom came with me to help carry everything on our trip to Aldi. It was supposed to only be a small trip but then I bought some extra items to make cookies for Tom's lab and then of course, we picked up some extra things as we were strolling down the aisles.

Spent: $43.77

We also swung by CVS because I had some ECB's that I needed to use up. I spent $1.60 OOP (out of pocket) which was basically all tax! Before tax my total came to $0.01!! And then I received $11.99 back in brand new ECB's! I think that's the best scenario I've ever done!

We also ran into Jewel real quick and spent $6.66 (yikes!) on sausage and some nose pad things to fix Tom's glasses.

Total for the week: $52.03 Not too bad!!!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-12-20T11:52:00.000-08:00

First of all, allow me to recommend the Hot Chicken Salad Sandwiches from last week. Yum! I heated everything in the microwave for time's sake and it was SO good! I imagine it would be better in the crock pot (if you have the time) because it allows the flavors to blend together a little longer, but it was amazing in the microwave alone.

Sunday: Spinach stuffed chicken
I'm kind of going to wing this one. I found the recipe in a magazine. Some spinach, some cheese....I'll let you know how it turns out :)

Monday: Cha-cha's White Chicken Chili, pineapple

Tuesday: Crock Pot Amazing meat loaf (from Fix it and Forget it), salad

Wednesday: Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Fiesta Surprise

I made up this last year with some leftovers I had on hand and it ended up being an instant favorite.

1 can rotel, 1/2 pound ground beef (cooked), 1-2 cups cooked rice, shredded fiesta cheese, broken up tortilla chips. Mix all ingredients, sprinkle cheese on top and put in oven for ~15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Christmas: Two hour Turkey (which always takes longer than 2 hours!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, asparagus

As always, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday over at Org Junkie's site. Over 300 bloggers link up which means lots of new recipes and ideas!

Weekly Savings

2010-12-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

This week was crazy with me going back to work. I am kind of cheating on this post and am going to post my shopping trip from last Friday. 1 - Because I didn't go to a single store this week and 2 - I went shopping an additional time last Friday even though I already spent a lot because the deals were really good and I knew that would be my last big shopping trip for a while!

We keep getting flyers from a store that I've never heard of, Tony's Finer Foods, and everything always seems so cheap! So last Friday I decided to check it out. Total Spent: $34.76

Bought: 1 pizza, 6-pack Magic Hat, 4 gallons of milk, 1 eggplant, 2 cartons blackberries, 2 boxes waffles, 1 gallon apple cider, 1 margarine tub, frozen veggies, 4 small whole chickens

I lied - we stopped at Target one night on the way home to get creamer, vitamins, scrub sponges, and popcorn kernals (I only had coupons for the creamer and we missed a sale on the popcorn kernals by 2 days! I hate paying full price for vitamins!) Spent: $19.81

I don't really plan on doing a lot of shopping the next few weeks. We are stocked up on so much so the only things I see us buying our things like milk, eggs, bread and maybe the occasional super good deal. We'll see how that goes!!

Homemade Granola Bars

2010-12-16T17:08:00.000-08:00

I had seen a couple of other bloggers post about this and came across it again in one of my magazines, so I decided to give it a whirl. I need to eat something in the morning before work but I am also extremely pressed for time in the morning so cooking or even heating something up is out of the question. (Yes, I need that extra 15 minutes of sleep. End of discussion).

So I thought homemade granola bars would be a good way to go. I can put whatever I want into it, make a big batch ahead of time, and just grab 1 or 2 on the way out the door in the morning. (The link wants you to sign in to Taste of Home's website, but if you don't click it anything, you can scroll up and down and still see the recipe). So good, so easy, and relatively healthy!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-12-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

I think I want to start posting more about food and recipes on this blog. Every time I post a "Menu Plan Monday" post I really want to elaborate more about some of my meals and/or post recipes for the meals that I don't have links to, but I never seem to have enough time. I'm going to try and post at least one recipe or "kitchen adventure" a week. Here is our plan for this week. I'm plenty stocked up on food so we should be good for a while!

Saturday: (this changed from last week so I wanted to include it): Butternut Squash soup, salad
Sunday: Crockpot Whole Chicken (I just seasoned the chicken with some paprika, butter, garlic cloves, salt & pepper, threw it in the crockpot with a little chicken broth, and let it cook for 7 hours), mashed potatoes, peas
Monday: Eggplant Parmesan
Tuesday: Hot chicken salad sandwiches (from Fix-It and Forget-It: 5-ingredient favorites with leftover chicken from Sunday)
2 Tbsp. onion, minced, 1 cup mayo, 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, 1.5 cups shredded cooked chicken, 1/2 cup slivered almonds or pecans. Mix all in slow cooker on low for 2 hours or until heated through. For time's sake I might just mix this all in the microwave.
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Something with tortillas and leftover chicken...quesadillas or fajitas maybe?
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Dinner out

As always, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday over at Org Junkie's site. Over 300 bloggers link up which means lots of new recipes and ideas!

Weekly Savings

2010-12-11T08:46:00.000-08:00

I should start calling this "Weekly Spending!" I went to A LOT of stores again this week, but there were a bunch of good deals on meat so I figured I better stock up! Also, once I start work next week I won't have as much time to run to 100 different stores to get all the best deals.

Here we go:

Dominick's Trip # 1 $16.05

I combined Frugal Tip Numbers 13 and 15 (Freeze perishables and Stock up!) I divided up the meat into 1-meal-portion-sizes in small ziplock bags, then put 6 bags in each large freezer bag to protect against freezer burn. I also used a pound for dinner on Sunday night, so $16.05 worth of meat will stretch into about 13 meals for us!

Jewel Trip #1 - $5.52

Nothing fancy about this trip, just a few things that were on sale.

Below is a combined picture of the 5 stores that I went to while participating in my own "Super Errand Monday." I wasn't really planning on going to this many stores (if any) but some Chicagoland Frugal Bloggers were posting about really good deals! I spent $36.06 (with tax). My favorite were the 12 Nestle Nutcracker chocolates I got from Walgreens...all I had to pay was tax! Don't tell Tom, because they are going to end up in his stocking for Christmas :) (They were on sale for 3/$1 and I had two $2/3 coupons from last Sunday's paper. I bought 12, they totaled $4, I used 2 coupons, and Voila! Free chocolate :)

Jewel Trip #2 $2.79 (Left)

Target $9.40 (Received $5 Target GC for next purchase) (Top Left)

Aldi $10.24 (Top Right)

Dominick's Trip #2 $13.21 (Bottom Center)

Walgreens $0.39 (Bottom Right)

Total: $57.63

Menu Plan Monday

2010-12-06T15:24:00.000-08:00

Hmmmm, what to make this week. This is my last week before I go back to work so I feel like I should take advantage of actually having time to cook and whip up some good meals. We'll see...

Sunday Hamburger Noodle Bake (It says you have to log in to see the recipe, but you can still see it by scrolling down, just leave the "log-in" box there)
Monday Chicken Cheddar Chowder, spinach salad, crusty bread
Tuesday Broccoli Quiche
Wednesday Salsa Chicken & Black Bean soup
Thursday A1 Mozzarella Burgers, peas, mashed potatoes
Friday Buffalo chicken pockets, salad
Saturday Leftovers

As always, be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday over at Org Junkie's site. Over 300 bloggers link up which means lots of new recipes and ideas!

Weekly Savings

2010-12-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, since my last ~~confession~~, post, I feel the need to be completely honest and post all of my purchases for the week. Usually I just post the best deals of the week, and leave things like "Bought 3 gallons of milk at Aldi" out. I can't promise pictures for everything, but if you're anything like Tom, you skim the blog and just look at the pictures so I'll try to remember to snap a few when I get in the door. (Although once I start working again I really can't guarantee pics, because, who has time for that?! ;)

So, here we go!

Aldi Trip #1 - $11.70

Home Depot Trip #1 - $16.42

Jewel Trip #1 - $7.06

Jewel Trip #2 - $4.76

Target Trip #1 - $15.73

Walgreens - $5.37

Aldi Trip #2 - $14.64

Target Trip #2 - $9.55

Home Depot Trip #2 - $ 35.23

TOTAL: $120.46 (Under our budget of $150/week to spend on everything. But honestly, our budget has kind of been out the window lately with the move and me not having a paycheck!) And that's a lot more trips than we usually do, but it's easy to run around the corner to the store when you're not working!

This is Walgreens (on top/left) and Jewel Trip #2. At Walgreens I spent $5.37, saved $7.24, and received $2.99 back in RR to use the next time. The chicken was on sale for $0.78/lb at Jewel. I plan to use it for one of our favorite's....Beer Can Chicken.

I need an Intervention

2010-12-01T16:57:00.000-08:00

Ugh, I am addicted to bargain shopping!! I suppose it's not the worst thing to be addicted to, I mean, we get a TON of stuff for super cheap (or free).

So what's the problem?

I am always spending money! Today I went to three stores and dropped $25 like nothing! (I did get some good deals, and it was mostly stuff we needed...2 bottles of toilet bowl cleaner, an 8 pack of soap, a shirt ($5), painting materials, creamer, butter, and a 6 pound chicken.

I do usually stick to our weekly budget, and rarely go over, but I'm thinking I might want to try the beloved "Envelope Method" and just use the cash. When it's gone, it's gone.

Part of this revelation is coming from me being out of work for 7 weeks, and part of it is from us really wanting to buy a house in the next year and me feeling strongly about putting 20% down. I think I'm going start the cash only system in January, once I start getting regular paychecks and we can get back in our budget groove. Until then, I'm going to carefully consider every purchase and assess whether it's a "necessity" or not. (BTW, my favorite champagne that happens to be on sale for $4.49 at Jewel now through January 3rd is most definitely a necessity ;)

Menu Plan Monday: Tuesday Edition

2010-11-30T07:45:00.000-08:00

Oops!! Forgot to post this yesterday! Let's see, I haven't given it much thought. Thanksgiving and the leftovers were so elaborate and planned out that regular weekday meals seem so "blah" now!

Sunday: PW's Leftover Turkey Pot Pie
Monday: Spaghetti
Tuesday: Broccoli, turkey, and cheese bake
Wednesday: Salad, Crockpot Mozzarella Chicken
Thursday: Chicken Scampi, cauliflower
Friday: Homemade calzones
Saturday: I'm always stumped on Saturdays...maybe some kind of soup?

Weekly Savings

2010-11-27T09:43:00.000-08:00

This week was a doozy! I had such great deals worked out...or so I thought (no really, I did) and I ended up spending $85 between Target and Jewel! But here is what I got!!

At Target I spent $44.70 and saved $25.02. The $25 bag of dog food was the budget buster for this trip but we are almost out of dog food, it was on sale, I had a $2 off coupon, and I got a $5 Target giftcard for purchasing it.

Bought:

2 dozen eggs

2 bags shredded cheese

1 ranch dressing

1 bottle cayenne pepper

1 bottle bay leaves

1 carton heavy cream

1 pound of carrots

holiday decorations

game for Tom's nephew

31 pound bag of Beneful (not pictured)

At Jewel I spent $40.71 and saved $38.62. I think it's pretty amazing that my spending/saving ratio is similar considering I bought a 12 pack of Sam Adams and a turkey. But the best part? I paid $2.75 for a 12 pound turkey! And yes, this is my second turkey, but how can you pass up a turkey for $2.75? I'll probably just keep it in the freezer until Christmas. I stocked up on some cheap vegetables (or cheap for up here) and picked up a few key ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Bought:
10 boxes Green Giant vegetables
12 pack Sam Adams
12 pound turkey
3 pound pot roast
5 sweet potatoes
2 bags shredded cheese
3 lemons
1 box corn starch
1 bag cinnamon rolls
3 containters sage, rosemary, & thyme
1/2 pint of oysters

My Black Friday Deals

2010-11-26T15:59:00.001-08:00

Surprisingly, I chose to sleep in this morning and not fight the masses at Chicago's retail stores. I left the house one time, and that was for a total of 21 minutes to walk to Walgreens and pick up a few things that were on sale :) I spent $3.97 plus tax and saved $16.30 according to my receipts. AND, I got $2.99 back in RR's to spend the next time I go to Walgreens!

Bought
2 Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice
Bic Soleil razors
Hair bands
2L of Canada Dry Gingerale

CVS Black Friday Trip

2010-11-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

But Anne, it's Thursday, how can you already have posted about your CVS Black Friday Trip?

Well, I'm glad you asked ;) Apparently CVS is open on Thanksgiving! I actually didn't plan to leave the house today, but we were almost out of milk, so I figured I might as well go to CVS, buy a few things for super cheap (including milk) and build my supply of ECB's back up!

I got all of this (pictured below) for $7.51 + tax and I received $11.77 in ECB's!!!

Bought
1 Gallon of milk
Herbal Essences Shampoo and Conditioner
Eucerin Lotion
Colgate Toothpaste
Gillette Deodorant
Carmex Lip Balm
Reeses Pieces

According to my receipts I saved $23.61 (Yes, that is receiptS as in plural...I divided up my order into 4 transactions to minimize my OOP cost).

And believe it or not, I'm actually NOT going shopping tomorrow! I may hit up Walgreens for some cheap razors and sparkling grape juice, but I don't really count that as Black Friday Shopping. This will be the first time in as long as I can remember that I haven't gone shopping on Black Friday!! Hopefully it's a sign of my progress in regards to only buying what we "need" or really, really, really want!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-11-22T14:02:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited for this week! I LOVE Thanksgiving and I LOVE cooking on Thanksgiving! Unfortunately, my husband and I aren't able to make it home this year due to our recent move and the uncertainty of my job situation. So, once again, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving just the two of us. But I really enjoy it :) Here is the plan for this week, including the big plan for Thursday!

Sunday: Salad, Company Mac and Cheese
Monday: Italian Spinach Pie
Tuesday: Beef beer roast, Oven roasted potatoes
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Oyster Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Herb Roasted Turkey & Stuffing, Lemon Meringue Pie
Friday: Pioneer Woman's Turkey Pot Pie
Saturday: Best Ever Turkey Noodle Soup

Be sure to check out Menu Plan Monday over at Org Junkie's site!

Weekly Savings

2010-11-20T17:48:00.001-08:00

I have to be honest, I've had a hard time getting back in the "savings groove." It was just so EASY to go into Publix and walk out with a cartload of groceries and save double -to - triple what I spent! Part of the beauty of Publix was that they doubled manufacturer's coupons up to $0.50. So a $0.50 coupon was actually a $1 coupon. I have yet to find a store here that doubles coupons (okay, I haven't looked that hard, but none of the stores that are in a 1 mile radius of my apartment double coupons). I feel like I've had to make an effort to find things that we need on sale. And a "sale" might be a decent price, but it doesn't have me getting that "excited/crazy/have to stock up on as much as I can now" feeling like I used to get when grocery shopping.

All of that being said, I feel like I didn't do too bad this week. I made a BIG trip to Aldi and bought about $50 worth of groceries. It was the most I've ever spent in a single trip to Aldi, but I was able to get a few staples to start cooking up some meals for the freezer. I wish I snapped a picture of it but I forgot.

I also went to CVS and Target. Ohh! I almost forgot...I've been having such a hard time getting COUPONS up here as well! I got a good deal on the Sunday paper ($0.50/week for Sunday delivery only) so I'm hoping the coupons will be in the delivered Tribune (because they aren't in the ones at the Dollar Store). (I'm also hoping that no one steals my paper as anyone could walk by on the street and pick it up).

Ok, CVS and Target. All of that to say that I could have gotten an even better deal at CVS on the Ragu sauce if I had gotten coupons in either of the two papers I bought last Sunday.
Target (on left)

Spent: $8.45 + tax

Bought: 4 boxes Stove Top, 1 - 11 pound turkey, 8 cream of chicken/mushroom soup

CVS (on right)

Spent: $4 + tax

Bought: 6 jars of Ragu

Received: $3 ECB's

Menu Plan Monday

2010-11-15T06:23:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, it's been nice to have a little break from all of the menu planning. When all you have in your house are a few items, you really don't have that many choices for dinner! But that too can get old. I'm going to try to get back on the Menu Planning Bandwagon this week. I'm also going to try and do a little freezer cooking this week to prepare for when I go back to work (which will hopefully be soon!) Here is my plan for this week:

Sunday Crispy herb baked chicken, toasted orzo, avocados
Monday World's Best Potato Salad, An adaptation of Pioneer Woman's Potato Skins, salad
Tuesday Baked Potato Soup, salad
Wednesday Almond, Chicken, and Rice Casserole
Thursday Chicken Quesadillas
Friday Homemade pizza with Pioneer Woman's pizza crust recipe
Saturday I'm not really sure yet! Possibly leftovers, possibly some kind of soup

CVS & Walgreens...again

2010-11-13T07:07:00.000-08:00

So, apparently, these are my two main drug stores again. Walgreens is actually about 1/4 mile from our apartment and CVS is maybe 1/2 mile. I still haven't found a Rite Aid yet but I haven't been too crazy about shopping there since they shifted their focus from their rebates to their Up rewards program (which is a serious bummer because I used to always make money when I shopped their by using coupons and their rebates...I guess that may be part of the reason they are getting away from it!)

I had worked out a different scenario at CVS, but I didn't go shopping until Friday and they were out of what I needed. So I had to do a little impromptu shopping in the store. I had $6 in ECB's to spend and a $5/$30 coupon that printed out from the coupon scanner. I got everything you see below for $14 + tax, and I received another $6 in ECB's! According to the receipt I saved $35.90

At Walgreens I spent $3.05 total and got everything below. I had coupons to make the toothbrushes free and a $1 RR to use from my last visit.

Can you tell it's almost baking season? And free toothbrushes so we don't get cavities. :)

CVS & Walgreens

2010-11-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Between all of my packing last week I managed to run into CVS and Walgreens for a few items. I had ECB's and RR's that were going to expire. I want to keep my ECB's at CVS rolling and I want to get every penny's worth of stuff I can from Walgreens (long story). This is the best I have done at either of these stores! At CVS I spent $1.69 for one Olay body wash, one travel size Secret deodorant, and one Oral B Cross-Action Power toothbrush. At Walgreens I spent $0.52 and bought 2 boxes of brown sugar, 1 box of confectionate sugar, and 3 cans of tomato sauce. I received $5 in ECB's from CVS and somehow received $1 in RR from Walgreens.

Total: $2.21 for all items below (including tax)

CVS (on the left), Walgreens (on the right)

Top 5 Favorite Kitchen Items

2010-11-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

In light of recently packing up my entire kitchen, here are my Top 5 Favorite Kitchen Items. I am all about saving money and not purchasing items I don't need, but these are all items that I LOVE and that save a significant amount of time in the kitchen.

1. Kitchenaid Scissors
2. Food Processor
3. Mini Food Processor
4. Garlic Press
5. Crock pot

What are your favorite kitchen items???