A Lesson in Couponing

I took my friend, Lydia, on her first coupon adventure yesterday. She had only been collecting coupons for one week so I gave her a bunch of mine to get the ball rolling. I wish we had more because the Albertson's sale is going on next week too. I had lots of fun helping her learn the ropes and I hopefully didn't overwhelm her. It's a lot to take in, but once you figure out the lingo and a few tricks it's easy as pie. Check out the amazing deals she got:

Smiths:
4 - 50 oz tide
4 - 13.5 oz. aussie conditioner
4 - 16 oz. Ken's dressing
5 - 6 oz. Beechnut baby food
3 - 5 oz. packages tuna fish
6 - 4 oz. cans green chilies

Total Value - $62.30
I spent - $16.90 at Smiths.

Albertsons
9 - 1 lb. 10 oz. ragu spaghetti sauce
8 - 10 oz. vaseline intensive care lotion
2 - 30 oz. best foods mayonnaise
4 - 300 count Q-tips
8 - 15 oz. skippy natural peanut butter
5 - 8 oz. bags chex mix
9 - 16 oz. wishbone dressings
2 - 3.1 oz. Betty Crocker warm delight brownies
3 - 8 pouch fruit roll up/ fruit gusher/ fruit by the foot combo boxes
1 - 8 pouch fruit roll up
6 - 12.25 oz. boxes Honey Nut cheerios
5 - 11.23 oz boxes cookie crisp
8 - 12.8 oz. boxes cinnamon toast crunch
3 - 18 oz. suave body wash
3 2.6 oz suave deodorants
1 - 17.5 oz. Betty Crocker choc. chip cookie mix

Total Value - $287.75
I spent $44.19
Plus I have $19 cash back to spend the next time I go to Albertsons.

So.... essentially I spent $25.19 at Albertsons.

Better Than Albertson's??

I think it might be true. Smith's is having a huge coupon doubling sale! I took a picture of everything I bought and instead of having my SD card in the camera it went onto the hard drive (which we never use and only holds like 20 pictures) and I have NO IDEA where the cord is to download it!! Anyway I will do my best to list what I bought.
5 bottles of Tide
5 boxes of 18pk Tampax
1 bottle of Cascade dishwasher soap
5 Crest toothpastes
1 Kids Colgate toothpaste
5 Covergirl Mascaras (My favorite!)
4 4pks of Dannon Yogurt
5 3pks of Extra gum
1 M&M's - had a free coupon for it
5 bottles of Pert 2 in1 shampoo (Love the 2 in1 kind for Collin)
4 cans of Ortega green chilis
2 bottles of Clean & Clear face wash
1 pack of AA Batteries
and one more mystery item that I couldn't make out on the receipt! :)
The total before coupons and handing over my Fresh Values card - $177.32! That's what my receipt says, but the screen I thought it said $180+
ANYWAY......I paid $40.41!! Wahoo! 45 items so just less than a dollar per item! I got so many toiletries that really eat up your budget. Don't you just hate paying money for Tampons? Somebody should be paying us right!?! I also earned my 15 cents of fuel reward. I like Albertson's fuel rewards better because you can earn up to $1.50 per gallon off and Smith's maxes out at 15 cents off, but I will take what I can get.
So excited! Darrell was with me and I was joking that he was having a heart attack when we saw our total. He's ok though once the total went down 79%! Did I ever mention I like coupons?

Meats and Treats

I bought my $30 in meat yesterday and sent in my $10 rebate. All the meat was on sale at Macey's for $1.69/lb. Including the garbage bags and ziploc freezer bags we spent about $38. Everything else in the picture is from Albertson's for $10! Can't beat that deal on feminine products and lots of Pop Tarts. Oh yes, and bananas - a staple at our house. Oh and the best part was that I got my first rebate back for $7.50 so I cashed that check and paid for most of my Albies trip! FREE!!!

Today Smith's was having a one day sale today on Kellogg's and Keebler products. Also they had a great Proctor and Gamble deal going so I got lots of shampoo, conditioner, and hairspray. After coupons everything came to $27.49, but I had a cash card from some cereal a while back worth $5. So I paid $22.29 for all that shampoo and cookies! My receipt says total savings of 73 percent and that doesn't deduct the $5 because that was technically a form of payment, not a coupon. Darrell loves those Rice Krispies, so he will be so happy when he sees them. He's taking a nap! I wish!

Quality Childcare

I have been babysitting my sister's kids for the summer. Partly to make some money (state pays me), partly to save her money(zero out of pocket), and mostly so the kids have somewhere loving and safe to go....or so she thinks.



Here is Kymberly up on the table eating Brody's leftover yogurt. She's having a great time! Now that is some good babysitting right there!

Saving/Spending Addiction

So my goal for the last 3 weeks in July was to spend only $50. Well, that didn't go so well. I have already spent about $75 and I am planning on spending $30 in meat before Friday. I just found this great rebate where if you buy $30 of fresh meat you get $10 back. I would say that is a deal that is worth ruining my already ruined budget for July. The offer ends Friday so I will be buying the meat real soon, probably Thursday. Oh well. I really did try! I just think that my stockpile isn't big enough to rely on yet.

So here is the amazing deal that I got at Target today.
7 Poptarts
1 Special K Blueberry Cereal
2 Keebler Grasshopper cookies
8 Twix bars

Total before coupons was $22.xx

Coupons used:
5 - $.55 of one Poptart - Insert from 6/7
5- Target coupon for $.75 off Poptarts from HERE
1 - $1/2 Poptarts - in the mail
1 - $1 off Special K Blueberry from HERE
1 - $1/2 Keebler cookies or crackers - in the mail
4 - $1/2 candy bars, Twix is our favorite
Total with tax - $9.12!!!


You think that is a good deal? Wait until you hear about the rebate from Kellogg's/Keebler. Buy 10 participating products and get a $10 rebate!! Basically I just got paid to go buy all that stuff! Pretty sweet huh! I am submitting my rebate form right now so that I don't forget.

Superman

This is the conversation between Brody, my 2 year old, and Arien, my 3 year old niece.

Arien sees a superhero on TV and says: "Is that Superman?"
Brody: "No, I am Superman."
Arien: "You are?"
Brody: "Yeah!"
Arien: "Oh."

Apparently it's totally believable that Brody is Superman and not really all that exciting. So funny.

Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?

Paid only $3.60!!!! How? Well at Albertson's right now they have a deal if you buy $20 in Dr. Pepper or Kellogg's products you get a $10 coupon to use on your next purchase. The 12 packs of ALL soda is on sale buy 2 get 2 free. Dr. Pepper 12 packs are just over $5 each so when you buy 4 it gets you over that $20 mark for the $10 coupon. Of course 2 of the packs are free so it brings the total to $10.90. Pay that the first time then get your $10 coupon (Catalina). Then repeat this transaction and use the Catalina and pay only $.90 for four 12 packs! So how did I only pay $3.60? Well my dad did the initial transaction yesterday and paid the $10.90 out of pocket. He repeated the transaction a few times and still had a $10 Catalina left over. So I stole the Catalina and did the transaction 4 times at 2 different stores. Then I returned him his coupon. :) He is going back for more today too. He drinks the Diet Dr. Pepper like crazy so this is a fantastic deal for him. Darrell is going to be moving to the Middle Of Nowhere, North Dakota this weekend and I would love to send a bunch of these with him. Haven't quite figured out how to do that yet though.