Black Friday/Thanksgiving CVS ads are up!

CVS Thanksgiving/Black Friday ads are up and you can view them here I heart CVS. There are a LOT of "free" after extra bucks deals going on those days. And while the best deals are had when you already have extra bucks (ecb's) and coupons, as long as you have a CVS card you could walk in with no coupons and no ecb's and come out with a bunch of free stuff. You would just have to do multiple transactions.

My men folk go hunting on Thanksgiving so we eat late in the day. This year, I will be hitting the local CVS before putting the turkey in the oven around noon. I'm not the type to "buy" stuff "just because its free" so my scenarios only involve the purchase of things we actually need and/or use. Some will go into my stockpile to be used up over the next few months and the popcorn popper will be a Christmas gift. The crockpot is my treat to me since mine is slowly dieing.

Here is what I am planning on doing on Thanksgiving:

Dh's card: Start with $15 + $15 ecb's
Transaction #1
2 Colgate
2 Aussie
1 J&J lotion
1 Bic Razor
1 Candy bar
$24.64
-3.00 $3/$15
-6.75 in coupons
$14.89
-$15.00 ecb
-$0.11 oop earn $5.98, $5.98, $1.00, & $5.99 ecbs

Transaction #2
1 Bic Razor
1 Headphones
1 Garnier towelettes
$19.87
-3.00 $3/$15
-3.00 coupons
$12.97
-5.98
-5.98
-1.00 ecb's
$.01 oop earn $5.99, $6.99, & $5.99 ecb's

Transaction #3
1 Playtex tampons
1 Popcorn popper
2 Gum
$26.96
-3.00 $3/$15
-2.49 coupons
$21.47
-15.00
-5.99 ecb's
$.48 oop and earn $3.00 and $10.00 ecb's

Breakdown: Start with $30 ecbs
Spend: $.49 oop (on gc from a prescription this week) and $48.95 ecb's
Earned: $37.99 ECB's

My Card: Start with $15 +$15+ $4 ecb's

Transaction #1
1 Playtex Tampons
2 Colgate
2 Aussie
2 Bic Razors
1 Headphones
$34.92
-5.00 $5/$25
-10.50 coupons
19.42
-15.00
-4.00
$.42 oop and earn $3.00, $5.98, $11.98, & $6.99 ecb's

Transaction #2
1 J&J Lotion
1 Cover Girl Foundation
2 L'Oreal lip color
$27.66
-5.00 $5/$25
-4.00 coupons
$18.66
-15.00
-3.00
$.66 oop and earn $5.69, $7.99, & $13.98 ecb's

Transaction #3
1Garnier towelettes
1 Cover Girl Powder
2 Candy bars
1 Crockpot
$33.97
-5.00 $5/$25
-1.00 coupons
$27.97
-13.98
-7.99
-5.69
$.31 oop and earn $5.99, $5.99, $1.00 & $10.00 ecb's

Breakdown: Start with $34 ecbs
Spend: $1.39 oop (on gc from a prescription this week) and $64.66 ecb's
Earned: $47.93 ECB's

So, what am I going to be doing with all these ECB's. Good question! Some may be used to purchase gifts, the rest will be used to purchase needed items like baby wipes and milk. I will of course use some to purchase more "deals" that earn ecb's in order to always have a few available for weekly and monthly ecb deals. Over the past few months I have been able to reduce my family's 'health & beauty' spending from about $30 per month to about $3.00 per month leaving an extra $27 per month to spend on actual food. If you need help planning your shopping trip, just drop me a note and I'd be glad to help you out.

Awesome Deals at Marsh Supermarkets This Week!

Had another super savings trip at Marsh today. I had a savings of 53% ($85.39) and saved $15.10 with coupons and the balance with Fresh Idea savings.

I got Chex and Kelloggs Cereal (Corn Flakes for us) for less than $1.00 per box after sales and coupons. There are printables for Kelloggs here and Chex here.

I picked up an 18#+ turkey for $14.36 after the $20.00 off instant savings with the Fresh Idea Card. That's just $.79 per pound!!

Free $10 Gift Card from Coinstar

Just read about this and thought I would share it with you. If you are planning to purchase a gift certificate (or gifts) from one of the participating retailers, it would be a great way to get a bonus. I would even go so far as to get the change from the bank and convert it into the gift card at a Coinstar machine. So, get your gift cards from the machine and use them as gifts or go to the stores and purchase your planned gifts with the gift card, then use the bonus for some after Christmas shopping in the clearance aisle.

Participating retailers:
Starbucks
Amazon.com
Circuit City
JC Penney
iTunes
Borders
Pier 1
Eddie Bauer
Cabela's
Disneyshopping.com
Old Navy
AMC
Lowe's Home Improvement



Coinstar coin counting is FREE when you turn your coins into a gift card or eCert. Now through December 7th when you try our Free Coin Counting option and cash in $40 or more, we’ll send you a holiday bonus. Coinstar change machines (found in a store near you) are giving you a $10 gift card when you use it to purchase a $40 (or greater) gift card to certain stores.

How to get FREE Coin Counting at Coinstar Centers:
Select Prepaid Card from the main menu
Select the Gift Card or eCertificate you'd like
Select new card or reload
Follow the on screen directions to get a new card from the machine or to reload your existing card.
Enjoy the benefits of your card and pat yourself on the back for getting free coin counting!


TERMS AND CONDITIONS

To get your free $10 gift card, follow these instructions carefully.

Obtain an official claim form when you convert in a single transaction at least 40 U.S. dollars (in coins only) into a gift card or eCertificate at participating Coinstar Centers. The claim form will be displayed at the end of qualified Coinstar® receipts.

Valid Dates are 11/7/08 – 12/7/08

Complete the claim form in its entirety.

Submit the completed claim form. Claims must be postmarked by 1/7/2009. Claims postmarked after the applicable date, incomplete submissions, and illegible submissions will be returned as ineligible.

Mail to Coinstar Holiday Bonus Offer, PO Box 6112, Douglas, AZ 85655-6112

Receive the $10 gift card via mail. Allow 6–8 weeks for processing. If terms and conditions are not met, the $10 gift card will not be sent. Coinstar is not responsible for any claims lost, damaged, or delayed in transit.

General terms and conditions: the $10 holiday bonus offer ends 12/7/08. Offer valid in the U.S. only and excludes Puerto Rico. Offer good on qualified coin transactions made between 11/7/08 and 12/7/08. Transactions occurring before or after these dates are not eligible for this offer. Limit 1 per name, address, or household. Void where prohibited. Not valid with any other offer. No cash substitutions. Valid on coin transactions only. Failure to follow the above rules may result in disqualification. PLEASE RETAIN A COPY OF ALL SUBMITTED MATERIALS FOR YOUR RECORDS, ORIGINALS WILL NOT BE RETURNED

Coinstar reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the operation of the Rebate program, to be acting in violation of these Terms and Conditions, or to be acting in disruptive manner, or with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.

Any person attempting to defraud or in any way tamper with this program will be ineligible and may be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Coinstar reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel or suspend this gift certificate program should viruses, bugs or other causes beyond its control corrupt the proper administration or security of the Rebate.

Coinstar reserves the right to modify the rules of the program in any way or at any time, as long as reasonable notice is given.

Nice surprises in the Mail today!

I received my Kellogg's Rebate for the blueberry Frosted Mini-Wheats. I bought them about 6 weeks ago for BOGO (buy one get one free) with $2.00 off each with coupons. So I bought 2 boxes for $3.88 - the $4.00 in coupons for .12 overage then today I got my rebate for $3.88 (the cost of one box) giving me a total profit of $4.00 on this deal. Can't beat getting paid to try a new cereal. No one in our family loved these (we didn't hate them but definately prefer the regular frosted mini-wheats) but we ate them all anyway. With food prices the way they are these days, I can't turn down free food!



I also received an everydayeating mini magazine with $6.00 in Nestle coupons in it. You can go to http://www.everydayeating.com/ to sign up to receive this free and they have printable coupons on their website as well.

Kroger (and affiliates) Mega Event going on now!

Kroger is having a buy 10 items get $5.00 off on your order. Limit 3 per transaction. That's $0.50 off per item purchased and most of the items involved are on sale for a good price anyway. Welch's 64oz juice for $3.00 each, Quaker granola bars for $2.00 each. In addition there are coupons out for many of these items. Check to the right and that is where I get most of my multiples of coupons (and on ebay of course). Here's my first trip this week! Most of this will go into our stockpile to use up gradually until the next awesome sale comes along. I did 2 transactions today getting 30 items each transaction. For $56.73 I got:



16 boxes granola bars
6 boxes Cheerios
9 Welch's juice
4 boxes oatmeal
2 jars pickles
6 28oz cans diced tomatoes
2 cans evaporated milk
1 peanut butter
2 deodorants
4 dial soap
4 bags nestle chips
4 bags Quaker rice quakes.



I've got more oatmeal, milk, juice, cereal, and granola bar coupons to use up. I have to plan carefully because our store only doubles 2 like coupons per transaction and will only take 3 like coupons per transaction! It used to be 4 per and now it seems to be three. You can find your local Kroger here http://www.kroger.com/Pages/default.aspx

Look your coupons over and have a great shopping trip.

Great Weekend

We didn't do anything special this weekend, just spent some time with our kids and that is what family is all about.

On Friday Daddy took the two youngest (7 years old and 21 months old) trick-or-treating and I went to a close friend's house and we had a nice chat over a cup of tea while handing out a TON of candy. The weather was very nice (in the mid 60's at T/T time) so there was a huge turn out this year. So much fun to see what the kids (and Moms) came up with for their costumes. Here are our two characters.




My husband had his duty weekend for the Air Force Reserves but he drives down each day and is home with us in the evenings. So Saturday the kids and I had the house and laundry essentially done (as done as it ever gets with a big family), then we spent a pleasant afternoon watching some football (ok, our team lost but in triple overtime). After Daddy got home and dinner was over we spent a couple of hours playing Apples to Apples. A really fun game where everyone is pretty equal because there is no real skill involved. My brother in law stopped by to bring the kids some treats and stayed to play and our daughter had a friend over who also joined in the fun. If you don't have this game you should put it on your Christmas list! The only one who couldn't participate was the baby, and she didn't care too much until she got sleepy. Anyway this is great family fun that delivers on its advertising promises (not something every game can claim). We had participants ranging in age from 7 to 46 and we all had fun!




On Sunday we went to church in the morning came home had some lunch and put the two youngest down for naps (they'd been up way too late the night before). Everyone just vegged out during the afternoon passing time waiting for Daddy to come home. Sunday evening was spent in front of the fireplace with the 2 little ones reading and watching Scooby Doo. All in all just a relaxing, casual weekend filled with family time (and very little fighting). I feel renewed to start the coming week.

So what did you do this weekend? Do you have any great game recommedations? Let me know.

Brrrr.....winter is coming.

So with November here and the weather getting colder each day, we are all breaking down and turning on the furnace. With fuel costs as high as they have been we are also all looking for ways to save money on our home heating costs again this year. Some of the things I do in our very energy inefficient home are:

Put plastic over all the windows and patio doors in the house. The kits are a bit expensive, however the payback in comfort and energy savings is huge. I also take the plastic down carefully in the spring and reuse the pieces from the big windows and patio doors on the smaller windows the next year. I have used both Ace Hardware brand and 3M brand and both were excellent, user friendly products.

Use draft dodgers on any exterior doors with leaky sills. You can make a very simple one from a long tube of fabric sewn and filled with rice or kitty litter. You then put it at the bottom of the door to block drafts from coming in. Until you get around to making or purchasing one, you can make do with a tightly rolled bath towel.

Make sure your thermostat is set at the lowest possible temperature for comfort. And really think about this one and discuss it with your spouse. It is WINTER, do you really need to be comfortable in bare feet, shorts, and a t-shirt while lounging on the couch watching tv? Well, be prepared for heating bills rivaling the national debt. But, if you are willing to wear socks and shoes (or slippers), long pants, and a sweatshirt over a turtleneck you may just be able to lower the thermostat by as much as 10 degrees. I keep our home at 66 during the day and 63 at night. The kids often complain when they first come home from school but once they adjust (put on shoes and socks and sweatshirts) they are fine.

Speaking of thermostats, if you do not already have one, get a programmable one! They are not super expensive and they save a lot of hassle and forgetting to turn down the temp. before going to bed. They are simple to install yourself and I'd suggest getting one even if you are renting. Maybe your landlord would let you subtract the cost from your rent payment. It is always worth asking for.

Change as many of your light bulbs to CFL's (compact fluorescent) as possible. They are much more expensive 'upfront' but last up to 5 years each. I changed mine out one or two at a time as they went bad. We now have them in all the lights; lamps, overheads, and exteriors, in our house except the two lights on dimmer switches. I can't say definitively how much this saves per month as I replaced them gradually over the course of a year. I do know that my bill shows that we used less electricity in October 08 than in October 07.

Unplug any appliance that is not in use including computers, tv's, and stereo equipment. Anything with a light or lighted display is always using electricity even when "off". This is something that I don't do at home but am planning to start soon. My plan is to purchase powerstrips for the areas that don't currently have them. Plug everything into the powerstrip then I can simply turn off and unplug the powerstrip when the items are not in use. I have read that this can save a significant amount of electricity per year.

Make sure that your heat source is working efficiently by vacuuming out the vents (both cold and hot air runs). We have hot water heat and every couple of years we take the covers off our heat runs and vacuum out the fins. I could not believe how filthy they were (it was a miracle we felt any heat!) when we first bought this house. I honestly do not think they had ever been cleaned. The first time around was difficult and time consuming, but maintenance is done with just the soft brush on my canister vacuum. We also put the foam insulation on all of our pipes in the crawl space. Our heat has to travel up to 25 feet to reach a register so the hotter you can keep that water the warmer your house will be. The insulation was pretty inexpensive and comes in a long tube with a slit down one side. I found it easy to trim and install. If you have forced air heat, and have access via your basement or attic, check that the seams of your runs are not leaking warm air out into unused spaces. In our old house, we used duct tape to tape up all the seams and while the basement was much colder (a good thing) we were definitely warmer upstairs.

A great resource for lots of good information on saving energy (thus saving money) is:

http://www.doe.gov/yourhome.htm

So, take a few minutes out this week and see what you can do to save some money keeping warm this winter.