Sunday, July 31, 2011

Saving Sunday - Mailbox!


I love getting samples in the mail. It makes me smile. ^_^

Saturday, July 30, 2011

CVS - Lots of Sales!

By the end of the day Sunday we had been cleaned out of almost all the really hot deals. My store doesn't normally see so many couponers in one day. I was sort of shocked! Luckily we got more items in on delivery so I could finally buy my deals. (I didn't forget my coupons this week!)


*Please note I did this in multiple transactions, but to simplify things I have it listed as one.

Bengay $6.29
Skintimate $2.19
Oral-B Floss $2.99
Renu Sensitive $7.89
2 Schick Quatro Disposable 3ct @ $9.79 each = $19.58
3 Soft Soap Foam @ $2.00 each = $6.00
U by Kotex Liners $3.49
Total Before Coupons: $45.44

$5/1 any one Bengay
$1.50/1 Skintimate Cream Shave (not shave cream . . . so close)
$1/1 Oral-B Floss
$2/1 Renu Sensitive (signed up at the manufacture web site)
$9.79 BOGO Schick Disposable
$2/1 Schick Disposable CVS coupon (From cvs.com)
2 $1/1 Soft Soap Foam (I'm out of ink, so I couldn't do three)
$1/1 U Kotex Liners
Total After Coupons: $21.15 + $.22 tax

Received:
$2 EB Bengay
$10 EB wyb $20 of selected products (Skintimate & Schick)
$6 EB Renu Sensitive
$3 EB wyb 3 selected soft soap items
$2 EB Kotex U
Net: $1.63 profit! (Good trip!)

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Saving Sunday - Mailbox!

Just a quick picture post. Does instant coffee make for a good coffee milk shake? Just wondering.

Friday, July 22, 2011

CVS - Two Days To Spare

It's Friday and I finally made my purchases yesterday. I need to work on not being so forgetful. I'm happy to say I was able to get the small Gillette Shaving Cream. Not much else this week. The tea I needed for a raincheck came in. ^_^ I'm actually buying it for a friend for when he comes over to dinner.


Gillette Fusion Shave Gel $2.27
4 Nestle Diet Green Tea @ $1.25 = $5.00 (raincheck!)
2 Oral-B Tooth Brushes @ $1.99 each = $3.98
Total Before Coupons: $11.25

$1/1 Gillette Fusion Shave Gel/Cream
2 $1.25 Nestle Tea Free Coupons
$1.25 BOGO Nestle Tea
$2/2 Oral-B Indicator
Total After Coupons: $4.50

Received:
$2 EB Gillette Fustion
$1 EB wyb 4 Nestle Tea 20oz
$2 Oral-B (two offers)
Net: $.50 profit!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

CVS

This was from last week's sales. I keep forgetting to bring my coupons to work with me so I haven't made any purchases for this week yet. I grabbed these on Saturday night quick. I feel so strange working a Saturday night, but it was a nice change of pace. I usually enjoy putting up signs. I just don't feel like I'm very quick at them.


Dove Body Wash $5.99
Red Vines $1.00
Total Before Coupons: $6.99

$2/1 Dove Body Wash CVS Coupon Machine
$1/1 Dove Body Wash MQ
$.75/1 Red Vines 5.x oz CVS Coupon Machine (I'll try it for a quarter.)
Total After Coupons: $3.24 + $.18 tax

Received:
$2 EB Dove Body Wash
Net: $1.42

It's hectic at work again. My one co-worker is out on leave. My boss and I have no idea for how long. I have a feeling I might be putting in a few hours of overtime again. Everyone is taking vacations at the moment so the help is harder to come by. My boss and I have vacation time coming up soon too. I hope we can use it. On the brighter side I got to use the bento box again. Not my blue one, the pieces from the other set fit into the bag.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Grocery Shopping!

Vegetable run! June 29, 2011



Time to catch up on this one as well. Again I don't have pictures of everything that I bought nor do I have all my receipts. It's a good thing I pay cash for groceries otherwise I would go way over budget. My major shopping for the past two weeks was done on Wednesday. I'm so glad that I had a day off to start catching up. (Today is baking day!)


They sent out more $10 off $20 purchase! I love cutting the bill in half. I ended spending more because they had the steamer bags on sale for $1. That's my buy price as I haven't seen it go much lower. I managed to hold on to my receipt this week and confirmed that coupon double. At least $.50 and below do. I really should ask CS about that.

Total Price of Merchandise: $42.98
Sales Savings: $10.33
Coupons: $10.90
Coupon Double: $.90
Total Spent: $20.85


This was an expensive trip for the items I got. I bought Turkey Burgers for dinner to have with a friend. I'm happy to say everyone thought they were awesome. $4 for 4 burgers isn't too bad, it's at least cheaper than eating out. (Which Sweetheart and I have been doing far too often lately.) The other big expense is the nutmeg. I want to attempt a better spice mix for my pumkin muffins. (It worked)

Total Price of Merchandise: $33.52
Sales Savings: $1.49
Coupons: $2.75
Coupon Double: $.25
Total Spent: $29.03


I leave a picture of my first use of my bento box. ^_^ I love it!

Monday, July 11, 2011

CVS - Catch Up Time

It's time I caught myself up on my CVS trips. It's difficult to believe I haven't posted a clear cut trip in about two weeks. I don't have photos of everything mostly due to the fact I don't feel like dragging everything out. I did manage to get photos of some items.


Remember the Dove deal at the end of June/beginning of July? I went a little wild on the men's care items. I had a raincheck from when the deodorant was on sale for $.99. What a deal! Now if only I had realized that it would leave me $1.05 short of the EB I would have only got four for $.99 instead of five. I got a raincheck for the body wash at $3.00 so I could finish off the deal.

Transaction 1:
5 Dove Men's Deodorant @ $.99 each = $4.95
Dove Men's Deodorant $3.00
2 Dove Men's Body Wash @ $3.00 each = $6.00
Nexxus $3.24 (clearance!)
Pringles $1.00
Total Before Coupons: $18.19

3 $2/1 Dove Men's Deodorant
$3 off BOGO Dove Men's Body Wash
$3/1 Nexxus (coupon from a mail sample a while back)
$1/1 Pringles to Go CVS Coupon Machine
Total After Coupons: $5.19

No EB

Net: $5.19 cost

Transaction 2:
2 Dove Men's Body Wash @ $3.00 each = $6.00
Total Before Coupons: $6.00

$3 off BOGO Dove Men's Body Wash
Total After Coupons: $3.00

Received:
$5 EB wyb $15 of selected Dove products
Net: $2.00 profit

Grand Net: $5.19 cost + $2.00 profit = $3.19 cost




Last week I was excited for the Always Infinity deal. $.99 for the small box is an awesome price! I only wish the limit had been higher. I miss those days when limits were typically two. Ah well, take what you can get. Also got a bunch of 2 liters of Coke for $.69! Sweetheart loves this stuff. (The coke isn't included in the transactions below.)

Always Infinity $3.99
2 Oral-B Toothbrush @ $3.00 each = $6.00
Total Before Coupons: $9.99

$1/1 Always Infinity
$3 off BOGO Oral-B
$2/1 Oral-B
Total After Coupons: $3.99

Received:
$2 EB Always Infinity
$2 EB Oral-B (2 deals)
Net: $.01 profit/Free

I was happy to see the one Christophe shampoo marked down to 75% off. I saw on the boards that it went down at other stores about a week ago, but my store finally caught up. There are some coupons on a 'blade' in the aisle of $2/1 full sized product. (A 'blade' is a piece of cardboard that sticks out from the shelving with some kind of advertising or label for a section. Some of these will have coupons.) The conditioner also went down, but the coupons are limit one per customer.

The other clearance item were these black bags. I only found out about it because a customer bought one and it rang up at $.25. That's 90% off?! The customer was surprised, but didn't say anything about it. I went back to our hallmark section and checked it at the scanner. Sure enough it was 90% off. I tried a smaller size and then a different color in the same size and they were all regular price. Hmm . . . So I bought all that we had. Thinking about it I bet someone made the mistake and included these in the Father's Day & Graduation clearance. Yesterday was the last day for those. How lucky is that? ^_^

Balance Bar $1.69
7 Black Hallmark Bags @ $.25 each = $1.75 (90% off)
Christophe Shampoo $2.07 (75% clearance)
Total Before Coupons: $5.51

$2/1 Christophe Shampoo
Total After Coupons: $3.51

Received:
$1.69 EB Balance bar
Net: $1.82 cost (worth those bags!)



As a parting note, what does everyone think of the new look of the EB? I'm not so sure I like it. I feel like we use enough paper already . . . I suppose the corp isn't happy with the EB redemption rate with most customers. Sorry about the fuzziness.

Friday, July 8, 2011

July Budget & Monthly Climb

Pumpkin Muffin!


I'm far behind this week . . . ARG! It's time I sat down and made myself a posting schedule. It's the only way I'm going to really keep up. I've gotten out of the habit. Thankfully next week will be a great opportunity to be all caught up. I asked off for an extra day and the following week I'll only work 4 days at CVS instead of five. This week I'm working 6 days and I'm really getting worn out.


I've been baking a little bit when I get the chance. This is the start of blueberry buckle. I found the recipe at Totally Target. I modified it by using whole wheat flour and raspberries. It's an awesome breakfast. Yummy!




The Budget:



Bills (Electric) $104
Bunnies $30
Car Insurance $36
Car Repair $100 *Need to save for future repairs & regular oil changes (Expensive!)
Cellphone $36
Clothing $20
Cruise 2012 $50 *A trip that's been in the works for about 3 years.
Free Money $40
Gas $140
Groceries $120 *slight increase
Health $20
Rent $310
Student Loans $372

Grand Total: $1378/month (Take home pay.)


*Extra money tallied up at the end of the month. All extra funds are to pay off one of my student loans.


A few changes this month. The biggest thing is my minimum loan payment took a huge drop. $100 dollars! But my monthly budget went up? Huh? $50 for a future trip + $40 additional in car repairs + $20 for groceries . . . it just gets eaten away. Ideally I would take the extra money and keep paying off more of my loans. There are expenses I know that are coming up. I could probably skip the cruise money, but I rather have more than necessary than not enough. Once the trip is over I will put all the extra back into my loans. With the way things have gone lately I should still have extra money at the end of the month.



Monthly Climb!!!
Grand Total Last Month: $41,243.79
New Grand Total: $40,482.25
Amount Paid Off: $761.54


WOW! That a huge number! I'll admit that technically $240 of that should be applied to next month. It makes more sense to show it here as I've paid off another loan! It was going to be finished off in Feb of 2012, that's 7 months early! As a reward to myself I bought a bento box. My rule for my rewards as I pay off loans are to use no more the one month's minimum payment. In this case $100!


I was happy to find Groupon with a great deal of Lock 'n Lock. A $50 credit for $25. My chosen box would have been about $20 so I splurged a little bit more to get some extras. The credit did not include shipping so all told I spent about $32. That means I have that extra to pay off more loans. (Actually I had just enough extra to finish off that one loan and buy my treat. So I get to start my new budget right away.) I haven't had the chance to use my bento yet, but I do have a plan for it.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Quick Post

Hope everyone had a good holiday. Sorry, I don't have any pictures at the moment. Of coarse I'm behind again. My schedule's been all switched around lately (a co-worker has been missing a lot of time at work with issues at home) and I've barely had time to adjust. (Yes, I got OT again.) I need to get up last week shopping trips & my monthly climb. Yesterday was a holiday, but working in retail I work most holidays. I figure it's a way to either earn myself an extra day off or pay off my loans a little faster. (Or some combination of both?) Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to squeeze something in.

Just keep smiling. ^_^

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Saving Sunday - Mailbox!


It's been a long week. These are some of the surprises I've gotten in my mailbox. I must say I was rather shocked to see the full sized bottle of shampoo & conditioner. (Actually 30% bonus size!) I love getting freebies in the mail. It just brightens my day.