Wednesday, January 30, 2008

I heart Walgreens and CVS!

I think I would make a shirt that says "I heart Walgreens and CVS" and wear it when I'm doing my weekly shopping. Today was no exception. I have never done the 2 transaction thing because I don't want to bother the workers or people in line. Anyway, I headed to CVS first because I was more excited about their sales. (They are right next to each other too! I'm trying a new CVS and like it MUCH BETTER--they take multiple CVS $/$$ coupons.)

1st transaction:
$.99 A&H toothpaste with $1 off coupon ($1.99 with 1 ECB)
$9.99 Breeze 2 meter ($9.99 with 9.99 ECB and $9.99 mail in rebate)
$6.99 Fusion Power Razor with $2 off coupon ($8.99 with 6 ECB)
Total--$0 after 12 ECB,
CVS coupons. Awarded 16.99 ECB
2nd transaction:
$.50 Kashi bars with $2
coupon ($2.50)
$6 (2) Robitussin with $3
coupon (buy $20 worth of this plus Advil, get 10 ECB)
$2 (2) Advil Liqui-gels with $2 on box coupon
$1.29 Clean Dry-max with $2
coupon--I can only find the $1 one now...(3.29 ECB)
Total--$.79 because I didn't want to use my 1ECB. Used 6ECB and CVS coupons. Awarded 13.29 ECB
CURRENLY HAVE 24.29 in ECB!! That's double what I went in with and I only spent $.79 OOP!

Walgreens:
3 Kleenex (I forgot to use the $1 coupon in the $Saver, but had 2 others)
2 Nail polish ($.50 each)
Schick Quattro (with free MP3 arm band--$.99 after coupons)
2 Envelopes ($.50 each on sale)
Fructis Shampoo (I forgot to use the $1 coupon I had, but will get the $3.99 rebate)
Total: $10.42
(plus $3.99 rebate here and $9.99 at CVS--I GOT PAID TODAY TO SHOP!)

Thanks to all you people out there who help me figure out how to use CVS and WG! You guys rock!! (Links to the side)

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Birthday Dinner

Today is my husband's birthday. For dinner, he wanted some King Ranch, so this is the recipe I used. It's great!

King Ranch Chicken Casserole

1 can Cream mushroom soup
1 can Cream chicken soup
1 Soup can milk
1 4 oz. Can Ro-Tel
5 oz. Cooked chicken
10 Corn tortillas, cut into fourths
12 oz. Shredded cheddar cheese

Mix together and heat the soups, milk, Ro-Tel and chicken. In a 3 quart buttered casserole dish place layer of tortillas, a layer of soup mixture and a layer of grated cheese. Repeat. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

We had this with some tortilla chips, black beans, and guacamole (avocado mashed with Pace picante sauce). We have some German chocolate cake (his favorite) that I got from Wal-Mart for dessert. Less than $20 for the entire meal.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Personalized Baby Burp Cloths

Well, I've started a new hobby! I got a sewing machine for Christmas and with my mom's help, I've learned to use it! We saw this baby burpers a friend of mine had on her registry that were $14! I knew we could do better than that, so out we went to buy the diapers, ribbon and other supplies necessary to start.

On Monday we made a few and even colored the diapers to make them look a little different. I put them on the "For Sale" e-board in my school district and have already got an order! I have way underpriced them though and only make $2-3 per burper (because we personalize them with the baby's name), so we'll have to figure that out. So we have a lot made and just need to sell them now. They make a great baby shower gift and I plan to give one to the shower we have at my school next month. Who knows, maybe we'll sell all of them! Here's what we did. I hope you like them!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

CVS Deals...

Well, I went to CVS today (early because of teacher in-service) after getting coupons off of couponloop. I got $11 worth of CVS stuff (toothbrush, cotton balls and storage bags), so I used a $2 off coupon. I also got the Dawn for free ($.99 with $1 off coupon). I got the Fusion razor deal (minus a $2 coupon). I didn't buy too much stuff but most of it we can use (or we got it for free). I think I currently have about 7 bottles of dish soap. I think we only used one bottle last year somehow... We were in desperate need of cotton balls. I used my 9 ECB from a few weeks ago, a few coupons, a $2 off $10 CVS brand coupon, and $4 off $20 purchase. My total ended up being $3.74 OOP. I also made $12.99 ECB.

I had some issues with the guy who checked me out. Every time I gave him a coupon, he called the manager over. I was not allowed to stack the $/$$ coupons she said. I had to check out 3 times because he read the fine print on the Dawn that said only 1 coupon per customer. He said he has to turn in a paper when he goes off work documenting what happened in his transactions. Weird. It was kind of frustrating, so maybe I'll find a new CVS. I do love CVS though.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Walgreens

Well, I haven't tried to shop at Walgreens for freebies before, but I did this week and IT WORKED! I was totally impressed. I figured they would say, "nope, only one coupon...no double BOGOs." Not one single comment--just impressed that my 3 bags totalled $5. In 2 trips (I wasn't sure if I could use multiple coupons on the same items if I bought multiples, but I'll do that in the future), I got 4 bottles of Fantastik, 2 Glade sprays, 4 Glade scented oil candles, 2 things of Quaker Oats, 1 thing of Purell (that was on clearance so I got it for 19 cents), and 2 toilet cleaners! I spent $5.51 total! I also got some free Softsoap at Kroger (3 of those in 3 trips). Kroger and Tom Thumb won't double and triple coupons for the same items after the first one when you buy multiples (I called to check). My mom was impressed, but I don't think she's going to join the bandwagon any time soon.
Since this is only my second week to do this, it seems to be pretty time consuming. Thankfully it was semester exam grades at school so I had some time to clip and organize coupons. The blog is another issue. I spent a ton of time on one computer and my husband on another most evenings (after working out of course). This just doesn't work for me. I'm now planning to invest in our relationship instead of in the blog. I will do some type of update once a week or so and do the daily thing this summer. Just wanted to clarify. Happy weekend!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

How is the blog unique?

I read recently that there are a ton of "frugal" blogs out there, but very few of them are unique. I found this article on frugalhacks and it made me think! Anyway, it said:

How is your blog unique?
What is your frugal specialty?
Why does it matter?

Well, I started thinking about this last night and came up with some ideas (including a different name). I thought I'd use Spanish and post some stuff that relates to things I love--travel, Spanish food, being thrifty, etc. The easiest way I could think to do that at this point was to do the thing most people do and come up with a "theme" for each day. Those are listed to the right. I haven't seen any others that have a Spanish focus--I plan to include mini lessons on the language too. The more fun it is for me, the more fun it will be for others, right???

How is my blog unique? It will focus on Spanish and frugal ideas!
What is my frugal specialty? Thrifty travel to Hispanic countries!
Why does it matter? People love to travel and want to learn another language!

I hope you enjoy the changes to come (I plan to start next week)!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Gratis!

I'm a Spanish teacher and I LOVE SPANISH. I honestly don't know where this love started. I started taking Spanish in high school and had the same Spanish teacher for 2 years. I thought she was so cool I wanted to be just like her. I wanted to be a Spanish teacher!!! I got to go on mission trips to Mexico, study in Spain, teach Spanish in my hometown for 3 years and even live for a year and a half as a missionary in Mexico. All this really gave me great confidence in Spanish. This was vital as NO ONE else in my family speaks Spanish!! I love everything about it--grammar, vocabulary, verb conjugations, sentence structure, culture, FOOD and the people! I love the fact that tener becomes tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos and tienen. I love verb charts! Maybe it's the organization of the language and the way I learned it that makes me so happy with it! We don't learn English that way. No one tells us to memorize these words, conjugate this verb, put the verb after the noun and so on! I could go on and on!

I also feel this way about coupons. Tonight my mom and future sis-in-law came over for dinner. After dinner, I showed them my new coupon organizer that I made (I'm naming it Clippy). It's like a notebook (with the baseball card sheets) without the notebook. I just put it in a binder size accordian folder because I already had that. It seems to work. Anyway, I took that out and they started asking about CVS. So I showed them how to get CVS to work for you! They were impressed--not that they're going to start doing that because they said even if you get something for free, you have to find somewhere to store it until you use it. (Or give it away, right?) It was pretty fun to organize my coupons (finally) and show off my new system.

Yesterday's deals at Tom Thumb:
$.99 peanut butter minus $1 coupon = free
free dog treats (still no dog--donating them)
free $1.99 cup of fruit
$.40 Hunts tomato paste minus $.35/2 coupon trippled = paid to buy!
Spent $7.45, saved $30.64

Adios! Que tengan un buen dia. Dios te bendiga y te ama.

Romanos 5:8 Dios nos ama. (Romans 5:8 God loves us.)

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Do you SQUIDOO???

What exactly is Squidoo and why should you join it?

According to squidoo.com, "Squidoo is a website hosting hundreds of thousands of lenses. Each lens is one person's look at something online. Your take on football or business or the best thai food in town.
Lenses are free.
Lenses pay a royalty to hundreds of great charities. [or you]
Lenses get you credibility and traffic... and lenses only take a few minutes to build."

I have been a member of Squidoo for about a year. My
brother first started doing this. I have about 20 lenses out there including my freebies lens and lenses about many of my favorite things. They are so easy to make and just take a few minutes each day to update. That's one reason I love them. Another reason is that I make around $25 a month added to my paypal account just for having these out there! If you'd like to join, please check it out and then use my referral link! It really is THAT easy (and fun)...

It didn't look like there were too many great deals at CVS or Walgreens this week. I just plan to buy the fish oil vitamins at CVS with some coupons I have (and I'm waiting for some $/$$ ones to come out). Then at Walgreens I might take advantage of the rebate on the Glade Scented Oil Candles (how would this rebate work if it rings up as $6.99/2?) and the oatmeal. Not super exciting, but I had too much fun last week I guess!! I also got a double batch of coupons from a double newspaper on Saturday night from Wal-Mart and cut a ton out. Now I have to organize them!!

Romans 5:8 (NASB) But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

I'm new to Frugal Blogging

Hello world! I'm new to frugal blogging. I've always been a sucker for a good deal. I start buying Christmas presents in December for the next year, I always use coupons and I LOVE freebies. I usually get at least 10 samples a week in the mail! I have just recently found other frugal sites online after reading Freebie Fridays for many months. On those sites, I've learned how to use coupons and ECB from CVS to get great deals.
This week has been my first experience at getting deals at CVS (and even free stuff) just by using the right coupons and reading the weekly ads! I plan to keep up with what I've done at the stores on this blog. Thanks for reading!!
1 John 4:19 was the verse my husband and I used in our wedding. "We love because He first loved us."
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