Paying me to shop

Yes, I do some mystery shopping but that's not actually what I am talking about. I love when I can go into a store and get a lot of great stuff and have them actually give me money back for shopping. :) Staples was good to me this week.

Kroger 7-18-2011

7 boxes of Crayola Crayons on sale for 25 cents each

5 Notebooks on sale for 15 cents each

From the buy $10 get $5 off sale

3 boxes of Kleenex on sale for 99 cents each used a .50/3 coupon that doubled so 66 cents each

3 cans of Pringles on sale for 99 cents used $1/3 coupon 66 cents each

1 thing of floss and one flosser on sale for 99 and $1.49 used a $2.50 off coupon 2 cent MM

2 tubes of toothpaste on sale for 99 cents each used 2 .75/1 coupons 24 cents each

Swim mask ½ off $1.49

Goggles ½ off $2.49

Loaf of bread on markdown for $1

Loaf of French bread on markdown for 79

12 pack of coke $3.34

Not pictured ½ pound of Chicken pasta salad $3.12

Spent $19.09 Saved over $37.02 or 67% 

Walmart 7-19-11

2 Footballs to send to the orphans in the Ukraine $5.79 each

8 containers of Yogurt 58 cents each used 2 $1/4 coupons 33 cents each

2 boxes of Lipton soup $1.28 used 2 $1/1 coupons 28 cents each

4 packages of Thai spice flavored peanuts 25 cents each

2 can black beans 66 cents each

Tummy Tickler $1.97

Spent $19.09 saved $4 with coupons no idea how much the peanuts used to be

 

Aldi

Bananas 44 cents a pound

Romaine Lettuce Hearts $2.49

Instant Oatmeal $1.39

Graham Crackers $1.19 each

Strawberries 99 cents

Popcorn $1.49 for a box of 6

dozen eggs 89 cents each

Spent $14.45 I love that there is still a place I can go and get great prices and not worry about coupons. Now I always love a good sale and coupons but Aldi is awesome!

Staples

2 reams of paper $5.99 each rebate of $4.99 each

1 pack of Pentel pens $4 with $4 rebate

1 pack photo paper $9.99 with a $9.49 rebate 50 cents

2 packs of pencils 1 cent each

2 packs of index cards 1 cent each

I also used a $5 reward they sent me to pay

$22.27 spent I will get $23.47 back in rebates which means I made $1.20 shopping there today. 

I am going to get this going again.

So sorry to have not been back for updates recently. I do the work but don't get it put on here. I have been doing pretty well with my savings and am averaging above 50% savings. :) Here are my trips for this week. 

Meijer 7-14-11

This week was a Meijer Brand sale work so I did not use any coupons short of an Mperk coupon that they offered me for $5 off a $5 purchase. Perfect timing on this one. I did mean to use one on the coupon but it would have only been 10 cents so I didn’t hunt it down.

Not pictured Tilapia frozen filets on sale for $3.99 saved $2.

Butter on sale for $2.50 saved .79 off Meijer price but only 19 cents less than Aldi price

Cabbage on sale for 39 cents a pount .82 cents

Peaches on sale for 69 cents a pound $1.97 total

Plums on sale for 69 cents a pound .77 total

1 cucumber on sale for 34 cents

2 pints blueberries on sale for $1.50 each

2 containers raspberries on sale for $1.50 each

20 packets of Koolaid on sale 10/$1 and got a coupon for a free 5lb bag of sugar to use next time

Spent $13.39 after the $5 off saved $24.48 or 65%

Gymboree 7-14-11

Used 2 sets of Gymbucks worth $50 off $100 Makes the prices on the items less than I can buy clothes at even Walmart’s regular prices and it really helps when trying to resell them. I think we are pretty much set for next summer now at least on shorts probably will need a few more tops and a swim suit or two.

2 pairs of jeans on sale BOGO 50% off $13.09 each after all deals including Gymbucks

3 pairs of Gym shorts on clearance for $3.99 $2.11 each after deals

Dino shirt $10.94 after Gymbucks

Green shorts on clearance for $4.99 $2.64 after deals

T-shirt on clearance for $4.99 $2.64 after deals

Blue shorts on clearance for $15.99 $8.48 after deals

Spent $59.71 total Original price was $195.55 saved 70%

 

Target 7-14-11

Used lots of store coupons I got from target.com

2 packs of Sharpie 2 packs on sale for $1 and used $1 off Target coupons FREE

2 packs of Pens $1.02 regular price used $1/1 Target coupon 2 cents each

Peroxide $1.02 used a .75 off UP First Aid item coupon 27 cents

Witch Hazel $1.47 used a .75 off UP First Aid item coupon  72 cents

2 Scotch tape (was in a bin marked 50 cents but rang up $1) used 2 .50/1 coupons 50 cents each

2 Hot Wheels cars used $1/1 coupon from Target website they were .99 each as of today’s markdown so I made 1 cent each.

Ultra catch game on clearance 50% off $2.49

Plastic rake on clearance for 50% off .99 cents

Spent $5.94 and saved $13.04 or 69%

Coldwater Creek

Jeans Regular price $79.95 on clearance for $39.99 with an extra 40% off $23.99 and used a $20 off coupon I get for using my Coldwater creek credit card. Paid $4.23 with tax saved 95%

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So sorry to have not been keeping up over here

www.pixelofink.comA friend stated a coupon group on FB and I have been posting my deals on there but I have not made it over here to post them. I am sorry about that and hope to do better in the near future.

I have been getting a lot of the same types of deals as I was getting and trying to deal with the fact that the prices of food is just just going up and up. How to feed a bottomless pit toddler and stay within our budget. It's so very sad each week to see how much the prices have gone up.

I will say I love my new Kindle with Special offers. Not only does www.pixelofink.com provide me with lots of links for free books the Kindle itself gives me great offers to save money. Such as a 25% off coupon for www.endless.com where I have bought shoes for my little boy before. Also a great deal on Audible.com for books "books on tape" as I have always called them. I am picking up some great books for my little guy to listen to like the entire collection of Raggedy Ann and Andy stories which were my favorite as a little girl and also Just so Stories from Rudyard Kipling. :)

I have been stocking up on lots of fruit to freeze for when it's not so cheap any more and also making some Strawberry freezer jam while berries are cheap. :) Plus my little boy is going to turn into a blueberry. He loves them so much.

I'll be back soon to post some more of my great deals and finds.

Happy saving!

Oil changed and deals

I went in and used a coupon for NTB to get an oil change for just $9.99. I think oil costs more than that plus the filter. Unfortunately I was not impressed and without the deal will not be using them again. They told me I didn't need an appt but when I got there tried to tell me without one that it would be a 2 hour wait. With a 2 year old are you kidding me. So I told them I had just called and so they worked me in and we were only there an hour. I got all my expired coupons cleaned out while I was there. I would have gotten the new ones clipped if the guy that was also waiting would have just stopped talking. :( Oh well. On top of that someone put a nasty black shoe print on my carpeting. If I hadn't paid so little they would have heard about that and probably should have anyway but taking a two year old back out of the car make some things just not worth it.

My Meijer trip. I got 5 lbs or Strawberries for $1.25 a pound. I am going to make freezer jam with them. I got a pint of blueberries for $2.50 which is at least a better price than the $3 for 6ozs they have had recently and Scotty was so excited. I got 3 ears of corn for 25 cents each another Scotty favorite. A Sweet Onion for 52 cents. Two huge bags of I think Clemetine's for $1 each I am going to freeze them for Orange smoothie drinks thanks to a blog writer who did it recently. Can't beat that price for fruit. A free container of coffee creamer thanks to Vocalpoint.com and the free coupon they sent. 2 packages of Ball Park hot dogs for 79 cents each after $1 off coupons from their FB page. A can of Maxwell house coffee for $1.50 after $1 off coupon I got from voting. found here http://www.kraftbrands.com/maxwellhousecoffee/drops-of-good/Pages/default.aspx A package of Lunchmeat with no preservatives for $1.50 after a 50 cent coupon that doubled. No longer available and it expired today so I had to use it. I also got the two shirts on clearance for $4.99 each. Spent $17.25.

1st Kroger shopping trip of the week.  I got 3 pizzas for $2.49 after using $2 off coupons from Facebook and received a $5 catalina back. Got 5/4 packs of yogurt all but one were marked down to 99 cents. I got the other one for 49 cents with the Mega sale and a $1 off coupon I had. I got the two Pure Almond free with $2 off coupons from the Silk challenge and the Mega sale that had them for $1.99. I also got the two boxes for pasta for free with a $1/2 coupon and the Mega sale. The Cheez Its were $1.39 each after a $1 off coupon. I also picked up one more box of Allavert for Scotty while they still had a couple on Markdown. So sad we are not going to be able to buy it much longer.

Rite Aid

2 Packages of Easy Ups used a $1.50 off from P & G on Sunday and a $2 from a home mailer I got. I also used 2 $5 off Up rewards from last week and a $3/$15 for answering the survey on my receipt from last week.

2 bags Sunchips on Sale for 2/$5 used a $2 off coupon from the Sunday insert.

1 Crest toothpaste on sale for $2.99 used $1 off from a home mailer.

1 Gillette Fusion Razor used a $5 off coupon from a home mailer and $4 in Up rewards from the above purchases.

Spent $11.29 and got $7 in Up rewards to use next week or before if I make it back to find another razor since I have more coupons. Saved $37.25!

Walgreens They were out of a lot of stuff which is way to normal for them.

2 Lysol wipes used two $1.50 off and they were BOGO free paid 59 cents. (thanks Jacque)

2 bottles Melatonin for my husband on sale BOGO free used 2/$2 off coupons paid $2.99 total.

Suave hair spray used free coupons saved $3.

Comet used 25 cent off printable coupon and store coupon making it just 25 cents.

3 padded mailers for 39 cents each with store coupon

Package of non padded mailers for 99 cents with store coupon.

Mandarin oranges on sale for 50 cents. Only had the one can.

Mr clean magic erasers used $1.50 off coupon from Sunday paper. Paid $1.11 for the extra strong ones. They were out of the others and these are great I have tried them before.

Spent $9.28 Saved $29.19!

Kroger (best trip of the day)

11 boxes of pasta all but one they paid me a penny to buy. I got one more because I needed to round out my mega deals and they were just 49 cents on sale. So technically I paid 39 cents total.

8 Raspberry Whip eggs (I love these so much) on clearance for 21 cents each.

4 Power Bars on sale for 99 cents each and used two BOGO free coupons so $1.98 total.

4 boxes of Z bars on sale for $1.99 and used 4 $1 off coupons printed from Mambo Sprouts.

Uncle Ben’s Rice used a free coupon which gave me an extra item to add toward my mega sale so gave me an extra 50 cents toward another item.

3 boxes of Mom’s Best cereal 99 cents each after the Mega sale and I used 3 75 cent off one coupons to make them just 24 cents each.

1 Brut Deodorant used $1 off coupon making it free after regular sale price not part of the mega sale.

1 bag of pop chips used free coupon

1 bag Boulder chips used $1 off one coupon from coupons.com zip code 90210 and got paid 1 cent to get them.

I also had a $5 store coupon from the pizza I bought earlier in the week.

I spent $3.38 total and saved $62.48 or 95% .

Saving money on vacation

How to save money and have a fun vacation too!

This year we have decided instead a big vacation we are going to take some smaller ones mostly closer to home. This past Friday my husband too a day off work and we headed off to Cave City to Dinosaur World. My two year old is slightly obsessed with Dinosaurs lately and I figured it would be a great adventure for our family. I subscribe to many different cities “Groupon” and “Living Social” deal sites as well as a few other sites as well. So thinking ahead I purchased a Groupon for Dinosaur World and used some credit from sharing Groupon with others to buy 2 adult tickets for just $2. Two year olds were free so he did not need a ticket. Normal admission price is $12.75 per adult. So we saved $22.50. We packed a lunch and had a picnic at their many tables in the playground area and saved some more money. We did pick up a couple of souvenirs some of which were broken before we got to far away but Oh well we took lots of pictures. Maybe I can put the truck back together with some glue. We spent about $14 total for our fun and souvenirs.

For our next adventure of the day I had picked up tickets to Kentucky Down Under for just $10 per adult and once again toddlers were free. The normal admission price is $22 per person so we saved $24 by buying in advance. I would not recommend going there during the week because of the school groups though it was crowded with tons of kids and it was hard for our two year old to wait while all the kids got to do things like pet the Kangaroo before they gave him a turn. What is wrong with people thinking it’s OK to do that to a two year old. He was a good boy and waited pretty well though. We only bought a small Kangaroo toy for about $5 so we did pretty well saving money on that fun outing.

Then off to a hotel to spend the weekend in Bowling Green, KY so we could visit with some of the kids I used to be a nanny for. I am super picky when it comes to hotels and I read all the reviews and check all the prices and make sure that I am getting the best rate. Traveling with a child who goes to bed super early means we need a hotel room that has two separate rooms so that we don’t have to go to bed at 7pm. After some research I chose the La Quinta Inn and Suites. It was a newly built hotel and was getting great reviews. I always try to pick hotels that include a free breakfast to help save some money. This one was great because it included hot food as well as things like muffins and toast. I love being able to get protein for breakfast. We have a AAA membership and that often gets us a great price on hotel rooms and it saved us about $8 a night at this hotel. This hotel had a great heated indoor pool and we had a blast swimming and enjoying it. Thankfully Friday night and Saturday morning were pretty quiet in the pool area and we had it all to ourselves. Not the case on Saturday night but we were too tired to swim again anyway. We could not have asked for a better room. They put us all the way at the end of the hall away from the elevators and only had a room on one side and one above us. We were over the pool so I did not have to worry that all the running my two year old was doing around the huge room was upsetting anyone. The room had the most space of any hotel I have ever stayed in it almost looked empty which was great for playing. J It had a separate bedroom and the best part was you could enter the bathroom from the bedroom and from the sitting room so no going through the bedroom and waking up the sleeping child. I was a little confused on the super cheap microwave they put in the rooms. I haven’t seen a turn dial one in years and I did not think it was going to survive popping our bag of popcorn. It was nice to have a refrigerator as well so we could keep our drinks and food cold without dealing with ice the whole weekend. The room also came with free internet which is a big one for us. I love not having to pay extra to upload my pictures form our adventures and keep up with email and Facebook.

On Sunday we headed down to the Nashville Zoo which was about an hour away. We all love zoos and my two year old is getting to where he loves watching for certain animals. We have a zoo membership to the Louisville Zoo and it often gets us into other zoos for free or ½ off. Nashville is one that offers free admission so all we had to pay was the $5 parking fee. I love how shaded the Nashville Zoo is especially since the high was over 80 yesterday. My two year old loved all the water features in the Zoo the most. Lots of really pretty waterfalls to watch. His second favorite was the giraffes that he watched for a long time. He even picked a stuffed giraffe to bring home. He picked it up and told me, “Giraffe, home.” He then named it after himself and told me it was going to take a nap. Must have been time to head home. J The zoo offered a discount on food and at the gift shop for members of all zoos so we saved 10% off our giraffe and pretzel we ate while there. We took our own crackers and water to help cut down the cost on what we spent while there as well. Could have taken lunch but chose to just pick up some on our way home at Arby’s which was a bit cheaper than eating at the zoo. We saved $37 with our zoo membership. Considering it cost $79 to start with that a great savings. We got it last June and saved about $13 at the Columbus, OH zoo. Saved about that at the Cincinnati Zoo as well. Then we also have gone to the Louisville Zoo 5 times since we got it including free admission to Halloween at the Zoo. It has been paid for many times over. Such an easy way to save money.

So total saved for our trip by thinking ahead and using coupons, passes, and travel membership is just at $100!

See you can save money on just about anything!

Lots of great deals and some frustrating losses

I am not doing very well keeping up with my blog. Life just seems to get out of control and leave me no time for everything else.

I had a lot of mystery shops which is nice for getting some stuff I wouldn't normally get and stuff I don't have to pay out for but it takes my extra time as well. Deli stuff can be fun and I get drinks for free which is nice. Love my Coke!

This week I got some some fluoride free toothpaste for a great price and some power toothbrushes for super cheap after register rewards. Unfortunately I managed to lose one of my rewards. :( I have got to do better about hanging onto coupons. I also got 6 packages of free tuna with my Seafood friday coupons from Starkist. I love matching coupons with sale prices for free stuff. :) Last week they would have cost me 45 cents each at the same store. I also got four protein bars for just 82 cents can't beat that. I also got some chicken for 99 cents a pound. I love that I found out how great bone in chicken breast is so I can save money.


I got free toothbrushes and toothpaste at Kroger with coupons and a sale. Also two things of Reach floss and a Reach flosser all for free with coupons and a sale.

I also discovered that I can make my own homemade refried beans in the crockpot super easy and then make up burritos and freeze them for quick and easy lunches for my husband. My 2 year old even loved the refried beans and ate his quesadilla made with them all up. :)

This week I am going to get some Strawberries on sale and try my hand at Freezer Jam. I got some pectin on clearance last week. YUM I love strawberry jam and it is not cheap.

I am determined to do more to save money by making my own food ahead. Now to find the time to do that.

Happy Saving