This (holiday for most of you) weekend started out pretty good but ended tragically for my poor vegetable garden yesterday.
Brian and I spent ALL DAY Saturday working in the yard. I think we started around 9? and worked till about 8. Of course, this is Oklahoma and Oklahoma gets HOT this time of year, so we were forced to take many popsicle breaks.
We have had this HORRENDOUS weed problem since we moved here. We had pulled weeds in the front last year, and earlier this year Brian had time to fertilize the front with Scott's Turfbuilder and weed control. He did not have time to do the backyard though. Let me just say, we had more weeds in our backyard than we did grass. It looked HORRIBLE. So horrible that I thought about taking a picture to show before and after, but I knew I would be too embarrassed to ever show anyone that picture, so I didn't do it. The front yard had a few weeds in it, but it didn't look that bad.
Well, starting a couple weekends ago, and ending on Saturday (with me putting time in during the week when I could) we got on our hands and knees and pulled and pulled and pulled and pulled. Finally we got all of the weeds out. Then Brian had to mow and edge and spray for bugs.
We worked soooo hard on Saturday that we decided not to go to church yesterday and spend some much-needed family time together. Brian is only home on the weekends so we can't get any projects done after work during the week. So it seems like all we do when we see eachother is work work work and more work. Poor Jake ends up having to watch Baby Einstein or play in his crib alot on weekends because there is just SO much that needs to be done. So we decided to devote Sunday to family and doing something fun together. We could not do that today (Memorial Day) because, unfortunately that is not considered a holiday in Brian's line of work. Memorial Day is just another Monday, regular hours, regular travel.
Before we headed to the park on Sunday morning, Brian had one last thing he needed to do to his yard. Fertilize. He used Scott's turfbuilder with weed control, the kind of stuff that looks like kitty litter. Some of it got into my vegetable garden on accident, but he didn't think it would hurt the veggies since they weren't weeds. I noticed my squash flowers open, so I went out and pollinated them. I saw the fertilizer on them but Brian said he thought it was ok so we just left it there and went about our family fun day.
We came home yesterday afternoon and I went to check on my garden (I do this multiple times a day, every day). To my horror, the leaves on the squash and tomatoes were completely wilted. They looked like they were dying! The onions, rosemary, corn, and chives looked okay.
I called Scott's and was told that stuff *could* kill anything that is not grass so that is why you need to take extreme caution to avoid any plants of any kind that you would like to keep. I was told I could try soaking my plants to get the weed killer off of them and depending on how much damage has been done, they possibly could make it. However, the weedkiller is toxic and Scott's advises against consuming anything from any plants that may have come in contact with it.
I was completely devastated. I started my plants from seeds back in March. It seemed to take forever (as well as alot of work and alot of money) to get the garden established. Just in the last week, I saw my first tomato blossoms, first squash, first zucchini. I still had not been able to harvest anything yet.
I was very upset and depressed over the loss of my plants. Working in the garden has become my favorite thing to do. I called Scott's again this morning and asked how long the "half-life" of the product used is. This is basically the amount of time the ingredients are still active in the soil. I was told it is less than 7 days, then I *should* be able to replant.
I called a local plant farm to see if they were open today and explained my situation. They advised I should pull EVERYTHING out of the garden, whether it appears damaged or not, and destroy it, as the ingredients used are very toxic. They said if the half life is supposed to be less than 7 days, that they would wait AT LEAST two weeks, and in the meantime, just water, water, water my boxes of dirt.
I ended up going to the plant farm today and buying 3 tomato and 1 pepper plant. I will just need to baby them in their pots until my soil is un-contaminated. I also bought some herb and flower plants.
As far as my garden goes, I am downsizing a little. I could not find squash plants so if I am going to do squash again I will need to start those from seeds SOON. I am going to soak some onion seeds overnight and start those in the morning (the onions I grew from seeds seemed to do so much better than the sets I transplanted), but I probably won't get to harvest those till next summer. I think I might just use one of the beds for now and save the other for cooler weather plants to be planted closer to the fall. Or maybe corn. I have until July 15 to get corn seeds in the ground- same goes for pumpkins.
The bright side of this is that Jake and I discovered an AWESOME plant farm not too far from here. I had something fun to do on Memorial Day (Jake, not so much, he did not like it when the sprinklers got him. He was good for the first hour or so we were there) for a couple of hours.
Then, I got to come home and play in the dirt. It was hot, so I came inside for an air conditioned popsicle break and started typing this blog entry when Brian came in through the garage door. Scared me to death to hear someone just walk into my house unannounced (the garage itself was open) but once I got over the initial shock, it was a nice surprise.
This Memorial Day Monday is ending ALOT better than it started :-)
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
I LOVE the bread store.
I was looking at this week's sale ad for Reasor's and noticed they have hotdog/hamburger buns ON SALE 2/$3. That is ridiculously outrageous considering I can go to the bread store 1/2 a mile away from them and buy the EXACT same thing for $ .60 each. There is nothing wrong with the bread from the bread store either. In fact, most are Sara Lee brand (I have seen those ON SALE for $1.99 a pack at Reasor's) at this particular store and the hotdog and hamburger buns I bought today are really soft and fresh and have a sell by date of June 8!
Plus, I just love the way the bread store smells. lol. It smells so good it makes me want to buy a ton of bread or anything, really. Kinda like how the smell of Subway makes me really hungry for one of their not-so-great subs.
Anyways, I just wanted to post this as an FYI to any of you who may not have thought to check out a local bread store for any of your regular bread needs. We have saved soooo much money at this place! I go there at least once a week.
Plus, I just love the way the bread store smells. lol. It smells so good it makes me want to buy a ton of bread or anything, really. Kinda like how the smell of Subway makes me really hungry for one of their not-so-great subs.
Anyways, I just wanted to post this as an FYI to any of you who may not have thought to check out a local bread store for any of your regular bread needs. We have saved soooo much money at this place! I go there at least once a week.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
How to make country fried steak
Yay! Brian is home tonight! And since I was able to get a great deal on cubed steak this week, I made Brian his favorite meal for dinner tonight: Country Fried Steak with white gravy.
This recipe is so easy and delicious, but I guess it is not really a recipe since I don't really measure anything. I guess it would be more like instructions? Anyways, here is how I do it:
You will need:
enough oil to coat a large skillet
cubed steak (I made a pound for the 2 of us, but Brian eats alot)
flour
salt
pepper
3 eggs
approximately 2 tablespoons of milk? again, I don't measure so just eyeball it! (I usually just use regular milk but tonight I used buttermilk and it was way better than normal. But it is still pretty awesome even with regular milk!)
seasoned bread crumbs
This recipe is so simple I really don't even measure this stuff.
Heat enough oil to cover bottom of skillet over medium high heat.
In small bowl, mix flour with a little bit of salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with milk. Dump a bunch of bread crumbs in another bowl or on a plate. (The only thing I don't like about this recipe is that I have to dirty about a million dishes to make it!)
when measuring out your flour and bread crumbs, just keep in mind you need to coat each piece of steak.
Pound flour mixture into both sides of meat with a meat tenderizer. Coat meat with remaining flour mixture, dip in egg mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs. Place meat in skillet and brown quickly on both sides. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally. Remove meat from skillet and keep warm.
Now you are ready to make the gravy. Here is what you will need for that:
milk (about 2 to 2.5 cups)
3 or 4 tablespoons of flour
salt and pepper
Whisk the flour into the meat drippings in the skillet. Add milk, bring to a boil, continue to cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper to taste.
And that is it! Even without measuring, I think it would be kind of hard to mess this up. It is that simple!
This recipe is so easy and delicious, but I guess it is not really a recipe since I don't really measure anything. I guess it would be more like instructions? Anyways, here is how I do it:
You will need:
enough oil to coat a large skillet
cubed steak (I made a pound for the 2 of us, but Brian eats alot)
flour
salt
pepper
3 eggs
approximately 2 tablespoons of milk? again, I don't measure so just eyeball it! (I usually just use regular milk but tonight I used buttermilk and it was way better than normal. But it is still pretty awesome even with regular milk!)
seasoned bread crumbs
This recipe is so simple I really don't even measure this stuff.
Heat enough oil to cover bottom of skillet over medium high heat.
In small bowl, mix flour with a little bit of salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with milk. Dump a bunch of bread crumbs in another bowl or on a plate. (The only thing I don't like about this recipe is that I have to dirty about a million dishes to make it!)
when measuring out your flour and bread crumbs, just keep in mind you need to coat each piece of steak.
Pound flour mixture into both sides of meat with a meat tenderizer. Coat meat with remaining flour mixture, dip in egg mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs. Place meat in skillet and brown quickly on both sides. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally. Remove meat from skillet and keep warm.
Now you are ready to make the gravy. Here is what you will need for that:
milk (about 2 to 2.5 cups)
3 or 4 tablespoons of flour
salt and pepper
Whisk the flour into the meat drippings in the skillet. Add milk, bring to a boil, continue to cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper to taste.
And that is it! Even without measuring, I think it would be kind of hard to mess this up. It is that simple!
How I organize my coupons
I don't. But I should? I wish I knew how. To me, this is the most frustrating part about couponing- how do you keep track of all those little strips of paper and always know what you have and when to use them so they don't expire? If I ever find out, I will be sure to let you know. In the meantime, I have heard of a few different ways to do this, they all have their pros and their cons:
If I cut the ALL the coupons out and put them in one of those accordion coupon file thingies (like I used to do), I will surely forget what coupons I have and they won't get used. I really hate having to look through those at the store, it takes me FOREVER to shop that way and I feel so unorganized and I am dropping coupons all over the place. Also, when looking online at the coupon matchups from the sale ads and I see something I want to get it will be harder to locate the coupon.
I have heard that alot of couponers use "coupon binders." Those are basically a zippered 3 ring binder with baseball card holders in them. Then they cut all their coupons out and sort them by category. I think. But I could not imagine taking something so big and bulky as that into a store and trying to look through it while trying to decide what shampoo to buy while Jake is trying to squirm out of the cart as he is trying to grab the binder and eat all the coupons. That sounds like a lot of work on my part and a disaster waiting to happen. And lots of frustration. And lots of coupons flying everywhere.
I think for now, I am going to keep the inserts/magazines intact and use the matchups posted online. This way, when doing looking over the matchups, I can easily and quickly located the coupons I want to use and can put them in an envelope/wallet/diaper bag to take with me to the store.. I will do this until I can think of a better way of organizing coupons.
Any one else have any ideas?
If I cut the ALL the coupons out and put them in one of those accordion coupon file thingies (like I used to do), I will surely forget what coupons I have and they won't get used. I really hate having to look through those at the store, it takes me FOREVER to shop that way and I feel so unorganized and I am dropping coupons all over the place. Also, when looking online at the coupon matchups from the sale ads and I see something I want to get it will be harder to locate the coupon.
I have heard that alot of couponers use "coupon binders." Those are basically a zippered 3 ring binder with baseball card holders in them. Then they cut all their coupons out and sort them by category. I think. But I could not imagine taking something so big and bulky as that into a store and trying to look through it while trying to decide what shampoo to buy while Jake is trying to squirm out of the cart as he is trying to grab the binder and eat all the coupons. That sounds like a lot of work on my part and a disaster waiting to happen. And lots of frustration. And lots of coupons flying everywhere.
I think for now, I am going to keep the inserts/magazines intact and use the matchups posted online. This way, when doing looking over the matchups, I can easily and quickly located the coupons I want to use and can put them in an envelope/wallet/diaper bag to take with me to the store.. I will do this until I can think of a better way of organizing coupons.
Any one else have any ideas?
Saved 64% at Homeland; 77% at CVS!
Yesterday, I went to Homeland. Homeland is a grocery store in the next town north of me that doubles coupons, up to and including $1 coupons. I had never been to Homeland before and wanted to check it out, so I went through my All You magazines and cut out all the coupons that were about to expire and just took those.
All in all, I was pretty impressed with Homeland and will probably start going there weekly. They were actually only about 10 miles away and probably a 12 minute drive? I have lived in Oklahoma a year and a half now and I guess I am still not used to that... I kept thinking it would take me AT LEAST 20 minutes to get there. It is a pretty drive, too.
Anyways, I had a bit of a tough time at Homeland. You see, ever since Jake learned to crawl, he refuses to sit still. He used to like riding around in shopping carts but not anymore. He would much rather be crawling around on the floor. So the entire time I was shopping and trying to figure out what to buy (I really didn't have a plan other than wanting to see if I could score some good deals with my about to expire coupons) Jake was trying to get out of the cart. At one point he was completely turned around (he was strapped in) and stuck. Another time he got both legs through one leg hole. So shopping with him is getting to be next to impossible again. I practically have to hold him down in the cart. The sling doesn't work anymore because he squirms right out of that too.
I ended up getting 6 cans of Manwhich, 5 Banquet pot pies, a box of KoolAid singles (thanks to the coupon fairy in the KoolAid aisle!) and a little over a pound of cubed steaks. I saved $16.04, paid $10.30 ($1.31 was tax).
The only coupon I used that actually doubled was the KoolAid one (that actually made the KoolAid free!). I had a $2 off coupon for the meat, and the coupons I used for the Manwhich and the Banquet said "do not double" on them. The Manwhich, Banquet, and meat coupons I printed off the internet, I did not use a single about to expire one! Oh well, guess they will expire.
I went to CVS last night. I actually bought everything in six transactions (the last two were done at a different store because the first one was out of Pepsi!?!?!?!) because I used both mine and Brian's CVS cards. They didn't care that I was doing a bunch of transactions. And they didn't care that I was using two different cards. CVS is AWESOME! At least the ones here are, anyways.
I got a 3 months supply of Prevacid, 4 things of Gillette men's bodywash, twelve 2-liters of Pepsi, and four 2-liters of Mountain Dew for $26.18. I saved $89.80! Here is how I did it (I am just going to list 3 transactions though because I did the exact same thing on the second card. So no sense repeating myself.):
Transaction #1
- Used $10 off one manufacturer's coupon from Prevacid's website here
- Used $3 ECB from my last trip to CVS a couple weeks ago
Tax (8.517%) $1.71
Total out of pocket $8.70
Transaction #2
Tax (8.517%) $ .68
Total out of pocket $3.68
Transaction #3
Tax (8.517%) $ .71
Total out of pocket $ .71
Then I repeated all 3 transactions on Brian's card. I did this because the Prevacid deal was limit 1, the bodywash was limit 2, and the Pepsi/Mountain Dew was limit 12.
Ok. That is all for tonight. And I am ALMOST done shopping for the week. Just gotta grab a couple of items at the local stores tomorrow and I am DONE. Until next week.
All in all, I was pretty impressed with Homeland and will probably start going there weekly. They were actually only about 10 miles away and probably a 12 minute drive? I have lived in Oklahoma a year and a half now and I guess I am still not used to that... I kept thinking it would take me AT LEAST 20 minutes to get there. It is a pretty drive, too.
Anyways, I had a bit of a tough time at Homeland. You see, ever since Jake learned to crawl, he refuses to sit still. He used to like riding around in shopping carts but not anymore. He would much rather be crawling around on the floor. So the entire time I was shopping and trying to figure out what to buy (I really didn't have a plan other than wanting to see if I could score some good deals with my about to expire coupons) Jake was trying to get out of the cart. At one point he was completely turned around (he was strapped in) and stuck. Another time he got both legs through one leg hole. So shopping with him is getting to be next to impossible again. I practically have to hold him down in the cart. The sling doesn't work anymore because he squirms right out of that too.
I ended up getting 6 cans of Manwhich, 5 Banquet pot pies, a box of KoolAid singles (thanks to the coupon fairy in the KoolAid aisle!) and a little over a pound of cubed steaks. I saved $16.04, paid $10.30 ($1.31 was tax).
The only coupon I used that actually doubled was the KoolAid one (that actually made the KoolAid free!). I had a $2 off coupon for the meat, and the coupons I used for the Manwhich and the Banquet said "do not double" on them. The Manwhich, Banquet, and meat coupons I printed off the internet, I did not use a single about to expire one! Oh well, guess they will expire.
I went to CVS last night. I actually bought everything in six transactions (the last two were done at a different store because the first one was out of Pepsi!?!?!?!) because I used both mine and Brian's CVS cards. They didn't care that I was doing a bunch of transactions. And they didn't care that I was using two different cards. CVS is AWESOME! At least the ones here are, anyways.
I got a 3 months supply of Prevacid, 4 things of Gillette men's bodywash, twelve 2-liters of Pepsi, and four 2-liters of Mountain Dew for $26.18. I saved $89.80! Here is how I did it (I am just going to list 3 transactions though because I did the exact same thing on the second card. So no sense repeating myself.):
Transaction #1
- Bought Prevacid 42 count on sale @ $23.99/ get back $5 ECB
- Used $10 off one manufacturer's coupon from Prevacid's website here
- Used $3 ECB from my last trip to CVS a couple weeks ago
Tax (8.517%) $1.71
Total out of pocket $8.70
Transaction #2
- Bought 2 men's Gillette body wash @ $4 each/ get back $4 ECB each (I actually didn't have coupons for these, but if I did, they would have made me some money! I still got them anyway, because Brian does use body wash and these were free)
Tax (8.517%) $ .68
Total out of pocket $3.68
Transaction #3
- Bought six 2-liters of Pepsi @ $ .99
- Bought two 2 liters of Mountain Dew @ $.99
Tax (8.517%) $ .71
Total out of pocket $ .71
Then I repeated all 3 transactions on Brian's card. I did this because the Prevacid deal was limit 1, the bodywash was limit 2, and the Pepsi/Mountain Dew was limit 12.
Ok. That is all for tonight. And I am ALMOST done shopping for the week. Just gotta grab a couple of items at the local stores tomorrow and I am DONE. Until next week.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
How to make a dollar at Walgreens
I forgot to add this in the other post:
If you want to make an extra dollar at Walgreens, instead of buying the Noxema 4 pack 3 blade razors @ $4.99, you can instead get the 3 pack bikini razors. They are $2.99 and BOGO. So if you get two, it will be $2.99 for both. Use two of the $2 off one coupons, for a total discount of $4.00. They won't give you money back though, so just be sure you have something else in your cart that is at least $1.00 to absorb the overage.
Those Noxema coupons were also supposed to be in this week's Redplum, but I did not see them in mine, unless I am just blind. I thought I looked through it very carefully like 10 times. So if you have them in your paper and want to buy more than just two packs of razors/want to make more than $1.00 off of them, you can. And since they aren't a RR item, you can do it all in one transaction, too!
If you want to make an extra dollar at Walgreens, instead of buying the Noxema 4 pack 3 blade razors @ $4.99, you can instead get the 3 pack bikini razors. They are $2.99 and BOGO. So if you get two, it will be $2.99 for both. Use two of the $2 off one coupons, for a total discount of $4.00. They won't give you money back though, so just be sure you have something else in your cart that is at least $1.00 to absorb the overage.
Those Noxema coupons were also supposed to be in this week's Redplum, but I did not see them in mine, unless I am just blind. I thought I looked through it very carefully like 10 times. So if you have them in your paper and want to buy more than just two packs of razors/want to make more than $1.00 off of them, you can. And since they aren't a RR item, you can do it all in one transaction, too!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Saved 70% at Walgreens!
So tonight was my first trip to Walgreens. (Not ever, just my first time trying to do this whole couponing/register rewards thing). I don't think I did too bad. Four transactions, spent a total of $20.28, saved a total of $46.43. That's 70%!Before I go into detail about how I got what I got, let me tell you a few things I have learned about Walgreens and their RR program (someone please correct me if I am wrong- this is really confusing for me):
- You can't use a RR you got for purchasing an item to purchase another of the same item. Well, I think you can, you just won't get another RR.
- You can't do multiple of the same RR deals in the same transaction and get multiple RRs. You will only get one. (This is why you will see I bought my 2 Goody Hair items in separate transactions)
- When using an RR, you cannot have more coupons than items (coupons include the RR). This is why you need "filler" items. Although, I just noticed when typing this up that I had 2 coupons and 1 RR in the last transaction and it worked for only 2 items. So I don't know. I told you Walgreen's confuses me!
Ok, now that I have probably thoroughly confused you, as I am, Here is how I did it:
First transaction:
- Bought a Goody's Ouchless headband for $2.99, got back $3 RR
- Bought 2 packs of Noxema razors @ $4.99 on sale buy one get one free (BOGO)
Sales tax (8.517%) $ .68
Total out of pocket= $4.66 Plus, I now have $3 RR to use on my next visit. I actually would have done all of this in one visit, but I forgot my other coupons at home. doh!
Second transaction:- Bought two packs of Huggies Little Snugglers diapers @ $9 each/get $3 RR when you buy (WYB) 2
- Bought one A&W Root Beer for @ $1.00 (needed a "filler" item, and I love A&W root beer. I would have bought it anyway, for the same price at Reasor's)
I also used my $3 RR from the previous visit.
Total out of pocket = $11.81 Now, I have $3 more RR to use on my next transaction.
Third transaction:
- Bought one pack of Goody Ouchless barrettes @ $2.99/ get back $3 RR
- Bought two 2-liters of 7up @ $1.00 each
from. Maybe 7up's website? I have had them for a week or two.
- Bought one A&W root beer (again, needed a filler)
I used the $3 RR I got from the Huggies in the previous transaction
Total out of pocket = $1.56 Now I have $3RR again for the next transaction.
Fourth transaction:
- Bought one pack of Huggies Little Swimmers on sale for $6.99
-used $2.00 off one (Walgreen's coupon from their May coupon book found in store)
- A &W root beer (filler, again) @ $1.00
I also used the $3 RR I got in the previous transaction from the barrettes
Total out of pocket= $2.25
And there you have it. Not quite as impressive as my CVS trip the other day, but like I told you before, Walgreens confuses me.
I now have a blog and use coupons!
Let's see how long I can keep this up. I think I am starting this mainly to document my saving/spending habits as I learn the confusing world of couponing. I am hoping that by keeping a blog it will help me to be more accountable and stick with it. This post is kind of long, it is me rambling on about how I came to become so addicted to saving money with coupons. So if you don't care how I got started couponing, this is your chance to stop reading.
I have tried to use coupons off and on. I even bought the Tulsa World newspaper for several weeks in a row when I first became a stay at home mom. Sometimes I would find the time to cut out a bunch of coupons of things I thought I would use. Then, I would go to the store (mostly Wal-Mart because I wrongfully assumed they were always the cheapest at everything) and find that the "Great Value" brand was still cheaper than using the coupon for the name brand. So I ended up with a bunch of cut out coupons that kept expiring.
With a newborn in the house, it can be quite a challenge to find the time/energy to do much of anything. When I did get some time to myself I wanted to spend it sleeping or relaxing, not cutting out coupons I probably wouldn't use! That meant that sometimes I wouldn't even go through coupon inserts until the coupons were about to expire. So I had coupons and coupon inserts and newspapers coming out my ears it seems.
So I gave up. I continued shopping at Wal-Mart buying Great Value brand everything I could. I thought I was saving money. I have a grocery budget of $50 per week (I shop with cash, so I can't go over). I thought I was really doing good when I occasionally had enough cash leftover that we could order pizza on Saturday night.
But that was then. I have since stopped shopping at Wal-Mart altogether. I am starting to learn how to use coupons. I have saved enough in the past several weeks, that last week, I did not even need to spend ANY of my $50 on groceries. Instead, we spent half of it on clippers for Brian so I can learn to cut his hair. Let me just say, his hair is REALLY short in the back right now! I also have to say, that was HIS idea, not mine!
I have started saving by shopping mainly at two different stores in my area, Reasor's (my favorite) and Warehouse Market. I am learning which things are cheaper at which store. Since I got frustrated with coupons in the past and quit "wasting" my money on the Sunday paper, I was just trying to find the best deals using printable coupons from sites like coupons.com smartsource and redplum. That works at Reasor's but unfortunately Warehouse Market does not take printable coupons.
A couple of weeks ago, my sister, Jessi, talked me into buying the paper and trying to shop at CVS. She recommended I check out Southern Savers. I went on that website that night and could not believe all the deals at CVS that week. I ended up going to CVS twice, spending $15.49 and saving $89.48. That is an 85% savings! I could not believe how many things you can get at CVS for FREEE just by using coupons and shopping their sales! Things we all use, like toothpaste and deoderant! I only wished at that point that I had still been buying the Sunday paper, because if I had been, I would have been able to get alot more things AND save alot more money. I decided from that point on to start getting the paper again.
Here is what I got my first week "CVSing"
I can't remember exactly how I did all my transactions to end up with those amounts, and there was some confusion. You see, I had everything worked out on paper before I went into the store of how it was going to work out (the order of transactions, etc). I had everything figured out, including tax, right to the penny. Then, I went in there and accidentally bought the wrong thing first! That created alot of confusion and me, just beginning at all this got somewhat frustrated. Thankfully, there was a manager there, who walked me through it, step by step (not only did he let me ring up like 6 different transactions, he HELPED me figure out how to save the most money and even gave me some bonus extra care bucks! He was totally awesome).
I am hoping that in the future, I can use this blog to show you all exactly how I save with sales, coupons, and ECBs (or RRs if I can figure out Walgreens!)
I did not make it to CVS last week. The closest one to me is approx. 20 miles away and there were only a couple of deals that looked good to me, that I needed coupons from last week's Redplum insert in the Sunday paper. I bought TWO Tulsa World papers for $2.00 each and discovered, to my horror, that TW does not get RedPlum anymore! Bummer. Now I know I need to buy the Daily Oklahoman. Yesterday, I bought 2 Daily Oklahomans and 2 Tulsa Worlds. So now I have lots of coupons to get started with.
I think this week I am going to try to make it to CVS and Walgreens and see how much I can save there. I also cut out all of my about to expire coupons from my All You magazines and I am going to attempt saving money at Homeland (a grocery store about 20 minutes away that doubles coupons). I have never been to Homeland before, and Walgreens Register Rewards/coupon policies confuse me so I am not sure how well I will do.
Hopefully I will have some pictures/savings to show you in the next few days! Now I gotta get to planning my lists!
I have tried to use coupons off and on. I even bought the Tulsa World newspaper for several weeks in a row when I first became a stay at home mom. Sometimes I would find the time to cut out a bunch of coupons of things I thought I would use. Then, I would go to the store (mostly Wal-Mart because I wrongfully assumed they were always the cheapest at everything) and find that the "Great Value" brand was still cheaper than using the coupon for the name brand. So I ended up with a bunch of cut out coupons that kept expiring.
With a newborn in the house, it can be quite a challenge to find the time/energy to do much of anything. When I did get some time to myself I wanted to spend it sleeping or relaxing, not cutting out coupons I probably wouldn't use! That meant that sometimes I wouldn't even go through coupon inserts until the coupons were about to expire. So I had coupons and coupon inserts and newspapers coming out my ears it seems.
So I gave up. I continued shopping at Wal-Mart buying Great Value brand everything I could. I thought I was saving money. I have a grocery budget of $50 per week (I shop with cash, so I can't go over). I thought I was really doing good when I occasionally had enough cash leftover that we could order pizza on Saturday night.
But that was then. I have since stopped shopping at Wal-Mart altogether. I am starting to learn how to use coupons. I have saved enough in the past several weeks, that last week, I did not even need to spend ANY of my $50 on groceries. Instead, we spent half of it on clippers for Brian so I can learn to cut his hair. Let me just say, his hair is REALLY short in the back right now! I also have to say, that was HIS idea, not mine!
I have started saving by shopping mainly at two different stores in my area, Reasor's (my favorite) and Warehouse Market. I am learning which things are cheaper at which store. Since I got frustrated with coupons in the past and quit "wasting" my money on the Sunday paper, I was just trying to find the best deals using printable coupons from sites like coupons.com smartsource and redplum. That works at Reasor's but unfortunately Warehouse Market does not take printable coupons.
A couple of weeks ago, my sister, Jessi, talked me into buying the paper and trying to shop at CVS. She recommended I check out Southern Savers. I went on that website that night and could not believe all the deals at CVS that week. I ended up going to CVS twice, spending $15.49 and saving $89.48. That is an 85% savings! I could not believe how many things you can get at CVS for FREEE just by using coupons and shopping their sales! Things we all use, like toothpaste and deoderant! I only wished at that point that I had still been buying the Sunday paper, because if I had been, I would have been able to get alot more things AND save alot more money. I decided from that point on to start getting the paper again.
Here is what I got my first week "CVSing"
I can't remember exactly how I did all my transactions to end up with those amounts, and there was some confusion. You see, I had everything worked out on paper before I went into the store of how it was going to work out (the order of transactions, etc). I had everything figured out, including tax, right to the penny. Then, I went in there and accidentally bought the wrong thing first! That created alot of confusion and me, just beginning at all this got somewhat frustrated. Thankfully, there was a manager there, who walked me through it, step by step (not only did he let me ring up like 6 different transactions, he HELPED me figure out how to save the most money and even gave me some bonus extra care bucks! He was totally awesome).
I am hoping that in the future, I can use this blog to show you all exactly how I save with sales, coupons, and ECBs (or RRs if I can figure out Walgreens!)
I did not make it to CVS last week. The closest one to me is approx. 20 miles away and there were only a couple of deals that looked good to me, that I needed coupons from last week's Redplum insert in the Sunday paper. I bought TWO Tulsa World papers for $2.00 each and discovered, to my horror, that TW does not get RedPlum anymore! Bummer. Now I know I need to buy the Daily Oklahoman. Yesterday, I bought 2 Daily Oklahomans and 2 Tulsa Worlds. So now I have lots of coupons to get started with.
I think this week I am going to try to make it to CVS and Walgreens and see how much I can save there. I also cut out all of my about to expire coupons from my All You magazines and I am going to attempt saving money at Homeland (a grocery store about 20 minutes away that doubles coupons). I have never been to Homeland before, and Walgreens Register Rewards/coupon policies confuse me so I am not sure how well I will do.
Hopefully I will have some pictures/savings to show you in the next few days! Now I gotta get to planning my lists!
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