Deal Shopping

I've posted a few of my triumphs on social networking sites & have received many questions like "HOW DID YOU DO THAT??!!?" So, by popular demand, here's a few...okay, ten!... basics of deal shopping from my perspective.

1. You can use both a Target store coupon and a manufacturer's coupon the same item. Double up for double savings! Use on a sale price or better yet, a clearance price, and you're in luck!!

2. Most Cub Foods accept mftg coupons 3 months past their expiration date.

3. Subscribe to the Sunday paper, not for the liberal articles (ha) but the coupons! They've more than paid for the $1.25/week (or less) subscription price.

4. Wal-Mart and Target both price match. You have to take the entire competitor's flyer in and usually do the transaction at the Customer Service counter. The Disney movie deal was actually the first time I've ever price-matched, but it worked perfectly!!

5. Print mftg coupons online. There are sooooo many printable coupons online now! The main sites are coupons.com, smartsource.com and redplum.com Typically you can print 2 copies of each coupon by hitting the "back" button after printing your first set. This is 2 coupons per computer so if you have multiple computers, go all out! They put new coupons out all the time and sometimes refresh the coupons monthly so you can re-print the same coupons again.

6. Target has grocery & other coupons on their website at the bottom of their website - "Grocery Coupons". Unfortunately they just changed their policy and you can only print 2 of each now. BOO. It used to be unlimited and I got sooooo many awesome deals with these. Still, you can print 2 of each, so I'm grateful for that!

7. There are some great deals to be had at Walgreens with their Register Rewards program. My bathroom cabinet is completely STOCKED with tons of absolutely free toothpaste, shampoo, dental floss, feminine products, razors, etc. At times, they even PAID me to take it out of the store!! CVS Pharmacy also has a similar program but I've never tried it. I am busy enough with deal shopping as it is! See #10 for more info.

8. Stock up on items when they are on sale & you have coupons! I scored 12 packs of Diet Coke for $1.50 each back in August. We are JUST coming to the end of the stockpile now. I probably bought 12-15 packs. I think Gordon was appalled but I know deep down he was grateful :) Considering these are $4+ if not on sale, I knew I needed to stock up. I haven't seen that good of a price on Diet Coke since then. Also back in the summer, I also bought several pkgs of American cheese for literally pennies; they had a long shelf life and we are just coming up on our last package. We go thru quite a bit for breakfast sandwiches & grilled cheese, so that was another good find. My point - stock up when it's time!

9. Buy store-brands. Often these are virtually the same as the brand name; sometimes they even taste/perform better!! Even though store brands don't typically have coupons, often the price is lower than the brand name less coupon amount.

10. Finally, I think I have learned the most about deal shopping from various deal blogs online. These are almost always ran by stay-at-home moms and I have gleaned sooooo much knowledge from them. I have my friend Wendy to thank for showing me so many of these. Here are my three favorites that I visit on a weekly basis....okay, who am I kidding ~ daily! They also have good tutorials on the Walgreens & CVS rewards programs and how to get started.

http://www.moneysavingmom.com

http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/

http://hip2save.blogspot.com/

I hope this helps and gives you a step in the right direction ... let me know if/when you have successes!!

Cody is 20 months old!

Oh, I know I have a few events to blog about before this, but I couldn't resist sharing our cutie-patootie with you. (Errrrmmm, don't mind my computer game in the background :)) We don't have another doctor's appointment until Cody is (gulp) two years old, so no stats to share with you, other than our little guy is learning more each day, becoming more vocal ~ words are *starting* to form (he says Bye clear as day, most other words...not so much...), follows directions pretty well (although putting on jacket & hat is still not too fun for him), and he is good at scaring us with how much he understands of what we say!

We are so very blessed.

Target...I love you.

Picked up some good deals at Target this weekend...

Here's the highlights, most I used Target and/or mftg coupons on:

*Up & Up (Target brand) baby & toddler wipes - 47 cents and 27 cents each (diaper bag size)

*Stove Top dressing - 79 cents each

*Target bakery items like macaroons, brownie bites, etc - FREE (I shouldn't say how many pkgs I got, eep...)

*2 free 12 pkgs of Diet Coke, coupons rec'd from entering in Coke Points

*Pillsbury biscuits - 52 cents each

*5 bottles Coffeemate creamer - 50 cents each

*4 boxes of Hefty onezip bags - 80 cents each

*Christmas Mr Potato Head - 99 cents

I got other normal weekly grocery items, and I ended up spending $49.85 and saving $43.76. Wahooo!! And this is in addition to my Big Deal of the weekend!

My Big Deal

Okay, so...I have to brag! I did some sleuth-shopping this weekend and am pretty gosh darn proud of myself! I have to say, Gordon was pretty happy, too....okay, VERY happy...with these deals!

I got the following two movies - both 4 disc, Blu-Ray, DVD movies of Disney's UP & Monsters, Inc.... for a grand total of ... $13.09 or just $6.55 for each movie. This is incredible seeing as how one movie's regular selling price was $26.99!



Here's how I did it:

UP - $19.99 (Target sales price)
Monsters, Inc - $18.99 (price matched** to Best Buy ad)
less $10 mftg coupon for Up
less $8 mftg coupon for Monsters Inc
less $10 Target coupon when you buy 2 Blu-Ray movies
+ tax of $2.11
= $13.09


As you can see, I saved $51 off the original price of two movies!

** price matching - This is the first time I think I have ever done price matching, and it was SO simple. The cashier had me go to the Customer Service desk to conduct the entire transaction. It was amazingly easy. I just brought the whole Best Buy ad and they worked their magic. I think a lot of people actually did this deal as she seemed pretty familiar with the process. Then, even though I price matched it, I was also able to use the store and manufacturer's coupons. Nice!

To make the deal even sweeter, I bought a $1.19 package of Creamette noodles and will submit for an additional $4 rebate...bringing my total for 2 movies and one package of noodles to $10.28!

There's one additional rebate I can do for $5, but I'm not sure if I will do it yet...need to find some coupons for the products first. Go figure :)

If anyone wants the links for the mftg & Target coupons, let me know...but they are pretty easy to find with a simple Google search!

Basement Drywall - Progress Photos

It's been awhile since I've posted about our basement finishing project, but not to fear, we've been working slow and steady on it. We had some delays...the major one due to difficulty in finding a contractor, but we finally found one through Gordon's work a little while back. All the electrical work was done & State electrical inspection passed. We also had one additional thing to do with the HVAC and my dad generously did it when we were in Las Vegas on vacation!! To say Gordon was tickled pink with this would be an understatement. With all the rough-in work complete, the City came out again to re-check a few things...and we got a big fat Pass! That was on Monday afternoon, and the drywall commenced today. We are having our neighbor, Jon, do it and he totally rocked on it today (he also had a friend help him out). I'd say about a third of the basement, maybe even more, is hung! Woohoo!

My hubby is a rockstar and has been down in the basement all night working on...well, I'm not really sure, but I think it has to do with the media wiring stuff. What a guy! Here I am having a relaxing night in front of the computer after a very trying day or two with the little man, and he is working his butt off. Right after dinner he ran out to Lowes to get some supplies, and he has been working down there ever since. Thank you honey for all you do.

I wanted to share with all (?) of you some fresh-off-the-camera photos of the progress that was made in just one day! It's really taking shape. It's going to be a great space. I don't know what all the wires and connectors and whatnot are, so if you need specifics on anything, send Gordon your inquiries!

One of the soffits in the living room. Speaker wire for surround sound!

Living room. My hubby is down there somewhere! Where's Waldo Gordon?

Bedroom closet & window - we will be having additional sheetrock around the window, I'm told.

Oops, how'd this photo get in there? This is ALL the stuff in the basement, ALL crammed in to our little bathroom (that we are not finishing until later). Gordon is a Tetris-genius!!

Storage room/office

Good Deal Alert!

I had to share a copy of my receipt from a recent shopping trip at Cub Foods. I saved 91%! Yippee!! :)

Here's what I got for a whopping $1.11:

4 boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

1 bottle of BBQ Sauce (not on sale)

2 packages of all-natural Salsa

Love it!!

A few things to note:

* The cashier actually took the full mac & cheese price of 88 cents off (I had a buy 3, get 1 free coupon) instead of the sale price of 25 cents.

* The salsa was on sale buy one, get one free with a store coupon. I also had a manufacturer's coupon for buy one get one free. The end result - get two free!

* The $2.00 coupon was a Discover coupon that was $2 off anything when you use your Discover card. I had purchased a lot of 40 of these coupons for less than $10 on ebay...a great investment! I used them at every retail store that I went to and occasionally split up orders. I only have a few coupons left and I can use them up at Cub which takes coupons up to 3 months expired (did you know that?).

Here's the proof!

Goal Setting

Maybe if I make this "public", Gordon and I will be able to uphold these goals we have recently set for ourselves. It's quite clear from our energy levels and wardrobe malfunctions, we need to make some lifestyle changes. These are just a few small things, but personally I have definitely been the victim of trying to do too much at once, failing and reverting back to old ways & then some.

Our small goals for the next couple of weeks -

Annette:

1. No eating in the car on the way home from work.

2. Eat breakfast before leaving home in the morning.

Gordon:

1. Stop drinking soda

Joint:

1. No snacking/food after 9pm

They are small goals, but it's a start!