Thursday, April 30, 2009

THURSDAY Day #17

Week #3 OOP...$1.02





Thursday day 17





**************Darlin Dan won a $40 GC to HEB Grocery Store!!*********************


Isn't that wonderful? He's donating it to the cause!! Now I have $35 in GCs to Target, $40 GC to HEB, $69 Visa GC, and $30 Mastercard GCs from Olay rebate!! I feel rich!!



Today's been a very good frugal day.
Total OOP for Thursday- $3.03

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Warning-Kraft Salad Dressing Coupon Expiring Today!

Run to Walmart and get your $.08 Kraft Salad Dressing before the coupon expires!!!
They have Kraft salad dressing on sale for $1.58 and the coupon is for $1.50!! It expires today ;(

Wednesday Day #16

OOP for week #3----$0.25

***************Got my $25 GC to Target today!*************That was fast!



Wednesday Day #16





1.I've had a great day at WAGS! I spent $0.77 OOP for $46.83 worth of goodies. I also used an extra $3 in RR's.

Thanks to Hounding with Frugalsuz, I was able to devise a plan of action. I went in WAGS with an extra $5RR and $3 RR to use during my deals.....

1. Buy
Bayer Monitor $14.99 -used free Q $14.99
0 OOP
GET $5 RR
2. Buy
Nivea Bodywash $4.99 use $1 man. Q
tuna on sale for $.79 with in ad Q
gift wrap on sale for $ .39 with in ad q
Use $5 RR from Bayer Monitor
PAY $ .17 OOP
Get $5 RR for Bodywash
3. Buy
Ecotrin 45 ct $2
Rembrandt toothpaste or mouthwash $5.99
gift wrap on sale for $ .39 with in ad Q
pay with 2 RR's --$5 and $3
Pay $ .23 OOP
Get back $6 RR and $2 RR
4. Buy
3- 12 packs of diet pepsi $11
1 gift wrap on sale for $ .39 with in ad Q
pay with $6 and $5 RR
Pay $ .42 OOP
Get back $3 RR

So you leave with a $3 and $2 RR and $46.83 worth of goodies! I'm so happy that some of my Wags are now taking more than 1 RR per purchase! Can you say practically free diet pepsi?


2. I'm so happy I scored another coupon for Pace picante sauce. I play the game everyday and this is the 2nd time I've won a coupon!!

Total OOP today $0.77

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Tuesday day #15

******I got my $79 VISA GC from Lowe's today!!! I feel all better! I have officially recouped from last week. ******

1. Took breakfast and lunch to work. Didn't even drink a soda!

2. Spent $ 0.25 OOP at WAGS! I bought Bayer Glucose monitor, Rembrandt toothpaste, Ecotrin, Bayer Crystals, Nivea Bodywash, wrapping paper and little .20 barrettes for fillers using RR's. Gotta roll those RR's.
Got another $5 RR moneymaker! (I'm up +$20 in RR's-I plan to try to get at least 1 a day)

3. Got home and opened my mail and I'm so happy to get the Visa GC from Lowe's.......................
Now I'm trying to decide how use it- I want to use it for groceries and some drugstore deals. See if I could use ONLY GC for groceries for the month of MAY? Since I have $10 GC to Target already and a $25 Target GC on the way, I think maybe I can do this. 10 + 25+ 79=$114!!

4. I will be getting $31 on my Walgreens GC. I really didn't put my heart into the rebates this month, so sad they have discontinued this program.

5. We had a personal challenge this month-paid a big bill $2,000 in cash(really didn't want to touch savings) ..on top of our regular monthly bills. We did it and we're proud. I'm so glad this month is over. Pay day is near....we now have more confidence in our ability to budget and be frugal. Darlin Dan has been a real trooper!!

6.Entertainment tonight--American Idol & Dancing with the stars!!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Summary of challenge 2 weeks in

Week #1 OOP $21.47



Week #2 OOP $76.10





Moneymakers from week #2 $45.96

$5 GC to Amazon

$25 GC to Target

$15 moneymaker RR's

Monday-Day #14

Total OOP for week #2 $74.88 (yikes)

I'm feeling bad about my total OOP for this week. But, with my money makers, maybe it won't be so bad!



1. Last night, I made homemade low carb pizza. You are probably thinking, is there such a thing as low carb pizza? YES-the crust is made out of cheese and eggs-the toppings are regular-we had pepperoni! I had everything on hand-did not have to buy anything just for this.



2. We are having crockpot roasted chicken tonight! Darlin Dan will probably want a sandwich out of it-he loves sandwiches.



3.Darlin Dan cut the grass yesterday-no paying a service for that.



4. CVS run-Nothing OOP-received $9 ECBs!



5. WAGS run- OOP $1.22 (but gained $15RR's!)



6. Donated female grooming items to the non-profit organization Darlin Dan works for.



7. Tonight's entertainment-Dancing with the Stars!

My latest money maker idea

Actually I got this idea off of Hounding with Frugalsuz' blog last night. She bought a boat load of glucose monitors at WAGS-with Q's of course-so nothing OOP and RECEIVE $5 RR! I actually have quite a few of these Q's, so starting today I will try to use up my Q's if possible. I could possibly make up what I spent this week! I will donate these to my part time job!



So far, I have 3-so I have made $15 in RRs.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Update on money makers

THIS WEEK.........
I have earned $5.00 GC to Amazon.com from Swagbucks

I have earned $25.00 GC to Target from Healthmiles-from my health insurance plan!

I earned $ .96 from Youdata this week, deposited into my paypal account.

I guess this helps recoup some of that money I spent this week!

Sunday Day #13

Total OOP for Week #2 $41.88

I kinda blew it today! I spent $26 at Walmart for $56 worth of stuff! I know I saved quite a bit with coupons, and I NEEDED that Breyer's Ice Cream that they have on sale for $2.75! I only had 4 Q's for the ice cream, but upon studying the Sunday Ad, I saw some cat food I needed to get for my lovely Isabel. Before all was said and done I bought 19 items and had 19 coupons. I got some kitty liter, cat food, ice cream, dishwasher detergent, 1 All you magazine, 2 cans of potted meat, 2 boxes of splenda, 2 whole chickens, and 1 FREE Rimmel mascara.

I also got some produce at Chicho Bro-$7.00

Todays OOP $33.00
OH NO

Saturday Day #12

Week #2 Total OOP $41.88

We spent a nice day at home before going to Grandson's BD party. We got his present at Kohl's...they were having a BIG sale and offering Kohl's Kash back. Needless to say I'm not counting this purchase on my challenge, my Darlin Dan's treat on his CC.

Total OOP for Sat $0

Friday Day #11

Week#2 Total OOP $1.88


Well, Amanda and I got an even better deal than I thought we were going to get. We also got a free bottle of water clarifier worth $14.99! When we walked in the store, the 20 lb. buckets were marked $66, so we did even better than what I first calculated.


We both spent $40 and split 35 llbs of chlorine and a bottle of water clarifier!!





OOP.....$40


Worth Every Penny

Thursday, April 23, 2009

HAPPY FIESTA

It is Fiesta Week in SA. We have a school holiday tomorrow! We have the Fiesta Day Parade tomorrow. I will work part of the day at my part time job and shop (with coupons of course) the other part of the day. Darlin Dan will be participating in a Golf Tournament.

Day #10 Thursday

Total for week #2---$1.00
Today I took breakfast and lunch to work.

I spent $ .88 at CVS for 2 purchases......actually money maker. Got the clearance Adidas Deodorant on sale $1.25 get $2.00 ECBs. So with my card and Darlin Dan's we got 6 Adida's deodorant for Xmas baskets and got a total of $12 in ECBs.

I earned a $5 amazon.com GC with SwagBucks!

I scored some free Smart Source coupons from a free neighborhood weekly newspaper.

We made hamburger stroganoff from our stockpile for dinner. It was yummy. Made with substituting the sour cream with a milk, margarine, lemon juice combo.

Amanda and I will save approximately $20 EACH by sharing a 35 lb. container of chlorine for our pools!! I found a $10 off coupon from Leslie's Pools for chlorine in my mail pile! so, instead of us each buying a 20 lb container for $59.99, we will share a 35 lb container at $89.99-$10Q=79.99=$40 each.

I was sooo exhausted this afternoon that I didn't do any shopping, therefore, my total OOP for today is $ .88.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Day #9 Wednesday

Well, I couldn't resist WAG's today...free reusable bags and 15% off your purchase. I was able to stock up on diet root beer and diet 7 up with the OOP going on my GC and getting back $5 RR's! I'm a very happer camper because they actually let me use 3 RR's for each purchase!! So, I was able to score 6 12 pk. of diet soda for about $1.25 a 12 pk.



We love diet root beer floats and I was almost out of diet root beer. I am going to start making our low carb ice cream tonight. I will keep you posted about this. I made alot of it last summer and I think that it is alot cheaper to make it. Just a little more work.

All on GC today!
OOP $0

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Print coupon for free reusable shopping bag at WAGS

Go grab a free bag tomorrow at Walgreens! Go here to get the Q http://www.walgreens.com/dmi/onlineoffers/default.html?ec=hn1016rs_getcoupon


I've printed my Qs and I'm ready to hound.

Tuesday day #8..............week 2

Total Spent for entire week #1…..$21.47


Tuesday Day #8 of Challenge
WEEK 2

It’s the beginning of a new week!
I’m thinking that this is not sooo bad.

I’ve been able to put 2 items on my list of things to cancel on hold..1 for 180 days and one for 60 days. This is a good start.

We are brown bagging our lunches. I’ve been digging in the freezer for leftovers and Darlin Dan loves to take bologna sandwiches (yuck).

We’re eating our dinners from our stockpile.

We will be celebrating my BD with GC from restaurants,com in a couple of weeks.

We are not running pool pump 24/7. We will run it about 12 hours a day until we get it under control and then cut down even more.

Early this morning I went to CVS. I spent $.02 OOP!!!
The coupon spitter outer gave me a $2/10 CVS products Q and I wanted to get the b1g1 ½ off of paper napkins. This was an item on my stockpile that was low and I had some really good money makers this week and had extra ECBs that I could use with this deal.
So, I bought 2of the 250 ct. environmentally friendly paper napkins, 1 Fruitopia, 1 CVS bag, 2 CVS small bag of almonds, and then had to throw in a clearance bag of mini chocolates for $.19 so I could use my ECBs.
I used 2/10 coupon, 2/2 cvs nuts coupon, $1 off Fruitopia CRT, $1 off Fruitopia from RIB, $2 ECB, and $2.89 ECB= OOP $.02.

WAGS-1 transaction OOP- $.98
I splurged and got a $0.74 chirping chick on 75% clearance from Easter. This will be used at work! Oh, and I also did the Mitchum deod. Deal to roll those RRs. After Q’s they are $ .24.

Dinner was stockpiled CHEAP Target chuck steak bought w/$2 Q last month while chuck steak was on sale…package cost about $.50,,,,these were put in crockpot this morning. Daughter, Jessica prepared sides of stockpiled green beans, broccoli rice mix, and salad.

Entertainment………..AMERICAN IDOL and DANCING WITH THE STARS.


Total OOP for today $1.00.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Day 7- Monday

TOTAL OOP for week #1...$21.47


Well today is the 7th day of the challenge and I've thought of a couple of ways to be more frugal.

1. Put my Healthmiles pedometer back on and rack up points for a gift card- they give out Target GCs!

2. Use Swagbucks.com to look up everything. Earn points and get GCs!


3. Check YouData EVERYDAY....and make some pocket change.

4. Darlin Dan and I have started saving our soda cans---we'll see how much we earn!

5. Darlin Dan replaced rear signal light bulbs! No charges there!

6. Respond to all surveys on the receipts from WAGs and CVS. Maybe one of these days I'll get lucky.

7. Get my lunch from my freezer/stockpile....I've been doing this pretty consistently, but want it to be automatic.

8. Cancel some things I pay for that are not necessary....Gevalia Coffee, FRS energy drinks, Golds gym.

Todays OOP $0

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Day 6 -Sunday

Total OOP for week # $17.37

We had a blast last night! One of our nephews could not lose last night! He was on a roll, so we were lucky to walk away with only a $3 loss. My goody bag was a big hit!

Breakfast was Chilequiles (mexican style egg dish with corn tortillas,vpico de gallo and cheese)and low carb tortillas. All ingredients in stockpile/fridge.

Today has been a beautiful day. Amanda(DD) and I went CVSing this morning. My total spent was $72.73.......after Q's, ECBs, and GC(now wiped out), I spent.....................$2.49 cash OOP!!!!! Winner, winner, chicken dinner. I walked away with 3 Aveeno products(have never bought this brand before because I always thought it was too expensive), 2 crest tp, 1 edge, 1 benefiber, 1 clearance Stayfree for DD, 1VERY NICE bottle($30.99) of Jennifer Lopez perfume for Xmas present. I spent $18.23 in ECB's and got back $28.89!

We went back to CVS late in the afternoon because Amanda loves Aveeno and I wanted to do the John Frieda deal-I had extra Q's CVS sent me in the regular mail and this made this deal free! I checked on some blogs and found some good deals and got our Qs ready. We got to our 2nd fav. CVS and went right to the Q spitter outer. We both got a $10 off $50 purchase!! I looked at Amanda and said, we can do this! My brain went into overdrive and this is what I came up with..
4 Stayfree maxi pads, 2 Dove Skin Vitalizer, 2 maalox, 2 glade deod., 1 Act mouthwash, 1 Phys. Formula concealer, & 3 John Frieda products=$58.40-$10 off50 Q ,-$4 off $20 beauty Q,-$4 John Frieda CVS Qs' -$24.79 misc man. Qs-$14 ECBs=$1.61 OOP!! I got back $25.00 in ECBs.....so all in all I made $9.39 in ECBs!! Lots of nice things for my Xmas baskets.

We made a pit stop at WAG's and nothing OOP (all on GC or RRs). I wanted to buy Sunday papers with RRs and went after the 40% off physicians formula for my rebate-used RR and GC.


We spent some of our day working on our pool. I'm trying to figure out a cheap way to buy pool supplies....this might be a deal breaker. We need chlorine and shock! Hey, maybe I'll use those Oil of Olay GCs and continue paying pennies for any groceries needed. I'm gonna think about this one. I have a few days to figure this one out. Amanda also has a pool and we talked about splitting the cost of a bigger bucket of chlorine tabs.

My sweet darlin dan wanted tuna sandwiches for dinner! We have plenty of tuna, eggs, mayo, pickles, bread.....no worries!

Total OOP today.....$4.10 (for my $131.13 of goodies thanks to CVS)

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Day 5-Saturday

Total OOP for week #1-$11.31


We've been doing some housework today. 3 loads of laundry, defrosted the big freezer, organized the cupboard.


1. I have made a list of all items in my grocery stockpile.





2. We had a nice breakfast of breakfast sausage patties, eggs, and toast. Everything from our stash. Darlin Dan and I used to go out for breakfast every Saturday and/or Sunday. But since we started low carbing, we have found it easier to eat at home. Darlin Dan has lost 20 lbs!





3. I made a pitcher of tea sweetened with my splenda stockpile. I have a huge splenda quick pack stockpile from last summer. This was before I started stockpiling seriously. I read on a low carb forum that they were discontinuing splenda quick packs and that you could buy the boxes at Big Lots for $1. I bought over 50! I use these for everything!


We have a serious addiction to Bill Miller iced tea. Biller Miller is a BBQ fast food restaurant here in So. Texas. It originated in San Antonio. Anyway, we used to think nothing of picking up a large unsweet iced tea to go for $1.29! We don't do that anymore. I don't even pick up fast food for lunch anymore!





4. Our entertainment for tonight will be the Saturday night poker game with family. We could possibly be out $10 tonight! Or, we could come home winners! I usually take a big bag of freebies
and give it away to the winner of a special poker hand. That is always a hit. Although we might lose some money, this activity is priceless. We have sooo much fun and we enjoy visiting with Darlin Dan's sisters, brothers in law, nieces and nephews.



Total OOP today.....$3.00 loss from poker game
wags..........3.06
Total $6.06

Friday, April 17, 2009

Day 4-Friday

OOP so far for week #1: $7.23

I am trying to decide how to best use the 2 $15 gift cards I got for the Oil of Olay deal. I’ve been thinking about turning these into a bigger gift card at Walmart or Target and use that for groceries. I have 2 $5 Target GCs already from past GC deals.

Yes I am obsessed with WAGS this week.
I am stocking up on free items for Christmas baskets-
Scunci pony tail holders
Toothbrushes
Chapstick
Skintimate
Edge
Fiberchoice(for me!)
Last year I made 30 something Christmas baskets and this year I am increasing this number to include friends and co workers. I know these are not necessities, but they are FREE and I am spending my pocket change to complete transactions and rolling RR’s! I think this is allowable during this challenge. I should have my baskets completed way before Christmas!

Day 4 Friday
1. I started my morning by making a quick pit stop at WAGS, next door to the gas station (had to fill up-this is a necessity and put on C.C.). I made 2 transactions with a total OOP of $.65 for $12. 36 worth of free things-I guess I just paid for my filler! I used $11 in RR’s and got back $12 in RR’s. Sooo, actually I made about $0.35 on this trip.

2. After work I made 2 more Wags runs.
WAGS run #1 OOP $ .70 for $18.39 worth I used $14 in RR’s and got back $15.50 in RR’s . Soooo, I made $0.80 on this trip.
WAGS run #2 OOP $ .48 for $8.96 worth. I used $8.50 in RR’s and got back $8.50.
Today I used $33.50 in RR’s and got back $36.00 in RR’s
3. I actually stepped inside a grocery store-HEB, a big grocery chain store in So. Texas.
They have the no yolks noodles on sale for $1 this week. I decided to splurge and use all 9 of my $ .75 off man. Coupons. I spent $2.25 OOP on 9 bags of noodles-this is a stockpile item that will be used a lot during this challenge.
TOTAL OOP TODAY $4.08 for $48.71 worth.

3. We had a great dinner-my daughter brought home a roasted chicken and salad!

4. Our entertainment tonight was watching The Changling,

5. I cleaned out the fridge and freezer. I feel more organized and know what I have to work with..

6. My pantry is another story. This is a work in progress.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

DAY 3 Thursday

We had a very good frugal day!

1.I did some major frugal shopping for free or money makers!
WAGS-7 transactions
Bought $ 31.91-but spent $1.37 OOP Used $16 in RR's but got back $23 in RR's-I got paid to shop today!
CVS-2 transactions-got FREE laundry detergent
Bought $22.38-but spent $ .37 OOP
Today I bought 5 free bags of Hershey's bliss easter candy
12 dove deodorants-turned into a nice $8 moneymaker-rolled $2 RR's into $6 RR's
1 free edge shaving gel
2 free scunci pony tail holders
1 free chapstick
4 free bottles of Purex laundry detergent
2 colgate toothpastes-moneymaker at CVS
TOTAL OOP FOR TODAY $1.74-for my purchases of $53.51. I paid for all purchases with my pocket change. I'll also get $5 rebate for hershys candy.

2. Our dinner was great-chicken fajita tacos, rice and beans with guacamole. Everything pulled from our cupboards.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

DAY 2-Wednesday

1. Went to my FAV produce market today and spent $4.40 on necessary items. This place is cheaper than the grocery stores and I almost never, ever have coupons for produce. I bought onions, green pepper, green onion, tomatoes, celantro, garlic and 4 avocados!!(we live in San Antonio and we can't live without our celantro and avocados)


2. Made delicious crack slaw with cole slaw mix I bought last week at Target for $ .69 (used $1 off Target coupon) and ground beef I had previously browned and put away in the freezer.


3.Spent $1.09-mostly sales tax and fillers, at WAGS...5 transactions!! Got 1 free skintimate, 1 free toothbrush(actually a money maker), 1 free pack of scunci pony tail holders, 1 free fiber source tablets and 2 $ .49 packs of chex mix (after man. coupons). I used 50% off Easter paper sacks for fillers...$ .12 each! I did not use my gift card today-when my total OOP is less than a dollar, I usually pay with change I keep in a little coin purse-I love doing this!(Transactions- .00, .48, .02, .10, and .49!) My receipts printed out a total savings of $23.23. Register Rewards Rock! I love rollin the RR's. I think I love the challenge of figuring out how to use these darn things.


TOTAL OOP TODAY $5.49.

DAY 1

Day 1 of challenge

1. Darlin Dan and I both had a mug of coffee made at home and breakfast bars from stockpile for breakfast.
2. We both took our lunches to work and that included our drink.
3. I’m working on my menu for the rest of the month to include stockpiled items
4. We had sandwiches for dinner! I got home a little too late to make anything elaborate and my darlin Dan actually loves bologna sandwiches(yuck).
NOTHING OOP TODAY!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Taking the Challenge

I read a very interesting blog entry at Frugal makes Cents. She has started a challenge to herself and anyone else who wanted to join her. Starting today, she is watching every penny like there will never be another one. She has made 7 challenge rules that she is going to be following. I’ve decided to join this challenge. I’ve got quite a stockpile now, and I think I can do this, with a few minor modifications.
1. Use my stockpile……this is easy!
2. Buy things if it is free or under $ .25. I’m thinking maybe $.50 to start and see how I do.
Exceptions are good-milk, eggs, produce, TP, meat, fish, poultry, and juice. I’m adding bread (from day old bread store) and tortillas-with coupons of course.
3. If I’m missing an ingredient for a recipe-substitute with something I do have.
4. Limit sodas and junk food.
5. Trying to make things from scratch will be ultra challenging for me-I work 2 jobs! I will most likely pass on this one-exceptions are pinto beans, low carb sweets!!
6. DO NOT WASTE FOOD!
7.I will update daily on how I’m doing and how I’m trying to save money.

Thanks Precious at Frugal makes Cents!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Some Freebies at WAGS this week

This week I'm grabbing the scunci ponytail holders, toothbrushes,(with lots of .75 man. Q) and Fibersource tabs for free! I'm rolling my RR's from Edge, Skintimate, toothpaste, and chapstick.
I've grabbed a couple of chex mix bags at .49 after a .50 man. Q.
I scored a 1 gb scan disk memory card! These are reg. 19.99 -on sale for 9.99 and get a 5.00RR.
I used a 3.50RR from the toothbrush deal, paid 7.02 on my GC and got back a 5.00 RR!!

Monday, April 6, 2009

CLEARANCE DEALS AT CVS

I need to use my $5/$25 coupon that was expiring. We walked into our fav CVS and the manager commented that she was putting the telescopes on clearance. I WAS ABLE TO SNAG 4 TELESCOPES AT $1.49 EACH!! I also got 1 wine rack table for $2.49!! So I was able to use 5/25 coupon easier than I thought it was going to be-got my free easter baskets and grass. Got my free skintimate and almost free toothpaste. I grabbed 2 monster energy drinks on sale 2/$3 and 2 bags of the .99 plastic Easter eggs. I think I bought something else-but can't remember! I did spent $11 and change OOP and $8.99 ECB's. Got back $13+ ECB-with my quarterly spending.