Slow Week at Wags-Next week better

I've hardly been to Wags this week. The deals are few and far between this week. I'm looking forward to next week. There are some moneymakers or freebies.

Walgreens-deals thanks to Frugalsuz
SUNDAY 1/31 ONLY: Accu-Chek Compact Plus Care Kit or Accu-Chek Aviva Care Kit $14.99, use $10 coupon (11/8 SS) and $5 Walgreens coupon (from Diabetes & You Mag, expires 1/31) = $5 profit
SUNDAY 1/31 ONLY: Lypsyl $2.99 (reg price?), use $1 coupon and submit for $2 rebate (10/25 SS, expires 1/31) and get back $2 RR = $2.01 profit
Bayer Contour Blood Glucose Meter $14.99, use coupon (10/25 RP) and get back $10 RR = $10 profit
Blink Tears $7.99, use $2 coupon (1/31 RP) and get back $8 RR = $2 profit
Scalpicin Medicated Wipes (12 pk) $5.99, use $1 coupon and get back $6 RR = $1.01 profit
Zicam Cold Sore Gel Swabs (10 ct) $10, use $3 coupon (found on package) and get back $7 RR = FREE
Vitamin Water Lip Care $1.99 (Acai 0.14 0z., Dragon Fruit 0.14 oz., Fruit Punch 0.14 oz., Lemonade 0.14 oz or Strawberry Kiwi 0.14 oz.), get back $2 RR = FREE
Joint Juice (30 pouch box) $10, use BOGO coupon and get back $10 RR = two for FREE

I paid a visit to the 99 cent only store

I thought I would check out the 99 cent only store today. Darlin Dan and I are back on our low carb diet and this means I have to do a little more grocery shopping than I've been doing. I picked up some pork skins, lettuce, soy sauce, olive oil, etc. I enjoyed my field trip.

Tonight I made some yummy Chicken Enchilada soup. The recipe was posted on Hungry Girl this week and I just had to try it. Low carbish and had an interesting ingredient-canned pumpkin.

Making some low carb bread

I made some low carb bread in my bread maker today. Yum!!

Sunday is for shopping

I made it to CVS and Walgreens today. At CVS, I picked up my Sunday papers and some of their best deals. I got some free ivory bar soap, almost free crest toothpaste, almost free Ester-c. I got some canned cat food for Izzy. I found my deals on I heart CVS. I'm still wanting more soy joys and oust spray, but having some difficulty finding them.

At Walgreens I got free Pert Plus for men, Sure Deod. for men, and Reach toothbrush. I found by Wags deals at I heart Wags. It's going to be a slow week at WAGS.

I made some low carb bread tonight in the bread maker. Yum.

Earned 2 $25 Target GCs!

Here's my Darlin Dan sitting in our little piece of heaven-our balcony on the cruise ship Ecstacy. We were still at the pier in Galveston, Texas.


I sent off for 2 $25 Target GCs today. I earned one for my Chase rewards and one for Healthmiles. I simply wear a pedometer everyday and plug it into the computer. It magically tabulates my steps and when I reach so many, I get rewarded. I like GCs!

We're Home

We are home from our wonderful 5 night cruise to Mexico. We had an absolutely brilliant time. The weather was so perfect. Sunny and warm in Progresso and Cozumel. We are planning to do it again next year! How about cruisin with coupons! If I save $3 a day for 365 days, I can buy a cruise for 2 to Mexico with a balcony room!

I plan to order my nifty Walgreens calendar with my cruise pix today! That will make a great reminder of our great trip.

Darlin Dan and I will be starting a strict low carb diet starting Monday......cruise food kinda wrecked our diet-but that's okay cuz it's time to settle down and cut out the sugar.

Get your Pepsi this week at CVS

I was able to run to CVS yesterday before we left for our cruise. They have a great deal on Pepsi products this week- buy $20 get $10EBs. The pepsi 12 packs are 3/$10 this week. So I bought 6 12 packs for $20, used the 5/20 coupon I saw on I heart CVS . I also bought 2 Ousts with this purchase and used the BOGO coupon. So I used my $14 in EBs that I already had and about $5OOP and got back $16 EBs! I turned around and bought the diet spray for $7.99 and a box of soyjoy for $6 and my 9 newspapers-used my $16 in EBs and about $15 OOP and got back $13.99 in EBs.
So I bought 6 12 packs of pepsi, 2 Ousts, 1 diet spray thingie, 1 box of soyjoys and 9 newspapers for about $20!! I was going to spend $18 on newspapers anyway and this worked out WAY better!
Bon Voyage for now!

Fast shopping trip before cruise

We are heading out to Houston today. We are spending the night with sis and then hopping aboard ship tomorrow. We're Mexico bound. We will be enjoying our balcony!

Yesterday, I went to CVS and grabbed some Soy Joys and Oust. I needed to spend some EBs that are expiring while we are away. We got my car inspected using a coupon and spent $0. This shop also checked my check engine light that had suddenly lit up. He said my coolant was low. He topped off my antifreeze and reset the light for free. We were so happy = Darlin Dan gave them $5 to go get coffee(isn't he sweet).


I will be running to Walgreens today to spend some RRs that will be expiring before we get back.

I will also be buying 9 Sunday papers before we leave.

Getting ready for our cruise

It's been a very busy week. Work has been hectic, and I have to have everything in order before we leave for our cruise. I have not been able to shop very much this week. I'm hoping to go tomorrow and Sunday before we leave for Galveston.
Our dinners this week have been very simple. Monday was tuna sandwiches, Tuesday was pizza, Wednesday was grilled cheese sandwiches, Thursday was Chicken fajita tacos, and tonight we had Chilequiles-breakfast for supper. Chilequiles are delicious. I cut up some corn tortillas and fry them to make homemade tortilla chips. I add them to scrambled eggs, pico de gallo and cheese. YUM.
I am still coughing. It isn't as bad as it was and I'm hopeful that I'll be ok for the cruise.
2 days til our cruise to Mexico!

Sharing good deals with friends

I belong to a Beading group. We get together once a month at my friends house and work on our latest jewelry project. She is so hospitable, always opening her house and giving us something good to eat. Last night, she served a yummy clam chowder! Here is the best part.....She also always gives me her newspaper coupon inserts! She saves all of her Sunday inserts for the month and hands them over to me. So, I take her some of the great deals of the month. I have a saying, those who give me coupons, will reap the rewards! I take her a bag of goodies to enjoy. This month I put in Infusiom, milk of magnesia, thermacare, ritz crackers, etc. Isn't she the best?

Great WAGS day

I set out this morning thinking I would burn some RRs to get the items for the J and J rebate offer. I had written down a scenario that was going around the blogs and got my coupons ready.

Little did I know that this items would be BOGO instead of B1g1 half off. So I ended up having to make another transaction to get to my $30 amount to get my rebate. This sounds incredible, but I actually didn't have to burn any RRs my 1st transaction and just $4RRs my 2nd transaction. I did these transactions while buying the bayer monitors so I made alot of RRs in my deals.

I don't know if every WAGS is offering these products BOGO, but the 2 WAGS I went to did.

I bought the small 6 oz. bottle of Lubriderm, small 2.5 oz. bottle of Aveeno lotion, and clean and clear items. All of these rang up BOGO. I wanted to grab the RoC cleansers, but both stores were sold out.

I ended up with 4 lubriderms. 7 aveeno lotions, and 4 clean and clear scrubs.

All these after BOGO added up to $31+. Then after all my coupons-hang on - -$2+!

Now I'm going to send in for my $10 rebate.

With my overage from the coupons-I think it was the Lubriderm coupons that gave me overage-

I bought thermacare (RR deal) and Bic shavers (BOGO and coupons =$2 for 2 packages).

Plaaning Walgreens shopping for this week

I've been reading the blogs today, finding the Walgreenws deals for this week. Here's some of my favs-
Thermacare $2.49 get a $2.50RR (free)

Colgate Maxfresh or Maxwhite $2.99 get a $2RR, use $ .75 q from 1/3ss ( .24)

dryel at home 4 pack starter kit $7.99 get a $3RR' use $2IP ($2.99)

Bic disp razors 2/$10 use BOGO Q 1/10ss and $3/2 walgreens Q-Jan Q book (2/$2)

Loreal Preference color 2/$13 w/in ad Q, use 2 $3 Qs 1/10RP and $3 Wags Q from Jan Q book (2/$1)

I'm also looking at the J & J rebate get $10 WYB $30-buying Lubriderm, Aveeno, and RoC. Wish me luck.

Tonight we had a turkey pot pie. Used some turkey from Christmas. We enjoyed playing our Wii today with the girls. I finally put away the Christmas tree and decorations.

Nice Saturday with Darlin Dan-shopping and cooking

Darlin Dan and I went to 2 Walgreens today to get a couple of deals-the milk of magnesia deal and the q-tips deal. We were successful with grabbing the deals and went home to make dinner from our stockpile. It has been a great week at Walgreens and I never got to CVS this week.
I made a potato and ham casserole for dinner. It was really easy and delicious, made with our left over Christmas ham we had put in the freezer. I also made some bread maker bread for dinner and some banana bread for snacking. We had some very ripe bananas that were perfect for banana bread. I used a recipe I've had for 30 years. We've spent the aftenoon and evening watching TV- watching the Cowboys win!

Walgreens Moneymaker

I'm sitting at my desk eating my soup and wanted to share a money maker deal at WAGS.
I read this somewhere (on someone's blog or forum) and this deal works because I did it early this morning.
Buy 3 -4 oz philips milk of magnesia on sale this week for $1.99
use 3 - $1 coupons from 1/3 smart source
get back $6 RR!

so its 5.97-3.00=$2.97 get back $6RR=$3.03 MM

This morning I bought-
electrosol $3.49 ($2.50q)
3 glade candles 2.50ea. = $7.50 (1 $2q and 1 $3/2q)
sensodyn $3.49 (in ad q and $1q)
3 milk of magnesia 1.99 each = 5.97 (3 $1qs)
3 clearance ornament hooks .17 each = $ .51
2 big roll toilet paper .89 each(in ad c. makes it $ .50) = $ 1.78
=$22.44 - $ 14.28 in coupons(man. and Wags in ad) - $8RR(4 $2 chips ahoy RRs) = $ .16 OOP. Then I received a $1RR for electrosol, $4RR for candles, and $6 for milk of magnesia for a total of $11 in RRs.

Southern Plate's Tomato Soup

Darlin Dan loves sandwiches, so we can eat sandwiches for dinner when nothing has been planned and we want to eat fast. Tonight we had grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Southern Plate had a great recipe for tomato soup today and I made it except I didn't have diced tomatoes, so I just added a can of tomato sauce. It really hit the spot on a very cold night.
It's so easy-
can of tomato soup
can of milk
tablespoon of pesto
can of petite diced tomatoes-didn't have so added a can of tomato sauce instead
just heat it all up together and it's ready!
Our dinner was pretty much all bought at Walgreens. I bought the tomato soup when it was on sale, tomato sauce as a filler, and the turkey and cheese that is a deal this week. I bought the milk and bread this week at Walgreens also. I had the pesto in the fridge-it lasts forever.

Now the TV is on the big football game-GO LONGHORNS!

Buying my groceries at Walgreens

I so wish Walgreens had fresh produce and meat-I would probably never go to the grocery store. I spend alot of time at Walgreens gettin' my deals. This week at Walgreens I'm grabbing some of the grocery deals-



1. buy 3 lunch items for $7.50 and get a $2.50RR

I bought 2 lunch meats and 1 kraft american cheese and used $1/2 coupon for the deli fresh Turkey and the $ .55 coupons for the cheese=$5.95-$2.50RR=$3.45



2. buy 2 Special K cereals for 2/$5.00 and get a $2.00RR

I bought 2 regular Special K boxes and used $1/2 coupons

$5-$1coupon-$2RR=$2 for 2 boxes



3. canned peaches for $ .89

use in ad coupon since these are regular way over priced! I just like canned peaches and needed a filler for my coupon count



4. coffee mate coffee creamer 2/$3

buy 2 and use 2 $ .50 coupons

$3-$1= $2 for 2 creamers



5. 2 chips ahoy cookies small package on sale for $ .99

$1.98 and get $2RR back!



6. Milk $2.89-not on sale but we needed some and I've never had trouble buying milk with RRs



I've worked these deals with moneymaker deals (glade candles and glucose monitors) at WAGS this week so my cash OOP is low.



This week I'm also loving free toothbrushes, electrosol, and cheap Stayfree.

1st Walgreens deal of 2010

Ok, so I get to WAGS bright and early-7:15 and some great deals-spent $1.84 cash OOP, $16.78 in man. coupons, $12 in Walgreens in-ad Qs, and $5 in last weeks RRs for $35.62 worth of goodies. Oh, and I got $6 back in RRs!



Sensodyne pronamel

electrasol

reach toothbrush x 2

stayfree pads x 2

chips ahoy cookies x 2

glade candles x 2

To the Dr. X 2

Okay, so now I've spent $200 in 4 days on my cough! It was decided that I have Bronchitis. With antibiotics, breathing treatments, cought pearls, and Mucinex DM, I am starting to feel like myself again. I think that I might be able to sleep in my own bed for the entire night tonight. Maybe I will feel like a shopping trip to Walgreens tomorrow. I gotta grab the deals.

2010 Money Saving Challenge

Precious at Frugal Makes Cents has inspired me. I'm up for this one! I've started a 2010 journal to keep a record of everything that is spent. Darlin Dan isn't too thrilled about this, but I told him I can pretty much track his spending from the debit card. I think that this will be a real eye opener for us. (I started out the New Year by spending $75 on Dr. and medine for my BAD cough.)

2009
We have really tried to be more frugal in 2009. We paid some very large bills and kept our heads above water. I convinced Darlin Dan that couponing was a very good thing by 1. making great money at 2 garage sales by selling my drugstore game deals, 2. being able to set up a stockpile "Jeri's convenience store" in a spare bedroom, 3. being able to give bags and boxes of items away to family and friends, 4. almost never having to run to the store for something we've run out of because I've stocked up on it when it was on sale at CVS, Walgreens, Target, and sometimes Walmart using coupons, RRs, EBs, and gift cards. We have eaten more at home. Before starting the money saving challenge in 2009, we would not think twice about "picking something up" for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. We started grabbing breakfast bars for breakfast, fixing a to go lunch, and just plain old eating what we have in the fridge, freezer, pantry for dinner. This puts a bigger burden on me to come up with something to prepare. Darlin Dan is a sweetie and would be happy with a good old sandwich.

2010
We do spend some money on travel. We have already discussed 2010. We have decided to limit our travel to 2 big trips this year that are already planned and paid for. We are going on a cruise this month that is already paid for and our spending money is in savings. We have booked a week at the coast in the summer that is paid for. I plan to do what I did last year and stockpile the food for our trip to the coast. We hardly spent any money last year during a whole week at the gulf coast! It was so much fun with the kids and grandkids. One big sleepover for a week.

We decided to start saving for some big bills that crop up. We have never been successful at being able to save for the future other than a 403B that is automaticallly taken out of my paycheck! We are starting small. $25 goes into the savings automatically-everytime one of us gets a pay check. This adds up to about $125 a month. We've decided that if we have no problems with this, we will increase to $30 a pay check. Darlin Dan gets a check for any usage of his truck and he automatically puts this in savings for our travel. The amount is always different and depends on if he actually uses his truck. A van is available for him to use and if it is free, he uses it. This will now be part of our savings too. We plan to have some garage sales this year. This money will automatically go into the savings.

I am very excited about our plan!

Happy New Year

I started out the new year by visiting the Dr. Yes. I spent $35 for the visit and $40 for prescription medicine on Jan. 1, 2010. I hope that is not a sign of things to come! (I had a really bad night and my body is so sore from coughing that I decided I needed some stronger medicine to lick this junk.)