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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com just sent me an e-mail that one of the
restaurants I have a certificate for has changed their
restrictions. I have a certificate that says $35 minimum
purchase and they now changed it to a $50 minimum!
That's a big difference! Also they are adding a 18% gratuity
to this before discounts. They will not honor this on Fri and Sat
any longer. Wow do they want to keep our business ? Isn't
it customary for the restaurant to at least make an exception
and honor those already purchased? This is crazy! I didn't know
Restaurant.com allows these changes after the fact. This is just
an FYI in case you didn't know this also.

I like restaurant.com . I think it does save money. I admire that they
do send e-mails. They did give me the option to trade that certificate
for another and I will. I do think however that they should not allow
changes after being purchased.

Friday, February 20, 2009

CVS this week



2 stayfree maxi pads
2 Colgate toothpaste
1 mylanta (FINALLY jeesh!!!)
1 razor
1 bag cvs cotton rounds
milk
2 boxes crackers
bread


Spent about $1.50 (mostly tax)
Paid with ecbs . I did lose about
$5 ecb but I was expecting this.
I needed the milk and bread though.

High School Musical

HSM3 Pictures, Images and Photos

Target:

Target has a great deal if your child likes High School Musical.
Buy a High School Musical 3 dvd and a High School musical doll,
get a $10 gift card. There is a $5 off coupon for the dvd you can use
to sweeten the deal.
Here's how it plays out:
Buy a HSM doll at 9.99
Buy the HSM3 dvd 15.99
-5.00 coupon
______________________________
pay oop ............$21.00 Get a $10 gift card

Thanks Cherrypicker for this! You can find a link to
her blog in my sidebar and read more about this.

Recycle ink cartridges at Staples

Staples will recycle ANY ink cartridges now. I just turned in
5 and made $3 a piece on them. Sign up for their rewards
card and you can turn in up to 10 ink cartridges a month.
That's a potential $30.00! The rewards are sent by mail
quarterly and must be redeemed at Staples.

The best part of this is that I bought 2 of the ink cartridges
for .50 a piece at Goodwill. Staples will pay me $6 so that's a
$5 profit.

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"Big fat checks" today

Have you been using Ebates to do your online shopping?
I just got my "big fat check" as they call it. This is great timing
for me. I could really use it this week!

Dr. Pepper coupon for FREE bottle!

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Get a coupon for a free Dr. Pepper! If you haven't done so already :(
Go here:http://www.coupons.com/ pg.7

Biglots coupons

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Sign up for the buzzclub newsletter on Biglots.com
They will send you printable coupons fron time to
time. I just got one for 20% off your entire order.
Good Feb. 22

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Budget update

This is just an update on my budget for this week.
I wrote about how tight my budget will be and how
we will be short this month. I planned on using some
ebay money to put towards this but my husband
spent it on me for Valentines day (How can I be
mad about that ?) This does leave me back to
square one though.

Here are some things that I hope will come
this month:

Ebates........................ $18.00 Got $18.54
Olay rebate............... $20.00 Gift card
Circuit City rebate.....$20.00 Will I ever see this one?

We have a couple things on ebay but who knows if and
for exactly how much this will bring.
I managed to get milk , snacks and bread at CVS for
tax only.
I cut our weekly spending from $100 to $70.

Hope I can figure out more ways!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

No coupons today

There will be no coupon inserts in Sunday's paper due
to President's day :(



Friday, February 13, 2009

Tight Budget

I am on a very tight budget for the next few weeks.
It will be challenging for me to not only stay in our
budget but to try to come up with about $ 300 more.
Our Columbia gas bill has really set me back! Ouch !
My electric bill was about $50 higher than normal,
I Paid some medical expenses that I wasn't expecting,
I have 2 birthday parties this week, Valentines day
and I forgot that the Allied Waste bill was coming this
month. AGHHHHHH!!!!!!!



My plan is to cut down my grocery budget for a few weeks.
Maybe avoiding the store all together. I may need to get
creative in getting the perishable items we use each week.
I will most likely get what I can at CVS since I have ECBs
to use up. I am planning on using what I have on hand for
dinners and lunches. I have a whole turkey in the freezer.
This may be a good time to make it since I can use it to
make a couple meals.


I have a little money from some ebay sales. I will use that.
Is that going to bring me to $300? ..............I wish :(
I am guessing I'll have to come up with about $150 more.
I'll let you know how I come up with it. I could withdraw it
from my savings but I'm trying not to. We'll see.

1/2 off book store paid me again!


I took in about 25 magazines and 1/2 off books paid me for them.
Ok , you don't make a fortune but it all helps.

What's in the mail?

I haven't done this in awhile!!!

I continue to get alot of magazines in the mail.
I just took 25 of them to 1/2 off book store.
That should give you an idea of how many I get.
Here are a couple of my favorite things I've gotten
this month......


A make up bag, Crest headband , Coupon for a free Sauve shampoo
and a couple magazines:)

Where has Walgreen's love gone?

It seems like we haven't gotten any 5/xx coupons from them in awhile.
We were getting them every week . Don't they love us anymore?
Haha.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

My first Kroger and Meijers trip

I've been reading about all the savings everyone seems to get at
Krogers and Meijers. I have to admit I've been a little jealous
that I don't have those stores in my town. However, I do have
them out of town. To get there it takes me about 35-40 minutes.
I know, I know ...What about the gas? Well its almost all highway
miles and the gas prices have been good. This is not something I'll
do often only when its worth my time.

This did take ALOT of planning but I think I did ok. What do think?





Meijers:

1st: 2 bags cheese sticks
5 boxes fruit gushers
2 jars Skippy
Redi-Serve nuggets
2 Chex Mix bars
6 boxes waffles
1 box of Cheerios
_____________-$8 (coupons)
Total: 18.99 got a $3.50 oyno coupon


2nd: 1 bag of cheese sticks
5 fruit gushers
2 boxes of Cheerios
______________-6 (coupons)
Total: 7.67 +3.50 oyno


3rd: Cookies from the bakery ( for Valentines day)
________________-3.50 coupon
Total: 1.99

Kroger:


10 (4pks) TP
9 cans Chefboyrdee
10 cans Kroger sauce
3 jars Ragu
10 Ramen noodles
1 Dr.Pepper
1 hotdog bun
2 bullion cubes
2 banquet dinners
2 boxes pizza rolls
1 can diced tomatoes
2 containers of strawberries
4 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch
2 boxes Go-gurts
2 bags Kroger Tortilla chips
2 bags of Wacky Mac
eggs
___________________-17.78 (saved $43 total)


Total: 36.64

All and all I spent about $65 and saved about $85




Sunday, February 8, 2009

Last minute shopping


CVS: 2 Stayfree pads
1 box of crackers
Had a b1g1 coupon for the stayfree = -3.99
--------------------------------------------
6.13 used $6 ecbs = oop of .13
Walmart:
2 Progresso soups
2 pairs of shorts (childrens)
1 pair capri pant (childens)
2 (1.10) coupons = -2.20
____________________
$10.34 oop
Giant Eagle:
2 French's mustard
2 (.50) coupons = - 2.00
___________________
oop $1 got $ 1 oyno
2 boxes mac-n-cheese
3 powerades
3 (40) coupons for Powerade = -2.40
save oyno from above = -$1.00
______________________
oop .49
In all I spent about $12.oo for all this. Not bad considering the cute
pants I got my daughter ( $3 clearance sale).
The mustard at GE prints out $1 oyno when you buy 2. A good deal
if you use coupons . They are on sale 2($3) until Wed.

Great Giant Eagle Trip



Sorry so late posting this:(
This was last weekend:

4 boxes popcorn
2 blocks cheese
2 bags shredded cheese
3 bags Quakes rice cakes
4 boxes Wheat Thins
4 cans Hunts sauce
4 cans Manwich
3 loaves of bread
1 bag hotdog buns
6 boxes fruit roll ups
2 packs of gum

I can't remember the total of hand but it was under 20.00. I believe about $16.00.
I was very happy with the cheese and fruit roll up deals:)