4th stop, Walgreens. 2 Depends Fit Kit, 2 Kleenex tissues. Spent $3.27, saved $6.29.

First stop Walgreens. Got 6 packs Huggies wipes, 2-2 count packs Avent pacifiers, 6 packs Depends, 2 packs toilet paper, 1 bottle antacids, 3 caramels. Spent $18.29, saved $23.75. All items (except caramels) that I need! Imagine paying $42.04 instead on the same stuff!

Finally got a response from Kimberly-Clark regarding the Huggies Little Movers coupons

CoupoNewbie: Kimberly-Clark Corporation (United States)
I have a question on the Huggies Little Movers diapers coupon that came out in this past week's paper. Is it valid on the Huggies Little Movers Slip On diapers? I was told by a store that the Huggies Little Movers Slip On diapers, even though the packaging says diapers, is considered a pull up and not a diaper. Is this accurate? Thank you.
· Wednesday at 1:49pm ·


Kimberly-Clark Corporation (United States) Hi CoupoNewbie: Thanks for your interest in our diapers! We periodically offer coupons for both Huggies Little Movers diapers and Huggies Little Movers Slip-On diapers. You will find unique coupons for each diaper style (hint—watch for a coupon next month for Huggies Little Movers Slip-On diapers).
Wednesday at 5:35pm ·
 

CoupoNewbie

Ok, I understand that, but it still does not really answer my question. My question was is the recent coupon that states "Little Movers Diapers" also valid on the "Little Movers Slip On Diapers." The package clearly states these are also diapers, but the manager of the store I went to stated that the Kimberly-Clarck Corporation considers these a pull-up.

Also, if these are a pull-up, why keep Pull-Ups on the market when they are also a Kimberly-Clark Corporation product?
Wednesday at 5:38pm ·

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (United States) Hi Dawn: We consider both products to be diapers, but they are unique styles with separate coupons. If you have additional questions, please call our Consumer Care team at 1-888-525-8388. Thanks.
23 hours ago ·

Just re-tried Walgreens for the Huggies Little Movers Slip-On diapers

Just got back home from re trying the deal from the Krazy Coupon Lady.  Two stores are quite different!  I called them both first, again because I really can't stand for long periods of time due to the pregnancy.  Here's what happened:

La Marque, TX:

I was told that they called Kimberly-Clark (the maker of Huggies) and KC supposedly claims that their Little Movers Slip-On are a Pull-Up, therefore does not qualify for reimbursement if the coupon for Little Movers is used on the Slip-On style.  I had to ask them a few times about this because the packaging clearly states "diaper."  Wouldn't this be false advertising on KC's part?  Also why keep Pull-Ups around if the Little Movers Slip-On are pull-ups and not diapers, in their opinion?  The only, and I do mean only, reason I even stopped at this Walgreens was because the manager told me he would be willing to put the IVC code from the Infant Care Booklet for a further discount.  Sorry, but $0.50 off is NOT the same as $2.00 off.  I'll try another store.

Texas City, TX:

Spoke with the manager, Angela, before I went in.  She was at least willing to attempt to scan the coupon to see if it would match up.  Guess what?  It did.  Not only did the $2.00 off Little Movers work for the Slip-On style, but also the $1.50 off *any* Huggies diapers coupon worked.  Unfortunately, she wasn't willing to type in the IVC code from the Infant Care Booklet.  I purchased my diapers there anyway.  I'd much rather get $10.50 off  from manufacturer coupons than $3.00 off from the Infant Care Booklet and $12.00 off from the February Coupon Book.  Of course, $25.50 off would've been ideal, but I'll take $22.50 if I have to ;)  

I paid out of pocket $34.03 with a total savings of $40.50.  Instead of $11.99 per pack, I paid $4.99 for 3 packs and $5.49 for 3 packs.  

I'm still waiting to hear from Kimberly-Clark's Facebook page.  The customer service rep wasn't much help, so I'm hoping someone monitoring their Facebook page will actually do research instead of supposing what's true and what isn't.

This is something I should've posted here on 2/7/12

Today at Walgreens, Target and CVS should've been $94.67 out of pocket. Instead I paid $22.53. That includes getting 18 packs of Depends Fit Kit packages, cat litter, cat food, 3 Scrubbing Bubbles 1 Step Toilet Cleaner Starter Kits, 6 candy hearts, night light bulbs, water, a doughnut, diapers, and a Lunchables.

Somehow I also managed to get a 25 minute massage in while PreK Newbie was in preschool too for all of 3 hours.

Did I mention I'm 7 1/2 months pregnant?

I'm wiped out!

More Walgreens issues

My poor blog.  So neglected unless I have something to complain about.  Oh, well it didn't help that this pregnancy has been so completely hard on me physically.  Medically, it's been pretty textbook and rocking awesome, but physically... not so much.  I can't walk around much, I can't stand much, my hips have been hurting like crazy since I was 2 months along and I still have a month to go.  :(

I don't know why I continue to bother with Walgreens.  I do, but still.  I go there to get cheap diapers with their sales, in store coupons, and manufacturer coupons.  Why do they make it so difficult when they actually allow you to combine all these items according to their coupon policy?

Yesterday, I was denied using a manufacturer coupon for Huggies Little Movers (2/12 SS) because I had selected the Slip-On style. I was in too much pain (despite only being in the store for 10 minutes, tops) to argue. Today I've seen a photo of the item I was planning to purchase thanks to the Krazy Coupon Lady. Apparently the Slip-On style is also Little Movers. How was this an incorrect purchase? Planning to make an appearance today in order to get what I had tried to get in the first place, completely legitimately. Hopefully I'll also find the Infant Care book in order to get care book in order to save an additional $0.50. I already have the coupon from the February coupon book to save $2.00 and the $2.00 MFGR coupon. It'll make each pack $4.49 after the sale price of $8.99 and coupons instead of the original cost which is probably close to $11/pack.

I also plan to get PreK Newbie a Beanie Boo from Valentine's day, marked down of course.  He's addicted to those things, and at $5 each, they're only for special occasions!  He has 5 already and is constantly asking for more.  I'll get him 1 today and a few more when he's in PreK tomorrow to put into the gift closet.  We're having a girl this time so even if he grows out of the Beanie Boos, I can save them for her. 

Cheap baby wipes at Walgreens

I really hate going to my home Walgreens.

When I say hate, I mean hate.

Last year I lived in Pearland.  I got kicked out for trying to keep my son in the shopping cart.  I had to raise my voice.  Other shoppers threatened to call CPS on me.  Management kicked me out.  Of course, I called corporate.  I never heard back from that store after the incident.  I also never shopped there again.

This year I live closer to Galveston.  I've had one woman try to tell me that it's illegal to get overage on any coupons.  She said it was fraud.  I tried to tell her that it's not, according to the CIC.  She said I just don't know enough about coupons.  There's another lady that always works the front register.  She insists on scanning each coupon as the item is scanned.  Of course, this makes a 3 minute checkout stretch out to about half an hour.  It's just ridiculous!

Nonetheless, I found a deal posted by Wild for Wags that I couldn't pass up.  I gathered my coupons, which were $0.50 off 1, not $1.00 off 2, and headed to Wags.

I stepped inside and worried because the item-coupon scanner was the only one at any registers.  No one was at photo, no one was at makeup.  Uh-oh.

Even so, my transaction went smoothly.  I was expecting some sort of problem with using 2 Walgreen's coupons, just because that particular cashier works in those ways.  No hassle.  It took $6.00 off per Walgreens coupon.  All in all, I got 3 packages of Huggies wipes in the 216 count for $4.87.  Awesome!  

Walgreens advertised savings: $9.00

Manufacturer coupon savings: $13.50

Your total savings $22.50

Not too bad considering 1 pack of these wipes cost $8.99 normally.  I scored 3 for close to half that price!

And, there's a specific reason why I need these baby wipes now.  I do have a 4, almost 5 year old.  They're great for quick wipe ups still!  There's another reason, though.  Come March, Baby Newbie will be joining us!  <3 <3 <3  So far, Mom's very nauseated all.the.time.  Mom's also very tired all.the.time.  Nothing is getting cooked from scratch, everything's frozen meals.  While it's not good on our budget, it's better than ordering out every day, and you gotta do what you gotta do especially in the 1st trimester and 8th month. 

Today at Walgreens

 

2 Tylenol Precise, 8 cans of Friskies cat food, total $2.71 out of pocket. Saved $20.27.

I used 2- $5 off Tylenol Precise coupons from here and one $3 off Tylenol Precise coupon from the Walgreen's July coupon book in store to get they Tylenol Precise for $0.49 each.  

The Friskies were on sale 2 cans for $1.09 which isn't a great price in general, but the coupon expires today and I have cats that can use this food.  I used 4 buy 1 get 1 free coupon from the 3/27 Smart Source to get them 2 for $0.50 or $0.25 each.

You do have to watch when they scan your coupons.  My checker was convinced I had only given him 1 of the Tylenol Precise printables.  It was partly my fault for not having them separated them adequately, but I did ask him a number of times if he had scanned both of them.  I think he misunderstood and thought I meant the one manufacturer and one Walgreens coupon.  My total was over $7, so I knew something wasn't right.  We took another quick look at the receipt and sure enough only 1 $5 coupon had been scanned.  My checker was convinced I only had one, but he looked closer and found the other.  Whew!  So nice to see the numbers once it had been fixed.

Personal Question to the Coupon Information Corporation: Is Coupon Overage Fraud?

Walgreen's has done it again!  I went to the one in my local area which tends to be hit or miss for me regarding coupons.  There's one cashier in particular that says to me outright that she doesn't mind doing multiple transactions for me because more money saved is more money in my pocket and that helps everyone out.  I like her.  A lot.  I wish I knew her schedule.  I'd only shop when she was there.  The head manager is pretty cool too.  Over Christmas time when Wags changed their policy on the Super  Jingle Cash Register Rewards, the manager gave me $5 cash.  Cash, folks!  That can be used A-N-Y-W-H-E-R-E in the United States!  I was impressed!

The majority of the cashiers there are unfortunately like the one I had yesterday.  She gave me a difficult time rolling the register rewards and almost refused to allow me to use the $5 off 2 L'Oreal coupon on 2 discounted L'Oreal lipsticks.  I mean, come on!  This is ridiculous!  She then proceeded to tell me that overage is coupon fraud.  I told her I've researched it over and over.  It's not fraud.  She tried to tell me she was more versed in coupons than I was, so she was going to let it drop because she didn't want to argue.

Whatever.

This prompted me to contact the Coupon Information Corporation.  From their website:

The CIC is a not-for-profit association of consumer product manufacturers dedicated to fighting coupon misredemption and fraud.

The CIC and its members have worked with Federal, State and local Law Enforcement officials on every significant coupon fraud case since CIC began operations in 1986.

As of this time, CIC has not lost a single case.

Woo hoo!  Score!  If anyone can tell me a definitive answer, they can, right?  I contacted them on a Saturday and didn't expect an answer till Monday.  Wow was I mistaken!  I got an answer today (Sunday).

Comments:

I have a question on whether or not this constitutes coupon fraud. I am an avid couponer and I do not want to commit fraud, and I do not believe I am, but I would like clarification. If a coupon amount is larger than the amount of the product, is it fraudulent use on my part to use that coupon? Is the retailer required to give me the full coupon value? This mostly, but not always, occurs when using a coupon on a clearance item, and sometimes, but not as frequently, on regularly priced or sale items.

For example.
$0.97 Reach Dental Floss
$1.00 Reach Manufactures Coupon
--------
$0.03 profit for the consumer, normally "spent" on other items in the same transaction.

Normally the difference is small such as this one, but I have come across occurrences where it's even a matter of $1 to $2. Some stores are happy to give me the "overage" towards other items since they will be fully reimbursed for the coupon face value. Other stores have adjusted the value of the coupon down and kept the difference of the value of the coupon. Still others adjust the price of the product up so the coupon and the item is evenly priced. Would you please clarify this issue for me?

Thank you,
 ~CoupoNewbie

And their reply:

 Edmund Miller
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 9:53 AM

Thank you for your inquiry CoupoNewbie

This is an administrative problem that the industry has yet to resolve. As you noted, some stores provide overage, others do not and there are reasonable arguments for both sides. Regardless, the manufacturers generally do not consider this to be fraudulent in nature. OF course consumers have to abide by the terms and conditions of both the coupon and the stores' policies. Regardless of the position, I have never heard anyone in the industry suggest that type of activity is fraudulent.

Of course, stores have the ultimate authority on whether or not they are going to accept a coupon and how many from each person.

Best Wishes
Bud

Well, at least now I know for sure that I won't be committing fraud going to Wal-Mart or Kroger for the overage.  I don't like that Walgreens and Target have decided to pocket what probably ends up being hundreds of thousands of dollars in overage instead of passing it on to the consumer.  I mean, more money available means more items purchased and making their bottom line look better.  I mean, you can have the gross profit of having extra money for no product and extra product on your shelves leading to more items on clearance or getting rid of stuff in a timely manner.  I'd rather have my customers thinking I had fresh product more often than thinking I couldn't move items.

Anyone have any opinions?

What's for dinner tonight?

I have to admit that yesterday I wasn't a good, frugal girl. 

*gasp!*

Yes, sometimes it happens.  4PM rolls around and I realize that I haven't taken anything out of the freezer for dinner.  I HATE using the microwave to defrost meat because it tends to get cooked even in defrost mode. 

So, I ran to Kroger with the intent to buy only some meat and good deals if they had them.  I did pretty well.  I stuck to buying meat and WIC items mostly.  We were almost out of milk and the cereal wasn't going to spoil any time soon.  I held off on the WIC bread and juice for the day.  I picked up some mozzarella cheese.  Oh, can't forget the broccoli and bananas for PreK Newbie.

I still spent about $12, but most of that was on meat.  They had some killer deals on beef and pork chops.  I'm considering going back since it's right across the street from my closest Walgreens that I haven't checked on the Good Nites deal yet.  In fact, I'll do that.

I digress.  LOL.  I didn't do anything special with the meat, just fried in a pan with some salt and McCormic onion/garlic seasoning.  Boiled the broccoli and added some cheese.  Found some generic minute rice on the clearance aisle for $0.69 because when they opened the big box to stock it, this box was cut open.  Nice, inexpensive dinner.

Tonight?  It's time for something completely different (dang Monty Python references swimming in my head).  I decided to plug in all the ingredients I have into Super Cook.  Apparently with what I already have on hand I can make over 2,000 recipes!  Wow!  I'm definitely going to use this again.  Best of all?  It's totally FREE!  Going to try a little of this with a little of that on the side.  It's all gonna be served over rice.  I'm drooling just thinking about it!

Walgreens GoodNites clearance

Seriously, Y'all.  If you have a child that needs to wear Good Nites or if you have one that you'll be potty training soon, head over to Walgreens to get some of theirs while they last on clearance.  They've been marked down anywhere from $2.89-$3.19 a pack and paired with the $1.50 off coupon from coupons.com and some of the $2 off coupons from the free sample from Wal-Mart, it's a GREAT deal!  Ok, it was a pretty great deal before the coupons, but to get any sort of diapers for $0.89-$1.69 a pack really kicks money saving butt!

At this price it's also reasonable to donate these items.  I know that there are LOTS of shelters and places such as the Center for Pregnancy that helps out lower income moms that need help for their tots (I went to the Center for Pregnancy when I was pregnant with my son and they were SUCH an immense help - all I had to do was watch videos to earn "Baby Bucks" that were turned in for stuff we couldn't afford like a crib, clothes, food, or diapers).  Just something to consider in order to give back to the community for little cost of time or money.

Edited to add: you can also throw in the 15% off Friends and Family coupon here through August 4th to  make this deal even sweeter!  If you have manufacturer q's equal to the amount of Good Nites you're purchasing, you *might* need to add a filler item such as a $0.10 pencil just to allow all your q's to be used.  This would make each package a $0.75 money maker-$1.02 out of pocket each.  SWEET!

2nd Edited to add:  I found $1.50 off blinkies at Kroger last night.  Gonna get me some more if they're not sold out!  :^D

2 shopping trips today - Sat 7/24/10

Have I ever mentioned how much I love to go to Farmer's Markets?  Well, I'll reiterate that I LOVE to go to Farmer's Markets.  There's one in my area that's run every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month.  I've been going there instead of my weekly trips to Froberg's Fruit and Vegetable Farm because Froberg's has a booth there and right now the strawberry picking is on hold till December.  We won't be here in December except maybe to visit (and I'll want to take a trip out there if we do), so for now I'll get my fill at the booth bi-weekly.

 The Froberg's Farm booth at the Farmer's Market

Well, of course there are other vendors there too including Gardener's Corner which is a small association of gardeners that farm a little in their own back yard and pick some of the abundance of their veggies to sell.  I normally like to get my cucumbers there because they can easily last through the 2 weeks till the market is open again.  Granted, I know that if I went to the Froberg's actual farm I could get an entire1/2  peck of cucumbers that are "irregulars" for $1.00.  As much as I love cucumbers, I really can't go through that many so I can't justify the 30 minute one way drive for just cucumbers.

Here's what I got at the Farmer's Market.

From Froberg's:

• 1/2 peck of green beans
• 1/2 peck of small red potatoes
• 1/2 peck of peaches (found out later they weren't local... oh well)

$6.00

From Gardener's Corner:

• 2 cucumbers.  See the lower right hand corner?  I have one regular looking cucumber and two that are curvey.  I got the 2 curvey ones from Gardener's corner which is a group of local people that farm in their back yard.

$1.00

From another vendor:

• 1 cucumber
• 1 carrot
• 2 light green peppers

$1.00

From a final vendor that specialized in mostly oriental veggies:

• some leafy green that I can't remember the name of.  He gave me a recipe for it, but I can't find it for the life of me.  He said it's best in stir frys with some garlic and oil or served as a salad.  So looking forward to trying this!  (Edit: found the papers.  It's called Ong Choy)
• a gourd of some type that's light green and bumpy (lower left hand side).  Again, he gave me a recipe but I can't find it.  I WILL be eating this, though. (Edit: didn't get any papers on this one, but I'm gonna try it steamed with butter & salt)
• 1 small eggplant

$3.00

 The vendor that had lots of exotic veggies as well as well known ones

$11.00 total spent on all the produce above.

I stopped for a brief moment at Kroger, but mostly just to pick up some pancakes (I totally suck at making pancakes), syrup, and newspapers.  Nothing fancy and no coupons used.

Here's my proud moment for today.  I had a kid's birthday party to attend with PreK Newbie and hadn't picked up a gift yet.  I ran to Walgreens planning on only finding a gift and leaving, thrifty or not.  I wasn't planning on anything big or fancy for the trip, but when I walked in there was a whole cart of L'Oreal stairing at me, marked down to $2.49 a box.  I was there with Mother In Law Newbie who does like to try out colors on her hair.  I figured I'd grab my coupon binder and see if I could get her some cheap.  Well, I found $3.00 off coupons!  I told her I'd definitely buy them for her if she'd let me.  She was so cute.  She kept asking me if I was sure.  I love her!  I explained that Walgreens would actually be paying me $0.51 each box to take them out of the store for me!  She loved that idea and just let me do my thang ;)

I also insisted she get the color treated shampoos on the right but that was only because they were also a $0.51 money maker each.  The Royal pudding was on clearance for $0.09 each too.  Had to get them.  Oh, and the Fructice shampoo....  you guessed it.  Between a manufacturer coupon and Walgreen's coupon from the July coupon book it was also a $0.51 money maker!  All in all, I made $3.57 on just haircolor and shampoo.  Yeah, now I could buy what I needed.

• Goodnightes boxers on clearance for $8.99.  Used a $2.50 off coupon.  Paid $6.49.
• Birthday card $0.99 (not pictured)
• Birthday gift $9.99 (also not pictured)
• 8 Royal Pudding on clearance for $0.09 each.  Paid $0.72 for all of them
• 3 L'Oreal Haircolors at $2.49 each.  Used $3.00 off coupons.  -$1.53
• 3 L'Oreal color treated shampoos at $2.49 each.  Used $3.00 off coupons.  -$1.53
• Frutis color shampoo -$0.51 

Now, here is what I liked seeing...

Even after a year of couponing, I know there are some people that would've gone in and willingly spent $77.85 on all of the above items.  Why?  Seriously?  The Return of Investment in clipping coupons is so high that it honestly doesn't make sense not to use them!  Isn't there something else you could do with the $61.99 saved on a trip such as this one?  I know I sure have plenty!  :)

Dollar General & Walgreens run on Saturday

Allright, so because of some things that needed to be done, we spent last night at my in-laws house. Thing is... I forgot to bring dog food with us. Ugh! Well, it's not like I didn't need some at home anyway. We took a quick run to Dollar General to pick some up. I remembered that Dollar General accepts coupons, so brought that with me. Let me tell you, Dollar General is NOT friendly to people that come in with backpacks and large bags! I use a backpack instead of a purse. It's more me. I just prefer it and have for years. More than once I've been asked to leave my backpack at the front counter and I've explained that they wouldn't require a lady to leave their purse there, so they shouldn't require me to leave my backpack either. I'm not a student coming in after school. Those "rules" are for the kids that come in, not adults. I also explain how I'll hold the store liable for the contents of my bag should it get stolen or rifled through. I've got my ID's, debit cards, and checks in there, just as if it was a purse. They try to tell me it's not their concern and I retort that it's not my concern to leave it with them either. At this point they either tell me it's fine for me to proceed or tell me they won't bend their rules. I have left at this point and given my money to other stores on more than one occasion I figure it's their loss.

This trip, I did get a couple of looks because of what I carried in with me, but no one asked me to surrender my belongings. I'll accept that. I didn't have any coupons for the dog foods they had, but at least they did have a cheap product. I did have a coupon for the dog bone treats, making them pretty cheap, which is why I did bother with them.

Dollar General:
Ever Pet General dog food: $2.00
Milk Bone Dog Biscuits: $2.60

Used a $2.00 off Milk Bone Coupon
Paid $2.60 out of pocket (there was probably some tax, but I can't find the receipt)

Walgreens:
3 Sunday Houston Chronicle newspapers $6.00
2 Tylenol Simply Sleep (for the overage after coupons) $5.98
1 pack of L&M cigarrettes not pictured $3.98 (I think)

Used 2 Tylenol printable coupons for $2.00 off each and 2 Tylenol Simply Sleep $1.50 off coupons from the March coupon book giving me $1 overage toward my order.

Once I find the receipt I'll update the full details, but at Walgreens it was something like $9.50 spent and $14.00 saved.

Couple of updates 3/9/10:
The dog food wasn't actually a deal. Coupon Doggie won't eat it. Grrrr. Coupon Kitty actually took a few bites, which is really weird.

Found the receipts:

Dollar General
Milk Bone Medium Dog Biscuits $2.60, used $2.00 off coupon, paid $0.60
Everpet Basics Dog food $2.00
Out of pocket $2.60

Walgreens
2-Simply Sleep 24 count $2.99 each, used two $2.00 off manufacturer coupons and 1 coupon from the March Walgreens coupon book, $1.00 money maker
3-Houston Chronicles $6.00
L&M King's $3.95
Out of pocket $9.26
Walgreens advertised savings: $7.35
Manufacturer coupon savings: $7.00
Total savings: $14.35 OMG those few items would have been $23.61 - and to think some people willingly pay that!)

Walgreens - SO MUCH STUFF FOR FREE!!!!

I'm going to be completely blunt here. This week, we're totally broke. Mr. Newbie's work comp didn't kick in and won't until next week (cross fingers), so we had to spend our emergency fund on rent. Our emergency fund wasn't even at $100 yet (we're striving for $1,000). Fortunately we did have this so making rent isn't impossible, however grocery shopping will be. I still have a full tank in my car and Mr. Newbie has about 1/4 tank. I have food stockpiled. I'm not worried - just annoyed.

That being said, I couldn't pass up the Purex deal at Walgreens this week. For the entire month of March they're on sale for buy-1-get-1-free. A couple of weeks ago there was a buy-1-get-1-free coupon in the paper. What does that mean? FREE LAUNDRY SOAP!!!!! Of course, Walgreens was out of some other money maker items, but they weren't going to be useful for me except for them being money makers. I got what I really wanted! :) They made me do this in 2 transactions, which I was fine with. The cashier tried to convince me to only buy 4. There were still some left on the shelf and my headaches haven't gone away (I went to the ER a week ago today due to a sinus pressure headache like I've never felt before in my life), so I wasn't really in the mood to think about when I would've been able to come back before my Q's expired to get the other 2. Sorry. We were totally out of pop and the Dr. Pepper 2-liters were on sale for $1.00 each, so I picked up 1 for each transaction.

If you're curious, no I wouldn't have done this unless I could've gotten them all for free. I have $15 to my name until Tuesday. Mr. Newbie has less. Right now, Pre-K Newbie probably has more than the rest of us combined. LOL.

Here's another reason I wouldn't have done this unless it was free:

This is my current laundry stockpile. It's the only thing I have that's stockpiled well. If it wasn't free, considering my money situation for this week, I definitely wouldn't have needed it. That's the beauty of having a stockpile. Should something like this happen, you're not in a panic. You know what you got, where you got it, and that you have enough to use. I barely paid anything for what you see here.

The breakdown:
I'm trying to do this from memory:
8 All Small & Mighty - $0.50 each
2 Arm & Hammer - probably paid $1 or $2 each and I bought 4 at once
6 Purex - FREE
3 Purex 3-in-1 - Guessing about $2 or $2.50 each (I mostly bought these for Dale since he was an over the road trucker and these would travel easily
2 Snuggle Sheets - FREE
1 Shout Gel - can't remember. Probably paid full price because I've had it for a while
1 Wool Wash from the Dollar Store $1
1 Tide Stain Release - probably about $2 or $2.50
1 Oxy Clean starter kit - FREE
Various samples/trial sizes in the top right Purex sheets box - FREE (there's 8 packs in there now)
1 bottle of vinegar $2.50 for the large generic
(not pictured because I don't use it often so I store it elsewhere) - 1 bottle of generic bleach - probably about $2.50

I think that comes to under $30 for all the stuff above. Imagine what it would've cost without sales and coupons. I don't even want to think about it!!!!!!

Walgreens trip 2/18/10 - spent $14.26, Saved $26.18

I didn't take a picture of this trip because this was the day Mr. Newbie had come home hurt. I wanted to take a quick trip to Walgreens because we really didn't have any pain killers in the house and I wanted to make him as comfortable as possible. Of course, since I couldn't plan this one out as much as I normally do, I just grabbed my huge coupon binder and left. I knew the Walgreens ibuprofen was on sale buy-1-get-1, so I had planned to purchase that already. I wanted to get him something that would reduce the swelling. I also had a $4.00 register reward to use which I knew would lower my out of pocket expenses, so I wasn't too worried.

Walgreeens capsc patch 3 count $1.99 sale
Doans pills $4.99 sale, had a free item coupon, paid $0.00
Walgreens ibuprofen $6.99 for 2 on a buy 1 get 1 free sale
Icy Hot rub $4.29, used a $1.00 off coupon (made it the same price as the Walgreens brand)

Cost before coupons and sales: $40.44
After coupons and sales: $14.26
Total saved: $26.18

I can't imagine what I would've done if I had to pay for all this without the coupons and discounts. Actually, I can. I probably would've only bought the patches and ibuprofen.

Running Behind

Hi y'all. I know I'm running behind on my posts. I have one trip from a few days ago at Wal-Mart that I haven't blogged about yet, but it's because I couldn't find the receipt. Cleaned up today and there it was - not where it belonged, but I found it!

And today I didn't get the cheap family fun things written out for a couple of excuses reasons. First of all, I was a few weeks behind in clipping/sorting my coupons and it really needed to get done (as well as reading/chopping up the last two issues of All You). I started clipping when the Dave Ramsey show started at 1 and didn't finish until about 6. Yeah, I was behind. The other reason was that Mr. Newbie called me to say that he was injured at work. Looks like he'll be at least taking a day, if not more, off. A 50-pound barrel fell on his back while he was unloading barrels from his big rig. Ouch! I was so glad I had RR's to use up and some freshly clipped coupons! Fortunately I had some B1G1 for Doan's pills, $1 off Ben Gay, there was a B1G1 sale for ibuprofen, and a clearance on some of the heat pads that stick to your back. I paid about $15 for $25 worth of stuff. Just another reason to stock up on these items when they're on sale and not just when you need them!

I'll be back as soon as possible, but as for tomorrow it looks like I'll be driving Mr. Newbie to see the company doctor for a work comp eval. Cross your fingers that it's not as bad as it feels right now.

Busy Week!

I've been really busy all week because, well it was just one of those weeks. I have been shopping but I haven't taken pictures of anything so bear with me.

-Saturday 6/13-
Ran to Kroger because I needed some ground beef to go with my Hamburger Helper meals that I fed to my in-laws. Yes, that's not the first time I mentioned them because I love them so much!

Ground Beef on sale - got 2 pounds for $3.90 (saved $2.47)
Pork Chops on clearance for $3.22
Beef round steak on clearance for $3.30
Oscar Mayer lunch meat buy 1 get 1 free. $5.29 for 2, had a $1 off when you buy 2 coupon, paid $4.29 for 2 pounds of lunch meat!
Coffeemate $3.49, had a $1 off coupon, paid $2.49
Huggies Little Swimmers sprayable sunblock on sale for $6.99, had a $2.00 off coupon, paid $4.99. It cost less than the creamy goop that was Kroger brand!
Pineapple on clearance for $0.99
Mini watermelon on sale for $1.97

Cost before discounts & coupons = $40.32
Saved $14.78
Paid out of pocket $25.54
37% savings!

-Sunday 5/14-

Axe shower gels and shampoos were on sale at Walgreens buy 1 get 1 1/2 off. I had 10 coupons for the shampoos. My fiance LOVES the Axe products, so I figure that for a little while he can use the sampoos as body wash too. I know I do that when I find a scent I like in shampoo that I can't find in body wash.

10 Axe body washes: before the sales and coupons, $55.99, after the sales $44.93, after the coupons $24.93
Something I got for Dale for Father's day on clearance for $1.29 (it's totally his style and not the only thing he's gonna get)
Vaper bath on clearance for $0.82
Gerber first foods on clearance for $0.35 (as I said before, I throw a jar of this in with stuff like the aforementioned Hamburger Helper to add some veggies to it)

Cost before Axe discounts (because I'm not sure of the regular prices on the clearance items) $47.39
Paid out of pocket $28.85
61% savings!

-Monday 5/15-
Needed something for lunch, so I headed to Randall's since that's the closest grocery store to my workplace.

Newman's Own Salad Dressing - $3.39 regular price, on sale for $2.19, $1.00 off coupon, paid $1.19
Sweet Butter Blend lettuce - $3.49 regular price, on sale for $2.99
Budding beef - $0.89

Cost before discounts = $7.77
Paid $5.07 for 2 days worth of lunches. You sure can't do that at McDonalds!
35% savings!

$59.46 spent for the ENTIRE week. Without the coupons and savings it would've been $95.48. Talk about slashing the budget!