Thursday, October 28, 2010

Early Resolutions....

I used to love writing.  I used to write long ornate letters to my friends in high school and write in a diary.  I found writing to be my one and only release that didn't get me into trouble and I loved it.  So what happened?  Over the years I had less and less time in the day and before I knew it marriage and 4 kids later I can't find time to take a shower sometimes much less get thoughts down on paper (or wordpad now cause who has time to really "write" the old fashioned way)  Well, I am really going to try.  There are a lot of things I want to resolve to do (loose weight, get organized and stay that way, keep the house clean and stay on top of the budget, you know general June Cleaver type stuff) but my resolution to better myself through reading, especially reading my bible, and through getting back to writing are on top of my priority list.  I plan to mix it in on my blog here and maybe the motivation of entertaining the world with some of our misadventures will keep me going.  Sometimes you may wish I hadn't made this resolution but if you decide to stick with me through this adventure I will try to make it as fun as I can and, well, with my kids there is always something to laugh about!

Friday, October 1, 2010

My big savings shopping trips today

I have been seeing these great deals for Toys R Us if you use Playsaver coupons but the deals to be had were not available in their online printing option so I  had to go searching on the internet and found some.  I hoped against hope that they would get here in time to go before the sales ended and low and behold they came in Friday's mail!!  I was ecstatic! 

More importantly, I had a mission!  After putting my pre-schooler on his bus (he's half day and leaves around 11) I headed out to get my steals and deals at TRU (and at Walmart too).  The nearest Toys R Us to me is a 20 minute drive one way but the total time I spent with driving and shopping at the 2 stores was 1.5 hours and the money I saved made it totally worth it! 

Before heading out I created my assault plan.  I printed off 3 of the Weebles coupons for $2 off on Playsaver.com to use in conjunction with the B1G1 coupons I had from the Playsaver pack I got in the mail.   I also got my $5 off a $25 purchase coupon and my sons $3 off a $3 or more purchase from his birthday mailing to give me an extra $8 off and had a coupon for $4 off a board game.  I also had a deal lined up for Walmart to get 4 packs of Schick disposable razors for free and 4 packs of Tic Tacs for free as well as some Nescafe on the go coffee packets for my husband.  After I had this all together I was off!

For starters I went to TRU because I wanted to see if my Weebles coupons (which I had already priced at Walmart at being $5 for a pack of 2) would be better used at Walmart or Toys R Us.  TRU had them for $5.99 so I saved them for use at Walmart.  All total I purchased at Toys R Us an Operation game (Retail $16.99 on sale for $7.99) also 2 of the Littlest Pet Shop figure pairs (retail $5.49 on sale for $4.12) 1 of the Strawberry Shortcake figure play sets and 1 Strawberry Shortcake RC car.   Total before sale prices and coupons came to $67.95 plus tax of $5.61.  I had 2 coupons for $10 off of the SSC sets , 1 coupon for B1G1 on the Littlest Pet Shop sets and 1 $4 off the Operation game.  Add that to my $8 in TRU Coupons and I spent a total of $11.86 when it was all said an done.  The cashier kept looking and checking and rechecking (3 times) to make sure it was all kosher and finally let me pay!  He just couldn't believe I had saved so much and legitimately too. 

Add this to my previous deal 2 weeks ago when TRU had buy 2 get 1 free board games and I had 3 coupons for $4 off each game I got I have spent $22.49 total both trips and figure that up off the original retail price (before sales and coupons) I saved $110.69  In my opinion it was totally worth the drive!




Now for my Walmart deal today.  Not quite as impressive but still worth it.  I had B1G1 coupons for Schick disposable razors and for the one I had to pay for I used a $2 off coupon I had making them free for each pack.  I ended up with 4 free packs which my daughter will be using in a donation drive to support a local homeless shelter called Star Of Hope (If you would like to help them out check out http://www.sohmission.org/NetCommunity//They are a huge help in our community and do so much good.  I wish I could help them more but for now working my coupon magic on donations will have to do)  I also had $1 off Tic Tacs coupons making them free also and got 4 of them total, I used them on the orange ones and are saving them for stocking stuffers since my kids love them!  In addition to those big savings I had 2 $1 off Nescafe coffe any size and got 2 boxes of the single serve packets for my husband to take to work and the last deal was on Weebles (you know the old song~ "Weebles they wobble but they don't fall down" you're welcome for getting that stuck in your head all day!)  I had 2 Playsaver B1G1 Coupons and also 2 of the $2 off coupons. This made them $1.50 each for the 2 packs.  My son is getting a 6pc set of Weebles for Christmas for only $4.50!!  Total before Coupons $36.01  and total after was $6.01  so I saved $30 


Also got 3 cans of Glade room spray for free at the grocery store when I stopped for milk~saved $3 there. 

All in all not a bad days "work".  Yes, I said work.  Couponing can be work but once you get going it gets a lot easier and you start remembering what coupons you have when looking through sales papers.  It also helps to follow some good blogs that can tell you where the deals are.  I follow several of them like moneysavingmom.com and Mojosavings.com which are my 2 favorites and most highly recommended ones.  I have learned a lot from both sites that have saved my family hundreds in the last few months.  Unfourtanetly that doesn't equate to extra money it just means we can live on what we get but that is an improvment to say the least.  We are finally almost to not living paycheck to paycheck since I started this endeavour to save.