Friday, May 29, 2009

Fuel Perks @ GetGo from Giant Eagle

Fuel Perks are the #1 reason that I do my primary grocery shopping at Giant Eagle. I earn $.20 off per gallon of gas at GetGo for every $50 I spend! Yesterday I redeemed $.80 per gallon (I have a 28 gallon tank, so it goes a long way). Printed at the bottom of my receipt was something pretty cool ~ "As of the first of this month, your 12 month fuel savings total was: $202.45" That is nice to know!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

I <3 long grocery store receipts!

Especially when almost half of the receipt is coupons! Today's trip to Giant Eagle was a savings of 60% Soooo exciting! Regular price $167.77, and I spent $66.93. Just a couple stand-out deals:
  • Super Pretzels - on sale for $1.67 and I had a $.75 Q that doubled, making them $.17 each (bought 4)
  • Kraft dressing - on sale for $1.67 and I had a $1.50 Q, making them $.17 each (bought 5)
  • Breyers yogurt - on sale for $.50 each, I had a $.50/4 Q that doubled, making them $.25 each (bought 12)
  • Over the Moon 1/2 gallon of milk - on sale for $2.49, I had a $1 Q, making it $1.50
  • Cool Whip - on sale for $1, I had a $1/2 Q, making them $.50 each (bought 4)
My freezers are STUFFED!

I also have $.60 off per gallon of gas at GetGo!

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day @ CVS!

Yup, went to CVS on a holiday to take advantage of their 2-day specials!
Purchased:
  • Revlon nail polish $3.99 - $2 Q .......... rec'd $3 ECB
  • Playtex tampons $3.99 - $1 Q ........... rec'd $3 ECB
  • Clearasil face wash $3.99 - $1 Q ........ rec'd $3.99 ECB
  • 2 boxes of Bandaids $4.58 .................. rec'd $4 ECB
  • Maybeline concealer (on clearance) $2.99
  • 5 large guaze patches (on clearance) $1.25
The last 2 items were fillers to get me to $20 so I could use my $4 off of $20 coupon. So really they were "free", and hubby needed some new dressing to cover the stitches from his surgery.

Used:
  • $4 off of $20
  • $12 in ECBs
Paid $.79 OOP! And received $14 worth of ECBs! Have one left over from a previous week, so I have $15 ECBs to spend. My receipt says that I saved $29.40, based on the shelf price of everything I purchased. :)

Friday, May 22, 2009

The Temple

For the past 2+ years, the only place I have gone to get anything done to my hair is The Temple.
It is a Paul Mitchell Partner School, which means it's cheap! The teachers are very hands-on, which makes me feel confident enough to keep going back. And the way I figure, even if I have a bad experience, I've hardly paid anything for it. (If you have a REALLY bad experience, they will not charge you at all!) So, $15 oop today (they don't accept tips!), and I'm mostly happy with it! ;)

The Coupon Queen

My mom told me about this article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
Secrets of The Coupon Queen

The article also references the Select Coupon Program that this lady provides. I'm going to look into it and maybe give it a one month free trial.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

The cheap bread place - the Wonder/Hostess outlet!
Bought 2 bags of each: Kids bread, hot dog buns, hamburger buns. Oh, and a package of HoHos for Daddy. Spent $8. I figure that it's about the same price as buying the store brand at the grocery store. I'll be freezing half.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

My name is Holly and I'm addicted to coupons

I've been searching for ways to score extra coupon inserts without buying extra papers. It just seems like a waste to me when I'm only buying the paper for the coupons. And every week, the papers seem to be changing the inserts up on me, making me crazy! The best idea I've found so far is Freecycle. I put a "wanted" post for the inserts and had 2 people offer me theirs. One lady even gave me what she still had from last week. :) The part that frustrates me is when people don't look to see what is "wanted", and post an offer for the inserts! This happened twice this week. So I respond politely, mentioning that I have already posted a "wanted" for the inserts and that I will pick up today, blah blah blah. And I get a response that they have already been taken. Grrrrr! This seems like it could be a hit-or-miss way to get coupons, so I'm not sure that I'm going to stick with it. I have read of people dumpster diving for coupons, but I have no idea where to do that safely. Other ideas are to befriend a paper delivery person, or the people who deliver them to the gas stations, and such. One thing I am definitely going to do, is to ask my neighbors who get the Sunday paper delivered, and find out if they use the coupons. If they don't use them, hopefully they don't mind sharing the wealth!

Monday, May 18, 2009

CVS this week

Eh.... not so exciting this week, for me anyway. I bought a Physicians Formula Organic concealer that was on 75% off clearance.... and it sucks! It's going back, I don't care that I spent $1 oop (after $1 coupon) on it. Also found a Cover Girl Outlast lipstick that was on 50% off clearance, for $4.99 and used a $2 off Q. This was supposed to produce a $4 ECB, but it didn't print. Wonder if it's because it was clearanced? I'm going to find the number for customer service and have them check it out. I've read that they will tell you if something was supposed to trigger the ECB and can add it to your card if it was. I guess we'll see. The best deal of the day was the Lysol NutraAir, regularly $13.99, on sale for $5.99 and used a $5 Q. So after using $7 in ECBs, my oop was $.48 - I'll take it. ;)

I still have $13 in ECBs left.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Target + coupons

The new Kraft coupons are a good match with some of the Target coupons available. (Target will accept 1 manu Q and 1 Target Q per item!)
Today I got:
3 boxes of Ritz crackers for $1 (these are the big boxes).
3 Kraft BBQ sauces FREE!
Nabisco 100 calorie snacks for .04
2 bottles of Kraft dressing for .50

They are also marking down a ton of stuff, and putting it on the end caps. Must go back......

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Rec'd Coupons in the mail

Rec'd Coupons in the mail from Target
but I don't know how! They're good tho!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Nooooooo! (Happy Mother's Day!) :)

This morning, Michael took the girls while I was still in bed to buy a card and potted flowers for me! :) Awwww. <3 Then he came home and made breakfast for everyone (my sister, BIL & nephew were still in town) - waffles, bacon & sausage! My extra "present" was getting to leave the house all by myself, and what did I choose to do? My regular shopping stops!


I can't believe I did this, but *sigh* I forgot to take my Extra Care Bucks to CVS with me today. Maybe because I was so excited to be able to leave the house by myself for Mother's Day? Well I didn't realize it until I was done shopping. I had everything figured out so that I'd only spend $3 oop, since Michael added coffee to my list, otherwise it would have been $0 oop!!! I was so discombobulated by the time I got to the register, that I ended up spending $29.33. OMG. I wanted to do 2 transactions so I could reuse the ECBs, but I think I just gave up at that point. I did receive $11 more ECBs, for a total of $23. So I guess I'll be getting lots of "free" things over the next few weeks (I hope anyway). Here are some highlights......


  • Kellogg cereal is on sale for 2/$4. There are $1 Qs here, making them $1 each.
  • Schick Quattro TrimStyle (been wanting to try this) on sale for $8.99, had a $4 Q and rec'd $4ECB, making it .99
  • Colgate toothpaste is BoGoF, and I had 2 $1Qs, making them .50 each.
  • Crest ProHealth for $3.49, less a $1Q and $2 ECB was also .50

Moving on to Target..... only a couple deals here, but I was taking my time - ALONE! ;)
  • bags of Hersheys Bliss are $3.49, and I had a $1Q, plus a Target $1Q, making them $1.49 (them... I bought 2)
  • 12 packs of Dr. Pepper are on sale 2/$7, and I had a $1Q plus a Target $1Q, so $1.50 ea.
  • I also bought myself a dress for a June wedding, and a few other things on clearance.

Last stop for my Mother's Day adventure was Giant Eagle. Since I also forgot my coupon binder AND my list, I just bought the non-sale items that were "needs" for the week. Chicken breasts (BoGoF), 3 pounds of ground meat (1lb for this week, 2lbs to freeze), fruit, spaghetti sauce, hoagie rolls, pot pies and apple juice. I was happy to keep it under $45, but I did forget milk. :(


So beyond the disappointment of forgetting my coupons, ECBs and milk, I thoroughly enjoyed my solo shopping afternoon! <3

Monday, May 4, 2009

Fun times @ CVS

My goal for this week was to not spend any more than I had in ECBs ($11.00). Well, then the ad came out, and I saw the sweet deal on Coke products (spend $20 and receive $10 in ECBs), so I've pushed my goal back a week! :)

So I first purchased 5 12-packs of Coke Zero @ $4 each = $20
Used a $4 off of $20 coupon.
Used $11 in ECBs.

$5.00 OOP for 5 Coke Zero 12-packs!!! Aaaaaand, I rec'd $10 in ECBs!

Next transaction (there was no line, and the cashier was nice enough to let me do 2):
3 boxes of Kellogg cereal @ 3/$10, less $3 in coupons (receive $5 ECB wyb 3!)
2 Colgate toothpaste @ $2.99 each, less $2 in coupons (receive $2 ECB on each!) *free*
1 Adidas Deoderant @ $3.99, less $1 coupon (receive $3 ECB) *free*
4 boxes of Kleenex @ $1 each! Super cool cashier rang them up for $1 because they were clearanced, but I couldn't remember the price. We ~needed~ tissues badly and I also had a $1 off of 4 coupon, so this worked out even better than planned!
I went a little *crazy* in the clearance section, LOL. 4 folders for the girls @ .50 ea, a calculator for .38 and a Bon Jovi CD (New Jersey) for $2.50.... hee hee.

Used another $4 off of $20 coupon.
Spent the $10 ECB from first transaction.

OOP = $8.15 ~ Received $12 ECBs!

So my goal for next week is to only spend the $12 ECB ($0 oop). That is until the next ad comes out...... *wink*