It's a good week at CVS

Okay, I didn't take a picture because my camera has grown legs and walked off, but this is a good week at CVS. It was an especially good week for me because I took a survey for CVS and earned 15 ECB :-) SOoooooo, I bought:

Nivea body wash
Almay mascara
Oral B toothbrush
Oral B Glide floss (truthfully, don't remember the brand)
Thermacare heat wrap
CVS brand hand lotion
Hershey's candy bar
Boudreaux's butt paste

Used 20 ECB
Paid $4.09 Out of pocket
Earned almost 15 ECB
Not too bad! I am out of the CVS habit, or I would have bought a few items, and rolled over my ECBs to pay for the butt paste and candy bar. Alas, I am rusty. Anyway, I thought the deals were great, and was very excited to find everything I wanted actually in the store for once:-) It pays to go on Sunday afternoons. Happy savings and Merry Christmas to all!

Just in time for Cyber Monday

Before you start shopping online tomorrow, hitting all the sales you didn't make on Black Friday, make sure you check out Ebates.

Ebates is a website that offers you cash back for shopping online, and during the Christmas holidays, their cashback offers have greatly increased. For example, if you shop through Ebates at Old Navy, you will get 10% back on your purchases (compared to the usual 2%)--Kohls is 4%, Shutterfly is 15%, and I could go on and on. In addition to cashback for purchases, they also offer coupon codes and discounts to TONS of stores.

So how does it really work? Simply go to Ebates and sign up for an account. Then search for your favorite store and see what kind of offers Ebates can find for you. Click through to the store, which will open up a "ticket", do your online shopping, and you are done! Once a quarter, you get a 'Big Fat Check' from Ebates. Oh, and did I mention that you will get $5 simply for signing up and making a purchase? Not too shabby!

Target finds

I just had to share a couple of great Target finds with you this week.

1. Remember my Fall Wardrobe Staple? My Target has these long-sleeve Merona tee-shirts on sale for $6.00 this week. **clears throat** I bought three :-) White, teal, and orange. I already had lime and gray, so I feel like I have a good selection now. AND I won't feel bad if they get messed up and I only wear them one season!

2. The other steal of a deal I found at Target was a 4 lb. box of Honeycrisp apples for $2.99. That is $0.75/lb for Honeycrisp apples, which are usually very expensive. The gentleman stocking the boxes of apples told me that my Target store (Wake Forest, NC) was simply sent too many. Here's the amazing thing--you could buy a four pound box of Honeycrisp apples for $2.99, and yet, right behind these apples was the 'loose produce', where you could bag your own Honeycrisp apples for $2.49 a pound. I almost bought two boxes, but decided I would refrain for now (though I might go back later in the week). If you like apples, you might want to pick up a box!

Loose change for gift cards

I have a confession--I used to be a thief. My husband would come home every day, empty his pockets of his wallet, cell phone, keys and loose change, and I would steal his change. The next day he would look for it, wanting to use it in the snack machine, and it would be gone. This caused no end of small skirmishes in the Finn household. Why was I a thief, you ask? Well, I had this dream of saving all of my spare change and one day being able to take a dream vacation somewhere (I am sure I have heard of this happening!). Yet even though I hoarded the change, and robbed my husband of his mid-afternoon Skittles fix, I never seemed to collect more than thirty or forty dollars! That wouldn't get us far on the dream vacation...plus I was causing some marital strife :-)

Thankfully, my husband and I worked through our differences and I don't steal his change anymore (at least not all the time, and when I do, I ask). AND I have found a way to turn my change into something productive : Coinstar. I had never used a coin counting machine before this time last year, because I knew to get cash back for your coins, the machines would charge a fee. What I didn't know is that you can trade your loose change in for gift cards and e-certificates and Coinstar will not charge a fee. Your loose change can become a gift card to ITunes or Amazon! And, just to make it even better, right now Coinstar is offering an additional $10 gift card when you change $40 or more. I did this promotion last year, and received the extra gift card just as promised. You should definitely check this out--Coinstar and free gift cards Works for Me!

Value of the Day

Have you seen this? WalMart has a Value of the Day website, where they offer one item at rock bottom prices for one day. Today the site has a Lexmark all in one printer for less than sixty dollars. I think that's a fabulous deal. I will be checking back often during the holiday season! The catch is, it is while supplies last, so the printer is already sold out. I'll check early tomorrow!

Swagbucks alert!

Hi everyone! I have posted about Swagbucksseveral times before, but I was just looking at the "Swag Store", and saw that you can earn $5 in PayPal funds for only 70 Swagbucks. That is a great deal. PayPal funds are great for shopping at Etsy or Ebay, which is where I find a lot of my fabric and craft supplies. If you have never used Swagbucks before, it is easy--just use it as your search engine, earn Swagbucks, and redeem the Swagbucks for prizes. Also, refer your friends to Swagbucks and you can earn along with them! I hope you will check out this website. I personally like to collect the Amazon.com gift cards:-)

Love the 90% section

At my local CVS (and mayn CVS stores, of course), there is often a bin near the checkout counter that is 75-90% off. The items displayed are not always things I want/need, but occasionally you do find good deals. This week, they had trial size bottles of Nivea Touch of Happiness/Touch of Sparkle body wash in the 90% bin. I am pretty faithful to my Aveeno body wash, but back in the spring I bought some Nivea Touch of Happiness as part of CVS couponing deal, and I love it! It is a wonderful, fresh scent that does make me happy (but I have always been easily entertained:-). The best part? They were only $0.12/bottle! I bought six bottles total, three of each type. I don't know if I will like the Touch of Sparkle, but our church is collecting trial size toiletries for an upcoming health fair, and those would be perfect. Anyway, I love the 90% bin at CVS! Make sure you check your CVS clearance bin before leaving the store.

SCORE! (aka Harris Teeter triple coupons)

I bought:
2 bags Wacky Mac pasta
2 packets Mahatma saffron rice
2 boxes Barilla pasta (one Barilla "Plus", one "Whole Grain")
2 boxes PopSecret popcorn
4 bags Martha White muffin mix
2 sticks Spray n Wash
1 Fiber One poptart
1 Sure deodorant
1 Colgate toothpaste
1 Kotex pantiliners
1 Dial handsoap
1 Betty Crocker frosting

Total before coupons: $25.68
Total after coupons: $2.49
Total saved: 90.3% Whoo-hoo!!

Kashi Cereal for CHEAP at Target

Last night, I got a great deal on Kashi cereal at Target. There are a variety of different scenarios out there, but I will explain mine.

I purchased five boxes of Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal at $2.88/box.
Coupons used:
One "Get One Free Box" coupon
one $2.00 off coupon
three $1.50 off coupon
Total cost for five boxes of cereal: $5.24
Plus I received a $5.00 Target gift card for purchasing five Kashi items. So if you count the $5.00 gift card, I spent less than $0.05/box! I used the gift card to buy some facial wash for my husband, which was also on sale, so not too shabby!

Sorry there is no picture, but I have already put away the five boxes of cereal and do not want to drag them out again!

** The free coupon and the $1.50 off coupons were mailed to me through Vocalpoint. The $2.00 off coupon came with a sample of the Kashi cereal. Target now participates in price matching, and I have heard that Walgreens had Kashi cereal even cheaper this week, so there is a possibility of getting things even cheaper. **

Paypal money from Swagbucks

I know I recently posted about Swagbucks, but I thought I would let you know something that I just learned. Swagbucks now has a Paypal gift certificate that you can 'purchase' with the bucks you earn searching the internet. Right now, you can get $5 Paypal money for 70 Swagbucks. That is a great offer, and it is free money, since you would be searching the internet anyway! I am hoping to put a few of these together so I can...wait for it...buy more fabric:-)

Free books!

Free 'stuff' is always fun, and free books are truly wonderful (right up there with free fabric)! I am not talking about borrowing books from your local library*, but rather books that I purchased through Amazon.com for free. How did I do this, you may ask? Good question! The answer:
Swagbucks!

Swagbucks is easy to use--simply sign up at Swagbucks, start searching, and earn! The results from a Swagbucks search comes from Google and Ask.com, so the search results are reliable and similar to what you find using Google. When you search, you will win "Swagbucks", which you can accumulate for a variety of prizes from gift cards to IPhones. You can also earn Swagbucks by trading in cell phones, video games and consoles, and through Swag codes that come in the Swagbucks newsletter. I like to trade in 45 Swagbucks for a $5 Amazon.com gift card, which is how I earned the free books.

Some tips for using Swagbucks:
1. Sign up now, and start referring your friends! As your friends sign up and earn Swagbucks, you also get a portion of what they earn.
2. Download the toolbar for quicker searching and points earning.
3. Check Swagbucks first thing--use it to do your first few searches in the morning, and try to go ahead and win your bucks. Once you have earned Swagbucks for the day, go about your regular internet use.
4. Use Swagbucks on Fridays, which is Mega Swagbucks Day! Swagbucks are often awarded in the 1, 2, and 3 dollar amounts, but on Friday they can be much higher.
5. Sign up for the Swagbucks newsletter, which often has a free code that you can 'grab'.
6. Play around the site and see all of the ways you can earn and win, and all of the wonderful prizes available.


I purchased these books using Amazon gift cards that I had saved from Swagbucks as well as an Amazon gift card from a credit card rewards program. Free books!!


*Checking books out of the library is the next best thing to getting books for free, and sometimes may even be better if you are not certain you want to purchase the book. Use your local library!

Great ideas for your freebie stockpile

I have recently seen several blog posts with wonderful suggestions about how to share your steal-of-a-deal items, especially the school supplies that are so inexpensive right now! Back to School time is a wonderful opportunity to stock up on school supplies not only for yourself, but for churches, schools, and charities. Check out the wonderful suggestions below for ideas on how to share your (free/dirt cheap) wealth. Be sure to read the comments for even more ideas.


Crystal at Money Saving Mom

Michelle at Boise Bargain Shoppers

Angie at Being Dutch

Say Cheese!

Kroger has their Kraft cheese on sale for $0.99/block or bag. You have to buy 5 blocks/bags to get this price (it is actually buy 4, get the 5th free). My family goes through cheese like it is going out of style, so I stocked up:


I bought 20 blocks and bags total, which cost $19.80 total--and then, I received a $4.00/off my next purchase catalina! Whoo hoo! $15.80 for 20 things of cheese--can't beat that. Now anyone care to guess how long it will take us to go through this cheese?

CVS for this week

I won't go into specifics unless someone is really interested, but here is my summary for the CVS trip of the week:

Total bill before coupons/ECBS/etc: $32.00
Total Out of Pocket after coupons/ECBS/etc: $16.00
Total ECBS earned: $13.98

Not as great a trip as my good friend, Mrs. Sprinkles, but still not too shabby!

Great deal on diapers

Last night I snagged a great deal on Pampers diapers at CVS. I read at The Thrifty Mama that Pampers were on sale, and with each pack you can earn $5 in ECBs.**

I purchased:
3 packs of Pampers at $8.99/each
2 bottles of Dawn dish detergent at $1.00/each
2 "fillers" (tic-tacs, candy) to bring my total up to $30
My total before coupons, etc. was approximately $32.00

I used:
$5/$30 CVS coupon
$7 in ECBs
2 $1 Pampers coupons
1 $1.50 Pampers coupon
2 $0.25 Dawn coupons

Total after coupons: $16.03.
I earned $16 ECB, making the total cost for 3 packs of diapers and 2 bottles of dish detergent only $0.03!!!!!!!
**Some of the comments I read noted that this information was online and not in the sales flyer, so I printed out the online ad to take with me. The ECBS for the diapers did not print out, so my cashier called her manager, who gave me the 15 ECBs after looking at my printout from the online ad.

It is SO last week

But this was my shopping trip to Harris Teeter last week during triple coupons. Cost before coupons: $28.00 (approx.); Cost after coupons: $3.77!

A successful CVS run

I have not shopped at CVS in awhile, simply because I have been busy, and have not felt an overwhelming need to take advantage of their bargains (i.e., none have blown me away). But I had some Extra Care Bucks that are about to expire, along with a $5 off $25 coupon, so I hit CVS last night.

I bought:
4 jars of Ragu
1 jar of Skippy Peanut Butter
1 box of Lipton Decaf Tea
1 Nivea body wash
1 Nivea lotion (Beautiful Legs)
1 Sensodyne Pronamel
1 Colgate Wisp (4 pack)

Total cost before coupons: $33.80
I used my $5/25 coupon, $7.50 in ECB, and 5 coupons (including a Nivea "Buy One Beautiful Legs get Body Wash free")
Total cost after coupons and ECBs: $13.21--a 61% savings
PLUS I earned $8.00 in ECB, which gives me an 85% savings
Not too bad!

I heart freebies

Several weeks ago, I started reading about free samples available online, and I signed up for several. Many of the blogs I read take pictures of the samples they receive, but unfortunately for me, many of mine are eaten/used before I can get a picture snapped!

Here is a list of the samples I have recently received:
Cascadian Farms Granola Bar
Quaker Oats Mini Rice Cakes
Gold Bond Lotion
Sunsilk Shampoo, Conditioner and Volumizer
Quaker Oats Granola Bar
Everyday Minerals Makeup Trial Kit

I learned of these samples through a variety of websites, including
The Thrifty Mama and Money Saving Mom. Many of these samples come with coupons as well:-) Just remember to only sign up for freebies that you will use--that is only fair.

Steal of a deal!

As I mentioned in a previous post, my husband is a professor, and as such, he has to wear a coat and tie most days. Just to brag a little bit, but my husband is a very sharp dresser--he can pick out clothes much better than I can. He recently sent me out to go shopping without the kids, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find anything without him (I did, but it took a while!). Anyway, my husband is a big fan of Joseph A Banks clothing stores. As the holidays approached, they started advertising big sales...and the deals kept getting bigger and the prices kept falling. And he just waited, and occasionally checked the website, and waited, and then, just last week, he found the perfect deal:

This beautiful sportcoat? One of their Signature line, listed at over $500. How much did we pay? Less than 1/10th of that!! The tie? Also at a ridiculously reduced price! Yippee for sales! Now, if only we had been signed up for
Ebates when we placed our order, we would have saved even more! You should sign up as well:-)

Don't forget my giveaway.