Get Your Roll On (and I don't mean deodorant)

Pre-Event Dining

You gotta feed your couponing machine! Husband and I had a nice dinner out last night, we used my $20 Applebee's gift card from mother's day and only spent $15 (including tip)... I can't believe they charge so much for drinks! Our waitress appeared to be pretty young and was kinda dorky which my hubby thought was awesome. She was nice so we made sure to tip very well. The stuffed meatballs was really yummy if you're looking to try something new.

Event Planning

Next it was on to shopping, but first I had to come home and sort out the coupons and lists. It took me longer than I expected so we barely made it before midnight, and they were out of everything on my list and there was a HUGE line. No big deal, wasn't anything I couldn't live without so I started gathering the new weeks items and much to my disbelief they were already out of many of those as well. How could that be? The sale just started 5 minutes ago.... well turns out part of that huge line was people who got there early waiting for midnight. More great news, the store's order day got switched to Tuesday so they wont get more paper towels or Crackerfuls until then (so much for the 2 day sale, good job Walgreen's).

The Main Event

Turns out the register was having an issue and not printing the reward for the Crackerfuls, so while we all waited for that to sort itself out I met one of the other couponers "The Harrah's Lady", who turned out to be kinda new to couponing and really a sweet gal! We ran all over the store looking for some of the RR items that seemed to be non-existent and our popcorn filler items. Somewhere in there I managed to find more of the Crackerfuls, yay! I had so much fun talking to her about coupons and finding deals, and our husbands. My hubby always tries to help in his own way, but he is just not into the couponing thing and it was awesome to speak with a live human being about it who actually understood what I was saying. I also sort of met the one I call "Disappearing Lady", she seemed a little cranky (I was getting there myself after waiting so long for the registers to act right and fighting all the drunkies coming in from the casino for Pringles). She would be waiting at the register with us, then suddenly gone for 20 minutes, then magically reappear... she must be related to Houdini.

The Harrah's Lady and I spent about an hour searching for things in the store, gabbing, and waiting for the register to stop being stupid. Finally it started printing the rewards and thus began the longest checkout ever. The other 2 ladies had crackers (and other things) to return and repurchase and I had 9 separate transactions to get through. Did I mention the store was the busiest I have ever seen it in the middle of the night on a Saturday? I've been midnight shopping for a while now and I was shocked by the constant stream of people in the store. It took over an hour to complete my purchases, and my poor hubby was waiting the whole time, completely exhausted and wanting to go to bed. I bought him a candy bar as a little apology/thanks.

I do not think any of us would have made it out alive if it hadn't been for the awesome cashier, Katie! She is so incredibly patient and flexible which helps me keep my cool with all the craziness going on in the store. I wish she worked every Saturday overnight, but she certainly deserves her Saturdays off!

The Nitty Gritty

Its another great time to stock up on paper towels folks... if you can find them. We spent a total of $9.31 and "saved" $82.28. Not too shabby! Since they ran out of Crackerfuls I ended up leaving with a $0.99 RR, which if I can find the darn crackers I will be using on them with my $1 coupon to get them free (and they come with a $2 RR)!

Check out the photo and shopping list I used to score all these great deals! I like to figure out a couple of transactions of things I want or need and any potential money makers and then I roll them until Im out of coupons. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions and hopefully my list will help inspire you to get your roll on too!

Shopping List

A big thanks to Clippin with Carie for all the hard work doing the match-up!

Great Deals at CVS This Week

Quick update. I ran by CVS over the weekend with my $17 in leftover ECB and scored 6 nail polish, 6 Sobe, 8 2L of soda, 3 bags of Tostitos, 2 bags Doritos, and 3 Tostitos dips for about $10 and I got a $10 gas card for FREE!

There are lots of sweet deals, and maybe even a couple money makers at CVS this week. Check out the deals on Clippin' with Carie.

What's That? You Don't Have Time To Coupon??

It's a sad excuse I hear so often, and I admit it was mine at first too. The past couple week's shopping trips, especially yesterday and today, should be a shining example of how much money you can save if you put in a little effort. It only takes one trip to get hooked, so what are you waiting for?

Walgreen's

Last night I ran by Walgreen's on my way home and here is what I picked up for $3.33 (savings of $31.09). I started out with $3 RR from the other day and used my coupon for FREE John Freida foam hair color and got $2 more in RR that I used with my coupon to pay only about $1 for the razor. Then I got the $5 RR for buying the razor that I used to pay for most of the toilet paper! Oh yeah, and I got another $3 RR to use later!

CVS/Pharmacy

I originally had a much larger list, but a few of the items on it either weren't sold at my store or someone was really confused when they did the match up. Lucky for me I forgot to print my list so I took my laptop in with me and was able to move things around on the spreadsheet and make them work. For this trip I started out with $16 in ECB from various trips in April and my $5 off $25 coupon. I spent a grand total of $0.55 and left with $17 in ECB! That's $101.76 in savings! Also on my receipt my YTD savings... $747.47.

Anyone need some air freshener?

Twilight Shopping - When Vampires Sparkle

Last week I had a heck of a time coming up with a viable deal scenario for Walgreen's. There were some awesome Register Rewards, but I just couldn't combine them in such a way that I felt was worth the money I would be spending. I must have written it out 10 different ways. I was determined not to miss out on another toilet paper deal so at 11:30 we drove like banshees to the 24 hour store. Luckily they were out of pretty much everything I wanted. Why is that lucky? Glad you asked.

After I came home, I was utterly disappointed in missing out yet again on cheap toilet paper so I started looking around online for the next big deal. Much to my surprise the toilet paper deal was still on, and so was the Gillette razor deal, there were also a couple new deals on toothpaste and toothbrushes that made for a winning combination. Then, oh my goodness, there was free body wash... body wash that smells so good it makes me feel hungry. Awesome.

I went to two different stores this morning, the first at 5 AM (back to the 24 hour store - and no I didn't sleep last night), and then I made sure to get to the other store right as they opened at 7 so I could actually get some more of the body wash. I scored everything you see below for $25.92 and I saved $181.56!!! That's 88% savings! Click HERE for a detailed list of my transactions along with a summary of the items and coupons used.

In the end I think I did pretty well, however I will warn you that you may have issues at the Old 94/Muegge store using a B1G1 coupon with the B1G1 sale. My twit of a cashier refused to take my coupon so I had to pay retail *cringe* for one of my body washes, and then the body wash didn't ring up right, so he thought he would just use my coupon. I said "uh no, its already supposed to be buy one get one free so you are not using my coupon" and I snatched it back from him. Not one of my finer moments, but I really dislike being argued with and for some reason he kept hopping around like he had to go #1. LOL.

Letting Husband Do The Cooking

I've been busy trying to stock up on juice and protein bars and protein shakes, I realized that when Im on a liquid or mostly liquid diet I am not going to feel like cooking food for my husband that I cant even eat... so I've also started trying to stock up on easy food my husband can cook for himself. I've spent quite a lot already this week, but my deep freeze is better than half full again so thats nice.

I don't have a picture of my grocery trip but according to my receipt from Schnucks I saved $115.62 and spent $101.70 (53%) for 90 items (thats like getting everything for only $1.13 each)! The cart was overflowing, it was awesome.

This morning I ran to Dierbergs for a few things and picked up 10 Propel water, 2 2lb Strawberry crates, 1 Wholly Queso, 5 Coke 2L, and 1 Sundrop 2L for $12.50. I dont know what I saved because the receipt doesnt show it, but I had $11.99 (49%) in coupons.

I still haven't made it to Shop and Save, where I plan to get a ton of Lean Pockets for his lunches, and Im kicking myself for not making it on Thursday since I have a list of about $75 worth of stuff (AFTER coupons).

Stay tuned for another totally freaking awesome Walgreen's trip in my next post.

Saturday Is For Saving

I didn't get all my shopping done this weekend, but I did make a trip to Target last night trying to use my coupons before they expired. Got a lot of awesome deals! I spent $42.11 after tax and my Red Card and saved $45.50! I think I found my new favorite cashier, not very good with the small talk but he makes sure all my coupons go through and doesn't give me a hard time about having multiples.

All that deal hunting and a total fail at Walmart for my Flat Iron Challenge exhausted me and I think made me a little sore. I should start doing shopisthenics to get in shape.

ITEM		PRICE EA	MFG CPN	TGT CPN	TOTAL
1	Scotch Fur Fighter	$8.99	$4.00	$2.00	$2.99
1	Purex Crystals	$3.99	$2.00	$1.00	$0.99
3	Crystal Light	$2.49	B2G1	$1 OFF 3	$3.98
1	Special K Protein Bars	$5.34	$2 OFF 2	$1 OFF 2	$2.34
1	Special K Protein Drinks	$5.59			$5.59
1	Hostess Strawberry Cupcakes	$2.50			$2.50
1	Golden Grahams Bars	$2.12	$0.50		$1.62
2	Mio Water Enhancer	$3.50	$1.00	$1.00	$3.00
2	Skittles Blenders	$0.69	$0.50 OFF 2	$1 OFF 2	-$0.12
1	Tide Single	$0.97	$1.00		-$0.03
1	Got 2B Glued	$3.79	$2.00		$1.79
2	Pantene Detangler	$3.50	$2.00		$3.00
3	Olay Body Wash	$5.99	$2.00	$1 OFF 2	$11.97
1	Olay Body Wash	$5.99	$4.00		$0.99
1	Secret Deodorant	$0.97			$0.97
TOTALS		$81.07	$30.49	$9.00	$41.58