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Archive for February, 2011

the freezer is full

February 28th, 2011 at 07:56 pm

and March is national frozen food month, so there will be really good deals on frozen stuff. I need to start eating out of the freezer to make some room.

Yesterday Safeway had a really good deal on frozen food. I spent $1.39 for $17 worth of food. I saved 94%
Stacking the deals is what really makes the price go down.

First layer is the sale. Stouffers and Lean Cuisine are on sale for $2/each

Next Layer is the store deal. Buy 5 Stouffer's or Lean Cuisines and get 2 Dreyers smoothies for free.

Next Layer is the store coupon. Buy $15 in frozen foods and get $5 off. The free Dreyers count towards the $15.

Next Layer is manufacture's coupons. 4 $1 off Stouffer's and 1 $1.10 on 2 Lean Cuisines

Last Layer is the e-coupons. Some stores take both e-coupons and paper coupons. Your stores may have different rules. $1 on 2 Lean Cuisines e-coupon.

8.00 - 4 Stouffers individual meals
4.00 - 2 Lean Cuisine
3.00 - 2 Dryers smoothies
-----
15.00
-3.00 - 2 free dryers wyb 5 Stouffers or lean cuisine
-5.00 - Safeway q wyb $15 in frozen foods
-4.00 - 4 $1 stouffer's q's
-1.10 - wyb 2 lean cuisine
-1.00 - e coupon on lean cuisine
-----
.90 for 8 items, less than .12 apiece.

Plus I paid using a 5% discounted gift card and I will get 50 points for printing the coupons from Swagbucks, and I get points toward .10 off per gallon of gas.

2.00 - 1 jar Skippy peanut butter
-.51 - Safeway q
-1.00 - q
-----
.49 - goes to food pantry

I also went to Walgreens where I got paid to buy toothpaste and got some cheap Pond's facial cleanser cloths.

2.99 - 1 4 oz Colgate toothpaste
.24
-----
3.23
-.75 - q
----
2.48 - got back a RR for $3. I did this deal twice and made .52 for each tube of toothpaste. These will be donated to the food pantry.

11.98 - 2 30 ct Ponds facial wipes
.40 - taxes
-----
12.38
-5.99 - bogo sale
-3.00 - 2 $1.50 q's WAGs usually lets you use 2 q's on BOGO sales
------
3.39 - 1.70/each

I paid using a Walgreens gift card bought with other RRs - so no OOP.

I finished reading the library book Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good.

$25 AMEX card

February 26th, 2011 at 09:37 pm

My sister works in marketing for a big software company. She puts on shows and recently did a survey at one. She needed the information in the survey input into a spreadsheet. She asked my niece if she wanted to do it, but no, that would be like working. Smile So she asked me if I wanted it for a $25 AMEX card. I said sure.

It took about an hour and a half. She wanted to give me another $25 AMEX card, but I told her that was decent pay for an hour and a half of data-entry work. Especially since no SS or taxes.

I don't get my niece, when I was 16 I worked at whatever I could to make money. I hated baby-sitting, but still took baby-sitting jobs when they were available. I worked all the hours I could get when I got my first job. But she's super spoiled, basically gets whatever she wants.

Recently she broke her cellphone on purpose because she wanted a new, more expensive, one. So far my sister has held firm and not gotten her the more expensive one. She can get her phone replaced with the same model she has now. She's always done that though, even as a little kid. If she wanted new jeans or a coat, she would rip whatever she had so she could get a new one. My sister never believed she was doing that, even though my niece told me that's what she did.

It's a bad precedent to set and will definitly not help her in her adulthood.

I got free sample of San Francisco coffee in the mail today. This will go to the food pantry.

DirecTV has free Starz this weekend, so I plan to watch some movies on TV later today - maybe with some kettle corn Smile

I finished reading my book The Last Prophecy by Jon Land. Adventure - ok.

kettle corn

February 25th, 2011 at 06:45 pm

I've never tried this before but I saw a recipe on one of the blogs I read so decided to try a microwave version. It was delicious.

1 tbs oil
1 tsp splenda
salt
1/4 cup popcorn kernals

mix in microwave popcorn bowl
microwave 2 min

yum, yum, yum

I had a really good mail day too. I got a bunch of samples

6 Always pads/liners + coupons
3 tampons
2 prilosec samples
1 travel size Secret deodorant
head and shoulders shampoo and conditioner
4 hearing aid batteries
coupon for free can Chef Boyardee

Hearing aid batteries go to dad, secret deodorant and head and shoulders go to food pantry.

I also got the first season of the Amazing Race from Netflix and my credit card bill. The credit card bill isn't so wonderful, but it showed I have $80 in rewards I can cash in.

I finished reading the library book Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee. Sci/Fi - very good.

free tuna, books and Excedrin PM

February 24th, 2011 at 08:10 pm

I got a notice I had 10 Border's Bucks that expired Monday and they are calling for snow this weekend so I decided to go in town and use them today. They don't give you much time to use these, 1 week. I got 2 books and after border's bucks and a 33% off coupon it was $3.23, which I paid using a free gift card. Rewards from Discover credit card.

Since I was in town I stopped at Albertson's to see if there were any deals to scoop up. Albertson's doesn't double coupons so I kept seeing what I thought were really good deals, but after translating to non-double coupon, they weren't so good Smile I did however get 4 boxes of Hamburger Helper for .50/each. These will go to the food pantry.

I also got a roll of Marcel paper towels for .25 and my best find was 24 ct Excedrin PM on sale for $2.50 and I had coupons for $2.50. Free except for taxes. I got 4 of these. I only use them a few times a month, so this is alot. I may give a couple boxes to my parents.

I stopped at King Soopers on the way home to pick up another prescription. Spent $7.32. They gave me another $25 off groceries. On the way out I saw Star Kist tuna for $1.00 and I had 2 .50 coupons which doubled. So I got 2 free pouches of tuna, which will also go to the food pantry.

My change oil light came on as I was leaving King Soopers, so I need to find a coupon for that soon. I usually go to Jiffy Lube.

I finished reading my book The Scarlet Ruse by John D. MacDonald. Mystery - very good.

free milk, bread, beans, coffee and produce

February 23rd, 2011 at 10:18 pm

Yesterday I entered a simple recipe in the Pillsbury bake-off contest and they put $5 on my King Soopers loyalty card.

Text is http://katycouponers.blogspot.com/2011/02/pillsbury-bake-off-contest-enter-recipe.html and Link is
http://katycouponers.blogspot.com/2011/02/pillsbury-bake-off...

I also had a $3 OYNO coupon and some of my RX coupon left. I only needed a few basics today so I got

1.29 - 1 quart milk
1.39 - 1 lb dried black-eyed peas
1.59 - 1 lb dried great northern beans
1.82 - 2 large potatoes
.99 - 1 loaf rye bread - day old
1.87 - 8 bananas
.84 - 3 onions
5.67 - 3 small pre-packaged Millstone coffee $1.89/ea
-----
15.46
-5.00 - pillsbury bake off
-3.00 - OYNO q
-6.00 - 3 $2 Millstone coffee q's - made .11/each
-----
1.46 - used my RX coupon to pay $0

The coffee goes to the food pantry.

I finished reading my book An Original Sin by Nina Bangs. Romance - ok.

free deodorant

February 21st, 2011 at 10:26 pm

Went to Walgreens this morning and got 3 free Dove Deodorants.

3 x 3.49 = 10.47
- 3 $2 coupons = 4.47
- Walgreen's in-ad coupon making them $1.99/each took off $4.50 = .03 profit before taxes. Taxes was .41 so technically they weren't 'free'. I paid .38 in taxes. I also had to buy a filler to soak up the overage of .03 cents. I got a Valentines Reese's heart and used my Walgreen gift card to pay. The Walgreens gift card was purchased with RRs - so free. These will all be donated to the food pantry since I already have 4 deodorants. Deodorant is free pretty often.

I went to Safeway to get free Nature Sweet cocktail tomatoes, but they didn't have any. They had an ad in Sunday's paper for 3 days only on sale .99 and I have coupons to make them free. The store never had them, but said they might get them tomorrow. What a rip-off. Safeway is really bad for doing things like that. My least favorite store to shop at, but they do have good deals at times, so I continue trying. I may go back tomorrow. It's only a mile out of the way.

Talked to my oldest niece for awhile yesterday. Her and a friend drove up to Vail for snowboarding and almost had a serious accident sliding on the ice in the car. Fortunately they didn't hit anything, but got stuck on an ice bump. Someone pulled them out. But it scared them good. It's tricky driving in the mountains here with the ice. The friend is from Hawaii and doesn't have good snow driving skills.

I finished reading the library book A Gift of Dragons by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good.

house hunting

February 20th, 2011 at 08:59 pm

I went house hunting with my sister and her friend who's a realtor. We saw 5 places, 4 of them contender's. I think it's very premature to start looking for houses now, since they aren't selling very well here and her house will be hard to sell because of where it's located. It's basically on the prairie and a horse property with a huge barn. 1/2 drive from anywhere. You have to have the right person to buy.

But she can't stand to sit still and has to go out looking, even though everything she's liked so far has sold already. She hasn't gotten a serious offer on her place and it's been on the market for 5 months. But I like looking at houses so no biggie for me. The stuff she's looking at is a lot smaller than what she has and stuff under $300K is selling.

We went to Arby's for lunch and I spent $3.30. Then my parents came home from a trip upto Cripple Creek and Victor and mom wanted to walk. So I did that and then they wanted to go out to eat and to the grocery store afterwards. It started pouring rain, which is extremely rare in February here. This whole year has been weird weather wise.

We went to Chili's and I spent $10.29 and brought half my California Club sandwich home for tonight. Paid with one of my discounted gift cards.

At King Soopers I got paid $3 to buy $17+ worth of groceries.

17.67
-13.47 - coupons
-3.00 - Daytona sale wyb 10
-1.20 - Pharmacy RX
------
FREE + I got a coupon for $3 OYNO

I did the Daytona 500 sale where if you buy 10 items you get $3 off at the cash register and a $3 coupon off on your next order.

2.99 - Reese's Puffs cereal
-2.99 - free item from playing the King Soopers Daytona game
-.55 - ecoupon from cellfire
-.30 - Daytona wyb 10 sale
-----
(.85) - moneymaker - I was surprised the cellfire coupon came off as well as the free item coupon. This will go to the food pantry

2.58 - 2 Totinos pizza rolls
-.80 - .40/2 q doubled
-.40 - ecoupon from cellfire
-.60 - Daytona wyb 10 sale
-----
.78 or .39/each

6.36 - 4 cans Campbell's chunky soup
-1.20 - Daytona wyb 10 sale
-2.00 - 2 $1/2 q's
-----
3.16 or .79/each

2.97 - 3 cans Chef boyardee
-.90 - Daytona wyb 10 sale
-.70 - .35/3 q doubled
-----
1.37 - .46/each - goes to food pantry

1.79 - 1 can whole wheat Chef boyardee
-1.50 - free wyb 3 chef boyardee q - up to $1.50
-----
.29 - goes to food pantry

.98 - 1 large tube Colgate toothpaste
.08 - taxes
----
1.06
-.98 - .50 q doubled
----
.08 - goes to food pantry

I also used a .55 cellfire q that I had to use on anything and a $3 OYNO q from the last Daytona deal I did. And I finished paying with $1.20 of my Pharmacy redemption reward of $1.20. No money out of pocket and another coupon for $3 OYNO.

I finished reading the library book The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook. Sci/Fi - excellent. She is so imaginative, her books are great. If you like Patricia Briggs or Laurel K. Hamilton or J. R. Ward, you will like her books.

cheap cheese

February 18th, 2011 at 08:13 pm

On the way to walking at Walmart I stopped at Safeway and got one of my prescriptions - $2.74. I also got another package of 80% hamburger for .22. This is the 6th pound of hamburger I got for less than .50/lb. That's it for me for now, it's about 6 months worth. I also picked up 4 16 ct packages of 2% Kraft cheese slices for .49 each. I will freeze these. They are on sale for $1.49 and I had .55 coupons that doubled to $1.

I also got 2 more popcorn shrimp for .64/each at Walmart.

I finished reading my book The Da Vinci Legacy by Lewis Perdue. Mystery - very boring and cliched. I felt like I'd already read it in several versions.

found .60 cents

February 17th, 2011 at 09:04 pm

I went to King Soopers today and as I was walking in I saw a bunch of change in the parking lot. Mostly pennies. Someone must have dropped their whole coin purse. I stopped and picked it all up. I felt weird standing there with my big butt in the air for quite some time since there was 50 pennies and 2 nickels, so it took awhile Smile It almost paid for my prescription which was .80.

I spent 0 again on groceries because I used my prescription rewards and I got a coupon for $3 on your next order at the end.

Before coupons I spent 19.91
- 3.00 - Daytona buy 10 get $3
- 9.34 - coupons
- 7.57 - RX redemption
------
FREE + $3 OYNO

2.94 - 3 6.4 oz tubes Colgate toothpaste
.22 - taxes
-----
3.16
-2.94 - 3 .50 q's doubled
-----
.22 - food pantry item

6.00 - 6 cans Chef boyardee
-1.80 - Daytona deal wyb 10
-1.40 - 2 .35/3 q's doubled
-----
2.80 - 1/2 to my niece and 1/2 to the food pantry

3.58 - 2 Whole wheat chef boyardee
-3.00 - 2 free item wyb 3 Chef boyardee up to $1.50/ea
-----
.58 - food pantry

6.36 - 4 cans Chunky soup
-1.20 - Daytona deal wyb 10
-2.00 - 2 $1/2 q's
-----
3.16 or .79/each

1.09 - Bananas

I finished reading the library book Last Night's Scandal by Loretta Chase. Romance - very good.

gas - 2.36/gal

February 16th, 2011 at 08:35 pm

I had .60 off per gallon of gas from King Soopers today. I got 21 gallons and paid $50 - $2.36/gal. I filled up 2 5 gallon cans and my car. I used a gift card I got 5% back on to pay.

My grocery category is going to be pretty high this month. I got 2 1 year Sunday only Subscriptions to the Denver Post for $56.70/each - $113.40. I used Discounted Newspapers website to purchase them and I went thru My Points so I should get 5 points/dollar. I track newpaper subscriptions in the grocery category because the only reason I buy them is for coupons. The subscription went up $20 from last year.

Inflation is really starting to hitting everything. I still have 8 boxes of the Cheerios I got last year for free to .50/box. I haven't seen a good sale since and now I haven't seen less than $2.50/box on sale and it's $4 for a regular box which is insane. Lot's of other groceries are up too. Clothes are supposed to go up 10% this year. The gas would have been 2.99/gal if I hadn't had the discount - up 17% in just a couple months.

It was warm today, but we had to walk at Walmarts anyways because the wind was blowing very hard. It's given me a major headache. I got 3 more small boxes of the SeaPak popcorn shrimp. $1.64 each and I had 3 $1 coupons. When I got home I saw the cashier put in 4 coupons so I paid .92 for all 3 boxes. I used a Walmart gift card that I got 3% back on to pay.

I finished reading my book Hadrian's Wall by William Dietrich. Historical - pretty good.

errands

February 15th, 2011 at 09:41 pm

Target had a coupon for $10 gift card when you transfer a prescription so I went in town today and ran some errands. My prescription cost $5.50. I also got a box of 20 ct Finish dish detergent and a snack size planter's peanuts for .68 after coupons.

Target had several ads, but all the prescription coupons had been cut out of them. I wish I had known about the coupon on Sunday. I would have bought more papers.

I had a coupon for a free small size of Wendy's fries and got those and a small chili. Spent 1.07

Carwash - spent $7

Used bookstore - traded in a brown paper grocery bag of books, got about 6 new books to bring back home. No cost. I have almost $400 in credit now.

Dollar Store - 3 bags of eggs noodles - $3

Last night mom invited my sister and niece and me to dinner for Valentine's. I said that was weird to invite your kids over for Valentine's. She didn't want my sister to be alone, since she's in the middle of a divorce. She gave us all gifts. I got a $25 Red Lobster gift card.

We had steak and potatoes. Everyone's favorite meal. I was telling my niece about my free taco's and since she loves tacos, I showed her how to print them out.

I finished reading my book A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald. Mystery - very good.

misjudgment

February 13th, 2011 at 09:20 pm

I made a bad misjudgement yesterday. Mom called and instead of walking at Walmart she wanted to go up to Denver and walk in the mall up there. Dad needed to go up to Thornton to get some tires. So not really thinking about it I said ok. Everybody and his brother, his mother, his sister, his father, his neices, nephews and cousins were there. It was a zoo. I haven't seen it that busy in years. I have a big problem with crowds. I have started to hyper-ventilate in the past. Dad dropped us off with the plan of picking us up in 2 hours. By the end of the first hour I was gritting my teeth. I made it but it was very uncomfortable and I wish I had not gone. I get incredibly anxious in crowds and avoid them whenever possible.

I did get a free book at Borders. 50% off coupon and free gift cards from credit card rewards. And I found a really cute hourglass for $6 at Pottery Barn. I have wanted one for years because I like them and hadn't ever come across one. I wasn't actively looking just in the back of my mine I knew if I found one I wanted one. I put it next to a cool kaledescope I have on an end table and I've probably turned it over 10 times. It's a 5 min one.

We went to Red Lobster for lunch at 2:40 and they were packed too. We had to park in the last row. I used a coupon and one of my discounted gift cards and spent $9.01 with tax and tip.

While eating dad was asking what we got and I told him. Mom said "she actually bought something she didn't need". I buy stuff I don't need, it's just not that often Smile Most times when we go shopping I may buy a book, that I don't pay anything for since I use my free reward gift cards, and lunch and nothing else. But I'm not really tempted by most stuff in the stores.

Today I went to King Soopers to pick up a prescription. I transfered it from Target and got another $25 RX rewards put on my KS card for free groceries. I spent $2.24 on the prescription and $1.50 on the Sunday Denver Post.

I got 3 more tacos at Taco Bell for brunch today. Spent $2.33 and used the last of my free taco coupons.

Tomorrow Subway is giving out a free cookie with purchase. They have all their footlongs on sale for $5 again so I may do that. Here's the coupon if you're interested.

Text is http://media.subwayfreshbuzz.com/facebook/free_cookie_day/sfb_fb_cookie_vday_coupon_print_v2.jpg and Link is
http://media.subwayfreshbuzz.com/facebook/free_cookie_day/sf...

I finished reading my book Coming Back by Marcia Muller. Mystery - very good. I really like the whole Sharon McCone series.

Friday errands.

February 11th, 2011 at 08:42 pm

I had to get another blood test today, so afterwards I went to Safeway and saved 74%, spent $5.55.

9.98 - 2 Oscar Meyer Carving board
-4.99 - BOGO sale
-2.00 - q
-----
2.99 or 1.50/each - I see several turkey sandwiches ahead. Good with a bowl of soup for dinner

2.47 - 1 lb 80% hamburger
-2.00 - safeway coupon from joy of football book
-----
.47

3.96 - 4 Milky Way candy bars
-1.98 - b2g2 sale
- .99 - buy2 get 1 coupon
-----
.99 or .25/each

3.96 - 2 snickers and 2 snicker peanut butter cubes
-1.98 - b2g2 sale
- .99 - buy 1 snickers get snicker peanut butter free
------
.99 or .25 each

.11 - taxes on candy bars

I got 3 more tacos for lunch/breakfast at Taco Bell for $2.33, 1 free one with coupon.

Kroger has a new game for winning groceries the Daytona 500 game. I won a free box of Reese's Puff's cereal today. Here's the website if you're interested.

Text is http://www.softcoin.com/Sites/Kroger_Daytona/Page/SweepsPage and Link is
http://www.softcoin.com/Sites/Kroger_Daytona/Page/SweepsPage

I finished reading my book Princess of the Sword by Lynn Kurland. Sci/Fi - excellent.

free taco and taco seasoning

February 10th, 2011 at 10:21 pm

I went to Taco Bell for lunch and had no problems using my coupon for a free crunchy taco. I got 3 tacos for $2.33. I'll probably go back tomorrow.

Went to King Soopers and saved 86%. Saved $23.70 in coupons and spent $7.20 for just under $50 in groceries.

6.76 - 4 Old El Paso refried beans
-3.00 - 3 .50 q's doubled
-----
3.76 - was supposed to get a $3 OYNO coupon wyb 6 and it didn't print so they gave me $3 in cash. Donated beans to food pantry

2.78 - 2 Old El Paso taco seasoning packets
-2.78 - 2 free wyb 2 Old El Paso products q's
-----
FREE - donated to food pantry

7 cans Kuner beans @ .69/each = $4.83

21.18 - 2 bottles Nature Made multivitamins 90 ct
.84 - taxes
------
22.02
-10.59 - bogo sale
-7.00 - wellness reward q
-3.00 - Nature Made q
------
1.43 - plus added 190 Nature Made points to my Wellness rewards toward another $7 q.

2.94 - 3 tubes 6.4 oz Colgate toothpaste
.23 - taxes
-----
3.17
-2.94 - 3 .75 q's doubled
-----
.23 - donated to food pantry

1.98 - 2 Mentos fruit mints
.03 - taxes
----
2.01
-1.98 - 2 .50 q's doubled
-----
.03

Dropped 4 bags of food at the food pantry. Dropped a bag of magazines at the library and picked up my 9 holds. Have a load of laundry started and need to empty the dishwasher. After that I'm planning to relax for the rest of the day.

I finished reading my book The Skies of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good.

free Swiffer duster

February 9th, 2011 at 08:55 pm

Went to Walmart to walk this morning and before meeting mom, did a little shopping. They have the Swiffer 360 extender swiffer's on sale for $8.97 and they have a tag that says you can get a free subscription to one of 4 magazines when you buy the duster. The form is online and in the fine print it says instead of getting the magazine subscription, you can have the money sent to you instead. I opted for that option and will only have to pay taxes. I also had a coupon that when you buy the Swiffer starter kit, you get a free refill up to $4.99. The only refills were $7.97 so it wasn't completely free, but a starter kit and 6 refills for $3 and taxes is pretty good.

I also got a new toaster for about $20, my other one broke. I got 3 of the small sizes of the SeaPak popcorn shrimp for .64/each after using 3 $1 coupons. That's 2 servings of shrimp in each box - I love this. I have some more coupons so will get some more in a week or two.

Taco Bell has coupons for a free crunchy taco on their facebook site so I printed 3 of them, you can only use one coupon per visit and it expires in 7 days from the day you print, but we have a Taco Bell here and I like their crunchy tacos.

I finished reading the library book Sins of the Soul by Eve Silver. Paranormal - very good.

more cheap peanut butter

February 7th, 2011 at 08:50 pm

I was very happy to see Walgreens had the Skippy peanut butter on sale for $1.50 this week. I got 6 jars this morning, used 6 $1 coupons so .50/each. These will be donated to the food pantry since I already have 10 jars. About 3 months worth.

I also got a free small bag of Ruffles using a coupon I got in the mail. Also donating.

Subway has it's $5 footlong deal again on any sandwich, so after we walked mom and I both got one. I used a discounted gift card to pay for mine. I got ham and turkey.

I finished reading the library book Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews. Paranormal - excellent. I love her books. I've been getting all of them from the library, but I think I will buy them next time I see a deal. I have a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card I got for my birthday.

You've Earned It, Don't Lose It - book review

February 6th, 2011 at 09:06 pm

This book was written by Suze Orman and I got it several years ago before I retired. I just reread it and I really liked it. It has a lot of good advice for people who either are retired or will be shortly. I need to give it to my mom and dad to read, since there was a really good chapter on creating trusts.

Yesterday, mom, sister and I drove up to visit my niece and help her do her taxes. I ended up walking her thru them and sending them online. I also fixed her computer so it could print coupons. I send her good deals, but she wasn't able to print the coupons to get them. I took her 3 bags of groceries and some coupons that I thought she could use.

We went to Red Robin for lunch and I spent just under $10. We were only there for 3 hours since she needed to work.

It took 2 hours to drive up, but 3 to drive home. It started snowing pretty heavy about halfway back and the freeway was crawling. We finally got to a point we could turn off and take the back roads. We got around 6 inches, which is the most we've had so far this year. My back yard has 4 foot drifts. A good day to stay home.

I was reading MyMoneyBlog and he posted about a good deal at Lowe's if you need stuff from there.

Lowe’s has an upcoming promotion called their Tax Refund Card. Starting 2/8, if you buy a card with value of $500 to $4,000 – supposedly with your tax refund but they can’t tell and don’t care – then on 3/18 you’ll get an additional 10% of the initial purchase price on the card. Ends 3/14. Not bad if you’re already planning on shopping there. I’ll probably wait until March to see if I really need it, just hope they don’t pull the promotion.

Here is the link for the Tax Refund Card

Text is http://www.lowes.com/pd_59983-0-SPOCC-TAX_4294925533_4294937087_?productId=3323530&Ns=p_product_prd_lis_ord_nbr|0||p_product_quantity_sold|1&pl=1¤tURL=%2Fpl_Gift%2BCards_4294925533_4294937087_%3FNs%3Dp_product_prd_lis_ord_nbr|0||p_product_quantity_sold|1%26goToProdList%3Dtrue&cm_mmc=aff_gan-_-k3787-_-GAN_1313018809-_-Primary and Link is
http://www.lowes.com/pd_59983-0-SPOCC-TAX_4294925533_4294937...

Red Lobster vs Dardens

February 4th, 2011 at 08:18 pm

I was on Card Pool and saw a Darden's gift card for 10% off. Darden's owns Red Lobster, Macaroni Grill and some other restaraunts. I got 2 $25 gift cards and paid $45. The funny thing is, if you buy the Red Lobster or Macaroni Grill gift cards you only get 8% off - so I saved an extra 2%.

I also got $200 in J.C. Penny gift cards at 14% off for my parents and a $100 Walmart gift card for me at 3% off. Used to be able to get Walmart gift cards at 4%, but haven't seen that in a while. I also use my credit card that gives me 1% back so it's like get 4% off the Walmart. Since I go there all the time I figure that 3 - 4% might as well be mine.

I went to King Soopers both yesterday and today because I had too many coupons to use in one trip. They limit you to 3 regular coupons and 2 internet coupons per like item each trip.

Yesterday I got $58.41 in groceries and paid .22 and got back a coupon for $1.50 on my next order. My parents also gave me $2.60 for things I picked up for them. I did 3 mega deals which accounted for $15, coupons were another $30.96 and I used the last of my pharmacy rewards of $12.45, leaving .22 cents.

Today I got $27.47 in groceries and paid $4.92. I did 2 mega deals at $10 and used $17.47 in coupons. I might do one more mega deal before the sale ends, I have more cheese and tea coupons.

Here are the highlights:

Free stuff

12 bottles Propel - 2 for niece
6 Yakisoba noodle bowls - food pantry
4 bottles Honest Tea - .25 moneymaker on each one
1 Mentos mints - niece
3 I can't believe it's not butter - 1 niece
4 Starkist tuna - food pantry

Cheap

8 cans RoTel @.17/each - food pantry
6 boxes 200 ct Kleenex .66/each - got $1.50 OYNO q
2 Hormel Chili Master .29/each - food pantry
3 Hunts diced tomatoes - .09/each - food pantry
5 Kraft cheese slices - .49/each - 2 mom, 1 niece
1 80 ct Excedrin - .50
2 loaves Sara Lee bread - .99/each
3 Hebrew National hotdogs - 1.82/each - 2 for mom, 1 for niece

Other

milk
bananas
potatoes

Went to Walgreens this morning. I had 5 RRs totaling $42, so I got a gift card for $40 and 4 cans of mushrooms for .50/each. Owed $0. The cashier kept rechecking to make sure it was really 0.

Made one more trip to Safeway since the peanut butter deal worked Wednesday. I wanted more for the food pantry. This time they told me it wouldn't work because you had to buy $10 worth of stuff that didn't include the sale item - what a crock, that's never been the rule before but she swears it's always been that way. So I just ended up with one free can of Chunky soup and a bag of Lays potato chips for $1.88. The soup was on sale for .99 and I had 1 .50 coupon that doubled to .99. Maybe Walgreens will have a peanut butter sale before the end of the month and I can get more then. I love getting peanut butter and tuna for the food pantry, those are my favorite things to donate.

Yesterday it started snowing like crazy and mom wanted me to go to the Outlet mall the next town up with her so I said ok. Dad drove. We went to a kitchen store and she got what she wanted, (a meat tenderizer) and we also went to Harry and Davids. They had their pepperoni out as a sample and it was really good so I got one at $6.95. We went to Black-Eyed Pea for lunch. I hadn't been there in forever so I didn't have any gift cards for them, but it was really good. The last time we went it was awful, which is why I hadn't been there in a long time. I had the chicken tenderloins, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. All of it was excellent. I brought the corn bread home and had it for supper with my beans and ham. I had started beans in the crockpot before I knew I was going to the outlet place. I spent $8.50.

I finished reading my book Knock Out by Catherine Coulter. Mystery - pretty good.

free pie, candy and a good moneymaker

February 2nd, 2011 at 10:21 pm

It never made it to 0 degrees yesterday, but it's a whopping 7 today Smile After walking at Walmart, went to Village Inn for lunch with parents. Spent $8 and since it's free pie today at Village Inn, I got a piece of lemon supreme pie to take home. It's my favorite.

I went back to Safeway to redo the peanut butter and meat sale and it worked fine this time. The coupons beeped but the cashier just pushed them thru. No nonsense about not being able to use a Safeway coupon with a manufacture coupon. I got 4 more jars of Peanut butter for .49/each. One for me, one for niece, 2 for food pantry. Also got almost a pound of 80% hamburger for .31 cents.

Went to Post Office to mail coupons for military overseas. Spent 4.90.

Last stop was Walgreens, where I had another moneymaker deal.

14.99 - 1 Netrogena PN - pain relief for diabetes
1.03 - taxes
------
16.02
-10.00 - coupon
------
6.02 - got back a $10 RR so made $3.98. I did this transaction twice, paying with Walgreens gift cards so no out of pocket. Will donate both.

6.64 - 6 Renuizit
.33 - taxes
-----
6.97
-1.90 - Walgreens in-ad coupon
-2.97 - buy 3 get 3 coupon
-----
2.10 = .35/each I use these in the closets

6.00 - 8 butterfingerz snackerz
-4.00 - 4 $1/2 coupons
-3.24 - Walgreens in-ad coupon
-----
1.24 profit

I got 2 Darden's gift cards at Card Pool. Value $25/each, total $50 and I paid $45 - 10% savings. Plus used credit card to buy will make another 1%.

I got the last DVD for season 1 of Glee in the mail today from Netflix. I've really enjoyed this show and I've decided to keep the Netflix subscription now that my one month trial period is over. I finished watching Michael Jackson's This is It online. He was a phenomenal performer, it was so good.

I finished reading the library book Crave by J.R. Ward. Paranormal - very good.

colder than cold

February 1st, 2011 at 09:20 pm

I know some of you might think that's not possible, but today I think it is here in Colorado. My furnace has been running all night and all day. During the day I have it set to 64. Outside the temperature hasn't hit 0 yet today. They think the high will be 2 degrees. We only got about a half an inch of snow, but man is it cold. Stayed home and didn't even go to Walmart to walk. I'll read a book and fix some spaghetti w/mushrooms and onions for supper.

I cleaned out my freezer yesterday and I have a whole shelf that's empty now. I'm sure I'll fill it up soon. There are still several King Soopers mega deals I want to do, just haven't made it to that store yet.

Paid credit cards online yesterday and I kept getting an error at Chase for most of the day that they couldn't get to the payment page. It sure does seem like a lot of websites are having problems lately. I don't know if they're not testing them right before they put them out, or if it's traffic or if they are getting hit by hackers. It just seems I'm running into a string of website problems lately.

My cleaners came yesterday and raised the price $5/visit. It's still only $67.50, which I think is decent for about 1000 sq ft that I have them do, including kitchen, full bath and half bath. I don't have them do my office, second bedroom and bath or craft room. My second bedroom and bath is almost never used and I clean it once or twice a year. My office and craft room have too much junk I would have to put away in order for them to clean, so I do them whenever ... or never Smile

I like to start a jigsaw puzzle the day after the cleaners come so I have time to complete it before they get back in 4 weeks. I started a 1000 piece Tomas Kincaid puzzle this morning.

I finished reading the library book Queen of Swords by Sara Donati. Historical - excellent.