CVS - Black Friday

Hi Friends - So, did some of you go to CVS on Thursday instead of Friday? I didn't really realize that the sales started on Thursday since I was focused on cleaning and having company but both CVS and Walgreens told me they were super busy on Thursday! Well, I didn't get everything on that FREE after ECB sale on the back page but i got a lot of it - I was most disappointed about the Bic Soleil razors with my two $3 off coupons but I did get a raincheck on that one and the Velp store said they expected a truck either later Friday or Saturday. The bottom line was that I made $16. How did everyone else do? I took advantage of a few sales at Walgreens also but I didn't make any money. I did just enter all my receipts for rebates online - almost missing tomorrows deadline! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Vivian

CVS Black Friday Deals

CVS will be having a TON of free after ECB items this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It looks like these deals will be available starting Thursday. So get your coupons ready...because you can make over $20 profit!

Here is a link with a sneak peek at the deals and where to find the coupons! I'm not normally a Black Friday shopper...but I think this year I'll make an exception and head over to my favorite store!!

Piggly Wiggly Deals through Tuesday

Just wanted to share that Piggly Wiggly has some good deals this week - Nestle's Chocolate Chips are $1.69 and there are lots of coupons for them in the past few weeks. They have turkeys for .48/lb, sugar and eggs for cheap - can't remember - all with a $25 purchase. I'd tell you the others I thought were great except I lost my ad - you can find it online if you don't have one!!!
Vivian

Friday Night Deals

Friday night has become my deal shopping night. I go to CVS first and then down the hill to Walgreens. Sometimes they are low on items but most of the time I do okay. Walgreens gets a truck Thursday and I think both stores are trying to have items stocked for Saturday.

CVS
I did two transactions paying $23.99 in ECBs and $3.61 with a gift card. I got back $27.57 in ECBs so I broke even, well...okay I made 3 cents. It's hard to "make money" without the CVS $/$$ coupons. I didn't take a picture but here is what I got:
$20 worth of chocolate :) 6 bags Hershey's Bliss and 1 bag Kisses
3 Palmolive dish soap
1 Garnier hairspray
1 Listerine Agent
1 Vitamin Water
2 Crest Pro-Health
1 Kotex

Walgreens
I didn't make money here either but I got several items for cheaper than I would have paid elsewhere. Sometimes I don't take advantage of the $5 off $20 coupons but this week I was able too! I took a picture for you:
6 rolls of Hallmark wrapping paper (Buy 1 get 2 free)=$.66 each
3 packs of bow (Buy 1 get 2 free)=$.33 each
3 packs of tissue paper (Buy 1 get 2 free)=$.33 each
3 packs of tags (Buy 1 get 2 free)=$.33 each
5 pencils with toppers (shhhh.....stockings!)
6 coloring books (stockings-Roz gets one too!)
4 instant pudding boxes
1 Almay mascara
1 Quattro razor/trimmer
1 mini-Martinellis (Roz stocking)
2 Reach toothbrushes
3 Smucker jams
4 Kellogg's cereals
10 lb. of sugar

I paid $27.55 on my gift card. Got a $2 RR and will get back $7.69 for the mascara rebate. For a real total of $17.86. I thought the wrapping supplies were a really great deal. I usually go to the dollar store for wrapping paper but $.66 is even better! I got several little stocking stuffer type items too. The food alone would have cost that much at the grocery store. I might go to a different store for the peanut butter and frosting (they were out) if I have time tomorrow. Jif is 3 for $5 and I have several $.55 coupons. Not a stock up price but decent. Frosting is $.99 and I have $.55 coupons. Cake anyone? :)

Amazing Coupon Lady!

Don't know if you have read about this gal online or not. It is truly amazing! Makes me want to move to a city that has stores which double or triple coupons all the time. This Mom decided to see if they could live on $800.00 in grocery money for the WHOLE year. The last time I looked, they still had $128.00 left to spend for the year.

Here is the link.

Wow!

(Edited by Shelly to fix the link.)

Festival

The Festival ad is now on the back of the free "Green Bay Sun" newspaper that comes in the mail. I was glad to see it since I don't always get that section from my coupon sharing family. Even when I got the paper I often forgot to look at their ad.

Anyway, the ad is for NEXT week (Nov. 9 thru Nov. 15) and they are having their annual 50% off McCormick spices and extracts sale. Stock up now to last you until next years sale! I don't buy most of my dry spices during this sale since I use the generic $1 jars or buy in bulk. However, there are several items that I do stock up on at this once a year sale: clear vanilla (best for really white cake/cookie frosting), maple extract (for homemade maple syrup-much cheaper than store bought!), and various other extracts (lemon, almond, etc.)

They also have several good deals with coupons like 48 cent baby carrots and 88 cent eggs. Also on sale are canned Del Monte veggies 48 cents (limit 10) and Hormel bacon $1.88. I don't remember...have we gotten coupons for these items lately? I'll have to check. That would make these deals even better.

If you need help organizing all the canned goods that are on sale this time of year. Check out this handy, make yourself can storage. I made one. It was a bit challenging to put together...kind of like a puzzle. But it worked nicely, holds 12 cans, and best of all it rotates the cans for you. (I'm bad about that...green beans from 2006 anyone?)

P.S. A little bird told me boneless, skinless chicken breasts are on sale for my stock up price of $1.67 a pound at Piggly Wiggly through Tuesday. Thanks little birdie!! :)

Freebies and Coupons

If you haven't been taking advantage of freebies lately you're missing out! Heather over at Freebies4Mom has a great blog full of freebies. She only lists the best freebies that are truly free; not the ones where you have to jump through hoops or take advantage of "special offers".

In addition to getting a free product, lots of freebies come with a high value coupon. I have found Walmart has great freebies. They are mailed right to your door. I'm sure my mail lady loves delivering to my mailbox!

The link to Freebies 4 Mom has been in the sidebar for a long time but I thought I'd mention it again so you can start to get excited about opening your mail box each day too!

Helpful Coupon Definitions and Abbreviations

• Catalina - coupon that comes out of machine at checkout
  
• CRT- cash register tape or receipt
• Double Daze - the days Copps let you double 5 coupons with $25 purchase
• Double Double Daze - the days Copps let you double 10 coupons with $25 purchase
• DND - Do not double
• ECB - Extra Care Buck(s), the name of the instant rebate that print with your receipt from CVS, use it like a gift card to pay for another purchase
• FAC - Free after coupon
• FAR - Free after rebate
• GM - General Mills
• Insert - Booklet of coupons found in the Sunday newspaper
• IP - Internet printable
• IVC - Instant value coupon, Walgreens monthly coupon found in their monthly booklet.
• MC or MQ - Manufacturer Coupon
• MIR - Mail in rebate
• MM - Money Maker, a deal where after coupon or rebate you get overage
• OOP - Out of pocket
• Overage - item costs less than coupon value but the whole amount comes off your total
• OYNO - on your next order
  
• PG or P&G - Proctor & Gamble Sunday insert coupon
• Printable - a coupon that you print from the internet
• PSA - prices starting at
• RC - raincheck
• Rebate - mail in offer that refunds your money when you purchase a specific item
• RP - Red Plum Sunday supplement coupons
• RR - Register Reward, the name of the instant rebate or Catalina that prints from Walgreens, use it like a gift card to pay for another purchase
  
• SMP - Specially marked packages
• SS - Smart Source
• Stacking - using more than one coupon per item
• TMF - Try me free, a form that you mail in to receive full purchase price back
• WYB - When you buy
• YMMV - Your mileage may vary - the success of the attempt may vary

Chex cereal on sale for 1.66 at Walmart

Hi - I just got back from the WEST SIDE Walmart where I found Chex cereal on sale for 1.66/box. Now, don't go running over there tonight (Friday, Oct 24th) because I bought the last of what was there!!!! I don't know when they restock or how long the sale goes. The cool part was that all of the boxes I bought - only 7 mind you - all had the buy one, get one taco seasoning coupons on them - at Walmart, that means .74 free taco seasoning. I cashed in the other 8 coupons I had for taco seasoning tonight and got 16 packages B1G1 :)))) Total I saved $20 with my coupons. Vivian

Kmart Double Coupons

Kmart will be offering double coupons again next week Oct. 26 through Nov. 1! I checked the list and it looks like both GB area stores will be participating. Remember they double up to $2 with a generous limit of 75 coupons! If you go share your deals with us here!

Good Article on Saving with Stockpiling

Here is the article.

Stockpiling has saved me a TON of money. If you don't do it...give it a try. Just find a corner to pile your stuff and start watching the sales. Shelves are nice but not necessary. I remember reading in the Tightwad Gazette once...Would you rent out the space under your bed for $30 a month? Who wouldn't? Well, if you put food under there that you got a great deal on that is essentially what you are doing. Most of us here in WI are fortunate enough to have basements so maybe you won't even have to put a bunch of stuff under your bed!

Think you don't have room in your budget to stockpile? Think again. The little bit you save this week can be used to save more next week....until you rarely pay full price for the things you use the most. (Like rolling ECBs!) If you already stockpile a little bit (toothpaste anyone?), branch out to other products to save even more.

I've talked about this before but since this is a good time of year to buy certain sale items I thought it might be a good reminder. Keep an eye out for sales on baking supplies, spices, and turkeys(!) in the next few weeks. Buy enough to last you until next year at this time. You'll love pulling out items instead of adding them to your shopping list. And come this time next year if prices have gone up (and they will!) you be using items bought at this year's (lower) prices!

Below is a picture of some of my current stockpile. I didn't pay full price for any of these items and some I got for free.

Walmart Still Accepts Internet Coupons

I copied off the Walmart Coupon Policy and went to the Customer Service Dept last week and asked for an explanation of whether or not the West Side Walmart accepted internet coupons. She explained to me that awhile back, for a week, they accepted no internet coupons, due to the fact that there was a fraudulant company putting them out and they were trying to figure out what was going on. The company's name is not one I've ever seen but the value of the coupons was greater than the items themselves, she showed the scans to me. It had lots of V's or R's in the name - and was more like a series of letters scrambled together rather than an actual pronouncable name. Anyway, the policy reads:

"Internet coupons should be legible and say "Manufacturer Coupon". There should be a valid remit address for the manufacturer and a scanable bar code."

The Dept head told me that they are on the lookout for these other coupons and that most coupons are completely legitimate - now that was a relief to hear! At least we can use them at Walmart. Does anyone know of any other place in Green Bay that takes them?

Vivian