That's Much Better

Apparently yesterday's Emo episode was what I needed to unclog my Chi and get my Stars back aligned, or what ever hoo-doo it was, made for a much better day today.
Sort of.
Some things still went wrong...or more like, wonky, but in the end, not a big deal.

First I went to Walgreens to pick up my 50 Free photo prints I ordered the other night.
While I was going anyway, I checked the ad to see if there was anything on sale I wanted or needed. Turned out eggs were on sale again for 99¢. They were a couple of weeks ago and I missed it and I was sad. I just had J buy a dozen of eggs last week for $1.49 because I was afraid they'd only go higher.

They also had Tums on sale for $4.50, and you get back a $4.50 Reward (coupon to use in the store), basically making it free after reward, but turned out I had (7) $1.00 off coupons from the newspaper inserts, so I only paid $3.50 each, and got back $4.50 Reward, so I made $7.00 profit on my money.

The Scope mouthwash scored me 50¢ profit after coupon.

Basically, all said and done, I got all this for $3.42 (+ tax).

After Walgreens we (Ryan was riding with me today) went to the Cat House (haha), the guy's house whose cats I pet and feed and make sure everything is okay.

He paid me $250.00 for my time this week, which is also how much J got paid for riding up to north North Carolina and picking up/driving back a new ambulance yesterday.
Bam, $500.00 for Christmas. Awesome.

After there we went to Office Max to try to buy me a new printer since mine kicked the bucket night before last.
I particularly wanted to buy it at Office Max because I have $68.00 worth of gift cards from a previous deal, and also they'd sent me a $10 off $50 coupon for my birthday this month.

So we looked and finally decided on one and I went to look for my phone, to pull up the coupon I had texted to it from my email.
But there was no phone. Ryan went and checked in the car, but there was no phone.

Since I'd tried to go buy a printer yesterday and it didn't work out, and I'd went and tried to buy a printer today and had apparently left/lost my phone somewhere, I asked Ryan if he thought that some weird cosmic coincidence, or was it a sign I wasn't meant to buy a printer there for some reason.

He went on his phone and signed into my email to look for the coupon still in my email, but his phone would only load 28 pages of 5 emails, which took us back to like, Friday. The coupon was a couple of weeks ago, so it wouldn't load.
He said, Yeah, obviously it's a sign.

(This evening I went online to order the thing, which went well until I got to the part about adding my coupon code and it told me it wouldn't work. I went back and read the fine print on the coupon and it's not good for gift cards, pre-paid cards, stamps, shredding, mobile devices or plans, computers, e-readers, tablets, video game systems, cameras, monitors, projectors, HP products, printers....or basically anything anyone would really want to buy, it looks like.
Yeah, definitely a sign. So where am I supposed to get a new printer??)

(BTW, we called Walgreens and I had left my phone there. They had it in the office, and I picked it up on my way home.)

After Office Max, I went to get my hair cut.
There's two fast-food hair-cut chains right near each other, Great Clips and Fantastic Sam's. I hadn't heard great things about Great Clips, but I had gone into Fantastic Sam's about a year or so ago to get it cut (I had gotten it cut there the year before and liked it) but there was one lady cutting someone's hair, and another sitting in a chair, and neither acknowledged me in anyway. Not a "Hi", "we'll be with you shortly", "Go away", nothing. After a couple of minutes of being completely ignored, I left and went home.
So, today I picked Great Clips for that reason.

Some of you may know I have a lot of thick, heavy red hair that grows fairly quickly. It has been a little over two years since I last got it cut, but it was nearly to my waist again.
When I showed the lady I wanted it cut to my shoulders, her eyes got big and she was like, Are you sure?

I assured her I was, and she got a ruler and measured it and said, We're gonna donate your hair, ok. 
Of course, I was happy to do that. I had done that last time, but just forgot about it this time. She put it in a ponytail and cut it off and one of the other ladies saw it and she was like, her eyes got big and her mouth fell open. She was like, Are you freaking out right now? 

Anyway, turns out, at Great Clips, when you donate your hair, your hair cut is Free.

Which was not only a good thing, but it was a really great thing, because to be honest, I don't like the cut that much. It's not horrible, it just doesn't look nearly as good as the last time.

After hair cutting, I went to Publix for what little I was able to get from this past week's sale since I fiddle-farded around and let a lot of the coupons expire (not to mention, my printer biting it and I wasn't able to print some coupons I needed).

After coupons, this all cost me $3.12, including tax.

CVS had a fantastic sale this week, but I had been ignoring it because ended up letting my Rewards expire back in the Spring, and I didn't really want to start over again.
But they were having a deal on Hershey Kisses I didn't want to pass up, so while I was going anyway, I figured I could check out the deals and see if there was anything I wanted/needed.

I got all this for free and made 51¢ profit on my money...for these things. I actually made a lot more.

I learned from the Shopper Blogs about a deal this week (ended today) where if you load $150.00 on to a pre-paid Paypal Mastercard, you'd get $50.00 back in Rewards from CVS.

There was a $4.95 activation fee, but after that, you make about a $45.00 profit.

I'm not sure what happened earlier in the week, but it was some sort of disastrous nightmare and I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with it.
I had read that CVS had pulled the deal, but I read on their Facebook page, where people were raising hell at them, that they were honoring the deal.
I thought maybe they'd honor the deal if someone had already did it and called and gave them their receipt number, then CVS would issue the reward, whatever, but I really expected when I asked at the store today about it to be told no, they weren't doing it, or that they were out of cards or something.

Turned out, they had substituted the Paypal cards "My Vanilla" Visa pre-paid cards (or another one I can't recall the name of at the moment) and printed out the $50.00 in rewards right there.

There was an activation fee for the card, and they charge a fee every usage, I think, but I'll do like others did and take it to Kroger and buy Gift Cards, which is what I'd planned to buy for Christmas gifts anyway. (I'll get gas points buying them at Kroger.)
Even after fees I should still clear about $45.00 free money (drug store rewards).

I can only spend it at CVS, but I'm not complaining. It's like getting $45.00 worth of completely free stuff (except times 3, because I did 3 cards).  That's like $135.00 I can put towards Christmas prezzies, or stock up on things like toilet paper, laundry detergent, shampoo, etc. etc.

Wishing you all a terrific Thanksgiving day tomorrow.

Today's Shop

Today I got all this - including a turkey - for less than $20.00.

Publix Cost $17.90
Saved $113.51

Kroger grocery store is having a Buy 10 get $5.00 off Mega sale this week...These mega sales used to be awesome, until the stopped doubling coupons. Blech.

But they have (had) marshmallows for 69¢, which even without a coupon is a great price. Knowing I'm going to be making a few Rice Krispy Treats for the Holidays, it would not be smart of me to wait until next month and have to pay full price ($1.00 +) for marshmellers when I could get them for 69¢ now.

I visited a Kroger earlier in the week, with no luck finding the 10oz bags of regular marshmallows. Not even an empty spot.
I came home and checked the internet again, to make sure I was looking for the right item. I was.
Another day, checked another store. Nope. Another day, another store. Still nope.
Checked another store today and nope, so I went to the Customer Service desk to try to get them to check a computer or call a central office or something, anything, to find out where I get some freeking marshmallows.
Manager took my name and is going to have "his person" check on it and call me.

Meantime, I went to Walmart and got them to price match it for me.
Walmart is generally really difficult to deal with around here and I would have preferred to have not tried price matching since I didn't have a printed ad to prove the sale price, but the mega sale ends tomorrow so I was desperate and had to try.
Luckily I didn't have any trouble. This time.

Bargain Shopping

I'm house/cat sitting (not really sitting, I go check on the house and feed the cats once a day) again this week, so while I'm on the road anyway, I've been doing some coupon/deal shopping.

Last week (or whenever Halloween was) Walgreens offered Free 8x10 Collage photos. I made one of our train ride and trip to the mountains last week (or, a couple weeks ago, whatever). My sister sent one of my niece/s up here to J's account.
The candy was marked down to 33¢ and 37¢.

JCPenney had sent out flyers in the mail with a $10 off $10 purchase coupon - which means you can get something that costs $10.00 for Free (excluding tax).
There was also a $10 off $25 purchase coupon, but it had expired before I got down there, and anyway I usually don't use those kind of coupons too much, I usually just use the *Free* coupon, but I think I'm going to have to start paying more attention to the other coupons, too. I could have used it on this order, and still have gotten another $10 worth free.

I don't really know why but whenever I get a coupon that makes items free at JCPenney or Kohls, I generally always look at the Men's Department Clearance racks. Not women's, or housewares, or shoes, or.... Just men's. And this time was no different.

Ryan had just mentioned the other day wanting to go to the Mall to look for some jeans (at which I freaked out because he has more jeans than the rest of us combined, and they are in good condition and was cheap at Goodwill, and if he wanted more jeans, why not shop at Goodwill, where he could get like 5 or 6 pair of jeans for the price of 1 at the Mall?).  Anyway, he said all the jeans he has are light (blue) and he wants dark ones.

So I ran across these dark blue Arizona jeans in his size, marked down from $35.00 to $14.00. Even though my coupon was only $10.00 off, I was willing to pay the $4.00 for them.
I don't know why, but instead of going and checking out right then, for some reason I started wandering around like I was lost. Because I wasn't looking for anything else, so I don't know....
At any rate, I happened to walk by a Check the Price machine, and for no particular reason I checked the price. I didn't have reason to believe it wasn't the correct price, but turned out the scanned at $7.97 instead of $14.00.

So then I needed to find something for a couple dollars more in order to bring the total up to $10 (or more) to be able to use my coupon.
Ryan's been saying he needed a new wallet, and they had this Levi's one marked down from $28 to $15, but when I price checked it it rang up $7.97 also.
In case it didn't ring up as cheaply as I wanted, I was also carrying the underwear in J's size to see if they rang up cheaper than $15 (marked down from $26).  Well they also rang up $7.97, which was just toooo good of a price to pass up on these drawers.

My total, including tax, was $24.something, so after the $10 off coupon, I got all this for less than $15.00.
I'll be wrapping them up for Christmas prezzies.

I also visited the Goodwill, still looking for Christmas sweaters and...whatever else I was looking for.

Ryan (again) along the same time he mentioned wanting new (dark) jeans, he mentioned wanting to look for...I can't remember exactly how he said it, but it wasn't "zip up hooded jacket".  Last year (or maybe the year before) I had gotten some $10 off $10 Kohl's coupons and he went with me shopping one day and we ended up getting him a couple of zip-up hooded jackets for free or cheap. He loaned his Grannie one in the nursing home and it got gone, and I don't know what happened to the other one. No telling, he probably gave it to someone else.

Anyway I found this practically brand new zip-up hooded jacket at Goodwill for $5.95. These go for around $20 I think, so good price.

Still not a lot of luck finding Christmas Sweaters. There were long-sleeve turtleneck shirts, and sweatshirts, but not Sweaters.  I managed to find a Sweater-vest I think my son's fiance' can wear with a red shirt underneath.

I found a red men's sweater - half price - that I thought I could just decorate up for Christmas myself.

I have a long-sleeve t-shirt my nephew gave me last year that I love wearing, and wanted to be able to find some more. Other than it, and my collection of hoodies, I only have 2 other long-sleeve shirts. They are allright, but just not as comfortable as the t-shirt shirt.

I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, but I found the blue sweater.... What first caught my attention was how soft it was. And then I saw it had a Red tag.  The half-price color of the day was Red. Sweet.
I don't know if it's my size but for half price, it's soft enough I can use it for some projects I saw on Pinterest like making mittens or  toboggans out of sweaters, or the one I really like, making a blanket from sweaters.

After that, I quit looking at every shirt on the rack, and started looking for Red tags. I found me another sweater, three shirts, and two skirts, all half price, or about $2.47 each.

And I coupon shopped at Publix. I got all this for $43.51 including tax.  Now if you're like me, you're probably not too impressed by that amount....that's really about all this is worth, not on sale, and not using coupons.

But by shopping the sale and using coupons, I saved $139.86. So that means, all this stuff, buying it regular price and not using coupons, would have cost nearly $200 smack-a-roos. Shewwww, that's reedonkuless.

For those of you that look at this stuff and think it's kind of a strange grocery shop, this is what's called "Stockpile Shopping". I only buy the things I can get by combining a sale with coupons, and I stock up on those things at their rock-bottom price so I don't have to go later and pay full price for an item.

For instance, the Welch's grape jelly is on sale for Buy-One-Get-One-Free at $2.59, or as it works out, $1.30 each.  I had coupons for 50¢ off, and my grocery store doubles coupons up to 50¢, so it made those coupons $1.00 off. Meaning, I paid 30¢ each.
Regular price for these are $2.59 each at Publix, $1.98 at Walmart, so stocking up when I can get them at 30¢ instead is much better.

Otherwise, I usually buy my milk, eggs, bread, and produce at Aldi, where it's cheapest, and I buy meat where ever I can find it on sale.

Cat Sitting, Coupon Shopping & Yard Sale'ing

Most of my Readers probably don't know that a year or so ago, I used to be an Extreme Coupon Shopper. I used buy like 10 Sunday papers a week (when I could get them for $1.00) and collect coupons from everyone and free papers, and I'd make my Shopping Route so I could spend one or two or sometimes more days a week traveling to multiple stores, where I'd "buy" 10, 20, and sometimes even more of the items I was getting good deals on. The majority of the time I'd not only get the items for free, but I'd end up making money. (Not cash money, but I'd use the credit to buy other stuff I needed that might not be on sale).
But then a lot of people started getting into the Super Couponing game, and didn't take the time to learn and used coupons wrong, then that terrible show Extreme Couponing came out and showed people to use coupons wrong, and the stores were like, "Nope", and changed all their rules and limits.

The limits, and all the others getting into the game, were the worst for me because I have to drive a minimum of 30 miles to the nearest store(s) that I can get the deals at. When I started coming home with Limit 1 or 2 at the most, it made it not worthwhile for me to continue.

Now I really only coupon shop if the deal is worth my gas/time/effort, or if I'm going by the store anyway.

This week I got a job checking on a man's house and feeding/petting his Kitties for two days. I actually was going to do it for free, but he insisted on paying for my gas at least. Anyway, my route to his house took me by a drug store and a couple of grocery stores that I can sometimes get some good deals at, so I went to the Shopper Blogs that list out the sales and coupon matches every week to see what there was.

I had said I wasn't going to buy Halloween candy until at least October 1st, but I saw Walgreens was having a great deal on candy, only $1.00 a bag after sale + coupons, and the cereal was only 67¢ a box.

All this cost me only $7.68 plus tax. (Regular price before sale and coupons $49.48)

If you want to see how I did it you can check out my post at my (nearly defunct) shopper's blog, Walgreens 9/19/13.

Our Publix grocery store ends sales on Wednesday and starts the new week on Thursday (no idea why), but since my job carried me by the store on both Wednesday and Thursday, I checked out the sales for both days.

Yesterday I got all this for $8.33 plus tax. Basically I paid for the ice cream and the rest was free.
 

Today I got all this for negative 18¢. That is, I would have gotten it all free plus they would have paid me 18¢ had it not been for tax. Tax was $2.22, so minus the 18¢, I paid $2.04.
Can't complain about that too much.

If you're in an area that has Publix stores and want to see the coupons I used check out Publix post.

I also stopped in at Kroger grocery store since I was driving past it, too. Blugh.
Kroger has some good sales every so often, especially their Mega sales, but for the most part, not. And this is the last week Kroger's will be doubling coupons in our area, which will make for even less good deals than they already are.

I had a list of several items to pick up, but when I got to the store, for the most part the prices didn't match up to what I read on the blogs, and they were out of the Glade plug-in warmers (no big loss, they don't even include the smelly stuff.)

The Crest was $1.00, and I had a 50¢ coupon that doubled, so I got it free, and the Lettuce is on sale for 99¢ this week, which is a good price for around here. I usually pay $1.19 and up.
Total cost $1.06

The guy whose house and Kitties I was keeping an eye on this week gave me this box of quart size jars and lids Free. Very awesome. I love jars.

I wasn't expecting it on a Thursday, but there were quite a few yard sales going today, so we stopped in to check them out. Because, you know, I need more Stuff. lol.

The first we stopped in, the lady had awesome prices. Too awesome for us, the people that got there before we did were putting everything in piles for themselves and bought all the good stuff, I guess.

This yard sale didn't have much of their stuff priced. Some of it was, and when we walked up they said "Don't worry about the prices, we're making good deals today. Just gather up everything you want and...." (I forgot her exact words. Anyway, I was expecting some really good prices. I asked about a small crockpot and they wanted $2.00 for it. Probably a good deal, but not good enough I couldn't pass it up.

I saw some patterns and one was priced 25¢, the others weren't priced. Ryan has been wanting a vest (or vests), looking at Goodwill for any, so I thought I could get this pattern and give it a try.
Also picked up the backpack sack with the name of the local hospital on it, figuring it couldn't cost too much, with the "great deals" they were going to give us.

So I went to the porch and the lady comes over and says, "Mmm, how about a dollar?"
Umm, how about not.
I said that I thought it'd be cheaper so she said "How about 50¢?"
That was better. Somewhat. Not a "great deal". Maybe a regular deal.

The next yard sale had everything priced...most of it kinda high for my tastes. I found these packages of spider webbing for 25¢, and the little cauldron candle for 10¢. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend 50¢ on spider webbing, but I was afraid it'd get closer to Halloween and I'll end up wishing I had some, and kicking myself for not getting it when I could get two bags for 50¢.

Next we stopped at an Estate Sale, which by the name tells you everything is going to be costly. And it was. There was some nice things, maybe worth what they were asking, but then again they had some regular type stuff that should have only been a quarter or so priced at 2 bucks and up.

I did find this little contraption. Not sure what it is, but it's metal and folds up like this, then opens up into a bowl. I can't remember having seen anything like this before. It's unique, I think, and will make a good fruit basket-bowl.

I loved this metal (aluminum, I think) colander for 25¢.

I believe this is going to be my best find of the day. Vintage Fisher Price Goldilocks and 3 Bears (although there's only 2 bears there) pull along toy for $1.00.  This toy is about my, or my sister's age, and we had one as young'uns. I love old toys from my childhood, but usually they're tagged "Vintage" or sometimes even Lord forbid "Antique" and priced accordingly (aka ridiculously).