Money Saving Monday

Welcome back!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  I decided last week while in the shower (isn't that where we do our best thinking?!) that I wanted to do something new on my blog.  Something that will be a little more organized and give us something to look forward to each week.  So each day of the week we are going to have a "theme" some of which will be Linky Parties.  We are going to start off with...

<center><a href="http://jennifersjoyfuljourney.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Jennifer's Journey" src="http://i529.photobucket.com/albums/dd331/jbowers_01/moneysavingpic3.jpg"/></a></center>

Each Monday I will update you on all of my coupon shopping trips that I made that past week.  I do most of my coupon shopping on the weekends or Monday mornings so I thought this would be a great day to post them.  Plus, if there is a great deal for the week I can share it with you and you will have time to grab it up yourself!!!



This weekend I made trips to Walgreens and Rite Aid.  And I plan on going back!  Deals are awesome this week!!

 Above is my Walgreens trip. TRV for these items is $60.83.  I paid $12.16 before tax and after RR from last time used.  I also earned $13 in RR for my next trip.

This is my Rite Aid trip.  This was a quick trip in just to see if they had items I had rain checks for.  Tempe was fussy because it was her nap time and so it was short.  TRV for these items is $11.96.  I paid $3.48 before tax and after RR from last time used.  I also earned $7 in RR for my next trip.

Now, all of my blogger buddies out there join my Linky Party!!! 

Grab my hot new made by me button! Blog about a deal, then come back and link it so that we can all read about your fantastic finds!  Make sure you link your post and not your home page! This is so that if someone comes back to it after you post again it will take them to the correct post.  It doesn't have to be drug store deals.  It can be anything from a great pair of heels you found on sale to something wonderful you found at the Dollar Tree this week.  I wanna hear about it!!! (Linky Party will only be for today)

Tomorrow we will have "Tempe Tuesday".  Be sure to come back and check it out!!

Sunday Coupon Trip

Today was my first coupon trip to CVS and Walgreens.  CVS was planned but Walgreens was not.  I did pretty well I think.  You can find my list I made for the Rite Aid and CVS trip here .  At CVS I stuck to it but at Rite Aid I found a few Christmas items 75% off so I went ahead and picked them up. 

Rite Aid:  Retail Price $93.68
OOP (this total will always be after RR from last trip used) $12.97
RR Earned: $5

CVS: Retail Price $44.44
OOP (first trip to CVS so no RR to spend) $26.87
RR Earned $17

Last minute Walgreens trip: Retail Price $16.47
OOP $4.53
RR Earned: $4.50

I am already planning my end of week trips!  I missed several deals today that I would like to try and get on Friday.  I have gotten used to Rite Aid and am moving on to CVS.  I can not wait to see how much I save this month!

Now, on to one of my other loves...Miss Tempe!  I have not updated about her in a while.  She is doing wonderful.  Growing way too fast.  She has started running everywhere.  Today she ran circles giggling the whole time.  She loves pocket books and pot holders.  She got a kitchen set for Christmas and loves playing with it and her Tag Jr. reader.  She cracks us up by getting her shoes and walking to the door saying "bye bye"!  She is always trying to put my shoes on her feet.  I love that girl so much that my heart almost aches from joy.

I have also been cleaning out EVERYTHING!  I am wanting to redo just about every room in my house and have been trying to clean and get ideas.  I have started with my laundry room mainly because we had to get a new washer and dryer so I want to make sure it looks nice.  Plus that is where I am keeping all of my craft things and would love to want to go in there and work. I really want to find a desk to go in there that I could work at.  We have never really bought furniture so I am not sure what I want.  I picked out our dining room suit and Josh picked out the sofa's in the living room but the rest has been given to us.

Everyone have a wonderful week!!!

Rite Aid

This was my trip to Walgreen's today

6 stocking stuffer size Snickers and a candy cane for $.58  They had the candy on sale 3/$1 and I had a coupon for $2/3.  I had to get 6 in order to make it the $2 limit but they gave me the chance to get more!!  I only had to pay $.58 for the candy cane!

Tomorrow I am making my first trip to Rite Aid for a true shopping trip.  I have been going through all of my coupons and ad papers tonight and making my list.  It will not normally take this long but I am redoing my binder and had not clipped any coupons for a few weeks so that is taking a while.  I was happy to read another lady say when she first started it would take her a while to do this but now it takes her no time on a Sunday to make her list.  I am so excited about this.  I ordered my book today.  I could have gotten it at B&N but I like to shop local when I can.  I will be sure to post about how my trip tomorrow goes.  My goal is going to be to save at least 50% this time.  Once I get good I will go for 75%!!

Free Free Free!!!

I will be the first to tell you I am all about some free stuff!  And I have been getting lots free lately.  Today we went to a free Snacks with Santa.  Tempe's school readiness program puts it on every year.  Local businesses set up at the fair grounds with crafts for the kids to do.  She got to make all kinds of ornaments and then had cookies and juice for snack.

Then we went to a donations only brunch with Santa that is put on by my MOPS group.  That was a lot of fun and Tempe sat on Santa's lap!

The next thing I am excited about is that I have gotten some stocking stuffers for free!!  Rite Aid had the men's Gillette gift pack that includes a battery powered razor, shave gel, face scrub, and lotion on sale for $9.  I had a P&G coupon for $4 off and then Rite Aid also gave you $5 + rewards.  So in the long run it was FREE!!

I told you I was going to get into couponing!  Just wait until you see what is up my sleeve soon.  It is a total mind set that you have to train yourself to do but it is well worth it once you do!

Christmas Deal's

Although it isn't even Thanksgiving I am already thinking of Christmas and shopping.  One of the things I wanted to get Tempe was a Leapfrog Tag Junior.

They retail for $35.99.  I saw on another blog (sorry not sure which one) that a lady had bought the Toy Story 3 one on clearance for $19.98 and used a Target coupon for $10 off and a Leapfrog one for $5 off so she got it for $4.98!!!  WOW what a deal!  After calling around Target stores none of them had the Toy Story one.  I headed to Target anyway.  Unfortunately my printer wouldn't print off the Leapfrog coupon but I was able to get it on sale at Target for $29.99 and then used their $10 off coupon and so I paid only $19.99 for it!!  Toys R Us is going to have it on sale the day after Thanksgiving for $17.99 so for $2 more I didn't have to fight that crowd!!!  YAY!

Coupon Notebook

One of the ways I save our family money is to clip coupons on Sunday's out of the local paper.  I found when I started this that I would clip the coupon and then not use it or it would expire before I remembered I had it.  The way I fixed this is I bought myself a handy dandy notebook!

The first thing in the notebook is a zipper pouch.  In it I put a pair of scissors, extra tabs, a pen, etc.

Next in the notebook I put baseball card sleeves to stick the coupons in.  I separated these by aisle at the grocery store.  For example Baking, Cookies and Crackers, Can Goods, etc.  I put the coupons in the sleeves so that I can see what the product is and exp. date. 

After all of my coupons I have a section of recipes that I want to try and ones we use often but I just can seem to remember everything that goes in it!

And I have a page protector that I put all of my recipes in.  At one point I want to add a list of items we buy each week and the price of them so that I can look and see if another store has them on sale.

I am currently creating a weekly calendar that has a place to right what meals we will have and a shopping list so that I will know just what I need.  I am a lover of lists so this really helps me.  And helps me not buy unnecessary things!!!

I know it sounds like a lot but once I got the notebook together now each week I clip the coupons I think I will need and then make my list of items I need for the week.  I plan out all of our meals so that I can use leftovers to make another meal the next day.  I have found this really helps me to save my family money!!  It feels so good when the cashier totals our bill and I hand her the coupons and she scans then and I see just how much I saved!!

What things have you found that helps you with using coupons?