Rather Boring CVS Trip, but what the hey…

It just went OK. Not even worth a photo. I did get some free stuff: 2 free Sally Hansen Nail Polishes, 2 CVS Pantiliners, 2 CVS boxes of tampons, 2 money-making Sure Deoderants, a free Neutrogena Mascara.

However, I was rather brain-dead on the CVS towelettes; I only printed off 1 $2/1 coupon instead of two, and I didn’t look at the prices to check that the exfoliating ones were more than the makeup cleansing ones. So, I lost about $2.50 (in ECBs, of course) there. Plus, someone put a Sally H. Nail Polish on the wrong rack, so I ended up getting a $2.50 one instead of another for $0.99. There’s another $1.50 wasted–and the irony is that I had a $1.00/1 Sally Hansen coupon I could have used, but didn’t bother since I thought it would be free. Meh. That bothers me the most.

Some of that was made up with the $3.00/15.00 coupon, but I had already factored that into buying my husband the B1G1 Free Twizzlers & Arizona Iced Tea. So…not too successful, but I’m not going to complain about “wasting” $4.00 when I’ve gotten so much free stuff now and over the year. Just another reminder to Be Careful!

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New England Saving July 11-July 17 2008

Deals look pretty sparse this week, unfortunately. A few things here and there, but nothing spectacular.

Best Store to Shop: Shaws
Best Deal: Shaws Meat with Coupon or Market Basket’s Turkey Hill Iced Tea

Stop & Shop:

Steak Tips $3.99/lb.

Spareribs $1.99/ lb.

Plumrose Sliced ham or turkey B1G1 Free

Oscar Meyer Weiners or Bologna B1G1 Free

Shaws:

Porterhouse/New York Steak, Bone-In strip steak, or T-Bones $5.99.
Use with $1.00/Shaws Choice Meat Coupon from the Taste of Summer Booklet

Florida’s Natural Orange Juice $1.99 (Limit 2)

Kraft Shredded Cheese 2/$4.00
Use with supposed Shaws coupon…I cant find it anywhere! Anne kindly left a comment with the link.

Pastaroni 10/$10.00
Again, I cannot find the coupon on their site. Which means they’re doing a really bad job of making stuff accessible…on purpose? Or maybe I’m just daft. Right, again, see the link from Anne.

Raspberries B1G1 Free

Ground Beef 93% $2.89/lb.
Ground Beef 85% $2.59/lb.

Fresh Figs 2/$1.00

Nathans Hot Dogs B1G1 Free

Slimfast Meal Bars 10/$10.00

Slimfast Snack Bars Packs 2/$7.00
Use with $1.25/1 coupon for
2/$5.75

Buy One, Get One Free Sale:
Mini-Wheats
Doritos
Fresh Ground Turkey (Shady Brook farms)
Fresh Salad Express Select Blends
Breyers Ice Cream
Shaws Natural Bread
Dole Fruit Cups (Buy 2 sets, and use with $1.00/3 coupon)
Wise Cheez Doodles or Pop Corn
Freihofers Italian Bread
Shaws Fresh Baked Sub Rolls
Shaws Pretzels
Shaws Signature Sparkling Water
Hunts Pasta Sauce
Kashi Go Lean Cereal
Better’n Eggs
Equaline ibuprofen

There’s also a buy 25$ worth of select materials, get $8.00 back offer, but the past two times I’ve tried these the catalinas wouldn’t print. Items listed include selected Kellogg’s cereal, Dasani Water, Powerade, Tyson, Cottonelle, Hershey’s, Kleenex, Scott Paper Towels, Viva Paper Towels & Scott Toilet Paper.

Market Basket:

Bananas $0.39

Plums/Peaches/Nectarines $1.29/lb.

Angel Food Cake $1.99

Delmonico Rib-Eyes $6.99/lb.

Turkey Hill Iced Tea $0.99 Half Gallon
Use with $1.00/2 Coupon for:
2 Half Gallons for $0.98

Cedar’s Tzatziki $2.99/lb.

Reddi Whip 7 oz. $1.69
Use with $1.00/2 coupon

Papayas $0.99/lb.

Hannaford:

Red Onions $1.29/lb.

Pillsbury Traditional Milk Chocolate Brownie mix 5/$5.00

Knorr Lipton Pasta Sides 5/$5.00
Use with $1.00/3 Coupon for
5/$4.00

Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad $0.99
Use with $1.00/2 coupon for:
2/$0.98

London Broil Shoulder Steak $1.77/lb.

Whole Boneless Pork Loin $1.97/lb.

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Back! And Other Sundry Notes

So, husband and I are back from Seattle, tanned and thin. Apparently you lose 3+ pounds when you have to chase a two-year-old and bounce a 2-month-old 18 hours out of the day! We had a lovely time, and thoroughly enjoyed our time with our little niece and new nephew. Some splurging did occur…mostly on small souvenirs to bring back for my family and on trips to Jamba Juice, which is nowhere in MA except for the BU campus which inconveniently follows BU Cafeteria hours. But I figure we more than made up for that by having no electricity used, no food bills, no gas money…I’m pretty sure we’re ahead in the game.

We also had the exciting experience of paying off the second credit card in our Five Year Debt-Free Plan, which is currently on-schedule for the 4th month in a row, since its inception in April 08. The third should be done next month! Whoo Hoo!

I’m totally out of the loop on what deals are going on, but I’ll have to jump right back in since my ECB expiration (on the calendar this time!) date is 7/22. Plus, we have no food left from that last June shopping trip. So…back into the swing of things! I’ve got tons of things I want to do on my one relaxation day tomorrow, plus some things that need to be done:

*Hem Napkin Edges
*Compile Deals for CVS & Grocery Stores
*Buy Paper & Buy Textbook for Class (Math–blech)
*Update Budget
*Put together a financial plan for DH & my getting new cell phones
*Make dinner & Monday’s Lunch
*Weed & Water Garden
*Start reading The Two Towers @ the beach
*Start the “travel brochure” for when my 3 younger siblings come to visit in August

..we’ll see how much of that actually gets accomplished…

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AHHH!! Me? A Winner?

First off, apologies for not writing–summer is catching up with me, and we’ll be gone to Seattle next week too. But, I have 2 words: Stop & Shop. Porterhouse Steaks are $4.99/lb. (limit 5) Corn is 12/$1.99. Go. Now.

But that’s not the point of this overly excited post. Yesterday was my birthday, so when a package arrived today, my husband and I were sort of intrigued, but not shocked. Maybe from an aunt? An uncle? But when I opened it, before my eyes arose all sorts of products as if from a dream…TRESemme…24.7 skincare…Nivea…all the sudden, it sort of made sense. This stuff had been on sale at CVS…but why? Why to me?

And then I saw the green zebra striped bag and I knew. A few months ago, I read a moneysavingmom post about an Allure Magazine contest that if you sent in a receipt with 2 products on it, and were one of the first 1,000 to do so, you could win a case full of products. That Post prompted me to go buy 2 Ban deodorants (on sale, with 2 coupons) and send in my receipt the following day. AND I WON!! It was so much more than what I was expecting too…I was thinking samples, while most were full-size, good products! Here it is:

The Haul

And here’s what it included:

TRESemme Thermal Recovery Shampoo 25 fl. oz.
TRESemme Thermal Recovery Conditioner 25 fl. oz.
TRESemme Curl Moisturizing Shampoo 32 fl. oz.
TRESemme Curl Moisturizing Conditioner 32 fl. oz.
Biore Pore Unclogging Scrub 5 oz (my favorite thing!)
Goody add+shine Brush (and a brush was on my shopping list…)
Nair Shower Power Kit
Vo5 Extreme Style Styling Mousse 8 oz.
24.7 anti-wrinkle skincare (well, it was my birthday yesterday…)
CVS-Brand Sport Sunscreen Spray SPF 30
Sally Hansen Lip Inflation Extreme Gloss
Revlon Shimmer Lipgloss
St. Ives Collagen Elastin 2 fl. oz
Nexxus Root Extend Travel Size
Nivea Pure Moister Travel Size
Ban Deodorant Travel Size
KY Intrigue Sample
Biore Blemish Fighting Ice Cleanser Sample
And the Green-Zebra Make-Up Bag!

So Excited! And undeserved, but a very nice surprise. And now I will probably enter more contests.

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