BecomingFrugal.com

Probably a year or so ago I found myself in a grocery store at night after watching a movie in a theatre. We were hungry but really didn’t want fast food, so even though it was around 7pm we ran into the market for something we could make really fast. As I scouted out the deli and “premade” food section, a store employee came over and started marking down all the precooked chickens from 5.99 to 1.99. I asked her why they were being marked down and she told me they do it every evening around that time! Now, granted, I am not going to always be eating dinner that late, but I can certainly use this meat in lunch sandwiches, salads, and other recipes the next day. Once I spoke with her I remembered why they mark them down. My mother once worked in a deli at a major market chain and every night whatever “prepared food” they didn’t sell had to be THROWN away!!! I remember her frustration at the fact that they couldn’t give it away (it had to do with liability and not wanting to take any risks) so they’d always mark the items down later in the day.

CVS coupon/price scanner

Every time I go to cvs, the first thing I do is scan my cvs card at the scanner for coupons. I have gotten a few really good ones. A few nights ago I got one for $4 off any Futuro (sp?) brace. In the clearance section I spotted some for 3.75, and it just so happens my husband could totally use one, so I snatched it for more than free! I got the brace and something else w/ a coupon, and it took the full $4 off even though the item was only 3.75.

There were also other items in the clearance section, such as aveeno lotion for 2.12, which you can use the $2 printable on, making it 12 cents.

I also got a $1 off any excedrin the other day from the machine which i used on this weeks ecb deal (buy one @ 2.49 get 2.49 ecb’s) so I paid 1.49+ tax and got 2.49 ecb’s.

YAY for the magic cvs coupon machine!

$5 gas card

So a few months back, I read a post on another blog about chevron’s online contest to win a $5 gift card. It was a little trivia contest and if you got the answers right you were eligible to win a $5 gift card. I just got it in the mail and I’m so excited! I know it’s just $5 but it’s awesome to win something for free!! It’s my first win at anything online and now I’ll probably be hooked.

Just a note though, I am very wary of online contests and promotions unless I hear about them from a reliable source. Since this one was actually on Chevron.com I figured it was legit. Be careful what sites you give your information to, there are scam artists everywhere these days, sad but true.

Lumin-Air Flameless Candles

I almost forgot to mention on Tuesday I read that airwick lumin air flameless candles were on sale at target this week for 4.99 I had 4 $5 off coupons from the 12/7 newspaper (I bought extra because of the maybelline coupon haha) so I got 4 of these candles for almost free. I had to buy something to make the total go at least the amount of the coupon. (4x 4.99 is less than the $20 in coupons I had) so I bought a lip balm to go over.

I plugged one of these in and turned it on while cleaning and setting up my fake Christmas tree the other day and it smells pretty good. I got the vanilla scented ones.

Well with another 4 day sale I decided to make a run once again and use some of my register rewards.

I read about the latest deal scenarios at a fellow blogger’s site here and here’s what I got:

Transaction 1:
2 Arm & hammer detergents Normal price: 7.49 x2=14.98
3 Robitussin Cough Sale price 3.99×3=11.97
1 beanie cap = 1.99 (needed something to make the total oop at least 6 to use rr)
Total before coupons: 28.94

Coupons used:
1 store printable for arm & hammer detergent @ 1.99 (limit 2)
2 $1 off arm & hammer printables
3 $3 off one Robitussin printables
Total After coupons: 6.94

used $6 rr, paid .94 + (1.39) tax out of pocket and got 10 RR’s back! (5 for robitussin and 5 for spending 25 before coupons) - reminder: tax is on price before manufactuer’s coupons but AFTER walgreens so the detergents were taxed at 1.99

Transaction 2:
2 Arm & hammer detergents Normal price: 7.49 x2=14.98
4 Maybelline lip balms sale B1G1 @ 4.99×2 = 9.98
1 chap stick = 1.99 (needed something to make the total oop at least 6 to use rr)
Total before coupons: 26.95

Coupons used:
1 store printable for arm & hammer detergent @ 1.99 (limit 2)
2 $4 off maybelline lip color from 12/7 newspaper
Total After coupons: 7.95

paid with $6 rr, 1.95 + tax (1.24) and got back 5 rr’s. Didn’t make money on this one but still an excellent deal.

Walgreen's Roundup

Total for the day I spent 12 rr’s, 5.52 oop, and got back 15 register rewards. So for a net loss of 2.52 I got: 4 arm & hammer detergents (32 loads each) 4 Maybelline lip balms 3 Robitussins 1 chap stick 1 beanie cap

Mandy sizing up my new piggy bank jar

My husband and I have a habit of throwing our loose change in a plastic jar as a piggy bank of sorts. The last time we took one in, we got something like a few hundred dollars. I remember the cashier had to double check and get approval to cash the coinstar receipt.

We haven’t taken any change in for cash in a long time so we had an overflowing plastic jar. Recently someone I know was throwing away a much larger plastic jar that had been filled with candy or something, so I asked to keep it. This is my new much larger piggy bank! I can’t wait to see how much I end up with this time!

I do actually use change for purchases if I have it on me. What goes in the jar is just whatever we have left at the end of the day, or what I find in pockets doing laundry. It’s a fun way to save a little extra something on the side for something special.

The jar I had before was a gallon arrowhead water jug and it was full, I poured it into this one and look how much room I have left!

I took in all my cans, bottles, and glass again for another run on my way to the grocery store. I got just over $9 this time for 3 weeks of collecting (of course I had more this time after the holiday). So far my tally for recycling is about $22 (9.25 +5.25 +7.50) I rounded those numbers because I had to turn in the receipts for the cash, but that’s pretty close.

For me going every 3 weeks seems optimal, I end up with almost a full bag of cans and another of plastic. I love trading my trash for cash!

I just got a flyer advertising a one year subscription to the la times (thursday through sunday editions) for $26 a year which is $.50 a week. This is a great deal since the sunday edition is 1.50 on newstands. It says you need to tell the operator the promotional code to get the deal, but the guy I spoke with didn’t ask for it, I just told him I wanted the 26 for a year deal, and he processed it in minutes.

This will save me money since I’ve been buying from newstands for 1.50 plus tax (1.62 a week) Before I saw this deal I had looked around and even emailed a newspaper asking if they had any deals for sunday only subscriptions, and since the cheapest I had found was still 1.50 I decided to just keep picking it up myself.

For a year at my current method of purchase I would spend: 84.24 a year.
New subscription is: $26
So I’ll save 58.24 for the year. woo hoo!

One thing to note is that this is a credit card only offer, so I have to make sure I make that payment right away so I don’t accrue interest. AND I have to remember to cancel next december to avoid an auto renewal.

Okay so after my last transaction, I realized I had one more reach coupon to use!

I ran in, got 2 floss on sale 2/$6
used -$1 coupon
subtotal: $5.00
-$5 rr

New total: $.08 (tax on a dollar)

Why did this one only charge me tax on a dollar? I figured it out. The original price was 6. Minus the RR issued by walgreens, the new total is 1. Manufacturers coupons don’t reduce the tax rate. RR’s do. Now the tricky part is, you have to read your RR’s carefully. Some actually count as manufacturers coupons! This is why I couldn’t figure it out. At the bottom if it says something like “courtesy of excedrin” or “thanks from coke” then it’s a manufacturers coupon. Glad I figured that one out. I’m probably the only person who cares but I hate it when things don’t add up as expected! hah

Oh yeah, and I got 6 rr’s from reach back. So I made a buck on this one. (92 cents if you wanna get picky. haha)

With the current sale I just had to do another walgreens run! I made money on this one:

Bought:

• 3 Excedrin express gelcaps (40 cnt) @ 3/$15 = 15
• 2 Reach Ultraclean Floss 2/$6 = 6
• 2 trial sized johnsons & johnsons baby powder 2/$2 = 2
• 2 trial sized johnsons & johnsons baby oil 2/$2 = 2
• 2 trial sized johnsons & johnsons baby shampoo 2/$2 (the cashier messed this one up charged 2.58) = 2.58

Subtotal: 27.58

Used:

• 2 reach floss $1/1 coupons = -$2
• 2 Johnsons & Johnsons $3/3 coupons = -6
• 3 excedrin $2/1 = -6
• $5 register rewards from previous coke deal

Total coupons & rr’s : -19

New subtotal: 8.58
plus tax: 2.14
Total : 10.72 oop

Got back 19 register rewards! (6 from reach, 8 from excedrin, 5 from buy 25 get 5 sale)

So basically, I spent almost 16 (counting my rewards used since those have value to me haha.) and got back 19, so I made a profit of 3.   Now I have little johnsons stuff for my baby nephew who’s coming over today.