6/30 Free water bottle and cheap Chinet

Got my free water bottle from Juicy Juice in the mail today! We love our collection of water bottles (cheaper than buying bottled water, iced coffee, etc.).

I need to thank Jamie at http://jamieisamoneymagnet.blogspot.com/ for posting about her cheap Chinet at Walmart using her $2/1 coupons. I have been sitting on tons of these coupons for months and had no idea they would be so cheap with these coupons. They expire today!! I sent Pat out to Walmart (yes, I am so sick I can't go shopping!) for a few things and he picked the last 7 up for me. Retail price is $2.54-$2/1 coupons=$0.52 a pack!! We never use paper plates so these will last us a long time! Thanks Jamie!!

6/30 Trash to Treasure Tuesday

I believe that truly being green is not about running out and buying brand new "green" products but using what is already around us. Recycling, reusing and repurposing is a challenge and fun for me. It also appeals to my frugal side ; )

I found this little gem at Goodwill last week. I had seen it there when I scored the brand new shoes I bought for Olivia but there wasn't a price tag on it and I was already buying her shoes. I went back last Thursday (triple stamps on your value card day) and it was still there! It was $15 and I used my full value card worth $5 so it was only $10. My husband bought a paint brush and can of varnish for around $10.

I had already started sanding it when I remembered I needed to take "before" pictures so that is why it is a little dusty looking. I hand sanded it and was trying to create a worn look. I wasn't expecting much considering how it looked when I sanded it.

Does anyone know what the heck this pull out piece is!?

Here is the other side of the same piece. I didn't bother sanding this part.


This little table was definitely a diamond in the rough!

It surpassed all my expectations and looked gorgeous once I put a coat of varnish on. The varnish is still not completely dry in spots. I put it in direct sunlight for a couple days and that really helped harden it. If the sun shines at all this week I will pop it back outside for a bit.

I would love to see everybody else's trash to treasure finds or things that you have recycled, repurposed or reused to keep things out of the trash or utilize what is already here. If you post something on your blog let me know so I can check it out!

My green bean and wax bean seeds are growing! Now what!?

My green and wax beans are sprouting. What should I put in my garden to help them climb? I really need help!

6/25 BigY Get $7 off groceries by spending $25 on Kraft!

Spend $25 on participating Kraft products and get $7 off groceries coupon at BigY!

Total full retail value-$42.66

12 mac and cheese $12-2 B1G1 Free coupons ($2)=$10

2 Cool Whip=$1.98

4 Triscuits=$10

2 Oscar Mayer hot dogs $6-$1/2 coupon-$1 doubler=$4

Total-$25.98 earned $7 off groceries coupon

Coupons used-$4

Total spent-$25.98-$7 store coupon earned=$18.98

Total saved off full retail value=$23.68

6/25 Walgreens register rewards

Total full retail value $39.91

Walgreens

Transaction #1

Frizz Ease $20-2 $3/2 coupons ($6)=$14 earned $5 RR

2 light up toys=$4.98

Total-$18.98-$5 RR-$1 RR=$13.63 (including tax)

Transaction#2

3 light up toys=$8.97

Total-$8.97-$5 RR (from transaction #1)=$4.17 (including tax)

Total spent-$17.80

Coupons used-$6

Register Rewards used-$11

Total saved off full retail value-$22.11

6/25 Almost free Always Infinity at CVS!!

These are the big boxes and they are ringing up $4.99 this week!!

Total full retail value-$161.85

CVS Store #1

3 Always $14.97-3 $4/1 coupons ($12)-$3 EB=-.03 FREE

Store#2

6 Always $29.92-6 $4/1 coupons ($24)=$5.94

Store #3

6 Always $29.92-6 $4/1 coupons ($24)=$5.94

Total spent-$11.88

Total coupons used-$50

Total extra bucks used-$3

Total saved off full retail value-$149.87

6/23 Walgreens

Total full retail value-$63.87

Transaction #1

4 12 packs of Coke=$15.40 (including deposit) got $3 RR (spent on below transaction)

Transaction #2

2 Wags tissues 280 ct. $3.98-Wags coupon 2/$3 ($0.98)=$3.00

2 Lysol wipes $5-$1/2 coupon=$4.00 got $1 RR

Zyrtec 30 ct. $18.99-$4/1 coupon=$14.99 got $5 RR

1 light up toy=$1.99

1 light up toy=$2.99

2 nail polishes=$1.98

Total $28.95-$5 RR-3 $3 RR ($9)-$1 RR=$14.65 (including tax)

Today's stats-

Total spent $30.05-$6 RR earned and unused=$24.05

Coupons used-$5.98

RR used $15.00

Total saved off full retail value=$39.82

Walmart, Bigy and Stop and Shop spending 6/19

I don't have time to post all of my shopping trips and try to focus on the really impressive ones. When I get my groceries home I just want to put them away. I do save a lot of money on my regular grocery trips so here are this weekend's stats. My husband gets paid every 2 weeks so the following groceries are for 2 weeks. I will probably buy some bananas, lettuce, tomatoes, milk and bread before the next paycheck. I was also able to stock up on some items during these shopping trips which will also last me longer than 2 weeks.

Walmart
Bought 46 items
Total before coupons-$136.22
Total after coupons-$105.73

Stop and Shop
Bought 21 items
Total before all savings and coupons-$45.41
Total after all savings and coupons-$28.91

BigY
Bought 9 items
Total before savings and coupons-$27.18
Total after savings and coupons-$15.88

Total grocery spending-$150.52

This is for 2 weeks worth of groceries (includes food, toiletries, cleaning products and cat stuff like litter and cat food) for a my family of 4 and 2 cats.

Recall on Nestle Toll House cookie dough!!

We found out yesterday and returned ours for a refund.

6/21 Bought $163.64 worth of stuff for $13.48!!!

Approximate full retail value (don't know full retail on Kotex)-$163.64

Store #1

CVS

8 Soyjoy bars $8-4 buy 1 get 1 free coupons ($4)-$2 EB=$2 got $8 EB

Store#2

CVS

16 Soyjoy bars-8 buy 1 get 1 free coupons ($8)-$8 EB=FREE got $12 EB

Store #3

Rite Aid

15 Mentos gum $15-15 $1/1 coupons ($15)=FREE

1 Crest Pro-Health enamel $2.69-$1/1 coupon=$1.77 (including tax) SCR for $2.69

Store #4

Walgreens

Transaction #1

6 Frizz Ease products $30-3 $3/2 coupons ($9)=$21.00 got $5 RR (used in next transaction)

3 packs orbit gum (fillers to use RR)=$3

Total spent $21+$3=$24-3 $3 RR ($9)=$15.60 (includes tax)

Transaction #2

2 Lysol wipes=$5 got $1 RR

3 Kotex $8.97-3 $0.75/1 coupons ($2.25)=$6.72 got $3 RR

Total spent 11.72-2 $5 RR ($10) 1 used from above transaction=$1.72

Store #5

Rite Aid

20 Mentos gum $2-20 $1/1 coupons ($20)=FREE

Store#6

CVS

1 Tide 100 fl. oz. $12.99-$1/1 coupon=$11.99 got $3 RR

Spray hand sanitizer (Tide alone was coming up -.01)=$1.99

Total spent $13.98-$12 EB=$2.08 (including tax)

Today's stats-

Total spent-$23.17

Coupons used-$60.25

Register Rewards used-$19

Extra bucks used-$22

Single check rebate earned-$2.69

Total spent $23.17-$4 RR earned and unused-$3 EB earned and unused-$2.69 SCR=$13.48!!!

Total saved off approximate full retail value-$150.16

This is a personal best!!!

No more rocks!

Guess what I did yesterday. Got really dirty finishing the rock wall! These were my feet and pants on my lunch break. I know I am sitting on my expensive couch with my dirty feet but I was too tired and hungry to care. If I never have to move another stinkin' rock it will be too soon. I also trimmed the pine tree (trees?).



Remember this photo?


BEFORE

AFTER

I'm planning on planting some flowers in the area behind the rock wall when we have another sunny day about a week from now. So sick of the rain!

I created a little seating area with one of the large slabs that Pat and I managed to slide into place.

Pat also mowed the grass and put down grass seed.

Super cheap NEW shoes at Goodwill!

I totally scored at Goodwill yesterday! I went to RiteAid to see if they had something I wanted on sale. They didn't. And Goodwill is right next door and something told me to go in. I haven't been there in about 6 months. They are running a sale on the new kids shoes they have had there for about a year. I think they were donated by a shoe store that went out of business. Anyway, new kids shoes are $3 all weekend. I picked up 2 pairs of KEDS LEATHER white sneakers and one pair of STRIDE RITE black patent leather dress shoes for Olivia. $9 for 3 pairs of brand new brand name shoes!!!

I also got enough stamps on my value card to fill it so I now have $5 to spend on my next trip. I also found out that they have double stamps on Monday and triple stamps on Thursday for your value card. They also finally have the clothing organized by size so no more spending 3 hours going through everything to find one thing that is in the size you are looking for : ) I think I will have to start making weekly trips to Goodwill again!

Veggies in September?

Well, yesterday was the most sunny dry day we will have for another week so I finally planted all the veggie seeds I was given by my friend Jenn and my landloard's father. Most of the packaged seeds said to expect veggies in 78 days. So I will be eating them in .......September? Oh well. Maybe I'll get lucky.

6/18 Thrifty Thursday-Homemade bread crumbs

I want to start some weekly tip posts. So here is this weeks Thrifty Thursday tip. If you have a Thrifty tip please post one on your blog and let me know so I can check it out : )

I like to eat whole wheat products. Whole wheat bread crumbs are expensive and I have to travel a half hour away to buy them. We were just throwing away our bread loaf ends until I realized we could make bread crumbs out of them!

Homemade bread crumbs

Preheat oven 200 degrees

Place bread loaf ends in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Flip over slices of bread and bake another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let cool. Put a metal grater in a large plastic storage bag and grate each slice. Once you are done, put bread crumbs in an airtight canister.

I use mine to make chicken nuggets and turkey meatballs. Enjoy!

Would you like an ad or review with your "savings" blog?

I have been following some money saving blogs and I have noticed an upsetting common denominator. Several of them promote products (they probably got for "free" or compensated to review from a company) through"reviews", adds for online shopping sites, "coupon classes" and their own products encouraging people to buy things. I don't like this one bit. In fact, I think it is disgusting that people are presenting this appearance of trying to help people save money when in fact they are trying to make money off the people who visit their blog. I think this is wrong and I will never "monetize" my blogs.

I doubt I will get any uproar from these comments because apparently very few people read this blog from the amount of comments I receive. Oh well, at least I have my integrity and even if I help one person save money that will be reason enough to keep blogging.

6/16 I bought $149.62 worth of food and what not for $16.65 today!!! : )

Total full retail value of everything pictured above-$149.62

I bought all this between several different stores today. But because I am tired (I shopped all day and then pruned and sheared all the shrubs) I am going to group things together by store and not necessarily by trip.

Stop and Shop
40 Soyjoy bars buy 1 get 1 free $20-20 buy 1 get 1 free coupons ($20) =FREE
12 French's mustards $18.00-12 $0.75/1 coupons doubled ($18.00)=FREE
6 Hellmann's mayo $15.00- 6 $0.60/1 coupons doubled ($7.20)=$7.80
Total spent-$7.80

Walgreens
Trip #1
This store did not have any St. Ives left so I purchased the following-
Benadryl spray $6.29-$1/1 coupon=$5.29
Nail polish= $0.99
Mini clip=$0.17 (tried to use polish and clip as fillers, did not work)
M&M's=$0.50 (allowed me to use my 3rd $3 RR)
2 Burt's Bees lip balm $7.98-$1/2 coupon=$6.98
Total spent $13.93-3 x $3 RR ($9)=$5.15 (including tax)

Trip #2
4 separate transactions
1 St. Ives body wash $2.99-$1.50/1 coupon=$1.56 (including tax) got $3 RR
Same thing 3 more times Total coupons $6
Total spent $6.24 got total of $12 RR


BigY
1 bunch bananas $2.08-$0.40 off with silver coin=$1.68
5 International Delights creamers $5-2 $1/1 coupons ($2) + 1 $1/2 coupons=$2 (I know I should have only bought 4, I am still kicking myself)
5 Marcal rolls of t.p. $4.45-5 Free coupons ($4.45)=FREE
2 Newman's Own dressings $5-2 $0.75/1 coupons ($1.50)=$3.50
Total spent-$7.18

CVS
2 Soft Soap body washes $10.98-$2 EB+$1 EB for Soft soap+2 $1/1 Soft soap coupons ($2)=$6.28 (including tax) got $4 EB

Todays stats-
Total spent-$32.65
Total coupons used-$64.15
Total EB used-$3
Total EB earned-$4
Total RR used-$9
Total RR earned-$12
Total saved off full retail value-$116.97

If you subtract the Extra bucks and Register Rewards I earned I actually only spent..........
$16.65!!!!!

I hate rocks but I love pretty flowers and tasty veggies more

I am really surprised that I do not have nightmares about rocks. I am so sick of them. The only plus of all the rocks I have dug out is that they are free and I've been able to put most of them to good use.

We spent the only decent day this weekend doing more landscaping and gardening.

We finished tearing down and reseting the stone wall to the right of the pine tree.
I made two levels and a mini rock wall and planted seeds. Hopefully, they didn't all wash away in the all night down pour we had Saturday night.

There is the first immovable rock I had to leave as part of my garden. Can you see it? Lower right hand corner of the first level. Darn rocks!

I had already planted half of the plants going in this section when I tried to dig up this huge rock. This is maybe a 1/4 of it that I left exposed. I was not happy that it was too gigantic to remove and figured this was another lesson in accepting things I cannot change.

Pat bought 4 for 12 flowers and I split the 4 plants that were in each pot. Most I planted here. And the rest I planted in the garden in front of the big wall in the back yard.

Pat helped me put up the cinder block wall on the lower edge of my veggie garden. Not very pretty but very functional and FREE.

Here are the flowers in my backyard garden.

These are the edible flower seeds I planted. Yes, I actually grew something from seeds!!! We transplanted Olivia's seedlings last week and only a few survived. Most were immediately eaten by something : (

Pat bought me these cool littel plant supports that you just raise up as the plant grows. Unfortunately, I ran out of time and wasn't able to plant my veggie seeds. I will be doing that the first nice day we have this week : )

Weekend freebies and profit shopping

Total retail value $23.26

Trip #1 BigY

5 Marcal toilet paper rolls $4.45-5 FREE (up to $1.00 off) coupons=FREE

Trip #2 BigY

5 Marcal toilet paper rolls $4.95- FREE coupons=FREE

Trip #3 CVS

1 Crest mouthwash $2.99=$2.99 got $2 EB

Trip #4 Walgreens

Transaction #1 1 St. Ives body wash-$1.50/1=$1.50 got $3 RR

Transaction #2 same as above

Transaction #3 same as above

Total spent at Walgreens $1.56 (includes tax)x 3=$4.68

Total RR earned 3x$3 RR=$9 RR

Sundays stats-

Total spent-$7.68

Total coupons used-$9.40

Total Extra Bucks earned-$2

Total RR earned-$9

Total saved off full retail value-$15.58

Total profit from RR-$4.32

6/12 Todays savings from Stop and Shop

Total full retail value $80.91

4 boxes of Cheerios (14 oz.)$13.96-$4 (buy 4 save $4)-$1/2 coupon-2 $0.55/1 both doubled ($2.20)-$0.51 (don't know why?)=$6.35

10 boxes of Pillsbury brownie mix for $10-10 $0.35/1 doubled ($7.00)=$3.00

10 Vitaminwater10 $15-10 $0.50/1 doubled ($10)=$5.00
20 SOYJOY bars $10 (buy one get one free)-10 b1g1 free coupons ($10)=FREE

2 Hellmann's mayo $5-2 $0.60/1 coupons doubled ($2.40)=$2.60

2 Welch's grape jam $5-2 $0.55 coupons doubled ($2.20)=$2.80

1 Ziploc Evolve sandwhich bags $2-$0.55/1 coupon doubled ($1.10)=$0.90

Earned $2/5 General Mills and $0.50/1 Juicy Juice Brain and Development or Immunity print out coupon

Total spent-$20.70

Total coupons used-$35.90

Total saved off full retail value$60.21

Beth's wheat banana yogurt bread

I hate throwing away food. I work really hard to save money on buying food and I also know there are people in this country and all over the world who would kill to eat the food I throw away. So I hate ripe bananas as does everyone in my family. We like them a little green. For this reason I buy bananas every 3 days or so because once they get too many spots not a soul in this house will eat them. I have been inspired by all the money saving blogs I have been following to try even harder to not only save more money on groceries but to also waste less food. So don't throw away those ripe bananas!!!

Here is my original recipe that I made by looking at a wheat sweet bread and banana bread recipe. I don't like the traditional banana bread recipe because it uses white flour. I am also always trying to sneak more nutrition into sweet snacks for the 2 sugar addicts in my family (Pat and Olivia). This is not a low calorie or low sugar recipe but it does have more protein and fiber than the traditional recipe.

Preheat oven to 375

In small bowl, stir with a fork-

2 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour

(I use King Arthur) It is a light colored, less coarse whole wheat flour

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Set aside.

In a large bowl stir until creamy-

1/3 cup margarine (I prefer I can't believe it's not butter)

1 cup sugar

Beat into margarine and sugar-

2 eggs

2 ripe bananas mashed with a fork

1/2 cup plain yogurt

Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients in about 3 parts until well mixed.

Pour mixture into well greased bread pan (I use cooking spray). Cook for 50 minutes. Let cool for five minutes and then place your hand on the top of the loaf, flip pan upside down onto your hand and tap bottom until loaf comes out. Place right side up on cooling rack. Wait ten minutes before cutting and use serrated knife with short sawing motion to minimize crumbling. I store my loaf wrapped in foil in the fridge. It becomes super moist and even tastier once it has been in the fridge : ) Enjoy!

Who cares if it is free if you can't use it!

I don't buy stuff to get register rewards, extra bucks or rebates if it is something I can't use. It isn't worth getting it free if I can't use it. I've noticed a lot of bargain hunting bloggers purchasing things for the money they get back which makes that item free and always wonder if they are using it or it is being wasted by sitting on a shelf somewhere and not getting used. Some examples, all those meters for diabetes that people are getting free or making money off of by getting them with coupons that make them free and than getting money back, wart remover, tons of make-up, ecotrin (don't know a single person who uses this) etc.

Are any of you donating the things you get free but don't use. I would love to find a legitimate charity to donate surplus things that I get for free or that I can't use.

6/9 More almost free candy at Rite Aid!!

This cost me.................drum roll please....................

............................................

$0.45!!!!

Almost done using all the coupons. So far I have purchased 60 of these for $0.90

6/9 More extra bucks flippin' at CVS

Total retail value $31.10

Trip #1

6 boxes of Kleenex 200 or 184 count buy one get one free-2 $0.50/3 coupons=$6.17
4 Always thong liners $12.00-3 $1/1 coupons=$9.00

Total-$15.17+$0.06 tax=15.23-$5 EB=$10.23

Total retail value $8.99

Trip #2

Tide $5.99-$1/1 coupon-$4 EB from trip #1=$1.04 including tax

Todays stats-

Total full retail value-$40.09

Total retail value with sale prices-$25.16

Total spent-$11.27

Total EB used-$9

Total coupons used-$5

Total saved off full retail value-$28.82