CVS Haul via Extracare Bucks

CVS is my new favorite store so much so that people are giving me crap about talking about how much I save. Whatever, nothing like getting diapers for half the cost. So here's what's going on, CVS was running a promo that if you spent $30.00 in Proctor & Gamble products, also known as P&G that you receive $10.00 back in the form of Extracare Bucks. These EB's you can use in conjunction with manufacturer coupons on another purchase. Some couponer's will do another transaction right then and there, personally my money doesn't stretch far enough to accomplish this, the $10.00 will be used at a later date.

How did I do it?
To reach the $30.00 before coupons here's what I bought:

Covergirl single eyeshadows

These retail for $3.89 at the store I went to and were on bogo sale. end price=$5.84

Dawn Hand Renewal Dish Soap

Retail price was $1.67 but on sale for 0.99 each. Had a coupon for $1.00 of 2. End price=0.49 each or 0.98 for the pair. 

Pampers Super Pack in Size 1

Retail price is $24.99 at the store I went to. Used a $2.00 off coupon which expired today. End price = $22.99

By combining the manufacture coupons, plus the discount of the eye shadow here's the breakdown.

Out of pocket cost=26.81

*For some reason the coupon I had with Covergirl didn't work seeing they were 50% off, but the diaper coupon doubled? I'll take it. 

The box I had didn't include the coupon book of $45.00 like I was looking for, was kind of bummed out but with the extra money off plus now I have $10.00 in EB's I'm ok. 

Adding in EB's the total price for everything was $16.81 for everything. 

With EB's as mentioned before I'm not at liberty to pay for a second transaction so the $10.00 will be held on to until the next diaper sale. If there is not big diaper sale, then by the 30th I'll just go back up to CVS and get a bag of diapers and get them for free because they cost $9.49 everyday or the bigger bag is $11.99. 

That's how one gets diapers super cheap at CVS. 

Finally a Follow Up

In the second blog I mentioned I received an email from an unknown source but was thankful. In the email there was a code for a sling and a car seat canopy. I received the sling but the canopy has been on back order for a few weeks. Guess what, it finally came in. Below is what it looks like:

The outer part is made with a durable almost quilted material. If you look up top there are buttons on these tabs that have Velcro to fit over "most" car seats.  

This is the flip side, a soft blanket material. 

Carseat Canopy is the company that I ordered the canopy from. Must say overall the product seems durable and better quality then what I was expecting. I was leery when the cost was only $11.90, figured if it sucked wasn't loosing too much money. 

Pre Christmas Deals

This year the deals that I found on the weekend leading up to Christmas was pretty amazing. Though the reports on the economy state that only 7/10th's of 1% was the increase for Christmas shopping I think they left the Detroit market out. Reason being my inbox was blown up with savings and my pocket book couldn't handle it. With that being said I think the deals were amazing and the best personally I have seen in years. Here's what I picked up:

Cracker Barrel is known for their food but the little general shop upfront. I needed a padding set for my rocker I got for the baby but couldn't find anything I liked. Low and behold they had them for $20.00 so I picked one up. Funny though they had barely any Christmas stuff.

After there I ventured to Target because I was on a mission to find an outfit to bring my daughter home in. The baby section kind of sucks. But I did find a bookcase I bought to do a project via Pinterest and it was 20% off.

Being pregnant you are bombarded with coupons from Babies R Us, never liked the store until now but I cleaned house. Everyday leading up to Christmas it was a different door buster sale. On Friday I got a case of wipes for half price plus found four outfits because of the buy one get one free sale on Carter's. For under $40.00 I got four new outfits, and a case of wipes. Not too shabby.

Then the best for last is Ulta. they were running if you buy 2 OPI nail polished you can get a holiday nail polish for free, in the shade I was looking for perfect! Eh not so much, they were out of it but as a oops were sorry they gave me 20% and honored my 20% off coupon so I got 40% off my order. Plus I found all my gifts for the baby shower on the clearance cleaning up better then I expected.

Now that Christmas is over the deals are piling into my email account but they still are not as good as what I found the days leading up to Christmas. Did anyone else notice this trend or just me?

Side project

Since becoming pregnant and I feel as fat as a house it has been increasingly difficult to continue with massage. I have been a massage therapist for the last 6 years. The work is enjoyable as are my regular clients but being a single mother it's rough. Now I have to book appointments together and I have to shorten my days. As a result my income is less then stellar, so what does one do? Well they think creatively on how to make money. Most of my friends do some kind of direct selling business and that's ok I just am not feeling the whole hostess parties and long hours on Saturday's hawk a product at a vendor show. No thank you. So I have been trying to look into doing affiliate marketing with a couple companies but they are not as legit as they want you to think. Some people do make money, not sure how but when it comes to asking how I am always given the opposite advice because, well, I'm competition.

Second thought is then well how do I do affiliate marketing with a blog? Seems easy right? Yeah not so much, but still working on it. Can't use Google Ad Sense because I keep getting rejected, guess I'm not cool enough. However, this blog has been growing daily and honestly it has to be because of Twitter.

Third thought was don't re-event the wheel. What does that even mean?No matter what one does look to others to see what you can do. So I came up with the idea of hair bows. At vendor shows these ladies always have these super adorable hair bows and they sell them pretty cheap. Figured why not, I use to make dog hair bows for when I ventured out as a groomer when the economy tanked in 08. So that's my side project making hair bows. The first batch was funky but got better as time went on.

Today's blog was brought to you by the letter C for creativity. Everyone is creative in their own way just got to figure out how you are. This is how multi million dollar companies were created. vision+passion=loving what you do, try it, it could change your life.  







Enlarge your house with glue(Don't mind this it's code for something I'm trying out.)

BzzAgent Review

So today just wanted to write quick on this website called Bzzagent. It has a cute little bee as a mascot and has an app. However I wasn't sure this site was legit because the first campaign I did I never got the coupon to try out the product. That was over a year ago but not to long ago I was selected for a Purdue chicken sample. Got my coupons in today for a free ready to go Purdue Chicken.

What is BzzAgent?
BzzAgent is a website where you basically do market research for companies. Think of it as a online try it focus group. A person creates an account and answers and bunch of questions and when campaigns become available if it peaks your interest join it and you get coupons in the mail to try the products. Sounds simple and yet there is no catch.

Campaigns thus far

So far I have only done three campaigns. First was for a Meijer's canvas print that i wanted to use as a birthday gift for a friend never got it. The second one was for Pepsi Next. With this campaign I was sent a 12 oz can in the mail with about 5 coupons for different amounts including a free 2 liter bottle. Not a fan of it, blat. But I gave the coupons to a co-worker she was happy. The current one i have is for a Purdue chicken, we know what were having for dinner tonight. Also in the envelope there was five coupons to pass out to family and friends which I thought was neat, in addition to the free chicken one for us.

So if your looking to try some new products and not spend a dime this is a site to try out. If you do let me know what you think. Also will be posting a blog with my thoughts on said chicken.

Evaluation

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to make a short blog post. This blog was suppose to be mainly on how to coupon, why to coupon and all that but have decided to make it more into a frugal living blog. There are a couple reasons, one you can only talk about a topic for so long before it gets old and boring and two I would like to share how I save my family money since we are always broke and living paycheck to paycheck like most Americans. So here is what I plan on doing. Posting on coupons once a week, posting easy fast cheap recipes, dyi tips, how to save on diapers(can you tell I'm a new mom lol), and even creative things you can do to create income on your own.

Look forward to the evaluation :)

Stephanie

How I coupon maybe it's for you

I get a lot of objections on how to coupon and that it is time consuming. With the internet that excuse is about as old as Zach Morris's cellphone. In this blog I'll show you what I do to save time and ultimately money. Links will be provided so that you too can use them to your devastating  Beauty about the internet people have blogs and websites devoted to couponing so the guess work of uh how to I start is over.

Site #1 Coupons.com

This site is a given and a stable in using coupons. You have to sign up for an account which is free and you print out the coupons that you need. Typically updated weekly if not sooner. How do you know? They send emails anytime that they get new coupons.

Site #2 Coupon Mom

This site is like the coupon bible. Again create an account for free but the amount of information will make your head spin. I will do a blog tomorrow on how to navigate through all the info. But the overview is you get an email that is broken down into areas.

1. Grocery coupons
2. Coupons.com area
3. New coupons
4. Walmart coupons
5. Free samples
6. Retailers like CVS, Walgreen's and previews for their flyers and store only coupons

All the bullet points are what your email will look like. So reviewing what the flyer is for next week, looking at the clipped coupons you have makes it easy to stack your coupons. ** When stacking coupons typically the week they expire is when you get the best deal** though that is not always the case it seems to be what works best for me. 

Facebook

Go through your pantry and freezer and see what brands your family uses most. Then when your bored on Facebook like their page. A lot of the times you get free coupons just for liking their page. I did this with Zevia This is a brand of pop,soda,cola, sodapop, depending on what it is called in your home and region and I got a coupon for liking their page. Several other companies do this too just for liking their page. Who doesn't want to save .50 or $1.00 that's why we coupon right?

Crayons to Coupons

This is a neat little site but easier to just follow on Facebook because they post giveaways and links to coupons daily if not several times a day. Their email if you sign up for it they sent you coupon updates daily. This makes it easy to see if the coupons are appealing to you.

Sunday Coupon Preview

This by far is the best idea ever, reason you can preview the coupon inserts that are going to be in Sunday's paper to see if it would be worth buying the Sunday paper which is now a whopping $2.00. 

So these websites and Facebook pages are how I do my couponing. I let others do the legwork for me and I just cash in on the savings. 

Couponing takes too much time

This is a miss conception and once you get a system in place then its a breeze. Using this Blog has a how to guide from someone who's made her errors you will see couponing is pretty much fool proof.  If I can teach my 60 year old mother how to use and save via coupons I can teach you too. This blog is going to be short and sweet because I gotta go meet up with clients in about 20. So here's what I do:

I follow several pages on Facebook as well the companies I use a lot of because they will put special coupons on their page.

I get my inserts from mom to mom groups on Facebook rather then buying a newspaper. Not everyone in a mom to mom group is going to need coupons for Pampers and Huggies especially when their kids have been potty trained or they just flat out don't coupon but get a paper(weird but yay for me).

Their is a email I receive daily that they have daily coupons. Plus that mysterious family email I magically signed up for in my sleep I get some baby gear up to 70% percent off. Weird but thank you Universe.

So I spend less than 20 minutes a day looking at or viewing coupons. Figure while I'm tinkering on Facebook and going through my four email accounts. Why not?

There will be a follow up blog tonight that goes into further details of what sites i use. How to stack your coupons for the best outcome and other tips.

So stay turned!

Trip to the Store Beginner's tips

So after sitting at work for an hour and a half and no client showing I left. Realizing I forgot to pull out the turkey sausage it was either fast food or a trip to the Kroger's. Off to Kroger's I went. Here's some tips on what I do.

1. First and foremost always have your store card
2. Go with a list( I didn't)
3. Browse the paper for 10 for 10 deals and make a plan.
4. Bring Coupons( I leave mine in my console so I remember them)
5. Look for in store sales that may not be listed. 

Had no plan other then find dinner. Had my card and was on a mission. After filling my cart I only used one coupon but because I shopped the 10 for 10 sale the end result was I saved $25.00 on my grocery bill. 

One mistake newbies that use coupons or that are new to shopping the 10 for 10 sales make is they assume that you have to buy 10 of something. Only way you have to buy 10 of something is if they do a promo where you buy 10 participating items to get the price. Most times these items you buy every trip anyways. I saved 85.00 last time just buy shopping only 10 participating items on that trip, this cut my Thanksgiving dinner by half. 

Follow up to email I don't remember signing up for

I am not sure what this Everday Family is that I magically "signed" up for but man am I glad I did. Two of the items that day were a baby sling and a car seat canopy. Paid like $11 for each and figured if I never received the products then it's only $11.00 I'm out.

The other day I went to the location I have my mail sent to(different then my home) and bam! The sling was here. Sure enough, it fit and two the quality was pretty good. Granted I can't use it until this summer but for $11.00 this mama to be is happy. Below I will have the link so you can check it out yourself.

Happy Shopping y'all :)

Seven Everyday slings

Extracare Bucks Are Your friend

So the other day my friend was telling me how she saves on the cost of diapers. Basically she stockpiles her Extracare Bucks from CVS. To test this out I tried for myself. Here's what I did:

1. Scan the CVS paper for items that you get the amount of EB's as the item cost. So batteries are $3.65 right now and you receive $3.65 in EB's. 
2. Hold on to them for a bit. They expire about two wees after you get them. 
3. Scanned the paper on Sunday and seen that Pamper's Swaddlers were $8.49. 
4. Went in search of items to get the EB's, they had all the items I would use but two. 
5. Went to a different location informed them what i was looking for. They said they would honor the EB's for those products just a different quanity. I wanted one 3m hook but ended up buying the double back. 
6. Cashed out and they EB's didn't print so the manager came over and manually printed them. 
7. Get home only to notice because of the error the system tripled my EB's to $6.00 instead of $2 :)
8. Went back yesterday for the diapers but the sale ended on Wednesday. That's ok. 
9. The diapers were $9.49 for Pampers NB size.
10. I had $8.00 in EB's plus the NB size had a $10.00 coupon in the inside. 
11. Out of pocket expense was $1.49 after EB's. With the $10.00 coupon inside I made money to the turn of $8.71 just to buy a pack of diapers. 

So Extracare Bucks are essentially free money that CVS gives you. If you play your cards right you can save some money on daily essentials. 

Savings Thank You Email I don't Remember Signing Up For

So I got an email from EverydayFamily. I don't know who they are or how I am affiliated with them but I am. There still is about five pages of crap I need for Emberley seening she's my first to make it this far. Two of the items (car seat canopy and sling) I got a promo code for. All I had to do was pay shipping and handling and I got both items for under $30.00

http://www.carseatcanopy.com/

This is the first one. Type in the Promocode "Family2012" and from 49.95 it goes to 12.90 no joke

https://www.sevenslings.com

This is the second item I got for s/h costs. Plug in the code "familybump" and get the sling for 11.40 I think I paid. You can opt for the insurance in case you get the wrong size. Considering I needed the biggest size even if I wasn't pregnant I opted out. Saved $3.50 in the process.

Pass them on to friends and family members. Once I get the products I will for sure post them. The car seat canopy in the style I got is on back order until December 5th or 6th they said.

Stephanie

Premise of Blog

Hi Everyone,
The premise of this blog is to share my experiences on how I save money. With the economy everyone can use to save money these days. As the birth of my first child is coming near I have learned to be even more frugal than I have been. New things like mom to mom sales are a regular in my life and vocabulary. 

To give a little background on myself. I have always been cautious when it comes to money. Life was good back in the early 2000's when I had a great paying job then I injured my back and since then it has been one slippery slope since. My current career I am on a fixed income which goes up and down based on the economy. In 2009 I discovered I had Melanoma. Went through one heck of a surgery and ultimately couldn't work for a year because my body was rejecting the chemo yet I still had to go through it to get to the other side. I am happy to say I am Cancer free but as a result frugal became my new middle name. Living off food stamps was embarrassing but needed.While on food stamps I fed 3 grown adults on less than $200 a month. This included Amish chicken, Angus Beef and a lot of the produce was organic. So you can eat healthy and still save money. As a result I learned how to coupon, shop sales and even pay off a little bit of my accumulating debt. 

So why the blog? There are a lot of reasons for this blog. Mainly it is to share how I save my family money so others can use the tricks and tips to do the same in their family. I also need the creativity to satisfy my ADD. Plus it's just fun :)

What to expect?

• Ways to save on your grocery bill
• DYI fun
• Creative projects
• Recipes
• Mommy Tricks
• Ways to pay off debt

So welcome to Stephanie's Savvy Tips enjoy!