Win FREE Movie Tickets

As I was clipping Sunday coupons I saw a Sun Maid ad that read '10,000 Movie Tickets Giveaway!'.

Go to www.sunmaidprize.com and enter.

10,000 is a lot-- I say-- GO FOR IT!

Deals B4 Black Friday

It is always hard to decide how much you want to shop before Black Friday vs on Black Friday. Sometimes the crowds in order to save a few dollars is just not worth it.

Today I think I made a couple of good Pre Black Friday purchases:

Littlest Pet Shop Nintendo DS game for $5.50 at Best Buy w Free Shipping
Fijit at HEB for $22

I'm hoping more of these deals pop up before Black Friday or even after Black Friday.

Look At The Bottom of Your Receipt

I've seen (at times) with Sonic and Chick-fil-la that after you make a purchase there will be a 'take this survey' at the bottom of the receipt. After you take the survey, they'll give you a FREE something.

Today I received a FREE chick-fil-la sandwich just for filling out a short survey regarding my experience!

FREE FOOD is GOOD!

Take Time To Fill Out That Survey

You know when you go shopping or eat at a restaurant and the server asks you to complete a survey that is at the bottom of your receipt? Well, fill it out- you never know what will become of it.

I went to Wendy's two weeks ago and was handed a survey card with my purchase. I HAD to do the survey that day. I took the survey which took about 5 minutes and afterwards I was notified that I was an instant winner of a $5 Wendy's gift card. I received it the following week. It does not get any better than that. 

How to Build Up Your Coupon Collection

How do I build up my coupon collection?

If you want to build up your coupon collection without buying more than one Sunday paper, ask your friends, co workers, etc if they coupon. If they do not, ask them if you can have the coupons from the Sunday paper that they purchase and if they do coupon ask them if they will give you the coupons that they do not use and you can give them what you don't use. You'd be amazed how quickly your collection will start to build up.

Gift Cards At Half The Price

There are so many new websites that offer great deals on everyday activities, products, and events.

Some of my favorite sites are the sites that offer 1/2 off store gift cards.

I've recently purchased a $10 gift card for $5 for the following stores: CVS, Subway, and Chili's.

I will be using the CVS gift card, but 'gifting' the Subway and the Chili's gift card. What a great way to save for Christmas gift giving!

The sites that I find these gift cards on is:

www.savemore.com  and my referral link is: http://svmr.co/HRHk

http://www.onsale.com/

Make sure to register your email with these sites. You will receive the daily offers so you know what is available.

Why YES I Scored FREE Diapers at CVS and .49 Cent Chocolate!

Through 12/31/11 if you purchase 6 packs of Pampers, 6 packs of CVS Brand diapers, OR 6 packs of Huggies diapers you will receive a coupon for a FREE pack of diapers! Keep in mind, you don't have to purchase them all at once. Every time you use your CVS card it tracks your purchases so once you've reached the 6 package, the BIG RED machine will automatically give you a FREE coupon when you scan your card! I love buying my diapers from CVS because I often times have a CVS coupon of $3 off of $15 of any baby products, a CVS store Pampers coupon and a manufacturer Pampers coupon. These make for amazing deals!

Now to the chocolate.... Gotta love discounted Halloween candy especially when you have an awesome manufacturer coupon. The chocolate was $1.99 and I had a $1.50 off Mars candy coupon, which made the chocolate .49 cents. I am personally not a Musketeers fan and my kids received too much Halloween candy, but HELLO..... Christmas stockings need filled ;-)

The Bubble Tape was discounted to .49 cents each ;-) I had to get 5 because I have 5 kid stockings to fill! 

Total Spent at CVS: $3.18

Prepping for Kid Birthday Parties

I am trying to start my 2012 Resolution early: Become more creative with my kids


I used to be much better about this but after baby #2 I got on the 'oh so tired band wagon', but now I'm jumping off!

My almost 5 year old is having a My Little Pony birthday party in the next few weeks and my goal is to get super creative but also make it super inexpensive. As I venture into this I am going to post some of my ideas and what it cost me to make vs buy. I can't wait, I am really excited!

Birthday Party Invitations: I normally have to buy at least 3 packs of party invitations (normally from Target or Walmart) and each pack costs around $3.99- so that is $11.97 + tax.

I decided this year I was going to save almost ALL of that money and make the party invitations.

I will be the first to say that they are not perfect by any means BUT my Gia loves them, they are simple to make, I had ALL the supplies already in my home so I did not have to go to the store and buy anything. 

It is hard for me to give you a price point for each invite but as I said earlier, the blue paper was donated, the computer paper was possibly a few cents each and the ink-- who knows how much that is, but it could not have been much. 

Totally worth it! 

 

CVS 101

Finally, I am posting instructions on how I shop at CVS!

If you have any questions, let me know.

I'm going to try and make this simple. I have a tendency to ramble! 

Go to CVS and pick up a red CVS 'rewards' card at the counter. 

Go to www.cvs.com and register your card-- sign up for email alerts. You will not be bombarded w CVS spam. You will only get occasional coupons-- most often it is $5 off of a $25 purchase or 25% off a nonsale item-- things like that. You need to also LIKE CVS on FB, CVS Express Photo, CVS Beauty Club and CVS Minuteclinic on FB. 

Every time you go to CVS- have your card! They can look it up by your phone number BUT you want to make sure that you have your card so that the first thing you do when you walk in is go to the BIG RED coupon machine (it is also a price scanner)-- you can scan your card once a day. This machine will spit out anywhere from 1-5 coupons. Sometimes they are useless but often times i think your CVS card tracks your purchases so it spits out coupons that it thinks you will benefit from. The last 3 or so times I've been, I've gotten $3 off $10 baby product purchases. Once again-- that $3 adds up! Remember these coupons are linked to your card so you cannot share these coupons. If you don't want them you trash them. You don't have to use them the day you receive them but they do have expiration dates on them. 

On the CVS.com page-- there is a coupon section. Most of these are CVS coupons- which can be used w a manufactured coupon. For example, CVS had a CVS coupon that I printed that was $3 off of Huggies. I also had a manufacturer coupon (a non STORE coupon -like one you get out of the paper or in the mail) that was $3 off--- so i used both on 1 pack of diapers and got $6 off a pack of diapers. 

Be smart w how you shop at CVS! CVS can be expensive if you don't shop  right. I rarely EVER buy anything from CVS w/o a coupon or unless they are offering ECB (extra care bucks)! 

Extra Care Bucks: These are CVS dollars that can be used on later CVS purchases. They do expire!!!! 

Extra Care Bucks (ECB) scenario example:

this week---

Schick Hydro 5 Razor

$8.29

$5.00 (internet coupon that printed last week)

______

$3.29 paid out of pocket

HOWEVER, when I was given my receipt... at the bottom there were $3.00 in ECB's to use on my next purchase! (There was also a $3 off of $15 baby product purchase coupon)

You can either use these $3 the next time you come back to CVS b4 they expire OR do a second transaction. I do 2-3 transactions ALL the time at CVS--- the employees are used to people like me! 

You can get so many good deals at CVS w the ECB's that they offer. For example-- last year I bought some Nivea Body Wash. The body wash for $4.99. W the purchase of this body wash, CVS was offering $4.99 in ECB'S! Here is how it worked:

Body Wash

$4.99

- $2.00 Nivea Coupon

_______________

$2.99 paid out of pocket and CVS gave me back $4.99 BACK in ECB's for my next purchase!

So basically it was a $ maker! They paid me to take it. Even tho you have to pay upfront to get started--- you are getting money back to use for other items. 

Last--- remember--- totals are taken b4 coupons. This means.. if you get a coupon that reads $3 off of $10 baby purchase and you have a $2 off huggie coupon and a $1 off wipes coupons--always give the CVS cashier the $3 off of $10 coupon first. 

*Just remember to get started with CVS, you will need to spend a little bit of money, but once you begin to accrue coupons and ECB, you will then begin to see some awesome deals! 

I - personally like to take advantage of the 'Spend $30 (on certain products) and get $10 back in ECB'. With these deals I normally do not have to spend $30 out of pocket because I match store coupons along with manufacturer coupons. 

Once you get started with CVS, after a few visits you will begin to understand it better. 

Never hesitate to ask any questions.