My Savings 6/28

Some of you have heard me talk about how much I have been saving by couponing. While I vowed I would not be "one of those crazy people", I have become more and more excited about how much I can actually save. Whether or not you want to learn how to save more money yourself, or if you just want to look on in amazement as I save more, I thought I would begin sharing some of my trips with you.

I started out shopping at Walgreen's, CVS, Riteaid, Publix and Kroger. Occasionally, I would find some deals at Target. I have since, shut out Walgreen's! (Waaaay too complicated and no one was on the same page as to how their rewards system worked.) They actually lost me over $2.00. Oh well, their loss. I will not include Kroger in any of my pictures because....this is where I do my main grocery shopping and I buy things there that aren't always the best deal. I will be posting my Publix, Riteaid and CVS shops for you and any other great deals I find.

I hope you enjoy and I hope it inspires you to see just how much money you can actually save.

For this shop, I bought some extra stuff because we are going to Six Flags in a couple of days and will need some sandwich stuff, snacks and drinks. Also, we are going on vacation next week and I wanted to stock up on some snacks and such for that also.


So, here we are at Riteaid. I know this does not look like a lot, but you have to realize, those two sunscreens right there, cost over $10 each.

The total for these items: $39.53
I paid OOP(Out Of Pocket): $12.21
Total Saved $27.32!!!

That is a savings of 69%!!! Not bad, not bad AT ALL! I will end up saving more in the end because everything I bought, has a rebate attached to it. I will receive my check at the end of the month. Sweet!

How did I do this? Well, the Stayfree were BOGO, the sunscreen was BOGO and the nuts were BOGO. I had $4.50 in coupons and I had a $5.00 gift card that I had earned from Riteaid. I can use the nuts for snacks on vacation and at Six Flags and we will need the sunscreen all summer with the fair child and all the baseball time spent outdoors. Of course, the Stayfree....well, who can't use that? Oh, right, men! I was very pleased with this shopping trip.


At CVS, you earn Extra Care Bucks or ECB's. I have to start fresh because when we were in a money slump this past month, my ECB's from my last trip exprired. Usually, you have a to pay nothing OOP or very little if you have some ECB's from previous trips, but alas, I am starting fresh.

Again, I am shopping for more stuff than usual here because of vacation and Six Flags.

The total for these items: $44.29
I paid OOP $25.74
Total Saved $18.55!!!

That is a savings of 58%!!!! Still over a 50% savings!! Woohoo!!! While I wasn't too excited about this trip, I still ended up coming out better than I thought.

This is how I did it. I had coupons in the amount of $3.00. The Softsoap body wash was BOGO. We go through body wash like water around here! I wouldn't have normally bought those magazines, but it had some coupons I needed in it. While you may be asking the same thing Wade did, "So, you had a to spend a dollar to get a coupon that saved you $.50?!", this is not so. The coupon was work $1.00 each AND it is a coupon magazine, so it will have other coupons I need in it. It has already paid for itself! On this trip I earned $6.00 in ECB, which I can use like cash on my next trip!

Tuesday I am going to hit Kroger, which unfortunately will be a big shopping trip because my stockpile is WAY low! I may hit up Publix this week, but still not sure. We will have to see what deals I find first.

Hope you enjoyed watching me SAVE!!!

Malia

Southern Savers Giveaway

Southern Savers is giving away $50 to the Southern Savers grocery store of your choice. Go to Southernsavers.com to see how to enter and tell them happy birthday!

Malia

Christy Says......

I have a friend that I work with and she just keeps me in stitches....the things she comes up with are just unbelievable. So unbelievable, in fact, that I have decided to give her, her own section on my blog. So, without further ado, the first Christy Says.....


Christy: (speaking about a co-worker and her husband) They are really nice. I went to church with them.

Malia: Oh? Did you like their church?

Christy: No, not really, it was all, you know....broomsticks and fire!

Malia: (thinking: What the hell are they? Wiccan?!)

Just for Fun

A church in Savannah

Malia

Typical Emma

The teachers at Emma's school sent home all of her artwork for the year at conferences a couple of weeks ago. Also in this stack were the notes that have to be made about their development. I have no idea what development this was except maybe "how to defy my mother" or maybe this is the note that will be forwarded to her kindergarten principal as a child to watch out for.

Emma: Mrs. Cindy, can I go change. I don't like to wear dresses.

Mrs. Cindy: Does your mama get sad if you don't?

Emma: Yes, but I don't care, I don't like 'em.

And they think we don't know what goes on when we're not around.....thanks teachers!

Malia

Just for Fun

A restaurant in Savannah.
We were afraid that "Debi" died from food poisoning, so we skipped this restaurant.

Malia

Bravo!

Emma had her second dance recital of her life on May 22, 2009. There is no comparison to last year with this recital because the school she was at last year....well, ....it sucked. Of course, Emma was great in it, but her potential to grow there......none!

After seeing this year's recital with Axis Dance Center, I am so happy I moved her. I didn't want the show to end!

Emma had three costumes, one she liked, the others she hated....but don't worry, I WILL get her picture in them....she just doesn't know it yet.

We were not allowed to take pictures of the show...for pedofile reasons, but here are some I got after the show.





Oh, and here's Jackson....before the curtain was even brought up....he really enjoyed himself.


Emma was invited to join some of the older girl at some of the competitions, so hopefully, if I stay on my game, you will be seeing many more of these types of beautiful photographs. Until then....

Malia

I Got Nothing....

Nah-da.

Malia

I Know He's There

Yesterday, Emma and I were the only ones that made it to church....(I didn't force any of the men in my household to go because I was trying to let guilt do it's work)...(it didn't).

After church, since she did so well, I thought we would have a little girl time, so I took us out to lunch at the local Mexican restaurant. We ate, shared cheese dip (there was even some left, obviously because there were no boys there, I shared some of my lunch, she shared some of her cheese pizza with me, complete with little teeth marks, which she swore were mine???

She and the boys had gone to the new museum in Cartersville the day before, so I asked her about all of the things that she saw there. She talked about dinosaur bones and rocks, she saw her birthstone and some bones that were super tall, bigger than her even, but "you couldn't touch them". After a lot of talk about bones and rocks, I asked her if there was anything else she saw, you know, something girly, like flowers or butterflies.

Emma: No. Nope, there weren't any flowers.

Me: Well, what else was there? (Acting disgusted at such things as bones and rocks)

Emma: Weeellll, we went into this place where we had to go in and lay down and look up and it shone purple on us.

Me: Oh, the stars were shining on you?

Emma: No. It wasn't the stars. He was talking about space.

Me: Who was talking about space?

Emma: God.

Me: (Puzzled) God?

Emma: Yeah, I couldn't see Him, but I could hear Him and he was talking to us, so it had to be God.


Malia