Layout:
Home > Archive: September, 2008

Archive for September, 2008

I'm Now Obsessed with Walgreen's

September 28th, 2008 at 01:25 am

I'm obsessed enough to go looking for tomorrow's ad (Sunday) on a Saturday night. I found a preview at hotcouponworld dot com.

Text is Here is the link. and Link is http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/walgreens/161913-preview-walgreens-sept-28-oct-4-full-ad-scans.html
Here is the link.

Have fun!!

My Walgreens Buys

September 27th, 2008 at 03:21 pm

It is a little rare that I shop at Walgreens. I really usually only buy bubble mailers when they are three for $1. I use these a fair amount when selling on ebay. Yesterday, I went twice!! I took advantage of the $5 coupon off a $20 purchase. See my post yesterday for the link...it is still good today!

First trip, I purchased primarily things I needed anyway.

1 gal milk $3.19
coment $0.59 with store coupon
shave cream $2.29
2 glade spray$1.98 with store coupon
foundation $5.99
candy $2.99
crest $3.79 free after rebate
6 mailers $2.00 with store coupon
SUBTOTAL $21.83
glade coupon-$1.75
crest coupon-$0.75
store coupon-$5.00
sales tax $0.70
TOTAL $16.02

After the $3.79 rebate I will have spent $11.53 for these 14 items for an average of $0.82 a piece! I'm thrilled.

I decided to come home and see if there were any other items in the ad or the Easy Saver Catalog that I might need. I printed off another $5 coupon and set out to buy the following:

Shampoo $4.99
Conditioner $4.99 $5 rebate for 2
nail polish $4.79 Free after rebate
4 soups $5.00 with store coupon
gum $1.19
tax $0.66
SUBTOTAL $21.62
coupon -$5.00
coupon -$0.50
TOTAL $16.12

I will receive rebates of $9.79 bringing my actual cost to $6.33. For 7 items, the average cost per item on trip was $0.90. FYI, the soups were the large chunky type. We eat these quite often around here.

I have already input my receipts on Walgreens.com and requested a gift card. As a result they will add 10%. Total expected gift card $14.94. Considering I spent $32.14 yesterday for 21 items and I will receive almost 15 back...I'm beyond thrilled. Average cost per item: $0.82. That is a great price for things like shampoo, makeup, milk, and chunky soups.

I maybe could have bought more items for free, but they aren't things I would normally buy. Even the nail polish is rare, but I bought it in blue to give to my 11 year old for Christmas.

Did anyone else go yesterday? Any one planning to go today? How did you do?

Walgreens Coupon Friday & Saturday Only

September 26th, 2008 at 03:18 pm

Here's the link to a $5 off coupon at Walgreen's when you spend $20 or more. It is good only today and tomorrow.

Text is Click here for coupon. and Link is http://www.walgreens.com/hotbuys/default.html?ban=flh_5_off_20
Click here for coupon.

Enjoy!

Money's Flowing IN

September 25th, 2008 at 04:04 pm

I'm trying to keep track of money flowing in. As of now, I have received money from the garage sales, ebay sales, DH travel, and a gift card.

In the next few days, I expect to see some interest payments and some cash from craigslist sales. Several of those are pending today and I just put them up yesterday. Today I plan to get more things ready for ebay.

I am also saving all the mysurvey points towards $30 cash. Our debit card gives us cash back and we should be getting $50 in a few weeks.

All totalled up that is over $400 in cash flowing in, besides our regular paycheck. I'm saving all this money to purchase gifts for Christmas. It is definitely not too early to start thinking about that, right?

USO Gets My Points

September 25th, 2008 at 12:03 am

I recently noticed that I could redeem our Coke Rewards towards a donation to the USO. Because we are a military family, this just seemed fitting for us. So far, I have redeemed our points towards an $11 donation.

I also put in a suggestion to Coke that they also offer redemption of rewards towards the American Red Cross. Because of all the recent flooding and hurricanes, they are in desperate need of funds. I hope that this comes to fruition. The Red Cross helps anyone in need regardless of race, income, religion and so forth. The Red Cross is also important to our service members and their families. They provide a point of contact in emergency situations.

For now, I will continue to use my points for the USO and send a nice check to the Red Cross this next payday.

$3.32/gallon

September 23rd, 2008 at 04:03 pm

Yes, that's what I paid today for gasoline. I remember last summer the highest I ever paid was $3.29...now it seems cheap.

I was on empty...so I filled it full. There don't appear to be any shortages here in midwest. For that I am thankful.

Stomp, Stomp, Stomp

September 17th, 2008 at 04:02 pm

I've sent $400 towards the principal on our home equity loan!! It feels great to have the balance fall below $15,000.

The next goal is to get it below $14K. I hope to do this by the end of the year.

I'm going to just keep stomping on it.
------

Updates:

Getting ready for the garage sale that starts on Thursday. I don't have a lot, but helping my neighbors get rid of their stuff is fun!!

The reason I don't have much for the garage sale is...I'm selling most of it on ebay. The return is a little better. My paypal account has over $120, with more sales ending this Sunday.

In the process of moving our emergency fund savings to another online bank. I'm going to try FNBOdirect. It is affiliated with our old bank, so I feel confident it will work out well. The rate is 3.5%!! That is almost double what I've been getting with our primary bank. Why did I wait so long? I'm looking forward to seeing larger interest payments.

September has only seen 2 days with air conditioning...also no heat. Wonderful. That means the bill next month will be even lower than last. Yipee!!

I'm still reading the blogs...even though I don't take time to post myself. I hope to be back more after this garage sale.

Free Magazine

September 11th, 2008 at 06:52 pm

My husband is a diet coke addict. I had been selling mycokerewards on ebay a while back, but that is no longer allowed. So, I decided to start accumulating them with no expectation of redeeming them.

After browsing the rewards, I noticed that magazine subscriptions are available. I picked Better Homes and Gardens. Nice side benefit to his bad habit!!

I may order DH Popular Mechanics, too. The dilemma is that DD brought home her school fundraiser...magazine sales!!! So, do I purchase Popular Mechanics to help the school? I could still redeem it free through mycokerewards, and pick something else for the girls...maybe American Girl magazine. I will be weighing my options.

What is new here....

September 10th, 2008 at 03:32 am

Wow, it has been a little while since I've posted!! Here's a few updates.

Our A/C has been off since Sept 2nd, since the temperatures have fallen drastically. This morning it was 67 degrees in our home...I almost wanted heat!! I really want to wait on that one, though.

I am selling some items on ebay. I have netted over $100 so far.

Along with two other neighbors, I am coordinating a community garage sale for our neighborhood. It is just over a week away. It looks like we will have at least 10 families participating out of 40 households. I'm looking forward to making a little cash, but I don't have quite as many items as I did in the spring.

That is it for now!! Keep up the great work everyone...I am reading even when I'm not posting!

Less to the Government

September 4th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

I received our auto registration renewal notice today in the mail. The fee for our Ford Taurus has dropped by $52!

I'm actually paying more than last year because we bought a newer vehicle in May. I'm still thrilled that one vehicle went down, since it does affect our total bill.

This state bills you an extra month early. My fees are not due until October. The way I save for these is reflected on the escrow page to the left. I really need the extra month until I have the money in full.

I also found out our auto insurance will be about $7 less per six months than I was expecting. The two savings together equal $66 for the year.

I will need to update our escrow account soon to reflect the savings!

August A/C Savings Results

September 3rd, 2008 at 04:33 pm

If you read my blog during the month of August you may have noticed I was a bit obsessed with keeping my air conditioning off on cooler days. Of course, this was an effort to save some cash!

The efforts paid off. My electric usuage was 654 kWh for the month of August. Last year my usage was exactly 1000 kWh. The billing period for both was 29 days.

So, for having the air conditioning off for 10 days, we saved about $31.18. This August bill total was $62.54 and compared to last August's total of $93.72.

Overall, I'm pleased. At least it was a noticeable change. We are on an automatic payment with our utility company so the reduction in usage this month should help offset any usage we have this winter. It may even help reduce my auto payment amount.