Stocking up at Walgreens

There are some good sales at Walgreens this week. I apologize that I can't give you links to coupons that I use or dates they appeared in the newspaper. I just don't have time to keep track of things like that! You may, however, find several of the coupons to print off in the right column of this blog page. You can also print of Walgreens' coupons on their web site, if you don't get the Sunday paper before you go shopping. I used Walgreens sales today to stock up on pantry items. All are items we use on a regular basis. 4 Hellman's Mayonnaise 30 oz - Sale $2.99 3 Ragu Spaghetti Sauce - Sale $1.67 Total $16.96 Coupons Mayo - 1.00, .50, .40 Ragu - $.50 $3 Walgreens Register Rewards Out of Pocket $11.56 Rec'd $5 Walgreens Register Rewards Bic Soleil Razors - Sale $4.99 x 2 = $9.98 Walgreens Alum Foil - Sale $.49 x 4 = $1.96 Walgreens Storage Bags Sale .99 x 3 - $2.97 Total $14.91 Coupons Bic Razors $2.00 x 2 = $4.00 Walgreens RR $5.00 OOP $5.91 Edge Shaving Gel Sale $2.99 Easy Saver Coupon - $1.00 Mfg Coupon - $1.00 Walgreen Weekly coupon $1.00 OOP - FREE Total Merchandise $34.86 (sale prices) Cash Paid $17.47 50% saved on items we use every day!

Don't Overlook your local Hardware Store when being Frugal!

Ace Hardware has instituted a rebate program similar to Walgreens'. Purchase items, go online and put in for rebates, and get those items for a deep discount or free. Since house and car maintenance are an expensive part of daily life, it's great to have another store to turn to for these household needs. Similar to Walgreens and CVS, you need to sign up for an Ace Rewards Card to take advantage of these deals. You should be able to sign up online, though I've tried twice now with no luck. You can also sign up at your local store. In our area, ACE is having a huge "Grand Opening" sale on June 27, 28 and 29. Here are examples of what you will be able to get FREE AFTER REBATE (FAR): Rust Stop Spray Enamel for Grills - $3.99 - FAR OxiOut Emergency Stain Stick - $1.99 - FAR Jobe's Fertilizer Spikes - $99 - FAR Mr. Clean Auto Glass Cleaner - $2.99 - FAR Mr. Clean Car Protectant for rubber, plastic and vinyl - $2.99 - FAR GUMOUT Fuel System Cleaner - $3.29 - FAR These items are not free after rebate (though they could be if you have coupons!), but are deeply discounted: Sprayway Glass Cleaner - $1.99 - $1.00 rebate - $.99 final cost Murphy Oil Soap - $1.99 - $1.00 rebate - $.99 *Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom Cleaner - $1.99 - $1.00 - $.99 *Shout Laundry Stain Remover - $1.99 - $1.00 - $.99 Fantastik Heavy Duty Cleaner - $1.99 - $1.00 - $.99 Poly Rope with Winder, 100'- $1.99 - $1.00 - $.99 Tire Wet Protectant - $1.99 - $1.00 - $.99 Fix a Flat - $1.99 - $1.00 - $.99 Elmer's Glue All 16 oz $2.99 - $2.50 rebate - $.49 *RayOVac 30 pk AA or AAA batteries - $9.99 - $5.00 rebate - $4.99 6 pc Double-Ended Power Drill Bit Set 7 pc Drill Bit Set 10 Pc Bit and Nutsetter Set - all $5.99 - $5.00 rebate - .99 each 1400 psi portable Power Washer - $84.99 - $25.00 rebate - $59.99 23 pocket Big Mouth Tool Bag - $9.99 - $5.00 rebate - $4.99 Sportsman Lantern - $9.99 - $5.00 rebate - $4.99 ACE Insecticide Spray - $2.49 - $2.00 rebate - $.49 (4 rebates) Cutter Back Yard Insect Spray - $9.99 - $6.00 rebate - $3.99 (2 rebates) ACE Home Insect Spray 1 gal - $6.99 - $5.00 rebate - $1.99 (2 rebates) *OFF Inspect Repellent Spray - $3.99 - $3.00 rebate - $.99 (2 rebates) ACE Weed & Grass Killer - $2.99 - $2.00 rebate - .99 (2 rebates) *These items have had coupons in recent Sunday paper flyers. Use the coupons and save even more and possibly get the item for free. I'm not completely sure how this rebate program works -- if you get your rebates on an ACE giftcard and have to spend that money at ACE, what the expiration policy is, what the "Rewards Points" are about, etc. I am going to my local ACE later today to sign up, and hopefully they will provide more information.

Frugal grandparenting

Who knew a two year old could be so much fun to take to yard sales?! My grandson loves cruising through other people's garages, and is amazingly picky about what he does or does not want to buy. Most kids spot ANY toy and yell and scream until they get it. Brayden says "Ummmmmmmmm...Nooooo" more often than not.

Friday morning (he'd spent the night with us Thursday night), we were up and ready to head out the door by 8:30am. First yard sale, Brayden spotted a box full of Army Guys that he insisted his grandfather would love (and he was right). But he didn't find anything there for himself, despite the yard sale advertising TOYS TOYS TOYS and there being plenty age-appropriate toys for him to choose from.

But at the second yard sale we got the deal of the day. A Little Tykes Kitchen, complete with "communications center" (the phone rings and tells you things like "It's time to wash the dishes" or "Let's get cooking!"), talking recipe book (Chef Tony give you step by step recipe to create spaghetti and meatballs or bacon and eggs with your plastic dishes and food), a microwave, stove (burners light up), sink (makes water sounds), refrigerator, oven, and more. It came complete with dishes, silverware, cooking pots and pans, cooking utensils, a huge amount of food, and more. It's not exactly like the one here in the picture (it's actually got more burners and more counter space), but it's close. The price? $15.00!

Today, Jeff and I went out to yard sales and once again, I had a GREAT find. I found a Kasey the Kinderbot (Toy of the Year in 2002), an interactive robot that teaches numbers and letters - for $2! Retail price for this on Amazon today is $199.00! It's perfect for Brayden, who is enthusiastically learning his numbers and shapes and colors. When my kids were small we had a similar toy, except not computerized, of course. It was a small "robot" in which you placed cards, and the child matched numbers or colors or letters and the robot beeped. Both my kids absolutely loved this toy, and really learned a lot from it. I think Brayden is going to love it, and it will really help quench his thirst for knowledge stage he's going through. He can now count to 19 and knows all his colors and shapes. I think that's pretty good for a 26 month old... but then, I'm his grandma, so I guess I would!

So, grandparents -- head to the yard sales! Toys are SO expensive these days and there are so many great deals to be had at yard sales and garage sales. The kids don't care if the toy is used, believe me!

BETTER THAN YARD SALE PRICES - FREE!!

Here's a Toys R'Us coupon for a FREE Thomas the Train toy - value up to $12.99! (Thanks to Money Saving Mom). Brayden loves Thomas the Train -- I think I'll do some frugal Christmas shopping!

Office supply savings - Frugal and FREE

If you're printing Internet coupons, you're going through a lot of printer paper! Wal-Mart has HP Printer Paper for $3.97, and you can print off a $3.00 coupon (several of them, actually) here! Final cost - .97 cents! Expiration date on the coupon is 12/31/2008, so you may want to print off extra and save for a sale! I love Post-It Flags. When I read magazines (especially quilt magazines that I never, ever throw away), I mark articles or instructions I want to go back to with Post-It Flags. They also make a marker that has little post-it notes in the tube of the pen! (Love it) Wal-Mart has them on sale this week for .97 cents. You can print a coupon for $3.00 off two here -- final cost - FREE! Thanks to The Centsible Sawyer for these coupons! Added Later: Go figure - MY WalMart did not have the Post-It Flag Markers or the printer paper on sale. The $3.00 coupon for HP paper is for paper that normally costs $5.27, so you still pay $2.27. The Post-It Markers were at regular price of $2.47, so I passed on those until I see them on sale. So your WalMart may or may not have these sales!

What was your favorite toy?

Brayden arrives in just an hour and will be here for two full days and overnight while my daughter travels on business. Last night I was thinking of activities for us to do, and started thinking about what I played with when I was young. My oh my, how times have changed. Here's what I remember were my favorite toys as a child.

• My bike - From the age of 5, I was on a bike and could go anywhere I wanted in my town with no fears. There were 3 lakes in town, and as young as 6 I would bike to the lake and spend the day with my friends.


• Roller Skates -- the old fashioned kind that you attached to the bottom of your shoes and yes, you had to have a skate key to do it. We lived on Main Street and the sidewalk in front of our house sloped down a slight hill. I can still hear the "thump thump -- thump thump" of rolling down that hill over and over and over and over.


• Anything to do with horses. We played horses, our bikes were horses, we actually rode horses. When I was about 5 I was given some little plastic horses and cowboys. I got a shoebox and some yellow construction paper and made myself a stable -- and sat for hours and hours cutting that yellow construction paper into straw.


• Snow - Born an brought up in New Hampshire where snow isn't a pain in the butt, it's a way of life that you adapt to and enjoy. We built snow forts, igloos, snow men, statues and whatever else we could think of. My brother and I even used to sneak into our neighbor's yard and pour water on the steep hill of his driveway so we could go sledding the next day. (He must have loved us!)


• Books - I was an avid reader then, and I still am to this day. A book and the shade of a tree on a hot summer day was life at it's finest. My all-time favorite book? The Counterpane Fairy by Katherine Pyle. Highly sought-after and collectible these days -- of which I have two first edition copies. A story of a little boy sick in bed visited by a fairy who takes him on adventures based on the quilt block he chooses from his counterpane quilt. Perhaps the basis of my love of quilting?


• Barbie dolls - My mom sewed two boxes of little tiny dresses and coats and negligees and gowns for me for Christmas one year. I played Barbies with the little girl two houses up from me -- Kim Lafferty -- day after day after day. In the middle of the night one night, Kim and her family moved. My barbies and all my Mom's sewing went with them. Kim -- if you're out there -- I want my Barbies back!


• Cards - My brother and I played cards a lot, as did my grandmother and I -- Rummy with our own rules, to be exact. I learned to play when I was about 4, and still love to spend an afternoon with my daughter now and then playing cards.


• Coke Truck -- One of my favorite Christmas presents -- probably around 1956. A coke truck that had sides that opened, a little cart, and tiny cases of coke bottles you could move around on the cart.


• Puddles - Our house was on the outside edge of a huge combination dirt road and dirt parking lot and after every rain storm, that parking lot was our world. Puddles - big puddles - everywhere. We waded in them, connected them, made bridges with sticks, built mud houses and more. My grandson has a serious love of puddles - I wonder if it's hereditary?

Honestly, I can't think of many actual store-bought toys, with the exception of the plastic horses, Barbie dolls and Coke truck, that gave me as much pleasure as the outdoors did!

What were your favorite toys as a child?

Picture(s) of the Day

Compliments of Splendid Pictures Around the Net

FREE Feel-Good FUN

Fun things make you feel good. Sharing fun things makes you feel even better. Here's a free way to share some of your summer photos with friends and loved ones. Go to Hippopost, sign up and then upload your own photos to be put on a postcard. You put the message on the postcard, hit send and POOF! you've made your favorite great aunt happy because you sent her photos of your kids! It's easy, it's fast, it's fun, it's free... What more could you want? There is NO LIMIT to the number of postcards you can send -- and Hippopost pays the postage. Gotta love it. (Thanks to The Centsible Sawyer for spreading the word on this!)

Wow - Frugal and FREE Magazine deals

Magazines are ideal light summer reading for me. I grab a glass of iced tea and head for my deck with magazine in hand. You can read a magazine for 5 minutes or an hour, depending on how much time you can grab. But magazine subscriptions can be expensive! Last year I did away with all but one of my magazine subscriptions, just because I didn't want to pay the $20 - $30 per subscription.

But check out this web site: Lowpricesubs.com! Woman's Day magazine for $2.00 PER YEAR subscription? Parents' Magazine for $4 for TWO YEARS?? Two Years of ESPN magazine for $4?? Unheard of!

No affiliation here (though I certainly would sign up for that affiliate program if there was one available!). Just check it out. Even the most frugal of us can afford $2 per year for Woman's Day. Hmmm... does Woman's Day have coupons??

BUT WHAT'S THE BEST MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION? FREE!!!

I currently receive GOOD HOUSEKEEPING magazine, and I didn't pay a dime. I watched about 10 minutes of commercials, gave my name and address, and received the magazine just a few weeks later.

Go to AdPerk to sign up. The magazine you choose on the home page will be the magazine you receive, so choose wisely! You receive a credit for each advertisement you watch, and usually 12 credits are needed for your free magazine subscription. Currently you can received Redbook, GoodHousekeeping, Parenting, ODE, Popular Science and Field & Stream. The magazines available change fairly frequently. You are NOT limited to just one subscription! Today, I did my 10 minutes of ads and subscribed to RedBook -- for free!

Healthy, quick grilled vegetables

With fresh vegetables available either from my garden or at local Farmer's markets during the summer, we tend to eat a lot more vegetables. During the heat of the summer, I also like to cook on the grill. Here's one of my favorite recipes. It's hard to say what vegetables I use in this recipe, because this is a great way to use up bits of "this and that" from the fridge. My preference is zucchini (cut in 1 inch chunks), green peppers, onions, radishes*, and green beans. I've also put in corn on the cob (cut in 1-2 inch pieces), summer squash, carrots cut in 1/4 inch slivers, asparagus, canned whole potatoes, and more. Whatever you have for fresh vegetables in your fridge will work! Grilled Vegetables 1 1/2 cups fresh vegetables, per person 1 tbsp Italian dressing, per serving Pinch of oregano, black pepper - per serving 2 sheets of alum. foil, 18 inches long - per serving Pam Spray *If you've never tried cooked radishes, try them! For this recipe, slice just a bit thicker than you would slice for a salad. They have a wonderful mild flavor when cooked. Cut vegetables in uniform chunks, slicing those that cook fastest a bit larger (zucchini, summer squash) and those that cook more slowly in smaller chunks (carrots). Lay the 2 sheets of foil on top of each other, shiney side down. Lightly spray the center of the top sheet with Pam Spray. Place one serving of the cut vegetables mixture in center of foil. Wrap as you would a birthday present -- pull two sides up, fold foil seams together 2-3 times, fold up ONE end side, folding and sealing 2-3 times. DO NOT fold foil tightly around vegetables -- they need some room! Just make sure you folds are sealed tightly. In open end of this "envelope" of vegetables, pour italian dressing and sprinkle herbs. Seal this end closed, making sure to fold at least 2-3 times. Place packets on medium grill and flip every 5 minutes for a total of 15-20 minutes, depending on how much crunch you like in your vegetables. Remove from grill, use kitchen shears to cut off one end of the packet and pour onto plate. YUM! That made me want vegetables for tonight's dinner!

CVS - $49 in merchandise, $5.02 profit

I had a great day at CVS! I purchased the following: 2 pkgs Alavert (allergy med), normally $11.99, on sale for $6.99 2 family-size bottles Head & Shoulders shampoo, normally $7.79, on sale for $5.99 5 bags of Chex Mix, $1.99 each Merchandise total: $49.51 Sale Price: $35.91 Coupons used: Raincheck for Chex Mix at $1.00 per bag Chex Mix Coupons $1.00, .65, .55, .50, .50 = $2.65 Alavert coupons 2 x $4.00 = $8.00 CVS $3/$15 coupon (they still accept it!) H&S B1G1 coupon = $5.99 Coupon total: $25.99 Total after coupons $9.92 Tax $1.06 CVS ECB's Paid: $9.00 Out of Pocket Cash: $1.98 ECB's Received: $7.00 Profit: $5.02

All this Frugal shopping and Coupons are paying off

I went online this morning to check my bank balance and my oh my, what do I see? About $200 more in my checking account than I would normally have this time of the month! And I still have about $250 on a Kroger gift card that I bought at the first of the month! By the 20th of the month, I normally have less than $100 in my household account. By George, all this coupon clipping and blog reading and CVS shopping is actually WORKING! Yippy Skippy!

In looking at where my money went this month, it is startling how little went to CVS and Walgreens, and yet I've made at least six trips there to pick up personal items (toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo, deoderant), cleaning products (dishwashing soap, dishwasher soap, windex), and paper goods (toilet paper, paper towels). From my initial "investment" of $35 at CVS and $30 at Walgreens two months ago, I am now at the point where my out-of-pocket expense is usually under $2 for an average of $30 a month spending on items we use and need. And we are WELL stocked on personal items and paper goods at this point.

I currently have $9 in CVS money (ECB's) and $31 on a Walgreens gift card (rebates) and $6 in Walgreens Register Rewards. I'm making a trip to both places today to purchase Advil and Adavert (allergy med.) --enough to stock us up for the YEAR -- and I will pay no out-of-pocket money for either. Yeah baby.

On top of all this good frugal news, I checked my UPromise account today and now have over $100 in my grandson's college fund! I have NO idea what products or services contributes to that account -- I just registered my Kroger, CVS and debit card there, and the money is building by itself. For anyone not doing this, if you have kids or grandkids, do check it out. No affiliation. No membership fees, no bank information. It's all good.

My frugal mailbox adventure continues. Here's a photo of SOME of what I received this week in my mailbox. One 3.5 lb bag of cat food (this was a coupon rec'd), two bottles of mutli-vitamins, one sample of pull-up training diapers (yes, he's ALMOST ready -- we're in the "talking about it stage"), my first copy of Elle Decor magazine, 4 coupons for free cans of BumbleBee tuna plus 4 .50 cent off coupons for same, a sample of Jennifer Lopez perfume, a sample of Viva papertowels (I plan on keeping this packet in the car) and a sample of Excedrin (also for the car).

Not shown is my Good Housekeeping magazine (a free one year's subscription), a bottle of Gillette Body Wash, a Dove deoderant, and two paperback books -- one on 365 days of crafts for 2 yr to 5 yr olds, and one a book I want for leisurely summer reading -- and two DVD's.

Admittedly, it takes a lot of work to keep coupons and rebates and sale flyers and menu planning and reading blog postings organized to get this done. I would say I spend between 8 and 10 hours a week. And I did spend some money for this to help me out:

It is the Mother of all Coupon Organizers, purchased on Ebay. It makes matching up sale items to coupons SO much easier and quicker. I do NOT carry it to the grocery store with me, but pull out coupons for items on sale that I need, then take only those coupons to the store. For me, this prevents me from doing a lot of impulse buying, which is easy to do when you do coupons this extensively.

I've yet to tally up my spending, but I believe I have cut my grocery bill from my previous $140 a week to my target of $60 per week, with the benefit of having a well stocked linen closet with personal items and paper goods. That's $240 a month (ahhh - which accounts for the $200 extra in my household checking account -- so that makes sense!).

It's all good :)