Saving and Homemaking 5/20

Hello frugal friends.  The photo above is a nod to my friend Becky’s blog, who featured almost the same photo this week.  Great minds and all!

Saving

• A local grocer had 20% off all fresh and packaged meat, sausages, bacon etc.  I don’t buy a lot of meat, but I did get some items for upcoming cookouts and ground turkey for spaghetti which I cooked and froze for a later date.
• Got a free bag of candy from my grocery store’s item of the week and redeemed a coupon the store mailed me for a free bag of chocolate chips.
• Received a coupon from Walgreens for 20X points on in their Balance Rewards program.  Used that on some of the good deals at Walgreens this past week including free M&Ms, canned almonds — 2 cans for 3.00 after coupon, and flour 1.99.  I am close to earning a $10.00 reward from Walgreens.
• Received free Taste of Home magazines from my local village’s Nextdoor private online community. I hope my daughter and I can make some recipes from them this summer.

I have about 40 new to me magazines!

Cooking

• Daughter baked Toll House cookie bars for her Dad to take as a birthday treat to work. His office is large and bringing a treat from a store gets expensive.  People asked for the recipe!  I had to “LOL” because it’s just the recipe on the back of the chocolate chips.
• We ate at home most nights but also took advantage of a BOGO at Noodles and a birthday coupon for a date night dinner out.
  

  Trillium

Free Fun

• Went hiking at a nature preserve for birthday/Mother’s Day.  We were treated to seeing thousands of trillium in bloom.  In many states and provinces it is illegal to damage trillium because they do not recover if damaged.  We have a few trillium in our back lot, but I have never seen them in this quantity.
• The whole family volunteered at our church’s service day.  It was an early morning but we enjoyed coffee and snacks before starting. DD and I worked on the Operation Christmas Child initiative while my husband worked a plant sale to raise money for Tanzanian scholarships at the university level.

Hope your week was nice and you are recharging for the week ahead!

 

 

 

 

 

Memorial Day = Savings + Summer

Memorial Day weekend nears… in the US, this holiday commemorates those who have died serving our country while in the armed forces.  It is also the “unofficial” start of summer, with schools finishing up and warm weather beginning.

Memorial Day is also a great time to take advantage of grocery savings!  Last year we hosted a family reunion which required us to buy large amounts of soda and beer.  The prices we found at Memorial Day were the best we saw that summer.  If you have a family event this summer, or a block party, this a great week to check your grocery fliers for prices.

I went through the refrigerator yesterday and checked the dates on cookout essentials, like BBQ sauce, ketchup and other condiments.  I know there will be sales on these items, as well as hot dogs, beans, and chips.

My grocery ads come out tomorrow, so I am eager to see what items will be worth picking up.  The next opportunity for low prices will be the 4th of July.

Often on holiday weekends we have found there are special promotions on Ebates for retailers like Target, Lands End, and WalMart.  Great time to catch a good deal if a new swimsuit, wedding gift, or Father’s Day gift is on your horizon.  My daughter is lobbying for a hammock!

If you see special promotions and prices this Memorial Day, please share!  Do you have any holiday shopping strategies?

 

 

 

Saving at CVS Today

I had a great little CVS trip today.  I am on the lookout for water and soda on sale because we need to provide these for a large family reunion this summer.

• I bought three 12 packs of Coke products for 9.00
• Two packs of mini cans for 5.98 and
• One 1.25 litre for .99
• Total = 15.97
• Less $5.00 off a $ 15.00 purchase coupon which was in my CVS app
• Received $ 5.00 Extra Cash Back WYB 15.00 of Coke products for a net cost of $ 5.97

I also stumbled onto a deal on TIDE pods

• Fourteen count bag was 5.49
• Less 25% off everything except sale items coupon mailed to my home (-1.37)
• Less $2.00 off Tide Pod Coupon in CVS app
• Less $2.00 off Tide Pod manufacturer coupon Exp 5/31
• Final cost .12 cents

Back in the Saddle at CVS

I like to save 77%!

When I switched jobs in October, one thing that fell by the wayside was reading the CVS & Walgreens ads on Sunday.  My favorite place to check the CVS ad is at the iheartcvs website.  Granted, I made more money in my new job than I lost by missing deals at CVS, but with summer on the horizon and the end to paychecks until September, it’s time to get back in the habit again.

I won’t go to CVS just to get a 2 litre of soda for .69 cents, but some weeks the forces of nature and marketing come together to have several deals worth a trip.  I look for things that we can use within a few months; I can’t deal with stockpiling toothpaste under my bed.  Recent finds were things like:

• Easter M&Ms, 75% off (1.05/bag for the big bag) PLUS I had a coupon for $1.00 off two bags of M&M/Mars products, so that makes two full size bags at about .50 each
• Kleenex – 1.34 each plus CVS coupon for $1.00 off two = .84 ea
• Listerine deal last week, 2/10.00, plus 5.00 back, plus stacked CVS and Manufacturer coupons brought a very low price.

CVS now has an app for Apple users.  You can view your offers on the app instead of on those L-O-N-G sheets of coupons that print at the scanning machine.  I also like being able to have the cashier scan my card from the iPhone rather than searching for my house keyring.  Now through August when you download the CVS app you get $ 3.00 in ExtraBucks.  Nice!

Do you partake of CVS or Walgreen’s deals?  Walgreens drives me nuts because things are never in stock and their coupon policies are never completely clear to me.

 

Starbucks Mondays in March

Starbucks will have special ‘Happy Hour’ promotions in March from 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.  You do need to be a ‘My Starbucks Rewards’ member.

The most appealing dates, to me, are

• March 9 – 30% off almost everything
• March 30 – Frappucino Happy Hour 50% off frappucino

I overheard the baristas scheming to not have to work on March 30 – frappucino day 😉

I had a nice day off today.  Mr Saver and DD went to the museum, leaving me to grocery shop, wander at Michaels, and stop by Starbucks.  It was a long week because I worked full-time, something I haven’t done in about 9 years.  We’re all grateful to get back to a regular schedule next week.