Free Scrubbing Bubbles!

Go on over here and sign up to receive Scrubbing Bubbles bulletins. They will send you a FREE shower caddy!

I have had these in the past and it is nice to help keep the shower clean in between cleaning it. The refills can get expensive though so I just filled mine up with some bathroom cleaner I had at home!

Free food this week!

Remember this? It's back! This Tuesday August 11th there will be free tacos at Jack in the Box again! Print your coupon here, no purchase necessary!

Then on Wednesday don't forget Arby's for their free Chicken Roastburger with the purchase of any drink, no coupon needed!

Yeah for free food!

Cheap kids patio table!

Walmart has this cute little patio table set with umbrella and 2 chairs for $20!! They have Handy Manny, Tinkerbell, Cars, Barbie, and Princess.

Weekly deals

Here are the deals for the week. I'm just going to link to sites that have posted the deals already since I'll be super busy this week getting ready to leave Wednesday. If there's a store you would like to see on here, let me know!

CVS - click here. I also posted about deals here. Don't forget to use the $5/$25 coupon.

WG's - click here and look for the Back 2 School coupon book, preview here plus more deals here

Rite Aid- click here and another deal here

Staples - click here. Be sure to use the in ad $5/$50 coupon AND 10% off coupon for even better deals!

Target - click here

Have a great week!!

What a Waste!!

I read in a magazine a little while ago that the "average" family throws away $75 worth of food a month. Seriously?!?! If you look at it from the standpoint of my $40 Monthly Challenge that's equivalent to nearly 2 weeks worth of food for our family. I have been thinking about this since I read it and have been brainstorming ideas to avoid becoming an "average" family. Here's what I've come up with:

- Designate an area in your fridge for leftovers. That way you know where they are and that leftover meatloaf doesn't get stuck in the back to mold.

- Only dish up what you think you can eat. This can be especially hard with children as they are completely bipolar in their eating. You can always dish up more for them if they happen to finish what they have.

- In our home we love leftovers (because that means mom doesn't have to cook all the time!) We always make extra and take the leftovers for lunch the next day.

- Designate one day of the week (maybe choose your busiest day) as "Leftover Day". Use that day to finish off the leftovers in your fridge.

- Portion out your servings. When I buy packs of fresh chicken I trim it and place 3-4 of the boneless breasts in a Ziploc bag. That way when I need chicken I already have the amount that I generally need for dinner plus the leftovers for lunch.

- Only buy what you can eat. It doesn't save you any money to buy an extra gallon of milk because it's on sale if it's just going to go bad before you can drink it. Comprende?

- Be aware of your fresh fruits/vegetables. Keep in mind that some things spoil much quicker than others. I learned this the first time I bought raspberries and blackberries. I was used to being able to keep my fruit in the fridge for a couple days but by the time I got around to washing and freezing these I ended up throwing them all away.

- Learn little tricks that help to keep you from throwing things away. Did you know that limp celery can be revived by placing the ends in some water? Same with cucumbers. Leftover rice can also be brought back to life by adding a LITTLE water and microwaving with the lid on.

- Become a professional "goolash chef". In our family, that would be my husband. He does an awesome job of looking at what we have that needs to be eaten and coming up with a delicious meal. It's actually kind of fun to see what you can come up with!

- Consider buying a Food Saver. You can take leftovers or any food and put it in either a container or bag and vacuum and seal it. This helps to prevent it from going bad before you use
it.

- Keep a freezer journal and record what is in your freezer. I personally don't do this but I thought it would be a good idea to start one. That way you know exactly what you have, which is especially hard to do with a big chest freezer!

What things do you do in your family to avoid becoming "average"?

New code, 80% off at Restaurant.com

Restaurant.com has another great code to give you 80% off their gift certificates. This makes a $25 gift card $2!! Seems like this month the 80% off code came out early, but no complaints here!

If you're new to Restaurant.com, go over here and read about it. Just enter the code PORTION at check out to receive the discount (maybe next month the code will be 'control' :)

Michael's coupon

I found a 50% off any regular price item for Michael's over here. I have been making necklaces for my sis's wedding and really wanted to get them done as cheaply as possible! I'm not sure if they'll have an ad this week so if they don't here's coupon for ya. Expires 8/14.

Cheap/Free snacks at CVS!

My favorite store has done it once again! Go on over here and you can print coupons from the CVS website. The first coupon that shows up for me is $1 off Frito Lay, including Smartfood. I know the other day I was in there I saw a (small) bag of Smartfood snacks for $.88. I'm not sure how big it was though and the coupon is good for 5 oz or larger. Hopefully we can get cheap/free snacks with it!

Don't forget to hit the back button on your browser to print it again.

CVS & Kohl's

I ran to CVS this morning to finish up getting rainchecks for the week. I LOVE CVS rainchecks because they don't expire and I can wait until I have a good $/$$ coupon or some EB that need to be rolled. I picked up one for the Blink eye drops and the Electrasol and got a few other things. I also asked about my $3 Pampers coupons from my purchases this week. They were much nicer than the ornery cashier the other day and gave me $6 for them which I added to my $2.75 budget.

1 Ragu @ $2 (to finish up what I needed to get the $3 EB for buying $10 in Unilever products)
1 White cheddar popcorn @ $1 (have you tried it? It's delicious!)
2 Gold Emblem candies (stocking up for our upcoming road trip) @ $.99 ea
2 4-pack CVS brand AA batteries (BIGIF)
- $3.79 CRT for free batteries
- $3.79 BIGIF batteries weekly sale
- $1/2 Gold Emblem candy CRT
- $1 EB
Total = $3.07
+ I earned $3 EB for the Ragu

Remaining budget: $2.75 + $6 - $3.07 = $5.68 for the rest of the week which if unused I will roll over to next week.

Then I went over to Kohl's. There were some pants I saw last week that I wanted but didn't get. Armed with my $10/$20 peelie and 15% off email I found them and they were $4 cheaper than last week! I asked the cashier and she said if I brought my receipt in from last week they would give me the difference. Hmm... hopefully I'll be back in that area today! This also goes to show why you should keep your receipts.

1 pair of pants @ $19.99
1 shirt @ $4.99 (this was mainly to bring my total to $20 since I don't think Kohl's has many cheap fillers)
= $24.98
- $10
- 15% coupon
Total = $13.47

I was figuring it out too if I wanted to go back and get a few more shirts. I could get 5 shirts @ $4.99 for the same price! That's less than $3 a shirt!

$5/$25 CVS coupon and 8/9 CVS deals

If you've been thinking about giving CVS a try, now is a great time! Go on over here and take the short health quiz. You will then be able to print the coupon. Mine is good until 8/22 and you can print it multiple times but it will alert the cashier that it has already been used. You may use a different computer though to take the quiz and print another. Be sure to hand it first to the cashier.

Here are the best deals for the week:

Contour Meter $14.99 get $5 eb Limit 1
-$14.99 Bayer Breeze2 or Contour Meter, up to $30 SS 3/22/09

M&M Mars singles 2/$1
-$1 off 2 Snickers, Twix, 3 Musketeers or Milky Way Brand Singles Bars(2.0 -2.13 oz), any RP 7/26/09
also qualifies towards candy get $5 eb WYB $15 Limit 5

Revlon Colorstay Mineral Mousse $9.99 get $9.99 eb
-$1 Revlon Color Cosmetic Product, any SS 7/19/09

Sharpie Accent Highlighters 4 pk $.99
-$1 Sharpie accent highlighters

Even if you didn't have any EB or coupons from the paper you could start your CVS trippin' with this coupon:
1 Contour - $14.99
1 Revlon - $9.99
1 Sharpie highlighter - $.99
Total = $25.97
- $5/$25
- $1 Sharpie IP
Pay $19.98 and get $5 EB and $9.99 EB

This isn't GREAT, but if you're looking to get into it this week it is a start. If you had a Contour coupon you would only pay $4.98 and get the same EB.

If your coupon doesn't expire until 8/22 like mine then you could wait until next week when there are more school supplies free after EB.

• Caliber Recycled School box $1.99 get $1.99 eb Limit 2 3 Day Sale


• CVS brand or Caliber Filler paper 150 sheets $.99 get $.99 eb Limit 2 3 Day Sale


• CVS brand or Caliber mini composition notebook $1.99 get $1.99 eb Limit 2 3 Day Sale


• Paper Mate Pens $.99 get $.99 eb Limit 2 3 Day Sale


• Philips Earhook Headphones $6.99 get $6.99 eb Limit 1 3 Day Sale

Also, don't forget to ask the pharmacist about the ReadyFill program and they will give you a $25 coupon booklet with 2 coupons for $4/$20 purchase plus others! (They are advertising all over that you get the coupons just for ASKING, although I've had 2 pharmacists tell me you had to sign up for the program to get it. You can gently remind them that it says you only have to ASK!)

Using this coupon you could get everything that is FAEB, plus throw in a filler that is at least $1.09, use the $4/$20, pay $16 and get back $18.91 in EB.

From iheartcvs

Cheap Oil Change

Goodyear Auto Service has a coupon here for $20 off $20 purchase good through 8/21/09. Valid at participating centers, so I would be sure to call yours and make sure they will accept it. This should make for a cheap oil change as they start about $25.99!

Go here to find a store near you.

Got milk? Free cereal at Fry's

I'm so happy right now since we were starting to run a little low on cereal (read: we only had about 20 boxes).

Remember the Honey Bunches of Oats catalina deal I talked about here? Well, I saw that Fry's had their HBOO cereal on sale $1.88 and so I went this morning to see if it would work. Well, as you can see, it did! Here's the details on the catalina:
Honey Bunches of Oats cereal
Purchase between 7/17 - 8/9
Buy 3, Get $2 OYNSO
Buy 4, Get $3
Buy 5 or more, Get $5
1st order:
5 boxes cereal
Grapes @ $.77/lb
Onions @ $1/lb
- (5) $1 cereal mq
Total = $8.22, paid for with g.c. from the Amp deal = $0 OOP
+ I got a catalina for $5 ONYSO

2nd order:
5 boxes cereal
Tyson chicken @ $1.67/lb
- (5) $1 cereal mq
- $1 Tyson chicken mq
- $5 catalina from previous order
Total = $2.08- $1.78 remaining on g.c. = $.30 OOP

3rd order:
5 boxes cereal
Tyson chicken @ $1.67/lb
- (5) $1 cereal mq
- $1 Tyson chicken mq
- $5 catalina from previous order
- $.15 BYOB (Bring your own bag, they give you $.05/bag)
Total = $1.62 OOP

4th order:
5 boxes cereal
Tyson chicken @ $1.67/lb
- (5) $1 cereal mq
- $5 catalina from previous order
- $.15 BYOB
Total = $1 OOP

5th order:
5 boxes cereal
Tyson chicken @ $1.67/lb
- (5) $1 cereal mq
- $5 catalina from previous order
- $.15 BYOB
Total = $2.45 OOP
+ I still have a $5 catalina that I plan on using next week when my budget resets to get more chicken. I will combine that with a $3/$15 meat purchase coupon I received in the mail today so I can restock our chicken.

Remaining budget = $8.12 - $.30 - $1.62 - $1 - $2.45 = $2.75! I think I'm done for the week but I'm so glad to have succeded in my first week.

Now what am I going to do with all that cereal? Here's where couponing and food storage mesh together. The cereal doesn't expire for 1 year, so basically we have all year to eat, share, donate, or even dry pack can the cereal. When you are able to get things on sale and can stockpile you are building your food storage so when things come up financially or you just aren't able to make it to the store that day or week you still have something to eat!

I have a friend who is major into food storage. She tells people to take $10 a week and buy things that you can put in your food storage so if you need a meal you have one. Spaghetti, canned soup, cereal (you can eat it dry if you have to), canned chicken, etc. are all things that you can buy little by little to put into your food storage. Now throw couponing into the mix and you should have that extra $10 to spend on food storage items so you're not spending any more money than you were before, but you're building your food storage.