KMART Super Doubles March 22nd Eh...

I saw that my local Kmart was participating in the Super Doubles Sale this week. The last SD Sale, I went up to Kmart, on a spur of the moment, on the last day of the sale. The shelves were picked clean then & I missed out on alot of the items I wanted to get. For a better chance at some of the goodies, I showed up Sunday afternoon for this SD Sale.

I printed out a $5/$50 Kmart Q, & had gotten a $10 Gift Card offer to transfer a perscription to Kmart's pharmacy in the mail. I took both Qs and 1 of my meds that needed refilling with me. I stopped at the pharmacy first thing, then shopped until the rx was ready and picked up my FREE Gift Card before heading to the check-out.

Here is what I bought....
2 Vaseline Lotions @ $3.89 ea. 2Q x $1.25 doubled= -$5.00
4 Secrest Flawless Deodorants @ $4.49 ea. 4Q x $2 doubled= -$16.00
2 Satincare Shaving Cream @ $2.69 ea. 2Q x $1 doubled= -$4.00
2 Toothbrushes on sale @ $2.50 ea. 2Q x $1 doubled= -$4.00
1 Twin Pak Toothbrushes on sale @ $4.99 1Q x $2 doubled= -$4.00
4 Sure Deodorants on sale @ $1.99 ea. 4Q x $1 doubled/adjust= -$7.96
2 Cat Food @ $5.49 ea. 2Q x $2 doubled= -$8.00
4 Bonz Dog Treats on sale @ $2.99 ea. 2Q x $1.50/2 doubled= -$6.00
1 Lipton Dry Soup Mix @ $1.79 ea. 1Q x $1/2 doubled= -$2.00
2 Quaker Rice Snacks @ $2.99 ea. 2Q x $1 doubled= -$4.00
2 Sobe Waters on sale @ $1.00 ea. (#2 son loves this flavor.) no Qs
1 Little Debbie Snacks on sale @ $3.00 no Qs
SUBTOTAL....$86.57 COUPONS....-$60.96

That's what the coupons should have totaled, but....the cashier misread the Lipton Q, instead of my full $2 off 2 boxes, she gave me $1.79 off 1 box. Each box was $1.79 and she adjusted the Q down erroneously, so I paid $.895 for each box. Not a great price. I might have to return those.

Anyway, the actual Q total was $60.75.
Tax was $2.10.

SUBTOTAL....$86.57+$2.10=$88.67-$60.75=$27.92.
Subtract the $5/$50 Kmart Q.....$27.92-$5=$22.92.
Subtract the FREE $10 Kmart Pharmacy Gift Card....
$22.92-$10=$12.92 OOP

Savings of $73.65(before tax).

That's 83%....I'll take it!lol

I think I did fairly well. Nothing was FREE, except the Sure Deodorant. Most things were 50¢-$1 & the cat/dog food was $1.49. I also got some things without Qs that we just wanted, and the Vaseline was mismarked on the shelf. Had I known that, I wouldn't have purchased it here for what it cost me.

Considering that we don't have a Super Kmart, just a Big Kmart it was an ok total. The entire grocery dept. is 2 aisles long and 1 entire aisle is just chips & sodas. And the toiletries dept. is larger BUT I find that their reg. retail price on items is quite high! And very little was on sale in the toiletries this week. You KNOW they don't put stuff on sale when they are planning on a Super Doubles Coupon Sale!lol

I don't do alot of cleaning products and the paper product deals were nothing to write home about. Add that to the lack of 'real' food & there wasn't that much left for me to choose from to buy.

I am dumbfounded to think that when I look at this little bit of products I purchased, if I had just bought it all without using Qs, I would have had to pay almost $90!

Insane prices.

Seriously.

Insane.

I was happy I could use some of my pet food Qs before they expired. I've got a new donation started already for April to the Animal Shelter.

While shopping this sale, I passed a couple of women going down different aisles who had coupon binders opened up in the seat area of their carts. It was nice to see some kindred spirits in there working the sale alongside of me. We gave each other a knowing nod of the head when we recognized a Serious Couponin' Sistah....

Sluggy

CVS & the Scary Mean Old Cashier

I am way behind on reporting on my Hounding Adventures.

Here is a trip to CVS from last Monday, March 16th. Hubby was home so he came with me to witness my 'Couponing Powers'.lol

Not pictured are 2 Dry Idea Deodorants and a Pumice Stone w/a handle.

I had a $10/$50 CRT CVS coupon so here's how I got to $50.

3 Dry Idea Deodorants ($2.99+$4.49+$4.49)More on this later!

3 Wheat Thins (on sale for $1 ea.)

1 Ritz Crackers (on sale for $1 ea.)

1 Irish Spring Body Wash (on sale for $4.99)

1 Colgate Max Toothpaste (on sale for $2.99)

1 Huggies Wipes Refill(on sale for $5.99)

2 Bandaids (on sale for $3.29 & $4.29)

3 J&J First Aid Kits ($.99 ea.)

4 J&J Buddies Soap ($1.19 ea.)

Pumic Stone ($5.99)

1 1/2 gal. Milk ($1.99)

1 1/2 gal. skim Milk ($1.79)

SUBTOTAL $55.02

Coupons Used....

2 $2/2 Wheat Thins/Ritz -$4

2 $1/1 Band-aid -$2

3 $2/1 Dry Idea -$6

1 $5 Huggies -$5

1 $3/2 J&J Products -$3

2 $2/2 J&J Buddies Products -$4

Coupon SubTotal.... -$24

Extra Care Bucks Used....

$10/$50

$.99

$3.00

$4.00

$5.00

ECB SubTotal.... -$22.99

Coupon/ECB TOTAL.... -$46.99

$55.02-$46.99=$8.03

$5 on Gift Card=$3.03 OOP

AND

I received $13.98 in ECBs.(4.99 Irish Spring/2.99 Colgate/2.99 Dry Idea/3.00 Band-Aid)

The cashier was the gumpiest, pickiest, meanest old woman I have ever had the displeasure to deal with at a CVS. It took me forever to check out because she stood there and inspected every....single.....coupon......and ECB.....back......& front.....at least TWICE!

Ugh

She was looking for problems with my coupons. She tried to tell me I couldn't use the $2/2 Wheat Thins/Ritz Qs because I was buying the small boxes of crackers that were on sale for $1 ea. I was getting crackers for FREE with this Q, so she couldn't allow that! I pointed out that the Q did NOT specify the size of box, so these Qs are valid for my purchase. I then said, if there was a problem with me using these Qs, I'd like her to call the Manager over to discuss it. Note, I was pleasant and smiled the whole time dealing with her.

Well, she didn't like me bringing up the prospect of me going 'over her head', so at that point she stopped questioning every single Q and just scanned them in and gave me my total.

Needless to say, I couldn't WAIT to get out of that store!

That cashier got me so flustered that I noticed AFTER I got home 2 of my Dry Ideas did NOT ring up for the sale price of $2.99. They were powder scented ones and the one that rang up correctly was reg. scent. And since they didn't ring up right, I didn't get the $2 ECBs for each($4 ECBs total)

So I had to return to the store, explain the problem and try to get the price adjusted AND get my ECBs OR return them, get my 2 $2 Qs back to reuse and rebuy the reg. scent ones to just avoid the whole thing from happening again on the powder scent.

I walked into the store-different day of the week, different time frame from my orginal visit on Monday and guess who's sour puss of a face I see?

Yep.

Little Mary Sunshine the Cashier.

Just.

Lovely.

I really didn't want to tussle with Miss Ray of Sunshine again, so I just returned the 2 Deodorants. Just give me my $8.98+tax back....the store can keep my $4 in Qs & their $4ECBs.

She gave me enough trouble just returning them anyway. She called the manager over b/c I had paid $5 on a gift card for the original transaction, so I got $6.49 back on the gift card(even though the GC was ONLY for $5?) and $2.49 in Cash. I was just glad they didn't try to take back the $10/$50 Q too b/c my total would now be under $50.

The whole transaction's details are now muddy-ed.

I paid $3.03 OOP but got back $2.49 OOP, but should have gotten back $3.98 OOP(& $5 on the GC).....so let's just call this one a wash.

Little Miss Sunshine also tried to tell me that there was a LIMIT of 1 on the Dry Idea(we all no better, don't we?) AND that also meant I could only buy 1 Dry Idea for the sale price of $2.99!

Um....no.LOLOL

This IS the closest CVS to me, so I will still go there to hound. I must Love Trouble!

Sluggy

GREEN & THRIFTY THURSDAY-Being Frugal AND Environmental TIP #2

Today is....
GREEN AND THRIFTY THURSDAY!

And that means it's time for another small tip on things you can do to save money AND help the environment. After all, being frugal is great but saving money & time is not so good, at the expense of our Planet!

This week's Tip is about newspaper.

We Couponer-istas love us some Sunday newspaper!

Heck, many of us love us 10 or 20 copies of the Sunday newspaper.

If you coupon, you KNOW what I mean.lolol

After we lovingly extract all those wonderful Coupon Inserts, & we read the actual comics/news/articles in the 1st copy of the paper, we are left with a big old pile of newspaper.
Hmmmm..
NOT very green to just dispose of it, even if we take it to the recycling bin.
Let's put the power of the newspaper to work for us.
But where & how, you say?

WHERE....In the garden!
Spring is here and many frugal folks turn to thoughts of gardening. What better way, if you have the outside space, to save money on food than to grow your own!

Sure you can buy plants in a few weeks and just transplant them into the ground, so why not start your own plants from seed Now?
Because it costs less for seeds than for seedlings ready to transplant, that's why.

Before you go off to the local Home Gardening Store and buy little plastic seedling pots(plastic=not green) to start your seeds in, use what you have at home to Make Seedling Pots for FREE!
That is where the leftover Newspaper comes in.

HOW.....Here's how I make them.

1. Get a muffin pan. If you don't have one, try using a styrofoam-y egg carton from the grocery store.
Get a large bowl. Put some water in it.

2. Get some newspaper & cut it into strips or small squares. I use squares about 5"x5".

3. Take your pieces of newspaper and wet them in the bowl of water.

4. Take wet newspape and line your muffin pan/egg carton with the paper, pressing it against the indentation. I use 3 thicknesses of newspaper per hole.
Do this for each muffin/egg hole.

5. After each indentation is filled, take the edges of the paper that extends over the top of the muffin hole and fold it down so that the newspaper edge is even with the muffin hole. If the newspaper edges have dried out and won't stick, wet your fingers to make the newspaper moist again and press these folded parts into the newspaper cup you have made. Doing this makes the pots look nicer but also make the edges sturdier when you start filling them with soil and wetting that soil.

6. Put muffin pan/egg carton in a sunny spot. If you don't have a sunny spot, put it in a warm spot in your house until thoroughly dry.

You now have 12 seedling pots!

Rinse & repeat until you have as many pots as you need.

These are so great because when your seedlings are ready for transplanting outside into your garden, you can plant them plant and pot. The newspaper pot will eventually decompose in the ground. No digging your seedlings out of their pots like those plastic ones they come in at the store. Less trauma to the plant when transplanting and less plastic in a landfill.
A win/win!

You can also use that pile of newspaper in your flower beds too. Instead of buying landscaping fabric for $8 a roll, use newspaper! Just lay it down to cover where you don't want weeds to grow, overlapping each sheet of paper. (I generally use 2 thickness of newspaper.) When done, soak the paper with a hose set of a gentle mist or spray. Cover the area with mulch. With any luck, you'll have no weeds to pull wherever you do this for the entire growing season!
If you still have leftover newspaper, try shredding it and using it in your compost pile. Newspaper qualifies as a 'brown' material for this purpose. To keep your compost in balance, make sure you have 'green' material to add to it too.

Any other ideas? Please leave them in the comments section below.

Sluggy

Whatever You Do Unto One of the Least...

I am not a traditionally religious person.
I was raised Catholic.
Because of some experiences in that faith, & then in a Protestant faith, I have serious personal issues with organized religion.

This does NOT make me a bad person or a non-spiritual person.
I have as many morals or ethics as the next person, in some cases I'd dare to say I have more?
I just don't spend my time studying or professing my spirituality in a church or temple.
There are many paths to god, or enlightenment, or whatever you wish to call it. Everyone needs to find their own way.
And other people need to respect every one else's beliefs and pathways.

At the root of all religion(or should be) is the directive to love one another. To put it in the current vernacular, People trump things.
I think anyone would agree with that.
That's a basic tenets no matter your religion.

Things are not inherently bad or good.
The way in which we use things give those things either label.
We should use things to HELP people or any of
God's creatures.


Which brings me to Stockpiling.

Getting things we need in our lives for free through legitimate channels(like rebating/couponing) is good.

We save money on the things and can use that money for other meaningful purposes in our lives.

Acquiring A LOT of things....like more tubes of toothpaste than we will ever use in a lifetime, or so many boxes of cereal that we can't eat them all before the expiration date....that kind of acquiring is not so good.

That is putting things first.
Not people.

So what should we do when the Stockpile gets unwieldy?


We sell stuff. If your family needs cash to pay bills and you have an excess of food &/or toiletries in your stockpile, have a yard sale or put items on eBay/Craigslist/local trading post.


We donate stuff. If you know a family who is struggling, load up a bag of goodies. If you have a local food bank, load up a bag of food for it. If you have a local medical clinic, load up all those free glucose meters for it. If you have a local women's shelter/homeless shelter/senior community center, load up a bag of toiletries & snacks for them.


This post was inspired by someone I know on my yahoo newsgroup called The COMPACT. Most of us started over on The Compact group not buying new for a year with varying degrees of success, in an effort to re-examine our shopping lives. Those who choose to stay past that 1st year have modified their pledge a bit but in general choose to not buy new when avoidable and are much more conscious consumers with a heavy dose of being truly green and protecting our environment.


Anyway, this friend has been spending this Lenten time trying to do RAOK(Random Acts of Kindness)via Feeding Hungry People.

I think it's a noble cause!

I look up to this person for her efforts in this, especially given the load of responsibilities she bears in her daily life besides this Feeding People Cause.



A recent post about her FTH Challenge got me thinking about my stockpile of stuff & how I should help too. Then I read an article in our local newspaper about a local animal shelter that gave direction to my plan.

The economy has been very bad for not only people but for Pets too. People can't seem to find the money now to feed or otherwise take care of their pets. They also can't afford the Surrender Fees that most shelter's charge to give up a pet.

The article said that the personnel at this shelter arrive every morning to find dogs tied up to their chainlink fence and cats inside the 10 ft. high fence. (There is no exterior door in this fence. People are literally throwing their cats over this fence into the shelter's outdoor enclosure.)


As I have undertaken a 60K Savings Challenge this year, I don't have much left in the budget $ to give to the shelter.

But I do have a way to make my small sum of cash go much further.

Yep.

Coupons.



Over the last 10 days, while shopping for my family's needs, I incorporated some pet food shopping with high value dog & cat food coupons I had.

I was able to stretch my $20 cash into $68 worth of dog/cat food using coupons. Both sons assisted me with some of this shopping.

On Saturday we were able to take 12 bags of food up to the shelter.





#2 Son with the Pet Food for the Shelter.
I know it's only a drop in the bucket but it's a start.

Doing Unto the Least of God's Creatures.
Feeding the Hungry Animals.
We will continue to keep this as our Pledge.


Sluggy

Organics Have Left the Building

Last Week a terrible thing happened in my Teeny Tiny Town. I was in the big chain Grocery Store and noticed it.

At the end of the Produce Dept. in the store, they had a small Organic Foods section. It was about 3 short sections of shelving set up at the end of the produce counters, across from the Bakery Dept. with stuff like Annie's and DeBoles Pasta, Glen Muir Tomatoes, Hodgson's Mill grains, Various Soy and Rice Milks, & other boxed/canned/jarred Organic foods.

As I headed over to the Organic Aisles I saw that the shelves were EMPTY and there were 4 Grocery Carts parked next to the shelves half filled with all the Organic products. All of it was marked to clearance for $1 each.

I guess when money gets tight for consumers, the higher priced organic version of foods don't sell. And Grocery Stores need to maximize profits and only carry was sells, right? At least that is how it is in my Teeny Tiny Town.

It made me sad to see the Organics leave my store. But I too am guilty of not choosing the organic products sometimes when given a choice. Since I am saving money in other areas of my life, perhaps I should consciously choose to earmark a percentage of my food spending toward organic? It's something I'm going to mull over.

I do buy from local farmer's or grow my own veggies organically in season & freeze it for use in the winter, but I do confess I have a problem spending $2.50 on a box of organic packaged pasta when I can get a reg. version for $1.

I guess we have to pick and choose our battles. Prioritize which foods are most important to have the Organic versions of and try to work those into the food budget.

Here's a list I found online at CNN MONEY of fruits & veggies where it's recommended to buy organic rather than conventional....

apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, spinach and strawberries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, and red raspberries.

Likewise, if you buy boxed/jarred/canned items containing these foods, instead of fresh produce, make sure they are the organic versions as well.

Sluggy