CVS Shopping Trip: Check your Receipt!

Several months ago, my husband had some serious health issues.  He has heart problems and will probably have to have a transplant at some point in the future.  Anyway... this meant that my time to hunt and clip coupons went to the back burner while I just tried to keep things going with the him, work, and my family. He's been doing better now since before Christmas, so I've restarted my binder (see binder setup in January, 2012 blog).  I sure hated throwing out all those expired and unused coupons!!!  But the New Year is a good time to reboot.  I did my first shopping trip this past weekend and saved over 25%.  Not great by extreme couponing standards, but HEY, it's 25% that I was able to keep to pay other bills! More on that at the end.

An old high school friend just contacted me with the idea of starting a monthly meeting of local couponers to exchange extra coupons we do not use.  I love this idea and will let you know how it goes.

As for this past weekend's coupon/reward adventure, my one lesson to pass along is to CHECK YOUR RECEIPT AFTER EACH TRANSACTION!  I was shopping the ExtraBucks deals at CVS.  They had a Proctor & Gamble deal where after you spent a certain amount on PG products, you got $10 EB that you could apply to other purchases.  There was also one for Pepsi/Mars products for $10 EBs.  In the case of BOTH DEALS for some reason the register did not record the correct totals for those products and showed on the receipt that I still needed to purchase more items to get the deal, while if you compared the circular and the receipt, I had clearly met the requirements with the types/sizes/amount of products.  Luckily the store wasn't busy and and the cashier was lovely.  In the case of THREE transactions she had to call over the manager and override the register to make it print out my coupons for $10 EBs that I need to pay for my items in the fourth transaction.  She was extremely nice and understanding as was the manager.  YEA CVS!!!

P.S. - Although my CVS store was not very busy, I made sure to let other customers with smaller transactions go ahead of me before each of my transactions.  Please practice this courtesy if whatever store you are at has limited registers open.  Taking up a register for long periods of time while you get your coupons/deals straight is frustrating for others who may complain to management.  This can cause stores to change coupon/deal rules.  Don't be the obnoxious couponer.  I guess coupon/deal manners may be a good blog for the near future.

Holiday values for an outdoor country Christmas

After losing our home to a fire, this Christmas we have had to start over with everything for holiday decorations.  Since most of our budget has gone to replacing essentials for everyday living, I couldn't just go out and spend a lot for decorations that only come out once a year.  However, where there is a will, there is a way... and I was not going to sit around with no holiday spirit!  The wreaths you see on the front of the house I found last weekend at a yard sale. A lovely woman had a huge box of 15 with all the ribbons and I was able to get them for $10. This gathering basket I found for $2 and I look forward to collecting more little natural treasures to fill it with.  It sits by the steps, ready to pick up and use.  I really enjoy my Saturday morning rounds of the yardsales with my friend Maria.  We have a good time together and it's good to have a buddy to bargin hunt with.  We almost always find some great treasures.

So far the only thing I've bought for the outside of the house are some cute little snowmen climbing their ladder to decorate for the holidays.  I say "bought" because it came from CVS but I really didn't pay anything for it. Actually I made money at the store that day.  DONT call the cops. I didn't rob the store! *lol*  I used my reward dollars for part of the transaction.  I also bought some other things that we needed (body wash, toothpaste, etc.) that they had on sale and deals for.  One of the deals were that when you bought cetain items you received $10 gift cards.  I ended up with 3 gift cards that I still have that I can spend on other things.  You can see the snowmen and the basket in this picture of the front steps. So for all of our outdoor decorations this year I spent $12 out of pocket but really I made $18.



In a few days I hope to post some pictures of what we've been able to do so far with the rest of the house for the holidays.  Also, I've always used coupons to some extent.  Since the fire it has become a renewed passion of mine and I hope to blog some about my adventures in that area.  I'm not an "extreme coupon" queen.  I doubt I'll ever have a hundred coupons of one thing and we don't have too many stores that double coupons on a regular basis, but I still save a significant amount at times and will share some of that in the future.  I dont believe in picking up items that we don't need or aren't good value, even if they are cheap... but I also don't like to pay more for things that we do need than we have to.