I just bought 10 pounds of cheese. Is that excessive?
Keep in mind that I have 5 children who love cheese, 2 of them teenagers. And it was ON SALE for $3.99 for the two pound block.
But I still have to find a spot for it all in the fridge.
Category: bargains–score (Page 2 of 5)
I am loving Wal*Mart right now! It seems they will price match anything and everything, and, since there’s a Ridley’s Market that does double coupons on Tuesday, WalMart in Utah County will ALSO do double coupons on Tuesday. I went last Tuesday to check it out, after seeing word of this fun even on one of the coupon/money saving blogs. They said they would double anything up to 50 cents, so that the 50 cent coupon is worth $1. So, I got out my small coupons and went in. I also had a couple of larger value coupons for some personal item stuff, and since the WalMart price was good on those, I went ahead and used the coupons.
Imagine my shock and surprise when the nice check-out lady doubled ALL the coupons, even the $2.00 ones! Can I get an “Amen”? Oh, yeah. Now, our little WalMart in already an anomaly in the world of WalMarts. It’s never crowded. I’m not kidding. I never have to wait for a check out, and if I do, there’s only one person in front of me. It’s new, it’s clean, and it’s only about 2 miles from my house.
So, today I took a bunch more coupons, and spent some time figuring things out (couponing takes times, friends, don’t think you can just rush in there and save a bundle with coupons without putting in a little time), and when I checked out, I was EXTREMELY pleased that she doubled all of my coupons….AGAIN.
I had roughly $24 worth of coupons, and they doubled all those, that I got almost $50 off my haul. All that stuff on the counter (and you might notice I have a couple of baseball items–no coupons on those, and that added about $13 right there) and a few produce items without coupons, and I discovered the I needed bleach, since the one I had expired in 2008) only cost me….
$93.01. Probably not as good as you thought it would be if you had watched that extreme coupon show about ladies who buy truckloads of groceries for $4, but I only have one newspaper, and I haven’t bought any coupons off the internet.
This picture shows little different angle, and leaves out the basket of fruit, which I did NOT purchase at Wal*mart today, but from my bountiful basket on Saturday.
I hope they do the double coupons again EVERY week. On some items, it’s not worth it to use the coupon and buy the name brand, but sometimes, and especially if they double it, it IS worth it.
You know what they say about one person’s trash being another person’s treasure, right? I totally believe that, much to the irritation of my dear husband. He doesn’t always see the ‘vision’ in my garage sale or freecycle acquisitions. But he only grumbles about 75% of the time, so that’s not so bad, right? I’ve learned to not pick up anything ‘for him’ or ‘for him to fix’ because it’s not happenin’.
Why does he doubt me? I’ve found some wonderful stuff! Like that awesome porch swing that fit the space on our porch like it had been custom made for us! The hardware to hang it cost more than the swing itself. But there was some grumbling involved, because it meant that dear husband had to buy the hardware, install the hardware, and hang that swing.
While I can’t say he’s supportive of my garage sale habit, he has at least accepted that I really like to do the garage sale thing, and sometimes I even take the kids along, which lets him sleep in uninterrupted on a Saturday morning. (Who am I kidding? He’ll sleep in uninterrupted even if the kids ARE there.) He will also give me the cash in his wallet when I don’t have any cash. He does, however, always insist on asking how much I paid for an item, and even if it’s a SCREAMING deal, his automatic reaction is usually that I paid too much. Come on, man–a DOLLAR? How can a DOLLAR be too much. Oh, well. I try to ignore his little comments about overpaying, and he tried to ignore my piles of stuff that I don’t quite know what to do with, but isn’t this pretty? I have made some mistakes and bought stuff that really is junk once or twice (there is a little incident over bookshelves that we will never EVER speak of again) and then I tuck my figurative tail between my legs and admit that it was a foolish purchase and a waste of money, and we go on.
A few years ago, I bought this really cool old wine barrel at a garage sale. I paid either about $5 dollars for it. I like the old looking things that have been re-purposed and given new life. And I like barrels. I have one outside in my flowerbeds. So, I muscled this lovely barrel into the back of my van that, like every good garage sale diva knows, sometimes a car has to act like a truck.
As you can see, it’s got fabric lining, little feet on the bottom, and a top that closes. Not really knowing what to do with it, we hauled it upstairs to Megan’s room, and she filled it to the brim with stuffed animals.
Fast forward a few years, and Megan’s room is now Megan and Natalie’s room, and it’s time to make a change and give the girls individual beds instead of a bunkbed. In order to do that, we had to get rid of a few pieces of furniture, and the trunk was one of them. There was much complaining about where the animals were going to go, but it had to go. Taking a chance that someone else out there might love that trunk as much as I had, I listed it on KSL.com. On a whim, I also listed our faithful double jogger stroller/bike trailer, since everyone rides their own bikes, and we don’t really need that anymore. Within minutes of posting the ad, I had someone calling. 
For the stroller, not the trunk. Dang, I should have listed that for more money, and I shouldn’t have accepted the first low ball offer, just because they were willing to drive over RIGHT away and buy it. Oh, well. I did at least get $125 for that 10 year old stroller.
No interest in the chest thing, though. Not willing to just give it away, I scooted it carefully into the family room and put all the throw blankets that tend to congregate on the couch into the trunk. I still like it, and if I can arrange things to use it in the family room, then so be it. As soon as I realize that it looks pretty good in the family room all useful and full of blankets, I get a call about it. Someone was interested in that barrel.
But…but I just… OK. I had listed it for $100, which I knew was a pretty high amount, so I was ok to come down to $80. And she wanted it right away and was going to send her brother over to pick it up for her. I emptied it out, put the blankets other places, and maneuvered it over to the front door. I’m happy that it has found a new home where someone will hopefully love and appreciate it. She said on the phone she was decorating a pirate room and thought that chest would fit in perfectly.
And I think I scored a pretty sweet deal. Nothing like my good friend Robin, who can buy a plate for $1 and sell it for $150 on EBAY, but at least I made some money on the deal. Not only did I get to use that barrel trunk for several years to store animals in my girls’ room, but I made $75 bucks on it.
So, trash or treasure?
(Ryan, you are not invited to comment on this post, thank you very much.)
Kohl’s, how can I quit you when you just keep giving me awesome sale codes? I mean, come ON. And, since I deserve a pat on the back from our awesome roadshow success last night, and today is the beginning of Lent and I have once again given up sugar, it’s the perfect time to do a tiny bit of shopping.
Not only does Wednesday bring out the sales at
Kohls, it’s Kohls Cash time—you’ll earn $10 for every $50 you spend.
Have a Kohls charge card? It gets even better, because you can use coupon code LOVE2SHOP for 30% off your entire order and code FREE4MVC for free shipping on any size order.
I decided that this top would be the perfect addition to my wardrobe this spring.
I also picked up a new suitcase for Ryan, since we have a very exciting trip coming up.
Oh, and if you check out the sale, don’t forget to click on the box to go through ShopatHome to make your purchase, because they will give you an additional 3% cash back. No, it’s not free, but when you combine the sale with the Kohl’s cash and the discount, and the cash back, it’s pretty dang close.
Today, from 2-5 PM, it’s Buy 1 Holiday Drink and Get 1 Free at Starbucks. You can choose from Caramel Brulee Latte, Peppermint Mocha, Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha, Peppermint Hot Chocolate, Gingerbread Latte, Eggnog Latte, Caramel Brulee Frappuccino, Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino. I have never been to a Starbucks. Ever. Can you believe it. I mean, I don’t drink coffee and all that, but I think it may just be time for me to check out what all the buzz (get it–buzz?) is about.
By now you’ve surely heard about Restaurant.com, where you can buy discounted gift certificates for restaurants all over. And they are constantly having sales and special coupon codes to make it even cheaper. Well, right now they have one heck of a deal going on.
Just use coupon code GIVE at checkout which will take 80% off of $25 Gift Certificates and leave you to pay ONLY $2! This is a great opportunity to stock up on restaurant.com gift certificates for Christmas gifts, Birthday gifts, to use on upcoming vacations or just to have on stock for date night. Just be sure to enter the promo code GIVE at checkout.
To make this deal even better, if you go through
You can get 30% back. Have I told you about Shopathome.com yet? I just received a check for $35, all from clicking through ShopatHome before I shop online. There are specials, discounts, and always a percentage back. Just go on over here and sign up and start earning cash back.
I just ordered 6 $25 gift certificates for $14, then I’ll get 30% of that (a little more than $4, but still, it’s cash back!), so it’s quite a deal.
If you are planning on buying Toy Story 3 on DVD eventually, or for Christmas, don’t wait. Especially on Disney movies, the first week is when they are on sale, plus they often give freebies.
I just went to Smith’s and picked up Toy Story 3 on sale for $16.99. Right there by the movie is the display that shows you that you can get a free box of Capri Sun ($2.11) and a free 5 pack of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese ($5.39)when you purchase Toy Story.
So, that’s $7.50 worth of free stuff when you buy the DVD.
If you look in Sunday’s coupons, there’s a $5.00 coupon when you buy Rayovac batteries with the Toy Story DVD. Now Rayovac Batteries were a little hard to find, but I did find them over in the Home Improvement section, right by the flashlights. They had a pack of 48 batteries on sale for $11.99.
And, if you are buying batteries, you can submit the receipts for a $5 rebate HERE.
So, when all is said and done, I got the DVD for
$16.99
-$5.00 coupon
-$5.00 rebate
____________
$6.99 but you get $7.50 in free groceries, so it’s like getting the movie for free!
And if you don’t have a Smith’s near you, you can read HERE for all kinds of different deals at other stores.
A few weeks ago, I won tickets to the Utah Shakespearean festival, but when Ryan went to go pick them up, they couldn’t find them. They promised they would mail them out to me. Well, days came and went and I had assumed that I would never see those tickets, and really, when was I going to use them, what with the trip to Atlanta and all? On the day I was leaving, I got a call from Laura Bedore, asking me if I’d like two seats on the “Bard Bus” instead of just the tickets to one show. Wow! Of course I would. Three plays and hotel room instead of just one show? You bet. Of course, that only left me a week to find someone to go with me. I set out to find a friend who could drop everything for a Friday and Saturday and come with me.
I must say I am saddened that my friends are all so over-scheduled that they couldn’t come. They all had valid excuses, to be sure. A husband running a marathon, friends coming into town, school obligations and work. I know, I know. I was just lucky that it happened to be a Saturday that I didn’t have too much going on. I’ve had extra bell rehearsals on most every Saturday in September, and next Saturday have a bell choir commitment, as well. So I understand! We live busy lives. But this was SO worth taking the time.
Since I couldn’t find a friend to go with me, and my dear sweet husband has been out of town for about 50% of the last 8 weeks, and we just took a trip together, I asked him to stay home for this one. I took my 14 year old daughter, Megan. Actually, she was my second choice. First I asked Natalie, since it was her birthday weekend. But she actually didn’t want to miss school on her “birthday” and didn’t want to miss her volleyball game. So I asked Megan, who had NO problem missing a day of school. “That will give me more time to study for my test!” she said happily. Although I don’t think she got much extra study time in.
We met the “Bard Bus” on Friday morning.
As we got on the bus, it was pretty obvious that Megan was by FAR the youngest person on the bus. There were a few people younger than me, but most of them were older. But we didn’t care. We said hi, picked out a seat, and got comfortable.
We stopped in Scipio to stretch our legs and get snacks, and there was a little petting zoo right there off to the side of the road. Well, isn’t that random?
When we got back on, someone suggested we watch a movie on the bus wide DVD system, so we watched the Prince of Persia for the rest of the ride. Not a bad way to get to Cedar City.
Once we arrived, our hotel rooms weren’t ready to check in, yet, but we walked over to the nearby Subway restaurant and got lunch.
After lunch, the bus driver took us over to the Randall Theater for our first show, Greater Tuna.
Such a funny show! It’s a two man show where the two men play ALL the characters. So funny! It reminded me of my friend Kevin, who in High School did a scene from Greater Tuna as a humorous interp back in our drama days.
After that we had a couple of hours to rest, and I went back to the hotel and took a 45 minute nap while Megan watched tv. Then we headed over for the literary discussion about the new show The Adventures of Pericles. It’s not one of the Shakespeare plays that I was familiar with, so I was glad we attended the discussion, where we learned the basic plot of the show, and some interesting things to look for. While not my favorite play, it was interesting, visually beautiful, and well done. Very enjoyable!
The next morning, we had a FABULOUS breakfast spread at the Crystal Inn. And by fabulous, I mean that I wish I could have just eaten more breakfast and then not had to eat anything else for the rest of the day. After my Belgian waffle and hash browns, I was pretty much full up, and I hadn’t even had the biscuits and gravy or the scrambled eggs. I did manage to stuff down a piece of watermelon and a mug of hot chocolate.
But alas, I had to stop eating or I wouldn’t have been able to move. We checked out of our rooms in order to be over to campus for the 10:00 and 11:00 seminars. The first one was sort of a question and answer, where we discussed both Greater Tuna and Pericles. The next seminar was with the prop master, and that was SO interesting. Those prop guys work very hard scrounging, borrowing, buying, finding, adapting, making and changing those props. He said that in The Diary of Anne Frank, he’s even in charge of the food. They have soup, bread, and a cake. And wouldn’t you know it, in the cast of 12, there’s a diabetic, a celiac and someone who can’t have salt. So he had to find a salt free, wheat free, sugar free cake that they can eat 4 times a week. Megan came out of that one wanting to work in the prop shop.
During our lunch break, we decided to walk and explore a little bit. After sandwiches, we shopped a little in town. I decided I wanted this here chicken. Wouldn’t he look great on my porch or in my yard? I know! We also played with the hats for sale in the gift shop. I SO wanted to buy this Medusa hat,
or this crown, 
or this mask, 
or this wizard hat 
but they were all a bit pricey. 
The afternoon show was the Diary of Anne Frank
We went to a discussion before hand about the history of this adaptation. Originally they took out a lot of the “Jewishness” of the play to make it more relatable for everyone, but this version has a lot of that put back in. It was touching and beautiful. Yes, I cried. I knew I would.
After that show, we stayed to watch the changing of the sets. It was so interesting! Since they have three shows going on the same stage, they have to get the WHOLE set and all the props OFF the stage, and bring in the next set. The set manager talked to us while they did the whole change over thing. It took them about 20 minutes to completely change the stage. I loved these little extra learning experiences.
Then it was time to grab some dinner to go, and start the drive home. Megan and I had picked up Letters to Juliet on Redbox, so we put that in and it made the drive seem a little faster. By the time we got home, our legs were stiff, but we had had a wonderful time.
Now–friends who couldn’t pick up and go at a moment’s notice, next year I will find out way in advance when the Bard Bus is going, and WE ARE GOING! It’s such a bargain. Granted, this trip was free for me, but if it hadn’t been free, it would have been SO worth the $149 they charged for the trip. You pretty much pay for the play tickets, and the bus and the hotel are free. Think about it!
A good time was had by all.
This story isn’t mine. It is my sister’s. My sister with the 11 kids who SHOULD have a blog, because her life is amazingly funny, but how would she keep up with it? She has 11 kids!?
This week cereal is on sale at Smith’s for $1 a box. When you have a large family, you stock up on cereal when you can buy them for $1 a box. I bought 30 boxes and I had a couple of coupons, so I was thinking I was pretty clever getting those 30 boxes of oatmeal, Life and Captain Crunch for $27. Oh, how wrong I was.
My sister called me and told me how I could get that same cereal for 40 cents a box. Yes, you have to be sneaky, and yes, it takes more work, but 40 cents a box? While Smith’s is having their sale making the cereal $1 a box (after the instant rebate at the checkout, yada, yada.) Macey’s, Dan’s, and Harmon’s are also having a sale on Quaker cereal, but they use an in-ad coupon to get $3 off when you buy 5 boxes. Their deal isn’t as good as the Smith’s deal, though, so I had thrown those ads away. My brother-in-law, Tom, was cleverer than I. He took the coupons from the other ads, and used them at Smiths. First, he cut out all the coupons from the ads he had, and asked the neighbors for their ads, as well. Then, to get more ads, he went to his local Associated Foods stores and took a few ads from each store. He didn’t want to clean them out of their ads, so he said he wasn’t taking more than 10 from each. Then, using the competing store’s coupons along with the Smith’s sale price, it brings the total down to 40 cents each for a box of cereal.
When she called me to apprise me of the deal, she said he had already gotten over 100 boxes of cereal, and was going back out for more. “So I don’t look so creepy, I’ll take one of the little kids with me,” he said. Because the last thing you want when grocery shopping for large amounts of cereal is to look creepy.
I had already bought one round of cereal (and peanut butter, which was also on a good case lot sale), but I’m up for a great deal, so I tried it. First I looked through our box of newspapers for the ads. I found one ad from Kohlers, our local associated foods store. I cute out the $3 coupon. Then I stopped at Kohler’s to pick up some ads. Oh, and cake mix! Because they had cake mix on sale, and I didn’t want to just run in to grab the ads. I took my 6 ads out to the car, and WHAT?! Someone had already cut out the $3 coupon! Foiled! Oh,well. I’ll try the one coupon I have, and I can at least get $3 off of 5 boxes. I went over to Smith’s, put 10 boxes into the cart and went to check out. “Oh, we’re not accepting that coupon,” said the checker, “I guess we lost a lot of money on those coupons yesterday as we’re not getting paid for them.” She showed me on her little printed paper that they were allowed to accept the coupons from one store that don’t say “good for use ONLY at Associated food stores” in tiny print. Mine had the tiny print, so she was not accepting it. Probably because of Tom and people like Tom. Foiled again!
After my day of working at the school and then cutting out endless skirts for kindergarteners, I called my sister back and told her how I had been foiled twice in my attempt to beat the system. “Oh, really?” she said, “Tom just came back from the store and he’s bought 500 boxes. Nobody told him he couldn’t use the coupon.” Erg. Tom had been to stores all over the Salt Lake Valley, from Draper to West Valley City in his quest for both coupons, and cereal. He couldn’t just go to ONE Smith’s store and clean out all their cereal, so he was making the rounds. He was only back to cut out and organize, then he was going back out again. It seems that 500 boxes is all that the Excursion will hold.
As he was purchasing several cases of cereal, one lady said to him, “There’s no way you can go through that much cereal before it expires.” Are you kidding me? Having 11 kids, Tom is used to obnoxious comments and questions from strangers. He didn’t HAVE to justify his purchase to her, but he did say, “I have 11 kids. We go through at least two boxes of cereal a day. You really don’t think we can eat these 40 boxes of cereal?” If it had been me, I might have just laughed in their face. Do you need to give an explanation besides “Teenagers”? If I let my kids have free reign over the cereal, they would eat it morning, noon and night. A bowl of cereal is often the chosen afternoon snack at our house, providing we have milk to go with it.
When I last spoke with my sister, she said that they hadn’t quite reached their goal of 1,000 boxes, but they were at 800! 800 boxes at 40 cents each– that’s $320 on cereal, but they’ve saved at least $2 per box off the regular price, so I’m going to congratulate them on their MAJOR cereal score.
And if I run out, I know I can always go over to her house, as long as I bring my own gallon of milk.
I was very excited to win tickets to see Legally Blonde the musical.
Since Ryan is out of town this week, I just planned on taking a friend. Surprisingly, it took a few phone calls and emails to find someone who was free on a Tuesday night and who wanted to go. So the plan was in place. But plans can change. Around noon, my friend called to say she was violently throwing up and couldn’t make it. Yuck! We don’t want to have anything to do with that, so I’m sure I can find someone else. I started calling. Now, please don’t get offended if you are reading this and say to yourself, “she didn’t call ME. I totally would have gone!” because I really didn’t have time to call EVERY single one of my friends and loved ones. I called a few people, waited for a reply, and none of them could go. So I figured I would just take my daughter and we would have a fun little girls’ night out.
And then I was hit with an extreme attack of dizziness. Seriously, I was so dizzy all of a sudden I had to go and lay down. And I didn’t care HOW great the show was or how much fun it would be, I just wanted to stay home and go to bed early. Man, I must be getting old. So, about 3:00 in the afternoon, I offered BOTH tickets up on facebook, and it didn’t take long to find a friend who lives pretty close who said she wanted the tickets. Oh, the relief. Her husband came by later to pick up the tickets and he sounded SO GRATEFUL to be able to go. And yes, by the time it was time to go, I felt much better. Allergies? Who knows.
I hope they had a fabulous time. I hope it was a wonderful show. I hope the free tickets were appreciated. Because for me, it just wasn’t in the stars to go.
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