Saturday, May 30, 2009

Harris Teeter Triple Coupons


Well, I headed back to Harris Teeter several times to stock up. I could not resist the free deals. Above is a picture from my second trip. I also went back again, not pictured, and saved a ton of money. All together for these trips I spent $18.82! And I saved $37.19 in Vic store sales, and I saved $130.86 with coupons! That gives me a grand total of $168.05 in savings!
If you add these trips with my first trip I saved a total of $226.69 and only spent $19.44!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Walmart Sale on Pepsi Products


We like both Pepsi and Coke in our household. So whenever we can get a deal on any one of the two, we try to take advantage. Pepsi is on sale this week at Walmart for $2.48 a piece! There is a $1 off a Pepsi product 12 pack at Target on their website. Well, Walmart accepts competitor's coupons. So today I bought 10 packs of Pepsi, as you can see above for $1.48 a piece. Regular price usually runs $4.99 to $5.99 and sales rarely come down to $2.50 anymore---mostly hovering at $3.00. So anyway if you go by the $5.99 price__depending on what store you go to-- 10 would come to $59.90. I bought 10 at $1.48 a piece for a total 0f $14.80 plus tax! I saved $45.10 if you by this scenario!

Walmart Deal on Razors

Bic Soleil--used coupon for $3 off-- price was$4.64-- total $1.64 plus tax

Shick Quattro-coupon for $4 off-- price was $5.94($1 off sale)--total $1.94 plus tax

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Wow, This Stuff Really Works!! Harris Teeter Triple Coupons

Last night I found that Tara at Deal Seeking Mom had posted about the grocery store, Harris Teeter's, upcoming triple coupon week. She referenced another new site to me who had an extensive list of match ups by Jenny at Southern Savers. So I gathered a list from her site and I grabbed my coupons to start finding and matching up the deals. As you can see in the picture above, I was able to buy alot of stuff for only 62 cents--that was sales tax! I saved $45.55 in coupons and $13.09 in Vic store savings for a grand total of $58.64 saved!!! Some of the products I would not normally buy because of the higher prices. Or some products,I would normally buy the store brand, but they are all things that we will use. I must say that I would have even bought more, but the store limits you to twenty coupons and I used all twenty! I plan on making another trip, maybe tomorrow. Also, I just tried to buy items that I could get for free. There are tons of items that you can get at significant discounts.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Biggest Loser

I just wanted to say congratulations to the winner of this year's show "The Biggest Loser". Helen from Sterling Heights, Michigan at 48 years of age became the winner by losing 140 pounds. Yes there were others to lose more weight, but she lost the biggest weight percentage of her body weight.The show is really inspirational! It makes me happy to see these people "want it" so bad, and its great to see them actually achieve their goals.
I have never weighed a huge amount of weight myself. But I did get up to 230 pounds a couple of years ago. That was alot for me, and it was really starting to show on me and my belly. I am currently hovering at 200 pounds! When I was in high school so many years ago, I was always super skinny.I think I was around 155 to 165 pounds and I was the same height I am today at 6 feet. I eventually had the mindset that I needed to get bigger, stronger, and more muscular. I hit the gym on a regular basis and lifted weights and played basketball and would do tons of cardio. Then a few years ago when our son came along, I found that I had almost completely cut the going to the gym out and had become huge on eating fast food. The job I had, delivering furniture out of state, entailed a fast pace. I basically didnt have time to eat healthy. We ate as cheap as possible too in order to save money. So lots of times we ate off the dollar menu at McDonalds and I would bring a cooler full of drinks to help save money again. You would think that carrying that furniture would help keep the weight off and it probably did some. But I never grew up wanting to be a truck driver and alot of it got old. Although I like to travel and see new places, I like to be at home too. I wanted to see my son grow up and help him along the way. Well, eventually I stopped doing the trucking thing.

I saw that all the years of trying to get "bigger" and then the time driving a truck and not eating healthy or exercising led to a chubby Jamey. I decided to cut out alot of the junk food and start to get back to the gym. I had almost sworn off eating out--to save money and to help watch my waistline. I think I look better thinner , and my years of trying to gain weight have reversed. Now I needed to lose some pounds! I did too, almost 30 pounds over a period of maybe a year and a half. I lost 20 pounds pretty quick, and that was really gratifying when people noticed. The other weight has been a little slower coming off. I think I want to lose another 10 pounds or so. That would put me at 190 pounds. I think I need to tighten back up on my diet. Diet is crucial to weight loss!

Congratulations again to Helen and all of the other participants in the show! Bob and Jillian, the personal trainers, do a great job motivating the participants to accomplish their goals. You can see it really is life changing!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Craigslist

Have you ever sold anything on Craigslist? How about gotten anything for free? I have found myself using the site quite a bit this year. Really before this year, I hadn't even been on the site. I had used Ebay tons in the past, and searched for items on it even more. I find that Craigslist has become very useful for a variety of reasons. You can buy and sell items, get or give away free items, and even find a job. The things you can do here goes on and on!

I decided to sell an item last week. It was a kitchen table that I had found! That's right, found! I didn't pay a dime for it. I know some people may turn their nose up at this. I live more in the country than in the city. Since we do not have city services, you would have to pay extra for someone to pick up your trash through an independent service. It's new to me! I lived in the city all my life. So rather than pay for the service, I just get rid of our trash when I go out somewhere. Any dumpster will do, and we really do not create that much trash. So one day I stopped at a dumpster to throw a bag away and I happened to see a kitchen table laying to the side. It was in two pieces-the base and the top. I took a look at it and decided to put it in my jeep. I just cleaned it up and I used my sander on the wooden top. The base was a black, faux iron and the top had a natural wood finish. I just lightly sanded over the top and it looked great! I didnt even put a clear coat of polyurethane or anything. I listed it on Craigslist for $35 just to get it to "move". It was definitely worth even more- even without chairs. A lady asked me if I would take $25 through an email response. I was like sure, why not, I didnt have any money in it. I must admit I was a little wary of how the actual transaction would go.I mean a stranger is coming to your house and you dont know them or if they will just hand the money over and go--lol. She said she would come on Saturday morning and pick it up. Her husband actually came at about 10 am and picked it up and paid with no problem. Well one glitch, I guess his wife didnt tell him there were no chairs. Once he confirmed with her on the phone, he paid and I helped him load it up. That was it! It was simple and great! $25 isn't a huge sum, but its nothing to complain about! One more side note, my brother actually bought a used car through the site. He is very happy with his Honda now! So you can see, Craigslist can be very useful and you just might make some extra cash by using the site. Can you sell some of your personal belongings around the house?

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Kmart and Target Savings!



Today I ran across a deal on Deal Seeking Moms site and a new site to me, We Don't Pay Retail(a name I like--clever!). They had a coupon for a dollar off any 12 pack of any coke product. Soft drinks are definitely a vice around here at my house! I am sorry to say that the coupon has been taken down or has reached it's limit. There was some controversy whether the coupon was actually legit. I had to say that I was a little worried about if I could use them. But I decided that I am with one of the commenter's on the post--I believe Suzanne--Isn't it up to the manufacturer to limit how many coupons it is letting out on its products? She says it best, so check out her comment.

Well before we went to the gym today, Ryan and I went to Walmart to mainly check the current price of Coke's(not on sale--Pepsi is right now--we are not picky on those two brands) and to pick up trash bags. I still had the $10 off Aveeno Products coupon that I found out about through The Thrifty Mama from a couple of weeks ago. I previously posted that I tried to use them at Target and that I had no luck. Today at Walmart I decided to try to use them again. I found three small lotions for $2.97 each. I must say that ,of course,I could have bought what I really wanted in the Aveeno Brand and just saved $10. However, I am really more about getting things for free and saving as much money as I can. So along with some bottled water, trash bags, and some oatmeal for Ryan(that he at 3 so persistently reminded me that we needed once we pulled into the parking lot. And I never once told him that I was going to buy it or put the idea in his head. He just came up with it on his own--hilarious right?)So anyway along with these items we were able to get the 3 lotions for free. Alright!

After the gym we went to Kmart and then to Target. Kmart had a better deal on Pepsi again. However, I had one more $10 off coupon for Aveeno products that I decided to use. That's all we were going to buy, and the cashier rang them up and they took the coupon off for me. The same type of lotion that I bought at Walmart was priced at $3.19 each here. They took a whole $10 off and left me with part of the tax. 22 Cents! That is all I paid! Great right? Plus I tried to ask 2 different women when they thought they might have the double coupons again in Greensboro and they said they didn't know.

Then we went to Target. I was mainly browsing. I tried to find at the front kiosks one of the coupons mentioned one of the sites I look at--they said you could get like $5 off a $20 purchase. I couldnt find that. Anyways, I found that they had Coke products on sale for $3 each. Usually around here, the best deal you can find is $2.50 for a 12 pack. I must add that you dont see that very often anymore either--although Pepsi is $2.75 a 12 pack at Walmart right now or the other day when I bought some. So $3 isn't bad, just not the killer sale I was hoping to find! I decided to go ahead and buy 4 and I used 4 of the $1 off coupons that I had. So that brought them down to 4 for $8 or $2 each or about 17 cent a piece. Again great, especially compared to if you bought them at 5 to 6 dollars a piece(which I almost never do--will do without first)! I didnt have any problem with the coupons either!

Manny Ramirez-Los Angeles Dodger

One of baseballs so called stars, who recently signed a huge contract, has been found guilty of substance abuse through the league's drug testing. He was suspended for a total of 50 games! He will lose 7 million of his 25 million dollar contract. Of course, he said that he was prescribed something by his doctor called HCG that he didn't know was a banned substance in the MLB. I am not really trying to judge him. However, I didn't make the rules! If they ban steroids, then why can't these top players stay away from the juice? I really dont care if they legalize steroids. I am not saying it sets a good example for today's youth, because it doesn't. I mean all the top players and the highest paid players are taking them--also Alex Rodriguez. Don't make it a "hush, hush" issue behind closed doors that players are still secretly doping. Or do extensive testing ..say tomorrow.. to weed all the roid heads out. How is it fair to award the cheaters with millions and millions of dollars? Level the playing field once and for all!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Saturday Update

We wrapped up Furniture Market last week! Made a little money, but now I am technically unemployed again. I have been trying to make connections--and I have made a few- to start a small business. I will share more about that at a later time. I have been working with my container garden. I am really lost in knowing what to do! Am I under watering or over watering? Some of the plants are really starting to take off--which is really exciting. I designated one container as my son's and Ryan really likes that. Plus we water the plants and check on their progress together. I have been disappointed that some of the plants dont seem to be taking off at all-maybe its too early?? I dont know! Outside the pumpkins, corn, beans, and melons are sprouting like crazy in its raised bed. In containers outside the lettuce has taken off. The flowers and peppers inside and outside seem not to be doing much. But the beans inside seem to take off really well. Again exciting, but when and how do I transplant? I mean I have looked on the Net but I dont know what I am doing(lol). Also, I am happy to report that one of my crepe myrtles that I bought last year at a huge discount and planted has really blossomed this spring. I was worried that they might be dead. I planted one other one, but the jury is still out on whether that one will grow or not. Last year I also made a flower bed from landscaping stones I brought from our old house. The other day I started a new flower bed on the other side of the porch. I think landscaping is fun--I am not sure why-lol! Also I think every home looks better with some yard work and landscaping. Ryan had a soccer game this morning. He looks sharp in his all black, but being one of the youngest--just turned 3--maybe I should have waited a year or two. He talks a good game, but on the field he and alot of the other kids are easily distracted. I hate to say it but our coach doesnt seem very motivated to actually coach--except for his own girl of course. At least make it fun! I am just hoping that in a few years he will be ahead of the game.