Sunday, August 31, 2008

Kool Aid Cleaning

If you purchased even one copy of last months All You magazine you probably have more Kool Aid than you know what to do with.

Stop by Mommies with Cents to read a green cleaning tip on how to use up some of those packets for a cleaner dishwasher.

Over $200 in free coupons

Misc. Coupons 7/6
My coupons are getting out of control again so in honor or Labor Day I'm hosting another giveaway!

I have over $200 in coupons including cleaning products, food, meat, coffee, baby items.

In this envelope there will also be the $5 coupon off any Luvs and some from this weeks P&G packet.

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment in this post with your email address or blog link by Thursday, September 4th by 3pm est. I'll draw a winner that evening.

This will be my last coupon giveaway for a while so make sure to get in on the action!

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Shredded Paper = Free packing materials


Need free shipping material? You probably already have some laying around.

We've taken another step to reducing our clutter, reusing, and upcycling as much as we can. Matt and I received a paper shredder for one of our wedding gifts. Quite possibly the gift we use the most. We were shredding our documents and then just putting the paper out with our recycling, but I wanted to do more. I'm really committed to reusing, not only to help the planet but to save on having to purchase new.

From now on all our paper shredding will be used for packing materials. My Mom has begun visiting craft shows and selling some of her items on her Etsy shop so I will be giving her all our shreds to use. Not only will this reuse our paper but she won't have to buy packing peanuts or other shipping materials that will just be thrown away, creating more waste.

You can check out her shop HERE or at the etsy link above.

Friday, August 29, 2008

No More Credit Card debt!

In my July spending post I mentioned we paid off our credit cards! I’m very happy to officially report our credit cards are 100% paid off. From this point on anything charged to our card will be paid for within hours. I say that because we still plan to charge a lot to our cards. For example when we go grocery shopping I charge the total and go right home to pay it off. It’s a great feature of our account, being able to transfer the money immediately. I’ve thought about opening a card with some kind of reward plan but I love our quick transfers and the low interest rate was great when we were carrying a balance. Many rewards cards have much higher rates (even though we don’t plan on carrying a balance ever again I still don’t want a high rate card). We’re taking it slow so we’ll see what happens with this in the future.

As I’ve mentioned we’ve also decided that even though our cards are paid off we aren’t going to change our lifestyle. We’re happy the way things are, in fact we plan to do more to save money and help the planet as we can. With our credit card money freed up we plan to use that amount for savings and a few other accounts we’ve neglected while focusing on debt. I plan to put some in a dentist/doctor fund, a new car fund (well used, but new to us car), and increase our gift/Christmas fund as well. The rest of the money will go into our retirement/dream fund and an emergency fund with 9 months expenses. I’m also happy to announce that we plan to start tithing with our new budget. We were also planning to increase our grocery fund but since I’ve started couponing we don’t need to, in fact we could probably decrease it, but I like the cushion.

I cannot express enough how wonderful it feels to be 100% credit card debt FREE!

We owe lots of thanks to the following bloggers for motivation and showing us it was possible. We couldn't have paid off our almost fourteen thousand dollars in Credit card debt within seven month without their guidance.

Blogging away debt
Millionaire Mommy Next Door
Get Rich Slowly

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Birdland - Eric Adams


Birdland, by Eric Adams wasn’t the typical book you’d expect to find on my shelf. At least it wasn’t what I expected when I bought it, that’s for sure.

Birdland is about a young woman; Katie, who after a death bed confession, learns she has a long lost brother. The book follows her subsequent search and rescue mission through the town of Bodega Bay, home of the Hitchcock thriller, The Birds.

Its not that Birdland is bad by any means I just feel like it’s missing something. I’m not sure what exactly, the characters are just lacking. I definitely wasn’t drawn into to the book like I expected.
Therefore, I’ll be listing this on my useful rating standard. You may enjoy this book if you're a true Hitch fan, but I didn't find it to be a thriller so don't open it for only the scares.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Crafts??

If all goes well I plan to bring a new element to my blog by highlighting some of my current craft projects. And by all goes well I mean if I can actually finish a couple over the long weekend.

Tonight I did a little shopping and picked up all the supplies I need to finish all those partially crafted crafts. Although this weekend will also be devoted to seeing a movie, soccer game, and our one year anniversary I hope to be in full craft swing by 9am Thursday morning.

I’ve been motivated to do this for two reasons. One, to get rid of all these projects and materials cluttering up our house and two, my Mom called me last Thursday informing me that she had entered a craft fair on Sunday. She also mentioned we’d be going back at the end of September so I figure I better have something to contribute.

I do have one picture of my Mom's very first craft show!

Our table with all my Mom’s creations.
Birdhouses, painted glasses, her award winning photography, and my favorite the pumpkins. If only I would have inherited even the smallest amount of her artistic ability.
Pumpkins


I did end up bringing a couple things to contribute but I really hope to provide more next month. I’m getting into the re-crafting movement; its where you make something from another material.

For example here are a couple projects I hope to work on this weekend.

Wallets from cereal boxes
Pinecone Bird feeders
Rag rugs

Now you guys know where to send all your unwanted shirts/towels, cereal boxes, magazines and crayons. Right to my front door. :)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Ban Sweeps & Instant Win

The Ban - How I chill instant win and sweepstakes is giving away 136 great prizes (below) until November 15th. You can play the instant win once a day.


Sweepstakes Prize
1 - Grand Prize: $2,000 travel voucher to use on a vacation of your choice.


Instant Win Prizes
6 - First Place: Nintendo DS system
30 - Second Place: iPod Shuffle
100 - Third Place: $5 Starbucks Gift Card

One instant win prize per person.


I love Ban, its my favorite deodorant. If only they were giving away product for an instant win.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Mamma Mia! - The Movie

So we actually saw Mamma Mia! on opening weekend but I’m just now reviewing it. That’s how far behind I am. One day I’ll share pictures of my “things to blog” pile.

I loved Mamma Mia! – and so did Matt. We saw the play a few years ago when it made a local stop and are both ABBA fans, so we couldn’t miss the movie version, especially when Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan are both involved. Mamma Mia! actually set a new record for the biggest weekend premier of a musical. They knocked out Hairspray with earnings of $27.6 million.

The movie was great. There is no substitute for seeing something on stage but this comes close. Everyone worked really well together; there is definitely some on screen magic. Plus the movie follows the play very closely scene wise which is always something I like to see. They did however add some updates, mentioning the internet, different songs etc.

The only thing missing (and it’s the same with the play) is Fernando. Who doesn’t love Fernando? They could have worked it in quite nicely. Ok, maybe it’s just me that feels this way, but its one of my favorites.

You can read a full description of the movie here.
Has anyone else seen Mamma Mia! yet, what did you think?


“Somebody up there has got it in for me. I bet it's my mother”

Friday, August 22, 2008

Coupon Winners!

The four winners of my coupon giveaway have been selected and contacted!
I used Random.org to pick the winners but I forgot to take screen shots like last time.

If I don't hear from someone by Saturday evening we'll run a new number Sunday.

Congrats to all the winners.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Freezing Bread

Recently Matt and I started freezing bread. It kind of happened by accident actually. When we first started using coupons Meijer had a great sale on bread. I can’t remember the exact deal but it was something great (like buy 1 get 3 – seriously). Although we would never go through that much bread before it went bad, it was a great deal so I decided to google freezing. I thought it would be difficult, but the whole process has turned out to be easy and successful.

How we freeze bread
Apparently there are lots of ways to freeze bread but I like to keep it simple.

Step One: Buy Bread (on sale of course) : )
Step Two: Squeeze air out of bag
Step Three: Lay in freezer
Step Four: Thaw upside down when needed

These four steps do the trick every time.
Best of all you can’t even tell it’s been frozen. Trust me when Matt will eat it with no complaints you know its good.

Since this money saving experiment went so well I plan to buy even more the next time it we have a great sale.

Has anyone else frozen bread and how has it worked out for you?

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Cheap Breeze Cat Liter System



Also this week I was able to buy a new Breeze Cat Liter system for $4.74 that’s an 86% savings.

Matt and I have been talking about switching to this system but I wanted to wait till hey went on sale, and I’m so glad we did.

Here’s how we did it
Breeze system:

Regular: $32.99
On sale at Meijer this week 25% off: $24.74
$10 Coupon printed HERE (Found on page 7): $14.74
$10 Mail in rebate: $4.74


You can get more information about the Breeze system HERE.
One day I’ll share our calculations of how this system should work out to be cheaper, cleaner and better for the environment than our traditional cat liter. (Hopefully less smelly as well)

Kellogg's Deal


I’m sure many of you already know about this and have probably done it already, but I had to share my great Kellogg’s deal.
Yesterday I purchased: 8 boxes of pop tarts, 2 Nutri-Grain bars, and a back pack for FREE!

::Here’s How::
This week at Meijer they are running a promo where if you buy $10 in Kellogg’s products you receive $10 off the purchase of a back pack. This week PopTarts are on sale for $1.34, Nutri-Grain bars & Cereal are $1.80. If you have any of those great coupon booklets from Kelloggs with the $10 rebate you can do some great deals. I some how ended up with four booklets but you really only need two at most.

::Buy::
8 Pop Tarts (1.34 x 8= $10.72)
4 Milkshake & 4 Regular
2 Nutri-Grain bars (1.80 x 2 = $3.60)
(cereal is included in this sale buy my store didn’t have any 12oz boxes on sale)
Back pack for $10 or less (9.99)
My store had a big selection in this range)

::coupons::
2 - $1/2 Milkshake pop tarts
2 - $1/2 Regular pop tarts
1 - $1/2 Nutri-Grain bars (or cereal)

Total: $24.31
Coupons: - $5
In store promotion: - $9.99
Rebate: - $10

Profit of 68 cents

And no, you’re right (Dad) we don’t need 8 boxes of Pop-tarts or a back pack but we were already at the store and the food bank is low. It took only a moment of our time and I know someone else will be able to enjoy them.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Back to School Back to Savings Sweeps

Enter the Back to school Back to savings sweepstakes for your chance to win a Laptop computer and printer or one of three $1000 shopping sprees. You can enter once a day until September 29th.

Another two giveaways!

Mommieswithcents.com is giving away 4 Girl Gourmet cupcake makers valued at $30 each. You can enter HERE until Sunday 8/24.

Also don't forget about the coupon giveaway still taking place over at Frugal in Virginia. While you're there make sure to read this post about being married to a couponaholic, it had both Matt and myself cracking up.


And make sure to leave your comment HERE to enter Onourwayonline's own coupon giveaway to four lucky winners. You only have until Thursday at 3pm.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Expired Coupons

Apparently I’ve got coupons on the mind this week. A while back I was reading another blog posting about getting rid of expired coupons. Unfortunately I can’t remember the site (if it was you let me know) but I did bookmark the informational site.

If you’re like me and have a ton of expired coupons just taking up room do something better than throw them away. Did you know you can send expired coupons to military families, who can use them for up to 6 months after the expiration date? Either did I, but I love the idea. This week I’m shipping off a huge envelope to a base in Turkey. Stop by Grocery Savings Tips to learn more.

Here are some additional directions for sending coupons. Remember you should only send regular manufacturer’s coupons and no printables. They also say the cost should be the same as sending a letter here in the States. I’ll update later on the cost and ease of the customs form. Hopefully the process is cheap and quick so I can continue to do this once a month.

Has anyone else sent coupons to a military base overseas?

Sweeps for the week 8/17

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius. Enter until September 1st.

Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Enter once a day until September 30th.

Enter the Subway Scrabble Game for your chance to win lots of prizes. Ends 9/29/08 (Need game code to play)
Read More HERE

Clean up spills at the Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind Sweepstakes and instant win. You can play until September 30th

Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility play until September 30th. More HERE

Lipton’s instant win is giving away gift cards. Best of all you can win up to TEN instant win prizes until August 24th.

Os-Cal’s giving away $58,000 to one grand prize winner and two $29 dollar gift cards to one winner every day. Play until September 29th.

Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.

Just Plain Sweeps
Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff. Register until October.

The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.

Lots of sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end at varying times. Thanks to Recritique.com for leading me to this great find.

Hellmann’s is giving away $20.000 in the ultimate backyard BBW. They are also giving away weekly and daily prizes until September 2nd.

Babies with Character Sweepstakes for a chance to win 2 - $10,000 shopping spree or 1 of 52 prizes over 52 weeks. You can enter once a day from August 1st until July 31st 2009 and there will be two different grand prize drawing dates, so TWO $10,000 shopping sprees. Read more HERE

Enter at All You Giveaways you can enter until 8/28. More Details Here

Win an autographed cast poster with the Monk – 100th Episode Poll Vote until August 25th. Read more HERE

Enter lots of sweeps from Home Magazine Lots of different prizes, winners, and deadlines. Check back often.

Enter the Get Everything you want Sweepstakes from Redbook magazine You can enter once per day until January 15th, 2009. More Details here

One time Entry
.
MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes
Enter for a chance to win a trip for two to a game of the 2008 MLB World Series Championship or $5,000 cash. Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

Enter the Pamper your Pet Sweepstakes from Bio Spot and Better Home & Gardens Magazine. One per household until 8/11/08 More Details Here

You can win a $20,000 home landscape makeover at Foreverhydrange.com Enter until September 3rd. Details Here

Enter the Roomba Sweepstakes at Redplum. One entry per person until September 15th. More infor HERE

Sunday, August 17, 2008

$349 in FREE coupons!!

Misc. Coupons 7/6


I’m giving away a total of $349 in coupons to FOUR lucky winners! I have four envelopes each for different products and amounts. Also included in these envelopes are some great coupons from Enjoying the Journey (formally Hearts on fire for Jesus). After winning my first giveaway she decided to spread the coupon joy and provide me with a few to share.

I want to get these coupons out quickly because some of the dates are coming up. all you have to do to win is leave a comment with your favorite energy saving tip and an active email address. Those who do not leave an email address or blog link will be disqualified.

You have until 3:00pm (est) Thursday, August 21st to enter.

Meijer 8/17

So we had another good trip to Meijer today. I spent $59.43 but we won’t have to worry about dog food for quite some time, I might even go back for more later since I now have more coupons; $.30 a pound is a good deal. I don’t know if I can pass it up. We ended up saving a total of $92.23 that’s a savings of 61% I even amazed Matt as he watched the total drop. To make things even better I plan to send in the Pop Tarts and Keebler cookies for the $10 Kellogg’s rebate. That makes this trip look a little more like this:
Total Spent: $49.43
Merchandise Received: $151.66
Savings: 67% savings!


meijer 8/17

::Break Down::
Detroit Free Press (best coupons) (1.00)
Dog Water Dish (4.19)
Meijer Eggs (1.29)
Sugar (our Church item for the week) (2.19)
Meijer Milk (2.5)
3 Kool Aid Packets (.60)
~ FREE Oscar Myer Hot Dogs (4.39 value)
2 Ore-Ida French Fries (4.18)
~ $1 off wyb 2
2 Farm Rich Cheese Sticks (3.66)
~ (2) $1 off any Farm Rich product
Uncrustables Grilled Cheese (2.5)
~ $ .55 off any Uncrustable sandwiches
2 Lysol Neutra Air Freshmatic Kit (11.98)
~ (2) $5 off Neutra Air
Tidy Cats Scoopable Litter (5.20) $ .26 a pound
~ $1 off Ends up being $ .21 a pound with coupon
2 Wholesome Medley B1G1 (8.59) $.57 a pound
~ (2) $2 off Wholesome Medley $ .31 a pound
Purina Little Bites Indoor Formula (13.99) $.40 a pound
~ $4 off Purina $.28 a pound (and my last $4 Purina coupon)
Breeze Little Box system (24.74)
$10 off Breeze system

$10 Kelloggs Rebate Offer
- All these items end up being FREE
8 Pop Tarts (4 regular & 4 milk shake) (10.64)
~ (4) $1 wyb 2
2 Keebler cookies (4.00)
~ $1 wyb 2

I also used
$5 on shopping order (From Colgate deal earlier)
$3.10 in pop bottle returns.

I’ve really been trying to unit price shop on certain items, dog/cat food and liter. At first I thought it was too time consuming but since I started my price book it’s been easy to keep track of what everything sells at. Knowing what each pound cost helps me to determine when we should stock up on an item, especially those that will be used and don’t expire (at least for a while). We’ve also been looking at the Breeze system for quite some time now so of course we jumped on it at 25% off and a $10 coupon!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

TerraCycle.net

Want to recycle, earn money for a local school or charity and get the chance to buy great products?

With your help TerraCycle can make all this happen.



Check out Terra cycle.net this website allows you to send in used packaging to earn money for your charity/school. They take these packages and create new items (as seen above).

Cookie, drink, and Energy bar wrappers are all currently earning $. 02 per item sent in.

They’re also selling items for school, the office, tote bags, lawn & Garden, and have a Holiday selection coming soon.

::Some of the items I love::

A Premium bird feeder made from a 2 liter bottle.

Homework folder made from used Capri Sun pouches.

Juice Pouch pencil holder

I love tote bags and these two are super cute. One from Recycled plastic bags and another from more Capri Sun pouches

Use their Store Locator to find out where you can buy their products. I know I'll be adding a few of the selections to my Christmas list this year.

Win a Roomba


Enter the Roomba Sweepstakes at Redplum. The sweepstakes is limited to one entry per person and you can enter to win until September 15th.

Three people will win an iRobot Roomba system valued at $399.99.

CVS 8/15

Another not so great week at CVS. I probably wouldn’t have even gone this week but I had $12 in ecbs expiring today so we went and blew them all. I’m down to $5 so I hope the upcoming weeks are better. They were all out of the Advil so I’ll have to grab my second bottle another time.

CVS 8/15

4 Cokes (4.40)
4 Arizona Teas B1G1 (1.98)
Ban Deodorant (1.99)
~ $1 off Ban
2 Herbal Essences
~ $2 off 2 Herbal Essences
CVS Ibuprofen (3.99)
Mints (filler – not shown)

$2/$10 Purchase

ECB’s Used: 12.98 ($1, 3.99, 7.99)

OOP: $ .35

Friday, August 15, 2008

Freebies 8/15

Another great week of freebies.

Freebies 8/15

::This includes::
Greenshopper produce bag & $2 coupon for Wish-bone Bountifuls
Sunsilk volume & (2) $1 off coupons
Benefiber sample
Old Orchard coupon $5 in coupons
Birthday card from American Greetings (adorable)
Biore Scrubs & $2 coupons
Dove Go Fresh coupons for $2.50
Naturally Wild Dog food & $5 coupon (food not shown and BP ate it early)
Gillette shampoo
August Good Houskeeping
August Redbook

What did you get in the mail this week?

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

$July Spending$

The full skinny on our July spending is so so. We’re still learning and trying our best to work out a plan for us. Like in June we did some things well and others… not so much.

Here is our percentage break down
July Spending 2008

The categories are as follows:
House Items
- House payment (insurance & taxes included)
- Gas
- Water/electric
- Alarm system

Entertainment
- Our monthly personal allowance
- Entertainment fund allowance

Other
- Cell phone
- Cable
- Gas
- Gifts
- Groomer

Groceries
- Groceries (including animal food and & health/beauty spending)

Fast Food/ Eating Out
- Fast Food

Payments
- Student loans
- Credit Card

::The Good::
Our electric bill was lower than last month even with our ac on. I’d like to attribute this to some of the energy saving things we’ve been doing around the house. :) We also lowered our cell plan and had a credit from last month so it was much cheaper. We spent $134 on groceries for the month, a little under budget and we had plenty of food in the kitchen. We also paid off ALL of our credit card debt! (more on this later)

::The Bad::
July was an expensive month for us. We did end up spending $40 on getting B.P. a good grooming; he needed it during the hot summer. We had been doing it ourselves to save money but he was just too hot. We also spent all of our personal and entertainment money, even the left over from last month (that I was so proud we saved). We really need to work on that.

::The Ugly::
Worst for the month the $181 we spent on fast food. We wanted to get this number down to $100 but obviously we weren’t able. I really feel that finding a new job will help in this area. Currently I work two 12 hour night shifts a week. I have to eat but with no refrigerator or lockers to keep food in I’m not comfortable keeping anything in my hot car or desk. This causes me to eat out on both of these nights. I calculate that if we could save the money on just those two nights a week by eating at home it would be a $1,500 savings for the year.

::Overview::
Even though we aren’t exactly where I would like to be financially I think we’re making great strides. We paid off about $14K in credit card debt within seven months, I’m darn proud of that! We’ve always had some kind of budget but taking the time to look at our finances after the month has finished is a great opportunity for us to see where the holes are.

Updated our NetWorth HERE we now have a POSITIVE net worth of $1,185. A 222% increase from last month! I think we’ll take a little break in August and celebrate all these financial accomplishments.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Sweeps for the week 8/ 11

Sweeps for the Week

Here are some of the sweeps for the week. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius. Enter until September 1st.

Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Enter once a day until September 30th.

Enter the Subway Scrabble Game for your chance to win lots of prizes. Ends 9/29/08 (Need game code to play)
Read More HERE

Clean up spills at the Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind Sweepstakes and instant win. You can win a years supply of paper towels or gift cards for different amounts. Until September 30th

Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility play until September 30th.

Lipton’s instant win is giving away gift cards. Best of all you can win up to TEN instant win prizes until August 24th.

Stop by the General Mills Batman sweeps for a chance to win a $5000 gift card, more common prizes are baseball hats, and backpacks. Enter once a day until August 31st for instant win games. You can also send in 10 UPC’s from participating General Mills products and get 2 free movie tickets to see Batman: “The Dark Knight”

Os-Cal’s giving away $58,000 to one grand prize winner and two $29 dollar gift cards to one winner every day. Play until September 29th.

Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

Totino’s is giving away 2,100 movie tickets to The Dark Knight until December 31st.

Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.

Just Plain Sweeps
Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff. Register until October.

The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.

Lots of sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end at varying times. Thanks to Recritique.com for leading me to this great find.

Hellmann’s is giving away $20.000 in the ultimate backyard BBW. They are also giving away weekly and daily prizes until September 2nd.

Babies with Character Sweepstakes for a chance to win 2 - $10,000 shopping spree or 1 of 52 prizes over 52 weeks. You can enter once a day from August 1st until July 31st 2009 and there will be two different grand prize drawing dates, so TWO $10,000 shopping sprees. Read more HERE

Enter at All You Giveaways you can enter until 8/28. More Details Here

Win an autographed cast poster with the Monk – 100th Episode Poll Vote until August 25th. Read more HERE

Enter lots of sweeps from Home Magazine Lots of different prizes, winners, and deadlines. Check back often.

Country Home is giving away a $10,000 make over. You can enter once per day until August 14th. More Details Here

Enter the Get Everything you want Sweepstakes from Redbook magazine You can enter once per day until January 15th, 2009. More Details here

One time Entry
.
MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes
Enter for a chance to win a trip for two to a game of the 2008 MLB World Series Championship or $5,000 cash. Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

Enter the Pamper your Pet Sweepstakes from Bio Spot and Better Home & Gardens Magazine. One per household until 8/11/08 More Details Here

You can win a $20,000 home landscape makeover at Foreverhydrange.com Enter until September 3rd. Details Here

Monday, August 11, 2008

Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility Sweeps

Herbal Essences Scents & Sensibility instant win sweeps is giving away 296 instant win prizes and the chance to win $500 in products

You can play the instant win once each day

1 Grand Prize: $500 Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift card
30 First Prizes: $25 1-800 Flowers gift card
30 Second Prizes: $25 Yankee Candle gift card
30 Third Prizes: $25 Sephora gift card
45 Fourth Prizes: $10 Target Gift Cards
65 Fifth Prizes: $10 Starbucks gift cards
96 Sixth Prizes: Herbal Essences Shampoo and Conditioner Set


Limited to one instant win game prize per person and you can play until September 30th.

Subway Instant Win


Enter the Subway Scrabble Game for your chance to win lots of prizes. Every member of your family can play as long as they are 13 years or older, resident of the US and have a valid e-mail address. You can get game pieces when you purchase specially marked Subway Sandwiches, 21/32/44 oz fountain drink. You can also send away for two free official game pieces (find the address and other official rules HERE. And the best part?... There is not a limit on the number of prizes you can win except for the top four ($100,000 jackpot, Toyota Highlander Hybrid, Diamond Jewelry & Beaches Resorts vacation) only one per player.

There will be 22,081 Online Instant Win Prizes including: One-year Club Pogo membership, Hasbrotoyshop.com $20 gift certificates, Upwords brand Board game, Scrabble Brand classic board games, $100 subway card, 125 My Coke Rewards points.

There are also 49,780,432 In-Restaurant Instant Win Game Prizes including: Toyotak Highlander Vehicles, Caribbean Vacation for 4, American Airlines Certificates, Garmin 205 GPS unit, Epiphone SG Guitar, iPod Shuffle, $5 Subway Card, 3 Month Club Pogo membership, Upwords Board games, Scrabble classic board games, 6” sub, Frito Lay chips, beverages and cookies.

So far I’ve found free game codes in my email, mycokerewards.com (free reward), and in Sundays coupon insert. Now I just need to make some Subway purchases :)

You have until 9/29/08 to win.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

~ Bloggy Vacation ~

I will be out of town until late Sunday night. Matt and I are going on a quick trip to North Carolina for a long weekend. I promise I had all these high expectations of leaving you with enough pre dated post that you wouldn't have even known I was gone. I had all kinds of topics planned to keep your interest. Really I did, I swear.

Sadly, with working 35 hours in the last three days, trying to pack, and not falling over from exhaustion, I just ran out of time. This will be my last post until at least Monday night. In fact as you're reading this Matt and I are already on the road, hopefully for quite some time.

I do promise however, to return with a slew of post. I'm even planning another giveaway, so keep checking back. Until my return make sure to check out the giveaway happening right now at Frugal in Virginia and all the great links to the left <--

I'll see you all Monday

Meijer 8/3

While our CVS trip didn’t turn out that great we did find some amazing deals at Meijer.

Meijer 8/3

All this for $25.37 (a 56% savings) and I have a $5.29 rebate and received another $5 off my next order coupon so really its more like $15.08 out of pocket.

::Purchased::

5 Meijer cola (@.85) $4.75 (including deposit)
6 Mac & Cheese B3G3 $2.22

Buy 3 Kraft Products get a FREE Crystal Light drink mix
BagelFuls $1.67
2 Post Cereals

$1 wyb 2 Post Cereals

Buy 10 for $10 get 11th item FREE
Pasta Roni $1
$.50 off one Pasta Roni (doubled)
4 Pizza Rolls $4
(2) $.40 off two pizza rolls (doubled)
2 Arm & Hammer Room Deodorizers Pet
(2) $1 off one Arm & Hammer Deodorizers
Tuna Fish
2 Aunt Jamima Breakfast Meals $2
Country Crock Margarine $1

11th FREE item


PERT Plus $2.50
$2 on Pert Plus Better deal than CVS
Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber $5.29
FREE Action Scrubber
Friskies Party Mix $1.98
FREE Friskies party mix
Travel toothbrush (2 pack – vacation coming soon) $1.29

Buy 5 or more Colgate Palmolive items and Save $5 on next order
Irish Spring soap bar $.98
2 Colgate toothpaste $1.98
Speed Stick $1.07
Irish Spring body wash $1.17


(Total: $5.20 Earned $5 off next order and all these trial size items to take on our upcoming vacation not bad for 20 cents. )

I also used a $4 off coupon from doing the Kraft deal last month.

I think this might be my best trip yet. I might even go back if we have time before leaving on Thursday.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

CVS 8/3 - Bad trip

I cannot express how disappointed I am in CVS this week. Sure I only spent .30 out of pocket but it could have been so much better. I found out today that CVS will only accept one coupon for B1G1 items!

I’m not sure if this will be the new rule at every CVS or just mine, but I wasn’t impressed when she stated they are cracking down on coupon use. I’m also not happy with what seems to be the dwindling number of ecb items each week. If this keeps up I might have to become a Walgreens shopper (shutter).

Anyway here’s what I ended up with

CVS 8/3

::Purchased::

2 Dawn Botanicals $1.76
$1 wyb 2 Dawn dish soap2
2 Pert Plus shampoos B1G1 3.99
$2 off Pert
1 Children’s Advil
$1 Advil

::Spent::
$6.99 in ECB’s (they were all expiring)
$.30 oop (.06 in product cost & .24 in tax)


::Earned::
$5.79 in ecbs
1 free CVS Brand Aspirin


Not a great welcome back to CVS trip. I lost a $1.20 in ecbs and ended up paying WAY more for the Pert than I wanted, as in they weren’t free like they should have been. I have no need for Children’s Advil, but my Mom does, so I plan to pass it on to her.

I’m really more upset about the fact they will no longer be taking two coupons on B1G1 products. Anyone else experience problems with that this week?

Coupon Giveaway!

Frugal in Virginia is celebrating her blog re-design (which is adorable) by giving away a mixed bag of coupons totaling over $130 in savings. This giveaway ends on August 12th at 9pm so make sure to stop HERE for your chance to enter asap.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Sweeps for the Week 8/5

Here are some of the sweeps for the weeks. Most of them can be entered daily so make sure to keep checking back for the chance to win more great prices.

Instant Wins
National Treasure 2 Sweepstakes You can enter once a day until September 30th.

Go Green Sweeps presented by Ito En enter for a free bottle of tea, bike, or Prius. Enter until September 1st.

Johnson’s is giving away $5,000 for an adventure of your choice. Best of all the instant win game is a version on Plinko. Enter once a day until September 30th.

Clean up spills at the Scott Towels Leave Nothing Behind Sweepstakes and instant win. You can win a years supply of paper towels or gift cards for different amounts. Until September 30th

Win a trip to anywhere in the continental United States with $2,000 spending money from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants You can also win movie tickets, sunglasses, and an Ipod Nano. Ends August 10th.

Plant your garden at Wish-Bone’s digital garden sweeps. Every day you check back in and water your garden you receive a chance to win a reusable produce bag. Play every day until August 4th.

Lipton’s instant win is giving away gift cards. Best of all you can win up to TEN instant win prizes until August 24th.

Stop by the General Mills Batman sweeps for a chance to win a $5000 gift card, more common prizes are baseball hats, and backpacks. Enter once a day until August 31st for instant win games. You can also send in 10 UPC’s from participating General Mills products and get 2 free movie tickets to see Batman: “The Dark Knight”

Os-Cal’s giving away $58,000 to one grand prize winner and two $29 dollar gift cards to one winner every day. Play until September 29th.

Oreo Double Stuff is giving away 2,000 instant win prizes until December 1st.

Totino’s is giving away 2,100 movie tickets to The Dark Knight until December 31st.

Colgate is giving away vacations and instant wins until September 30th.

Red Robin is giving away a thousand $10 gift cards in their instant win game. You can enter every day until October 14th.

Just Plain Sweeps
Circuit City is giving away different prizes. Register once and each day after just reenter your email.

Old Navy is giving away a $1000. You can enter until July 31st.

Pilgrim’s Pride is giving away a trip to Vegas, $500 gift card, tote bags and other great stuff. Register until October.

The Stain-Free Home Sweepstakes by Resolve is giving away cleaning services, appliances, and $100 gift cards. Enter until October 1st.

Lots of sweeps are happening at Woman’s Day Magazine. Most of them you can enter once a day and end at varying times. Thanks to Recritique.com for leading me to this great find.

Hellmann’s is giving away $20.000 in the ultimate backyard BBW. They are also giving away weekly and daily prizes until September 2nd.

Babies with Character Sweepstakes for a chance to win 2 - $10,000 shopping spree or 1 of 52 prizes over 52 weeks. You can enter once a day from August 1st until July 31st 2009 and there will be two different grand prize drawing dates, so TWO $10,000 shopping sprees

Enter at All You Giveaways for a chance to win a Westinghouse Digital flip-style LCD HDTV (1), Westcott School tools (10), BIC stationary Products (5). 16 prizes in total will be awarded and you can enter until 8/28.

Win an autographed cast poster with the Monk – 100th Episode Poll Vote until August 25th. Read more HERE

Enter lots of sweeps from Home Magazine Lots of different prizes, winners, and deadlines. Check back often.

Country Home is giving away a $10,000 make over. One winner will take away $5,000 worth of home furnishings and $5,000 Cash. You can enter once per day until August 14th.

Enter the Get Everything you want Sweepstakes from Redbook magazine You can enter once per day until January 15th, 2009.

One time Entry
.
MLB.com and One a Day Sweepstakes
Enter for a chance to win a trip for two to a game of the 2008 MLB World Series Championship or $5,000 cash. Sweepstakes ends 10/1/2008

Enter the Pamper your Pet Sweepstakes from Bio Spot and Better Home & Gardens Magazine. One per household until 8/11/08

You can win a $20,000 home landscape makeover at Foreverhydrange.com Enter until September 3rd.

Monday, August 4, 2008

$10,000 Home Make Over

Country Home is giving away a $10,000 make over. One winner will take away $5,000 worth of home furnishings and $5,000 Cash. You can enter once per day until August 14th.

NEW $2/$10 CVS coupon!

The CVS $2/$10 coupon is here.

Check out Mommy Making Money HERE to learn more.

And the best part? It doesn't expire till the end of SEPTEMBER!

Get Everything you want Sweepstakes

Enter the Get Everything you want Sweepstakes from Redbook magazine

One grand prize winner will win $250,000.

You can enter once per day until January 15th, 2009.

$20,000 Home Landscape Makeover

You can win a $20,000 home landscape makeover at Foreverhydrange.com Enter until September 3rd.

The backyard make over includes design, plant material and installation up to $20,000. So nice that they will actually do everything for you not just hand you cash... well as long as you actually want this make over.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Home Magazine Sweeps

Enter lots of sweeps from Home Magazine. Enter every day for lots of different prizes, winners, and deadlines. Check back often.

Right now they have prizes for

Aquaglow Floating lanterns


Kichler Chandelier Giveaway


Homespice Décor SuperNova Rug Giveaway



$100 Chiasso Gift Cards


Antique French Seltzer Bottles Giveaway



Ferm Living World Map Wall Sticker



$500 Summer Shopping Spree Giveaway



Coastal Pitcher and Tumblers Giveaway



Dream Sweepstakes

$10,000 shopping spree

Enter the Babies with Character Sweepstakes for a chance to win a $10,000 shopping spree or 1 of 52 prizes over 52 weeks.

You can enter once a day from August 1st until July 31st 2009 and there will be two different grand prize drawing dates, so TWO $10,000 shopping sprees.

Other prizes include:
5 - Nursery Decor set (ARV - $150)
3 - Wal-Mart Gift Card and infant plush (ARV - $60)
3 - Wal-Mart Gift card and children's book (ARV- $60)
4 - Wal-Mart Gift Card (ARV - $10)
10 - Winner's choice of baby bouncers or playmates (ARV - $45)
5 - Diaper Bag gift set and childrens book (ARV - $40)
5 - Diaper bag gift set (ARV - $30)
10 - Assorted baby products (ARV - $25)
7 - Infant plush and children's book (ARV - $20)

Pamper your Pet Sweepstakes

Enter the Pamper your Pet Sweepstakes from Bio Spot and Better Home & Gardens Magazine.

You have the chance to win a $1,000 worth of pet products from Bio Spot, Nylabone and Nutri Dent. A one year supply of AvoDerm Natural pet food, a Coach brand pet carrier, $500 gift card to your favorite pet retailer.

One entry per household until 8/11/08 so hurry and check this one out

All You Sweepstakes

Enter at All You Giveaways for a chance to win a Westinghouse Digital flip-style LCD HDTV (1), Westcott School tools (10), BIC stationary Products (5).

16 prizes in total will be awarded and you can enter until 8/28.

Not a ton of prizes but another great reason to love All You.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Win a deck makeover!

Join Home Magazine's new panel site and you can win a deck makeover for $2,000. Click HERE for your chance to join and win. It takes about five minute to participate in their online questionnaire.

Enter through December 31st.

A really BIG freebie

I received another great freebie this week.

JohnGage

Isn’t he amazing? This Indian was carved by John Gage (no website to be found) and usually sells for around $200. So how in the heck did I get it for free? Sorry I have no great advice it was absolute sheer luck. John was packing up for the day and promised he’d make some small carvings out of his scraps for everyone. When the scraps ran out a lucky two of us walked away with MUCH larger carvings. I couldn’t believe it and refused but John was amazing and wouldn’t take no. I hugged him when he left, so now he’ll remember me as the crazy lady. I’m ok with that. : )

Its amazing the free things you can get.

Like Monk??

If you like the show Monk here's your chance to win an autographed poster. Take the 100th Episode Poll - You'll find the link in the middle of the page at the top. There are a 100 chances to win and all you have to do is vote for your favorite Monk episode, in celebration of their 100th episode.

You can vote until August 25th and it takes about ten minutes. Once you complete voting you'll receive your chance to enter the sweepstakes for the prize poster.

Freebies 8/1

I received some great freebies this week.

freebies 8/1

This week the mailbox presented me with:
  • Redbook
  • Investment Adviser (for work)
  • Tampax Pearl sample and coupon
  • Ceasar Canine Cuisine
  • Pledge wipes and coupon
  • Free 20 oz Coke Zero
  • Nature Made 30 day sample
  • Warm Delights Mini's with coupon (I'm surprise this one lasted long enough to make it in the picture)

Friday, August 1, 2008

Big Freebies

On top of my regular freebies for the week, I received a couple of really great ones I wanted to highlight.

addidas

Earlier in the month I won a free pair of Adidas Response 16’s from the Mt.Dew promotion. I waited a while to order them thinking the process would be time consuming, but once again I was wrong. Ordering the shoes was easy and 100% free, also much to my surprise, they arrived the very next day. I love them. They cute and supper comfy.
Thanks Mt.Dew

I also received Eats, Shoots, and Leaves from an amazon.com promotion, I learned about here. It has since ended, but provided a great reason why you should check the blogs daily. You never know what great deals are to be had. I signed up for amazon prime and not only received my $9.60 book for free I received free 2 day shipping for being a prime member! I have a small obsession with books but I plan to part with this one to list on when I’m done, making it even more than free. Although, we’ll see sometimes it’s hard to part with a good book. One day I’ll be able to open a library!