Weekly Shopping Trip

I woke up at 10 til 7 this morning and headed out to Giant Eagle for my usual Thursday morning shopping trip. I was pretty excited because I was able to score some awesome deals this week! Plus, while I was shopping I ran into another couponer. I was stocking up on shave gels when she came by to do the same. She was a little baffled by all the choices and asked which scent I preferred. I told her they're all great, so she grabbed one of each. And then I ran into her again near the meat section and she noticed all the detergent in my cart. She asked what the deal was on that as she flipped through her gigantic coupon binder. I took this opportunity to invite her to join my couponing group on meetup.com. She seemed interested, so I hope she joins!

Today's Best Deals:

8 Wisk Detergents @ $3.99 each - $2 coupon = $1.99 each

4 Colgate Toothpastes @ $1 each - $.75 coupon (doubled) = FREE

2 San Giorgio Pastas @ $1 each - $.55 coupon (doubled) = FREE

10 Skintimate Shave Gels @ $1.50 each - $.55 coupon (doubled) = $.40 each

My entire order of 34 items cost me just $31.66. That works out to about .93 cents per item. Before store specials and coupons my total would have been $119.15. I saved $87.49 which is a total of 73%.

I got the same deal on the detergent earlier in the week, and so I have about 20 bottles reserved in my stock pile. I estimate that it should last us at least two years. I won't need to purchase anymore until my stock gets low again. We were buying our laundry soap at Sam's Club for approximately $12 per 150 oz jug. These bottles of Wisk are 50 oz. bottles and at $2 each, cost me half of what I was paying before. Therefore, my detergent reserves in the long run have saved me about $40.

I know a lot of people will assume I'm hoarding everything I buy. As mentioned in previous posts, I do a lot of donating of items. Also, with what little I pay for so many items, I'm able to help out my family and friends providing them with savings as well. What goes around comes around, so share the love!

Hanging Garden Update

It's been just over 2 weeks since I last posted about my hanging veggie garden experiment. There have been some interesting developments in this period of time. I've come to notice something rather unusual. The zucchini plant that is rooted into the bottom of the bucket has not produced anything,

meanwhile the plant in the top of the bucket has sprouted several small fruits. The opposite is true of the pepper plants, though the top plant has some very tiny peppers on it, each not much bigger than a large pea. If this continues to be the trend, next year I think I will plant peppers in the bottoms of the buckets, and zucchinis on the top so all my plants will be producing. My tomatoes are only planted in the bottom of one bucket, and they are doing pretty darn well! I think they honestly must be the easiest thing to grow. I think that's the only thing I've never had a problem growing, ever.

Here are the zucchinis. The first one is the largest and just seemed to pop up out of nowhere in the last couple days. The very first two that grew for some reason shriveled up and disappeared. I don't know what happened to them. I'm guessing an animal may have come along and snatched them. Luckily, the rest seem to be doing okay so far. I'm hoping that within the next week or two I'll finally get to make some fried zucchini.

Here are the thriving tomatoes! 

 Here's my hand holding one of the larger ones to give you some perspective. Though, my hands are fairly small. Still, these things are growing pretty quickly and should be ready within another week or so.

 And finally, my beautiful peppers. The rest are still very small yet. They seem to be growing the slowest. I hope the ones planted in the top of the bucket start to thrive. One plant is red and one is green, though I can't quite remember which is which, so I guess I'll be surprised.

A DIY Project and Stockpile Update

I'm so excited because I had a chance to get crafty today, and I love the result! I can't quite recall where I saw it, but a few weeks ago I read a blog where a chalkboard was made out of a photo frame. I thought it was super cute and so I decided to do my own take on it. I wish I'd taken photos of the before and after and the steps I took, but I was too excited to get it done and skipped that. With future projects I plan to take pictures so I can show you all photo tutorials on how to do it yourself.

Here's the finished product displayed on my kitchen wall. I plan to use it as a menu board, or just for little notes. Ignore the outlet please. Unfortunately, there was no way around that. No chalk on the board yet as the paint has to cure for 24 hours, and I need to go buy some chalk.

Here's the process involved in making the board.

Step 1: I found the picture frame at a local discount store. I actually bought it as a prop for a photo shoot, but then came to realize that it was just too small for my needs. So, it sat in the attic stairway for a few months until I came across this project. I believe the size of this frame is 16 x 20.

Step 2: I purchased the aqua spray paint, and Krylon Chalkboard spray paint at Joann Fabrics. I also purchased a small frame with the hook on it for just a few dollars on clearance.

Step 3: I removed the hook from the small frame and taped off the metal part with masking tape, leaving just the "knob" on the end. I then separated the glass from the frame, and removed the mat and cardboard insert.

Step 4: I sprayed the frame and the hook with the aqua paint. The frame was originally a dull cream color which would have blended way too much with my kitchen walls.

Step 5: I sprayed the glass insert with 2 coats of the Krylon Chalkboard paint. This stuff was super easy to use and coated very well. I would totally recommend it for any project  you can come up with!

Step 6: Once everything was dry to the touch, I inserted the glass back into the frame. I then screwed the hook into the back of the frame. And voila,I had a great chalkboard for my kitchen wall! I had the basket on hand and will use it to store chalk and an eraser.

I also wanted to post an updated photo of my stockpile. It's grown quite a bit just in the last two weeks with the addition of boxed foods and laundry supplies. I got an awesome deal on Wisk detergent today! Save A Lot had it for 3.99 a bottle, and I had six $2 off coupons that expired today, saving me 50%. I hear a local grocery store has the same sale later in the week and I happen to have six more coupons, so I may just grab some more and we should be good on detergent for a year or two.

And here's a shot of my deep freeze just for fun. Check out my multiple packs of .50 cent hot dogs! We made several packs to sell at the yard sale yesterday and did quite well on those.

I can't wait to see what upcoming sales I'll find this week. My coupon group is meeting tomorrow afternoon to swap coupons. Those will be pretty lucky ladies because with my purchase of multiple Sunday papers, and the help from my dad in getting extra inserts, they're going to have quite a few inserts to scour for some great coupons!

A heart of gold...or silver?

Our yard sale was yesterday. Typically, a lot of people came and tried to haggle with us, which we expected of course. Though some of them were a little less tactful in their offers, asking 50% or more off the marked price. One man however was nice about his offer on a set of 10 silver cups, despite the fact that it was obviously not very much.

These cups were given to me by my dad several years ago in hopes that I'd be able to sell them on eBay and make a little extra cash. At the time, I tried cleaning them as they were severely tarnished, but I just couldn't get them to shine, and so I'd shoved them back in the box and they'd been sitting in my attic for the last 4 or 5 years. Not knowing what else to do with them, I decided to put them out with a "make an offer" sign in hopes that someone would see their value and I'd make a little money on them. An older gentleman stopped at the sale, and he was a very friendly guy. He was about to leave just as he noticed the cups. He asked me for a price, and I told him the story of how I got them and how I just wanted to get rid of them. I said I was thinking $20, which would be just $2 per cup. He said there probably wasn't much silver in them as they seemed very light. He could offer $10 as he showed me his wallet and all he had was a $100 bill and a roll of quarters. So, I took the $10, knowing he got a steal of a deal, but happy that I no longer had to deal with them.

At 8:30 this morning there was a knock on the door. That same gentleman handed me $40. Shocked and surprised, I asked "so they were worth more than we thought?" He smiled and said "Next time, do you what your father says," and then walked away. I guess that guy had a heart of gold...or maybe silver?

My Daddy Loves Me!

Last Sunday during Father's Day breakfast, my dad asked us if we ever watched that Extreme Couponing show. I laughed because he's unaware of my couponing escapades. I told him how I'm very much into using coupons, though not quite to the extreme that the people on the show do. This spawned a long conversation about how I get my deals, and how I get my coupons. I told him how I'll buy extra Sunday papers, and that often my friends and I enjoy hitting up the local recycling dumpsters and scavenge for coupons, despite the fact that it is illegal and we really shouldn't be doing it. However, knowing that so many coupons are going to waste that we could use makes us crazy. After our conversation my dad said he'd be sure to save me the inserts he gets in the mail. Over the last two days he dropped by my house to give me these:

When he went to the post office to get his mail, he went through the trash and took whatever inserts he could find. Great idea, huh? I was so excited to get all of these inserts, and hope he keeps them coming. He's very big into making and saving money, and I think he's proud of my efforts. He's even trying to come up with ideas as to how I can better use coupons to my advantage, so I guess we'll see what he comes up with in the future.

Now, I'm off to start my clipping!

These are a few of my favorite things!

Oprah did it, so I'm going to do it too. Unfortunately, unlike Oprah I can't gift you all each of my favorite things...

1) Lexulous

I've been playing  at Lexulous.com for several years now. It was formerly Scrabbulous.com, but a lawsuit by the makers of Scrabble put an end to that. It is indeed basically the game of Scrabble. I love it because not only is it fun, but it helps to keep my mind sharp too. If you enjoy the game, go sign up at Lexulous.com. It's FREE. Look me up and add me as a friend maybe we can play together sometime. My username there is Greenie.

2) Ranch Pringles

This is currently my guilty pleasure. I cannot get enough of these things. Tangy, salty, crunchy, and just down right delicious. I've managed to find the best deal on them at Walmart for $1.49 for the Super Stack cans, and often you can find a $1 off 3 cans coupon in the P&G inserts. If you love ranch flavor, you'll love these!

3) Avery Mini Durable View Protect & Store Binder in Blue

This is what I use for my coupon binder. I LOVE it! Often I see these ladies walking around the grocery store with gigantic Trapper Keeper type binders filled with their coupons. I will admit, I tried that system about two years ago and it was a complete failure for me. With this Mini Binder I can carry it with me everywhere. I use the Staples brand sheet protectors and those removable sticky tabs to label what category each sheet holds. The best part about this system and binder is that I can carry it with me in my purse (granted my purse is a rather large Vera Bradley). That means I am never without my coupons and am less likely to miss a surprise deal. I hate to miss out on a bargain.

 4) Country Living Magazine

As mentioned in a previous post, I haven't been able to read many books over the years. My attention span was more adequate for magazines, and boy do I get magazines. I often receive gift cards for free from Magazines.com, and combined with Mypoints.com deals and coupon codes, I have received many free and super cheap subscriptions. I receive Real Simple, multiple Photography magazines, Parenting: The School Years, Reader's Digest, Family Fun, Women's Day, and a few others I'm sure I'm missing. My absolute favorite is Country Living. I get so excited when I find it in my mailbox! I'm a total sucker for country decor. Give me quilts and canning jars any day. These pages are filled with beautiful photos of vintage goodies and gorgeous country farmhouse homes. Not to mention the delicious looking photos of down home recipes like berry cobblers and rustic casseroles. I love thumbing through the pages getting ideas to incorporate in my own home. I'm currently patiently awaiting my next issue to arrive any day now.

 5) Dollar Tree

The Dollar Tree is one of my favorite places to shop. How can you dislike a store where EVERYTHING is a dollar? I've recently began to purchase multiple copies of the Sunday paper there (for the coupons of course), since they're $1 per copy as opposed to $1.50 everywhere else. My favorite purchases from the dollar tree are gift wrap supplies, kitchen gadgets, storage bins and containers for around the house, and seasonal decorations and party supplies. What I've really been into lately is the idea of Dollar Store Crafting. The goal is to come up with chic crafts made with mostly on hand materials and items found at the dollar tree. I've attempted a few of these myself and hope to cover them in future posts. You'd be amazed what you can do with things found at a dollar store.

So what are your favorite things?

Yard Sale Prep

Today was quite a productive day in my household. We're preparing to have a yard sale next week. Usually, I'm not one to put too much planning into my yard sales. I'm the type to throw junk into boxes and price it the day I set it out. However, I'm reading more and more that you make a better profit if you prepare for it. So, over the last month we've collected and sorted items that we plan to sell. I've got some quality goods this year! Everything from a TV to Vera Bradley bags. Today we went through and found more things to sell, cleaned up and priced most of the items. I made some signage on the computer so we can make directional signs to our sale, as well as a "menu" for the little snack bar that Sage (my 6-year-old daughter) is excited to operate, and some signs for the groupings of items like books and toys. I also sent in my ad to the local paper. All that's left now is to make the refreshments, hang up the signs around town, place a few online ads, and set up the sale. I'm thinking this one could be very profitable.

Sage helped me make the signs. Think it'll catch everyone's attention?

On another note, in addition to the yard sale preparation, I finally packed up all the donations from my local Coupon Queens group for the Hip2Help Benefit Tour. Originally I planned to send everything in a flat rate box, but my coupon gals were so gracious with their donations that I would have had to use multiple boxes and it would cost me a fortune. When we were scouring the attic for things for the yard sale, I came across a box big enough for everything and so I'll just have to mail it all parcel post. I'm so proud of these ladies for donating so much great stuff from their stock piles. It's all going to help tornado victims in the south. Hip2Save.com is one of my favorite resources for finding coupons and great deals. It's helped me so much with my saving and so I was happy to hear about their charitable efforts and couldn't wait to help out. Here's a glimpse at all the great donations my friends helped provide...

I think this is my favorite thing about using coupons. I'm a firm believer in doing good deeds because what goes around comes around. While my family is on a tight budget, we're still able to give to others. Imagine what you can do!

"The Help"

After just four days, I finished the first book I've read in at least three years. Back in High School I read all the time. I loved going to the book store, especially the local book outlet (a bargain hunter even then) and just browsing until I found the right book. However, pregnancy seemed to ruin me in a sense. I got mommy brain and found it hard to concentrate. I've started several books that I never could finish because I just couldn't focus for that long. I think since I've had my daughter I've finished all of 3 or 4 books in the last six, almost seven years. Two of those being by my favorite author, A.M. Homes, and I couldn't even tell you if she's come out with anything new recently.

So, what made me decide to start reading again? I run a local women's social group and several of those ladies have started a book club within the group. The most recent selection was "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett and this happened to be a book given to me by a great friend for my birthday last year. I figured that since it's been sitting on my shelf, this would be a great time to pick it up. I pretty much devoured it over the last four days. I think that's actually a record for me, with it being well over 400 pages.

The basic plot is that it's set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960's. A white woman in her 20's decides to write a book of interviews of the local black maids and their stories of working for white families. At first she has trouble finding maids who will participate for fear of their employers finding out and ruining their careers and their lives. The first people to agree to help are the two maids of her closest friends, Aibileen and Minny. The book covers the lives of these three characters as well as their efforts to write the book, and the consequences once they do. It's got both humor and seriousness to it. I love that time period and so that really drew me in, but it was so well written that you really begin to know the characters and become caught up in their emotions. Overall, a great read and I can't wait to discuss it with the book club. And, I think I may even start another book. It looks like I may have my focus back!

Thursday Morning Shopping

Thursday mornings are now my routine grocery shopping day. I do the majority of my grocery shopping at Giant Eagle (GE). I love that store for many reasons. First, they have great sales and while a store like Walmart is cheaper in general, they never run the types of sales that a regular grocery store does. Second, GE doubles coupons up to .99 which is fantastic because that means .75 coupons are more valuable than those that are a $1. Plus, they offer ecoupons on their website that can combine with paper coupons giving you even more savings! On top of all that, they also offer Fuelperks and Foodperks. For every $50 you spend in the grocery store, you save .10 cents per gallon at their gas station. Then, for every 10 gallons of gas you purchase, you earn 1% off your grocery purchase. You can save these perks and get up to 20% off your groceries, or even a FREE tank of gas. Also, I find that GE has better produce than most stores and is generally cleaner and better kept overall. I love my weekly GE shopping trips!

 The Giant Eagle sales circular comes out on Tuesdays and so I'll go through it Tuesday and Wednesday matching up my coupons with the sales. I think I did exceptionally well this week. My retail total before taking into account the store specials, my coupons, and my Foodperks came to 133.39. After the sales, my coupons, and redemption of my 7% Foodperks, my out of pocket cost was just $52.87 for all of this:

I had a coupon for everything here with the exception of the 2 cans of tuna, one bottle of ketchup, and the PAM which I've been out of for ages and had to get. Yep, I even had coupons for the blueberries and salad! Those who say there just aren't coupons for healthy foods like fruits and veggies just don't look hard enough.

I did make an error when it came to the ketchup. I had an ecoupon for $1 off 2 bottles, but it slipped my mind that it was off the 32oz. or larger. I passed by these vintage looking collectors bottles and that kind of drew me in. I'm a sucker for anything retro. These are just 14oz. and so I didn't get the $1 off, but I had a .25 coupon which doubled, and so I ended up paying 3.50 for both. This will teach me to double check my ecoupon list BEFORE I put something in the cart.

Some highlight purchases of this trip were:

The 2 boxes of Bisquick @ just .65 cents each.

The Uncle Ben's Ready Rice was free with my .75 coupon.

The blueberries cost me $1.98 for both packages. Maybe I'll bake a pie!

The hot dogs were just .50 a pack. These are going to be perfect to sell at my yard sale coming up next week.

Finally, while I'm well stocked on toothpaste, the Crest with Scope is my favorite kind, and with my coupon it cost me just a quarter, so I had to get it.

Overall, I'm thrilled with today's purchases.

My Basement "Store"

I just wanted to make a quick post and show off a few pictures of my basement and bathroom "stores." I'm so proud. I love the idea that I can just run downstairs or pop open the cabinet and "shop" for free when I need something. I admit, this couponing thing is a bit of an illness, and I can see how easily people become hoarders. It's fun to look at and know that you paid so little for everything. I will be limiting myself though. Hubby has enough deodorant to last him at least a year, and same with shampoo and body wash. I think I need to work on getting some more food basics.

Just a note, I edited my settings and anyone is free to leave comments now. I'd love to hear from you if you're reading!

Shary, Shary, Quite Contrary...

How does my garden grow? Quite well actually! I've tried gardening in the past. I started out in containers, and it was semi successful. I planted a full blown garden on a community plot with some friends two years back, but the bugs took over and we didn't get much beyond a few zucchini and more tomatoes than we could handle.

However, about a month ago, hubby and I decided to try a new gardening experiment. We purchased 3 five gallon buckets and made our own Topsy Turvy planters. It was super simple. We just drilled holes in the bottom of each bucket and put a plant in both the top and bottom. Our reasoning for doing this is because A) our ground is very hard, B) we have a small yard, and C) we're kind of lazy and this method eliminates weeding almost completely. We planted two zucchini plants in one, 2 pepper plants (one red, one green) in another, and 1 tomato plant in the third.

Just a few days ago we noticed that it's yielding results!

 Teeny Tiny Zucchini!

 Itty Bitty Tomato!

 Petite Pepper!

I can't wait to make zucchini bread, and fried zucchini, and zucchini lasagna and stuffed peppers. Yum! I however don't eat raw tomatoes, so those are mainly for hubby and my mom. Maybe I can learn to make homemade sauce with them. I'll be sure to update as the veggies grow and I will definitely post pictures of all the great things I make with them.

And now for my couponing deals so far this week.

Last night I scored this awesome find at Walmart. I've never used their price matching method before, but I decided to give it a try. Big Lots advertised All detergent at $3 per bottle. I had several $1 coupons but Big Lots does not take them, and so I took the sales ad to Walmart to have them price match. I paid just $2 per bottle for all four!

This evening I headed to Rite Aid. I'm collecting some baby items for a gift and they had a great deal on diapers. They were on sale for $8.99. I had two $2 off coupons and two $1 Rite Aid coupons, plus the $10 coupon from my previous shopping trip. So I paid a total of $1 per package of diapers. I wish I couponed this well when my daughter was a baby. I would have saved so much money! But, I will surely be prepared for any future babies that may come along.

As for the rest of the items, the Pert Plus was on sale 2 for $5, but I had $1 coupons making them just $1.50 each. The dish soap was something I didn't have a coupon for, but it was on sale for just .88 cents which I thought was a very good price. And the beverages were all FREE with coupons! My total out of pocket cost for this trip? Just $10.91

Weekly Deal Review

Here's a review of the great deals I've scored this week with my coupons...

TARGET

Total amount spent $10.50 plus I left with $10 in gift cards.

GIANT EAGLE & WALMART

Total spent was $12.97.

 GIANT EAGLE

Total cost: FREE!

 STAPLES

We purchased 6 cases and spent a total of just $3.54. That's less than the cost of one case!

RITE AID

I purchased all of this in addition to 3 more coffree drinks that hubby and I have already drank. The coffees were free. I paid a total of $17.50 for the deoderants, and left with a $10 coupon for my next purchase.

In total this week I spent $44.51 out of pocket, but have $20 in gift cards and coupons for future purchases. Therefore, everything above cost me less than $25, and THAT is why I love coupons!

Here I go again...

And so, I'm blogging. The truth is, I've been blogging since way before it was cool. I started when I was 14 and it's actually how I met my husband. Though back then it wasn't called "blogging," it was considered keeping an online journal or diary. I stopped writing regularly a few years ago for no real reason. I've been contemplating starting a blog again for a while because I think people are tired of my constant Facebook posts detailing every aspect of my life. So here I am, finally getting around to it, at 1 in the morning.

A little about me...I'm 26, married to a great guy, and the stay-at-home-mom to a wonderful little girl. I'm a part time photography student at the local community college. I love art, photography, coupons, frugal living, thrift shopping, repurposing, interior design, movies, music, etc.

I've just recently begun reading other people's blogs and I've noticed many have a theme to them whether it's 5 minute meals, or organization, or whatever. Mine however will lack a theme, though it will most likely detail my newest passion of couponing, and my photography hobby that I'm working on turning into a career. Of course there may be the occasional movie review or rant about whatever is on my mind. Whatever I post, I hope you enjoy, and if you do then feel free to leave comments! I love comments!