New Chairs

I saw these chairs a couple weeks back at Big Lots.  They are rocking chairs.  I sat in one and fell in love.  The only problem was they were $80 a piece!  So, I couldn't afford that and didn't want to pay that much anyway. 

Lucky for me Big Lots was having a great Labor Day sale!  I bought four of these chairs for $20 a piece!  Can you believe it?  I was so thrilled!  I would have bought 5 but they only had four left!  They have a couch and table but they were only 50 percent off so I will probably check in once a week and see when they go to 75 percent off and get at least the table then.  BTW, so happy Kayla finally wanted to be in a picture!  I think they had just finished having icecream!

Online shopping

These past few weeks I have been scoring some great deals online. Deals such as free photo Christmas cards, free shipping plus an additional 30%, and so on. These deals have come at a great time too! I really haven't been in the mood to drive 45-60 minutes to go shopping and haven't been feeling well either. So to score free shipping and get the items on great sale prices has made my day!

I now spend some of my time reading frugal blogs that give links and such to online shopping deals. I am so happy to sit at home and accomplish the same thing that would have cost me quite a bit in gas money and my time! What perfect timing for Christmas shopping too! Last week I shopped online at Kohls and bought Christmas presents for the girls that were on sale, plus an additional 30% off, plus free shipping! They just arrived today and the effort was so minimal I am so pleased! If you are interested in some of these sites here they are:

http://freebies4mom.blogspot.com/
http://myfrugaladventures.com/
http://sisterlysavings.net/
http://www.couponcravings.com/

These sites have given me free things such as Christmas photo cards, as well as amazing deals! Well worth the read!

Another Great Deal

You will never believe how much I found these outfits for? I was shocked to see that these outfits were only $2.50 each. Yes that is right for pants and shirt. The complete outfit! I just had to buy one for Aly and one for KK at that price.

Looking at the tags I think they were orginally from Walmart. I found them at Big Lots which is a closeout store. They orginally sold them for $5. but had them on sale for $2.50. Yeah for me! Can't feel guilty if the girls stain these up!

Two great deals at Safeway this week!

There are two great deals to be had at Safeway this week! I got all of this loot for only $5.00! The 12 bottles of sprite were free thanks to their B1G1 free promotion plus the B1G1 free coupon in the Safeway Olympic Savings coupon book. Between the coupon and the sale they cancel each other out making them free! The fuze drinks are on one of those catalina promotions. They are on sale for $1 a piece, when you buy 4 you get a catalina back for $3 off your next purchase of 4. Each time you do this a catalina prints out making it so that each bottle of fuze costs you .25 cents! I bought 20 bottles!

We don't drink Sprite in our house but I did get them anyway because I am pretty confident that the PTC at Aly's elementary school could use them for an upcoming school event. So for now I am donating 12 bottles to them and I may go back and get more after I find out just how many they want.

Frugal party bags

Now is the time to stock up on items for your child's party favors for their birthday party! With all of the great sales for back to school supplies you can stock pile and use these items as party bag stuffers. Walmart has crayola 24 count crayons for only .22 cents a box! They also have rosart 11 pack washable markers for .60 cents. Target has a 6 pk elmers glue sticks for $1.00. Check all of the ads from Sundays paper and put together your goody bag. Children always love art supplies and these frugal goody bags are bound to be a hit!

Think about Christmas too! These items could be great stocking stuffers. If you have a large family and need gift ideas on a budget you could buy the crayons, glue sticks, markers, a coloring book form the Dollar store and some construction paper from the dollar store and your total price for this gift is $3.82. Pretty good price for a gift!

Good luck shopping and stock piling!

Great Deals at my favorite store Kohls!!!

I just love getting unbelievable deals! I especially love getting my take an additonal 30% off your entire purchase coupon in the mail from Kohls. I am telling you being a card holder here has definately been worth it. It is the only department store card I carry and I love it!

The first picture shows the lot I got for my oldest daughter Aly for a year from now. I always shop seasons end clearance for the next year for my children. Anyway pictured here are one dress, 5 pair capri pants, 4 pair capri stretchy pants, and 3 pairs of shorts. You won't believe how much I paid for them!!! The pink dress was only $2.66, the printed capris were $2.52 each, and all of the other capris and shorts were $1.68 each!!!! So for this entire lot I paid: $24.50 yes for all 13 items! Crazy huh! You can't even get clothes for that cheap at many of the second hand stores!



This picture is for my youngest daughter KK. Again they are for her in a year from now. While she does have some hand me downs from big sis, she doesn't get alot that are in good condition. Big sis is hard on clothes and stains a big majority of her outfits. So with good deals like this you can't really feel quilty about buying her clothes too! She got two pairs of printed capris, 3 cotton capris, 6 stretchy capris, and one pair of shorts. Her total came to: $21.84 for 11 items.

Now I just need to get both girls t-shirts and some more shorts. We really like capris in our house though and tend to wear them more. The slides at parks are hot so the girls always wear capris to parks so they don't burn there legs.

The orginal price for the dress was $38.00 and the orginal price for all of the capris and shorts were $12 a pair. So if I do the math and calculate retail value it would be: $314.00 and I paid $46.34.

I realize that in a few years my girls won't be keen to me buying things a year ahead but for now it works and I will continue to do it as long as the girls like it. (I do ask my eldest if she likes everything when I am buying it. I realize her taste could change in a year but so far it hasn't)

Wow, I can't believe I got such a good deal!

Today was one of those days where I was really pleased with my thrifty abilities. I was in shock at how I was able to take a stove that was $899 from Sears and get in from Home Depot for $613. I am still grinning from ear to ear. I actually thought that I would be getting it for around $688 if Home Depot honored there policy of beating competitors prices by 10% because the stove was going to be on sale tomorrow at sears for $764. However, in the fine print it said on in stock purchases and I knew it was possible this could be classified as special order as I knew the store did not have one of these stoves on their floor.

So I went in hopeful and left absolutely pleased and ecstatic. I brought in all of my paper work from sears showing the sale they were running tomorrow and what the price would be. I also brought a printed copy of Home Depot's policy on beating competitors prices by 10%. (Bringing in this policy really saved me because the sales associate told the manager I brought it and read it to him) The manager o.k.'d meeting the price at $764 and then they were running a promotion to get a $75 gift card back for appliance purchases in that price range. They used that promotion to beat competitors price by 10%. Just as we were checking out she told me if I opened a Home Depot card they would give me an additional 10% off my stove which of course I said yes. We don't carry credit card debt and I will cancel this credit card anyway within a few months. No need to keep a card that won't continue to give me rewards. So once that 10% was taken off it was down to $688 and I will be receiving the $75 Home depot gift card in the mail for making the appliance purchase. So if you subtract the home depot gift card that makes my stove come out to $613. I am so happy that I saved almost $300 by shopping around and being patient! BTW I also got free delivery and haul away!!!!

I am extremely confindent that hubby will have the entire $75 giftcard spent on plants. So, everyone is happy!

Can't wait until Mega Saturday

For those of you that have been to our house you can pretty much agree that everything things to be replaced or remodeled. Well, we have lived in our house for 6 years and have only been able to afford to do a few things at a time. This years tax return has been dedicated to replacing the stove and hot water heater. Originally we were going to convert those two things over to gas but after getting quotes and finding out that it would take around 6K total to make the change we have decided to just stick with electric.

In an effort to cut our energy bill I have done research to find out what can help the most. For a range the best thing you can do if you can't afford a 2,000 dollar inductive stove top is to buy a ceramic stove top instead. The ceramic stove top has adjustable sizes to fit your pots and you won't loose heat between the drip pan and the coil. The second thing you can do is buy a true convection oven which has three heating elements and a fan. The third element is key which is located around the fan so that when the fan is working it is circulating heated air around the oven. This process allows you to cook/bake at 25 degrees lower and 20 minutes less on the hour. It is claimed that a convection oven can be 20% more efficient than a regular oven. So hopefully this will help a bit with our energy bill. Although I am sure the hot water heater will help the most. Ours is so old it has to be completely inefficient.

I can't wait until March 29th to buy my new stove! On Tuesday I went into Sears to pick out a new stove. The sale price wasn't quite what I wanted so I told the sales lady that I would just buy it online at another store since it is two hundred dollars cheaper. Well, she was kind enough to tell me that if I am willing to wait until Saturday the 29th, that I can get 15% off the price plus free delivery and haul away!

Great deals on clothes for the adults!

KMART has such great deals when you wait until they have their final clearance sale. Sears does too and I was amazed to find take an additional 80% off already clearanced merchandise!

The black dress was only $2.36 can you believe it? I think I will add a colorful ribbon to the black dress just so the whole thing isn't all one color. The jeans in the picture were only $2.50. I couldn't believe it when I saw the tag. I like the jeans too, they fit well. Now the shirt was $3.23. Aly really wanted me to buy it because she liked it soo much. So I need you to help me out. Is it too obnoxious? Too colorful? I don't want everyone staring at me if I wear it. So please comment and let me know if I should just hide it in my closet or wear it around the house for her.

I know the picture isn't very good but hubby got a navy blue fleece hooded sweatshirt for $3.00. I was so shocked that it was so cheap! I couldn't make it myself for that much money. The jeans were $6.00 which is a great deal as well.

Free cereal and more great prices!

Check out everything I got for $4.00! Yes that is right, only $4. I got:
3 boxes of Cinnamon Life Cereal
1 box of Total Cranberry Crunch
1 box of Total Raisin Bran
2 bags of flat earth veggie chips
4 boxes of my most favorite Fiber One granola bars.

Safeway had a promotion for 5 boxes of cereal for $5.00. I then printed out $1 off coupons for each box of cereal making all of the cereal free. I had two coupons for free flat earth veggie crisps thanks to MIL printing one out for me as I had already reached my quota. I actually had coupons for .60 cents off of each box of Fiber One Granola bars but for some reason they didn't work. If they would have worked I would have gotten the entire lot of $1.20. Instead I spent $1 a box on the granola bars which is still a great deal as they range from $2.50-3.99 a box.

If you would like to learn more about this promotion click here:
Be Thrifty Like Us
imommies

Tips for saving money.

A few people lately have asked me for links to websites that help me save money so I have decided to write a post about it.

If you like online shopping at all a must know website is ebates. This website gives you from 1%-25% cash back from online purchases made. Plus they have online coupon codes you can click on as well to save even more money. I always make sure that once I have found a product I want to buy online, I go to ebates, check out first if they have a coupon code, then check out the percentage back for that merchant. You can save a good amount of money this way throughout the year. They will send you checks in $10 increments.

My next site that I use to find out good deals and free items is imommies. This is the site that I have found free magazine subscriptions, free groceries, and other free product offers. The best part is she really spells out what you need to do for the free groceries and gives you examples. She also provides a list with all of the UPC codes so that when you go to do your shopping you are confident the items are on the list.

Once I hear of the grocery promotions I like to go to mygrocerydeals to find out what items are on sale each week at my local grocery retailers. After you get into the site to look at the grocery store sales you can look at the left side for the coupon buttons and print out online coupons that you can use at your grocery store. I try to print out as many of the item that I can. Many sites only let you print out two but some sites you get lucky on and can print out more. You can use these online coupons at Safeway, walmart, target, and many other grocery chains. Just ask before you start shopping and they will let you know.

Often times the coupons from mygrocerydeals may not be enough so I check wowcoupons which has a list of many other printable coupon sites.

Antoher good blog to check out for current deals is couponing craze. She often takes pics of what she got and explains what she did to get them. She is lucky though, her local grocery store doubles coupons. None of mine do. I could only imagine how much I would save if I had a store that would do that.

If youlike to enter daily contest like the one I entered to win a whole case of larabars, then check out Laura Williams Muslings. I check her site daily and just enter some of the contest that I think I might like to win. Most of them are as easy as just putting a comment on the website and don't require anything more. That was how easy the Larabar contest was. (Now you are all my competition darn it! hee, hee)

The last website I like to use is mypoints. They send me about five mail adverstisements a day that I click on and earn points. Most of the time I don't read the advertisements. If ebates doesn't offer the online merchant then I use mypoints and earn points on what I shopped for. Each year through the points I earned I have had enough to earn at least one $50 dollar giftcard. This year I earned one and we will be using it for Rainforest Cafe! Yippe!

One last website I just remembered is vocalpoint. Once I signed up with them I have recieved so many valuable coupons and such. Just yesterday I got a $2.00 Welch's Grape Juice and a bunch of $1.00 off coupons as well. I have even gotten free razors in the mail, coupons for other free products, etc. This website has really paid off and it is free to join. I rarely get any email from them either. Most of what I get is free coupons or products in the mail.

Anyway, happy shopping, hope this helps some of you!

Another opportunity for free groceries

Safeway is doing yet another promotion where you can have the opportunity to get free groceries. Check out the post at imommies.

I still had my $10 catalina grocery coupon from the previous promotion and I made sure that I had coupons for all of the products purchased. These coupons either came from online or from my dear MIL who saves the Sunday coupons for me. My best coupons were for .50 cents off of Rice a Roni and Pasta Roni which made the cost be .50 cents a box. So with all of my coupons and the $10 catalina grocery coupon my total came to $7.00. I paid the 7 dollars and got a $20 coupon back. So essentially they paid me to take my groceries home!
Check out what I got:


2 boxes of Fruity Cherrios
2 bags of BC cookie mix
5 boxes of Rice a Roni
10 boxes of Pasta Roni
6 boxes of Fruit by the Foot

Can't wait to go back and get some other items on the list!

Free Groceries!!!!

Thanks to imommies I learned about a grocery promotion that was happening at Safeway from January 31-February 12th. I was so excited and definately took advantage of this deal. Check out what I got!

O.k. so here is how it worked. When you bought 5 Sarah Lee items you were given a coupon for $10 off your next purchase. So here is what I did. I bought 5 Hillshire Farms sausages which came to a total of $12.50. They then gave me a $10 coupon. I took that $10 coupon and bought 5 packs of lunchmeat with it. They then printed me out another coupon which I bought another 5 packs of lunchmeat. They gave me another $10 coupon which I used to buy three packs of hotdogs and two packs of buns. They gave me another $10 coupon which I have saved and will use on the new free groceries coupon. All in all I technically spent $2.50 on all of these groceries!

BTW if you are interested in a free bag of Veggie Crisps click here.

I went to the site, printed out the coupon, and brought a bag home for the girls. They were gone in half of an hour.

Target and Kohls more great deals!

As I had mentioned in previous posts I like to buy all of the girls clothes on clearance and I usually do this with 75% or more taken off! January is the month to find most winter clothes on clearance but I have found some summer stuff as well!

















For KK I got the stuff on the picture at the left. She got three t-shirts, one long sleeve shirt, and a black soft fleece jacket. The top purple shirt on the left was $1.92, the second purple shirt was .80 cents, and the red Dora shirt was $1.48. The long sleeve pink shirt was $1.74 and the black fleece jacket was $2.98. For a combined total of $7.18. The normal retail value is $46.97.

For Aly I got the stuff in the picture on the right. She got three t-shirts, four long sleeve shirts, a jacket, a skirt, and two pairs of red heart legging pants--one for this year and one for next. The top pink t-shirt and the blue one were $1.92 each, the pink athletic t-shirt was $1.98. The long sleeve shirts were $2.24 for the brown and the white polo shirt, $1.74 for the pink and white one, and $2.88 for the light blue one. The athletic jacket that Aly just had to have---I didn't really care for it--was $3.24. The pink skirt was $2.88 and the red heart legging pants were $1.92 each! For a total cost of $24.88. The normal retail value is $129.95. That is quite a savings!

I am consistently finding good deals and am in most cases dressing my girls for $4-5 an outfit. Now that is great!

Old Navy--Deals Too Good To Pass Up!

Today was one of my favorite shopping days of the year. I look forward to it each year and mark it on my calendar. It is when I buy the girls clothes for the next year at amazing deals. I didn't need as much as most years as I had plenty for Aly for next year and all I really needed for KK was tops since most of Aly's hand me down tops are stained up. I managed to buy things for everyone in the family and only spent $56.83. This lot orginally retailed for $227.00. Here is what I got:

I bought 24 items which makes an average of $2.37 an item!

Aly got four things. The T-shirt retails for $7.50 and I got it for $1.25. The cream long sleeve shirt retails for $10.50 and I got it for $2.50. The pants retail for $7.50 and I got them for $1.25. The white hooded sweater retails for $16.50 and I got it for $4.00. Spending a total on all four things for Aly: $9.00. KK got five things. The 3 long sleeve shirts retail for $10.50 each and I got them for $2.50 a piece. The short sleeve shirt retails for $7.50 and I got it for $1.25. The pink fleece pants retail for $10.50 and I got them for $2.50. Spending a total on these five items of: $11.25.

I had been looking for next years Xmas pj's so that was a great find. Originally the PJ's were $14.50 each and I got them for $4.49 each spending $8.98 for both pair which retails for $29.00. The girls can always use more tights. The tights and socks were originally $6.50 a pair and I got them all for $1.00 each spending $5.00 on what retails for $32.50.

I was lucky enough to find myself 3 t-shirts for this summer. The were originally $10.50 each and I got them for $2.00 a piece spending a total of $6.00 on 3 t-shirts. These shirts would have originally cost 31.50 for all 3. Hubby's boxers were originally $8.50 a piece and I got them for $1.74 a piece spending a total of $8.70 on 5 pairs of boxers which would have originally cost me $42.50.

My amazing deals of the day!

I had so much fun shopping today. I got the best deals and it felt great! My best deal of the day was a shirt for Aly at JC Penny's.

The shirt originally cost 24.99, it was on clearance for 9.99, and I had a coupon for take 10.00 off any purchase 10.00 or more. So they gave me the shirt free and didn't even charge sale tax. Pretty good huh?

My next great deal was Polly Pocket from Kohls. I purchased two of them. They were originally 14.99, they were on sale for 7.99, I had a polly pocket coupon to take 5.00 off which brought it down to 1.99 plus I had a coupon to take 30% off my entire purchase from Kohls so it came out to $1.40 a piece! Pretty good huh!

These two shirts were purchased from Kohls as well. The blue one was originally 12.00, they marked it down to 3.60 and I got to take an additional 30% off which brought the price down to $2.52. The pink shirt was originally 15.00, marked down to 4.50, minus 30% off which brought it to $3.15.

This pair of shorts was from Kohls too. Originally 18.00 marked down to 3.60 minus my 30% off brought them to $2.52.

These two shirts are for Daddy, men's Xlarge tall. Originally 15.99 on sale for 7.99 minus 30% off brought them to $5.62 a piece!

The Credit card game

One of my favorite things that I was taught from my friend Parag is how to get the most of your money through credit cards. Now this game can only work for those of you that have control and pay off your credit card in full each billing cycle. Parag taught me to find a credit card that gives cash back and use it for all of your spending. This includes anyone that will take a credit card--gas, groceries, fast food, etc. I have been doing this without any problems for more than 5 years now. Sometimes I have to flip between credit cards when I meet the max reward. I am earning at least 700 a year in cash back rewards. I always put this money aside for our vacations.
I just recently came upon a credit card that gives you 3% cash back on your top three earning categories and 1% back on everything else up to 675 a year. When I signed up I got an additional 100 cash back after my first purchase. Although right now they did drop it down to 50 cash back. Here is the link for you to check the card out: http://www.chasefreedomnow.com/home/?CELL=6QKM&MSC=T3011122&utm_source=Chase.com&utm_medium=marquee&utm_content=Marquee1

If you are good with your finances you win! You actually earn money by using your credit card. I highly recommend creating an online account so you can check your daily balance each day so that you know you are staying on budget. This credit card is really good at posting right away and most things are posting to my account the same day. Good luck!

Getting clothes for my girls cheap

For those of you that know me, you know I can be really thrifty or should we say darn right cheap! I work really hard at it and it becomes quite like a game or hobby for me. I manage to get both of my girls brand new clothes usually for around 2-3 dollars for each pair of pants or shirt. I have actually gotten brand new shirts as cheap as 50 cents before.
I am sure you are wondering how I do it. I have gotten to know the sales pretty well and when they typically happen. At least for seasonal clearance that is. Old Navy happens to be my favorite. My most favorite of their seasonal clearance is the one that happens in January. Typically on January 2nd they mark all of their winter apparel down 50% off. Now this is a good deal but if you have the patience to wait two more weeks--typically the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. birthday they do a special sale where you can take an additional 50% off already clearanced merchandise. This is where my great deals truly happen. In February, typically around Presidents Day weekend both Kmart and Sears do the same thing.
I shop these sales and buy the next size up for my girls so they can have new clothes next year. Since they are out of the infant stage they are growing one size a year and it works out great!
I highly recommend it. Mark your calendars and don't be afraid to call the stores around these times and ask before making that trip!

Day After Thanksgiving Sale--what a Nightmare

After not going back to sleep since 1:30 in the morning, I finally decided at 5:30 to get up and go. I needed to buy hubby a stocking stuffer at Staples so I went online to find my nearest store. I found out that I could order his stocking stuffer online so I start going through the process. Right when I am entering my credit card info KK wakes up. It takes me 20 minutes to get her back to sleep. By the time I complete the credit card info they say that can't guarantee the item will be in stock for me. So, unfortunately I decide to not take the chance and go to the store.

I got to Staples at 6:30 and was lucky enough to get the last one. So I see an amazingly long line and go get in it. It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to get through the line. They only had 4 cashiers!

My next stop is Kohls which was the store I was most looking forward to. I had a great time and got my best deal of the day here. Mattell is currently giving online coupons for $5 off Polly Pocket and Kohls had 50% off on them. So I took a $16 Polly Pocket, got it for $8 and gave the $5 off coupon and only paid $3.00. Talk about a DEAL! At Kohls I had to wait in line for one hour and 5 min.

Both long lines had chatty people in it. I got to learn all about others lives, what they do for the holidays, and how many children they have. Everyone was pretty polite and I never ran into inconsiderate people so that was great!

After Kohls I met hubby to give him his sunglasses. He was off to take the girls to the zoo and fairytale town.

I decided to go to Target where I got another good deal for myself. I got a pair of Levi's for $12. Pretty good huh? Their line was only 5 minutes long so that was great.

Next I went to Sunrise mall and went to KB Toys. Their line was only 5 minutes long as well. By the time I finished KB's and had lunch I had one more stop to make. I went to a Sporting Goods store to try and find stuff for hubby. Unfortunately they didn't carry any of the items on his wish list.

At 2:30 I go to get gas in my hubby's jeep. Guess what happened? He has a locking gas cap and I didn't have the key. The jeep was on empty as well so I couldn't make it anywhere close to home since home is 45 minutes away. I had to call hubby. He had to drive home, get the key, and come back to get me. By the time he reached me it was 4:30. Talk about a long day! I slept very well last night!

Mapquest can tell you where the cheapest gas is

This morning I was looking up directions to a Saturn Dealer as I have to take my car in today. I noticed a button on mapquest that said gas prices. So I took a look around and found out that you can put in the city/state of where you want to get gas and it will tell you the cheapest place. You can even put in the intersection of where you want. I think that is soo cool for those of us who like to find the cheapest gas. Just type it in before you leave home and you will be able to know. Here is the link: http://gasprices.mapquest.com/index.jsp