Disappointing morning

When Lance got up at 6:30 am (why??), I went ahead and got up, too. I was excited to get to Walgreens and see if they restocked the free-after-rebate items. Before rushing out the door, I pulled the banana bread pan out of the fridge, and found that it had risen some overnight (yay!)

I got to Walgreens around 7 am. I went immediately to the aisle with the L'Oreal and Nivea products that were free-after-rebate. Out. Not restocked. I then took my basket back to the front of the store and left. I was SO disappointed, but I knew there was a good possibility that could happen. So I didn't get the great deals I thought I was getting today.


From there, I went to Walmart Neighborhood Market (in the same parking lot), and got the Suddenly Salad I needed to bring to the barbeque in Spring Hill today. Before leaving the house, I had snipped a coupon for 50 cents off two, so I went ahead and got two, along with a couple of things I knew we'd need this week. I was disappointed to find, after checking out, that Walmart does not double their food coupons. Bummer. If I had thought ahead, I could have caught a sale at Kroger or Publix and used that coupon to get $1 off two. Oh, well.


Got home, put the banana bread in the oven, and kept an eye on it. It smelled wonderful, and looked pretty good, too. When it was done and steaming on the counter, I cut us off some slices, and we sat down to eat together. Hm. Not a lot of banana taste. Surprising, because I used DOUBLE the amount of banana the recipe called for! I'm going to blame the wheat flour, since it was probably overpowering the taste of banana. I've decided that the next loaf: a) will not be made in the bread maker, b) will have the correct amounts of each ingredient, and c) will be made with unbleached white flour instead of wheat. What can I say, I just don't like wheat that much.


So, in all it's been a slightly disappointing morning. But I am looking forward to spending time with the Hatchett clan today and hugging my sweet Granddaddy. It will be nice to be able to spend some time with Rob and Rachel (the soon-to-be cousin-in-law), who we haven't seen in a while.

Thank goodness disappointing mornings can change into satisfying afternoons!

Yeast roll success

Thank you, Auntie N, for the link to the bread machine recipes!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Bread/Bread-Machine/Top.aspx

I tried the yeast rolls today. Or, I guess you could say, yesterday and today. I made the dough up in the bread maker last night, shaped the rolls in a baking pan, and put it in the fridge overnight. Today after work, I put them in the oven. They took a little more time than expected, probably because they were still cold. But they turned out nice and buttery!

Right now I've got some banana nut bread going. I'm just putting it through the dough cycle, so that I can put it in a pan and store it in the fridge until tomorrow. I'll bake it up for breakfast. I hope the plan works. It didn't seem to be rising very well. Guess we'll see!

I am going to bed early so that I can be up early and head to Walgreens! How crazy is that? But I have a plan, and want to get there before they sell out of certain products. Their $10 off $40 coupon is only good for today and tomorrow, so I have to jump on it! I'll report later tomorrow. I may be ecstatic, I may be disappointed. I just never know!

So, goodnight!

It's a hard life

What is a pup to do when both Mama and Daddy are on their computers? Sleep on two comfy couch pillows with the ball close at hand, of course.


Poor thing. So neglected.

Can you tell what time of the month it is?

Mmmm, chocolate...

It's so wonderful to have a CVS on the corner where I turn to go home every day. I have every opportunity to stop without having to waste a dime of gas. And it's right across from church, so tonight's was a post-church run!

I heard that the Purex was an unadvertised sale, ringing up $2.99 instead of $5.99 AND giving 1 ECB. So I clipped and printed coupons this morning, and ended up with this transaction:

*Purex, $2.99, used 50 coupon, got 1 ECB

*2 Chex Chocolate Turtle mix, $1 each, used two $1 off printable coupons

*2 Right Guard deodorants, $2.99 each, used two $1 off coupons, got 2 ECBs for each (total of 4 ECBs)

*1 Cadbury bar (my special treat), 99 cents

I used a $2 off $10 coupon, then paid with 5 ECBs and 89 cents. I laughed with the cashier about how I was too young to be counting out pennies and using coupons! But she seemed impressed at how well I did. Since I got back 5 ECBs to replace the 5 I used, I only paid 89 cents for all that.

Oh, and the scanner gave me a $4 off $20 coupon, good for another couple of weeks!

This run wasn't a money-maker, but hey, they can't all be. I'm happy. I have chocolate. : )

Why work when you can BLOG!

I'm shocked! I just discovered that the server here at work doesn't block access to blogger! So, as I sit here chomping down a quick lunch, I figured I'd share how I got this lunch for free...

On Monday night, I grabbed a few coupons from my All You magazine (free trial) and headed to Walmart Neighborhood Market. I knew we needed a few lunch items to tide us over this week. The coupons were: Buy 3 Nabisco/Kraft/Oscar Meyer products, get a free pack of hotdogs, and then another for buy 3, get a free box of Wheat Thins. I got a tip from Money Saving Mom that a pack of Kool-aid counts as one Kraft product, so I bought six at 20 cents a piece in order to use both coupons. Free hot dogs and Wheat Thins, sweet!

I grilled up the dogs last night for dinner, and then brought a couple for lunch today. The buns are "free", too, because they were left over from the beach trip. The chips I'm eating are Pringles, which were on sale at CVS a few weeks ago and which I ended up getting for free. (Using overage from other items.)

The person who said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch" obviously didn't use coupons.

: )

Aw, only 8 cents profit??

Well, it happens every time. I have a plan all worked out on paper when I go in, and I end up coming out with something completely different!

Today was a CVS run. I planned on several more items than shown, and DIDN'T plan on the Carefree, but some items were not available and some were more expensive than MoneySavingMom said they'd be. Oh, well. Here's how things went:

• 1 Right Guard deodorant, $2.99, get 2 ECB


• 2 Chex Mix, on sale for $1 each


• 2 Trident Xtra Care gum, on sale for $1 each


• 1 75-count pack of Flossers, on sale for $1.25


• 1 38-count Carefree pantiliners, $3.89, get 2 ECB (sign said I'd get 3 ECB, which would have been a money-maker...Alas, the signs are often wrong.)

I used these coupons:

• $1 off Right Guard


• 2 $1 off Chex mix


• BOGO free Trident


• 75 cents off Trident (Yes, they let me use both!)


• $2 off Carefree product (printed from CVS coupon machine today, that was lucky)


• $2 off $10 purchase

I paid using 2 ECB and $1.92 in cash (used that 20 cents Daddy gave me!), and then got back 2 ECBs for the Right Guard and 2 for the Carefree. So, I made a whopping 8 cents. : )

Hey, I won't complain too much. I got all this stuff for free.*

*When I say "free," I'm referring to the fact that the cash I did pay (mostly for tax) ended up being paid back to me in Extra Care Bucks. I can thus "roll" the tax that I always have to pay on my free items into ECBs to spend again later. Hopefully on something else that will make money! Then, once my stash of ECBs gets too big, I find something that we need on sale that might not be a money-maker, and spend them all to stock up on that item. I did that to get a good stock of the expensive contact solution we like.

Daddy's 20 cents

Today after lunch, as we were settling up with Daddy for our portion of the cost, he ended up giving us 20 cents back. We laughed about how that 20 cents could buy a LOT at CVS. And tomorrow I will show you exactly how much that 20 cents buys me...with 5 cents leftover. :)

Did you hear that? That was my bubble popping.

I should know better than to get too excited about potential deals. They never quite work out the way you expect. I've been lucky in the past, and the unexpected turns have worked out to my benefit in most cases. But this was a different story.

I headed to the Walgreens down the street with my list ready and my coupons neatly organized. I walked in the door, picked up the new September Easy Saver Booklet, and that's about the time things started going wrong.

I was confused about which products would qualify for the Shout/Scrubbing Bubbles/Windex deal, and I realized that one of the products I thought I was getting was not going to work for the deal. AND I had accidentally left my "back up" coupons at home, rats! So, I was forced to redo the deals in my head, which tripped me up, and I wasn't sure I had the right coupons. Eek!

Got to the register, a bit flustered and just hoping that everything would work right. Well, the cashier said that I couldn't use multiple coupons of the same kind, even though I was buying multiple ITEMS of the same kind. One coupon per item, right? Nope. He wouldn't let me use the 3 Scrubbing Bubbles coupons, only 1. Then we got to the Robitussin, and he said the same thing. I told him to just void those off my order, and suddenly he changed his tune! It was comical, really. He decided to accept the three identical Robitussin coupons, I think because he didn't want the hassle of voiding the items! So that worked out okay.

I purchased the shower kit separately, so that I could use some Register Rewards earned from the first transaction, along with a $5 coupon I had. BEEP, said the register! No good. I was about at the end of my rope, and was going to just forget the shower kit altogether (although I've been wanting one for a long time, and this was a great deal!), but the kind cashier made it go through somehow, even though the policy (which I only now know) is that you have to have as many items as coupons. Register Rewards count as a coupon, so I had two coupons and one item. Oops! God bless that cashier for making it go through, though. : )

I'm too tired to do a run-down of the two transactions, so suffice it to say that I used the $17.35 on my Walgreens gift card (which was my rebate money from last month), paid exactly $9 in cash, and walked out with $15 in Register Rewards to use later. I should have had $20 in RR, but something went wrong with one of the deals. I have contacted corporate to try to fix it.

I'm happy to have only paid in cash less than half of what the shower kit alone would normally cost. And we really needed stain treatment, so things worked out well.

(Notice who was inspecting the purchases? He likes to lick things when I bring them home and display them. "Mmmm, tastes like Walgreens.")

Watch out, Walgreens! Here I come!

I'm so excited, I want to jump out of my skin! I just used www.moneysavingmom.com to come up with my own Walgreens shopping list, and here's what I think I can get this week:

• Visine
• Chex mix
• Crest Pro-Health Rinse
• 2 Shout stain remover sprays
• 3 Windex sprays
• 2 Scrubbing Bubble Action Scrubbers
• 3 Robitussin
• Revlon nail polish
• Acid controller
• Nivea Men's body wash
• Crest Pro-Health toothpaste
• Lypsyl lip moisturizer
• Excedrin gel packs
• a filler item for 70 cents (candy bar?)

And for buying all that, I will make a profit of $15.61 on my Walgreens gift card! (That total doesn't include tax paid, but I will make up for that in the 10% Walgreens gives me for putting my rebates on a gift card instead of getting a check back.)

I may be too excited to wait until Monday...Since the sales start tomorrow, I may go ahead and make my super-duper run after church!

Now I'm off to gather up the coupons I need. Joy!!!

Thank you, God, for giving me an income, for giving me a talent for numbers, for giving me opportunities to use my talent, and for giving me peace and happiness in doing so. I am blessed beyond deserving, and humbled by your grace.

A few notes of explanation...

1) Lance calls me Katy Coupons, so I thought it would be a good title for the blog. After all, my life DOES revolve around coupons as of the last three months.

2) I took that picture of coupons at the top of the page this morning. I took out a stack of them from my organizer, spread them all out, and snapped a picture. Then I groaned, because I realized I had to organize them all over again. : )