Great Day at the Mall

Dallin and I took a trip to the mall today. I had some stuff to return to Target, plus I was hoping their backpacks were finally marked down to 75% off. They were! So, if you are in need of a backpack, get yourself to Target. I also noticed that some boys/girls items were marked 75% off. I picked up a swimsuit for Austin for $2.74.

In other bargain news, JCPenny is having an additional 40% off their clearance prices. That makes the clearance items at least 70% off the retail price. I had one of my best JCPenney shopping trips ever. I picked up 2 High School Musical shirts (to save for Allie next Spring) & a work/dress shirt for Steve. Guess how much I paid? You love this game, don't you? I paid $2.13!! I did have a $10 off a $10 purchase that JCPenney sent me, that's what made it an even better deal. The regular retail price was $77.48. YIKES! Who really pays that? The dress shirt was normally $37.50, and it was marked down to 5.97, then I got an additonal 40% off of that. Now is the time when I buy spring/summer clothes for the kids for next year, when they are cheap. JCPenney will eventually go to an additional 50% off, and that is usually when I do the shopping, but since I had the coupon I went now.

To finish off our fun trip to the mall we went to Auntie Anne's to get a "big pretzel", that's what Dallin calls them & we checked out the Star Wars books at the bookstore.

Walgreens

I have tons of toothpaste, toothbrushes & shampoo that I got for free, and most of it is from Walgreens. Here is why, every month Walgreens has an Easy Saver catalog. In the catalog you will find coupons, and rebates. They usually have several items that are FREE after rebate. The great thing about Walgreens rebates is you can submit them online, you don't have to mail anything. You submit all your rebates at once, so you get one large check, instead of a bunch of small ones. Plus, when you get your rebate in the form of a Walgreens gift card, they will give you an additional 10%. I always choose the Walgreens gift card, because then I used the new balance on my gift card to get the items that are free the following month.

You can view this month's Easy Saver Rebate tally sheet HERE.

If you notice, the first 3 items listed on the tally sheet are all FREE after rebate. You can also use coupons on those items, so they actually pay you to take the item.

Walgreens is sometimes out of items that they have on sale or are free after rebate. Since I have a month to get the items, and it seems like we have a Walgreens on every corner, I usally can find what I need. Some stores don't always mark there sale items very well, so grab the ad at the front of the store & double check what is on sale.

The Library

To get free books, magazines, DVD & CD's, get yourself a library card. If you aren't using this great resource, give it a try. Over 5 years ago, we were casual library users. We would take our kids to the library, let them pick out some books and a movie, check them out, take them home and enjoy.

Now, we use the library in a whole new way! We no longer rent movies, we get them all for free from the library. You can even get new releases when they come out. I can't guarantee that everybody's library system works the same as ours, but we can register online and put books & movies on hold. The library emails us when the books/movies are available, and I go pick them up. To find out what movies are coming out, I go to http://www.amazon.com/, and check out the upcoming movie releases. I then go the our library website and put them on hold.

I do the same for books. Our kids are big time readers. Especially Jordan, he can go through a stack of books in no time. To save me time, I put the majority of the books on hold. I go to Amazon, and check out the top sellers & read reviews, I then make a list of books I want to put on hold. You can do the same with books that are coming out soon, a lot of times they are in our library system before their release date. I was able to put the Harry Potter 7 book on hold, and pick it up the day it was released. We also purchased a copy, because some books are worth owning. This way, it gave us 2 copies of the book, so both Jordan & Austin could read at the same time. This helps us read all the new releases when they come out without having to actually purchase them.

The library has lots of other great resources as well. You can check out a "Play Pass" good for free admission to the Kid's Museum in Tacoma. Our library has story time for small kids, and lots of activities for teens. During the summer kids can be rewarded with a free zoo pass, just for reading. They also can earn a free kids meal & an ice skating pass just for visiting the library 5 times.

CHECK IT OUT!

My First Frugal Post

I have always been thrifty, but I have recently stepped-up my thriftiness in order to increase our food storage & to save money on our grocery bill. I have found lots of great resources to help me save. I am slightly nerdy when it comes to my bargain hunting.

If you were my husband, you would get an email that looks something like this:

Hey! Guess how much all of this would have cost me if I paid the regular price? Guess how much I got it for?


Regular price is $80.18. I paid $7.10!!!!! WOO HOO! That's a savings of $73.17.

So, here is a good deal this week that will get you some really cheap groceries. First, you need to go to http://www.coupons.com/ Print 2 each of the following coupons

Pillsbury crescent rolls, Pillsbury sweet rolls, Chex Mix, & Progresso soup.

Then take you fistful of coupons to Top Foods. Right now they are having a special when you spend $10 on certain products you will get $4 off.

So, you need to buy the following:
2 Pillsbury Sweet Rolls
2 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
2 Bags of Chex Mix
Sale price is 6/$10, after automatic $4 off, it makes them 6/$6, after your coupons, you will pay $ .80. Yes, that is right 80 cents!!

The sweet rolls and crescent rolls are free after coupons. See, now isn't that fun? I get all giddy just talking about it.
If you want to add the soup, which I bought to add to our food storage. You will need to buy the following:
6 Progresso soups (make sure the are the 6/$10)
After auto $4 off and coupons, you will get 6 soups for $3.80. Not bad!
That makes them only about .63 cents a can. You don't have to buy them in separate transactions you can do them all at once.

If you want to check out the ad for yourself and see all the items that are on sale, go to http://www.top-foods.com/

Oh, and if you want to print more of the same coupons to get more deals, you can do so at http://www.smartsource.com/ and http://www.pillsbury.com/. You will need to click on the coupon link at the top of the page at the Pillsbury site.Now go get some good deals! This offer is good until Tuesday, Sept. 9th.