Lovin' These Gas Prices

I think we're all breathing a sigh of relief with gas prices back down below $2.00 a gallon. But how about paying $0.009 per gallon?

We were able to do that over the weekend at Hyvee by taking advantage of some of their awesome "buy this and get ** cents off per gallon" deals.  Combine these with coupons and you can really get a great deal.

It's a limit of 20 gallons at that price and the Jeep has a 20 gallon tank.You can bet that I ran that gas tank down as far as I could and we practically sputtered into the gas station.  19.71 gallons and 18 cents later, we drove off.

In other news, the steroid injection has been working and I spent the weekend mostly pain free.  The sciatica is creeping back slowly but I've got a second injection scheduled for Thursday.  Hopefully, that will calm the nerve permanently.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Blast from the Past

Sorry to be away (yes, Mary Ann, we're still alive!).  We've just been ludicrously busy the past couple of weeks and the blog has suffered because of it.  J.'s mom had hip surgery two weeks ago and she seems to be recovering nicely and is up and around now.  (Hi, Linda!)

There's a good chance that we will finally hear about the project house this week.  The rumor is that they've received the long-awaiting documents that should clear up the title problem.  After so many false starts, though, I'm not holding my breath.

I had to share this unbelievable sight with you because I couldn't quite believe my own eyes either!  This is the gas pump when I filled up the tank this weekend at Hy-vee.

Nope, it wasn't broken...just good couponing! If you add in the $8.00 online rebate that I found while we were shopping, I paid just over $4.00 for a full tank of gas.  I can't even remember the last time gas was 61 cents per gallon.  In fact, I tried to look it up and the best I could find was that gas was 99 cents in 2000.   And milk used to be under $2.00 a gallon.  Do you guys remember that?

*sigh*  

Those were the good old days!

Sams Club for Zombie Apocalypse Preps?

J.'s brother is a mail carrier and this guy looks a little bit too much like him.  Yikes!

 

Have you watched too many Walking Dead episodes (like me) are convinced that the zombie apocalypse can happen at any time? 

 

Well, Sams and Costco are the places to get prepped for that kind of event.  Where else can you buys mountains of toilet paper, beans, and cheese puffs?  The only thing they don't have is ammo.  So I've been keeping an eye out for a good deal on memberships and I've finally found one for Sam's Club.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spend $45 and get a 1-year Advantage membership

+

$20 gift card (good at Sams or Walmart)

+ $20 in vouchers for free 16" pizza, rotisserie chicken and 24 Artisan cookies

= a 1-year membership for just $5.00!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

If you're already a member, you can still take advantage of this because you don't have to activate your membership until June 18th.  If your membership is expiring sometime between now and then, it's a great deal for renewal (you have to switch it to a family member that doesn't have a current membership, though, as this is valid only for new members).

 

This deal is only available through tomorrow night (March 7th), so you have to act fast if you want it.

 

To view details or sign up, use this link:

 

https://www.livingsocial.com/deals/628922?ref=share-link-post&rpi=108014560&rui=21796657

 

Completely Self-Serving Disclaimer: If 3 people sign up for the deal through my referral link above, I get my Sam's membership for free.  So I'm hoping that someone needs a good deal on a Sams membership and wouldn't mind helping me out by using the link.  Whether you use my link or not, it's still a great deal to get a Sams membership for just $5!

 

By the way...you know what would really scare the heck out of me?  Zombie chickens.

Think about it.

 

Couponing for Fun and Profit: Part 1

In the intro to this series, I talked about paying just $13.00 for our 7 lb ham and 12 lb turkey for Thanksgiving.  And I promised that I would give you some more info.

Okay....let's get to it.  The number one thing I hear from people when they find out I'm a couponer is "well, I never buy those brands" or "you can't beat Aldi's prices" or "I could never do that".   Folks, I've been doing this for over 3 years and I'm here to tell you that none of those statements are true.

Here's an easy example that you can do right now.  CVS paid me over $4.00 to shop there yesterday and I came home with a bunch of free stuff including sleep aids, allergy medication and toilet paper.  There are 28 free items that you can get at CVS right now and many of those you don't even need coupons for!

• iTunes or App Store Gift Cards - buy $75, get back $20 EB (Limit 1) = $20 profit 
• Advil Children's Suspension Liquid (1 oz) $2.37, use $1.50 coupon or $1 coupon (9/30 or 10/28 RP) and get back $2.37 EB (Limit 1) = $1.50 - $1 profit
• Glade Scented Oil Base Warmer $1.25, use $1 coupon (or here or 10/14 SS or 11/4 SS) and get back $1.25 EB (Limit 1) = $1 profit 
• AirWick Scented Oil Warmer $0.99, buy two and use $2 off 2 coupon and get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = $0.99 profit 
• South Beach Diet Meal or Snack Bar (5 ct) $4.99, find package with $1.00 coupon, and get back $4.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE or $1 profit
• 3M Command Hook (single pk) $0.99, use $1 coupon or $0.50 coupon (11/11 SS) and get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = $1 - $0.50 profit
• Charmin Basic (Single Roll) $0.99, use $0.25 coupon (10/14 or 10/28 P&G) and get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = $0.25 profit 
• Coke (1.25 liter bottle) $0.99, get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Advil (10 ct) $2.99, get back $2.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE
• Somnapure Sleep Aid (4 ct) $1.99, get back $1.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Carmex Lip Balm $0.99, get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Nasal Ease Allergy Reliever (0.18 oz) $9.99, get back $9.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Nutrawise (Youtheory) Collagen Formula (120 ct) $9.49, get back $9.49 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Bayer Countour Next EZ Meter $10, get back $10 EB (Limit 1) = FREE *Use coupon in Diabetes & You magazine found in stores for a FREE One a Day vitamin WYB this meter 
• Street King Energy Shot (2 pk) $3.99, get back $3.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Pur-Absorb Iron (28 ct) $16.99, get back $16.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Haviland Thin Mints or Nips Candy $0.88, get back $0.88 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Kraft Mac & Cheese (5.5 - 7.25 oz) $0.99, get back $0.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Kleenex Slim Pack Facial Tissue (3 pk) or Sparkle Single Roll Paper Towels $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 2) = FREE 
• As seen on TV Easy Feet $4.99, get back $4.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Cepacol Sensations (4 ct) $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Scooby Doo Fruit Snacks (8 oz) $2, get back $2 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Starbucks Double Shot (6.5 oz single can) $1.99, get back $1.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Starbucks Refreshers (12 oz) $1.50, get back $1.50 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Hot Wheels Cars $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Powerade (32 oz) $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Play-Doh Soft Pack Resealable Pack $1, get back $1 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Phillips Universal Remote $6.99, get back $6.99 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Thermacare Back & Hip Wrap (1 ct) $3.49, get back $3.49 EB (Limit 1) = FREE 
• Illy Issimo Caffe (no sugar) BOGO sale, use BOGO coupon (Diabetes & You magazine found in stores) = two for FREE 
• Lindsay Large California Ripe Pitted Olives $1, use $1 coupon = FREE

Now I realize that some of that may be Martian to you, so let's go over the lingo.  EB means "ExtraCare Bucks".  CVS has a program called ExtraCare and you can sign up for it in the store for free and they'll give you an ExtraCare card.  To get these deals, you MUST sign up and you MUST have an ExtraCare card.  (Some of us have several....*nonchalant whistling*). 

Now let's look at a specific deal, pull it apart, and see how this works.  How about this one?

Advil Children's Suspension Liquid (1 oz) $2.37, use $1.50 coupon or $1 coupon (9/30 or 10/28 RP) and get back $2.37 EB (Limit 1) = $1.50 - $1 profit

From this, we know the following: 

• The sale price is $2.37.
• There are several coupons we could use.  The underline under the $1.50 coupon indicates that it's an online, printable coupon (just click and it will take you to it).  Or, if you have the Sunday paper from 9/30/12 or 10/28/12, there was a $1.00 coupon in there.  There are often multiple coupon inserts in the Sunday paper and they all have names, including Smart Source, P&G, and RedPlum.  The RP after the date indicates that it was the "Red Plum" coupon insert.
• When we buy the item, we'll get back the full amount of $2.37 in the form an ExtraCare Buck, which is a coupon that prints at the end of our receipt.  That coupon is good for $2.37 toward any item in CVS with a few exceptions like prescriptions, stamps, and liquor.

Now let's go to CVS and find the Advil Children's and take it to the register.  Here's what this simple scenario will look like:

1. Hand the cashier the Advil and your ExtraCare card (or ask to sign up for one).
2. The Advil will ring up for $2.37.
3. Hand the cashier your coupon.  Let's pretend you printed the $1.50 coupon to maximize your savings.
4. The total will now be 87 cents.  Pay the cashier.
5. The receipt will print and on it will be an ExtraCare Bucks coupon for $2.37.  You just profited $1.50!  And it only took about 5 minutes of your time.

Now, I don't have kids so I'm sure you would ask why I would want to buy a children's medication.  The answer is two-fold.  First, it's a moneymaker which allows me to spend the profit on items that I *do* want and need.  And, second, I either give away or donate those things that I get for free.  Couponing has allowed me to make a ton of donations of products to homeless shelters and women's rescue shelters.

So get those printers going and dig out those old Sunday papers.  In Part II of this series, I'll give you tips on how to pay even less in the above scenario, talk about why where you shop matters, and give you some great sites to look at if you want to learn more about couponing.

Thanksgiving on the Cheap

I love bargains.  I can't remember if I mentioned here that I'm a coupon nut, but it's probably not a stretch of the imagination since I've talked about being raised by grandparents that lived through the Great Depression and saved everything. We can't get crazy like some of those folks on that Extreme Couponing show here in the Midwest because there are no stores that triple coupons, but we can get some pretty good deals.  In fact, over on my Thriftypuppy blog, I used to outline all the deals every day.  It got to be WAYYYY too time consuming, though, and I quit when I realized that I was doing more coupon blogging than actual living.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a couponing blog but I've been doing alot of couponing lately and getting some great deals.  So I thought I would share it with you in hopes that you could save some money also. 

J. and I usually spend Thanksgiving at home together and sometimes we make the dinner with the turkey and trimmings and sometimes we're lazy and just hit the buffet.  The problem is that I love turkey pot pie and everything you can do with leftovers and the smell of roasting turkey wafting through the house.  So we're cooking this  year for the second year in a row.

This weekend, I picked up a 7 lb. ham and a 12 pound turkey, which is enough for the two of us, for just $13.00 after coupons.  No, that's not a typo.  Given that the ham retailed for over $23.00 and the turkey was $18.00, that's pretty darn good.  How did I do it?  Combining a sale with coupons.

Our local coupon-friendly Hy-vee has a sale right now where you get the turkey free if you buy the ham.  I had a $5 off $50 coupon for Hy-Vee so we're down to $18.00 for both at that point.  Then it gets creative.  They also had  sale on Kraft items where you buy 10 selected Kraft items (cheese, Velveeta, mayo, etc.) and you automatically get $6.00 off at the register.  Price Chopper has the same sale, but they are giving you $10 off.  Did you know Hy-Vee price matches?  Just take the ad in and ask them to price match.  But I still would have had to pay for the 10 Kraft items.  Luckily, they had Kraft shredded cheese on sale for just $1.00 and I had six $1.00 off 2 coupons.  So I bought 10 of them at just 50 cents each after coupon, or $5.00 total, and got the $10.00 off the turkey\ham.  That $5.00 "profit" brought the total down to just $13.00 for the stars of our Thanksgiving dinner.

Now you may not have a Hy-Vee or Price Chopper in your area, but price matching and coupons are usually OK at most stores.  Several stores are doing the "buy a ham, get a turkey" sale, including ShopRite and HEB.  Check your local stores to see if they are offering something similar.

Want to find out how to get 28 ABSOLUTELY FREE items or even make money at CVS today?  Check out Part I of my Couponing for Fun and Profit series!