Best Deals Yet

This had to be my best shopping trip yet! I'm finally getting the hang of it! I bought $88 worth of food and household items for $7.97. I'll get back $2.97 because of a rebate from Noxema for a oop of $5.00!

Orange Spice Sun Tea

Today it's in the 90's with high humidity. A perfect day for making orange spice sun tea. I use 6 regular tea bags with 4 orange spice tea bags. My mom used to make it on the stove and use real oranges, spices, and then a lot of sugar - sooo good! I take the lazy route, and then leave out the sugar, that way I can drink more. I found the orange spice tea bags at the dollar food store last year and really stocked up.

June Rebates

These are my June Rebate items from Rite Aid and Walgreens. I'll probably pick up more from Rite Aide during the month because it's just down the road, but since Walgreens is a 25 mile drive (round trip) I only go there once or twice a month. I like that I can submit them online and don't even have to pay for postage!

Recycle Those Messy Jars

Have you every thrown out a messy jar because it was such a pain to wash, or because of all the water involved in getting it clean? I fill it about 1/2 full of warm water, add a little dish soap, put the lid on, and shake well. Then I leave it on the counter and occasionally give it a good shake (over the course of the day) until all the gunk is loose.

Cheap Makeup

I just ordered 45 e.l.f makeup items, including mineral wear foundations, for $67.50 shipped!! Most items are $1.00. Use coupon code CAROLINA for a first time buyers %10 discount and orders over $75.00 get free shipping. I hear that they were bought out by Nordstrom and everything with the e.l.f. logo has to go! Great Christmas gifts for my girls!

A Lot of Free Shaving Cream

Walgreens has Satin Care shaving gel on sale for $2.00, minus $1.00 Instant Value Coupon from the rebate book, minus $1.00 manufacture coupon - Free. But wait there's more! When you spend $20.00 on certain Gillette products, get a $5.00 Register Reward. 10 free shaving gels and $5 to spend - WOW!

Purchase VS Transaction

At least once a week a cashier will tell me I can't use more than one of the same coupon because the coupon states one per purchase. I tell them, very nicely, that means one coupon per item, not one coupon per transaction.

Free Rebates

These are the free rebate items I have picked up so far for the month of June from Rite Aid and Walgreens.

Cheap Razors??

I guess it's a matter of opinion if this is a good deal. My three teenage kids love these, so I stockpile them when I can get them for a somewhat reasonable deal and give them at Christmas. Last year I put together packages with expense razors and shaving gels for them and they absolutely loved it! Good thing they don't read my blog because I'm doing it again this year! These nine razors with the bonus gel were $77.66 regular price, $54.24 clearance price, minus 9 $4.00 off coupons $18.24, minus $10.00 in gift cards from hair color deal, $8.24 OOP.

Beware Double Coupons

I recently discovered that both of the grocery stores in my area have a limit on how many of like coupons that will double in the same transaction. So if you are buying 4 or more of the same item and using a coupons that will double, check your store's policy or purchase them in separate transactions.

How To Get Great Deals

I'm frequently asked how I get such great deals, so here is an example of one I did last week. Target is giving a $5.00 gift card with the purchase of a box of Perfect 10 hair color. I had BOGO coupons so I was able to get 2 boxes for $12.99 and then received $10.00 in gift cards at the checkout. When I repeated the deal I could use the gift cards and pay only $2.99 for 2 boxes. Because I didn't use the gift cards every time I did the deal I ended up with $60.00 in gift cards near the end of the week. Since I had a lot of coupons that were getting ready to expire and Target had a lot of clearance food and nonfood items, I did a big shopping trip. My total was $170, after sale and clearance prices $146, after coupons $96, after I used $30 in gift cards my OOP was $66. This might seem like a high amount spent this week, but since I am still in the beginning of my stockpile stage I bought a lot of certain items like Ziploc bags and Morning Star products.