Burnout

Crazy coupon burnout.

Or I don't want to cut out coupons. Either one. I really need an army of children. Not my children (I don't have any and will never have any), but other people's kids. Anyone want to volunteer their free labor?

Guess not.

Here's my CVS list. Don't really have anything good for Shaw's. Sorry guys..

Ibotta

I don't really use Ibotta.

I don't really understand it, and until recently, my smartphone hated it (yay new battery!). But today, after I went to CVS, I noticed that I could get 75 cents for the Schick Hydro razor I bought.

While it doesn't work at my grocery store, I think it's great for my new weekly trips to CVS!

Try it out. 75 cents is 75 cents you didn't have before!

Ugh, regional coupons

Every wake up after spending a week (or 2) on a shopping list to NOT get the right coupons?

That was my morning. I didn't get the Jergens coupon (that I really wanted) or the Hawaiian Tropic coupon (eh, I'm ok with that). So I re-did my list to be way better. But then I went to the store, where prices were a bit higher than expected, but here's my final list!

It's pretty exciting. I got $12 more back than I spent.

CVS deal breakdown

As you've seen, my CVS list is pretty short next week. I've added a couple coupons, so my OOP will be a little less. YAY!!

Crest Deal:

Combine this deal with the $1 off 1 coupon in the April P&G and you get free toothpaste!!

Sunscreen deal:

This is pretty sweet. This is how I'm going to play it. However the Schick products are also a good deal. 

Buy: (2) Hawaiian Tropic Sunscreens ($8.99 each) 

(1) Playtex Sport tampons ($5.29 online)

Use: (2) Hawaiian Tropic $1 off 1 coupons from the upcoming SmartSource

(1) Playtex Sport $1 off 1 coupons found on the Playtex website.
Pay: $21.27 OOP
Get: $10 back in ECBS

It's like paying $3.75 each!

Jergens Deal

I'm going to play this:

Buy: (2) Jergens Natural Glow ($8.99)

Use: (1) $3 off 2 Natural Glow coupon found in the upcoming SmartSource

(1) $2 off any $8 lotion purchase  (I found this in my online CVS account. Must be CVS Machine)

Pay: $12.98 

Get: $5 back in ECBs

It's like paying $3.99 each

Almay Deal:

There are many different things you can buy, I'm going to go with this:

Buy: (2) Almay Eraser Sticks (Online price: $5.49)

Use: (2) $4 off 1 coupons (found in 4/14 SmartSource)

(1) $2 off $5 cosmetic purchase (CVS machine)

Pay: $0.98 

Get: $4 back in ECBs. 

It's a $3 moneymaker!!!

Other notes: 

I have $12 in ECBs from last week

I have $5 in ECBS from beauty club

I also have a $5 off a $30 purchase. 

Under this plan, I will pay $5.24 and get back $21. Maybe an extra $5 for beauty club. 

CVS 4/21-4/27

This is my list for CVS on Sunday.
I'll break it down later.

Is it Spring?

It's April, and I'm already wishing it's Christmas. But I have so many ideas for homemade presents.

Maybe I could make them now and hide them until Christmas?

It's a sad week.

It's a sad week this week.
No good deals at Shaw's or CVS.

Have a good one.

It's Mega SwagBucks FRIDAY!!

Do you know what that means?

Search, Search, Search!

Have fun!
If you haven't joined Swagbucks yet, join here :)

Have you ever?

Complained about the price of something?

Last week, during Kohl's doorbuster deals, I convinced myself to buy a Ninja Pro blender. I kinda wanted one, and I've been on a smoothie kick, and my tiny Hamilton-Beach 12 oz just doesn't have the power I want.

The deal was good, and I convinced myself to buy it. Yesterday, it came in the mail and I went to register it. I was too lazy to find the model number on the blender, so I checked the Kohl's website. Where it was priced cheaper than when I bought mine. Not much. After the 20% off coupon, it's like $5 cheaper. But that's $5! I fight for less than that with my coupons!

And that's how I found myself emailing customer support (probably should've called) and complaining about this. Not that I really want to be reimbursed for the $5, but I find it somewhat offensive to be offering something at such a lower price before my order even gets to me.

Hopefully something will happen. Who knows?

Why do I coupon?

Every once in a while, I get asked this question. It's legit. I live with my parents (reality of the 21st century) and I am definitely not hurting for money (thanks mom and dad!).

I coupon, and read personal finance articles, and have a savings account because I never want to be in the situation some of my female family members are in. I never want to rely on my husband or fiance to take care of my money.

I have an aunt who lost her house after her drug-addicted husband used the mortgage money for whatever. He borrowed thousands of dollars from family and now they're homeless and have no way of paying it back. Or refuse to. But that's family drama.

And then there's my sister, who is incredibly responsible and frugal, but her husband is not. He is a salesman, and apparently uses his salesman power to convince them to buy cars they can't afford and do things that are out of their means. So now, my sister is constantly trying to figure out how to make more money so they aren't in debt.

But I refuse to be them. Yeah, I'm not living on my own, but I'm also not swimming in student or credit card debt. I can pay my bills, and I know how to live within my means.

So that's why I coupon and learn to manage my money. Because I'm never going to live at the mercy of someone else.

EDIT: My cousin just realized that she's $8,000 in debt, not the original $2,000 she thought she was. I feel like this money mismanagement is genetic. Not. Me.

Burt's Bee's Deal at CVS

I love Burt's Bee's products, but when I started couponing, I was BLOWN away by the price. But this week they'll be cheap enough for me!

Here's the deal: 

Buy (4) Lip Shimmers- $4.99 (online price)
Use (4) $1.50 off 1 coupons found here (you'll need 2 computers)

Pay $13.96 out of pocket

Get $5 back
Net cost: $8.96 or $2.29 each (half price!)

Uh oh, someone wants a writing sample...

I'm not going to pretend I am the best writer in the world. Or even that anyone reads this.

Just in case, I'm going to be super entertaining and political for once. Ok, not that political, but I do hate Massholes. So thank you Massachusetts, this post is for you!

So a couple days ago, I'm surfing Facebook, trying not to comment/share every funny thing out there, but I did come across a great article (found here) about Scott Brown.

For those of you who don't know, NH and MA don't really get along. Massachusetts drivers suck and they have this thing called sales tax. I'm not a Masshole, but I'm sure they think I'm some weird gun toting drunk hippie driving without a seatbelt. LIVE FREE OR DIE!!

My first reaction to hearing about Scott Brown was:

   

Why, may you ask? Because Scott Brown is a crazy guy driving a truck. He's also a Masshole who thinks NH is their second home and thinks it's cool to just slide up here. Like every resident of Massachusetts who loves our state liquor stores and lack of taxes and seatbelts.

Guess what Scott Brown? We didn't want Romney and his 2nd (6th?) home and we don't want you either. We have our own crazy people (looking at you, Bill O'Brien).

Hopefully he'll shut up for a couple years and I can continue my Scott Brown-free life. Here's to 2016!

Ultimate Swagbucks List

So you may have noticed that I love Swagbucks. I'm not going to lie. It took me about a year to get into it. I thought I could only enter sweepstakes and thought it was  a major waste of time.

Now I love it.

Why the change of heart? Well, first I realized that I could get gift cards (yes!) and that it was WAY easier to get swagbucks than I got. And I got way more responsible with money and time.

So I'm always wondering what the best deal is for my Swagbucks. I don't want to waste them, and I'm sure you don't either. So I'm going to make a list and see what the best deal is. Currently I love $5 Amazon cards, but let's see how it plays out.

Item                                     Price               SB per $1
$5 Amazon Gift card            450 SB           90 SB
Most other $5 gift cards       500 SB           100 SB
All $10 gift cards                 1000 SB          100 SB
All $15 gift cards                 1500 SB          100 SB
All $25 gift cards                 2500 SB          100 SB
$50 Cabela's gift card*         4650 SB          93 SB
$50 Rhapsody gift card*       4799 SB          96 SB
Other $50 gift cards             5000 SB         100 SB
All $100 gift cards               10000 SB        100 SB

*On sale, so price could change

Seems like I'm right, which is upsetting. You'd think you'd get a price break after awhile.

Ebates and Swag Bucks

My best friend lives in Los Angeles. I have been meaning to visit her, but my life has been crazy. And she works 2 jobs and has to take days off when someone visits, and I feel bad, because I know how important money can be.

So I'm visiting Memorial Day weekend. Which costs like twice as much as it would if I were to visit like midweek, but really not much more than a normal weekend trip. And I'm not really paying for anything else, like a hotel or a rental car, so I can "afford" to spend more on a plane. 

So my restrictions were: 

I had to arrive after 7pm, and leave before 10am. This is like the most expensive times to buy, but my flight back East already means I'm spending all day in a plane (time change plus 5 hours, ick). 

I've also never flown by myself, so I splurged (like $50) for the non-stop flight.

So I priced it out on EVERY website you could imagine on a Tuesday afternoon (best time to check flights, no?) . I found the perfect round trip flight at like $480, which is pretty close to what I would pay weekend anyways. But between waiting to see if it was a good flight and the best deal on it, I lost out and ending up paying over $500 for it. But, if the seating plan is true, it's because the regular coach seats are full, and I have to sit in the front, with more leg room. Oh no!

So now that I knew the flight and the baseline price, I checked Ebates to see what site I could get the most money back on. Like everyone of them was like a $1. Do you know how much a DOLLAR means on a $500 flight?

Not much. 

So I went to Swagbucks, and they had the same deal, just a dollar after I converted it to USD. So I went with Swagbucks and Hotwire, because they were there. 

Today those swagbucks came in, and they put in just the right position to get another gift card!!!! 

The moral of the story: No one is going to pay you big bucks to fly a plane. Unless you get it in a package.

Shaw's 4/5-4/11

Here is my list of what I'm buying on Friday (gotta get in before the shelf clearers):

As you notice, I'm kinda OC about my shopping lists. I also have a random cell in Excel that calculates my % saved (just with coupons, Shaw's includes the sales in it's percentage). You'll notice that I have 2 total cells. I'm sorry. The $33 is the total amount of coupons, and $19.24 will be my out of pocket cost.

Note: Edy's is BOGO. I was told that it will be $5. To make my spreadsheet work, I used $2.50. That is so that I know how many I need to buy without screwing up my coupons I will use.

2nd Note: I will also be getting a $3 catalina for buying floss. That will make the net cost of floss 14 cents each.