CVS Rocks!

CVS ROCKS!

I've been doing the CVS Extra Care Buck deals for awhile, but I REALLY love how all of the stores around me have gotten on board recently with people who are there "doing the deals".

A couple years ago, couponers were frowned upon, often treated rudely and one time, I had a manager stalk me in a Walgreens, remove items from my cart because apparently getting them for free when using a coupon struck him as something that should be illegal.
Never mind that the manufacturer was paying Walgreens to have the special advertised price AND were reimbursing them face value plus $.08 per coupon(all from the Sunday paper)... little Hitler didn't like couponers(he told me so), and unfortunately.. he wasn't the only one back then. While little Hitler still reigns supreme in his unloved by me Walgreen store.. the CVS stores have surrounded him and are universally loved by me.

I often drive by that pitiful little store and pray that they would "get what they deserve".
Speaking of Walgreens and why I don't love them... when I called the corporate office to report the coupon Hitler's harassment (seriously, it'd take another post to detail the painfully WRONG way I was treated there), the corporate office was also rude to me and suggested that people who want to get things for free are scarcely removed from a criminal who steals. Imagine! ME! Needless to say.. I've never been back.

CVS has always been nice, even when they were cracking down on coupon use, they've always been respectful and friendly.

Nowadays though.. WHO HOO!!! CVS loves me and I love them back.

This weeks Sunday-Tuesday deals were pretty good, I got a big bag of free school supplies, a great deal on some printer paper and some Aussie hair stuff.. and some super cute photo cards off the clearance shelf, not counting things like milk etc..

Check out moneysavingmom.com and hotcouponworld.com for great tips and deals from CVS. Go to CVS.com and sign up for emails with printable coupons, your loyalty card at CVS is probably the best loyalty card out there.

Go CVS!

More Frugal Fun!

I've been couponing since mid-February, again. It's been nearly ten years since I've packed up the old coupon file and headed to a store that doubles coupons, but I was ready to save some BIG money. Husband and I came up with a new budget and the most obvious area to cut back on (after eating out) was groceries. It's no surprise to me that we spend too much money on food, but I've been surprised at how much I've saved.

Here are the top 10 things I'm doing to save money on grocery and household/personal supplies.

1. Getting coupons. I find them in the Sunday paper inserts (buying multiple papers for 1.00 @ local Dollar Tree.. because I'm too cheap to pay full price even for a paper), I find them online at company websites, I find them at smartsource.com and other coupon websites, and most importantly, I find links to ones I can use at www.hotcouponworld.com.

2. Going to CVS and doing their Extra Buck promotions to get things like shampoo/conditioner/razors/soap/toothbrushes/paste/cleaning supplies/diapers/wipes/personal care etc.. for FREE or for around 80% less than at Walmart. This is COOL! Check out the CVS forum @ hotcouponworld.com to see for yourself... or moneysavingmom.com

3. Paying attention to the flyers for other stores beside my favorites. If I know I'll be near one and they have a deal worth doing, I add it to my trip list. Most deals aren't worth extra gas, but if I'll be driving by anyway... :D

4. Letting people know I'm couponing. I've gotten lots of tips, advice and help, PLUS free coupons.

5. Stocking up more intensely on things we use when they are cheap. For example, I used to buy 2 1/2 gallons of the organic milk when I found it marked down, now I buy ALL they have and freeze it. Also.. I have enough personal care stuff to last us 2 months, mostly stuff I bought for free(is that even possible? to buy something for free?) at CVS.

6. Checking www.moneysavingmom.com's website for her speed linking of deals to coupons available. www.hotcouponworld.com also has speed linking on some of their forums.

7. Eating what we have. Simplistic, but profound. If I stock what's cheap and we eat what we have.... true savings will result!
Our average cost for a nice homecooked dinner has come down to $5.00 to feed 7 people, plus leftovers for at least 2 lunches. It used to be $14.00 for the same dinner, and prices have gone UP on average, not down since I've begun my savings rally.

8. Rationing things. My son who eats four yoghurts a day now eats two (and gets his dairy and protein from milk and pistachios.. still cheaper than his fav brand Yoplait).

9. Taking snacks, packing sandwiches etc.. for our errand days. Including a Pepsi for me, since if I get the urge for one, it's a lot cheaper to pull it out of the cooler for .30 a pop (like the pun?) than to spend $1.49 at a drive-thru.

10. PAYING ATTENTION in grocery stores. I've found spending an extra 15min actually looking around me per trip has resulted in about 20$ per week in savings because of unadvertised deals or catching freebies via coupons that I would have otherwise missed.

I love gardening!

This time of year just thrills me! I love getting out and puttering around the garden beds. Planting onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, garlic, and more. Tending the flower beds, dividing especially is my favorite thing to do. All the little baby plants or bulbs ready to go out into the world and do something wonderful.

Just this week, I've divided up some peonies, iris, blackeyed susan, and a succulent groud cover that immigrated on some plants last year and has done a great job of keep the weeds out. Put them all up by our mailbox where the bare patch used to be.

Now, I've still loads of work to do, but somehow, unlike household chores that overwhelm me and instigate burnout.. gardening overload just stimulates me and revs me up. I'm never more positive and optimistic than when my knees are in the soil and my fingers caked with black hummus. I wrote on my other blog, ramblingrose.blog-city.com that the most important ingredient of gardening is hope. Everything else is subject to that one rule. One must have hope!

The really beautiful thing about gardening.. is that just as one can choose to believe in God and choose to accept the miracle of salvation via Jesus Christ and His perfect plan (see Acts 2:38), one can choose to have hope that the little seed planted today will grow into a mighty and glorious plant bearing blossom and fruit. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. To me.. that verse is talking about life. And if gardening isn't about anything else.. it's about LIFE.

The first profession was that of gardener. Adam and Eve.. they tended the gardens that God Almighty had planted and designed. We are surely created in His image, and it's that awesome connectedness to creation and our ability to interact and affect creation that moves me so when I work in the garden.

Some people think that farmers/gardeners were despised because God shunned Cain's offering. Not so. Cain brought the wrong thing, it was his rebellious attitude that marked his offering, not his career.

Everyone ought to have living plants around them. All it takes is a scoop of soil, a container (with holes for drainage, or lined with gravel), and either a plant or a seed. Water when surface is dry, feed occasionally with leftover tea or a bit of fresh soil, and give it access to the sun. Before you know it, something wonderful is happening.. Life! Hope! Joy!

Sometimes you just need to take a break

I'm coming back to the blog(s) after breaking for six months. Long enough (you would think) to have lost my rankings and most of my readers.. (you would think wrong.. for some reason my readers have gone up ditto rankings).

What can I say? I needed a break. My baby is bigger and more independent, we are over the winter blah's, and I'm feeling, once again, the call of the keyboard and the need to shape my words into something more lasting than thoughts.

I've read before that books change peoples lives, but blogs change peoples minutes. If that is true, then I may never write anything that will change someone's life, but it is my sincere desire to change your minutes.

Here's your thought for this minute...

Steadfast Simplicity.

It came to me about two hours ago in the van. I was pondering the complexities of my life and the surprise contrasts (how many Apostolic Pentecostal homeschool mothers of five children do you know who love the concept of permaculture and wants to be an urban permaculturalist?.. thought so). Out of the blue, I got those two words. Steadfast simplicity.

That's what I want for my life. Stability, steadfastness, strong foundational beliefs and lifestyle. Simplicity of logic, approach to life, everything really.

I see no need to practice the religion of consumerism. I feel no draw to participate in the culture of the cloned. I am not tempted to play weak logic games that justify selfishness and enables irresponsibility.

in fact, I like things to be simple. There is an elegance and beauty in simplicity. If you look at the most beautiful designer clothes, they are the ones with the simple lines, where the lack of adornment is all the adornment necessary. That's how I want to live. A life of such elegant and concise simplicity that it's beautiful.

I've got a long way to go. Many things clutter my world. Still, in the clearness of a few moments alone with my thoughts, I had a beautiful thought. I want steadfast simplicity in my life!

Freecycling Living

I've been a "freecycler" for several years now.. even "owned" a list before we moved here.
However, until recently, I've not been very active.. not in giving and not in receiving.

My current state of activity stems from my first "receipt" of a full blooded boxer (that we no longer have, but that's a different story). That whole thing went so well, that I was bold enough to respond "yes pelase" to a few other offers.

Right now, outside my window are the fruits of that reponse... A veritable visual feast of black eyed susans, herbs, day lilies and others. So.. that went really well also.

My next venture was to offer some old stuff we needed to get rid of, and that didn't go so well. I had trouble with people not showing up to p/u, not calling, saying they wanted it for sure.. and then no word EVER again.

More recently... I've been collecting yardsale stuff for a fundraiser yardsale I'm planning on having in a few weeks for our churches school. Freecycle has provided most of the loot.

One woman gave me six large boxes and ten bags of prepriced stuff, another three big boxes of misc, another woman gave me three MORE boxes of her garage sale leftovers, and yet another one box plus a music stand.

Yesterday I picked up a bag of boys clothes (half will work for my 2yo), and today I go to get yet another lot of yardsale appropriate stuff. All it costs me is the time and fuel to go fetch it. Just guessing, but I think we'll make at least $200.00 just from the freecyled yardsale items.

We've been on a frugal kick lately, trying to get a few things paid off and do some projects.
It just occurred to me that if I kept this up after the yardsale, I could go forever without buying my children another toy, item of clothing, or any household item.

You should see the stuff we've gotten.. my favorites are the Waterford crystal bowl, the Fostoria vase, the fenton ware vase, the vintage fisher price toys, and some really nice drinking glasses. All from freecycle.

The kicker, is that my list is one of the smaller ones. Near us, there is a list that has 3000 members, imagine the goodies that list could generate?

Freecycle and thinking

I've been a "freecycler" for several years now.. even "owned" a list before we moved here.
However, until recently, I've not been very active.. not in giving and not in receiving.

My current state of activity stems from my first "receipt" of a full blooded boxer (that we no longer have, but that's a different story). That whole thing went so well, that I was bold enough to respond "yes pelase" to a few other offers.

Right now, outside my window are the fruits of that reponse... A veritable visual feast of black eyed susans, herbs, day lilies and others. So.. that went really well also.

My next venture was to offer some old stuff we needed to get rid of, and that didn't go so well. I had trouble with people not showing up to p/u, not calling, saying they wanted it for sure.. and then no word EVER again.

More recently... I've been collecting yardsale stuff for a fundraiser yardsale I'm planning on having in a few weeks for our churches school. Freecycle has provided most of the loot.

One woman gave me six large boxes and ten bags of prepriced stuff, another three big boxes of misc, another woman gave me three MORE boxes of her garage sale leftovers, and yet another one box plus a music stand.

Yesterday I picked up a bag of boys clothes (half will work for my 2yo), and today I go to get yet another lot of yardsale appropriate stuff. All it costs me is the time and fuel to go fetch it. Just guessing, but I think we'll make at least $200.00 just from the freecyled yardsale items.

We've been on a frugal kick lately, trying to get a few things paid off and do some projects.
It just occurred to me that if I kept this up after the yardsale, I could go forever without buying my children another toy, item of clothing, or any household item.

You should see the stuff we've gotten.. my favorites are the Waterford crystal bowl, the Fostoria vase, the fenton ware vase, the vintage fisher price toys, and some really nice drinking glasses. All from freecycle.

The kicker, is that my list is one of the smaller ones. Near us, there is a list that has 3000 members, imagine the goodies that list could generate?

Freecycle and thinking

I've been a "freecycler" for several years now.. even "owned" a list before we moved here.
However, until recently, I've not been very active.. not in giving and not in receiving.

My current state of activity stems from my first "receipt" of a full blooded boxer (that we no longer have, but that's a different story). That whole thing went so well, that I was bold enough to respond "yes pelase" to a few other offers.

Right now, outside my window are the fruits of that reponse... A veritable visual feast of black eyed susans, herbs, day lilies and others. So.. that went really well also.

My next venture was to offer some old stuff we needed to get rid of, and that didn't go so well. I had trouble with people not showing up to p/u, not calling, saying they wanted it for sure.. and then no word EVER again.

More recently... I've been collecting yardsale stuff for a fundraiser yardsale I'm planning on having in a few weeks for our churches school. Freecycle has provided most of the loot.

One woman gave me six large boxes and ten bags of prepriced stuff, another three big boxes of misc, another woman gave me three MORE boxes of her garage sale leftovers, and yet another one box plus a music stand.

Yesterday I picked up a bag of boys clothes (half will work for my 2yo), and today I go to get yet another lot of yardsale appropriate stuff. All it costs me is the time and fuel to go fetch it. Just guessing, but I think we'll make at least $200.00 just from the freecyled yardsale items.

We've been on a frugal kick lately, trying to get a few things paid off and do some projects.
It just occurred to me that if I kept this up after the yardsale, I could go forever without buying my children another toy, item of clothing, or any household item.

You should see the stuff we've gotten.. my favorites are the Waterford crystal bowl, the Fostoria vase, the fenton ware vase, the vintage fisher price toys, and some really nice drinking glasses. All from freecycle.

The kicker, is that my list is one of the smaller ones. Near us, there is a list that has 3000 members, imagine the goodies that list could generate?

Michael's Hobby Store

I went into Michaels the other day for a spool of thing white grograin ribbon. They didn't have any.. but that didn't stop me from browsing around and finding some irresistable ribbon in the dollar bin.

I needed the grograin for baby's pacifier clip. The satin kind gets dingy looking really quickly, and if we don't use the pacifier clip.. the pacifier gets dingy really quickly too!

While there, I found a super-duper calendar for 2007. It was only 1$, and is called a "family calendar". The spaces for names (Mom, Dad, kids etc), I'm going to use for homeschool subjects, and leave one for family happenings. This will be such a time saver, and is so simple, that I won't get "sidetracked" like I usually do when trying a planner. It's just a normal calendar, and I love it.

Free Stuff

I'm a "BzzAgent" on my "Bzzagent.com" site

The gist of being a bzzagent, is that I get samples of things to try and share.. and they get feedback. I've gotten some great stuff to try.. Hershey's Take5's for example.

However.. my current crop of cool things are websites.

Audible.com has the world's largest selection of digital audiobooks and spokenword entertainment... AND.. since they give me free stuff to share... I can pass on the code to get 1 free audiobook with a trial membership (no obligation).
So.. for those of you who might be interested... here it is.... my "1 Free Download" site of just go to www.audible.com/bzz.


Also.. I have a free shipping from Smart Bargains.com. SmartBargains is like a mega online mall with all brandname stuff on sale every day. Click here my "Free Shipping" site or go to www.smartbargains.com/bzz.


I wish I could share my favorite recent bzzproject, for Aquapod, with you. My children absolutely loved these. Unfortunately.. digital samples of cute bottled waters are still unavailable to the general public....

Sign up yourself to bzzagent if you want.. lots of neat latest and greatest stuff. my "Bzzagent" site

I won't get anything if you sign up or use any of these.. it's just something I though one or two of my four readers might enjoy! ;-D

Legal Loophole Mastermind

I used to work in fraud detection. This is probably my first mention of that seedy little tidbit from my past.. but it's true.
My research skills were honed on that job.. and I'm still grateful for the things I learned about identity protection. I also learned more about people than you would think.. considering I sat at a computer desk letting my fingers do the walking all day.

Working in such rarefied atmosphere exposed me to what might be the most elegant and ambitious use of legal loopholes I've ever seen.

Here's the story.

My bank issued credit cards. If you made purchases and paid it off (15 day grace period) each month.. no interest, no fees. Also.. your credit report got a boost from each month of paid off credit use. If.. however.. you used it for cash advance.. there was no grace period, and interest accrued from day one.. also.. it was a small strike against your report.

This guy (my Loophole Hero)had taken a trip overseas about two years before we "caught" him.. and like many travelers.. he'd purchased his traveler's checks with his Mastercard. When he got his bill... the savvy mastermind realized that the Traveler's checks were billed as a PURCHASE... not a cash advance. He saw the opening.. and dove through it.
For two years.. he maxed out two high limit credit cards each month with traveler's check purchases that he coverted to cash and invested in short-term guaranteed returns, and then paid them off each month. One card had a due date of the 15th.. the other of the 30th. By rotating card use.. he was able to keep them paid off each month and never pay a dime of interest. What he DID with those free loans is even more interesting... He was earning 3.5% interest on money that didn't belong to him.. and getting an incredible credit card score in the process.

I still remember how my boss frothed at the mouth over that. You'd think he had robbed her personally.. when in fact.. there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with his scheme. He broke no laws.. didn't even stretch his credit use agreement.
However.. and it still saddens me to think about it (because anybody with that much gumption should be rewarded).. we canceled all his cards and gave him a fraud flag on his report. A fraud flag means.. at the very least.. that somebody is watching all the time(very frequent usage reviews). At the worst.. it means you can't get credit.

I still feel sorry for the man. Just because he figured out a way to beat the system.. he got nailed with a fraud flag.. and probably won't ever know why.

Want to try your hand at it? As far as I know.. the only catch is finding a card that charges Traveler's Checks as purchases.. not cash advances, but be sure to read the fine print just to be on the safe side. Look here for a no-fee one lowermybills

False Economy

I'm still on the "be frugal" bandwagon over at my "Get Out Of Debt" site .. but increasingly.. the ideas I've come across are silly at best, logically ridiculous at worst.

Here are a few that didn't make the cut:

1. Newspaper subscription solely to get coupons. Wow. We haven't had a subscription since my daughter began to read, and even then.. it was something like $25.00 a month for the paper. When I do coupons.. I usually only save $20 or so a week on groceries, unless I happen to get a double bundle of coupons in that paper. So.. kill a tree, spend money, for the priviledge of losing money(not to mention that I feel obligated to use those coupons, which translates into more trips to the grocery).
*Here's a better idea. If you do coupons.. go to Ebay, Phoenix Freebies or your local Grocery store recycling bin for paper. You can "buy" coupons (illegal to buy/sell them.. you are usually paying for the time and effort) that are exactly what you want for pennies(saving you time, money and hassle). A good friend of mine gets 5-10 papers a week from Kroger's paper recycling bin for free.. and she saves a ton, and has enough duplicates to take advantage of combining a coupon with sales. No need to get a newspaper subscription. That's what the internet is here for.

2. Gardening as a way to save money. If you get lucky.. you might. Most people don't though. The "necessary" supplies really add up, and my "hobby" usually costs us about $200.00 a year. We might save $80.00 by not buying peppers.... hardly frugal.

3. Buying clearance clothes that require dry cleaning. Always figure out the potential care costs before buying something. That includes your time too... something that will be ironing intensive probably won't get used much.. so save your money and invest in more practical choices.

4. Getting a job.
Probably not intuitive.. but when I figure how much I can earn versus my costs (fuel, wear and tear on my van, spending $, childcare, clothes), we'd have a negative balance, and that's before figuring out how much "value" I can add by staying home. Thinking about breastfeeding versus formula... my 6m old sun went through $50.00 of formula a WEEK.. that adds up fast, and if I worked.. I'd have to supplement (pumping doesn't work out for me).
Doing in-home childcare is just as bad. Getting paid peanuts to expose my children to germs, our family to liability, and reduce our ability to be spontaneous (park on sunny day etc) just isn't worth it. The only job that I might be able to afford. would be something like selling on ebay, or my stock trading hobby (needs more time than I have right now!). Always factor in the costs.
Changing jobs to get more pay but less benefits. At risk of being repetitive.. ALWAYS count the costs!

Trivia

For "Lone Ranger" fans.. Kemo Sabe means "soggy shrub".

Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag auctioned for $6,600.00 in 1992. Imagine what ebay could do with it now!

Chocolate helps counteract depression. Well, that explains a ton! (pun intended!)