As if couponing couldn't get any more awesome...

One tool I have in my savings toolbelt is Swagbucks.com.  You can earn points tons of ways, but the most common ways I earn points is by 1) doing internet searches (like you would in a google or bing or other browser) and winning points at random, or 2) printing off and redeeming coupons.  If you use their link to print of manufacturer coupons (links to coupons.com), you get 10 points each time you redeem a coupon.  Get enough points and you get rewards.  Our favorite is 450 points = $5 Amazon.com gift card.  Since you're already saving money with coupons anyway, might as well earn points to save up for Christmas presents!!!  This month, they're having a promo that you get double the points for coupons printed and redeemed, 20 each!  If you haven't signed up already, go here.  It's free and honestly, doesn't require much work at all.  I don't have time to fuss with things, so this is literally easy cash, as long as you're patient enough for the reward to cash out. 

My hubby also had some fun at Khol's tonight.  We both needed some new clothes particularly for work and new sneakers for exercising in the nice weather....we were desperately in need...  I saw that Khol's had a promo that you get $10 Kohl's cash for each $50 spent.  I printed off a 20% off all items (including sale and clearance) coupon to add to the deal.  Shopping off the clearance racks for half of our goodies, we got some awesome steals!

We got 14 shirts, 3 pants, and 2 pairs of shoes (Sketchers and Nike). 
Paid: $277.48 (after sales and plus tax)  Makes it $14.60 for each item.
Savings: $468.72 + $50 Kohl's cash for next week. 
65% savings considering the $50 in freebies we'll get next week!

Doing the HAPPY FREE STUFF Dance!

I've been feeling a little under the weather the last couple days (hoping it's just allergies and not a cold coming on) and I went home from work a couple hours early.  With a few hours of nap time, I was ready to go out couponing (which was very needed as we had no food because of our 30 day spending fast which was a pretty good success). In need of milk, bread, and other essentials, why not get free stuff too?

All the stuff you see here was FREE!  (ok, I lied.  I paid .10 before taxes...)


Breakdown:

Albertsons:
Beechnut Baby Cereal $1.89-used $1 off printable manufacturer coupon, used store doubler coupon.  This should be a money maker too as there is a Try Me Free Rebate attached!  (FYI-No announcements, just stocking up...lots of babyshowers in the near future, or a great donation item ;)
Old Orchard Juice x2 $1.49 each-used Free coupon (up to $1.39 value), store sale-BOGO Free.  I got the free coupon as a reward from OldOrchard.com-they have a fan club where you can play games, submit questions and recipes and earn points.  It's slow, but I've decided when we have kids and they want to play games, they'll play games that win points, lol!

Rite Aid:
Sucrets x8-on sale for 2/$3, plus 1 +up reward when you buy 2 (limit of 4 +up rewards per card)  Used 8 $1 off printed manufacturer coupons.
Airwick spray-on sale for .95.  Used $1 off Rite Aid Video Value (AdPerk) coupon

Safeway:
Ken's Salad Dressing x10-on sale for .99 each (no coupon required).  I had 10 Smart Source inserts for the 3/11 newspaper for $1 off each!  My hubby loves sauces and these will make for great donation items as I don't think we can use them all by the expiration. 

Fred Meyer
Marachan Ramen Noodles x9-on price reduction for .50 each.  Used 9 .50 off coupons from the 3/11 Smart Source inserts.

Snapware x2-1.99 each regular price. We got $2 off manufacturer coupons in this Sunday's paper.

These are just the free deals we got, we purchased other things of course like milk, bread, lunch meat, etc that weren't free, but we used coupons and got deals.  Also, we were planning on other free items like Mike & Ikes, Hot Tamales, and Oreo cookies at Rite Aid but other shoppers cleared the shelves first :(  Ultimately, they weren't good for us anyway and I'm not an early morning person so I wouldn't have rushed to the store before work to snag these deals. 

A Special Lady

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now...My dear sweet Grandma died last month and I finally was able to finish a slideshow with audio from an interview I did with her a few years back.  I asked her for advice, we shared some stories and laughs, it was great.  I'm glad I got this project done to share with my family as today would have been another birthday mark for her. 

I'm happy she's in a better place and with Grandpa now.  Some memories I have of her are her laugh, her unbending will to do what was right (we never got away with anything at Grandma's!), and raspberries, my favorite fruit.  On more than 1 occasion my siblings and I, and cousins would spend maybe a week at her place in the summer.  We would wake up and help Grandma pick raspberries and then fill our cereal bowls up-mostly with those raspberries, probably less than half was actual cereal-yum!!!

The biggest thing I will always remember though, is the day she shared her testimony of God's plan.  In church and reading the scriptures, we learn that the last days before Christ appears again will be rough-wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, storms, etc.  I confided in my Grandma that I was scared (I don't remember how old I was, maybe about 8 years old).  She responded so matter-of-factly that you knew she was confident in her answer: "There's nothing to be afraid of if you're doing what you should do-following the commandments."  I will never forget that.  No matter what chaos ensues around me-politically, financially, socially-I have my Rock and have no need to fear. 

I hope to someday make that kind of impact and have such a legacy.

DIY Wedding Hair Accessory

I didn't take pictures of the process but I wanted to share this cute little thing :)  My good friend is getting married in just under 1.5 months and we've been meaning to get cracking on her accessories. 

She bought the little fabric flower trio pre-made and we went from there.  We bought some feathers, crystal beads, and tulle.  A little glue, felt, and a needle and thread did the job.  And of course, a clip.

We used 3-40% off coupons at Hobby Lobby. They only allow 1 coupon per customer so we had one for myself, my friend, and my husband.

Walgreen's goodness...at 11pm at night...

This took a little patience and 8 transactions...but it turned out to be a great deal at Walgreens.



1st 7 transactions:
7 pepsi next .99 each (each printed out a .99 register reward) -done in 7 sperate transactions.  =FREE
3 simalasan nasal allergy relief $6 each-used $1.50 off manufacturer coupon x3 (each printed out a $6 register reward) -done in 3 transactions.  =$4.50 money maker

8th transaction:
1 Zyrtec (40 count) 18.99 -used $7 off manufacturer coupon = $11.99
2 Neosporin ointment 4.99 each (was unprepared so I didn't have coupons ...) =$9.98
1 bandaid 39 count 2.99 (no coupons again....) =$2.99
lots of Easter Candy (2/$1, 75% off)-for fillers= .86
Total after coupons, = $25.82 (with tax: $28.07)
Used (7) .99 register rewards from pepsi
Used (3) $6 register rewards from Simalasan
= $25 in register rewards. 
Paid 3.67 in taxes

We also got a $10 register reward for our next visit because we bought $30 worth or participating zyrtec, neosporin, and bandaid products.  Later today, I also found this rebate we'll send in, getting something for free!

I know some of my math is off.....but my receipts show we paid $26.29 out of pocket.  We got $10 in register rewards back so essentially we paid $16.29. 
$62.70 worth or stuff for $16.29 = 74% savings

Savings That Couldn't Be Helped...

My sweetheart and I decided to stop by Albertson's, check out the awesome deal we did:



Albertson's:
6 bottles of Frank's hot sauce ($1.50 each) Buy 2, get 1 free. 
.30 off Manufacturer coupons x 4 (Round up week at Albertson's made this $1 off)-Printed from Frenchs.com site
.35 off Manufacturer coupons x 2 (Round up week at Albertson's made this $1 off)-Printed from coupons.com
= 6 FREE

2 Cherry Coke ($1.50 each)
.60 off Manufacturer Coupons x 2 (Round up week at Albertson's made this $1 off)-asked for at the cash register
2 candy bars = (priced at .69 each)  Free  (buy 2 pop, get 2 candy bars free promo)
=.25 each ($1.00 total)

Haribo Gummies ($1.25)
.30 off Manufacturer coupon (Round up week at Albertson's made this $1 off)-Printed from coupons.com
=.25

Hostess Donettes Bag ($1.99)-Printed from coupons.com
.50 off Manufacturer coupon (Round up week at Albertson's made this $1 off)
=.99

Betty Crocker icing bag (.99)-discounted after Easter
$1 off Manufacturer coupon from recent newspaper
=FREE

$2.42 with tax  (WA state does not tax most food, there was .18 tax on the pop)

This was done in 3 transactions...(not that we needed to...some of it was more impulse or not finding what we wanted...)
1st transaction was 77% savings.
2nd transaction was 100% savings.
3rd transaction was 80% savings. 

$17.79 before coupons/specials, $2.42 after coupons/specials, almost 86% savings overall :)

To add to the fun, and since it was late and customers were scarce, we asked the cashier if she had other coupons hidden up front to share.  We got a couple nice ones to add to the binder.  She also had a whole stack of expired sunchips coupons.  She was going to toss them but we told her how we donate them to overseas military as they can use them for 6 months after expiration and she gave the to us to donate :) 

Healthy, Tasty Recipe and Projects in the Pipeline.

Haven't had too much time for blogging lately, I've been so busy lately! Here are a couple projects I finished this week.

The first 2 pictures show some stamp carving I've done for someone in my CustomCreativityGal etsy shop.




The next picture is of a fuzzy dice I made for my sister-in-law's birthday. She just got her driver's license. If you look closely, you might notice that all 6 sides have the #3 on them. It's her lucky number...I figured she could use all the luck she can get being a new driver ;)



Lastly, here is a tasty recipe I tried tonight. I found a recipe online and made it my own. Healthy and simple :) We eat a lot of granola bars for snacks but alas, today we ran out of our little stockpile. We're still holding strong on our spending fast this month so I decided it was time to bake.



Ingredients
2.5 cups instant oats
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 mashed bananas
.5 cup cereal dust (see this post here)
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
handful of sliced almonds

Directions
Mix pumpkin, bananas, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt.

Add in oats and cereal dust.

Stir in almonds (add raisins, coconut, or chocolate chips if you want to spice things up).

Spread in a lightly greased 9x13 pan.

Bake at 375F for 25 minutes.

Number of Servings: Not Enough