Mommin' It Up!

January 14, 2008January 14, 2008

Money Making Monday: Rebate-a-palooza!

Today for Money Making Monday I’ll gab about my newest obsession (like I needed another one!): REBATES! I love, love, LOVE a good rebate. Especially when it’s for something I paid little or nothing out-of-pocket for at CVS or Walgreens in the first place! Right now there are a couple of good rebates out there that you ALL should take advantage of!! The first is the Sambucol immune system booster I mentioned in my Super Savings Saturday post that is a monthly ECB item at CVS this month. This stuff costs $12.99, use a $2/$10 coupon to buy it, pay $10.99, get TEN ECBS back and then send in for a FULL rebate using this form and get a check for $12.99! WOOHOO! Also – it actually TASTES good! Bobby, Joshua and I have all tried it, and Joshua, my THREE YEAR OLD, sucked it down like it was candy. SO – getcha some!!

Now my good friends at Glade and Walgreens have teamed up for another stellar deal on Glade Scented Oil candles. Now, I need more GSOCs like I need a hole in the head, but GUESS WHAT?? I got FOUR MORE today because THEY ARE FREE!! They are B1G1 free at Walgreens this week, and there are B1G1 free coupons at coupons.com, PLUS there was a coupon in yesterday’s paper for a FULL REBATE up to 7.99!! So, since my receipt shows the price paid at 6.99, I am getting $6.99 back on my FREE CANDLE. Holla!! (Note: if you didn’t get the coupons in the paper, you can get one of these forms on eBay for about $1. You would still make $5.99!)

Another awesome deal in the newspaper yesterday and also available online here is the RX Essentials rebate. RX Essentials are vitamins you take that go along with prescription meds that you might be taking. This week they are B1G1 free at CVS. Use two $5 off coupons found at coupons.com, get 2 bottles for $4.99 (or use a $2/$10 coupon and pay $2.99!!), and then send in for the rebate and get a check for $14.99. You just made $10-$12! I got these vitamins for my mom, and sent the rebate in for myself, but I am going to go back and get some more for my Grandma and send another rebate in her name, as most rebates are one per household and Gma can always use a few extra dollars. (She is also getting a Glade Candle rebate! Woot Woot!)

Ok – final rebate for the week! Purell Gentle Foam is on sale at Walgreen’s for $3.49. There was a $1 off manufacturer’s coupon in yesterday’s paper, and there is a $1 off coupon in the Walgreens ad which you can stack. So…use both coupons, get your Purell for $1.49, and send in the rebate form here for a $3.49 rebate! Yee-ha! Sanitized hands that now hold an extra $2! Rock on!

Ok, my peeps, I think I am about rebated-out. Plus I have a lot of rebate FORMS to fill out and mail so I better stop here. 🙂 For more Money-Makin’ ideas, head over to Money Saving Mom!

**Edited to add**
I just got a rebate check in the mail for a purchase of Pert Plus. The rebate form said get $5 back on your purchase of two bottles of Pert Plus. I got two bottles that were on clearance at Walgreen’s for $1.79 each. I used a $1.50 off two manufacturer’s coupon, and paid a total of $2.33 with tax. The check I got today was for the full $5.00! So I hope that helps – most of the time manufacturer’s will reimburse you your purchase price before coupons – in this case even more than that!

January 12, 2008

Saving Moola at Meijer and CVS deals!!

It’s time for another edition of Super Savings Saturday! This week I was REALLY excited to get some great deals at Meijer! I usually do my grocery shopping at Kroger, but if Meijer has some great deals, I’m there! I posted here about the deal Meijer was running with Colgate/Palmolive. If you bought 5 Colgate/Palmolive products, you got a $5 off coupon to use on your next order. I bought 2 Colgate toothpastes (2/$4) and 3 Palmolive Scrub Busters (3/$5). I used 50 cent off and one 40 cent off coupons for the Palmolive (all doubled by Meijer). I also used a $1.50 and a $1 off coupon on the toothpaste. With tax, I paid $4.80 and got the $5 coupon. Then I turned my cart around and finished my shopping! I got all this in the picture for $22.87!!

(That’s Sophie’s hand on the chicken nuggets. She wouldn’t leave them alone!)

I got two 4 lb. bags of chicken tenderloins ($14.98, but they were B1G1 free), 11 boxes of Totino’s pizza rolls, two packs of chicken nuggets, a dozen eggs, and two small tubs of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” for $17.07. I used one 55 cent off coupon, (doubled to $1 by Meijer), two $1.10/2 and three $1/2 coupons for the pizza rolls. I had a 50 cent off coupon for the (not) butter – it was on sale for $1, and since Meijer doubles coupons it was FREE. I can’t remember how much the eggs were, but anyhoo, after using all those coupons and the $5 off, the total was $17.07. I was elated!

Now, on to CVS. There were SOOO many CVS deals this week and SOOO many CVS coupons, I went to CVS many, many, mnay times this week. TOO MANY. I am gonna have to cut back this week cause thanks to CVS I am behind on my laundry! But here are a couple of the great deals I got. These were actually both engineered by me but executed by my hubby! Go Bobby!

Not pictured is a $4.99 gift bag that we got for our buddy Owen’s first birthday party. So mentally add that to the picture! Bobby spent 45 cents on this transaction after coupons and ECBs!! He spent $13 ECBs but got back $13.99 ECBs! Woohoo!

This transaction I think of as the “mmm…chocolate” deal:

On this one Bobby spent 74 cents, used $14 ECBs and got $15 ECBS. ( $2 for the big Hershey bars, $1 for the Reese’s Whipps, $2 for the Colgate and $10 for the Sambucol)…PLUS there is a full rebate on the Sambucol so we are getting $12.99 ACTUAL DOLLARS back in the mail! If there’s anything I like better than getting ECBs, it’s getting CASH back for something I GOT ECBs on!!

Ok, I am exhausted from GETTING these deals and BLOGGING about them…for more great deals, check out Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom! And if you havenâ€™t purchased her Supermarket Savings 101 class yet, do it! It is very affordable and will pay for itself in a heartbeat. You can check it out or purchase it here!

January 11, 2008January 11, 2008

Yes, this IS My Life.

Yesterday at 10 a.m. the city water meter-reader knocked on my door. “Kee-rap.” I thought to myself. Why? Well, for one, a huge bill always shows up about a week after he’s been here, but the REAL reason is that I was still rockin’ my pajamas and bathrobe, unwashed face, and crazy bed-hair ponytail. It’s not that I want to impress the meter-reader, but I’d rather NOT be the funny story he tells at dinnertime. So, I cheerfully showed him the meter, thanked him, and wished him a nice day as if it were the most normal thing in the world for me to be dressed that way (which it is, unfortunately). Then I closed the door behind him and had a good laugh at myself!!

A few minutes later, Joshua, who was still rockin’ his Spiderman sleeper, wandered up to me. He was fingering the bottom of his sleeper leg just below his calf. What he said baffled me. Are you ready? Here goes:

Joshua: Mommy, I have a little piece of poop in my pants. Would you like to see it?
Me: What??? Did you poop your pants?
Joshua: (very indignant!) No, I said I have a little piece of POOP IN MY PANTS!

I hustled him to the bathroom, peeled off his sleeper, and discovered he did indeed have a very small, hard turd in the leg of his pants. How it got out of his underwear, I do not want to know. After giving him the “tell-mommy-when-you-need-to-poop” lecture and stripping him and washing his hands veeeery thoroughly, I got him dressed and quizzed him on what exactly had transpired. He seemed as confused about the event as I was.

Ah, well. Scaring the meter-reader and solving poop mysteries. It’s all in a day’s work around here! Can’t wait to see what today holds!

(P.S. Emily text messaged me last night that she is safely in Florida!)