Mommin' It Up!

June 14, 2008June 14, 2008

I Can’t Take a Vacation from CVS!

As I mentioned in my vacation round-up post, my older brothers and I hit CVS when we were on vacation last week! With my whole family in residence at my parent’s house, 15 of us in all, we needed to hit that Genereal Mills cereal deal! Unfortunately, when we got back to my folks’, I forgot to take a picture of our haul. But I will tell you that we did two transactions and got four boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, two boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, two boxes of Nature Valley granola bars, a Listerine Smart rinse, a Huggies baby wash, and a Brut Deodorant. I had lots of coupons, and when all was said & done, they paid me $1.50 to carry all that out of there! (Or they paid me to have my brothers carry it out of there. I was even kind enough to let my brothers hold my coupons for me when I was preparing my transactions. Aren’t I a Saint?) It was fun family bonding!

When I got back home there were a couple of deals I really wanted to do, especially the Duracell battery deal (buy $20, get 10 ECB) and the Schick Razor deal (get 5 ECB). So, here’s a sampling of my transactions.

Schick Quattro razor $9.49
Milk $3.19
Huggies wash $3.49 (this stuff smells sooo good!)
Total = $16.17
Coupons used:
$3/$15 CVS coupon
$2 Schick coupon
$4 off Schick Quattro WALGREENS EasySaver coupon (my CVS rocks for accepting these!)
$1 off Huggies coupon
I paid with 6 ECBs and 65 cents cash and got back 7 ECBs! 5 for the razor and 2 for the Huggies wash. Yay! And to my brother Andy, I say, “You’re Welcome!” for the razor. 🙂 Now please use it to shave your back! Yikes!!

Next up:

Two Garnier scrub at $5.99 each
1 Duracell AA 8-pack $5.29
Total = $17.27
Coupons used:
CVS $5/$15 coupon
Two $1 off Garnier coupons
75 cents off Duracell coupon
I paid with $8.49 in ECBs and $1.30 cash and got back 10 ECBs for the Garnier and $5.29 credit towards the Duracell deal (need to buy $20 worth)

Next up:

My hubby loves Nivea for Men and even though, thanks to CVS, he has enough to last about, mmm…..FOREVER, I couldn’t resist getting him some when there was that great $4/2 coupon out!! Plus, I had to buy something to go with those batteries!
So…
Nivea After Shave Balm $7.99
Nivea shave gel $2.99
Duracell AAA 4-pk $4.79 (meant to get the 8-pk for 50 cents more WHOOPS!)
Reese’s for a filler 50 cents(would n’t have needed this if I’d gotten the RIGHT BATTERIES! Oh well!)
Total= $16.27
Coupons:
CVS $5/$15
Nivea $4/2
paid with 7 ECBs and 54 cents cash, and got 5 ECB for the Nivea and $4.79 more credit toward the Duracell deal…

…which I shall now complete!

Two Duracell AA 8-pks at $5.29 each
Coppertone Sport SPF 15 (hubby’s FAVORITE – see how good I am to him??) $7.99
Dove deodorant $2.50
Total = $21.07
Coupons:
CVS $5/$15
Two 75 cent off Duracell
$3 off Coppertone which printed out for me at Kroger but was a manufacturer coupon that did not say Kroger’s on it. THANKS KROGER!
$1 off Dove deodorant found on a display at Kroger. THANKS AGAIN KROGER!
Total = $10.57
I paid with 10 ECB and 46 cents cash and got back 12 ECB!! 10 for the Duracell deal and 2 for the Coppertone!! Pliuse I now have $2.50 credit towards the Dove monthly deal! YAY!!! CVS Ruuuules!!

Since we were on vacation this week, I just finally went to Kroger Friday night to get some fruit and some deals! From this grrreat new blog I’ve recently discovered (thanks Mel!), Thrifty in the Cincy, I found a couple of additional sites you can load coupons to on your Kroger Plus card. These can be used with regular manufacturers coupons as well! YAY! So I was able to use a couple of those coupons to get some sweet deals! Here’s what I got for the low, low price of $14.39:

The Knorr Sides were $1 each. I had five 75 cents/2 coupons, as well as a 75 cents/2 e-coupon, and since Kroger doubles coupons I got 10 of them for $4.25!! I also had an e-coupon for $1 off the Ragu sauce pouch, and a coupon for 75 cents off (which Kroger doubled to $1). The Ragu was $1.64 for I got 36 cents overage on it! Love it!! Check out the e-coupon sites for P&G here, Unilever here, and another one called Shortcuts here. They are great!

Well that is all the damage I can do for now. For more crazy CVSers, head over to the Centsible Sawyer for CVS Superstars! And for more couponing zealots, check out Super Savings Saturday at Money Saving Mom (she has new digs and they are looking great by the way!)

P.S. If you are coming over from either of those places, please go here to enter our Fa-blog-ulous Blogaversary Giveaway!!!

June 14, 2008

Enter to WIN our Fa-blog-ulous Blogaversary Giveaway!!

Dear readers, it’s hard to believe, but this little blog is really GROWING UP! This coming Wednesday, June 18th, will be our ONE YEAR BLOGAVERSARY! I seriously cannot believe it. We have had such a great time blogging together this past year. So, in celebration of this MOMENTOUS event (really, can you think of ANYTHING else more important that will be happening this year? I can’t!!) we want to ask something of you and we want to GIVE something to you! First the asking: this week we would like you to do two things for us! 1) De-LURK!! Leave us comments!! Let us know who you are and how long you’ve been lurking! 2) Ask us anything! This week we will be answering reader questions. So please email us your most burning questions to either one of us at jenny [at]momminitup[dot]com or emily[at]momminitup[dot]com. Please do it or we will have nothing to blog about next week. YIKES! That could be embarrassing. And far be it from us to embarrass ourselves in front of the whole blogosphere…oh wait…

Anyways, on to the GIVING!!! We are having a GREAT giveaway with TWO great prizes!! The first is from our AMAZING friends at everyone’s favorite store, Target. The folks at Target are offering one of you this AMAZING diapering basket, worth over $100, FILLED with Target products!

In this basket, you will find:

– Target Baby Diapers

– Target Baby Wipes

– Target Vitamin A & D Diaper Rash Ointment

– Target Zinc Oxide Diaper Rash Ointment

– Little Star Diaper Stacker

– Dresser Top Diaper Depot

– Diaper Me Darling Diaper Wallet (dangit I want one! Why can’t I win!???! It’s my Blogaversary! Waaah!!!!!!!!!)

– Patemm Diaper Changing Pad (GRR! I want one of these TOO! That’s it, I’m rigging this thing!)

– Otopia Baby Dri Natural Baby Powder

Ok, so that’s the GRAND PRIZE in our contest, thanks to those awesome peeps at Target!! But we also have a prize for the runner-up, from Emily and I! It’s a…you guessed it…$25 CVS gift card!! If you are a CVSer and you win, congrats! Go crazy! If you are NOT a CVSer and you win, you will have the choice of us just sending you the gift card, or you can give me a list of things you want/need/use and see how much I can turn $25 into for ya. It’s up to you!!

To enter our Fa-blog-ulous Blogaversary Giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on THIS post by midnight Friday June 20th! We will pick the winners by Random.org on Saturday the 21st. If you want to gain a SECOND entry, post about and link to this contest on your blog and leave an additional comment letting us know you have done so. That’s all you have to do! Now, ready, set, Comment! De-lurk! Enter! and don’t forget to EMAIL US YOUR QUESTIONS!!

We love you dear ~~reader~~ readers!

June 13, 2008August 8, 2010

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About My Family Vacation

A few short hours ago I returned from my Big Fat Virginian Family Vacation, and in the spirit of telling you more than you ever want or need to know about my life, I thought I’d share a ~~few~~ ton of details with you. The reason my brothers, myself, our spouses and our total of eight kids between us all gathered at my parent’s Blue Ridge mountain retreat is because forty years ago, these crazy kids,

who are now these crazy kids (and also happen to be my parents),

got hitched!! And we wanted to celebrate, and as my dad likes to say, “have a big time.” So, my niece and I went to the store and got a partially decorated cake and made it look AWESOME:

Then we ATE it! And ice cream too! Yummy!

But, since it’s a seven hour drive to this mountaintop paradise, we also had to stay a few days and have fun together. Unfortunately, my husband couldn’t get the week off of work so he was only able to spend one night with us there. 🙁 He had to go back to Ohio and OOPSIE he accidentally took the kids’ car seats with him so I got to visit the local Wal-Mart and stimulate the Lexington, Va. area economy so we could get around during the week and get home (small detail)!! (We hitched a ride with my brother and fam in their SWEET Toyota Sienna mini-van. But that adventure will have to be its own separate post next week.)

My brothers and I kicked the week off right with a visit to the local CVS. My parents’ house is four miles up a mountain, and the town at the bottom of said mountain does not have much to offer except a Mormon college, a Food Lion, and praise the Lord, a flippin’ CVS!! So my nerdy brothers and I (I am the COOL one in the family, believe it or not) tore up the local CVS. My brother Andy said, “I feel like I am in the presence of greatness.” And I was all, “You can be my apprentice.” And he was all, “How about your Padawan Learner?” For those of you who are not huge dorks, this is a Star Wars reference. My brothers looove Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc. I was all, “Andy, you just brought CVSing to a whole new level of nerdiness!” It was epic, to say the least. We did two transactions and I think we wore out our welcome at the small-town CVS! I will detail our purchases in my Super Savings Saturday post tomorrow. Never fear!

It was HOTTTTT most of the week, but we did get out to take the kids to some of the beautiful local creeks and rivers to play. Here’s Joshua at a stop on the Blue Ridge parkway called “Otter Creek”:

When it was too HOTT (I’m talking 98 degrees baby!) we just stripped Sophie down to her diaper and put her in a rubbermaid tote with a little bit of water at the bottom and stuck her on the front porch. Yee-haaaa!! It was pretty much the most fun she’s ever had in her life!

This was actually taken on the first day of a nasty stomach flu bug I caught. My brother and sister-in-law had it too! I spent a good part of this day and the ENTIRE next day in bed! It was awful. So I missed some fun times but my family did a wonderful job of taking care of and entertaining my kids for me!! So thanks to them!!

Sickness aside, we had a really had a great time. One thing I love about my family is that we just like to be together. My brothers and sisters-in-law all make very good company. We all crack each other up which is fun. So I can honestly say that five days with 15 of us all in the same house was FUN. Really! I’m so thankful for such a wonderful family.

I took hundreds of pictures while I was there (449 before I started deleting the bad ones!), so my Weekly Winners post Sunday will be a big one! And perhaps it will contain another vacation anecdote or two. But for now, I’m pooped, so I am going to leave you with a picture of my son enjoying his first S’more ever at the bonfire we had in my parent’s yard last night:

The whole vacation was just THAT good!