Mommin' It Up!

June 24, 2013June 23, 2013

See Jenny Shop: Major CVS Sunday haul!!

You guys, I had SO MUCH FUN CVSing yesterday! It was pretty much just like OLD times! Wheeee! To start out with, I had 6 ECBs left over from last week’s deals. THEN when I scanned my Extra Care card at the Magic Coupon Machine, out popped my $5 ECB for spending $50 with the CVS Beauty Club! That’s my 2nd reward since I started shopping drugstore makeup about 2 weeks ago. And of course I haven’t actually SPENT very much to get up to that $50 total, since the total is BEFORE coupons and ECBs. WHEEE!! Here’s what I got yesterday. I was SO excited!

First I went for some great freebies to build up some more Extra Care Bucks!
Transaction #1:

Two Colgate toothpaste $2.99 each = $5.98

Two Coppertone Sport suncscreen, 2/$19.98

One Crest mouthwash $4.99

Total = $30.95

Coupons I used:

-$5/$30 purchase CVS email coupon (woot!!)

-$2/2 Colgate printable from coupons.com

-$1.10 off Crest mouthwash from coupons.com

-$5/2 Coppertone from today’s Smart Source insert

– 11 Extra Care bucks I had from previous purchase + Beauty Club Rewards

Total = $6.85 + tax = 8.32

Got back 4 ECB for the Colgate, 8 ECB for the Coppertone, and 4 for the Crest = 16 ECB!

With which I did this next transaction. I cannot pass up a chance to stock up on diapers for cheap!

3 Huggies jumbo packs $9.49 each = $28.47

Desitin $3

Wet ‘n Wild blush $2.99

Wet ‘n Wild Megalast lip color (which I hated by the way – DO NOT BUY!) $2.99

total = $37.45

Coupons I used:

-$9 – three $3 off Huggies printable coupons

-$1 Desitin printable coupon

-$16 ECB from previous transaction

= $11.45 + tax = $14.08 and I got back 14 ECB – 12 for the Huggies/Desitin (baby care deal) and 2 for the Wet ‘n Wild. It was a cheap makeup deal that I couldn’t resist but like I said, I hate the lip color. I have tried some lipsticks from Wet ‘n Wild that I like but that one I cannot recommend. It made my lips feel so dry I thought they would crack and break off my face. Blecch.

But anway!! I got 14 ECB! And this time the Magic Coupon machine spit me out a coupon for $1 off any $1.99 Wet ‘n Wild purchase – even though I had just made one, I decided to spend that real quick, and get another Crest mouthwash because the limit was 2 on that deal and I had another coupon. So I got:

Crest mouthwash $4.99

Wet ‘n Wild lip gloss $1.99 (haven’t tried it yet but I am sure it will be fine as it’s not the same kind as the other.)

total = $6.98

coupons I used:

-$1 CVS coupon for Wet ‘n Wild

-$1.10 Crest mouthwash coupon from coupons.com

-$2 ECB

total = $2.88 tax = $3.37 and I got back 4 ECB for the Crest. And of course, all that Wet ‘n Wild racked me up some more earnings towards my next CVS Beauty Club reward!

So, I started the day with 11 ECB, spent a total of $25.77 for all that stuff, and ended the day with 16 ECB left to spend! I think that’s pretty darn good…especially when I would have paid more than that for just the three packs of diapers alone without coupons and Extra Care Bucks!

WEEE HOO, that’s what I got this week! What are you getting at the drugstores??

June 24, 2013June 22, 2013

Jonah Wears the (swim) Pants in the Family

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Huggies, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #HuggiesSwimmers http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.”

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that one of my summer survival strategies this year was joining a new pool, and now I’m here to say it was a great decision! Thus far, the extra money we forked out to have room to move and er, swim at the pool has been SO worth it! It is never crowded. We pretty much had the place to ourselves on Monday last week, see?

We are having an amazing time at the pool this summer! The big kids are making friends (despite the fact that there are none present at the pool in the above photo), and Jonah is learning to love the water.

We’re having a blast, but before we leave the pool, I have to endure the arduous process of getting us all ready to go…not my favorite part. It takes me nearly all morning to get us all dressed, sunscreened, and ready to go. And of course, there’s also the packing of the POOL BAG:

One thing that makes our pool-time routine easier is my favorite swim diaper, Huggies Little Swimmers. I’ve been a mom for over nine years and I can honestly say I have never bought another brand. Between great Huggies coupons and sales, they are always the absolute best price. My most recent package of Huggies Little Swimmers came from Target, where I saved an extra $1.50 with this Target printable coupon you can print here. I was able to combine it with a manufacturer’s coupon for even more savings! You know mama likes THAT!! (And you also know that mama does NOT need to have an excuse to go to Target! Wheee!)

Untitled — Found ’em in the diaper aisle, top shelf at Target.

And they work! They keep Jonah’s baby business where it needs to be so EVERYONE at the pool can enjoy swimming with us! And Jonah himself feels quite comfy in his Little Swimmers. I love how they are so easy and quick to get on him so we can get in the water!

He likes to wear them above his swim trunks so everyone knows he's got something special on underneath... — He likes to wear them above his swim trunks so everyone knows he’s got something special on underneath…

I love how easy they are to to take off when he’s had enough swimming for the day. The tear-away sides make removal extra-quick!

sacked out 2 — He’s worn out at the end of every pool day. Being so cute at the pool is hard work!

Huggies Little Swimmers are the swim diaper solution that works for us! So far this summer they’ve already been to the water park, the splash park, and the pool, and next month they are hitting the beach! We can’t wait!
We love our Little Swimmers! Where will you take your baby in them this summer?

June 22, 2013June 30, 2013

Get your fuel points on! Kroger $100 gift card giveaway!

Last month I posted about how I wasn’t sure what we should do this summer for our family vacation; we were planning on visiting my parents in Viriginia as usual but wanted to take a side trip as well. Many of you had helpful comments and after some help from my bargain-hunting mom (I come by it honestly) I am excited to say that we are beach bound!! We’re heading to Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina next month. WOOHOO! I can’t wait to take these babies to the beach!!

So in just a couple of weeks, we will be gassing up the Toyota Sienna and heading first to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and then to the beaches of North Carolina. We are SO excited! But, our van runs on premium gas (per my mechanic hubby), and gas isn’t exactly el cheap-o these days. Which is why before we leave for our trip, we’ll be fueling up our summer with gas from Kroger. I almost always get gas at Kroger because I can use the fuel points I earn buying groceries there to get a discount on gas. Generally you earn 1 point per $1 spent at Kroger, and you can see your points totaled up at the bottom of your receipt.

Happily, this summer Kroger has made it even easier to rack up those fuel points! Using this digital coupon that you can load to your Kroger Plus card, you can get 2x the fuel points on everything you buy on the weekend all summer long. You have until June 30th to load the digital coupon to your card, so click here and do it now!! After you have loaded it to your card, you will see it on your receipt when you shop on the weekends!

The Summer Fuel promo has already been working for me! I loaded the coupon to my card as soon as it came out, and last time I filled up I got 40 cents off a gallon!! You can redeem up to 1,000 fuel points at a time to earn up to $1 off each gallon of gas. Wow!

Tomorrow (Sunday) I’m headed out to Kroger to shop their most recent mega-event one more time (it’s the last day for it where I live) and rack up some more fuel points for my next fill-up. I’ll be earning double fuel points for buying all the things my family uses all the time that are on the mega-event: baby wipes, Capri Sun, Cheez-Its, and my favorite Gevalia coffee. WOOT WOOT! Of course I have plenty of coupons to take with me, too!

Thanks to the most recent mega-event at Kroger I have 12 brand new tubs of baby wipes, which I got for 49 cents each. 🙂

To help you get a jump start on fueling YOUR summer, Kroger was kind enough to give me a $100 Kroger gift card to give away to one lucky winner! Yeee-haaa! Wouldn’t it be fun to earn double fuel points on groceries bought with a gift card? I think so! Here’s how to enter to win:

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me how Kroger is going to fuel your summer. Do you have a road trip planned, or just lots of driving to do during the week?

2) Optional: Facebook fans of Mommin’ It Up get an extra entry. If you are a Mommin’ It Up Facebook page fan, leave us a SEPARATE comment letting us know that you are.

3) Optional: If you follow Jenny on Instagram and Emily on Instagram, you’ll get an extra entry. Leave a separate comment on this post letting us know that you follow us BOTH for an extra entry!

One winner will be drawn at random on Saturday, June 29th at 6 pm EST. Good luck and go fuel your summer with Kroger!