Mommin' It Up!

April 26, 2008

Why Buy Allergy Medicine When You Don’t Have Allergies?

To make ~~meth~~ money of course! Therefore, I now own several boxes of Alavert. There weren’t a lot of great deals this week and I know some peeps who can use this stuff! I needed a lot of things this week that I was going to just “blow” ExtraCare Bucks (ECBs) on – milk, gift bags, tissue paper, greeting cards, etc. – so I wanted to do a money-making transaction as well. Here’s what I did:

Three boxes of Alavert @ $6.99 each
1 Pria bar on clearance for 55 cents as filler (tasted like mint-flavored cardboard. Blecch!)
total was $21.54
I used the $4/$20 welcome coupon CVS emailed me
Three $4 off Alavert coupons
This brought my total to $5.54 before tax. I used a $5 ECB and paid $1.40 on a CVS gift card we got for Bobby’s prescription when he was sick a few weeks ago, and I got back $12 ECBs for the Alavert! Yay! I loves making me some CVS money!

In addition to the stuff I mentioned that I needed above, I also stopped in at CVS this week to get my poor hubby some Athlete’s Foot cream. Fortunately, it was on ECBs and there was a CVS coupon and manufacturer’s coupons out for it! Shew! Here’s how that went:

Two Lamisil @ $16.49 each
3 Thank-you cards for the ladies who organized the Sony Mommy Blogger Event @ 99 cents each
1 Speedstick 24/7 $3.99 (FREE after ECBs!)
My pre-tax total was $39.94!!
I used the CVS $4/$20 welcome coupon
Lamisil B1G1 Free coupon
$2 Lamisil peelie on the box
$3 off Lamisil CVS coupon
$1 off mennen deodorant coupon
This brought my total down to $13.45. I used $13 ECBs and paid $1.85 cash and got back $9.99 ECBs! 6 for the Lamisil and 3.99 for the speedstick. I was very excited about this deal since that Lamisil is so expensive!

Now, on to Walgreens. Let me say that this Thursday is the first time I have been to Walgreens’ ALL MONTH! Why?? Because their system can be a real pain! I have had so mnay Register Rewards deals not work and so many clerks not know what to do with a coupon, that I really am just planning to go there to get my Free After Rebate (FAR) items from now on unless there is a really big money-maker Register Rewards deal that I cannot pass up. But anyhoo, enough griping. Here is what I got:

Aquafresh $3.49
Tums QuikPak $4.49
Colgate 360 toothbrush $3.99
(not pictured a Mocha Frappucino for $1.39. I slammed that bad boy in the car on the way home!)
My total before tax was $13.36. I had a $2 coupon for the toothpaste, a $1 coupon for the toothbrush, and $1.50 in Register Rewards from a previous transaction. So, I paid $9.70 including tax (on my rebate gift card from last month) and I will get back over $13 in rebates! Holla!

Finally, we go to Kroger. We didn’t need too much this week thanks to the wonders of couponing that leads to stockpiling, and the sales weren’t too awesome, but I did well enough.

I got all of this for $22.74. This is pretty good since the Bertolli skillet meals are normally $7.49 each! They were on sale for $4.99 and I used two $1.50 off coupons. These are tasty and I love it when I can get good-quality convenience food for cheap. The cereal and Fiber One bars were part of a promotion that took an extra $4 off my order, and I had coupons for them, so they ended up costing only 50 cents each. They bread was marked down to 99 cents and is now residing happily in my freezer until we are ready to eat it! Since our grocery budget is $40/week, we were still way under budget this week! Yay!

Well that is it for me! For more great CVS stories, check out CVS Superstars at the “Cents” ible Sawyer, and for more thrifty tales of couponing, check out Super Savings Saturday, hosted by our guru, Money Saving Mom. And if you haven’t ordered her Supermarket Savings 101 ebook yet, do it!! You can check it out here!

April 25, 2008April 25, 2008

Mommy’s Taking Pictures!

Happy Friday everyone! I just have a couple of bits o’ bloggy brizzness for ya!

First, please enter our contest to win one of two $25 Kroger gift cards!! You can even win both! I don’t have many entries so your chances are GOOD! You can enter until midnight tonight!

Secondly, pretty please please click on over to Reviewin’ It Up to check out my new photography obsession ad my review of one of my great new cameras! Please let me know what you think! Here’s a sample of my “work”:

Finally, thanks for all the COMMENTS on yesterday’s post!! Have Emily and I ever mentioned that we LOVE COMMENTS?? Well, we do. WE are insecure and needy and well, we haven’t been getting many comments lately. So, please keep ’em coming! We love them and we love YOU!

Have a great weekend!!

April 24, 2008May 7, 2013

My Daughter, the Cover Girl

A little baby products company called Evenflo is headquartered in the area where I live, and from time to time I have done product testing for them in a small group setting, looking at different types of car seats and strollers, things like that, and giving them my honest opinion about them. It’s pretty fun and it pays well, so I try to make it happen whenever they give me the opportunity.

Early last summer, we were given a different kind of opportunity. The Evenflo folks sent out an email to all the moms who did product testing inviting them to send in photos of their babies for possible involvement on a photoshoot for the Evenflo Snugli carrier. To make a long story short, I submitted some photos of Sophia and she was chosen. So last July, when she was eight months old, we went to a local photography studio where Sophie cheerfully posed with a fake Mommy who (although she was a size 2 and had no children) lovingly wore her in a Snugli and a fake Daddy who stood by enthusiastically. Sophie did really well, but there were other babies there too, and I wasn’t sure the photos of her would ever see the light of day. They made it pretty clear that they could just be used for internal marketing, or not be used at all, or that they could be used all over the place – but that they would not let us know, there would be no follow-up, just sign away the rights and take your kid’s paycheck. Which I happily did, because they paid her $50 for 90 minutes of “work”. I checked the Evenflo website from time to time and I’d take a look at the Snugli box if I happened to be at Babies ‘R Us, but after awhile I kind of forgot about it. Then, while I was in California, it popped into my head to check the Evenflo website, even though it’s been nine months since the photos were taken. Much to my surprise, there was Sophie on the Snugli page! I told Bobby and he did some internet searching and also found her here on Walmart.com and here on ToysRUs.com (click on the small images of mommy & baby on the bottom left of the page).

Then he did some further checking and found out via an ebay auction that Sophie is on the flippin’ BOX!! She’s on the Snugli BOX, people!! Is that crazy or what??

So of course after the kids went to bed, he ran out to Wal-mart and bought one! Even though our baby is too big to be in a Snugli, we had to have one since she is on the Snugli box! So, here it is, in it’s place of honor, on top of our organ with all the other family pictures:

As soon as she saw it, Sophie started pulling some diva behavior. Here she is holding court on our couch:

And practicing ducking the paparazzi:

So, I am now the proud owner of a Snugli. I’ve never used it, so I can’t recommend the product, but they sure do have a rockin’ box and excellent taste in baby models! But dangit, FIFTY BUCKS!?!? I just blew it on clothes for her! Not even enough to start a college fund. Oh well, now I’ll have to become a stage mom, get her an agent, and start making some cash. She’ll be Lindsay Lohan before you know it! Oh, wait…maybe I’ll re-think that plan.