I had a great run to Publix today and got some stuff that we need and will use.  It’s always nice to have a great run at the grocery store and leave with some food.  Here it is:

• 2 Tide Stain Release Boost $3.99 each  -$2PQ + $1.50mq
• 1 Revlon Emory Board $1.89  -$1mq + $2 PQ (overage)
• 1 Revlon Nail Clipper $1.49  -$1mq + $2PQ (overage)
• 2 Heinz 40oz Ketchup $2 each  -$3wyb 2 fries
• 4 Ore Ida Easy Fries $1.09 each
• 1 Bounty Roll $1.99  PQ Free wyb 3 PG products
• 2 Sunny D $1.99 BOGO
• 2 Barber Chicken $4.99 BOGO -$1mq
• Basmati Rice FREE with mq
• Jasmine Rice FREE with mq
• Ground Chuck $1.67  -$1 baby club pq
• Bounty Everyday Napkins $1.99  -$1 PQ + .25mq
• Publix Chocolate Milk $1.49  -$1 baby club PQ

I used a $5 off $30 Sweetbay coupon and paid $3.82 and saved $48.91.  My tax was $1.22 this is what I get for buying lots of non food items.

This is one of those rare occasions were I can’t even come close to explaining what happened.  I paid $2 for the following and I left with $9 in coupons that I should have used, but it seems stores don’t like to actually pay you to take their stuff and I wasn’t prepared for that kind of outcome.  Trust me I’ll be better prepared next time.  Tonight I’m not going to list what coupons or the prices since my receipt gives me a headache just looking at it.  LOL

• 1 Johnson’s Buddy Bar
• 2.76lb Bananas
• 6 .5oz bags Chef Michaels Dog Food
• 6 1.5lb bags Chef Michaels Dog Food
• 6 cans Chef Michaels Wet Dog Food
• 200 sheet pack of Construction Paper
• 1 Kyle Busch Nascar (birthday)
• 1 Leapfrog Tag Pen ($12.48 -$10mq)

Total Saved was $43.77

It was a great and unexplainable trip.  I ordered extras of the dog food coupons since my pup seems to love this food so I’m going to try again tomorrow my store has 1 more Tag pen and I’m hoping it’ll be there tomorrow.

It’s that time of week again so get ready to sign up for lots of great freebies.

Huggies Little Moves Diapers

Kashi Cereal Sample

Good Neighbor Day Flowers from FTD

Free Burger at Friday’s (facebook)

Country Bob’s Sauce

Fancy Feast Appetizers

Free Chick Fil A Sandwich on Monday

Free PC Tune Up at Staples

Kotex and FDS Sample

Free Small Cup of Coffee at Borders

Free Sample of Dove Hair Care

Free eCookbook: Quick and Easy Chicken Casserole Recipes featuring 47-pages of quick and easy recipes. Click Here

Make Money on Ebay today!  Get your Free Success Kit.  Click Here

Enfamil Lipil Formula Free Sample Click Here

Free Fonts!!  Great for Scrapbooking or Card Making

Free Ebook with 60 Cheap and Easy Craft Projects

I’ve been a bad blogger this week.  You ever have one of those weeks were you have way too many things to do and absolutely no drive to do them?  That’s been this week laundry, dishes and chores are piling up and I need to focus on those tonight.  I will be posting my regular Friday posts tomorrow at some point but as far as my deals or sales it probably won’t happen till Sunday.

I looked at the family calender yesterday and I don’t have 1 free Saturday this month between running to Lowes for the Build and Grow and the Home Depot one this Saturday and then the surprise community yardsale they take up every Saturday this month.  But I do have some of my days free and I promise I’ll get caught up but tonight I need to find the countertops and the bottom of the hamper.

Hope you guys are having a better week then I am and are getting in on all the great deals.  There are lots of freebies at Target and Walgreen’s this week so make sure you get out there and do it.  If you don’t know what they are leave me a comment or email me and I’ll get back to you late tonight or tomorrow.

Here is what we did this week to save some money.

• Tried my best to run all my errands in efficient circles so that we didn’t waste any gas.
• With Shawn in school for a few hours the TV has been off alot more and I’ve had more chances to find the best deals.
• The A/C is staying at 78-80 when we are home and getting bumped up to 82-84 when we are out.  The dog doesn’t seem to mind and I think it’ll help.
• I’ve used the mircrowave a couple times this week and made double batches of things so I didn’t need to use the stove as often.
• The lights are off here between the hours of 8am and 7pm and when they have to be on we try to use the energy saver bulbs.
• I’ve made a pile of stuff for ebay sales but I still haven’t taken pictures hopefully I’ll get the stuff listed this week. 
• I’ve opened paid emails, searched using swagbucks and irazoo and checked my youdata everyday to earn a little extra $$, it’s not much but it adds up.
• I unplug everything or shut off the power strips when we leave the house or we go to bed, no phantom power suckers here.
• The desktop computer is off 75% of the time and I use the laptop which uses less energy to charge and holds a charge for 5 hours.  It’s energy star rated so I hope I’m saving some.
• I found out last night that the next community yard sale will be the 19th of this month so I’m going to be getting ready for that this week.

What have you been doing to save money?  I love to hear how everyone else shaves a little it helps me come up with new ideas.

I’ve been meaning to make it out to Publix this week and finally got there today.  I don’t have the receipt in front of me so no prices today but here’s what I got.

• 6 Boxes Ritz Crackers  BOGO
• 6 Ritz Crackerfuls FREE with purchase mq
• 4 A1 Steak Sauce BOGO
• 2 Sunny D  ($1.99)  BOGO
• 2 Mahatma Rices  FREE mq
• 1 Revlon Nail File  Overage from PQ

I paid about $7 with a giftcard earned a few months ago so nothing out of pocket and we’ve got plenty of crackers to last awhile now since Dave and Shawn love Ritz with peanut butter.

or in my case a not spending much challenge.  I’m joining Sara over at Learning the Frugal Life on a spending challenge this month.  I’m going to post my goals below and update on Fridays on how I’m doing.  I’ll still be doing my how I saved posts on Wednesdays so it’ll be Saving Wednesday and Spending (or lack of) Fridays.  Remember if you decide to challenge yourself to this you need to set realistic goals for yourself otherwise one slip up can led you to feel defeated.

1. Keep almost all spending below $60 a week.
2. Keep gas spending down as low as possible.  My gas bills are going to go up since I have to take Shawn to daycare everyday but I’m going to try and run all my errands when I’m out.
3. We will not be eating out.  You spend lots of extra money eating out, the food is not better than you can make at home and you consume a lot more calories when out then at home.
4. I’ll continue shopping for the free/super cheaps at CVS, Walgreens, Publix, Target, and a few things at Walmart.  But we’ll only be buying those items unless we absolutely need it.
5. I will have a few extra expenses this month since we have 4 birthdays in October but I’ll be working on keeping those costs as low as possible.
6. I have some birthday money left to spend since I’ve been told no paying bills with it so any of that shopping will not be included.

Please feel free to join us on this adventure.  We can all use to save a little extra money and without spending means we can put more into savings.  To add to our savings Dave is keeping his eyes out for any available overtime and I’m getting some stuff ready to sell on ebay and starting to prepare for a yard sale late this month or early October.