product review & giveaway

Remember my good mail day a couple of posts down?

In which my mailbox was full of coupons good for free items? Would you like that to be you? Well read on my friends!

**********************************************************************

I was sitting at my computer when I heard a noise outside my door. I hadn't ordered anything recently so wasn't sure what it could be.

I open it up and find a cute little giftbox.

Inside was a free sample of Purex Complete Crystals fabric softener. How cute is that little bottle?

Now y'all know I do a ton of laundry at my house. 5 kids...including a cute little 20 month old who insists on feeding himself  ): Add in my own laundry, towels, blankets, dish rags, table cloths...whew. Doesn't that just make you want to cring just thinking of all that?

So since I was already doing laundry that day, I decided to use my new sample.

First impression was how good it smelled.I like my laundry to smell nice so that is very important to me.

Later when I pulled the load out of the dryer...they looked great, smelled great and were nice and soft. I didn't notice any greasy oil spots, which is one of the cool things about the crystals vs. regular softener.

All in all, I thought it was a great product. Would I use it again? Well, that depends. I know, I know but honestly I am not going to pay full price for it. A $6 price tag for a fabric softener is a little steep in my book. So for me it would of course depend on, do I have a coupon? Is it a good sale? Discount?

Now back to those free item coupons. I have 2 coupons to send to my readers so that YOU can try it out for yourself.

This is going to be a quickie 24 hr giveaway. Just comment on this post to let me know you would like to be entered!

CVS

I made a quick trip to CVS this week. As I started to put everything up on the counter, I had to chuckle a little when I started putting everything up on the counter...

look at all that toothpaste, and fluoride rinse. Hopefully it will help balance all THIS out....

If it's free...

then it is for me right? That is a motto that most couponers have.

I was very excited when I got my mail today. Nothing makes me more giddy then a good mail day. OK, I am sure there are some, but it does make me giddy.

Moving on, I had a FANTABULOUS mail day.

7 free item coupons (one is actually missing from the pic. sorry) and a Womans Day magazine that I got for free. Nice right?

Well, as I kept looking through my stack of mail, there was one that caught my eye. Just because it's free...I think I am going to have to say no to this one...

coupons 101

PT 2.

Have you been collecting your coupons? Getting them from the paper, magazines, printing them off....

Good. Now that you have a nice collection going on, where are you putting them? Are they tossed in a basket? In a plastic bag?

Unfortunatley, that is not the best place to keep them. I previously posted how I organize my coupons, and I do the binder system. Personally, I love it. I really, really do.

So I am going to take the lazy easier way out and...just leave you with a link to that post. If you have any questions though, feel free to shoot 'em my way!

Original post can be found here

dinner & stockpiles

Last week our family had something going on EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. By the time Friday rolled around, I practically glued my bum to my couch. Seriously. I was exaughsted. Not moving was the only thing that sounded good!

However, I got a nice reminder phone call that I had volunteered to drop dinner off to the missionaries from my church. But can I tell you the wonderful thing about having a stockpile of food in your house? It is a lot easier to throw a meal together.

Here is what they got for dinner, and I didn't go to the store for ANY of it.

A Safeway frozen entree that I got on sale for $6.99 (Sometimes I cringe at paying that much for a family sized entree, but that is a lot cheaper then taking my whole brood out to dinner!)

a pint of strawberries cut up and put in a ziploc container. The strawberries were on sale 2 for $3 (gotta love livin' in CA!) The container was pennies after sale and coupon. So I don't mind if I never get it back!

a bag of steamed brocoli (that also went into a ziploc container)

We made sugar cookies and than frosted them

I also put a 2 liter of soda in for them

Not too bad right? They sure looked excited when I dropped it off! (:

So when a friend is sick, or has just had a baby, a woman with 5 kids whose husband is deployed...I mean uhm, you know someone who could just use a break. Look into your stockpiles and see what you can find. I am sure it will be much appreciated!

Vons

I have been having some pretty annoying computer problems lately. That is why I have had a complete lack of posts. I have a total love/hate relationship with technology.

So I haven't been doing a whole lot of shopping lately. There is only one reason...I had baskets full of clipped coupons. Not filed, just clipped and thrown in a basket. Not the best way to find what you need to match with a sale, know what I mean?!

I finally sat down and got to work. It took me hours. I don't want to scare you off of couponing, but seriously it took me hours, to get everything sorted and filed. But now that I am done, I feel soooo much better. Do yourself a favor, don't get behind!!

Once my binder was all purty again, I very quickly headed out to Vons for a quick trip.

Since it had been a while since I actually grocery shopped, I was out of a few things and so that upped my total oop. Total spent :$97

(This picture is missing 4 twelve packs of pop and 10 powerades. They go in the garage and I didn't feel like hauling them all into the house, take a picture, and then bring them back out. Call me lazy!)

kids

Ahhh my babies  big kids know me so well. They know that Mom isn't going to buy anything unless it meets at least one of these criteria:

*sale
*clearance
*coupon
*discount

of course I prefer more than one of those at a time.

Ethan came up to me the other day, and asked, "Mom are you going to buy us a yearbook this year?"

Now, I did not buy one last year. My kids, being military brats, didn't even attend a full year at their last school. I also feel that a yearbook for elementary school? Seriously? But since Ethan has been staying after school every Wed. for an hour and a half to work on said yearbook, I said ok.

Then he hits me with, "MOM, you are going to want to preorder in February because than you get $10 off of the purchase price."

(He also enjoys .10 Banquet pies!)

They can be taught!!

AAAGH!

 I have had many people request for help with learning to coupon and saving money. I started a new blog to do just that. But it was starting to get a little complicated going back and forth. As if my life wasn't complicated enough right.

So...because I am sure no one is confused yet (lol) I am hoping that the 3rd time is a charm. So this is now my ONE AND ONLY BLOG...ok besides my family one that is seriously behind. Most of my friends and followers know me from here so this is where I stay.

Seriously, thanks for staying with me. I hope that someday, I won't be such a flake. But until then...