Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I Love to Save

I really do.  But I also hate to coupon.  It's a pain in the tush.  Thankfully the two sites I use to keep up on things - Southern Savers and Hip2Save -  ensure that I save a ton of money for our family.  Just yesterday I was able to get a free avocado coupon.  I can't wait to try avocado in soup. I saw it on a recipe site and it looked really good!

This week was a good week for saving. I had to get some meat and veggies to restock our barren freezer and pantry.  In addition to that, I need some things for Ashton's birthday party this weekend.  I was also able to go cash in on some CVS savings Saturday.  I had been putting it off all week, but made it in just under the wire!  Here is my breakdown of savings.

CVS - Sorry folks, no pictures this time, but here is what I got...
  • 6 Airwick plug-in refills
  • 3 Airwick warmer units
  • 2 Lysol Nuetrair
  • 1-8 Pack of snack cookies
  • 1 Sudafed OM Nasal Spray
  • 1 Skintamate Shave Gel
  • 1 Tylenol Precision pain relief Cream
  • 1 Nivea Men's Active Body Wash
  • 4 Candy bars (filler items)
Cost Before Sales, Coupons and CVS Bucks - $68.43
What I paid - $9.58
Total Savings - $58.85

And, I still have $5 in CVS bucks to spend on another purchase!

Bilo - I'm not going to do a breakdown because I purchased a ton of stuff!  I took advantage of the meal deal offered and stocked up on roasts and a few other meat items.  And I managed to purchased some of the strongest onions ever!  Poor Ashton loves to cook with me and they even gave him a run for his money!

Cost before Sales and Coupons - $142.26
What I paid - $79.19
Total Savings - $63.07

I did remember to take pictures of the next two before we put everything away!

Publix  - Look at everything I was able to get!  I love shopping at Publix. Their sales are typically better than Ingles.  I avoid getting anything full price there. They are normally very expensive for things that are not on sale.



Cost before Sales and Coupons - $82.01
What I paid - $35.04 (about $0.89 per item)
Total Savings - $47.87 

Ingles - I try to avoid shopping here except for an occasional sale or items that we forgot on our normal shopping trips.  They tend to be more expensive than Bilo or Walmart.  But we have a store two minutes from the house!  This week however there were a few things that I love to get on sale.  The Raovac batteries in the picture (all 5 of them) were free with coupons and sales!  (I missed a bag of groceries in the car for this photo!)  The Rice Krispies, oil and marshmallows were not on sale. I need them for this weekends party.



Cost before Sales and Coupons - $49.43
What I paid - $19.82 (about $0.86 per item)
Total Savings - $29.61

Wells Fargo/Wachovia - There is one final deal that I managed to get.  Many, many months ago, I signed up for the Wachovia rewards program at our bank.  For every credit purchase on our ATM card,  we would receive points towards free gifts.  I looked at the point values and assumed that we would probably never get anything worth a lot value.  I ignored the Rewards review emails that I received and went on about my happy life.  A few weeks ago I received an email about my rewards points and decided to check and see what I could get.  I was afraid that they would expire and I would miss out on my free trinket.  And that is when I my jaw dropped and I came close to doing the happy dance.

We had accrued over 15,000 points.  (This was just typical spending out of our checking account using the credit feature.)  With those points, I was able to get $100 posted to our checking account and get a $50 card to Kohls.  Even better the Kohls card was on sale and less than most other $50 rewards!


If you have a Wachovia/Wells Fargo bank account, I encourage you to sign up for the rewards. Then once a year check what you can trade your points in for!  Daniel and I were blessed to receive $150 for normal spending.  And now if we have the option to use the credit feature on our cards, we do so knowing that we are racking up points for free items later on!

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