CVS Shopping & Savings 08.18.08

August 18th, 2008

Here is what I decided to purchase from the CVS flier this week-

Transaction #1:

1 Dove SkinVitalizer $9.99, get $3 ECB, used coupon (from this week’s paper or available for printing here) for $3.50 off= $3.49
2 Sunsilk Products (one shampoo or conditioner & one styling aid item), $4.49 each, on sale for BOGO Free, used 2 coupons (from this week’s paper) for $1.50 off one item= $1.40 for two or $.75 each
Then I used the $2 off $10 coupon
Total Spent OOP (out of pocket)= $6.85
Extra Care Bucks Credit– $3
Actual Cost- $3.85

Transaction #2:

Pepsi Products on Sale Buy Four (for $11), Get One Free

3 12-packs of Mt Dew
2 12-packs of Diet Cherry Pepsi
Total Cost= $11
Then I used the $2 off $10 coupon
Total Cost= $9, Total Cost Per 12-Pack= $1.80 each
For this transaction, I also used my ECB from last week’s diapers purchase (and some ECB overage from the previous transaction) and they ended up owning me $.45. I grabbed a 3 Musketeers and we called it pretty much even!

Be sure to check Money Saving Mom this week for other scenarios. She is going to have the links up sometime later this week!

I did two separate transactions, but only made one trip. Do you guys do more than one trip or just ask them to ring it up separately? I just want to be respectful of the employee so I wondered how you guys do it?

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Posted in Frugal | 8 Comments »

Freebie Friday: August 15, 2008

August 15th, 2008

This was an exciting week for us since we opened up our Notebook Experiments to our readers. To encourage families to work on projects together, I am going to be offering a giveaway on Thursday to anyone who completes their own Notebook Experiment on their blog next week. We will also have another giveaway running for others who don’t blog too so be watching for that!

I am also looking for some guest posts and would like to have a guest poster each Saturday. If you are interested in submitting a post on frugal living, creative/crafty parenting, or organizing, you can email your entries to me at amy@momadvice.com. Please include a bio with a link to your site and (if you would like) a picture of yourself to include.

Thank you to Heather, from Freebies 4 Mom, for helping us with our list this week. Be sure to check Heather’s current list of Walmart freebies to make sure you didn’t miss anything this month! Thanks, Heather!

Freebie Tips from Our Readers:

**One of our loyal readers, Nancy, shared with us that Angie, from Baby Cheapskate, is offering free membership to her amazing Freepeats Program. Thanks for letting us know, Nancy!

“Get absolutely FREE lifetime membership in any of our 25 local Freepeats groups today (8/14) through next Wednesday (8/20). Now is the perfect time to sign up and pass on some of the gently-used toys, books, baby gear, maternity stuff, baby clothes, formula samples, baby coupons, etc. that are taking up space in your house. Posting them on Freepeats is an ever-so-green way to clear the clutter! You can pick up some great FREE baby, kid and maternity items locally through listings you find on Freepeats, too.
Freepeats groups are open in 25 major cities across the country. You’ll find a list of those cities here. If your city has a group, just click here and register. This isn’t a free trial, either. Once you join Freepeats, you’re in for as long as you like.”

**We also got another reader tip, from Monica at The Homepsun Heart, on a free scoop night at Coldstone Creamery. Thank you, Monica!!

I was just reading my newest issue of Country Living and noticed the following:

“September 25 The World’s Largest Ice Cream Social – Nationwide From 5-8 p.m., visit your local Cold Stone Creamery for a free scoop. In exchange, the ice cream chain’s hoping you’ll donate to its Make-a-Wish Foundation Fundraiser; coldstonecreamery.com.”

Health & Beauty

Celine Dion Sensational


Food

Mark Your Calendars
August – Lucky’s Spin and Win find event @ Walmart
August thru September – Walgreens Take Care Health Tour
August – Staples Teach Appreciation Day look up the date of your store’s event
August – Ultimate Lunchbox samples @ Walmart
August 16 – Michaels Back-to-School Event: make a beaded key chain 1 to 4 pm
August 23 – Lowe’s Build and Grow Clinic: make a GMC truck 10 to 11 am
September 3 – FTD Good Neighbor Day free flowers
September 27 – National Museum Day

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Posted in Freebies | 9 Comments »

Giveaway: The Laurie Berkner Band Prize Pack

August 14th, 2008

Hurry on over to The Mother Loot and get your entry in for The Laurie Berkner Band prize pack. There are all sorts of goodies included and a fun discussion on you & your children’s favorite kid’s music! To enter, you must head here!

You can also find me over at Frugal Hacks this week, sharing about our back to school celebrating. Please chime in if you have any special ways that you celebrate their first day back to school!

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Notebook Experiments: Can I Craft Some Bath Toys?

August 14th, 2008


Experiment: Can I Craft Some Bath Toys?

Experiment Taken From: Notebook Entry 06.26.08

Materials Needed: Please see plumpudding for the full instructions on this task. I hit our local dollar store and picked up a ten pack of craft foam to use for this project. The craft foam is thin enough that you can cut these with plain old scissors or you could break out your zig-zag scissors from your scrapbooking materials.


Results: I am not very good at free-hand drawing so I went ahead and looked for a template where I could stencil some really cute shapes out of my foam. I found this handy template from the Martha Stewart website and whipped up several fishes, flowers, and hearts for the kids. These were very easy to trace and took only a few minutes to whip up. My husband also put together some that he drew for the kids.

The kids absolutely loved these and didn’t want to get out of the bathtub. I also saved a few sheets of foam for the kids to do finger-painting on. I am planning to use these foam sheets with some of our homemade pudding paints (with only enough water to make a finger-paint consistency instead of a water paint consistency) and then I will just rinse the sheets off when they are done so that they can make brand new creations!

I would recommend making sure to soak the foam before you begin sticking it on walls. The pink color did bleed onto the walls and left a pink shade that is going to take some serious scrubbing to get out. None of the other colors caused this problem, but giving them a good soaking first should prevent this problem.


Conclusion: One package of foam can keep my children entertained for many baths and I can’t wait to whip up some more of these for them to play with. I am thinking that these would make excellent stocking stuffers this year and you can’t beat the price! Thanks plumpudding for your creative idea!
********************

I am so excited to open our Notebook Experiments up to everyone and I hope that you will be able to participate this week or in weeks to come! I will be posting this each Thursday so please mark your calendars if you plan to participate. You can post your entries at any time throughout the week and then leave your entry in the links below.

We have this handy banner that you are more than welcome to use, but it is not a requirement! It is just something you can add to add a little sparkle to your entry.

Rules for Participation:

1. Choose anything from any of our notebook entries (past or present) to do with your family. We have hundreds of bookmarked links of crafts, ways to save money, and organizing ideas.
2. Complete an experiment from the notebook and share about it on your blog or website. We would love to see pictures of what you accomplished or a detailed description of how your projects turned out. Please include a link to this entry, a link to the original posting of the entry (at the original crafster’s blog), and (to help us relocate the project) the date or link of the notebook entry where you found it. You can use the same formatting as our entries or you can just include that information in your post in your own unique way!
3. Post a link below. Please include your name or blog name & a fast description of your project. Example- MomAdvice (WHO bread)

I can’t wait to see what you create and what you find inspiring!

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Posted in Amy's Notebook | 11 Comments »

Amy’s Notebook 08.14.08

August 14th, 2008

I love this child’s pool robe made from an old towel (@ Sew, Mama, Sew)

I am bookmarking these fun travel games for our next trip (@ ohdeedoh)

These peanut butter jars are such cute organizers (@ plumpudding)

This winter tree mural and tutorial is amazing (@ Waiting in the Capital)

I love this round-up of Olympic activities for the kids (@ Tip Junkie)

These white chocolate mochas would be a fun treat to share with friend (@ Baking Bites)

These ribbon hair clips would be so cute in my daughter’s hair (@ the long thread)

I love this outlined placemat (@ ohdeedoh)

These thank you cards are such a cool idea (@ Let’s Explore)

I would never think to use the slow cooker as a smoker (@ A Year of CrockPotting)

This tomato basil salad would be a great way to use up some of my tomatoes from my garden (@ 50’s Housewife)

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Posted in Amy's Notebook | 7 Comments »

An Olympics Family Night

August 13th, 2008

We could not let the Olympics pass by without a fun family night surrounding it! Ethan is really into the Olympics this year (thanks to our Wii & the Mario Olympic Games) so I really wanted to do something fun & memorable for the kids.

For our dinner we made the infamous Chicken Lo Mein. We eat this about every other week, but it is a huge hit with the kids every single time and makes fabulous leftovers for lunch. I made a big batch of white rice (cooked as directed but I subbed the water with chicken broth) and bought a package of egg rolls (on special at Aldi for $1.99). I also asked the kids if they would like to try some tea and they both were excited about that so I made some of that too. It was a great excuse to use my little teapot that my grandfather bought for me and these Asian-inspired tea cups that I found at Goodwill.

The kids thought that these cups were really cool because they didn’t have any handles on them. They had never tried egg rolls or tea before and I am happy to report that they both loved them. Emily called it chocolate and had the best time stirring it with her little spoon. My husband also had never tried egg rolls and loved them too! The dinner was a real hit!

Dad was in charge of the remote and we watched the Olympic games while we ate our dinner. There are times when having a television in the kitchen really pays off. Ethan kept saying, “Go, America! Go, America!” He also made predictions on how Michael Phelps was going to do (“Michael Phelps won’t win because China is going to win, mom!”)
While we cleaned up from dinner, Ethan worked on a picture of what the Olympics looked like to him. This is the 100 meter race. I love his fans cheering in the top corner of this page. We made this into a card for our new teacher.

After our fancy dinner and coloring, we worked on learning about origami. I found this cool origami website and we printed out several easy origami activities to do. Ethan colored them and then Dad showed him how to fold them into interesting things.

Ethan was so excited about learning origami that he wanted to know what else he could learn about from China. “I want to do something else from China,” he said. My husband had him doing all sorts of Asian things- drinking water, taking a bath, putting on pajamas. You can’t say we don’t have a sense of humor in this house!

Do your children enjoy the Olympics? Do you have a fun way that you are teaching your children about the culture or a cool way of celebrating this event in your family?

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Posted in Family | 16 Comments »

And My Heart Breaks…

August 12th, 2008



I woke up this morning to red eyes and a tear-stained pillow because I had been anticipating the big event in our house. I still can hardly believe that he went to school today.

Last night we went to his back-to-school night and met his teacher. Ethan spent the evening working on a card to bring her and we got apples at the supermarket so he could give her one. When he walked in with his apple and card, he was so excited to hand it to her. “Will she put it on the corner of her desk, mommy?” I think he saw this on a show or in a book somewhere because the apple placement was almost more important than the apple itself. When she thanked him for the apple and centered it on her desk, he pointed to the corner of her desk. “Could you put the apple here instead?” She grinned, but obliged. I tried to make quiet small talk with the teacher and signed my name on the volunteer sheet. It took everything in me to not say things like, “My son is so amazing- you have no idea how amazing he is! He is so incredibly gifted and smart! Will you love having him around as much as I have?” I didn’t want to be that mom though so we said our goodbyes and held hands as we walked out the door.

It’s funny, when my daughter looks at a picture of our family she points at each person and says their name. “That’s my mommy. That’s my daddy. That’s my Ethan.” The inflection and the possessiveness of that phrase let’s you know just how special he is. He is hers and only hers. He is her big brother, her hero, and her best friend.

As I watch him climb the bus, that possessiveness rings in my heart. That’s my boy. That’s my colicky baby. That’s my stoic toddler. That’s my bubbly preschooler. That’s my gentle & kind son. That’s my Ethan. My. My. My.

Bittersweet.

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Posted in Family | 53 Comments »

Back To School Free Menu Planner

August 12th, 2008


Menu planning has been neglected this summer in favor of spontaneous grilling out and going with the lazy summer flow. School begins for us this week though and I need to get back in my menu-planning groove. Since I was working on our own planner, I wanted to share it with you so you could see what we have planned for this month. I hope it will inspire you for your own family meals this month.

1. Old-Fashioned Spaghetti & Meatballs (Make double batch of meatballs for later in the month)
2. Sloppy Joes & Seasoned Baked Potato Wedges
3. Caesar Chicken Pasta Salad With Homemade Pitas
4. Pita Pizzas (made from leftover pitas) & Salad
5. Parmesan Chicken Drumsticks, Steamed Broccoli, & Rice
6. Oatmeal Waffles with homemade syrup & orange juice
7. Leftovers Night
8. Chicken Broccoli Lo Mein with Rice
9. Herb Baked Tilapia, Chicken-Flavored Rice, & Microwave Corn in Butter Sauce
10. Meatball Subs on Homemade Rolls (meatballs from freezer)
11. Jerk Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, & Baby Peas
12. Homemade Pizza Night
13. Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken, Rice, & Steamed Broccoli
14. Leftovers Night
15. French Toast with homemade syrup & orange juice
16. Italian Pork Chops over Spaghetti
17. Chicken BBQ with Pretzels & Carrot Sticks
18. Salmon Pockets, Rice, & Baby Peas
19. Chicken Pasta Milano with Salad & Bread
20. Homemade Pizza Night
21. Leftovers Night
22. Yeast Waffles with homemade syrup & orange juice
23. Chicken Tacos with Tortilla Chips
24. Sarah’s Tilapia, Rice, & Corn
25. “Roasted” Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, & Baby Peas (save & shred leftover chicken)
26. Chicken Salad Sandwiches (from leftover chicken), Pretzels & Carrot Sticks
27. Bread Machine Calzones With Dipping Sauce
28. Leftovers

Snacks: Banana Bread, Chewy Granola Bars, Cinnamon Muffins, Air Popped Popcorn, Rice Krispie Treats, Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Muffins

I also made a printable version of my planner and am making it available for you here:

Back To School Menu Planner

I hit the grocery store and accomplished all of our grocery shopping (including food for breakfast & lunches) for one month for $175. That leaves us an extra $25 in the budget for our milk and anything else that comes up. Our budget has gone up a lot with the grocery prices, but it also gone up because I have not been planning as well. I am hopeful that we can stay on track this month.

Looking for more tips on menu planning? Be sure to check out my article on how I do my menu plans! It offers an overview on some ways you can start menu planning and find the right style of planners for your family!

With grocery prices rising, what is your grocery budget for your family? What style of menu planning works for you (planning weekly, planning monthly, no plan at all)?



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Posted in Food & Recipes | 27 Comments »

Redbox Code 08.11.08

August 11th, 2008

Today’s free code for a Redbox movie is H3BL13. This code is good for one free movie and you can use it until midnight tonight. Enjoy a free family movie together!

Side Notes:

– If you want to rent more than one movie for free, bring more than one credit/debit card. You can use the same promotional code, you just will need different cards to charge it to. The charge will be zero as long as you return your movie on time for the next day.

– When entering in your free movie code, you need to enter it FIRST before picking the movie. On the very first screen, click the, “Rent with Promo.” Enter in the above code and then make your selection- the amount should then total zero.

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CVS Shopping & Savings 08.11.08

August 11th, 2008

I used to do a lot of CVS shopping, but with a fortress of toothpaste, deodorant, and toothbrushes in my closet, I took the summer off to enjoy the rewards from my past shopping. We were trying to enjoy being home more and saving on gas at the same time so CVS shopping took a backseat this summer.

I have been slowly whittling down my supply though so last week I started picking the shopping back up and am ready to get back in the CVS game again!

Here is what I bought this week and how I saved:

1 Alavert Allergy Tablets- $5.99, get $3 ECB, used printable coupon for $4 off= $1.01 credit
2 CVS SPF 50 Sunscreens- $4.99, on sale for $2.99, two minus $1 coupons (printed from CVS coupon machine in store) & $2 off 1 CVS Beauty Product =1. 98 for two or $.99 each
2 Right Guard Deodorants, $3.29 each, on sale for BOGO Free, $1 off & $.75 coupons in paper= $1.54 for two or $.77 each
2 Colgate Total White Toothpaste- $2.79 each, on sale for BOGO Free, used printable coupon for $1.50 off= $1.29 for two or $.65 each
1 CVS Ibuprofen- $3.19 each, CVS coupon on end of last week’s receipt for a free box= FREE
4 Oxy Daily Wash & Spot Treatment Products- $5.79 each, used $1 off coupon in paper, printable coupons here & here, got $6 ECB ($3 ECB when you buy two)= $8.87 for four or $2.22 each
Then I used the $2 off $10 coupon

After I used my ECB that I had from last week, I ended up paying $2.27 for my purchases & have $9 in ECB for next time. Total savings for this week’s purchases… $57.90!

I plan to head back this week to buy diapers. CVS is running a sale on Huggies Jumbo Packs for $8.99 each. In front of the diapers are $1.00 off coupons in a little SmartSource Coupon Machine so you can take $1 off each package, print out the $2 off $10 coupon, and get $5 back in ECB. Total spent on 3 Jumbo Packs of Huggies $16.97 or $5.66 per pack. Check Baby Cheapskate for a complete list of diaper & formula stock-up opportunities.

Be sure to visit Money Saving Mom for a complete list of ways you can save money on your CVS purchases!

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Posted in Frugal | 12 Comments »

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