Super Savings Saturday

WooHoo! It's Super Savings Saturday over at MoneySavingMom.com again. I love this part of the week. I can't believe I'm prepared and it's not even noon yet!

Let's start with my trip to Fry's and Safeway. Technically, this is from last week but I couldn't find my receipt for the longest time. Boy, was I in a tizzy! I finally found it about two days ago.

What you see below is $212.00 worth of groceries (the picture is missing one box of CapriSun that I forgot to add and a giant KitKat bar that, for the life of me, I have no idea what became of it. No, really! No idea. None.) I shopped the sales, used my coupons and took advantage of a great offer Safeway has going on right now with SaraLee, Hillshire Farms and Ballpark.

Grand total: $65.00 (and some odd cents)

Just to give you a partial breakdown:
- the Bush's beans - .50 cents ea.
- the Kraft dressing - .67 cents ea.
- the Valveeta Shells & Cheese - .67 cents ea.
- the case of CapriSun - $1.00 ea.
- the spaghetti sauce - FREE
- the napkins - FREE
- the syrup - FREE
- the Bill Johnson's BBQ sauce (my fav) - FREE
- oh, and the KitKat bar was also FREE but, again, I have no idea where it went.

My best day ever at CVS:
I walked in with $12.00 in ECB's plus a handful of coupons. But, most importantly, I walked in with a plan. Got to have a plan! Three transactions and one incredibly helpful & friendly cashier later, I walked out with $155.86 worth of product having only paid OOP $22.24. But that's not the best part! I also walked out with $21.23 in ECB's! So, really, I paid $1.01 for everything!

Wondering why I bought a glucose monitering kit? Well, let me explain. It was on sale for $19.99 with $19.99 ECB's back. Sounds like a wash, right? Wait for it! ----------------------- I had a $4.00 off any $20.00 purchase CVS coupon that I used with this transaction. I paid $16.00 and received back $19.99 in ECB's. So, basically, CVS paid me $4.00 to buy this product. I then used my profits towards the next transaction.

For fun, I thought I'd try out the local Goodwill just to see what I could find. In addition to a couple of other things not pictured, I found the two Polly Pocket's houses for .99 cents each - including the accessories. They were in great condition only needing a little cleaning. I decided to give London the new set of Polly Pockets I purchased awhile back using only ECB's making that purchase free! Hours of fun for only $1.98. Can't beat that! If you want to learn more about how to save money taking care of your family's needs and have a great time doing it, please, check out www.moneysavingmom.com/ for TONS of great ideas!

See you again next week with more great deals!

Found It On the Web Friday

Last Monday evening, as my daughter and I were heading to a church function, we had to make a stop along the way. As I got out, London eagerly pointed out a beautiful rainbow to me. I hadn't planned on getting her out of the car as I just had to drop something off at a friend's, but decided that a rainbow is not something any child should miss. We stood there, staring up at it, marveling in all it's beauty and glory - a visual reminder of God's promise to us. I managed to snap a couple of pictures of it but they did not turn out as hoped. Since I cannot share those with you, I searched the web for a better example. The rainbow we saw that night was almost a double rainbow, the second arch not quite making it all the way around.

I found the picture below searching through Google. I hope you enjoy it. One of the many ways God shows us His unending love & generosity. I never get tired of looking at rainbows and I never get tired of receiving His gifts.
Have a Blessed Day!

And The Winner Is....

Okay, sorry I'm a little late. My stomach was growling and I had to get it something to eat before it turned on itself.

So, who will be receiving the lovely and oh-so-handy set of 2 Tupperware Romance Canisters? Well, first let me tell you that the manner in which I have chosen the lucky recipient was a very detailed, scientific and exhausting method used only by those truly interested in keeping it fair and precise. Basically, I held my 3 year old daughter up to the computer screen and told her to point to one of the responses.

She chose.........Lisa-Marie!!!!

Woohoo! Congratulations! I will be in touch with you later today to get your shipping info.

Thank you to everyone who participated. I hope to be doing a giveaway every month so, please, keep coming back!

I Am NOT Happy, People!

What on earth is this?:
Is that...is that...frost? Who defiled the beautiful grass in my backyard? Is this someone's idea of a sick joke, because I'm not laughing! This is ARIZONA for Pete's sake! Not Minnesota, or North Dakota or even *gasp* ALASKA! No, this is Arizona. You know, the Southwest! I even live in the Valley of the Sun! Not the Valley of Brrr...it's freaking cold outside!

Who do I call to complain? Where do I go to get a refund? I ordered warm weather, moderate winters and blazing HOT summers. I didn't order frost! Nobody orders frost! What's next, snow? You know what snow looks like, don't you? It looks like this:

Yeah, baby, slice me up a piece of that! No, I don't think so. Well, I guess my day has been decided for me. I have no choice but to toss a log on the fire, snuggle under a down blanket, sip some soothing hot cocoa and wait for June to come. See you then! Brrr....

Just a reminder...

My Tupperware giveaway ends Thursday. If you have not posted a comment here then might I suggest you GET TO IT!!

Go! Hurry now! I'm waiting! *taptaptap*

Super Savings Saturday

It's that time of the week again. It's Super Savings Saturday over at MoneySavingMom.com. I'm just going to quickly go over my deals for the week.

My trip to Fry's:

$67.02 retail value
$ 23.97 OOP (out of pocket)
_________
$ 43.05 saved (matching coupons w/ ad items)

First time using coupons and rebate program at Walgreen's:
$52.70 retail value
$23.74 OOP
_________
$13.97 saved (using rebates)
$14.99 saved (using coupons)

Not great but I'll get better. I bought several things for London to make Valentine's for her friends in the neighborhood. I didn't have coupons for those items.

The Children's Place:
$51.50 retail value:
$16.81 OOP
_________
$35.94 saved (buying all items on sale plus 20% off coupon)

My Sister-in-law's garage sale:

I did a garage sale with my SIL over at her house. I join in with her about every other year. We usually end up trading a few items. Here's what I got for FREE because she wanted a few of my things:

That's a chocolate fountain which is practically brand-new. They used it twice! I've seen these things in the stores for $35.00 or more. Also, some never-been-used mini cookie cutters from Pampered Chef. I was just eyeing these at a Pampered Chef party I attended two nights ago. They sell for $10.50! You can call that lucky coincidence or you can call it God knowing the desires of your heart. Either way, I consider myself having been very blessed this week!

See you next Saturday with more great deals!

Prayer Requests

God has laid this on my heart more than once but, for some reason, I always seem to put it on the back burner knowing that, someday, I'll get around to it. Well, God reminded me again today so I figured before I allowed anything else to get in my way or distract me (i.e., kids) I'd hop on this and get to it.

I would like to prayer for you in anyway or about anything you feel in need of. Not just today, but anytime and as often as you wish. Praying for myself gets a little old at times. I can only imagine God thinking, "Yes, I know. Peace & patience with regard to your children. I got it!"

So check out the new link off to the right. -------------------------> Just below the "About Me" section (notice how I kept that on top? Hmm...narcissistic much?) there is an email I set up just for prayer. I will check it daily and keep all of you in my prayers. Just let me know when the prayer has been answered as I always love to hear about the wonderful work God does in our lives.

Thank you & have a blessed day!