I may just need an intervention

If you know me at all (or read this blog from time to time), you know I LOVE a good bargain. From my rather unhealthy obsession with CVS, to my affinity for the red stickers at Target... nothing gets my adrenaline pumping like getting a good deal.

A few weekends ago, we decided that it was time to update Fred's work wardrobe. I don't think the poor guy has bought new clothes for himself in a couple of years. So off we went to Kohl's for a little shopping action.

I had a 15% off card, and we were able to get out of there for just over $200. Now that sounds like a lot of money, but we brought home a huge bag o' stuff including:
-4 polo shirts
-2 dress shirts
-2 pair of khaki pants
-1 pair of dress pants
-a robe for me
-a swim suit for Elise (for next year)

All in all, a pretty good haul, wouldn't you say? As I sat down to go through my Sunday paper the following week, my stomach dropped. Kohl's was doing their spend $50, get $10 in Kohl's cash promotion. Meaning, I lost $40 in cash back. Stuff like that GNAWS at me, so I decided to call Kohl's to see if I could just bring back what we had bought, return it, and then buy it all back again.

To my amazement, the girl told me to just bring the receipt and they would do the price adjustment that way... YEAH! Plus, my 15% off card was still valid AND it was tax-free weekend!

After they did the price adjustment, it turned out that almost every item was priced cheaper than the previous week, so I also made money back that way. Between that, the 15%, and the tax-free; I saved about $40. Then on top of that, I received $30 Kohl's cash to spend at a later date (instead of $40 because my total was just above $150 now).

I know that probably seems dorky to many of you, but I swear... deals like that make me swoon.

These are a few of my favourite things: CVS-ing

Did you know that I've saved over $1500 shopping at CVS so far this year? And most of the stuff I've "bought", I haven't paid a dime for. Nooooo, it's not called the 5 finger disount, it's CVS-ing!

If you're not cheap like me, you may have no idea what that term means. Basically, it's shopping at CVS using their Extracare Card to get Extracare Bucks (ECBs) which you in turn use to buy stuff at CVS for almost no money out of your pocket. Let me explain:

In their Sunday circular, CVS lists things that are on sale, some of which they offer you Extracare Bucks for buying. For example: a tube of Colgate toothpaste will be listed on sale for $2.50, and you get $2 in ECBs back, therefore making said toothpaste 50 cents (although you have to pay the whole $2.50 up front). But wait, there's more!

If you have a $1.00 manufacturer's coupon, CVS is basically paying YOU 50 cents to buy that toothpaste. Even better, by using your CVS card, you get coupons printed on your receipt that can be used alongside the manufacturer's coupon (this is called stacking coupons). So if I also had a CVS coupon for $1.00 off that same toothpaste, CVS is now "paying" me $1.50 to buy it.

Oh, but it gets better. If you sign up to receive emails from the CVS Extracare program, they email $4 off $20 coupons out every two weeks or so. So what I do, is look through the circular and see what items offer me the best return (that are free or close to free after the ECBs, or better than free if I'm using a CVS or manufacturer's coupon). I add up the items I wat to buy, making sure I can use my $4 off $20 coupon. If the total amount of ECBs I get back is pretty close to the amount I'll be spending, then I'm set to go shopping!

Since I have a pretty big stash of ECBs (I've been doing this for quite awhile), I use those to pay for the items... confused? Here's what I did last week:

These are all the items I bought on my last trip.

The Aveeno conditioner was $6.49. I had a $1 off coupon and got back $2 ECBs
The Aquafresh was $2.99. I had a $1 coupon, a $1 CVS coupon, and got back $2 ECBs
The razor was $9.99. I had a $4 coupon and got back $5 ECB
The toothbrush was $1. I had a $1 coupon and got back $1 ECB
The cream was $7.99. I had a $1 coupon and got back $7 in ECBs

My total came to $28.46. I also had a $5 off when you spend $25 store coupon (you should always give this coupon first, before all you manufacterer's coupons). After coupons, my total came to $15.46. I used my ECBs from my stash, and received $17 back in ECBs. So, they paid me to take all these items off of their hands. Pretty cool, eh?

Now, not every week is that good, and yes it takes time to go through the circular and match up your coupons, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy. There are also websites out there that will tell you what the best deals are and what coupons to use, but I prefer to do it myself.

I've actually had to curtail my CVS-ing because I now have a stash of about 50 toothbrushes, 20+ tubes of toothpaste, probably close to 50 razors and more that I've paid next to nothing for. I've actually started donating some of my stash to shelters and other organizations because I'm running out of room to store it all.

Whew, that was a long post, and if you've made it to the end, I commend you! Enjoy the spoils of your CVS-ing!

Had a Bad Day

To celebrate the suckiness of this day, I decided to title this post with the name of a rather horrific song, just so it would get stuck in your head. Yes, I am evil that way. Impolite and evil.

Why did your day suck, Joanne? Because diabetes is a terrible, sucktastic, crappola of a disease and I really wish it could manifest itself as a person so I could kick it in the groin, thank you for asking. And yes, I am well aware that I have a preoccupation with kicking/kneeing/punching people in the groin. What can I say... I grew up with two brothers. Sometimes the best defense is a good offence. Ka-POW!

Anyway, as soon as Fred got home from work, I let him know that for the sake of my sanity and safety of any nearby groins, I was going to have to leave the house allbymyself. I had no destination in mind, I just went.

As is often the case, I wound up at Target. Maybe it was destiny. Maybe it was the wind. Probably it's my deep love and appreciation for the giant red bulls eye. Into Target I went and we all know how cathartic spending money can be. Especially when everything you buy was 50-75% off. It felt good.

I got back into my car and continued my journey to a nearby mall... and didn't run over the man who thought jay-walking across a 6 lane, extremely busy road was a good idea. Not running him over felt good.

I then ran a red light. It was iffy at best if I could have stopped... but I didn't. And it felt good.

In the parking lot of the mall, I didn't make fun of the girl who was wearing one of those stupid scarves around her neck in the 104 degree Texas heat. Well, not out loud anyway. In my brain I had a good chuckle at her expense. Yup, it felt good.

I walked by a Cinnabon, but decided against the ooey, gooey, decedent goodness of a cinnamon roll. And you know what? That felt good.

As did seeing my husband and daughter at the mall because he had brought her there to ride the carousel as a treat. He had no idea that I was there, and in the hour or so that I had been away from them, I found that I missed them.

I also found that a few small feel-good things can totally erase the crap of a bad day.

And you know what? That feels good too.

Doing my part for the economy

I think I've said it before on this blog, but I love a good deal. Seriously, I've never done drugs and will never need to because all I need to do to get high is buy a cute pair of jeans at 80% off.

Last night, with Fred and my dear daughter in tow, I went to a bunch of stores and hit the motherload. I did so well that I decided to post a picture of all my bounty and how much I saved.



In this picture:
*double-sided tape
*two shirts for Elise from Old Navy
*a paint set for Elise
*a package of 14 bracelets (for Elise)
*some cool plastic jungle animals
*Crayola markers
*L'Oreal face cleanser
*Ponds face towelettes
*Ziploc snack bags
*Fusion gift set (razor, shaving gel, hydrating gel, body wash, and deodorant)

So how much do you think all this originally cost? $53.81

How much do you think I paid? $12.72

It might take me days to come down off of this one.

The Thrill of the Hunt

I love a good deal... I do. I always tell people it's not really the shopping I enjoy, it's finding a good bargain. I have to be careful though, or I might find myself buying a coffee maker, just because it's 75% off. This would be a bad deal because neither Fred nor I drink coffee.

We actually have a rule in our house. I'm not allowed to buy toothbrushes unless they cost a quarter or less. This is because we have roughly about 50 toothbrushes stored under our guest bathroom sink. Along with about 15 tubes of toothpaste, 40 bars of soap, 5 boxes of band-aids, 10 deodorants, 5 cans of shaving cream, and close to about 20 razors (most of them Fusion razors, no less). Pretty much all of this was either free or 50 cents out of pocket for each item. Like I said, I love a good bargain. I clip coupons, and I watch sales. I'm pretty lucky that I'm blessed with an almost photographic memory. I can see an item on sale and know I have a coupon for that. I can also remember prices of items for each store we shop at, so I can know if I'm getting a good deal. Unfortunately, this really only works with money... I was never able to use it as an advantage while studying.

All this to say, I got the mother of all deals today. Granted, it was with a little help from my neighbour that works for the store. But man, I may not come down all week from this "bargain high". Right now in a lot of stores, diapers are going on clearance. That's because following the trend of a lot of other products, they're charging you the same price, for less product. So in come the newer, smaller packages, and all the old packages are going on clearance. My neighbour who works for the store, put aside 6 of the BIG boxes for me. So I went in today to buy them, and found they had been marked down almost 75%! Plus I had a bunch of coupons I could use. In the end, I paid $44 for 752 diapers. Or, roughly 5 cents a diaper. The person checking me out shot me some weird looks, probably because I was giggling from the sheer joy of it.

So hopefully, I can stunt Elise's growth enough that she'll stay in size 3 diapers for awhile. Looks like I'm going to need that coffee maker after all.