February Frees

Here is what I got completely FREE during the month of February. Click here to read a previous post explaining each category.

Publix Mystery Coupon Items:
coffee brick
5 lb sugar
2 bags tortilla chips

CVS Extracare Bucks With Sales and Coupons:
2 bottles Gillette shampoo
2 first aid adhesive pads
cotton balls
3 pack BodiHeat heat pads
Gillette Fusion Gamer razor
4 bottles Herbal Essences shampoo
1 bottle Suave shampoo
5 bottles Suave body wash
2 Colgate Total toothpaste
2 Stayfree
low-dose aspirin

Great Sale Prices Combined with Coupons:
8 cans Hunt's diced tomatoes (20 cents ea)
Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bar
4 boxes Betty Crocker hash browns
10 Pillsbury cake mixes
2 Land O Lakes spreads
2 bags frozen veggies
12 pkg Cottonelle bath tissue
2 tubs Windex wipes
2 tubs Scrubbin' Bubbles wipes

Spent Free Gift Cards (from transferring rx):
4 gallons milk
hamburger buns
5 pkg frozen veggies
2 pkg flour tortillas
2 large bags frozen fries
red wine vinegar
5 lb ground beef
3 Cottonelle bath tissue
3 Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber refill packs
2 Colgate toothpaste
4 twin packs Oral-B toothbrushes
4 Degree deodorant
2 Walgreens deodorant
Mitchum deodorant

Full Rebates:
Nivea lip protector
Garnier Fructis shampoo
Zucol
3 boxes Bayer aspirin

Free Deals:
garlic bread loaf (Kroger's price promise)
Walgreens aspirin

Given to Me:
2 liter soda

CVS 90% Off

I hit the perfect hour (or maybe 30 minutes) at CVS this morning. The Valentine aisle was marked down to 90% off. The place was crawling with a group of ladies, friends it seemed, piling their arms full of heart-shaped boxes, big and small. I picked up a few with plans to empty the candy from the boxes and bring it out on Easter. Much better than marshmallowy peeps!

I spent 49 cents each for the largest boxes, 39 cents for the toile box, and 9 cents each for the rose boxes. That's 23 oz of candy for $1.55. And Easter is finished.

CVS Was Good

Two trips to CVS (different stores); both profitable:
Store 1
2 Colgate Advanced, $2.99, earn $2.99 ecb's ea, $1.50 Q and $1 Q
4 Herbal Essences, $2.99 ea, earn $1 ecb ea, $3/2 coupons
6 bottles Suave shampoo, $2 ea, earn 4 ecb's, coupons: free bottle, $2/3, $2/2
candy bar as filler 66 cents
also used $5/$30 coupon from the machine
total $30.60
coupon total: $19.50
spent 10 ecb's and $1.50 on gift card
earned 14 ecb's

Store 2
another Colgate, same as above with a $1 Q
2 Herbal Essences, $2.99 ea, earn $1 ecb, $3/2 Q (I reached my limit on ecb's)
1 Gillette shampoo $4.99, earn $3 ecb's, $2 Q
Gillette Fusion Gamer razor, $7.99, earn $4 ecb's, $4 Q
2 Neutrogena bar soaps, $2.99 ea, earn $10 ecb's on 2
CVS cotton balls, $1.99, earn $2 on 2, $1 Q (had already purchased 1, so I earned my ecb's this time)
also used a $3/2 hair care Q from the machine
total: $30
coupon total: $15
spent $16 ecb's and 60 cents on gift card
earned $23 ecb's

My Etsy Shop

I now have an Etsy shop. So far I'm selling sewn items and vintage items. Later I may add doll clothes and paper crafting too. I hope to learn how to make a decorative banner soon, so my shop will look more appealing. You can visit me through the link on my right sidebar. Scroll down to Etsy, then click on skrapcraft under the photos. See you there!

Shopping with Sales and Coupons Is Worth It!

Sometimes I have to remind myself how wonderful couponing is. I often hear friends/neighbors/strangers say that spending "so much time" looking for deals isn't worth it for the few cents saved. But I know without a doubt that it is worth it. Today's shopping trip is a good example. I came home with groceries and toiletries valued at $71, but I spent $0. Zip. Nothing. I never took my wallet out of my handbag. That certainly is worth it to me!

Here is a brief summary of how I did it:
I bought about $28 in groceries at Kroger. I used three coupons totaling $3, and I had $9 in store savings on sale items. That brought my total down to $16. Then the cashier reminded me that I had $25 on my Kroger card from transferring a prescription. It's like store credit. So I used part of it to cover the balance due on my groceries.

I also bought about $43 worth of toiletries at CVS. I had nine coupons totaling $20.50, $10 in Extracare bucks, and $11.50 in store savings on sale items. The remaining dollar I spent off my gift card from transferring a prescription, also like store credit.

And that is why my pantry looks like a grocery store!

Our Day for Celebrating Love

Valentine's Day has always been a day for family celebrating in our house. I set the table with red or pink, whatever I have on hand, and add the china and heart napkins that I buy on clearance previous years (holidays are the only time I use paper napkins). Usually one package of holiday paper napkins will last several years. I store them in my party paper goods drawer, each holiday in a quart zipper bag.

This year's menu: Steak we found on clearance this morning, potatoes, a veggie, red jello cut into little hearts, and GIANT chocolate chip cookies formed into hearts. I also added little pink swan candy cups at each place (thrifted years ago) filled with red and silver-wrapped kisses, on Christmas clearance, 90% off. The bag included green too, but I picked those out and saved them for St. Pat's Day next month. The kisses have been biding their time in the freezer since December.I also made tiny Valentines for everyone. Scrapbooking paper scraps come in handy!

New Napkin Rings

We are a cloth napkin family. We use them partly because I grew up in a cloth napkin family, but also because they save resources - water, paper, landfill space. I keep a tall stack of white cotton napkins in the pantry. White? Because they can be bleached, and because new ones added to the old will always match. We expect each family member to use their napkin for several days, until it begins to look stained. Then into the wash it goes. We each have a unique napkin ring so that whoever sets the table can easily identify napkins.

Recently we have had frequent dinner guests and I saw the need to have some spare napkin rings on hand. But, surprise, individual napkin rings are hard to find; they most often come in sets of four. Until I hit Pier 1 this morning. I found these three napkin rings on clearance: $1 for one and 58 cents each for the other two. That's the kind of deal I like.

A Pie NOT to Repeat!

I felt like baking a pie the other day.

I spied a tub of dried apricots in the pantry that needed to be used. I searched my cookbooks and found an apricot pie recipe using dried apricots. The apricots required a soaking and simmering before being dumped into the crust. I envisioned pulling a golden brown pie from the oven, filled with tasty, tender apricots.

It was golden brown. It did look delicious. But on eating, the apricots were so chewy that it was not a pleasure to eat. But at least the crust was good!