Getting Our House In Order

My name is Meg and I live in Buffalo NY with my husband Andrew and our cat Jake.
We are working on getting our house in order by saving money, getting organized, and simplifying things.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A New Project...This one is big!!!

Andrew and I are days away from closing on a new house. It's a 1950's ranch, and it overlooks the Niagara River.  It needs updating, but that's the fun part!  We also need to do a few diy projects here in the apartment before we rent it, so we have a busy few weeks ahead of us.
I thought it would be fun to revive my blog, and chronicle this new adventure.  It's going to be fun!
Let the DIY Games Begin!!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Walgreens Challenge week 5-$$ Profit today!

OK. This week is a great week at Walgreens. Here's what I got for a $5.20 profit. That's right. I got paid to take this stuff out of the store!!
Here's the breakdown:
1 Betty Crocker Super Moist Cake Mix $1 on sale
1 Betty Crocker Frosting $1 on sale
Used $1 off cake and frosting coupon from todays paper
2 Betty Crocker warm delights $1 ea on sale
Used $1 off 2 coupon from todays paper
1 Dulcolax $10 on sale get $10 in register rewards
Used $4 printable from smartsource.com
1 Dove hairspray $4 get $4 in register rewards
Used $2 off 1 printable coupon from Dove Website
1 Simply Saline allergy and sinus $7 get $7 in reg rewards
used $1 off 1 from a previous sunday paper
bottled water $2.99 wih Walgreens coupon in the weekly ad
used $2 off water hang tag from the dulcolax
1 Betty crocker brownie mix $1
This was my "filler item" so I could used $4 register reward from last week.
I paid $15.80 on my giftcard (this includes tax and bottle deposit)
I received $21 in register rewards
$5.20 in profit
YAY!
I have $42 left on my gift card plus $21 in register rewards.
Challenge totals are as follows:
$63 remaining (started with $100 gift card)
$37 spent
$175 in merchandise purchased so far.
I will probably go in again later this week to get the Dove Money Maker as I have more coupons.
The more profit weeks I have the longer the challenge will go on!

Long time no post

I knew it had been a while since I last posted, but I had no idea it was 3 weeks! Yikes.  Time gets away.  I had 2 business trips and a weekend of babysitting which kept me busy, plus not much going on at the stores, so I guess I can justify it!  I did actually go to Walgreens last week to use up expiring register rewards.  I had my nieces with me, so in addition to my "deals" I bought a few "non-challenge worthy" items such as a Web-Kinz, a squirmy blue worm thing, and a peace sign bracelet.  I'll include that all in my totals when I update later today. LUCKILY there are a few money makers at Walgreens this week to make up for the extras last week! :)
I'm planning my trip, so I'll post with a picture and new totals later today.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Walgreens Challenge Week 3

This was a good week for deals at Walgreens.  Good thing, since I had $10 in Register Rewards getting ready to expire!
Challenge Totals are as Follows:
Merchandise Total: $119.30
Dollars Spent:$25.57
Remaining balance: $74.43
This was a big shop versus my previous 2 on the challenge. You can see my overall savings ratio took a hit, since it was about 90% and now more like 75% (no, these are not exact figures...not a math girl here!!)
But, these are all things we need, and we'll give a few things to my father in law, so we are all good.
Here's what I got:


3 Kraft singles on sale 2/$5
3 Deli Fresh lunch meats on sale 2/$5
I used 2 $1 off coupons (printed from coupons.com a few weeks ago)
1 Oreo Cakester $2.50
used $1 off cakester from facebook
1 Chips Ahoy $2.50
These qualifed me for the buy $20 get a $5 register reward deal
2 Oral B toothbrushes
Used Buy One Get one free coupon from todays paper
1 crest toothpaste
Used $1 off 1 crest
These were on sale 3/$9 and I got $3 in register rewards for them.
1 box splenda on sale $2.99
used $1.00 off Splenda from last weeks paper
1 Grape Nuts on sale $1.75
Used $2.00 off 1 printable coupon.  .25 cent moneymaker here!!
1 Gallon Milk $2.99 (ouch! I totally paid the lazy tax on ths one, becasue I didn't feel like making another stop at Aldi and we were out of milk!)
So Grand total on this trip
Total before sales and coupons: $60.72
Total savings $42.75
Spent on Gift card $17.52
Received $8 in register rewards.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Walgreens Challenge! 2nd trip

I am working on my Walgreens Challenge.  I have a $100 gift card and I am challenging myself to see how long it will last, and how much merchandise I can get for it.
After week 2 here are my totals (combined)
Merchandise total $59.03
Dollars spent: $5.07
Remaining balance $94.93

It was pretty slim pickings for deals at Walgreens this week.  Remember, I only buy things I have a use for. I also don't buy anything I already have more than a 12 week supply on hand, unless it has a long shelf life and the deal is great.

Here is what I got:

 
2 Purex 3-1 complete laundry sheets on sale 2/$9 and get a $1.00 RR
I used the Buy One Get one Coupon from the paper last week (It expired today!)
1 box of raisins $1 (this was a filler)
Total before coupons and sales would have been $17.77 (includes tax)
I used a $5 Register Reward from last week in addition to the coupon.
I paid $1.29 on the gift card and received $1.00 in Register Rewards.

A few things about Walgreens for those who are not familiar with their register reward program...

Walgreens register rewards typically expire in 2 weeks.  You need to keep track of them so you don't let them expires without being used.  The main reason I did this deal at Walgreens today (I don't really need the purex sheets per my 12 week rule, but I really like them (no waste! I actually get 20 loads from the 20 load package becasue there is no overpouring!) and the BOGO coupon was expiring.  If you recall, I received $14 in register rewards from my deal last week.  They will expire on the 10th.  I didn't want to have to spend them all next week. If the deals are similiarly light next week, I'd have to spend them on "non-deal" things so as not to waste them. Not a great situation for the challenge, since I am trying to maximize my gift card!
The other difficulty with Walgreens is that they count register rewards as a manufactuers coupon, and you can't have more items than coupons.Also,you can't use them cover tax, or get change back. These are the reasons for "fillers".  I bought the raisins today (I got oatmeal for .50cents a few weeks back.  Can you say cookies??!!) so that my total would be high enough to use my $5 register reward.  It can be a bit of a pain sometimes, but if you plan ahead clearly the savings are worth it!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Long Week

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with my posts this week.  I have been atttending my companies national sales meeting, and it make for some long days! Today is the final day, so I will get back to it tomorrow!  I need to come up with a plan to get items posted daily, but I don't have it yet.
How do you make something happen when you are pressed for time? I'd like to hear fom you all!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

In my mailbox this week

Lot's of goodies for Meg this week!
I got:
1 $5 rebate check from SC Johnson
1 $15 rebate check from P and G
1 coupon book from betty crocker with $10 in coupons
1 free sample of Kashi warm cinnamon heart to heart cereal. This had 3 $1.50 off on box of kashi cereal PLUS a coupon for a free box of cereal.  Yay Kashi!

Mail in rebates are new for me, but so far so good.  I have a few more checks on the way, and then these are getting deposited into a special "rebates" savings account.  I want to see how much I earn this year on rebates (not including my rite aid rebate checks...those are reserverd to play at rite aid!). so far I have $20 bucks! I still need to figure out any tricks of the trade on these.  So far I have learned to read the fine print, but many of these rebates can be combined with coupons or deals in the store, so these can make for real money makers. Both the checks I got this week are purely profit as I  did deals on the products that were free after coupons and sales.

I also sign up for free samples and coupon books when I see an offer online.  Free samples almost always come with coupons, although these Kashi coupons are really good ones!