HotCouponWorld - Blogs - The Money Saving Obsession by VJWilson27

10 Days

VJWilson27 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:45:26 GMT

Before last Friday it had been 10 days since I had last stepped foot in my CVS. (ironically it was during Kroger's $5 off 15 sale... LOL :hysterical: )

Anyway turns out my CVS was actually worried about me.... LOL It was the first time in months that I hadn't come in on order day to place an order day. And they were seriously worried about us.

All is well and I've visited them four times since then. But it was sooo funny that they were worried about us.

You know you have a problem when your store actually knows you well enough not only to miss you and but to atually worry about you.

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

$223

VJWilson27 — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:22:30 GMT

Okay so I did even better than I thought. Today I mailed off another $131 in rebates. So the $92 from two days ago and the $131 from today for a grand total of $223. WOOO-HOOOO!!!!

It takes just a little bit of effort (and some awesome friends to get your hands on the rebates) but you can really make some $$$ back.

I'm excited. I know it'll be a process but I am willing to stick with it.

$153

VJWilson27 — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:28:29 GMT

Yes $153 in rebates. Yesterday I mailed out $92 in rebates. And today I got together another $61. I'm sooo excited. Thanks to Tina and Tonya I'm now on my way to doing the "rebate thing".

DH was impressed. I'm sure he'll be even more impressed when the $$$ starts coming in.

I can do this. Really I can. All it takes is some organization. I bought a new 3" Case- It binder from CVS yesterday (at 50% off of course. There's two more I'm waiting to drop to 75% and then I'll pick them up for Christmas gifts for my couponing friends) that can now hold not only my CVS spreadsheets, coupons, and insert information but also my rebate information.

So I really can do this. LOL

I just need to start a new google spreadsheet to keep everything organized.

I can do this... LOL

I think I can I think I can I think I can.

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

And the cat came back...

VJWilson27 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 05:20:54 GMT

I've been singing that song outloud for hours now. LOL

Yes my baby is back. The little brat, I want to strangle his cute furry little neck.

See dh had pulled up the flooring in the bathroom (see earlier "ugh" entry) and while we went to Lowe's (where I'm actually waiting to hear back from the store manager it was NOT a good experience) he forgot to shut my bathroom door. Can you see where this is going?

Yep you guessed it, Page noticed that the subfloor was up and decided to take a field trip underneath our house.

Now in my head I knew there was no way for him to get out from under our house. It's sealed. But still I was freaking out. Page has always been a 100% indoor cat from the time we rescued him at 4wks old. I can count the number of times he's been outside on one hand.

I called him from the bathroom, went outside and got halfway underneath the house through the scuttle hole with a flashlight looking for him. Normally I'll meow at him and he'll meow back and we'll "talk". But nope the little bugger wasn't doing a thing. I thought for sure he had hung himself on something, or had gotten bitten by a poisonous bug and was a goner. I was near tears for most of the night.

I meowed for him for about an hour. Then I had to go with DH to my parents to grab a tool. (DH didn't want to leave me alone so upset) So I laid out some food right by the bathroom. I kinda filled the plate with his food so I'd be able to tell if he came up to eat. We were gone for about a half hour.

Sure enough the little brat came up and ate about half the plate of food and was gone again. But at least I knew he was okay and was under the house. I felt better but I still wanted my baby up from underneath my house.

About 20 minutes after we got back DH is unravelling an extension cord to vacuum up some stuff, and he starts whispering loudly "Valerie, come here, VALERIE COME HERE NOW". I go running and was like "what?". He starts whispering, "cat eating food, came up, grab him". So I sneak around the dresser and snatch him up.

Other than smelling like under the house, and being a bit dirty, he seems to be no worse for the wear. No bites, no missing fur, nothing. He's been busy cleaning himself most of the night so I think he's cleaned up and even the smell's starting to go away.

Although I must add, he keeps trying to go back into our bedroom to get back under the house. Let me tell you that is NOT happening again if I can help it.

I'm happy to have my kitty kitty meow meow back. I really was worried about him.

UGH!!!!!!

VJWilson27 — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:08:08 GMT

Okay from here on out, the crazy pyscho witch lady that we bought this house from will simply be known as CPWL. (It was the home purchase from hades)

Anyway about two months ago I noticed that the bolts bolting the toilet to the floor were kinda looking rusted in the master bathroom. DH didn't think anything of it, just brushed me off. (Surely I don't know anything about construction, and can't see rusty bolts... :rolleyes24:)

Anyway last week I was cleaning the toilet (happy happy joy joy... NOT) and I noticed the floor around the toilet felt kinda "soft". Now I KNOW that it's NOT supposed to be like that. DH checks it out. "Yeah it's not supposed to be like that"

We stop using the toilet, and today he finally gets to checking it out. He removes the toilet... The CPWL installed the freaking toilet WRONG. The inner seal wasn't the correct one and it was in the wrong place... For who knows how long there's been a seeping leak around the toilet.

DH had to tear out ALL the wainscotting, all the trim, pull out the vanity, and now we have to replace the entire subfloor and the vinyl. Luckily dh has been in construction his entire life, so we don't have to PAY anyone to do this, and it's just the cost of materials, but dang it I'm ticked.

This is just the last of many things we've noticed that CPWL half a$$ed and we have to fix.

Don't get me wrong I love love love my house. But it's frusterating. Sometimes I hate being a homeowner.

Grrrrr!!!!!!

VJWilson27 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:40:25 GMT

DS is almost seven and is extremely smart. But I'm afraid he is going to take after me and just flat out not want to pay attention.

Today he brought home a 70 and a 75. :mad20: He's been bringing home 100's with the occasional 95 since school started. All of a sudden he's bringing home 70's and 75's? I don't think so!!!

I spent 1.5 hours working up some worksheets for him to work on. (work work work, could I get any more work in there? LMAO) And I swear the kid is missing the last one on purpose.

The spelling he fixed the first time. (Which I knew he could, because he KNOWS those words) But now he's having problems mixing up with and what. We are now on our 7th home made worksheet tonight.

I really think he's just being difficult. I have the same like 12 questions and he keeps claiming not to know what each ones says... Um... Hello. Son you just read that exact same sentence not 5 minutes ago WITHOUT my help. You don't need it now.

He's in first grade and these are the kinds of questions he has:

_______ can go "quack"?
o Give
o What
o With

Do not pack _______ fan.
o They
o What
o Your

Both of those he missed in school. He fixed the second one immediately but kept missing the first one. Hence the mixing up of what/with.

I'm just frusterated. Although he FINALLY just brought me a worksheet that was finally 100% correct. So maybe we have overcome this hurdle.

Eeeeeeeeek!!!!

VJWilson27 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 05:37:15 GMT

Okay so I did the math... 35 inserts

175 Chicken Noodle/Tomato Soups (cost oop after coupon and sale is less than $12 for all 175 tho)
70 Other Condensed Soups
70 Soup at Hands
70 Microwavable Bowl Soups

That's a whole lotta soup!!!

Not to mention the 15 $.40/2 I ordered from TCC. That's another 30 Various other soups. :shock5:

Then we still have the 30 $1/2 Old El Paso that I can pair with the b2g1f shells/seasonings coupons. And the 20 $.40/2 spagettio's coupons I ordered for this sale. That's a whole lotta transactions.

But I will be set for winter for soup and taco 'stuffs'. LOL And I'll have a ton to donate when all those loverly food drives come around. We seriously have at least 10-15 DIFFERENT food drives from September-December. But it's all for a good cause so I can't honestly complain. Especially at these prices.

Okay I really have to get some sleep. I've already been in bed once and tossed and turned for 20 minutes before I got up and came back out here. Apparently, my tossing and turning was bugging DH who has to get up at 3:30 for work. And he had no problem letting me know that either. :rolleyes24:

Ivdso A Life

VJWilson27 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:47:04 GMT

:hysterical:

I'm going through the current trades forum and just imagining (that looks spelled funky lol) all these people at the computer literally begging for coupons.

I am not making fun, trust me I am one of those people, but it's just a hilarious mental picture.

I'm totally LOL-ing at all the ISO's, IDSO's and IVDSO's and IVVDSO's... LOL

I need sleep again. See what happens when I stay up past my bedtime?

Btw, I'm in IVDSO a life. :biggrin:

35...

VJWilson27 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:15:08 GMT

that is the number of inserts I managed to scrounge up today. And boy am I exhausted. :hysterical: I hit all the hot spots where I knew the discarded papers would be. In three towns... LOL

I also hit Kroger where I got another 60 items for about $10. Today I got
15 Chicken Noodle Soup
20 Tomato Soup
2 Soup at Hand
2 Microwavable Soups
2 Crescent Rolls
8 Spagettios
1 Hamburger Helper
10 Condensed Soups

Did two transactions and saved 83% and 85%.

I've decided to aim towards using ALL my 35 different campbells coupons for this current sale at Kroger. I'm going to stock up and then have them to donate for the various fall food drives.

I also found AWESOME peelies on Old El Paso Taco Shells, buy 2 shells get the seasoning packet free. I'm sooo excited. That means I can buy 10 shells and 5 seasoning packets for nothing but TAX... WOOOHOOO I picked up 10, only because I didn't want them to be gone by the time I get back later in the week.

okay that was my excursion today. I'm pooped. LOL I haven't went searching for inserts like that in over a month.

Now to plan scenarios for all these new coupons.

OMG! How could I forget?

VJWilson27 — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 19:03:47 GMT

I've got to plan ds's 7th birthday. It had been waiting for DH to get the OK to get the day off. He got the news yesterday. YAY!!! He got it off. Now to plan... but the kicker... It's only TWO weeks away. We are having the party on Saturday the 22nd. I have no idea what I'm going to do.

He wants to have it at Chuck E Cheese's. But we've already had his 5th birthday there. I'm leaning towards Chik-Fil-A. One of my best friends had her boy's bday there. She said it was cheap and no clean up. The kids had a ball playing in the play room and the cow came out, they supplied everything but the cake. Including cute little stuffed cow party favors.

Of course I have no idea if I can get a party this late in the game. :rolleyes24: I can't believe we had to cut it so close because of DH's job.

I was also thinking funzone... but that place is EXPENSIVE.

And then I have to think of who to invite. The entire class? Just close friends? Family? UGH.... Normally I love planning these parties, but I just can't get into it today.

Blah...

VJWilson27 — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:44:57 GMT

That pretty much just sums up how I feel...blah. I know I'm totally just pms-ing still but I just can't get motivated to do anything today. I got the majority of the kitchen table cleaned off yesterday. I have just a bit left, but I can't get motivated to do it.

I need to laundry but DH still has my laundry room tore up from fixing the shelves down there. I can't get to my washer without going through a maze of junk. And I just don't feel like attempting it. LOL (Now that's a pretty good excuse if I do say so myself.)

I could be doing dishes, or picking up the living room, or the kids rooms, or something. But alas here I sit. And I'm even bored on here. (Oh the shame I know)

So blah... that's all I really have to say... LOL

That was a quick six hours...

VJWilson27 — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 02:48:05 GMT

:rolleyes24: I just spent the last six hours (off and on cuz well you know with kids you can't do anything uninterrupted for more than two seconds) going through what my husband refers to as the "coupon mountain" that used to be my kitchen table. Truth be told we haven't been able to eat at it in over a month... LOL (The kids have been eating at a small 'kiddie' table and dh and I have been eating at the island)

I went through all my old inserts (Good Lord I had inserts going back to 3/11 :hysterical: some more than 50 a week ) I've got two huge boxes of old inserts to recycle. I now just have a good sized box of clipped coupons, peelies, and other things I've picked up along the way to put in my coupon binder. I still have to label from 8/5 on too though.

I'm hoping to stay on top of it this time now that I know what I'm doing. (Yeah right :biggrin:)

I've been slacking on getting inserts lately too. In fact last week I got TWO... Count them with me One. Two. P&Gs. That's IT!!! That is highly unusual for me. I like to get at least 10 each week.

I am vowing that this week will be a new beginning. I'll start hustling and getting me some more inserts each week... LOL And keeping it organized.

Okay now I'm just rambling... LOL But here it is, in writing that I'm organizing my coupons and am aiming to stay that way.

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

I broke down and did it!!!

VJWilson27 — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:15:25 GMT

What's "It" you say?

I finally broke down and bought some coupons. I spent an even $10 and got 40 $1/1 Adidas coupons, 30 $1/2 Old El Paso Coupons, 20 $.40/2 Spagettios coupons, and 15 $.40/2 Condensed Soup coupons. It's a stretch that they'll get here in time because I just ordered today. (And the Kroger sale ends 9/15) But even if they don't get here by then (they're coming from Miami area on Monday) I can still MAKE $.60 on each adidas coupons, so that's $24 right there. And I can use the $1/2 Old El Paso at WM if I have to. So we shall see how this goes.

Wish me luck! LOL

All in a days work...

VJWilson27 — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 06:16:57 GMT

:hysterical:

So we left the house at 9:30. Headed to Huntsville and first stop was supposed to be Kmart but we passed a Kroger on the way. We ended up stopping there first.

For under $30 we got...
15 Chicken Noodle Soups
25 Tomato Soups
16 Various (non chicken noodle/tomato soup)
16 Spagettios
8 Fruit Snacks (but the lady rang up 9 :rolleyes24:)
8 Old El Paso Taco Shells
2 Kids Yogurts
2 Microwave Popcorns

The first transaction I saved 72% and the second transaction I saved 86%. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Next we stopped at KMart armed with my list (that I had to tape back together since DD tore it up this morning and HCW was down... :hysterical:) And we found a few things but the manager was a total jerk when DH asked him a question about an item on clearance. So I left the buggy with everything in it in the middle of the aisle. I know I know, not exactly a mature thing, but I was ticked.

Then we went to Sam's where I spent WAAAY too much. Well not really, but we spent almost $250. We bought a case of ground chuck (90%/10%, I'm extremely picky about my ground meat) and two eye of the round roasts, a pork loin, chicken nuggets, chicken tenderloins, and 5 of their nestle pure life water (I'm picky about my water too LOL)

Then we stopped at Publix, just to look for coupons. Ended up getting my parents Land O Lakes margarine (the ONLY kind they'll eat, and you can't find it in town) for $1.65/2. Didn't do so good on the coupon front though.

Then we stopped at CVS next town down... We are looking for the camping chair/table set that's clearanced down to $9.99. Couldn't find it, but got DD three sets of 4 bath toys (frog, duck, and dolphin, she's obsessed with squeeky bath toys) and dh found BBQ baskets on clearance for $1.

Then we decided to try Publix one more time. This time we did a bit better. Got a few coupon booklets put out by Bayer Healthcare that says "save up to $16". I haven't had a chance to sit down and go through the booklets though, but it doesn't expire until 3/31/08. I also found some great peelies but still no wine tags or tear pads. And very few (sucky) blinkies.

We tried the KMart there too... No luck on the clearance. DH REALLY wanted to get the blower. Ours died two days ago and he's heartbroken. :frown: But I did get a bunch of b2g1f Kelloggs Cereal coupons. :biggrin:

Then we stopped at the last CVS before we hit home... We hit the jackpot. TWO of the $6 programmable coffee makers and one of the $9.99 camping chair/table sets. WOOHOO!!!!

In the end all told we were gone for almost 8 hours.

Want to hear the worst part though, LOL We had to go to OUR CVS when we got home because DH needed to get a prescription filled. :mad6: We got to stay home for 45 minutes before we had to run back out. :rolleyes24:

Anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :biggrin:

Plan of Attack for tomorrow

VJWilson27 — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 04:39:43 GMT

Okay so tomorrow we are heading up north to Huntsville to hit Sam's for some (much need) meat. I've also decided to stop at a few Publix's along the way to see if I can find any good coupons or WTs, and also stop at Kroger to partake in the $5 wyb 15 items dealio. I've got Spagettio coupons and soup coupons.

I'm also thinking about stopping in Michael's, Hobby Lobby and Target.

I think we'll also maybe hit a kmart or two to check for clearance.

I've got my $5 off 15 list for Kroger along with my coupons. I also have all the addresses for the Publix's between here and there. And I have the KMart clearance list printed. I think I'm prepared!

I'm going in boys and girls, if I'm not back tomorrow evening send in the troops. I've been taken hostage!

:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: