Monday, June 16, 2008

Hi Pals

I have not had a chance to share any of my frugal finds with you so I will start right after I share a little about myself. As Joy mentioned earlier I'm a stay at home mom that plans to homeschool and work full time as a travel agent but I have a few other adventures as well. I'm a Homemade Gourmet distributor and I'm rebuilding my employers website (a much needed redesign as you can see). So my schedule is very full and now Joy and I are collaborating on this blog to share how we our saving our pennies.

My penny pinchin' history is not that expansive; however, I am learning daily how to make our paychecks go further. Another thing I am keeping in mind while stretching the paycheck is how we can do this in a more eco-friendly manner. I might be watching too much Planet Green but they have some neat stuff on there.

My first inexpensive, environmentally conscious item I would like to share is Borax, the natural laundry booster, and it's many uses. So we originally started to buy this item in place of OxyClean but soon learned the many uses after researching a better way to clean our glass shower doors and kitchen sink (I now have a white sink again). I can't tell you the amount of time we spent cleaning our shower doors only to be disappointed in the results. I used to wear gloves because my hands would get so stinky and not to mention the harmful chemicals we would breathe in while cleaning the bathroom. You use Borax like you would any other powder cleaning agent by applying it to damp cloth and wipe vigorously to achieve your desired results. You can see the many uses here at their FREE downloadable booklet.

Coupon Organization

What to do with all those coupons! Personally I keep all my coupons in a small stationary box organized in envelopes by categories. It works for me, although it would be nice to organize them by exp. date!

Trent at the Simple dollar wrote a great post about how they organize coupons!

I'll try to post some pictures soon on how I keep my coupons organized!

Enjoy!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

CVS Emailed Coupons this morning!

If you haven't signed up for CVS Emails do so here.

Included Coupons:
Buy $19 worth of Skin Effects products and get a FREE Sun EffectsActive SPF 45 Sunscreen.
Save $10 when you buy $25 of any combination Futuro & 100 ct. Tylenol products.
Buy any Ellin Lavarshampoo or conditioner and get a FREE Ellin Lavar Penetrating Balm.
Since these coupons are only available through email we are not allowed to link to them.

A Promo Code 50GET20 was also included in the email: Get 20 Free digital prints with every 50 you print this summer with your Extra Care Card. Good through Aug 2nd.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Joy's 6/9 CVS Trip

I made my CVS plan from Centsible Sawyers post this week, although when I got to the store everything changed!

Our CVS Store just installed a card scanner, you can scan your Extra Care Card at a Kiosk and get coupons when you walk in the store! I walked in Sunday, scanned the card and received a $10/$50 purchase, along with a coupon for a Colgate 360 Toothbrush which I already had a Manf Coupon for! So instead of doing multiple transactions I just did one big transaction, which made my life much easier!

I could of done much better this week if I had some ECB's but I didn't so from now on my deals should be much sweeter!

My Transaction and How I used my coupons!
For links to the coupons see Centsible Sawyers CVS Post this week

4 - 12 Packs of Coke Products $11.00 ECBEarned: $3
6 Boxes of Cereal/Granola Bars - $20.02 Coupons Used: Two $.55 Off Bars, One $.65 off Bars, 2 $1 off HoneyNut Cherrios, 1 $.65 off Cinnamon Toast Crunch ECBEarned: $10
1 CVS Cotton Swabs 500Ct - 3.19 ECBEarned: $2.00
1 Gilette Clinical Deodorant - 9.99 Coupons Used: $2 off from a previous weeks SS ECBEarned: $2
1 Listerine Smart Rinse $3.49 ECBEarned: $3.49
1 Colgate 360 Tooth Brush - 3.99 Coupons Used: 1.00/Manf. Coupon, $2/CVS Coupon

At this point you would have $50 worth of product, although I purchased more as I needed Shampoo and Conditioner, and I found a decent deal on it, and we also needed band aids!
Loreal Color Vive Shampoo and Cond 2/$6 Coupons Used: 2 $1.00 off from previous SS, This made them 2 bucks each which is pretty good
CVS Band aids 2.29, I just realized I didn't get any ECB's for this purchase like I should of, oh well we needed them...

My Grand Total before Coupons is 59.97, The 9.97 wasn't necessary you could get much closer to $50 by not purchasing the Shampoo/Cond and Band aids!

I used 1 $10 off $50 and a $3 off $15, these are stackable just make sure these are the first coupons you give the attendant!

I would also use some ECB's at this point to lower the OOP, I just didn't have any :(

After all my coupons and + Tax my OOP (out of pocket expense): 38.73!
If I would of been on top of things my total would be much closer to $30 or under!
I Earned a Grand Total of: $20.49 ECB's! I'm in business now ;)

The register also printed another $10/$50 purchase on my receipt! So I'm ready for next week!

Welcome

Welcome to Penny Pinchin' Pals!

We started this blog in order to post our CVS findings and other "good deals" that will make our penny's go a little further. Stephanie and I have aren't pro's but we want a place to share what we are learning!

Stephanie is a mother of two and a full time Travel Agent and Mommy.

Joy is a newlywed of 9months and a full time web developer.

We look forward to sharing with you our new frugal adventures!

Be patient with us as we develop our blog. We hope this blog will allow you to become a better steward of what He has given you!

Joy