Maid of Honor Dress

We are doing a Nightmare Before Christmas themed wedding and my Maid of Honor is going to be the little shock witch. In the movie she has a plum long sleeve dress and witch hat. What do we think of this dress? She will obviously need a witch hat, but think this is a possibility. Not to mention it's only $69.

This Week at CVS: 1/29-2/4

CVS is great! It is one of those places where I have been basically paid to take items out of the store after all my savings and extrabucks. Extrabucks are CVS's "register rewards" except they come with a lot less restrictions and generally have a longer time before they expire.

So, let's see what kind of deals they have going.

First one to jump out at me is 3/$5 on Ragu & Bertolli pasta sauce,

on top of that they also have if you spend $10 you get $3 extrabucks. This deal works perfectly for my Coupon Wedding. We are doing a pasta dinner and these would be a welcomed edition to my stockpile. I would have to get 6 jars of sauce to qualify for the extrabucks, but if I have six $1 off coupons I could in reality get all 6 jars for $1. That's a spectacular deal. Not to mention I already have $4 in extrabucksto spend there. This deal alone will get me to CVS this week.

Right now my freezer is full of Digiorno pizzas because Target had them for $4 and I had a stack of $2 off coupons, but this week CVS has them on BOGO, so if you have any Digiorno coupons it would be a good time to use them.

They also have Prevacid marked at $25.99 as well and don't forget to use the rebate you got in your coupon insert when you buy two. Since I have register rewards at Walgreens it makes more sense for to buy them there, but this is still a good deal wherever you buy it.

There are various other deals in their weekly ad, but nothing that I necessarily need to buy this week, so be sure to check out the ad for yourself.

This Week at Walgreens: 1/29-2/4

Before I start talking about Walgreens I just want to divulge a story from this past Saturday that explains why I am very upset with them and cannot wait till their is a CVS closer to me, so I don't have to shop at Walgreens anymore.

I had Tim go to Walgreens earlier in the week with a detailed list and an envelope of coupons, but he got confused at the store and purchased incorrect items. So, on Saturday we went to return them and then get the correct items. We returned 2 Tylenol items with no problem, but then the manager told me that when I buy the Prevacid I had in my hands that I could not use their "register rewards" and a manufacturer's coupon together on the Prevacid. I argued that I should be able to use both because the register rewards are specifically through Walgreens and was from buying 2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste not Prevacid. He said because they are both "manufacturer coupons" I cannot use two on one item.

Here is an example of what register rewards look like, do you think they should be considered a manufacturer's coupon?

As you can see I was not happy. I was kind of snotty and said "I guess I am just used to CVS where their ExtraBucks can be used in combination with a coupon because CVS is the one who gives them out'. Now that that is out of my system let's talk deals. 

Something I never really noticed till recently is that Walgreens tends to be a little behind on some sales, like if Pick'n'Save had something on sale last week Walgreens will have it on sale this week. It's not necessarily a bad thing because it gives consumers and extended period of time to get that particular item, but at the same time most people will have already taken advantage of the sale the previous week and therefore not need to get it at Walgreens. In particular I am excited by the Gillette deal they have going. It is $9.99 for the Fusion ProGlide Razor System and then you get $4 register rewards and if you buy a matching cartridge refill you can get an extra $3 in register rewards. If you have coupons for those items, which there just happen to be some in the P&G brandSaver that was in Sunday's paper, it makes the deal even better. Just remember that at Walgreens you can't use a coupon and register rewards on the same item, unless it is a Walgreens coupon. Also if you want to buy more than one of the same item you have to do separate transactions or you won't get register rewards for both. Lastly if you use register rewards from the previous purchase on the same item for the same deal you will NOT get the register rewards from that item again. The only other deal I may partake in is the BOGO on Prevacid (after a mail-in-rebate the second one is free). The deal is for 42 ct Prevacid at $25.99 when you buy two it is $51.98, but I also have to $4 off coupons, so I would pay $43.98 for two and then get back $25.99 via a rebate, which means each was approximately $8.99. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself.

Stressing Out

So, the stress has started to sink in. I can't stop thinking about all I have to do before this semester is over and all that I have to do to plan this wedding.

What's my cure all to get my mind off things? ICE CREAM!

 Not to mention eating ice cream with a goofy spoon helps to stop taking life so seriously.

Eating sweets is probably not the best idea since I am trying to plan a wedding and I definitely don't want to gain any more weight, but it just makes me feel better. Also it is a better solution than drinking my problems away....right?

My First Multiple Transaction Grocery Trip

I am writing this just from memory, but will have images to follow.

On Saturday this past weekend it was Double Daze at Pick'n'Save, so after I got off work I went there with my coupons and shopping lists organized into two separate transactions. Sidenote: For those of you who don't know Pick'n'Save's coupon policy for Double Daze let me enlighten you. On Double Daze you are allowed to double up to 5 coupons as long as you total reaches $25 before said coupons or swiping you savings card. Coupons do not double if the dollar off amount is larger than $1. So the highest possible amount off you can get to by doubling coupons is $2 off. Now that we are all on the same page I will return to the story. I tried to have my list organized in a way that I could start at one end of the store and work my way through it without backtracking. Needless to say my list wasn't perfect, I never backtracked thankfully since I was looking down each aisle I walked by. I managed to spot some items that were out of order on my lists.

So, I'm at my first destination which is Oscar Meyer Hot Dogs 2/$4. Unfortunately I didn't have a coupon, but was thinking about picking up one package. However when I got to freezer with the hot dogs the regular hot dogs were all gone, so I decided to pass up this offer. Onto english muffins.

The offer was Buy Any Thomas English Muffin or Entemenn's snack bites Get One Free. I opted to get regular English Muffins for $3.99 and Entemenn's Brownie Bites for $4.49, so I got the English Muffins for free YAY.

There were numerous items that I bought that I got decent deals on, but I am only going to outline the best deals otherwise this will be a very LOOOOOONG post.

Anyways they had Crave cat treats on special for 10/$10 (you don't have to buy 10, but as long as you have their savings card each bag will be only $1). I also had 2 coupons for BOGO, so I got 4 bags for .50 cents each. Totinos Pizza Rolls and Pizza Stuffers were also apart of the 10/$10 deal, so I picked up 3 pizza rolls boxes and 1 pizza stuffers. On top of that I had a coupon for .60 cents off 3 pizza rolls and $1 off a box of pizza stuffers. Both doubled so I got 1 box of pizza rolls free with .20 cents to spare and the pizza stuffers free with $1 to spare. Unfortunately when it came time to check out I had to self-checkout so I wasn't able to check that everything was scanning correctly, so when I got home I saw that they charged me $3.99 for the pizaa stuffers which means with the coupon I still paid $1.99 for them. : (

One last deal, Lean Cuisines were on sale 5/$10 and I had a $1 off coupon so once that doubled that was one free meal. An added bonus though was that I included these in my first transaction, so after I scanned everything and paid, I got another $1 off coupon from Lean Cuisine to use on ANY future purchase. I then applied that to my second purchase which then doubled to $2 instead of using my .60 cents off coupon as a doubler it just went through as a regular coupon.

Overall I spent a total of $23.50 on the first transaction and $29.62 on the second. My savings for the first was $20.11 and $31.64 for the second.

This is not the shopping trip I am the most proud of, but it definitely ranks Top 5.

Forgetful

I am forgetful as they come. I have this post saved that I wrote all about my first time doing multiple transactions in one shopping trip in order to get the most out of my coupons. Well, I haven't posted it yet because I keep forgetting my receipt, so that I have the amounts for certain deals I received and I also want to put some pics up with it.

For now I will make small talk till I remember the receipts.

I have no followers yet, is anybody even listening? Am I just talking to myself via an internet platform?

Does it really matter though? In reality the blog is about what I am doing and once the wedding has been accomplished I will probably try and keep this up for couponing tips, granted that someone out there actually wants to read it.

Purpose

I am in my last semester of college and I have to do an end of the year Thesis project. Originally I had this idea of doing this total experience using photographs, colored lights and music, but changed my mind as I usually do. Now my thesis will be my documentation via photographs, writing and collaging trying to coupon for my wedding in October.

I started this blog to be another conduit for my project. I am going to try and write as much as possible about this whole situation, or as you could say experience, so hopefully you all enjoy.

I want my wedding to be as cheap as possible, so if you have any recommendations feel free to post them.

Thanks! More to come shortly.