Walgreens deals for the week of 08/05/2012

Things to keep in mind when shopping at Walgreens:
1) You must have as many items as manufactur's coupons
2) Register Receipts (RR) are considered manufactur's coupons
3) You are allowed 1 Manufactur's coupon and 1 store coupon per item
4) Cannot use RR printed from item to pay for same item and get RR's again~
For example- If you were to purchase Colgate for $3 and get $3 RR, if you purchase the Colgate again and use the RR's earned from the 1st Colgate purchase you will not earn the RR's again

Lipton tea- $0.99 and get $0.99 RR

$5 Hershey cpn when you buy $10 Hershey mini or kisses- $10/2

7UP, A&W, Sunkis, Canada Dry, Hawaiin Punch or Chex mix- $3/2 and get $1 RR

Walgreens Perfection Tampons- $1.50 and get $1.50 RR

Lanacane with Aloe spray- $6 and get $6 RR

Renew Life 3 day diet- $10 and get $10 RR

Tampax or Always- $6.99 and get $1 RR
$2 Tampax Pearl Compaq or Radiant cpn- 07/29 P&G
$1.50/2 Tampax cpn- 07/29 P&G
$1.50/2 Always liners cpn- 07/29 P&G
$2 Always Infinity cpn- 07/29 P&G
$1.50/2 Always pads or cloths cpn- 07/29 P&G

Playtex tampons- $7.49 and get $2 RR
$1 Playtex Gentle Glide cpn- 07/22 SS
$2.50/2 Playtex Gentle Glide or Sport cpn- 06/10 SS
$1 Playtex Gentle Glide or Sport cpn- 06/10 SS

Kelloggs Special K Protein bars or shakes- $11/2 and get $3 RR

Carefree liners- $0.99
$0.50 Stayfree, Carefree or OB cpn- 07/29 RP
$0.50 Carefree cpn- 07/22 RP

Aussie or Herbal Essence- $3 and get $1 RR
$3/2 Aussie or Herbal Essence cpn- 08/05 RP

Colgate Total toothbrush, Total or 2in1 toothpaste- $5/2 and get $2 RR
$0.50 Colgate toothpaste cpn- 07/29 SS

Oral B Pro-Flex toothbrush, Crest toothpaste or mouthwash- $7/2 and get $3 RR
$0.75 Crest toothpaste cpn- 07/29 P&G

Ban- $3/2
$1 Ban cpn- 08/05 SS

Pantene- $3.99 and get $0.50 RR
$3/2 Pantene cpn- 07/29 P&G

Carmex cream, ointment or lotion- $4.99 and get $4 RR

Wexford 5 tab dividers or 10pk sheet protectors- $0.39 with in ad cpn- Limit 6

Wexford glue- $0.39 with in ad cpn- Limit 3

Wexford erasers- $0.29 with in ad cpn- Limit 3

Wooden ruler- $0.19 with in ad cpn- Limit 3

Scotch tape or paper clips- $0.39 with in ad cpn- Limit 4

Bic Cristal bold pens- $0.49 with in ad cpn- Limit 3
$1/2 Bic Stationary cpn- 07/29 SS

Sharpie markers- $0.79 with in ad cpn- Limit 3

Wexford binders- $0.79 with in ad cpn- Limit 3

Wexford twistable highlighters, retractable gel pens or mechanical pencils with refill- $0.99 with in ad cpn- Limit 3

Its Academic stretch book cover- $0.99 with in ad cpn- Limit 6

Wexford Correction fluid- $0.99 with in ad cp- Limit 3

Wexford pouch- $0.99 with in ad cpn- Limit 3

Expo dry erase markers- $4.99 with in ad cpn- Limit 2

Pencils- $1/8 with in ad cpn- Limit 16

Papermate Erasermate pens- $3/2 with in ad cpn- Limit 4

General Mills cereal- $8/3 and get $2 RR
$1/3 General Mills cpn- 08/05 GM
$1/2 General Mills cpn- 07/15 SS

**This is not the entire Walgreens Register Receipt (RR) sale items- these are some of the great deals I spotted in the upcoming Walgreens ad.**

CVS deals for the week of 08/05/2012

Don't forget to....
1) Go to cvs.com/email and sign up for the ExtraCare email and receive a $4/20 cpn
2) Stop by the Red ExtraCare coupon center and get CVS cpns
**This week's ExtraCare cpn is $5 off of any $15 cosmetic purchase**
3) You can use a manufacturer's cpn along with a CVS cpn
4) You can use a B1G1Free cpn along with a B1G1Free sale to get both products for free

General Mills cereal- $10/3 and get $3 ECB
$1/3 General Mills cpn- 08/05 GM
$1/2 General Mills cpn- 07/15 SS

Hershey snack size 6pk- $2.97/3 and get $1 ECB
$1/2 Hershey milk chocolate 6pk cpn- 06/24 SS

Duracell- $6.99 and get $1 ECB
$0.75 Duracell cpn- 07/29 P&G

Lysol Healthy No Touch system- $6.99
$3 Lysol No Touch cpn- 08/05 SS
$3 Lysol No Touch cpn- 07/22 SS

Garnier Fructis stylers- $2.99
$1 Garnier cpn- 07/29 RP
$1 Garnier cpn- 06/24 RP

Depend Silhoutte or Real Fit- $3.99 and get $3 ECB

Colgate manual single toothbrush- $2.99 and get $1 ECB- Limit 2

Aussie or Herbal Essence- $5.97/2
$3/2 Aussie or Herbal Essence cpn- 08/05 RP

Zantac- $8.99 and get $3 ECB
$5 Zantac cpn- 07/08 SS

**This is not the entire CVS ECB sale items- these are some of the great deals I spotted in the upcoming CVS ad.**

Our Garden Update

And then there were none~ this nasty bug that has gone through 3 of our 4 kids has finally struck the lonely unsick child.  Kevin finally caught it last night- poor baby had a fever of 102.2 and just couldn't get any sleep.  I let him lay on the couch and watch tv in hopes he would fall asleep.  Poor thing.  Luckily, this icky virus has only stayed with them 24 hours- so it is fast moving.  I am really hoping and praying (and Lysoling) that it ends with them.  Neither Michael nor myself want what ever this virus is. 

Some good news:

My garden is doing well.  The tomatoes aren't doing anything yet.  The green pepper plants are doing fantastic.  My cucumbers are climbing like crazy.  We found a surprise watermelon growing and found a little baby one.  Eggplants are finally doing something.  The red and lilac peppers aren't doing anything yet.  The grapes are still growing.  Our squash plants finally kicked the bucket.  And the strawberry plants- well one is still dead and the other is getting a little more green each day.  So, we shall see what happens with them.  I think I covered all my plants- oh wait- zucchini- they aren't doing anything yet either. 

Here are some pictures of our garden:

Green Pepper

Watermelon baby:)

This watermelon was hiding under all the vines

Cucumbers

Eggplant

Eggplant baby:)

We are so excited and blessed with our crop this year.  It is no where near last year but the garden is producing some things- so we are thrilled.  We are being patient and know that God will bless us.

With this crazy weather, how is your garden doing this year?

August 2012 Monthly Spending

Here is where I will keep a list of our spending for the month of August. Our monthly budget has changed due to a couple of unexpected hospital bills. Until we get them paid off, we are going to attempt to have a $200 grocery budget. This is for everything for our family of 6 and 2 pets.   We didn't do that bad last month. We had $12 leftover from last month and that money was used to help fund our Sam's Club fund:)  Let's see how we do this month:

07/30/2012
$38.40- Sam's Club
$12.22- Martins
$5.20- Dollar Tree
$3.06- Kroger
$4.41- Target
$52.81- Walmart

08/06/2012
$1.28- Target
$5.23- Dollar Tree
$1.93- Martins
$16.13- Kroger
$17.77- Walmart

08/13/2012
$12.51- Kroger
$2.42- Martins
$2.59- CVS and got $4 ECB
$7.28- Dollar Tree
$5.02- Kroger
$26.11- Walmart
$27.87- Sams Club

08/20/2012
$5.23- Dollar Tree
$18.40- Walmart
$18.62- Kroger
$51.66- Sams

08/25/2012
$30.59- Walmart
$13.61- Kroger
$10.35- Dollar Tree
$2.77- Target

$393.47- Final Total for August :(

Well, it seems we went over our $200 grocery budget big time.  We are very thankful that my hubby's commission check was over what we had expected and we were able to use that to pay the overage in our grocery budget.  Plus, we were able to stock up on flour, baking powder, dog food, beans, rice and pasta.  That should help with September's budget :)  We shall have to wait and see how we do in September.

My Shopping Day~ 07/30/2012

I wanted to post this yesterday but everyone was still under the weather.  Today, everyone seems to be feeling much better- Praise the Lord:)

We have been saving our Walmart gift cards and our leftover grocery money to pay for a Sam's Club membership.  We have talked about it and have gone back and forth trying to figure out if a Sam's Club membership will actually save us money.  I made a list of our most frequently used items and compared the prices we normally pay for them with that of Sam's Club normal everyday prices.  Somethings we are paying less for now and others we will be saving money buying in bulk.  We finally had enough money and went straight for Sam's Club.  The first thing I noticed is that the gas prices alone were $0.20 cheaper than everyone else.  Plus, I received a free $10 Walmart gift card just for becoming a member.  That is a good start.

Here is what we bought on our shopping trip on Monday:

Sam's Club

The 2 chickens are missing from this pic

$11.75- (2) whole chickens
$3.89- Sour Cream
$3.98- (10) lbs potatoes
$2.72- Tomato sauce
$5.98- Ragu Spaghetti sauce
$5.68- Box of Rotini noodles
$5.68- Box of Penne noodles
$3.48- Ketchup
$4.48- Rice
$9.26- Black beans
$58.40
-10.00 Walmart gift card we got for signing up
-10.00 Walmart gift card we already had
$38.40-Total

Martins

$10.14- (6) lbs Ground Beef
$0.99- Reduced Italian Bread
$0.84- Reduced Honey Wheat bread
$12.22- Total after tax

Dollar Tree

$1.00- Shampoo
$1.00- Container of loofahs
$1.00- Twizzlers
$1.00- Popsicles
$1.00- Toilet paper
$5.20 Total after tax

Kroger
$3.06- White Wheat Flour

Target

$1.69- Fruit Snacks
$2.50- Chobani greek yogurt 4pk
$2.99- Purell
$1.72- Suave deodorant
$2.74- Stayfree
$0.94- Papermate pens
$0.75- (3) boxes Rose Art crayons
$1.56- (3) boxes Rose Art colored pencils
$14.89
-1.00- Fruit Snack Target cpn
-1.00- Chobani cpn
-1.00- Chobani Target cpn
-1.00- Purell cpn
-1.00- Purell Target cpn
-0.50- Suave deodorant cpn
-0.50- Suave deodorant Target cpn
-2.00- Stayfree cpn
-1.00- Papermate Target cpn- adjusted down to $0.94
-1/3 Rose Art cpn
-1/3 Rose Art Cpn
$4.41- Total after tax and coupons

Walmart
$10.76- (4) gallons skim milk
$1.98- Stir Fry veggies
$4.90- (5) bags frozen veggies
$10.00- (5) bags shredded cheese
$1.84- Cottage Cheese
$2.18- Heavy Whipping Cream
$1.78- Cream Cheese
$2.32- Lunchmeat
$1.58- Crackers
$1.98- Salsa
$0.97- Dish liquid
$1.94- Soy sauce
$1.28- Chicken Noodle soup for the sick ones
$0.82- Hot sauce
$0.50- Onion
$1.00- Green Peppers
$2.68- Red Peppers
$1.17- Bananas
$1.00- Hamburger buns
$0.82- Fajita mix
$52.81- Total after tax

This shopping trip has been added to our August Monthly Spending post, where I keep track of what we spend for the month of August.

July 2012 Goal Update

Lets see how we did with our goals for the month of July:

Here are our 2012 Goals: (in no particular order)

1) To not eat out or at least to not pay out of pocket, with the exception of tips. If we want to treat the family to a meal out, we will make sure we have a gift card to cover all of us.
We did fabulous with this goal.  We did eat out a couple of times in July due to the power outage when we were in DC but we paid with cash and did not use our credit cards:)

2) Pay off 2 credit cards
So excited, we paid off 1 credit card on 04/16/2012
Was super excited to pay off credit card #2 in a few short months but unfortunately we had 2 surprise medical bills come up so we decided to pay off the medical bills first. Credit card #2 is going to take a little bit longer to pay off.

3) Not to use any of our credit cards for 2012. To pay cash for everything.
We did great with this and used cash for our purchases in July.

4) To lower our grocery budget. Our current grocery budget is $200 month for our family of 6. Our goal is to lower that amount and to save the remainder.
We did good last month and stayed under our grocery budget barely. We were able to set aside $12 and put towards our Sam's Club membership.

5) To create a monthly meal plan for our family, to use leftovers more efficiently and to make use of everything in our pantry and freezer.
Did great with this for July- use leftovers wisely and wasting less. With 4 boys, leftovers are not being left over as much.

6) Unclutter the house and become more organized:)
Since vacation and our travels to NC, we have put the decluttering on hold.  We hope to get back into the swing of things in August:)
7) Lose weight- I need to get motivated to lose this baby weight- my goal is to lose 20 lbs this year.
Seemed to have hit a plateau- haven't lost any more but haven't gained.  I am working on changing up my exercise habits.  If all works out, we will share them with you:)

8) Morning devotions, prayer time and more bible reading
Unfortunately, got away from this.  Need to get motivated and get back into my bible readings.  I have noticed when I start my day with prayer, devotions and bible reading, my day seems to flow much better:)

9) Monthly date night with hubby- whether we go out or stay at home, pop popcorn and rent a movie
With our vacation and travels, we were unable to do any date months this month.

10) To spend quality family time together. With everyones schedule and us running all over creation, I would love to spend more quality time together- no tv- us playing games, talking, enjoying each others company.
With the great power outage in DC, we were able to spend lots of quality time together and look forward to doing more.

11) Not to use our dryer to save on electricity and lower our electricity bill
Doing fabulous with this goal and when our electric bill came in it was $27 lower- YEA!!

12) To make a better effort to blog more regularly and to make a blogging schedule
Need to get better organized and actually make a blogging schedule and keep up with it.

13) To make much needed house repairs
Making a list of house repairs to do and hope to get started soon.

14) To fix the car that is sitting in our driveway so that whoever gets their drivers license first will have a car to drive or share if they both get their license at the same time
We are actually going to nix this goal as we are going to sell the car.  My dad sold us my mom's van, so we now have 2 mini vans.  We hope to sell the car that is just sitting in our driveway and being used as a storage unit:)

15) To do 1 project a month and blog about it
We didn't get an opportunity to do our monthly project for July.  We were supposed to make homemade frozen yogurt but someone ate all the yogurt. So, now I need to make more yogurt so that we can make homemade frozen yogurt.  It looks like we may have 2 projects to do in August.

How did you do with your goals last month?

Menu Plan for the week of 07/30/2012

Hope your week is quiet and calm.  I am praying my week goes alot better than it has.  Nathan came down with a high fever, body aches and a headache a few days ago.  He was so miserable and trying to get him to take Tylenol or Motrin was very interesting all in itself.

Nathan was so kind to pass his germs onto little Michael.  Little Michael had a fever but can't really tell us if anything hurts.  And of course, he went from a sweet loving nice medicine taking child to Nathan's non medicine taking self.

To make things even more interesting, Chris came down with a high fever, body aches and a splitting headache.  The fun never ends around here.  I am glad that Chris can swallow pills with no problem.

We are hoping and praying that it ends with them- no more sick- please go away.  I NEED some sleep.  I have been up with my boys in the wee hours of the morning.  I love my boys and will do whatever it takes for them to get better, even if that means staying up half the night.  But please boys, please get better~ I am so much nicer when I am well rested:)

Here is our menu plan for this week:

Breakfast
PB Pancakes X2
Baked Oatmeal with Apples X2
Homemade yogurt with strawberries from the freezer blended in
Egg Sandwiches
Scones or as Nathan calls it Cinnamon Pizza:)

Lunch
Sandwich, banana and popcorn

Dinner
Chicken Alfredo pasta with corn- this homemade Alfredo sauce is amazing:)
3 Cheese garlic chicken pasta with green beans
Bean & Rice tacos with corn on the cob
Pancakes with homemade syrup and fruit
Baked Pasta with peas and carrots
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken Veggie Quesidillas with corn on the cob

Snacks
PB crackers
Apple slices
Celery with PB and raisins
Carrot sticks