May 22, 2013
by pennypinchingpeach 4 Comments

Smart Phones and Coupons

Smart Phone Savings

Have you ever had a great shopping trip planned revolving around certain high value coupons, only to reach the store and realize you didn’t actually bring aforementioned high value coupons? Well, maybe I’m the only one, but that has happened to me more than a couple of times! I hate it. I mean, I mega-seriously-deep-down DETEST when that happens! As a lifelong penny pincher, when I have a plan for some serious savings, and my own scatterbrained moment costs me some great bargains….ooooooo, it burns my butter, lemme tell ya! Thankfully, with my recent free upgrade to a smart phone, I’ve found a solution to many of these disappointing moments.

We were going to Party City to get a banner for our son’s upcoming first birthday, using a 20% off coupon I had found. Horror of horrors, we were nearly to the store when I went into my purse to get the coupon and realized I didn’t have it!! Well, I was pretty peeved, to say the least. However, I had a blessed “AHA!!” moment! I used my smart phone to search http://retailmenot.com for a coupon from Party City. Sure enough, there it was. I saved it to my phone’s main screen and headed into the store with high hopes. We got to the register, and it worked! They scanned my coupon right from my phone’s screen! My savings were…well….saved by the magic of technology!

Maybe everyone else has been using these smart phone dealimabobbers for ages, but I only got mine in the past couple of months. I am so thrilled when I’m able to use my new technology to help save money for our frugal family!

Moral of the story: If you have a smart phone, next time you forget your coupons at home, it may just save your savings, too. Now, if only I’d always remember that fact… 😉

Does anyone else forget her coupons and start kicking her own hiney?

April 18, 2013
by pennypinchingpeach 7 Comments

Bic Bargain!!

Bic Bargain!

Today I combined two $3 off Bic coupons from the Sunday paper with a Buy One, Get One 50% Off sale going on through Saturday at CVS. I paid 40 cents (just the sales tax) for two packs of Bic razors! That’s 2 cents per razor!! 🙂 These coupons will probably add up to very cheap deals on Bic at other stores, also, but that’s the one I had time to go to and it worked well.

Also, if you need anything that isn’t on sale this week, my Sunday paper had a circular with a 20% off coupon that is also good through Saturday. I’m not sure if that’s a local CVS circular or if it is nationwide. You can combine this with store coupons and manufacturer’s coupons, so that can add up to a good deal. I used it on nursing pads, wipes, diapers and Gillette products for my hubby. He will only use Gillette razors and shave gel. (Are all men stuck on certain brands???) They have a deal this week where you spend $30 and get $10 Extra Care Bucks back. I had several coupons to combine with it, including a BOGO, so it worked out to some super savings on expensive products. 🙂

What would you use the 20% off coupon for? 🙂 Are you or a family member stuck on one particular type or brand of a product, and won’t use anything else regardless of price?

April 7, 2013
by pennypinchingpeach 4 Comments

CVS Coupon Spree

Yesterday was one of my occasional “coupon sprees” at CVS.

My tallies came up pretty dandy! As I’ve stated before, I don’t have the time or patience to “extreme coupon” with two small children, but my savings percentages were in that league. All I did was spend a few minutes scanning the deals online, printing out my matching coupons online, grabbing the coupons I already had clipped that went with the deal, loading my deals from my CVS club emails and folding it all into the CVS flier from the Sunday paper. If you aren’t signed up for the emails, do it! I get special deals almost weekly for 20% or 30% percent off or $5 off of a $30 or other similar discounts on top of coupons, sales and Extra Care Bucks. Annnnyway… on to the details of my awesome score! 🙂

My total (between two transactions) would have been $123.33.

My out of pocket expense was $13.81.

That’s a savings of $109.52, or 88.8%!!! 🙂

I’m not even counting into this equation the fact that I have $5 in Extra Care Bucks to use on my next transaction, so I’m more than pleased. I’m especially pleased because most of the items are things we use alot of, and not just “extras”. See the diapers? Yeah, buddy!!! 😉

Anyone else have a good couponing trip this week?

March 22, 2013
by pennypinchingpeach 10 Comments

Thrift Store Score

Today was one of those fun 50% off sales at two of our local consignment shops, which happen to be next door to each other. I signed up for their auto-calls for when they run sales, so I won’t miss out on them when I need things for my little ones. Since both of my munchkins are in need of warm weather clothing, I loaded them up and we scurried in to the first day of the sale, while the older kiddos were in school and many other shopping mommies were at work. I figured they’d be less crowded that way, but they were still buzzing with bargain hunters. For $38 I loaded up on some beautiful (mostly name brand, not that I care or ever have cared) clothing for my beautiful babies! 🙂

Baby’s Booty

My little pumpkin is on a rapid growth track, and basically needs everything except shorts, since someone was kind enough to give us several pairs for free. I focused on getting him things first and foremost. He got two pairs of jammies, three one piece short outfits, two pairs of pants, one pair of overalls, two shirts and a little hat. He was tickled with his bountiful booty, as you can see from him checking out his new duds above. 🙂

My peachy princess has some clothing already for summer, since she grows more slowly and alot of her winter clothing can transition to summer (like pants and t-shirts). I wanted to get her some little sundresses and saw a few other things she could use, too. She wound up with a pair of dress shoes for the next size up, one skirt, two pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, and four of those adorable sundresses Mommy loves to put on her. She insisted on putting on the new-to-her shoes to show off for the photo op with her collection of pretty doodads, as you can see below. 🙂

Lookie Mommy!

I already have too many clothes that I can’t wear, so am planning to purge my own closet. I actually got their instructions on bringing clothing in for consignment, since I have tons of nice clothes of my own sorted out to get rid of, plus some of the munchkins’. However, I needed something cooler to sleep in that I can still nurse my little pumpkin while wearing, so I got myself a little pajama set. No photos of that, but I’m happy with it. 🙂

To sum it up, we got 21 clothing items (counting complete sets as one item) for $38 dollars. Since these are all very nice things in like-new condition, I consider that a great deal. 🙂 Probably just two or three of these items new would’ve cost us that much, honestly.

I know I’m not the only one who loves a good consignment shop or thrift store score at just the right time! What’s one of your favorite things you’ve found at a secondhand store?

March 9, 2013
by pennypinchingpeach 8 Comments

Doggy Loot…WOOF WOOF!!!

Woof!! Woof!!!

My Loot From Doggy Loot

This is a great deal for my pet lover friends!! You’ve got to try this little place called Doggy Loot!

They have a rotating stock of discount pet items, which are mostly for dogs. A few items would be suitable for cats, as well. I ordered a pink flamingo Kong toy for my doggies for just $9 (when it is normally a $16 toy). Keep reading, and I am sure you can guess my out-of-pocket cost on this item. 🙂 However, this is still a great deal if you buy your dogs toys to play with, even if you are paying for it.

Squeak, squeak!

When it came in, my little girl was very excited to give it to her doggies. I was pleased with the quality and cuteness of their new squeaky chew toy. Our dogs, Ducky & Gypsy, were tickled pink with their new toy. They “argued” over it briefly & playfully before my older, stuffed animal obsessed Gypsy took her new “baby” into her doghouse with her puppy dog stuffed animal. She just sat there grinning for the longest time.

Happy about their loot!

To sum it all up, Doggy Loot gets good reviews from me for speedy shipping, a good quality product, and arriving exactly as represented on the site. Now, how do you get a great deal for yourself?

First step, obviously, is to go to the site and sign up. You get a $5 credit just for joining! Once you do that, click “My Credit”, and then go to “Dogs”. Just for filling out your dog’s info, you get another $5 credit. Since most items are about $10 to $20 and shipping is free, this is a real steal! Please click my referral link here to join the fun: http://www.doggyloot.com/?rid=1332881

Happy doggy!

Please come back and let me know what you ordered and how you like it. I’m excited about this site! 🙂

February 28, 2013
by pennypinchingpeach 2 Comments

Deciphering Diaper Deals

Blissful sleep in discount name brand diapers

If you’re the parent of a diapered darling, you know that the the little stinker is going to to keeping doodying in those diapers and you’re going to have to keep wiping those bottoms. Unless you are one of those brave (and commendable) souls who ventures into the world of cloth diapers and reusable wipes, it’s an inevitable part of parenting a small, drooly being. They are going to poop & pee and you’re going to keep buying something for them to stinky up over & over & over &….well, you get the picture. 🙂 I have a few simple strategies which have kept me rarely buying full price diapers or wipes, and have saved us a truckload of money.

First of all, sign up with all of the diaper makers for their email lists or clubs or whatever they have available. They will often mail, email or post on their sites very high value coupons to get you to continue buying their products. Huggies and Pampers also have rewards programs you can use to earn different things. I’ll probably write more about those another day. 🙂

Secondly, check the online printable coupon sites at least once a week, and print any coupons for diapers and wipes they have available. They will usually let you print them at least twice, so try to do that. Keep these coupons in your purse all the time, in case you run across a real bargain you can stack the coupons on top of. One site that frequently has baby product coupons is http://coupons.com

Third, sign up for store loyalty cards, and don’t forget to use them. They track what you buy, and since you are obviously buying diapers & wipes, they will often wind up giving you coupons for those items to keep you buying them in their stores. Many stores, like CVS and Walgreens, will allow you to “stack” their store coupons on top of a manufacturer’s coupon, which makes for some great bargains.

Fourth & finally, never wait until you actually need bottom wipers or poopy catchers to buy them. If you do, you’re probably not going to get the best deals or even close! Always stay ahead. Buy them when they are on sale and you have coupons to help pay for them. It’s easy to check when you’re already shopping or glance online briefly before you head to the store and see if there’s a good sale going on.

See? All of that is super duper easy, and hardly takes a few minutes each week. The pay-off is huge when you compare it to the time you put into it, too! I rarely pay more than half price for diapers and the wipes are usually deeply discounted, as well. Just by spending a few minutes a week on this, and only counting these two items, I would estimate that I save at approximately $60 to $70 a month. If you count that like wages, I’m making pretty good money for my time! 😉

Diapered dude and discount diva proving frugal is cool!

Try these little strategies out, and let me know how they work for you. They’ve been budget savers for us! Diapered dudes and divas aren’t discounted, so anything to make them less costly is great by this frugal mama! 🙂

February 16, 2013
by pennypinchingpeach 2 Comments

Saving At CVS

Saving at CVS

So, I’ve made it clear that I am by no means an extreme couponer. This little mommy doesn’t have the time for it! 🙂 I honestly didn’t plan out today’s trip at all, other than making a list of things I needed and taking my coupons with me. Normally I’m much more prepared, but I was busy the past few days and just trying to get out of here with the munchkins this morning.

The above photo is today’s haul at CVS. I used a 25% off non-sale items, CVS coupons, in-store sales, and manufacturer’s coupons. Since I don’t get things I won’t use or be able to quickly give away/donate, there are alot of deals I completely ignore, and I buy the things we really need whether it hurts my final tally or not. Anyway, today was not my best score by a long shot, but it wasn’t too shabby for an unplanned trip to CVS to get several things we were needing. 🙂

Grand Total: $131.23
Total Spent: $51.63
Total Saved: $79.60
Savings Percentage: 60%

I also have $14.00 in Extra Care Bucks to spend for my next trip, since I didn’t have time to plan it out well enough to use them up during today’s transaction.

Since I was mostly buying things we really do need, and other things we’ll very much enjoy, I’m happy with that. Hopefully next time my savings percentages will be more “normal” for me, though. 🙂