Dealing in Daddyhood

Happy Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:27:00 +0000

Today is Ben's third birthday. We had a nice party over the weekend, had a great time hanging out yesterday, got his picture on the TV today to celebrate, and he bounced down the hall to his classroom this morning with his bag of mini muffins to share with his classmates. Special dinner plans this evening to finish off the celebration. Ah to be three again....

To celebrate, I wanted to find a nice giveaway to my readers to celebrate one of the best days of my life. Turns out, I was able to combine a birthday celebration with one of Ben's favorite places to eat.

As I cannot say enough, we LOVE our Chick-fil-A in Lower Nazareth. And today, in addition to Ben's birthday, is the local owner-operator Luke Cook's birthday as well. And if you stop by and tell the cashier to wish Luke a Happy Birthday they'll give you a FREE Sweet Tea drink.

Happy Birthday Ben and Luke!

Free Food, Yum!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:24:00 +0000

So I haven't already given up on this new blog resurgence. Yesterday we hosted Ben's 3rd birthday party, which we had to scramble and rearrange when Anna's great-aunt passed last Sunday. So it's been a crazy week, but everything went off great yesterday with the party and everyone had a blast.

I wanted to make sure to remind everyone that today is one of my favorite giveaway days of the year. FREE RITA'S DAY. To celebrate the first day of spring, all Rita's are giving away a free regular sized ice in your favorite flavors, while supplies last. We felt that 'while supplies last' pinch a few years ago when we showed up in the evening and they had only 3-4 flavors left in stock. So I would advice not waiting until close to 9pm to get your ice.

Also, tomorrow is FREE* Pancake Day at Perkins. I had to add the * because while the short stack is free, Perkins is asking their customers to donate to the Give Kids the World charity in exchange for their free breakfast. So unless you're completely heartless and able to ignore the request to donate to help cheer up some sick kids, it's not really FREE. But still seems like an excellent cause and a good deal on some breakfast.

Top Couponing Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 03:58:00 +0000

One of my favorite blogs, Moms Need to Know, has posted an article covering some of the big mistakes that people make when starting out getting deals and using coupons in a big way.

I have just a few points to add to her excellent work.

Don't try to do ALL the deals: It is nearly impossible to run around to every store in the area to get every deal that comes along. The stress of trying to make it to every deal will quickly zap you of any energy or enthusiasm you may have for you new-found hobby. Rare is the deal that will never return or have a similar deal come along sometime again in the future.
Learn the rules of coupon use: Read the terms and regulations of the coupons you are using. Know the difference between "1 per purchase" and "1 per transaction" and "1 per customer". Pay attention to which coupons will double and which will not. Pay attention to how many items you need to purchase to use you coupon.
Learn the store policies where you shop regularly: Almost every retailer has their coupon policy posted in the store or on their websites. Every store I've wanted more information about has promptly replied to emails with detailed explanations and lay out the rules of the store. Not only will knowing the rules avoid embarrassing situations if you attempt to do something you shouldn't, but it will make you more confident knowing that there is nothing "sneaky" or "illicit" about your purchases despite the minimal amount of money you are spending out of pocket.

Have you made any mistakes as you started couponing? Do you have any questions or concerns if you're just starting out?

Wegmans Coupon: $1 off $5 Meat purchase

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:46:00 +0000

Wegmans has posted a coupon for $1.00 off of ANY $5.00 meat purchase, that expires 4/2/11. Wegmans also has their boneless chicken breasts on price freeze for $1.99/lb and has their 80% lean ground beef on price freeze for $1.99/lb. These are our max prices to pay for those items (do people really pay $3-4/lb for this stuff??), but a coupon like this helps even more. Or use it on lunch meat. Plenty of good uses for this if you need meat soon at Wegmans.

Free 1-2-3 Collections Binder from the Food Network.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:33:00 +0000

Sign up for a FREE binder from the Food Network. This is great as we were just going through our recipes and had tons of pages just floating around and talked about needing to organize them.

Sale: Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat 25% off at Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:29:00 +0000

Amazon has the Graco Nautilus 3-1 car seat on sale. This is Ben's car seat, we have one in each car. We've had them both in everyday use for 2 years, and other than a few stains, you would never know they're two years old. I actually just had to count back the time because I didn't believe we've been using them for that long without issue or need to replacement. The seat is a little on the pricey side, but the fact that it will convert to the next two stages of car seats as boosters made it seem like a good investment originally, and the fact that it has held up makes me feel good about that original choice.

If you're in the market for a front facing car seat, I would recommend checking this one out.

QUICK DEAL: Happy Birthday to Chick-Fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:40:00 +0000

As many of you may already know, we *LOVE* our local Chick-Fil-A in Lower Nazareth (near the new Target, whom we also love). The people are always happy, the place is always clean, and the food is always great (even by CFA's standards!). Oh, and they love their customers and are constantly doing fun specials to encourage more visits and thank customers for their support and business. It is wonderful and the specials they run (many with no additional purchase necessary) have been a welcome sight to this underemployed blogger's eyes as nice treats and rewards to achieving some goals.

So CFA Lower Nazareth announced on their Facebook page (go and like them if you haven't yet!) two new promotions. One is just TODAY ONLY and one is for the entire month of March.

First, today (March 14), is their founder S. Truett Cathy's 90th birthday. To celebrate anyone who stops by the LOWER NAZARETH location gets a Free Chicken Sandwich is you tell the cashier you are celebrating Truett's birthday. I believe they are open until 9 or 10 pm so stop on in before then (or go through the drive-thru, they usually honor these deals there as well).

Second, they announced today that any Monday in March if you order a #5 (12 piece nugget) meal you get a FREE small Banana Pudding Milkshake.

Bottom Dollar Food 3/11-3/17

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 17:54:00 +0000

So I discovered Bottom Dollar Food a few weeks ago. We had received a flier in the mail with 4 coupons for $10 off a $20 purchase, and after looking over their flier I was able to find several good deals, and when you add that coupon they becomesally great deals. I want to stress that NOT EVERYTHING is a great price, some are actually pretty lousy shelf prices, so you need to know what a good price is before you shop. But some of the good prices are REALLY good.

A couple other things to keep in mind. You need to sign up for the card, which you can do at checkout. They accept coupons, including internet printed ones, but they do not double them. They do no give away bags, so you either need to bring your own bags/totes, be prepared to pack them into boxes they have up front for free, or buy plastic bags at 5/$0.25.

I actually love their store brand bread (price is also good for hotdog and hamburger rolls), and $0.79 a loaf is a great price. And Ben has started to be into Bananas, so that price helps a bunch (pun intended). The Corn Chips I tried were "eh", not enough to want them again.

When we went this morning, they had two HOT unadvertised deals at the store.

8 count boxes of Pop Tarts $1.00/each (limit 4)
Boxes of Keebler Cookies $1.00/each (limit 4)

The nature of Bottom Dollar is that the selection is limited, particularly in the amount of varieties they stock of an item. And because these are crazy prices for these items, the selection was pretty well picked over but I assume that it will be restocked before Thursday.

Let me know in the comments if you've tried Bottom Dollar and what you thought, or any great deals you've found.

80% off Restaurant.com

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:28:00 +0000

Visit Restaurant.com and enter the code SAVE to get 80% off the already discounted price on their "gift certificates". Code looks to expire on March 14, 2011.

If you're not familiar with the website, they sell discounted certificates to be used at a large number of local restaurants in an effort to get you to visit or try a new place to eat. There are often restrictions (usually a minimum purchase) on the use of the cards, but it still usually makes a nice date night much more affordable. Think certificates with a value of $25 for only $2-$3. Yeah, dinner will likely cost more than that, but I'd rather pay a total cost of $10-$15 than $33-$38, wouldn't you?

Oh, and if the tip isn't already added (some deals stipulate it will be), be sure to tip on the total BEFORE your coupon. You saved $20, you can give some of that back to the waitstaff.

I am why we can't have nice things

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:00:00 +0000

When Ben was just a baby at our old daycare, the teachers commented one day one the shirt he was wearing. It was one of those funny shirts that they make for babies, like "Spit Happens", "Automatic Sprinkler", "Party in my Playpen", etc.. Thing is, they said they could usually tell which parent dressed him in the morning based on his outfit. Anna tends to lean towards plain shirts or baby polos, where I tend to go right for the funny. I can't help it. Even when browsing at the store, I'm constantly picking up shirts and showing them to her for a laugh (although I usually get an eyeroll) like a group of 12 year-old boys in a t-shirt shop on the Boardwalk. So when I spotted spotted this today, I had to share with you in hopes it brings you the same smile and knowing nod that it brought me.

If only they had a matching adult size for myself.

Thanks to Super Cool Baby for the head's up.

Hot Deal on Cereal and Milk at Giant

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:22:00 +0000

So in addition to the reasons mentioned in the previous post, I had a great deal at Giant this week that re-sparked my excitement and I wanted to share with everyone.

I took 3 trips to the store to gather all that cereal. Here's how the deal works: Buy 4 boxes of GM cereals, get $6.00 off instantly. Also, you get a coupon for a free Gallon of milk (coupon is worth $4.50 to cover pretty much all milks) on your next purchase. There are coupons on coupons.com and smartsource right now for various GM cereals (remember that most Giant's will double only 1 of each coupon per transaction) to help lower the costs.

Added bonus, if you look at the Lucky Charms boxes on the left there, the top box says "FREE MOVIE TICKET" if you purchase two boxes. I have seen reports online of many varieties of cereal that have that deal printed on it, but in the two stores I visited I only found Lucky Charms boxes with the deal.

So here are the transactions I've completed thus far:

Did this first one twice:
2 boxes Lucky Charms @ $3.69/ea (got the bigger boxes to get the movie ticket promo)
- 1 printed coupon $0.55 (doubled to $1.00)
- 1 printed coupon $0.55
1 Box Cocoa Puffs @ $3.09
- 1 printed coupon $0.55 (doubled to $1.00) - was on coupons.com last month, no longer available
1 Box Honey Nut Cheerios @ $3.09
- 1 printed coupon $0.55 (doubled to $1.00)
Deducting the $6.00 for "Buy 4 boxes" deal brings total out of pocket to $4.01 plus a coupon for the free milk and a free movie ticket.

Third Transaction:
1 boxes Lucky Charms @ $3.09/ea
- 1 printed coupon $0.55 (doubled to $1.00)
1 Box Cinnamon Toast Crunch @ $2.69
- 1 printed coupon $0.55 (doubled to $1.00)
1 Box Cheerios @ $2.59
1 Box Basic Four @ $3.19
- 1 printed coupon $1.00 off 2 boxes of GM cereal
Deducting the $6.00 for "Buy 4 boxes" deal brings total out of pocket to $2.56 plus a coupon for the free milk.

My total Out of Pocket was $10.58, plus 3 free Gallons of milk, and 2 free movie tickets!

If you just want a really cheap milk, best deal I saw is:
4 Boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch @ $2.69
- 4 printed coupons for $0.55 off Cinnamon Toast Crunch. (with doubling that's $2.65 in coupons)
- $6.00 for "Buy 4 boxes" deal
= $2.11 out of pocket and get a coupon for the free milk.

Get the milk cheap and you can donate the cereal if you're not a fan.

Starting Over

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:58:00 +0000

Hello again. I had started this blog long ago to share my love of deal hunting with others, add a new voice in the market of bloggers, and have a place to share a piece of my life with the world. Unfortunately it became a bigger pressure to maintain than I originally anticipated, and I ended up abandoning the project.

To attempt to prevent this from happening again, I want to try again to be a great source of deals and offers. But I cannot promise I will be the most timely blog, the most complete blog, or the best blog. I will strive to be those things, but life will occasionally get in the way and we will have have to adjust.

Since the last update I've had a major change in employment, welcomed a second beautiful baby boy to the world, and a pile of small changes that are not terribly important right now.

Here's to another chance. Welcome back!

Weekly Coupon Insert Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:56:00 +0000

Moms Need to Know has her preview of the coupons for this week. There are 2 inserts planned for this week, 1 Smartsource and 1 Redplum.

Sadly Philly Inquirer no longer carries Redplum inserts, and The Morning Call doesn't always have all the coupons. If I can find another paper to supplement MCall for better coupons I'll let you know.

Phamacy Deals Week of 1/31

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:52:00 +0000

Walgreens - Common Sense With Money

Rite Aid - For the Mommas

CVS - Coupon Savings Game

Walgreens' Monthly Deals - Common Sense With Money

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:27:00 +0000

Every week Baby Cheapskate posts the best deals in baby related items (diapers, formula, etc..) I've found it a great resource to make sure you haven't overlooked a great deal on Baby items. Check it out!

Looks like a good week to stock up on diapers!

Weekly Coupon Insert Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:24:00 +0000

Pharmacy deals week of 1/24

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:17:00 +0000

CVS Deals - Coupon Savings Game

RiteAid Deals - For the Mommas

Walgreens Deals - Common Sense With Money

Baby Cheapskate - Top Diaper and Formula Deals

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:03:00 +0000

Weekly Coupon Insert Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:45:00 +0000

Moms Need to Know has her preview of the coupons for this week. There are 2 inserts planned for this week, 1 Smartsource and 1 Redplum

Phamacy Deals Week of 1/10

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:53:00 +0000

CVS - Coupon Savings Game

Walgreens - Common Sense With Money

RiteAid - For the Mommas

Baby Cheapskate - Top Diaper and Formula Deals 12/27

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:48:00 +0000

Coupon Inserts 12/27

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:45:00 +0000

This week there is only 1 insert in the Paper from Proctor & Gamble, so it's a pretty light week for coupons.

Moms Need to Know has her weekly summary of the week's coupons and recommendations on how many inserts to purchase.

Pharmacy Deals 12/27

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Sorry for the spotty (ok, non-existent) posts over the past month or so. December is a crazy time of year and while that is no excuse for most bloggers as a newbie I'm still trying to get into and maintain a good routine and good practices.

Anyway, here are links for the big 3 Pharmacy chains' deals this week

CVS - Moms Need To Know

Rite Aid - For the Mommas

Walgreens - Common Sense With Money

Barnes & Noble 25% coupon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:06:00 +0000

Barnes & Noble has put out a new coupon to bring in those holiday shoppers.

25% off one item

There are a few limits listed on the bottom of the coupon, but find some items on sale and tack the coupon on top to get a great deal, moreso if you have a B&N Membership also.

I'm not as well versed on the book deals, but there are some pretty deeply discounted Blu-ray discs and DVD box sets this week.

Phamacy Deals for week of 12/6

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:32:00 +0000

CVS Deals - Coupon Savings Game

Walgreens Deals - Common Sense With Money

RiteAid Deals - Coupon Savings Game