The Life and Times of a Teaching Mommy

Exciting Move

2010-04-16T21:18:00.002-04:00

I know I haven't been around and haven't posted here in a while. I was really excited to start this blog, but keeping up with it once I was working full time again (after winter break and all the "snowcation") just didn't pan out like I'd hoped. I had too many other things going on to keep up with blogging like I'd wanted to.

However - a great opportunity has come along for me. I'm going to be blogging as a part of the wonderful blog Ladybugs and Tonka Trucks. If you're not already a follower over there, I hope you'll head over and check it out. I hope to get back into posting about some of my trips to the store, and get into more product reviewing and even host some giveaways for the readers. I hope you can come join in some fun with LadybugMama, Mom2aNutball, and I!

Giant

2010-02-23T18:39:00.002-05:00

Nothing amazing at Giant this week. Like I mentioned here, I stayed under my budget this week. My needs shopping finally went down some after months of trying to semi-stockpile.

My total before coupons and sales - $39.78
Total after coupons and sales - $31.58
Savings - $8.20

None of the deals I got were amazing deals this week - just things we needed - cheese, juice, chips, regular stuff.....

Mailbox Monday

2010-02-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

Mailbox Monday is a fun way to share what freebies came in your mailbox this week, and to see what everyone else is getting, too! Be sure to visit Debra at A Frugal Friend so you can link up your post and share in the fun!

It was another great week! This week, I got -

$15 Olay Regenerist rebate (blogged about that here)
Collectable Coupons sent me the coupons I bought with the $5 gift certificate I won from Stacy at Saving in Akron
Uniball pen with a coupon (still available here - there's a limited number each day)
coupon for free Country Bob's all purpose sauce
P&G booklet of coupons
Victoria's Secret coupon
Gold Bond sample and coupon
Huggies coupon booklet
Food Lion coupons for Dove Men's Care (from Shoptext, I think...)
Conagra booklet with recipes and coupons
Parenting Magazine
Dockers that we won from the Superbowl commerical giveaway

Love Challenge: Week 2

2010-02-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

This week, Julia challenged us to do something each day. Here are the details.

Every day this week (or as many days as you can), contact your spouse while they are at work (or home, or wherever) just to see how their day is going and ask if there is anything you can do for them (pick up dry cleaning, iron clothes, shovel the snow). Mix it up by doing a variety of phone calls, texts, or emails.

I did pretty well. I offered to go to Food Lion so he didn't have to on Monday, but he took the list and coupons with him, so I couldn't. One day, I told him I'd get the mail. (Our community has centrail mailboxes instead of having them in front of each house, and he almost always goes to get it on his way home.) I had every intention of sending an ecard on Friday, but never got around to it. The other days, it was just a normal call or text - how's your day? where are you? love you.

I have to say - this is one challenge that wasn't too bad for me. I call him and text him a lot (more than he wants me to, I think), so it probably would have been more of a challenge for me NOT to do that every day! :)

Olay moneymaker!

2010-02-21T20:52:00.003-05:00

Tara at Deal Seeking Mom has a great way to do the current Olay rebate, turn it into a moneymaker, and NOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE! The details of her scenario are here.

You have to go to visit Alice to do this deal. If you're a new customer, you'll have to register - and your deal scenario would be a little different from a returning customer. New customer's get free shipping no matter how many items you order, so you can 3 Olay items - the cheapest is bar soap for $2 something ($2.19 I think it was) or the body wash for $3.99. If you buy 3 body washes at $3.99 each, and submit the receipt for the $15 Olay rebate, it will end up being a moneymaker. Your shipping was free, and you used no gas to get the goodies! If there are other Olay items you'd prefer - there are several facial items for $4 something, so you'd still only spend around $1 or $2 to get the 3 items after your rebate.

If you're a returning customer, you have to purchse 6 items to get the free shipping, but there are tons of items less than $1, so you can still stay right at or under $15, and get all 6 items for free after the Olay rebate gives sends you your $15.

Since I was a returning customer (read about my awesome first experience here), I had to get 6 items. I got -

3 Olay body washes, $3.99 each
1 Tag body spray, $2.29 (about 50% off retail price)
2 pouches of dog food, 79c each

I would have done 3 dog foods to make my total a little less, but Frank wanted some more Tag, so I threw that in there - the deal is still great! My total was $16.63 and after my $15 rebate, it will have only cost me $1.63 for all 6 items!

Don't forget - if you do Swagbucks and you are a new customer at Alice, you can get a $5 gift card with your Swagbucks, redeem that during your transaction, and make the deal even sweeter. If you don't do Swagbucks yet, you should check it out - my link is at the bottom of my blog, and I'd love for you sign up through that!

One other note of caution -when I searched for Olay products on Alice, several Secret deoderants came up and I'm pretty sure they don't count for the Olay rebate, so I wouldn't order those.

Envy book review

2010-02-21T15:34:00.004-05:00

Envy is the third book I've read in The Luxe series, by Anna Godbersen. I haven't gotten to the fourth one yet, but I can't wait. I'm sad, though, that it will be the conclusion of the series.

I don't have too, too much more to say about how much I liked this novel that I haven't already said in my first two reviews about the series.

The first novel is called Luxe, and I reviewed it here.

The second novel is called Rumors, and I reviewed it here.

Even though these books are classified as young adult, I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about life in rich Manhattan in 1899. I've grown close to the characters, especially the main two sisters - Elizabeth and Diana. I've come to really dislike Penelope, more and more with each book. I feel bad for poor Henry, and so wish he could be with the girl he loves. Elizabeth is probably my favorite character, and she was not as present in the second novel, so I was glad to see her return to the plot more in this one.

The focus of these novels is on the characters finding their perfect match and getting married - and the relationships they enter into, both by force and by desire. It also puts their family relationships on display, and shows how much the parents valued politics and the way things looked over their children.

Would I recommend this novel to others? Absolutely. I'm not normally a historical fiction reader, but I've loved all 3 in this series so far. I'd also like to point out that each of the books has been very strong and well-written, and I can't say that one is better than the other.

Norton Internet Security 2010 Review

2010-02-20T15:33:00.005-05:00

When I was contaced by Viewpoints and offered a chance to review Norton's Internet Security 2010, I couldn't have been more excited. It was perfect timing. I had purchased a netbook about 3 months before, and it's trial of Norton was about to run out. I immediately responded that I'd love to test the product and write a review, and waited to hear back. I didn't hear back and assumed I hadn't been selected, and my Norton had only a couple days left, so I paid my yearly subscription to renew. Two days later (seriously - only two days!), I got an email back from Viewpoints that I've been selected to have Norton free for a year if I would write a review. My first thought was, "You've got to be kidding me." I figured I just had no luck this time around, but went ahead and emailed Norton anyway in the hopes that they would refund my money or at least extend my subscription for another year. I emailed them with the details of the situation around 6 or 7 in the evening, and had a reponse before lunchtime the next day. They said it was no problem to refund my money, and it was processed and back in my account within a few days. I was so impressed with their customer service, which I had never had reason to use before. One of my favorite parts was that I did it all through email, so I never had to talk on the phone. Email is much easier for me to get done!

As far as the product itself, I'm very satisfied. I've actually been a Norton user for years, and have always felt safe and protected. I have used it on a desktop, laptop, and netbook and have never felt that it slowed my computer down. Whenever there is a threat, I get an immediate popup and I can choose to ignore or have Norton fix the issue. One feature that I really like is that there is always a green check in the bottom right corner of my screen if everything is up to date and running smoothly, and there is a red x if something needs to be taken care of. It updates itself frequently so the virus definitions and such are current. It scans in the background so you can keep working on other things if you need to do so. You can set up automatic renewal so you don't have to remember to pay each year, but even if you don't want it to be automatic, you will see the red x appear when your subscription is almost out, and you'll be able to go right through the program to renew. I've always felt like Norton is a good value for the money, and I believe it's protected my computer from the dangers of the internet for many years. I wouldn't use any other protection for my computers!

Staying under budget

2010-02-19T21:33:00.002-05:00

Even though I've been couponing for a while now, I still haven't really cut down my budget. I still spend on average $100-$120 a week (I know that makes some of you cringe!), but I get WAY MORE for what I spend. One of my goals lately has been to really cut down on my budget. If you've been reading my blog, you know I have some challenges (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) when it comes to stockpiling - limited space and limited number of coupons. Even so, I've been able to stock up on some things. I'm going to concentrate on getting only the REALLY GOOD deals and not just the pretty good ones. I've done my lists for this coming week and it looks like I'll be able to get what we need, which isn't much, plus the deals I want, and only spend $60-$70. I know it's not the amazing $40 a week budget that I see on so many wonderful couponing blogs, but it's great progress for me!

Back to Work

2010-02-18T08:25:00.002-05:00

I officially went back to work today - with a 2 hour delay, and a delay again today (hence the time this morning to post)!

Now my challenge is going to be keeping up with posting while working, too. I could really get used to staying at home - as long as my paycheck kept coming in, but sadly, I don't think that's a possibility! :) I could get used to this 2 hour delay thing too. It makes for much more relaxing mornings....but then again, it's not good because it makes for much more rushed school days. Guess it's a good thing it's not up to me to make importatnt decisions about school being in session!

Target trip fixed!

2010-02-18T08:19:00.002-05:00

I posted about this week's Target trip here and told you about my mistake with the Hefty bags. I went back in yesterday, and I was able to successfully get a credit, without any hassle, really. I wish I could say it was due to stellar customer service, but that, unfortunately, would be a lie. I'm a big fan of Target; don't get me wrong - and I do generally have good customer service there. However, I think yesterday's transaction was easy due more to the employee's lack of caring than anything else. But, none the less, it worked out for me! Here's how it went:

Myself: When I was here the other day, I bought these bags that had a price cut of $1, and when I got home I noticed they rung up at full price of $3.49 each. I'd like to see if we can get that fixed.

Employee: They were $1?

M: Um, yeah. There was one of those little signs, you know? I think it's called a temporary price cut. But I could have picked up the wrong ones. (EDIT: I am pretty sure I didn't, but I could have...)

E: Okay. Let me see if I can get someone to do a price check.

asks for price check in walkie talkie

waits approximately 30 seconds

turns back to me

Well, if no one is going to answer, I'll just change it.

And she did. Credited me my $10.46, and I said thank you and headed out. Sometimes lazy employees are seriously the way to go!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

We have - actually HAD - a covered deck on the back of our house. Apparently the weight of the snow was a little much for it to handle, as it crashed down Sunday afternoon. It scared the crap out of me because it was so loud - but I'm thankful I wasn't out there because no one else was home at the moment but Tyler, so that would have been really bad!

Price Book & Stockpiling

2010-02-16T17:28:00.003-05:00

Since we were off AGAIN today, I spent some time making a price book. I've been meaning to do it for several months, and I have been keeping my grocery store receipts for the past two months-ish, so I had those to use. One of the most challenging parts of couponing for me is knowing when something is at a low enough price to stock up. I know what's a really good price for some things, but not everything. A price book is a way to keep track of that. You input the lowest prices you find items at, and the date when you found that price so you know when it will happen again. From what I've read, store cycles run on a 6-8 week basis. Some blogs also say a 12 week basis. That means things are at the lowest price that often. If you can match those prices with coupons, you'll get the best deals. I went through my Food Lion and Giant receipts for the past two months and put in the best prices I got on the items I had purchased. I made it in excel and will now try to update it each week, so I can truly start to learn the lowest prices. I'm hoping that will help me learn when it's really a good time to stock up, and when it's not.

The columns I included in my spreadsheet were:

Product
Store
Regular retail price
Sale price
% off (of the regular retail)
unit (box, oz, lb, etc.)
sale price per unit
date
notes

I did the % off column because as I was researching about creating a price book today, I noticed what percent off other couponers try to stock up at - I saw 50%, 65%, and 75% off as when they stock up. Most of the sale prices I have in my sheet aren't that low but once matched with coupons, they will be. I didn't include the price I actually paid for the items if coupons were included. That is too much for me. I think if I can figure out the lowest price around for something, I can use whatever coupons I have when that sale comes around, and I'm hoping that once I start to learn some cycles, I'll know when it's worth it to buy extra papers to stock up on a coupon, or use a coupon clipping site or Ebay to get some extras of a coupon.

Southern Savers has a price list already done here. It's a pdf file of a list of rockbottom prices, but do remember that prices vary by area. I think I'm going to use it as a reference and comparison until I get my own list entirely done

An Uncommon Way to Wealth has a price book here. This one is an excel sheet with a sample in it. It also has the blank one with formulas and everything done for you, if you'd rather use it than make up your own. I made my own, but this would be an easy place to start if you aren't familiar with a spreadsheet program.

I'm hoping this will help me become better at couponing and saving more money. I still have two challenges to stockpiling, though. One is space - my freezer is so full, stuff is almost falling out, and it's the only one I have. I seriously can't buy any more frozen stuff right now. My cabinets are getting to be the same way - I keep moving stuff around to try to find more space. It's not that I have so much stuff (although definitely more than I used to), but I don't have a lot of space. Our house is very full, and I'm starting to stick non-cold stuff wherever I can find a spot! My other challenge is that I only get two papers - and they're different, so sometimes I have two of a coupon, but sometimes only one. I think I'm going to try to be better at looking at ad scans in advance, so I can buy more of a certain coupon on a coupon clipping site or Ebay if a sale is going to be worth it.

Target trip

2010-02-15T15:29:00.005-05:00

Target is not a regular weekly trip for me, but I go once every 3 or 4 weeks on average and pick up some good deals. Today's total would have been $52.45. I spent $29.93 and got a $5 gift card - but just now as I was looking at my receipt, I realized the Hefty bags I got rang up wrong - really wrong! I saved $27.52, so even if I don't return the bags, the trip still wasn't bad, but not as good as it should have been. I called and they said I have to come back in to make the correction. I might have to go back on this one. Irritated. Back to the more positive side of my post....(sorry for the minor tangent!)

Here's what I got today.

Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner refills at $4.14 each - used printable coupons from here and printed two $2/2 cpns and two b1g1 free coupons - total cost for all 4 - $6.28, or $1.57 each
Duracell AA batteries (we were out) - $5.99 for a package of 10, and I used $1.50 mfr cpn and $1 Target coupon, plus they came another $1 off cpn on them
Gillette trial size shave gel - 99c - used a $1/1 any size mfr coupon to make it free
Keebler Fudge Shoppe cookies - regular $2.99 each, on sale for $2.25 and wyb 5, you get a $5 gift card. I also had a $1/1 Cheesecake Middles coupon, so I got one of that flavor. My total was $10.25 for the 5 boxes of cookies, and after the $5 gift card, that's $5.25 for 5 boxes. (There are other products in the gift card promotion - check out the details and print the Cheesecake Middles coupon here
Hefty one zip bags - marked down to $1, and I had two $1/2 mfr cpns, so they should have been 50c each - BUT since they rang up at full price of $3.49 each, they were not a good deal even after my coupons. Hopefully I can swing in there tomorrow and get the difference credited.

CVS Success

2010-02-15T15:13:00.003-05:00

Here's what I got at CVS today.

Before sales, coupons, and taxes, these items would have cost $63.80. I spent $12.33 oop and got back $14.50 in ECBs - making today's trip a profit of $2.17. Good score!

I did two transactions. Here are the details.

Transaction 1

Glade 10 oz candle, on sale for $6 - I used a CVS cpn for $3/1 (printed from the little red machine in the store a few weeks ago) and a mfr cpn for $3/1 - made the candle free
2 Glade 4 oz Essential Oils candles, on sale 2/$6 - I used a CVS cpn for $3/2 (one that had printed on the bottom of a store receipt a few weeks ago) and a internet printable for $3/2 - making these candles also free
If you purchased $12 of Glade products, you got 4 ECBs - making the Glade products a $4 moneymaker for me!
Covergirl Clean Makeup foundation and powder, on sale for $6 each and I used a $2.50/2 mfr cpn. WYB 2 products, you get 5 ECBS - so a final total of $4.50 for both products.
Aussie conditioner on sale for $2.99 - I used a $1/1 mfr cpn (from this weekend's paper) and it gave 2 ECBs - final cost is free
Crest ProHealth Enamel Shield toothpaste - I used a 75c/1 mfr cpn, and got 3.50 ECBs - so a 75c moneymaker
There is something on my receipt for $3 - called "taxable item." I have no idea what it is. I think it is because I used 9 coupons and had 8 items. She didn't say anything and I didn't catch it until I got home. Maybe the computer adds automatically if you don't have the same number of items and coupons? I don't know...but my trip was still a moneymaker overall, so I can't really fuss and complain!
I also used a $5/$30 coupon that came in an email a few weeks ago.
Keep in mind, some of these CVS coupons were expired - BUT the CVS I go to will take their coupons up to 6 months after the expiration date, which I love!!
Total oop - $10.36, with $14.50 back in ECBS

Transaction 2

Wisk - priced at $8.49, and on sale as b1g1 free - I had one $1/1 mfr cpn (wish I had two....it must have only been in one of the papers I get, since I get two different ones). After the coupon, they were $3.75 each.
Big Mix candy - for my classroom candy box - on sale $2.99
I paid with 9 ECBs from Transaction 1, and used $1.97 oop.

I still have $5.50 in ECBs to start me off next week!

Rite Aid Riches

2010-02-15T15:07:00.003-05:00

Sort of - I only picked up one thing at Rite Aid today - Huggies Overnites. I've never used special overnight diapers before, but Tyler has been wetting through his diapers a lot lately. So I thought I'd give them a try. Rite Aid had the Jumbo pack on sale this week for $8.99 - regular $11.99. They have a $3 SCR. I also had a $1.50 coupon from a newspaper insert. In addition to that, I stil had $4.22 left over on my gift card from where I transferred a prescription 2 weeks ago.

So - I paid $3.72 oop (plus the $4.22 on the gift card, technically), and will get $3 back in my rebate check.

Mailbox Monday

2010-02-15T01:00:00.001-05:00

This week was way better than last week!

This week, I got -

a Single Check Rebate from Rite Aid
two coupons for $1 12 packs of Coke from RecycleBank
Steenbergs Organic spices and green tea from a giveaway win at Green Lashes and Fashion
Charmin toilet paper and Glad trash bags from Alice - read about how they were free here
Yamaha Star Motorcyles 2010 calendar (for Frank's garage)
Spark energy drink sample (for Frank)
P&G coupon booklet

Love Challenge: Week 1

2010-02-14T23:00:00.001-05:00

You may remember that I mentioned I was going to participate in a Love Challenge hosted by Julia at Sweet as Punkin Pie. Each week, she gives us a challenge, and the following Monday, we'll post that we did it, and any details we want to share about it.

Last week, Julia challenged us to surprise our husbands with a gift. It had to be personal, small, and silly. More details here. This was really hard for me for a couple reasons. The first reason was that I had NO IDEA what to get him. He's not especially sentimental, and all the material things he likes are things for his bikes and trucks that I have no clue how to pick out, are generally expensive, and almost always have to be ordered - and I was only working with the current week to do this. My second big issue was that due to the massive amounts of snow that continued to dump on us, I wasn't comfortable driving anywhere. So I couldn't order anything without paying tons extra to get overnight shipping and I couldn't drive anywhere - so now I'm stuck trying to come up with something small, personal, and silly with the stuff in my house.

I ended up deciding to make him a collage of pictures, with some of our favorite memories.

Personal? Check.

Small? Physically - well, it's not huge. Money-wise? Definitely - it was free.

Silly? Not so much the gift itself, but some of the pictures in it recalled silly moments.

Here's why I chose the pictures that I did.

Top left - us at Buffalo Wild Wings: We spent a lot of time there in the first year of our relationship. We also had our first kiss there!
Middle left - Our friend Mason putting rice in our luggage: At our wedding, our friends thought it would be a good idea to put quite a few POUNDS of uncooked rice in our luggage and our truck. It was EVERYWHERE. When we got to the bed and breakfast where we were spending the night, we had to take out an empty drawer and go through all our luggage getting the rice out. The drawer was easily half full, if not more, of rice when we were done. I've never seen so much rice in my life, and we still find rice grains stuck in our truck today!
Bottom left - us and my cousin Mae at our first Christmas
Top middle - 4 pictures of some favorite things - us on one of the bikes we had, his 50 and one of the bikes we had, me with his old Tacoma and a bike we sold, him doing a burnout at some stunt show
Top right - Tyler's ultrasound picture
Middle right - two dogs that we no longer have - Tiny and Sable: Tiny was a Great Dane and Sable was our first pit. When he brought her home, I thought she would kill Tiny and me because I had Tiny on his leash. I was TERRIFIED of her. The next day, he had to work, and I made him put Sable in her cage in his garage so she couldn't get to me. She didn't shut up all day long. Once we trusted her to be around Tiny, we kept them both on leashes and held them the whole time they were in the house. Eventually, we let Tiny off the leash, and then finally - her. This picture has Tiny and Sable on the same couch, but not touching - and Frank's holding on to Sable's leash. Yes, they did grow to be good friends - though she always let him know if he was bothering her!
Bottom right - Sable and her puppies: We bred the most wonderful litter of puppies with Sable. This was her with them. Lots of fun, lots of work, and good money - something we'd like to do again one day when Tyler is a little older.
The last picture on the bottom - us with Tiny at the river: My grandparents have a lovely house on the river, and we always go there in the summer.

I left it out for him to find, with a note that explained about the love challenge. When he came home, he saw it and his first comment was, "Is today Valentine's Day?" Once I reassured him that it wasn't, he said, "That's nice." That was it. It's sitting in our bedroom now waiting to be hung on the wall. I told you he wasn't sentimental. :)

If you want to read more about what other people gave this week, make sure to visit Julia's blog and check out the links!

new truck

2010-02-14T14:42:00.006-05:00

We traded my Mazda Tribute in on a Toyota Tacoma and I love it! I can't wait until we get it lifted and put on bigger wheels and tires! The lift shipped today, so should be in this upcoming weekend. We're hoping to order wheels and tires this coming weekend, too. It's a really good investment for our family. My husband loves Toyotas and knows how to work on them. It's a quad cab, so it has room like my little SUV did. It's got tons of storage - more than my Tribute, definitely. I did say a must for me would be a tonneau cover, so I have the bed clean and covered for storage, but he can still use it for a truck bed when he needs it. We ordered the tonneau cover last night, so hopefully it will ship soon.

And can I tell you I love lifted trucks - my Tribute would have looked stupid lifted, and this will look good. (Or sick, as my husband told me was the correct term.) Later on, when it's time for me to upgrade again, he'll turn this into his off road truck and replace what he has. It's a much nicer vehicle than mine, and holds value better - and our payment didn't go up!

Not My Daughter book review

2010-02-14T14:33:00.004-05:00

Barbara Delinsky is another author I enjoy. Her newer novels often focus on difficult themes, and can leave you wondering who to side with. Her most recent book is Not My Daughter, and it centers around a teenage pregnancy pact.

I always wonder what teenage girls are thinking when they get pregnant - especially the ones who do it on purpose. We planned for our child, and were married and had a house, and I still sometimes wonder what we were thinking! :) This book was kind of an inside look into a pregnant teenager's head, and why getting pregnant was right in her eyes - though I can't say I agree with her thinking. It's also a close up look at how her mom, and the moms of the other two girls handle it. It took me a few chapters to really get into it, but once I did, I was anxious to finish. There are some twists and turns in the novel - including some challenges in one of the girls' pregnancies and a romance in one of the mom's lives. Not to mention, one of the mom's is the high school principal in the small town, and that causes lots of stress, too. I did feel a connection with the characters, at least the main two. At the end of the novel, while I can't say what the girl did was right, I can say I have some respect for her and her mother for dealing with the situation in the best way they could. And I think the girl will do everything she can to be a good mother. (Yes, I know, they're not real people - but you know....)

Would I recommend this book to others? Yes. It was an enjoyable story with characters you can bond with. However - it does deal with a controversial issue, so keep that in mind!

2010-02-12T13:18:00.002-05:00

Kailani, at An Island Life, celebrates Aloha Friday each week. In Hawaii, Fridays are the day to take it easy and relax. She does the same on her blog, posting a simple question, and everyone gets to answer it. If you'd like to play along, visit her blog and add your link!

My question this week is:

How do you like to celebrate Valentine's Day?

We don't do gifts. We generally go out to dinner somewhere. This year, it's going to be Red Lobster - we have a gift card and a coupon to use there! :)

Rite Aid Riches

2010-02-11T19:20:00.003-05:00

I sent Frank to Rite Aid today to pick up some things for me. Here's what he got.

Total before sales, coupons, and taxes: $44.65

Total spent oop: $20.78 - and that was paid for with a gift card from transferring a prescription - so technically, 0 oop!

Savings: $23.87 (or $44.65 if you count the gift card as savings!)

Plus, I'll get back $8.99 for the razor on a MIR - making it free.

I'll also get $7.50 in SCR - so a total of $16.49 in rebates.

Details of the transaction:

Dove Men Care Face/Body was on sale for $4, with a $4 SCR - plus use a $1.50/1 printable coupon, so $1.50 profit
Shick Quattro disposable razors - 3 pack - $4.99 - plus $3 newspaper coupon, so $2 for 3 razors
Shick Titanium trimmers - on sale for $8.99, free after MIR from newspaper inserts
Finish powerball tabs, on sale for $4.49, minus $1 newspaper coupon, and with a $1.50 SCR - so $2 for a 20 pack
Pampers Jumbo pack, on sale for $8.99, minus $1.50 newspaper coupon, and $2 SCR - so $5.50 for the pack
I also used a printable $5/25 purchase coupon

Definitely a good Rite Aid trip!

Snow Weeks

2010-02-11T09:04:00.002-05:00

Assuming we don't go to school tomorrow, we will have had two full weeks off of school, with the exception of last Thursday. I have mixed feelings about whether or not I'm ready to go back. (Not that that matters in any official context; somehow I don't think they consider my feelings when they are making the decision.)

Things I will miss when I go back to work (not in any particular order):

sleeping later
playing with Tyler
watching Tyler learn new things
time to work on my blog
time to read other blogs
time to read books
not having many papers to grade
not having to write lesson plans
time to coupon
wearing my jammies until I get around to showering

Things I will not miss when I go back to work (again, not in any particular order):

my dog, who insists that she needs to go outside every 5 minutes (and normally she's in a cage all day long!)
the lack of routine
going stir crazy because I'm too much of a baby to really drive anywhere
letting my child watch too much TV (yes, I admit it...)
Tyler not seeing his friends at the babysitter (I think him interacting with those other kids is really important, and he likes it!)
being gone from my house for around 11 hours every day

Kelly's Cake Off for a Cause

2010-02-10T10:50:00.004-05:00

Ovarian cancer is a cause near and dear to my own heart. My mother-in-law passed away from ovarian cancer several years ago. She was diagnosed in September 2006 and passed away in May 2007. One of things that bothered my MIL was how much publicity and awareness there was for breast cancer, and how little there was for ovarian. When I received an email about promoting this cause, I was immediately glad to do it!

Kelly Ripa and Buddy Valastro, from TLC's show Cake Off got together with Electrolux and hosted a fun event where five teams baked gorgeous cakes. Their event and campaign are raising money to support the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF). I know you're dying to taste the cakes, but unfortunately, you can't do that.

You can; however, still make a vote and help support OCRF at the same time. All you have to do is visit Kelly-Confidential. Once you're there, create an account and vote for your favorite cake. It's as easy as that - and to make things even better, for every vote cast, Electrolux will donate $1 to OCRF. I voted for Take a Bow. I liked Snow Day a lot, too - but I just had to go with the pink. I'm addicted to pink. Feel free to share your favorite cake in a comment below!

Still want to do more? You can send a cake to a friend, and Electrolux will donate $1 for that, too. You can send one cake every day with an interactive tool where you can create and decorate your own cake - it's fun! I sent one to Frank's sister today - I made it with pink icing, obviously, and put it on a turquoise plate with a turquoise candle since that's the color for ovarian cancer. By the way, every time you send a cake, you're also entered for a chance to win a new Electrolux induction range!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-02-10T06:00:00.001-05:00

The Bathroom Monster

Be afraid...be very afraid

If you have never heard the Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner, it beeps several times first, then sprays and the motor that makes it spray isn't the quietest motor around. Frank told
Tyler it was a monster a few weeks ago, and didn't know (nor did I) how seriously he would take it. He SCREAMED and CRIED and now, three-ish weeks later, is still scared of the bathroom. However, instead of coming to the bathroom with you now (as you know all 2 year olds feel this is neccessary), he stands at the doorway and won't come in.

Have you met Alice?

2010-02-09T20:03:00.003-05:00

I just had my first real interaction with Alice.com. Have you checked out the site yet? I'd looked around it once before, but hadn't actually purchased anything. I did today, and was very pleased with the process. I hope I'm just as happy when the products come!

I redeemed 20 Swagbucks for a $5 Alice.com gift card, first.
(If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks yet, it's really easy and you should totally do it. It took me a while to sign up, but I'm really glad I did. If you do - you should click through my link at the bottom - hint, hint, wink, wink.)

I had enough Swagbucks to get more than one gift card, but they (Alice or Swagbucks or both?) will only let you redeem one gift card. One, total. It says that can't be combined, and it says you can only get one per Swagbucks account. That definitely goes in my downside folder - I wish I could have gotten more than one!

We are almost out of trash bags and there are no great deals at the stores this week, so I thought it would be a great time to check out the site. They automatically use coupons for you, so there's no clipping and filing and whatnot. There's a limited amount of each coupon - for example, the trash bags I got have 50 left, and expire in 19 days. The site always tells you how many coupons are left and how much time before they expire. That's a great feature because you know if you need to hurry and get something or if you have some time before the coupons run out or expire. When I searched for trash bags, it brought up a variety of brands, including the major ones - Glad and Hefty - as well as some green brands and some smaller brands. You can sort by tons of choices - brands, lifestyle (such as ecofriendly), type (like kitchen or large), and price, price per unit, coupons, and more! I'm big on seeing how much things cost per unit - I do a lot of my price comparisons that way, and Alice.com did that for me. I didn't have to figure it out on my own. For some items, it will also compare to other stores right there for you, so you don't have to go looking at other sites to see if you're getting the best deal.

The other item I went ahead and ordered was toilet paper. We only use Charmin Ultra Strong in our house - and I have a hard time finding good deals on it. For this item, they didn't show the price comparison for other stores, so I went to cvs.com and compared. On average, Alice.com was about $2 cheaper per package than cvs.com. So I went ahead and ordered one pack of toilet paper, too.

Another feature that's definitely worth mentioning - when you purchase a product, it gets stored in your my products tab, so you can easily find it again. And not only that, but they will even remind you when you need to reorder, and you can set that to be every 2 weeks or month or whatever you need. I didn't try out that option myself yet, but if I were going to order from Alice.com as a regular supplier for my home and personal care items, I'd probably use that.

Yet another feature I really like is their 50 best deals section. If you go all the way to the right, and click on other ways to shop, the bottom choice is shop the best deals. When you click that, it takes you to a list of their top 50 deals at the moment, and it tells you the percent off regular retail that it is right there. I've seen several deals for things less than $1 in my two visits to the site.

The last wonderful thing I want to mention about Alice.com is that they ALWAYS have free shipping. I despise paying shipping, so this is fabulous to me. The one catch to this is that after your first order (with your first order, you can only order one thing), you have to order 6 things, but with several things under $1, it wouldn't be too bad to stick on a couple extra things - and it's definitely better than paying a higher price and shipping on another site, or traveling to the store and using up gas! Plus, when you order from home, you don't have to worry about what you're wearing or your makeup, you can do it at any hour of the day, and you don't have to take your kiddos along!

The Glad Force Flex drawstring trash bags were $6.95 with a 50c off coupon, so they came up as $6.45. That's for a package of 38 bags.
The Charmin Ultra Strong toilet paper didn't have a coupon, and was $5.71 for a package of 9 large rolls.

My total came to $12.77 and I used my $5 gift card from Swagbucks. I paid with the rest through paypal. (Which I forgot to mention above - I adore sites that let me use Paypal to pay - I have money in there, plus my cards are all in there, so I don't have to get them out to type in the number. And I trust Paypal and know it's secure!) I had money in Paypal from YouData - another one you can sign up through my link at the bottom ;) - and from my link to Shop4Freebies. So my purchases will still be free!

It says they will arrive in 2-3 business days, which is pretty quick, especially for not paying shipping. I can't wait to see if they arrive on time. I think Alice.com is definitely a site I can see myself using again. I just wish that I could get more gift cards with my Swagbucks!

The opinions in this post are 100% mine. No compensation was provided for this post.