Product Whore

Yes, I said it. I am a product whore. I LOVE products and I am not ashamed to admit it. The problem is I am on a very strict budget and my $30 powder just doesn't fit in. Neither does my foundation, face wash, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, hair care products or any other makeup. UGH! What is a gal to do??? I mean seriously? I know I am being vain and there are much more important things in the world, but I have to have my product!

The hair care was an adjustment and I did cringe when I purchased it for $2 as opposed to my normal $15-$30, but I did do it. And yes, the body wash I got on sale and used a coupon for is more like jelly than a foaming flurry of bubbles. But that is ok, we all have to make sacrifices.

Tonight though, I had to buy makeup from Walgreens. Oh the humanity!!!! I know there are a lot of women that purchase makeup from drugstores all of the time and sometimes it is better than anything you could purchase in a department store, but I used to work for a cosmetic company and so I am VERY particular about what goes on my face. I guess you could say I am a product snob in addition to being a product whore. I don't mean to be, it is just the way it is. I tried to buy an eyeliner but I just couldn't force myself to do it. At least not at this point. Baby steps, right?

Super Stoked

Ok, so I decided tonight was going to be the night that I would go and use my "Register Rewards" at Walgreens and see how I could do. I had $22 worth of rewards and boy was I stoked when I walked out of Walgreens. Never in my life did I think I would go to Walgreens for grocery shopping as I always felt it was a ripoff. NOT TRUE!!! I just bought $45 worth of stuff for a little over $1 after I used my Register Rewards. Woohoo!!!! As usual, I took a picture as I was QUITE pleased with myself. I bought 4 boxes of cereal, 2 boxes of pop tarts, 2 things of Cottonelle moist wipes, 4 toothbrushes, one thing of mascara, and two jars of peanut butter. Do not get me wrong, once we are out of debt, we will not be purchasing some of this stuff, but for right now it is ok. My husband could eat pure sugar and still never gain a pound. The sugary stuff is for him, not me or my little man. So the trick to having a successful trip to Walgreen's is this, you HAVE to wait until things are on sale. The markup is ridiculous there, but when they have a sale it is actually a good price. Use one of their coupons if they have it and then make sure to find any manufacturer's coupons as well. Literally everything I purchased had a coupon in addition to being on sale. So far, the blogs I have really enjoyed have been afullcup.com, thekrazycouponlady.com, and couons.com. If you are not already friends with people on FB you should friend them. STL Mommy is great as is Common Sense Money. They leave status updates with the latest and greatest deals multiple times a day. Hope this helps guys!

Walgreens

Or Wags as the people in the coupon world like to call it. Ok, so I have NEVER been a fan of going to Walgreens to pick up anything other than prescriptions. I have always felt everything is overpriced so therefore I have never paid much attention to it. Well, looks like I am eating my words a lot lately. Who knew they had great deals at Walgreens??? The one that I thought was especially great was their Dove's Men Care. If you bought one men's face and body for $5.99, you received a $6 Register Rewards. I bought two and had to do them in separate transactions in order to get the Rewards twice. So basically, YOU GET THEM FOR FREE!!!! How AWESOME is that? Oh, and I had coupons for $1.50 off each of the body cleansers so I basically made money. I also had to get my hubby some Zyrtec because he has crazy allergies and they were on sell there as well. I was able to get $10 in Register Rewards if I bought two 30 day supply Zyrtec bottles. Oh, and did I mention I had a coupon for that as well??? I finally think I am starting to get the hang of this. So today, I spent a little less than $50 total on everything, but with the Register Rewards I received it came to $26.93. Let it be known that the Zyrtec alone would have been over $40. If I had not used coupons and sales, the total would have been over $75. This is pure craziness!

Totally Target

I am a HUGE fan of Target, but rarely do I go anymore because it seems like they do not have the best deals once you start couponing. As much I hate admitting I am wrong, I just might be. There is a website totally dedicated to coupons and deals for Target. The website is www.totallytarget.com. Obviously in order to get the best deals you have to really do your research and you cannot shop all in one place. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have found this website though. I LOVE Target and was having withdrawals from not being able to go anymore.

Email

Ok, so obviously I am a big couponer and one way to get coupons is to sign up for their newsletters, etc. Well, I don't know about you, but I hate it when I have stuff that junks up my regular email. My solution, create a separate email just for your couponing pleasure. I have created one and it has been fab so far. I even have a "coupon folder" in my email in case I do not have time to print off the coupon but want to remember that that particular email has coupons in them. Hopefully this tip helps you guys out!!!

Laundry

I have to let you know, it is very handy having a super handy man around the house. Kevin seems to be able to fix things that I would have no clue how to do. For whatever reason, he seems to fix basically anything. If you don't have one, get one!!! = ) Having him around has definitely saved us some money. Kevin was able to repair the washer in about 15 minutes (with the help of his little man) once he was able to get the part. So, total we spent $20. AWESOME!!!

Another way for you to save money is to make sure to do your laundry on the weekends or after 7. There is a premium to do your laundry during the weekday. We have never done our laundry during the weekday which is actually harder than you would think, especially for a stay at home mom. It is so hard when the laundry is piling up and it is a Monday morning. Usually by the time 7 rolls around I am giving my little man a bath and getting him ready for bed. By the time that is all done I am too exhausted to do laundry so I have to wait until the weekend. Oh well!