Today is the end of weekly sales cycle, and I was going to stop by grocery store and buy some dressing. One store sells Ken's dressing for $2.5 and I had some $2 off coupons. When I was browsing another store's weekly circular, that store has them $4 for 2. Free dressing! I was happy that I found it because I'm using the last bottle of dressing and needed to find some deals.

I bought 10 bottles and walked out the store without paying a dime. I guess I could buy something, but couldn't think of anything.... I already have tonight's dinner planned out.

This week was a great deal week.

I was busy doing P&G deal at Walgreen's first, then, I realized Rite Aid is also running a great deal for Cover Girl which is P&G product. Cover Girl was BOGO at Rite Aid, and I had some BOGO foundation and blush coupons as well as a bunch of $1 off coupons.

At Rite Aid, I bought
2 foundation regular price $11.29 each
4 face powder regular price $8.19 each
8 blush regular price $5.69 each
8 eye shadow regular price $3.39 each
2 four-color eye shadow regular price $5.59 each
Total regular price $139.16
After BOGO sale and coupons, I paid $10.07 (including $5.42 sales tax) and will be getting $20 back from Rite Aid rebate.

Reviewing my transactions, I realized I could knock off $4 more but it would have been caused a negative value transaction. So, I should be happy with what I got.

This was a nice weekend.

Saturday: Last lecture of this semester. Our instructor cancelled next week's lecture, so all we have is a final exam on 17th. I'm so excited this semester is almost done.

After the class, I helped my group mate making his homepage for our web assignment. He injured his right wrist so it is extremely difficult for him to type. Since we will be graded as a group, I wanted to make sure his portion is complete

In the everning, I went over to my friend's house and played poker with friends till 11 pm. I lost $20, but it's ok. It was nice to catch up with my friends, and I had a good time.

Sunday: I was going to wake up at 6 and go to yoga class, but could not wake up. (Well, playing poker till 11 pm didn't help.) I finally woke up at around 8:15 (DD woke me up and told me to go to yoga), and went to hot yoga class. I'm still in trial period ($10 for 10 days) so I didn't have to pay today. I sweat so much, and felt pretty good.

I came home, took a shower, and headed to Strings (Italian restaurant) to see my friend. She is a single mom (I've known her since she was single) and have a lovely 4 yr old son. It's been more than a year since last time we met. We caught up a little, but couldn't stay too long because her son was getting bored and didn't sit still. We promised each other to meet more often than once a year.

After lunch, I went to Walgreens. This week is SUPER great deal at Walgreens. I bought 6 Mr. Clean magic eraser and 3 Charmin wipes, paid $22.49 and received $20 coupon good for next purchase.

For next purchase, I bought Edge shaving gel, melatonin (for DH), 4 cans of cream of mushroom soup, and Venus razor. After using $20 coupon, and other coupons, I paid $1.76 and received $6 coupon good for next purchase.

I will be going to Walgreens every day this week!

During last two days, I bought these at Office Depot.

1 Glue stick
2 500 ct index card
5 various index cards
4 Scotch tape
20 sheets of trading card holder
3 Zipper envelope
1 Case of water (24 ct)
4 post it notes
5 pens

I paid $4.79 and this amount includes tax and CRV for water.

Wonderful promotion by Office Depot!!

$5 off/$5 purcahse coupon is out again from Office Depot. They had this promo a while ago, and I got some stuff for almost free.

This coupon is good for today and tomorrow, so I went to two Office Depot. to get things we use.

First store:
1 large glue stick
3 index cards
Paid 60 cents.

Second store:
2 baseball card holder (for my coupon organization)
1 scotch tape
Paid 25 cents.

I love their promotion!!

I shopped at Walgreens A LOT this month. So far, my spending at Walgreens is almost $100. I bought some items we needed, and some will go to my stockpile. I am reviewing my list and many of these were needed items, such as DH's deodorant and hair mousse. He is very conservative about products he uses, and only uses the kind I cannot get for free : ( My DD take a bottle of water to school every day, so I bought 2 cases of Aquafina. She also needed poster board and index cards for her school work.

My out of pocket was $92.38 but it includes sales tax and CRV $19.52. So, $72.86 is the amount spent towards products and $15 of it is Starbucks gift card. I treat myself a latte every Friday morning, so I'm using this GC for it.

Anyway, here's the stuff I bought from Walgreens this month.

Price before coupons and rebates $354.2
Final oop $92.38 (includes $19.52 sales tax.)

1 $15 Starbucks gift card
1 Contact lens solution
1 Deodorant
2 Aquafina water (24 bottles)
4 Boxes of Kleenex
1 Listerine mouth wash
1 Colgate toothpaste
1 Body butter
1 Gainer lotion
1 Garnier hair spray
10 package of Olay bar soap
2 packages of Zest soap
2 hair mousse
3 Herbal essence shampoo
3 herbal essence conditioner
6 trial size Herbal essence conditioner
2 Sunsilk Hair lotion
24 trial size Panteen shampoo & conditioner
3 Poster board
1 Index card
6 bags of M&M (14 oz)
20 Trident gum
2 Orbit gum
11 Hunt's tomato sauce
7 Thai kitchen Pat Thai noodle
2 Windex
3 Energizer battery
2 Durano
1 Ajax
2 Glad wrap
1 Vitamin D
1 box of greeting card set
2 Wrapping paper
2 Hallmark tissue
4 Gift bag
1 120 ct. cotton
3 Bubble mailer envelopes
3 Glade flameless candle
2 Lighter

According to Yahoo Finance I read yesterday, we are officially in recession. Dah....

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/104627/Most-Economists-Say-Recession-Has-Arrived-as-Outlook-Darkens;_ylt=AuRUZbxvw8Ly01pTe_AjbSRO7sMF

I was watching news this morning, and they were talking about the price increase of milk, bread, and eggs. I guess we are ahead of media as we already discussed about the egg price increase. They were saying the price of eggs doubled in a short period of time which I personally observed. I think people should visit SavingAdvice if they want a scoop about personal finance LOL

By the way, I still have $44 worth of Walgreens catalina I need to use. I spent $48 on things I can roll, i.e. FAR items. Boy, I didn't think spending money can be so difficult LOL Since I bought most of FAR items for this month, I will spend the rest for something I can hardly get coupons for, such as nice wrapping paper. I know Aquafina water will be on sale next week, so I am planning to get three cases or so. There won't be much going on next week at Walgreens for me, but it will be a good week for Rite Aid FAR deal. I will be hitting RA for sure.

I suppose some of you had a lot of fun getting Register Rewards for P&G products last week at Walgreens. Trial size worked like a charm and I ended up getting $92 worth of RR. (My out of pocket was $65.36, so I made $26.64 from this deal.) Unfortunately, 99 cents trial size were wiped out, and I could score only once. Still, I could find 1.39 trial size that gave me about $3 profit every time I bought. So, that was nice. What do I do with all these mini shampoos? I will donate them when holiday season comes. My office donate household necessities, i.e. soap & shampoo, to homeless people every year.

I used $4 to buy one of FAR items, and thinking what to get with the rest of $88. I may have problem buying gift card because it's $4 coupon and says one per order. We will see. I was planning to buy some Windex this week since we're running low. I have a couple of BOGO coupon for antibacterial kind, but I heard Safeway has them for BOGO this week, so it's cheaper to get theses at Safeway. (free....) I need to sit down and figure this out. It's only Monday, so I still have a whole week to think about it.

I'm leaving work at noon today because I have an exam for my accounting class tonight. It's about capitalization & depreciation. The teacher was really nice and held a review session yesterday afternoon that helped me a great deal. Very nice teacher. I hope his exam is as nice as he is LOL

I went to have my crown (for my tooth) done on Tuesday. After insurance and deductible, my portion was $559.50. Ouch!!

However, as I wrote before, I paid it with my FSA debit card. So, I don't feel much pain in my bank account. Money was already funded through FSA contribution. I love my FSA debit card.

I stopped by Walgreens and bought some P&G products. I heard trial size is working for Register Reward deal, so I gave it a try. And Voila!! It worked like a charm. I bought 6 trial size shampoo & conditioner, paid $8.34 ($1.39 x 6) and received $12 coupon that is good for next shopping trip. I am going to use the coupon to buy March FAR items.

And, I couldn't resist.... I bought two bags of M&M candies. I know, I know. It's not good for my wallet or teeth. But, it was $1 for a 12.6 oz bag!! (2 for $3 after Walgreens store coupon, then, add 2/$1 manufacture coupon makes them $1 each.) I'm sure you will understand ; )

If you have Walgreens near you, check it out. They have Olay soap for sale. When you buy 2 of them and pay $4, you will get $4 off coupon for next shopping. That make them FREE!!

Soaps are great item to stock up because there's no expiration date : )

I totally forgot about $5 coupon form Office Depot that was only good for three days (Feb. 24 to 26). Good thing I read one of posts in HCW, and it reminded us to use it.

I stopped by three Office Depot on the way home since I had three coupons. One near my office, one right off the free way exit, and one near my house.

1st store
A case of water (24 bottles)
$5.99 + $1.20 CRV = $7.19 - $5 coupon Final $2.19

2nd store
Two 1/2 binders (I needed them for my tax document) $4.49
Gum (filler to make it more than $5) $1.29
Tax 0.04
Total $5.82 - $5 coupon = 82 cents

3rd store
A box of envelop $2.99
Brown wrapping paper for mailing $2.99
Tax $.07
Total $6.05 - $5 coupon = $1.05

There's Rite Aid next to Office Depot, so I stopped by to get cheap Halls. Rite Aid is selling them BOGO, and I had a BOGO coupon. As expected, my cashier didn't know how to handle duplication of store BOGO and coupon BOGO, so she called her manager. The value of coupon was $2.29 which is 20 cents short from the sticker price. So, I was ready to pay the difference, but the manager said "Don't even bother." Then, gave me two bags of Halls for free. Yay!

I went to Safeway this morning to get my coffee and a Sunday paper as usual.

I limit my spending at this Safeway because I don't like some of their cashiers. But this morning, I found a girl who used to work at Starbucks (This Safeway has Starbucks in its store) was at cash register. She is really nice and friendly, and I like her.

So, I decided to get 25 cans of Del Monte tomatoes that I originally planned to buy at the other store. Of course, I went straight to her line, and asked her about the change of position as she was scanning 25 cans of tomato. She told me she got a promotion and now works as a higher positioned cashier.

Good for her, and good for the store!! It makes a huge difference at retail stores if employees are customer-service oriented or not. By promoting this friendly girl to cashier position, this Safeway store gained my business.

By the way, here's the deal I did this morning.

25 cans of Del Monte Tomato products
$1 each x 25 = $25
Less $1 off when you buy 12 Del Monte products coupon x 2 = $2
$25 - $2 = $23
Then, I received $20 off coupon for next shopping trip.
So, $3 for 25 cans.

I was having too much fun doing Safeway's Savings Rally deal last week. I stocked up on Rice Roni, Pasta Roni, Fruit Snacks, Potato chips, Chex Mix, Pop Corn, Cooking Oil, Bleach, etc..... My pantry is so full and the deal doesn't end till next Tuesday!! I will get some canned tomatoes that are $1 each. I think I have a couple of $1 coupons for 10 cans of Del Monte product, so I will get 25 cans of tomatoes for $3. That will last for a while.

I had a great time shopping at Safeway today.

They're running a promo called Savings Rally and you will get $20 coupon that is good towards next purchase if you buy 25 participating items.

The best deal without coupon maybe Pasta/Rice Roni that are $1 each. Buy 25 of them ($25) and you will get $20 back, makes them 20 cents each. I had six $0.50/2 coupons, so I bought 12 of them.

I also bought 2 bags of potato chips, 2 bags of Chex Mix, 1 box of pop corn, 2 package of Tava drink, 2 bottles of Clorox bleach, 4 boxes of Betty Crocker fruits snack. After coupons, the total was approx. $24 and I had $10 off coupon I got from Sara Lee deal last week. My out of pocket for this shopping was $14 and received $20 off coupon for next shopping trip.

Safeway promotion often doesn't work as advertised, so I was really happy the deal went through as I planned!

I went shoppint at Rite Aid and Walgreens, and bought:

Rite Aid
7 Soy Joy $1.39 x 7 = $9.73
Less coupon $1.39 x 7 = $9.73 Free
L'Oreal Hair Color $8.99
Less coupon $2 Rite Aid q. $2 man. q.
Less rebate $4.99 Free
Shampoo $2.99
Less coupon $1
Less rebate $2.99 $1 profit
Laundry Soap $5.99 for two BOGO
Less rebate $2
Tax $1.39
Final oop $4.38

Walgreens
Softsoap body wash $4.49 FAR
Lip Stick $5.99 FAR
Energy drink $4.49 FAR
Clear care $5.99 FAR
Shampoo $3.99 FAR and less $1 coupon - means profit
3 Energizer battery $1.99 each after Walgreens & Man. coupons $1.99 x 3 = $5.97
Chap stick $2 RR $2 free
Tax $2.40
Less Walgreens coupon $5/$20
Final oop $2.37

I had enough GC balance to pay for all the FAR items, so I didn't have to use my cash

Stop by Safeway and grabbed:
2 boxes of oatmeal
2 boxes of granora bars
6 boxes of oatmeal to go
$2 each $2 x 10 = $20
Less $10 promo
Less $5.70 in coupons
Paid $4.30

Stopped by Rite Aid to buy some FAR items. There are some free stuff that are good only till tomorrow.

I bought:
Electrasol $2.99 (used rain check from last week.) less coupon $2.25 Final price 74 cents.
GE light bulb $2
Organic shampoo $5.99
Hair serum $7.99
Hair glaze (kind of highlights, I guess) $7.99
Flu reduce $6.99
Tax $1.62
Total $33.32 and I will receive rebate $32.46. Oop 86 cents.

I've done a couple things to fulfill my new year's resolution.

Saturday: Went to get my pedicure. Check!

Sunday: Went for a walk for an hour. Since I could not go for a walk this week, I combined and made it for an hour, instead of 30 min. Check!

Now, I'm planning to do a couple of deals at Safeway. There are several deals going on at Safeway, and some are really good one.

One is breakfast deal. Buy 10 item and get $10 off. Quaker products are participating products and they are $2 each. That means, the price will be $1 each after buying 10 items, and can even lower using coupons.

I already bought 10 boxes of granola bars for 50 cents each. I still have coupons for oatmeal and oatmeal to go. Oatmeal will be 30 cents per box after promotion and coupons. That's pretty good. We still have some left from last Quaker deal, but expiration date for oatmeal is quite a long time.

Campbell's select soup is another deal I’m looking at. It is part of “Buy 10 and get $5 off” promotion, and the price is $1.5 each. After buying 10 of them, the final price is $1 each, and I can use five of .40/2 coupon that will bring the final price to $8, 80 cents per can.

I don’t feel like going anywhere now. So, I will stop by the store tomorrow after work.

My back pain is almost gone. At least I can move around. Thank God!

I am leaving for Hawaii tomorrow morning, so I really wanted to get rid of my backache. It made me realize being healthy is so important to do anything! I was going to get a pedicure on Saturday, but could not go because I couldn't move an inch. I felt I wasted a whole day that really sucked.

I managed to get several copies of newspaper yesterday, though. It was such a great coupon day.

We are low on Nyquil and I was looking for a deal. 6 oz. Nyquil is $4 this week at Walgreens and they're having "Buy $20 and get $10 back" deal. There was $1.50 coupon yesterday. So, I am planning to buy 5 Nyquil.

$4 x 5 = $20
Less $1.5 x 5 = $7.5
Less $10
Final price $2.50 for five 6 oz. Nyquil.

By the way, all of my grades are posted. I got an A for Cost Accounting, Operations Management, and Tax. But, stupid A- for my Philosophy. I wrote a really baaaad paper for the final. I mean it was so bad that I received a D!! I have never ever got a D for my paper before. That shows Philosophy is not my thing. I hardly studied for the class so I shouldn't complain for A-.

Now, I am preparing to get my tuition reimbursement. I am getting $1,561.60 back for my tuition and books for last semester.

Walgreens have free Dimetapp this week. (They're $4 and you will get $4 off coupon good for next purchase.)

Wyeth rebate is still good till the end of this month and the limit is 2 per household. So, you should be able to make $10 if you get 6 of them. I know I won't use the medicine because my DD is too old, but I have friends who have small kids. So, I think I will just give them away.

By the way, their holiday items are 75% off. I went to shopping splurge and spent $7 : )

I stopped by Borders to get a pocket diary for next year. Calendars are 50% off after Christmas.

The store is having a great sale that regular priced books are now 25% off, and there was a bargain book corner that were 75% off.

I found "Millionaire Women Next Door" that had a price tag of $3.99. They took 75% off from the price, so I paid $1 for a new hardcover book.

I also bought "Hitler vs. Stalin" because my DD will be doing some research about WWII soon. The price of the book was $1.75.

So, my final price for two books and a pocket diary was $8.30 including tax, and they gave me a 30% off coupon for 1 book or CD.

I've been getting free crackers (Nabisco Cheese Nips) at Safeway. They are 10/$10 till tomorrow, and $6 off promotion kicks in when I buy six of them at once. I got 18 of them so far. I went to the store yesterday, but didn't get anymore because I was running out of shelve space for them.

Campbell's Select soup are also 10/$10, so I bought six of them because I had three of .50/2 off coupons, makes them 75 cents each. That triggered a catalina and I got $1 off coupon for next shopping and $1.75/7 coupon for Campbell Select. That will make them 61 cents per can. So, I am stocking up on these soup as well. They are handy when I need one more dish.

Pastas are also cheap this week. Gold Grain kind is 10/$10 and I used .55 coupons to make them 45 cents each. Egg Noodles are also 10/$10, and used .50 cents coupons to make them 50 cents each.

By the way, I was at Safeway buying 6 boxes of Cheese Nips, 6 cans of Select soup, 4r boxes of pasta, and a box of tangerine oranges ($4.99 for this one), and I paid $8.10 for all of these items. The lady behind me kept looking at the total shown on the display like she couldn't believe it LOL I used three $1/1 Nabisco coupons that gave me nice overage.

I love it when the deals work as I planned.

Rite Aid: Harshey's candies are 5/$10 and there's $5 rebate. There's man. coupons $1/2, so use two coupons and make them $3 for 5 bags of candies.

Safeway: Cheese Nips are 10/$10 and it's qualified to get $6 off Nabisco promo. I just bought 6 boxes of cheese nips and they ended up being free.

I also bought some Aquafresh toothpaste. They are also 10/$10 this week, and I used .75/1 man. coupons to make them 25 cents each. I don't need any of them but will donate them to the program for underprivileged families.

I didn't do much today. It was pretty low key, quite day.

I went to Safeway this morning, got 2 gallons of milk, 2 loaves of bread, 5 boxes of granola bars, a case of water, and a newspaper. I also got my latte, there.

At Safeway, I bought 4 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars. Sale price is 4 for $10, and the register takes another $4 off when you buy 4 at once. So, the final price is $1.50 per box. Not super great, but cheap enough since my DD takes them for her lunch.

I also checked Rite Aid's ad for this week, and they're running "Spend $100 and get $20" promotion starting today. I hope they will have some good rebates going on in December to make the deal sweeter.

This weekend was really busy one.

I had a class yesterday morning, and another commitment in the afternoon. We will have a guest from Japan next week, so I had to clean the house.

My DH and DD went to the field show for DD's Marching band yesterday, and didn't come home till 1:30 am.

Today was another cleaning day. And, I will have my cost accounting exam tomorrow, so I was studying here and there, finding some time between chores.

I managed to go to Longs and Target. We were out of paper towel, so I really had to buy some.

Longs
Viva paper towel $6 x 2 ($3 rebate)
Eggs (one dozen) $1.19
Alagio shampoo $3.99 (FAR item)
Healthy gums rinse $7.99 (FAR item)
Two newspapers $.99 x 2
Used $5 off cpn from Entertainment book
Tax $1.52
Paid $23.67 and will receive $14.98 in rebate
oop $8.69

Target
Shower curtain liner $9.99
Daisy sour cream $1.27 x 2
Less Target coupon .75 x 2
Less manu. coupon .50 x 2
(Final price is 2 cents for 8 oz tub)
Rayovac AA & AAA batteries
$1 x 4
Less Manu. coupon $1 x 4
Tax $1.01
Final price $11.04

I finally stopped by Walgreens today. I bought a couple of Thera Flu products, and paid $2.06 for them including tax. I really needed them because I am catching cold. Actually, I am writing in my bed. It's not too bad yet, and I want to get rid of the cold before it gets worse. I don't have time to get sick!!

I also bought two Glade flameless candles. I saw a TV commercial advertising for BOGO coupon on their website. So, I printed it out and use it with $4 off coupon. I paid $5.36 for two including tax, and will get $6 rebate from Walgreens.

It was kind of a quiet weekend. No too much was going on.

I decided to go to Rite Aid at the last minute on Saturday evening to see if they have any FAR items left in their shelf. To my pleasant surprise, they had most of them. It seems that they stocked up their shelves pretty well this time around. I got 11 FAR items worth $63.19 this week. Most of them are cold related items, so I guess I'm ready to catch cold LOL (I just don't have time to be sick, though.)

I spent most of my time reading the textbook for cost accounting yesterday. We have a test on Wednesday and I need to prepare for it. It is not a difficult class, but still have to study. Actually, it's an interesting subject and gives me some good ideas I can use at work. Went to Safeway for grocery shopping and used $10 off with $50 cpn, and $4 off catalina I got from buying cream cheese. Bought some necessary items, like milk, cheese, chicken, ground beef, pork, vegetables, etc. Also checked prices of some items. Paid $46 after using coupons, and my receipt said 48% savings.

There are some good deals going on this week. I didn't have time or energy to do it yesterday.

Some Tylenol products, Excedrin and crest toothpaste can be free at Walgreens. Target have some cheap candies (less than 20 cents per bag after coupons),free Excedrin, and cheap granola bars. Egg noodles are $10/10 at Safeway, and I have few .50 cents coupons make them 50 cents per bag. I need to plan my shopping trip.

This week has been great! I got a lot of free items from Rite Aid, free crackers from Safeway, free gum from Walgreens.

To conclude this week, I got Tylenol for free.
4 Tylenols $7.5 x 4 = $30
Less:
$5 x 4 = $20 printable cpn.
$10 catalina
Final price: FREE

I am sending a $5 rebate form for them, so it will cover the sales tax I paid ($2.34) and a stamp .40.

My husband only takes Tylenol, so I was always looking for the deal for it. This is the very first time I got Tylenol for free, and I am very happy that now we are stocked for a while.

I went to Walgreens to return some items that I forgot to send out the rebate for. I bought a couple of packages of bathroom tissues there since we are running low. (I'm soooo waiting for the wonderful Kimberly-Clark deal again....) Also bought some gum for my DD.

2 Scott bathroom tissue (4 rolls package) 3.99 x 2 = 7.98
4 Trident gum 1.25 each
Less:
Walgreen coupon for bathroom tissue $2.98
Walgreen coupon for gum $2.80
mnfc coupons for bathroom tissue .75 x 2 = $1.5
mnfc coupons for gum 1.25 x 2 = $2.5
Final price including tax $3.67

Then, I went to Safeway to buy my lunch and get some free crackers.
1 Eating right lemongrass chicken $2
1. Organics Green tea with honey $1.19 + .05 CRV
5 Nabisco crackers $2 x 5 = $10

Less:
Kraft promo $4
Progresso promo $5
mnfc coupons for Kraft crackers .55/2 x 2 = 1.1
Safeway Organics coupon $1
Safeway Eating right coupon $1
Final price $1.14

That was fun!

By the way, both Safeway and Walgreens are located in the corner I call "The golden intersection." LOL In one intersection, (YES, ONE!) there are Rite Aid, Walgreens, Longs Drug, Safeway, and Bel Air. (What were they thinking??) It's great for me because I can go to three drug stores in one drive and they are close to my office.

It is an awesome week at Rite Aid. They have so many free stuff for cold related items. I already bought 8 of them, and will go back and see if they re-stocked items that were not in the shelf.

The beauty of Rite Aid rebate is, it's online. That means you can send the receipt for FSA reimbursement if you have a FSA money left over since most of them qualified as an over-the counter medicines. (It's too bad I spent all of my FSA fund between my dd's oral surgery and my crown....)