Rite Aid: Week of 2/27-3/5 - Sales and Clearance

I made a trip to Rite Aid today and thought I would share a few noteworthy sales I took advantage of from this week's sale ad.

Through tomorrow 3/1 only, you get a $1 +UP reward for every Lays Stax you buy. These are priced at $1 with a limit of 2. I bought 2 which cost me $2 and I earned 2 $1 +UP coupons to use on my next purchase.

I always like to take a quick look at the clearance items when I'm at Rite Aid. There were a few Valentine's items that were 75% off, so I grabbed a coconut filled chocolate heart to surprise my husband. Cost: 22 cents. I also saw BBQ sauce, Ranch dressing, and croutons that were 50% off, making each a whopping 50 cents.

Finally, I bought 3 Secret deodorants. They are on sale buy one, get one 50% off this week. I used a buy 2 get 1 free coupon from the 2/6 Red Plum insert (there is another one in the 1/9 insert). Three cost me $8.23, and also generated a $1 +UP coupon.

I used 2 $1 off +UP coupons that I earned when I stocked up on Theraflu, so I spent $9.95 out of pocket and have 3 $1 +UP coupons to use on another trip to Rite Aid.

Have you made any good trips to Rite Aid lately?

Acme: Cereal and Milk deals

I had a nice trip to Acme this week. A bunch of General Mills cereals are on sale 2 for $5, and if you buy 4 boxes in one transaction, you will receive a catalina for a free gallon of milk on your next transaction. I used 2 coupons ($1/2 Chex and $1/2 Cheerios) so my cereal was $2 a box, which is more than I like to pay for cereal. I usually shoot for no more than $1.50 a box. But, since since I got a free gallon of milk it was a good deal for me.

I also happened to see this new Crunchy Nut cereal had a try me free offer. I had a $1 coupon with me, so I paid $1.50 for the box and will submit for the full purchase price rebate of $2.50!

The sale runs through Thursday at Acme, so you have plenty of time to stock up on some cereal! If you are not shopping at Acme this week, be on the lookout for the Crunchy Nut try free boxes at other stores. My rebate was good through the beginning of 2012, but remember, you can only do the rebate once.

Food Waste Friday: A rough week!

Every Friday, I join with The Frugal Girl and other bloggers to clean out my fridge and freezer and take a picture of anything that has gone bad over the last week. This holds me accountable to faithfully check every week, and motivates me to use up our leftovers. This has made a huge difference in the amount of food we waste every week. I encourage you to participate with me in food waste Friday, too!

Last week I said that we had a bunch of leftover to use up. The good news is that we used up pretty much all of last week's leftovers. The bad news is that because there were so many things in our fridge, a few things from the week before got shoved in the back...a bit of chicken and potatoes, chili, and sadly, mini crab cakes from our Valentine's Day dinner. Also I found some white sauce that I made for fish tacos a while back had sprouted some new colors!

I think we will be back on track for this week!

Free 8x10 Photo Collage from Walgreens 2/24 only!

Yay! Get a free 8x10 photo collage from Walgreens today as part of their 7 days of photo deals this week! Choose to pick up your collage in a local store and you will not have to pay any shipping. Your collage will be waiting for you in as little as one hour! I have done these many times and have always been happy with the results.

Visit Walgreens photo to get started now!

Walgreens Photo Deals: This Week!

I wanted to post about this earlier in the week, but the holiday Monday and the snow yesterday really threw me off! Check out Walgreens Photo online everyday this week for a photo deal!

Today's deal is for a collage mouse pad. These are regularly priced at $12.99 but are $2.99 today only. Shipping is not included, so be sure you take that into consideration.

In the past when they run these sales there is usually a discounted or even free 8x10 photo collage, which you can get free shipping on by having it printed at a Walgreens store. I will post the details if I see that sale!

Food Waste Friday

Every Friday, I join with The Frugal Girl and other bloggers to clean out my fridge and freezer and take a picture of anything that has gone bad over the last week. This holds me accountable to faithfully check every week, and motivates me to use up our leftovers. This has made a huge difference in the amount of food we waste every week. I encourage you to participate with me in food waste Friday, too!

Well, I am a bit surprised that this is all the food waste that I have this week! I mentioned earlier that I've been fighting a rather nasty cold (incidentally, you can still get a great deal on Theraflu at Rite Aid through Saturday!), but all that I had to throw out was a lone strawberry, a little bit of cream cheese, and a small piece of block cheese (not pictured). I do have a ton of leftovers in my fridge right now, so we are going to be working on cleaning those out in the next few days.

Stocking Up: Theraflu at Rite Aid

I've been dealing with a nasty cold this week, so this sale on Theraflu was perfect timing for me! I bought 2 packages at Rite Aid and will end up making $2 for my trouble! Here's how:

Theraflu on sale for $4.99
Purchased 2 for $9.98
Used $3 off 2 Theraflu products from Sunday's Smart Source insert
Used 2 $1 +UP rewards (generated from a previous purchase last week at Rite Aid)
Paid $4.98 out of pocket
Each Theraflu purchase generated a $1 off next Rite Aid purchase coupon ($2 total +UP rewards)
Submit for full ($4.99) Theraflu rebate (found in this Sunday's Smart Source insert also)

Now we are set for cold medication for a while! I hope this helps you prepare for the rest of cold season too!

Kids clothing on sale: Kohl's

There is a nice selection of clearance clothing at Kohl's right now! They are clearing out a lot of the winter clothes to make room for the new spring arrivals, so I took the opportunity to snag some long pants and long sleeves for the fall for my son.

I found Jumping Beans pants for $3 a piece!

And jeans and a long sleeve polo for $4 a piece!

There were a lot of infant and toddler clothes for both boys and girls at the Middletown Kohl's as of Sunday night. While you could wait it out and get things a little cheaper later on, I thought the selection was pretty good right now!

Free cup of Yoplait: Facebook Offer

Head over to Yoplait's Facebook page to sign up for a free cup of Yoplait Original yogurt!

I was notified about this giveaway by Pssst..., an online community by General Mills that sends out information about GM products, as well as coupons and even product tests! You can join Pssst....today!

Food Waste Friday

Every Friday, I join with The Frugal Girl and other bloggers to clean out my fridge and freezer and take a picture of anything that has gone bad over the last week. This holds me accountable to faithfully check every week, and motivates me to use up our leftovers. This has made a huge difference in the amount of food we waste every week.

This week's damage was a long-forgotten about jar of jam (from a year or two ago), a Tablespoon or two of half & half that I just couldn't get used up in time, and a burrito that my daughter didn't eat for dinner one night. I don't usually include food that she does not finish, but since it was basically a whole burrito, I could have easily had it for lunch one day. We also lost a lone biscuit from dinner earlier in the week. They were being reheated in the oven and one got left until dinner the next night. I heated the oven without looking in it and by the time I went to stick my cornbread in to bake, the biscuit was hard as a rock.

I've got some leftovers planned for this weekend, including using the remaining chicken and carcass from my first roast chicken for some yummy soup!

JoAnn Fabric coupon: $5 off $5 purchase

Are you on the mailing list for Joann's? I get a a few flyers a month from them, and there are always a few coupons, usually for 40% or 50% off a regular-priced item. This week my circular had a coupon for $5 off a $5 purchase! Like I've talked about with similar Kohl's coupons, I treat these coupons as a chance to get something for nearly free instead of getting sucked into buying a number of things just because I have a coupon.

If you aren't a super crafty person, there are still a ton of other options at Joann's. I've found some great picture frames, and they always have seasonal decorations on sale. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, there are sure to be a few clearance items that you could pick up for free with this coupon!

If you would like to sign up for the Joann's mailing list, you can do it online here.

Amazon deal: Dyson DC25 Vacuum

I always thought a vacuum was a vacuum. Then I tried to clean up pine needles with my 3 1/2 year-old (cheap-o) vacuum. Fail! It was super frustrating, took way longer than was resonable, and in the end I couldn't even finish. So we borrowed a friend's Dyson and the job was done in about 5 seconds. Well maybe 5 minutes. But afterwards I felt like I had completely wasted a part of my life that I could never get back trying to use the old vacuum!

Since cleaning up the tree, I've gone back to using my old vacuum for everyday clean-up. After my experience with the Dyson I feel like my old vacuum is just pushing dirt around on my carpet. We decided a new vacuum was necessary, but $500 for a vacuum seemed pretty crazy. Sure, there are plenty of others that are much more reasonably priced, but taking a vacuum for a "test-drive" sure made it a whole lot more attractive.

While researching on Amazon, I found the Dyson DC25 for $382.99 (still pretty expensive, but way better than $500). The price cannot be seen unless you add it to your cart, which means that Amazon is selling it for less than the manufacturer recommends. If you are in the market for a new vacuum and have been looking at the Dyson, but couldn't justify the price, this might be the deal for you! The price could change at any time, back up to the "normal" price. To check out more, just click through to Amazon. You will see a "see price in cart" and that will show you the current sale!

I have been completely pleased with our decision! Since my Dyson arrived (last evening) I have vacuumed the entire house. It is wonderful to use a vacuum that makes a less than exciting task a whole lot more fun!

I am not an impulse buyer at all, but I am thankful that we were able to jump on this sale quickly! A big part of that was being able to put Amazon money we've saved up through Swagbucks to put towards it!

Already dusty from picking up all the dirt and grime that my old vacuum left behind!

A really cool feature about this vacuum is the "ball technology"...basically you can do a right turn instead of having to sweep back and forth to turn. Its definitely made my vacuuming more efficient!

The bristle part in the beater comes out super easily...I pulled it out to remove all the hair that was already collecting around it.

The handle also telescopes out and effortlessly reaches the top of my 9 foot ceilings. It makes those high cobwebs a thing of the past!



Now that this totally sounds like a Dyson commercial, I want to add that this is not a sponsored post in any way; all opinions are 100% my own. Also, the Amazon link is my affiliate link, so if you purchase through it, I receive a small percentage of the price. If you'd rather not do that, simply go directly to Amazon.

Food Waste Friday

Every Friday, I join with The Frugal Girl and other bloggers to clean out my fridge and freezer and take a picture of anything that has gone bad over the last week. This holds me accountable to faithfully check every week, and motivates me to use up our leftovers. This has made a huge difference in the amount of food we waste every week.


I am super happy to report that I didn't have anything to throw out this morning! Last week was a rough one in the food waste department, but things went much smoother for us this week. We used up nearly all our leftovers and I am in need of a good trip to the grocery store today.
 
I had fun this week posting about the train cupcake cake I made for my daughter's 2nd birthday and a favorite recipe from my grandmother's Lioness Club for steamed hamburger. Check them out and have a wonderful weekend!

Steamed Hamburger

This is a terrific weeknight meal because it requires so little hands on work! It is basically a Sloppy Joe recipe, but my family in Western Maryland always calls these Steamers. The recipe comes from the Hagerstown Lioness Cook Book (a club that my grandmother was President of just a few years ago!), and it is delicious! When I took these pictures I tripled the recipe and froze it for quick meals later.

Steamed Hamburger

• 1 lb. ground meat (turkey or beef)
• 1/2 cup ketsup
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 T. mustard (spicy brown or dijon work great)
• 1 T. sugar
• 1/2 teasp. salt
• 1 T. vinegar
• 1 1/2 teasp. Worcestershire sauce

Mix everything together in a heavy skillet or pan, even the raw meat. Cover and cook slowly for about 1 hour. That's it!

I usually take the lid off for a little bit near the end so that some of the extra liquid is able to evaporate.

I divided the steamers into three dishes, two smaller and one larger. 

This is one of our go-to meals for a large group of people. I often serve it on rolls, but lately we have been having the steamers open-faced on homemade french bread or sandwich bread.

Do you call this type of meal Steamers? Or Sloppy Joes?