When you find a deal, buy it!

So, of course, I'm already party planning for Beanie's first birthday party. I love that custom printed cards are so readily available (and affordable) online. But with this spring being a rather, um, expensive one...I was nervous I wouldn't be able to get her something as special as the Punkinhead sent out for her first birthday party. Okay, parties!!!!!

As always, I've got a budget and sticking to it is critical. I've imputed all the Pampers Gifts that Grow points from diapers and wipes on their website - I'd saved over 900 points! Enough points to "buy" a promo code for 12 custom cards from Shutterfly.

Here's where the really good deal part comes in. The card I liked was temporarily 20% off and I had an email from Shutterfly for $10 an order because of their 10th anniversary. And a friend sent me another promo code for free shipping.

Cut to the chase: I paid $20.20 for 25 cards. Without the discounts and promo codes, these invites would have cost me just under $60! Money saved is going straight into the custom cake portion of her party budget.

Yummers.

With this math, it's no wonder the newspapers are shutting down...

I was recently really bummed to discover that the double edition of the Sunday paper I buy every Saturday night (so that I can get 2 of each of the coupon inserts)has gone up in price from $3 to $5. A monthly budget difference of $8. So, I figured I'd give the subscription department of the Dallas Morning News a call to see if they could offer me home delivery of 2 Sunday papers for an amount somewhere between $12 and $20.

I checked online first, but they only offered a single Sunday edition for delivery at $2.91 a week. So, I called the Customer Service number to negotiate with a live person. Here is a brief run down of the craziness that followed....

HotMommy: Hi, I wanted to speak to someone about subscribing to the Sunday paper?

DMN Person: Yes?

HotMommy: Well, I currently buy the double edition at the grocery store and I was wondering what the closest price to $3 a week you can give me for delivery of 2 papers?

DMN Person: I can offer you 2 Sunday papers delivered for $28 a month.

HotMommy: (pausing to mentally process this.....$7 a week...)You want me to pay 9 cents more per paper than I'd pay for the single edition if I subscribed to it twice and $2 a week more than I pay for the double edition at the grocery store?

DMN Person: Well, you're paying for the convenience of delivery and it's more difficult to deliver 2 papers than to deliver just one.

HotMommy: (again pausing to mentally process) So, you're not willing to negotiate at ALL to gain another subscriber to the paper? It really isn't more convenient for ME to have to wait until Sunday morning to get the 2 editions I buy easily on Saturday night.

DMN Person: Ma'am, $28 per month is the best price I can offer you.

HotMommy: Well, I'm going to stick to buying it at the grocery store then. Thanks for the info!


So, no wonder no one wants to subscribe anymore. What a horrible sales strategy! I'm bummed that I still have to pay $8 more a month than I use to, but there is no amount of "convenience" that would make me want to pay $16 more than I used to!!!!!

New vehicle!!! Well, new to me anyway....

After 2 months of being a one car family, we finally found a used minivan that fit our needs at a price we were THRILLED at! Woot woot that we're also still a zero car payment family. It really eases the stress of a new baby on the way that we didn't need to take on a car payment to get a vehicle that works for us perfectly.

It's not my first choice in color, but during negotiations, every time the price dropped, I found that my attraction to the color increased. Interesting....I think Buzzkill was proud that a fuller wallet was more important to HotMommy than the color of the car. I also thought I wanted the 3 seat bench in the back row which this minivan didn't have. It has 2 individual seats, so instead of seating 7, it seats 6. But the more I think about it, the more I think this will work out to my benefit. Since the 2 seats need to be removed individually, I'll be able to lift them out myself, rather than need Buzzkill to lift a giant, heavy bench seat.

So, in conclusion, totally happy to be a suburban, minivan mom!

CVS and Wal-Mart runs this week

Days like Wednesday make me giddy to use coupons. I hosted the neighborhood playgroup on Monday and was "morning sick" all day Tuesday, so I was (and still am!) running behind on shopping deals this week. I still have a Walgreens run for diapers and a Kroger run for milk and toilet paper, but I managed to knock out biggies this week - CVS and Wal-Mart. And I did it with the Punkinhead in tow!

CVS was first. Here's the run down.
Transaction #1
I swung by the "magic" coupon printing machine and got $1.50 in ECBS instantly.

2 Golden Emblem (CVS brand) Cheese Crackers 9oz @ 1.97 ea. (Punkinhead digs these)
Received $2 in ECBs

4 3-packs of Kleenex tissues with lotion @ $3.69 ea. (good stockpile built now)
4 $0.50 off coupons on Kleenex 3-packs
Received $4 in ECBs

$15.41 Total after tax with $6 in ECBs to spend.

Transaction #2
3 12-packs of Caffeine-Free Diet Coke on sale for $11
Used the $6 in ECBs, so the total after tax was $5.41.


Wal-Mart had awesome deals.
8 Beech-Nut Let's Grow Microwaveable Meals $1.06-$1.16 (Totally a convenience item for when I need to throw a portable meal in the diaper bag.)
8 $1 off coupon on any Let's Grow product

3 No More Tangles Spray @ 2.72 ea.
$3 Off 3 coupon on Johnson's products

2 Johnson's Buddies soaps @ $0.97 ea.
1 No More Tangles Shampoo & Conditioner @ $3.52 (my receipt has gone missing so this amount may be slightly off)
$3 Off 3 coupon on Johnson's products

4 Green Giant Steamers on sale @ $1.50 ea.
4 $0.50 off 1 Green Giant Steamers coupons

1 Healthy Choice Frozen Dinner on sale @ $2.00 (Kept me from buying fast food for lunch!)
1 $1 Off coupon for any Healthy Choice Frozen item

Without coupons, this trip would have cost me $35.58. With coupons....$14.19!!!! That's over 60% off.

Victoria's Secret Coat Deal (the deal's not a secret)

Victoria's Secret has a bunch of coats on sale right now. Plus use the Offer Code Pick50 and get an additional 50% off! I got a white puffer coat. It'll be perfect for next winter 'cause by the time it's delivered it's not going to fit over this preggie belly!

Apparently, this code also works for sweaters too.

Halloween Photo Shoot at Walgreen's for 31 cents

I'm such a deal addict and man, Walgreen's knows how to get me to their store! On Friday, Walgreen's Photo is offering a 31 cent Halloween Photo Package, which includes:

* Photo CD with your child’s image
* Halloween Photo Greeting Card of your image

Punkinhead is dressing up as, what else, a pumpkin! Okay, technically, it's a Jack-O-Lantern costume. I know all the grandparents are going to want a pic, so I'm going to head over there right after we do our play group's photo at the Halloween event at our neighborhood Rec center. It's going to be a busy Halloween. We have such amazing friends and neighbors that make such a production out of Halloween. I can't wait to see what everyone dresses up as!

Soaking Saturday

Man, the rain has just poured buckets today! I had to do my Walgreens, Kroger, and Target deal runs this morning in the rain, but afterward I just settled into the sofa with discounted Coke Zero to watch SEC games. I literally dreamed about the Auburn game last night - that I was watching it, cheering, and teaching the Punkinhead about the game. I'm so glad fall is here. It's always my favorite season.

I'm on a "saving money" push for the next week or so to try to only buy Punkinhead's milk at the grocery store in the next week and really use the great bargains I've stockpiled in the freezer and the pantry. Let's call it Eat Your Freezer Week!

To that end, we did the ol' comfort food meal of spaghetti and meat sauce. I think I could serve this to Buzzkill EVERY night and he'd be in heaven.

So, I racked up at Walgreens today. I spent $50.65 out of pocket for merchandise that would have cost me $200.30 at full price. Plus I have the monthly Easysaver rebate items that will give me $25.76 back at the end of the month. So, really I got $200.30 worth of items for $24.89!!!!!!

I had one last 50 cent coupon for a 4 pack of Cottonelle toilet paper to use at Kroger today. It was $1.21, so with Kroger double coupons, I paid 21 cents. I'm going to miss my little stockpile of Cottonelle coupons.....

Target was good. I did some diaper and bottle scenarios to get 2 $5.00 gift cards. I also took advantage of some of this week's baby-themed sales for some baby shower gifts. It wasn't a money-maker day a Target, but some good, solid deals I'm content with. According to Penny Pinching Parent I got LUVS for 6 cents below standard per diaper cost. I don't think I'm going to be really satisfied with diaper costs again after last month's Walgreens 10 cent per diaper bargain. They've ruined me for standard, run-of-the-mill sales.

Target Pop Tart Deal

This is the kind of fun I can have when Buzzkill is home an extra day during the week!



Target had Pop Tarts 4 boxes of 12 for $9. Good deal, but wait.....when you buy 4 boxes of 12, you get a $5 gift card for Target! I bought 12 boxes yielding me $15 in gift cards.

Kellogg's has a deal that if you buy 10 products and submit a Fuel for School rebate form from the newspaper a few weeks ago, you get $10 back!

So basically, I paid $27 upfront, got my $15 gift cards, and will soon have a ten dollar rebate on the way = overall cost to me the consumer...$2 for 144 Pop Tarts.

Yes, experienced frugal shoppers, I know there were coupons I could have used. I even printed them out and took them with me, but the store told me they were no longer accepting web coupons. I'm new to this wheelin' and dealin' so I let it go for now....

But all in all I was pretty psyched about the deal.

I was going to be responsible and put the gift cards towards groceries next week. Then I remembered that the swimming vest I wanted to buy the Punkinhead for next summer was marked down again from $24.79 to $12.38 so i put that in my cart. And then there were some beach balls marked down to 76 cents each so those hopped into the cart too. Whoops, grocery budget help all gone!



But wait! I won a $25 gift card to Save-A-Lot from Sisterly Savings last week! I tell you, I can't wait for grocery day on Friday!

Our last deal for Saturday? We dress in Auburn t-shirts and went to Chick-fil-a for the free 3-strips of chicken for each person wearing college logo adorned clothing. I asked for our free food and sent Buzzkill to a table, then I pulled out a buy-a-Med.-Coke-get-a-Large-Waffle-Fry-Free coupon. I took that yummyness to our table and sent Buzzkill back with a buy-a-Med.-Dr.Pepper-and-a-Med.-Waffle-Fry-get-a-Chicken-Sandwich-Free coupon. So to recap: for $4.49, we feasted on 6 chicken strips, 1 chicken sandwich, a large fry, a med. fry, a Coke, and a Dr.Pepper!

I tingle inside with a little cha-ching! noise.

New blogging path

This blog has been such a great outlet for me as a mom. Recipes, baby bragging, embarassing moments - you name it, I feel free to talk about it. So even though I was brought up to believe that talking about money is not polite, I'm going to do it anyway.

Not money exactly, but financial responsibility and saving money by practicing frugality.

Buzzkill and I were shocked by the skyrocketing gas prices this summer and the escalating prices of everything else related to that via shipping costs. Buzzkill works a good job and makes good money, but we made the decision that until our youngest child enters 5-day schooling, my career will be stay-at-home-mom. And that means our income decreased after the Punkinhead to complicate things even more. So, part of my new job description is household accountant and I want to make sure that I use every penny we earn to the best use it can have.

After doing research (where else?) on other mom blogs, I found there is a whole network of moms (and dads) working to be frugal. Not cheap, frugal - responsible and thoughtful about their money choices. It's been such a great education and I've loved getting to make more online friends too.

All that to say, from time to time, HotMommy's going to post about some of the great deals she's learned how to buy over the last month. It's another area I'm a newbie to, but it's become a big part of my life recently and one that I believe is here to stay. I've been stock-piling entries and will be sharing them very soon.