Punkinhead’s Challenge of the Day

We had an appointment this morning at Sweet & Sassy for the Punkinhead to get some swoopy side bangs; they’ll hopefully prevent the horrendous knots we’ve been battling every day.

Before her haircut, she needed a diaper change so we darted into the restroom to take care of business. Punkinhead had grabbed my keys – standard practice and no big deal, but today....she flushed them down the toilet while I was getting a diaper out of her backpack!

That’s right. They went right down the drain. I don’t have a big “janitor’s” ring of keys, so the heavy duty public flusher sucked them down super fast. I tried for about 10 minutes to plunge them out but no luck. They were gone, baby gone.

Buzzkill was called at work and asked to grab his spare set to the minivan at home and bring them to the hair salon ASAP.

Unfortunately, Buzzkill was unable to locate the spare set, so he called the dealership and was told if he had the VIN number, they could cut him a new key in about 10 minutes to pick up.

Punkinhead and I moved on to Stride Rite to pick out some white dress shoes for Easter.

Buzzkill called to let me know it was going to be a little bit longer than he thought because the dealership forgot to tell him to bring the minivan’s title, so they’d have to look it up for him before they could cut the key.

Punkinhead and HotMommy next visited Gymboree where the Punkinhead watched TV and HotMommy spent a little more money.

Cut to Buzzkill’s next update call. With the downpour of rain, the highways were taking him longer than he anticipated.

Punkinhead and HotMommy decided to stop in to Build-A-Bear to get a birthday gift for one of our friends. Punkinhead also managed to “borrow” a Sharpie from the front counter and drew a goatee on her chin. Well, at least it wasn’t a Hitler mustache .

So, two hours after the initial flushing incident, Buzzkill makes it to the shopping center and we’re able to gain access to the minivan. Punkinhead dismisses her daddy with a “bye-bye, close peas.” (Translation: See ya, close the door now.) She promptly falls into a deep slumber and HotMommy gratefully drives home.

I think Buzzkill and I met her challenge handily. Mission accomplished!

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.

Frugality the Walgreens way

I had a really great trip to Walgreens this week. It involved stockpiling Buzzkill's and HotMommy's favorite cereals, getting dish washing soap practically free, and getting much needed concealer better than BOGO.

Here's how it went:
Kellogg's Special K Strawberry 2 boxes @ $2.50 (my fav)
Coupon for $1 off when you buy 2 box of any Special K cereals
Raisin Bran 2 boxes @ $2.50 (Buzzkill's fav)
Register Reward of $3 earned by buying 4 boxes of cereals

Electrosol Dishwashing pods 20 count 2 boxes @ $3.49
2 Coupons for $2.50 off 20 count boxes
Walgreens Easysaver rebate of $1.50 earned this month

L'Oreal Concealers BOGO - bought 2 for $8.99
Coupon for $3 off any L'Oreal foundation, concealer, powder or blush

So, after coupons my subtotal was $16.97 plus $0.66 tax for a total of $17.63. On top of that I earned a total of $4.50 in RR and Easysaver rebates. That's a total savings of $33.49.

Thanks Walgreens!

Want to see more Drugstore Savings? Visit the "Cent"sible Sawyer's Drugstore Divas!

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.

Co-opting the Breakfast Club

I've noticed and listened to a lot of discussion about JCPenney's ad features the teen models/actors in scenes reminiscent of the 80's classic John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club lately.

The comment mostly commonly made is that teens today aren't going to "get" the connection to the movie or find it cool.

Of course they won't! I mean, maybe some of them HAVE seen the movie, but they're still not going to make the leap that JCPenney is cool from that commercial. Want to know why?

They ARE NOT the target audience of this commercial. Parents that were teens when the movie came out in theaters are!

The line of clothes featured in the ad is geared towards an age group of teens that still has their parents shop with them and purchase their clothes. If JCPenney can convince the PARENTS that their store and these clothes are cool, then the parents will shop there for the teens. So the commercial is supposed to appeal to the older folks' (yes, we are now) memory of cool. Trigger it and you trigger the credit card.

I admit I squealed a little inside at the blob-like sculpture Judd T. climbed so many years ago and the Pixie Sticks on a Capt'n Crunch sammie. If this commercial was for toddler clothes, I'd be willing to go check out those clothes. But I'm very impressionable.