Toy Clearance!

I have a love of saving money, couponing, and clearance hunting! I share a lot more of that on my instagram but I thought I would share a quick tip about toy clearance here on the blog today.

Every year in July Walmart and Target clearance out a ton of toys. They are looking to make room for the new toys that will be released for Christmas and they want them out of their store, ASAP! This is great news for clearance hunters because the prices drop fast. I have been to Walmart twice in the last week and from the first trip to the second the prices had dropped substantially. Many of the toys get up to 90% off, but if you see something you really want I suggest buying it at 50% or 75% since it could sell out.

On Saturday I went and stocked up on a ton of toys. Now, I know I have no idea what my daughter will be into yet. She could not care for Frozen at all, however most of the toys I've been buying will be gifted to her before she turns two. I'm guessing that up until age 2 she will be excited for any toy (I'm also hoping for the same with clothing since I've been clearance hunting for clothes for quite some time too!)

I always grab items for the other kids I buy for and do need to go back and get some more items for them as well. I love that by buying toys on clearance I can still spend the amount I want to spend on them but get them so much more for the money! (Also I buy for 4 kids who all have birthdays in December/ January so that's 8 gifts between birthdays and Christmas- clearance shopping is the way to go!)

Here's everything I picked up during my second round of shopping. The first round I picked up some Frozen barbie dolls. (Again, if my daughter has no interest in Frozen they are something I can sell at a yard sale someday- brand new in package or I can pass them on to someone else who does like Frozen)

Both of the bigger toys were over 50% off, which was great for larger toys. I love that I can give Ellie the little seahorse for Christmas this year and will save the other toys for future birthdays and Christmases. I actually picked up the puzzle because I know a ton of people who love to do puzzles and can use it as part of a gift and the LOL surprises are for some little girls who love LOL and opening surprises. 

I am planning on going back for another round because I desperately need to stock up on boy gifts for my friend Rachel's son and my new nephew Max. I find it much more exciting to buy for the girls, but there are great deals for the boys as well. 

I haven't been to look at the Target toy clearance yet, but generally the prices are higher than Walmart but you can get good deals there too. 

Do you stock up at the toy clearance sale? I know this will be great going forward when Ellie is invited to birthday parties and we need to purchase for more kids. It's not only a great way to save money, but an awesome way to be able to gift more. I love being able to give a ton of toys to my favorite kids!

Saving Money Preparing For Baby- Clearance Diapers & Wipes

On Sunday I ran into Walmart just to do a quick shopping trip and grab a few things we needed. Anytime I'm in Walmart I run through the baby section and just take a look for any clearance- clothing, gear, whatever it is I know buying it on clearance is a smart decision. I had seen a ton of couponers and clearance hunters mention diaper and wipe clearance at Walmart, but couldn't find any when I went on previous trips. This time however I was so excited because I was lucky enough to stumble across not one but two displays of clearance diapers!!!

 
This is the first display I saw which was mostly filled with pull-ups. I know at some point we will need pull-ups but currently I am most focused on diapers so I did leave those behind. I grabbed a few boxes of the newborn diapers because I am assuming that Ellie will be small enough for them for at least a short period of time. We also plan on having another child someday, so whatever we don't use up we will save for the next baby, or pass on to family and friends!

The second display I found was even better! It was packed with Hello Bello diapers in size 2 and size 4. I grabbed the two size twos that I saw and a few boxes of the size 4. Each box was $15 and the smaller packs were $7. My per diaper cost was no more than 20 cents per diaper which is precisely the top amount I would like to pay for all diapers. 

My trunk was filled with diapers and I was so thrilled! I honestly thought I wouldn't be lucky enough to score this deal because my Walmart is notorious for being more expensive then others around the country and I don't see a lot of the clearance that other people report getting. I am interested see if in the coming weeks they clearance out any other items and will definitely keep my eyes peeled. 

As I mentioned, I am working on creating a diaper and wipe stockpile and I plan to spend no more than 20 cents per diaper and 2 cents per wipe. It's been a slow process but here is where my stockpile currently stands...

I am keeping bigger size diapers in the basement along with my overflow wipes. I don't want to put too many in her room so I have been putting them down here for the time being. You can see that I maintain a pretty big personal care stockpile as well. I am trying to keep this stocked so we don't need to run out when Ellie arrives. I would like to have everything we need in our personal "store" so I will keep couponing and looking for good deals!

Not diaper related but on the other side of the basement I keep household goods. There are tons of bottles of laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, paper plates, napkins, dish soap, etc...I know it's not a huge stockpile but I buy in small quantities and am not an extreme coupon by any means. I love that I don't have to rush out to get items because we don't run out of these items. 

In the center I've started stacking boxes of diapers. I also try to keep a stock of toilet paper, paper towels, and gifts here. In the baskets there are razors, toothbrushes, etc... 

We haven't gotten too far in Ellie's closet DIY yet. I did order the pieces we need to get started but I have only taken down the existing shelf and spackled the insane anchor holes someone decided to drill. I plan to have baskets inside of her closet and they will hold the back-up diapers and wipes that we will keep in her room.

The top drawer of her changing table will hold diapers and wipes (see below) but I will put extras in her closet for quick access. The ones I plan to put in her closet are in the picture above. All others will be kept in the basement. I'm hoping that my plan will allow me to "restock" items from the basement when I have the opportunity to but never run out of items in her nursery. I will keep you updated on that particular organization plan when it's in use!

My friend Brittni gave me a bunch of diapers that she had leftover from her girls and I happily brought them home! I love all the Honest diaper designs they are just so cute! 

I would love to know if you stockpile anything in your house and if you built up a diaper stockpile before you had your kids?

Have a great day everyone!

DIY House Projects: Creating a Garden and Covering a Well Pump

One garden down, a few more to go!

My mom has always loved to garden and her parents always loved to garden too. So, I come from a line of gardeners and I think I was destined to want to dig in the dirt. But, I have no idea what I'm doing. I thought I would start small with a little area that is in our yard up by the road.

Want to see where this started?

Believe it or not, you are looking at the same view. Crazy right? When we moved in we had this ugly rusted well pipe that was broken and sticking up out of the ground. A couple of months back Tim made a call and we got the pipe itself replaced. It was bight white and while it looked better and not rusted out, I still didn't want to look at a pipe sticking out of the ground like a Mario game.

I decided my best bet was to pick up a fake rock from Amazon and I ended up purchasing this one. Any one else with weird quarantine purchases? A huge fake rock might be the number one strangest item purchased in quarantine...but I'm not trying to start a contest or anything!

So, I dug up the area and got the fake rock set up and this is what our neighbors looked at for a couple of weeks. 

Then, I got my act together and headed to Home Depot to grab some mulch, top soil and a few plants!

I planted what I picked out and realized I needed more mulch and a few more plants so I headed to Walmart to finish up this area.

My little car can't hold too much but I got what I could fit!

I plan to shape out the area a bit more and add some more mulch on the edges to neaten it up, but I'm waiting for a few more garden areas to be dug out to get more mulch. I am so pleased with how it turned out!

I realize that in the future I may need to move some of the shrubs in the future if this tree grows, but I plan to adjust my gardens as needed. There are a few annual flowers in the front, which I plan to dig out at the end of the season and hopefully replace with tulip bulbs in the fall. Hopefully this will make this area come to life early each spring and prevent me from having to buy new flowers each season.

My main focus was to get some perennials in here so I would have to do less work in the future. I also wanted to make sure several of the plants were evergreen. Our gardens contained zero winter interest, meaning that all winter long all I saw was white snow and brown dead trees. I want to have some evergreens to see all year long!

I also planted some perennial flowers and a lilac bush. I hope these will bring some color to the garden. I mostly stuck with coral, white and pink for my colors. I have seen some gardens with a ton of color and some with the focus on only a few colors and I'm still trying to decide exactly what I prefer. 

I think when I do get tulip bulbs I will try to get only pink and white tulips to keep this area fairly color-coded. (See I'm even organizing the plants.....out of control over here!)

My plan is to stay far enough away from the well pump that if they need to dig it up for any reason it won't disturb the larger plants, but if they do it's okay. Nothing that I purchased is super expensive, so if it was dug up in the future that wouldn't be the end of the world. 

I took far too many pictures of this area and I apologize for that, but I was just so darn excited to do this area all by myself!

Up next? Gardens around the walkway, which I hopefully will be able to share with you soon!

I hope it's sunny where you are today! After some intense rain on Saturday, the sun has been shining the rest of this long weekend and I love it!

Weekly Couponing Deals: CVS and Walmart

Happy Monday everyone! 

We are finally over the winter sickness and hopefully that will be it for us this year!

Yesterday we headed out shopping and there are some pretty great deals you can snatch up so I want to share them with you guys so you can get them too!

If you aren't following me over on Instagram definitely do so because I try to share couponing deals as I do them so you'll often get them faster if you follow over there.

Also before I share these deals, make sure you have the following apps:

Ibotta, Fetch Rewards, Receipt Pal, and Receipt Hog.

These apps are rebate apps and give you money back for purchases you make every day. I use these to my advantage to lower the amount of money I spend on groceries. 

If you use this referral code for Fetch Rewards you will get 3,000 points when you sign up with is the equivalent to $3. It's a great way to get started!

My referral code for Ibotta is: tjq9bq  if you want to use that as well!

Okay, so lets talk about Walmart. If you like ice cream then run!

Some of the ice cream is on clearance for $1 including the Ninja Turtles ice cream you see in my cart above. My store didn't have as much as other stores I've seen on Instagram but we still managed to find a few things. The Breyers is NOT on clearance but there are points on Fetch Rewards so you can get it for a decent price.

Fetch is amazing for giving out free products! I was able to buy this Ready to Heat Chicken Broccoli Rice and I received the full amount back on Fetch Rewards. You still have to put the money out initially but getting a free product after the rebate is still amazing! 

Another great deal at Walmart is the clearanced baby pouches. Some of them are as low as 25 cents! I  checked the expiration dates of the ones I found and they were all 2021, so no reason to worry about that. If I had a baby I would definitely stock up!

One of my favorite people to watch for couponing deals is Coupon Katie you can find her through that link on YouTube or on Instagram or TikTok. I love that she doesn't overcomplicate things and doesn't go overboard. She also just seems like a super cool person and I think we would totally be couponing friends in real life!

Now lets talk about CVS.

Buy 1 Crest Toothpaste for $3
load $2/1 coupon to your card in your CVS app
Pay $1
Receive $1 back in ECB (ECB= Extra Care Bucks)
FREE

Buy 2 Garnier Fructis (I purchased one shampoo and one conditioner) for $7
Use $3/2 coupon
Pay $4
Receive $3 back in ECBs
50 cents each

I truly don't think you need to go overboard and buy 100 of something just because it's on sale. I see a lot of people buy a ton of one item and then resell them and if that's your jam then that's great! I would prefer to just get what is free or super cheap and slowly build up my stockpile. I want to make everyone understand that in order to coupon and stockpile you can build it up slowly! You can buy only one or two items and still be building your stockpile.

Well that's all for today, I hope you are able to get out and get some deals! Have a great day!

Black Friday Haul 2017

Oh it's Monday again.... How is that even possible? This four day weekend flew by and I hope that you enjoyed Thanksgiving with your loved ones. We had a great weekend and I'll share more of that during my life lately post.

The first thing I picked up was an Apple Watch for Tim and one for me. Kohls had an amazing deal! I ended up getting $200 Kohls cash back from buying them online during the Black Friday sales. Tim managed to get some good Black Friday sales from Kohls as well. 

We stopped by CVS on Friday so I could stock up on my freebies!

Every year I love to go get these freebie deals!

I also picked up a DVD at Walmart for $7, who doesn't love Wonder Woman?!

I also used a 30% off coupon to get my Erin Condren planner for next year. Gotta love saving money on things you use everyday!

What did you get Black Friday shopping?

Couponing Week of 11/19- Target, CVS, Bath and Body Works, and Walmart

Good morning everyone!

I'm here to share my couponing deals from yesterday at a few different stores. I always love couponing the week of Black Friday because CVS in particular knocks it out of the park every year. 

Since we're already chatting about it- let's start with CVS!

I basically purchase anything that I end up getting free at CVS so here's what I picked up.

Hershey Chocolate Bar 77 cents
paid 77 cents, received 77 cents in ECBs
FREE!

 Hershey King Sized Chocolate Bar $1.88
paid $1.88, received $1.88 in ECBs
FREE!

Trolli Sour Gummies $1.99
paid $1.99, received $1.99 in ECBs
FREE!

Wet and Wild Mascara Set $4.99
paid $4.99, received $4 in ECB
99 cents!

I also used a $4 ECB from my last couponing trip.

I paid $6.30 out of pocket and received $8.64 in ECBs for my next trip, which will be later this week during the Black Friday event!


Next up a pretty lame Bath and Body Works haul...

The only deal I got at Bath and Body Works was a buy three get two free deal. I picked up I've items from the winter candy apple line. The two shower gels and two body lotions are gifts for the girls I have judging dance team tryouts and the body cream I'm keeping.

I paid $41.20 out of pocket or $8.24 per item- not a great deal but it's fine!


Next up, let's head to Walmart where I picked up quite a few items.

I picked up:

BIC Simply Solei Razor 3 pack #3.27
used $2 coupon
$1.27

Command Hooks $2.38

3 Purex Crystals $2.97 each
used buy two get one free coupon
$5.94 or $1.98 each

2 Hefty Gallon Storage Bags $1.98 each
used $1/2 coupon
$2.96 or $1.48 each
(I will also be submitting for a $1.50/2 biota credit!

3 Bags of Hershey Kisses $2.98 each

Bag of M&Ms $2.84

2 Oreo Candy Bar King Size $1.34 each
used $1/2 coupon
$1.68 or 84 cents each

I paid $28.13 out of pocket for this order.

Next up, Target!

Target was so disappointing- I had a few deals I wanted to do but couldn't find any of the products in store!

2 Strerlite Plastic Organizers $6.99 each
used 10% off Cartwheel
Paid $6.29 each

I paid $13.46 out of pocket.

Not a bad Sunday for couponing! I can't wait to head back out for some more deals! :)

What did you get couponing this week?

Couponing Deals! CVS and Walmart Week of June 12th

I'm back to couponing! I left work yesterday and headed straight to CVS to get some great deals!

Loreal Shampoo, Conditioner, and Styler $4 each, $12 total
used 3 $2/1 coupons. Two from the paper and one from loreal.com
Paid $6 and received $6 back in ECB = FREE!


3 Hallmark Cards $2 each, $6 total
used $3 coupon from coupons.com
for some reason they only charged me for two cards...so I paid $1
However my plan was to pay $3 and get $3 back in ECB- I didn't get the ECBs back but got a free card! I will be heading back to get my ECBs and finish this deal.


2 Colgate Toothpastes $3.49 each, $6.98 total
used $1/2 from the newspaper and a $2/2 CVS coupon
Paid $3.98 and got $4 ECB back which makes this a 2 cent money maker!


2 Suave Body Washes $2 each, $4 total
used a buy 1 get 1 coupon from the newspaper
Paid $1 each, $2 total.


2 Palmolive Dish Soaps 99 cents each
used $1/2 coupon from the newspaper
Paid 49 cents each, 98 cents total.


I used $12.50 in Extra Care Bucks, Paid $2 out of pocket (exactly $2) and received $10 back in Extra Care Bucks for my next trip!




At Walmart I did a few deals that involve rebates

Glade Plugins Scented Oil Warmer 1ct
$1.33 in store
Submitted for 75 cent Ibotta rebate and 55 cent Checkout 51 rebate
Final Price: 3 cents!


Ragu Homestyle Pasta Sauce
$1.97 in store
Submitted for 50 cent Ibotta rebate
Final Price: $1.47 (this deal could be even sweeter with a $1/1 coupon from the newspaper

Weekly Couponing Wrapup

Man this time of year is so full with coupons and sales and it's unbelievable! I could totally become one of those hoarder ladies with all the things that can be picked up for super cheap or free!

On Saturday, Bath and Body Works hosted their first ever Buy 3 get 3 Free deal in stores. I wasn't going to go..until I saw a deal on TheKrazyCouponLady.Com that made me want to go! Although the deal didn't work quite as well as I thought it would, it was still awesome and I'm glad that I stopped in there.

Yes, I walked out of there with two bags...one of them being HUGE. I was that girl.
I purchased...

3 Merry Cookie candles @ $10 a piece
3 Tis The Season candles @ $10 a piece
1 Amber Glow shower gel- FREE with coupon!

I used a coupon found online for a free item with a $10 or more purchase, getting me a shower gel for free!

I spent a little over $60 for all these items...I thought they would have been $30, but they charged the normal amount ($20 a piece) instead of the usual sale price of $10 a piece. So each one ended up being $10...$60 for candles instead of $120...I'm okay with that =)

On Sunday, I needed to pick up a few items for my Buffalo Chicken Dip, so I made a list of things that I wanted to buy and found a ton of coupons online and set off to do a big shopping trip.

At Walmart I purchased...

2 Bertolli Meals @ $6.48 each
3 Apple Cinnamon Cheerios @ $2.98 each
2 Great Value Cream Cheese @ $1.76 each
4 Great Value Chunk Chicken @ 98 cents each
4 Wonka Pixistick Candy Canes @ $2 each
1 Kraft Cheddar Cheese @ $3.58
1 Tostitos Scoops Tortilla Chips @ $2.98 each

I used...
$1 off 2 Wonka Candy Canes coupon, found on coupons.com
$1 off 2 Wonka Candy Canes coupon, found on coupons.com
$1 off 3 Cheerios, from newspaper.

Spent $43.62, saved $3. Not great, but every little saved helps.

At Stop and Shop I purchased...

Stamps and a Gift Card =) A girl can't have coupons for everything!

At CVS I purchased...

3 Pretzel M&M's (My dad had already stolen one at this point...) Buy 2 get 1 free @ $1 a piece
1 Macadamia Deep Repair Masque @ $35.99
1 QTips @ $5.29
2 Hershey Kisses @$3 each

I used...

$1.10 off two bags of Hershey Kisses coupon, found on coupons.com
Buy 1 get 1 Free Pretzel M&M's coupon, found on coupons.com.
20% off purchase CVS coupon (mailed to me) for $8.86 off.

$20 in ECB (the cashier accidentally scanned one of my $5 ECB twice and told me not to worry about it..gotta love a good cashier!

I spent $21.77, and saved $33.79! I also received $3 back in ECB to use next time!

Since I'm all done with my Christmas shopping, I'm not looking to get great deals on gifts, but can't help pass up some great deals offered this time of year! It's always helpful to stock up! Also, I plan on hitting the after-Christmas sales where Christmas decor and wrapping supplies are always on super sale. If you've never been- I highly recommend it. NEVER pay full price for wrapping paper!

That's it for couponing this week! See you next week!

Weekly Couponing Wrapup

This week was great in the couponing department since I was able to use a huge stack of my coupons that were about to expire. I did my couponing at Walmart and CVS on Monday, and here's how it went...

At Walmart...

I left with a bag FULL of toothpaste =)

22 Sensodyne Travel Size Toothpastes @ $1.07
used (22) $1/`1 coupons (found at CVS back in April/May)
paid: $3.19 (including tax)

Amazing!

Then at CVS....

I went a little nuts and spent waaaay more out of pocket then I normally would. I just enjoyed being able to get a few items that are not really cheap!

1 Beach Chair @ $13.99 (on sale from $19.99)
1 Turbie Twist @ $6.99
1 Gilette Venus Razor @ $7.29
used $3/1 coupon
final price: $4.29
1 Macademia Deep Repair Masque @ $35.99

used 30% off coupon, taking off $12.99
used $7 in ECB
used $14.15 on CVS gift card

paid: $30.71

So although I spent more out of pocket then I normally would I was able to use my 30% off coupon to save some money on my Macademia Deep Repair Masque which is SUPER expensive but one of my favorite beauty products, so it was nice to splurge on it, and I was able to get everything for less than the Deep Repair Masque costs originally itself.

If you walked in off the street without a plan, these four items would cost you $70.26, but by using coupons, ECB, and Gift cards earned on Swagbucks it is so easy to bring the price down. $40 is a big difference in price, so that is why I advocate for couponing so much on this blog. You can save so much, and the time investment is so worth it!

How did your couponing go this week?

Weekly Couponing Wrapup!

I'm back again with my weekly couponing wrap-up!

This week I bought some amazing items at CVS for basically nothing and got some super cheap items from Walmart that I will be using to make gift baskets for my assistants at work.

Here's what I bought at Walmart:

I purchased 5 body butters, 5 soaps, and 5 foot soaks. I am planning on making gift baskets for all my assistant teachers at work and I managed to get all of these for only $11.77!!! That is 5 gifts for under $15! I may even include a gift card in the basket since I saved so much money on these items, we will see!

At CVS I purchased:

7 Burts Bees chapsticks @ $2.99 each or a total of $20.93.
2 Almay eye makeup wipes @ $6.99 each or $13.98 total.
2 Crest toothpastes @ $2.99 each or $5.98 total.
1 Colgate toothpaste @ $3

For this transaction I used the following coupons:

$1 off Colgate from this past Sunday's paper
$2 CVS coupon off Colgate from the MCM
(2) $4 off Almay product
$3 off $15 beauty products from the CVS MCM

I also used $14 in ECB's, and then used a 20% off shopping pass from this past week CVS circular.

This brought my total down to $8.29!

I paid the 8.29 out of pocket and walked out with $11 in ECB to use next time! Not bad at all!

I love when I get products for free that I (or my family) can use. My mom uses Crest toothpaste (and is very particular about only using this kind with scope) so it was nice that I was able to pick that up for her. My dad will use any toothpaste, whatever is cheapest (he is such a guy). I handed him over the Colgate since I won't be using it.
I already use the Almay makeup wipes and you all know by now about my obsession with Burts Bees so this trip was totally worth it =)


I also did some non-coupon shopping this week, but thought I would take a minute to talk about store rewards. I am a Beauty Insider at Sephora, something you simply get by signing up for a free rewards card. For every dollar you spend you get one point. For every 100 points you can pick out a free sample, I save up my points until I find samples that I really want!

I purchased this Nars blush and bronzer duo, the colors are Orgasm and Laguna. Beautiful, beautiful colors.

I had over 200 points which meant I was able to pick out TWO samples! I chose the Bumble and Bumble thickening hairspray pictured below:

I also picked the Origins  Clear Improvement charcoal mask, something I am so excited to try! I have been hoping to try Origins products for quite awhile, I was excited to see a sample by them as an option.

The nice cashier also gave me a free sample from Philosophy of their almonds and cream shower gel. Gotta love free samples!

How did you do this week with your coupon shopping? Find anything good? =)