I need to apologize for the lack of posts on my end. I have had two distractions enter my life that have taken a hold of me over the last three weeks.
The first distraction has been COUPONS! I'm sure many of you have seen (or heard) about the "Extreme Couponing" shows. I have to admit, when I saw that show I rolled my eyes and called those people "nuts."
Well, my name is Amanda and I am nuts.
It all started when a sweet friend told me about some websites that had video tutorials about couponing. No need to say anymore. I am a visual learner and once I saw a video on how couponing works, I was hooked. I don't think I have reached the "extreme" level yet, but I'm doing pretty well. Granted, I still try to justify my distraction by avoiding the purchase of anything I don't need. Acne cream for $3 instead of $15 is a deal, but my bar of soap works wonderfully, thank you very much.
I really don't want to turn this blog into another coupon blog, so I just wanted to share with you this once on what I have been able to get these last three weeks.
This week at Walgreens, Right Guard was selling body wash, or deodorant, for Buy 1, Get 1 Free. When you used the B1G1 Free coupon that came in this past Sundays paper, you were able to get BOTH for free. Yup, that was enough for me to ask all my relatives for their coupons and go back for more. No, these aren't for my girls, but my hubby and I serve food to the homeless once a month and the deodorants are PERFECT for care packages. The men and women we serve the food to are always thrilled to receive them. As for the body wash, my husband has to keep one at his fire station and one at home (yes, it's like I share him with another wife), so this helped a lot! In total, I got 10 deodorants and 4 body washes for free. I only paid sales tax, which was $0.54 for each pair.
Next, I found fabric softener and for the two, the total price was 99 cents.
For these I used the manufactures coupon in the Sunday paper, along with a printable coupon, plus a $2.00 Registered Reward from Walgreens. Again, not the brand I prefer, but when washing clothes for 4 people every single day, I'll take any brand for the right price. Two of these for less than a dollar was my kinda price.
This was my very first attempt at couponing 3 weeks ago:
The headache medicine was free (Target doesn't tax medicine), both toothpastes came out to $0.49, both baby washes were $1.28, and the diapers came out to $9.83. In total, I spent $11.60 and saved $30.75. Not bad for my first time. Added bonus: all the items were things we use. I'm trying not to grab items that are no use to us just for the sake of a sale.
This is what I scored last week:
The toothbrushes, deodorant, and feminine products all came out free. The Lysol was $1.00 for both. I use those things ALL THE TIME, so I hope I can stock up on more in the future.
Anyway, I have promised myself that I will take it easy from that distraction and refocus on the projects that need to be finished within our home. Which leads me to distraction #2:
TILE!
I told you about my husband and I tiling our toddlers room months ago. Well, two weeks ago, a friend of ours mentioned she was free on the weekend if we were up for tiling our other daughters room.
Uh... YEAH!!! That left me with 2 days to clear out her room, breakdown her bed, rip out the carpet and prep the floor for the tile. Sorry for the poor picture quality but I had very little time to spend on "before" pictures. Anyway, her room is done and hubby and I will be painting her floorboards tomorrow. So, please look out for my "Before and After" post sometime next week!
Before I go, can I just show you what is underneath your carpet:
GROSS!! Look at all that dirt! We are a pretty clean family but this just goes to show that your vacuum, no matter how great it is, can't suck up everything. Yuck. I can't wait until our home is 100% carpet free!!
I tried my best to document our tile experience, just to show that it is not as hard as it looks, so I might post those before my "Before and After" reveal.
As always, thanks for reading. Nighty-night!
Side note: here are the websites that helped me learn more about couponing, for anyone interested.
wildforwags.com
thekrazycouponlady.com
coupondivas.com
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