Saving money and losing weight again!

I will start off by saying that I Bought $7.86 worth of nail polish and lip balm and got it all (tax included ) for $2.64 BUT, I got $2 back in Walgreens RR. Yay! I paid $.64 for all of it!!Not bad at all. I was struggling on Weight Watcher's for a few months now. I had a major stressor come about and I just about lost it completely. I wasn't able to eat right at all. I got so out of control on eating (or not eating) that I found it super hard to get back on track with Weight Watcher's. Well... for the last 2.5 weeks i have been counting and measuring and losing!! Lost 4.5 of the 15 I had gained. I am so happy. It feels good to be in control again. I am hoping to loose again this week. that will be 3 weeks in a row, this Tuesday. I have not exercised at all because my neck and back injury form the car accident a year and a half ago are really bothering me. But, I know that once I can start moving again it will be even greater!! Here is a photo of what I got tonight at Walgreen's for $.64!! Have a great night. xxoo.

From Drop Box

It's a new day, it's a new week.

Yes, i got this from Weight Watcher's and all the commercials out there with Jennifer Huddson. It is so true though. I have to remind myself of this on a daily basis right now. I messed up in my diet for the past few weeks and gained back 10 pounds. I weighed in yesterday. I was disappointed in myself but, it's a new week. I can do this again and see a loss on Tuesday next week. YES I CAN! The Keytones were not really doing any good. i am still taking them as I paid for them and they can't hurt. But, I have not seen a difference. It could be that I went off my plan and ate lots of junk for the last few weeks, or it could be that they do not work. I really don't know. I ran a mile straight the other day! That is HUGE for me. I used to run races until a giant van rear-ended our car last year in April. Since them I had not been able to do much. but I ran a mile straight at a 4.5-5.o mph without stopping. I felt like I couldn't breath but I did it. I then walked the other 2 miles. I did try to run a 6.0 but the magnet (I am using a regular magnet for the treadmill key because my lovely children thought it was fun to play with the treadmill key and lost it) flew off the treadmill and stopped it short. I got back on and started again but walked a 4.0 til my cool down. I felt good for about 15 minutes and then the back and neck pain set in. I had ice and heat on it for the last 2 days. :S All in all, this week is better than the last 2 months have been. I did learn something though. I like to coupon and I like to see how much I can save every week, but... I take all the money I saved from my "allowance" (Hubby gives me a certain amount for gas and grocery every week) and I spend it all til it is gone and then I write checks from our account and get cash out because I don't have gas money left over. My husband didn't yell at me or anything but he is disappointed and I think he might not trust me with our accounts like I would like him to. I don't blame him but I need to be way more careful with my spending and being frivolous. i put a couple nice items up on craigslist today hoping to make up for some of the money I spent. I hope they sell. I am also hoping I can sell more of my Avon products from my website (totally taking advantage of my opportunity here!!) www.youravon.com/kbrobst so I can support my decorating habit and my pinterest crafting habit. lol. Well, I have to get back to my kiddos and get dinner prepared so we can eat BEFORE church tonight instead of super late. haha. So far my meals for the day are: Weight Watchers shake w/ fat free milk(4 PP) Publix Deluxe Seafood Salad 3/4 pound (9 PP) banana (0 PP) water and a coke zero. McD's small caramel latte (4 PP) I have 13 more points for my daily's and I still have not touched any of my 49 for the week. Doing well so far.

E-Mealz!

I recently decided to do what is suggested by Dave Ramsey (of daveramsey.com) and try out E-Mealz. E-Mealz is a site that For $5 a month, E-Mealz will provide a weekly meal plan tailored specifically to your store & based on your store’s sale ad, helping you plan delicious meals using ingredients that are on sale. You can get a low fat meal plan or a meal plan for 2 or a family or vegetarian, gluten free, Portion control, low carb.. the list goes on!! It is super cool!! Most of the recipes are super easy & pretty fast too. (The biggest downside is that E-Mealz currently only does store-ad specific lists for Publix, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Aldi, & Ralphs, but they do provide an “any store” option too)

I love the meal plans! I am so busy these days with a child in middle school and a child in 5th grade and a 2 yr old.... sports and doctor appointments 3 days a week from a car accident (still!) that I get so frazzled and 5 O'clock comes around and I am scrambling through my stockpile to figure out what to make that is easy and we won't have to eat dinner at 9pm. I love that this site organizes a whole weeks worth of meals for you and uses all the items that are on sale at your fave store that week! So cool! Click the linky thing I have on my blog here to go to the site and sign up! The first three months you can get for only $12.50 that is $4.17 a month by using the code DAVE. So use my link and sign up for three months and try it out!! You will love it!!

Saved big today!

I went to Publix yesterday and brought the baby with me. I usually like to either take my daughter (to show her how to save money while shopping) or go alone because it is easier but I really wanted to get my shopping done earlier than normal. I like to sit with my husband and enjoy the evening rather than heading out to go shopping til 9pm.

I bought a lot more than I usually do. but... I went to the southernsavers.com and did up my list. Then, I decided to look at all the comments ion the comment section that they have under each stores shopping list and the Q's that go with the products. I learned about a few more deals that I could do and I was excited and had to add a few more items to my list!! I keep forgetting that I can use competitors coupons at Publix and that includes CVS and Walgreen's Q's!! There was a comment about a product at Publix that was on sale and I had a manufacturers Q for it but then Walgreen's also had a Q for it. Walgreen's is considered a store coupon so I can stack it with the manufacturers Q to get a great deal! I walked in with about 50+ coupons and it took me a good hour to shop. The baby was absolutely wonderful. He is also a HUGE flirt. It was around noon when I went shopping. The store is filled with all the elderly people who shop at that time to avoid the after work crowds. My son just caught everyone's eye. I had older men and women coming up to me wanting to see and talk to the baby. My son Loves to smile and that usually grabs everyone's attention when a cute toothless baby smiles at them. :)

I finished shopping and gave the cashier my Q's and she said "Oh boy.". I thought that was funny. The total for my order came to $213.66!! That is with tax. After sales and coupons I paid only $76.92 (tax included). I saved a total of $136.74! Wahoo! A deal I found right away when I walked in was a new booklet Publix came out with, Tampa Bay Food and Wine Festival booklet. All the coupons in it are food Q's. One of the coupons was $1 off 1 Chobain Greek Yogurt. Well, publix has them on sale this week 10/$10 so $1 each! I grabbed 15 booklets (there were tons of them so I was not taking then all. Trust me I would never do that to other people) and cut out the Q's and got all 15 yogurts FREE! My kids have snacks for after school all week and it is good for them too! How fun is that!?

until next time...

Publix is sooo cool!

OK, so I forgot to take a photo of the groceries I got but... I wanted to post what my savings were!! My total bill came to $172 and some change. I actually spent (after coupons and sales and stuff) $62!!!! Not bad, huh? I saved 65% I am going shopping again tonight and I hope to save even more. I will try to remember to take a photo of the groceries before putting them away. I will also see if I can scan the receipt to show the savings are real. :P

Walgreen's is a good place to shop this week. get these three things and save BIG! Stayfree maxi pads ($2.99)get back $2.99 RR
Skintimate Shave Gel($2.99)get back $2.99 RR and the Clio Beautytrim personal hair trimmer. ($4.99) Get back $4.99 RR!!

You get back what you pay for these in Register rewards! At Walgreen's you do not need a card or membership to get RR's so when you buy these things for $11 you will get back $11 in RR back! Go back and get the same items but do not use the RR you got for that item to buy it, use another and you will be able to keep getting these without paying any more money at all and just keep receiving RR's. For example: Use the $2.99 RR that you got for the Stayfree when you buy some more Skintimate Gel. (make sure you buy it alone the 2ND time so the stayfree coupon is not used when you buy stayfree again) Then when you buy the stayfree use the skintimate RR to buy that. and you can keep doing this all week. Stock up and save big!! The other $5 RR can be used on anything you want. All the RR can too but I was just telling you how to get a bunch of stuff free this week. :) Another HUGE hint: There was a stayfree coupon in a past circular for $2 off stayfree. use this to pay only $.99 for the stayfree but still get $2.99 in RR. Cool huh??? so pay $9 for all three items and get back $11! I have 4 of these coupons so I will use them 4 different times and I will basically make $2 with each purchase!

My Publix shopping today!

I wanted to post this photo real quick of what I got today at Publix! My bill would have been $130 at full price but after sales and coupons I paid oop (out of pocket) only $53!! I saved $77. The cashier was excited to announce it loudly to me. It was very funny. :)

I am not sure if you can see here but I have 8 boxes of Arm & Hammer tooth paste that normally sells here for $2.99 a box and I got them for $.25 a box. I also got 2 packages of New England Coffee at a BOGO so I paid $2.75 a bag. I went to CVS before Publix and got a couple tubes of tooth paste, free. I also paid $3.97 for a couple jumbo packs of Pampers diapers, each! Not bad. :)

While I was in CVS I saw a girl at the front of the store going through her binder of coupons. I was standing in line waiting so I decided to tap her on the shoulder and tell her that I was excited that I was not the only one who walks into this CVS with her binder of coupons ready to snag lots of deals. She thought it was great. :) I think I made a new Friend, but, I never got her name. Oh well, next time. ;P

I love CVS!

This was from my trip to Target. I got the hand soaps free as well as the 8 bottles of shampoo. Getting the cereal got me a $5 target gift card to use on anything in the store. Total for trip was $16 but the cashier was sick and did not ring in all my coupons. I did catch $2 of it and the customer service man gave that to me so only $14 spent out of pocket but if I paid closer attention it would have been only $12. I caught another $2 mistake after I was in the car. Oh well, I learned a lesson. Pay attention when cashier is ringing in the coupons. :)


My CVS trip. The powered toothbrushes cost about eight dollars and change each and the manuals were a little over $4. The total for the trip came to $46 but I only paid $4 for all of it. :)

I am not sure I will ever have to pay for toothbrushes or toothpaste or even deodorant for that matter, ever again!! I paid $16 for $40 worth of items @ target. Yay. Then, at Publix, I spent $51 for about $96 worth of groceries. Not too bad. I think I could have done better though.

I can't wait to see what is in the Red Plum and the Smart Source tomorrow. :) Every week I have gotten coupons for a free item in the paper inserts. Last week it was that new no-sugar sweetener called Ideal. I got 4 boxes, FREE. The week before it was Marcal products and the week before that it was Greek yogurt. Love this couponing!!

GREAT FIND: I found a coupon on the Internet through Hip2Save for Cetaphil. It was a $5/1 coupon. I printed it two times and found the 8 ounce bottle of it for $5.24 at Wal-Mart. I paid $.24 each!! I had never used it before and so I have now started using it and I really LOVE it! My skin is not breaking out at all and it leaves my skin so fresh and clean! I think it smells like my babies shampoo and I love that smell. Very subtle. It does not affect my allergies at all. I think Cetaphil cleanser for the face is a keeper!

Shopping and what I got!!!

Here is a picture of all the groceries I purchased yesterday at Publix. I spent $55 and got $99 worth of groceries. I think that is pretty good. Last week was better. I saved over 60% last week and about 50% this week. I am happy though. My husband loves this. he likes to hear about how much of his hard earned money I didn't spend on shopping days now. :)

My coupon Binder..

Here it is, my coupon binder. I will make a new post with the groceries I bought yesterday and the savings I was able to acheive. :)

I have this binder seperated out into different catagories like baking, meats, fruits and veggies, health and beauty (I have to sub catagorize that one becasue I have way too many different things in there like make-up, tooth paste, shampoos, tooth brushes, meadicines...ect) breads and cereals, snacks... you get the picture. I got some baseball card pockets to house the coupons to keep them organized and to allow me to see them easily. I have dividers to seperate the catagories. My binder is a cloth zippered binder with lots of pockets. I also have a green pencil pouch to hold the coupons I will use for a specific shopping day. That way they are all right there.

I go to 3 different stores so I have my shopping list and the coupons for that specific store paper clipped to the list. I do this 3 times for all three lists.

I love this binder meathod as it allows me to be organised and I can weed through the various coupons so much easier than I did before when all 100+ coupons were in one large envelope. Now, if I see coffee on sale in a store I go to the beverages section of my binder and look for the coffee by flipping through the few pocket pages and it takes me seconds to see what I have on hand.

I keep a pair of scissors, pen, highlighter and a calculator in my binder.

Coupon Binders are the best!!!

I made a coupon binder today. It took my a little while but it is sooo worth it!!! I went shopping tonight and saved $95+!!! I spent about $90 so I saved 50% today. I was a little tired and I know I could have saved more and spent even less if I was feeling better. I have been a little flakey since yesterday. I will take a photo of my binder and post it soon, along with my groceries for tonight and the total savings.

I love my coupon binder so much that I am thinking of putting them together for anyone who wants and NEEDS one. I will add them to my Etsy store when someone orders one and save it there for you. :) You will save so much time and money and they make is so easy to flip through coupons while you are browsing a store. I will sell them at a great price and it will pay for itself with your first visit to the grocery store!!! The savings will add up. It is wonderful!!! If anyone wants one, send me a comment with your email and I will email you about them. you can get a zippered binder or not and it can be any color you choose. I can even make really cute preppy ones!!!

The Grocery game!!

I happened apon a website that is called the gorcery game and it is fabulous! It takes all the guess work out of your couponing and shopping lists. It is not expensive compared to what you will save every week. Let us say you save $50 (or more!) a week then that is $200 a month at least. (I know you will save more but I am being conservative) I have 5 stores I am using so that is $10 every 8 weeks for the first store and then $20 for the other 4 every 8 weeks. that is $15 a month plus I am gonna sunscribe to the Sunday paper for about $1 a month so that is $16 a month I pay to save a minimum of $200 a month. How exciting is that!!!?

Please, if you sign up (even for the trial period which is FREE for 4 weeks!!!) use my email kcrewfive@gmail.com as a referral so I can get free weeks. Thanks everyone!!! You will be amazed at how much FUN grocery shopping can and will be once you try this whole coupon thing!!!!

Grocery shopping with coupons!!

Walgreens:
Lady Speedstick
2 packs Dentyne gum

Total paid with tax $1.86!
Plus, I got a $1.00 Walgreens coupon to use on anything in store on next visit. So it is like I only paid $.86!
Total saved was $3.77. ( or $4.77 if you count the $1 back coupon I can use next time) I would have paid $5.63 I used store coupons with MFG coupons and store sales.
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2- 24 packs of Zepherhills water.
2 -Arm & Hammer laundry detergent
2- mens Speed Stick Deoderant
1- softsoap body wash with moisturizing beads

Total with tax $15.95!

Saved $22.38! Plus I got $7.00 CVS store coupons to use on anything in store for next purchase. So it is like I only spent $8.95! I used BOGO coupons along with store sales and a $5 CVS coupon from last visit. Total would have been $38.33!


to "Hip2Save"PUBLIX: 4 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch 17oz
4- 64 oz bottles Juicy Juice
4- jars Ragu (1lb 10oz) spaghetti sauce
4 boxes of whole wheat spaghetti
Pepperidge Farms Goldfish
2-Aveeno Baby Shampoo
Thermacare neck heat wraps (3 pack)

I Paid $28.93! (Saved $33.89!! Total would have been $62.82) I used mfg coupons along with store coupons and BOGO's. We do not get doubled coupons here and I do have to pay tax but I think I still did pretty good. :)


Hi Ladies!!! I am soo super excited to tell you about something I am learning to do. I have never really used coupons because I found them to be useless. For example, I would find a $1 off coupon and go to the store to get this item and find that it is a $7 item and I only went for that one thing so I would usually walk out empty handed. Well, I found this FABULOUS site Hip2Save and I have been learning so much from Colin, the site creator. She is so fun and witty and knows so much about using coupons. Check out the site and let Colin know what blog sent ya. ;)

I went shopping on Monday this week and I just had to show you all what I got and how much I saved!! I am learning about price matching and combining coupons and stacking and all that great stuff!! I took only a day and looked through the flyer's of Publix, CVS and Walgreens. I went into the stores as well and grabbed the coupon books they have at Walgreens and Publix. (Publix will accept competitors coupons by the way!! Call yours to be sure first but most do.)I also bought a Sunday paper for $1.75 to get the coupons in there. I have pictures on here of what I bought and a description to go along with each of what it would have cost without the coupons and sales and what I actually paid! It was so fun to see how much I could get for as little as possible.

I have to tell everyone that Colin visited a girl named Sarah from Tampa, FL that reads Colin's site and they went to Publix together and got $258 worth of stuff and paid only $3!!! There are 2 videos
you just HAVE to watch. It is amazing! I aim to achieve this someday. :)

OH and I want to give a shout out to Colin @ Hip2save!! Hey Colin. Thank you to her for teaching me all this great information. :)