freebies

Within the last week I have gotten the following for free at Kroger and Meijer, simply by matching store sales with newspaper coupons:

4-roll packages of Cottonelle toilet paper

French's Mustard

Land o' Lakes spreadable butter

20 bottles of Sobe Lifewater

Colgate and Crest toothpaste

10-item packs of Bic Twin Select razors

For the skeptics out there, it really is easy to cut your grocery bill in half. It just takes a little planning and a shift in the way you shop for groceries. It's not uncommon to get free items every week. If you can't use it, someone definitely can.

Plus, it's super-fun. Who doesn't like free stuff?!

getting started at cvs

For those who have expressed interest in getting started at CVS, this coming Sunday (8/31) is a good week to begin building those Extra Care Bucks (or ECBs) for very little money out of pocket. 

First you want to sign up for an Extra Care Card at CVS. (It's free!)

Next you will need to hurry out first thing Sunday morning and buy the paper. If you're in the Detroit area I recommend the Free Press (more coupons than the Ann Arbor News).

This week you will need the following coupons:

$1/1 Cover Girl lip product (from the 8/31 paper)

This printable coupon for Colgate (I created an email address that I use strictly for coupons and offers so they don't come to my personal account.)

Go Here. Click on the first link, then scroll to page 30 of the magazine. There is a $2/$10 coupon from CVS. Print it out.

Now you're ready to shop. =)

Go to CVS and purchase the following (don't forget to hand over your card to be scanned first!):

1- Covergirl Wetslicks AmazeMint Lip Gloss @ $5.99

1- Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste (4 oz.) @ $2.99

1 or 2- Item(s) totaling at least $1.02 but not more than $2 (a couple of candy bars should work)

Then give these coupons in this order:

$2/$10

Colgate

Cover Girl

Your total will be around $6 plus tax; pay this. When you get your receipt your Extra Care Bucks will print out at the bottom. You will have earned $7.99, essentially paying for your purchase (including your newspaper!). This $7.99 works like free money on anything in the store (besides prescriptions, tobacco and alcohol). You can spend it on whatever you want/need, or hang onto it, check in next week and I'll give you another scenario to spend it in order to earn more ECBs... but next time you will pay for your purchase with the $7.99 you already earned, so you won't have to pay more than tax out of pocket, and you'll earn back at least the $7.99 so that you can keep "rolling" those EBCs and getting free stuff. 

It sounds confusing, but I'll keep doing the leg work and you'll get the hang of it. Now get to CVS and sign up for the Extra Care Card so you'll be all set for Sunday morning!

highlights

Here are the kid-related highlights of the last two days:

*I yawned. My darling two year old stops playing, looks at me incredulously and asks, "Are you tired, Cassie?"

*Ocean was carrying around his crayon bucket. Iris wanted a crayon. Ocean screamed, "NO! MY crayons!" After a few moments of trying unsuccessfully to mediate, Phil and I decided to let them work it out. I know, probably not a wise choice in hindsight but we were exhausted and it ended up being totally worth it to witness the following exchange: Iris kept after the crayons and Ocean just kept getting more agitated. Finally, she grabbed a crayon out of his hand. Ocean grabbed it back and let out a frustrated yell. Iris then grabbed the crayon back out of his hand, got an inch from his face and screamed. LOUDLY. Ocean immediately started crying. Iris started eating the crayon. I haven't laughed that hard in weeks. Baby Sister, One. Big Brother... Zilch. (In case you're wondering, the bad parenting ended there. We took the heavyweights to their respective corners to cool off and eventually sharing happened. It was beautiful. But not quite as entertaining.)

out of the ashes

I have deleted my latest 'woe is me' post.

We're moving forward in our journey. If you want to come with us, here is the new blog address.

Spilled Milk will remain our light-hearted family blog (with some gratuitous CVS deals thrown in for good measure).

Thanks for all your love, thoughts and prayers.