Day Twenty: Purrfectly Pleasing

Today was a great day for coupons!  I was able to successfully retrieve my items from Walgreens and complete my transactions.  While my transactions were thrown a little off-kilter by the removal of the newspapers, overall it still worked out to paying $30 for over $130 worth of product, with $26 in RR left over at the end (+$6 RR).  Our friend with no knee cartilage and my husband with arthritis will both be grateful for that Joint Juice the next time they go to the gym!! 

After Random (our year-old redbone coonhound) "helped" me knock all the ice and snow off the car, he was definitely deserving a reward so we piled our snowy selves in and went to PetSmart!  We had a $10 Eukanuba coupon received for registering him on a puppy site and some Whisker Lickins coupons ($1/2) that made for a good deal with a coupon on the product + the sale on at the store. 

Deal Scenario:
Buy 5 pouches of Whisker Lickin's cat treats - $5.00
use 2x $1.00/2 coupons (from Target's coupon generator or newspaper insert) -$2.00
Use 1x Get one Free when you buy 3 pouches (found on product) -$1.00
Pay $2.00 for 5 pouches or $0.40 each! 

We also found some neat treats on clearance and picked up some ear medicine.  All told we spent $10 for $40 worth of product or 75% savings!

Finally, Mia joined the fun for a trip to Homeland.  We found some great clearance freebies (Herbal Essences with coupon expiring 1/31, Maybelline nailpolish with coupon found at Walgreens, Zest bodywash) and plenty of food even though I managed to forget my list!!  As always, we made sure to buy one Maruchan Yakisoba found with the asian foods.  Those 50 cent off coupons double to make them free on a permanent basis as they are priced at just $1.00!  These make great "Running late for work, need a lunch!" emergency back-ups since they cook in the package they're sold in.  The trip worked out to be 60% off (spent $38) for her and 84% off (spent $17) for me.  Although there were some deals at Target and Walmart I had planned to hit on the same day, given the pleasant surprise visit and trip to PetSmart I opted to let these go and spend some time at home this evening instead.  Sometimes it's good to remember that as great as all the deals are, there will be another deal again soon so not every one is critically important!! 

One other thing we tried this weekend was the restaurant gift certificates advertised on Coupon Mom's website.  We were able to score a $25 gift card to our favourite Thai restaurant for just $2!!  While we will have to spend another $10 to reach the $35 minimum, that will make the whole meal just $12 + tip and taxes, and probably provide enough food for 3 or 4 people.  Since the gift certificate was available for print immediately and is good for a year we are saving this for an evening we're feeling like going out with some friends! 

All in all it has felt like a very rewarding snow-weekend.  I got a lot of extra coupons printed, clipped and sorted and reorganized all sections of "the stockpile".  The house is nice and clean and we are going into the new week feeling rested and well-prepared!  I hope that everyone's weekend was a happy one and that those deal items are all in-stock when you go to buy them.  (Tip: if you can't find the Vitamin Water lip gloss, check the photo counter!  My Walgreens has it stashed over there and it took awhile to track it down.  They had lots available though!!)