Huggies Snug and Dry on Amazon- $0.15/ diaper

If you like Huggies, Amazon has a good deal for you. Here is a link to explain how to get a box of size 4 Snug and Dry 140 count for $22.14 shipped. That's $0.15 per diaper after taxes. To compare, you would have to get a 31 count Jumbo package for less than $4.65 (after taxes) in order to match this deal in the store.

CVS- diapers, razors and more

I just got back from CVS, and I wanted to brag about my savy couponing trip. The trick to shopping at CVS is to "roll" your Extra Care Bucks. You can do this by dividing up your good into separate transactions. Here's what I got for $21.35 (before taxes):

Transaction #1:

Skintimate shave gel $2.19- used $1 off coupon
2 Schick Quattro 3ct disposable razors $8.99 (used B1G1 coupon)
(There is a deal for shave products- buy $20 worth, get $10 back in ECB.)
8 ct pens $1.99 (free after ECB)

Spent $7.17, received $11.99 back in Extra Care Bucks

(The math doesn't add up right on this because the B1G1 coupon scanned as the full price of $13.99. I just noticed when I got home.)

Transaction #2:

3 pk Brita filters $14.99 (used $2 coupon I printed on their website)

minus $11.99 ECB I received in Trans. #1

Spent $1, received $5 back in Extra Care Bucks

Transaction #3:

Crest toothpaste $2.99 (used $0.75 coupon)
2 pk Opti-Free contact solution $14.99 (used $3 coupon)
Kotex $3.49 (used $1 coupon)

minus $5 ECB from Trans #2

Spent $11.72, received $9 back in Extra Care Bucks

Transaction #4

Huggies jeans diapers $8.99 (used $4 CVS coupon that printed when I scanned my card at the entrance +$1.50 Manufacturer's coupon)
Pampers sensitive diapers (on clearance for $5.50 minus $1.50 coupon)
Ludens cough drops (on clearance for $0.54)
Mucinex for children (on clearance for $2.44)

minus $9 ECB from transaction #3

Spent $1.46 out of pocket.

So, I spent $21.35 out of pocket for ALOT of stuff. I mean the contact solution and Brita filters were $14.99 a piece regular price, and those are things that I would eventually buy anyways.

There were lots of good clearance items throughout the store today. I left Austin at home to watch Spiderman with Joseph, and David and I were able to browse around. It was so nice. David is a good little coupon shopper :) Austin isn't so patient with my 45 minute shopping trips. I guess that's why I don't make it to CVS every week!

If you want to try these CVS deals for yourself, here is a good link to a blog that lays out the deals for you.

About Group Deal Sites

I've gotten hooked on the Group Deal movement. Sites like Groupon and Plum District, Living Social and Totsy. There are some really good deals to be had on these sites. You just have to read the fine print. Sometimes they expire within a few months. You might have to pay additional shipping costs. Or, the coupon might only be valid at certain store locations. I've also gotten hooked on Amazon diaper deals. I don't think I will ever buy diapers at the store again when I can get them cheaper shipped directly to my doorstep!

Here's some of the good deals I have gotten lately:

$40 worth of Discovery Toys for $15
$20 worth of food at a local cafe for $20
$15 worth of toys for $5 at a local toy store
$75 worth of toys for $25 online

I've also used these sites to get discounted CiCi's Pizza and Papa Murphy's and half-off on Amazon.com.

I think I'm set for birthday and Christmas shopping for the boys. $130 worth of toys for $45- not too bad :)

Disclosure: The links above are my referral links. If you sign up and buy something through these links, I will get a credit on my account.

Cheap Diaper Deal

Here's how I got a box of Pampers Cruisers size 4 (68 count) for $11.76. That's $0.17 per diaper, which is as good or better of a deal than off-brand diapers.

I signed up for an Amazon Mom account. It's free, and you get a free Amazon Prime membership for a certain period of time. This gets you free shipping benefits on certain items. This also allows you to participate in the Subscribe and Save feature.

Then I clipped the Pampers coupon, which was added to my Amazon account and was taken off when I checked out.

I browsed through the Pampers deals to find the size that I wanted that was on sale. There are different options, but the one that I found was on sale for $17.99 for a 68 count. Then I clicked the Subscribe and Save option at the right side, which brought my price down to $12.59.

With the Subscribe and Save feature, you are basically telling them that you want them to ship you the same product on a regular schedule like a magazine subscription. Don't worry, as soon as your product ships, you can cancel the subscription, and you won't get any future charges.

Then I followed the prompts through to the checkout, and they took my $1.50 coupon off which brought my total to $11.76, tax included. Shipping is free with Subscribe and Save, so that gives me a unit cost of $0.17.

Pretty good deal for premium diapers, I'd say.

Note: Don't forget to cancel your subscription, though.

Keep your eye out for other good diaper deals. The other day, I got a big box of Pampers Swaddlers Size 1-2 for $0.10/ diaper!

Plum District Deal- Discovery Toys

Here's a good deal for all you moms out there (or dads!).

If you are familiar with Groupon or Living Social, Plum District is a similar company. There is a great deal for Discovery Toys that I wanted to share. The deal is $15 for $40 worth of Discovery Toys (plus shipping charge- minimum $6)Here's how it works:

1. Click on the links in this post so I will get a referral bonus :)

2. Click on the Discovery Toys deal and "buy" it.

3. Add promo code WINWIN for $5 off or promo code FRUGALPLUMS for 20% off (if you are buying more than one deal, this would be a better code to use).

4. Your total should be either $15 or $16 depending on which code you use. You will pay for this with a credit card upfront. Then you will be able to print a voucher with a code on it good for $40 worth of Discovery Toys. You will have to call your order in using the phone number provided on the voucher. I haven't used my voucher yet, but I understand from the fine print that I will have to pay a shipping charge (12% of the purchase price, I think).

This deal is only good through today, so be sure to snag it before it is over.

Huggies Diaper Deal at Target

I have another great diaper deal to share. Here's how to get the best deal.

Target has the boxes of Huggies Snug and Dry diapers for about $20. If you buy two boxes, they will give you  a $5 gift card. Now, this is not really a good deal in and of itself. Even if you have two manufacturers coupons, it is still usually a better deal to buy the small packs and use a coupon.

However...

Target allows you to use one manufacturer's coupon and one Target coupon per item. They currently have online coupons on their website for $3 off Snug and Dry boxes (manufacturer coupon) and $2.50 off Huggies (Target coupon). That means you can print four coupons (two of each) for this purchase.

Bottom Line-

Two boxes of Huggies Snug and Dry = about $40
minus $5 (two Target coupons)
minus $6 (two manufacturer's coupons)
minus $5 gift card (you will actually get this after the purchase is made- don't worry, I'm sure if you are at Target, you will be able to put that card to use pretty quickly)

= about $24 for two boxes of diapers

In my case, that equals 178 diapers (one box of size 3 and one box of size 4) at .13 cents per diaper. Not too bad for Huggies. If you use smaller sizes, the price per diaper is even cheaper.

Note- So I was going to put a link to the Target coupons, but when I checked their website, they had taken off the Huggies coupons. Bummer. I'm glad I printed my coupons already and bought my diapers yesterday. I'm going to go ahead and post this since I typed it up already. If you happen to have the coupons printed, you can try this deal yourself. Otherwise, better luck next time.

My Shopping Brag

Joseph was gracious to watch the boys this evening so I could get out for a few hours of (non-grocery) shopping. As one who loves a good bargain, I just had to share a little of my success.

Deal #!:

If you live in Louisville and haven't checked out Margaret's Consignment Store, you need to. They are an upscale consignment store on Frankfort Avenue. They can be somewhat pricey for a used clothes store ($20 for a shirt is typical), but I can sometimes find the most amazing deals when they mark things half-off. Here's what I bought this evening:

- a pair of Banana Republic jeans just my size (in petite, too, which is very hard to find!)
- a pair of Ann Taylor jeans also my size (brought in by the same seller)
Total cost with tax: $17.18- They were only $8.10 each!!! If I had bought them new, they would have been probably $60 a pair.

You see, the trick to shopping at Margaret's is to look for markdowns. After the clothes have been on the floor for 30 days, they mark them half-off. I always check the date on the back of the tag if I am interested in an item because sometimes they miss a few tags when they are marking things down.

Deal #2: 

I stopped by Walgreens on my way home to see if they had any diapers on sale.Well, one thing I've learned about Walgreens is that you need to grab their sale paper and their monthly coupon book as soon as you walk in the store. Oftentimes they have a sale that isn't labeled on the shelf or they will have a coupon in their weekly ad or their monthly coupon book. This is especially true for diapers. When I got to the diaper aisle, Huggies were marked up more than $10 a pack, which I consider way too expensive even with a coupon. I almost just left, but I thought I would check the ad just in case. It's a good thing I did because they were having a really good sale on Huggies. Here's how I worked the sale:

Huggies jumbo packs were on sale for $8.99
less $1.50 manufacturers coupon for Snug and Dry (I also have a $2 off Little Movers coupon, which I will probably use tomorrow. You can only do one pack of diapers per transaction)
= about $8 after tax, which isn't a bad deal for Huggies, BUT WAIT
They printed me off a $2 Register Rewards, which is like free money to use on your next purchase. So that makes the diapers about $6 a pack (or $5.50 if you get Little Movers). PRETTY GOOD DEAL!
*** Since I don't go to Walgreens that much, I decided to go ahead and use my register rewards right then.(They usually are only good for about a week before they expire.) 
-So, I did a second transaction and purchased 3 boxes of Kleenex, which were on sale for .89 cents a box. I used a .50/3 coupon and paid only .17 after using my Register Reward.


BOTTOM LINE: I paid $8.20 for a pack of Huggies and 3 boxes of name brand Kleenex. 

If you need diapers and have any Huggies coupons, head to Walgreens tomorrow! It's the last day for this great deal. 

Valentine Card

Love Is Sweet Valentine's Day Card

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

How to get $130 worth of photos for free!

You may have noticed that I've been doing a lot of advertising for Shutterfly lately, and now I'll show you why.

1. I made a post this week advertising their holiday cards, and they sent me a promo code for 50 free folded 5x7 cards. That's over $100 worth of greeting cards, folks!

2. I also needed some additional prints, so I ordered enough to reach the minimum purchase amount for free shipping. (Prints were 30% off, and you get free shipping with a $25 purchase)

That brought my total to right around $25, which is amazing for about $130 worth of photo items.

But it gets even better.

When I checked out, they gave me the option to post a link to our Christmas card on my blog and receive a $25 Shutterfly gift card. Amazing! That pretty much cancels out the money I spent today since I need to get some more prints made after Christmas anyways. (I'm hoping to combine some more great deals when I redeem my $25 gift card.)

So, here is what I pretty much got for free today:

50 5x7 folded Christmas Cards
29 4x6 prints
6 5x7 prints
4 8x10 prints

I just love a good deal.

Sneak Preview of our Christmas Card

Gorgeous White Ribbon Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

We got some amazing family pictures made by Oh Cara! Photography a few weeks ago, and they are just wonderful. I wanted to share them in our Christmas cards this year, and better yet, I found out that Shutterfly is having a special promotion on their Photo Christmas Cards. If you agree to blog about their holiday cards, they will give you 50 free cards. What a great deal!

I've had good experiences with Shutterfly in the past. This will be the first time I order cards, but I have ordered their prints and other photo gifts before. They have good quality photos, and you can often find promo codes to get free shipping or money off your total purchase. A few months back, I ordered a matte 11x14 print of David's infant photo, and it turned out beautiful. I also ordered some stickers with the boys' picture on them, and I've been using them to seal up the envelopes when I mail "artwork" to the grandparents. They have been a big hit! I can't wait to see how the personalized Christmas cards turn out.

Here's a link to the information about the promotion if you are interested in participating. The special is good through the end of the year.

Kroger Deal- Break and Bake Cookies

I've got another great Kroger deal you might be interested in.

If you buy 4 items off a very short list of specified products, you get $4 off your total (certain GM cereals, toaster strudel, cinnamon rolls, etc.). Joseph wanted me to get some cookies at the store, so I gathered up some coupons and headed to Kroger to buy 4 packages of Pillsbury break and bake cookies. To my surprise, they had even better coupons ($1.25/ 2 items) in a "blinkie" in front of the Pillsbury products. (A blinkie is the little machine that spits out coupons at various places around the store.) Here's how I worked the sale.

Because I bought four packages of the cookies, I got $4 off. In addition, I used two of the coupons, which took $2.50 off. The total cost for four packages of cookies was $3.50. That's less than .88 cents per package when the regular price is around $2.50 per package. Pretty good deal since I was going to buy cookies anyways. 

Couponing at Kroger- Here's how it's done

Kroger has a sale this week, and for every 10 specified items you buy, you get $5 off your total purchase. Basically, you get .50 cents off each item. Well, I just got back from the grocery and thought I would share how I worked the Mega Event this week. I purchased exactly 30 of the mega event items, which gave me $15 off my total. You have to buy in quantities of 10 for this sale to work out right.

10 Del Monte tomatoes (2 coupons for $1 off 5 cans)
8 Cream of Chicken or Cream of Mushroom soups (4 coupons for .40 cents off 2 cans)
2 boxes Nestle hot cocoa
1 Hot Pocket
5 cans Swanson chicken broth (found a coupon that someone left on the shelf for .50 off 5 cans)
3 boxes Auntie Anne's macaroni and cheese (organic section)
1 box Stove Top stuffing

Keep in mind that Kroger doubles coupons with a value of .50 cents or less.
Total cost for all 30 items after coupons and discount =  approximately $10
I think I worked this sale pretty good, don't you?