Say Hello to my Little Friend!

My cat Mousse has a very strange fascination with shoes. Whenever I look, he's got his little paws on my sandals and heels, sometimes even in the straps as if he wants to wear them! When I put sneakers out - he's cuddling them like there's no tomorrow!

Free Elle Cosmetic Case

For anyone who took advantage of the John Frieda RR deal last week at Walgreens, Erica has a great deal on her website where you can send away for a free Elle cosmetic bag.

Free Dawn

ShopRite - 3 Pretzelfils (these are actually pretty yummy! Except for the yucky pepper jack flavor - those puppies are for DBF) $1.84 each, used $0.75 coupon (8/24 RP) = $0.34 each. After $0.05 bag discount, my total was $0.97.

Walgreens

• WAG Brita filter (finally found one!) $6.99, will get back $7.68 ($6.99 + 10%) ESR #9
• 2 Pringles $1.98
• Nestle candy bar $0.33
• Coupons used: $9 RR
• Total was $0.80

CVS

• 6 Dawn plus Hand Renewal $0.99 (signed as $2.39 each so don't be fooled), used six $1 coupons (8/31 P&G)
• Total was $0.42 - just the tax

The Frugalsuz Store

I haven't taken any stockpile pics in ages and my garage storage room is getting pretty full. Let's take a look... See how the shelves are dipping? Uh oh, I better move some stuff around so they don't break on me! The bottles of shampoo on the top are about 8-9 bottles deep.

I love this little drawer. The top drawer is full of q-tips, face clothes and pantiliners. Drawer two is lotions, deodorant, razors and vitamins. The bottom drawer is kitty treats, toilet bowl cleaners and scrub brushes for washing dishes. And I dumpster-dived this drawer when some folks were moving out of my apartment building so it was free!

Donation Day!

If you saw my monthly totals for August, you might be thinking, what in tarnation do you do with all this stuff woman?!? Over 500 items bought in just one month?
I give a lot of stuff to family and friends, and of course, I use many of the things I buy. Everything else gets donated. The picture above is a table I keep in my garage and as I buy donation items, I just keep everything in one spot. Its hard to see everything in this picture, but there are tons of toothbrushes and toothpaste buried under there, shampoos and conditioners behind the cereal and lots more food that I kept upstairs (away from the wonderful things that inhabit my garage). I packed everything up today and I'm going to drop it all off in the morning. The bags took up my whole backseat!

Here's a quick list of what I'm donating: Pop Tarts, cereal, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo/conditioner, body wash, hand wipes, bath buddies, air freshners and cleaners. If you have extra items you can donate, just call your local municipal office to inquire about your town's food pantry.

Food Shopping Day

Rite Aid - finally found the Loreal Anti-Wrinkle concentrate for SCR #21. Price was $14.99, and I used a $3 RA coupon and a $3 coupon (7/20 SS). My total was $10.04 but the cashier only had me pay $10 and used four pennies by the register - isn't that cool?!? I'll get back $14.99 as a rebate ($6 profit) and this will also finish off SCR #24 from yesterday (Modella bag plus coupons).

A&P - had a $8 catalina to use up

• 3 pounds ground beef $1.97/lb = $5.97
• Romaine lettuce $1.97
• Carrots $1.29
• Milk $2.49
• 5 Marcal rolls of toilet paper $0.89 each, used freebie coupons (8/10 SS) = FREE - when the cashier entered in the value of $0.89, they started doubling for some reason. He said this was ok, so I used four coupons and saved the 5th for ShopRite.
• Mentos $0.79 - picked up b/c total was negative
• Total was $0.20 after using $8 catalina and DBF's mom's employee discount

ShopRite

• 4 Pretzelfils $1.84 each, used $0.75 coupon (8/24 RP) = $0.34 each
• Cantelope $0.99
• 2 Perdue Chicken breasts $2.39 and $2.57 each
• 2 Greased Lightning cleaners $1.49 each, used $1.50 coupon (6/8 SS or All You magazine) = FREE
• 2 Daisy sour creams $1.29 each (coupons are in 8/24 SS but I didn't get any)
• 3 ShopRite shredded cheeses $1.88 each
• Marcal toilet paper $0.79, used freebie coupon leftover from A&P = FREE
• Total was $15.63 after $0.10 bag discount
  

Monthly Totals - August

This has been a great month! My mom asked me the other day how much money I'm making with all this hounding, so I've decided to keep a separate tally of my profit each month. Here's how I did for August:

CVS Spending
Merchandise Total: $523.07, Coupons Used: $347.63
ECB's/Gift Cards Used: $177.32, ECB's Earned: $133.07
Cash OOP: $4.68
Profit: $51.28
# Items Bought: 212
# Free Items: 137
YTD Savings My Card: $2,049.59, DBF's Card: $1,110.30

All Other Stores Spending
Merchandise Total: $961.58, Coupons Used: $548.45
Rewards/Gift Cards Used: $191.67, Rewards Earned: $139
OOP Expense: $259.14 - yikes! Went a little over budget here
Rebates: $271.93
Actual OOP (after rewards earned & rebates): $39.88
Profit: $91.99
# Items Bought: 341
# Free Items: 221

All in all, I made $143.27 this month - that's not a bad hobby! :)