Author: Cheryl
•8:06 PM

I had to get back over to CVS to finish up my 3M lint roller deal. Thankfully there were plenty of them left. And now I have a great stock for the winter. Remember, I have 7 pets, so lint rollers are very much needed in my house. I use them on the curtains, pillows and on each other's clothes. Otherwise my vacuum gets a good workout on the rest of the furniture.

I heard the Dawn Plus Hand Renewal dish soap was ringing back up on sale again for 99 cents, and the coupons for $1.00 off them were still good. I had gotten 4 the last time and thought I was all out of the coupons for them, but I found one left in my folder. At my CVS the label said it was $2.49. But definitely ask the cashier to scan it. When mine did, it came up 99 cents.

And I really wanted to try the Febreeze Noticeables and had a great $5.00 coupon for that. My oop was not bad on this one, not super low, but still not bad. Its funny after you do this for a while, that you actually complain when you pay $1.75 for $20 worth of stuff.

4 3m lint rollers 2 for $5.00 = $10.00
1 Febreeze Noticeable Starter Kit $6.99
1 Dawn Plus Hand Renewal .99

Total $17.98

Coupons
(4) $1.00 off 3M lint rollers
(1) $5.00 off Febreeze Noticeable Starter Kit
(1) $1.00 off Dawn Plus Hand Renewal
(1) $3.00 off any purchase of $15.00 or more at CVS

ECB's used $4.00
Total oop $1.75
ECB's earned $5.00
Author: Cheryl
•2:45 PM

A great deal at Acme, buy 5 of participating products for $10.00, get $3.00 off instantly.

Ronzoni Bistro meals were part of the deal, and $1.00 q's were in the SmartSource circular this weekend. If you buy 5, its $10.00 minus the $3.00 instantly savings, then minus $5.00 for 5 $1.00 q's. That is only $2.00 for all 5 of them. And look at your receipt each time you go to Acme, every few now and then your receipt should have something down the bottom where all you have to do is call a number and take a short survey on your experience at Acme and you get a code for a free loaf of Acme french bread. I did this, got the code, took the receipt and code to the store and got this to go with my $2.00 pasta for free.


I used to only go to Superfresh when they have their triple coupon sale. Otherwise I never used to find any good deals there. That is until one day I decided just to peek by their meat department while killing time and found out about their manager's specials. I don't know if all Superfresh's do this, but mine has items that they put Manager's Special coupons on them. The other half of the tag is a coupon to take a certain amount of money off the price of the meat. I have gotten pork neckbones for .75, turkey legs for $1.50, and chicken thighs, chicken burgers, ground chicken, turkey sausage and lamb for only $2.00 each.


Usually I find 2 different things on special each time I go. In the picture you can see the label and below it is the coupon which the cashier has taken off of mine of course. It is a really great way to stock up on cheap meats. So next time you go to Superfresh, take a look in the meat section and see if yours has these type of specials.

Author: Cheryl
•2:21 PM

Here are some of the great deals I got at Shoprite today. These deals are good up until 10/4. I actually didn't get any of the 2000 Flushes. They had them wiped out by 9:30am. My Shoprite doubles up to $1.00, it doesn't truly double so the discounts below are for stores like mine.

Carpet Fresh No Vacuum cans $1.24 - $1.00 q in this week's SmartSource = .24 cents (limit 4)
2000 Flushes Bowl Cleaner $1.49 - $1.00 q's in this week's SS = .49 cents
Armour Sizzle and Serve Sausage .99 - .35 q's in 9/28's SS = .29 cents (limit 4)
Sorrento mozzarella cheese $1.99 (no coupons but a great price to stock up on mozzarella)
Ban deodorant .99 - .50 q's = FREE
Hefty Ulta Flex trash bags $2.44 - $1.00 q's = $1.44 for 20 trash bags (not bad considering these are super strong trash bags, my favorite)
Martin's potato bread only $1.59
Friendly's ice cream $1.88
Author: Cheryl
•1:52 PM

In the mail last week I got the October P&G coupon booklet. This is the first time I have ever got one of these in the mail. I usually just get them in the newspaper like everyone else. Well the wonderful thing about getting one in the mail is that I finally got CoverGirl coupons. Every time we get a P&G in our area, there are no CoverGirl coupons, just an ad. Which was just plain annoying. While lots of CVS'ers were getting free CoverGirl wetslicks at CVS with the deals and the coupons they got, we were left to looking for other things to get because no CG coupons.

So this P&G had a coupon for $1.00 off any CG product and a buy 1 CG foundation get a CG makeup product free. And when I got the regular P&G in the newspaper, of course it had no CG coupons in it. So I thought of these two like finding gold.

Turns out it was a good week to use them, so holding onto them didn't last me long. The bad part of coupons is that we do not have a printer at home. We could just buy a cheapy printer that would do me just fine. But my husband is a tech junkie and refuses to buy just a cheap one. He wants a wireless fancy one, and I am just not willing to part with the money right now. Scotch is having a good ECB sale at CVS and I can always use the lint removers. I only had 3 of the $1.00 off coupons for the lint rollers left, so I couldn't do the whole deal in one shot. I have to wait until I get to work tomorrow to print off the rest of the lint coupons so I can finish that deal. But still not a bad purchase.

1 CoverGirl foundation $5.49
1 CoverGirl compact $5.79
2 Scotch Lint Rollers $5.00
1 Birthday card $2.29 (brothers birthday on Tuesday)

Total $18.57

(1) $1.00 off any CG product
(1) Buy CG foundation get CG face product free
(2) $1.00 off Scotch lint rollers
(1) $2.00 off any purchase of $10.00 at CVS

ECB's used $5.99
Total oop $2.45
ECB's earned $5.79

Of course my oop would have been lower if I didn't get the birthday card. But I had to, its family. And I didn't have any smaller ECB's that would have made up for it. I have to go back and get 4 more of the Scotch rollers to finish up the Scotch deal and earn my 5 ECB's for that. But I think that will then be it for me this week with CVS, not as many good deals as last week.
Author: Cheryl
•9:15 PM

Whenever I really like something, a TV show, a band, a movie, I get very nervous when they come out with something new, for fear that it won't be good. So every time The Office airs a new episode I hold my breath hoping that it will be good.

Well, not since Casino Night have I been blown away with an episode like this one. It was one hour long, not tedious at all, and action packed. It was well written, tremendously acted and destined to be an Office classic.

Michael and Holly - I absolutely love the whole storyline between them. Its as if they are now the wacky version of Jim and Pam of the show. The unrequited love story, trying to be friends and supporting each other with their romantic pursuits, even though neither one will admit to each other they want to be together. Holly is, as Jim stated it, a dork and this fits perfect with Michael. She loves his wacky things he does, she loves the songs he makes up and the stunts he pulls in the office. She doesn't criticize him or look down on him. And Michael following Jim's plan of just getting to know her first, is hysterical and touching at the same time. He is trying to hard to play it cool, its painful yet so sweet. I hope this is a story they keep going for a long time. Amy Adams is fantastic, and it would be a shame for the show to lose her.

Angela/Dwight/Andy - Angela is still engaged to Andy but it meeting Dwight in the warehouse for a little extra something special. I'm surprised she is doing this. She was so mad at Dwight for mercy killing her cat Sprinkles that she broke up with him. But now she likes him enough to keep sleeping with him but not enough to dump a fiance she is not in love with, nor even likes that much. Just not working with me. Also she is super rigid and super religious, so this doesn't even go with her moral character. I love these 3 characters individually but not a fan of this triangle right now.

Jim and Pam - I could smell the predictability of part of this show a mile away. Pam goes away to school and slowly her and Jim start having trouble figuring out how to see each other with their schedule. Pam starts making friends and even a guy she is laughing with. Oh great here it comes, that person to get in the way of their relationship. But then, holy Greg Daniels, throws in a huge curve ball and has Jim propose to her in the most awesome way. Out in the rain in front of a rest stop, Jim gets down on one knee and tells Pam he can't wait and asks her to marry him. She says yes. Despite all the funny things and funny faces John Krasinski makes and does in his scenes that are great, its when he actually does the serious scenes that you really see how talented he is at it. Case in point, Casino Night. This was a great decision on the shows part. A long engagement and a big drawn out relationship between the two would have just been overkill. This is the show that can prove that a couple can be together and happy and not be boring.

The return of Ryan was fantastic. I loved seeing him sulk back in the office now as the temporary receptionist. The hostility that the other DM'ers have for Ryan will only lead to great scenes. Lets see how long Kelly can resist him too and what type of interactions Darryl has with him. And then there is still Jan's baby. We know that she is still going to be in Michael's life. With Holly now in the picture, this is going to make for one interesting triangle.

Favorite scene (serious) - the Jim Pam proposal of course, hey we waited 4 years for this, we deserved it.

Favorite scene (funny) - was actually Kelly's talking head where she has the dark circles under her eyes from the extreme dieting she was doing and says "I just bought some bikini's online, size 2, so I will look amazing" Its her best talking head ever.

I think the show has a whole new life this year, with lots of possibilities for great story lines. I am more excited than ever to see what they have planned.
Author: Cheryl
•8:12 PM

Well after a long summer, The Office is back with a one hour premiere entitled "Weight Loss".

Summary - This episode is a first as it covers the seven weeks over the summer, that you usually do not see. Corporate is sponsoring a weight loss contest amongst the branches. The branch who loses the most weight combined wins 3 extra days of vacation. Scranton tries all sort of methods to make sure they win the contest. Pam goes off to art school, and the Dwight/Angela/Andy triangle continues.

Week 1 June 30 - 2210 lbs
Scranton has a party to add weight on so that their numbers are higher when they start and they can lose more in that time. The party consists of a buffet of fried chicken, mac and cheese and a fountain spewing out cheddar cheese. The entire staff (except Pam) gets on the warehouse scale for their weekly weigh in. Dwight reading the weigh says "You people need to learn some portion control."

Week 2 July 7 - 2179 lbs (31 lbs lost)
Stanley is seriously losing weight, and hiding it from everyone. Michael continues his secret love of Holly, Jim keeps encouraging him to just keep it as friends for now. Dwight decides to clean out the vending machine of junk and fill it with fruits and veggies, hammering them into the slots. Oscar tries to fix Holly up with his yoga instructor. Pam leaves for New York for design school. She tells the camera "What up 212?!"

Andy tries to book a place for his and Angela's wedding. "Every little boy has fantasies about their fairy tale wedding (oh my Andy). But still unknown to Andy, Dwight and Angela are having frequent trysts in the warehouse during the workday. As Jim walks Pam to her car, so she can leave for NYC, Michael runs after her. He wants her to hear a poem he wrote for her, but he left it upstairs. Michael says, "The last word is seagulls". Pam says, "I'm sure it was really lovely".

We find out Pam and Jim are not engaged. They have decided they didn't want to spend the first 3 months of their engagement apart. Jim tells a story of why Pam doesn't want a long engagement, something about another engagement, some guy in the warehouse. He doesn't know much about that. :)

Jim explains why he thinks Holly and Michael would make a good match. "Holly is kinda a major dork". Just perfect for Michael.

Week 3 July 14th - 2184 lbs (gained 5 lbs)
"Dunder Mifflin, this is Ronnie. (WHAT?) Pam's, temporary replacement, Ronnie, is a middle-aged blond woman. Jim's thoughts on Ronnie, "I don't really know Ronnie. But I have a feeling that I will get to know her in the next few years. And eventually declare my love for her".

Pam's time at school doesn't start off well. She ends up in the wrong class. Kelly tries extreme methods to lose weight. She first tries the cleanse diet. Consisting of drinking a concoction of lemons, hot sauce, and some other strange ingredients. This makes her miserable, have dark circles and bags under her eyes, and on the edge of losing her mind. "I just bought some bikini's online, size 2, so I will look amazing".

Jan visits, very very pregnant. Michael when greeting her belly "Whose your daddy? Whose your daddy? Oh, you don't know who are your daddy is do you?"

Holly finds out Kevin is not mentally challenged when Angela yells at him calling him stupid, Holly steps in to defend him, exposing what she was told he was and Kevin denies it. Holly is embarrassed.

Angela's explanation of how she lives with the "visits" with Dwight. " I have a nice comforter, several cozy pillows. I usually read a chapter of a book and its lights out by 8:30pm. That is how I sleep at night".

Week 4 July 21 - 2183 lbs (lost 1 lb)
Phyllis runs the party planning committee with an iron fist. She now holds the position over Angela from catching Angela and Dwight in one of their passionate moments.

Michael's comment on willpower "I once went 28 years without having sex. And then again for 7 years".

Jim leaves to visit Pam in NYC. Michael decides to give him a condom, as all nice caring bosses should do. Jim ditches the camera upon entering Pam's dorm room by telling the camera to look at Pam's art on the wall. The wall is blank, the door shuts and locks (whoo whoo).

Andy sweetens over Angela by telling her he will marry her anywhere anytime. Angela feels awful for how she treated him, kisses him and doesn't show up for her afternoon tryst with Dwight.

Holly is going on a date with Oscar's yoga instructor. Michael decides to support her, as a friend should do.

Week 5 July 28th - 2183 lbs (zero pounds)
All the branches aren't doing well in the weight loss battle. Corporate decides to up the ante to 5 extra vacation days as a prize. Kelly decides to help this and swallows a tapeworm that Creed gave her. Creed "That wasn't a tapeworm".

RYAN IS BACK..................as the new temporary receptionist to replace Pam. Michael decides to hire him from the temp agency. I really don't think corporate knows this. They probably wouldn't be too happy to know Michael hired a former employee arrested for fraud. But it did make for a nice shocking element to the show.

Holly's date goes well. Michael keeps supporting her. But when he is around Jim he is annoyed at following Jim's advice to just be her friend. "You know my seduction method. I like to get in there and get my hands dirty". Smooth Michael.

Dwight tries to make up with Phyllis by asking her to go on a sales call with him and split the commission 60/40. Dwight ends up taking Phyllis to an abandoned warehouse in a bad neighborhood and leaves her with no cell phone and makes her walk back to the office so that she will lose weight. Phyllis, furious with Dwight when she returns, calls David Wallace, the CEO of Dunder Mifflin.

Week 6 August 4th - (no weigh in)
Corporate issues a memo stating that they do not discriminate nor condone unhealthy dieting habits or extreme weight loss strategies. This is a result of Phyllis calling Wallace. Michael decides to show everyone about weight, by wearing a half inflated sumo wrestling suit and telling Kelly that she is beautiful.

Week 7 August 11th - 2179 lbs (4 lbs)
Holly's date hasn't called in 3 days. And she has tickets that night for the Counting Crows. Michael tells her to give him at least until 5pm to call.

Jim hasn't seen Pam in 10 days. He talks to her in IM, and asks her to meet him for lunch at a rest stop halfway between them. Scranton finds out they need to lose 8lbs by the end of the day to beat Utica. Andy decides to turn up the heat, and several staff wears trash bags suits to sweat out these last few pounds.

Andy insists that his singing group, Here Comes Treble, sings at their wedding. Angela says no. Andy finally puts his foot down and says this is a deal breaker. When he lists the awful nicknames of the members of the group, Angela gets fed up and goes out to have another tryst with Dwight.

Jim meets Pam at a rest stop, drops down to one knee. Says he couldn't wait and proposes to her. Pam says yes. Later Jim comes back to the office in time for the weigh in, he is soaked but ecstatic. (Holy Crap)

Holly's date does not call. Michael decides to buy the concert tickets from her and then rips them up in front of her to show her that now she doesn't need to think about them and be upset. Holly's is completely confused by his gesture.

Final weigh in 2175 (lost 5 lbs), but not enough to win. Utica gets the 5 days vacation.

In the last scene, we find Toby in the hospital in a complete neck and head brace. He has broken his neck going zip lining while in Costa Rica. He has been there for 5 weeks, still hasn't seen the beach, and the camera crew is his first visitor. Poor Toby.

Whew... long and action packed show. Next, my thoughts on the episode.
Author: Cheryl
•11:44 AM


I promise to review the The Office premiere either later today or tomorrow morning. It was an hour long and filled with so much great stuff, that I have to watch it a few more times and take notes. But it is worth the wait.

On Monday I went back to CVS with the extra ECB's I earned from the L'Oreal deal and did one more deal to keep me fully stocked on paper towels. Pictured about is only 3 8-packs of Viva towels, but I actually bought 4. I gave one to my mom on my way home. These towels should last me for months and months because we actually don't use paper towels in our house for anything but gross animal fluids (I won't get into detail here, but stuff like hairballs, etc). I use dishcloths in the kitchen for wiping the counters, and extra dishcloths for napkins. And for cleaning I use microfiber towels. All of these I just throw in the washer to use time and time again. It is my little effort to be green.

4 Viva paper towel 8 packs $6.49 each = $25.96

Coupons
(4) 75 cents off Viva paper towels
(1) $2.00 off any purchase of $10.00 at CVS

ECB's Used $19.98
Oop .98 cents
ECB's earned $10.00

Again, I had alot of ECB's so I didn't mind using some of them to stock me up for a long time.
Author: Cheryl
•12:38 PM

Eight hours and some odd minutes until the season 5 premiere of The Office. Oh it has been such a long summer. And considering I do not like summer anyway, makes it longer. I am a cold weather girl. But the lack of new Office episodes makes it the worst. And I cannot forget that tonight is also the season premiere of My Name Is Earl which is another favorite of mine.

I will be doing a recap of tonights episode tomorrow morning, so if you don't want it to be spoiled for you, you might want to wait until you watch it before hitting my site again. I know that will be hard. THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID.
Author: Cheryl
•9:15 PM

Of all the products on the planet, this is the one I feel I am most qualified to talk about. I have been an animal lover since birth. I grew up in a house of animal lovers too. My parents had fish, birds, hamsters, and dogs (not all at the same time) I believe it was at the tender age of 8 that I told my mother that I was never having children but would have lots of pets. I think she laughed at me.

Well here I am 35 years old, married and no children (by choice) and I have seven, yes seven, pets. Not all planned I must say. I have 6 cats and a dog. The dog was planned and adopted. Three of my cats were planned, 2 adopted and one a stray kitten I wanted. The other three cats were one that took up a home in my backyard, now my inside cat, and two that were part of 7 kittens I fostered a few years ago. Long story on that one, but I kept those two.

I will never have seven pets again. Its not that it is alot of work, you just have to keep up on the cleaning and brush them regularly, its more of an attention problem. You see I only have two hands and seven pets and there is a battle many of days for my attention from them. So these seven will stay in my home for the rest of their lives. But in the future I would like to keep it to 2 cats and a dog.

I have four litter pans in my basement under the stairs. Its a great spot for them and keeps them out of the way from anything else I need to do down there. I work a full time job and scoop the pans everyday. But I just don't have time nor the money to change the pans too frequently. I prefer to fully change the litter on the four pans only once every two weeks.

I have probably tried about 30 different kinds of cat litter, the clay kind, the newspaper kind, the pellets, etc. They either stunk up too fast, smelled funny on their own, were ridiculously expensive when you have 4 pans, or the cats just plain hated it.



About a year ago my mom and I just picked up a few bags of this store brand litter at Acme, called Happy Tails Cat Litter. We both tried it and absolutely loved it. It lasts the whole two weeks with very little smell at the end. It has, as you can see, light gray and blue flecks, which are slightly larger than your average cheap clay litter. It has little to moderate dust, but is easy to see on the ground to clean up if your cats knock any out and just does a much longer job on the smell than most brands.

Since it is a store brand, there are no coupons on it. Its not the cheapest litter ever but it is the best, in my opinion, for the price. It runs about $3.30 a bag at Acme and it oh so worth it for the time it saves you. I highly recommend and this comes from two women who have alot of pets, so we know. I hate to use anything else.

Author: Cheryl
•8:21 PM

Most people that I know that coupon have one of these two systems for organizing the coupons and papers. You either cut out every coupon and organize them either baseball card holders in a binder or a file box. Or you keep the whole coupon books (SmartSource, RedPlum and P&G) in files or binders and write the date of when they came out.

For those who cut them out it is alot of work especially when you buy 4 or 5 newspapers. You have to file them all in their specified categories and your binder can get huge fast. If you keep them whole you tend to not remember what you have and it becomes somewhat of a pain to sort through all of the pages just to see if you have any toilet paper coupons.

Since March when I started couponing, I have always cut out all my coupons. I'm a visual person, so cutting out the coupons make me look closely at each of them and that helps to remind me what I have. You will see my huge binder below. It is always at its biggest right before the end of the month. Its just bulging at the sides. I love when it is time to go through it and get rid of the expired ones. I actually like it being thinner and lighter. It is so much easier to find things.

Since I figured my schedule was about to get busier soon, that I should try to find an easier way to keep my coupons and a way to get my coupon book lighter. So I came up with combining the two ways . I normally get 5 to 7 of each coupon book that comes out. 4 of them I buy myself, 2-3 of them come from my mother who gives me her's and her neighbors.

I cut out one set of coupons from one of each type of book, on the back of the coupon I write what book it came out of and the date (SmartSource - SS 9/20/08, etc, Red Plum - RP 9/20/08). Those coupons I file in my baseball card holders in my binder.


The other coupon books I write the date on the top of them and file them away in my newly purchased and on sale file box/keeper thingy below. It has dividers and labels to make files like SmartSource, Red Plum, Mail In Rebates and Receipts. So now I keep all of the coupon books in here and have just one set the coupons from each book in the baseball card binder.


When I get my circulars for the sales, I only have to pull out the baseball card binder which will not be so thick after the end of the month and look through the coupons. If I find one I want to take to the store, I look on the back to see what book it came out of. Go to my file keeper and cut the duplicates out of the correct coupon book.

Author: Cheryl
•9:06 AM

11:44am marks the start of Autumn (I rarely call it that, I just say Fall). Oh my Lord. I just wasn't having a good weekend, but this makes it oh so much better. And I just sent another nice payment to my next credit card I am working on. So more baby steps to becoming credit card debt free.

Celebrate everyone, have some apple cider and some pumpkin pie!!


Author: Cheryl
•4:22 PM

Well after a not so great day at my new part time job, more info on that later, I still had to hit the sales today.

CVS had a few great deals this week where the ECB's were the same as the price of the product, add in a coupon and it makes the item free and a moneymaker.

1 L'Oreal Advanced RevitaLift Serum $11.99 (earn $11.99 ECB's)
1 Crest ProHealth toothpaste $2.99 (earn $2.99 ECB's)
1 Nivea 4Men Body Wash $4.99 (earn $4.99 ECB's)

Total $19.97

Coupons
(1) $1.00 off L'Oreal RevitaLift product
(1) $3.00 off any Crest ProHealth toothpaste (got this in the mail from Crest)
(1) $1.00 off any Nivea body product

ECB's used $9.99
Total out of pocket $1.54
ECB's earned $18.98

I practically doubled my ECB's, and that can never be bad. And added to my mountain of toothpaste in my stockpile.
Author: Cheryl
•8:15 AM

So many things changing after today and so many things coming up. I thought I would just list them for prosperity.

1.) Well today is the last day of free time for me and my husband. Tomorrow we both start our second jobs. Actually that is inaccurate. My husband starts his 3rd or 4th. But I actually think he dropped one of the other ones so its probably his 3rd. Flyers pre-season starts for him too so he will be really busy. I start my side job tomorrow. Its only on Saturdays but since I run around like a maniac anyway on the weekends doing housework, this cuts into my time even more. But its all for the better, to pay off debt and to pursue things we love.

2.) The Office premiere is in 6 days. I'm so excited. I am seriously craving some new Michael Scott material, plus I can't wait to see what happens with the whole Dwight/Angela/Andy triangle and the Jim/Pam thing. I did see the season premiere of House last night, another favorite show of mine, and it was good as usual except for my dumb DVR cut the end of the show off.

3.) It was only 50 something degrees this morning and I was actually chilly. YAHOOOOOO!!!! I so hate summer and love cool weather. Fall is Monday and I am so excited that I can't stand it. I can't wait to switch to my winter clothes and go get a chai latte and eat apple donuts.

4.) And you know what Fall means, HALLOWEEN baby yeah!! Its about time I start decorating, so I have to fit that into my very small amount of free time. I guess I will do that at nights after work during the week, unless I get a second to myself on Sunday. But either way I love it and promise to take pictures of my Halloween obsession when I have it done.
Author: Cheryl
•9:42 AM

I live two blocks from a Walmart, a regular Walmart, without a grocery store. Although you can get things cheap there I try to avoid going to it as much as possible because it annoys me, plus I've always been a Target lover. We get all kinds of people passing through our neighborhood on foot to get to the Walmart. I've had people change their babies diapers on my front lawn on their way to or home from store. People take the shopping carts and then abandon them on our street on their way home. I had a young man go down my street on a bike while carrying under one arm an infant, and I mean a living infant.

And once you are in the store its mayhem. They don't really keep it that clean, the staff is very unfriendly and unhelpful, and it is always crowded with some strange folks. So I stay away as much as I can.

The nearest SuperWalmart to me was over 25 minutes away and down a road that gets so insanely crowded on the weekend, it just wasn't worth the gas to make the trip for some deals. Today opens a new SuperWalmart under 10 minutes away in a neighborhood that is known for its shopping in South Jersey. And I may have to actually give in and go there at least once. I have seen many a good food deals on my friend's money saving links. You can get all sorts of food cheap there with coupon deals. I figure I have to give it the benefit of the doubt at least once and see if it works for me.

So new SuperWalmart I will try you for your food selection and deals, but regular Walmart up the street you and I will never be friends. Can't win them all.
Author: Cheryl
•4:12 PM

Summary - Corporate makes everyone in Scranton attend diversity day. Michael overtakes the meeting from the speaker with his inappropriate behavior and tries to teach his staff diversity in his own strange way. Jim tries to make his big sale of the year.

Oh My Lord Moment - Michael comes up with a game where everyone wears a nationality (or what Michael considers a nationality) on an index card taped to their forehead.
Michael : You will notice that I didn't have anyone be an Arab. I thought that would be too explosive, no pun intended. I thought it was too soon for Arabs. Maybe next year. The ball is in their court.

Semi-Oh My Lord Moment -
Michael "If I brought in some burritos or some colored greens or some pad thai. I love pad thai. " Stanley: It's "collard greens."
Michael: What?
Stanley: It's "collard greens."
Michael: No, that doesn't really make any sense. Because you don't call them "collared" people. That's offensive.

The Legend that is Dwight - You really start to see in this episode, the militancy that is Dwight and what a fan of fantasy he actually is. Dwight proves that he can sometimes give as good as he gets from Jim. While Jim is trying to make his big sale, Dwight decides to do some shredding, and Jim cannot hear the customer on the phone. Then Dwight disconnects the call on Jim.


Mr. Brown: At Diversity Today, we believe it's very easy to be a hero. All you need are honesty, empathy, respect, and open-mindedness.
Dwight:Ah, excuse me? I'm sorry, but that's not all it takes to be a hero.
Mr. Brown: Great, well, what is a hero to you?
Dwight: A hero kills people, people that wish him harm. A hero is part human and part supernatural. A hero is born out of a childhood trauma, or out of a disaster, that must be avenged.
Mr. Brown: Uh, you're thinking of a superhero.
Dwight: We all have a hero in our heart.

And Dwight's hero's wear brightly colored capes.

Other moments of note - You do see Jim's struggle throughout the whole day to make this sale. From the interruptions of Dwight, to Michael making him hang up and come to another silly meeting, to longingly looking at his phone ringing while he is stuck in the meeting, to reaching the phone after the client hangs up, to the client's number being busy, to finally getting a hold of the client to find out that Dwight finished the sale and got the commission.

The dialogue with the staff with the index cards on their heads are priceless.

Dwight has "Asian", Pam has "Jewish".
Dwight: Shalom, I'd like to apply for a loan
Pam: That's nice, Dwight
Pam: Okay, if I have to do this, based on stereotypes that are totally untrue, that I do not agree with, you would maybe..not be a very good driver.
Dwight: Aw, man! Am I a woman?

Kevin has "Italian", Angela has "Jamaican"

Kevin: Do you wanna go to the beach?
Angela: Sure.
Kevin: Do you wanna get high?
Angela: No.
Kevin: I think you do mon.

Jim and Pam - The big moment between Jim and Pam in this episode, is Pam falling asleep on Jim's shoulder during the meeting. He looks down at her sleeping and smiles. Its hard not to melt there at this adorable image. When the meeting ends he has to wake her up, but seems to take one more second to enjoy the moment. Pam wakes up slightly embarrassed but smiles and leaves the room. Then Jim in a talking head moment says "Not a bad day". It only takes the little things with him and her to make him happy.

My opinion - I think the show really gets going after a slightly slow start in the pilot. Michael's inappropriateness is still cringe worthy but I think in a more funny than mean way. The supporting cast starts coming out with lines and personalities and the relationship between Jim and Pam starts moving along with subtle sweet and telling moments. But the index card game is the best part of this show, with too many memorable lines to repeat. A must watch.
Author: Cheryl
•3:33 PM

The most reasonable supermarket near me is ShopRite. So that is where I do the majority of my shopping. I sometimes go to Acme for a handful of things or SuperFresh when they have their triple coupons. But ShopRite is the best for bargains in my area, so I do about 75 % of my gathering there.

Some deals that I liked for 9/14 to 9/20

The front of our circular had coupons on them. We haven't seen SR coupons on our circular in weeks.

Ragu pasta 3 for $2.98
Iceburg lettuce .88 cents
Dietz & Watson turkey $4.99 lb.
Edy's Ice Cream 2 for $3.98


Bic Soleil Razors $2.99 - limit 4 - q's in this weekend's paper for $3.00 off so FREE
Ajax detergent 88 cents - limit 4
Stonyfield Farm Smoothies .99 cents - .55 q's on Stonyfield website, so doubled makes it FREE
Reddi Whip Topping $1.59 - $1.00 q's out there so .59 each
Borden Cheese Singles 2 for $5.00 = .55 q's doubled would make this $1.50 each
Frozen Tyson breaded chicken $2.49 - .55 q's doubled makes this $1.49.
Tyson Trim and Ready chicken is on sale ex. $2.70 - .55 q's makes this $1.70 for chicken
Author: Cheryl
•3:07 PM

Well you know already that I tried to get the Purex on sale a few days ago and that didn't turn out too well. I was happy to see that it is a monthly deal, so here it was for this week. My deal went pretty well, and I was fortunate enough to have had a $2.00 coupon for the Aleve Cold and Sinus. I found that in Parade magazine in my newspaper. Be forewarned, that you have to get the Aleve from behind the cashier counter and you have to show ID and sign something on the debit machine. Its potent stuff. I did have a $1.00 coupon for Excedrin PM that I hoped would be counted in their $3.99 deal. It wasn't, but the Excedrin was still a good deal, so I dealt with it without a coupon.

Now I get alot of deodorant pretty much free from CVS'ing, both mens and womens. Unfortunately my husband doesn't like any kind but Degree. He tried the other ones, and Degree just works for him. I had every kind in my stockpile but Degree. So I broke down and bought him one today even though it wasn't that cheap on sale. The things you do for love. I guess I will give the other men's deo to my father and brother.

4 Purex laundry detergents $2.99 each = $11.96
1 Aleve Cold & Sinus 10 tablets = $3.99
1 Excedrin Extra Strength = $3.99
1 Degree deodorant = $1.99

Total $21.93

Coupons
(2) $1.00 off 2 Purex Detergents
(1) $2.00 off Aleve Cold & Sinus
(1) $2.00 off any purchase of $10.00 at CVS

ECB's used $13.00
Total out of pocket $2.93
ECB's earned $10.99

My out of pocket would have been like nothing if the Excedrin PM was in the deal and I didn't have to get the Degree for my husband. So didn't make any money on that one. But I did get nice amount of detergent to keep my stock up. I could have less out of pocket if I did smaller deals. But since I don't get to go very much I try to get a little more in my few deals.
Author: Cheryl
•9:43 PM

Well its a been a hard few weeks for me and my husband. And things are finally looking up. He got a part time job at a place he loves. That starts next week. Today I went for a interview in a field I have always wanted to work in, event planning, and I got the job on my first try. I will be part of the waitstaff at a catering company. The best one in the area. I will be working weddings and special events, helping to set up, work during and pack up after weddings. Its my way of getting my foot in the door to event planning. I get to see how it all works.

Its part time and I get to work the events that I can, so that fits in great with my regular full time job. And hopefully one day, one day through hard work, I will work in that field full time. Until then it gives me experience and a little extra money that I will throw at my credit card debt.

Speaking of my credit card debt, HOLY MOLY, what a pleasant surprise I got today. I had just sent a nice amount (in my opinion) to my card on Friday. But today when checking my bank balance, I see a decent size increase in my one account. Turns out today we got our NJ Saver Rebate back. I didn't think that was coming until October, and thought it would be a couple of hundred dollars smaller.

So after I was done doing my happy dance, and I am notorious in this house for my dances for all occasions and moods, I went right online and paid off completely my first credit card on my list!!!!! YAHOO! What a great end to my day.

Tomorrow I am getting some great deals at Shoprite and CVS, so I will post them as soon as I can. I thought you would like to see pictures of my stockpiles from all my couponing. This of course isn't every little thing I have ever gotten as we have used quite a bit. But its not bad for starting this all in March.

Author: Cheryl
•3:24 PM
My brother moves from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale this weekend. I can't believe he is saying goodbye to that beautiful city just so he can swim year round on his lunchbreak. Chicago, I still love you, and hope to visit you one day again.

Well I tried to go to CVS on Wednesday to get the hidden Purex soap deal. It is only 2.99 each and giving 1 ECB and we have coupons for $1.00 off two. I got all the way to the store, put the Purex in my cart, got my coupons ready. Annnnnnnnddddd.....found out I left my wallet at home from when I cut up my credit cards yesterday. Lovely!!

I had to put the detergent back and come home. My money and CVS card was in there, so I had no choice. It was already 8pm at night so I didn't feel like driving back over. So I planned to go back on Thursday night after work. Well a massive 4 car crash on my major highway home, pretty much paralyzed all of the roads around the area I work. It took me an hour and a half for a normally 20 minute drive. I didn't feel like going anywhere after that. And I am debating going tonight as I figure there probably isn't any left. (getting bitter in my old age, huh?). But we will see.

I don't know if any of my readers (if I have any), shop at Shoprite. But if you do leave me a comment. I scour their ads every week and come up with some good deals. But I never thought to post them. Let me know if you would like them.

Thanks to my hubby's job on the side, I was able to send a nice chunk of money to the first credit card I am trying to pay off. It feels good to be back in the saddle again. I go tomorrow for an interview for a 2nd job I am hoping to get. It is in the field I would eventually like to get into and it would give me some extra money to go towards our debt.
Author: Cheryl
•8:53 PM

Well I cut up all our credit cards tonight, except for one for each of us. I am keeping mine in case of pet emergencies. My husband is keeping one of his for the airline credits. The rest are gone and we begin throwing any cash we can get at them. I even feel a little better just getting started.

I am also looking for a part time job to supplement our income. I am trying to find something that would get my foot in the door of what I want to really do for a living. I figure if I am going to spend nights and weekends earning some extra money then it might as well be at something that I like to do. I want to be an event planner. Its something I have had an interest in for years and even do a little bit at my current job. I sent out some resumes today and tonight I will make some phone calls.

I'm so glad I got into the couponing and saving, this will really help with finding some extra money for the debt.

And we only have 2 1/2 weeks until October, the best month of the year. I just cannot wait.
Author: Cheryl
•2:36 PM

Sorry, been a few days since I posted. I was incredibly busy at my full time job; we finally had the memorial for my father-in-law and went to a party for a friend of ours who is being deployed to Iraq. Heavy week.

So back to our regular schedule, I was definitely happier with the deals that CVS had this week. Seemed like there was more to choose from, like the old days. Also excited to get some Aussie products. I used to love these and don't know why I ever stopped buying them.

2 Aussie shampoos $2.49 each = $4.98
2 Soft & Dry deodorants $2.99 each = $5.98
1 Revlon Nail Polish $3.99
1 Loreal Skin Genesis cleanser = $5.99

Total $20.94

Coupons
(1) $2.00 off any two Aussie products
(2) $1.00 off any Soft & Dry
(1) $2.00 off any Revlon cosmetic (CVS CRT)
(1) $1.00 off any Loreal cleanser
(1) $2.00 off any purchase of $10.00 at CVS

ECB's used $11.50

Total out of pocket .82 cents
ECB's earned $14.99

So made a nice little profit on that and some cool items. Still contemplating if I am going to go one more time again today. Gotta look over that circular again.

In addition to my normal grocery shopping I have also been hitting Superfresh to look at the manager's special meats. One week I got split chicken breasts (huge ones) for $2.00 each (2 in each package). This week I scored with some big turkey legs (as I call them Renaissance Fair style turkey legs), these were only $1.97 each (3 in each package).

But I had heard that Superfresh had Pert Plus on sale for $2.00. I have a ton of $2.00 off coupons for these, making them free. So I took 4 and much to my surprise the Pert had stickers on them for mail in rebates, as you can see in the picture below. You can only do one rebate per household, but at least I will be making a profit off of one of these. Score!!


Author: Cheryl
•6:51 PM


One of my favorite blogs is Money Saving Mom. I check her site many times a day for tips on saving money, coupon deals, freebies, and just overall fantastic advice.

Today I saw her site an event she has ever month on your financial shape. She has a list of her financial goals for 2008. She has done an amazing job along with her family at knocking down quite a few on her list. And she has inspired me to do the same. Although I am getting in the game late, I am going to start with my goals for the next four months of 2008. So it will be a shorter list, but better late than never.

Its time, it really is. I'm 35, with credit card debt. I don't want to be living paycheck to paycheck. Using coupons has already given me a push in saving money, but its time to make goals. I hope you will check out her site and join me on pursuing your financial goals. It can't be nothing but good for you.

Short Term Financial Goals for 2008

1.) Pay off first credit card. Balance is $721.80. I have to start with the smallest one. Yes, scary that is my smallest one. But knocking off the smallest one gives me a boost to keep going.

2.) Going with goal #1. To not use any more credit cards. As of today I take them all out of my wallet.

3.) Christmas kept under control. My husband I used to spend a pretty penny on each other for Christmas. We have no kids, so we felt okay to spoil each other. Problem is that money could have went to our debt instead. I want to cut our Christmas budget by 75% (sorry honey, got to be done).

4.) Drastically cut eating out. This is where me and hubby blow through the most money. $40 here, $60 there. When we have a fridge and freezer full of stuff I get very cheaply we are still prone to go out several times a week. All of that money needs to go to our debt.

I'm gonna keep my goals at that for now since I only have 4 months. If I do pay off card #1 before that I can always add card #2. There are plenty to choose from, yikes.
Author: Cheryl
•3:04 PM

One of the great things about my four day weekend was that I was able to go to the stores alot, and do more of the deals that I really don't have time during normal weeks.

This long weekend I went to Shoprite, Acme, Superfresh, Walmart and CVS 5 times. Which I think is my record. Not going to get all specific on these deals, but I will give you a summary.

Above is my 3rd trip to CVS for the Pantene. It was on sale for 3 for $9.97. I have buy one get one coupons for each set and a coupon for $1.00 of 2.00. Combined with my normal $2.00 of $10.00 purchase at CVS I only spent $1.00 and got $4.00 in ECB's back.


My 4th trip to CVS wasn't too bad, except for they wouldn't take one of my coupons for the Colgate even though it was a CRT from their own register tape and it had my name on it. They said it was coming up invalid. I had no clue why, so I ended up paying a total of $2.50 for the purchase. But I still got $4.00 in ECB's back. I have coupons for $1.00 off 2 of the rice krispies (which are great for my husband's lunch). $1.00 off coupons for each of the Scotch rollers. They didn't have any actual rollers left, so the refills were just fine. The rollers were on sale buy one get the other 50% off and with 7 pets in my house, these are like gold. And the toothpaste was the ECB deal. I have so much toothpaste its really insane. As soon as I use a tube its replaced with 2 more.


Later in the day I read on one of my favorite coupon sites, that Dawn Hand Renewal dish soap was ringing up for 99 cents. And there are $1.00 off one coupons in the P&G saver. So I took them with me on my last trip but they were cleared out of them. So I stopped at my other CVS on the way home and they had plenty of them. So I got 3, wish I had more coupons for them, but free is free. I also picked up another pack of straws on clearance for .25 cents.

I rarely go to Walmart. The nearest SuperWalmart is over 25 minutes away and the traffic getting there is horrible. Most of the food deals people find at SuperWalmart. We have a regular Walmart up the street (which is a pain in the butt to my neighborhood), but since it isn't going anywhere I might as well use them. I compiled a list of stuff I may be able to get there from everyone's Walmart deals and went on my way. Well I had about 15 things written down and only got 3 but its better than nothing. I got the Glade Plug Ins for .29 cents ($4.29 minus $4.00 Glade coupon). The Suave hairspray was only .49 cents each (.97 cents minus $1.00 off 2) and I took my Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta coupons just in case and they were on sale for $1.50 each. I had $1.00 off each coupon, so I got pasta for .50 cents. Not too bad.


Last but not least, Acme was having their Edy's steal again. If you go on the Acme website and sign up for the Avenue savings, you can download savings directly onto your Acme card that count for the item on top of any sale they are having plus coupons. Edy's ice cream is buy one get one free $5.99 and the Avenue savings for yesterday was $2.00 off each. So that comes down to $1.99 for two things of ice cream, which is a steal considering how much these babies go for on their own. I stocked up as you can see in my freezer above. I really need a bigger freezer or a separate one downstairs. Hopefully some day. But from a sugar addict here, this is heaven.