Extreme Couponing

In case you are wondering why it seems that I have fallen off the face of the earth, well I had kind of checked out. The culprit? My new hobby. Extreme couponing. It almost sounds like a sport and well, I guess it can be and has been to me.

It is Carrie's fault really. I was reading my newspaper one morning and saw a reference to springsbargains.com, a blog featuring the latest deals in Colorado Springs. I visited her blog and was hooked. She posts daily the best deals available in the Springs - sales at Walgreens, where to get free breakfast or sandwiches at local restaurants, clearance deals and what is best to buy at my local supermarket. From there, it all started.

I also learned about downloading and printing coupons from the internet, which I hadn't done before and coupons you can add directly to your loyalty card from P&G, cellfire.com and shortcuts.com that you can use on top of your coupons.

I found some other useful sites that outline strategies to use at the stores, maximizing sale prices and what coupons to use and where to get them:
-www.southernsavers.com
-www.moneysavingmom.com
-www.frugalcouponmom.com
-www.afullcup.com
-www.hotcouponworld.com

I also learned about All you magazine which is stacked full of coupons each month. I signed up for a two-year subscription from a Southern Living Consultant for $18/2 years. Worth the investment.

I enlisted a cousin who is willing to give me her newspaper inserts each week and decided to also subscribe to the Denver Post on Sundays to get more coupons.

I've clipped coupons my whole life, but I totally adopted a new mindset - if it isn't on sale AND I don't have a coupon and it isn't truly essential, I'm not getting it.

For the first time since I moved to the Springs, my food/retail total for last month was down $200! And at the same time, I was stocking up on essentials. I was getting many things for free and in many cases, I was being paid to purchase items! All of my trips to grocery store now reflect at least a 50% savings (most of the time, more) and I even saved 30% off at my last trip to the commissary.

I had a trip to Albertson's grocery store where I got 2 lobster tails, 1 lb of salmon filets, 2 pts of raspberries, 1 doz. eggs and 1/2 gallon of milk for $6. I went to Walgreens today and spent $0 - using $10 in register rewards - to get Pantene shampoo, conditioner, and detangling spray, kleenex, 2 boxes of popcorn shrimp and 6 boxes of Tyson's buffalo chicken wings in the frozen food section. Crazy, but true and absolutely great. I am stocked up on most toiletries I'll need for the next year, including pull ups for spidergirl, and am saving money that we can now put toward trips, entertainment, and achieving our other financial goals. I've been able to donate many things to Northern Churches Care, helping struggling families in the Springs.

I think I have my new hobby down now after much research and learning new stores and websites and such. Now I have time for other things... like enjoying my kids and the summer.

Our Staycation

Hooray! Commander Mouse is off work work for the week. Vacation time! We thought about going skiing for the week since we live in the best place to ski in the entire world. After crunching the numbers, we discovered that the best planned vaca would still cost us @$2000 mostly because we'd have to put spidergirl in daycare for $120 per DAY and princess in ski school if we wanted to ski. So, we're going to put off this vaca til next year when the girls are a year older and we can put both girls in ski school (a wise lifetime investment).

So, for this week, we opted for a stay-cation and a few days away at Winter Park. We just got here to the Springs and are only here for 2 years. People plan their vacations to come to the Springs, so what a great idea!

Some of the things we did this week:
-Rented High School Musical 3 and had spa night with my girls, painting toes and fingernails and camping out in the living room with a tent and sleeping bags.
-Visited Glen Eyrie castle, took the tour, took a picnic on the lawn, hiked around the property and enjoyed the perfect 70 degree weather with my family. Planning to return for high tea with my daughters or my mom when she visits next.
-Visited the Pueblo Zoo and saw Bison, kangeroo, penguins, lynx, lions, zebras, ostrich, and lots more. Had a picnic there too. Spidergirl got to play in Charlotte's web at the playground.
-Had a St. Patty's Day dinner at the Falcon Club at the Air Force Academy
-Saw our first women's gymnastics meet at the Air Force Academy

Tomorrow, we'll be going horseback riding at the academy and having lunch there too.

Thursday, we're lucky to be leaving town for a few days going to the Rocky Mountain YMCA retreat center in Winter Park. They have a fantastic military special for 2 nights including breakfast and dinner for a family of 4 for $80 total. I am so excited. There is so much to do ther, especially for families of young children. Tubing, sledding, skating, swimming, skiing, snowmobiling and anything else winter you can think of.

I wish we had another week!

My email to the Price is Right

Wrote this letter to the Price is Right. Keep your fingers crossed because I really want to be there at the premiere. And I forgot the fact that I'd like to replace my 12 year old Camry with a mustang convertible in time for my 40th birthday. I am thinking of emailing Ellen to see if she has any connections with Drew Carey. I did go to high school with Oswald and was on the crew team at the same time. Hmmmm.



So I'm at the gym watching Monday's show while I'm on the treadmill and we get to the 2nd showcase showdown. The showcase is for a few nights at the Beverly Hills Hotel, a limo to take you shopping and $1000 cash, a makeover and most importantly tickets to the premiere of Monsters and Aliens in 3D. Then there is a red Mustang convertible. If you knew me, you would know why I was using every bit of restraint to contain myself. I've been to Beverly Hills twice and this would be a dream for me. I was thinking, would I take my sister for the shopping and break from the kids or my husband and precious little preschool daughters to the movie. I am the biggest animation fan in the planet and seeing an animation film in 3D at the premiere in LA in unfathomable. So I start to think, what if I were up there? A) I would be screaming but B) I would get my act together because I REALLY want that showcase. I put my business hat on and ran the numbers. My first guess would have been $40,000, but then I really started to think - what would I really bid? My honest bid was $32,000 in my head. When Drew came back from the commerical and announced that actually retail price of the showcase was $32,300 - I about fell off my treadmill. I did yell "no way" and ran to the weight room to go tell my husband what happened.

It got me to thinking. First, what if you guys added a feature on your show adding an actually showcase package that the folks at home, like me, could email or text in our bids and could actually win! Closest big wins - in case of a tie, a drawing happens, name picked win. Winner announced on the next show. Ratings would go through the roof with everyone having to and wanting to watch daily. Second, since the lady didn't win the showcase, can I have it?