Coffee grounds have many uses

My husband has started bringing these free guys home from Starbucks.

It's hard to tell by the picture, but it is a bag of coffee grounds. They bag the grounds for their customers for you to reuse. Just ask at the counter and they will hand them out, already bagged for you. We use the grounds in our garden but here is a list of other ways that coffee grounds can be reused. 

Guess what our flower beds smell like. It's actually pretty awesome.

This week at the store, part 2

There are lots of ways to save money at CVS.  (I am not paid to advertise for CVS and so forgive me if this list is not exhaustive. It is all I know to date. )

1. Using manufacturer coupons
2. Using extra care bucks you have earned from previous purchases
3. Using extra care bucks you have earned from using your own bag when you go to the store
4. Using extra care bucks foyou earned for getting prescriptions filled there
5. Getting CVS coupons emailed to you each week. (You hit one button from that email and it will load the coupon to your CVS card)
6. Using coupons that you receive from the Extra Care Coupon Center located in the store.

You can use these offers in any combination and you can use as many as you want. This is fairly unique since many stores don't allow you to use more than one coupon for an item.

And frankly, you should be using any or all of these options because otherwise drugstores typically do not have the best price in town.

This weekend, I got all this for $13.14.

It was a combination of using deals from #1,2,3, and 5 listed above. Five cases of drinks, 3 bottles of laundry detergent, scissors, and dish washing soap. If I would have paid full price for all of this at the drug store, it would have cost about $70.00. Like I said,  I spent a little more than $13.00 and in most stores that is less than the cost of the detergent.  (And yes...I know we should stick to water because that is way cheaper. I have no rebuttal.)

The point is...there are lots of ways to save money at the drugstore! Share your stories with me!

This week at the store

We love protein bars at our house and there have been quite a lot of coupons for those in the circulars and online this week. We had gone to Costco a few days before for most of our needs, but I couldn't pass up the double coupons at Kroger. We also needed ketchup (sadly no coupon) and didn't think we needed the massive amount that Costco sells. So, here is how it panned out....

No meal to be found in this picture, but these are staples for us.  Some of the highlights:

-Free stuff:  Colgate toothpaste, Pom drink, and Good and Natural bars. All of these were free with coupons from the newspaper. Actually, I got an $.11 credit for each of  those Good and Natural Bars.

-The bars in the yellow packaging were $.25 a piece with coupons from the newspaper.

Coupons for most of the rest of it rounded out the purchase for a savings of about 50%. If you don't get the paper, you can find most of the same coupons online. Feel free to click the coupon link on this site in the top right hand corner to get  some of these coupons.

And remember, you can always google "Coupon database" and you will find many search engines which will tell you where to find a coupon for the items you plan to purchase.

Happy Shopping.

$36 savings at Best Buy

I told you on Friday about our fun with the Shopkick app at Best Buy last week. We were able to combine a few other offers from Best Buy to decrease our total purchase price.

 My husband told me he had a Best Buy reward zone card and I had no idea what that was.  Here is the down and dirty from their website. Check it out.



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Apparently, we had accumulated $10.00 in reward points! That combined without shopkick rewards resulted in a $26.00 savings on our purchase.

Well, the next day I checked the Best Buy sales circular and realized that they were selling the item we bought for $10.00 less this week. Since Best Buy price matches if they drop the price on any item within 30 days of your purchase, we were able to get that money back by taking our receipt into the store.

We can only hope they drop the price again in the next thirty days because I think we've run out of savings options at this point.

Free money for walking in stores

About a month ago, I told you about a free app called Shopkick for Android and iPhone users. I have been using it this month and can now officially report how great it is.

Read the post, but briefly, it is an app that allows you to earn points for walking in stores like Macy's, Old Navy, Target, Best Buy, Crate and Barrel etc. Every point accumulates over time and you redeem your points for gift cards.

Before I say another word...no personal information is exchanged. You give no one your credit card number, your home address etc. It's all done using the app.

For example, the other day a shopkick user could earn 200 points for walking into Target. That is the equivalent of $.80, because every 500 points you gain earns you a $2.00 gift card. Once you are in Target, you can actually earn more points by scanning items throughout the store, but that is really up to you.

So, after using the app for a little more than a month, I earned 4000 points. That is worth a $16 gift card. We decided to redeem those points toward a purchase at Best Buy this past weekend. I handed the cashier my phone and showed him that I had a $16 credit to Best Buy. He entered some numbers from my phone that act as the redemption code and boom!

This is our receipt. "SK cert $2.00" means that I had eight $2.00 shopkick certificates, so $16.00 subtracted from our total purchase.

You can choose gift cards from lots of vendors the site offers. We just happen to choose Best Buy that day. If you are interested in having the app, let me know and I will send you the link. You get 50 shopkick points right off the bat if a friend signs you up.

We ended up combining some other offers and were able to deduct another $20.00 from our purchase. I'll tell you about that on Monday!

Loose Change, Football and an anniversary dinner

This past summer I told you about a man who paid off his last mortgage payment with $62,000 pennies. We set the bar a lot lower than that at our house. We saved our loose change this past year with the goal to use it to pay for our anniversary dinner. Hardly the mortgage.

Nonetheless, here it is!

I know...there are Coin Stars in every grocery store in America. But, they take a cut of the total counted and with football on the tube  24-7 on the weekends these past few weeks, it was an easy task to roll the change while watching the games.

Digression: Why is it that men say... "I gotta watch the game." The game. As if there is one game. Why don't they say "a game" or "some games"? The game suggests one game. Like the Presidential Election or the Oscars. Well, maybe there is the game at 1:30 but there is another game at 4:30 and everybody knows you are going to watch that one too. I highly doubt that the use of "the game" is a  universally poor grammar choice used by all men in America.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, my husband, who loves him some football,  and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where our wedding reception was held.  They have a beautiful restaurant there and we had a really wonderful evening. I forgot to take the top of our wedding cake out of the freezer, so we enjoyed it a few days later with a candle on top to represent one year down. As I type this we are watching "the game" and there is no other placed I'd rather be.

Get it together quickly-fuel reward points expire this weekend



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Christmas will be here in 18 days, which meals you have 17 days to figure it all out. It's go time.


1. Finish up making the list of gifts you will be buying this Christmas.

2. Specifically name the stores where you plan to purchase these items.

3. Get to Kroger before 4x the fuel points on gift cards expire and purchase the gift cards for those stores. (Click here if you are not sure what I am talking about)

4. You'll find that you have accumulated a bunch of fuel points. If you spend $100 in gift cards, you'll save $.40 a gallon at the tank. You can maximize your savings by taking more than one car to the tank and not turning off the tank between fill ups. Kroger allows up to 35 gallons during a single purchase. Bring your gas tanks as well. If you were to buy $100 in gift cards, you'll save $.40 at the tank and that would be a $14.00 savings at the tank if you were to benefit from the 35 gallon fill up.


Here is the link to the gift cards which Kroger states they sell in their stores.

And you'll feel better your list is done. Consider this the deadline-you'll save money and enjoy Christmas a little more knowing the shopping is done a bit early.

A Giveaway for Living Consciously Readers

Recently, Hen House Linens contacted me to let me know about their line of products. They were kind enough to send me a set of 4 cocktail napkins as well as one of their Frasier Fir candles. As a promoter of cloth napkins, I was excited to see their product. The fabric is beautiful and would seem to stand up to some use. The presentation is also beautiful. I lit the candle and can endorse that it certainly smells like a Frasier fir. We'll enjoy that this Christmas! I am giving away the cocktail napkins. Just contact below by commenting on the post and/or the facebook link and I'll pick a winner by next Friday. When you comment, tell me something fun.

Here is more on the product lines offered from Hen House Linens.  Beautiful.

Setting the Table:

Hen House Linens Dinner Napkins ($9); henhouselinens.com: Wipe up that gravy spill or dab your cider-stained lips with these generously-sized, no-fuss napkins that hold up to countless washes.

Hen House Linens Placemats ($9); henhouselinens.com: Add a festive touch to a holiday brunch, lunch or dinner with these timelessly elegant essentials.

Hen House Linens 14 x 70 Runner ($22); henhouselinens.com: For a truly one-of-a-kind look, mix and match the traditional and the modern prints, to create your own look.

Thymes Frasier Fir Reed Diffuser($60); thymes.com

A beautiful tradition for giving to others, and to yourself, these slender rattan reeds absorb the scented oil, releasing a crisp, just-cut forest scent throughout your surroundings.

Thymes Frasier Fir Candle ($28); thymes.com

Mountain fresh and glowing, this festive scented candle sets the mood and evokes seasonalcelebrations to create special moments that make up our life stories.

keep your kids out of trouble while shopping with them

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Recently, my friend Daynon told me about shopkick.  It's a free app available on your IPhone that gives you "kickbucks" while you shop. Kickbucks are earned automatically by walking in stores and/or scanning items in the store. You can redeem kickbucks for giftcards. I found this YouTube video to break it down for you. The kid is adorable. There is also an official "how to video" on the shopkick website.

Here's the breakdown:
1. You get points for walking in stores.
2. You get points for scanning items in the store. (You don't have to actually purchase the item in order to receive the points...just scan them with your IPhone.)
3. You redeem acquired points for gift cards.
4. This is a great opportunity to keep your kids entertained while shopping with you.  A scavenger hunt of sorts.

If you are interested, let me know. I can refer a friend from my app.

This week at the store

I am not really going to the store and planning any big trips, because of the hip. I am so grateful for the wonderful friends and family who are bringing us meals during this tricky time. Last week, I shared Audrey's haul with you and this week Rebecca was kind enough to share her great deals of the week.

She writes that she spent about $44.00 for about $98.00 worth of merchandise. She shopped at Kroger and used sales, manufacturer coupons, and Kroger coupons to save $54.00ish!  She used a gift card to help one of her favorite organizations, Young Lives. (You can read about that here).

She knows she will save at the pump because she increased her fuel points.

 

Rebecca is a busy mom and admitted that this trip required her to take a late night trip sans kids but it was totally worth it.

 

 

 

(Sorry for the 2nd blurry picture. Rebecca took a great picture, but for some reason it didn't upload clearly,)

 

Yogurt, orgnic milk, vegetables, diapers, cereal..... it just goes on and on.

 

Atta girl, Rebecca.

Pretty Cheap Fuel

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Between November 18th and December 9th, Kroger is rewarding their customers with 4x the fuel points with any gift card purchase. (Kroger gift cards are not included in the deal).

If fuel points are new to you, here is how it works.  Let's say you plan on buying a $100 item at Best Buy for someone for Christmas. Before you head to Best Buy, pick up a $100 Best Buy gift card at Kroger.

Right now, That $100 card is multiplied by 4 to give you 400 fuel points. Four hundred fuel points is equivalent to a $.40 savings at the gas pump. That is $.40 off per gallon of gas you purchase, up to 35 gallons.

Hopefully, your Christmas list is ready and organized and you know exactly how much you are spending at each store. Since Kroger stocks so many stores' gift cards, you'll likely find the store you have on your list.

A little something for the mailman

Our house was built in 1925, so that makes it 87 years old. Although, I guess the mailbox we inherited is not that old, it sure looks like it could have been.

I am not against the golden finish.  I am just against weathered, nasty, never cleaned gold. So, once again I put my dad to work the last time he visited. (I don't abuse him if you are starting to be concerned about my dad. He actually likes doing all of these projects I write about it.) Just like the lamp, this appeared to be another paint job for dad. I will say that he sanded it before he painted and the finish after sanding looked pretty cool. But, I had the black paint and our door is black, so it seemed like the better accent color. And for the price of a can of black spray paint, here is the new mailbox.

 

 

 

I hope it makes the mailman as happy as it makes me.

Too good to waste

I've needed a beside table lamp for a long time, and just couldn't find one I really loved at the right price. I searched store after store and came up short. I was searching in all the wrong places because all the while, my lamp was in my parent's basement.

My mom found this in front of her neighbor's house one day. She had put it out for the trash man. My mom picked it up with no real intention, but thought it was too good to waste.

(Did  you know there is a section of the county dump here in my town that they call "Too Good to Waste" and you can rummage through it? I only know that because my friend Katie went there in high school because she does random things like that. She returned to tell my 33ish year old self that that was like me - "You are too good to waste!" This in reference to my status as a single woman. I digress...)

(It came with a shade, but I didn't care for that so much, so I just took the base.)

 

 

The height and shape is what I appreciated, but I knew the color wouldn't work. I wanted a robin's egg blue  and found a can of spray paint at Michael's for a little more than $6.00. It was worth a shot, I thought. My dad came for a visit a few weeks later and I asked him to do it because he is such a careful painter. I took a lampshade that I had that I was not using and it all came together.

 

 

 

 Try the same if you see a lamp at a yardsale (or your parent's basement).  It may only need some paint. Since having hip surgery last week, I am in bed a lot. (Nothing serious.) It's nice to have something pretty to look at while I get better. Thanks  to my friend, Melissa, for the "get well flowers" to round out the look!





A whole mess of produce

My friend, Audrey, sent me this picture a few weeks ago.

She is a couponer and she knows what she is doing. She must have even impressed herself with this trip. She surely impressed me. I love this picture because Audrey has shown that you don't have to buy a bunch of processed food to benefit from coupons. I mean, do you see the produce in this picture. It is practically falling off the cook-top.

She wrote:

I got free toothpaste for the church food pantry and took advantage of
the Betty Crocker/General Mills Catalina to get some cheap potatoes
for the food pantry and some of our own pantry staples. Then I used
the catalinas ($15 dollars worth) to get fresh produce. All in all, I
spent exactly $28.00! (just realized I forgot to put the 2 bunches
of bananas and 2 avocados in the picture)....Yay Kroger deals!


Later, she wrote:

I saved $47.23 in 2 transactions (I had $11.20 in coupons, $15 in catalinas from 1st transaction, and $21.03 Kroger plus savings). I love when I can save on produce. The produce alone would have been over $23.00 without a Kroger card.


If you don't know what a catalina is, here is a tutorial from forthemommas.com

If you want to go shopping with Audrey, you best just get in line.

This week at the store

Well, actually this was a few weeks ago. A little orthopaedic hip surgery hindered the blogging process for a while. It's not earth shattering for sure, but it reinforces that toiletries don't have to cost an arm and a leg. Never pay for toothpaste. Never.

 

Had I paid full price this would have cost $15.09 + tax. Instead, I paid $3.50 + tax. Each packet of Angel Soft was $.50 and the toothbrushes were $.50 as well. Toothpaste was free. (The week before this, I picked up 3 tubes of Crest for free. As long as you are not brand specific, you can stock up during certain times of the year.)  It's just matching a coupon that doubles with a sale price.

 

The only person who is missing out is your dentist, because he's not making a lot of money off of you.

A staple gun, a mama that sews, and an interior designer friend

I am a huge believer in mixing it up when I decorate. Thankfully, my college roommate, Rebecca Simpson is an interior design and she has influenced me quite a bit.

Disclaimer: she did not decorate my home, so if you don't like it, it's not her fault. Mostly, I just mean I watch her perform her magic in her beautiful home and then I give it a try. She gets an A+ and I get a C-, but because her A+ is so amazing, guests in our home love our C-. They just haven't been to Becki's house, thank the Lord.

Anyway..back to what I was saying. I like to mix it up. Yard sale + homemade+ big box stores + legit furniture stores.

This is a view of the corner of our  living room if you are sitting on the couch. I'll break it down for you.

There are some built ins that were here when I moved in. They are backed with a houndstooth wallpaper print  that I found at this second-hand fabric store. I think it was about $6 and I had enough left over to share with a friend. It was  hung with double-sided duck tape. Best invention ever.

I wanted a monochromatic look on the bookshelves, so black, white, silver, and grey only made the cut...but most of that was around our house.

See the pillow. My mom just made that for me. She made two pillows. I think the fabric was about $10 for TWO pillows. The inserts were "free" because I had a gift card to Crate and Barrel from our wedding.  DOWN inserts are the only way to go. My husband could care less about the fabric but he loves the pillows.

The investment in that corner of the room was the chair. I needed two small chairs because we have a small living room. It doesn't do you any good to buy a less expensive chair if the scale is wrong. I looked all over town and knew these chairs were the way to go because the size was right. This is the place to spend a few extra dollars. The stool is from a yard sale...$3 bucks maybe. I covered it with a silk fabric that wasn't much because I only needed a bit. Attached with a staple gun. The rug gets a lot of traffic because it is in the room which we live. I can use either side, so it has a longer shelf life. Picked that up at Shades of Light, but again...two sided means it will last twice as long.

Before I ever moved into the house, I had the floors stained that dark ebony. You can see a bit of it.
Almost everyone who walks into our house mentions how much they love the floors--the men too! I think those floors (and our kitchen) will be the gems that sale our tiny little home one of these days.

The lesson of the day: don't do The Room Store.   Mix and match, spend more in some places/less in others. Oh, and add interior designer to your friend list.

Getting checked out at CVS

I stopped by CVS to check something out. As I entered the store, I walked right up to their
coupon center. I got out my CVS card connected to my keychain (still in my hand from taking the keys out of the ignition) and scanned it. I then stood there quietly waiting for any coupons offered that day.

photo credit

Walking in right behind me was an man and his wife. I would say they were about 65-70 years  I can only assume that the man stopped to watch me because this is what followed:

Woman: "I guess we should have one of those cards."
Woman:  "Do you think we should have one of those cards?"
Woman:  " I don't know know where mine is."
Woman: "Do you really think it matters?"
Woman:  "It's not worth it. It's more trouble that it's worth."

Did you notice how many times the man spoke?   In the meantime, I received $4.00 in extracare bucks from the coupon center for standing there for 15 seconds.

A few observations:
1. This woman was clearly having a some internal confusion/guilt for not using a CVS card. It's not weird to  use coupons these days and at some level she must know that.

2. Getting paid $4.00 in 15 seconds is the equivalent of being paid an hourly wage of $960.00.

3. This man thinks woman who attempt to save money are worth staring at.

Driest Summer on Record

Not to long ago, I posted this and encouraged you to "grow something and eat it".

I showed a picture of my dad's garden. He sent the data of what his garden yielded and I thought it was worth mentioning.  Here's a picture of the garden to jog your memory:




30 cabbage

353 Yellow Squash

50 Zucchini Squash

301 Cucumbers

27 Green Peppers

630 Tomatoes

94 lbs. of Green Beans

133 lbs. of Potatoes

540 ears of Corn

My dad ran some numbers, because he loves to run numbers, and estimated that the cost of buying those at your local supermarket would cost the customer about $1300.  The craziest part is that he and my mom harvested all of that but knew the garden could have given them so much more, if not for the fact that it was the driest summer on record in Roanoke, VA.

Although, something tells me they didn't go hungry this summer.

This week at the store

We left town for the holiday and so I just had to get a few things to us get through the week. This was a trip to Kroger and here's the breakdown:

-French's Spicy Mustard: Normally $1.99 but on sale for $.99. with a $.35 coupon that doubled, the mustard was $.29

-The Greek yogurt was $2.89 each, for a pack of 4. Saved $1.50 with a Kroger coupon. Since I had two of those, each four pack was $1.39.

-I saved $1.39 on the sausage combining a coupon with a store sale.

-The peanut butter was 50% off and I had a coupon that doubled.

-The provolone cheese and the peaches rounded out the purchase, with no coupons.

All in all it was a $9.29 savings, spending $10.02. Couponers have a reputation for buying a lot of processed foods, but I hope this reflects a different story. It's also a picture of what normal couponing typically looks like. Television shows lead you to believe that 90% savings is normal.  Saving 40-60% is fairly typical.

Happy Shopping!

Sweet Frog Vs. Yapple

There's a Martin's grocery store about a mile from my house. Directly across the street from Martin's is a Kroger. Directly to the left  of Martin's is another grocery store called Ellwood Thompson's. And just to round out the compass, a Fresh Market is currently being built behind the Martins. Yes. Four grocery stores in a 3 block radius. Wonder who will bite the dust first. I have a thought but will keep it to myself.

So, it only makes sense that in this same little section of town, the yogurt stores followed suit. Sweet Frog was built first and people come in droves. Pretty intimidating competition you would think...but apparently not for Yapple. They came to town a few months ago and moved in TWO doors down from the Sweet Frog. I rolled my house at the arrogance.

Until last Monday.

Last Monday, I was yelling "Whoo whoo Yapple!!!!"   I didn't eat at Yapple. I didn't even walk in it. But now, Sweet Frog has this sign hanging on the front of their store.  (Side bar-I make absolutely NO point if the following sign is on the store front of all  Sweet Frogs. I kind of don't think it is because it is not on their website; however, I've been wrong before.)

They have a deal EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Obviously, I thank Yapple for that.

I took that picture on a Monday afternoon when I walked into town to buy a birthday present for a friend. Little did I know that later that night, our friends Johnny and Joyce would surprise with a knock at the door and we would eventually end up at Sweet Frog. It was about 8pm that night and when we arrived, there was a Sweet Frog worker outside the store encouraging customers to spin a wheel to win certain prices. (Sorry no camera with me to show you). We all won something but my husband won a coupon for a free yogurt! Pair that with Double Punch Monday and we were set. (Did I mention that was dinner?)

I hope someone else builds another yogurt store in Carytown.