Friday, November 28, 2014

My Idea of Black Friday Shopping

We're visiting Andy's parents for Thanksgiving weekend.

My idea of Black Friday shopping is not staying up all night hitting the mall. I waited until mid-morning, then went out to snag deals at CVS and Rite Aid. 

No crowds there! 

Most of the items bought were free or nearly free after Extra Care Bucks at CVS or UP Rewards at Rite Aid. 

I stuck to buying items that I know we will use and buy regularly anyways. That made it easy to decide what to buy!

We are stocked up on paper towels, laundry detergent and lotion for a while! My husband uses the Vaseline lotion and it is expensive when purchased at regular price. 

This is what I got at CVS. I spent $13.80 and got $12.97 back in Extra Care Bucks to use like cash on future purchases. 

Important to note that I used a $5/$15 coupon I had received in my email earlier this week. I opted to load it onto my card and $5 was taken off my order automatically. 

This is what I got at Rite Aid. I spent $63.82 out of pocket and got $42.01 back in UP Rewards to use as cash on future purchases.

I don't know if I have ever spent this much at one time on drugstore deals! The downside to Rite Aid's rewards program is that you can't use the rewards until the next day. So no rolling them over into another transaction immediately. I did not want to go out again tomorrow so I bought everything in one transaction.

The advantage to Rite Aid is that a store is located close to my house and work so I can stop in there very easily when I'm out and about.   

 I'll use the bulk of these rewards to buy some higher priced household products such as toilet paper, Rid-X and dishwasher soap. 

These sales are good through Saturday, November 29 if you want to grab up any of these items. Money Saving Mom has lists of the deals available at these drug stores. I looked at the store ads on their websites too before shopping.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all! 


Saturday, November 01, 2014

We Made It!

Every year, we make it into a game to see if we can wait until November to turn the heat on in the house. It is just a fun game of frugality for us. We love squeezing out one more month with a low gas bill.

Many years we end up caving in during a cold snap in October.

But this year... we made it! There were a few cool mornings this past week but we soldiered on, wearing extra layers, using the oven and moving around which all helped to keep us warmer.

This morning was around 40 degrees but felt much cooler. It was 64 degrees in the house which is chilly for me. So, on November 1st, we switched the heat on and it feels so nice and cozy!

Have you turned the heat on in your house yet?