Economic Endeavors

The I did 3 transactions.

My husbands (I had $14 towards my baby deal already):

1 box wipes
1 gallon milk

$5.xx before coupons

-$2 CVS brand skin care coupon

Paid $3 in ECBs, and tax oop, got back $5 ECBs.
_________________

On my card, I did the same transaction twice:

$6 CVS brand diapers
$2 CVS wipes
$2 CVS wipes
$4.99 Loreal Vive (on sale B1G1)
$4.99 Loreal Vive

$14.99 before coupons

-$5/$15 (expired)
-$2/$10 CVS brand coupon
-$2 CVS brand skin care coupon
-$4.99 Loreal Vive B1G1 coupon

$1 plus tax after coupons, earnes $5 ECBs.

This week I got a total of 9 boxes of wipes and 3 packages of diapers, and 16 bottles of Vive shampoo and conditioner. I have already given away 10 bottles of the Vive to family members. I don't have a lot of room for stockpiling, and it's such a blessing to be able to provide for my loved ones!

I wanted to post about this yesterday, but the day was hectic and I didn't find time.

I found out about this deal at Money Saving Mom (thanks Crystal!) and it turns out it's an even better deal than I originally thought by reading Crystal's post.

When you use the code BR41925 at Borders.com, it takes $5 off of the price of EACH regularly priced book in your cart. If you choose to have the items shipped to your local store for you to pick up, then there is no charge for shipping.

I loaded my cart with 20 childrens books that were priced under $5, and it took the price of all of them off, making my total $0. I couldn't complete my checkout with my total at $0, so I added one more book that was priced at $6.95. It took $5 off off of that book as well, making my total $1.95 for 21 books. With a total above $1 (I tried with a total of $0.99 and it did not work), I was able to complete my order and got a confirmation email.

The site seems to be a bit bogged down (no doubt because there are so many people there shppping for this deal), so if you get an error message (or two or three), just hit the back button and try again. It worked yesterday for me and my sister, and this morning for my mom, so it will work for you if you give it some time. :)

More free gifts for my girls for Christmas. I love this kind of shopping!

Right now, Amazon is offering a $10 credit when you sign up for a free 1 month trial of Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime offers you free 2-day shipping (on items ordered directly from Amazon - things that are normally eligible for free shipping with a $25 purchase). This offer is valid through July 28, 2008 for new Amazon Prime members.

Here's what I did to get my free item:

:: Went to Amazon and made sure I was signed out of my regular Amazon account.
:: Clicked this link and signed up for a new account (with a different mailing address) with Amazon Prime (I had to enter a Credit Card number - I used a low-limit card that is currently maxed out, and it still accepted it even though there is no available balance currently).
:: Then, I searched Amazon for an item that was less than $10 that I could use for one of my daughters for Christmas. I found a V. Smile cartridge for my 2 year old, Zoe's, V. Smile Baby game. (Make sure you're ordering an item from Amazon - stuff that normally is eligible for free shipping off $25 or more- to get free 2 day shipping.)
:: I went to "Check Out" and clicked 2 day shipping (free with Amazon Prime)
:: On the credit card page, I did not enter a credit card number for my order. Instead, down where you enter a promo or coupon code, there is a box to use your $10 discount. It was already checked, so I clicked "Continue".
:: Once I got confirmation that my order was complete, I went to "My Account" at the top right of the page.
:: I scrolled down to "Subscriptions Management" and clicked on "Manage Your Amazon Prime Membership"
:: There was a button with "Turn off Auto Update", and I clicked that.
:: I got this confirmation message, confirming that my membership would not be renewed after the trial: "Your trial membership will not upgrade to a full membership automatically on August 22, 2008" and the button was changed to "Upgrade Automatically".

There you have it! A free item, a free month of Amazon Prime (I plan to get started on my Christmas shopping at the beginning of next month, so the free month of free 2-day shipping will be great!) and easy, one-click cancellation of the auto-renew.
DON'T forget to cancel, though! Amazon Prime charges you $79 at the end of your first month if you don't cancel!

It has been a while since I posted an update on all of the many ways that I am earning money online. Blogging has been a huge blessing to me, because it allows me to write (which I love in itself), and I get to write about two of my favorite hobbies- saving money and couponing!

But in addition to those things, blogging also holds one more huge benefit: it allows me to earn money - without investing much time, effort, or additional resources.

There are various ways that I am earning money regularly through my blog. Some are just trickles of money here and there, and others are much more lucrative. A few are listed under the "Deals" tab at the top of my blog, but here is a compiled list of all of the ways that I am currently getting paid!

• Cash Crate - this site allows you to complete surveys and complete offers (a lot of them are free trials) to earn money. A huge bonus to this site is that if you refer people, you make 20% of their earnings. So even if you don't do anything on the site at all, you can still get a check every month in the mail for the offers and surveys your referrals complete.
  
• ProjectPayday - This site is actually a tutorial site to learning to earn money by "freebie trading" on forums that are set up for people to trade with each other. I used to make a lot of money through freebie trading. It really is fast and easy, and you can make $100 in a couple of days if you spend a couple of hours on the forums. I got away from it when I started blogging, because I only have a small amount of time to spend online each day because I don't want my children to become computer orphans, so I choose to spend that time blogging. But I still get paid quite regularly by Project Payday, because for each person who goes to the site through my referral link and gives their email address to access the free tutorial on freebie training, I get $2. This is one of those "small trickle" payouts, but it's usually $25 every couple of weeks, so definitely worth mentioning.
• Kontera: This site is one of my bigger paying sites. If you'll notice some of the words in my post text are pink and underlined twice, those are ad links, and I get paid per click, but also by the number of visits I get to my blog. The higher your blog traffic, the more you'll earn. If you are interested in signing up for Kontera on your blog, please consider emailing me first for an invitation, because I get paid a referral fee when you sign up. Email me your email address and I'll send an invitation to you right away!
• Google AdSense: This is another higher paying avenue. There are many different forms of advertising that you can incorporate into your site, and this one pays per click as well as by the number of visits to your blog.
  
• Logical Media: This site offers advertising that you can place on your blog for outside companies, products, or free offers, and you get paid when one of your readers clicks on a link and signs up for the offer. They also have an affilliate program that pays you 5% of money earned by your referrals!
• MySavings: This site is pretty much like Logical Media above, and pays you when your readers click on an offer and sign up.
• PayPerPost: This site offers different topics, products, or services that you can choose to blog about. The payment amount is listed with the opportunity, so you know right away what that post will earn you once it's approved. You can also earn money for people who sign up through your referral link.
• Coupons.com: This is the coupon bar widget you see on my sidebar. Whenever someone prints a coupon from my widget, I earn money!
• Amazon Associates: This site allows you to build a widget to put on your site that hosts products that you choose that are for sale on Amazon. When someone links to a product through your blog and purchases it, you earn a commission!
• RevolutionMoneyExchange: Believe it or not, I'm still earning referral fees for referring people to Revolution Money Exchange. They pay $10 per referral. And if you haven't yet signed up for this great site, please email me so that I can send you a referral email. This site is like paypal, it allows you to send and receive money over the internet. Unlike Paypal, however, it is always free to do so. It was started by the same people who started AOL, and I have had nothing but great experiences with it so far. I have made at least 10 transactions, and all were fast and simple!
  

*Making money easily, quickly, and with little time and effort involved so that I can still spend my time on what's really important - my husband and 3 daughters - definitely works for me!

Ok, confession time. While I'm an addicted, maybe even obsessed couponer when it comes to CVS, I really haven't been in the habit of matching up coupons for groceries. This really is silly, considering that I buy 6 -8 papers every Sunday and have all of these grocery coupons going to waste.

So I'm going to try to take the time each week to plan out a menu based either on the deals at Meijer or the deals at Kroger, or both if they're just that good, and plan out a list that matches the coupons to the sales.

This week I didn't even look at the Kroger ad. I'm tempted to now, but I have my week's worth of groceries planned out for under $40 (that wasn't a planned number, just what it came out to be. I was hoping to have it under $50) just from looking over the Meijer ad.

Ok, here's my Menu Plan for Dinners this week (lots of chicken):

Crockpot Thai Chicken, (thanks OrgJunkie!) brown rice, canned veggies
Chicken, Salsa, sour cream, and cheese in crockpot, spanish rice, canned veggies
Marinated Chicken on the grill, corn on the cob
Chicken Helper, canned veggies
hamburgers, fries, salad
Calzones, salad

For the Crockpit Thai Chicken, I'm going to use a whole chicken, because it's on sale at Meijer this week. I have pretty much all of the other ingredients already, including the brown rice.

For the Chicken, Salsa, etc., I have a little stockpile of salsa in my cupboard from a previous week at Meijer. I also have all of the ingredients for the spanish rice on hand.

For the marinated Chicken, I'm working my way through 5 bottles of Lawry's Marinade from a previous week at Meijer when I was able to get them for free.

For the Hamburgers, we bought a box of 32 frozen patties for $12 for the 4th of July, knowing there would be many left over. We still have at least half of the box, so we'll be having them at least once a week until they're gone.

For the Calzones, I bought everything to make them last week, but forgot to buy sauce (spaghetti or pizza). So this week that's all I need to make that meal.


Ok, so here's what I'll be buying at Meijer (I'm doing separate transactions because Meijer only doubles 2 of the same coupon per transaction, and the Colgate toothpaste and Betty Crocker Warm Delights will be free after their coupons are doubled):

Transaction 1:

$9.99 (2) 40oz Meijer frozen chicken breasts, B1G1 (5 lbs)
$2.56 3lb grade a fresh whole chicken ($0.89/lb - $1/1 Mealbox coupon)
$1 (4) corn on the cob
$4 (6) DelMonte canned veggies
$0.79 Meijer 16oz sour cream (on sale $1.29, -$0.50 Mealbox coupon)
$2 Spaghetti sauce
$2.77 Gallon Milk
$3 (estimate) Half price Sargento shredded cheese
::The following is advertised in-store on a shelf tag (not in the ad) as Buy 2, Get 2 free EZ-PIC instant coupon savings, the register will scan the first 3 at $1.99, and when the 4th is scanned, it will subtract $1.99 twice from your total, and will say "Free item EZ-PIC" on the receipt:
$0 (4) bags Malt-o-Meal Bagged Cereal - Buy 2 at $1.99, get 2 free, EzPIC instant savings (use 4 $1/1 printables)
::The following items are 10/$10, get 11th free:
$4 (6) Hamburger Helper (after 2 $1/3 printable coupons)
$0 (2) Colgate Total toothpastes (after 2 $0.50/1 from 6/29 SS, doubled)
$0 (2) Betty Crocker Warm Delights (free after 2 doubled $.50 coupons from 7/13 SS,)
$0 OreIda Easy Fries (11th item free discount)


Transaction 2:

$2 (4) Dole salads (after 2 $1/2 printable coupons)
$2 (2) Aunt Millie's hamburger buns
$0 (2) Colgate Total toothpastes (10 for $10, -2 $0.50 from 6/29 SS, doubled)
$0 (2) Betty Crocker Warm Delights (free after doubled $.50 coupon from 7/13 SS)
$0 OreIda Easy Fries (11th item free discount)

And I'll do these in two more separate transactions, since I have a total of 8 coupons for these to use:

$0 2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights (free after doubled $.50 coupon from 7/13 SS)
$0 2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights (free after doubled $.50 coupon from 7/13 SS)

All in all, my total should be $36.11 before tax. Not bad!

I have plenty of Chef Boyardee (from a previous Kroger sale), PB&J, and ramen noodles for lunches this week, and I'm sure there'll be left-overs as well.

And a big thanks to MommySnacks for the heads up on a couple of the above deals, and for the motivation to go digging for some more!

Here's an interesting article on the CVS site titled "CVS/pharmacy Shoppers Received More Than $1.5 Billion in ExtraCare Rewards Over the Past Year". It lists the top 5 cities where shoppers saved the highest amount of money using the ExtraCare program in the last 6 months of 2007.

My hometown, Detroit, made #3! I can't take any credit for this, though, since I didn't start CVSing until January of '08. I plan to single-handedly move us up to #1 this year, though. lol Kidding, of course!

Receive Your Free "Healthy Kid Kit!"

Purchase Baby Orajel, Orajel Toddler Training Toothpaste or Gentle Naturals and receive free product samples, product information and bandages in fun designs (a value of over $29).

Send in an original receipt for any Baby Orajel, Orajel Toddler Training Toothpaste or Gentle Naturals product dated 7/15/08 to 9/15/08 and you'll receive a free "Healthy Kid Kit" (ARV: $29.21) that includes: a plastic case, one 4oz Gentle Naturals Baby Eczema Cream, one 1.5 oz. Orajel Toddler Training Toothpaste, one 0.06 fl. oz. Baby Orajel Teething Swabs, one 0.7 oz. Baby Orajel Tooth & Gum Cleanser, twenty bandages and one sheet with product information.

Please include your name and complete mailing address and send to:
"Healthy Kid Kit!"
375 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10017

**The fine print:
Must be a U.S. resident, 18 years or older. Offer begins 7/15/08 and is good while supply lasts or until 9/15/08, whichever comes first. One gift per household. Not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, mutilated, postage-due, incomplete or illegible mail or requests. Allow 6-8 weeks for shipping. Void where prohibited, taxed, and restricted. Gift offer sponsored by Meredith Corporation. TM/© 2008 Sesame Workshop; © Disney. Based on the "Winnie the Pooh" works by A.A. Milne & E.H. Shepard ™ & ©; Nelvana ™Wild Things Productions © M. Sendak All Rights Reserved

Download a Orajel $1.50 Mail in Rebate here.
Take a survey to receive Orajel coupons. This says to allow 4 weeks for coupons to arrive, so I'm not sure if they'd come before supplies run out of the Kids Kit.

Here's what I see for the week of 7/27:

Money Maker!

Make-up:
$9.99 Revlon Limited Edition - Bronzing Face Powder, Blush, Eye Shadow, or Lip Color (earns $9.99 ECBs, limit 1)
-$1 Revlon Color Cosmetic Product (from 4/6 SS)
Profit of $1 after coupon and ECBs!
**Also, check your CRTs! You may have a $3 off Revlon CRT that would make this deal much more sweet!

Free!

Picture DVD:
$9.99 Kodak Picture Movie DVD (earns $9.99 ECBs, limit 3)
FREE after ECBs!


Bandages:
$2.99 Band-Aid bandages (earns $2 ECBs, limit 1)
-$1 Band-Aid (any, from 5/18 RP, or Ultra Strips, from 6/15 SS and 6/22 RP)
FREE after coupon and ECBs!


Cotton Balls and Polish Remover:
$0.99 CVS Brand Cotton Balls or Nail Polish Remover.
Use the $2 off CVS Brand Skin Care printable coupon with these to make them free!


Nearly Free!

Deodorant:
$1.99 Dove or Degree Deodorant
-$0.75/1 Dove deodorant (from 6/8 RP)
$1.24 after coupon!


Tums:
$3.69 Tums
-$2.25 Tums QuikPak printable
$1.54 after coupon!


Razor:
$3.99 Schick Intuition Razor
-$2 (from 6/22 RP)
-B1G1 (from 7/13 SS)
-$3 or -$4 - regional amounts differ (from 6/29 SS)


Hair Color:
$5.99 Clairol Natural Instincts or Loving Care (earns $1 ECB)
-$2 Clairol (from 4/20 or 5/11 RP)
$2.99 after coupon and ECBs!


Other Deals:

Buy $10 worth of Hershey's candy, get $5 ECBs.
There are two pages of candy that qualifies for this deal.
** Check your CRTs! You may have one for $1 off any Hershey's Extra Dark, or one for B1G1 King Size Hershey bar.

Buy $20 worth of Johnsons products, get $10 ECBs.
If you have any $1/1 Johnsons Baby or Buddies, these would work great for this deal (from 4/17 RP)
**This includes all of the products listed on page 13 of the ad, including Tylenol, Benadryl, Stayfree, Carefree, Listerine, Pepcid, Neosporin, Mylanta, Zyrtec, and Efferdent. There are coupons for all of the products listed, so check your inserts!

________________________________


Here's what I see for the week of 8/3:


Money Maker!

Toothpaste:
$2.99 Colgate MaxFresh Burst/ Total Advanced (earns $2 ECBs, limit 2)
-$1.50/1 Colgate Total printable
Profit of $0.49 after coupon and ECBs!


Free!

Gift:
There's a section of this week's ad that says:
"Check your receipt for a free gift coupon when you use your ExtraCard card during your first visit in August."

Energy Drink:
$4.99 Extreme Energy (earns $4.99 ECBs, limit 1)
Free after ECBs!

Toothbrush:
$2.49 Oral-B Advantage toothbrush (earns $1.50 ECBs-I think the limit is 3 on this, but it could be 5... the ad scan I found online was a little blurry, so it was hard to read)
-$1/1 Oral-B Pulsar, CrossAction, or Advantage (from upcoming 8/3 P&G)
Free after coupon and ECBs!

Deodorant:
Sure deodorant is $2.79 and B1G1
Buy 2 and use B1G1 coupon (from 6/29 SS)
Free after coupon (if your store allows a B1G1 coupon with a B1G1 sale)

Powerade:
5/$5 Powerade
-$1/1 Powerade (from 7/13 SS)
Free after coupons!

Shampoo:
Pert Plus is $3.69 and B1G1
-$4 (2) $2/1 any Pert Plus (from 6/29 SS)
Free after coupons!

Make-up:
Revlon make-up is B1G1 free
Buy 2 products priced under $4
Use 2 $2/1 coupons (from 7/20 SS)
Get both products free after coupons!


Nearly Free!

Body Wash:
$1.99 Suave Body Wash
Buy 2 for $3.98 and use B1G1 Suave Body Wash coupon (from 6/22 RP) and $1/2 Suave products (from 7/13 RP)
Final cost: $0.99 for both after coupons!


Other Deals:

Buy $15 worth of Clean and Clear products, get $5 ECBs.

CVS has Trident Xtra Care on sale B1G1 this week. For those of you who didn't get a B1G1 coupon in your inserts this week, there is a printable coupon in the Kmart online ad here. This is a manufacturers coupon and doesn't say Kmart anywhere on it!

Use this coupon to get both packs for free at CVS this week (if your store allows you to use a B1G1 coupon with a B1G1 sale).

**EDIT: Ok, I just tried to print this coupon and it prints blurry. Does anyone have any ideas for clearing it up? Otherwise, I would recommend that everyone try to get their hands on a Kmart ad. Or two or three (if you have Kmart stores in your area) if you didn't get this coupon in your inserts.

Here's how to get your free Schick Titanium Razor:

:: Click Here
:: Click on "Enter Site"
:: Choose your shaving style
:: Click on "Sure Man"
:: Enter your information to recieve a free sample by mail!

This was on the SlickDeals home page, so it may not last long!

It's Monday. And I have a lot to get done today.

Here's what's motivating me: