I'm so sick of hearing Sarah Palin complain about the joke Letterman did. It was just a joke, lighten up! If Bristol hadn't had a baby then the joke never would have been thought of by Letterman or his writing staff, so it really didn't have anything to do with Willow... I think she is just using this to get back into the spot light since she hasn't been in it in a while. God she is so annoying!

I keep forgetting to blog!

well...

Well I haven't wrote in a long time!! What's happened since? Obama won! yay! :) And Indiana was blue for the first time in my life!
We had Thanksgiving, Anniversary, Christmas, New Year's, my birthday, and Valentine's Day!! This time of year is always crazy with all those things to celebrate in a row! well other than that, just been the same... working, couponing, hanging out... not too exciting....

Wow the newest electoral college map on Yahoo has Indiana blue!!! That's the first time I've seen Indiana blue yet! I hope it's accurate and really turns out to be that way on Nov. 4th!!

what a week

this has been kind of a crazy week! Sunday my aunt Rachel and I drove 2 1/2 hours to go to my cousin Alissa's baby shower... that was cool, but we were scared the whole drive because my aunt's car was acting funny. We were afraid the whole time that it was going to break down. But we made it there and back!

But while we were on the way back Bryan called me and told me his stomach hurt. He didn't really specify how it hurt though, so I thought he just meant he was nauseous and I remembered that he took diet pills that day and the day before, so I thought the pills were making him feel sick. But then when I got home he said it was a sharp pain, not nausea so I told him he should go to the hospital. But it was around 9 or 10pm so he said he would just go the next day if it still hurt. Well the next day it still hurt so he called his doctor's office and asked if they could get him in asap. He saw his doctor around 4pm and the doctor sent him to the hospital for a CT scan. He got the scan around 7pm and it was inconclusive, but the surgeon said that from the symptoms and his age that it was most likely his appendix. So he had surgery at 9pm to have his appendix removed, and the surgeon said that he was right, his appendix was inflamed. We're glad it was caught on time! Luckily I wasn't scheduled to work on Tuesday, so I was able to be at the hospital all that time... he got to leave Tuesday afternoon. He's still really sore though. And yesterday was his birthday. It sucks that he's in pain on his birthday. :(

A cool thing that happened this week though is that I found out how to work for ChaCha. I had heard of ChaCha before but didn't know that anyone could apply to work as a Guide and that you just work right from your own home. It's awesome. I just sit here in my spare time and make money expediting questions online for ChaCha! You can just log on and work whenever you want for as long as you want! So far I've worked 3 hours and made $10. That's only $3.33 per hour but now that I'm starting to get the hang of it more I'm starting to get faster at it, so I think I'll be able to make around $4-5 per hour (you get paid a certain amount for each question you answer, so the faster you answer the more you can make) That's not too bad for something that is easy and fun and I don't even have to leave the house. :) If anyone wants to do it too, just let me know and I'll give you my e-mail address to put in as the person who referred you.

CVS

My CVS trip this week.

1 Swiffer Sweeper Starter Kit - $7.99

1 Swiffer Duster Starter Kit - $6.99

1 Olay face wash - $7.99

2 Colgate Total Advanced toothpastes - $3.49 x2 - $6.98

2 Revlon eyeshadows - BOGO $6.49

3 8pk Scott paper towels $5.49 x3 - 16.47

5 Gatorade 

Total = $57.91

coupons used:

- $10 off purchase of $50

- buy a Swiffer Sweeper Starter Kit, get a Swiffer Duster Starter Kit free - $6.99

- $1 off Swiffer Sweeper Kit

- $3 off Olay face wash

- $1.50 off Colgate Total Advanced x2 - $3

- $2 off Revlon Cosmetics x2 - $4

- $1 off Scott paper towels x3 - $3

Total = $26.92

used $22 Extra Care Bucks

Total = $4.92+tax  earned $12 Extra Care Bucks for next time!

And I found out the CVS I shop at starts their sales early!  They start the new sale on Saturday afternoons instead of Sunday... so I don't have to go at midnight anymore! I can go Saturday after work! 

I can't wait to see Sarah Palin get crushed by Joe Biden tonight!  If her interviews this past week (especially the one with Katie Couric) are any indication of how she's going to do tonight, I can't wait lol.   The more I see her and learn about her the more I dislike her, and I didn't even like her at all to begin with. 1. She is not at all qualified. 2. She is wrong on everything she says, that is on the rare occasion she actually says anything.  Like with the Katie Couric interview all she did was throw out random "key phrases" that she thinks people want to hear. She didn't say anything of substance at all.  She didn't have any answers at all, it's like her head is empty. She couldn't even think of the name of a newspaper, let alone anything else.  I know they've had her practicing all week, but she was so bad at those interviews that I don't think she can improve as much as she needs to in that short amount of time.  It's going to be great! 

!!!

At CVS tonight I got $131 worth of stuff for $51! :) I got 2 64 load bottles of Tide, 2 Neutrogena Moisturizers, 2 Nivea Men's body washes, 2 Adidas Men's deodorants, 8 12 pks of Pepsi, and 10 32oz Gatorades. I think that's everything. CVS is the best store ever. :)

I haven't wrote in a while... I always do that... I make a blog, write in it a few times, and then slack off or forget about it lol... I'll try to keep writing... not that anyone cares cause like I said I'm boring!  :)

There's a lot off stuff on sale that I need this week at CVS! Last week there wasn't much.  I'm going there right at midnight tonight when the new sale starts because I'm so sick of every time I go there to get something on sale, the shelves are empty.  So I'm going to beat everyone to it! lol Bryan's right I am a dork. :)  But I hate getting rain checks and waiting for it, I'm impatient. :) 

I bought my dad's birthday present yesterday. He's turning 50. I got him tickets to see Gallagher at the Star Plaza.  And I got surprisingly good seats! It was weird though. I looked up tickets with a dinner package since you're suppose to get better seats if you get a dinner or vip package. The seats were in the 10th row with the dinner package, that was fine- I almost bought them.. but then I got curious and searched for just seats with no dinner package and seats in the 7th row came up! so I got those. :)  And the 7th row is part of the celebrity circle, the last row of the celebrity circle, but it's still the celebrity circle. :)  I've never been able to get tickets that close before. I'm glad, but it also worries me cause it makes me think the tickets aren't selling very well and that could mean they might cancel it :(  That would suck. 

I love CVS again! :)

I went back to CVS today because I heard that the new Dawn Hand Renewal dish soap was on sale for 99 cents.. I thought just the regular Dawn was on sale... but nope the new Hand Renewal kind is also on sale... there was a $1 off coupon in this weekends newspaper so I got it for free! :) I felt weird just only buying that cause my total would be $0... so I bought 2 boxes of cereal too.. they were a decent price.. got them for $1.50 each w/coupon... $1.50 is the most I will pay for a box of cereal... I usually get them for $1.30 w/coupon... that's how much they were at Meijer a couple weeks ago... one time I got some at Walgreens for 66 cents w/coupons... but usually the best is $1.30... 

ugh, I have to be up for work in 4 hours and I'm not tired. :( I'm an insomniac.

I'm so happy, Bryan's parents gave us a Tivo box they weren't using and it's a dual tuner so we can record 2 shows at the same time! The Tivo box we had before only recorded one at a time. Now I can record both The Office and Grey's Anatomy on Thursdays... and there are some other shows I like that are on at the same time too on other days...

I love CVS!

I love the combination of CVS's sales/ECB's and coupons!!

Today I got 9 bottles of Suave body wash, 2 Cover Girl Lipglosses, and 2 tubes of Colgate Total and only paid about $10.

I bought the body washes at one CVS, but they didn't have the color of lipgloss I wanted so I went to another and got the lipglosses and toothpaste.

Here is how I saved:

9 body washes @ $2 each = $18
- 3 BOGO coupons
- 1 $2 off 3 coupon
- $2 Extra Care Bucks that I earned from a previous purchase
Total= $8
And I earned $6 Extra Care Bucks to use on my next purchase.


2 Cover Girl Lipglosses @ $5.99 each + 2 Colgate Total @ $2.99 each = $17.96
- 1 $1 off Cover Girl coupon
- 1 BOGO Cover Girl coupon
- 1 $1.50 Colgate coupon
- 1 $1 Colgate coupon
- $6 Extra Care Bucks that I earned from the body wash
Total = $2.47
And I earned $9.99 Extra Care Bucks to use on my next purchase.

And I used to think CVS was too expensive! lol

This weekend...

Bryan's sister Laurie came to visit from California to bring her new baby for everyone to see. His name is Jaden, he's 7 weeks old, and so cute. :) Fri. she had their parents' baby-sit and the 3 of us went to the movies to see Pineapple Express. When Bryan first showed me the commercial for the movie I was like "ok? what's it about?" The commercial didn't really say what the plot was... but it turned out to be really good and funny.

stupid people!

I have been so sick of hearing that some people who wanted Hillary Clinton to win the nomination say that they are going to vote for McCain just because she didn't get it. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! If you are for something, then why would you go and vote for the exact opposite! That makes no sense! And now McCain is obviously trying to cater to those people by choosing a women for his VP, but she is nothing like Hilary Clinton... hopefully these stupid people will realize that and vote for Obama as they should!!

I'm a dork, but I don't care cause I save lots of $$

I've recently gotten into couponing. I used to use coupons here and there, but just recently discovered how to use them correctly. Didn't even know that I wasn't getting it before lol. But I'm so glad I know now. Bryan says I'm a dork, but I don't care cause I've really been saving a lot.

Something I didn't know before is that when coupons say "one per purchase" that does not mean "one per transaction" as I once thought. For instance, I thought if I had coupons for Colgate Toothpaste and was buying 2 tubes of Colgate Toothpaste I would only be allowed to use one of the coupons. Well that's not true! If I have 2 Colgate coupons and I'm buying 2 tubes then I can use both coupons because each tube is a separate purchase even though it's being rung in the same transaction. I can't believe I never knew that before!

Another thing I've learned is that if you wait for an item to go on sale, sometimes the price will be lower than the amount the coupon is for, therefore you get the item free! A good example is: last week Bic Silky Touch disposable razors were on sale at Meijer for $1.64 per pack, I had coupons that were for $2 off any package of Bic Silky Touch disposable razors... so I got them free! I had 8 coupons so I got 8 packages free!
Some other things I've gotten free have been: Colgate Total Toothpaste, Pillsbury Cresent rolls, Pert Plus shampoo, Powerade, Suave deodorant, Cottonelle 4pk of toilet paper, French's Yellow Mustard, Advil, Rolaids...
Some of the items like the Cottonelle, Mustard, Rolaids, and Cresent Rolls, were free at Kroger because they double and triple coupons... like the Suave deodorant, it was on sale for $1.50, I had a .50 coupon that tripled making it free. :)
Another thing I learned is that CVS is not as expensive as I thought! The Colgate Total was free there because it was on sale for $2.99 and then they give $2 Extra Care Bucks back to you when you buy it. There are coupons for $1.50 off. So it works like this: it rang up $2.99, after the coupon I paid $1.49, but then got the $2 Extra Care Bucks back so I actually got .51 more back than what I paid for it... so they basically paid me .51 to buy the toothpaste from them!

I've been keeping a spreadsheet to keep track of how much I've been spending and saving. I used to spend about $130 a week between Walmart and Meijer. And I would usually get just enough stuff to get by for the week... now for the past few weeks I've averaged around $85 per week and I don't only have just enough to get by for the week. I have a "stockpile" of extra stuff! I have 6 bottles of shampoo, 8 packs of Bic razors, 8 12-roll packs of toilet paper, 4 cases of bottled water, 6 tubes of Colgate Total, 4 boxes of Nutri-Grain bars, 6 boxes of Pop Tarts, 4 boxes of Eggos, 12 boxes of cereal, 10 things of Pringles, 6 things of Sure deodorant, 6 boxes of granola bars, 6 bottles of Lysol cleaner etc... that's just the stuff I have extra of... sounds crazy to some people maybe, but the idea is to stock up when things are on sale and there are coupons for them, that way you won't be stuck paying full price for it at some later time... you may spend a little more at first to stock up, but then after that you spend a lot less... I've been doing this for 11 weeks, the first 3-4 weeks I was still spending around $130, but at least I was getting all the extra stuff! And now that I'm stocked up on some things and I don't have to pay full price for things, I've only been spending around $50-60 for the past few weeks. When I average up all 11 weeks it's about $85 per week.

Well anyways, just wanted to share to hopefully help some other people save too... too bad most of the people I know are in NW Indiana where as far as I know Wise Way is the only place that doubles coupons, and they have a restriction, like you have to spend $5 for 5 coupons to double. Kroger and Meijer here in Fort Wayne don't have that rule. Like if I went to Kroger and bought 1 thing the coupon would still triple. (Here in Fort Wayne Kroger triples and Meijer doubles.) But still if you combine coupons with sales you'll save a lot, you just may have a harder time getting things totally free if the stores you shop at don't double or triple.

Oh I have to add... since I've started doing this I've hardly had to shop at Walmart at all! I mostly go to Meijer, CVS, and sometimes Kroger. I used to think Walmart's prices were cheap, but with combining coupons and sales at other stores, Walmart is not cheaper at all anymore! An example I have is that I used to buy Walmart's generic Equate brand lotion. I'd buy a 24 oz bottle for $2.97. Well recently at Kroger they had name-brand Vaseline lotion 24 oz bottles on sale for $3, I had $1 off coupons so I paid $2 for the Vaseline lotion. Brand name for .97 cheaper than the generic! So I bought 3 bottles!

Some awesome websites for more help are afullcup.com and hotcouponworld.com There are some "insiders" on these messageboards that get the CVS and Walgreens sales advertisements weeks in advance and post them up, so you can plan a head and try to acquire all the coupons you need. You can get extra coupons from thecouponmaster.com and thecouponclippers.com or by trading them with other members of afullcup and hotcouponworld.

Wow this is probably the longest entry I'll ever write and I probably sound like a lunatic to some people lol. But I hope it helps people save $$!

blogging...

This will probably be the most boring blog ever. I don't do anything except go to work and then come home and watch tv and go online. That's it. lol Oh and play Wii. :D I love Wii Fit.

But anyways, I'll just give some basic random info to get started.

26 years old, female, live in Indiana, work for the Postal Service, have a boyfriend named Bryan, my username funnybottoms is from an episode of one of the best TV shows ever: Gilmore Girls, Bryan and I live together, we've been together for 6 1/2 years... and well that's all I can think of... told you I was boring.

Oh and I've recently discovered how much coupons can really save you! I'm always excited about how much I save so I'll post about that... maybe other people can learn from it too!