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The winner of the Nuskin ageLOC kit is jjak2003! I will be sending you an email momentarily.
Thanks for the over two hundred entries! I’m sometimes super slow about counting entries because I want to make sure that I count correctly and don’t end up announcing the wrong person as a winner. It takes a time for my house to be completely quiet so I can concentrate to do that! Thanks again everyone. I will keep trying to find awesome giveaways for you to enjoy!
>The winner of the Pay Pal cash giveaway for April is aunteegem! I have sent an email and as soon as I hear from her I’ll be sending over the cash. Thanks for all the entries! I will post the new giveaway for May soon so stick around!
>Coupons are kind of popular nowadays. When TLC’s Extreme Couponing first premiered, many people wanted to learn how to use coupons to save money like the people on the show. These people may not have ever used a coupon in their life (gasp!). Before you learn how to be “extreme” with coupons, you should learn some basics. So let’s start at the beginning.
Coupons are available for use in grocery stores, as well as fast food restaurants and retail stores. If you can learn how to cut down on your grocery bills by using coupons, it is like found money.
There are different types of coupons available to be used. There are manufacturer coupons that can be used on the specified product at any store. These can come from a Sunday paper coupon insert, from a company’s website, or they can even be found at a store on a display. Let’s learn some of the different types of coupons and different ways to get coupons.
A store coupon is a coupon that is redeemable only at a certain store. They will normally say “only redeemable at…” There are some instances when these coupons can be used at other stores, but that is for another article.
A Catalina is a type of coupon that prints at the store, usually at the time of purchase. These Catalinas are redeemed at the store from which they were printed. These coupons might print at the end of your purchase and they often come in a few varieties. These include:
* money off coupons for your next order (like save $1 off of your next purchase)
* register rewards (these come from Walgreens and are a reward for purchasing a specific product)
* coupons for a specific product (for example, save $2 off your next purchase of Excedrine Migraine)
Similar to Catalinas are Extracare bucks. These are exclusive to CVS and are store coupons that can only be used at CVS. Learn more about CVS and Extracare bucks here.
An Internet coupon is one that is you print from off of the Internet. Companies may do promotions where they offer a high-value coupon for a “like” on Facebook, or even as a thank you to customers. These coupons are printed from your own printer. Often, these can be printed two times by simply pressing the back button after the first print. These coupons are usually limited to two per computer. Coupons.com, Redplum, and Smartsource are some places where you can get started printing coupons.
An eCoupon is a coupon that is loaded onto a store card. I’ve never had the chance to use one of these yet as the stores that I shop at don’t offer them. But some stores offer coupons that you load right onto a store card and once you take them to the grocery store and purchase the items, the money comes right off of your order once you scan your card.
Another way to get coupons is to call or email companies to ask to be put on the company coupon mailing list. These coupons are sometimes high value coupons so it may be worth your time to make a point of emailing companies whose products you use frequently.
Yet another way of getting coupons is with free samples. I LOVE me some free samples. More often than not, when you get a free sample a company will include a coupon in with the sample so you can purchase the full sized product at a discount. These are sometimes great coupons with high values!
Sometimes people don’t want to start couponing because they think it is too difficult or too time consuming. While it is true that it takes time to clip the coupons and organize them, it might not take as much time as you would think. If you are not interested in extreme couponing, you don’t have to spend nearly as much time as the people on the show. And once you get used to using coupons, it is not difficult at all to remember to take coupons with you when you shop. We don’t leave the house without coupons in our family! Even if we are going to retail store, we use coupons.
If you want to start using coupons right away, you will need to start collecting them. Most couponers buy a Sunday paper (or two, or ten). These newspapers have coupons on all Sundays, except for on Holidays. Once you get your flyers, you can look at the coupons available to determine the best deals. Next week we will learn more coupon basics so stay tuned!
>Click here to go check out a free sample of Dove Go Sleeveless. Sample deodorants make great freshen-uppers for your purse!
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The winner of the Lennox tea light set is Audrey! I am sending you an email to get shipping information. Thanks for all the entries everyone! I hope to keep having more great giveaways for my awesome readers so stay tuned!
>My friend Melissa from Melissa’s bargains has great CVS match-ups and sceneraios for those of you who are new to shopping CVS and may not have ECB’s yet.
FREEBIES:
Buy Blink Tears (.5 oz) or Gel Tears (.34 oz) – $7.99, get a $7.99 ECB (limit 1 per household)
$1/1 Blink Tears – 4-3 SS
Final Price = $6.99 after coupon
NOTE: Some boxes reportedly have $4/1 peelie coupons, which would make the deal even better!
Buy Dove Men + Care deodorant – $.99 (limit 5)
$1/1 Dove Men + Care – 3-27 RP
$.75/1 Dove Men + Care deodorant printable
Final Price = as low as free after coupon
ECB DEALS:
Buy 7 Up, Canada Dry, Sunkist or A&W – 3/$10, get a $3 ECB (limit 1 per household)
Final Price = 3/$7 after ECBs
Spend $15 on Clean & Clear, get a $5 ECB (limit 1 per household) – PSA $5.49
BOGO free Clean & Clear body wash – 3-27 SS
$1/1 Clean & Clear – 3-27 SS
$2/1 Clean & Clear printable
SCENARIO:
Buy 3 Clean & Clear products – $5.49/each
Use 3 $2/1 printables
Spend $10.47 OOP, get a $5 ECB
Final Price = $5.47 after coupons/ECBs ($1.83/each)
Click here for more of Melissa’s match-ups! I suggest you check these out if you are new to CVS shopping, she really breaks it down with scenarios and everything so you know exactly what to do.
>Grab this $2/2 Reach toothbrush coupon and get free toothbrushes at CVS and other stores. Print now before the limit is reached!
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Have you tried olive oil for baking? Until I had the chance to review this book, I had never heard of such a thing! We are food network die-hard fans and I had never heard of baking with olive oil before.
I had the chance to review Micki Sannar’s book, Olive Oil Desserts: Delicious and Healthy Heart Smart Baking
Now, I know what you’re thinking, E.V.O.O in cookies? Actually, you use a pure olive oil of your choice. If you are an olive oil user than you can choose one whose flavor you enjoy. If you are not a regular olive oil user, Micki’s book offers suggestions.
So we tried the recipe and the cookies turned out really good. It made a lot of cookies and we ended up putting part of it in the freezer. We haven’t thawed them out yet, but I love putting cookies in the freezer and being able to take them out later to have fresh baked cookies.
These cookies were so good ad moist! Our little boy LOVED these cookies. We had to cut him off after he ate a whole cookie because we made them kind of big and we were worried that he might have a tummy ache if he ate too much more. There is some fiber in there, ya know.
The next thing I want to try is the Chocolate Lava Cake. I’ve never tried one of those before so I’m really looking forward to it. We already bought the ramekins and everything so we will be trying those soon. Now that I think about it, we might be trying some this weekend.
What I like about this cookbook is that it offers a healthier alternative to butter. And you won’t even miss having the butter in there. Many of Micki’s recipes use butter extract that you can add for the butter flavor if you want. But Micki’s book also says that it can be left out if you wish.
Overall, the cookbook is an attractive and easy to read guide to baking with Olive Oil. If you are interested in an alternative to baking with butter that is more heart healthy, you should definitely give this book a try. My family and I will be trying out many more of these recipes as time goes on. I would like to see if these recipes can replace many of the more traditional recipes we use- like the one for the chocolate chip cookies. I can’t wait to try out more of Micki’s mouthwatering goodies!
If you want to purchase a copy, you can get it on Amazon 
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