Happy Thanksgiving, Favorite Bargain Site, and the Iron Bowl

I know, I know...the title is rather random, but those are the things I want to talk about in this post.

Let's start with Thanksgiving. 

We are at Scott's parents' house right now, actually missing Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  I was with my family earlier in the week, though, and I will travel (without Scott) to their house tomorrow to watch the Iron Bowl (more on that in a minute).

I am thankful for so much of course--God, Jesus, THE GOSPEL, you know the obvious ones--and the other obvious ones, family and friends and being at home with my kiddos.  A HUGE thank you, Lord for that one!!  I am thankful for all of us being healthy and safe and free to make choices about education and church and how we worship and spend our money and things like that.  There is so much that I am thankful for--I could go on and on and on. 

I am also thankful for many trivial things--coupons and Charlotte Russe jeans that are affordable and cute.  I am thankful (not so trivial to me) that I have been able to nurse John for 9 whole months with no glitches.  I am thankful for Sonic happy hour (.86 diet coke!!) and Target diapers, which I LOVE.  They are the only diapers that keep John from soaking through his diaper and clothes in the night.  I am thankful for our house.  Sometimes I am not thankful for it, which is an entire post in itself and not something I am ready to let loose on the blog about, but overall, I am thankful for comfort and safety and space and a place to call our own.  I am thankful for Netflix and Hulu and all the other things that make it easy to not have cable, despite my love for television:)  I am thankful for the library.  I love the fact that I can read almost anything I want for free.  Okay, I could go on and on and on...you get the idea.

Another thing that I am thankful for is blogging and the world that has opened to me as a result of blogs.  I have saved so much money because of blogs.  It's how I started couponing, after all.  It is also how I often find out about things, like Swagbucks, and Zulily.  I love Zulily because it allows me to purchase QUALITY items for as much as 75% off.  You simply create an account (for free), and you receive e-mails for current sales going on.  For example, right now kids crocs are 65% off.  There have also been weeks when they carry brands such as Petit Ami or Castles and Crowns at major mark downs.  Check it out here!!

And finally, the last thing I want to talk about--The Iron Bowl tomorrow.  I have to be honest, I am not even looking forward to it.  Too much is at stake, I am too nervous, and I don't even understand why it matters so much.  That is what I just said to Scott.  We were talking about the game, and I said, It matters so much, and I don't even know why!!!"  Obviously, I know that it doesn't really matter, in the grand scheme of things, but it matters enough that I know I won't enjoy the game, and I will simply be glad when its over.  It's not even a fun rivalry to me--it's just too big.

And those are the things I wanted to talk about.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!

So much I want to blog about, but I will start with CVS

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone.

Black Friday has come and gone.
Vacation has come and gone.

And we are staring at the start of another normal week, except the Christmas Season has officially begun. And I love the Christmas season!! Because I was out of town, I was too late to sign up for any online tutoring hours, so I am looking at some free evening hours this week, which will be spent cleaning and decorating and transforming this home into a little Winter Wonderland. Or, I will at least be decorating a tree. But before all of that talk, there is much more that I want to share, starting with the fact that I am once again able to take and post pictures, so my blog will be slightly less boring from here on out. Thanks to my friend, Ashley, who has kindly let us borrow a camera until we find the means to purchase one. You will be seeing a lot more of this from now on...

But to be honest, this is what I really want to show you.

I am joining the likes of those who post pictures of their bargains. I just can't help myself. Ann and I felt like it was Christmas morning as we entered CVS on Thursday. We were so excited over the deals just waiting to happen, and happen they did.

Scott and I arrived in Scottsboro late Wednesday night, and after sleeping in a bit and turning the kiddos over to the dads, Ann and I headed over to CVS on Thursday morning. I spent some time before we went figuring out our transactions, but because we were nervous that we would miss out on the Crockpot deal, we decided to wing it a bit, rather than spend any more time figuring transactions out. We knew what we wanted to buy, so we loaded our carts, and then we "set up camp" in an out of the way place near the cash register. Here is how it "went down." I had planned our first transaction, so Ann went first, then I went, and as I paid for my goods, Ann figured out the next transaction. And this is how we continued until everything was paid for. At one point, a customer thought Ann worked at CVS. Not so much, though we might move in if we could. And here is what we bought. For a visual, refer to the picture above.

1st transaction

1 Bic Soleil Razor 5.99

1 Schick Quatro Men's Razor 7.99

1 Colgate Total 2.99

1 Colgate Total 2.99

-3.00 Soleil coupon

-2.00 Quatro coupon

-1.00 Colgate coupon

-1.00 Colgate coupon

=14.76 OOP

received total of 17.97 in ECBs

2nd Transaction

1 Crockpot 19.99

1 Aussie Hair spray 2.99

1 Aussie gel 2.99

-2 1.00 Aussie coupons

-5.99 ECBs

-7.99 ECBs

-9.00 ECBs

=1.26 OOP

received 15.98 ECBs

3rd Transaction

1 Maybelline Mineral liquid makeup 8.99

1 Covergirl liquid makeup 7.99

1 Covergirl powder 5.99

-2.00 Maybelline coupon

-1.00 CG coupon

-1.00 CG coupon

-5.98 ECBs

-5.99 ECBs

-6.00 ECBs

=1.45 OOP

received 22.97 ECBs

4th transaction

3 dial bar soaps 5.97

2 Loreal lip glosses 13.98

-3 .30 dial coupons

-1.00 Loreal coupon

-10.00 ECB

-5.98 ECB

=2.43 OOP

received 16.98 ECBs

5th transaction

1 Hershey's Cookies n' cream 1.00

1 Playtex tampons 3.99

1 Johnson and Johnson lotion 5.69

1 Sally Hansen nail polish 3.79

1 Vaselline lotion 3.50

- 1.00 playtex coupon

- 1.00 Johnson's Lotion coupon

- 13.98 ECBs

=2.35 OOP

received 13.48 ECBs

To sum up, I bought everything in the photograph above for about 22.00 (give or take a few cents), and after rolling ECBs to keep the prices low, I still have 14.78 in ECBs.

To put things in perspective, the crockpot alone cost 20.00 OOP, but I paid 22.00 total OOP, not counting the 14.78 I still have to spend in ECBs. Incredible, I tell you.

Ann and I left CVS feeling like we needed to teach the entire world about the CVS game. It has changed our lives, or at least our grocery budgets. Seriously. Seriously.

There is so much more I want to share about Thanksgiving, and about my awesome grocery store trip today, but that will have to wait I suppose. Instead I will leave you with the sight that greets me everyday after nap time.