Random post - Virginia is for Lovers - annoucement of a big move :)

 

I have FINALLY found time to sit down and write a blog post explaining what has been happening in our lives over the last 5 months. I've been meaning to do this for awhile but as everyone knows sometimes life gets in the way and things get pushed back...

If you have been around my blog since the beginning you may remember I lived in Dublin, Ohio when I first started. In July 2012 my husband was transferred to Cincinnati for work and we lived in Florence, Kentucky. It was super easy to keep up on the "Ohio" deals because I still had all the same stores (except no Giant Eagle & we now had a Remke Biggs). Now, fast forward to September 2013.....we found out that we were being transferred to Alexandria, Virginia (10 minutes outside Washington DC)! On October 31st, our house in Florence was packed and we hit the road for Northern Virginia. Big moves are no surprise to us as we have previously lived in Northern, Southern and Orange Co. California but it now made it harder to keep up on "Ohio" deals. I no longer have Kroger, Remke, Giant Eagle or Meijer but instead stores like Harris Teeter, Giant and Safeway. Luckily, I do still have all the national stores - Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Target etc. Because of the lack of the same grocery stores, I am sure anyone who has been around awhile may have noticed a drop in the amount of grocery deals I post along with "brag" post. It's easy to look online and see the ad deals but now much harder to know about the unadvertised deals. I have become a VERY big Target shopper since moving (it's my closest store) so I am excited to be able to share my trips from there and deals I find! Although I no longer play the "drug store" game, I do plan on continuing to post the deals I find all 3 drug stores. I am also excited to share deals from Whole Foods & The Fresh Market (2 of my other favorite stores). I now also have 2 Kmarts within 15 minutes and have found quite a few great deals there (remember the $6 kids grill I posted about a few weeks ago?!) so I plan to post Kmart deals also. Although I can no longer keep up on the *hot* grocery deals, I hope the national deals I am able to post will help some of you.

I will also continue to post the great online deals. Online shopping is my favorite ways to shop because it's so easy and you can usually get better deals than you would find in store! This time of year is pretty slow of great online deals but we should start seeing great clearance deals on winter items soon!

Another big change is our daughter turned 5 on Christmas and therefore will be starting kindergarten this year! We have been spending many, many hours doing "learning books" and preparing her for kindergarten since she does not go to preschool. Since there is also a chance we may not live here come the beginning of the school year, I am spending countless hours researching private school, home school and public school to try to decide what may be best for our living/moving situations.

You may have noticed some days there are no post or few post. It's a big change from a year ago where I would have 10+ post everyday. But, with all the changes (daughter starting school, spring activities, new city, new sites to see etc). I don't always have as much time to post as I once did. I will be keeping up on the blog though and will continue to update.

I hope everyone will stick around, interact on the Facebook page and share deals and bargains that are found locally for others to score! The blog is almost 3 years old and I am so excited all 2k+ of you have joined!

I also haven't shared many "personal" pics or stories recently so here are some pics of what's been going on the last 6 or so months!



Shortly after moving we HAD to take a trip to NYC///National Christmas Tree at the White House

 

 

Family Vaca - Riviera Maya, Mexico///Beaches of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

 

The kids & I during the Capitol Tour (rare pic w/ our faces!) :)

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How we saved over $1200 on our trip to Vegas!

My husband and I headed to Las Vegas last week to celebrate our anniversary. We have been a few times in the past, but usually things are SO expensive we spend most of our time walking around and just checking out the sites. This time, I was able to score us over $1200 in FREEBIES and it made for an amazing trip!

Back in January  I mentioned a Facebook game called MyVegas. This game is owned by the MGM brand hotels and casinos. It is basically a Facebook slot game but you earn real rewards for show tickets, rooms, food and more in Las Vegas! Now, I am usually not one to play Facebook, computer or phone games but I decided to try this out since it says you earn real life rewards. I was surprised at how quickly the points added up and by the beginning of March I made it our mission to collect enough points so we could go for our anniversary trip. Each year instead of exchanging gifts we go somewhere to spend a few days together without the kids. Our trips in the past have been to St. Louis and to Kentucky to do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, so this trip was WAY more than what we usually do.

For plane tickets, I had a $50 Southwest gift card from My Coke Rewards and I was able to collect $100 gift card from Swagbucks in just a few short weeks. After both gift cards and deal watching, I was able to score 2 roundtrip tickets for only $368.00!

Once our plane tickets were purchased we started cashing out for rewards on MyVegas. Both my husband and I were playing the game so we were each able to cash out for 4 rewards each. We cashed out for the following rewards:
2 nights at the Mirage - $418.88
1 Friday night at Excalibur - $161.80
2 tickets to the show KA - $307.90
2 tickets to The Tournament of Kings dinner show - $142.20
2 tickets to The Secret Garden - $39.90
2 tickets to the Bellagio Buffet - $41.98
$50 Monte Carlo dining credit - $50.00
2 tickets to the NYNY roller coaster - $28.00

We needed 1 additional hotel night and since we weren't flying in until 11:30pm I didn't want to pay a lot. I ended up getting us a room at Hooter's for only $29.00. Included was buy one get one free breakfast credit and $10 match play for the casino. I was really excited when we checked in and they gave us additional coupons for $10 off our dinner, 3 free drinks and an extra $15 in match play credits! If you are heading to Vegas and need an inexpensive hotel....this is a GREAT option! The hotel was much nicer than I was expecting for $29! It's not on the strip, but it is within walking distance to MGM/NYNY/Excalibur.

Total Rewards (Caesars properties reward program) also has a reward system online where you can earn free points to use at any of their properties in Las Vegas. For me, this reward program was A LOT harder to earn on because I could never get it to connect to my Twitter account. With this, you basically share videos and deals on Facebook/Twitter and earn points. Once you have 1000 points, you can cash out for a $10 credit. I was able to score the $10 credit within a week or so but since I couldn't connect to Twitter that was all I was able to get. Still an easy way to score a little extra free money for food or drinks if you are heading to Vegas!

I have started up again using both reward systems in hopes I can earn enough to take another inexpensive trip to Vegas before the end of the year! Now I just have to get my husband on board again! ;)

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My Kroger & Meijer run...plus my costly mistake!

I had 2 OYNOs that were going to expire this weekend and I needed chicken for dinner (I'll explain why below) so I headed out to Kroger & Meijer tonight. Neither of these trips are super great, but I wanted to share since I don't have a lot of shopping trip post anymore.

If you live in the Cincinnati area, I noticed tonight at Kroger they have started their "lower prices" campaign. I had my daughter with me tonight though so I couldn't spend a lot of time looking around to see what was a good deal and what wasn't. I did notice that the Annie's dressing (pictured above) has a "new lower price" of $2.99. I checked the price at Meijer when I was there and it was around $3.35. Not a huge price difference and if you factor in the $.75 coupon I had that would double at Meijer still next month, Kroger is only around $.10 cheaper. The Pepsi Next has a new lower price of $1.50 but Meijer has Pepsi on sale for $1.00 or $1.25 every other week it seems. I am not sure if the lower price at Kroger will take away the sale prices and I think it will take awhile to figure out if the new lower prices really are that much lower.

Kroger
OOP: $12.37
Savings of: $19.60

Simple Truth Organic free range chicken $9.09

Kroger eggs $.99
 -used FREE coupon from a Kroger home mailer
=FREE

Cheerios $1.99
 -used FREE coupon from a Kroger home mailer
 -will receive a $.50 Saving Star deposit
=$.50 money maker!

Pepsi Next $1.50
 -used FREE ecoupon previously available here
=FREE!

Jersey Cow chocolate milk $2.79 (sooo good if you haven't had it before!)

Simple Truth Almond milk $2.50
 -used FREE coupon from BzzAgent
=FREE!

Johnsonville chicken sausage $3.99
 -used FREE coupon from BzzAgent
=FREE!

Simple Truth veggie chips $2.99
 -used FREE coupon from BzzAgent
=FREE!

Annie's organic ranch dressing $2.99
 -used $.75 coupon available here (doubled to $1.00)
=$1.99

 -used $1.50 OYNO from a previous transaction

When I go to the grocery store...I like to go alone. The above picture is why :) My daughter was with me and she wanted to get her daddy and brother some candy plus we just HAD to have Cheez-it's since we didn't have any at home. I will say though....it is still cheaper to shop with my kids than shop with my husband! ;)

Meijer
OOP: $0.00 ($20.94 went on a previously earned gift card)
Savings of: $17.41

There was a 5% off your grocery & H&B mperk available today so the prices listed below are after the 5% was taken off:

Earth Balance organic butter $2.84

Watermelon chunks $.77

Strawberries $1.43

Cantaloupe $.89

Sour gummy worms $1.13

Rhodes rolls $2.37

Icee $1.22

Berry Juice $1.56

Cheez-it's $2.93

gummy candy $.94

Reese Pieces $.95

Ricotta cheese $1.61

Meijer bread $.95

Annie's Organic mac & Cheese $1.58
 -used the $.35 coupon available here (doubled to $.70)
=$.88

Annie's organic crackers $3.03
 -used $.75 coupon available here (doubled to $1.00)
=$2.03

2 Pampers wipes $1.79 each
 -used 2 $.50 coupons available here (doubled to $1.00 each)
=$.79 each

Ocean Spray grapefruit juice $1.90
 -used $2.00 coupon previously available here
=FREE!

Carefree liners $.90
 -used $.50 coupon from a Kroger home mailer (doubled to $.94 - original item cost)
=FREE

 -used $3.00 OYNO from a previous transaction

Now my costly mistake....

I had a "bright" idea this past Monday to completely clean out our fridge and freezer. I wanted to wipe down the shelves, walls, wipe off the condiments bottles etc. Whenever I clean our fridge out it takes some time so I turn the fridge and the freezer off to shave energy...and so I don't freeze while cleaning. :) It took me around 90 minutes to get everything completely cleaned. We left Tuesday morning for Mammoth Cave and didn't return until Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning I went in the fridge to get milk for the kids breakfast...and everything was pretty much room temperature. I had completely forgotten to turn the fridge and freezer back on Monday and pretty much EVERYTHING had gone bad! :( Luckily, there was TOO much I had to throw away, but there was yogurt, cheese, eggs, milk, juice, chicken, sausage, hamburger etc. UGH! I guess if nothing else at least we have a clean fridge and freezer for our company next weekend! :)

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Florence Y'all....

The last few months have been crazy around my household for more reasons than one. We have had vacations, house remodeling, kids activities and everything in between. My post have been lacking because of it, but I am glad each and every one of you have stuck around! 

Last week I posted about my husband and I going to Cincinnati for 3 days...and now is the time to tell you why :) My husband is being transferred with his job to a store in the Cincinnati area and we went down to find a house! We have known for a little over a month that we would be moving but we weren't exactly sure when it would happen so I have stayed quiet to everyone we know!

After spending 3 days looking around, we found a house in Florence, Kentucky.  I am not familiar at all with Cincinnati or northern Kentucky, so this will all be completely new. I have learned that there is not a Giant Eagle around and only a few Meijer locations. From what I can tell, Kroger runs the Cincinnati market, so you will probably begin to see more post from me about Kroger and less about Giant Eagle (It is very hard to blog about a store that you don't shop at:))

During the next few weeks/month I will have days with no post because we will be traveling back and forth from Columbus to Kentucky and we will be staying some nights in a hotel until our new house is ready to move into. I hope you will all stick around during this change! 

Since Florence is only 15 minutes outside of Cincinnati I have no plans to change the blog name at this time. To my knowledge, stores in the Cincinnati area only double to $.50 (unlike Columbus doubling to $.99) and that fits in with most of Ohio. I guess I will now understand what it is like to live in an area of "low doubles" :)

If you asked yourself why in the world I would give away all my coupons expiring this month....this is why ;) No shopping for me until we get all settled in our new place :)

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I know my husband loves me...because he brings me home TONS of samples :)

My husband had a 2 day meeting this week for his job and when he got home he brought SO many goodies!! I guess they had a day where they met with vendors and got to sample items they will carry or already carry. I couldn't fit everything he brought home in a pic, but look at some of the goodies he scored!

There are 4 coupons there...3 of them are for FREE items, along with shampoo, conditioner, lotions, teas, candy, snacks, chap stick, facial care, towels...and so much more! He also received a few t-shirts, reuseable bags, other snack items, a full size peanut butter, and more candy. I was so excited...it was like Christmas :)

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Our final "cheap" bathroom remodel!

If you are new to reading my blog, you can read about our first 2 "cheap" bathroom remodels here. We completed them back at the beginning of August and finally today got around to finishing our Master bath. The first 2 bathrooms cost just over $90.00 to redo!

For the master bath I wanted to add an above the toilet cabinet because the bathroom is TINY! I think every apartment we have ever lived in has had a bigger bathroom than we have in our MASTER bathroom in our house. I decided to have a yard sale at the beginning of September and use that money to pay for the cabinet. Luckily, I made more than enough money and I was also able to get a new light fixture!

New items include: light fixture, over the toilet cabinet, cabinet knobs, rug, toilet paper holder, towel rack, 2 hand towels, 4 bath towels, paint, shower caddy (not pictured), shower head (not pictured), trash can & canister

Total for everything was around $130.00...of which $102.00 was yard sale money! My total savings was around $145.00!

I'll post before pictures first:

We had already taken down the original towel bar before I took this picture...but you get the idea :)

Now after:

I did an "accent" wall thing in 2 of the bathrooms because they are SO small. If I painted our entire bathroom this darker blue...the room would have looked even smaller than it is.

Our next project will be our TV niche in our living room. We have one of those houses that has the hole cut out of the wall for the TV to go into...I HATE it & it always looks so messy. We are going to add a shelf to it and hopefully make it look a little more organized. I'll post pics whenever we finish :)

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