I made out like a bandit today at the mall.


Victoria Secret
-Free Lace bridal thong
-Paid $0
-Saved $14.50

JCPenney
Swim trunks for DH
-Regular Price $35.00
-Clearanced for $1.97
-Additional 15% off
-Paid $1.77
-Saved $33.33

Mens Flipfops - Bought 21 pairs
-Regular Price $10.00 a piece
-Clearanced for .17
-Additional 15% off
-Paid .14 a piece ($3.12 for 21 pairs)
-Saved $207.06
*ETA - Sold 2 pairs at the 8/24/12 rummage sale for $3.00 each = $5.72 profit
*ETA - Sold 5 pairs at the 9/7/12 rummage sale for $3.00 each = $14.30 profit
*ETA - Sold 1 pair at the 6/15/13 rummage sale for $3.00 = $2.86 profit
*ETA - Sold 1 pair at the 8/23/13 rummage sale for $3.00 = $2.86 profit
*ETA - Sold 2 pair at the 9/5/13 rummage sale for $3.00 = $5.72 profit
*ETA - Sold 1 pair on 3/17/14 to a coworker for $3.00 = $2.86 profit
*ETA - Sold 1 pair on 9/4/14 rummage sale for $3.00 = $2.86 profit
*ETA - Gave 1 to BFs sister
*ETA - Sold 1 pair on FB on 6/17/16 for $3.00 = $2.86 profit
*ETA - Sold 2 pair on FB on 7/24/16 for $3.00 = $2.86 profit
*ETA - Sold 3 pair at the 5/5/17 rummage sale for $2.00 each = $5.58 profit
*ETA - Sold 1 pair for $2.00 on FB on 10/1/17 = $1.86 profit
Profit = $50.34

Total for the day
Purchased 23 items for $4.89 and saved $254.89!!!!

WOW! The swimtrunks and 1 pair of flipflops went to DH. The rest of the flip flops I marked for $3.00 a piece for the rummage sale. When I sell all 20 pairs that would be a profit of $57.20!

I may stop back tomorrow if I have time and pick a few more pairs if there are any left.

I was at Target to buy some soup on sale and stopped by their little $1 section. A bunch of their $1 items were on 70% off. So I bought a ton of stuff for .30 that I know I can sell for $1 a piece at the rummage sale next year.




20 Small File Folders - All sold
11 Marker Boards - All sold
11 Flashcard Packs - 1 left to sell
5 Dictionaries - All sold
3 Large File Folders - All sold
1 Mini Journal - All sold

So if I sold each item for $1 a piece that would be a profit of $35.70!

ETA - So far I sold these at the 5/18/12 sale:
6 File Folders for $1 each
4 Marker Boards for $1 each
2 Flashcard Packs for $1 each
1 Dictionary for $1 each

ETA - Sold at 6/23/12 Rummage Sale
4 Marker Boards for $1 each
3 Flashcard packs for $1 each

ETA - Sold at 8/24/12 Rummage Sale
7 File Folders for $1 each
1 Marker Board for $1 each
4 Flashcards for $1 each
4 Dictionaries for $1 each (these are all sold)

ETA - Sold at 9/7/12 Rummage Sale
8 File Folders for $1 each
2 Marker Boards for $1 each

ETA - Sold at 6/15/13 Rummage Sale
2 File Folders for $1 each
1 Mini Journal for $1
1 Flashcards for $1

I renamed one of my ING accounts to "September 2012" and set up an auto transfer of $100 everytime DH gets paid, starting 9/15/11. No more coming up short every September!

1st purchase:
18 pack Brilliant PH tampons $6.79
Used free giftcard from last week -$4.98
$2.24 paid OOP
Got $6.79 EB

2nd purchase:
(3) 24 pack cases of JTB Water $2.22 per case (raincheck from last week)
Total $6.66
-$6.79 EB from last purchase
$0 paid OOP

3rd purchase
Scanned our CVS card and got a coupon for a FREE box of Newtons Fruit Thins - Cranberry Citrus Oat.
Total $2.50
-$2.50 CVS coupon
$0 paid OOP

$16.26 saved today and only $2.24 paid OOP

We don't drink bottled water, but we can sell the bottles at the rummage sale for $1 a piece, which would be a profit of $66 - last weekend we did that with 2 cases of water, sold every single bottles we had for a profit of $45!!

Rainchecks:
St Josephs Aspirin - Free after sale, coupon and EB
CVS brand Allergy Medicine - Free after EB

Recently DH informed me that he had found a large hole in the bedsheet on his side of the bed. I was bummed as bedsheets can be expensive, especially on our King size bed. I was planning on picking up a new set the next time I was at the mall.
Today I finished cleaning out the linen closet. Organized all of the towels, washclothes, handtowels and rags. Lastly went through tableclothes, extra pillow cases, Christmas linens etc....and lo and behold what do I find way in the back....a BRAND NEW set of King sheets! I must have gotten a deal on 2 sets when I purchased them last time so still had a set left! YEAH! So I was pumped that I wouldn't have to spend money on another set now. I also found a BRAND NEW set of Queen sheets that would fit the bed in our extra bedroom. That bed currently has sheets, but they have laundry detergent stains on them so look kinda junky. I haven't switched those yet, but am glad I know about the extra set for whenever I decide to switch those out.

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk. We went to the mall to get one of those little plastic pieces card holder pieces for Dh's wallet as his plastic piece was in shreds. We were able to get that piece for free! We stopped by CVS on our walk and swiped our EB card and got a coupon for a free candy bar. We had to pay tax (I was confused on that cause 6% of $0 is $0..???) which was .05. Then on the way home DH found .11 cents on the ground, so that covered the tax on the candybar. Plus a .06 gain on the day.

We ended up making $115 at the rummage sale, $40 of which was from the FREE stuff my friend gave us. Also made money on the lint rollers we got for .09 cents a piece (with rebate from Menards) and sold for $1 a piece, as well as some Goosebumps books I bought at another rummage sale for .25 cents a piece and sold for .75 a piece. I did snacks again too, brownies, cupcakes, pop, juice and snowcones, but didn't sell as much as we normally do in snacks since it wasn't super busy.
As soon as we get our money we will be able to add $115 to the $20K Challenge!

We had a rummage sale this weekend. So far we made about $30 selling our stuff and about $40 in the FREE stuff we got from my friend. We will be open for a few more hours today, so hopefully will make a little more. But it just hasn't been very busy, and we didn't have any big stuff....mostly just clothes, books, and misc junk.

Also DH and I are on 2 coed softball teams, and had already paid the fee for both of them, $20 a piece. One of the teams couldn't get enough girls, so we got our money back from that, $20 for each of us, plus $20 that we paid for one of our friends cause he didn't have any money with at the time. So $60 total and I will just be adding that into our checking cushion, we are getting very close to meeting that goal!

I seperated my order in to 2 seperate purchases at the cash register.

First I had a coupon to get a $5 giftcard for purchasing 2 products off of a list (tp, papertowels, or diapers), so I got 2 packs of Charmin TP and received a $5 giftcard. Plus I also had a .25 off TP that I used on the same purchase.

Then for my second order, I used my other coupons:
$1 off Herbal Essences product
$1.50 off Target Brand Laundry Detergent
.75 off Target Brand Tampons
Buy one get one Free Tampax ($3.99 FREE)
Plus $1.00 off 2 boxes of Tampax (So for 2 boxes it should have been $7.98 total, but after BOGO and $1 off coupon = $2.99 total)
Then on top of that I used my $5 giftcard that I just got for purchasing the TP in the first transation.

Total saved from coupons and free giftcard = $13.49!!

My stockpile closet is starting to get really full as I always like to use coupons for items that we will always need, and that won't exprire. Such as TP, papertowels, razors, tampons, shaving foam, shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent etc. That way I don't get stuck in a situation where we are out of one of those items and have to pay full price for it. But I need to organize my stockpile to see what I have in there now and what we can wait on purchasing for awhile.

My People Magazine subscription is coming due again in October and I have decided to not renew it. This will save a little over $100 a year ($2 an issue for 52 weeks). I really like People Magazine, but I am super behind on reading it, like weeks and weeks behind. I used to have some down time at work when I could read for a few minutes, or I would read them when we go on trips. But work has been super busy for the last several months and on my breaks I usually go walk outside or read a book. When we go on trips I usually read a book in the car or take a nap. So I decided to cut it, and if I want to get 1 for a roadtrip or something it would be way cheaper just to get one once in awhile rather then getting then every week.

I love fast food....it's so convenient and yummy. And we eat it waaaaaay to much! (Says my waistline and my wallet!) So I decided not to eat fast food for a month. I started on 7/18/11.....so my last day without will be the day we go on a little mini vaca to Canada to a waterpark with my family. Our credit card statement breaks everything into catagories (fuel, dept stores, restaurants etc) and the food part is always out of control and embarrassing with a charge nearly everyday. Even though I just started a few days ago I know we already saved a lot because several times I caught myself thinking "I'm hungry, I think I will get Taco Bell for lunch" or something to that effect before I remember I can't have Taco Bell. Hoping it will have a good effect on our spending as well as the scale!

Normally I don't like to shop at Kmart because it always takes 10 years to check out there. But I had some good coupons that were Kmart specific. And it took 10 years to check out again.....oh well, got some good deals.


$1 off Skintimate Shave foam
- Normally $3.13, on sale for $1.99. I noticed that the 10oz can was the same price as the 7oz can. So I got the larger can for
$1.99
- $1.00 coupon
= .99

$1 off Kmart brand tampons
- I have never seen coupons for generic brand tampons. I only ever see coupons for the brand names like Tampax or Kotex, and even with coupons they usually cost more then the generics. So the generic box was:
$4.99 (comparable brand name was $7.49)
- $1.00 coupon
= $3.99 for 40ct box

Buy One Get One Free 12 oz bottle Herbal Essences
PLUS $3.00 off 2 bottles Herbal Essences
-I had 2 seperate coupons, 1 Kmart coupon and 1 mfr coupon
$7.98 ($3.99 each)Regular Price
-$3.99 BOGO coupon
-$3.00 coupon
= .99 for 2 bottles (.48 each!)

Total spent was $6.51 and total saved was $7.19! Pretty happy to have saved more then I spend when I only spent $6.51 total!

Been enjoying a lot of "free" summer activities.
DH and I were invited to go to the lake this weekend with a friend who has a boat and all the toys to go with it. So we got to enjoy the boat, fishing, swimming, tubing, wakeboarding, skiing and kneeboarding. We were going to drive up seperate, but our friend asked us to ride with him since it was just him. So we didn't have to pay for gas either, we did try to give him some money for gas, but he wouldn't take it. So it was lots of free fun!
Also been enjoying going on lots of walks/jogs with DH, and also practicing softball with our teams. I play on a women's team and DH plays on a men's team. I usually practice with the boys every week.
Normally we would be doing more river activies, DH loves to shore fish and I have a metal detector that I like to take while he fishes and mess around. But since our river here is still severely flooded we haven't been able to do any of that this summer.

We made it all the way through June without turning on the AC. It has been high 80's - 90's here for over a week so I am sooooo excited to turn on the AC tomorrow! Saves a lot on our utilities bill to stretch out the time between AC and heat.

Before we bought our house in 2007 I had been trying to get a CD Ladder started for our EF, but then most of our funds were used for a downpayment on the house.
If you are not familiar with a CD Ladder it works like this:
Say for example you have $12,000 you want to put in CDs. Each month of the year you would purchase a 1 year CD for $1,000. At the the end of the year you will have 12, $1,000, 1 year CDs, but you won't have to wait a year for them to mature, you will have a 1 year CD maturing every month. Then each month, if you had an emergency or needed the money for something you could cash out that CD, or you could renew it for another year, and you would only have to wait a month till the next CD matured. Also using this you can get longer term CDs, which tend to have better interest rates. Because you already have CDs maturing every month for the next 12 months, the next one you could renew for 16 or 18 months, and keep spacing them out further, depending on your cash flow and when you think you will need the funds.
Another way to set up a CD Ladder would be to open all of the CDs at the same time, but for different terms, for example, a ladder could consist of 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60-month CDs. Or for a less aggressive CD ladder you could choose shorter terms – such as a 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30-month ladder, which will keep your money more readily available.
I was looking into working on this again (on a smaller scale since I don't have $12K to invest in CDs) since our EF is up to $3,000. But CD rates are still in the dumps.....here is what ING is offering now:

6 Month 0.75%
9 Month 0.75%
12 Month 0.75%
18 Month 0.75%
24 Month 1.00%
30 Month 1.25%
36 Month 1.25%
48 Month 1.25%
60 Month 1.50%

Ewwwww! Especially since my regular savings account is making 1.00%.....so anything less then a 24 month CD I would actually be losing money off of our savings account. Of course there are many banks and online institutions where you can get CDs other then ING. But I have used then before, I like the user friendly website, plus you can invest any amount in a CD, it does not have any minimum amount to open a CD.
But if you want to look at rates, bankrate.com is a great site to use if you are looking to open CDs or a CD Ladder and they will help you find the best term/rate for you. I checked it out for 1 year CDs and even the best rates are only 1.26% right now. So I will just be leaving my EF in my ING savings account for now.

DH and I have had Geico for a little over 4 years now for our car insurance. We have it automatically charged to our Discover Card each month and pay our bill in full each month. I always knew there was a service fee for paying monthly rather then paying every 6 months. So for a long time now I had been planning on "someday" doing a seperate savings account for the car insurance and being able to save money on the installment fee. I am finally ready to get that started. So I am adding it as an additional goal for 2011 since we are doing so good on our other current goals.
Our current monthly installment for full coverage on 2 cars is $66.60 + $5.00 installment fee for paying monthly = $71.60 per month. So if we pay all at once then we will save $60 a year, which is almost a whole month of premiums!
So we need to save $400 to start this, so my goal is to have that saved by December 9th, when the next 6 month payment would be due.

I took in our aluminum cans today. We had 53lbs at .65 a lb = $34.45. I will hold on to that check to add to the mortgage payment for July. Doing pretty good on my list, sad that my time off is almost over! This afternoon I am going to clean out the hot tub, I already drained it. Also planning to file and maybe work on the garage.
My Birthday was on Tuesday, my Mom and Dad got me a new softball glove which I really needed and also a new chest freezer since ours died. In the process of moving the new freezer in I found out that we have 4 sets of outlets in our house that do not work. Hoping my brother or a friend we have that is good with electrical can fix them for us.

(X)1)Dentist Apt
(X)2)Donate Blood
(X)3)Take in recycling
(X)4)Take back library books
(X)5)Clean out car
( )6)Organize garage
(X)7)Call chiro to check on DH's bill
( )8)Clean out study
(X)9)Wax eyebrows
(X)10)Laundry
(X)11)Clean bedroom
(X)12)Organize Tupperware cupboard
( )13)Clean out kitchen closet
( )14)Clean out hottub
(X)15)Boys Softball
(X)16)Girls Softball
(X)17)Go to BD lunch with Mom
(X)18)Go through purses for rummage sale
( )19)Work at trailer
( )20)File
(X)21)Create resume for Dad
( )22)Clean out new freezer

Went to JCP since the bras I like are on sale for 50% off. We also needed new pillows, DH's neck has been bugging him, so I have been waiting for a good sale on pillows. There was an extra 20% for paying with a JCP card, I haven't had one since I worked there about 8 years ago, so I applied for a new one and was approved with a $2000 limit. Shopping spree time! LOL, J/K!

$35.00 bra, on sale for $16.99, minus $3.40 for using JCP card = $13.59
$35.00 bra, on sale for $16.99, minus $3.40 for using JCP card = $13.59
$35.00 bra, on sale for $16.99, minus $3.40 for using JCP card = $13.59
$19.99 2 Pack Pillows, on sale for $8.99, minus .90 for using JCP card = $8.09
Total Spent = $51.79
Total Saved = $76.13

I also went to Target to get deoderant for DH. While I was there I found a deal on Playtex Tampons. When you bought 2 boxes you got a $5 giftcard for Target. So when I checked out I did 2 seperate transactions. Bought the Playtex and got my $5 giftcard in the first transaction, then got DH 4 deoderants and a bottle of pop on the second transaction and used the $5 giftcard right away.

Got a bonus today of $1300! YEAH! The same bonus last year was for $800, so I am super happy that it went up $500! After taxes I am guessing I will take home about $800. We will be taking that with us to Wendover this weekend. Whatever we bring back, some is earmarked, some is for savings and hopefully we will have enough to have a little extra to throw at the mortgage for June. Our current balance is $131,400, after our regular payment and our normal principle payment we would be at about $130,300....so I would really like to find an extra $300 from the trip money to get under $130K, that would be a great feeling! Either way I am happy we will be going on our vaca without having to take any out of savings, and whatever we bring home is gravy!

Victoria Secret (VS3/2011)
Coupons:
-Free Lace HipHugger $8.50
Total spent = $0
Total saved = $8.50

Target
Venus 4ct Razors - $2.00 coupon
1 Bottle Herbal Essences - $.50 coupon
2 Bottles of Pantene - $3.00 coupon
-Plus both bottles I bought came with a FREE 6.7oz bottle of conditioner, and $10 in additional coupons
2 Boxes Tampax - $3.00 mfr coupon AND $2.00 store coupon
Totals coupons = $10.50

This was the first time I had ever done the "double couponing". Most of the stores here do not let you double coupon an item. So with the Tampax I got one of the boxes free and one $1 off.

Menards
We went to Menards to get a fire pit for my Mom for her BD. While we were in the checkout DH saw that they had 3 packs of lint rollers for $5.09 and they had a rebate for $5.00 each. So we bought the limit of 4 and got the rebate. I will send the rebate in Monday and then they will have cost .09 each pack (.03 per roll). I figure I can open the 3 packs and sell each individual roller in the rummage sale for $1.00 each. So that would be a profit of $.97 each x 12 rollers = $11.64.
ETA - Sold all of these lint rollers for $1.00 each = $11.64 profit

My cousin is thinking of moving here and living in one of our extra bedrooms. Her BF is moving here for school in the fall so she is planning on comeing too since she has a lot of family here. We have talked about it and would charge $200 a month for rent and then $50 to cover utilities like electric, heat/air, internet/cable, and water. I think this would be a fair amount for her to pay and a good deal for her as she would not be able to find anywhere else for that cheap, plus she would have her own bedroom, bathroom and a parking pad for her car. We will see what happens as that is not for about 4 months. But if it did work out we would put all of the extra money into the mortgage payoff savings account.

Since the MOH funds are now moved over to the EF, I had an extra account with our ING that wasn't for anything specific. I decided to label it Mortgage Payoff Account. I have been wanting to start an account for this for a long time, so am glad it is finally started, even if it only has $5 in it right now. We are still going to keep paying the extra to our mortgage on a monthly basis, so this account is not going to be going up in leaps and bounds or anything. But if we make all of savings goals for the year (we are on #4 out of #8) then I would like to put any extra for the year into that account. Then do the same thing the next year, check off each of the goals and then any extra would help fill the MPA again.....keep doing this and eventually the mortgage balance and the MPA balance will equal and then the house will be paid off, YEAH!

Well the wedding is in just 2 1/2 weeks and we have not had to use the MOH money. I just paid for everything out of checking as it came up, so still have the full $500 set aside in savings. So I moved the $500 to the EF since that is the next fund we are working on. Now the EF is at $2300 and the goal is $3000 for this year, so we are getting there. This summer will be rough, but we just have to be diligent!

So I was originally going to label this "No spend weekend". DH is out of town and I was going to try to spend $0 this weekend. The fridge is full of food, my car is full of gas, and no reason to go spend any money. But 5 min ago a good friend of mine called and said he got in a fight with his girlfriend last night and went home early. Then this morning he went to his gf house to say he was sorry, and when he got there, there was another guy in the house! So he is super depressed and called to talk and wants to go get a drink tonight and talk about it. Poor guy. So I will go out for a few drinks with him, but will try not to spend too much. Either way that should be my only expense of the weekend.

Made several stops shopping:

Victoria Secret (VS2/2011)
Coupons:
-Free Lace HipHugger $10.50
-$10 off. Used on $11.50 undies.
Total spent = $1.60
Total saved = $20.50

Bath&Body
Coupons:
-Free travel size item. Used on $5.00 Spray.
Total spent = $0
Total saved = $5.00

JCPenney
Hit the clearance rack in the lingerie dept to get some much needed bras.
1) $35.00 bra, on clearance for $17.50, plus 15% off, = $14.87
2) $20.00 bra, on clearance for $3.97, plus 15% off, = $3.37
Total spent = $19.33
Total saved = $36.76

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Total spent at 3 stores = $20.93
Total saved at 3 stores = $62.26
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I went to Target and got the bridal shower gift and wedding gift for the wedding I am the MOH in. Spent $50 and got a canister set, some cute spring spatulas, a tumbler set and a game. Also got a basketball for DH that was on sale ($4.30 off).

Also went to Red Lobster today and used my $10 coupon. Yeah for Lobsterfest! So yummy!

Our next savings goal on the list for this year is the Emergency Fund. Currently it is at $1400, and our goal for the year is $3000.
I had set up savings accounts with ING for our Laptop and Washer/Dryer that are both on 0% financing. So we had $600 in the Laptop savings, and $1200 in the Washer/Dryer savings to cover the full amounts of the 0% loans. But for both loans I have to make the minimum payment, so the balances of each have gone down and now have extra funds in both of those accounts. So I transferred $200 out of each of the accounts to the EF. Now the EF is up to $1800, over half way to that goal! I also have $500 set aside for my MOH duties in May. So far I have been able to hold onto all of those funds. I paid for my dress back in September and was able to pay for it out of checking. I am going to buy gifts this week, but should be able to cover those out of checking as well. Hopefully I can hold onto most or all of the MOH funds and then that can be transferred to the EF as well.

5) Don't use stamps, and if you do, buy forever stamps. I bought 100 forever stamps in May 2008. I still have about 20 left, and right now we only use 1 per month and that is for our mortgage payment. Everything else we pay online for free except for our electric bill. They do not have an online payment option, but they do have a drop box at the grocery store by our house, so rather then mail it in with a stamp we just drop it off there when we are getting groceries. When these stamps are gone I will buy another 100 forever stamps and they should last me another 4 years or more. Also watch for stamp prices to go up and make sure you buy before the increase.

6) Don't spend money on personalized items that you can get for free or cheaper for normal items.
Examples:
- License Plates - You already have to pay registration fees, don't waste money paying for vanity plates.
- Checks - Many banks offer free checks if you get the plain blue or gray checks. Why pay for ones with the Flinstones or puppies on them?

7) Avoid bank fees. Overdraft fees, ATM fees, LOC (Line of Credit) fees, interest. They are all stupid ways to spend your money. An easy way to avoid a lot of fees is to just keep a checkbook register. Either paper register or on Excel or mint.com. Whatever works best for you to make sure you know what is in your account. A LOC will keep you from becoming overdrawn, but most have either a yearly fee, or a fee every time it is advanced. LOC also usually accrue interest while you are using the funds. I avoid this by keeping my own LOC called my cushion (see my post called "My Cushy Cushion") so if I make an error in my register or we just are a little short when a bill is due I know I have an extra cushion in there to cover it till the next deposit.

I have a Super Secret Stash (SSS) of cash. It started with just keeping a $5 here, a $10 here....then I added some $20's, some of DH's Christmas money and now we have $500 in the SSS. I didn't want this money to have to have any label. It's not savings, it's not to go on the mortgage, make a large purchase, or go on a trip....I just want it there for if we want to buy/do something we would have money that was unaccounted for so it would not come out of savings.
Last night DH and I went to the casino. We were trying to hold off till we go to Deadwood in a few weeks. But we both had a long week and thought it would be fun to go chill out for awhile. So we took some money out of the SSS and went up, and the very first game we played we put in $10, we were betting .50 cents and hit $80! Whoo hoo! The night kept going like that and we ended up coming home $380 ahead plus a bucket of change! Yeah! So I am putting $100 into the ING New Car Fund, putting the change towards the mortgage and putting the remaining $280 back in the Super Secret Stash! SSS is now at $780.00!


Current Balance $11,790.00
+$100.00 Casino Win - To New Car Fund
New Balance $11,890.00

ING $8110.00
Lawn Mower/Vacuum(cash) $350.00
HSBC $3430.00
Total = $11,890.00

Next week we should hit $12K! So excited!

So while we were waiting around at CVS for DH's meds we found some good deals. Valentines Candy was 75% off!

$.97 Kleenex - Saved $1.02
$.97 Kleenex - Saved $1.02
$1.25 Big Heart Strawberry Chocolates - Saved $3.74
$1.25 Big Heart of Mini Candy Bars - Saved $3.74
$1.25 Big Heart of Mini Candy Bars - Saved $3.74
$.75 Mini Heart Box of Chocolates - Saved $2.24

Total Spent $6.83!
Total Saved was $15.50!

Now the chocolates we definitely not needs......but 75% off of Valentines Candy is a great deal. All of the candy was for DH except the Strawberry Cream Chocolates were for me (just had one and it was AH-Mazing!). DH will freeze the rest and eat them for the next month or two. Of couse we were out of Kleenex again since I was sick for so long, but am feeling lots better, so these should last for more then a week this time.

I also signed up for their "extra care rewards" card. So starting in April I should get 2% back from any purchases made in Jan - March 2011. I don't shop at CVS very often, usually only when we are getting an RX, but every little bit of savings helps!

We got our federal return today, $1574.00. YEAH! For now we are just holding on to it since most of it is going with for our trip to Deadwood in March. I already put $100 out of it into savings last week on anticipation of getting the return. I would like to put the rest in savings, but I would have to take it out in 3 weeks, so I will just hold off and hopefully we will bring a lot back from Deadwood!

Ok So originally I thought we were getting back about $1500 federal and $150 state, but I didn't have all of our tax documents yet. Then I entered my HSA stuff based on what I "though" and it said we were only getting about $600 federal and $70 state. So I was bummed. But now I actually got my HSA tax form in the mail and entered it and we are getting back $1574 federal and $156 state! YEAH! This was the first year we had an HSA to report on our taxes, so when I was entering it originally I was not putting it in right. Now that I know how it needs to be entered it should go smoothly next year. So I am very happy with that size return. I know that the smaller the return the better since it is actually my money, but I like getting back between $1000 - $2000 because we usually go on a mini vaca every March for my husband's birthday, so it is perfect timing to fund the trip. So taxes are all e-filed and should receive the refund within the next few weeks.
Total is:
Federal $1574
State $156
= $1730
For now we will be putting $230 into savings and then whatever we bring back from DH's BD trip will also go into savings. Hopefully we will being back at least $700 (We are going to Deadwood!)