What's Behind Curtain #1?

This is our downstairs bathroom. You remember our scary pepto bismal pink downstairs bathroom? My sister named it the "Silence of the Lambs" bathroom because of the terrifying substances found in the bottom of the very, very pink tub.

The shower curtain is from my college days. It doesn't go with anything in the bathroom, but I refuse to purchase a new shower curtain for this bathroom until it's been renovated. It's simply there to hide the Silence of the Lambs bathtub. No one ever uses this tub, so I've decided it should be a storage area.

What am I storing behind the curtain?

DIAPERS!!! Thanks to my mother-in-law, we have an excellent supply of diaper wipes & diapers in a variety of sizes. Remember, she's the bargain queen, so she bought all of these diapers on sale with a coupon or on clearance with a coupon.I had been storing the diapers in the bottom of the Pack 'n Play, but they were beginning to overflow.

Mom - thank you so much for all of the baby supplies. We truly appreciate your generosity. The little guy's bottom is especially grateful. Keep on enjoying your hobby! 

92 cents

This weekend, I watched my mother-in-law purchase $25 worth of pads for 92 cents at Walgreens.

*.*

Awesome.

Inside the Diaper

I signed up to get rewards points for coupons and free baby stuff through Huggies enjoytheriderewards.com. Diapers are expensive, but they are much cheaper when you're mother-in-law helps you find all kinds of deals, coupons, and ways to earn points (Thanks, Mom!). Aside from entering codes from inside Huggies' diaper packages, you can also earn points by taking polls and watching short advertisement videos on their website. You don't have to actually pay attention to the videos, but I've discovered that it just might be worth it.

Two of the advertisement videos had me in stitches. I was sitting on my couch, nursing the baby, and cracking up. I probably would have been rolling on the floor if I hadn't been holding the little guy. The kid probably thinks his mother is crazy. I keep telling him that it's not me he has to watch out for. It's his father. :P

Anyways, I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

Having been whizzed on many a time by both my son and little day care babies, I was practically in tears with that last one.

Bargain Shopping - CVS

We've discussed how to take part in the single rebate check program that Rite Aid offers. I want to make a quick correction to that first Rite Aid post. Rite Aid does not have a membership card. You only have to sign up for the rebate program online. When you buy your rebate items, just save the receipt and enter the receipt number online. Sorry, but I got my store cards all mixed up!
Anyways, let's talk about how to take advantage of the Extra Bucks program offered by CVS.
With CVS, you do have to get a member extra care card to participate in the extra bucks program. Fill out the form at the front register in the store the next time you drop by. The card looks like this:The CVS Extra Care program is a little different from the Rite Aid rebate program. CVS offers "extra bucks" on certain items each week. To find out what items are being offered with extra bucks, you have to check the weekly circular.
To view the weekly circular on the CVS website, click on THIS LINK.

When you look through the circular, you are looking for extra bucks offers.The offers will look something like the Vaseline Sheer Infusion item offered in clipping of the circular:The extra bucks offer will say "you pay 7.99 with card" and then there will be a line right underneath. Below the line, it will say "extra bucks reward 7.00." Then you see a red or yellow box with three rounded corners that says "it's like getting it for 0.99 after extra bucks!"

Here are some more examples:Sometimes the extra bucks will completely cover the price of the item and it will say "it's like getting it for FREE after extra bucks!" I couldn't find any examples of those in the circular I used, but definitely keep your eye out for those.Usually though, the extra bucks will just give you a discount on the item. How much of a discount varies from item to item and week to week. Some items are more worth it than others.

Another important thing to pay attention to when looking at these ads is the number of each item you are allowed to purchase to get an extra bucks reward. Listed in small print at the bottom of each extra bucks offer it will say "extra Buck offer limit of 5 per household with card." It could be "2 per household" or "1 per household." but that means that if I can get $10 back in extra bucks and there is a limit of 3 per household, then I can actually get $30 back by purchasing three of the items. Here's an entire page of the circular with extra bucks offers. Look at the bottom of each red square to see the limit per household (click to enlarge):Do you think you can spot an extra bucks offer in the ad now?

I recommend that you look through the weekly circular once a week. The circulars go from Sunday through Saturday, so it's best to try and get items earlier in the week before they all run out.

Select which items you think you need or which contain the best extra bucks offers.

Go to CVS, find the items you want, and puchase them using your extra bucks card.

DO NOT THROW OUT YOUR RECEIPT. When you purchase extra bucks items, at the bottom of your receipt you will have an "Extra Care Coupon" that looks like this:All of the extra bucks that you purchased will show up in a series of coupons at the bottom of the receipt. Tear or cut them off of the bottom of your receipt and save them for the next time you go to CVS for more extra bucks offers. Keep them in your wallet or in an envelope in your purse.

Use your extra bucks receipt clippings to purchase your new extra bucks offers. You are basically rolling over money. You buy an extra bucks item using extra bucks and you get even more extra bucks for your next purchase. In this way, you rarely ever have to spend any of your own money. For example - using these three extra bucks coupons, I could purchase $4.39 worth of items for free the next time I go to CVS. If I use these receipts to purchase other extra bucks items, then I rarely ever have to use my own money.The offers differ from week to week. Some weeks you might only get $5 in extra bucks, other weeks you could potentially get $40 in extra bucks.

You can even buy one or two items at a time and then use the extra bucks from those items to purchase other extra bucks items right there at the register. All in one trip. I've watched my mother-in-law do this. It's somewhat mind-boggling. I think she purchased 10 items total by purchasing only 2 or three at a time and then using the extra bucks to purchase the other items. Then she only paid about a 25 cents total in actual money. Everything else was paid in extra bucks. Pretty crazy!

If you purchase items every week, you constantly rollover extra bucks and can get all sorts of goodies without ever spending much of your own money. I recommend taking a calculator into the store with you. It helps you to figure out how many items you can purchase with the extra bucks that you already have. Then the calculator can help you figure out how many items you can purchase with the extra bucks you just got from the purchase you just made with those extra bucks.

If I'm not making any sense, you can always go HERE for the CVS Overview & FAQs.

P.S. I'm sure some of this is a little confusing. I'm not sure I'm explaining it all that well - but if you are my sister-in-law ;) , then I can always show you in person or you can ask mom the next time you see her. Let me know!

P.P.S. Mom - did I miss anything important?

Rite Aid on the Sly

This past weekend, while the Professor, his grandfather, and his uncle worked on the Sandwich Shoppe, I spent a lot of time with my mother and grandmother-in-law. These ladies are the bargain hunting experts.

Now, my mother-in-law always knows about the different promotions going on in different stores. This past week - Rite Aid was offering to give you $20 back once you spent $100 at their store within a given time frame. Well my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law had already reached their $100 marks by buying items that they could get full rebates for. I, however, haven't been going to Rite Aid regularly because I've been busy with school.

That wasn't a problem though. Why? Because my mother-in-law picks up receipts that she comes across in the Rite Aid parking lot.

You see, lots of people leave their receipts in their basket or drop them in the parking lot. They aren't planning on using them again. She picks them up and if she needs them to reach a certain goal, she enters them in her account online. However, since she'd already reached her $100 goal for Rite Aid, she gave me the rest of her extra receipts:

She even entered their numbers into my account online for me while I made breakfast. Next thing I knew, I'd "spent" $80 some dollars at Rite Aid and I haven't even left the house. All I had to do was go spend $20 more and I would get $20 back from Rite Aid.

Even better, this week Rite Aid had a lot of items being offered for full rebates through the single check rebate program (check the last page of their weekly circular!). So, I spent $50 on soar throat medicine, soar muscle medicine, cold medicine, etc. and since every single one of the items in the picture below were part of the rebate program, I'll get that full $50 back.

My favorite was the carmex lip gloss - I'll be needing that in a month or two!

That means that so long as I request my rebate check by the end of this rebate period, I'm getting about $70 from Rite Aid this month and I haven't even really done anything. I think I'm ok with that arrangement.

Have you been to Rite Aid this week? Just think! $50 worth of stuff is just waiting for you to get a full rebate! Go check it out! Hopefully the stores still have the items in stock, but I don't make any promises.

Bargain Shopping - Rite Aid

FYI: This post will be a two part edition and is coming to you at the request of the lovely Mrs. 5C. Today, we'll start with Rite Aid and we'll talk about CVS another day. Rite Aid & CVS use two completely different systems, so I'll cover each separately.

My Mother-in-Law has her own personal drug store in her upstairs hall closet. That is - she stocks up on free soaps, toothpastes, shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, etc. because they rarely go bad (toothpaste does expire!). If the world ever runs out of toiletries, she's prepared. And, hey! She gets most of them for free.

Visiting the in-laws, but forgot your deodorant? No problem! Just run upstairs to the local drug store. There's no need to run around stinkifying the place!

Well, as I was incorporated into my husband's household, I became curious about this strange phenomenon. How, I wondered, does she get all of that stuff for free?! Even more of a mystery was how she sometimes makes money in the process?!?! That's just straight up CRAZY!

So one day, when mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law were heading out to Rite Aid and CVS, I asked to tag along and learn from the experts.

Now, this takes a little effort, but it can pay off. After all, small savings add up in the end.

FIRST OF ALL - Rite Aid is all about SINGLE CHECK REBATES. Just what are single check rebates? Well you are probably familiar with the whole rebate thing. You buy something at full price, fill out the rebate, mail it in, and get money back a week or two later in the form of a check in your mail. Companies are betting on you forgetting to mail the rebate or forgetting to cash the check. I'm sure the whole thing works out well for them in the end.

However, Rite Aid is a little different. With Rite Aid, you can get a bunch of small rebates on small items (sometimes the rebate will cover the entire price of the item) - but the difference is that it only comes in one big check. I know this sounds like a huge pain - but you don't have to send in a little rebate card for every single item!

You simply enter your receipt into your account online and Rite Aid compiles a list of your rebates for you. Your rebates will add up and you can get a nice check at the end of the rebate period. I've gotten up to $40 doing this, but I'm sure my Mother-in-law holds some sort of Rite Aid Rebate Record. I'll have to ask if she has a little plaque.

The trick is that you can only order your rebate check from Rite Aid once during the rebate period (hence "single check rebates"). You can order the check at any time during the rebate period, but you have to do it before the rebate period ends, or you lose it! Of course, I recommend doing it at the end of the rebate period because that's when you'll get the most money. I mark my calendar to keep track.

Confused? I was a little at first too, but let's go to the step by step breakdown. Don't let this list of steps stress you out. It's a lot easier than it seems - especially if you are related to me and would prefer to be shown this process in person. ;)

Now here's a step by step process of how to use Single Check Rebates to your advantage.

Step 1: Go to your local Rite Aid and sign up for a Rite Aid Card. You can't participate in their rebate program unless you are a member. Of course, you can do this when you first go to Rite Aid to pick up your free goodies - so don't jump the gun and go there just to get a card. EDIT - RITE AID DOES NOT HAVE A CARD - CVS DOES. YOU ONLY SIGN UP FOR RITE AID ONLINE.

Step 2: Check the weekly circular every week HERE. A new circular comes out every Sunday and the online circular will be mostly the same as your local circular. Checking the circular online will save you a wasted trip. You know whether or not there are any good deals during the week. If you are a coupon cutter, this process won't be too different.Do you see the Crest in the bottom right corner? You can get that for FREE!!

Step 3: Browse the weekly circular. Sure it will show you all of the lower prices for the week, but what you are really looking for is this:
Diapers? No - the red arrow pointing to the yellow "single check rebate" box. That's how you know if you can get a Rite Aid rebate on an item. Sometimes the rebates will be a discount, but sometimes they will cover most, if not all, of the item's price.
It's even better if you can match up a coupon with an item like this, because that means you will make money off of your purchase. Craziness. That's what my mother-in-law does. Then again, cutting coupons is a hobby for her :). Oftentimes, you can print Rite Aid coupons right from their website. Also, keep an eye out for manufacturer's coupons.

The weekly circular will also let you know if there are any manufacturer rebates being offered. This is separate from the single rebate program - but still useful to know. The manufacturer rebates usually look like this in the circular:Step 4: Go to Rite Aid and purchase the items you picked out in advance from the weekly circular. Pay attention to how many items the circular will allow you to get a rebate on. You could get 3 toothbrushes for free!

I usually make a list or grab a circular at the front of the store and go through it page by page as I walk through the store. You also have the option of creating a shopping list that you can print out while you are looking through the online circular. All of the items are listed below the circular online. Just click on the "Add to Shopping List" button (as seen below) and then print out your shopping list when you are done.
The little blue "R" at the bottom of that image is there to tell you that the item has comes with a Rebate.

Step 5: When you buy these items, use your Rite Aid Card (get one before you buy if you don't already have one) and save your receipt.

Step 6: When you get home, sit down at your computer and go to THIS LINK. This is the New Member Page. Sign up for an account to participate in Single Check Rebates. Once you have your account, you go to the Single Check Rebate page HERE. Log in, click on "Step 2: Enter Your Receipt." Enter your receipt number. The website will automatically pull up any rebate items you bought that day and update your account.

Step 7: Continue this process each week during the rebate period. I recommend developing a routine and getting the items earlier in the week right after a new circular comes out. The circular ads start on Sunday and last until the next Saturday. If you don't buy the items you want earlier in the week, then they may be out of the items by the end of the week. For a routine, I try to check the new circular on Saturday night and then go to Rite Aid once on Sundays after church. I'm a little out of the habit right now, but I'm hoping to pick the habit back up.

Step 8: Remember to order your rebate check online before the rebate period ends. When you login on the single check rebate page, click on "Step 3: Request Your Check." You should receive the check in the mail within a few weeks. Be careful because the check is disguised to look like a post card Rite Aid ad. You wouldn't want to throw away good money.

That's about it. It's really very simple and just takes a little time. Just think, you can have your own personal drug store too!

Dear Mother-in-law,
If there are any mistakes regarding this process, you can let me know and I'll fix them.
Love,
Daughter-in-law

Bargain Shopping

The Professor's parents came to visit this weekend - they came to visit, but also because my Mother-in-law wanted to check out the deals at a local Mennonite-run store. It's hard to beat their prices.

I actually enjoy grocery shopping with my Mother-in-law because she's a walking price encyclopedia. We form a train with our carts and I follow her up and down each aisle (first on the right, then on the left) as she tells me what's a good deal, what's average, and what's overpriced.

The produce has fairly average prices. The canned vegetables and juices are wonderfully priced, so stock up! Don't buy shampoo or soaps or cleaning supplies at this store because you can get them for free from CVS or Rite Aid. Definitely buy the cheese because the cheese of the week is such a low price per pound, etc., etc. I learn all sorts of things about pricing from her. Thanks Mom!