Samples and Freebies

Kiss My Face Shower Gel Sample
LINK
Dengaku has a free sample for Kiss My Face Shower Gel
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Free Food at ARBY's ( SOME ARBY's are not doing this promotion, please call or check with your local Arby's)
This summer Arby's is getting in on the action, offering Free Food Wednesday!
May 13th - Free Roastburger with any soft drink purchase
May 20th - Free Chocolate Malt Swirl shake with any sandwich purchase
May 27th - Free Regular Roast Beef sandwich with any soft drink purchase
June 3rd - Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
June 10th - Free Roast Chicken club with any soft drink purchase
June 17th - Free Regular Sidekicker with any sandwich purchase
June 24th -Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
July 1st - Free Regular Beef 'n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase
July 8th - Free Orange Cream Swirl shake with any sandwich purchase
July 15th - Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
July 22nd - Free Roastburger with any soft drink purchase
July 29th - Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
August 5th - Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
August 12th - Free Roast Chicken Club with any soft drink purchase
August 19th - Free FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
August 26th - Free Regular Beef 'n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase
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Free Baby Gift Set ( in one area it says Sweepstakes, in the other area it says sign up for a free one...so try it! Who knows?) LINK Remember to use your coupon/freebies email account incase you get spam emails!
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Free 50 Disney Rewards points!
Disney Rewards Points: Code Word "GOOFY"
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Free GEO TRAX dvd LINK

Remember it's Free Chocolate Friday

Remember Mars/M&M Candy is giving away chocolate every Friday in the month of June! Follow this LINK
This is the last Friday so sign up now!

Stockpile trip to Target and Logli's

I went to do some stockpiling this morning.

First, Target
2 Velvetta Cups (BOGO Printable coupon)
2 Pounce Cat Treat Container ( on clearance 47 cents and I had a BOGO coupon)
2 Kraft Cheese, one bag and one chunk ( on sale and I had a $1.00 off IP coupon)
4 Lipton Tea ( I had 50 cent off coupons and when you buy 4 you get a $5.00 gift card back)
1 Gillette Razor (It was on sale. I had a $4.00 off coupon from the sunday paper and you got a $5.00 gift card when you bought it with the body wash)
1 Gillette Body Wash ( It was on sale. I had a $1.00 coupon from the sunday paper.)
1 box of Egg's Bake Shop Muffins ( On sale and I had a $1.00 off sunday coupon)

Total before coupons:$29.85
After coupons is was: $18.79
Then I used the gift cards from last week's ice cream deal and my total ended up at: $8.79. I also got the 2 $5.00 gift cards from the Lipton tea and the Gillette Razor.



Then Logli's:
1.5 pounds of Steak
1 package of English Muffins
1 doz eggs
40 packs of Kool Aid
3 bags of sugar
1 package of Overnight pants
5 boxes of Little Bites Mini Wheat
7 bags of Crutons
1 bottle of Mustard
3 boxes of Hamburger Helper
3 Betty Crockers Delights
1 package of BC Delights Minis
2 bottles of Snapple Tea
4 packs of Taco Seasoning
1 pack of Cupcake liners
3 packs of Crystal Light Teas ( small canisters)
1 pack of Crystal Light Tea (large Canister)
1 Box of crystal Light Tea To Go
5 boxes of Ziploc bags
7 bags of shredded cheese
4 bags of Meals for two (Chicken and Rice)
4 boxes of Bagelfuls
3 boxes of Pretzelfils
3 bottles of Worchester Sauce
1 bottle of BBQ sauce
2 bottles of Ketchup
1 4pk of Yougart
5 boxes of Pop Tarts
2 packs of Bolgna
2 containers of cottage cheese
1 Store Magazine
2 packs of Cat Treats
1 4pk of kids applesauce
2 rolls of Cinnamon Rolls

Total before coupons: 143.32
After coupons: $66.58

Just over 50%. With the higher prices and the smaller coupon values, I feel I did pretty good this round. :)

Good Deals found by Penny

Penny is a reader who has cheered me on and helped me keep this blog going. She just posted a comment and I wanted to share the deals with you...so here is it...

Target
Gillette Fusion razor, used $4MC
Gillette fusion body wash, used $1mc
My total with tax was $6.81 (got $5 target GC)

Did this two more times, using the $5 GC's on the next two trans. So my next two totals were $1.81 with tax.

Then I bought
6 boxes Eggo Bake shop Waffles $1.50 each-6 $1 off MC's
3 pledge swiffer starter kit $1.99-3 $1 off MC's
4 kraft Easy mac-2 $1/2 MC's
I used my last $5 Target GC.
This total was $2.19 with tax.

I also went to Wal-Mart where I bought 4 boxes of Ziploc bogs (expandable bottoms)
4x$1.88 each. I used 2 Bogo Mc's, and 4-$1 off one Target Q's. Not all Wal-Marts accept competitor Q's. The one by me does now. After all Q's this was a .27 cent MM for me.
Wal-Mart also has reach floss for $1. I had 3 of the $1 MC's off any Reach floss, so I got these free too.
Also, the $1MC off Dove Deo from most papers does not exclude trial sizes. I bought several of the trial sizes for .97 cents, and got the $1 off on each one.

THANK YOU PENNY!!!!!

Keeping up with my budget

Due to my husband's layoff, I am trying to keep my spending down under the $250 I normally spend. Well, I just added up our spending for June ( I know we have another week left, but I wanted to see where we are because I am going shopping on Thursday). So far, I have spent $128.17. Sadly, much of that was eating out due to a few side volunteer things I did and I had to pick up dinner on the road. So, I have about $121 left for the month. We already bought the special cat food and much of the meat I wanted to buy on sale, so I have to just make it through another week. :)

Hope everyone is doing well on their budgets!!

Great day....Frugal Notes

OK...we went to the free admission day at the Wade House in Greenbush WI. It was great! Beautiful weather, very few people. Free Parking and Free Admission (saving us about $33.00 in admission costs). We did use up about one tank of gas and we bought a pizza and brought our own drinks and snacks. So, cheap and very fun trip! We also stopped at Parnell Tower and the Kettle Moraine Nature Center. All free. What a wonderful, educational, fun, cheap day! We took a ton of photos and my daughter wrote down some interesting facts she learned to add to our summer scrapbook album.

Then, tonight, I stopped locally for some groceries. It's been over a month since our BIG shopping trip. This was not a big shopping trip, but I did get quite a bit. I did 2 transactions.

8 pounds of chicken (on sale for 99 cents a pound, plus I had buy $8.00 get $2.00 off winetag)
2 pounds of brats (I had $1.00 off coupons and these are for a special grill out with friends this week!)
2 dozen eggs (on sale for 69 cents a doz this week!)
2 hunt's ketchup (on sale and I had 20 cent coupons that doubled)
12 cups of ice cream singles (on sale for $1.00 each and I had BOGO coupons from the Sunday paper)
6 pouches of pasta Ronzoni (clearance on $1.87, I had $1.00 off coupon for each)
2 boxes of fruit snacks(on sale)
1 bag of m&m candy (Free candy coupon)
8 cans of Manwich (on sale and I had coupons .40 cents off that doubled)
3 boxes of Hamburger Helper ( on sale and 75 cents off coupon)
2 bags of Tortilla Chips (on sale)
1 bag of cheese curls (on sale)

So, Before coupons, $65.02
After coupons, $38.56
Since areas of our stockpile are getting low, and prices are getting higher, we felt this wasn't too bad. We do plan on stopping into town on Thursday to get a few more deals.

Also, we stopped at Kwik Trip on the way home, I spent $7.98 there and picked up
3 pounds of bananas
3 loafs of bread
2 packs of hamburger buns
2 pounds of butter

So, overall a very nice frugal day!

Free Scott's Sample Pack

Walmart has a Sample Pack of Scott's Products!
LINK

Frugal Notes, Summer has started!

I wanted to post about 3 things.

One, here is a great article written on another blog, Northern Cheapskate. The blog is about people who are greedy with freebies. I couldn't agree more. You can read about it here http://www.northerncheapskate.com/2009/06/dont-be-greedy-with-freebies.html

Two, Another thing I wanted to discuss was the fact that so many people have contacted me recently about living beneath their means. Two seperate families I know have had both the husband and the wife lose their jobs. Meaning there is no regular income, just unemployment. WOW, this just breaks my heart, I will be praying for them! I have so many ideas to help them. First, get rid of anything that is NOT necessary. You don't need the extra features on your phone. You don't need cable or dish TV. Those are wonderful to have, but not when the bills need to be paid. I know that sounds shocking, and I am not trying to sound mean, but once the income stops rolling in, it's time to make drastic changes. I recently read a self help book that said don't use coupons. I couldn't disagree more! I would say LEARN how to USE COUPONS EFFECTIVELY!!! There is a difference!


One of the women that I recently talked to said," We can't spend any money, but we can't just sit here at home! It will drive us crazy." So, I want us all to put our heads together and think of some of the free or cheap things you can do. I have posted all the current State and National Parks that are having free days. I also mentioned that the library has programs and free resources. PLEASE post a comment on any ideas you may have!

Third, I came up with an idea after my daughter said, "Mom, we will be going to all these places this summer, but you told us we can't buy any souvenirs. So, what can we do to remember all the places we have gone." I pulled out a photo album I found free at a rummage sale, it's a 3 ring binder type. I told her that we will take tons of photos, make scrapbook pages to add to the album and then we will have her write news reports of our trips. She will be a mini newspaper reporters. All her reports will be added to this album binder. She loved the idea and I gave her a cheap notebook I found on clearance for 15 cents. She will keep ideas and notes in there about things she has learned or seen on her summer adventures. And we will have a lasting souvenir for years to come. She will be practicing her penmanship, reading and writing skills, fostering ideas and helping her learn. :) Great Plan.

So far, we have gone to Culver's Fire Safety Night. Culver's Resturant invited kids to view the fire trucks and ambulance in their parking lot. The fire department showed what they have to wear and what they look like (so the kids wouldn't be scared). The kids got stickers, free ice cream, coloring books, and crayons. They has a great time climbing in to the ambulance. The kids also won a prize in the raffle.

Then, the next day, we went to a Library Show. It was about making and creating music with household things (like straws and pan lids). The kids had fun "banging" and "whistling". The man was very funny and the kids liked it.

Also, all week my kids have been attending a day camp in the mornings. They have enjoyed painting, snacks, singing and dancing.

So, three free events for kids and nothing out of my pocket. Summer has started with a bang!

Target Stop...

My husband had to run to town so I sent him with the Ice Cream Coupons.

10 packs of Breyer's Ice Cream.
$2.50 a container on sale, I had $1.00 off each. Coupons from the Sunday paper inserts. So, $1.50 after coupon. Also, when you bought 5 you got a $5.00 gift card.
So, out of pocket was $16.00 and I got $10.00 in gift cards for next trip! Yeah! Ice Cream for the summer!

Coupon for new Tide Stain Release

Here is a coupon for $1.50 off new Tide Stain Release LINK The coupon is mailed to you!

Free Geo Trax DVD

You little boy will love this freebie
LINK Fill out the form and have them send a free Geotrax DVD with 4 episodes on them!

Good Deals this week

I am not planning on doing another major shopping trip for another week or so, but my husband has to drive into town so I am going to have him pick up the deal at Target.
Buy 5 Breyer's Ice Creams and get a $5.00 off gift card. I have $1.00 off coupons for each one. 5 * 2.50 is $12.50, subtracting the coupons makes it $7.50 and I get a $5.00 gift card back. :) And we will have some ice cream for the summer!

Also Walgreen's has St. Ive's Body wash Free after RR. Walgreen's also has Raqu, Skippy, Hellmann's and Lipton tea on sale, you buy 8 of them and get $8.00 back in RR's. I am going to go search my coupons. We have plenty of those items in stockpile, but if I find decent coupons, it may be worth picking up. Speghetti sauce, tea and mayo are staple stockpile items in my home.

What good deals have you had lately?

If you live in South Eastern Wisconsin...

This isn't free, but I thought I would pass this on...a fellow reader emailed this to me.....

Beginning July 10 and most weekends in July, Wisconsin State Fair Park will air double-features in the north parking lot, where the films will be shown on a 40-foot screen while audio is transmitted through car radios.
Admission is just $15 per car load with no restriction on the number of people in a vehicle, but Fair Park officials are encouraging movie-goers to make sure that everybody has the ability to "buckle up." Cars with at least four non-pherishable food items will get admission for just $10 and walk-ins are welcome at just $5 per person.
Gates and vendors will open at 6:30 p.m. and movies begin at dusk.
Here's the lineup:
Friday, July 10 -- "Shrek" / "American Graffiti"
Saturday, July 11 -- "ET" / "Star Trek: Wrath of Khan"
Friday, July 17 -- "Sleepless in Seattle" / "Goldfinger"
Saturday, July 18 -- "Spider-Man" / "Iron Man"
Friday, July 24 -- "Raiders of the Lost Ark" / "Journey to the Center of the Earth 2008"
Saturday, July 25 -- "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" / "Inkheart"
For more information, log on to the Fair Park's Web site.
More Information ...
Wisconsin State Fair Park
640 S. 84th St.
West Allis, WI 53214
(800) 884-3247

Free Admission to National Parks

In our local newspaper this morning, It stated that the National Parks, including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, will have 3 free admission weekends. June 20 and 21st, July 18 and 19th and August 15 and 16th. Most American's live less than a day's drive from a National Park and with the tough ecomonmic times, our national parks provide affordable vacations for families.

So, if you live near a National Park and you want to enjoy it free, those weekends will be a great opportunity for you! For more information, got to www.nps.gov/findapark/feefreeparks.htm

If you are in Wisconsin..

Every Monday in June the Wisconsin Historical Society is opening up several historical sites with free admission.
The 7 sites are:
*Old World Wisconsin, Eagle
*Wade House, Greenbush
*Villa Louse, Prairie Du Chien
*Madeline Island Museum, La Pointe
*HH Bennette Studio, Wisconsin Dells
*Pendarvis, Mineral Point
*Stonefield, Cassville

All other sites are regular admission.

Free Museum Visits...

LINK Target is having several free Family Museum Admission days. You can check out the link for a complete list.

If you have a Marcus or Regal Theater near you...

Marcus has a summer movie deal for $3.00 each. Go to LINK For $3.00, you get admission and a free small popcorn.

Regal has a summer Free Family Festival. LINK Follow the link to find if they are in your city.

If you plan it right, you can do the movie and then go over to the bowling alley for some free bowling; making a family outing a very good deal!

Free Bowling ALL SUMMER!

Check this out! LINK 2 free games of Bowling per day per kid!! Many states have bowling centers!

Back to Walgreen's...

Today Walgreen's had a coupon spend $25.00 get $5.00 off. I had my $25.00 check from the transferred perscription, so I thought this would be a good time to get over there.

It was $59.83
After coupons and the gift check, it was $1.48. I also got $6.00 in RR's.


Here is my transaction:
2 Gilette Shampoo, On sale for 2 for $8.00, I had 2 coupons that took $3.00 off ( also got $3.00 in rr's)
2 Boxes of Oreo Cakesters, $2.50 each, I had a $1.00 off coupons from a tear pad
1 box of Neosporin, Walgreens has a $2.00 off coupon, I had a $1.00 off sunday paper coupon. Also, it was a bonus box with free bandaids and a carrying case inside.
6 boxes of Jello, had a walgreens coupon and a IP coupon from coupon.com
KY Lubricant, on sale, I had a $5.00 off Walgreens coupon and a $5.00 off sunday paper coupon
pack of Dry Erase Markers, on clearance for $2.00
2 boxes Sandwich bags, Walgreens coupon and a sunday paper coupon, also they were bonus boxes with 20 extra bags inside
gallon of milk ( you got $3.00 in RR's if you bought 2 boxes of cakesters and a gallon of milk)
Glade Fabric oder remover, on sale and I have a BOGO coupon
Scotch Tape, on clearnace
2 pocket folders on clearance
Markers and pencils on clearance

A Walgreens stop and summer plans...

I stopped at Walgreens this morning for my husband's perscription and they had more clearance Angel Soft. So I picked up 8 packs. I had no coupons left, but it made the TP 20 cents a roll and we go through a lot of TP in this house!!! So, $8.99 for 8 packs of TP, A sunday paper, a clearance school folder my daughter wanted and a free bottle of aspirin.
Quick Trip, but I earned a $25.00 gift card for my husband's script so I can use that next time.

Also, while I am talking about deals, I have filled enough gasoline cards to get 4 free baseball tickets. I will send in for those and take my kids to a baseball game. It's not completely free. There is a $5.00 handling fee and parking will be $10.00. I pack all my own snacks and drinks per the ball park rules. We always sign up for the designated driver program which gives us one free soda, which typically the kids share. So, we end up spending $15.00 out of pocket and gas for the afternoon.

Also, My kids both did their reading program for free Six Flags Great America tickets. We have to do this as cheaply as possible if we really want to go. Each of the kids tickets are free. My ticket will be free from coke rewards points. Now, I just have to find a free/cheap ticket for my husband. Parking is $15.00. We could park off the lot and walk but we bring a cooler and food in the car, so we do park in the cheapest parking on the lot. You can't bring food into the amusement park, but you can picnic on their grass, so we do that for dinner. We do eat lunch in the park, costing around $30.00 for the 4 of us and we also buy one of the big soda cup refills ($12.99) and we share it, getting our own straws and switching who can use it. So, the cheapest way possible for us to go to Great America is about $60.00.
Does anyone know of some good coupons or discounts for tickets?

So, as of right now summer will be filled with girl scout camp (paid for out of fundraisers), Kids camp (free due to financial situation), Baseball game, 2 week long camping trips, swimming at the lake, Library Reading Program (5 free events), trip to Great America, one kids concert (free). Not bad for a family out of work. :)

Stay Frugal!! Keep emailing me ideas!!

Tombstone Pizza will help pay your utility bill!

Tombstone Pizza is doing an offer right now to help pay up to $15.00 of your utility bill. Follow this link to get all the details.

Kids get Free Pizza and Soda for good grades!

Sbarro has a great deal for June 23rd. LINK
Any student with A's and B's on his or her report card auctomatically becomes a PizzAchievers. You are invited to stop in their local Sbarro with their report cards and say "A's and b's, PIZZA PLEASE" and get a free slice of cheese or pepperoni pizza and small soda. Read more about it at the link!

Free Kids Soap!

Johnson and Johnson has a coupon out there for $3.00 off and 3 Johnson and Johnson products. The Johnson Buddies soaps are 97 cents at most Walmarts. Which means you can get 3 for free! Follow this LINK and print your own! My kids are 6 and 8 and they love these soaps. I also add one of these soaps to any baby gifts I give out. :)

Free Sippy Cup or Water Bottle From Juicy Juice

You can register with Juicy Juice and get a free sippy cup or water bottle. Follow this link, LINK, sign up and pick the free gift you want. Also, you can search their page for printable coupons.

I am pleased to share...

That a website called Frugal Families has asked me to write some articles about frugal living for her. She has published them on the front page of the website. You can check them out at her link. I want to thank Frugal Families for their kindness and allowing me to be on their website!

Quick Run To Walmart

I stopped at the SuperWalwart after work.

It was $23.81 before coupons.
After coupons: $6.10

2 packs of Hot Dogs
1 box of Bagelfuls
1 candy bar bill
5 bags of Friskies Cat Treats
2 boxes of Capri Sun Drinks
5 packages of Hoisery
1 pack of 5 tab dividers

:)
Also, they were giving away a sample of Men's Deoderant.

Stay Frugal!

End of the Month!

Time to clean out those binders or coupon books or files...However you keep your Q's!

Redbox Promo Code - June 1, 2009

Here is your promo code for today, Monday, June 1:

FM63H7

Enjoy your movie!!