Hello??? Is Anyone Still There?

I am very sheepishly and ashamedly returning to this blog after about a six week absence! Life has been so crazy busy, and I have not had much time to do anything! Especially blog! I apologize profusely, and hope to return to blogging a couple times per week. I hope that you have found other great blogs to read while I have been on the QT. Here are a few of my favorites.

www.moneysavingmom.com
www.dealseekingmom.com
www.thethriftymama.com
www.southernsavers.com

I have been couponing and finding some good deals once in a while this last month. I had not shopped at Rite Aid at all in July until yesterday! And yesterday was the last day in the July rebate period! How sad! I have been shopping more at CVS, and Kroger while I am at the lake! CVS has a great monthly special for July. When you buy a Bayer Glucose Meter for 19.99 you will receive 5 ECB. If you don't know what ECB's are, follow one of the above links for a CVS tutorial. I have multiple coupons for these meters that will take off up to 30.00, so the meter itself ended up being free! I then received the 5 ECB's, for a total of 20.00 in ECB's without spending a dime! (The limit on the meter special was 4.) I have been rolling those ECB's on school supplies, which have been free after ECB's every Sunday through Tuesday. It is my goal to not spend any money on school supplies this year!

One deal that I did yesterday at the Kroger in Angola, IN was for Kleenex. Kleenex are on sale for 0.99 WYB 10 mega event items. I purchased 2 boxes of Anti-viral Kleenex and used a 0.50/2 coupon which tripled. So I paid 0.25 per box. I used this coupon several times and ended up buying about 12 boxes of tissues. Imagine my surprise when I received a catalina for 1.00 off my next shopping order courtesy of Kleenex. Not one, but 3 of them. Had I only bought the Anti-viral tissues they would have all been free after coupons and catalinas! I had bought regular Kleenex as well, for school, as the kids usually need to take several boxes!

I did great yesterday at Rite Aid too, getting tons of stuff for about 2.18 out of pocket. The value of the items that I purchased was 56.00, with most of them being on sale and having a partial rebate attached to them. I paid 35.93 OOP and will receive 33.75 in SCR. I rolled my May and June rebate checks to pay for today's purchases!

On a non couponing note, my kids have had a busy baseball and softball seasons, and we spent a week at the lake with really yucky weather! We had a great 4th of July, welcoming our new nephew/cousin Grayson Michael. Our niece/cousin Emersyn is due to arrive any day now! I have been trying to help my sisters out with their existing children while they grow and deliver these new children! It has been such a blessing, and I can't wait to watch these kids grow up together!

So there's a little highlight of what I've been doing. I am going to try hard to blog as much as I can, although when my classes resume in August I fear they will occupy most of my free time. I hope I am wrong though! Hope everyone else has had a great summer too!