Sunday, July 24, 2011

CVS Freebies

There are some pretty good deals going on this week at CVS, starting today July 24th and ending July 30th.

$1.99 for Paper Mate Grip 8 pack of pens. You pay $1.99 at the register but you get back a $1.99 extra care buck reward on your next purchase making this item FREE. It is limited to 1 offer per card. I have 2 CVS cards, so I got 2 packs.

Get $6 extra care bucks when you buy Bausch & Lomb sensitive multi-purpose solution at $7.89. Get the $2.00 off manufacturers coupon by following the link or find it in the June 12th edition of Smart Source. The total for this is $5.89 out of pocket but you get a $6 extra care buck making this item FREE.

$10 extra care buck rewards when you buy $20 worth of the specified items. To qualify for this deal, I got the following:

2 Skintimate shaving creams at $2.19 each and 2 Schick Hydro razors at $7.99 each. The total was $20.36 but I had two $1.50 off the skintimate shave cream coupons which can be found here, and two $4 off Schick Hydro coupons found in the June 12th edition of Smart Source. Once I added all these coupons, plus the $6 extra care buck I got from the Bausch & Lomb sensitive multi-purpose solution, the total came to $4.79 with taxes that I paid out of pocket. Then the $10 extra care buck printed out so all these items were FREE.

Select Kotex U products are on sale for $3.49 and you get back a $2.00 extra care buck. Use the $1 off coupon found in the July 24th edition of Smart Source, and you pay $2.49 out of pocket, but get back $2 in rewards. This item comes out to $0.49 which is not free but still a good deal.

Lastly, the 8.5 oz Softsoap hand soap is on sale for $2 each. When you buy 3 you get a $3 extra care buck. You need to get 3 of the $1 off softsoap coupons which were printables found online. However, this campaign has now reached its limit. This is why it is important to look at the sales previews for CVS shown on websites such as southernsavers.com which come out before the sales starts. They will tell you which coupons you will need and link you to the ones that need to be printed so you can get them before they run out. If you were able to get 3 of these $1 off coupons, then the transaction came out to $3 paid out of pocket, but you get back the $3 extra care buck, making all items FREE.

The whole point of couponing at CVS is to buy each "deal" separately so you can get the extra care buck and use it on your next purchase. For example, I bought the Bausch and Lomb solution first, so I could use the $6 extra care buck on the whole skintimate and Schick razors deal.



When all was done, I spent $10.99 out of pocket for $52.26 worth of items, a savings of 79%. Plus I was left with $13 worth of extra care bucks, so really I got everything for FREE.

***the $10.99 also includes the 2 packs of 5 count Zrytec medication shown in the photo. They are on sale at Walmart for $5.27 each. I had two $5 off coupons found here, making the total $0.54 for 10 tablets.***

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Coffee and FREE cookies back again at Publix!

Today the new Publix sales started for the week and I went early in the morning to make sure they would not be out of stock. I posted about this same deal May 10th 2011. It is just to show you that sales do repeat so make sure to stock up until it comes back again.

This deal ends either on Wednesday July 20th or Thursday July 21st depending on when the sales start in your local Publix. 

At my Publix Eight O'Clock coffee is buy one get one free for $6.60. Plus there were $2 off 2 and $1 off 1 coupons in the smart source June 6th coupon insert. Or you can go to www.eightoclock.com and sign up to print a $2 off coupon. You need one $2 off 2 per every 2 bags you get, or two $1 off 2 for every 2 bags you get. This drops the price to $2.30 per bag of coffee.

Plus be on the look out for the Eight O'Clock coffee bags with a sticker on the front for a FREE bag of Pepridge Farms cookies. I went in and bought 8 bags of coffee, each with one of these stickers so I was able to get 8 free bags of cookies! The bags with the stickers will run out quickly, so go as soon as possible to snatch them up, and don't feel embarrassed to dig deep into those shelves to find them.


Splenda sweeteners are also buy one get one free for $4.29. Click on "promotions" on their website at www.splenda.com to print out a $2 coupon off Splenda Essentials products. You need 2 of these coupons so you can use one on each box which drops the price down to $0.29 for 2 boxes of Splenda. The buy one get one free is applicable to the regular Splenda sweeteners and the Fiber added version of the sweetener. However, the coupons available for these versions is only $1 off. It is still a good deal if you get two of the $1 off coupons dropping the price down to $2.29 for two boxes.




Overall, I spent $18.69 for 8 bags of coffee, 8 bags of cookies, and 2 boxes of Splenda.


I saved $70.61, which is a savings of about 80% off the full price.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Strawberry Waffles with Strawberry Syrup

I had 4 sandwich bags full of frozen strawberries and I decided to use them up with a recipe posted on foodtv.com by Emeril Lagasse. I made my own tweaks to the recipe. I added strawberries to his waffle batter, and for the syrup I removed the orange zest and juice.

The waffles and syrup turned out fantastic! If you are bad at cooking pancakes like I am, then waffles are much easier. The waffle maker does all the work and I tend to not burn my waffles to a black char like I do with pancakes.


Ingredients:

For the Waffles
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Nonstick cooking spray

I added in 3 cups of chopped up, frozen strawberries that I thawed out. You could use fresh strawberries too.

For the Strawberry Syrup
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and diced, or thawed frozen unsweetened strawberries (about 3 cups)
1 cup sugar

Directions:

First thaw out the strawberries your using for the waffles if they are frozen. This could take a while. When they are thawed out, they are squishy and juicy which is fine. The strawberries to be used in the syrup can be left whole.


Next, dice up your strawberries. 


Now start mixing the dry ingredients:  flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. At least this is how I choose to make the batter.


Put the butter in a microwavable dish and microwave it until completely melted.


Now mix in all the rest of the ingredients starting with the milk and butter first. Then add the eggs, vanilla, and diced strawberries.


Start heating up your waffle maker. Once it is ready, spray it with the nonstick cooking spray. I added 3/4 cup of the batter to my waffle maker to create each waffle.


I hate it when the batter spills over...


The waffle is done when it is a nice light brown color and is not mushy in the center.


I was able to make 6 waffles with the recipe.






Now get started on the syrup. You might want to this this the night before if you wont have enough time in the morning. It took me 1 hour to cook down the ingredients to the correct syrup consistency.

Add the strawberries required for this recipe and the sugar.


Cook this on low-medium heat for one hour stirring occasionally.



Eventually it will become a syrup. I made mine the night before and stored it in a microwavable dish. In the morning I heated it up for 3 minutes in the microwave.



 After the syrup was heated through, I spread it on top of my waffles. This is optional, but I added 3 heaping tablespoons of yogurt in the middle, followed by a sprinkling of granola. You could add cool whip, sliced bananas, chocolate chips, or anything like that. It just so happened that yogurt and granola were what I had at hand.



I served the waffles with a bowl of watermelon and cantaloupe. I also made an iced coffee drink for my husband who hates hot coffee. My recipe for this is as follows:

Brew coffee as you normally would. Fill 1/3 of the cup with the hot coffee. Then I like to add 2 heaping teaspoons of sugar and mix well. If you like it sweeter add more sugar.


Next add another 1/3 of milk.


Add enough ice cubes that the liquid level rises to the brim of the cup.


You could buy flavored coffee syrups to add a little something extra to the drink.

Enjoy!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

DIY: Custom Shirt Imprint

Here is a simple way to customize a blank shirt with a logo or symbol. I've done this several times with great results. This time, my husband wanted a Star Craft 2 shirt with the protoss logo which cost $20. I knew I could make it for $3.99 (the cost of a large adult blank shirt at Michael's craft store) plus the cost of fabric paint. The only other thing I needed was a stencil which I created in Photoshop and printed onto normal printer paper. Then I cut out the stencil and I was ready to go. I had bought the paint many years ago when I created a Smash Bro's T-shirt with my husbands favorite character. Today the same paint is valued at $5.99 each. Mind you it is a big tube of paint. I'm sure you can find smaller sizes for less.

What you Need:
blank t-shirt

fabric paint: I used this kind


A small paint brush, my preference is a flat tipped brush. A flat tipped brush is important because at the end when your done painting the design and it is dry, you will have to go back over some of the edges that bled beyond the stencil.

The paint brush is labeled as: 10F Loew-Cornell Fabric Dye Flat
A piece of card board or several newspaper inserts to go under the t-shirt where you plan to paint. This is very important because the paint will go through the front of the shirt and deposit on the black side if you have nothing there to absorb it.

Tape

Directions:

Print out you logo. A simple logo is best. This was my design. I uploaded onto this blog sized for a 8.5in x 11in piece of paper. I think if you saved the image it will keep those dimensions if your interested in using my protoss logo. Then start cutting out the inside of the symbol.


Next, put the cardboard or newspaper under the area you plan to paint. Lay the shirt as flat as possible. Center the stencil where you would like it. If you want it to look good on the front side, I would center it about 2-3 inches below the neck line. I did not think about this so my end product was a logo that sat in the middle of my chest (bad for girls) and in an awkward middle chest area on my husband too.


Once you have it centered, tape the sides of the paper down unto the shirt to keep it in place. Begin painting your stencil by "stippling" don't brush it on in strokes. The up and down motion of stippling helps you to avoid accidentally sliding the brush under the stencil ruining the design.


Paint one color at a time. Use a little bit of paint at a time. In other words don't stipple on a huge glob of paint because it will push the paint under the stencil. Work with small quantities of paint.


This was my first layer. Since my shirt is a dark color I will have to paint about 3 layers so that the design looks nice and crisp. I waited 45 minutes between each layer application to allow it to dry. I have never tried painting on a white shirt, but I assume it is a lot easier since colors show up better.

After 3 coats I let it dry for the last time. Then I removed my stencil.


As you can see, I went out of the lines a little bit. This is where the flat tipped feature of the brush comes in handy. Use the flat edge to run across the messed up area and blend it in with the rest of the logo.