I still ❤️ CVS

CVS has made a few changes in their coupon policy.  They previously accepted their own coupons if they were expired and they also now limit the stacking of their coupons.  Before, if I had 2 of their coupons for $5/25 on diapers and I was buying $25 in diapers, I could use both of those.  Now, I would have to have $50 in diapers to use 2 and they could not be expired. 

Lots of CVS shoppers on the Facebook groups are upset about it and make it sound like the worst thing ever.  

Well, I haven't been to CVS in several weeks but there were some good deals this week so I went today and I did just as good as ever.  So much for the "sky is falling" talk on the FB groups......

I had $15 in ExtraCareBucks, all the rest of the coupons were from this past Sunday's paper and CVS red box machine and the CVS app.  

My total started at $88 and dropped to $10.77.  

I got back $13.88 in ExtraCareBucks for my next trip.  

A dust ruffle for the full size bed in our toy room

We have just a full size bed on a metal frame in this room.  I didn't like how when the bed was made the traditional way with a regular dust ruffle and a quilt on top, it got so messed up when the grands played in there.  The dust ruffle was always crooked and the quilt would slide one way or the other and it just  messy.  

So after a lot of thought,  I came up with an idea to sew a dust ruffle in a way that it shouldn't slide and to just use a colored fitted sheet on the bed when no one sleeping.  

I moved the top mattress and covered the bottom box spring with an old fitted sheet and pulled it so it was tight.  

Then with a yard stick and marker, I marked a line 3 inches inside.  It will be my sewing line.  

This way the dust ruffle is completely under the top mattress with no poking out of the base sheet the dust ruffle is sewn to. 

Then I looked through my fabric stash (I have a big fabric stash, most of it was gifted to me). 

My original idea was to reuse some floral curtains but I can't find them (maybe they were too faded and I got rid of them, who knows?). So I decided to use a fabric that the children would like.  

I had long lengths of some mountain wildlife fabric and some deer fabric.  

I went with the wildlife print.  Then I measured the length - I think it was 18 1/2 inches, allowing for hem and turning under top. 

I cut out lengths and I used either 5 or 6.  I sewed them all together in to one very long length and machine hemmed the bottom and turned under the top edge about a 1/2 inch.  

Then, I got down on my knees and pinned the dust ruffle to the fitted sheet base all around 3 sides.   I pinned it on the line I drew.  

At the corners,  I just folded the extra length into pleats until it looked OK.  

I took the whole pinned together sheet and dust ruffle to the sewing machine and sewed it close to the pinned edge.  This was the trickiest part as it was a rather big piece to steer through a sewing machine.  

I put the freshly sewn dust ruffle back on the bed, put the mattress back on with a sage green fitted sheet and added some patchwork pillows I sewed about 6 years ago.  

 Now the grands can roll their cars all over the bed and not mess up the bedding. 

Also, I know the top sheet will need laundered often and it will be much easier to wash than a bedspread or quilt.  

The bed is ready for anyone to sleep in it, We can just add the top sheet and blankets.  

I like that the dust ruffle hides the ugly metal frame and I think the grands will do some pretend playing with the animals and cabins on this dust ruffle.  

An assortment

I ordered 2 dozen silicone baking cups from Amazon and have been having fun with them.  

I put some in my granddaughter's lunch one day (Her parents always fix her lunch for school but I was happy to this once and she was so excited about the muffin cups). Tammy has been posting lunches she makes for her grandsons with silicone cups and it is a fun way to pack lunches.

If you want some, silicone cups are for sale on Amazon and EBay, at a range of prices, some are very low! 

Elizabeth's lunch - all things she likes- clementines, pecans, Aldi veggie chips and a PBJ sandwich. 

I also baked some blueberry muffins, in just the silicone cups, using no muffin pan.  

They work great. 

If you are patient and wait to eat the muffins until they cool, the muffins pop right out of the cups.

I did hand wash the cups.  I think they are dishwasher safe but I imagine they would just fly and float around as they are so lightweight.  

Shopping Haul at the VA Hospital - really 

My husband has had several appointments at the VA hospital recently.  (He is fine, no worries)

There is small store there called The Patriot Store that sells snacks, some clothes and gift items, just an assortment.  We arrived early so we browsed there instead of sitting in the waiting room.  

My husband found a belt that he really likes and needed - belts seem hard to find and this one is just right.

I found a small silicone ladle that I had on my list of wants.  

And these flag decorations were almost free- 75% off. 

These flag banners were 24 cents and the flag tinsel were 49 cents.  I like that they are flat and will be easy to store until needed.  

We visited at our son's home on the way to the hospital.  When we left, 4 year old Andie handed me a little bundle and said "here Grandma, you will need this while you wait at the doctor" 

It was a sheet of stickers and 4 crayons rolled up in a sheet of paper.  Isn't she sweet? 😍

Speaking of Andie, here she is with her little sister Charlie and baby brother RJ

Baby RJ - he is wonderful (and so are professional photographers )

Aldi has a new, expanded line of baby products.  We very much like their new Little Journey diapers.  

They are about 1/2 the price of name brand diapers and work just as good.  

That's our giant Jackson ❤️ 

He doesn't care what kind of diapers we use, but he does likes playing with the packages.  

Braeden - with a self-inflicted carpet burn he got when he rubbed his face too fast on carpet 😱

Boys! 

Chevron hand towels - how I got 4 for just a bit more than the price of 1

Hello everyone!  I'm still here, just been too busy to take photos of what I've been doing so I could blog about it.  Yesterday, I had some free time alone and I spent about an hour wandering around Walmart.  It has been months since I went to Walmart without a mission to just go in, buy what's on the list and get out as fast possible.  

I did buy the vitamins and scented wax on my list.  I also bought a few random things like some t shirts for me marked down to $2 and $3, a nice gallon plastic pitcher for $1.24. 

Then when I saw the yellow, gray and white chevron towels, which match our hall bathroom, I really wanted them.  

The bath towel size sells for $6.94 and the much smaller hand towel size are $5.94.  

I was shopping slow so I unfolded the bath towel and liked how it felt and decided I would just buy 1 bath towel and try to turn it into 4 hand towels.  

I folded the bath towel in quarters and compared it to a hand towel we already had.  The cut size would be slightly smaller but it still seems plenty big enough to me for a hand towel.  

So, I cut the 1 bath towel into 4 hand towel shapes.  There was no waste, I just cut it once right down the middle horizontally and then once straight up the middle the length of the towel.

The store towel was sewn in gray thread but I didn't have any gray thread on hand.  I wanted to finish today so I just used white thread.  I left the original towel hems except for where they were cut, I just turned under those edges about a half inch and zigzagged machine stitched to hold in place.  

The zigzag will also prevent raveling. 

The zig zag pretty much blends in with the towel loops and is not very noticeable.  

The hall bath- the walls were already yellow, the rugs were already gray and now

the hand towels hanging in there match 😄

I spent less than an hour doing the cutting and sewing.  

My towels net cost was $1.74 each compared to 5.96 each.  

If I had bought 4 hand towels, it would of been $23.84.  So my hour of sewing saved $16.90 and I don't think I would of liked the store bought towels any better than the ones I just sewed. 

Purslane, cactus, mermaid craft and another big meal

Thank you all for the information about our mystery plant, purslane.  

We haven't eaten any of yet but I did move it's pot where it shouldn't be able to spread to anyplace we don't want it.  

My son made this cactus arrangement for his uncle's birthday.  

I saw this mermaid craft idea on Instagram.  My daughter already had the Popsicle sticks that have a head and arms.  I set out play dough and a box of assorted sequins, tiny shells and buttons.  

The grands had the best time making these as did the adults who helped.  

This is a craft that is mostly enjoyed in the making, not for keeping, as so many of doo-dads did not stay attached as the dough dried.  That pile of doo-dads on the right is just what fell off.  

Some have tails and some have princess dresses and some are supposed to be boy mermaids.  

Some have hair and are embellished on both sides.  The children who made them were ages 3-7 and all thought it was a lot of fun.  

For my brother's recent birthday, we had a big family meal here.  

This meal was one of the easiest group meals I remember serving.   

The main entree was make your own taco salad.  

I set out tortilla chips, chopped romaine lettuce and tomatoes, a dish of beef taco meat and a bowl of homemade salsa.  All the tomatoes were from our backyard.  

We had a pot of spicy beans and taco salad toppings. 

Meals here always include fruit - this was a cantaloupe from our backyard and strawberries from Aldi (and an adult hand snitching fruit early) 

My daughter brought the desserts- a lemon pound cake and key lime yogurt pie. Both were delicious.  

These grandsons were the last to leave and they love desserts.  They ate lots of supper and then wanted a little more cake and green pie before they went home.  

If you look, you'll see they are using disposable bowls.  Big meals here are always served on disposable plates and bowls.  I find Aldi and the military commissary have the best prices,  I was shocked how much they cost at Walmart now.

The disposable plates and bowls just make clean up so much quicker and easier! 

Summer will be around another month or so but the area schools start next week.  

We've had a fun summer break with lots of cousin fun.  This was a picnic last week after 5 of the cousins played at one of our town's splash pads.  

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer- however much longer it lasts ❤️

A mystery succulent, planting and a bit more CVS

My son likes to buy succulents and cactus when Lowes has them on the clearance cart for $1-$2. 

Then he re pots them and leaves them at our house for us to plant sit.  

They aren't much trouble and they are thriving in the summer heat and liking all the summer rain.  

But the succulent in the big white pot is a mystery.  My son says he didn't buy it and I sure didn't.  It has grown lots and when I looked at early this morning, it had dozens of tiny yellow flowers.  I guess they close up in the heat of the day.  

Anyone know the name of this mystery succulent? 

He also has some jade plants that have tripled in size this summer.  

The zinnias we grew from seed were slow to get started but are growing up and blooming so pretty 😄

My husband is starting some seeds for fall crops - broccoli, onions, lettuces.......

And Surprise! Or probably not..............

I made a second trip to CVS this week.  The deals were too good not to do them. 

I used my $16 ExtraCareBucks from yesterday.

$2 coupons on each Gain- from the Sunday paper, Coupons.com and the PG website

.25 coupons on Puffs from Sunday newspaper

.25 coupons on Dawn from Coupons.com

Those products came to just a but more than $30 and gave back a $10 ExtraCareBuck

The Body Armour sports drinks are a freebie - they were $3 for 2 and give back a $3 ExtraCareBuck

My mom asked for deodorant and they did not stock the exact kind she requested but the ones I got were too good a deal to pass up and if she doesn't want them, I'll keep them and look at other stores for hers. 

The Lady Speedstick was $2 for $5 and gave back a $2 ExtraCareBuck and I used a 50 cent coupon on each. 

I had a $2 off $8 any deodorant coupon from the CVS printer and also a $1 on any Mitchum.  

So I added a Mitchum to make my deodorant purchase over $8 and I also used a $2 Mitchum coupon.

All 3 deodorants after coupons ended up costing  $3.19 and I got the $2 ExtraCareBuck on the deal.  

Total spent was $10.06 and I got back $15 total ExtraCareBucks for my next trip.

Hope you are all having a great start to August 😍

CVS haul and some tips for US CVS shoppers and baby RJ

Hello! I have been just busy the last 10 days helping with my grands and then my husband had some mouth surgery.  But things are settling down, everyone is fine and I'm getting back to more routine things.  

Here is a bunch of information about how I shop at CVS- as requested- but if you're not into CVS, just scroll to the bottom for sweet photo of baby RJ.  ❤️

I went to CVS today.  This was $57 before coupons, $26 after and I got back $16 in CVS ExtraCareBucks to spend next time.  

The Tide, Dawn and Puffs are all on sale and offer $10 back when you spend $30.

I had printable $2 Tide coupons from Coupons.com and .25 on the Dawn from the same place.  

Haagen Doz ice cream was 2/$7.  I used $1 coupons on each from a recent Sunday insert and got back $3 for each 2. 

Special K was $1.99 I used 2 coupons from the CVS website.  One was for $2/2 Special K and one was $1.  I also had a CVS red box coupon for $1/ any 3 cereals. 

Gold Emblem nuts were $1. I used a $2/2 Gold Emblem nuts coupon printed from the CVS website.   

My receipt and my EXtraCareBucks for next time.  

Tips for CVS 

I plan deals ahead looking at the future CVS ads at IHeartCVS.com 

I look at other CVS shoppers on YouTube.  

My favorite YouTuber is LASavings8.  She is brief and gets the deals across without a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.  She usually posts her deals Sunday morning about 9 a.m. CST  She has already put up a video about this week's deals but she won't have videos for the next 2 weeks as she will be on her honeymoon.  

On YouTube, I also watch 

SavingWithJanandShirl The Coupon Queens

CouponingStacy

Thrifty & Thriving 

Couponing with Toni - she is really good and might be most helpful to CVS beginners 

For all CVS shopper - get a CVS card and then go on the CVS website and sign up to be in Beauty Bucks (you'll be rewarded $5 in EXtraCareBucks for every $50 spent on beauty products and this is before coupons.  The reward comes about 48 hours after your purchases reach $50)

Also sign up for the prescription rewards if you will fill prescriptions at CVS.  

Get the CVS app on any smart device like an Android phone, iPad, iPod or iPhone and check for App only coupons after you link your CVS card to it.  

Scan your CVS card weekly at a CVS redbox card scanner.  (Not the movie rental kiosk but a kiosk inside CVS) scann your card until it quits printing CVS personal coupons.  These will be based on what you previously purchaed.  You could get 10-20 a week and they vary widely like $5/25 any diaper purchase or $2 off $6 any Listerine.  They change weekly.m

The CVS coupons can be combined with Manufacturer coupons.  

Also sign up your email with CVS to get coupons.  I usually get an email the first part of the week for something like $2 off any cosmetic or shampoo.  I usually get emails on Thursday and they will have a CVS coupon for something like $6/30 any purchase or 30% off any non-sale items.  

I also belong to a few CVS Facebook groups to see what other shoppers are getting.  Some of them are very busy lists and I just scan over the posts before I go shopping to make sure I am matching up everything,  

Couponing at CVS is my favorite Facebook group.  

Newspaper coupons - I usually have a few multiples as I subscribe to 2 Sunday papers.  My parents save their coupons and I think my dad usually scrounges up a few extras that he finds at their retirement home. Also, my brother saves his coupons for me and he has access to several papers as part of his job.   If you know someone who subscribes to papers but doesn't coupon, chances are they would be happy to save the inserts.  

Also, if you want to buy a Sunday paper or several for the coupons, Dollar Tree sells newspapers for $1.

I know this all sounds like a lot of hoops to jump through, but once I learned how,  I really enjoy doing it.  And I really like having a big supply/stockpile of most every product we like, bought for very little.  

And here is professional photo of grand #8,  baby RJ ❤️

Thank you all for your sweet greetings about him from my last post.  

And doesn't he have such pretty baby hair? 

Have a good August everyone