Sunday Ads - 1/25/09

Best Buy:
50 pack blank DVDs - $12.99
Rite Aid:
Fructis Body & Volume Shampoo - $2.99 minus $2.99 SCR = Free
Veet Bladeless Razor - $3.99 minus $3 SCR = .99 cents
Huggies Good Nites - $9.99 minus $5 SCR minus $2 mfc = $2.99
Walgreens:
See Southern Savers at right. Click on black tab that says Walgreens then click on the top blue "Walgreens" with dates. She rocks at this and I can't compete.
Fred Meyer:
Doritos - 3/$5 SC
Wheat Thins - 3/$5 SC
Country Oven Bread - 4/$5 SC

Ode to a Treadmill

So I got this great idea right before Christmas. Ryleigh was working at Joe's Outdoors and was able to get 30% off with her employee discount, even if something was on sale. We all could use a workout and I thought why not get a treadmill. We found one with a pretty good motor, an Ipod dock and even a built in fan. We thought this is the one and asked Roo to buy it. It was December 23rd. They had one in the stock room, but it was buried in the back so I said we would pick it up after Christmas. We (meaning Ray and Fran) picked it up on Friday. It was quite heavy. At the store they noticed a tear in the box but didn't think anything of it. Upon further inspection we noticed that the treadmill was damaged. We didn't have time to deal with it then because we were taking Ryleigh to Utah. She called the store and they said "no problem." They ordered a new one and we would pick it up when we got back.

We got back on Saturday and picked up the new one on Monday. Ray and Fran have sore backs by now. I spent all morning putting it together only to realize that the bar that turns the belt was broken. I called Joe's and told them. The manager asked me what I wanted to do. I asked if he could order a new one and have it delivered - for free - since Ray and Fran were getting tired of carrying the dumb thing. No problem. He said it would be Saturday before they would get one in and probably Monday before they had a truck to deliver. By this time my patience is being tested.

On Thursday Joe's called and said that they got the treadmill in and asked if they could deliver it. Sure! Ten minutes later they called back and said "sorry this one is damaged by a forklift." My only thought was "your kidding!" That was the third one. Okay, fine. They found another one in a nearby warehouse said they thought they could get it by Saturday. Keep in mind this is now January 8th. On Saturday, January 10th, they called and said they were on their way.
It was cold, but they picked up the old one and brought the new box it. I insisted they stay to open the box to make sure it was okay. You are not going to believe this but THERE WAS NO CONSOLE IN THE BOX! That is like buying a car and not having a dashboard. We laughed and he gave me the console off the old machine.

I proceeded to put it together and when I finally got it finished, I turned it on. It did not work.
The incline worked; the fan worked; the speakers for the Ipod worked; the belt did not work. I sat down and almost cried. I called Joe's and told them. They told me they would take it back and give me a different brand. The other brand did not have the same features and I wanted this one. So, I called the company in Utah. It was Saturday and their hours are Monday through Friday. Then, I went to their web site and explained everything.

On Monday, I called the company and was on hold for several minutes until a recording came on telling me to leave a call back number. I did. That night we were watching the new episode of 24 and the phone rang. It was an 800 number so we did not answer it. It was the treadmill company. UGH!

I called them back the next day and got the recording again. It is now the 14th of January. I called again. I got a real person. I explained all of the above, he had me run a test on the treadmill and he told me the circuit board to the motor was bad. He was sending me a new one and instructions on how to put it in.

I got it today, the 21st of January. It has almost been a month. I let the circuit board warm up to room temperature and then I put it in. Guess what!!!!! IT DOESN'T WORK!!!!!

I don't know. I think I am not supposed to work out. I will call the company again tomorrow and then I am going to throw the dumb thing out the window and shoot it.

I will let you know the name of the company if I don't get some satisfaction tomorrow.

DEALS OF THE WEEK

ALBERTSONS:
Cantaloupe - .48 cents a pound
Doritos - BOGOF
Cherry 7-up - Saturday only FREE w/in store coupon
Hershey's Snack Size Candy - 1.49 SC
Pork Chops - $1.49 SC
Tomato Sauce 8oz - 8/$1 SC
All laundry detergent - BOGOF ($3.25 ea)
Q-tips 500 ct. - BOGOF ($2.40 ea)
SPEND $20 GET $5 BACK INSTANTLY:
General Mills Cereal = $1.88 minus $1/3 mfc = $1.50 ea
Many other items - see ad at right ---}

SAFEWAY:
Cheez-it Crackers - 2/$5
Quaker Chewy Granola Bars - Buy 2 get 3 free ($1.20 each)
Chef Boyardee canned pasta - .77 minus $1/5 mfc = .57 each

Check for other items you might buy with ads at right --}

It's tough at the bottom

Allie had her first tournament with the Splash volleyball team. It is a national traveling team which she tried out for in December. We were actually a bit surprised that she made it considering that she let them know up front that she did not play on Sundays.
The team went to Phoenix last weekend and Allie found out how tough a team like that can be. She is used to getting a lot of playing time and she only got to play about 1/4th of the games. She did well when she was in, but didn't get many sets. It was hard, but she muscled up the strength to have the best attitude she could and got through it. We hope the next tournament will be better.
Baily and I had a good weekend alone. We both decided that we didn't like being such a small family. It was way too quiet. She had friends over on Saturday night to watch a scary movie - PG13 of course. On Friday night we went to "The Gauntlet" rivalry basketball game at the high school. I was there to work concessions and she was there to make noise. It was a lot of fun.
Ryleigh had a visitor down in Provo. Jordan Berezay went down to visit. He had never been there before so between her, Joey Plumb, Nikki Bean and Alek Feistner (and maybe others) they had a great time. Ryleigh is staying busy down there and doing great.
Bret and Britt are plugging along just trying to get Britt through school. The roofing business is slow right now so Bret is trying to get on with Hollywood Video again. They want to hire him as a shift leader but their computer has a glitch and they can't seem to get his paperwork. Hopefully they will get it straightened out soon.
We have been very blessed to have renters in the duplex we just finished building and are ready to start building another. We have a partnership with Dave and Lisa Bowers. They are great people to work with.
All in all, life is good.

I have a little time today so I can get things going here. I have added a list of the grocery and drug stores I like to shop at in addition to the ones near my children. I also added the rebate links for Rite Aid and Walgreens. You need to sign up for those to get rebates. Finally, I have added -- and will add new links as I review them -- links to couponing sites and blogs that are helpful. A lot of the blogs I have reviewed are not for this area, but sometimes are still useful in finding deals.
The Coupon Clippers is a great site for finding ads in your area and purchasing coupons - or rather the service of cutting and mailing coupons. It is not legal to sell coupons. That site also has a tab titled "Tracker" which will let you know which coupons inserts will be in your Sunday paper. Again, it is not always accurate in my area. Spokane is considered small and so we don't always get all the coupons available. That is why The Coupon Clippers and The Coupon Master is a great place to get the coupons I need for stock up items. There are also some sites that you can print coupons from for free. I will search and add them soon.
I will post items I think are great deals - most of which are things I would normally buy. I will try to post Sunday ads (Rite Aid, Walgreens & Fred Meyer) by Monday. The other grocery stores I will post by Thursday -- I hope. You can always check my links if I don't get them posted.
For this week, here are some of the deals I found in my area:
Rite Aid
Dove deodorant - $3 minus $2 SCR minus $1 mfc* = free
Crest Pro Health toothpaste - $2.99 minus $1.50 mfc = $1.49
Mentos Gum - $2/2 minus .55 mfc = 45 cents (buy one)
Trident 3/pack - $1.99 minus $1 mfc = 99 cents
GE Soft white light bulbs - $2 minus $2 SCR = free
Maybelline mascara "the colossal" - $5.99 minus $2 SCR minus $1 mfc = $2.99
Walgreens
Mars candy - 3/$1 SC- limit 6
VanCamps Pork and beans - 2/$1 SC -limit 4
Auto Expressions Air Freshener - $4.99 minus $4.99 ESR = free
Fred Meyer
Rice a Roni (or pasta) $1 minus $1/4 mfc = .75 each
Kroger 2lb cheese $4.79
Eggs 18ct - BOGOF (or english muffins)
*I did not get this coupon in my Sunday ad. Still $1 is not a bad price for deodorant.

Good Deals!

I haven't been on a big grocery shopping trip in a long time. With the holidays, kids getting married, kids moving away for school, I just haven't had the time. I made up for it today.

I have a year's worth of breakfast for myself and I got it dirt cheap! I usually like to drink a slimfast shake every morning. Slimfast is not cheap. Although it is cheaper than a full-on breakfast, I can't eat like that. I got 60 six packs of slimfast shakes for $149. That's 41 cents a day. It is also about a 69% savings over the original price. Yeah!

Today I also got Downey fabric softner at $1.50 for a 51oz. bottle. I bought 6. The big 100 ounce bottle were on sale for $10 each. They were out of the big bottles so I got 6 50 ounce bottles for $5 each. If you bought $30 worth, you got $15 back at the register. I also had $5 in manufactures coupons and $6 in register coupons from a previous shopping trip. That turns out to be $4 for 6 bottles of fabric softner. Pretty Good huh.

My total savings today was $578.40. I spend $380.29. That is a total day's savings of 61%.

I don't shop like this everytime I go, but when there are deals on things I am using anyway, it pays to stock up while it is on sale.

For the benefit of my kids that are away, I will be posting good deals that I find in the ads on Wednesdays, both for Spokane and Provo area. Anyone wanting to benefit from my posts are welcome. I love to share!

I want my own.

A few months ago I decided I needed to be more connected the outside world. I have always been horrible about keeping in touch with those people who have been in my life and move away. Sometimes it is just to the other side of town, but I am still horrible about keeping in touch with them.

A couple of my children have facebook accounts so I thought I would try that. It is really not what I was looking for. I really like the idea of being able to post pictures and have a journal type space for telling about my life and family. Facebook is fun, but not what I was looking for.

Our family went to Utah over the New Year weekend and Ray took many pictures with his new camera - a Christmas present from yours truly. Somehow he was introduced to Blogspot and he took off. I was told about Blogspot before, but was slow on the uptake. Ray beat me to it. However, his blog is more about his soapboxes and I would rather talk about our family. I also plan to post great deals I find for groceries and other stuff -- my new favorite hobby.

This will also be a great way to keep a journal. Something I need to do.