Randall's P&G Deal

Randall’s Stop Today
Today I stopped into Randall’s to see what I could do with the P&G buy $25 Participating Items get $10 OYNO Catalina and here is what I did:
Charmin 24 Rolls
4 Mr. Clean with Febreze
1 ½ pounds of grapes
Pampers Diapers (not part of the P&G Deal)
Used:
Charmin - $1/1 from P&G Mailer and $1/1 e-coupon
Mr. Clean - (4) $1/1 Febreze Item from P&G Insert (yes it works on these)
 (These are priced at $3.50 each but when you buy atleast 3 they drop to $1.99)
Pampers - $2/1 Cruisers from P&G Insert and $2/1 e-coupon
$10.00 Catalina (bought Iams dog food over the weekend)

Spent about $13.00 and got another $10.00 Catalina to use this week.  I will also use this receipt towards my Thank You Mom $100 Coupon Book.
If you are just hearing about the P&G deal at Randall's – don’t worry as it continues through the next week!

Rebates

Remember the excitement of getting the mail from the mailbox each day growing up? I remember it, but until recently I only felt dread or boredom getting my mail. Between the bills and the junk mail, why get excited. Since I started doing rebates and actively looking for freebies worth my effort, I now have found that excitement. Here is a list of some of the items I have gotten this year so far:

Free 1 yr subscription to Shape
Free 1 yr subscription to Weight Watchers
Free 1 yr subscription to Working Mother (or atleast I have requested it and have all my fingers crossed I will start getting it!!)
Rebates:

SC Johnson $10
Kellogg’s $10
Caregiver’s Market Place $24.75
Staples over $100 in rebates and Cash Back
I have just started the rebates and I am hooked. I am hoping to keep up the effort as some of them are really worth the effort!

FYI - Everything I purchase is within my monthly budget.  The rebate money will either go back into the budget to help on a month where I need some help or it will go to our vacation fund as we are saving for Disney in 2011!!!

Tracking Rebates

Do you use rebates as part of your plan to save money? I have never really done so previously (other than Caregivers Marketplace), so this year I am giving it a go. I have already filled out my first 3 forms of 2010.

Currently, SC Johnson has a rebate where you receive $5.00 in rebates with the purchase of three listed items. You are able to do this rebate 3 times per household giving you the ability to get up to $15.00 back. I figure this is a great start to rebates!

The keys to saving money with rebates is doing them correctly (reading the small print) and submitting them. I know this sounds very obvious, but that is why the manufacturers can offer so many rebates. People purchase the items with the best intentions, but then forget to send in for the rebate. So here is what I did today:

1) Printed my rebate forms when I gathered my coupons
2) Made filling out the rebates the first thing on my todo list for when I get to my desk tonight
3) Filled them out all the way
- this means the form is filled out, the envelope is addressed and stamped and it will go into the mail tomorrow.

Now tracking. This I am not sure what to do. For now, I built a simple Excel spreadsheet with:
Company, date purchased, date due back, date received, amount due, amount paid, and a comment area. We will see if I can continue tracking them over the year.

(I do not count rebates as part of my Out of Pocket expenses. When the rebates come in, I will put them to my spending budget if needed, or add it to our vacation budget.)

Happy Frugal New Year

So the New Year has started and I am really trying to make it a frugal one!!! This is also the time that everyone sets resolutions and goals. Do you have yours in mind? I do, but I have not had the time to write them out. The reason is I want to make sure you can track and attain them.

Now why would I want to do that - better chance of meeting them. I do want to save money and lose weight. However, how much do I want to lose and how much do I want to save. Those are the questions in my mind right now. Also, how am I going to do it??? Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have answers.

Before I sign off tonight I want to remind all my frugal readers to finish filling out your Caregivers Marketplace rebates for 2009. They need to be postmarked by Jan 31st and if you are like me - you have not started. On the other hand, I will like that check when it gets here in a month or two. Also they have added 2010 to their website, but warning before you read it - no Huggies products.... There goes our rebate next year.

Happy New Year and start working on your goals for this year. Maybe next year we will be organized enough to have them done prior to the New Year ringing in!