Bits & Bobs

Hi everyone

Just a few things that's happened around here. 

• First, the good news! My case with the ex is finally closed. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted, because I've been dealing with legal crap for over a year now. I'm so glad it's over & done with. 
  
  
• If you like Revlon cosmetics, head to Tarjay (Target). There's currently a MM Ibotta deal. Here's what I did:
  
  1 x Revlon lipstick $6.49
  1 x Revlon eyeliner 7.49
  Less lip DQ (3.00)
  Less eye DQ (3.00)
  Tax 0.84
  OOP $8.82 (paid with a gc)
  Earned $10 Ibotta ($5 Lip, $5 Eye)
  $1.18 MM
  
  There are currently 2 different Revlon Ibotta Deals - $3 per item at drug & grocery stores, but $5 per item at Target only.
  
  
• Received my $15 PG rebate & used it on groceries.
  
  
• Redeemed Fetch points for a $10 Macy's gc. I would've preferred Walmart or Target, but it costs more points. 
  
  
• Used $100 Kohls gc (RA purchase) to buy DS a new backpack and a new iron (my iron no longer steams well) when Kohls sent me a 40% off Q. I added a few more things to resell. Earned $20 KC & added my $10 monthly KC to purchase more items to resell. Looks like someone will be making a profit 😁 I'll just put the earned money back into my $500 Kohls BF fund.
  
  
• Used Swagbucks (instead of Rakuten's 1%) to shop at Kohls (earned 6% back) and my points were immediately available. I then had enough points for a discounted $25 gc, so I ordered a Kohls one. Why not? 😂
  
  
• Submitted all my Wags receipts to PG and now have enough points for a $10 gc. I'm just waiting until they restock gcs. 
  
  
• Earned $40 Walmart gcs on Ibotta that will be used at Sams. 
  
  
• My Christmas savings is at a whopping $1002!! Go me! I've already exceeded my $1000 goal, so it will be interesting to see how much I can save in $1 & $5 bills for the year. I'm behind with Christmas shopping this year, but I'm at least financially prepared.
  
  
• I need to make a Wags & RA shopping list so I can turn my rewards into Ibotta cash & then use Ibotta to get more grocery gcs. I know I'm getting more Old Spice at Wags. One can never have too much of the Captain 😁 
  
  
• I finally got through to Wags CS and they refused to add my $10 reward. Ugh, I'm so sick of Wags and their inconsistency. This happened to many fellow couponers. I heard that they did this big sale, because they're struggling financially. Rumor is that Wags will be closing 150 stores. I doubt any of my stores will close, because they're always busy. 
  
  
• I've already earned back half the money I spent on my new Ipad, so I'm feeling better about my purchase.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try to post some Wags scenarios (can't promise anything) in case anyone's interested in shopping. 

Have a wonderful week peeps!

Tide & Dawn wasted

Boy, was Wags a cluster today. They sure were ill prepared for the $10 pickup deal, because there was lots of confusion with customers (thanks to my couponing group, I had most of the info) and they had technical difficulties earlier today too. 

Here's what I did today:

Online order pickup

Trans 1 (me)

2 x Clairol hair color $15.98

2 x Crest t/p 8.00

1 x Bic mens disp razors 5.29

1 x Dawn 2.99

Less Clairol DQ (5.00)

Less Crest DQ (2.00)

Less Bic DQ (4.00)

Less WC (20.00)

Tax 1.94

OOP $3.20

Earn $17.12 WC ($10 Pickup, $4 Crest, 25% rest) 

Way less than expected and Wags no longer gives you a breakdown. There's been lots of frustration with the online orders not crediting everything. I didn't get the $10 credit on my other account. I tried Live Chat, but was #99. I'll try again later. Well, my rewards aren't too bad for things that I needed anyway. It's not like I spent a whole lot of cash OOP for it. 

Trans 2  (online DS)

4 x Tide $21.96

2 x Crest t/p 8.00

Less Tide DQs (5.00) 

Less Crest DQ (2.00)

Less WC (20.00)

Tax 1.80

OOP $4.76

Earn $6.34 

This was my WTH moment! 😠 I know that I can't do anything about online orders in store. So I'm waiting to get through to CS later. Give me my $10!!!

The rest were done in store. Online deal was 1 per account.

Trans 3

4 x Tide $21.96

Less Tide DQ (1.00)

Less WC (20.00)

Tax 1.32

OOP $2.28

Earn $5 RR and 0.26 points. 

Another WTH? Where's the 25% I'm supposed to earn. Well, after I got home, I finally learned that you don't earn 25% if you pay with points, but you do earn it if you pay with RRs. Ugh! Wish they'd posted this before I went shopping, because I have RRs I could've used.

Trans 4

4 x Dawn $23.56

Less WC (20.00)

Tax 1.41

OOP $4.97

Earned $10 RR ($5 WYB 4, $5 WYS $20 select PG)

I learned of this deal before going shopping. These are the big 38 oz bottles. After rewards, it is cheaper than buying the 90 oz bottles at Sams (0.09c/oz vs 12c/oz at Sams). Even less when you're paying with rewards😀 I wish that Linda was closer to share some with, because I know she prefers the Original Dawn too. 

Trans 5 - different store

4 x Dawn $23.56

Less WC (20.00)

Tax 1.41

OOP $4.97

No RRs printed. The story is too long to go into detail. After wasting about 10 minutes in store going back & forth, the manager finally added $10 points to my account. Let's just say I needed a drink after that fiasco. I wish that Wags would train their employees better. They all just pull things out of their @#$##@ when things go wrong. So frustrating. 

So lets recap what I bought & spent this week:

4 x Garnier shampoo/conditioner

2 x Revlon mascara

2 x Revlon lipstick

8 x Tide detergent

8 x 38 oz Dawn

1 x 12 oz Dawn

2 x Clairol hair color

4 x Crest t/p

1 x Bic disp razors

Total items : 32

Total Qs used : $37.00

Total rewards used : $100.00

Total OOP : $68.92

Total earned : $128.58 ($42 RR, $74.58 WC, $12 Ibotta)

So $168.92 (rewards + OOP spent) - $128.58 earned. That's like paying $40.34 for 32 items

Total retail value : $230.28

I still need to contact CS, so I'll hopefully get another $10 points. I need to scan all my receipts to Fetch and submit to PG (I earned enough points today for a $5 gc). I should tell BF to sign up for online accounts for his coffee cards. That way I can just add the PG coffee gcs to his account once I've maxed my card (I mainly use my card to get free donuts for DS. I already drink DD at home, so no need for coffee out). It's free money anyway, so he can pick up free coffee and donuts on his way to work. 

Some of you are probably wondering why I'm stockpiling when I have to move. The prices of everything just keep increasing. Gas is $3.73 today - up almost 40c/gal from last week (I'm glad I had to fill up last week). It's so hard to keep up with it all these days. By shopping great sales, I'm saving ourselves some money. All of the items are things we use. I have enough Dawn to last at least 2 years, so I don't have to buy dish soap again for a very long time. Whenever I get items we don't need, I sell them so I can recoup some of our cash. I love this shopping game.  I'm moving lock, stock & barrel. I'm just going to take everything (except Crest and a hair color) and pack it into a storage container later. That way it's ready for a move. Easy peasy. 

I'm pooped, but I have a bunch of RRs to use and Wags gave me $6 & $7 WYS $22 boosters on both accounts. I can at least use RRs to cover my OOP and earn the extra cash next week. 

CVS sent me a $4 Q that expires on Sunday. I might or might not use it. Depends on my mood. I need to make a RA list for next week too, so I can roll that Kohls BC I earned. 

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!

Friday's Wags deal

Hi everyone

Tomorrow/Friday, the Wags daily deal is earn $10 on a pickup order. I rarely do pickup orders, because things can go south if they're OOS on any of your items. However, this is not a 'Spend' deal, so I should earn $10 WC either way. So here's a few deals to do. Remember that you can use WC (points) to pay for your online orders (but not RRs)

The following deals are for those who have $20 or more in WC to use. I have lots of WC, so I'm going to try and burn some on items that we'll use. The first one is my own scenario. The rest are just deals I put together for those who are interested in shopping tomorrow. 

Scenario 1

2 x Clairol hair color $15.98

2 x Crest t/p 8.00

1 x Bic mens disp razors 5.29

1 x Dawn 1.24

Less Clairol DQ (5.00)

Less Crest DQ (2.00)

Less Bic DQ (4.00)

Less WC (20.00)

Tax 1.83

OOP $1.34

Earn $21.80 WC ($10 Pickup, $4 Crest, 25% rest) So a few cents MM for me 

I've already added the items to my cart and it shows I should earn $11.80. The $10 deal is only available tomorrow, so I'll check then to see how things work out. 

I desperately need hair color. Why is it that we can send people into space and underwater (submarines), but we can't find a permanent solution for gray hair? Oh right. Manufacturers want to keep making money off us. Sigh. I'm on my last tube of Crest. Yikes. This is what happens when you take a couponing break. 

Scenario 2

2 x Gillette Venus razors $20.00 ($10 ones, not the disposable ones. It's buy 2 earn $8 WC)

Less WC (20.00)

OOP : Tax only

Earn $23.20 WC ($10 pickup, $8 Razors, 25%) MM deal!

Scenario 3

4 x Tide $21.96

Less Tide DQ (1.00)

Less WC (20.00)

OOP $0.96 + tax

Earn $15.46 ($10 pickup, $5.46 25%)

Please note that you might not earn an extra $5RR on this deal, since RR only prints in store. You might get lucky if you ask them to print a receipt when you collect your order, but it's been reported that RRs no longer print for pickup orders. Still a great price for Tide though. 

If you only have points worth $10 or more, but below $20 (anything worth $10 to $19.99). You can only redeem $10 points. Stupid Wags rules 😂

Scenario 4

2 x Crest t/p $8.00

1 x Mens Bic disp razors 5.49

Huggies/Pampers wipes 3.99

Less Crest DQ (2.00)

Less Bic DQ (4.00)

Less WC (10.00)

Tax 1.04

OOP $2.32

Earn $18.42 ($10 Pickup, $4 Crest, 25%) $6 MM deal!

There's also a 50c Huggies wipes Ibotta offer.

I originally added 2 Dawn to this scenario, but my cart shows that I need to spend a few more cents for a pickup order. So baby wipes it is. You can add any other filler of your choice. 

Scenario 5 - if you still have the $7/2 Dove b/w DQ 

2 x Dove b/w $14.00

2 x Crest t/p 8.00

Less Dove DQ (7.00)

Less Crest DQ (2.00)

Less WC (10.00)

OOP $3.00 + tax

Earn $23.72 ($10 pickup, $4 Dove, $4 Crest, 25%) $10 MM deal!

Scenario 6

2 x Crest t/p $8.00

2 x Maybelline baby lips 10.98

Less Crest DQ (2.00)

Less Maybelline DQ (5.00)

Less WC (10.00)

OOP $1.98 + tax

Earn $18.68 ($10 pickup, $4 Crest, 25%) $6 MM deal!

For the filler items, choose anything that you think you'll use. To try and keep your OOP low, check you DQs and decide what you'd like to add as your filler. The small Dawn is $1.24 and it's an item every household can use. Just add items to your cart to see what works best for you.

Please forgive me if the math is off on anything. I'm too tired to double check the numbers 😂

I hope that some of you are able to score good deals. Just pick any of the above scenarios or tweak it to suit your needs. I'm going to try to get Tide wasted since I'd like to spend down some points. 

Happy shopping peeps!

Run to Wags!! TODAY ONLY!

 UPDATED - See Tide deals below. Stay tuned for Friday's new deal. 

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post for some great Wags deals available today only!! If you have a Wags account, clip the $15 WYS $30 Q on your account and head to your nearest store. They have daily bonus rewards offers, but the best part is that you also earn 25% bonus cash on your entire purchase all week long. Here's what I did 

2 x Garnier $8.00

1 x Revlon mascara (my favorite) $12.49

1 x Revlon lipstick $10.99

Less Garnier DQ (3.00)

Less Revlon eye DQ (3.00)

Less Revlon lip DQ (3.00)

Tax 1.89

OOP $24.37

Earned $11 RR ($8 WYS $20 Revlon, $3 Garnier) + $23.06 WC ($15 WYS $30, the rest is 25% - math is off, but I'm not complaining😂) + $6 Ibotta (Revlon eye & lip).

Total earned $40.06. That's a $15.69 MM!!! Whoo-hoo. 

I did this deal on both accounts. I'm just waiting on the Revlon to reset so I can submit my other receipt.  I wanted the 2 in 1 Garnier for DS, but this is all that was available at my store. 

Scenario 2

If you have babies or are expecting, you can try this diaper deal instead.

1 Box Pampers diapers $33.99

2 x Garnier $8.00

Less Pampers IVC (store Q that's available with your other DQs) (5.00)

Less Pampers DQ (4.00)

Less Ganier Q (3.00)

OOP $29.99 + tax

Earn $24.36 ($15 WYS $30 + $9.36 25%) + $3 Garnier RR. 

Total earned $27.36. That's like paying $2.63 for everything after rewards. 

The reason I'm adding Garnier to this deal, is because the IVC (store Q) will bring your subtotal to $28.99, so you won't earn the $15 WC. So please do deal as above or add other filler items to bring your total to $30 or more. 

Scenario 3

2 x Garnier shampoo $8.00

2 x Pampers diaper packs $21.00

1 x Dawn dish liquid $1.24

Less Garnier DQ (3.00)

Less Pampers DQ (3.50)

OOP $28.55 + tax

Earn $22.80 ($15 WYS $30 + $7.80 25%) + $7 RR ($3 Garnier, $4 Pampers). Total earned $29.80, so a small MM deal. 

Also check Ibotta (I don't see any Pampers on my account, but it may vary per user) and scan to Fetch & PGgoodrewards to earn more points

I added the Dawn to get total to $30, but any other filler items can be used. I personally think that that box diaper (Scenario 2) is the better deal, because you are paying far less per diaper. However, scenario 3 is a MM deal. 

Be sure to clip all your DQs before heading to the store. 

Next week doesn't look to good yet, but you can then turn this week's points into near free Tide:

Buy 4 Tide, earn $5 RR

4 x Tide @ 5.49 each $21.96

Less WC (points earned from above scenarios) (20.00)

OOP $1.96 + tax

Earn $5 RR and submit your receipts to Fetch & PGgood

Even Better!! The Tide deal is available this week too, so you'll earn an extra 25% WC. Far better than waiting until next week. You can mix & match Tide/Bounce/Downy. Stay tuned for Friday's new deal, so be sure to do your Tide deal tomorrow (Thursday) so you have points to use on Friday. 

2 x Tide $10.98

1 x Downy 5.49

1 x Bounce 5.49

Less Tide DQ (1.00)

Less Downy DQ (1.00)

Less Bounce DQ (1.00)

OOP $18.96 + tax

Earn $5 RR + $5.49 WC (25%). 

You can mix your scenario with any of the qualifying items. I just added the ones that have DQs to help lower your OOP. 

And that is how you keep rolling your rewards! 😀

Happy shopping peeps! I'll be back soon with more updates. 

Checking In

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all doing well & enjoying summer. Nothing exciting happening in Goose Land. Just the same old, same old. 

It looks like I might be going to court this month. Still waiting on the ex and I'm now fed up with the constant  postponements I've had to file. The only way to get things done is to go to court. 

The housing market seem to be picking up again, but houses are wayyyy overpriced. I've seen houses sitting for a while. There are 2 new ones near me - both way over my budget. As in $100k over budget. I'm debating contacting my realtor to go to the open house, but the one I like said it's contingent on seller finding a new home. WTH? I don't want to buy a house, then wait on the seller to move. No sir, I want to move immediately. 

So while I was out running errands today, I stopped by the other house that's $40k less than the one I like (house is dated and they keep relisting it online at a lower price), to check the location. Well, I can scrap that one. The house is in a cul de sac and there's a house (in the neighboring cul de sac) that's backed up so close to this house, it looks like it's on the same property. So this one's a no-go for me. There's no fences and I don't want the backyard neighbor smack dab in my face. Geez! Besides, that house has pink bathroom sinks. Yuck! I'm not THAT much of a girly girl...lol

I need to discuss some things with my better half before buying a house though. If we're gonna go ahead with what we're both in agreement on (I'm all in), then I don't want to spend so much over budget, because what we want is expensive. We also need to figure out our living arrangements, my employment, etc. Ms G is a planner, so I want to be sure we're on the same page about the rest of things. Thankfully, neither of us are KUWTJ types, so I know we'll be better than fine financially. We can live well on a small budget.  After all, Ms G has some skills...lol  

What else has been happening:

• My grocery budget is doing much better since I haven't done any stockpiling for a while. 
  
  
• I stumbled upon a 25% off Red Robin (RR) gc deal at Costco last week. I was just thinking that I need to order more from Sams, since I'm running low again. I took DS to dinner on July 4th, so used extra gcs to pay (unexpected trip, but I needed to get out). I never even knew that Costco sells RR gcs and their regular price is 20% off, compared to 15% off at Sams. Well, 25% was way better, so I ordered them and had it in my inbox 30 minutes later. I printed a copy of every gc, but they also give you an option to forward the individual cards as a gift to someone else. The limit was 10 (2 x $50 gcs), but I didn't buy the full amount. The savings I scored more than covered my membership for the year, so I'm a happy mama. 
  
  
• RA has select gift cards Buy $100 get $20 BC (limit 5) this month. I've decided to get Kohls, since that's one of my 'go to' stores. Firstly, I decided to buy just one gc, because I have a BC offer for 'visit store 4 times, earn $10' BC Challenge reward. I wanted to see if the GC would count as a visit, but it's sadly excluded. I'll buy $500 Kohls gcs and earn $100 BC. There's no way I'm gonna pass up a free $100 for a store that I frequent. That $100 can be rolled into new BC deals throughout the year.
  
  Why Kohls? I always do BF shopping at Kohls (will probably be used for household items this year). That's one of the few times you can earn $15 KC (instead of the regular $10). So, if I spend the entire $500, I'll earn $150 KC + $25 Monthly KC. That's $175 KC. Then I'll use the KC to purchase clearance items to resell for a profit (I do this every year, to cover the cost of our BF shopping). I sometimes purchase rebate items too, that earns me extra cash back. 
  
  I usually go through Rakuten to earn extra cash back, but they've been stingy with Kohls. 1% - I think not! Of course, Ms G came up with a better plan. Swagbucks!!! I can't put a $ figure on it, because it varies throughout the year. Even better, you still get a monthly discount on a $25 gc (22000 SB points, instead of 25000), so you're better off using Swagbucks instead of Rakuten.
  
  It gets better...lol. I was going to pay cash for my gcs, but then I remembered that I earn 1.5% cash on my CCs. So favourite CC it is (the one with discounted gcs). Well, as I checked my latest earned CC points, I saw that I earn 3% cash back at drugstores. How did I forget about that? So instead of earning $7.50, I'll earn $15 through my CC. Whoo-hoo! I know this is all confusing (except for Sluggy...lol) , so here's the breakdown:

Purchase $500 Kohls gcs (less $12 already saved. see below), so $488 OOP

Earn: 

RA BC : $100.00

CC rewards : $15.00? Maybe $14.64, due to $12 discount

KC rewards : $175.00

Swagbucks rewards : ????

Total earned : $390.00

Then sell the items for a profit. So we'll get $500 worth of free goods from Kohls + earn a profit on it. Nobody's just gonna pay me $390+ to purchase gcs and shop for ourselves. Show me the money honey...lol.

BUT...

I stopped at RA today, because $30 of my $50 BC expires this weekend. There's nothing good at RA, but I wanted something that would earn more BC back. So I did the Colgate deal (Spend $20 get $10 - limit 2). So here's what I did

6 x Colgate @ 7.99 $47.94

2 x $100 Kohls gc

Less 2 x $3 DQ (6.00)

Less mailer Q (0.50)

Less 6/30 mailer Q (6.00)

Less BC (50.00)

Tax 2.49

OOP $187.93

Earned $60.00 BC ($40 Kohls, $20 Colgate) + I should get another $7 BC for the Colgate Challenge. 

This transaction left the cashier stumped, because we all know that BC can't be used on gcs. However, I know that the register usually applies the Q amounts in BC if you purchase gcs in the same transaction. So I was very happy to save an extra $12 on my gcs. Whoo hoo! I still need to purchase $200 gcs. I'm loving it! I bought 6 t/p (only select ones were tagged), because I wasn't sure if RA applies the 98% rule like CVS does (You only need to spend 98% of the required amount, to earn reward). 

I also earned another $7/35 Q, so I'll check what's good at RA next week. 

I also did a small MM deal at CVS last week, to build my EBs again. They sent me a $4 Q that I wasn't gonna waste. I just received another $4 Q, so I need to make a plan. Well, between the 3 drugstores, I have almost $400 in rewards to use. I'll be rolling these suckers to buy household cleaning items & HBA for our new home. 

Even more good news. My Aldi now has self checkout. I hate that you can't pay cash at self checkout, but when I checked my CC rewards, I noticed that I earn 5% cash back on my card. I knew about this, but I like to pay cash. Not anymore, especially at Sams. I normally use the other CC at Sams, but I'm switching things up now. More CC purchases to earn back more cash. Why not take advantage of free money offers?

Well, my Sams only applied 1.5% cash back 😭 I do remember that the 5% offer is not applicable at Walmart (so I'm guessing Sams too) and I think Target. Well, I'll use this CC at the other grocery stores. No problemo.

• I've been struggling to get my ipad to charge. I tried everything under the sun. Then googled it and tried some more things, including cleaning the charger port (which had zero debris, but I was desperate). My Ipad is 9 years old and still works great! The screen has a huge crack across it, but man I love this thing. I don't even have a case for it and it's been in perfect working condition. I knew that I would need to replace it, so I searched around. Well, I found one and just added it to my cart. I wasn't ready to make the purchase yet. 
  
  However, when I checked my cart the other day (I check regularly to see if there's any price drops), I saw that it was reduced by $50 (I guess Prime day had everyone offering discounts/sales) and 500 people have already purchased the item and another 200-300 had the item in their carts. So I decided to bite the bullet before it sells out. Any Apple user knows that their products rarely go on sale or have big discounts (except for their older model phones and airpods). In under a year, I've had to replace my desktop, laptop & ipad. I'm not happy! So in typical Ms G fashion, I pulled some items from my closet (well my containers, since most of the clothes are packed) and listed it for sale, to help offset the cost. Yeah, I can just write it off to savings, but I feel better recouping the cash. I did manage to get the old ipad to charge, but it's lots of wiggling & bending the wires and some other tweaks just to get it to charge every day. 
  
  
• You know the semi annual sales are bad when I hardly purchase anything. Everything's way overpriced everywhere and I definitely don't need anything. I did buy this pair of boots though. Those boots were already paid for before I purchased it for $35 and I had a $5 reward, because I sold some of my old shoes previously. Then I received another $5 reward that's good until October, so I'm not even bothered by it. 
  
  
• Well, the boots matches my new Chicos olive camo anorak perfectly. I woke up at 4:30 again one morning (I should know how this works by now) and wondered why I'm wide awake so early. I finally got up, got coffee and went online. Turns out the anorak was on sale for $9.99 and there it was in my size. Say no more! Remember the blue camo anorak I bought at the same price during the last sale? Well, I have the exact same boots in Officer Blue too, so I know these items match perfectly...lol $200 boots for free and a $10 anorak. This mama is very happy :)

On the food front. I haven't been feeling cooking much lately. We're eating light and from the freezer. DS is happy as long as he gets to bake muffins on Sundays. A few weeks ago, I didn't have any lemons to make lemon blueberry muffins, so we used OJ to make orange blueberry muffins instead. Holy cow, were those muffins good. I told DS it's some of the best muffins he ever made. 

I had a lot of leftover tortilla chip pieces. You all know those tiny pieces that can't be used for nachos. So I decided to try making Taco Bell Crunch wraps again. I decided to replace the tostada with the leftover chips and it worked great. Same with adding chip pieces to make crunchy burritos. I found that the tostadas were too big to fold the tortilla closed completely, so I never made it again. Well, the chips gave me good reason to try again. No more chips waste. We have new menu items for it. 

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to cash out my lottery ticket from almost a year ago and then buy a new ticket for that big Powerball jackpot. I haven't dreamed of any numbers (let's hope I dream of it tonight 😂) and then hope I win big 🤣🤣🤣 

That's all for me right now. I need to catch up on reading everyone's blogs again, so I apologise for not commenting anywhere. 

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!!