Coupon Cowboy's Deal of the Week

The coupon cowboy was really excited this week over a deal at Rite Aid.

Here's a sneak peak inside my bathroom closet this week. . .

 

Until this Saturday, Rite Aid toilet paper is on sale for $1.  If you use your Rite Aid Rewards Card, you get $1.00 back at the end of your sale in the form of "Up Rewards."

Up Rewards are little coupons that print at the end of your receipt that can be used toward anything in the store except for beer, cigarettes, prescriptions, etc.

So you essentially get your toilet paper for free.  Oh and both the thin scratchy kind (which we actually prefer), or the fluffy four pack are on sale for $1 with a $1 Up Reward.

When we purchased our toilet paper, there was no limit.  However, check with your particular store if you go to get this deal because it may have changed.

How excited was the Coupon Cowboy?

So excited that I have 38 rolls of toilet paper in my closet right now.  No joke.

We used our "Up Rewards" to buy diapers -- stocking up now for the little guy who will be here before we know it!

Baby It's Genius!

When you live in Upstate New York and have a little shoe fetish, you own a lot of tall boots, which poses a bit of a closet dilemma because they never seem to stand up straight.

.

All you Southern gals might not have this problem because I imagine you own more flip flops and fancy sandals.  At least that's what I'd be wearing if I lived in the South :-)

But anyway, my closet came to look like this, with boots flopping all over.

So somewhere along the way, I read about this nifty little trick that has brought my boots to standing position.

You know all those magazines you have laying around your house?

You know, like LAST year's Pottery Barn Kids that I just can't throw away because it has some inspiration images I like. . .

Or my favorite work out magazine of all time, Oxygen.  I never throw out an issue because I like to look back on the work outs when I'm bored of the same old work out routine.

First, roll up the magazine.

And then stick it inside your boot.

And there you have it!  Boots that stand up tall in your closet.

No more falling over looking sloppy. 

I  hope this little trick brings you as much happiness as it has brought me.

Do you have any little tips that bring you happiness?  Do share!

Maybe I'll feature it in an upcoming "Baby It's Genius" post!

Preparing for Surprises

I spent my weekend making more flowers.  This time, I wasn't making felted flowers but flowers out of streamers.

I'm preparing a surprise for Imani and part of the surprise is making these beautiful flower balls.

 I got the idea from Shelley over at House of Smith's and these flower balls have been on my "to do" list for several months.

They are pretty easy to make.  Basically, you make flowers out of streamers and hot glue them to styrofoam balls.  I used my candle to hold the ball in place while I glued the flowers on, but you could use a mug, a can or anything else around your house.  It took about 40 flowers to cover a four inch ball.

Shelley has a great tutorial on how to make the flowers, so if you want to make some of your own, head on over and check it out here.

Don't worry about making them perfectly.  Each flower takes on a shape of its own and when they are all grouped together, they look just fine.

I was hoping to have the whole surprise finished by Monday, since Imani would  be coming back from staying at my mom's for the long weekend, but I fell a little short.  I guess I'll have to surprise her before school some day this week instead.

I should have the surprise complete in a couple of days and I will be sure to share it with  you.

It's nothing genius . . . just a little something special for my special girl.

Honored

I hope you don't mind if I take a moment to pat myself on the back . . .


I'm so honored because I just found out that:

What a special privilege and a great way to start a Monday!  There were so many beautiful projects submitted last week, so I was tickled to see my upcycled winter wreath made the cut.

If you missed the tutorial on how to make it, click here.

And if that wasn't an honor enough, I read on to discover that my winter mantel was:

Thank you to all of the talented bloggers over at the CSI project for continuing to inspire and challenge us with your weekly link ups! 


This week's party is an "Organization Challenge" so head on over to
CSI to link up.



Staying Warm in Winter

I was going through Jane withdrawl.

I hadn't seen her since May, and despite the fact that the snow was quickly blanketing my yard and all of the streets, we ventured out to see Jane.

Snooty Fox is only open on Saturdays, so if we didn't go now, we'd have to wait another week.

It was so cold outside and we failed to warm up the truck before we left, so one block down the road, I suggested to Jason we go another day.

"No, you've been wanting to go for a long time now. We'll go"  Jason insisted.

So we made the 20 minute trek down a steep and slippery road.

 Every time we go to Snooty Fox, Jason and I want to buy so much that we have to narrow down what exactly we will purchase that day, and what we will have to wait to purchase until our next trip (all the while hoping nobody else purchases those items before we return).

Not only do I want to buy everything in the store, but Jane also has such an eye for displaying.  I get so many ideas from her.   Some day, I will get up the nerve to photograph some of her displays.

This trip was well worth it.

Jason had been seeing a lot of architectural elements in the Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware catalogues lately.  Of course, these architectural remnants aren't authentic. They are made to look old.

Image: Restoration Hardware

See that coffee table?  It's $1,695. 

See the book ends in the back?  Those are called "Antiqued Wooden Corbels" and they are $115 each.

Yes that says $115 "EACH."

We found something very similar at Snooty Fox, except our corbels  were $25 each. 
They are SUPER heavy. 

We love that, not only were they less expensive, but they are a piece of history preserved.

We also found these fantastic antique bowling pins.  I once saw a similar set in a PB catalogue on a bookshelf in the background of one of their living room sets.

Dick kept telling us to strip the bowling pins and display them in their natural wood but I like the chipped paint and the bold red stripe.  What would you do?  Would you strip them or leave them?

Our last purchase was this beautiful milk glass bowl.  Perhaps  you remember it from my most recent winter mantel display.  I don't have any of milk glass, but I always love the way it looks,
so I decided to get my first piece.


 I can't wait to use it for Valentine's Day. 
Won't it look great with red candies in it?

Another thing I love about Jane is how good she is with Imani.

She has a basket of special rocks that she lets kids pick through and select one to keep at each visit.

Imani always loves to go antiquing with us but inevitably always asks us to buy her random stuff.

Today we told her to bring her own money, since she does get an allowance.  I was surprised when we were in Snooty Fox and she wasn't buying anything.

I had forgotten that she spent almost all of her money last week on a few things

she saw at the mall that she wanted.

But she also bought her baby brother some adorable clothes that she saw.

How sweet is that?

As we were preparing to leave, Imani showed me the treasures she had negotiated with Jane.

For 26 cents, Jane had sold her these:

This little treasure box:

Along with these little treasures:

Imani was one happy little girl.

I was one happy big girl.

And Jason was one happy Coupon Drugstore Cowboy.

I know, one day we're cutting coupons and the next day, we're out buying antiques.

It's in the budget, I swear!

With that, Jane sent me off with a hug into the brisk snowy night.

Except this time, I didn't feel the cold.

Married to a Coupon Drugstore Cowboy

It's true. Our latest addiction is couponing.

And yes, I'm using the word "coupon" as a verb.

Hey, at least our addictions are good for us, right?

We used to think that going to multiple stores was a waste of time,
but now we've discovered the secret of drugstore deals!

Both Jason and I feel like we've been missing out on such a great secret for so many years!
But don't worry. I'm not going to leave you hanging out there to figure it out for yourself.
I'm going to fill you in.


The drugstore chains like CVS and Rite-Aid have some amazing deals, and when you pair them with coupons, you can get some items for next to nothing. 


We got all of this:

for $1.30 .


NO, that's not a typo.  That's one dollar and thirty cents!

Here's the receipt in case you still think I'm lying. It's a little blurry, but you can still see the total.

How did we do it?

We pair coupons from the Internet or from the weekend newspaper with drug store deals.  A lot of items come with an "Up-Reward" which is basically a coupon that prints at the end of your sale that can be used toward any future purchase on anything except prescriptions, beer, cigarettes etc.

The trick is to check out using all of the items with Up Rewards first.  At the end of the sale, you will get a bunch of coupons (they can be used in conjunction with manufacturer's coupons).  Next, check out with all of the remaining items that don't have Up Rewards.  Use the coupons that printed toward this sale.

It sounds confusing, but it's really not.  Trust me. 
And it takes a little bit of planning in advance, but it's worth it.

One of the best deals we found this week was for pistachios at Rite-Aid.  Eight ounce bags of "Wonderful" pistachios were on sale for buy one get one free.  Regularly, these bags of pistachios are $5.00 per bag, so with the deal, they were $2.50 each.  However, we had a coupons for $1.00 off  of two bags of pistachios, so we ended up getting two bags of pistachios for $4.00.  That's a $6 savings!


It's official. 

We're obsessed.

Do you think we're crazy yet? 

We are.  You see, we're on a mission with our New Year's Resolution.

The other night Jason was looking through the drug store ads and matching up coupons - cutting out those that matched up with the weekly sales.  He's discovered that using a coupon with a buy one get one free deal is the best savings. 

Out of nowhere he got all excited and said "I'm a coupon drugstore cowboy!"

He makes me laugh.  God I love that man.

He's asked me about five times this week when the weekly circular comes out because he can't wait to check the deals.

And my poor coupon drugstore cowboy got his feelings hurt when he shared his excitement about drugstore deals with family and friends and no one seemed to care.


It's okay though Mr. Coupon Drugstore Cowboy.
 If you're reading this, I care.  I think your latest addiction is really cute!


Anyone else out there care about coupons and deals?
 Leave a comment and cheer the Drugstore Cowboy up!  We want to hear how you're saving in 2011.

Winter Mantel

Now that all of the Christmas decorations are put away, I finally got my act together

to create my winter mantel.

The challenge is always the same for decorating my mantel. 

Spend as little money as possible and make it look beautiful.

So you might notice I re-use a lot of the things around my house, especially pitchers. 

My goal for this winter mantel was to use a variety of textures in whites, creams and browns to give a warm wintry feeling to the mantel.

First, you might notice my wreath, which was made out of old sweaters.  

If you missed the tutorial, click here.

I added a creamy colored candle on a white stand and surrounded it with little pine cones.

And since I live in frigid Upstate NY, where there are no flowers in bloom, I decided I'd make my own. I got this idea from this month's issue of Country Living.  It's quite simple. Just make pom-poms from yarn and hot glue them to sticks.    Place them in vintage bottles.

A basket of antique fabric balls adds more texture.

 My monogrammed plate, which if you've followed my blog, you know all about how much this means to me, since I shattered my first one!  If you missed it, click here and here.

My newest purchase (which I'll share about in a couple of days). . . a milk glass bowl, which I filled with pine cones. 

Ta-da!  My winter mantel for 2011.  Hope you like it!

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