September is the best time to buy plants and patio furniture. Home improvement stores and garden centers are anxious to move their summer inventory so that they can make room for the fall and winter merchandise. It’s a great time for you to save.

Now that’s it’s the end of summer, stores are drastically marking down their patio furniture.  Most stores have marked their inventory down 75% percent!  I found chairs, tables, and benches, but unfortunately I could not find a matching set of anything.  Perhaps you will have better luck than I did.  I’m still hoping for an unexpected bargain somewhere.
Another …read more

Last weekend, we went back to our old house to pack up the rest of our things before it was sold.  While I was walking around the yard, I was reminded of all the volunteer plants that could be put to good use.  There were volunteer azalea bushes, ivy, trees, and many other kinds of plants and bushes. 

Several years ago, my parents gave me some volunteer bushes they had growing in their yard.  I planted the small bushes in my yard and within a year or so, the bushes were tall and well developed.  The bushes didn’t cost me any …read more

On May 2, I had the privilege of speaking at a Clark Howard event.  I spoke about using sales and coupons to buy things at rock bottoms prices and stockpiling those items when they are at their lowest price.

You can read a little more about this event at Thrifty Mommy.  In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be discussing some of the money saving tips.
image (c) Karen Weideman

Restaurant.com is having another sale.  Save 70% and get $25 gift certificates for only $3.  Simply enter the discount code SAVE at the checkout and hit “apply”.  This sale ends Tuesday, March 31, 2009.

Have you tried Restaurant.com?

I’ve just recently discovered that Walgreens often has really good deals that, when combined with coupons, add up to significant savings. If you have a Walgreens near you, you might want to check out these deals for this week:
FREE ITEMS:
Revlon Nail Enamel, 0.5ozReg. = $4.79Submit for Walgreens rebate ($4.79)
L’Oreal Advanced RevitaLift Clinical Action Anti-Wrinkle Concentrate, 1ozReg. 16.49Sale = $12.37 (25% off)Use 1.00/1 coupon (Redplum 8/3; SmartSouce 7/20)Submit for Walgreens Rebate ($12.37)FREE plus overage after rebate
Crest Pro-Health Whitening Toothpaste, 4.2 ozReg. =$3.79Use coupon $0.75/1 (P&G insert 8/31)Submit for Walgreens rebate ($3.79)FREE plus overage after rebate

It’s a good week to shop at CVS. With the right coupons, some of the deals will end up as moneymakers. Here are my deal scenarios:
Transaction #1
Items:2 x Colgate Total Advanced toothpaste 4oz., reg. $3.49 each, sale $2.99 x 2 = $5.982 x Neutrogena Healthy Volume mascara, reg. $6.49 each, sale $5.99 x 2 = $11.981 Covergirl Wetslicks AmazeMint, $5.99
Coupons used:Covergirl manu. coupon – $1.00Colgate manu. coupon – $1.00Colgate manu. printable coupon, available here – $1.50Neutrogena $3/2 manu. coupon – $3.00ECBs – $16.98

What?!? Two CVS posts in a row!!?!
Well, this week’s CVS deals are too good to have to wait till later. It’s a week for making some money with ECBs and coupons, as you can see in my transaction today:
2 Stayfree products, reg. $6.69 each, on sale for 2/$9.001 Kotex Lightdays, 16 ct., $1.492 Zipfizz energy drinks, $5.99 each, $11.98 for 2

There weren’t a lot of good deals that I could use this past week at CVS. For one thing, I’ve used up my ECBs and didn’t have a lot of coupons that I could stack with the store sales.
However, at the end of the week, I found we needed some ibuprofen and so I did a quick stop to get the following:
Bandaid Ultra strips, $4.49Neosporin ointment, $5.79CVS brand ibuprofen, $7.49CVS brand acetaminophen, $4.79
Coupons:Bandaid manufacturer’s coupon – $1.00Neosporin manufacturer’s coupon – $1.00CVS coupon ($2.50 off $12.00 CVS brand) – $2.50

Those of you with a Rite Aid Pharmacy near you may want to check out this printable coupon for a $30 gift card after a prescription transfer. There are some restrictions, so you need to read the fine print. For example, you’re ineligible to use this coupon if you have redeemed a prescription offer in the last 6 months. The coupon expires on September 30, 2008.
The gift cards are great for buying groceries at Rite Aid. If you use it for their free-after-rebate promos, you’re essentially paying nothing for these groceries.
via Money Saving Mom

A number of savvy and very helpful bloggers have listed the sales that will be coming up next week. It’s a good idea to check them out before you go shopping. Planning is key to getting the best bang for your buck at these stores.
Most of these lists also include any coupons that you can stack with the store sales. Here are some of the sale lists I’ve been able to find:
Walgreens August freebies list at Money Saving Mom; scanned pages of the flyer here
CVS Weekly Deals listed at Coupon Cravings
Preview of CVS ExtraCare Savings for August at …read more