The grocery games and looking for bargains

March 28th, 2009

It took me 3 months to learn to play the grocery games really well. Nowadays, we got most of our groceries FREE or close to FREE from Jewel Osco and Target. For toiletries and household items, we got the best deals from Walgreen and Walmart! I cringed everytime I think of we used to pay full price $3.00+ for a tube of toothpaste, now, if it’s not free or moneymaking, I won’t even bother to go in the store!

Since we got the groceries, toiletries and household items covered. Next we need to learn places where we get the best buy for furnitures, electronics and clothings. :-)

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Almost six months without the wheels

March 27th, 2009

Time really flies, it has been almost six months since I moved to IL in the end of September. The weather got cold right after I arrived, though it got warmer two weeks ago, it’s still hovering around 40-50 F ( 5-10 C). I have not started driving yet. T tried to discourage me to drive on snow covered roads, but mostly because I am a procrastinator, I have not gone down to the DMV to take the tests for driver’s license. :-)

Supposed I can drive with my Malaysian driver license for the first six months, but the catch is: I need to be on the auto insurance before I can drive, and T won’t put me on the auto insurance unless I got my  IL driver license. He is supposed to research and find out cheapest auto insurance company to get me on the auto insurance when we renewed the auto insurance last month. It ended up he just renewed the auto insurance with the existing company without adding my name on it!

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Could not attend the spouse meeting

March 26th, 2009

I have been attending a fortnightly meeting with mostly spouses of foreign students on Friday. We are supposed to tour the YMCA and then proceed to the church to celebrate Sherry’s birthday. But I would have to miss it because a faucet started leaking tonight and I have to wait for the plumber to come to fix it tomorrow morning.

We live in a one hundred years old house, so things are archaic. Few weeks ago, sewage was leaking off the outlet that shared by the washing machine and toilet. Though the landlord fixed it almost immediately, there was quite a mess to clean up! When we first moved in, one of the shower faucets was leaking badly. We told the landlord but he didn’t get back to us. So, we decided to replace it and deducted it from the rental payment. It’s a spacious place with very nice wood frame, but we probably won’t renew the tenancy agreement and will look for a new place when spring comes and will move out late spring or summer.

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Planning a summer vacation

March 20th, 2009

T has not taken any vacation after working at the same company for one and half years. He has accumulated a few weeks of vacation time! We are talking about taking a one week vacation in the summer. He has submitted the tentative dates to his boss and HR department for approval. But, we have not decided where to go!

We are looking at a place in the Midwest where we can drive without flying. Our initial plan was to drive  up to Galena for a quiet weekend staying at a cabin on the mountain.  But, our restless super hyper big boy thinks one week is too long to stay on the mountain and he is afraid he may die of boredoom!

I think he will probably enjoy the Live Entertainment Capital of the World - Branson, Missouri more than a quiet week on the mountain! I was looking at the vacation packages for Branson. They are certainly a lot of attractions and things to see in Branson. I would not mind visiting the Wax Museum and Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and would certainly enjoy the outdoor activities available. T has given me the green light to make vacation arrangement, I was looking at the lodging options and prices of tickets to shows and attractions. There are also Branson vacation package which are quite reasonably priced. Hmmmm, taking a vacation package will probably save me time and money !

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Looking for a place to move in summer

March 17th, 2009

The lease of our current apartment expires in June and we do not plan to extend the lease. We are looking for a new place to move into when summer comes!

I have been looking at classified ads, making calls and T drove me around to look at different subdivisions and the surroundings. Since this is a college town, a lot of rented apartments in one side of the town are  all occupied by students. So, we are trying to find a place on the other side of town.

While I was looking at the ads, I actually learned about names of different towns around here. There is a small town named “Paw Paw”, which is 15 minutes from where we live! I also learned that paw paw is a type of tree. I wonder whether this town is named after the tree, just like my hometown Melaka is named after a Melaka tree!

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Free groceries courtesy of the wine manufacturers

February 11th, 2009

I am having too much fun with catalina deals and playing the grocery game right now, have not have much time to blog.:-)

Discovered something new (to me) few weeks ago- the wine tags put out by wine manufacturers. They are tearpads found at the wine department or tags hang on the wine bottles, which give you $ off produce, meat, fruit, cheese, seafood, juices, etc.

The tags for instant may say “Save $6 on groceries when you buy 2 bottles of xxx brand of Wine 750 ml or larger”. But the wonderful thing about this tags is: the liquor law in IL prohibited coupon redemption for the purchase of hard liquor, so there will be a “No alcohol/wine purchase is required” in the fine print.

I was able to find tons of the tearpads and hang tags (most people don’t pay attention to them, unless they  do coupons) and used them to get seafood, produce, meat, cheese for FREE. Our fridge is now well stocked with fruits like Kiwi, starwberries and mangoes we otherwise won’t buy as they are expensive. We have  frozen shrimps and sausages to last us for at least 6 months!

Our refrigerator has limited freezer space, so having a freezer has allowed us to store all the meat and shrimps we got for FREE.

We bought the chest freezer  when the store ran a freezer deal. We paid with catalina coupons accumulated and received $150 worth of coupons for FREE food

In the month of January, we hardly spent any money on groceries, we probably forked out about $20 for sale taxes as coupons cannot be used for taxes, that’s it.

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What is a Catalina deal?

January 16th, 2009

A Catalina deal is a promotion or marketing campaign run by certain manufacturers or stores to give rebate in terms of cash coupons for buying certain amount of specific products. What we have at the Jewel-Osco grocery store last two week was a “Buy $30, get back $15″ Catalina deal by Procter and Gamble, General Mills and Coca-cola.

When your total purchase reached a threshold of $30, $60 and $90, the Catalina machine will start printing the cash coupons at the end of your transaction. The coupons are good for paying for your next purchase. If you buy more products in the deal with the Catalina coupons (it’s called “rolling the deal” in the couponing lingo), you get more Catalina coupons!!

The trick is: at Jewel Osco, the total is based on normal shelf price, even though the item can be on sale for less than the shelf price. Combine with coupon use, you get really good deal, things for free or even making money by buying this items included in the deal!

Walgreen does the same kind of catalina deal every week, but Walgreen doesn’t allow you to use the Catalina coupons on the same item to get more catalina coupons (”no rolling” in couponing lingo). But, Jewel Osco not only allow you to roll the Catalina coupons, they also take the catalina coupons from Walgreen! So, I used some of the Walgreen coupons at Jewel Osco stores to buy groceries or roll them into more catalina coupons when they have a good deal like last week.

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MIL’s knee replacement surgery

January 10th, 2009

We have been running to the hospital every evening to visit mother in law who had a knee replacement surgery on 01/07/09. She suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which gave her very severe pain. When medicine and other treatments are not helping her anymore, the doctor recommended knee replacement surgery, with the hope to relieve the pain that she has been experiencing and hopefully allow her to be more active.

She is in a lot of pain and very weak after the surgery. In a knee replacement surgery, the surgeon removes damaged cartilage and bone from the surface of the knee joint and replaces them with a man-made surface of metal and plastic.She will need a few months of physiotherapy sessions to help her to recover and to be able to walk normal again.

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The holiday season

December 30th, 2008

The holiday season was a busy one. We had a couple of gatherings with different family members and spent time with T’s brother who came home for Christmas.

We didn’t put up a Christmas tree at our apartment, would probably do that next year. On Christmas eve, we had a family gathering at T’s aunt and uncle - Carol and Ray’s house. About 30 family members showed up. This is my first time celebrating Christmas as a family, as my own family are not Christians and do not celebrate Christmas. We had a gift exchange. We spent some wonderful time together, and for me meeting some of them for the first time. We went for midnight service at parents in law’s church before we called it a day.

On Christmas morning, we went to the in laws’ place earlier in the morning, had breakfast and opened all the gifts in the stockings and under the tree. We had a blast opening all the gifts. My in laws are spoiling us with all the gifts!!

By the time we are done opening all the gifts in the stockings, it’s almost time to go for lunch, we have to continue the gift opening after lunch. We had a buffet lunch at the dining hall of the retirement center. It was a holiday special meal and boy, we all ate too much!

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More frees from Walgreen

December 22nd, 2008

It may sound unbelievable to you, but we bought 5 hair dryers at the drug store this morning!

The drug store has a One-Day sale today, you can buy a hair dryer for $10.00 and get back $10.00 in cash voucher called Register Reward, which make it FREE.

We have been looking to get a hair dryer, T wanted to just go to the store to buy one, but I have learned about this hair dryer deal few weeks ago and have been holding on to buying one at regular price ($19.99).  So we decided to stop by the 24-hour store at 7.15 a.m. There were two left on the shelf, one pink and one blue. We grabbed both.

There is another Walgreen opens at 8.00 a.m. which is near our house. We made a quick stop at 8.00 a.m. when T was on his way to work. We found six on the shelf and grabbed three.

Now, we have 2 pink hair dryers and 3 blue hair dryers, which we paid $3.90 out of pocket for sales tax. :-)

We are going to give one to T’s mother as one of the Christmas gifts, as her hair dryer had gone kaput sometime ago. One for me and one for T. The other two will be giving out as Christmas gifts!

You might wonder is this REAL. Yes, most stores have “loss leaders” to get you into the store to purchase other stuffs, which are marked up pretty high. You have to be a deal hunter who don’t buy anything at full retailed price in order to win. :-)

The grocery stores do the same. They have loss leaders advertised in the ads every week, but almost everything else in the store are marked up. For example, some of the Kellogg’s cereals at regular retailed price can go as high as $4.xx. They are on sale this week 3 for $5, with three $1 coupons, they are 3 for $2!

Now, I need to find some coupons for good deals on sports gifts for men! I can’t give the free toothpaste and deodorants I got from Walgreen as Christmas gifts, can I? :-)

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