Cover Girl & OlaySimply Ageless Review

Ok, I have to ask that first - be kind!!!! I am no super model. SO please don't make fun of my pics.







As I mentioned before, I am a bzzagent. I was given some samples of the Cover Girl & Olay Simply Ageless make-up to try for myself. In the picture you can see the before and after shots of me while trying out this product for the first time. I have very dark circles under my eyes. It is probably hard to see just how dark they are in the picture. So I was very excited to try the concealer and corrector. I actually used a mix of the two all around my eye to get these results. I think it worked. I kept walking by the mirror because I couldn't believe how different I looked. The make-up had a grainy texture as I applied, but once it was on it felt just fine. Take a look for yourself at the pics and tell me what you think!

Wegmans Deals

Here are just a few of the things that I noticed were on sale at Wegmans:

First - check out the Revlon clearance. They have a bunch of discontinued items. There should be a $2 off coupon you can pair with them to get makeup for fairly cheap!!! Plus, the Revlon nail polish is on sale for $2.99. So you can score some great stocking stuffers, basket fillers, or whatever you might want for yourself for a buck!

So here are just a few of the items I noticed that continue to be on sale or might even be a new addition. Wegmans tends to keep things on sale for several weeks.

On going:

3 Musketeers $.59
* use $.25 coupon doubled to make it $.09

Bandaids still 2/$3
*use $1 off or $.50 (doubles) to make them $.50 each
*and don't forget about the free first aid kit mail in too

Garden of Eatin tortilla chips 2/$4
* use $1 off coupon from gardenofeatin.com to make $1 each

Milk 2% $1.99 (other varieties range around this price)

Wegmans Juice $1.99 (plastic bottles)

Maxwell House 11.5oz $1.99
*use $.75 coupon received in mail (doubled) to make it about $0.50

Doritos $1.99

Wegmans canned veggies $.39!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wegmans hot dog and hamburger rolls $.99

Wegmans Ice Cream 1.5qt $1.99

Wegmans Ice Cream Sandwiches $1.99

Bush Bean 2/$3 (there are several coupons out there - check coupon database above)

Wegmans Paper Towels 8 pk $4.99

Cool Whip $.99


Some other items I've found

Secret $.99
*if you got $.50 in p&g from 5/2 doubles to be free?????

Old El Paso - many products $.99

Wegmans Diapers 50- 100count $13.99 (if you don't have coupons or a drugstore near by this may be the way to go)

Wegmans elbows $.69

Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce $2.19
*use $.75 coupon from Sunday paper doubled to make it $.69

Bison Dip $1.79
*use #.35 coupon from paper doubled to make it $1.09

Nesquick Chocolate Syrup (smaller bottle) $1.99
* use $.50 coupon from paper doubled to make it $.99



I am sure that there are more deals out there but these are the few that caught my attention. Wegmans isn't always the place to score tons of free stuff, but they do double many coupons and their store brand is of high quality and generally at a very low price. I love to use Wegmans brand for items that I can't find a decent price or coupon!!!

Gardening on a Smaller Scale

So I now have black and blue legs from smashing the pick some many times as I got tired gardening. We have a fairly large garden. It is actually 20 feet by 30 feet. It requires lots of work. We have a nice yard and some space we were willing to give up or use in a more economical way.

So now you're saying to yourself, "But I don't have that kind of space..." If you don't have a yard it does not mean that you can't grow some of your own food. There are tons of plants that can and will grow in pots or containers of some sort.

You may want to try:

Tomatoes
Peppers
Carrots
Radishes
Lettuce

If there are others that you would like, then I offer one suggestion. When picking out your seeds look for dwarf or bush varieties. These types also grow well in smaller places. Most veggies now come in a dwarf or bush version, so your options are without limits.

In the picture you'll see a terra cotta planter. You can usually get containers fairly cheap. The great thing about terra cotta is that you can paint it. So now it is an art project the kids can enjoy and a beautiful container to hold free produce.

Roll Backs at Walmart

There are a ton of rollbacks that my family has enjoyed right now at Walmart. These include:

Heinz ketchup 40 oz for $1 (was $2.42)

Arnold Sandwich Thins $2.50

Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing $2.50 (was $3.56)

Hershey's chocolate syrup $1.68

The Hunt's ketchup in the picture was free after the coupon I got from All You Reality Checkers. They asked some of the participants to try it out and respond.

The mustard was also on sale. I apologize, but I forgot how much it was. I also used a coupon $1 off 2.

Crest with Scope $1.50
-I used $1 off 2 from P&G insert in Sunday paper

What's in my Mailbox

This was a great week for mail. You've already seen that I got my bzzkit and buzz mama welcome package. I actually got a whole lot more. I received my p&g sample, the kraft summer samples, and free coupons from hood for smart milk and bailey's creamer. I also received some free coloring books for my kids and a free razor for my husband to try. It doesn't take much time to sign up for these freebies and it saves so much money. I use forthemommas.com and freestufftimes.com to get a list of the freebies and their websites.

Frugal Fun #2 - Joy of Ice Cream

Walmart is hosting an ice cream event this Saturday, May 22. Most participating Walmarts will be offering Breyers and Blue Bunny ice cream sundays with Reddi-wip, fresh strawberries, and Hershey's chocloate syrup from 11am to 4pm. Although my local Walmart is not participating, if you live in the Rochester area you could go to Chili Ave, Hudson Ave, or the Marketplace locations.

If you do not live in the Rochester area you can go to http://instoresnow.walmart.com/event-detail.aspx?txteventid=108 to get all the details and locations near you.

Bzz Campaign

Did I mention that I am a bzzagent? Well, I am excited because I just received my first bzzkit. And it is for Cover Girl & Olay Simply Ageless. I received some products to try and tons of coupons. If it can get rid of the circles under my eyes I will be a happy camper. I'll put the corrector and concealer to the test. I plan to take some before and after picks to show you what these products can really do. This should be fun! But don't worry, I will be brutally honest and tell you what I really think. More coming soon.

Cooking on a Budget - Recipe #1

Did anyone use a bunch of those barilla piccolini coupons recently? Here is a great recipe to use with the bow tie pasta.

This is one of my husbands favorites. As I post recipes you might see that I am not a big person for measuring. I often find that measurements given don't fit my family's tastes, so I improvise. Plus with the little ones at my feet I often have to throw in ingredients as fast as I can.

Pink Broccoli Bow Tie Pasta:

1.) One box of farfalle (bow tie pasta)
2.) 2? medium sized broccoli crowns
3.) 1 (8 oz?) package of Neufchatel cheese (could use cream cheese I guess)
4.) jar of pasta sauce'
5.) about 1 lb of chicken
6.) couple tbsp of sundried tomato vinaigrette (kraft makes one)
7.) parm or mozz cheese

First, I chop up the chicken and cook it in the vinaigrette. While that is going I boil the pasta. Mini bow tie pasta only take about 7 or 8 minutes. During the last couple minutes I throw in the broccoli until it is tender. Then I strain the pasta-veggie mix. In the same pan I add cooked chicken, sauce, neuf. cheese and then the pasta mix. Give it a stir until it is thoroughly heated and mixed. Top with Parmesan cheese or stir in some grated mozzarella cheese for a gooey, cheesy mix.

There are so many coupons for pasta and sauce that this is usually very cheap. We always have leftovers as well that can be eaten as lunch or frozen for a meal later. You could add a side salad for more veggies as well.

I'm a buzz mama

I recently received my Buzz Mama kit from Mabel's Labels. I am so excited. There is tons of cool stuff inside. And to my surprise it isn't just labels. There's a canvas bag, pens/highlighters, cool notepads. I can't wait to share with you all the neat things this company makes. Pictures and a review are coming soon!

Shopping Around

I am busy! Any mom knows that there is no extra time to fool around. So when it comes to shopping and trying to make deals, I often have to let some go because there just isn't time in the day. I usually shop at three places: Wegmans, Walmart, & Rite Aid. Each of these places is under 5 minutes from my house. So it just makes sense. I do have a Save A Lot about 40 minutes away and several Targets about 20 to 30 minutes away. I don't have a Kroger, Publix, Acme, Weis, or any of these great stores that I see people coming home with hundreds of dollars worth of groceries for nothing. And I have recently begun to look into small town grocery stores to check their deals. There is a Big M near the local bank that I use and their ad is delivered to my mailbox every Sunday. So if I have a chance I will peek at what they have. The prices tend to be higher than Wegmans, but every once in a while I can snag a great deal. It takes 2 minutes to look over the ad and 5 minutes in the store after I stop at the bank. SO to me it's worth it.

In the picture: Big M had jelly bogo and I had two free coupons... so 4 for free!

Frugal Fun

I hate to even put the word frugal here because I think that some will automatically assume that it can't be fun. But we had SO much fun. Our family loves the local festivals, but festivals can be expensive. There is high priced food, parking, and the local artisans selling their craft. So this year we tried something new. We went before the festival started. The shots you see here are the local lilacs at Highland Park in Rochester, New York. Each year there is a famous Lilac Festival. But we went and enjoyed their beauty before the hundreds of thousands of others arrived. We had a lovely picnic in the field of lilacs, where we could enjoy each other, the sweet aroma, and some yummy food from our own cupboards and refrigerator.

I think that there are many ways to have fun without having to cost a lot if you are willing to think outside of the box. I challenge you to find a way to take something you love to do and find a way to do it for less. Maybe you love a local festival too. If it is in bloom try and go before all the hoopla arrives and enjoy the peaceful beauty! I'll be sharing more of our frugal fun throughout the nice weather months, but I encourage you to share yours too. I'd love to hear from you!

Free First Aid Kit and Coupons

Wegmans has kept their bandaid deal at 2/$3 which is great after the $1 coupons. So you can get bandaids for $0.50 a package. Well, let's sweeten that deal a little more.

Now you can mail in for $6 in coupons and/or for a free first aid kit.

Go to www.bandaid.com/safety to download forms and get information.

High Value Coupons

One of my most favorite ways to score high value coupons is to contact the company itself. I love to write to companies that I use and share my thoughts. They are usually compliments since they are from items that I do use. I am always honest and I keep it short and sweet.

Lately it seems that the return from comapnies has been sparse. A few companies told me they were going to send a coupon for a free product that ended up just being $1 off. Too bad the product wasn't free, but I am still thankful for the $1 off which is more than I would have saved for a product I was planning to purchase.

This week I am writing to:
Hidden Valley - farmhouse
Dove Chocolate - just tried the peanut butter bar in sample showcase
pantene
coca cola

As I think of more I will post. Let's have some fun too - I'll update with the results!

Wegmans and Walmart Deals

Here are a few of the cheap finds from shopping this weekend. It is obviously not all I purchased. There is no way I could feed my family of four a healthy and balanced diet from this.... but I have no cool stores like other area with their catalinas and sweet deals. So I have to get excited over these small finds.

From Wegmans:
2 Bandaids 2/$3
I used two $1 off to make them $0.50
4 Rinaldi To Be Healthy sauces $1.59 each
I used 4 $.30 off coupons that were doubled to make it $1 each
1 44oz Pasta Sauce $3.49
I used $1.50 off to make it $2
2 Garden of Eatin blue tortilla chips 2/$4
I used 2 $1 off printable coupons from their website
1 degree deodorant $.99
I used $1 off coupon from past sunday paper


From Walmart:
2 Heinz ketchups on roll back for $1 each
1 Hidden Valley Famhouse dressing $2.78
I used $2 off coupon from old sunday paper (They just keep appearing in bunches of coupons that people have given me..... yay!)

What's in my Mailbox

This week my mailbox was full of great things. Some of them included:

2 books to read - you can see in picture
coupon for free ketchup to try from All You Reality Checkers
coupon for free Oscar Mayer Bacon from Kraft First Taste
Sample Showcase from USPS
Check from Ipsos for surveys I have completed
Frozen Dinner for a product test that I am doing through Global Synovate

What did you get this week?

Rite Aid Scenarios

Update:

So far I did deal #1 and deal #2.

Not pictured are a few more dawn dish soaps and the pampers diapers. I had to send them to the babysitter already. Boy those diapers go fast. My Rite Aid was all out of dawn hand renewal. So I only got regular. Plus, I had so many coupons for Motrin PM I figured I'd pick one up now and another with third trip.

Deal #1 ended up being $1.50 plus tax (I found a $2 off coupon from a previous box of diapers).
Deal #2 ended up being $.28 plus tax.

Overall I did great. i can't wait for a chance to finish the third deal.
Deal Idea #1
4 Cover Girl Face Products (b1g1 free)
1 pampers $9.99

I will use:

$5 off $20
2 B1G1 coupons for cover girl
1 - pampers $1.50 from p&g

submit for $1.50 pampers rebate

pay about $2 plus tax

Deal Idea #2
4 Cover Girl Face Products (b1g1 free)
9 Dawn dish soap $0.99 each

I will use:

$5 off $25
2 B1G1 coupons for cover girl
$1 off dawn hand renewal from booklet mailed (I think I have 2)
$1 off 2 dawn from p&g (I will use 2)

All should be free... I might pick up 10 and use a $0.20 coupons so that I don't go under $0

Deal Idea #3
Motrin PM $5.99
Kotex Liners $0.99
4 - Carefree Liners $0.99 each
Fig Newtons $1.25
EOS $2.99
Cover Girl (eyeshadow or eyeliner)
Johnson & Johnson $2.99

I will use:
$5 off $20
$3 off Motrin in-ad
$3 off Motrin from 4/18 RP
$1 off Kotex Video values (May)
4 - $1 off Carefree (from sun paper couple weeks ago)
$1 printable for fig newtons on facebook
$2.50 off covergirl from 5/2 p&g
$1 J&J in ad
$1 J& J 3/7 RP

Submit for $2 rebate for EOS

If total is around $23 - $21.50 in coupons = $1.50
So I will make money after rebate.

I am totally wishing I had waited for the sunglasses. My daughter would love new ones. With them b1g1 50% off you could get 2 kid pairs of foster & grant at $6.99 and $3.49. You would use both April & May's video value coupons to get them for $0.48and then submit for rebate to make money on these and make a little one super happy!