WHAT A FREAKIN AWESOME DAY!!!

I have kinda been in a funk lately. With company and being sick the week before I was just getting out of my grove, not to mention my BIG FOUR O birthday was yesterday.

First I started toying with this deal that BiLo has. For every $500 in gift cards you buy (not BiLo, Visa, MC or Amex) you get a $25 BiLo gift card. I started thinking and we have some purchases we are going to have to make over the next month and a half. I have a son that is going to graduate in June and he will need dress pants, shoes and his brothers need some nice clothes for this too I usually shop at Kohls. Then we have some stuff we need to buy at a home improvement store for the garden I am trying to have. We are also going on 2 trips this summer. So after consulting with my husband we decide that I can come up with $500 to spend in gift cards at Bilo to get my $25 gift card for free.

So off I was to BiLo. I also remembered to take the 4 cups of peaches that I had purchased that were out of date by 6 months. First I returned them and to my surprise it was DOUBLE my money back because it was a produce item. PLUS she gave me FULL RETAIL not the sale price of $1, so I ended up getting $17.46 back!!!! I was too excited.

Then I went to pick out my gift cards

$100 for Shell Gasoline (we will use more than that I am sure between now and vacation)

$175 at Kohls (again will probably use more but that is good I will buy some items on line for my 3% back from Ebates)

$25 for Ebay (I buy my coupons from there+I use ebates so I get 3% back too)

$100 for Cracker Barrel, that is our restaurant of choice when we travel. One meal a day!

$100 at Home Depot (would prefer Lowes but oh well)

I got my Free $25 BiLo card too. They said this is only the second one they have done since the beginning of the year.

The great thing is I also got to use my Paypal card for CREDIT so I also earned $1.5% back which is $7.50 on the $500 purchase.

Next was my actual purchases. I did 2 transactions for rebate reasons

8 DelMonte Peaches ($2/4Q) sale $1

1 Delmonte Mandarin Oranges ($1/1) sale $1

3.07lb chicken ($2 WT) sale $1.99lb -rebate item

1 Fresh Express Bagged Salad mix ($1/$4 WT-bananas and peaches qualify) sale $2.00-

2 Good Seasons Salad dressing mix reg $1.59 each (I was completely out!)

.5lb bananas reg $.64lb

$.10 bag credit

Paid $12.91 on GC ($25.30/$8Q)-chicken and salad qualify for $5 rebate

Second transaction

4 Delmonte Peaches ($2/4Q) sale $1

1 Hormel Naturals turkey $.55/1Q) sale bogo $3.99/2

1.21lb boneless chuck ($1.50 store Q) reg $4.99lb

1 carl Buddig Turkey ($1/1Q) sale bogo $3.99/2

used $1/$4 produce Q

used $.75 OYNO cat from Good Seasons purchase

Paid $6.45 ($14.91/$7.25Q)

The meat will finish qualifying me for a $7.50 rebate.

From there I went to Kohls to buy some shirts for my husband. All of his are too big and I also have one shirt that is too big that still had the tags from last year on it. They let me exchange it for another color and size! I was too happy. I also purchased some stuff to sell on ebay (even though I said I wasn't going to do that) and got back $20 in Kohls cash. I was annoyed they didn't have the color shirts I wanted for my husband in his size, but decided I would buy them on line, have more to pick from, find a % off coupon code, get 3% back from Ebates and also for every $50 I spend I will get back an additional $10 to spend next week. It will all work out!

I was already pretty excited because I like to say "my money had babies" I actually came home with more money than when I left ($500 in gift cards not counted-not grocery money). I went outside and got the mail and what was in it? 10 of my 11 $10 gift cards from Kelloggs! PLUS 2 more rebate checks for $20 total, plus an envelope with my coupons I ordered and 2 more birthday cards! That was $120 in the mail just for filling out forms and sending in receipts!

Total YTD
Total OOP $1088.44
Total spent buying coupons $113.44(Extra papers + coupons from ebay)
Total saved $3861.36(coupons+gift cards used+ECB used)

BiLo 5.64

Master card $100
Wags GC $.47
CVS-$2.18
CVS ECB -$13.47
Dilworth Coffee $18.35
Best Buy $5
Staples $3.30
Target GC $12.69
total $161.10