Rite Aid Fall Clearance

Just wanted to let you guys know that Rite Aid has lots of their fall decorations on clearance at 75% off. I hit the jackpot at my local Rite Aid and found Pumpkin Spice Reed Diffusers on clearance for $2 and Spice Cake warming oils complete with cute ceramic pots for $1.74. You can't beat that!

Del Monte Pineapple Coupon

Fresh fruit is always expensive so I was super excited when I saw the $.75 off Del Monte Gold Extra Sweet Pineapple printable on Coupons.com. Click here to print yours off. Make sure you press the back button on your browser so you can print two, and then take it to a grocery store that doubles coupons. $1.50 off pineapple is a treat indeed!

Free Snuggie Blanket?

UPDATE: THIS IS A SCAM. READ HERE TO FIND OUT MORE.
Many thanks to Denise for sharing!!

This sounds too good to be true but I gave it a shot. Click here to request your completely free Snuggie Blanket.

I've been wanting one of these suckers for awhile now but can't part with my cash to get one. I'm excited and I hope this works!

Thank You

I've been thinking a lot lately about the future of my blog. I love couponing and finding great deals, but my every day life is becoming more and more demanding and I just couldn't see where Cheapie Cheapie fit in. I know I started Cheapie Cheapie as a blog/journal about my adventures with frugality, but somewhere along the way I think I lost that original idea.

I was seriously thinking about hanging up the keyboard for awhile because I just felt like I couldn't keep up with everything. I read lots of other blogs about couponing and deals and their posts are so numerous and overwhelming -- I began to feel like my blog was so little and overlooked and was basically for nothing. (I know, this sounds like a pity party, right? It's not, I swear.)

At any rate, I received a few of the nicest e-mails in the past couple of weeks thanking me for Cheapie Cheapie. I had no idea that this 'lil ole blog was affecting so many people in such a positive way. I've had the biggest smile on my face from those e-mails. You have no idea how happy they made me. :)

I want every single person reading this to know YOU are the reason I write this blog. I want to help you as much as I can with living inexpensively. Those e-mails have made me realize that this blog isn't for nothing. Even if I'm helping one person, I'm helping one person. And that's huge!!

As for the future of Cheapie Cheapie, I will continue to post my insane coupon wheelin' and dealin'. I'm no expert at this, to be sure, but I think I can muddle my way through this enough so we can all benefit from the power of coupons.

I'm going to try and start a weekly CVS Challenge for myself, and to teach all of you how to manage CVS from the very first baby step of walking through their doors to walking away with tons of free product.

If you have any ideas or topics you would like me to cover, please let me know!

Thank you all for reading my blog. You guys are the best!

How to Get More Newspaper Coupons -- Cheapie

I used to have a subscription to our local Sunday newspaper. I would look forward to every Sunday morning drinking my coffee and clippin' my coupons.

BUT, not so long ago our local delivery service became sub-par, and before we knew it, we were only getting the D section of the Sunday paper and having the front page thrown in our driveway sometime on Monday. Needless to say, after lots of Sunday phone calls to the paper with no change in delivery, we cancelled our subscription.

I started to think outside the box as to how to get my newspaper coupons. Here are some ideas that I've tried and yes, they do work.

1. Our local grocery store offers the newspaper for half price on Mondays. I do all of my grocery shopping on Mondays anyways, so this works out wonderfully for me.
2. Ask your grocery store what they do with their old papers. Last week I asked our other local grocer -- They throw them away on Mondays! Now I have a super sweet lady save them for me every Sunday. I'm getting at least 9 papers a week for FREE. All you have to do is ask.
3. Ask friends and family for their coupon inserts. Most likely they'd love to pass them along to you. (And if you throw them some of your deals now and again, I'm sure they'd looove to hand those coupons over).
4. Join a Coupon Swap Group. You can find them at afullcup.com, or if you live in the Northeast Ohio area, try northeastohiocouponers.com. Coupon Swaps usually meet once a month and trade coupons. I haven't gone to one yet, but if my life ever slows down I would really like to give one a shot.

Let me know if you have another other cheapie ways to score newspaper coupons! :)

I Might Have Lost My Mind Part II

To recap: I tried out an online offer for $500. You can read my original post here.

I think I did it! After many, many, many days of nervously waiting around, all of my offers for the Silver, Gold and Platinum Tiers were approved. I cannot believe it.

I printed off my certificate stating I've fulfilled all requirements and will be mailing it certified tomorrow. In 6-8 weeks I should have my $500 gift card. That's not possible, right??? right????

All said and done, I spent right around $55 for this offer. I didn't catch one of my free trials in time and was billed $30 for 1 month. But other than that, I've played everything by the books.

This is just too good to be true. I think I'll only really believe this when I have that $500 gift card in my hand. (And you better believe you'll hear me screaming on high if it really does arrive!)

Coupons INSIDE Vocalpoint Mailer

I was perusing some great couponing blogs this morning and happened across a post from Cherry Picker.

She mentioned that the nifty Secret Clinical Deodorant sample sent to many of us from Vocalpoint actually held high value coupons inside it -- you just had to dissect the box to get to them.

Oh snap! I threw mine away! You can bet I was digging through my trash this morning to retrieve those high value coupons. (I got 'em!)

Note to self: Always tear apart packaging to check for coupons. :)

FREE Snapple with coupon!

Click here to print a coupon for $.55 off 1 Snapple product. If your store doubles coupons (like my Giant Eagle does) then this should equal a free bottle of Snapple! Yum yum yum!

Thanks Deal Seeking Mom

My Little Pony Twinkle Wish Adventure DVD Giveaway!

On October 13, 2009 the newest My Little Pony Adventure will be released on DVD. My Little Pony: Twinkle Wish Adventure features 6 sing-alongs, 2 new animated shorts, downloadable coloring sheets, cut-out pony ornaments and 4 fun activities in addition to the ponies' all new movie adventure!

Click here to see a sneak peek!

Shout! Factory says this about their release:

My Little Pony Twinkle Wish Adventure follows Pinkie Pie and all her pony friends on a fun-filled adventure as they discover that friendship can make wishes come true. All the ponies can't wait for the Winter Wishes festival where the Wishing Star grants each pony one special wish. But when the Wishing Star disappears, they go on a journey to find it. Will they make it back in time for the festival? Find out by joining Pinkie Pie and all her pony friends on this magival journey of discovery

In celebration of the movie's release, Shout! Factory in collaboration with Hasbro is sponsoring a DVD Giveaway through my blog! The giveaway will run through Tuesday, October 20 at 11:59 p.m.

Here's how you can enter to win your very own copy of My Little Pony: Twinkle Wish Adventure.

How to Enter

1. Leave me a comment telling me which My Little Pony character is your kiddos' fave! If you aren't sure, you can check them all out here. How easy is that? :) (Make sure your email address is in the comment or is easily accessible via your blog profile or blog itself. I need to be able to contact you!)

This entry is mandatory, if you do not do this step, you cannot do the "extra" entries. Comments like "enter me" will not be eligible!

Extra Entries

Get ONE extra entry for doing any of the following:

• Post my Cheapie Cheapie button on your blog

• Follow Me (on Blogger)

• Fave Me On Technorati

• Blog about this contest (Please leave a link in your comment)

• Stumble Me on StumbleUpon

**Please leave a separate comment for each additional entry

You have until Tuesday, October 20 at 11:59 p.m. to enter.

The winner will be chosen via random number generator the next day and notified by e-mail. I'll also post the winner on my blog. If I don't hear back from the winner within 48 hours of sending the winning e-mail, I'll pick another.

** Open to U.S. residents only

Giant Eagle Noteworthy Deals

If you shop at Giant Eagle, here are a few deals worth mentioning for this week:

Buy 4 Betty Crocker items and get a FREE $5.49 Wilton cookie sheet or cake pan

Items included: Betty Crocker Warm Delights, Betty Crocker Frosting and Cake Mix, Betty Crocker Fudge Supreme, Betty Crocker Cookie Mix + more

- Use Betty Crocker $.50 on Cake Mix and Frosting coupon here

- Use $.50/1 Warm Delights coupon from here and here

- Use $.40 Cookie Mix coupon from here and here

Plus there have been lots and lots of these coupons in the previous Sunday papers. Check to see if you have them because this equals lots of really cheap baking goods and FREE cake pans and cookie sheets. I've already scored 2 cookie sheets and will be heading back for more!!

Buy 3 selected Kellogg’s Wholesome Cereals and Snacks and receive $3 off your purchase instantly

Items included: Kellog's Cereals, Rice Krispies, Cinnabon, Special K Bars, Fiber Plus Bars + more

- Use $1 Special K Blueberry printable here

- Use $1 Cinnabon printable here

- Use $1 Special K (pretzel) printable here

- Use FiberPlus printable here

Remember you can print most of these 2 times so that means not only will you get cheap snack bars and cereal, you'll also get at least $6 off instantly. Not bad!

Purex 9 loads = 97¢

- Use $.35 Purex newspaper coupon =.27¢

I found these on an end cap at my Giant Eagle.

Good luck!

Good Housekeeping 1 year only $3.99 at Amazon

Amazon.com has a super sweet deal on Good Housekeeping right now. Click here to order 1 year for only $7.97!

But wait, it gets better.

Enter promo code OCTMAG50 during checkout to receive an additional 50% off bringing the final cost to only $3.99 for 1 year. Now that's a deal!

I really like Good Housekeeping and will most likely hop on this deal!

Thanks Hip2Save!

Free Schick Disposable Razors at Wal-Mart

In this Sunday's paper you should have gotten a $2/1 Schick Disposable Razor coupon. It's reported that Wal-Mart has these in 12 packs (yellow packaging) for right around $1.97. That makes these babies free plus $.03 overage!

Thanks Michelle!

YouCanMakeThis.com 48-hour Giveaway!

And the winner is (thanks to Random.org) ... Amy comment #19:

"Faved you on Technorati: hillfam2005. rubycakesgirl (at) gmail (dot) com"

Thank you to all that entered!!!

With Halloween and my daughter's third birthday right around the corner, I've been looking longingly at my sewing machine thinking of super cute costumes, clothing and crafts to make for both upcoming occasions. My day job has been incredibly hectic lately so not much time has been spent on some of my more creative ideas.

Then... just the other night... waiting for me in my inbox... was the cutest and easiest tutorial to make stuffed tu-tu's that I've ever seen, courtesy of YouCanMakeThis.com.

Check out this cutie picture of what I'm talking about (and the one at the top of this post)!

The tutorial is full of great, easy to follow photos and instructions. It even gives you different "recipes" to make themed tu-tus (like for the pirate costume pictured above).

After reading the tutorial, I don't think I have any more excuses for not making my soon-to-be three-year-old a phenomenal Halloween costume using this tutorial.

AND -- I'm excited to say YouCanMakeThis.com is sponsoring a great 48-hour giveaway for my readers! Just leave me a comment to win a $50 bundle of downloadable Halloween sewing patterns, including the awesome Stuffed Tu-Tu Tutorial.

If you are chosen as my winner your downloadable bundle will include:

• Fancy Filled Tutu with Bonus 40 Tutu "Recipes"
• Pumpkin Polly Patterns
• Paper Piecing Project: Pumpkin Patch Pillow

• Frayed Applique: Too Cute to Spook!
• Little Miss Spider Applique Patterns
• How to Applique the Easy Way
• Hocus Pocus Patterns
• Just a Little Something for a Happy Halloween Table Runner

How to Enter

1. Leave me a comment telling me what you and/or your kiddos plan on being for Halloween! How easy is that? :) (Make sure your email address is in the comment or is easily accessible via your blog profile or blog itself. I need to be able to contact you!)

This entry is mandatory, if you do not do this step, you cannot do the "extra" entries. Comments like "enter me" will not be eligible!

Extra Entries

Get ONE extra entry for doing any of the following:

• Post my Cheapie Cheapie button on your blog

• Follow Me (on Blogger)

• Fave Me On Technorati

• Blog about this contest (Please leave a link in your comment)

• Stumble Me on StumbleUpon

**Please leave a separate comment for each additional entry

You have until Saturday, October 10 at 11:59 p.m. to enter.

The winner will be chosen via random number generator the next day and notified by e-mail. I'll also post the winner on my blog. If I don't hear back from the winner within 48 hours of sending the winning e-mail, I'll pick another.

*Open to the World Wide Web

Good Luck!!

I might have lost my mind...

Alright, I got sucked in.

I've been reading blog posts about how to make extra money by completing online offers. I've been researching them. I've been scrutinizing every last punctuation mark in them. And I finally gave in and tried one out.

I am freaking out right now. I stayed up until midnight last night finishing my very first $500 offer (yes, you read that right), and now I have to play the waiting game to find out if it went through.

I guess I should back up a bit and start from where I found all this information and let my mind take a breather in the meantime. *deep breath*

I started out one day by reading a guest post on Hip2Save. It explained in great detail the ins and outs of completing online offers from legitimate companies to earn HUGE rewards. (And by HUGE I mean $500 Visa giftcards, a Nintendo Wii, etc.) I consider Hip2Save an extremely valid and reliable source of information so I was immediately intrigued. This eventually turned into hours of scrutinizing Hip2Save's guest blogger, Nicole's Nickels and eventually, MoneySavingMethods. Now, these ladies know their stuff when it comes to completing these online offers. MoneySavingMethods has made something like $15,000 over the past few years by completing these darn things. After reading comment after comment about regular folks trying out these offers and succeeding I decided that, hey, I can do this too.

So, I picked an offer that MoneySavingMethods recommends, a $500 Visa gift card plus a Got Milk t-shirt. (I could really care less about the t-shirt, but hey, if they're gonna give it to me...)

It took me a little over 2 hours to complete all the required sub-offers, and if all goes well, I will have spent right around $40 to score a $500 Visa gift card. That just doesn't sound possible does it?? Am I losing my mind? I'm completely second guessing myself tonight and wondering if I did the right thing. There are a lot of loop holes and tricks that you have to be aware of, but I followed MoneySavingMethod's detailed instructions, so I think I'm in the clear.

Do me a favor and read her post about it here and while you're at it read Nicole's Nickels post about it here. Let me know what you think, please.

I will post updates weekly as to how my disaster adventure is progressing. To obtain my particular gift card, you have to complete 8 individual offers within 3 different tiers: 2 silver offers; 2 gold offers; and 4 platinum offers. Oh, and you have 60 days to finish everything.

As of this morning, my silver offers had been approved, but it will be another 10 days before I find out if everything else has been approved.

I think I need a drink.

My CVS Trip Today, 10/5

New to CVS? Read this first

I made myself go to CVS today! Yay me! I spent way more than my previous $5 post, but considering all that I got, I think I did fairly well! (As you can see from my picture, I bought a ton of laundry detergent) I spent $27 (including tax) for all of the above items. Here's what I got, and how I got them:

6 bottles of Arm 'n Hammer Laundry Detergent = $3 each
- They are on sale for Buy 1 Get One Free at $6.99.
- Use the $1/2 printable coupon from here and get 2 for $6

Arrid or Arm & Hammer Deodorant = 99¢ (Limit 1)
- On sale for $1.99 and earn $1 ECB

Colgate 360 Acti-Flex Toothbrush = 99¢ (Limit 1)

- On sale for $2.99
- Use the $1/1 toothbrush printable coupon from here
- Earn $2 ECBs

Tone Body Wash = 88¢ (Limit 1)
- On sale for $1.88
- Use the $1 printable coupon from here
- Earn $1 ECB

2 Bags of Candy = 99¢
- On sale for 99¢ each
- I used a $1/2 coupon that printed from my CVS card in store

Bottle '0 Wine = $3.33
- It wasn't on sale, but I treated myself :)

Notice that I didn't use any coupons from the Sunday paper. That means those of you out there that don't clip coupons can do this deal too! All you need to do is print what I've told you and head to the store. Have fun!

FREE Oust Sanitizer -- First 10,000 Hurry!

Right at Home has another great offer available for the first 10,000 people to respond.

Click here to receive a completely FREE can of Oust Air Sanitizer II.

Remember this offer is only available for the first 10,000 people to respond so get on it!

Free Movie Monday

The first Monday of the month means a free movie rental from Redbox!

Use this code at any Redbox Kiosk to score a free movie rental, good for TODAY, Monday, October 5th only.

QNGJ7KD

CVS $5 Deals for week of 10/4

New to CVS? Click here before you read any further.

I haven't been running any CVS deals in a long time! I apologize! My cupboards have been so stocked full of goodies I haven't had any room for more, hence no CVS trips.

I've been saying I'm gonna go back and score some more deals and so by posting this I'm going to make myself!

Here is what I plan to do to spend only $5 out of pocket this week at CVS.

Transaction #1

1 - Dial, Tone or Coast bar soap $1.88, Earn $1 ECBs (Limit 1)


1 - Revlon Nail Color $3.99, Earn $3 ECBs (Limit 6)


- Use $1/1 Tone Printable Coupon (click here) 


- Use $1/1 Revlon coupon from the September 13 Smart Source Insert

= $3.87 Out Of Pocket

Earn $4 ECBs

Transaction #2

1 - Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste 4 oz. $2.99, Earn $2 ECBs (Limit 1)


- Use $1/1 Colgate Coupon from September 27th Smart Source or $1/1 Colgate Toothpaste printable coupon (click here)

- Use $1 ECB from previous transaction (from the Tone Body Wash)

= $.99 out of pocket, earn $2 ECBs

Total out of pocket = $4.86 with $5 ECBs for next week! It's like getting all this stuff for FREE plus a little bit of profit!

Happy CVSing! Please leave me a comment and let me know how you do or if you have a great scenario too!

October 1st = LOTS of new printable coupons

I'm back from vacation! Yay! We had such an awesome time with 4 generations at our cabin in the upper peninsula of Michigan. We had a BLAST -- except I wasn't able to find a Sunday paper anywhere up there so I missed out on this past Sunday's coupons.

So -- to get back into the swing of things, today is October 1st. On the first of every month all the Internet printable coupon sites like Coupons.com, Redplum.com and Smartsource.com restock and add new coupons to their sites. I was just checking out Coupons.com and here are a few of my favorites!

Save $1.50 on any 1 bag of Birds Eye SteamFresh Meals

Save $1.00 on 1 bag of Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters (I'm addicted to these things!)

Buy 5 get 2 FREE Renuzit Adjustables Air Freshener

Save $1.00 on any 1 Freschetta Pizza

Save $1.00 on any 1 Snuggle Fabric Softener or Sheets (that's gonna make some cheap fabric softener sheets)

Oh -- and Smart Source has a couple of really good ones too:

Save $2 on 2 Pull-Ups Flushable Wipes

Save $1 on Bumblebee Tuna Pouches