Great Finds at Kohl's

Personally, I find that Kohl's advertises that they have unbeatable prices every time they have a sale, but going this weekend I have to admit they're right about this one. With the economy as it is, I certainly can't predict if these will be the lowest these items go through the year, but I thought some deals were worth mentioning here. Also important to note, the Kohl's sale is only through tomorrow, 10/27.

• Shoe sale- everything seems to be about 50% off, including these babies, which are my favorite work shoes ever. The pair I own now has been on my feet about 3 days a week for the past year, and while they currently need polishing, are still going strong. $22.99 is the best price I've seen on them, so I had to get them.

• Houdini- 50% off; this is definately the best price I've seen on these. Normally they go on sale for about $25 but this week all the Houdini wine accessories are half price. If you have a vino enthusiast friend, these openers are a great gift, and the fancy (and awesome) corkscrew they have is $17 right now.

• Kitchenaid Pink- While the kitchenaid pink line is on a pretty average sale (20-33% off), since it's the end of breast cancer awareness month, they've started to quietly clearance some of the items. Scan a few things- I found a nice parring knife for $7.50 down from $15.

• Pantry items- I've wanted an olive oil bottle for awhile, but $8 sounded rediculous, and it never seemed to be on sale. This week all that stuff is 50% off. I also got a ceramic range spoon for $3, since sitting the stirrer on the top of the oven was driving me nutso.

• Pillows- All on sale. Kohl's normal prices on these are pretty high, so you might be able to find better, but if you're looking for guest pillows that don't get used every night, the "big one" is only $3.99 and is comfy enough. I splurged on a double chambered down pillow for $27 myself (bedding is one thing I refuse to skimp on- after all, I spend almost a third of my life there!).

In additon to the deals you also get $10 Kohl's cash for every $50 you spend, which is basically a large RR good from 10/28 to 11/10. Between all this, it's one of the best Kohl's sales I've seen in awhile.


Happy Hounding!
Annathy

Rite Aid, I think I love you

If you haven't heard about the fantastic deals Rite Aid is running this week, it's time you did! They have the gift of savings program for fall (ending Saturday), a boatload of free after rebate products, and a P&G deal that combined with the Olay rebate out right now is just too good to pass up! (oh, and to give credit where it is due, I got these deals from Frugalsuz)

P&G Deal- spend $30 on qualifying products, get a $10 Rite Aid gift card, Olay rebate is buy the anti-aging eye roller and a Pantene shampoo or conditioner (12.6 oz or larger), get $20 back.
I bought (I'll try and post pics later):
$21.99 Anti-aging eye roller ($1 Q out there)
$3.50 Pantene shampoo, 12.6 oz
$2.50 Herbal essences shampoo
$2.50 Herbal essences styler (Buy 1 shampoo/cond. get free styler Q in P&G insert this week)
and use a $5/25 Rite Aid Q from their website
=30.49 subtotal
=21.99 after coupons, plus tax on the subtotal
You get back both a $10 GC and a $20 rebate, so that's $8.01 profit if you live in oregon. Down here in Cali it's more like $5... darn sales tax.

Now for the freebies! This week only...
Personally I skipped a few (the kids stuff, & the poligrip), but I may go back for those to hit the Gift of Savings max and just donate those products.
$2.29 Carmex Moisture Plus Lip Balm
$2.99 Sucrets
$3.99 Comtrex cold fighter
$7.99 Breathe again decongestant
$2.99 Bodi Heat wraps
$2.99 Children's throat coolers
$3.99 Coldwar cold fighter
$4.99 Simply Saline adult ($1 coupon 7/26 insert)
$3.99 Simply Saline children's ($1 coupon 7/26 insert)
$2.49 Bee M.D. cough drops
$9.99 Allergen Block gel ($3 coupon 5/3 insert)
$1.99 Carmex 3 pack (the original tubes)
$8.99 Allergy Buster or Sinus Buster
$1.99 Super Poligrip (freebie coupon 10/4 insert)

If you buy all these, it's $61.66 before coupons and tax, so that's what you will get back since all the items are FAR. Use the insert coupons and two $5/25 Rite Aid coupons (you'll probably need to break it up into two transactions), and you can get it all for $44.67 + taxes. That's already like $17 profit! (Okay, Okay, like 11 in Cali... but you get the idea)

Even better, everything you buy qualifies towards the gift of savings program which works like this: Buy $25 worth of stuff, get a $5 gift card, buy $50 worth of stuff, get a $10 gift card, buy $100 worth of stuff, get a $20 gift card. Just these items stack you up to $92.15, skipping a few I'm still over $80. That's a free $10 gift card, bringing your total profit to over $20, even after accounting for sales tax. If you're close to the $100 mark, it's worth it to buy a few items you'd pick up at the grocery store here instead and make it a $20 GC. Just sayin'.

For icing on the cake, all but one (the fancy lip balm) of the freebie items is a qualified flexible spending account item for you FSA and HSA kids. So you may even be able to pay with money from those accounts!

Have fun Hounding everyone!!!

Things I've done recently to save $

Hey, I know it's been forever since I've posted, um, anything. But I'm alive, I've just been using the stockpile more than building it, particularly since my storage space has decreased (though I do have a very nice size closet/pantry dedicated entirely to hounding- it's just full!). I figured I'd go over some of the more day-to-day things I've been doing.

1) Transferred my prescription around. I've done this twice in the past 45 days, getting a $30 credit/gc at a grocery store each time. I like eating for free, don't you?

2) Coinstar'd my spare change into a CVS gift card- for free! Coinstar waives their fee if you get a gift card instead of cash (thier website lets you know which machines have which GC options).

3) Using Swagbucks as my search engine. So far, I've accumulated $30 in amazon gift cards (which are stackable) and deposited them in an amazon account. Just for doing searches and referring a few friends- I love that site.

4) Tracking my expenses. Just knowing that I have to write it down makes me think twice about something I want.

5) Submitted my FSA claims as they come up. I'm less likely to lose the reciepts this way, and I get my moola back faster.

I'm hoping to get some good hounding in this weekend at CVS, WAGS, and RA. We will see!