Publix Peelie on Todays St Pete Times

The front page of the St Pete Times has a Gasparilla peelie that pulls off to reveal a coupon for a FREE 24 pack of Publix water bottles w/ a $30 purchase. I don't have mine with me but its valid into the middle of February.

Great Paint Rebate

Well, for all you home remodelers, this a HOT deal, I know we're going to be getting some paint for the kitchen remodel.
 
You can get $5 off one Gallon of paint, or $20 off a 5 gallon pail. You must buy the paint between 1/14/10-1/18/10 (this weekend) to be eligible for the rebate. Most of these brands are sold at Home Depot.
Types of paint that qualify for the mail in rebate:
–BEHR® Interior and Exterior Paints and Primers, Decorative Finishes, Waterproofers, Stains and Cleaners
–GLIDDEN® Interior and Exterior Paints
–RALPH LAUREN® Paints and Specialty Finishes
–FRESHAIRE CHOICE™ Paint
Offer not valid on America's Finest, SpeedWall, SpeedCote, UltraHide, Glidden Porch and Floor, Standard Flat Ceiling Paint and PVA Primers, Professional Finishes, Gildden Stucco & Masonry Paint.

Kraftmaid


Kraftmaid has this free kitchen idea book available now, click the banner to order yours, Hurry they go quick!

We just finished remodeling our bathrooms with Kraftmaid cabinets and they look beautiful. Unfortunately, the quality is really crappy. The doors are hung crooked on hinges applied sloppily. Of our four cabinets, three have problems. When we got the replacement cabinet door, it was missing the anchors to attach to cabinet and they sent the wrong part 2 times. After two months, we are still in limbo with them.

So go ahead get the book, dream about a beautiful cabinet, and then wakeup in the middle of a nightmare.

Hands On Network (HOT)

This weekend before continuing on the kitchen demolition, we drove over to Westshore Macy's to attend the 45 minute Hands On Tampabay (HOT) orientation. This is the local volunteer organization to work through for the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day promotion. It was pretty simple and easy and we learned how to sign up. Unfortunately all the opportunities are coming up showing that 0 volunteers are needed. The HOT representative said that more spots would be available in the middle of the month when the February calendar is posted. So if you are interested in doing this promotion, it is going to take a little legwork - but probably will be worth it.

My First Shop of 2010

Last night we went to Publix for our first grocery shop of the new year. We don't really need much since we're trying to use up our stockpile, as I talked about in the Eat From the Pantry Challenge but we do need to get a few produce and dairy items. You probably didn't notice that I didn't post new year resolutions, but I didn't. I don't really feel ready to do that yet. I have been thinking about goals though, and have decided my frugal shopping goal is to spend less than $1000 this year at the grocery store. This would work out to an average of $19.23 per week, or about $77 a month. This is a huge stretch goal because in the past our groceries were our second highest household expense at about $4000 a year. Basically, we are going to try to cut our grocery budget by 75% using coupons, stockpiling stuff on sale, and shopping the BOGO deals at Publix.
 
So back to our trip yesterday to Publix. I felt unprepared for the shop, and was printing and cutting out Target coupons to stack with the MQ's on Special K Cereal because I didn't remember that Target had some matches. I was relying too much on the blogs to outline the deals, and they missed some key coupons that I had (like BOGO MQ on the Special K cereal to match with the BOGO sale, so all boxes were free). I need to increase my awareness of what coupons are out there and what I have. I also didn't preplan the purchases on a spreadsheet (which I've never done) but this would have saved me more money. I had extra $5 off $50 coupons but only used one, when I could have thrown the other one in since our total was over $145 before coupons. I had two expired store coupons from last months flyer, and had to tear out two new ones from the Green Advantage Flyer. I also made the mistake of not splitting the order so that I used less than 50 coupons.  Also the last coupons (the stacking Target Q) confused the clerk and she called over the manager to approve. Then at the bottom of the pile finally, they start beeping because I have too many coupons. I also had more coupons than items in my cart which requires manager override too. I don't mind doing this but the store was "alive at five" and the line behind me was getting impatient. I told the girl that I'll use them next time. So these mistakes cost me about $7. At the end of the transaction the total was $27 and the savings were $135, for 84% savings. So, the $27 is more than the budgeted amount per week of $19. If I had planned my shop better I would have come in about $20, only $1 over budget.
 
I'm not really fond of having grocery shopping become a mathematical worksheet, but I suppose why not. After all, its one of our biggest expenses of the household. Its actually amazing how so many people just don't make the time or effort to use coupons to save hundreds of dollars every month. I can save more money using coupons than I could make in a part time job. Maybe I should just quit my day job and become a professional grocery shopper. I could just split the savings with the people. It would pay me and they would spend less on groceries. Think that would work? Who wants to sign up?

Can I Have the Crowbar Please?

Last night we got confirmation of a ship date on our kitchen cabinets, and its pretty quick - like in eleven days. That means the old cabinets needed some attention. We started out by boxing up the food, and tossing out expired stuff. Dear found a can of tuna from 2001 that we just didn't have the heart to put out for the neighbor cats. We didn't want to lure them near the puddle of antifreeze that oozed out of the neighbors truck onto our driveway after we used the truck to bring home the washer and dryer. Anyway, I emptied out the cabinets with dishes and have five large dog food bags full of coffee cups, glassware, dishes, bowls and cups that we're not even going to bother giving away - into the trash they go. This is stuff we moved in, stored in the cabinets and have not touched in fifteen years, I don't think we'll miss it.
 
So we've cleaned out the cabinets, moved the small appliances out onto the kitchen table and we're ready to remove the upper wall cabinets to see what we've got in store. This couldn't possibly be as bad as using a hammer drill on the tile and concrete walls that were in the bathroom, so we didn't even bother with gloves and ear protection. Mistake number one. Um, dear can I have the crowbar please? I don't see any screws or nail heads anywhere, how the hell is this thing attached to the wall?
 
The Man Servant gets a drill to remove all the doors to make this a little easier. I grab a flathead screwdriver to start prying off the laminate to reveal wood and hopefully some screws or nails. After peeling off a couple layers of contact paper (pretty yellow mushrooms under there) we found a couple screws. So, the man gets the drill and removes all the up down supports. Good deal, we're getting somewhere. But, oh the thing looks like it was a pre-assembled 10 foot box that was nailed to the walls. All the nail and screw heads are buried against the wall. Great, this means we need to get out the circular saw to cut it apart. So tonight we'll be all garbed up with safety gear, ear muffs, goggles, gloves. And the crowbar.

Start Over, Finish Rich - free download TODAY ONLY

Today only! WalletPop readers can download Start Over, Finish Rich: 10 Steps to Get You Back on Track in 2010, the latest book from best-selling author David Bach, ABSOLUTELY FREE. Read an excerpt here, or click HERE for your free download!

Disney Deals

Remember back HERE when I told you about the deal where you volunteer for a day, and then you get a free day at Walt Disney World? Well, you can sign up now. I've been getting emails from organizations and there are an amazing number of ways to volunteer - giving blood counts too.
 
Anyway, if you can't find it in your bones to volunteer and would rather just pay up, there is a new Florida Resident deal where you get any four days admission to any four Disney World parks up through Memorial Day, for only $99.HERE Get 4 Days for $99 with the new 4 Day Dream Pass and enjoy incredible savings*! Available only to Florida residents, this special offer provides admission to any of the 4 Walt Disney World® theme parks (one park per day) on any 4 days of your choosing, from January 3, 2010 until May 25, 2010 blackout dates apply. (spring break)*
 

Free Prints and Calendars at the FLY

Shutterfly has a couple promotions going on now, valid thru Wed 1/6/10. Get 75 free prints by entering the code PRINTS2010 in your account special offers. Also try CALENDAR2010 for a free 12 month calendar. Both offers may be account specific, but I have a lot of friends with accounts that you can use if you want to make a calendar and transfer it an account where the code is valid. Just make your own calendar in your account and "share" it with my email.
 
Anyway, I've been watching for free calendars for a while and they haven't had this kind of offer all year. Too bad they didn't put it out about 2 weeks ago...
 
 
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