Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I know you haven't heard anything new from me in a few days, but Thanksgiving is always a really busy time around my house with all the cooking, family to visit, shopping to do, and Christmas decorations to put up!  I hope it was a wonderful time for your family this year!

Did you brave the crowds for Black Friday?  I usually try not to get out in all of that mess unless there is a REALLY great deal.  But, this year there wasn't much that thrilled me.  My husband did go out and get a few things Friday morning, but, the only place I made it to was CVS.  I wanted to make sure I got at least some of the freebies they were offering up this weekend! 

Walgreens had some great freebies for Black Friday also, but I was told by a store employee that my Walgreens was going to be limiting shoppers to two transactions this weekend, so I didn't bother going b/c I knew I would not want to pay extra money out of pocket for what they had on sale. 

Here was my CVS deal...

Total Value of all 11 Items: $53.66

Okay, can I just stop right there for a minute?  I could NOT believe that it would have cost me $53 to buy 11 things had I walked in there with no CVS card or ECB's!!!  That just seems a little outrageous to me.  Okay...continuing on...

Total Spent OOP: $1.48 (once again put on a gift card!  yay!)
Total ECB's Received: $40.89

I had a lot of ECB's to start with, so I was able to do this all in one transaction.  And, I actually MADE 10 ECB's on this deal!  I am really hoping to geta good deal on diapers next week because I really need to stock up and have a good number of ECB's to play with now!

Did you get any great Black Friday deals?  I'd love for you to share them!

$5 For Taking Mattel Survey?!

This morning I had an email from Mattel.com offering me $5 to take a survey about my 2010 holiday shopping plans!  I had never gotten an email like this from them before, but decided it was worth a try, so I took the survey (took about 10 minutes) and at the end it asked for my mailing information so that they could send me $5!  They also said that after the holidays, they were going to be sending me another survey to complete that would pay $15!!  Did any of you receive this survey???  I'm not sure how I got on the list for it, but I have ordered from their website before, so I do have an online account with them.  I will let you know if I actually get my $5!

Cheap Greeting Cards at Kmart!

If you still have your Kmart ad from this past Sunday's newspaper, you may want to cut out the coupon good for $2 off any 3 American Greetings cards priced $.99 or higher.  I took 3 of these coupons to Kmart today and got 9 $.99 cards for a total of $3.36 - including tax!  This is a great price for stocking up on birthday cards, baby shower, wedding, etc.  Because these are store coupons, you will have to use them in separate transactions if you have more than 1. 

Dollar General Deals

Did you know there is a Dollar General store in Salem across from Food Lion??  Here are a few deals you can snag there this week!

Through TUESDAY, get...

Libby's Canned Vegetables 3/$1  (Update:  When I tried this today, the computer would not accept my coupon.  I was told it was because the register is programmed not to accept any coupon that will make an item free.  But, they also acted like they had never seen this before so I'm not sure if that is the real reason or not.  In any case, try it if you like but beware!)

-$1/3 (RP 8/29) = FREE!

Oreo Cookies 3/$5
= $1.66 each

Glad Candles 3/$5
-$1/2 (SS 11/7) = $1.16 each

Infant or Toddler 2-piece Sleepwear $4 (SpongeBob, Spider Man, Tinkerbell, and Elmo shown)


Through Sunday, get...

Charmin Basic Bath Tissue, 20 double rolls $7
-$.25 (PG 10/31) = $6.75 each (34 cents per roll)

Bounty Basic Paper Towels, 12 regular rolls $7
-$.50 (PG 10/31) = $6.50 each (54 cents per roll)

Crest Toothpaste or Oral-B Indicator Toothbrush $1
-$1 off Crest (PG 10/31) = FREE or $.50 off Crest (PG 10/31) = $.50 each
-$.75 (PG 10/10) = $.25 each
-$.75/2 Indicator toothbrushes (PG 10/31) = $.63 each

Eight O'Clock Coffee, 11-12 oz $3.50
-$1 (SS 10/24) = $2.50 each

New Rebates Page!

I've started compiling a list of rebate offers currently available!  Some of these will come in handy with all the Christmas shopping we'll be doing over the next several weeks!  I know there are more offers floating around out there, so let me know of any you run across and I'll post them!  Check back often for new rebate offers!

Feed It Forward with Restaurant.com!

Wow!!  Restaurant.com is currently giving away $40 million in FREE restaurant.com gift cards!  If you have never used Restaurants.com before, it is basically a site where you can purchase gift certificates for local restraunts.  Most of these gift certificates really act like coupons - for example, you may buy one that is "$25 off a $50 purchase," or "$25 off the purchase of 2 entrees," etc.  What makes this site great is that they often run promotions where you can buy the certificates for up to 80% off!
Right now, when you go here, you can send up to 40 friends a day a FREE $10 Restaurant.com gift certificate through December 31!  What a great way to make someone smile today!  Want to try one yourself?  Send one to you hubby!! :)

You can also use the code GOBBLE right now to get 80% off certificates - making a $25 certificate only $2!

New Food Lion Coupon Booklet

The next time you're in Food Lion, check the display in front of the meat case in the back of the store for the new "Hunger Has a Cure" coupon booklet.  It has several Food Lion store coupons in it!

The Coupons:

$2 off any 2 Peter Pan peanut butter 13-16oz.
$2 off any 5 Banquet Dinners
$2 off any 1 Marie Callender's Bakes
$1 off any 3 Chef Boyardee products
$1 off any 3 Manwich 15.5oz

And, don't forget to scan your MVP card that the coupon kiosk at the front of the store (if your store has this).  You can scan your card once a day to have store and manufacturer coupons printed out!

Now, on a very random, personal note....can I just say how much I love the new "race car buggies" that they have at the Food Lion in Salem?!  My kids love these buggies and they do help to distract them while I shop, but the old ones were sooooo big and hard to drive!  The new ones are so much better and I actually don't dread my kids asking to sit in them!  Whoever designed the smaller, easier to push, version is a GENIOUS in my opinion and obviously has children of their own!!!  (Imagine!)  :)