Rascal Flatts

Bob That Head Tour

March 14, 2009

My birthday present from my wonderful husband this year was tickets to the Rascal Flatts Bob That Head concert. Country music is one of the few things that we both REALLY love. I say one of the few things because we love movies, 24, a few sporting event and our kids equally the same. But, a lot of things one of us loves and the other often goes along because the other loves it. I am sure most couples can say that. So Rascal Flatts is one of those things that we both thoroughly enjoy. We saw them eight years ago when they were opening up for Jodee Messina in Spokane. They came out individually and each did a monologue. Jay was hilarious and I can't count the number of times that Gary said, "Lord, have mercy," when something was funny. A true southern thing, it was funny to those of us who aren't used to that phrase.

The only downfall this time was that Jessica Simpson opened for them. We looked at each other several times and said, "What is wrong with her??" She has such a beautiful voice, she looked great (she is not big as the media is saying, which is so rude whether she is or isn't, that must have been a terrible side picture and the mom jeans didn't help), but she says the dumbest things. In between her songs she just said things that clarify her being an idiot is NOT an act. It is REAL. She actually stopped songs twice and told her band, "I have to start over," because she forgot the words!! She said, "I do this all the time, it's ok, people make mistakes."

What a great gift, can't wait to see them next year on the "Unstoppable" tour!!

2000
We liked them then...

2009

They've come a long way and were SO much better!

I realize the video is really terrible quality, but it is so fun to have something to share with the kids about where we were last night. I love it that they sang on the Cars soundtrack and the boys can enjoy something with us that we all love. They call this "The Mac song."

Walgreens Trip

$145.00 worth-$51.00 spent

Alright, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on for the month of February, but couldn't let this one pass by because you still have 3 days left to do this.

I had not ventured into the Walgreens sales yet, but today was very exciting. I learned how to "stack" coupons there and finally got some FREE items out of it. I could never figure out how all these savvy coupon people got free stuff. Well, now I know. I will run it down for you. First off if you want to start coupon shopping, you must get the Sunday paper. I was buying it out of the machines for $1.50 each week. There was a man in Albertsons who I signed up with last Saturday for the LA times for the Thursday-Sunday editions. Just to get the Sunday paper!! But, it was $39.00 for the whole year!! And, he gave me a $10 gift card to Albertsons for signing up so it was $29.00 for the year basically!! The other thing you need to know is that Walgreens coupons that I mention are in a pamphlet up front by their weekly ads and are called the Walgreens Easy Saver catalog. There are a ton of coupons in there and some of them go with the weekly sales. You can use as many of these as you want. RR stands for Register Rewards, basically free Walgreens $$ that you get for purchasing certain products.

MC=Manufacturers coupon

BOGO=Buy one Get one Free

WAGS=Walgreens

Here we go:

5 Huggies Diaper packs $10 each Sale-$5.00 coupons from Coupons.com=$25.00

(You can only print 2 Huggies coupons from your computer at coupons.com. Found another place you can print more, not sure what the limit is because I am done http://www.redplum.com/offers/1011414-topdeal.html)

Lightdays 2/$6 (A little higher than Walmart, but when you are saving this much money on other stuff you dont' want to go to Walmart for one item)

Gilette Razor=$8.99-$4 MC plus $4 RR=$.99

Glade Sense and Spray $7.99 sale - $4 WAGS plus BOGO=$4 for 2 (I messed this up, if I would have had the MC from the paper I would have gotten both for FREE)

AJAX=$.79 WAGS ad coupon

Skintimate Shave Gel -$1.99 and $1 RR=$.99

7 Garnier Shampoo, conditioner, gel, etc -These were on sale for $.99 then in the Walgreens Easy saver they had $2 off coupons and I had MC $1 off that I stacked with them, so they were free. All 7 of the Garnier items=FREE

Easter Candy=2/$4

Easter Bunnies-$1.29

Kanka Mouth Medicine $6.99
Batteries-$6.99 (Mail in rebate for $3.99)

So when you add it all up it won't add up for you. This is higher than my $51.00 total. (You have to keep in mind the RR's that I used.)I did 3 transactions. This is because when you spent $25.00 in items listed on the back of the ad, you got $10.00 WAGS RR's. So I did this twice, but never really spent $25.00 because I had $15.00 off in diaper coupons for each transaction. So it's $25.00 before your coupons. The register then spits out your RR's. So I did this twice. Then on my third transaction the total was $33.00 and I used my $26.00 WAGS RR's and spent $7.19. Adding up all my receipts it was $144.00 and I paid $51.00.

I have read that once they are out of stock it's unlikely that they restock before the sale is over. So hopefully when I get these deals from now on I can let you know earlier.

The time in store took about an hour. However, it was my first time in this store using their ads, I had a baby in the bjorn strapped to my chest and a 2 year old in the cart trying to climb in and out. And, my coupon holder opened and spilled all over the floor. That part was a nightmare. So hopefully I can continue to get better so that I can share my experiences.

There are better people out there though and these are the places I got all this great info. (Although it started with my fabulous sister in law Jessica calling me yesterday and explaining the diaper thing to me. Three phone calls later with continued questions I finally got it :)

This girl is fabulous and I haven't had a moment to check out the blogs listed on the right of hers.

http://www.coupongeek.net/

And she shared this site for weekly Walgreens strategies:

http://www.southernsavers.com/2009/03/walgreens-weekly-ad-38-314/

There is actually a section of this page called "working Walgreens." Basically legally stealing from them. There is a weekly deal where you actually make $3!!

I can't wait to get better at this. I am jealous of the girls that get to leave the kids with their parents or hubbies. It will be so much easier without the kids tagging along! Once you get good at this system and comfortable with a store getting these deals can take about 30 minutes. I am comfortable with Albertsons and their deals now and it takes about that even with kids.

By the way, the $.99 Kids Activity Book that I told you about was not available at my store or my friends in Idaho so we missed out on the extra $1 off coupons for the diapers. This only made a $5 difference for me though, it was OK.

Just a note about something I learned-you can't use your RR's for tax. So if you get your bill down to basically free and the rest is tax, you have to pay the tax with $$ not your RR coupons.

Happy Shopping!!