Couponing thus far

Since Ai-Vy is not a month old yet, I hesitate to take her out with all the winter germs flying around. Because I can't take her out yet, I am pretty much bound to the house during the day. The only place I take her is on a car ride when I go and pick up the coupons from my sources. I did manage to go out to CVS once or twice a week. I usually do it after she's asleep on Sunday morning or right after Hieu gets home from work and she's sleeping. She has to be sleeping when I am out because Hieu can't handle her when she's awake and he definitely cannnot take care of both kids while I am out. I had to drop everything and ran home twice because both kids were awake and crying wanting to be held. Poor Hieu..

Even when I am out, I have to be as quick as I can to get home and help him. So I plan all my trips very carefully with backup scenarios in case the stores near my house don't have the stuff that I need. Gone are the days when I can hit several stores or just shop all day. Now it's if they don't have it, I'll just have to bite it and move on. Of course because I can't maximize my deals, I am not earning as much Extra Care Bucks either. I still have around $70 on the first card and only about $35 on the second one. Before Ai-Vy's birth I had over $80 on the first card and $75 on the second one. Crappy deals these past few weeks from CVS and I had to spend my expiring ECBs so that's why they are going down.

I got lots of cheap and yummy candies these past few weeks to give out for Halloween. I do have a weakness for chocolate so it's REALLY hard having so much candy in the house because I want to eat them everyday. Not a good idea if I am trying ot loose the baby weight though. On 10/1, I went to CVS and got 10 bags of Nestle Crunch and Butterfingers for $.53 and get $13 back. I also gave Hieu a bunch of Target and manufacturer coupons and he got 14 bags of various Hershey Fun Size bags for $1 each.

Last week CVS had a sale on Viva towel paper and they are my favorite so I got 2 packs of them using the ECB and other stuff. They also had the Pledge Duster Starter Kit on sale for $2.99 and there was a $3 coupon so I got 7 of them for FREE. I also got 4 packs of Energizer batteries and 2 packs of Charmin paper. Hieu somehow managed to get a $5 off Viva catalina from Krogers so I sent him there last week to get a pack with the coupon. We got the 16-pack big roll for $5.99. Not too shabby at all. Kroger also has Chex Mix on sale for $1 and they double my $.50 coupon so he's been getting the Chex for Free.

This past Sunday is nothing too exciting. There was nothing I wanted to get nor were there good deals so I just got 2 Crest Pro-Health Night on each of the card since I make $1 on each of them. (The Crest was $3.29 and they give back $3.29 in ECB. I also have a $1 off coupon so it's a money-maker.)

Did you know that formula checks are hot commodities in the couponing world? I never knew and kick myself in the butt thinking of all the formula checks I wasted before. I trade some formula coupons for the ones that Ai-Vy use. I traded some I found that expire in April and this lady still gave m 50% of its value in Pay pal. How awesome is that??!! When I took Ai-Vy and Ky-An in for their shot, I notice a bunch of coupons for some very specific type of Enfamil. I grabbed 2 of each and someone paid me 50% of their value for it. I wish I have grabbed more!!! That money and the rebate checks I received gives me $19 to use towards my stockpiling. That's going to take a while to spend since I can't hit that many stores to do all my deals. I have to remind myself "all in due time..all in due time."