Frugality and Philanthropy

Morning lovelies! It's been a good day so far.

I wanted to share this post with you today, because I know quite a few of you readers are grad school students, so I thought it might be relevant!

I had heard of renting college textbooks , but this wasn't the thing when I was finishing my degrees, and I'm really kind of jealous about it. Books were expensive. Annoyingly, budget-bustingly so. So when CampusBookRentals.com contacted me, I wanted to be sure you knew about them! By renting textbooks, you can save 40-90% off of bookstore prices, and they ship both ways for free. You still get to highlight in them, which I love. It's the writer/info fanatic in me, I guess. :-)

While I thought all of that was pretty cool, what sold me on sharing about this company with you was that they are big into philanthropy. For every textbook rented, they make a donation to Operation Smile. This year the donated more than 1,000 life-saving cleft lip surgeries to children in need. That's pretty cool in my book! So, if you're still in school, I hope this info proves useful.

Happy Sunday lovelies! Hope your week is off to a great start!

XOXO,
Mrs. Jones

(This post was sponsored by CampusBookRentals.com, but as always, all content and thoughts are mine!)

Frugal Friday: Small things

It was a good week for picking up some freebies!

I'm excited for a lot of these, because I'm getting ready to make a huge housewarming basket for a sweet friend buying her first home. I can't wait to spoil her!

This was my Target and Wal-Mart run one day. Everything here was free (plus tax):

I had another fun Target day when I got to use a coupon for free apple juice, and a $5 off clothing coupon, so I paid $1 for apple juice, two packs of Neutrogena face wipes and a blue tank! Love adding little things like this into my wardrobe.

I know it's not much for the week, but a ton of my shopping was non-couponing and grocery related... I did find a fabulous coupon for some Organic Girl lettuce. I've been eating salads and cooking with spinach all week!

That's all for today!
XOXO,
Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday: A week of deal-hunting...

Happy Friday lovelies!

It's been a good short week over here for the Jones family! Vacation No. 2 ended on Tuesday night, and we had a nice short work week. I still feel fairly rested, so that's always good.

Now, on to the deals for the week!

After last week's Amazon "free magazine" snafu, I was a little more careful this week. I went for the tried and true free offers from freebizmag.com I believe. I've gotten great freebies from them before. Wood magazine will be saved and gifted to my sweet dad. Working Mother will be scoured, not because I want kids anytime soon, but because those tidbits are all still useful! And I'm sure there are great recipes. I'll share them when I find them. I also signed up for Tennis magazine. Score!

I am anxiously awaiting these lovely babies in the mail. 1SaleADay has had some awesome freebies lately. I scored a lovely screwdriver set for Mr. Jones a few weeks ago.

That's all for now! Hope everyone else scored some deals this week.....

XOXO,
Mrs. Jones

A super late Frugal Friday...

What can I say? I'm behind. And I want to show you what I did and got last week!

I got some fabulous mail freebies: Downy UnStoppables, VitaFusion gummy vitamins, and coupons for two free Ecotools products!

 

Then I used up a ton of coupons at Target, scoring oodles and oodles of John Frieda Full Repair shampoo (and a conditioner), and other necessities.

This was a $5 total Target trip (yay coupons and gift card deals!) for some serious necessities.

Then this was a $3 coupon-for-fun trip:

I'm going to try to continue to get some more pens and Sharpies and the like to donate to local schools in our tornado areas. I know they'll need a lot, and each pack cost $.02, so why not, ya know?!

Have a fab day lovelies!

XOXO,
Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday: $15 goes a long way....

Oh yes it does. 

Victory!

XOXO,

Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday - Good week!

It's been a pretty darn good couponing week! And I got some great freebies on top of everything.

From CVS:

Not bad! I think I spent less than $5 on all this.

I got some fun freebies in the mail this week! I scored this freebie thanks to Hip2Save a few weeks ago and it already came in the mail! I'm saving this for a fun little "extra" gift or goodie I think. If Mr. Jones doesn't steal it already.

Not bad, huh?

I also got a few breakfast/snack bars for free from Atkins! Yay!

I snagged a free subscription to Martha Stewart Living as well, and my first issues just came. I got some great recipes that I'll have to make and share!

Happy Friday everyone. I've got tons more to share.

Back soon,

Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday: A week of couponing

This week I've done quite a bit of couponing, so I thought I might show you how I worked things each day, and how many stops/stores I hit each day. I generally do this on my lunch break if I'm doing drugstores, or I may stop at one on my way home, just depends on what my schedule is like that day - and if I need anything to stay in the fridge! :-)

Hope you enjoy! I've shared some freebies at the end!

Monday

Walgreen's

- Scunci no damage elastics (18 pack, with bonus 18 pack)

= Paid $2.82, got $2 in Register Rewards back

CVS

- Trident Vitality gum

- Revlon TopSpeed nail polish

- Revlon TopSpeed nail polish

= Paid $1.06 (used $10 coupon), got $8.99 in Extra Care Bucks back

----------

Tuesday

Walgreen's

- 240 tablet Nature Made Echinacea vitamins

- 240 tablet Nature Made Echinacea vitamins

- Tone body wash

= Paid $4.48, got $3 in Register Rewards back

(My receipt says I saved $30.69 on this trip!)

CVS

- Revlon TopSpeed nail polish

- Revlon Scented nail polish

- Revlon Scented nail polish

- Revlon Scented nail polish

- 4 single packets of Crystal Light

- 2 Green Bag Tags

= Paid $7.50, got $16 in Extra Care Bucks back

On top of the couponing fun, it was also a good week at the mailbox. I got some freebies in the mail this week, including this one, which I'm really excited to try! I got this one from a Facebook fan page for Lori Greiner nail polish. Cool!

I do love my freebies!!!! Perfect for upcoming road trips.

XOXO,
Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday: Rite Aid style

Happy Friday everyone! I'm so glad today is here!

My best deal shopping (and pretty much all I've done so far) was at Rite Aid this week, which is unusual for me. Here's what my big shopping trip looked like:

Items purchased:
- 2 Hawaiian Punch Fruit Juicy Red 32 oz. drinks
- Crest Sensitive toothpaste
- Crest Pro-Health toothpaste
- 2 Fiber One bars (clearance)
- 4  bags Ritz Bitz with cheese
- 2 Sally Hansen mini tweezers
- 2 Sally Hansen nail clippers

Subtotal: $.83
Tax: $2.10
Total: $2.93

Savings after sales and coupons: $37.53

I was pretty excited, and I think I'm going to work the Ritz Bitz and Sally Hansen deals again today, because Mr. Jones loves those for snacks, and I always lose my nail clippers and tweezers!

XOXO and Happy Friday,

Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday: Loving freebies....

So, I've been so behind!!! I've had some fabulous freebies and deals lately, but I've been a little behind on the deal-hunting because, sadly, my favorite CVS is no longer there.

Anyways, here's what I've gotten lately:

The Mail Freebies:

- Jello Temptations

- Extra gum

- Pyrex pot holder

- Tide sample

- Tide stain release sample

- Mini wheats sample

- Another free Pyrex potholder

- Free full-size Physicians Formula sample

The Shopping Deals

- Free Nivea body wash

- 3 free ketchups

- free Sally Hansen nail treatment 

Not the best week, but pretty darn good! I'll be better about posting my deals and shopping next week!

XOXO,
Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday Fun on a Saturday

Yeah, I got behind, but I have to show you all the cool stuff I picked up this week! :-) It was a great couponing week, and and I had a little more time than normal to check things out.

So here's what I got/found/picked up. Woo!

This cute makeup bag came from Cosmo, as part of a mail-in rebate. It's actually pretty darn good quality! I was excited.

Some of my favorite things from the week were:

Degree trial size deodorants that were free after a coupon at Wal-Mart....

Revlon beauty tools that were BETTER than free after a 50% off sale and $2 off coupon at Rite Aid....

Stove Top stuffing that was about $.27 each after coupons, and Physicians Formula makeup that was free after coupons! (This was at CVS)

I did take a picture of my receipt, because I thought you might like to see how I managed to save that much! I love free makeup!

You do still have to pay tax on the original subtotal of the items, so "free" is relative I guess. But it's still pretty fun! :-)

I've got lots more to show you, but I'll save that for another day, or just another post.

Anyone score any great deals this week?
XOXO and Happy weekend!
Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday: A Fun Week

Oh. My. Goodness. It was such a fun couponing week, I can't even explain it. But I can show you pictures!!!

I paired a BOGO (buy one, get one free) sale at Rite Aid with a BOGO coupon, and only paid tax ($1.80) for $44 worth of nail products!

I got a sunscreen sample in the mail:

I snagged new shampoo for under $1 at Publix!

My Target freebie after stacked coupons:

And my Walgreen's trip, where I paid $4.87 for all of this, and got a $5 Catalina back. I do believe that is called MAKING money, right? I've heard great things about this toner too, so I'm really excited to open it tonight. Plus, I was out of my favorite Almay eye makeup remover pads, so this made things even better.

I do believe that's the extent of what I have to show you from my couponing this week. I enjoyed EVERY minute of it and can't wait for next week, because a lot of new deals are coming and it seems like it will be another great (ahem, geeky) week to be a couponer!

Did anyone else score some great deals this week?

XOXO,
Mrs. Jones

Frugal Friday: Waiting on the Mail

So, it hasn't been a huge bargain hunting week. I did make out like a bandit with my grandma at Big Lots. :-) We found my favorite Rubbermaid Easy Find Lid containers for under $2. I am soooooooo excited.

Instead of crazy couponing this week, I've been scoring some fabulous freebies online, but now I have to wait for the mail!

I'm kind of excited about this:

I have been using more and more Physicians Formula makeup lately. I just like it and I can always find a good deal on it. Thursday I scored new PF powder and blush for just $6 total at CVS after stacking coupons. :-)

I did get one great freebie in the mail this week, from a Revlon giveaway.

There is more to come..... hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!!!

XOXO,

Mrs. Jones