Savings in Las Vegas

Las Vegas is filled with so much fun things that those few dollars can add up very quick! 

But during my families vacation in April we found so many ways to save money. 

First thing I did was book our room. Like I said before (here) I always look for hotels with a breakfast included. This saves on money. 

We booked the Embassy Suites. It's 2 blocks away from the Strip so this means I avoided all those resort fees which can run an additional $10-$30 per night. Yuck!!

Next thing is I ordered our Go Explorer Passes. 

This was the first time I purchased these and I am now a forever fan. I entered in the city I was wanting to purchase, in this case Las Vegas. It then pulled up all the shows, activities, restaurants, etc that I can chose from. I can chose to purchase a pass good for 3 or 5 attractions. Since my family and I were only going to be in town for a long week I chose the 3 attractions. 

But before I purchased I checked Groupons just in case. I found these passes for about $10 cheaper per person. That's an extra $60 saved. 

And to get the most bang for our buck we tried to chose the most expense attractions instead of the cheap stuff offered. 

We chose The Ultimate Variety Show that's at Planet Hollywood. Tickets are $69.99 on their website. This show is so amazing! I recommend it to everyone. 

Then we chose CSI: The Experience that's at the MGM Grand. Tickets on their website cost $28! This is really fun! Our family is really into crime fighting shows we it was awesome to be able to solve our own murder. Can you tell from my daughter's finger guns?

And last we chose Paris:The Eiffel Tower. The pass only allows daytime hours so make sure to read the fine print. We were totally fine with this. The cost for a daytime ticket is $17.

We were debating on using our last attraction for another show but my kids really wanted to go here. We homeschool and last month we learned about France so they were so excited when they seen the Eiffel Tower. Just don't look down!!!

And now what else did we do? Vegas is filled with coupons.

There's coupons in booklets that lay around everywhere. In our hotel, on the corner, at restaurants, etc. Oh my goodness! People are just handing out coupons as we walked the street.

While walking someone handed me a booklet about a show and I skimmed through it to see if I could find a coupons and Viola'; there was a 20% off coupon for the M&M store. My kids were so happy to visit here. And I was happy to save a few bucks! :)

For lunch we packed wraps, power bars, water bottles, fruit, etc. Everything we could pack to save on cash and calories.

Also in those Las Vegas visitor magazines that are in hotel. Those are my new favorite hidden treasures.

(source)

This places names all the place to:
-Golf
-See a movie
-Eat
-Gamble
-Bars
-Tours <---- and this caught my eye

Hexx Chocolate and Confexxion offers free chocolate tours and tastings! I signed up on-line on there website (HERE) and within an hour we had our appointment. I'm sure the times vary based on how busy they are but we were blessed.

 We got to tour the back room and see how all their yummies are made.
Then we were seated and given 2 trays of chocolates (1 per person) to try all their different chocolates. I now have a new #1 chocolate.

There's so much free stuff in Vegas. So much that my family and I didn't even put a dent into our bucket list. 

There's tons of street performers. It's nice to tip when they put a show on but I don't tip just because they are wearing a costume. These Hello Kitty were dancing then started dancing with my daughters. So I paid each $1. 

Cool dragon in MGM.

Hershey Store 

Looking at waterfalls.

 
Carol's Bake Shop. It's free to look but how could we pass up those sweet smells. So we paid for some cannolis.

  3D movie at the M&M store

 Checking out the M&M race car.

Flower carnival at the Wynn Hotel. 

But beyond the free stuff there's some things we paid for because we just wanted to have that memory. Like lunch at White Castle. We love those little burgers!

And Taste Around the World in the Everything Coca-Cola store. For around $20 we got these 3 trays of kid cups. (18 cups total) and got to try Cokes from all over the world. 

No one liked the Coke from Italy. 

But one thing we absolutely wanted to experience was the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. 

But these tickets have convenience fee and taxes on top of the actual ticket but thanks to one little thing my family saved $200! 

I got myself an M life card. It's free to sign up for (21+ yrs old) and there's some great unadvertised discounts. When we got to the ticket counter my husband asked if there's any discounts since the show was starting soon. The employee said only if we had an M life card. And I remember signing up a while ago but never printed it out. So we went to the M life counter and the worker printed my card out for me. When we returned back to the Tournament of Kings ticket agent she took the discount off. So we ended up savings tons of money just because of this little sapphire. 

If you've never heard of this show it's amazing. It's a full 3 course meal and a medieval show. The show is so thrilling, exciting, and loud it just pulls you into the show where you'll be screaming for your knight and banging on the tables. We left with sore throats and hurting hands.

But thanks to my M life card we were able to snag discounts here and there on drinks of soda and small upgrades from being seated first. There's so much more perks that I'm going to have to look into this more.

This is it. We came, we loved, and made more memories with our kids. We were able to go big in one of the most extravagant cities in the the world. (Probably the world!) So hope this helps you.

Walmart Greeting Cards

There's a coupon right now on coupons.com for $1 off 2 Hallmark greeting cards at Walmart with a minimum $1 purchase.

So last night while my family slept I went to my Walmart to see if I could find any hidden treasures.
I found a coupon but this was my best find.

The coupon said $1 off 2 Hallmark cards with the purchase of $1 minimum.  So this means that I had to get my total over $1 to use this coupon. I know there's 47 cent cards but then my total wouldn't be high enough to use this coupon so instead I did this deal.

1 Hallmark Card @97 cents

1 Hallmark card @47 cents 

Total $1.44 so minus the $1 coupon my oop was only 44 cents for 2 cards. I stocked up on every occasion I could think of. Birthdays, weddings, baby shower, etc. 

But what got my excited was finding this coupon too. 

$2 off 2 Hallmark cards with minimum $2 purchase. So again my total has to be over $2 to use this coupon. But I found some cards marked at $1.97. This is the deal

1 Hallmark card @ 1.97

1 Hallmark card @ 47 cents

total $2.44 so minus this coupon I will pay again only 44 cents for 2 cards!

So look at the greeting card section for these coupons. There was just a tear pad so I grabbed a few so I can go back tomorrow morning. (I only brought a few dollars)

I love when Hallmark brings out these coupons since this is when I stock up my greeting card box that I will use for the rest of the year. And it's costing me less than Hallmarks cheapest cards. 

1 Way To Always Save Big Bucks!

When I shop I walk out of every store saving anywhere between 75%-100%!!!
But I would never accomplish this task without doing this 1 thing!

It doesn't matter how many coupons I clip, how many times I check the websites, or how much I stalk the clearance; If I don't do this 1 thing my budget will get screwed up every time! 

My #1 shopping secret is PRAYER!

As I get into truck I say a prayer to my Heavenly Father. I ask him to help me find the items on my list, for my coupons to work properly, to help me find the items that my family needs or that others could use. I ask for helping finding items that cost pennies or will be free so I can either put in my stockpile or donate. 

And I testify that God answers my prayer every single time.

Last night I went to Walgreens to pick up toliet paper and paper towels. I budgeted $35 to cover the cost of everything plus tax. So while I was looking at the summer toys like water guns and chalk the employee came up to me and said that each items was ringing up 9 cents! Regularly each were 99 cents! So I grabbed a few items since I had an in-store gift card for $2. 

When I went to the register everything rang up cheaper and with God's help my total for $176 worth of items only cost me $33! 

So I was able to get the 4- 12 packs of Charmin and 2-6pack of Scott paper towels 

PLUS

4 boxes of cereal

2 spiderman alarm clocks

1 Crayola Star Wars box tin of crayons

1 Easter "Rejoice" Cross

1 large perfume that I'll use for Mother's Day

59 summer toys

(water guns, chalk, water balloons, parachute men, helicopters, flying disc, jacks, bouncy balls, etc)

So I was able to spend less and get more and this only happens when I prayed for God's help. 

And to tell you there are times when I forget to prayer and when I shop this is when I will miss or forget a coupon, something comes up the wrong price and I don't catch it, my coupons will beep at the register, or I grab the wrong item for my ibotta, etc. Then I have double the work fixing the mistake so I make sure I pray every time. 

Give it a try. Heavenly Father will not let you down. 

After Easter Clearance

After holidays are the best days to shop. And the longer you wait the cheaper items will be. 

A week after Easter my Target had non-food items at 90% off. And the food was 70% off. This is as low as the prices will go so it's stock up time. 

Of course I picked up a few candies to munch on but when I look through the holiday clearance I'm looking for 2 things:

1). Items I can use next holiday. In this case I'm looking at those adorable egg wreaths, bunny decor, dye kits, and anything I can use next year. It's cheaper now than next Easter when I'll have to pay full price. So I snagged a cute Happy Eastet banner for 30 cents, an egg stencil kit for 19 cents, and dye kit for 9 cents! 

2) Items I can use all year long. And these are my favorite finds. The toys, gift wraps, decor, craft things that have no hint of Easter but are still 90% off. 

And this is what I found. I found tons of Dr.Seuss items. All originally $1 that are now 10 cents! 

So when I seen all those bags and knick knacks I thought of my daughters summer birthday party. It will now be themed Dr.Seuss. So I grabbed tote bags to act as goodie bags. Posters to act as table decor. And after her party I will hang up in her room. I grabbed the rulers, erasers, stickers, bookmarkers, and keychains will act as goodie bag fillers. My daughter is so excited to have a Seuss birthday party. 

In addition to the Seuss items I picked up twine, felt flower kits, ninja turtle sticker books, candy gum tubs, chalk paint, and gift tags that all don't show a hint tht they were Easter clearance. All prices between 10 cents and 30 cents. 

So for my little Target adventure I snagged birthday items, stock pile candies, crafts, toys, and candies all for around $5! That's a huge savings!

So look around and see what your stores have. Think outside the box on ways to use those Easter clearances. Happy Savings!

Save 90% at Target

Sale cycles change out.

1 week it's groceries. 

Another week it's electronics. 

Another week it might be baby items.

Then clothes. 

Etc.

So when I grocery shop I'm buying for 6 weeks. Besides my normal weekly trip to get perishable foods like fruit,milk,eggs, cheese, etc. When I grocery shop I know that sale items will come back every 6 weeks. About every 4-6 weeks certain items will be back on sale. So I stock up on those items to last me until that next sale. 

This week Target had a crazy amazing sale. Buy $50 worth of food and get $10 gift card back automatic. So automatically I'm getting $10 off my order. And to lower that price down more I added coupons, ibotta, and cartwheel to my items. 

I looked on those coupon sites I mentioned before and seen what items I could get for free with coupons. I added those items to my shopping list of course. 

So my goal was to get my total to be at $50. Get my $10 gift card. Then hand over my coupons to get my total lower. So those free items would be key to dropping my amount to near zero. 

I repeated this process 5 times so I can maximize my savings. On some transactions actually walked away not paying a thing. 

Here's what I did: 

2 hours, 5 transactions, and close to 100 coupons later. I walked out of Target like I owned the place! Retail $230! Sales,coupons, gift cards,red card, cartwheel,ibotta= Out of pocket $21! 

My phone died while in the checkout lane so once I charged it I went back and they gave me the money back.

#1 

3 Pepperidge milano cookies @2.69 with cw

1 pataks sauce 2.06 -75q

2 King's Hawaiian rolls @1.14 with cw and $1/2 q

1 market pantry french bread 1.59-cw-50q

1 lipton green tea 2.19- cw- 40centq-$1 target q

1 5lb halo oranges 5.99-50cent q

2 evol sandwiches 1.99-$1q each

3 Starbucks viva coffees 6.39 each - (3) $2.25 q when you buy pepperidge cookies and starbucks 

2 rice krispies 2.75

1 jet puff marshmallow FREE with rice krispie purchase

6 Pantene curl gels 3.99- several different coupons

total 52.69 - a gift card from last week= $25.06 oop

gained $10 gift for food, $5 gc for starbucks, 2x $5 gc for pantene, $1 ibotta, $2.69 for cartwheel malfunction, $5 starbucks promo gift card

#2

3 glade aerols 1.02- 55 cent q each

2 popchips, crazy hot flavor. $2 each- cw- $1/2 q

3 Pepperidge milano to-go cookies $1-$1 q each

1 oceanspray juice 1.68-cw

2 kings hawaiian rolls 1.14-cw- $1/2q

market pantry rolls 1.19-cw-50cent q

bear naked granola-cacao and cashew 3.99-cw

4 green giant veggies $1e- $1/2q

1 evol sanwich 1.99-1q

2 nestle cookie dough 2/$4- 50 cent q- 55 cent peelie-ibotta

3 pillsbury cresent rolls 3/$5

1 pillsbury pie crust 2.50 -cw- (2) $1/2q

2 mp eggs .99-cw

3 dannon oikos 1.14- $1/3q-ibotta

2 soft soaps 3.02-$1q each

1 quattro razer 5.69-$4q

4 hotpocks $2=$8- (2) $1.25 q catalinas- $1/4 target q -cw

2 country crock butter 2.14- (2) 70 cent q- 50 cent off 2 target q

1 medal flour FREE with country crock purchase

4 cerave lotion/ointments 3.59 b3g1free-(4) $3

total 38.87-used giftcards from transaction #1= paid 8.34

got back $10 gc for food, $5 gc for personal care, $4.14 for cw malfunction, $1ibotta.

#3 

2 soft soaps 3.02- $1q each

4 tresemme gels 3.89- (2)$3/2q

total 21.60 minus coupons $13.60.used gc from #2 to pay so free. 

Got back 1 $5 gift card for person care, $5 for tresemme. 

#4

2 softsoaps 3.02-$1q each

4 tresemme gels 3.89- (2) $3/2q

total 21.60 minus coupons = 13.60. used gc from #3 to pay. oop 3.54. got back $5 gc for personal care. $5 gc for tresemme.

#5

1 extra gum 99 cents-cw

1 mp fruit snack $1-cw (both these items were added on since my total wasn't at $50 yet)

2 simply balance berry juce 3.39-cw- (2)75cent q for juice

3 justin almond butter packets 1.17 each

1 smuckers jelly 1.98

1 MP PB 2.04-cw

2 best foods mayo-cw-$1q each

4 MP tomato sauce 39 cents each -cw

2 udi's steak,rice burritos 2.99-cw-$1q each

3 milks 1.99-cw

2 mp dozen eggs 99 cents-cw -$4 off $20 purchase of Market pantry, archer farms, or simply balance,

1 mp large eggs 2.99- Free eggs coupon up to $2.49 with purchase of 2 best foods mayos tear pad

1 dannon smoothies-cw-$1q

1 dannon light and fit 3.54-cw

Used gifts from #4. oop $30.98. 

earned $10 gc for food. $3ibotta, $13.64 for cartwheel malfunction and missed coupons <---dont shop with 4 kids.

plus I got my bonus from ibotta for making the march madness so that's an extra $3 in my account. So doing the exact math I believe it was a total of $262.91. then out of pocket $21 since I have a couple of gifts left and my Ibotta app.

So these deals too some time to put together but SO worth it! Hope this helps you inspired to go out and cut those coupons and save those big bucks!

Gift Closets

Having a gift closet is the best investment to have in my home.

What is a Gift Closet?

It's a few shelves in my home where I have tons of gifts on stand-by for birthday parties, Christmas, weddings, anniversaries, baby shower, etc. Anything that involves gift giving.
Through out the year I will find deals that are so cheap that I can't pass them up. So I'll stock up on a few items and put them away for later. So when the time comes for my kids going to a birthday party I don't have to rush to Target and dish out $20. I just unlock my closet and let them pick something from there.

So here's a few things I've picked up for my closet.

Minion Tiny Chef @ Toys R Us.
Regular price $17.98. Marked down to 98 cents!

Doc McStuffin Puzzle bag @ Toys R Us. 

Regular price $9.99. Marked down to 98 cents!

Darn Yarn Infinity Scarf Kit @ Target.
Regular $14.99. Marked down $4.48!

Crayola Chalks @ Toys R Us.

Regular $2.99. Marked down to 48 cents. Plus they were included on a promo where I BOGO 40%. So one set was 48 cents and the other 28 cents. 

Melissa and Doug: My First sidewalk chalk set @ Toys R Us.
Regular $3.99. Marked down 98 cents!

 It's My Biz: Bead Boutique @ Toys R Us.
Regular $24.99. Marked down $4.90!

So if I would have gone to these stores and paid retail price I would have spent $77.92! Yikes!

But since I'm a savvy shopper I only spent $13.08! And I know there's a few birthdays coming up soon so I'll be ready and stocked up. 

Target Game Sale

Sales like this is the time I stock up for my gift closet and add a new game for my family.

Target has a sale Buy 2 board games Get 1 Free!

For my deal above I price matched the Hedbanz games with Target.com. In store the price was $20.99. Target.com it was $11.99!

Rummikub was regular $19.99. I price matched with Amazon for $9.74.

2 Hedbanz @11.99

1 rummikub @9.74

With the buy2 get 1 free sale Rummikub was free.
 My total was $23.98.

(Then minus a coupon from coupons.com )

-$8 off 2 Hedbanz games

it made my total $15.98! 

I price matched the Rummikub game so I could use the coupon since I couldn't use the coupon on a free item. I could have picked any game under $11.99 but most the games at my Target were out of stock or games we already have. 

My total out of pocket was only a few dollars since I had gift cards but $15.98 is still a great price since just one of these games cost more than that. So now I have two games for my family and 1 for my gift closet.

The Habit and Chick-Fil-A

So many resturants have "clubs" that anyone can join. Just sign up on-line with your name, birthday   ( so you can get your free birthday surprise) and email.

I did this with The Habit and joined their Char Club. 

When I signed up I got an email with a coupon for a Free Char Burger! No purchase needed. All I had to do was walk in and show the cashier the email. 

I did this and snagged myself a $3.15 burger for Free! Yummy! 

I also signed up for Chil-fil-a calendar card. At the beginning of the year Chik-A-Fila sell calendars that include a card where I can get 1 free item each month. A friend of mine was selling these calendars a for her son's baseball  team so we paid $10 for the calendar. But in the 3 months of the year so far it's paid for itself. This month I got a large coke! Value of $2.15! 

A small tip is to ask for no ice so my entire cup is filled with soda. I hate how I'll take 5 sips and my drink is then empty. All the sodas are cold already from being in the machine so I end up with more pop.

To use my card I just drive up and ask for calendar deal. The cashier swipes my card and I go about my day. 

So today's lunch was Free!! 

Instagram

I started an Instagram account so look me up @ couponer_thankfulsavings

Follow all my money saving deals! 

22 Baby items for $10

Baby showers can be overwhelming. To look at a registry and find something that is within my budget can be hard. So I use my brain and coupons and think outside the box. 

I remember being a first time mom.When I registered for him I asked for everything I could think of but forgot to ask for things that I would need when he grew older than 3 months. So I had tons of clothes from Newborn- 3 months. I had newborn diapers, wipes, bottles, newborn pacifiers, etc. You get the point :) So when I get together my baby shower gifts I try to think further than 3 months. I get the things that parents might not think of right now but will be thankful for later on. 

I've been giving these type of gifts for years now and each time I get thanked over and over again. So in my book they have been a big hit!

This week my friend from high school (thanks to Facebook) is having a baby with her wife. They are having a little boy and I love shopping for baby showers. For 2 reason.....

1st. I get an excuse to shop in the baby section. My baby is 6 years old. 

2nd. I love going to baby showers. The look of bliss that parents have on their face is priceless. 

So here's what I'm giving my friend with the breakdown:

First my coupon and Ibotta offers. 

Seventh Generation diapers, size 2. These diapers were on sale at Target.

$8.99 -$4 coupon I got from Target's baby registry = $4.99 then submitted the $2.25 Ibotta offer that was for Any brand diapers and for this size of Seventh Generation diapers. 

Out of Pocket $2.74! 

Next bottles from Walgreens. $6.79 each - $2 coupon from coupons.com - $2 walgreens coupon from their March booklet= $2.79 then I submitted for the $3 Ibotta. So making them FREE! 

My ibotta gave me the bottle offer again so I went back to Walgreens and got another bottle for free.

Free's the best price for me!

Boudreaux's Butt Paste at Target. $4.39 - $2 coupon= $2.39 then submitted the $1.50 Ibotta making each one 89 cents!

My Ibotta gave me the deal again so I went back to Target and grabbed another butt paste. I only repeat deals if Ibotta gave me the offer again. Remember I'm all about saving money so $2.39 is still too much for me.

Boudreaux's Rash Preventor at Target $4.39 - $3 coupon = $1.39 then sumbitted $1.50 Ibotta offer so this was FREE!!

Then the sippy cups I picked up from Walgreens. Each was $5.49 - $2 coupon from coupons.com - $2 coupon from Walgreens monthly coupon booklet = $1.49 each. Then submitted for the $2 Ibotta making each sippy coupon FREE!! 

Here's all my Ibotta and coupon deals. And that's not all!

Next my Smith's Food and Drug was having an amazing sale so I picked up a few things. 

1 Simply Truth baby wipes. Normally $3. On sale $1.79 - $1 digital coupon that I uploaded onto my card from HERE so final cost 79 cents

1 Beech Nut jar of baby food $1 each but rang up 50 cents each so it must have been an unmarked sale item. Then minus a Buy One Get One Free coupon from coupons.com making 2 jars for 50 cents!

2 Plum baby food pouches. These were marked down to 50 cents each. Of course I checked the date to see if they were expired but they are good until next year. So this will give their baby boy plenty of time to eat these. So I had a coupon for Buy One Get One Free from coupons.com so 2 pouches for 50 cents!

My store had a close out price on the big bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo. Normally these were $5.69 but were on a close out for $2.56. I also had a $1.50 coupon off any Johnson & Johnson item from coupons.com making these big bottles only $1.06 each!!

My last item were these Lil' Bits cereal with blueberry. Normally $3.50 on sale for $1.50 plus I had $1 any Gerber cereal from coupons.com so each cereal was 50 cents! 

So for the 22 items I would have paid $85.10. But with coupon and Ibotta I only paid $11.74. But to make this deal even better  Ibotta had a bonus where if I redeem the Boudreaux more than once I got an extra $1. That bringing my total out of pocket to 

$10.74!!!
Great baby shower gift and totally within my budget. Now to find a box big enough for all this! :)