What do you do with it all?

What do I do with all of the stuff I accumulate?  As I've said before...GIVE!!!

Here's another idea.  How about the people that come to your house almost every day.  Try making a bag for your mail deliverer, trash man, meter reader, etc?

Today I saw our mail lady walking her route.  Our mail lady seems down lately.  So, I grabbed a bag and stuffed it full of the things from my cabinet:  toothpastes, toothbrushes, Olay and Old Spice soaps, make up, dish soap, shampoos, etc.  When I walked out to hand it to her, she was amazed.  She kept asking, "Is this all for me?!  All of it?!"  She smiled a nice, huge smile and then drove away.

She felt nice.  I felt nice.

Yay for coupons!!

What do you do with all of those samples?!

You pack them up to take on vacation!!

We're heading out tomorrow for a little R&R. I dug through my sample basket and came up with all of this:


Now we have all of our necessities for a few days, but they aren't taking up lots of room in our luggage. They're also not going to leak if they spill over while traveling.

Another thing to think about is that you can take them with you on airplanes. With the new(ish) 3oz. liquid rule, samples are a great way to take the stress out of "did I pour too much into this little travel bottle?" Granted, you can put larger bottles in your carry on bag, but then you're back to worrying if they spill.

And don't forget the individuals who may be vacationing at YOUR home!! One thing I do with samples is make little baskets for guests that stay with us. If they forget something, they can simply look through the basket, and they never have to feel hesitant to ask for a necessity. Also, who doesn't like to receive a little basket of goodies?!

What do you do with yours?

(Coming tomorrow: Samples, Email Addresses, and Spam)

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What do you do with all of that overage? 7-16-2010

You buy household necessities that you don't usually get for free!

I am a bit crazy when it comes to toilet paper. I cannot stand the thought of running out of toilet paper. I know it's weird, but we'll just add that to my ever-expanding list. I can honestly say that we have never run out of toilet paper in my house.

Okay, enough of that rabbit trail. This week CVS was supposed to have Cottonelle B1G1 Free. However, they ran out. Apparently ALL CVSs ran out, so they substituted Scott instead. We are brand loyal to our toilet paper, and we were running low (read 6 rolls), so I decided to buy during this sale.

The sale is Buy One 12 roll Scott toilet paper @ $11.99, get one free. I know that I can get 24 rolls at Wal-Mart for $16.50, so this was a great deal:

• Bought 2 packages Scott Toilet Paper
• 1 Milky Way Caramel candy bar
• Used the .50/1 Milky Way coupon that printed out of the CVS machine today. (gave the candy bar to the pleasantly surprised cashier)
  
• Paid with $11 ECBs and $1.50 OOP!

Regular price: $18.82 I paid: $1.50

What do you do with all of the things you buy?

YOU GIVE THEM AWAY!!

I always have enough stuff for our family to use, but I give away a lot more than I save. I have given it to neighbors, friends, family, people who stop by asking for assistance, college students, etc, etc. My friends know that they can always stop in and "shop in my closet." I cannot tell you how good it will make you feel to give this stuff away.

For example, today my friend Adriana picked up a lady who was walking through town. The lady was walking from Spring Hill to a school on Methvin (yes, you read that right!!) to pick up her children. While talking to her, we found that she is currently living in a shelter while waiting for an opening in an apartment. Adriana's 11 year old daughter, Taylor, came home with me after meeting the lady (Toni). Taylor heard me and her mother talking about making a box for the lady. Taylor got very excited, got a box, and headed off to "shop in my closet." We ended up with this:

Included in the box was soap, shampoo, dental items, food, wipes, lip gloss, nail polish, feminine items, a first aid kit, body wash, soap for her babies, pens, etc. The items in the box would sell for about $55 at the store. But, Taylor and I were able to pull this together for her in an instant for nothing!!

The best part? Taylor made her a card. It said, "I hope that this box makes you feel happy. God loves you and is with you all of the time." Then she said to me, "When I grow up I want to do coupons like you so that I can give people boxes of things."

You see!! Give! Give! Give! You never know who you may touch or influence when you do! You know, I'd rather look at God one day and say, "I am so glad that you gave me the opportunity to share what I had" instead of "Hey God, I sure have a lot of shampoo!"

What do you do with all of that overage?

A couple of weeks ago I had a great visit to Walgreens. I MADE almost $19. Today those RRs were going to expire and there really were no great deals at Walgreens this week. So, I used those RRs to buy basic grocery items and stuff for Benjamin's birthday party. Now those things don't have to come from my grocery budget this week. Yay!! Here's what I got:

2 gallons of milk
2 dozen eggs
2 loaves of bread
2 cans of nuts (1 for bday party)
2 jars of olives
3 bottles aspirin
1 Colgate toothpaste
2 Finesse shampoos
6 10-count packages pencils
1 10-count package Papermate ink pens
5 5-count packages Papermate mechanical pencils
1 package of cookies (bday party)
1 7Up (bday party)
1 Blue Bell ice cream (bday party)
2 Pringles chips (bday party)
3 packages gum (bday party)
1 foam airplane (Yup, Benjamin was with me!)
3 Dr. Peppers (1 for the cashier, 1 for Kevin, 1 for me)

I paid .93 OOP and got $2 RR for the toothpaste. I'm still going to mail off for my Finesse rebate (and make another $1) too.

I am quite pleased with my trip.