Chic Cents

Our Beef with Beef (at Walmart)

ChicCents — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:08:11 +0000

Our local grocery stores haven’t had a special on ground beef in ages. With football season in full swing, I’ve used up all of my stores of ground beef and my husband is still craving chili. (And no, a vegetarian chili just isn’t the same as far as he’s concerned). So, I’ve been watching prices at Jewel and Dominicks. Nothing below $2.99 a pound for 80/20 ground beef. I tried Trader Joes and bought two pounds out of desperation at $2.49 a pound.

Finally, this weekend, I decided to go to a Walmart super center and was APPALLED to find out that its prices were higher for ground beef than my local Jewel and Dominicks and it wasn’t until I got to the 5 pound tube that it was $2.99 a pound. That’s still 50 cents more than at Trader Joes and I had to buy it in bulk.

The moral of my story – never assume that something is cheaper at stores like Walmart.

Pampers Points – 330 FREE Rewards Points

ChicCents — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 01:01:37 +0000

After writing Wednesday’s entry on how to get free points for the Huggies rewards program, I realized that I hadn’t posted all of the free Pampers codes that I found when I started the Pampers rewards program this summer. First, just by joining the Pampers Gifts to Grow program, you get 100 points. Then, I searched the web for all of the free codes that I could find. I didn’t find a site with all of these codes in one place, so I thought this list would be handy. I believe these codes are still current.

Here are the codes to earn 330 free points. Happy Point Collecting!

GTGREWARDS4MOMS

WELCOMEGTGPTS10

PUNTOSPARAMI123

CAREFORNEWBORNS

PAMPERSGTG10PTS

GTGCOUPONPOINTS

10PTSFREECODE4U

CONGRATS2NEWMOM

PAMPERS4MOMSOND

GTGWELCOME10PTS

2BEGINEARNING50

GIFTSTOGROW4MOM

WELCOME2PAMPERS

JOINNOW4REWARDS

PAMPERS4MOMJFM1

WELCOME2VILLAGE

GETSTARTEDNOW10

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

ChicCents — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:49:35 +0000

This past weekend our family performed a sacred annual rite of the holidays – selecting our Christmas Tree. As kids, we would all pile in the car and drive to our tailor who had an interesting side business of selling Christmas Trees and spend what seemed like hours debating the relative merits of Frasier Firs, Blue Spruces, Douglas Firs and Scotch Pines. After decades of debate and experimentation, my parents, sisters and I decided that the fragrant Fraser Fir was our favorite Christmas Tree.

This Christmas season, my husband is working out-of-town and my baby really hasn’t indicated a strong preference for one evergreen over another, so I decided that we didn’t need to make an event out of selecting our tree. Imagine my delight at finding out that Costco is selling Frasier Firs right now! For $29.99, you can buy a 7-8 foot tall Frasier Fir! That’s an incredible deal, especially in big cities. I’ve had to pay $75 in the past for a Frasier Fir of that height.

The great deal comes with a couple of drawbacks. Costco doesn’t saw off the bottom of the tree and you’ll have to get the tree in or on your car by yourself. Plus, there is no selection of trees. Costco (at least our local Costco) only sells one type of tree – just Frasier Firs and just between seven and eight feet tall. However, if that is what you’re looking for, you’re in luck. So, if your Tannenbaum of choice is a Frasier Fir, take your sleigh to Costco.

Huggies Rewards Codes – 20 Points Free

ChicCents — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:40:42 +0000

Any mom will tell you that diapers are expensive. I like to collect the rewards to get something back. One of the most important strategies is to pick one brand and stick with it so that you can maximize your points. Personally, chiccents prefers the Pampers rewards program because you can earn spa certificates (ahhhh…..). However, Pampers aren’t sold at our local club warehouse, so we’ve switched to collecting Huggies rewards. Here are some of the free codes that we found on the internet that anyone can use.

CCTJZ GPNNM JBPGB

BKJBP WGSZR PNPGB

BKZTG QNZWR TWPGB

BKZRQ KHCFK QWPGB

Affordable Halloween Costumes

ChicCents — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:17:31 +0000

If you’re not crafty, and I’m not, Halloween costumes can be expensive. A quick look at a few department store websites and online made me realize it is really easy to spend $60 on a baby’s costume. There was no chance that we were going to spend that much – we set a $30 limit on our daughter’s costume. We found great options on eBay.com and also at Marshall’s and TJ Maxx. We decided on a super cute bunny costume for $19.95 at eBay. Hippity-Hop!

This Old Couch

ChicCents — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:27:57 +0000

We’re living for free (yippee!) in my parents’ apartment that is on the market. Fortunately for us, when my parents moved out, they left some great furniture for us and some could be great furniture. We’ve “inherited” a couch that is older than we are, but it is an excellent piece of furniture and super comfy. The only problem is that the fabric is, well, um, really dated and pretty faded in spots. It suits us just fine right now as we haven’t found a place to live permanently. However, the realtor took one look at it and started talking about the importance of staging in this real estate market.

Should it stay or should it go? The couch is of a terrific quality and has tremendous sentimental value. Unfortunately, the cost to recover it is over $1,000. We could buy an okay couch at Ikea or Macy’s for a few hundred dollars, so it doesn’t make much sense to reupholster it. Nor could we use a standard slip cover because it is an odd size and has 3 back and 3 bottom cushions. Enter a chiccents solution – find someone to do a custom slip cover. You can find companies who will make custom couch slip covers for less than 300 dollars. Plus, they come out to your home with fabric samples. Super easy and a great solution!

Three we found in Chicago are: www.slipcoverplus.com, www.acoverupholstery.com and www.slipcoversource.com

One Site Shopping – Website Alert

ChicCents — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 12:28:26 +0000

It’s so easy to be a bargain shopper with www.fatwallet.com. It features three great savings tools on a single site. It has a price comparison search, a coupon finder and cash back incentive. Plus, it offers these savings tools in every imaginable category – from travel to tots! Now, that’s FAT!

Secrets to Cheap Baby Formula

ChicCents — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:20:35 +0000

Baby formula is so expensive that one of my friends recently dubbed it ‘baby gold’. Obviously, the cheapest way to feed your baby is breastfeeding, but sometimes that just isn’t an option. Here are some tips for saving money on formula.

Your first stop should be to your pediatrician’s office. Be sure to check with your pediatrician to make sure your child doesn’t need a specific type of formula. Once our pediatrician gave us the all clear, we buy whatever kind is on sale with her blessing. Also, feel free to ask for free samples of formula. Pediatricians get tons of free formula samples and are usually happy to give them out.

Next, check out the company websites to look for coupons – I’ve often found $5 coupons this way. Third, only buy formula when it is on sale. Sounds obvious, but you need to figure out how much you need a week so that you don’t run out and have to pay full price. Also, check newspaper and coupon websites for more savings. Finally, check the coupons that print when you check out. I often get a $5 or $7 coupon for a different brand of formula when I check out. This week I got a $13 coupon! That savings will buy a lot of diapers.

Hope these tips help! Please add any tips that you have for saving money on formula.

Finding Free Kid Activities

ChicCents — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 15:26:18 +0000

If you’re like many women I know, one of the hardest parts of raising your kids is keeping them entertained without blowing your budget. Some women pay for their kids to go to all kinds of classes as young as six months old and the activities only increase once kids become toddlers. However, if you know where to look, you can find great options that are offered for free or for nearly free, especially if you live in the city. One way to find these great free activities is to join an online meeting group for moms in your area. www.Meetup.com is a great resource.

When we moved to chicago, I found a bunch of new mom groups in my neighborhood. The organizers are great and have helped me find tons of free activities in addition to creating outings with other moms. Like music mornings for toddlers on Wednesday and Thursday at Whole Foods, story time at Land of Nod, trowels for tots at the nature museum and other fun events.

For Chicagoans, www.chicagokids.com is a fantastic resource. You can search by event type, search by date and select only free events and/or narrow by neighborhoods. This weekend, we’re going to a free Spanish wiggleworms music event and a $5 suggested donation event that has inflatable jumping castles, face painting, magic shows, balloons, petting zoo, pony rides and all kinds of great stuff for kids. Next weekend, I found a free activity with a petting zoo, and free pumpkin decorating.

Back-to-School is Less Taxing with Tax Free Shopping!

ChicCents — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:24:09 +0000

That’s right ladies and gentlemen! This coming weekend is a tax-free shopping extravaganza for people living in eleven lucky states: Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Clothing, school supplies and in some states even computers may be tax free weekend. Check out this link for details on the dates and exemptions http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/sales_holiday.html.

Five other states offer tax-free back to school shopping later this month: Connecticut(August 21-27); Florida (August 12-14); Maryland (August 14-20); Massachusetts (August 13-14); and, Texas (August 19-20).

For those of you in Mississippi, this post will find you too late. Your tax-free weekend was the last weekend in July. So put a reminder in your outlook calendar for next year so you don’t miss it.