My name is Diva Taunia. I like to say that I'm a low-maintenance Diva: professional vocalist without the major attitude (well, at least most of the time). I was formerly a mordibly obese woman, weighing in at my heaviest at 311 lbs. I had gastric bypass surgery on 3/25/08, and have lost almost 170 lbs off of my 5'7" frame. Now the hard part: maintenance...
Rob and I went into CVS with a handful of coupons, a list, and our Extra Care Card. We had a basketful of loot, and coupons for just about everything. When we got up to the register, I said to the cashier, "I've got a ton of coupons too," and then she and I got into a discussion about how clipping coupons rocks and everyone's doing it now, and all three of us were curious to see how I did.
TOTAL BILL BEFORE COUPONS: $80.00 and some change TOTAL BILL AFTER COUPONS: $40.00 SAVED: $40.00 - cut my total IN HALF
(PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE CANDY AND HAIRCOLOR ON THE LEFT.)
Here's what we got:
1. Two bags of CVS nuts (free!) 2. 2 Boxes of Mike and Ikes, and one Symphony Bar 3. Loreal Excellence Haircolor 4. Two Revlon Lipsticks (free!) 5. Bic Razors (free!) 6. Kotex Tampons 7. Kotex Pads 8. CVS Tampons (ok, clearly I'm good in that department for a while) 9. Two large bottles of mouthwash 10. Noxema Face Wash 11. Set of Goody hair combs 12. Two boxes of wet wipes
SCROLL BELOW THE VIDEO FOR WRITTEN BLOG ENTRY AND INFORMATION! :)
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Addiction transfer is one of the things that gastric bypass patients often have to deal with. I remember my doctors warning me about this, and then rattling off a list of things that I could transfer my compulsive eating behaviors to: alcohol (nope), drugs (nope - unless Ambien and sleeping well for the first time in a long time counts), and more. But then, she said it: SHOPPING. Uh, yeah, considering I already have a problem with that. And believe me, that IS my transfer, because there are few things that I love as much as shopping. And shoes. And dresses. And...
Rob often has to keep me in line, but he doesn't harp on me too much because he knows that as much as I shop, I save. I never buy anything unless it's on sale (and usually, marked down on clearance) and I have an uncanny knack for finding really adorable and trendy items for practically nothing. I've also found ways to save money on almost any store or restaurant that we go to. Basically, if we leave the house for anything, we have a coupon in-hand for it.
While Rob is great about sharing the house-cleaning and shopping responsibilities with me, he LOATHES grocery shopping. I, on the other hand, LOVE it. It's two of my favorite things in one: shopping and food. If I can't eat food, I can look at it and buy it. HUZZAH!
But now I've got another addiction transfer issue, and this is a good one. My compulsive behavior has now shifted to saving us boatloads of cash, and hopefully I can pass these behaviors onto you, my good peeps. Here's how I do it:
ONLINE SHOPPING: I sign up for the mailing lists for my favorite online places (sephora.com, newport-news.com, kiehls.com, etc), and I get big-discounts via email. They usually send them when there's already a sale running, and then you can either get huge discounts or free products. If you don't want your regular email bombarded with "spammy" type mail, just create a new email address specifically for these notifications. (I recommend gmail, because it has the best search and archive features around!)
The other thing I do is look for "coupon codes" or "promo codes" online. For instance, when I go to sephora.com to buy some makeup, I google "sephora coupon code." I'll usually find great ones at a site like retailmenot.com, and I'm able to use multiple codes at once - free shipping, free trial item, discount, and then get the normal three free samples for sephora on top of it.
You can find a coupon code for ANYTHING. Just google that stuff, yo!
GROCERY COUPONS: There are a gazillion coupon sites out there (I put a good list over on the left side nav bar), and you can print out coupons to use at the store. I shop at Shaw's for groceries, and here's how I saved $43.00* this week on my groceries:
1) I go to the Shaw's website and check out their weekly flyer AND their "print coupons" section. Shaws always has weekly store-coupon deals, and they also honor online printed coupons. They also DOUBLE manufacturer coupons (up to .99). What I do is get the Sunday paper, which almost always carries the Smart Source coupon flyer -and- the Red Plum coupon flyer. These two flyers have the manufacturer coupons, which can be doubled at Shaws.
After I go through those, I go online to sites like coupons.com and couponloop.com and print out online coupons that can often be used in combination with the manufacturer coupons (check the coupon small print to be sure - but often, the cashiers will just ring them through regardless).
At the store itself, there's often "manager sales" which have coupons right on the product that you can remove and use directly, and there's also kiosks throughout the store that will print out coupons on particular products.
Almost all grocery stores offer similar coupon programs. :) And just so you know, using coupons works out GREAT for grocery stores because they get paid the value of the coupon, plus up to .08 or so on each coupon redeemed. They MAKE money by shoppers redeeming coupons. Win-win!
PHARMACY AND DRUG-STORE COUPONS: One of my favorite coupon blogs - Miss Thrifty's Thrifty Coupon Deals - has a perfect example of how to save money with your pharmacy card and coupons. I go to CVS often, so she has great ideas in this entry on how to save money there. You can use manufacturer coupons, CVS extra bucks, and in-store kiosks to save a ton o' money.
For example, look what I have:
-Extra Care Bucks from the card -$1 off any Revlon Cosmetics product (clipped from the Smart Source flyer in the paper) -CVS has Revlon Lipstick as Buy One Get One Free (B1G1)
That means, I get one free lipstick PLUS $1.00 off the second tube. Awesome, especially for a makeup-whore like me.
Most pharmacies send out flyers and coupons in the mail and in the papers, and also accept manufacturer and online coupons. I keep my eye out on my coupon blogs for good deals too!
LOCAL RESTAURANTS AND FUN PLACES: You know those Valupak's and local paper things that come in the mail? I used to always just toss those in the recylcing without even looking. Then one day I decided to take a look and HOLY CRAP! You can find some seriously good deals in there! I clip those and keep them in a folder by the door that Rob and I can check before we go out anywhere. There's some great deals for local restaurants, car service centers, etc.
Also, anytime we go ANYWHERE, I check online to see if there's a printable coupon (google it, baby!) we can take, and there almost ALWAY is. For example, we're taking the kids to Chuckie Cheese on Friday for Brittany's birthday. I googled it, and found that the Chuck E Cheese website has coupons right on the site that you can print. We'll save $30 on Friday...yeehaw! (Although I sometimes go a little crazy there. But I do love Skeeball.)
HOW TO FIND/GOOGLE THINGS: First, I did a little work for you. If you look over on the left nav bar and scroll down, I put a list of site links for you to easily reference. Hope those help!
Next, these are great phrases to google:
-printable coupons -online coupon code -online promo code -grocery coupons -specific store coupons (ex: printable KHOLS coupon) * DOES IT ADD UP? YES! Rob and I did the math yesterday. I saved $43.00 at my grocery shopping trip. We grocery shop every two weeks. $43.00 X 26 weeks = $1118.00 savings per year (on average).
In addition to that, Shaws also rewards us with gas discounts when we shop. We saved .30 per gallon with our last shopping trip. That means, with our 17 gallon gas tank, we saved $5.10 when we filled up. We fill up about once a week. $5.01 X 52 weeks = $265.20 per year in savings (on average).
Total savings from clipping coupons and shopping at Shaws? $1383.20 on average per year. That's enough to take a trip somewhere, people!
UPROMISE.COM: Why not invest some of those savings into education? I have two step-kids and a neice that I want to put money away for college. Upromise hooks up my Shaw's card, my CVS card, my credit and debit cards, and other store cards with my account. When I spend money at these stores, I earn money that gets deposited into their accounts. I can also have my friends and families have their spending linked to the account too. Online and in-store shopping, eating out, etc counts. It's a great way to invest some extra money into their education, and every little bit counts!
THE END: Wowza, this was a long entry! Hopefully some of this info will be helpful. Like I said, I'm a complete newbie at this, and there are some serious professional-couponers out there that would put me to shame! The great thing is, you can find a discount or coupon for ANYTHING out there. I just store all of my stuff in a little plastic binder and make lists when I go to the store. It takes a little planning and work at first, but it definitely pays off. Happy shopping! :)
Learning to Serve: How to Teach Character in Test-Driven Schools President Obama ignited enthusiasm for folks to partake in service for the common good. Schools are abuzz with creative lesson plans focusing on civic education, character, and ethics. But how can teachers fit this in? http://www.associatedcontent.com
How awesome is this?!? Yvonne and Craig from the WLS Channel featured me in today's newsletter and news segment - yay! First is a snipped from the newsletter:
"Your Backstage Pass"
Diva Taunia is featured on WLS on WWW.
Taunia Soderquist is a talented jazz vocalist, music teacher, and active member of the WLS community. She underwent gastric bypass surgery in March 2008 and documents her journey via video in her incredibly amusing blog, Diva Taunia's Backstage Pass. Get a sneak peek at the goodies on her site from our friend Yvonne McCarthy during this week's segment of WLS on the World Wide Web. And check out some of Taunia's tunes here!
And here's the news segment, with the lovely Yvonne reporting/hosting. The segment about me starts around 2:09:
For anyone interested in knowing more about weight loss surgery, you have to check out The WLS Channel (www.wlschannel.com). Such a well-done and informative site, run by an amazing group of folks. Go! Go check them out! :)
Learning to Serve: How to Teach Character in Test-Driven Schools
