Get 30% Off + Free Shipping (No Minimum Order) Shop the CVS.com Labor Day Sale! @cvspharmacy

I love it when CVS (or any online store for that matter) offers free shipping on any order! Because I'm an online shopper, almost exclusively, promotions like this help my bottom line (budget) and my schedule (convenience of getting items delivered versus making a trip to the store).

Save 30% Off most items on cvs.com and as an added bonus get Free Shipping (No Minimum Order requirement) when using online promo code: 30FREESHIP [expires 11:59p ET on 01-Sep-18]. This is my kind of Labor Day Sale!

My #Tester Philosophy #AlphaTester #TryB4UBuy #GotItFree #Couponer

I'm a curious sort. I enjoy trying news things and while I may not go out of my way to grab the "new-new" merely to say I've tried it, I do tend to be aware of new products and consumer trends --- so if I find a good deal that allows me to try something new or updated for free (or very cheap) then all the better.

A lot of new products and services don't rate a mention unless it's in complaint, but when you find something wonderful, you've got to share the information. We're all searching for things that work as they should (and we hope to be warned off when they don't).

I guess you could say I'm an adventurous consumer and an early adopter, but I will call companies out when they drop the ball. This is what makes me great at Quality Assurance and highly proficient as a tester/reviewer. I also like to break things to see how they work, then piece them together again.

The #SundayFunday: #Recap and #Unwind #Keurig #Coffee #VeggettiPro #Spiralizer #Zoodles #Drinkwell

Sunday is one of my favorite days, the true weekend, I use this day to catchup and reflect on the week past. Pup and I head out for a leisurely constitutional to kick things off and then I make coffee and turn on the morning news programs --- I regularly watch CBS News Sunday Morning with Jane Psuley at 9:00a, but otherwise will flip channels between the different shows to find stories of interest --- when we return.

I might read a few magazines, do a little browsing online (often following up on news bits mentioned on the morning broadcasts), work in my garden (seasonally) and/or watch a movie or two. It's a day of rest, where I try NOT to set an agenda, but enjoy What Dreams May Come whenever they happen to arrive. (Sometimes I do work on a Sunday, but unlike Saturday, I aim for this to be the exception, rather than the rule.)

Spring Break is ending, which means my little niece is headed back home to prepare for school restarting. So we should have peace and quiet to contemplate and wallow. What's that sound? No thing. Not a creature is stirring --- exactly how we like it!

After a relaxing morning, we plan to play around with our new toys later today. The furbabies' Drinkwell® Multi Tier Pet Water Fountain arrived via post yesterday; while I've got my Veggetti Pro Vegetable Spiral Cutter and a Nifty Home Products K-Cup Storage Drawer for my Keurig 2.0. (As I don't generally buy the prefab K-Cups as a rule, preferring to use a refillable K-Cup filter --- less waste and I can grind my own coffee beans fresh --- I figure I can store other coffee ritual paraphernalia in the drawer, which also acts as an elevated stand for the Keurig brewing machine.)

I got the storage drawer for free at Sears using SYWR points and I only paid $3.77 OOP for the Veggetti Pro at Sears after deducting SYWR points. The pet water fountain is a reward (freebie) available through the Purina Catchow Perks program for which I redeemed 275,000 points that I'd earned over the last year or so. (It states to allow 4-6 weeks for Catchow Perks rewards to arrive in the order confirmation email I received and yesterday marked a few days shy of "4 weeks" from the date of my order.)

Perhaps, we'll make zoodles for dinner....

#Alpharetta #Shopping Trip #Babysitting #AmericanGirl #PaneraBread #Gamestop #Deals

My sister, our niece and I spent most of the afternoon (from about 1:30p - 6:30p) roaming around Alpharetta and then made stops in Brookhaven and Buckhead. We did go to the American Girl Store at Northpoint Mall. It was cute (and unsurprisingly crowded). My niece wanted everything, of course. Meanwhile, I could only laugh at the prices they charge for mass produced plastic doll furniture.

I remember when American Girl was introduced some 31 odd years ago by the Pleasant Company and while I thought it was very expensive even then as a kid, at least the furniture was (mostly) made of real wood. The original items showed craftsmanship and attention to detail. They were things worthy of "childhood desires." The majority of the "modern" items that I saw just looked cheap and cheesy, in my opinion. A sign of the (Mattel) times, I guess. But little girls --- and some adult collectors --- are still enthralled and snap up any brand introduction. (Whereas I would only buy the stuff on extreme sale or via free deals.)

I don't like to go shopping in the real world. I will go, if I can score deals only available in-store or if it's a special occasion trip like this (going to the American Girl Store for the first time). If we were only planning to go to the one place, it would have been fine, but my sister is (oddly to me) a Brick & Mortar shopoholic. She can literally spend ALL DAY out. I agreed to go, partially because her birthday is coming up next week, and spending the afternoon together would amount to "family bonding time." Urgh! Still, I knew that I would be bored out of my mind within moments as she and our niece, who also seems to like real world shopping, happily went about. Thus, I'd planned to take advantage of a few deals during our trip in order to make the afternoon more worth my while.

Turns out I had an old $10.00 Gamestop Gift Card that I got free with My Coke Rewards points like two Christmases ago, so I finally used it. (With the recently announced Gamestop store closings, I didn't want to hold onto it any longer and potentially end up with a valueless card, if its business "cost-cutting measures" progressed rapidly to bankruptcy or going out of business entirely.) So I ended up getting a couple Funko Pop vinyl figures and only paying $0.78 tax OOP. (The figures were $5.00/ea.)

Ms. Pac-Man

Suicide Squad: Killer Croc

I've been loosely reading various discussions of Funko Pop figures on a few of the gaming and movie sites I frequent. I was aware of them, but hadn't seen any in the wild. Then I spotted some near the checkout counter in the Gamestop store and thought "I could get two for free and they'll make fun gifts, if I decide not to keep them." So I bit. I chose Ms. Pac-Man, a favorite arcade game in my youth, and Suicide Squad: Killer Croc, because I recently saw the movie and liked the character.

I also used My Panera Rewards Card to get a free Cinnamon Crunch Bagel. (Panera Bread gifted me a "Free Daily Bagel in April" reward yesterday. At first, I thought it was an April Fools' Day prank. But it wasn't. I can get one free bagel each day this month, if I so choose.) I love bagels and I especially love Panera Bread bagels. My favorites being the Asiago Cheese and the Cinnamon Crunch. So this is an awesome surprise gift!

And finally, I used my Shopkick app to do a few check-ins while we wandered the mall. I earned enough kicks to redeem for a $2.00 gift card to either Target or Wal-Mart --- or I can keep saving for a higher tier reward.

Not a bad afternoon, in spite of my crazy family.

The #WeeklyRewind 20/03 - 26/03: #MovieMania #FilmFan #Deals #Coupons #Shopping #Gardening #PetParenting

Over the last week I saw the movies Hidden Figures, Doctor Strange and Fences, and pilots for the TV series Taken, Murder Chose Me, and 24: Legacy. The only thing I liked was Hidden Figures, but as it's a movie about women who broke barriers in STEM fields this is hardly surprising. Fences wasn't badly acted or poorly done, but I simply didn't relate to it. It was flat. And it still seem like a staged play vs a movie and that wasn't my expectation, I guess. Everything else was lackluster and even bad.

I scored some fun shopping deals including a bottle of Colgate Mouthwash and a canister of Maxwell House Coffee (only $0.12 OOP for both), two bags of Brownie Brittle (by stacking a sale, coupons and rebates I actually made money on this deal), a jar of Tostitos Salsa (Kroger Free Friday Download) and a digital copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (movie app test freebie).

I took a couple surveys to replenish my "free" money stash, played SYWR sweepstakes to build up my rewards points balance and scheduled the pickup of the Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter that I ordered with my last round of SYWR points.

I also "pruned" my avocado sapling and nursed pup, who has a cold.

What a week! On to the new one.

Beware the #IdesofMarch It Comes for Thee Also Maybe. #WeatherGeek + #SYWR Score #Veggetti #Zoodles #AsSeenOnTV

Julius Caesar was betrayed and murdered on the 15th of March (the 15th day of the month is known as the "Ides" in the Roman era) and as a result, this day has henceforth been synonymous with misfortune. Beware the Ides of March!

Many have no doubt heard this warning, but might also be unaware from whence it comes. Because one dude bought the farm on this date eons ago, the rest of us are cautioned to tread carefully today. Yeah, right. Sorry, Caesar, perhaps you should have picked better friends or how about not be a "Caesar"? Dictators often fair poorly. Just saying.

Personally, I'm good with March 15th. In fact, any "Ides" is fine by me. Speaking of which, today is bear hibernation cold --- as was yesterday, and tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same before a warming trend kicks in on Friday afternoon --- but, considering the frigid and snowy weather conditions in the Northeast right now, we got off lightly down here.

The potential for blizzards was a major reason why I chose not to attend university in the Northeast. I do not love the cold. (Sorry, Ivies. If only, you would've moved to California. Oh, wait...) So pup and I are hunkered down again today. Though pup keeps trying to take meandering strolls outdoors --- just because she has a built-in fur coat!

On the house front, my Kick-A-Kitchen is continuing to develop nicely. As it was cold, wet and windy yesterday, after I finished work, I spent part of the afternoon browsing online looking for deals since I couldn't very well go work outside. The afternoon was not wasted. I scored an As Seen On TV: Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter [MSRP $32.98] for only $3.77 OOP.

Having researched "vegetable spiralizers" over the last year or so --- the gadget is was on my Future Shopping List, after all --- I knew that the Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter is well rated (earning approximately 4.5 out of 5 stars on both Amazon and Kmart), especially when compared to the handheld regular Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Cutter (which merely earns approximately 3.5 out of 5 stars on both Amazon and Kmart).

Having done SYWR product catalog searches for "vegetable spiralizers" and "vegetable slicers," I also knew that both the handheld regular version and the pro version of the Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Cutter were carried by either Sears or Kmart, so I realized there was a good possibility that I would eventually happen upon a deal for one --- preferably the pro version.

The Back Story: Sadly, I no longer enjoy pasta. This has been a gradual, yet fairly recent, seemingly unexplainable change in palate, as I absolutely loved pasta when I was a kid. (Oddly enough, however, I did hate macaroni & cheese as a child, which I could not have explained to myself if I had been asked to do so, because separately I loved pasta and I loved (still love) cheese. WTF? But perhaps, this strangeness was a precursor to my current food preferences.) Over the last several years, I've progressed from hating Mac & Cheese, to hating all "big noodle" pasta --- I could tolerate Angel Hair pasta, for a time --- to disliking pasta, period. I like the "idea of noodles" --- just not the taste or consistency of pasta, apparently.

But I, of course, love veggies. (I'm vegetarian.) As such, I decided that what I craved was a noodle-like alternative to pasta. Enter "zoodles" --- or in this case, the ability to turn vegetables, like zucchini [zucchini noodles = zoodles], and fruits into noodle form. It's all the rage! I figured I could continue to enjoy "noodles" without my increasing distaste for water cooked dough (pasta) making me gag. Thus, I've been wanting a vegetable spiralizer or spiral cutter, the kitchen gadget which turns veggies and fruits into noodles, for a minute.

How'd I get this great low price? (Less than 1/8 of the MSRP.) Check the step-by-step breakdown:

1. I started at Sears. The regular price of a Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter on the sears.com website is only $19.99 (versus $24.99 + $7.99 p&h, which is the amount I would have paid by ordering one directly from the manufacturer's website, veggettipro.com). It pays to shop around and compare prices.

2. Sears was having a Friends & Family Sale on Sunday in stores (but the sale continued through Tuesday online) which discounted most small appliances by 10%. Thus, Sears regular price of $19.99 instantly dropped to $16.99 on sale.

3. Next, I used a coupon. I'd previously loaded a "Member Exclusive" coupon to my Sears account which offered "15% Off Any Item in the Home Department." With the coupon, the $16.99 price dropped to $14.44.

4. Then, I redeemed my rewards. I had rewards points in my account, accumulated from small sweepstakes wins over the last two weeks. This sweeps loot totalled $10.92, which brought the pre-tax item price down to $3.52 when deducted. (I could've opted to find an item that was $10.92 or less and in turn get said item totally free with my rewards points balance, of course. For instance, the handheld Veggetti Spiral Vegetable Cutter is only $9.99 at Kmart, so I could have bought it and paid zero out-of-pocket. However, being able to score the very well rated pro version instead is a big win on a useful tool I actually wanted.)

5. Finally, the tax was 25-cents. Making the total due $3.77. I selected Free Store Pickup as the order didn't meet the recently increased $30 threshold in order to qualify for SYWMax Free Shipping.

So while it will take a trip to the local Sears store to get my grubby hands on the Veggetti Pro Spiral Vegetable Cutter, I'll have spent less than 1/8 the cost of purchasing it online directly from the manufacturer, which makes this a great deal in my boo7k, in spite of having to pick it up at the store.

BONUS: I paid the OOP cost with my "free" money stash (discretionary income earned from taking random surveys online). Not a bad afternoon. Winning! This is like an early birthday gift to myself. Yay! I get to enjoy "pasta", again.

#WeeklyRewind: That's So Last Week! #Deals #Coupons #Rebates #Freebies

I love both quality and value and have little interest in brand name (without one or both of the aforementioned characteristics propping it up). My shopping is geared toward finding the best deals on things I want, will actually use or use as gifts for others. Toward this end, I scored several fun shopping deals over the last week, including 1-cents Folgers Ground Coffee (11.3 oz plastic canister), 79-cents Ocean Spray Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice (64 fl oz bottle), a free V8+Energy Drink (12 fl oz can), a free Starbucks Hearty Brown Rice Salad, nine free 12-packs of assorted Coca-Cola products, five bags of "Cooked Perfect" Meatballs (14 - 20 oz assorted varieties) for $3.86 total and a 13 oz jar of Nutella for 25-cents, in addition to the other deals (like a free coffee grinder and free toy bowling set) mentioned previously in my posts over the past week. Not a bad haul!

But today begins another week, so I'm excited to see what I can find this time around. Tomorrow is Pi Day, so perhaps some free or cheap pizza at the very least? The hunt for deals is such a fun pastime!

Oh noes! The Gravy Train Dried Up --- #SYWR + SYWMax

Sears Holdings Corporation (SHC) is finally making self-salvaging moves. The minimum order amount to qualify for the Shop Your Way Max shipping program was recently bumped up to $30.00. (When I first started my "trial" of the program it was only $5.00, then moved up to $10.00 about a year later, where it sat for roughly two years.) I often remarked on the fact that I would order a $5.00 or $10.00 item for free using rewards points and the shipping would have cost nearly as much as the item --- if it wasn't free also.

In other words, there is now way the program could continue bleeding loss like this. So it had to, of necessity, adjust prices to qualify for the free shipping. While this is a good business decision, it means that it will be more difficult for me (or other consumers) to score free items and have them shipped to me for free. I didn't say impossible, it will merely take more effort to stack up at least $30.00 value in rewards points (without making a purchase/s).

Alternatively, I can use the free store pick-up option to get low cost items (nearly) free, as I did yesterday when I ordered a coffee grinder for free using my rewards points and first discovered the minimum order price bump. Store Pickup is unfortunately a hassle due to inept store employees --- it's always a bad experience at certain stores --- and it uses time and gas. Besides, it's not nearly as fun as getting packages delivered right to your door. The freebie times are a-changing. Le sigh.

In all honesty, I'm surprised the freebie gravy train that was SHC lasted as long as it did. I have been a SYWR member for at least 5 years and have gotten hundreds, if not a thousand or so dollars worth of free merchandise. Compared to having spent approximately $20.00. It was a consumer bonanza for a long time. Way to crawl out of the red SHC...