Well friends, I have done it. I have embarked on the No ‘Poo adventure.

You see, right before I wrote my other post about how I was thinking about it, I bought new shampoo and conditioner. So I thought I would let those bottles run out and then maybe try it. Well, I am out of conditioner. And I had already mixed up a spray bottle of baking soda shampoo, so I thought I would try it. And it is interesting.

Monday was the first day I used the baking soda shampoo. It felt a little oily, but was fine mostly. It reminded me of when you take a shower and wet your hair but don’t wash it, and then go on to dry it and fix it like normal, but it still feels a little weird. (Has anyone else ever done that?)

Tuesday I felt kinda like my hair was fine on top, but one big thick mass of oilyness underneath. The hubs said it looked fine so that is good but it did feel funny. I think one problem is that I have a tiny spray bottle and have to spray it like a million times to get enough out and my finger got tired. Today I tried to do better at spraying the roots where the oil builds up. I need to use a bigger spray bottle for this part. I have the perfect spray bottle that I used to use to clean my overhead projector when I taught, but it is in a teaching box in the attic, so I don’t know if I want to go up there in the 100+ degree heat.

Another problem is the apple cider vinegar rinse. I thought I had read on a blog that someone just kept a bottle in the shower and poured a little on the ends of the hair. But the smell. It is killing me. I told C, I don’t think I can get used to that smell in my bathroom. Just now I thought I would re-read the blogs that I got these ideas off, and apparently my mind was playing tricks on me because it clearly spells out that you are to mix one tablespoon of ACV to one cup of water, so I need to do that or I am going to keel over from the ACV fumes in my bathroom!

Today I am going to try not blow drying my hair and see what it does. Another problem yesterday was that it was really static-y. I guess from the lack of normal conditioner that I use. It is kinda funny if you think about it. We use shampoo to get the oil off the roots and then conditioner to spread some oil on the ends to make it not frizz.

Most of the sites say you do have a breaking in period that can be a couple of weeks or more. They say don’t give it up after three days. So C is good at reminding me to stick with it and I will soldier on. Anyone else out there want to join me? I thought about posting a picture but you can’t really tell any difference so I figure why bother.

If you are a Target fan like I am, you NEED to know about and use Target coupons. Go HERE.

Right now there is a printable Target coupon for $3 off men or women’s denim. We got C some jeans for $8 that were on the clearance rack for $11 and we used that coupon. There is also a coupon for $2 off newborn to kids denim jeans. I found some 24 month jeans on clearance for $4 so I got baby E some jeans for $2. You would pay that at a resale shop.

I once got free jeggings there. (I know, jeggings, I said I never would do that, but for FREE I thought I couldn’t pass it up.) I had a $5 off jeans mobile coupon and they were on clearance for $4.98. Go HERE to sign up for the mobile coupons. (Message and/or data fees apply, yada, yada, yada, etc, read the fine print if you think you might end up paying for these.)

This week here is what I got Walgreens for about .98.

It would have been .23 but I had to buy the Reece’s cups to make the rule work that your number of coupons cannot exceed your number of items. I didn’t realize that Register Rewards counted as a coupon in this number.

That is two packs of hair ties and two toothpastes and a candy. I think I read or heard someone say that if you coupon, you should never pay for toothpaste, they always have deals running.

I have $3 RRs to spend next week so really I didn’t spend anything. Some people figure their total price and include the RRs in this week, but I feel like that doesn’t really work because you might not use them and then it doesn’t count and you had to pay out of pocket to get them.

Anyway, here is the link to where I found these deals.

Anyone out there get any good deals this week?

Oh…and if you have not eaten these yet, you NEED TO!

Here are a bunch of our friends eating our free chicken! Yes we all dressed up so yes all our meals were free! Who says this is just for the kids?!

And here is my little cow, happily eating some chicken and fruit from her first kids meal ever! Like her ear headband? Yeah she kept it on for a few minutes. Fun times!

CVS and Walgreens

So on Monday I did the next part of my coupon spree, and I went to CVS and Walgreens. The deal at both those places is that they each have things that print out when you purchase certain products, that can be used at the store like cash on the next purchase. At CVS it is Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) and at Walgreens it is Register Rewards (RRs). You have to have their store card and scan it each time to get and use these (which is free to get.) Each week, if you look in their flyer, you will see items listed that get you ECBs or RRs. And often they will make the item free.

The items in this picture are from Walgreens except the Complete contacts drops. For example that razor was 3.99 and you got 3.99 in RRs so it made it free. The Hylands teething gel was 5.00 and you got 5.00 in RRs. The nursing pads were 4.99 and had 4.00 RRs so that meant they cost .99. The Desitin and Baby Lotion were 2 for 6.00 with 2.00 RR so they cost 4.00.

So that is how the RRs work, but then sometimes you add in a coupon and save even more. Like I had a coupon for the Desitin (1.00 off) and Baby Lotion (.50 off) so I really paid 2.50 for both. And I had a 1.00 off coupon for the Hylands teething gel, so it originally cost 5.00, making it 4.00 but I got back 5.00 RRs so I really made 1.00 overage that was applied to the cost of something else.

At CVS I bought some diapers and got the Complete contacts drops for free after ECBs. The diapers were on sale and I had coupons that made them cheaper than Amazon mom currently is so I did buy them. The contact solution I don’t need, but it was free (7.99 with 7.99 ECBs) so I got it anyway and gave it away.

So…phew! Sound complex. It sorta is and sorta isn’t. I did learn a couple of things. At CVS the ECBs will only print once per person(card) so I tried to do two boxes of diapers but only got the ECBs one time which made them a little more expensive than I intended to pay. And at Walgreens, if the item is 4.99 and you have 5.00 in RRs they won’t do it. Or at least my person didn’t.

Something else about using Register Rewards and Extra Care Bucks is that you potentially have to do multiple transactions to get the best use of your money. Like do a transaction buying one thing and get the ECBs that come with it. Then use those to buy the next thing. Then use the ECBs off that transaction to buy the next thing. And so on, rolling them over to the next thing. That way you have to spend the least amount out of pocket to begin with. Unless you have just amassed a bunch of ECBs or RRs and then you can just start with them. Like I have some I can use on my first transaction next time I go.

Okay, sorry that is a lot of words! Like I said, I am a beginner at this. Go to places like Money Saving Mom for more detailed explanations on all this. Leave a question comment if you have one and I will try to answer it.

For folks that live in the same city we live in, you might like THIS blog which I stumbled upon that tells neat and free things going in around town!

HERE is her very extensive list of places kids eat free!

Over the past week or so I have decided to try my hand at couponing!

I have tried it before. I would spend time cutting coupons of items we used. Then I would file them in a small file by category. But here is what would happen. I would go grocery shopping, pick out a few to try to use, find that the store brand was cheaper, and not use the coupons. It doesn’t help that I shop at HEB and they don’t double or triple.

I have the blogs Money Saving Mom and Give Me Neither in my google reader and at the beginning of each week, they do weekly deal posts for CVS, Walgreens, and Target, along with a couple of stores that we don’t have here. I would read them, but not pay much attention. They also occasionally post about freebies.

I decided I would not try to go all out, but I would try to get a free thing or two using their tips and I asked a friend to bring me her coupons from her Sunday paper since we don’t get it.

So I went to those two blogs on Sunday, when they post their weekly deals. And they have a checklist of sorts, where they list out the deals, you check the box beside the ones you want, and it makes you a shopping list in the corner of the page that you can then print out. HERE.

I decided to do Target, so I also went HERE to print out some Target printable coupons.

Then I went to the store and tried to find the stuff. Some of it was already sold out, like the BBQ sauce that would have been free. I paid .62 for that one after a $1 off coupon. The Sharpies were out in the office section, but they had some in the school supplies section, but they weren’t priced at $1. But I scanned them and found that they were actually $1 before I went to check out. I had a $1 off coupn=they were free. The pens were $1.02 so after the $1 off coupon they were .02. I stacked a Sally Hensen coupon from the paper with the Target printable Sally Hensen coupon so the nail polish was $.50 after $2 worth of coupons. The toe separators were on clearance for .70 and I had a .50 off coupons so they were .20.

Anyway, it was super fun! I got some things we will use and some things that I can give as gifts! The next day I went to CVS and Walgreens. I’ll tell you about that later…