Spin The Deal 2008 - A Look Back

As 2008 comes to a close, it’s time to look back at the deals found in the past year.

Here’s a list of just a few of the things I got free or very inexpensively in 2008:

• Baby Items: Walgreens Diapers (a year’s supply), Johnson’s Buddy Soaps
• Clothing: Kids outfits (JCPenney $10 off $10 coupons), Men’s Dockers clothes (75% off + free $150 gas card), Victoria’s Secret sweaters
• Toiletries: Several Shampoos, Several Conditioners, Several Deodorants, Nivea Body Wash, John Freida Hairspray, Crest Toothpaste, Reach Toothbrushes, Dental Floss, Crest Pro-Health Mouthwash, LypSyl Lip Moisturizer, Revlon Nail Polish, Loreal Revitalift, Loreal Cleanser, St. Ives Cleansers, more free make-up than I could list here…
• Household: Walgreens Laundry Soap, Walgreens Fabric Softener, Northern Toilet Paper, several Glade products, Parents Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Insulated Cooler, Duracell Batteries
• Medicine: Tylenol, Excedrin, Robitussin, Benefiber, Nasal Spray, various cold medicines
• Groceries: Omaha Steaks, Milk, Granola Bars, Tortilla Chips, Pepsi, Gatorade….and on and on…

In the end, I would estimate that I saved well over $1,000+ this year. I’m hoping to surpass this by far next year. To keep tabs on my savings, I’ve added a 2009 Savings Tracker to my blog homepage.

Advice For 2009:
The key to being a successful Deal Spinner is to only buy what you can use or give away within a reasonable period of time. It’s easy to get caught up in deal hunting, especially when new deals come out every week and when you have CVS ExtraBucks or Walgreens Register Rewards burning a hole in your pocket.

Before you race out to get in on a deal, remember to take a moment to think about whether it truly is a deal – Is it something your family will use within the next year? Is it something your friends or neighbors would use? Is it something you could donate to those in need? – If you can’t answer yes to any of these 3 questions, then it’s not worth the gas or time, and it’s not a deal.

Best of luck in 2009, Deal Spinners!

Saving Money On Lunch

(I've been taking a bit of a blogging hiatus over the past few weeks. With all the hustle and bustle of preparing for the holidays, it's been hard to squeeze in time for blogging. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season, and please stay tuned...the Deal Diva will be back in 2009 with more great advice on how to spin deals and save money!)

Saving Money On Lunch

Everyone knows that the best way to save money on lunch is by packing a lunch from home. Sandwiches are the old stand-by, but you can only eat sandwiches so many weeks in a row before you need a change of pace (unless you're Daddy Diva, who really could eat sandwiches every single day without complaint).

Here are a few ways we change up our homemade lunches to add variety:

1. Same Sandwich, Different Bread: Instead of an ordinary turkey on wheat bread sandwich, we substitute bagels for bread and savory flavored cream cheese in place of mayo - an instant bagel sandwich - filling and delicious.
2. Wrap It Up: Using lunch meat, bacon, or leftover roast, we load up a tortilla, add some cheese, lettuce, and salad dressing - a tasty lunch wrap - served hot or cold.
3. Meatloaf Sandwich: This is a family favorite. Use your favorite meatloaf recipe, but bake it in a round or square cake pan rather than a loaf pan. We use a round pan - cut the middle section into a large square, than divide the square into smaller 2" by 2" squares to fit on a hamburger bun - then eat the 4 outer semi-circles for dinner that night, and package the squares with buns, a slice of cheese, and a packet of ketchup to take to work for the week.

Diva-licious Lunchloaf

1 lb ground beef

1/2 package Stove Top stuffing

1 cup shredded cheese - cheddar or whatever's on hand

1 egg

Squirt of ketchup (or BBQ sauce)

Splash of milk (until moist)

Optional: hot sauce, garlic, onions, chili powder - we change it up every time

How do you save money on lunch? Leave a comment or send me an e-mail to share your favorite tips!

Walgreens 4 Day Sale - Week 2

It's back again this week. Walgreens is running another 4-day sale through Saturday. If you read my last post, I mentioned that I would receive credit on my W card for the Wal-itin purchase. I have since then entered the receipt online, and an extra $1.40 was added to my W card. Hooray!

This week, the $5 Register Reward is available again with any $25 purchase. I had to use up my two $5 Register Rewards from last week, so I stopped in today to pick up a few sale items.

My Purchase: I bought two Maybelline lipsticks for "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" at $9.49 and two Walgreens brand multivitamins for "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" at $4.99. My total was just over $15 with tax, and using my $10 in rewards brought the total down to $5. The best part...as I was ready to walk away from the counter, the catalina machine printed a $5 Register Reward for my next purchase...what an unexpected surprise! So, even though I didn't use any coupons to lower my total (I didn't get the Maybelline coupon that some did this past Sunday), before the "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" sale deduction, my total was originally over $25, and I ended up with a $5 Register Reward. Figuring in this Reward, I netted nothing out of pocket. If I woudn't have had the $10 in existing Register Rewards, my net cost would have been $10 for two lipsticks and two multivitamins. Either way you look at it, not a bad deal.

One final spin to the deal: I will enter my receipt online in a few days to gain a 10% credit for the Walgreens brand vitamin purchase, which will be an extra $1 or $0.50 savings, depending on how the bonus on the free bottle is calculated.

Walgreens 4 Day Sale

Walgreens has a wonderful 4 day mid-week sale running through this Saturday. Here are three great deals to get in on:

• Earn a $5 Register Reward when you spend $25 at Walgreens. (Hint: You only need to have a before coupon total of $25 to qualify for this.)
• Earn a $5 Register Reward when you purchase $15 of Coca Cola products.
• Wal-itin 24 Hour Allergy Medicine 10 pack - $0.99 with Walgreens coupon found in 4-day sale flyer or online at www.walgreens.com. (Hint: Regular price is $6.99, and the regular price is counted towards the $25 purchase for the $5 Register Reward above.)

My purchase: I bought 5 Coke 12-packs and two Wal-itins for just over $19. I received 2 $5 Register Rewards for a net out of pocket of $9. In addition, I will receive 10% back on the Wal-itin purchase credited to my W card. If it credits based on the regular price, I will get a credit for $1.40 to my W card, bringing my end out of pocket down to $7.60. Not a bad deal spin!

(If you've never heard of the W card, read my post "The Lowdown on the W Card.")

Vino on the Cheap

(Note: This post is from the Spin The Deals 2008 archives.)

There’s one thing that sets my normally economical mind into a tailspin, and that’s wine. I love wine. Red wines…white wines…Australian wines…domestic wines. I love them all. In fact, in our less thrifty days, Daddy Diva and I enjoyed several trips to California where we swirled, sniffed, and sipped our way from one end of the Sonoma Valley to the other. We bought several cases of wine along the way, some to drink, some to save, some to gift…and so began our wine collection. The only problem? We needed a special occasion to justify uncorking a bottle.

So how does one enjoy wine on a regular basis without spending a lot of money?

WiseBread contributor, Julie Rains, writes about the 10 things she won’t give up to save money. Included on her list are chocolate and wine.

Here are some ways to have your wine (and drink it too!) while on a budget:

1) Three Buck Chuck – If you have a Trader Joe’s in your area, race right over and pick up a case of Charles Shaw wine (a.k.a. “Three Buck Chuck”). This wine is surprisingly good (I prefer the Cabernet), goes great with a typical weeknight meal, and at $2.99 a bottle, you can enjoy a glass every night if you wish.

2) Volume Discounts – Most stores offer a volume discount if you buy wine by the case. You may not see this posted in the store, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask. In Minnesota, Cub Foods offers a 10% discount.

3) Join a Wine Club – We are members of Bacchus, a Minnesota wine club that entitles us to 10% off regular-priced bottles of wine and 5% off sale-priced bottles of wine. In addition, we receive invitations to free or discount wine tasting events in our area.

4) Winery Membership – If you are fortunate enough to live near wine country, consider a winery membership to one or more of your favorite wineries. Winery members are entitled to discount wines, special reserve tastings, and limited edition wines.

5) Annual Sales – Some wine shops hold annual sales, such as “Buy 1 Get 1 for a Nickel” or “Half-Priced Bottles.” Find out when the sale is held each year and wait until then to stock up on everyday wines at a great discount.

6) Wine Tags/Rebates – Finally, to really “Spin the Deal” and get the most bang for your buck, look for wine tags or rebate forms when shopping for wine. Wine tags are the little hanging tags on a bottle of wine that can save you additional money off your purchase. Some are in the form of instant coupons and some are mail-in rebates.


To combine several deals, I look for rebate offers on the wines I buy during the annual “Half-Priced” sale. A $12 bottle of wine would be on sale for $6 and if you purchase a case there may be a rebate for $2 off per bottle, making the end cost $4 for a $12 regular-priced bottle.

Your Turn: What's your guilty pleasure that you wouldn't give up to save money?

K-Mart Double Coupons Week

This week K-Mart is doubling coupons up to a face value of $2.00. There is a limit of 75 coupons per transaction. Good luck scouting out the great deals!

Black Friday All Year Long

As a person who's always striving to find the latest, greatest deal to spin, you would expect that I would be the type to get up at 4am to be the first in line at the store for Black Friday. After scoring my deals, I would then rush to the next store to score some more, then on to the next and the next until finally I make it back home, car bulging with bags and bags of great deals. NOT SO.

Every year on Thanksgiving Day, I glance through the ads and consider whether it's worthwhile to venture out in hopes of scoring good deals. To be clear, there certainly are some great deals to be had. The CVS ad alone almost convinced me to head out. But as a true bargain hunter, with a little practice and some know-how on how to spot great deals, you can get these type of bargains year-round, and skip the rush of crazed shoppers lining up at the crack of dawn.

This year, more than ever, I've focused on saving money, as Dave Ramsey would put it "with gazelle intensity." Starting this blog has made me think more critically about the money that leaves our house every day. With the current state of our economy, I wonder what Black Friday truly would be like if more Americans learned how to conserve their money the way us bargain hunters do. It truly is up to all of us to help eachother learn how to save money, live within our means, get out of debt, and help those in need.

Here are some great posts on this topic from fellow money-saving bloggers:

Christina at Northern Cheapskate has a great post called Gifts That Help Others Save Money. Check it out. She has some good gift ideas to help others this year.

Mercedes at Common Sense With Money, talks about looking for freebies and deals to donate to those in need this year, in her post Giving Thanks By Giving Back.

Mail Call - Freebies Received

Today was a great mail day. I received two different freebies in the mail. First, I got a really nice insulated reusable tote bag that I signed up for on a local health clinic website. This will be great to have in the car for keeping groceries cool. To save a trip after work, I often run to the grocery store over the lunch hour and store the groceries in my car until I get home. Usually this means that I have to rememeber to grab a cooler to keep frozen items cool, but this new bag should work just fine.

I also received my first issue of Forbes magazine. I got this as a free subscription offer online a while back. This is a great, interesting magazine, and I look forward to reading my free issues.


What freebies have you found online over the past few months that you have received in the mail? Post a comment and share your successes!

Frozen Assets – Part 6: Store It Up – Meal Preps

Today is the last segment of our Frozen Assets series. If you have missed any of the previous segments, here is a quick recap:

Part 1 – Using Up Fruit

Part 2 – Using Up Produce

Part 3 – Using Up Bakery Items

Part 4 – Store It Up – Bowls

Part 5 – Store It Up – Meals

Now, let’s look at ways to save time in the kitchen by preparing ingredients in advance and storing them in the freezer.

Ground Beef – The Diva family eats a lot of ground beef. This year, we purchased ½ of a cow from a local farm, which included 60+ pounds of ground beef. Whenever we brown ground beef for a recipe, rather than just browning one pound, we brown two or three pounds. Then we use the beef we need for the recipe, and the rest goes back into the freezer. With precooked ground beef on hand, we can quickly reheat it and have tacos on the table in less than 5 minutes.

Beans – Thanks to my favorite crockpot blog, I recently learned how to cook dry beans in the crockpot. When they are cooked and cooled, I package them in sandwich-sized bags in one-cup servings, and then I put them into a large freezer bag. When I’m heating up tacos, I can grab a cup of precooked beans from the freezer, and toss it in. Beans are a great way to add fiber to a meal and to stretch a pound of ground beef.

Chicken – I buy the 3 pound packages of frozen boneless, skinless chicken. Rather than cooking one chicken breast here for one recipe and another there for another recipe, I cook the whole package at once in my crockpot. I use what I need for the recipe I am preparing that night, and then I shred and package the rest into meal-sized servings and store it in the freezer. Having shredded cooked chicken on hand, we can quickly reheat it and toss it into stir fry, wraps, or salads for a meal in minutes.

I hope this series has inspired you to think about ways you can use your freezer to extend the life of your food, save money, and stretch your grocery budget. With a little planning and creativity, there are many ways to make mealtime easier, less stressful, and more nutritious by having meals on-hand rather than eating out.

Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment and tell us what your favorite way is to use your freezer. What do you freeze, and how has it helped you to save money?

Frozen Assets – Part 5: Store It Up – Meals

We’re in the home stretch of our Frozen Assets series. I hope you are enjoying this series, and have learned some tips to put to work for your family. If you have, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear your feedback.
Today, we tackle freezer meals. As you know, the make-ahead meal business has taken off in the past few years. These days, families simply don’t have the time to cook from scratch every night, and the Diva family is no exception. While purchasing freezer meals from make-ahead meal businesses does save money over eating out, an even thriftier and personalized approach is to make the meals yourself.

For the Diva family, we do this two ways. The first way is by doubling recipes and freezing one for later. If you’re going to measure, chop, and assemble one dish, then why not two? The second way is by batch cooking on the weekend. I will buy everything needed for several family-favorite recipes with common ingredients (for instance, ground beef, rice, beans). Then I will brown the beef all at once, and use it to make several frozen dishes for later – enchiladas, taco bake, rice & bean stir-fry, etc.

Here are three tried-and-true recipes that freeze well. Each recipe uses sour cream, cream of mushroom soup, and either ground beef or chicken. Buy the large containers of soup and sour cream to save money. Take the meal out of the freezer the night before and thaw in the refrigerator before baking.

Diva Family Creamy Enchilada Bake
(I make this for friends as a quick meal to have on hand after having a baby.)
1 lb ground beef
1 can refried beans
1 onion
1 package taco seasoning
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz sour cream
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Tortillas (Deal Diva Tip: Buy the large packs from Costco to save money.)
Tomatoes – chopped

Brown ground beef and onions. Mix in beans. In a separate bowl, mix sour cream and soup. Spoon half of sour cream mixture on the bottom of a baking pan. Fill tortillas with beef mixture, roll up, and arrange in baking pan. Spoon remaining half of sour cream mixture over the tortillas. Cover with shredded cheese. Sprinkle tomatoes on top. Freeze. Bake at 350° for 25 - 30 minutes or until cheese melts and tortillas are golden brown.

Here’s another simple and tasty make-ahead recipe that freezes well and takes mere minutes to throw together.

Creamy Chicken Bake
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream

Mix soup & sour cream. Spread half in pan. Add chicken. Spread remaining half of mixture on chicken. Freeze. Bake @ 375° for 30 minutes.

Finally, here’s another hearty dish great for a cold, winter night:

Daddy Diva’s Hamburger Hot Dish
1 lb Ground Beef
1 cup Elbow Macaroni
1 cup Frozen Corn
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
½ cup Sour Cream

Brown beef. Cook noodles. Drain. Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish. Freeze. Bake @ 375° for 30 minutes.

Up Next: We’ll wrap up the series with Part 6 – Meal Preps. I’ll show you how our family uses the freezer to store meal preparation items – such as cooked ground beef – to short-cut the cooking process for meals in a flash.

Frozen Assets – Part 4: Store It Up – Bowls

This week we begin the second half of our Frozen Assets series. As a quick recap, in the first half of this series, we talked about ways the Diva family leverages their freezer to use up fruits, veggies, and breads. Now, we will shift to how we store meals and meal prep items for lunches on the go and meals in minutes.

Part 4: Store It Up – Bowls

Today, I’d like to share some tips for storing individual bowl meals that are hearty, tasty, and take mere minutes to prepare. Bowl meals are great to take to work for lunch, and certainly more economical than eating out.

Anyone remember the blue Ziploc Tabletops from about five years ago? If you are a seasoned deal spinner, you may recall that these blue plastic covered bowls, similar to Rubbermaid containers, were a fabulous deal when they first came out. The Diva family uses these to store our bowl meals in the freezer. Basically, any plastic food storage container with a tight lid will work.

Here are the Diva family favorites:

White Bean Chicken Chili – We make a huge batch of this in the crockpot. Save a few bowls for a meal, and package the rest in bowls for the freezer. To save time and energy, we cook a 3 pound bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crockpot the day before, and then shred and use half of the chicken to make the chicken chili in the crockpot the next day.

Mommy Diva’s White Bean Chicken Chili
1 – 2 large jars of salsa
8 oz shredded Monterrey jack cheese
2 lbs cooked, shredded chicken (or turkey)
2 cans Great Northern beans – do not drain
Chili powder, garlic, spices to your taste

Mix everything together in crockpot, and cook on high for 3 - 4 hours.


Spaghetti & Meatballs – Prepare the spaghetti whichever way your family prefers. The only modification for the freezer is to add extra sauce so that the noodles do not dry out when reheating.

Seafood Chowder – Did you know that you can freeze milk-based soup? It may not look too attractive upon reheating, but once you stir it up well, it reverts back to thick, appetizing chowder. Click HERE for my favorite recipe. We substitute shrimp for the crawfish.

Chicken Wild Rice Soup – Here in Minnesota, there’s nothing more comforting than a steaming bowl of wild rice soup. Click HERE for my starter recipe. In addition, I add garlic, carrots, and mushrooms, and I let it simmer until it thickens.

Up Next: Frozen meals that take the guess-work out of dinner.

Great Week at CVS

The deals have been a little slow the past few weeks at Walgreens. Truthfully, it’s been a relief, since I’m still recovering from the diaper deal mania. Anyway, I’m not a big CVS shopper partly because there isn’t one along my normal routes and partly because I never seem to be lucky enough to find the deal items in stock. However, I happened to be near one this morning, so I decided to stop in and check out some of the deals that have been posted on “Money Saving Mom” and “I Heart CVS” this week. Although the free Crest Pro-Health and L’Oreal Pro Calcium were out of stock, I did manage to get in on a few good deals.

Duracell Batteries: The store was virtually wiped out, but I managed to get the last 2 AA 8 packs and the last two 2 AAA 8 packs for $5.99 each. There is a $15 Extrabuck for purchasing $20 of Duracell, so I netted 32 batteries for just under $9. We don’t go through nearly as many AAA batteries as AA, so I may save them and exchange them in a few weeks when they are restocked.

Glade: For every $10 spent on Glade, you receive a $5 Extrabuck. By combining this deal with recent coupons, several items are free. There is a limit of 5 per card, which means if you have several coupons, you could spend $50 and get $25 back.

Deodorant: Right Guard and Soft & Dry are on sale $2.99 each with a $2 Extrabuck, making them $0.99 each. Certain varieties have a “$0.55 off this purchase” sticker on them, making them $0.44 each. There is a limit of 5 per card. This is a great way to stock up if you like these brands.

In all, I spent $33.81 and received $20 in Extrabucks to use on my next purchase, which nets to $13.81 total for this trip. The Extrabucks are good for a month, so I can wait until another good sale week to use them. Adding up the total regular price of each item, I got $78.37 worth of merchandise and saved a grand total of $64.56. Looks like it’s well worth going out of the way to shop CVS.