My Monthly Make-Up Bag & Jewelry Box: March

 

In order to help me use what I have, each month I will be selecting different products to use for the entire month. This month I chose the follow items:

The above products are just basic items I need when I do my makeup. Some of these items will not vary month to month because lets be honest I don't have more than one eyelash curler or eye cream. The products I have samples of or more than one brand I will be switching out monthly so I can try out new items, use up products, as well as purge any items or products I dislike.

The palettes I chose to use for the month of March are:

For eyeshadow I will be using the Chocolate Bar Palette and for face products I will be using the bottom half of the Everything Nice Palette.

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Jewelry is another thing that I have but neglect so I will be wearing the above all month. The necklace was our third wedding anniversary gift from the husband and the bracelet my dad and step-mom gave me for Christmas.

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It feels great to finally get use of all the products and items I have but never make the effort to wear.

CVS Coupon Haul Week of 3/8/2015: Saved 93%

Transaction #1

Colgate MaxFresh Cool Scrub Anticavity Fluoride Toothpaste 6 oz: $3.99 on sale for $2.99

(2) Colgate Total Advanced Pro-Shield Mouthwash: $7.99 on sale for $5.99

(2) Crest Sensitive Namel Scp Fl Paste: $6.49 on sale for $4.79

(2) Irish Spring Signature 3and1 Body Wash: $6.79 on sale for $4.00

Manufacture Coupons:

(2) $2.00 Off Colgate Mouthwash - Coupons.com

$.50 Off Any Colgate Toothpaste 3oz+ - 3/1/2015 SmartSource

(2) $2.00 Off One Body Wash or Gear Body Wash - 2/22/2015 SmartSource

(2) $.75 Off One Crest Toothpaste - 3/1/2015 P&G

CVS Coupons

$2.50 Off Colgate Max, 2in1 Toothpaste or 360 Toothbrush

$5 Off $20 Toothpaste, Toothbrush, or Floss

$2 Off $8 Body Wash, Bar Soap, Liquid Hand Soap

Used $12.00 in ExtraCareBucks

Paid $2.93 and received $12.00 in ExtraCareBucks

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Transaction #2

(2) Cover Girl Lash Blast Mascara: $8.99

(4) Jergens Natural Glow + Firming Daily Moisturizer 2 fl oz: $3.19

Manufacture Coupons:

(2) $3.00 Off Covergirl LashBlash Mascara - 3/1/2015 P&G

(4) $1.50 Off One Jergens Natural Glow Lotion - 3/1/2015 SmartSource

CVS Coupons:

$5 Off any Cosmetics purchase of $15 or more

30% Off Body Lotions

Used $12.00 in ExtraCareBucks

Paid $1.83 and received $5.00 in ExtraCareBucks

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Transaction #3

  Physicians Form Ow Bb Lash Mascara Ublk: $11.49

Manufacture Coupons:

$3.00 Off Physicians Formula Mascara - Found on Product

CVS Coupons:

$3 Off Physicians Formula

Used $5.00 in ExtraCareBucks

Paid $1.34 and recived $7.00 in ExtraCareBucks

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Retail Value: $93.16

Paid Out Of Pocket: $6.10

($7.00 in ExtraCareBucks left over for next week)

Saved: $87.06

93%

Coupon Organization

Lately, I have been getting lazy with how I keep my coupons. I am not the person to spend twenty plus hours cutting coupons and keeping a coupon binder. Nor will you ever see me in the store lugging a fifty pound binder around just so I don't forget one coupon. A lot of the past weeks I have relied on coupon bloggers. These bloggers list the best deals every week at each store and which manufacture coupons match up with those sale items. They also inform you where you can find the manufacture coupon whether it can be printed off a website or what exact newspaper insert you can clip it out of. Each week I have been spending less then five minutes putting together my plan for the shop and it's been reflecting in my savings.

Time to get organized, as you see above I had all the inserts together and labeled but had not gone through my stash recently to discard any expired coupons. After getting these organized I decided to do what I do best... excel spreadsheets! It took a while to complete but I manually entered each coupon I have on hand into my computer. Now after putting in a good half of a day to input the coupons (and clear out my DVR) I can now spend the same five minutes a week to prepare for a shop but am getting much better results!

Now when I go to grab my coupons I am no longer overwhelmed and it's much faster to find what I need and get the shop done.

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1st Couponing Haul After Organizing

Looks like my hard work paid off!

Thoughts About Living on the East Coast

To this day some people think Joe and I are out of our minds to voluntarily live on the east coast and commute to work to NYC. Most people that are born and raised in New York or the surrounding areas count down the days to retirement when they will be moving away from the cold and snow. In my opinion if you were born and raised on the west coast seasons are a luxury. I feel extremely blessed to experience not only the famous NYC but to live some place so extremely different from where I was born. It's officially three winters later and I have to admit I still find myself staring out the window loving my view of the snow. Since moving to New York I have officially become a winter lover. This by no means means that I don't crave higher temperatures when its zero degrees out but for the most part I get excited for the cold and snow. Commuting can be strenuous and sometimes frustrating but who gets this view:

I know we won't live here forever but for the meantime I am enjoying every single thing New York has to offer.

Sample Saturday: EVA NYC Therapy Session Hair Mask

EVA NYC Therapy Session Hair Mask (Sample Size 2.03 fl. oz.)

$14.99 (16.9 fl. oz.) available at Ulta.com

Pros: The smell of this product is amazing and it does stay on your hair for about a day. The consistency is nice.

Cons: This mask left my hair feeling stripped and I felt that it weighed my hair down. My hair was harder to style after using this product and got tangled very easy.

I would not purchase this product in the future even though it is well priced.

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Look for Sample Saturday blog posts every Saturday :)

Record Breaking Winter

This post may cause me to eat my words but I believe that we have officially left Winter 2014/2015 in the past. This was officially our third winter on the east coast and the coldest by far! Our first winter was extremely exciting and every snow storm was welcomed with open arms. Last year we ate our words when we basically got a snow storm every week. Preparing for this winter everyone was saying it was going to be mild because last year was so bad. We didn't end up getting any real snow until mid January but it came with a vengeance. After the snow slowed down the east coast was hit with a cold front. The photo above shows that on our way to work in January the temperature plummeted to negative ten. This is coldest I have experienced here on the east coast. We will have to see what next year has in store for us!

CVS Couponing - One Year Savings Summary

I got this notice in the mail and I thought I would share. As you can see I have saved $1,663.72 in the last twelve months. I have not been couponing for a full twelve months so I am excited to see what I can do in the next twelve!