Thrifty Thursday: My Favorite Bargains from 2008

For this week’s Thrifty Thursday, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite bargains from 2008:

Amazon toy sale – The Amazon toy sale last month was AWESOME! I saved so much money that I had a bunch of money left in my Christmas budget and I was able to buy season passes for our family to Sea World and a zoo membership and I still have money left to start out this year’s Christmas budget.

Cottonelle toilet paper – I had never used Cottonelle toilet paper before. My first trial with them was last February or so when CVS clearanced their value packs to $4.99, there were coupons, and they were still printing ECBs. Since then, I have loved the .25 and .50 coupons (which double or triple at my stores) combined with the Cellfire and Shortcuts coupons and end up getting a free (or almost free) package of toilet paper almost every time I go to the grocery store.

CVS – I can’t say enough good things about CVS. Thanks to them, I have an ample supply of health and beauty items (shampoo, deodorant, vitamins, toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, body wash), cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and diapers that I got for free or close to free. My total combined savings on two cards was over $10,000 this year.

Electrasol coupons – Thanks to two different $2.25 Electrasol coupons and a great price cut at Target, I stocked up on Electrasol and paid almost nothing for it. I still have several boxes left and I have given some away.

Free Scotch Brite disposable toilet scrubber coupons – In March or April, Scotch posted a PDF coupon for their disposable toilet scrubbers on their website. The expiration date was about 6 weeks out. I printed lots and lots of copies and looked for toilet scrubbers everywhere I went. I can’t remember how many I ended up with, but I still have about six boxes left.

Johnsons buddy bars – I have a huge stockpile of these, but my kids love them and I got them for FREE! I still have some of the $3 Kroger catalinas to use.

Kroger – The Mega sales they have had have been awesome. My pantry is over flowing and we’ve had to add shelves to accommodate everything. I love that they double and triple coupons because I save a ton every time I go and then get discounts on my gas on top of that.

Lila Guide Target gift cards – I earned a total of $35 in gift cards from Lila Guide this year for writing 10 reviews, starting a group, and adding members. It was a super easy way to make $35! 🙂

Omaha Steaks – Even though the promotion with the GEICO cards ended up being a bit of a fiasco, who can complain about free meat?

Target – Thanks to the $2 off Archer Farms ham coupon, I have a freezer full of ham steaks that I got for free. I have tons of the StarKist tuna pouches that were also free. I loved the Glade promotion and even though I gave away tons of candles for Christmas, I still have a box full of candles and air fresheners. I can’t forget the $3/2 Huggies coupon from December/January. I still have about 13 tubs of “free” wipes left from that deal. The $5 gift card or $5 off Pampers when you buy diapers/wipes coupons from the summer were awesome, too!