birthday joys and some great deals!

Friday was my birthday, and I was blessed by my wonderful family and students in so many ways!

Beautiful tulips from one of my sweet students.

I also was greeted with a huge birthday card signed by all my kiddos plus a $50 gift card for a mani and pedi...yay!

We had a great dinner at Macaroni Grill (my favorite!) last night to celebrate. 

Check out some of the gifts from my family...a Sandra Lee cook book, Target gift card, Ann Taylor Loft gift cards, Blogging for Dummies (yep, I'm still a "dummie" at this), a list journal, a new small bible for my purse, a Francine Rivers book, Converse chucks, spring clothes, and this gorgeous distressed bench my dad made for me (Isn't that awesome?! It looks so great in our foyer!)

It's gorgeous here, so we spent the morning doing some spring cleaning inside and out.  Later in the day, Justin and I went out to find some deals and spend a little of my birthday gift cards and money.  Check out our great finds!

Old Navy

We used a 30% off coupon on top of their great sale prices today.  You can find this coupon here.  The proceeds will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and it can be used at Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and their outlets.  (Hurry--this deal ends 3/21) Thanks, Ashleigh!

Some of our deals with their sales and the coupon:

-Men's shorts $10.50 each

-Plain women's v-neck tees $5.60 each

-Ankle length skirth $10.50

-Metallic flip flops $1.75 when I bought two pairs

 (These are my favorite flip flops out of any place I have bought them...so durable, so comfy, and go with everything! You can't beat this price, either.  They were around $13 last year.)

-Accessory scarves $7 each

We saved $31.35 by using our 30% coupon today.

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I also went to Victoria's Secret to spend a $20 gift card I'm embarrased to say I still hadn't spent from my personal shower almost two summers ago.  But something to keep in mind...Victoria's Secret is giving you an "I Love Secret Rewards" card with every purchase right now.  Bring it back into their store between April 1-30 and put it toward your purchase.  It is worth at least $10, but could possibly be worth $50, $100, or even $500.  (You'll find out when you come into the store.) I can't wait to go back...if nothing else, you get $10 in free items!

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We also went to Target today and had some great finds! (Justin doesn't quite enjoy Target trips, but he was sweet enough to bare the trip with me on my birthday weekend.)  I can take or leave grocery shopping, but oh my do I love some Target shopping! They didn't just have clearance on the end caps today...red clearance tags were everywhere! I love when that happens! Check out the deals we found:

Target

 

-Airwick Freshmatic Ultra air freshener:  FREE....use a $1/1 MC from March inserts and a Target printable coupon available here.  (My Target had these on sale for $6...but hurry because there weren't many left!)

-Brita refills:  $9.59 for 3...use a $2/1 Target printable coupon from here and stack it with a coupon from Brita's website.  You can find that coupon for $3/1 here on Brita's website after signing up for their email filter change reminders

-Pedigree Dentastix:  $0.36...I used a Target printable coupon and had a $2/1 MC from the March inserts

-Johnson's baby powder:  $0.41...This was actually marked incorrectly as $1.41 at my store, but Target is so great, they give you the price if it has been marked incorrectly.  (I just went to customer service to inquire about it ringing up incorrectly, and they gave me the price I had found it as.)  I used a $1/1 coupon I printed from online (forget where...) and got this for just $0.41.  This is great to put into your flats you wear in the spring and summer without socks.

I saved $26.22 in coupons from our Target trip.

(Don't forget your $.05 off for bringing your Target reausable bag!)

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I also made it to Kroger today.  I had to get in on their last day of deals for this week:

Kroger

Today was the last day to get $4 off when you bought 8 participating items.  I planned very carefully with my ad and coupons in hand before going to the store...and ended up with two groups of 8 items...so I saved $8 with this deal in all. Plus coupons--read on. :)

-Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta:  FREE for all four boxes (keeping two, donating two)...these were $1.25 and I used a $0.75/1 coupon I printed two times each from here and here and got the $4 off deal which took $0.50 off each of these items.  (Thanks, Deal Finding Chik!)

-Kraft shreds and chunks:  .67 each after a $1/2 in-store coupon and the $0.50 off each item from buying in groups of 8

-Ken's dressings:  $0.49 after a $1/1 MC coupon from February inserts and the $0.50 off

I saved $22.30 in coupons and had a savings of 50% today at Kroger!

Happy first day of spring! I'm off to watch some basketball....