Thanks to Tonya at mommysavingabuck for posting this offer! Open a free "Complete Savings" account with E*Trade by 02/25/09, deposit a minimum of $1 and receive a $25 bonus within 30 days. One additional bonus: the APY on E*Trade's Complete Savings account is currently 2.5%, which is way above the national average. In fact, my current bank with a competing savings account currently lowered their APY to 2.45%. Looks like we'll be moving all of our savings into this new account. Sure, the percentage isn't much, but I'll take whatever free money I can get.

There are no account maintenance fees associated with the Complete Savings account, no diret deposit requirements and no minimum balance requirements.

I opened my account using an electronic transfer from my checking account with only $1. Once they deposit your $25, you can close the account if you choose, unless of course you need a savings account with a great APY, it is always good to save for that rainy day. (Wouldn't you know my husband's car broke down this morning...it is always smart to have an emergency fund.)

Click HERE to access E*Trade, click the Apply Now button, and select the Complete Savings option.

Okay, so I mentioned earlier in the week that I was going to have a hard time staying within my $50 budget this week due to buying some unnecessary items for last week's Superbowl. Oh well, live and learn and do better next week. Here's my week's spending:

Target:

-8 boxes Kashi bars: on sale for $2.75, used $2/1 coupon here.
-Softsoap refill 64oz: with a 7.5 oz Softsoap attached for $2.50
-Stickers from $1 bin for rewarding my son for potty training.
-Temporary tattoos with Disney characters, also from $1 bin, also for little 3 year old Adin!

Total Before Savings: $33.47
Total Savings: $20.32
Total OOP: $13.15


Walmart:

-Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner: $2, used $1/1 coupon
-5 Lysol Wipes: $2 each, used 5 $1/1 coupons
-Santinas Chips: $2.24
-Velveeta Cheese: $3.56
-Reiser Tortillas: $1.98
-2 Old El Paso Salsa: $2 each, used $1/2 coupon
-12-pack Fat Tire Beer: $13.67 (Ouch, that's a budget buster!)

Total Before Coupons: $37.45
Total Saved: $6.75
Total OOP: $32.95

Fred Meyer:

-7, 1/2 Gallons of milk: Used FM 10/$10 coupon in weekly ad
-4 Fresh Express Salad Mixes: $1 each, used rain check from previous sale and used 2 $.55 off coupons
-1 Package of blueberries: $4.88
-1.29lb of bananas: $.76
-1.03lb of tomatoes: $.93
-1 Ocean Spray Juice: 3/$5 with FM in ad coupon, used $.55 coupon

Total before coupons: $29.74
Total Saved: $11.01
Total OOP: $18.73

Albertsons:

I made three separate purchases at Albertson's this week to take advantage of using multiple double coupons.

Transaction #1

-6 bags of Goldfish Crackers: $1.50 each, used 3 $1/2 coupons and doubled them making each bag of crackers just $.50.
-1 Olay Body Wash: Clearance for $2.99, used $1/1 coupon and doubled it making the body wash $.99.
-4 Packages of Gillette Venus Razors: Clearance for $2.24 each
-3 Gillette Shaving Gels: Clearance for $.79 each

Total Before Savings: $67.62
Total Savings: $51.14
Total OOP: $16.48

Transaction #2

-6 Albertson 1/2 Gallon OJ: $1 each, used FM in ad coupon $10/10
-5 bags of Albertson's Tator Tots: $1 each, used Albertson's in ad coupon
-2 boxes Quaker Granola Bars: $2.50 each, used $1/1 coupons here and doubled them making each box only $.50
-2 Macaroni Grill Favorites: $3.50 each, used $1/1 coupons here and doubled them making each box $1.50 PLUS saved $2 instantly on chicken using Albertson's in ad coupon
-4 packages of Albertson's hamburger buns: $1 each on sale
-1.5 lb chicken breast: $1.98 after $2 instant savings from Macaroni Grill purchase
-1.5 lb ground beef: $1.99 lb

Total Before Savings: $61.20
Total Savings: $35.48
Total OOP: $25.72

Transaction #3

-4 Cans Hunts Manwich: Sale price 10/$10. Used 2 $.50/2 coupons, $.75 each
-2 Jars Taco Bell Salsa: Sale price 10/$10, $1 each
-4 Ocean Spray Juices: Used FM $3/5 coupon and used $1/1 printable. Doubled each coupon, making a profit of $1.36.

Total Before Savings: $21.93
Total Saved: $17.74
Total OOP: $4.18

Total week's spending: $111.21! Ouch, that was way over budget. I came in under budget by about $10 last week but that still puts me at twice my allowed spending for the week. Granted I did save quite a bit and bought a few clearance items that I hadn't anticipated... How'd everyone else do?

Are you an ArtsCow member? I have several posts regarding ArtsCow.com because they always offer great promotions for current and new customers. Currently, if you are an ArtsCow member they are offering a promotion for 10 free 8x8 custom cover 20 page photobooks. I love making these photobooks for gifts and for myself with pictures of my kids as they grow (Way too fast!) If you are not registered with ArtsCow you can create an account here. In addition, when you create an account and place an order with ArtsCow, they give you lots of free credits for future purchases. With my first order, they credited my account with several free things for future purchases such as free prints, a free calendar and some other free photo products.

To redeem your 10 FREE Photobooks, go to the member link titled Credit and Discount and use Gift Certificate Code : FREE10BKS.

Hurry though, this offer expires February 28th.

This week Albertsons has four coupons on the front page of their in store ad allowing you to double a manufacturer's coupon. You can double up to $1 off coupons, getting a total of $2.00 when you use a $1.00 off coupon. This is a great promotion allowing you to get some items this week for free or nearly free. Choose your coupons wisely!

The promotions for this week that I will be buying include:

Ocean Spray juice is on sale 3/$5 using the Fred Meyer in-ad coupon. Ocean Spray offers a printable on their website here for $1 off and you can print this coupon as many times as you'd like! Albertson's will honor the FM coupon so if you buy your juice at Albertson's and use the four double coupons from the Albertson's ad and purchase a total of 9 bottles of juice you will pay only $2 for all nine bottles! That is a killer deal, especially if you have kidos that drink juice like mine do!

Macaroni Grill Favorites: 2/$7, use $1/1 coupon here. Doubling this coupon would make each one $1.50 each. Also, when you buy 2, you'll get 2.00 off chicken instantly with in-ad store coupon.

Goldfish crackers: $1.50 each. There is a coupon on the package, $1/2, making each bag $1.

Quaker Simple Harvest or True Delights bars: $2.50 each, use printable here. If you choose to double this coupon, each box will be $.50.

Also, this week at Fred Meyer's you can purchase either a 1/2 gallon of milk, chocolate milk or OJ for $1. (In ad coupon required.) You can purchase up to 10 total and mix and match your ten depending on what you want or need. Albertson's will honor this coupon as well. However, if you buy chocolate milk, Albertson's does not carry an Albertson's chocolate milk in the 1/2 gallon size. Therefore, if you choose to buy chocolate milk with this promotion, you will need to go to Freddy's. I will be stopping there before Saturday, we love to make mochas with the chocolate milk.

Target

I stopped at Target on my lunch break today to use my Kashi coupons, here. Target has these Kashi bars on sale for $2.75 thru the 16th making each box $.75. I bought eight boxes. Target had a few other things on clearance that I couldn't pass up.

-Softsoap refill 64oz with a 7.5 oz Softsoap attached for $2.50
-Softsoap Body Wash 2-pack on sale for $2.50, used $.75 coupon from 2/1/09 paper
-Stickers from $1 bin for rewarding my son for potty training.
-Temporary tattoos with Disney characters, also from $1 bin, also for little 3 year old Adin!

The good news is, there are some great deals out there this week! The bad news for me is that due to superbowl Sunday, I spend a good part of my $50 budget already. I have a $5 Albertsons gift card from a rebate that I will use this week and I was under budget $10 last week, so we'll see how I do. I will post my total spending for the week after I've finished my shopping. Have a great week!

As most of you know, I do a lot of my grocery shopping at Albertson's. When combining the sales and coupons, I save a ton of money and rarely shop at Wal-mart any longer. (As you can guess, this does not disappoint me!) When Albertson's implemented their fuel incentive program, it sounded interesting but to be honest, I really didn't pay much attention because even though I do almost all my shopping at Albertson's, I don't spend all that much money and the gas rewards program earns you gas credits for every $50 you spend...or so I thought.

Well, when my friend Elisa told me she got $.75 off a gallon when she purchased fuel at Albertson's, I got really excited. Turns out, Albertson's rewards fuel credits based on your purchase before coupons. I earn $.05 off each gallon of fuel for every qualifying $50 purchase, even when I spend a lot less. For example, on one of my Albertson's receipts I bought a total of $55.40 worth of groceries. Therefore, I earned my $.05 credit. However, my total out of pocket amount was only $3.24! Now that is something to pay attention to!

If you don't use your $.05 off each gallon right away it is okay because they accumulate each time you shop. So, when my fuel gauge hit E, I drove down to Albertson's and got $.65 off each gallon of gas I purchased. I bought a little over 15 gallons of fuel for a whopping $16.50!

One thing to note, when you decide to use your fuel rewards, you can use the discount on up to 20 gallons of fuel. However, after you've chosen to use your fuel rewards your balance is reset to zero even if you don't buy all 20 gallons. So, if you only purchase one gallon of fuel using your rewards, your balance goes back to zero even though you could have purchased an additional 19 gallons at the discounted rate. My advice, wait until your gas tank is nearing empty before stopping for fuel to get the most for your money.

Also, your fuel rewards are stored on your preferred card. So, be sure to use your preferred card each time you shop and when you go to purchase your cheap gas!

So, how did I do this week? I have commited myself and our family budget to $50 per week on groceries and household needs. Keep in mind, I have created a nice stockpile of various items which I will not need to purchase on a regular basis such as toilet paper, paper towels, shaving gels, diapers and wipes and various other food and household items. Now, I can purchase these products only when they are on sale, instead of paying retail. This week I shopped various stores but only purchased a few items that were either free or were rockbottom prices.

I don't normally create a post for a single coupon, but I had to post this coupon link because anyone who knows me knows I prefer organic foods when possible and when affordable. So, when my friend Elisa told me about these coupons from Kashi, I was really excited. Kashi does not use artificial colors or flavors, etc. and I love their products. Currently, you can print a $2 off coupon from kashi.com/keepitreal when you purchase any one box of Kashi TLC soft-baked cereal bars. The bars are offered in three flavors: Blackberry Graham, Baked Apple Spice and Ripe Strawberry. Best of all, you can usually find these bars at your local Wal-mart for around $3.00 a box, making your total cost about $1.00 per box! Gotta love that!

You can print each coupon twice per computer. I am married to a complete computer geek and we have four computers in our home. I printed a total of 8 coupons and will be able to buy 8 boxes of bars for around $4.00!