Entertainment Deal, Groupon, the Bonton, and $100 at Aldi's

Here are just a few deals I've spotted today.

Entertainment is offering their coupon books for $5.99 for the next three days. These may be good if you're going on vacation. Plus, if you shop purchase the book through Shop At Home, you'll get 20% cash back on your Entertainment.com purchase. We've saved well over the cost of the book just using the rental car coupons for business trips, and the Joann Fabrics coupons.

Groupon has those cute little flirty aprons for half off.  I absolutely love the style of these aprons but the frugality in me won't even spend the $15 on them. However, it does make me want to hit Joann Fabrics, head over to my craft room and whip up one of my own!

Aldi is giving away three $100 gift certificates each week for their store. First, you have to like them on Facebook. So head over to Aldi and give them a "like" for your chance for a $100 Aldi gift certificate. I love saving at Aldi so the idea of a free $100 to put on my table is a pretty nice idea to me.

Lastly, the Bonton is having their final hours of $50 off a $100 purchase in their stores. This is not available online. I've actually managed to get some really good deals (if I could get past all the exclusions) from the Bonton but it is very important to check the store exclusions or what you think is a great deal may end up being a purchase that will sink the pit of your stomach.

Easy Crockpot Recipes and Menus

Stretching Your Laundry Detergent and Your Budget

I've made my own laundry detergent for a few years now but when I began using coupons, I was able to buy laundry detergent at a cheaper price and stocked up on it. I actually like the way my laundry recipe works on my clothes and it lasts even longer than the laundry detergent I buy out of the store. So I decided to put my already great detergent into super mode.

My recipe is pretty basic, what you'd find online pretty much anywhere - Fels Naptha Soap bar, Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda), and Borax. I melt the soap in some water and add the soda and borax, place it into a 5 gallon pail and add water to fill. I do add some clean cotton fragrance oil to give it a nice fragrance because, without it, my clothes smell pretty blah. Once that's done, I have a pretty basic homemade laundry detergent.

Since getting a good number of Purex laundry detergent for little or nothing with my coupons, I decided to add a 33 oz bottle to my already wonderful laundry detergent and now I have a super stain removing laundry detergent. Grass stains that were once troublesome were gone! I even got the breastfed baby poop stains out of baby Cee's onesies very easily (and they can be quite stubborn stains). I suppose since Fels Naptha has a long history of it's stain fighting properties, it shouldn't have been surprising that the stains came out so well but I honestly didn't get the those particular stains out so easily until I combined both the Purex and the Fels Naptha.

Now I have 5 gallons of super charged detergent that will last me for months (even doing four to five loads daily). I've now filled the original Purex container with my mixture and use about two tablespoons per load in my front loader. (One of these days the Lord will bless us with more than one machine for all of this wonderful laundry but until then, I praise Him for the one we have now!) It's always good to find ways to stretch the precious dollars that seem to be harder to come by than they are to spend.

40% off Carters Site/Store Wide

Right now you can save 40% in store or site wide at Carters. This is off all store items so it's a good time to get many of those cute tees that can be worn this fall. In addition, grandparents can shop on Wednesdays and get an extra 10% off in stores. So if you want a few new things for the children but you don't like to spend a lot, take a look at Carter's and save 40% on some of those really cute items you'd never spend full price on.

Nordstrom and Sheetz Savings and a Disney Freebie

Today only, in support of the new Batman The Dark Knight Rises movie, get your next 20 oz Mountain Dew for $.99 at Sheetz with your Sheetz card. Since Sheetz does accept coupons, if you have one, you can use it to snag a real deal on your Mountain Dew. This deal is limited one per Sheetz card holder and

Also today only, Shop At Home is offering 10% cash back on Nordstrom purchases. You'll have to shop through the Shop At Home link to get the cash back.

New to Shop At Home? It's a site that rewards you cash back on items you purchase everyday online. I've received checks for purchasing many store seasonal and clearance items for my home and children, business items such as business cards from Vista Print and hotels from Priceline, and even purchases from department stores such as Macy's and JC Penney's. The savings really do add up. There are also grocery coupons, free samples, and restaurant coupons as well. Visit Shop At Home to sign up today.

Disney Store Water Bottle Free when you purchase through Shop At Home. This is another today only offer. Check it out!

Free - Today Only!

Bath and Body Works Free Hand Soaps

I love Bath and Body Works lotions and hand soaps and today they're having a "bubbly summer surprise" sale. When you purchase one hand soap, you get one free. This sale expires today, June 10 and is only available in the U.S.  The fine print is one free item per customer and the free item is of $5.50 value. Also, if you have the coupons that have been going around, you'll also be able to get an additional 20% off of this but hurry. Both the sale and the coupon expire today!

Cheap Maybelline Eye Tattoo

The Maybelline Eye Tattoo I blogged about a couple of weeks ago is now at CVS for $7.39 (regular price) but if you spend $15 before any coupons, you'll get $5 back in extra bucks. So here's how to get one and get a second for $.55.

Use two printable coupons for $1/1 Color Tattoo cream gel eyeshadow from coupons.com.
Pay $12.78
Get $5 extra bucks back
Final cost $7.78 or... $7.39 for one and $.39 for the second or... $3.89 each.

Actual price of the Eye Tattoo may vary by region.

Cheap Pepsi Next and Pantene at Martins Foods

There's a nice deal at Martins Foods on the new Pepsi Next. I was able to give it a try last month when Target printed out catalinas for free Pepsi Next and it wasn't bad. As a former Pepsiholic, I didn't find it as up to the taste of the original Pepsi; however, this lower sugar alternative wasn't too bad at all. So here's the scenario at Martins if it's something you want to grab while it's cheap.

Purchase 8 Pepsi Next 2 liter bottles @ 4/$5
Get an instant $3 off your purchase
Use 4 - $1/2 Pepsi Next coupons from the PepsiCo insert from 4/29
Pay $3 or $.38 each

There's also a P&G rebate on select P&G products if you purchase $40 this week. A catalina will print out after you've purchased $40 worth of the products in the same transaction. That means that all the products you purchase will need to be on the same receipt to get the catalina for the rebate.

Our family can use up a bottle of shampoo in no time and Pantene is one of those products that are good for the gift card. So here's the scenario I came up with:

Purchase 6 Shampoos and 6 conditioners @ 2/$7
Use 6 buy one get one free coupons from P&G insert 4/29 and
Use 3 $1/2 Pantene coupons (expire today)
Pay $18
Receive $10 P&G rebate
Final Cost: $8 or $.67 per bottle

I recently purchase the plant based shampoo and conditioner on another sale and my girls love it. So I'll use this opportunity to stock up again.

Not So Made Up - Easy Natural Eyes

I love the enhancement of natural beauty using the beautiful color and techniques of makeup application. When wearing makeup, I like to follow the adage, "A little goes a long way."  There are times when I like bold colors but I don't strive for the look of the runway or the circus clown. I prefer a less ostentatious approach to my make up.

Having said that, I've been hearing great things about Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo 24 Hour Cream Gel Shadow. Although I've yet to try it, it's rumored to be long lasting, easy to apply and non-creasing. I checked out the colors and they're pretty nice. There's color to suit just about anyone but I'm going to put it on my shopping list because long lasting and non creasing are nice perks. Speaking of perks, with a coupon, I can save pretty nicely if I get it at CVS on the week of April 29th when there are $5 Extra Bucks when you purchase $15 of face, eye or lip products.

You can check the Maybelline Eye Studio website to take a look at the different views of usage for the shadow. Some of the applications are dramatic but can easily be scaled down if. I thought the techniques were nice enough to tweak and make them my own. The views list instructions to achieve the "look" and are printable. The views are also inclusive of other makeup items, such as liner, to gain the full look that Maybelline will show you.

Maybelline Eye Studio website  has application tutorials.

I was happy to stumble across another video that shows a nice tutorial for a natural look. It does incorporate the Maybelline Color Tattoo but has a couple of other products that are mentioned, including false lashes. I don't use false lashes but really liked how Holly easily showed off her application in her video that I've included below. I'm taking survey of what I'll need to add a little variance to my eyes.

Here's Holly's video.