I’m writing this post from an airport as I wait to board a plane bound for Las Vegas. It isn’t a vacation, but a work-related trip. Tomorrow I have the privilege of speaking on a panel at Affiliate Summit West (Follow it on Twitter #asw10).
Affiliate Summit is a web-industry conference and trade show focused on affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is the term used when one website promoted a service, product or offer from another website and receives a commission for each sale or action taken. The panel I’m on is addressing the topic How Mom Bloggers are Changing the Face of Affiliate Marketing. I’m joined on the panel by Wendy Limauge of Sweeties Swag, Kim Rowley of Key Internet Marketing, Inc., and Heather Sokol of Inexpensively. Deborah Carny of Team Loxly pulled this together and is the panel moderator.
Just because I am out of town until Tuesday night doesn’t mean the deals stop. No worries friend, Laura Wales will be commandeering this ship in my absence.
Laura, meet everybody. Everybody, let’s meet Laura.
Hello! My name is Laura Wales, and I’ve been reading Pocket Your Dollars since spring 2009. I love finding a good deal, building up my stockpile, and collecting plenty of food and supplies to donate. CVS is my absolute favorite place to shop, and I’ve fallen in love with Rainbow, too. I also started shopping at Aldi about six months ago and LOVE it. I am a total coupon freak and an organizational nut. I love crunching numbers and tweaking Excel spreadsheets to keep track of my savings throughout the year. Yes, I’m a nerd.
It’s been a whirlwind couple of years for me. In the past two years, I’ve gotten engaged to and married my husband, left my position as a high school English teacher, and now am a full-time stay-at-home mom to my 8-month-old son.
I’ve been helping Carrie by writing a few posts here and there since last fall, so when she asked me to “blog-sit” for her, I thought, “Hey, this should be no problem, right?” Well, after finding out all of the work that goes on behind the scenes here at Pocket Your Dollars, I am totally overwhelmed and am glad that I don’t have to do this full-time! Still, I look forward to sharing the shopping lists and deals with you and reading your comments. Thanks for reading!
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This is Carrie again. You’ll be able to tell which posts Laura authors and those will be all the shopping lists this week and (if she hasn’t run out of steam) a giveaway and bunch of new deals too. Please be extra super helpful to her and make this a fabulous week for everybody. The theory is that I will actually unplug and take a break. We’ll see if I can do it.
Your turn: Can you give Laura a warm welcome and share some words of encouragement with her?
About Carrie Rocha
Hi Laura! You’ll be great, we have no doubt! Thanks for taking over while Carrie gets away. We really appreciate it.
Nice to meet you Laura! I came to this website after seeing Carrie on TCL. I am not a CVS-er, but do use Walgreens as drugstore of choice. :)
Yay! Looking forward to hearing from you Laura! I too am a total CVS lover! I even picked up the early Sunday paper today so I could see the deals since I am going to the Vikings game tomorrow and won’t get to look at the paper until tomorrow night! :)
Welcome Laura! I bet you’re going to do great! What a wonderful opportunity for someone else to see all that Carrie does! I too love the deals at Rainbow, although my Rainbow does a horrible job at keeping the shelves stocked, so it’s sort of a love hate relationship.
Can’t wait to see all the great deals! Good luck!
Shelley
Thanks for helping Carrie keep us informed while she goes to her conference!
I am huge into Aldi. If you can’t get it on sale with a coupon that is the next best option. Haven’t done CVS yet and is working up the nerve to add this into my already crazy shopping schedule!
I am glad to see we have someone to help out while Carrie is gone. I know I could probably find the deals by myself but I would totally miss the easy access to deals on here. Thank you Laura for filling in. Have a nice time off Carrie, you deserve it!
Chrissy – Aldi is my back-up option, too. It’s where I buy most of the items that I need for the week and don’t want to pay full-price for elsewhere. If and when you do decide to add CVS to your schedule, the good news is that you don’t have to do it every week since Extra Care Bucks usually expire an entire month after they’re printed, so you have plenty of time to use them.
Laura,
Great to meet you. I love CVS also but I had never been there until I started checking out “Pocket your Dollars” in 2009. I have learned so much this past year from Carrie and all the other shoppers. Saving Money is my new addiction.
Julie
Welcome, welcome! Thank you so much for helping because otherwise there would have been many of us in PYD withdrawal!!
Welcome Laura. I’m looking forward to another week of great deals.
Welcome-I’m really glad your willing to do this and look forward to any tips you offer-just started in nov so am very glad to not have to do this week on my own:) thanks
Thanks for the welcome, everyone! I’m really honored to be posting here and interacting with all of you. Please feel free to comment in the shopping lists and add what you’ve found in terms of coupons/sales I may have missed, too.
Welcome Laura! So glad you are able to fill in for Carrie!
Welcome and thanks for helping out.
welcome i have not been brave enough do cvs is it easier than walgreens? i just buy my sons prescription and a few knicks knacks here and there.
Erica – I think CVS is way easier than Walgreens. You do have to have a extracare savings card to save the most money- they will give you on your first visit. But the rules for earning extra care bucks (ECBs) and using them for future purchases to earn more
ECBs are easier to follow. For example, at Walgreens you cannot use a RR that you earned from the same product to receive a new RR (last week the Thermacare wraps for free, so if you bought one and tried to buy a second with the RR from the first, you would not receive a new RR). At CVS you will receive more ECBs by buying the exact same product, but they do have limits that vary. I have never had any problems in the past 4 months I have been shopping there, the cashiers are wonderful and I have never had them question my coupons.
Carrie-Good for you to take this break!
Laura-Welcome! What a great opportunity for you! Thanks for your willingness to do this! :)
Welcome, Laura! Thanks for helping out this week!
Welcome Laura! I need to check out CVS, I have never been there… I will get right on that after the Vikings game! Go Vikes!
Carrie- have a great time at the conference. I know that you will do a great job:)
Laura- thanks for taking over while Carrie is gone! I love this website and planning my weekly shopping trips. I am also an excel nut- I love to see my results of how much I am saving and keeping track of my spending.
I have a question and time is running out on this resterant.com offer. If you get the certificates do you have to redeem them right away?
Pj – restaurant.com coupons are good for 1 year from the purchase date. Yay!
Welcome Laura, you are a brave, brave woman!
Hi Laura!
Welcome and thanks for minding the house in Carrie’s stead. I can only imagine how much work it must be. I’ve read your comments and you’re doing an excellent job, keep up the good work!
Hi Laura! I just found this site a couple of weeks ago and have been slowly learning the ropes. I’m pretty sure everyone I know if tired of hearing about my free Oust and $.24 toothpaste from last week :) After a few stressful trip to CVS trying to keep my card, coupons, green leaf bag thingy, and ExtraBucks straight, it is also now one of my favorites. I’m single, so that adds a bit of a challenge as I don’t usually need huge quantities of perishable items. I’ve found Cub & Target work well for that. Anyway, I look forward to continuing to learn this week!!
Hi Laura, thanks for doing this! I was just wondering if there was going to be a Cub list this week? Thanks.