Sitter City: Free trial

Click on the banner and sign up to get a free 7-day trial membership in Sitter City, a service that matches parents and babysitters. The service allows you to run background checks, check references, and conduct interviews. (They have babysitters, nannies, senior caregivers, pet caregivers, house sitters, and tutors.) Baby Cheapskate wrote a review last January.

If you know that you definitely want to sign up for a paid membership with Sitter City, you can earn a $25 cash back rebate through shopping portal Cashbaq. I've yet to review Cashbaq for Chief Family Officer, but I've using it for a few months now and have been satisfied with it (it works a lot like Ebates). If you're new to Cashbaq, I'd appreciate it if you'd sign up through my referral link (you'll get a $5 sign up bonus and I'll get a small percentage of your rebate) - thank you!

Disclosure: The banner link is served by MySavings.com, and CFO is a MySavings.com affiliate.

Buy a DVD from Amazon by Feb. 28 and get three $1 magazine subscriptions

I bought some "All About" kids' DVDsfrom Amazon and received an email saying that my purchase had made me eligible for $1 subscriptions to Rolling Stone, Men's Journal and Us Weekly. I didn't remember reading about any promotion when I bought the DVDs, but when I went back, I saw this text:

Purchase a DVD in February, and you can get a magazine subscription to Rolling Stone, Us Weekly and Men's Journal for just $1 each. Here's how (restrictions apply).

The Rolling Stone and Men's Journal subscriptions are for one year; the Us Weekly subscription is only for 8 weeks. It's a total $34.90 value for $3, but you can choose one, two or all three - they'll just be $1 apiece.

Disclosure: I'm an Amazon affiliate, so any purchase you make after entering Amazon through a link on CFO Reviews supports this site at no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Best Buy DVD deal: Buy 2 DVDs for $12 & get a $10 gift card

Best Buy currently has a promotion where you can buy 2 selected DVDs for $12. There's also a deal to buy 2 selected DVDs and get a $10 gift card. Select in-store pick up to save on shipping and combine the deals to get 2 DVDs for $2. And although there are only seven movies that qualify for both deals, they're good ones - /Film (where I found this deal) has the list.

These DVDs will make great stocking stuffers or fillers in a movie-themed holiday gift basket, so if you give a lot of gifts, you might want to take advantage of this deal!

Almost-free prints/gifts at Shutterfly - but you must order tonight!

I just happened across this deal at MoneySavingMethods, and paid a mere 14 cents for a 5x7 photo book and one print at Shutterfly. I'm still stunned at that deal. It ends tonight, so don't delay!

Thanks to Freebies 4 Mom for the deal alert.

Disney costumes for cheap!

I know it seems to early to be thinking about Halloween, but Bargain Hunting Moms found some Disney costumes on clearance for as little as $4.99. There's even a code for $5 flat rate shipping (BHM lists SHIPFOR5, I got an email this morning with the code SHIPFIVE). If you see something you like on sale, why not pick it up and save yourself the stress of finding a costume in a couple of months? (Unfortunately, Alex wants to be WALL*E, so I might be making that from scratch.)

CVS Clearance: 3-pack of Pampers Clean 'n Go for $2

I'm sure every CVS has different items on clearance, but I had to mention this one because it's so good. I found two 3-packs of Pampers Clean n' Go wipes for $2 each. I couldn't believe it. I would have gotten more, but they only had two left. I'm picky about diapers but not so much about wipes, so I'll definitely use these. (In fact, I use wipes for everything now - I can see myself buying them for the rest of my life.) If you have any $2 off 2 coupons from the June 1 P&G circular, you could get two packs for $1 each. For reference, the regular price on these is $5.99 at Target and $7.99 at CVS. So if you're headed to CVS, don't forget to check the clearance endcaps!

What have you found on clearance lately?

Free Gillette Fusion Power razors at Target

Thanks to Mommy Making Money, I knew that Target has an advertised deal through Saturday where they give you a $10 gift card if you buy two Gillette Fusion or Embrace razors or cartridges at $9.44 each. But I learned this morning from Money Saving Mom that some stores have the Fusion razors at $7.99. That was the price at my store. If you have two $4 off Fusion razor coupons from this past Sunday's newspaper, you can buy two for $7.98 and get a $10 gift card. It worked for me earlier today. The razors were actually labeled as $7.99, but if your store doesn't have the sign up and you're wondering what the price is, just take it over to the scanner. The scanner should also indicate that you'll get a gift card when you buy two.

More drugstore success - this time at Walgreens!

I did five total transactions at Walgreens this week, in two trips. They had an amazing P&G Register Rewards deal going on - if you bought a certain number of qualifying products, you got a corresponding amount in Register Rewards. I went for the big one: buy 9 products and get 2 $10 rewards. But the first Walgreens I went to didn't have 9 qualifying products that I wanted to buy, so I ended up buying 5 and getting $10. That first purchase went like this:

I bought:

• five tubes Crest ProHealth toothpaste
• two 20 ft. boxes of aluminum foil
• and one small bottle of Dawn

With coupons, my total was $6.76 and I got $10 in Register Rewards. A few days later, I headed to a different Walgreens, and did four separate transactions. The first one went like this:

• one Venus Embrace razor
• one package of 3-oz. paper cups

I used a $4 coupon for the razor and the $10 Register Rewards, paid $1.48 out of pocket, and got $6 in Register Rewards (from buying the razor). Then I did the P&G deal again so I could roll the razor Register Rewards (note: you can't use Register Rewards on the same deal, i.e., I couldn't have bought more P&G products, used the $10 RR and received more RRs). So here's how the second transaction went:

• five tubes Crest ProHealth toothpaste
• three bottles Cascade dishwashing detergent
• one box of 2 Mr. Clean Magic Erasers

After coupons and the $6 Register Rewards, my total out of pocket was $6.36. I also got two $10 Register Rewards. If I'd been thinking straight, I would have bought only four tubes of toothpaste and gotten one $10 Register Rewards, although with coupons, I think the toothpaste was only 50 cents per tube. I used one of the $10 Register Rewards coupon for the following, my third transaction:

• one Oral B toothbrush
• one tube of Blistex
• another package of 3-oz. paper cups

I used a $1 coupon for the toothbrush and the $10 RR and paid 98 cents out of pocket. (The toothbrush is one of May's free after rebate items, so I'll get $4.99 plus 10% back on my Walgreens giftcard.) I then took the last $10 Register Rewards and bought:

• four cans of Spaghetti O's
• three cans of Campbells condensed soup
• one can of tomato paste
• and one box of cereal

I donated all of the food to the Stamp Out Hunger food drive. Thanks to Mercedes at Common Sense with Money for the idea of using a RR to buy food to donate.

This is definitely the most success I've ever had at Walgreens. I spent a total of $16.54 and ended up with way more toothpaste than we will use in a year (I'll give some away), plenty of dishwashing detergent, food to give away, and more. And that doesn't even take the toothbrush rebate into account. The funny thing is, this is all it takes to make me feel rich! :)

CentsAble Shopper Show & Tell: A CVS trip that didn't work out right

The bad news is that my planned CVS trip was foiled by the computer's refusal to accept some of my coupons, and my own foolish choice to head for self-checkout because the regular checkout line was rather long (the cashier probably could have entered some of the coupons manually).

The good news is that even with the coupon problems, I paid about the same that I would have paid at Target for the same items, and I got a couple extra things to boot.

So here's what I bought:

• 3 CVS brand sanitary pads (on sale for buy two get one free - the ultra thin is my favorite pad)
• one box of CVS brand tissue (so I could use a $3 off $10 CVS purchase)
• one CVS brand hand sanitizer spray pen (grabbed at checkout when I realized I was a little short of a $10 CVS purchase)
• two Aquafresh toothpaste (these are free after ECBs this month with a limit of three; I bought two since I had $1.50 and $1 coupons - I'm hoping another coupon will come out sometime this month that I can use to pick up the last tube)
• two bottles of All HE detergent (on sale for buy one get one free, and I used a $1 off coupon)
• one Just for Men (I have no use for this, but it's free after ECBs, and there's a mail-in rebate (pdf))

My undiscounted total was over $40, but for some reason, the computer wouldn't accept my $5 off $30 purchase coupon, which still irks me. However, it did accept my $3 off $15 coupon. The computer accepted my $4 ECB but not my $11.97 ECB - the manager said that I had reached the coupon limit. So instead of paying about $4, I ended up having to shell out $17.44 - which is about the same as what I would have paid at Target, and maybe even a little bit less (for only the stuff I would have bought anyway; at Target, I wouldn't have bought the tissue, hand sanitizer or Just for Men). So I'm not overly upset, since I still have the $11.97 ECB, plus $7.99 and $5.98 ECBs from the above transaction.

I did ask the manager to explain how the coupon limit works - only to be told that it varies according to each purchase. I'm inferring that there's some unspecified algorithm in the computer that takes into account the total amount of the purchase, the total amount of coupons, the total number of coupons, and maybe additional factors.

Head over to BeCentsAble and check out the deals everyone else got this week!

Dayna asked a great question on my post about last week's drugstore deals: Why roll over the ECBs? I'll be answering that question on Monday!

CentsAble Shopper Show & Tell: My CVS & Walgreens deals this week

Each week, BeCentsAble hosts the CentsAble Shopper Show & Tell, where you can read about the great deals and shopping trips everyone had during the week. I thought it was about time I joined in :)

I don't have pictures because our camera uploads to Marc's computer, not mine. (That's why I don't take many pictures in general.) But I had two CVS trips and Walgreens trips this week.

During the first CVS trip, I picked up three boxes of CVS Rapid Release Gelcaps, which are free after ECBs ($3.99 each). I used a $3 off $10 purchase. I also picked up one of the Mennen Speed Stick 24/7 deodorants, which was free after ECBs (also $3.99). I used a $1 coupon on that. I also bought a newspaper. I had a $5 ECB, so my total out of pocket including tax was a little over $9. I ended up with an $11.97 ECB and a $3.99 ECB.

Then I went to Walgreens armed with coupons, but they were out of stock on some items, so I ended up only using one 7-day coupon from the weekly circular: 3 Scotch bubble mailers for $1, with a limit of 6. I bought the biggest (and most expensive) mailers that I could with the coupon. The coupon wouldn't scan, but I was patient and the manager was able to override the problem. So I got 6 10x13 bubble mailers for $2 plus tax - a savings of $11.14. I've already used three of the envelopes to send some packages!

My final trip was back to CVS, where I was thwarted by the ExtraCare card scanner at the front of the store being out of order. I always get a $3 off $10 CVS brand purchase, which I'd been counting on for my purchase of two more Rapid Release Gelcaps and CVS brand sanitary pads (which I actually like even more than Always brand, go figure). Without the coupon, the deal wouldn't be a money maker so I skipped it. I only bought two things: Alavert, which was on sale for $6.99, and a package of CVS brand small plastic cups (which the boys will use). I used a $4 Alavert coupon and the $3.99 ECB from my purchase earlier in the week. My total out of pocket was a little over $2 and I got a $4 ECB back.

The thing I'm learning as I play The Drugstore Game is to take advantage of as money makers as possible, so that I can roll over my ECBs and still buy things that I need (like the cups). It's really counterintuitive to buy things that I don't need, but I'm giving them away to friends or as donations.