Handbag Giveaway!

So I am a follower of a few other blogs and Jolly Mom is giving away a handbag from www.handbaghaven.com. They have some really cute bags!! Definitely look around because they have inexpensive bags. So check out the Jolly Mom's site and her contest below and you could win a Handbag Haven bag!!


http://www.jollymom.com/2009/03/spring-bash-hottest-handbags-for-spring.html

Pepsi Deal at Shaws

Pepsi 2 liter bottles are $1 at Shaws this week. They also have a store Q for $1/2 Pepsi Max here:

http://mywebdept.com/AssetFolder/GRF/Coupons_Mar09D.pdf

That will make a great deal as it is!

I received a $2 off any Pepsi product coupon for doing a mail in rebate around the superbowl.

I can use the store Q , so I will buy 3 bottles for $3 then use $1/2 Q= $2 and then use the $2 Pepsi Q= FREE!!



Another great deal that my friend Sara at www.tacobellagosi20.blogspot.com told me about is on Joint Juice. This week it is 2/$5. There is a $2 Q out there making them $.50 each!! Stock up!

Shaws 3/30...57 items $34!!

So I had a nice run. I can't complain. Here is what I bought:

3 Hilshire Farms Turkey Kielbasa (each had $3 off on it and I had $1/3 also)
2 Bags of Tortilla Chips Wild Harvest ($1/2)
1 gallon of milk (free milk coupon)
1 pint Strawberries (sale $2)
1 Cantaloupe (sale $.88)
1 lemon (free lemon printable shaws)
3 cans Del Monte no salt added tomatoes ($1/2 coupon, $.75/1 doubled printable)
2 Mini Warm Delights ($.55/1 printable)
2 Loaves of bread (reduced to $1 each)
1 bag of bagels (free Shaws coupon)
2 Pace salsa ($4 printables)
4 100 calorie pack boxes (sale on BOGO, also $3/4 tear pad)
1 lbs Dietz & Watson Turkey breast (in ad coupon for free 1/2lb cheese)
1/2 lbs Dietz & Watson Cheese (see above free)
1 Huggies disposable changing pads ($5 off printable)
1 Sweet Rays BBQ sauce
4 Wet Ones canisters ($1/2)
3 Wet Ones singles ($1/2, and $.75 doubled)
3 Bounty Paper towels (3 $1 coupons)
8 baby foods ($1/4, $.75/4)
2 Barilla pasta ($1/2)
2 Shaws Steamed veggies (Free Shaws coupon)
1 package of 2 Shaws Pie shells (Free Shaws coupon)
1 bag of Shaws potatoes ($.69 in ad coupon when you spend $25)
1 qt of Shaws cottage cheese (reduced to $1)
1 package of wheat rolls (reduced to $1.79)
2 Beech Nut Oatmeals (on sale had a BOGO coupon)
2 Mission tortilla bread (reduced to $1 each)
= just over $100 (including Shaws card discounts, which were $29.99)

After coupons and discounts $34.06!

There are a lot of 10/$10 items. You don't have to buy 10! Some sales will say you need to buy 2 (like the post cereal deal this week) but typically you do not need to!

Shaws this week...Things to consider

After doing some investigating on www.hotcouponworld.com forum for Shaws (love it by the way), I have compiled my list for this week. Now some things may be an even better deal if I can find the Q's that were discussed on the forum.

Some must haves:

Free lemon (shaws printable Q)
Cantaloupes $.88 each!
Wet Ones $1 ($1/2 Q)
Bounty $1 ($1 off from P&G booklet or $1/2 from various inserts)
$.69 Potatoes when you spend $25 (in ad Q)
Buy 1lb of Dietz and Watson meat get a 1/2 of their American Cheese free! (in ad Q)
Strawberries are $2
Barilla is $1 which could be free if they have the picolini (?) ones included ($1/1 Q this week) S&S has it included if not ;)

100 Calorie Packs (nabisco) are BOGO: Buy 2 at $6.38, get 2 free use the tear pad for $3/4 nabisco products (they are everywhere)= $3.38 for 4 boxes!

Still running is the buy 3 Kelloggs get free milk. I may pick up 3 Jumbo Krispies (baby loves them and they are good on weight watchers). Rumor has it there is a $.70/1 Q out there (which would double) and they are 3/$6 PLUS you'd get the milk Q.

There is also a promo for free eggs. There is a decent list of items to choose from so check out the forum for the complete list.

Also don't forget to print these coupons...these are different than the weekly ones they sent. Some of these are better used at S&S this week!

http://mywebdept.com/AssetFolder/GRF/Coupons_Mar09D.pdf

CVS trip 3/29

So I had a mixed trip today. The Soft Soap pump was more than I wanted to pay, but since they were paying me to buy the refills, it seemed ok. Overall I got 2 newspapers, 2 Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber Starter Kits, 1 Soft Soap pump, 3 Soft Soap Refills. I paid $7 out of pocket and got $4 in ECBs. My total without Q's would have been $31.

I found $2.50 off Soap Soap Ensembles at my CVS. There is a $2.75 Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber Starter Kit Q you can print (check hotcouponworld.com). The Scrubbing Bubbles kit was on sale for $2.99 costing me $.24 each.


I think I'll be going back this week for the Sense n' Spray because I have a CVS CRT and a manf Q. Also listerine products (select ones) are 50% off.

My coupon system...

So my friend Sara over at www.tacobellagosi20.blogspot.com recently posted her coupon organization system. I figured I'd post mine to provide some variety.

I started off with the typical accordion style coupon sized organizer. That's fine for a quick run or if you don't get more than one paper.

I get 2 papers (which is nothing, some people get 7 or more). Here you can see I use a binder. It's great because it allows me to have 2 main sections. One in the front contains my store envelopes. I have one for Walgreens, CVS, Target, Shaws, etc. I usually only toss coupons in those when I am planning my run to that store. I do keep my CVS coupons (for CVS only) in it's envelope.

The second section is behind that where I keep all my coupons in 3x3 pockets based on category. I have food, baby, health and beauty, meds, cleaning, and random (which is like candy at the checkout or rubbermaid containers, etc).

I find that if I bring this with me and I happen upon a clearance section at Target or Shaws I can easily find the coupons (if I have one or not) and pull it. I put all the coupons for the trip in a zipper pocket near the front of the binder. Then when it's time to check out, they are all right there.

In addition I keep a tiny keychain calculator in my purse and small scissors in my binder. Sounds crazy, but honestly it's been so helpful at making my trips quicker and more effective.

I'm definitely not your normal coupon lady! But I have saved insane amounts of money and been able to buy quality items on a teeny tiny budget.

CVS 3/27

I had not been to CVS in a while. I took a mini break since I had been very well stocked up on many items. I made a small run today while picking up my prescription.

I have a reusable CVS bag, 2 boxes of Post cereal, 2 small bags of CVS almonds, and a small tube of Neutrogena face cream/SPF stuff. I had a coupon for a free reusable bag, 2 $2 off Post Trail Mix (printable) and they were BOGO, $1 off CVS nuts (printed out of the price scanner), and My total was over $12 and I paid $2.46. I had no coupon for the face cream, but for $1 it's great to toss in a bag. I love Neutrogena and they hardly ever put out Qs. I paid $.46 for the cereal, $1 for the nuts, and $0 for the bag. Not bad.

Kmart round 2

So I went back for more punishment. I returned my razor and the two gerber snacks and got back $13 and change. Making my last trip free plus $4+. Yay!

So here we have 4 Natures Source cleaners (2 windex, 2 scrubbing bubbles), 2 Neutra Air sprays, 2 packages ziplock bags, 4 gerber stage 2 baby foods, 2 ziplock container packages, 6 stride gum, 2 Sally Hansen emery board things, 1 Reach flosser, Playtex bottle liners, and some Aveeno lotion that I forgot to put in the pic :) Oh and one bag of m&m's to get me up to $50 to get my $5 off.

My total original total was around $53 and after coupons it was sort of high at $17 something, but I had $13 that they gave back to me. So my total for Kmart was $4. Remember they had only over charged me $6.97 before (I used $6 in coupons that was refunded when I returned the miss marked items).

The reason I refer to it as punishment is that I can never seem to have a seamless transaction there. This time when the cashier was prompted to put in the correct products for the coupons as they scanned, she was randomly picking things, even though I was telling her what I bought for each coupon. So on the Natures Source cleaners ($2.50 each) she picked the stride gum ($1.28 each) so it only doubled up to $1.28. She was really nice and I kept telling her what each one was in hopes she would listen. If she had not done that my total would have been near $0 or pennies. Oh well!! It's hard to argue because the receipts are extremely vague.

I couldn't find my awesome Huggies coupon book which had at least 3 great Qs I wanted to use. I know I would have done even better.

Zenni Optical

The Thrifty Mama posted about this great site for eyeglasses. I am really excited about trying them out. They have $8 ones including frames and lenses with scratch protecting. I am looking forward to some sunglasses for an extra $5.

Many ladies posted about great experiences with them on the Thrifty Mama, which I would recommended looking at. Here is the link to her blog:

http://www.thethriftymama.com/2009/03/wednesdays-website-zenni-optical.html

Crazy Coupons these days...

So being that the economy is in tough shape, we've seen some awesome coupons out lately. Some are unbelievable (like the 2 weeks old navy did great ones!) in a great way and others are unbelievable in a "are they serious" way.

Recently I've seen a few $.20 off deodorant which is just sad. Even at Kmart tripled, it's lame people. Also I recently noticed a few other ways they are cheaping out on us. A few coupons I've seen are offering $2 off when you buy another item. The problem is the items themselves are not cheap. For instance, Aussie get $2 off shampoo when you buy a styling product (I know it's more specific than that, but just for fun..). Ok so at Kmart when I can get this doubled, the Aussie products are $4+ each. So in essence I would get one free. I would still have to pay full price for the other one...the one I didn't really need but had to buy to get the $2 off. And reading the coupon at a normal pace you will not get the whole situation. I have found a few coupons like this lately.

The issue to me is, companies want us to use the coupons right. They want the stores to accept the coupons for the product they intend, but they are making this harder then it needs to be.

In a time when lots of people are couponing now out of necessity, they are unfamiliar with all the rules, laws, stipulations, why make more complicated coupons?

I'm not sure they are serving the purpose I am sure they intend (to actually save us less, save them more). People are misreading them and using them left and right. I have done this myself.

I am trying to pay better attention now that I am aware of the craziness that some coupons seem to have these days. I usually do read them before had to make sure I am purchasing the right size, etc. These days, it seems you need someone to interpret at times. Even the P&G coupon booklet has some coupons that say "or select products"....ok. Wait. What? How will I know!!??

Also realize that often these are not great coupons UNLESS there is some clearance happening or some CVS fun.

Winster

Thanks to my friend Sara at www.tacobellagosi20.blogspot.com, I have found a fun way to make $5 amazon gift cards. You can play for free or pay to play. I play for free and over time I will earn a $5 amazon gift card.

I already have 2 $5 amazon cards from swagbucks.com. Every time I get one I just add it to my amazon account. I can save them up until I have enough to buy what I want! Usually a "free" gift!

Here is my link so we both win!

https://www.winster.com/refer.jsp?uid=byfk53qcfe9wc

Bottle Water Savings

There is an article here about saving money. At least the first tip made some really good points. It was talking about how much you can save by giving up bottled water. It's really amazing! Not only is it thrifty but I'm sure you've heard how much better it is for the environment.

Since I just picked up some great bottles (as I mentioned in my previous posts) for pennies. And we got a PUR flavor pack pitcher. We ran out of the flavor a while ago, but still great.

You can also add lemon, orange, lime, or even cucumber (really refreshing) to your water bottle to give it some flavor. I buy those items anyway, so more savings!

Here is the article, again some of these are silly but the water bottle part was great!

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/106780/7-Things-You're-Wasting-Money-On

Free Killians Tasting Kit

Sara posted about a free Killians Tasting kit on her blog. It looks like a lot of fun!! My husband will be having a great time with it I'm sure! Check it out:


http://tacobellagosi20.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-killians-tasting-kit.html

Thanks Sara!

Old Navy....a bit sad

So a few weeks ago Old Navy had this fantastic coupon promo going on where you could hunt around their online ad and find great coupons. The coupons were anything from $75 off of $100 purchase to 10% off your purchase. They were changing them every Thursday night between 8-9ish.

Last week, sadly, the coupons did not change on Thursday, but instead Friday at some point. They also did not put up coupons as great as the $75 off of $100 or $50 off of $100. :( They still do have some good coupons up if you planned on shopping there this week.

I am sure come Friday there will be some new coupons up. I will keep you posted if they post another hint this week.

www.oldnavyweekly.com

Target Deal Schick deal!

The Thrifty Mama (www.thethriftymama.com) posted a great deal on a few Schick razors at Target. They have a deal with buying 2 and getting a $5 gift card this week!

Here is what The Thrifty Mama posted:

Target has a great gift card promotion going on this week for Schick Razors.
Here’s how to do the deal:
Buy 1 Schick Intuition Plus at $6.99
Buy 1 Schick Quattro for Women at $6.99
Use $4/1 Schick Intuition coupon from the 3/22 Smart Source insert
Use $4/1 Schick Quattro coupon from the 3/22 Smart Source insert
Receive $5 Target gift card
= $.98 for 2 Razors after coupons and gift card!
If you have gift cards from previous deals, just roll them into this deal!

Please visit her site to see other Target deals this week!! PS- leave some for me :)

My Kmart Trip 3/22 18 items

So I didn't take my own advice. I did not scan all of my items before hand and I couldn't see the screen well as they rang me out due to glare. My total was around $65 before coupons, I paid $9.18. I was also overcharged $6. 18 items for $9 isn't bad :) but it should be 18 for $3 or 15 items for $1.50 (if I return the 3 items).

I was expecting to pay $1.50 for the toilet paper, $2.50 for the bottle liners, and a few cents for a few other items. So I should have realized it before I left, because $9 was high, especially with a $5 off coupon.

Needless to say I'll be heading back for the difference or returning the items. They are things that were going to be $1, $.25, and $.25, that I have a decent stock on. They rang up $7.49, $2.99, and $2.49. So I have no problem returning them.

If I do end up returning (if the signage was misread) they should refund me around $7.50+.

No coupons? No problem...

With the double coupon promo at Kmart this week (check on kmart.com to see if your local store has the $2 doubler on the flier), even if you do not currently have coupons you can still take advantage of the deal.

Here is how you do it. Of course I recommend buying a Sunday paper, because it is worth it! But if that isn't your thing, then you can print some coupons (Qs if you will) online.

This week at Kmart there is a sale on some Lysol and some Scrubbing Bubbles products. Both have printable Qs.

http://www.homesolutionsnews.us/offers.shtml

Make sure with that click on each tab.

Also there is a $3 Lysol rebate on select products when you buy 3 found here. Use coupons, get the products, get the rebate!

http://www.lysol.com/products/3Dolar_Rebate.pdf

Also this link is for Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber. It will be on sale beginning 3/29 at CVS and this coupons makes it near free!

http://www.scrubbingbubbles.com/coupon/2008-07-SB/


Of course my other fav sites are listed under "favorite things" which also have printable coupons. You can print 2 of each for most coupons. Enjoy!!

This weeks deal at Shaws...

I wanted to explain the deal at shaws this week that I mentioned below.

This week Kellogg cereal (select ones) are 3/$6. $2 a box is a great price (as you see below it's half price for most boxes). They also have another promo going with Kelloggs.

Buy 3 Kellogg cereals get a coupon for 1 free gallon of milk
Buy 5 Kellogg cereals get a coupon for 2 free gallons of milk
Buy 7 Kellogg cereals get a coupon for 3 free gallons of milk

The only restrictions listed are that the cereals must be 12oz or larger and must be purchased in one transaction. You CAN use any Kellogg coupons you may have. There is also a $1/2 Frosted Flakes coupon available on www.coupons.com, which you can print twice.

I believe I had an issue on my first try because I used the self check out machine. Only one coupon printed and I bought 7 boxes (3 separate coupons should have printed). I also had a manager who wouldn't help me, but usually they redo the transaction to get the coupons to print for you. Other forums have reported issues with the self check outs not printing them correctly.

More Shaws Fun...

Ok so by fun I mean got harassed by a manager, but 2 out of 3 transactions that went smoothly. Bottom pic was from yesterday, the first transaction I did before the harassment. I bought 2 boxes of Artisans Wheat Thins (we chowed one last night, very tasty) and 2 more water bottles. Grand total of $2.98 after coupons, savings of $25.17! I also received another $10 off catalina on my next purchase.

The top pic is from today. It's 7 boxes of cereal (in case you were wondering :)), 3 Kelloggs Special K Protein regularly $3.99 each, 2 Frosted Flakes Gold regularly $4.49, 1 mini wheat regularly $4.29, and 1 mini wheat little bites at $4.29. Total regularly= $29.53. Of course that's WAY too much! They were on sale for $2 each. So I paid $13 after coupons and got back 3 coupons for 1 free gallon of free milk each!! I had more coupons but they were *lost* in the debacle of last nights "incident".

I does amaze me how rude people can be given the job market. You'd think they'd be more careful to treat customers with respect (as I treat them) since there are 200 people in line for their job.

Kmart $2 Doubler starts 3/22!!

Woohoo! So beginning 3/22-3/28 most local Kmarts are doubling coupons up to and including $2 ones!! Although they are over priced on some items, I can often get free items during these promos.

Make sure you use the price scanner before you hit the register to verify pricing. They are notorious for mispricing their shelves or having the wrong sticker price.

Also be sure to take your internet printables because they do take them now.

And watch as you get rung out. Make sure they select the correct product if the coupon asks. Selecting the wrong product may cause it to only double to the value of that product, which may be less the the item you intended it for. For instance P&G products always pop up a box with say 9-12 products. If they select product that cost $2.99 and you had a $2 coupon it would only double it to $2.99 vs. if they selected the actual product you bought for $3.99 which would have doubled to the full value of $3.99. If that does happen the product you thought was free is now costing you $1. No biggie but multiply that by $20 and you catch my drift. And it can actually be much worse than that, costing you several dollars more for the product.

Sounds complicated, but really it isn't. When they begin scanning the coupons watch the coupons and if a box pops up, simply say "oh that was the Olay facial wash" so they don't select the toothpaste :). Just let them know which product it was intended for.

Happy hunting!!

Save some paper and ink...

by printing your Target coupons at Target! Yes you can print their web coupons at their Registry stations. This is great for me because I go through ink fast.

Remember for Target Q's you can print as many as you'd like, unlike bricks coupons (aka coupons.com and most coupons you find online) and smartsource (another online printing company) which you can only print 2 times. So make sure you are ready to go for those, you only get 2 chances per IP address.

One way I try to conserve paper is by printing coupons on both sides or ends of the paper. Ok so before I confuse you, or cause you to print 2 coupons on top of each other leading to you hating me, I will explain. When I'm only printing one coupon, I can then in turn print the next one at the opposite end of the page. You do need to understand how your printer takes the paper, but that isn't as hard as it sounds, I promise ;)

Iams deal at Walmart

Thanks to a post by The Thrifty Mama (see my fav things for the link), I am aware of a deal at Walmart involving Iams kitten and puppy food. Both are under $5 this week and there was a $5 off coupon recently (3/1) in the paper. Great for your pet or your local pet shelter!!

3/19 Shaws run...good and bad

Ok so I had another good run today. Got 2 Nalgene bottles for gifts, a 4 pack of Bic Soleil Shimmer razor refills, 2 Planters Big Chewy nut bars, 2 packs of gum, and 2 pantene styling products. For a grand total of....$2.44, savings of $43+. Or a savings of 95%!!

Oh and I received another $10 off your next purchase catalina, so I made $7+ today!

I had coupons for everything I bought. 4 were for free products (the pantene and the gum), one was a $10 catalina from the Kraft deal the other day, and $1.15 in returned cans :). I also had 2 $1 off the Planters bars, $2 off Bic Soleil, $1/2 off Crystal Light (naglene bottles have Crystal Light in them and ring up as a Kraft product because of it).

Needless to say it was good.

I did plan on buying some Aqua Juice, however the cashier was not understanding coupons so I gave up on that. She didn't even scan the coupon, nor did she get it. It's pretty sad since it's not rocket science, but hey what are you going to do. Not worth fighting over. I'll just avoid her line :) I was able to use the same coupons at Stop & Shop no problemo.

33 Items, $36!! Shaws deal week of 3/13

So here is my run from St. Patty's Day! I had the luck of the Irish on my side for sure. I managed to buy 33 items for $36! Included here is 6 boxes of Kelloggs cereal, 4 Bic Shimmer razors (with 2 refills each), 4 Oust Surface and Air, 2 Cheez-It's, 2 Nutrigrain boxes, 2 Always pads, etc. Lots of high priced items here. Now I don't need to buy cereal until the next big sale! Anyone can do it!

Today I went back and took advantage of a few deals. The Kraft deal is still going on (spend $25 before sale price and coupons on select products and receive $10 off your next purchase) I am hearing until 4/2.

So today I bought 2 Nalgene BPA free bottles with Crystal Light sticks inside (regular price $9.99, sale price $4.99) and 2 boxes Planters Big Chewy Bars. Pre sale total= $27.56, sale price=$14.98. I had $3.50 in coupons=$11.48. I received a $10 catalina off my next purchase. $1.48 for 2 water bottles and 2 boxes of Planters Bars.

I also bought 2 Dove Pro Age Body Washes for $3.99 each (regular price $7.99 each, 50% off right now). I had 2 $1 off coupons so my total was $7.98-$2=$5.98. I received $5 catalina off my next purchase.

Spray n' Wash is BOGO this week. The cost of one is $3.19. On www.spraynwash.com you can get a $.75 off coupon (you can print it 2xs). These will double to $1.50 each or $3 total. $3.19-$3=$.19!!

Time to organize!

I can definitely say that couponing, or deal partaking in general, works so much better when you are very organized. I'm not always mrs. organization, but I find a list, or even an envelope with the coupons I intend to use (just like a list really), is enough at times.

I find when I go in blind to a great sale (like the Shaw's sale this week or a fantastic CVS week) it not only takes me so much longer, but I'm 100 times more likely to get frustrated and flustered, forgetting things or coupons I intend to use. My deals always seem better when I've taken the time to organize them.

I think people quit couponing or don't even try it because they think it's oh so time consuming. It's really not at all. Just make a list of the sale items/promos you want to take advantage of, gather any coupons, and go! Spending a half hour a week (probably less for those without 2 little ones!) saves me huge money over the course of a month.

Often I will get the weekly circular for the grocery stores and circle the items I want to buy, put question marks next to the items I would buy if I had/could find a great coupon for.

It's totally worth it to me. I usually average a 50% savings (or more) on my groceries. Money I can use towards clothes, vacations, or things for the kids!

www.hotcouponworld.com has forums for just about any grocery store (not all but most). I go there and most of the work is done for me. I just pull my coupons and go!