Saving Myself Silly: January 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

Kroger Trip 1/31

I *finally* made it to Kroger. However, I will be making another trip to Kroger before this sale ends next week. Why? They were out of quite a few items I wanted to get. I'm not surprised one bit, though. It was C.R.A.Z.Y. in there tonight. I suppose everyone had the same idea as I did, to get their shopping done before the rain tonight and then the freezing temperatures hit in the early morning hours. In fact, I barely beat the rain home. I was able to get the bulk of my shopping done, however.

Here is what I ended up with (my very OCD husband gets the photo credit--click to enlarge):

Total Shelf Price: $142.38
Initial Sale Price: $102.34
Sale Price After $25 Instant Savings For Buying 5 Sets of Mega Items: $77.34
Price After Coupons: $32.67
Price Paid After $25 Pharmacy Credit: $7.67 94% Savings

I will be going back after the weather clears looking for my Bar S hotdogs, and Krusteaz Pancake mix. I do not believe my store even carries the Honest Tea. I didn't even see a place where it had once been.

The cat treat that I bought were a surprise freebie. I knew they were included in the sale, but did not realize that they were $0.50 with the sale price. Sunday's paper (I do not recall which insert) contained $1/2 coupons for these Whisker Lickens cat treats, so I was able to restock on cat treats for FREE. =)

And yes, you may have noticed that one lonely random can of Del Monte corn. When all of my shopping was done, I had only 49 items in my basket, and that just does not work for a Mega Sale. You must make sure you have participating items in multiples of 10! I needed a cheap filler item, and it doesn't get much cheaper than $0.26!

Did you make it to Kroger this week? Let us know what you got and how much you saved in a comment. If you blogged about it, you can leave a link!

Tom Thumb Trip 1/31

I had planned to go to Kroger this morning, really I did. I even had my kids dressed, and then I remembered that there were some more coupons that I had not gathered yet. *sigh* This sale is a LOT of work...lol. Tom Thumb is closer to my house, though, and they had a few things that I wanted to get. The kids were ready to go somewhere, anywhere, so I gather up a few coupons and made an impromptu trip over to Tom Thumb. Here is what I came home with:

Total Shelf Cost: $ 64.62
Total Sale Price: $ 34.52
Price Paid After Coupons: $16.45 75% Savings

Here is what I did (note: Tom Thumb will triple up to $0.39 and double $0.40-$0.50, but will do so for only 1 like coupon. The rest are redeemed at face value):

First, I had a free coupon for the Uncrustables that was expiring today! I had not been able to find these at Kroger.
The Nature Valley are on in-ad coupon for $1.77 (limit 6) I used some printable $0.50/1 and $1.00/2 (one $0.50/1 doubled) These are found in several places online, including bettycrocker.com and target.com. I paid an average of just $1.19/box. Not incredible, but we love these and have been out for a while.
The Gushers are on in-ad coupon for $0.99. I used 3 $1/2 that were clipped from the back of the packaging last time I bought these. This made these $0.49 each. There are $0.50/2 from the 1/2 GM insert, and also on smartsource.com.
The Skippy is on in-ad coupon for $1.49, and I used a $0.50/1 that doubled from Sunday's paper, and a $1/1 from a Superbowl coupon booklet that I picked up at Tom Thumb last week. I do not think the in ad coupon was working, however, and I do not think that the cashier punched it in correctly, so I think I was overcharged for this item, but their receipts are very hard to read. I should have paid only $0.49 each for them.
The Select Harvest Soup (my favorite!) is just $0.99 each wyb 4. I used a $0.50/2 regular (which doubled) and a $1/2 Healthy Request variety and got them for just $0.49 each.
The Kraft salad dressings are on sale for $1.50 (today is the last day!). I used 2 $1/2 from 1/23 SS.

Free Sample of Maybelline FitMe From Target

Go here to request your free sample of Maybelline FitMe Foundation from Target!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

New Free Kindle Books

I finally get my computer back up and running, and I noticed a BUNCH of new FREE Kindle book downloads. I will highlight a few below. Remember that you do NOT have to have a Kindle to read these. You may pick your computer or cell phone platform here and download a free reading app.

Christian Fiction

After The Leaves Fall

Teen Faith/Romance

One Year Book of Devotions for Couples

Not your thing? Check out all of the free for a limited time only promotional offers here!

CVS Trip: 1/30

I really was not feeling like going back out to CVS tonight after going to church this morning, Kroger to pick up my husband's meds and get my $25 grocery credit loaded to my card (haven't done my big Mega Sale shopping yet...I'm waiting for my free money), and Fiesta to grab lettuce tomatoes and cheese to go with our hamburgers. Yes, I had to pay for cheese because I haven't gone to Kroger yet. =(

But, I knew my $5/$25 coupon was expiring tonight, as well as a $10 off Physicians formula that had printed on a receipt a while back, and it when perfectly with the $7 ECBs back on a $10 Physicians Formula purchase deal this week. They actually had a lot of Physicians formula on clearance 75% off, but after speaking with the manager, I discovered that the clearanced items would not produce extra bucks, so I opted for one priced at $13.99 instead. I also grabbed one marked down to $2.75 just because I wanted to try it ;)

I was glad to see that the Coke deal was still going on this week, because I never made it there last week to get any. I did have to improvise a little bit because the shelves were nearly bare. Here is what I came home with this time. It was a bit of a splurge over what I normally spend, and the Cokes are a real treat for us, because I almost never get them. I spent quite a bit, but I just keep telling myself that I spent less than what the Coke's should have cost, and I got money back. =)

Total Shelf Price: $77.86
Total Sale Price: $53.21
Price After Coupons: $30.22
Price After $17 ECBs from last trip and tax: $14.31 AND I got back $19 in ECBs. 82% Savings.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Another Coupon For The Kroger Sale: Nestle Toll House

I just checked my email, and guess what I found? Another coupon to go along with the Kroger Mega Sale! This one is for $1/1 package of Nestle Toll House Valentine Friends Sugar Cookies. Kroger has the Nestle Toll House on sale for just $2.29 wyb 10 participating items, so after this coupon you would pay just $1.29. If you need a treat for a Valentine's party, this would be a great one! Sure, you could probably make cookies from scratch for cheaper, but then you would have a mess to clean up, and I seriously doubt they would come out quite this cute! ;)

Kroger Mega Sale: Free and Cheap Items

Kroger is having yet another Mega Sale this week! I get pretty excited about mega sales, in general because there are a ton of items included on them, and for every set of 10 items you buy, you get $5 off at the register instantly. I am even extra excited (maybe even a bit giddy...naw that will be after I get back from shopping) about this particular sale because there are quite a few items in the mix that you can get for free or nearly so with coupons.

Before I begin listing out all these great deals, let me preface this by saying that these may or may not be the case where you are. Anytime I am planning a Kroger trip, I always head over and check out the current Kroger coupon match-ups at Savings Lifestyle. Amber does the store match-ups there, and she does an *amazing* job on them, so you should totally check that out. I always find at least a couple things that I missed. ;) Tonight I was over there comparing what I already knew about, and I noticed that several of the items are priced higher at her stores over in Kentucky than at my stores in the Dallas area. Many Kroger stores also differ in the way that they double or triple coupons, so if a deal I give involved doubling or tripling, you must check your stores policy on that.

Without further ado....
The prices I am listing before coupons are assuming qualifying items are bought in multiples of ten and already has the savings factored in (an extra $0.50 off the sale price of each item):

Kraft Singles -- With Sale $0.99-- Use $1/1 coupon = FREE
Del-Monte Canned Vegetables --With Sale $0.26--No coupon, but $0.26!!
Rotel---With Sale $0.42! -- There is some buzz about a $0.30/1 coupon from last Sunday (I didn't get it though), and there was a B3G1 free in last month's All You magazine.
Bar-S Franks With Sale $0.89--Use $1/1 from facebook = FREE to $0.11 moneymaker
Honest Tea Single Serve --With Sale $0.75--Use $0.50/1 (doubles) = FREE to $0.25 moneymaker
Hunt's Tomatoes --With Sale $0.45--Use $0.45/3 from 1/23 SS (doubles)= $0.45/3 or $0.15 each!
Krusteaz Pancake/Cookie Mix--With Sale $1.49 --use $0.50/1 from 12/5 SS (doubles) = $0.49/box

There are many other items that are included in the sale, and not advertised. There are even items that are advertised on the sale, but not included in the pdf list of sale items from the Kroger website.

I simply do not have the time to do a full ad match-up, so I highly suggest you check out Amber's that I linked to above for the rest of the deals because there are many, many more!

I am seeing new printables pop up that go along with this sale every single day. I plan on waiting to shop until after I get Sunday's paper, since in this region our ads run from Wednesday-Tuesday. This sale will last through next week's sale cycle as well, so you have plenty of time to gather up your coupons and prepare!

If you know of any more freebies that are hidden in this week's sale, be sure to let us know. Also, you can check out my shopping trip from last week, because some of the coupons I used to snag free things were used on items that were not even on sale!

Good luck to everyone who will be shopping this sale. I can't wait to share my trip with you guys. I'd love for you to share your trip, also. Leave a comment below, or if you blog about your trip, leave us a link! I think that seeing pictures of other's hauls can help us find items we may have missed, so share away!

A Couple Facebook Offers: Cheap Lunchmeat and Free Hotdogs

If you have been following me on facebook, then you may have seen these already because I shared them directly on my wall. But these are sure great deals, I wants to make sure you didn't miss out.

Oscar Mayer: Under the "Good Mood" tab. Click on "Let's get started!" Share a good deed, and you will be able to print a $2/1 Carving Board Meats coupon. If you live near a Target, there is also a Target store coupon for this product that can be stacked for a great deal. I believe the value was $0.75/1 but I've already printed it and it doesn't show up for me anymore. I do not know what these cost at Target, but a $2.75 savings on one has got to be a good deal.

Bar-S: Click the idea challenge. Go through the game and get points. (I'm not exactly sure how I got them, but I clicked the prize vault and got 10 points). You need 10 points to redeem for a $1/1 coupon for any Bar-S product. It was sent immediately to my email. These are included in the Mega Sale at Kroger this week. Buy these for $1.39, and 9 other products included in the sale and $5 is deducted from your total, making these just $0.89. Using this coupon will make them free, possibly even an $0.11 moneymaker!

Anyone know of any more current facebook offers? Make a comment so we can all check them out!

Check Your Email: CVS Coupon

Check your email! I just received a $5/$25 CVS coupon. See if you got one, too! It expires on Sunday, so you can use it on this week's sale if you haven't been yet, or you can see what is coming up next week.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Free Book: Dads and Daughters

Family talk is offering a free copy of Dads and Daughters by James Dobson. I just ordered one of these for my husband. Go here to request yours!

New Instant Win Game at Kroger.com: Free Products

Kroger is gearing up for another Mega Sale! This time it looks to be a SuperBowl themed sale. They are having a new Instant Win Game on their website to go along with it. You have to choose heads or tails, and then if you win the coin toss, you will win a free product. I did not win today, but you may play once every day for the next two weeks. Let us know if you win!

Here is a list of items that will be included in the sale. Our new sale cycle will not start until Wednesday, so I do not yet know prices, but we can begin digging out coupons for this one!

New Tabasco Printable

I'm pretty excited about this one. Maybe it's just because I've never seen a printable coupon for Tabasco before, or maybe it's a bit of homesick nostalgia, since we would take field trips to the plant where they make this stuff in elementary school. Either way, I'm pleased to be able to tell you about a $0.50/1 Tabasco printable. It is for any size and any flavor. The small bottles will often go on sale for $1, and normal price is not much more than $1.50. If your store doubles, this will make for free or cheap hot sauce.

I am not a big hot sauce fan, myself, so if you are like me you may want to give the green bottle a try. It uses milder jalepeno peppers and has a very good flavor. There is also a garlic variety that my husband loves.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Sunday Coupon Preview 1/23

In tomorrow's paper there should be a SmartSource insert and a RedPlum insert. Head over to www.sundaycouponpreview.com to have a look and see what you can expect.

A few things that jumped out at me were Huggies, BOGO dog treats, and Kraft salad dressing.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Friday, January 21, 2011

CVS Trip 1/21

I made a trip to CVS tonight to do the Pepsi deal (buy $20 worth and get $10 ECBs)...actually I was not interested in Pepsi at all, but Starbucks. ;) I intended to get 4 packs of Mocha Frappuccino at $4.99 each and throw in a Gatorade to push it over $20. I had to improvise a bit when I got there because they had not gotten any more in on their truck today. They had two on the shelf, and a vanilla. I do not care for that flavor, but I bought it anyway because my husband will drink it and they were out of pretty much everything else pertaining to the sale. Plus, I had 3 $1/1 coupons from 11/21 SS. I picked up a Lipton tea and went to grab a couple Gatorade, but noticed that Sobe were part of the deal also (listed, but not pictured) and I had two free coupons for those, so I grabbed that instead.

I had heard several reports of a deal on Chestal Cough Syrup (unadvertised--adult version only) $5 get back $5 ECBs--I had a $1.50/1 older coupon--made it $1.50 MONEYMAKER after ECBs. I could not find what insert it originally came from, but apparently there will be another on Sunday!
I had also heard about the Vicks Sinex cold medicine being part of the Dayquil deal for $4.99 and get back $1 ECB (there was a $4/1 Sinex in the 12/26 PG --made it $0.99 OOP and FREE after ECBs). Both of these deals worked nicely for me.
I also grabbed a Listerine Zero $3.79 get $1 ECB with a $2/1 printable from coupons.com -- made it $0.79 after ECBs.

Here is what I came home with:

Total Shelf Price: $45.41
Total Sale Price: $33.75
Total After Coupons: $21.25
Price Paid After $15.89 ECBs from last trip and tax: $5.36 (88% Savings!!) AND I got back $17 ECBs!

Did any of you make it to CVS this week? If so, what did you get? If you blogged about it, feel free to leave a link! =)

Shopping Trip 1/21--Albertson's and Kroger

I don't often attempt shopping with coupons with both of my girls in tow, especially not at two stores. I must have been feeling pretty brave today, or at least really desperate to get out of the house. I had planned only to go to Kroger, but then a few things caught my eye in the Albertson's ad as well, and the stores are two blocks from each other, so I thought that it just made sense to stop by both while I was out.

Here is what I grabbed from Albertsons:

2 Best Life Buttery Spread (I was dissappointed that they only had one tub on the shelf) $0.99--used 2 $1/1 from 1/2 SS--FREE
4 Dawn $1.00 each--used 4 $0.25/1 from 12/26 P&G (tripled)---$0.25 each
1 Ivory $1.00 used 1 $0.25/1 from 1/16 P&G (tripled)---$0.25
2 Spaghettios $1.00 each, used $0.40/2 from 12/12 SS (doubled)---$0.60 each
2 Finish on sale (unadvertised!!) $3.50--used 2 $2.25/1 from 1/2 RP--$1.25 each

Total Shelf Price: $24.51

Total Sale Price: $14.00

Price Paid After Coupons and Tax: $5.26 79% Savings! Plus, I think I'm stocked up on dish soap ;)

Next I went over to Kroger. Here is what I came home with (click to enlarge):

Total Shelf Price: $ 89.93

Total Sale Price: $ 60.49

Price Paid After Coupons and Tax: $28.07 69% Savings Not bad considering the $10.49 bag of dog food!

A few highlights:

Kroger had the Best Life for $1 also (unadvertised) so I used my remaining 4 $1/1 coupons=FREE!
Colgate $1--used 5 $0.50/1 from 1/2 SS (doubled)=FREE! ***(If you want to get these hurry!!! They expire tomorrow!!!)***
Carmex $1--used $0.30/1 from 11/7 SS (tripled)= $0.10 each.
Yakisoba $0.88 (shelf said $0.99 but they rang up on sale)--used $0.50/1 from 1/2 SS (doubled to .88)=FREE! I know these aren't the healthiest thing, but my husband likes them and keeps them at school with him. Sometimes he gives them to his students if he sees they don't have a lunch, so that's a great thing to use coupons for!!
Bird's Eye Steam Fresh $1--Used 3 $0.50/1 printables (from facebook--no longer available) and 2 $0.50/2 from....well I can't find what insert they were from.....all doubled so they were FREE (3)- $0.50 (4). All said I got 7 for $2 or $0.29/ pack.
Campbell's Soups $1. Bought 12--used 6 $0.40/2 from 1/2 SS and 12/12 SS (all doubled)=$0.60
Grands Biscuits (8ct) $1. Bought 6--Used 3 $0.30/2 printables (all tripled) = $0.55 each (that's less that 7 cents per biscuit!)
I also found a pack of soup bones marked down for $0.98 and I plan to make a soup soon. Score!

Did you find some good deals this week?

Are You A Vocalpoint Member?

I just checked my email, and I had a message from Vocalpoint.com. It said that they had not heard from me in a while and asked me to verify that I was still interested. I find this strange because I check out every newsletter they send me for samples and coupons! This is a P&G opinion community for women. It seems to me that they are attempting to cull some of their members by seeing who is really paying attention. If you are a member, make sure you check if you got the same email. This is a great program for freebies and coupons, so you certainly wouldn't want to have your account cancelled because you missed seeing a short email message. ;)

If you aren't a member, click the link. I love it!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Reminder: Friday is Mega Swagbucks Day, Plus A Few Tips

I just wanted to send out a quick reminder to everyone that on Friday's the chances of winning large value Swagbucks are increased. What this means is that you can win a large amount of Swagbucks in a single search, so make sure you do all your web searching through Swagbucks tomorrow and always!

If you do not yet have a Swagbucks account, you may register here.

If you have already registered with swagbucks and never use it, I thought I would share a few insights with you. First of all, I was just like that. I registered with Swagbucks the first time I heard about it, and then promptly forgot all about it. I must have not returned or ever used it for at least a year! Then one day I was chatting with a friend of mine (Hi, Tracy!) who told me how great the site was. Well, after that I went and tried to register again, only to be told that I already had an account. Now, I think back to all the Swagbucks I could have made! Maybe you signed up after seeing my post about how I used Swagbucks to pay for all of my kids' Christmas presents (if not, click through and check it out!), but you haven't been using Swagbucks for your searches. If so, then this post is for you!

I think that the main thing that stopped me from using Swagbucks was that I did not really understand how it worked. Perhaps at that time, they also did not have all the nice features they have today. I'm not sure about that. I was under the impression that the only way you could earn points was to go to their page first everytime you wanted to conduct a search, and certainly that is one way to do it! I just didn't have the time, or never thought to do that. I think that is the main thing that hinders people from using Swagbucks more than they do. For this reason I wanted to offer a couple of tips that I have learned that make searching using Swagbucks a lot easier.

If you use Internet Explorer, download the toolbar! I do not think this was an option when I first signed up. This toolbar puts a search box right at the top of your window. Just type your search in the box and you are done. The toolbar also now awards you at least 1 Swagbuck each day, and sometimes as many as 3. That's at least 365 FREE points a year! Plus, there is a message icon on the toolbar. Sometimes the messages contain special Swagcodes that are only available on the toolbar.
If you use Google Chrome (I recently switched to this browser from Internet Explorer), the browser bar at the top is optimized for Swagbucks. I did not have to do anything special to make this work. Whenever you begin typing, a list will drop down. One of the options will say "Swag Bucks Customized Web Search" next to it. Arrow down to this option, and you are using Swagbucks to search. Simple as that.
"Search" for the websites you are going to! You do not have to be "searching" for something to search. You can know exactly where you want to go. I cannot even tell you how many times I have won Swagbucks for typing in "facebook"or something of the sort. If you do not already do this, this can make a huge difference! Think about how many webpages you visit in a day!
Refer your friends! When they win, you win! ;)
When you see a post that there is a Swagcode, go find it! There is a box on the swagbucks homepage to paste these in, and then press the "gimme" button, and voila! Free points. Usually these are pretty straightforward in a post on their blog, but sometimes they make it a little harder and send you on a hunt. Don't kill yourself trying to find them if they are not in plain view, you know unless you just have a ton of time to kill and you are bored. ;) Also, never post a code you find. They will block your account. You can only hint at where to find it.
Explore the website! There are surveys you may qualify to take, special daily offers that are always changing, and partner offers that you can earn Swagbucks for signing up. They may be things you were already planning on doing.
Shop through Swagbucks! This is new, and dagnabbit I keep forgetting about it every time I buy something online! I could have had 60 points from buying my girls Christmas dresses from Kohl's. =/
Print coupons from Swagbucks. This is new also, and you only get the points after the coupons are redeemed. It is very hard to keep track of since the coupons look just like the coupons you print from coupons.com, but I will let you know if I notice that I have been credited for them.

I find that even without referrals, it is not that hard to earn at least 50 Swagbucks each day, just from searching. At this rate, if you trade them in for $5 Amazon codes (only 450SB), you can earn a $5 code every 9 days, or about 3 per month. That equals $180 in free Amazon money in a year's time. That's just an average. Some days you will earn more, some days you will earn less, but this is not an unreasonable amount for anyone to achieve.

If you have a Swagbucks success story, please leave a comment below to encourage us all to keep it up.

If you have experience with any other web browsers using Swagbucks, please let us know about those in a comment, too. Thanks!

Happy searching in the New Year!

$1/1 Kraft 2% Singles Coupon

Go here to print a coupon for $1/1 Kraft Singles (2% only). This should make a great deal when paired with a sale. Cheese freezes well, so if you have multiple computers, this is a good one to print from all of them.

Thanks, Frugal Living and Having Fun

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Free Sample of Cover Girl

Walmart.com is currently offering a free sample of Cover Girl NatureLuxe Foundation. Go here to request yours now.

Aldi Produce Deals 1/19-1/25 (Dallas Area)

Aldi has some great produce deals as always. I was actually just in there two days ago lamenting how the prices had gone up and wondering if they would stay that way all winter long, but I was delighted to see these things advertised today:

Pears $0.60/lb (sold in 2lb bags for $1.19)
Texas Grapefruit $0.25 each
California Navel Oranges $0.35/lb (sold in 4lb. bags for $1.39)
Apples $0.50/lb (sold in 3lb. bags for $1.49)----GREAT! My kid just ate our last one!! =)
Gold Pineapple $1.29 each

Also, I have a question for you guys. I know produce deals can vary greatly by region. If you have an Aldi store nearby, can you tell us where you are and what things are selling for there. Just to satisfy my curiosity. ;)

New Fruit 2 Day Coupon

Go here to print a coupon for $0.45/1 Fruit 2 Day product. If your store doubles, this should make a great deal. I had a chance about a year ago to try these for free through Bzzagent.com. They are very tasty, especially the Strawberry Orange flavor.

$1 Off Pampers Thick Care By Mail

Go here to request a coupon by mail for $1 off Pampers Thick Care Baby Wipes. This should make for cheap wipes. It says to allow for 6-8 weeks for delivery.

Free Sample of Beneful Incredibites

Go here to request a free sample of Beneful Incredibites from Walmart. Your dog will thank you (or so they say =P). If you do not have a dog, this would be a great freebie to donate to a shelter. Walmart samples usually get shipped pretty fast, too!

Free Jello Jigglers Football Mold

Go here to request a free Jello Jigglers Football Mold by mail from Coupons.com. What a great freebie!

Thanks, Pays 2 Save

Would You Like To Be A Purex Insider?

If you are interested in becoming a Purex Insider, register here. Insiders will receive free products and coupons for products. I have just applied and the message said that all applications were being reviewed and we would be notified within a few weeks. I hope I get picked!

Thanks, Faithful Provisions

BuyWithMe: A Tasty Scoop of Americana

from buywithme.com

Check this out! 50% off at Choo Choo's Creamery @BuyWithMe

This place is in Keller, TX. It is kind of far from me, but it sounds like a good treat if you live nearby!

Powered by spinback

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Buy With Me: Dallas Deal--Seasonal Seeds Delivered to Your Door Monthly

from buywithme.com

Check this out! 50% off at Mike the Gardener Enterprises @BuyWithMe

$12 for garden seeds delivered to your door monthly for 1 year! If you garden you may want to check this out!

Powered by spinback

New E-Coupons Available

There are a bunch of new e-coupons available to load onto your shopper cards today!

Cellfire.com--Personally I am going to wait and see what's on sale at my two stores before I pick which card to load them up to! You can read my warning about that here.

I also just read about a new e-coupon site called zavers.com in All You magazine. None of the stores in my area participate in this program, so I know nothing about it, but I will add it to my e-coupons page for easy reference in case your local stores do participate. These are the stores listed on the site:

If you use the program, leave a comment and tell us about it.

New Nestle Toll House Coupon

Go here to print a coupon for $1 off any 1 Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough product. These often go on sale for $2, so you should be able to snag some cookie dough for just a buck! If anyone knows where these are on sale, leave a comment.

Monday, January 17, 2011

New: Coupons on Walmart.com!?!

I came across something very interesting today. The Wal-Mart website now has an entire page dedicated to printable coupons. I say that this is interesting because I have heard WAY too many people talk of problems with Wal-Mart accepting their coupons, especially printable coupons. If you have had issues with your Wal-Mart not accepting them, maybe this is a turning point for you.

Personally, I do not shop at Wal-Mart anymore. I don't have anything against the place. My mother has worked there since I was two years old, and in a smaller town it was fine. Here near Dallas, it is always a mad house and stresses me out more than it saves me money. Plus, they just opened an Aldi across the street, so that's where I've been going!

But, getting back to these coupons...I have a few positive things to say:
1) The fact that you found them on Wal-Mart.com seems like a valid enough argument to get the stores to accept them.
2) They are manufacturer's coupons and have no mention of Wal-Mart on them whatsoever, so you can use them anywhere! Just think of it as another non-store specific coupon resource.

There is one negative thing I would like to note, though. Unlike Target.com's coupon page, which prints out three per page like coupons.com does, this site takes you to individual bricks links for each coupon. You have to go back to the page and click each one separately. They print out one coupon per page and most have an advertisement below the coupon which is a huge waste of paper and ink and time.

Hopefully for those of you who have had trouble with Wal-Mart, this means that they are going to be getting a bit more coupon friendly. If not, you can always take them elsewhere. ;)

I will add this page to my list of printable coupon sites, so you can always be able to have easy access to it.

I'd like to know your thoughts on this. Have you had trouble using coupons at Wal-Mart? What do you think this means?

Free Test Prep E-books

Amazon Kindle is offering a TON of free Kaplan test prep e-books right now. This is a great opportunity if you or someone you know is getting ready for college or a graduate program. There are many tests available, and rumor has it that this is the last day they will be free, so hurry over here and take a look at what's available.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Sunday Coupon Preview: 1/16

Tomorrow's paper will contain 2 inserts: a SmartSource and a P&G.

I am most excited about the $1/1 Celestial Seasonings coupon. I love that stuff.

You can take a look at everything you can expect here.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Tom Thumb Trip 1/12

I made a quick trip out with my mother this evening. I had hoped to show her how CVS shopping worked, but the store was all out of everything I went for. =(

After that, however, we headed over to Tom Thumb. They are having a great sale on juices this week:

The varieties I was mainly interested in were the Welch's and the V-8 Fusion. When you buy 4 or more, they are on sale for just $1.99/bottle. I normally buy these for this price after coupon, so with this sale, coupons made them be half off what I would usually pay, only $0.99/ bottle. This sale began today, so it will last all week long.

There were V-8 coupons in the 1/2 Smartsource.
There were Welch's coupons in the 12/12 Smartsource, and also on Coupons.com. *The Essentials variety was not included.*

I had been saving up my juice coupons for a sale, and I had run completely out of juice, so at this price I stocked up for quite a while!

Shelf Price: $52.08
Sale Price: $23.88
Price Paid After Coupons and Tax: $12.45 76% Savings

Friday, January 7, 2011

CVS Trip 1/7

Well, they let my husband come home from the hospital today, but we still aren't done with this whole ordeal. He still has three outpatient tests being done next week to determine how to treat him, but at least he's back home. I had to go to CVS to pick up some meds for him today, so I decided to put together a second shopping trip like I told you all I had wanted to do. I was happy to be able to, because I was pretty sure I was going to have to miss out after all of this hospital nonsense.

Here is what I came home with this trip:

Total Shelf Price: $54.79
Total Sale Price: $36.29
Price After Coupons (including a $5/$30 that I got by email) and $11 ECBs from last trip: $4.29 --93% savings--and I received $15 ECBs.

Here is the breakdown of how I did it:

4 Special K @ 3.34 each---used 2 BOGO Free printables *Get $4 ECB wyb 3
4 Excedrin @ $4.79-$5.69 --used Free Excedrin/$3.50 Excedrin PM and a $2.50/1 from 12/5 *Get $10 ECB wyb $20 worth
Huggies @ $8.99 *Get $1 ECB (I did not know I was going to buy this, so I did not bring a coupon =(...)
2 Xtra @ $1.99--used 2 $1/1 printables (no longer available)

Monday, January 3, 2011

New Coupons and E-Coupons

Well, it is a new year, and also a new month, so there are tons of new coupons available. I sincerely hope you got your newspaper yesterday, because the 5 inserts it contained has some pretty awesome coupons in them. If you didn't get one, get to store and try to track *at least* one down. If you can't find one, though, that's ok! There are plenty of new coupons out there online.

There are new e-coupons available to load onto your shopper cards at both shortcuts.com and cellfire.com.

There are also new printables at coupons.com and redplum.com and smartsource.com.

If you are just starting couponing this is an amazing time to start because there are soooo many new coupons available you can build up your collection very quickly! Good luck saving as much as you can in the new year!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

1/2--My 1st CVS Trip of the Week

CVS has some really incredible deals this week. One of those deals prompted me to buy 4 extra newspapers today and head on over this evening after I got the girls to bed. Here is what I came home with this trip:

Shelf Price: $47.94

Sale Price: $28.99

Price Paid After Coupons: $14.99

Price Paid with Tax after $12 ECBs: $3.25 AND I received $11 in ECBs.

Here's how I did it:

The Wisk is part of a sale on the front page of the ad. You have to buy $25 worth of selected items and you get back $10 in ECBs.

Wisk is on sale for $5. I bought 5.

--Used 5 $2/1 Wisk from one of this morning's RedPlum's (that's one reason I bought 4 extra papers!)

--This brings the total down to $15, then you will get $10 back in ECBs, so it is like paying only $1 per bottle of detergent. If you have some ECBs already, so can use them to bring your out of pocket expense down.

The Tums were on sale for $3.99, and giving back $1 ECBs. I happened to have a $3/1 Tums CVS store coupon that got randomly mailed to me. Maybe you got one too? There was also a $1/1 printable manufacturer coupon that I was able to stack with the store coupon to pay nothing for it, and still get my $1 ECB.

If you remember my last trip, you know I left with $11 ECBs, so you may be wondering how I ended up with $12. Well, when I walked into the store I scanned my card at the price scanner/coupon printer/little magic machine that I love, and lo and behold, my Fall spending ECBs printed--a whole $1. ;) That being said, if you are owed any, they should print on your next receipt, or if your store has a coupon printer, you can print it when you walk in. I believe you can also print them off of their website, too.

Now I say that this is my first trip for the week because I fully intend to go back.

--I want to use my FREE Excedrin coupons in conjunction with the buy $20 worth of Excedrin, get $10 back deal.

-- I am contemplating the Buy $10 worth of Glade products, get $3 back deal. Coupons.com had $3/1 Lasting Impressions coupons. I had about 4 of the Sense and Sprays on my laundry cart, and my bleach bottle spilled and ruined them all =(

--There is a $1/1 Xtra Detergent, which is on sale for $1.99, so only $0.99 after coupon. More cheap detergent!

-- There is a Spend $10 on certain dental products, get $5 back deal. Listerine Zero is $5, and there were $2/1 on coupons.com.

--Emerald Almond Canisters are BOGO free this week. There were $1/1 coupons in this morning's RedPlum also (the same one as the Wisk coupons), and you will be able to use two of those, so that should be a pretty great deal also. I totally forgot to check the price on those while I was there tonight.

I obviously do not want to get all of this stuff in the same transaction or I would end up paying a lot out of pocket. The first thing I will do is to plan out the best order to purchase them, and split them up into smaller transactions so I can roll my ECBs. I'm not sure I've ever had to do this in the same week before. Such great sales! I will let you know what I come up with.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

1/2 Sunday Coupon Preview--5 Inserts!!!!

I an so excited about tomorrow's paper after two weeks of no coupons. There will be 5 inserts in it: 2 SmartSource, 2 RedPlum, and a General Mills. If you don't normally get a paper, make sure you do tomorrow! Maybe even a few extra. We have a Sunday only subscription, but I think I may grab a couple double editions tomorrow just to have extras because there are some great high value coupons that we will get. You can go here and have a look at what you can expect.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)