Toshiba laptop giveaway at Happy Money Saver!

One of my favorite couponing blogs, Fistful of Coupons has changed names and become Happy Money Saver. If you've never checked out her blog you should because she's giving away a free laptop to celebrate! Go here to enter, and while you're there be sure to poke around the blog and check out her deal ideas. She's especially fabulous at coming up with Albertsons Twice The Value scenarios, FYI! Hurry on over, because today is the last day to enter!

Have Doublers left? FREE soda and lots more at Albertsons

You've got one more day to use those Twice the Value coupons and here is another great free deat at Albertsons!  If you don't have any doublers left and live close to it, the store on 132nd and 35th in Everett/Mill Creek hands them out freely at their checkstands and they'll give you a couple copies if you ask nicely :)

The Krazy Coupon Lady just reported a Catalina on Chex Mix which means not only can you score great GM products for free, but you can get some soda too.  Here's my favorite scenario with items the store had gobs of today (e.g. not GG veggies or Totino's Pizza Rolls, though if your store still has them they're good too!)

Buy 4 Chex Mix $1.50
Buy 6 Hamburger/Tuna/Chicken Helper $1.50 (if you don't like it, don't worry, it ends up being free - donate it!)

Save $5 instantly
Use 2 $1/2 Chex Mix
Use 2 $1/3 Hamburger Helper
Use 3 doublers
OOP = $3, get CAT for $3 off meat, get CAT for Free Soda (any brand) up to $3
Total Cost = FREE, plus $3 extra in CATs!!!

My Safeway shopping trip. Total = $5.14!!

I saw a couple posts this morning about some good deals at Safeway this week.  Now let me say this: I hate shopping at Safeway.  I don't know why, but nothing ever seems to go quite right there for me.  But at least they DO seem coupon-friendlier now since they revised their coupon policy and supposedly trained all their checkers on coupons.  But word to the wise, make sure to watch the register and check to make sure you got every deal you were supposed to before leaving the store, especially their in-store Buy X Save $X instantly deals - these have failed to ring for me numerous times.  All that to say I don't normally shop Safeway on a weekly basis, but could NOT pass up the Barilla pasta deal this week, so headed over this afternoon after school with my kiddos.  Boy am I glad!  I got everything you see here for $5.14!!!!!  And it includes two packages of meat, which were $7.36 by themselves!

If you need pasta, or Arm & Hammer toothpaste (or can print the coupons and want to donate some) then RUN, don't walk to Safeway this week!  Here is what I did, if you want a little inspiration!

Transaction 1:
3 Arm & Hammer toothpaste $1.49
7 Barilla Piccolini pasta $1

Saved $3 instantly for toothpaste
Used 3 $1/1 Arm & Hammer toothpaste
Used 7 $.75/1 Barilla Piccolini from SS 8/29
OOP = $.36 + received a CAT coupon for $2/3 Barilla Piccolini pasta!

Transaction 2:
3 Arm & Hammer toothpaste $1.49
4 Glad Lock Storage bags $2.49

Saved $3 instantly for toothpaste
Saved $2 instantly for a Buy 4 Save $2 promo that was on the Glad bags price sticker
Used 3 $1/1 Arm & Hammer toothpaste
Used $2/2 Glad bags Cellfire e-coupon
Uses 2 $2/2  Glad bags from Safeway Make a Muscle coupon book
OOP = $1.52

Transaction 3:
3 Arm & Hammer toothpaste $1.49
Lucerne milk 1/2 gallon  $1.79-50% because the Sell By date is in 6 days, but we'll use it first!
2 green onions $.59

Saved $3 instantly for toothpaste
Used 3 $1/1 Arm & Hammer toothpaste
OOP = $.69

Transaction 4:
3 Arm & Hammer toothpaste $1.49
Mission Tortilla chips $2.29
4 Welch's Healthy Start 100% Juice $3.00
Meat $5.16
Meat $2.20
3 Barilla Piccolini pasta $1.00

Saved $3 instantly on toothpaste
Used 3 $1/1 Arm & Hammer toothpaste
Used 2 $.55/1 Mission e-coupons from Cellfire (they both were on my acct and both came off!)
Used $.55/1 Mission product from Safeway Make a Muscle coupon book
Used 4 $1.50/1 Welch's Healthy Start Juice printables
Used Safeway ad coupon for $1.29 Mission chips
Used Safeway ad coupon for $1.99 Welch's juice
Used $2/3 Barilla Piccolini received in Transaction 1
Used $3 CAT from a couple weeks ago
Used $3 CAT from a couple weeks ago
OOP = $2.57

Total Cost = $5.14
Ok, so $11.14 if you don't count my CATs from a couple weeks ago, but still with milk and meat that had no coupons, pretty awesome since that means everything else cost only $2.88!

New Kraft Catalina = Kraft Mayo $.49 at Albertsons! (2 days only - hurry!)

I got a preview last week of this new Catalina that starts printing today at Albertsons.  Combine this with the Buy 5 Save $5 CAT for a great deal on mayo.  The Buy 5 Save $5 ends 9/7, so hurry out to do this deal!

Idea:
buy 2 Kraft Mayo $2.49
buy 2 Oscar Mayer hotdogs 2/$3
buy 1 Cool Whip $1.00
= $8.98

Use $1.00/2 Kraft Mayo
Use $1.00/2 Oscar Mayer hot dogs
Pay $6.98, get $5 CAT for Buy 5, Save $5 promo, get $1 CAT for Kraft Mayo
=$.98

FREE Cool Whip at Albertsons!!

Starting tomorrow (9/1) through 9/7 you can get FREE Cool Whip at Albertsons, no coupons needed.

Cool Whip is on sale for $1.00 and is a part of the Buy 5, Save $5 Catalina promo

Buy 5 Cool Whip $1.00
Pay $5.00 OOP, get $5 Catalina
= FREE

So, what yummy recipes are you going to use yours in?

"Holy $.12 Mac & Cheese, Batman!!!" (Albertsons Doublers deal)

Yes, you heard right - Kraft Mac & Cheese for $.12/box!

Mac & Cheese is on sale at Albertsons this week for $.79.  The in-store Fall Into Good Things coupon book contains a coupon for $1/3 boxes (these coupon books just finally appeared at my 2 closest Albertsons on Friday).  Combine them and this week's doublers for a hot deal!

Buy 3 Kraft Mac & Cheese $.79
Use 1 $1/3 from Fall Into Good Things coupon book + Doubler
= $.37 for 3 boxes!!!

Why I always take my whole coupon binder to the store! (or...Pillsbury Grands Bisbuits for $.04!)

I'm a coupon planner...I prefer it if everything is organized BEFORE I go to the store.  I have my coupon binder, plus a bunch of envelopes marked with the names of store I shop frequently that I store inside my binder.  When I'm going shopping I plan out my trip, pull the coupons I'm planning to use out of my binder and put them in the envelope for that store.  Geeky, I know, but that's how I roll. :)

However, after a couple disappointing trips where I saw great deals I knew I had coupons for...at home...I started carrying my big binder with me everywhere.  I still pre-plan, but now the envelope just gets tucked into the front pocket of my binder and I bring the whole thing.

Last week it paid off at Albertsons!  My store had one variety of Pillsbury Grands Biscuits on an unadvertised Bonus Buy for $.99/can, and they were marked as part of the GM promo (buy 10 items, save $5 instantly).  I happened down that aisle, saw the sign and thought "I know I've got coupons for those!"

And because I had my binder with me, I ended up with 10 cans for $.40 TOTAL.

10 Biscuits at $.99 = $9.90
Save $5 instantly
Used (3) $.75/3 Pillsbury Rolls or Biscuits printables + 3 Doublers
= $.40

They don't expire for a couple months, so in the meantime we'll be having biscuits with dinner, making Monkey Bread, mini-pizzas with the biscuits as dough, maybe some Mini Taco Bowls.  Yum!

All that to say I encourage you to clip all the coupons you know your family would use if you got the product for free (or nearly so), organize them and take them shopping!

Free Kraft dressing with peelies found in store - great for donating!

Kraft Ranch and Italian dressings are still marked at $1.34 at Albertsons and now there is a great Catalina to boot!  If you need dressing or are headed to Albertsons to shop anyway and would like to pick up some dressing to donate this is a great opportunity!

Buy 5 Italian or Ranch dressings $1.34
Use 5 $.35/1 peelies found on the bottles
OOP = $4.95, receive a $5 Catalina

If you have the $1/1 Kraft dressing coupons from the Safeway sandwich coupon book this is obviously a LOT better, but if you don't and just want to get some free product to give anyway, this is a great chance!

AND if your store has the tearpads with $1.00 off Produce wyb 2 Kraft dressings you can use 1 of those per transaction as well (coupon says ONE PER TRANSACTION so even though you're buying 5 you can only use 1.)  This is what I'll be doing.  How cool is it to give AND save yourself some money?!

Tax free couponing fun in Oregon!

Ok, so I have a confession to make - I have become unbelievably cheap while learning to coupon.  I once put back 2 Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Sprayer refills ($6.99) at Target because even though I could get them totally FREE with coupons I had with me, it didn't seem worth it to pay the $.66 tax on each one.  Now, dear fellow coupons, before you laugh, my reasoning was sound:
1. I had enough bottles already to keep my family's showers sparkling clearn for months to come
2. I didn't just want to donate a refill container and count on someone happening to have a starter sprayer lying around to attach it to.
Later a friend (who doesn't coupon) told me that sounded just crazy - after all, it was only $.66!  Oh well.  And you know what?  A week later I score 6 Shower Sprayers for Better Than Free AND used the overage on them to pay for other stuff I was buying.  That's the day I ended up with a cartful of goodies and a negative total at Target before tax.  After tax I think I paid $3 and change for over $100 worth of stuff, then I was able to donate 6 sprayers!  Glad I didn't spend the $.66 the week before. :)

All of that to say I do occasionally think, as I read other blogs where they declare that a bunch of stuff at Walgreens or Rite Aid is "free" that week, that I wish we didn't have such outrageous sales tax here so more stuff was a little closer to free after tax for us!  Soooooooo, since I was headed to sales-tax-free Oregon last week I thought I'd make good use of the recent Schick coupons and Walgreen's RR deals.  The result (done in 5 transactions so I could get the RR on each razor):

5 Schick Hydro 5 razors (on sale for $7.99)
5 Schick Hydro shave gels (on sale for $1.49)
= $47.40
used (5) $5/1 Hydro razor SS 8/8
used (5) free shave gel when you buy a Hydro razor
OOP = $14.95, plus receive 5 $2 RR (one for each razor)
= $4.95

If I bought it all at home it still would have been a PRETTY good deal at $9.45, but saving an extra $4.50 (and getting to use up some of my about-to-expire RR doing it) made my vacation just the tiniest bit funner!  LOL!  I'm not the only one having fun couponing, right?  Ladies?  :)

Great Clearance Deals at QFC

Hello!  I'm back from the Oregon Coast and back shopping!  :)

I saw on Coupon Connections NW that QFC has some great stuff on clearance right now so I headed on down to the bottom of the hill this morning.  While I didn't find any of the Little Swimmers like I was hoping, I DID score some packs of Pull Ups for $5.  Use the $1.50/1 coupon for SS 8/22 and they're just $3.50!

I also found Oil of Olay SPF 15 moisturizer for $4.39 and used a $3/1 coupon I got in an Olay mailer.  SPF moisturizer for $1.39?! Yay!

I also noticed a ton of Garnier products in the clearance bins, but didn't have any coupons for those with me so I didn't look too closely - but I know there have been loads of Garnier coupons in the Sunday inserts over the past month, so if you use it I'd suggest grabbing your binder when you head to the store.

Post a comment here or on the FB page to let us all know if you find other great stuff!

P.S. One more note - on Coupon Connections NW Amber mentioned that she was able to use the $2/1 Sun Crystals coupon from RP 7/25 to get some great overage (Sun Crystals are on sale for $.99 this week.)  I tried this and the register only took off $.99 for each $2 coupon, just FYI.  If you were to have your order rung up before entering your QFC card number I imagine it would work like did for her, but my checker specifically asked me to enter mine before he rung up my coupons.  Oh well, free is good enough for me.  I don't use Sun Crystals and don't go in for Stevia so probably won't try them, but this a good FREE opportunity to bless others by picking some up at no cost to you and donating it, which is what I'll be doing!  Happy Shopping!

FREE Bic Soleil disposable razors at Walgreens!

I stumbled on this deal tonight while searching for something to spend my about-to-expire Register Rewards on in a rather dull Walgreen's week.  Since these were FREE they didn't help me with my RR problem, but they were fun to get for nothing!  Walgreen's has these on sale this week Buy One Get One 50% Off which works nicely with some recent coupons

Buy 2 Bic Soleil disposable razors 3 or 4 ct, any of the Soleil variety  $5.99ea (Soleil Bella is $6.99)
Use Bic Disposable Shaver BOGO Free (up to $6.99 value)  from SS 8/1 (exp 8/29)
Use $3/1 Bic Disposable Shavers 3, 4 or 8pk  from SS 7/11 (exp 8/22)
= 2 FREE

Note: you'll want something else to absob the couple pennies of overage so the register won't beep.  If your cashier tries to make the 50% off one the BOGO Free one you can politely point out that it should work on the full price one you're purchasing.  I double-checked with the manager who checked me out at my store and he said yes, that should be clear to all the cashiers. :)

Happy shopping!

Nearly free Kraft dressing AND produce at Albertsons!

I went to Albertsons today to use my doublers and scored some GREAT deals!  I used them on the Nature Valley Grahams, Nature Valley Nut Clusters, Tuna Helper, Betty Crocker Potatoes and got a bunch of Green Giant vegetables (no coupons on those, but also part of the $5 off 10 items promo).  If need any of those and haven't checked Coupon Connections NW yet to see her doubler deals you should definitely do so!

I also did one more deal that I haven't seen posted anywhere yet I wanted to mention.  Albertsons has Kraft Zesty Italian or Ranch dressing marked down to $1.34 right now (just those two flavors for whatever reason).  If you grabbed a couple of the Serve Up a Sandwich coupon books at Safeway right now you'll have a $1/1 Kraft dressing coupon in each.  Use those and the a coupon you should be able to find in the Albertsons produce department Free Produce When You Buy 2 Kraft dressing (up to $1.00), add a double and score nearly free dressing AND produce!

Buy
2 Kraft Zesty Italian or Ranch dressing $1.34
Produce (at least $2 worth)
Total = $4.68

Use
(2) $1/1 Kraft dressing
(1) Free Produce WYB 2 Kraft dressing + doubler
OOP = $.68

If you have extra doublers you could also use them on the Kraft dressings to bring your OOP to $0 (assuming your store adjusts the 2 extra doublers to only take off $.34.

Free at Fred Meyer

I needed to go and do a decent-sized shopping trip tonight at Fred Meyer. This used to be my primary store to shop at before I started couponing but I just haven't seen that many great deals there since I started.  This week was my first time back there for more than one or two things and I was not disappointed!  There are some great deals to be had right now by combining store sales, regular coupons and e-coupons. Here are my two favorite scores - free sunscreen and free Tide!

There are in-store coupons right now for $4 off any Banana Boat suncare product excluding lip balm.  These Sport Performance sticks are $4.99.  Use the in-store coupon plus a $1/1 from 6/27 SS (or Albertsons summer coupon book) and you get FREE sunscreen!  Yay!

I also found Tide trial size boxes for $.99 at my store.  The $1/1 any size Tide coupon from 7/4 P&G makes these FREE too!

Those aren't the only great deals available, either.  Thanks to Amber at Coupon Connections NW for her hot deals on hummus, Tampax, Luvs and more! Check out what I scored for $39 and change.

The only things in the photo I didn't have store, manufacturer and/or e-coupons for were the bread, milk and bacon.  Hope you get some good deals too!  Before you go shopping remember to add coupons to your Fred Meyer card on the Fred Meyer site, Cellfire and Shortcuts.

Rite Aid Sunscreen Sale plus SCR = Moneymaker!

This week's big sunscreen sale at Rite Aid makes for some fantastic savings opportunities! Banana Boat suncare items are BOGO Free and Neutrogena ones are on sale for $7.99. AND both brands are included in the Skincare 2010 Single Check Rebate (spend $25 get $10 Rite Aid gift card, spend $50 get $25 gift card)!! If you haven't qualified yet you can get some great deals now on sunscreen!

Deal idea:
Buy 6 Banana Boat Continuous Spray $9.99 BOGO
Use 6 $1/1 coupons SS 6/27 or $1/1 Albertsons Sizzling Savings coupon book
Use $5 off $25 Video Values coupon
Pay $18.97
Submit for SCR #555 ($25 gift card) AND #655 ($5 gift card bonus)
= $11.03 Moneymaker!

Or, if your family really loves to have the Neutrogena around for sunscreening faces like mine does, check out my personal deal. You can only use 1 $5 off $25 Video Values on a single transaction, but because splitting this into two transactions gives you 2 over $25 you can actually use 2 of the coupons. You'll do 2 of the exact same transaction:

Buy 2 Banana Boat Continuous Spray $9.99
Buy 1 Neutrogena Ultra Sheer $7.99
Use 2 $1/1 Banana Boat SS 6/27 or $1/1 Albertsons Sizzling Savings
Use 1 Neutrogena $2/1 from June Safeway coupon book
Use $5 Video Values coupon
Pay $8.98
Total for both transactions = $17.96

Submit for SCR #555 ($25 gift card) AND #655 ($5 gift card bonus)
= $12.04 Moneymaker!

Remember that you can only submit for the rebates once, so if you qualified already buying Nivea or other included items since 5/30 then you won't get to factor it in to get these crazy savings on the sunscreen.

The promo period for this SCR runs a few more weeks and there are enough items included that even if you only need a couple sunscreens you might look at what else qualifies and decide if you'll hit the $25 or $50 level by then with other items included.

Have fun!

Cheez-Its $.50 at Walgreens!

I think this is an unadvertised Register Reward - or at least I didn't see it in their ads and haven't seen it on any blogs yet, but there was a yellow RR shelf tag on them at my store (Mill Creek, WA).

If you printed the $1/1 coupon from the Cheez-Its FB page a couple weeks ago grab them and head to Walgreens!

Buy 2 Cheez-Its (2 for $5 sale)
Use 2 $1/1 coupons
Pay $$3, get $2 RR wyb 2 Cheez-Its
= $.50 each

Updated: Scrubbing Bubbles deal gets even better at Target!

So I told you about my great Target deals last week, but now the Scrubbing Bubbles deal has gotten even better with the addition of a Targer Gift Card coupon in this Sunday's Smart Source (SS) insert!
Here's how to make $$ this week at Target:

      Buy 4 Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Sprayer $6.99

      Use (4) printable $3/1 coupons from Target.com

      Use (4) $5/1 manufacturer coupons from SS 6/13

      Use 1 Free Target Gift Card with purchase of 4 Scrubbing Bubbles products

      = FREE + $5 Gift Card

The coupons actually save you an extra $4.04 ($8 off each $6.99 sprayer).  If you are purchasing other items you will probably get this overage off your other purchases.  That's how I ended up with a negative total last week at Target!

Ok, so apparently the cashier at Target shouldn't have let me use the Target coupons on the sprayers plus the Target $5 Gift Card coupon.  But if you don't use the $5 Gift Card coupon you can still score Scrubbing Bubbles for FREE like I did last week OR if you have more $5/1 manufacturer coupons than you have $3/1 Target web coupons (because of printing limits) and still have some of the coupons for a free Scrubbing Bubbles refill  when you buy a sprayer, you can still score a great deal.  In that case it would look like this:

Buy 2 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayers $6.99
Buy 2 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer Refills (don't know price on these, but they'll be free)
Use 2 $5/1 manufacturer coupons from SS 6/13
Use 2 Buy 1 Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer get 1 Scrubbing Bubbles Refill free
Use 1 Free Target Gift Card with purchase of 4 Scrubbing Bubbles products
= $3.98 OOP plus get a $5 Target Gift Card

Need Foil? New printable coupons from Reynolds!

Head over the to Reynolds website to print coupons for

$1.00/1 Aluminum Foil
$1.00/1 Parchment Paper
$1.25/1 Non-stick Foil
$1.50/1 100% Recycled Aluminum Foil

Thanks to Cathy at Fabulessly Frugal and one of her eagle-eyed readers!

Better Than Free Kraft Dressing at Safeway - PLUS a bonus!

So you have probably seen that you can get Kraft salad dressing on a Better Than Free deal at Safeway this week (the lovely Amber at Coupon Connections NW, as well as The Krazy Coupon Lady and others have been blogging about it).  But, let me tell you, it can get even better!

My local Albertsons has these little recipe books from Kraft in the produce section right now. They include a coupon for Free Produce (up to $1.00) when you buy 2 Kraft Salad Dressings.

If you combine this with the Catalina on Kraft right now this is what it looks like:

Buy 3 Kraft Salad Dressing @ $1.49
Buy at least $1.00 worth of produce (or how about a bag of Fresh Express salad, on sale for $.99?)
Use 3 $1.00/1 coupons from SmartSource in paper 6/20
Use Free Produce when you buy 2 Kraft dressing coupon
Pay $1.47, receive $2.00 Catalina

Free dressing AND salad!

Need a Coupon Binder?

FYI, I just saw some binders that would work great last night in the clearance section at the Walgreens on Bothell-Everett Hwy and 524/Maltby Rd (across from Fred Meyer). They had a couple zip closure ones like I use for $5.99 as well as a few with elastic straps to hold it closed for $7.99.

98% Savings at Target!!!

Whew, what a shopping trip! Mind you, I did all this with my kiddos in tow, so if you're thinking this is all too complicated to manage, take heart!

I hit Target this afternoon for some great deals, and even though they were out of the Aveeno Body Wash and Clean and Clear I was hoping to get for free, and the Old Spice and Oil of Olay that were both going to be moneymakers (bummer!), I still scored majorly.

I got 6 Scrubbing Bubbles shower cleaners, 2 toilet cleaning gels, two fresh brush refills, 3 boxes of band-aids, 6 packages of Rolaids, and two packs of batteries.

Guess how much? Guess again.

$1.54!!!!!!!!

This is my favorite part - check out the total. Before tax it was actually $-3.21. Tax was $4.75 so my total was $1.54. Yay!

If you want specifics, here are the coupons I used

Scrubbing Bubbles shower cleaner: $6.99
$5.00/1 coupon from Sunday paper 6/20
$3.00/1 Target coupon from website
= -$1.01 each

Rolaids 3 packs: $2.24
$4.00/2 from Sunday paper 6/6
= $.24 each when you buy 2

Nexcare Strawberry Shortcake bandaids: $1.47
$1.00/1 coupon from Sunday paper 6/6
=$.47 each

Scrubbing Bubbles toilet gel: $3.94
Scrubbing Bubbles toilet want refills: $3.94
Free refill when you buy gel from coupons.com
Free refill Target coupon when you buy gel
=FREE

Rayovac batteries: $1.00
$1.00/1 coupon from Rayovac website
=FREE

How can you not get excited by saving $81.96? :)

Crazy facts about e-coupons

So as you may have heard there are some great places you can get e-coupons directly added to your store loyalty cards.

Cellfire and Shortcuts both let you add coupons to your Safeway or Fred Meyer cards.

Through P&GeSaver you can also add Proctor & Gamble coupons to your Safeway card.

It takes only a minute to link your cards to these sites and add coupons and it is well worth it.

All of these e-coupons come off automatically when you make a matching purchase and enter your card info at the store. These coupons can be used in addition to any store and manufacturer coupons you may be using for your purchase. This means that if the coupons all lined up right you might purchase a $4 item and have a Safeway store $1 coupon, P&GeSaver $1 coupon, Shortcuts $1 coupon AND Cellfire $1 coupoon and get the item for free.

Here is a real example I did a Safeway a couple weeks ago so you can see how it works:

Purchased (3) Tuna Helper on sale for $1/ea
Used 1 paper coupon $.75/3
Loaded 1 Cellfire coupon for $.75/3
Loaded 1 Shortcuts coupon for $75/3
Total cost $3.00 - .75 coupon - .75 e-coupon - .75 e-coupon = $.75 OOP

Now I'm sure there were folks excited about Tuna Helper for $1/ea (the store special) or $.75/ea (price with only paper coupon), but I'd rather get it for $.25/ea, how about you?

As nice at that is, however, what I discovered yesterday is even more interesting.

It looks like both Shortcuts and Cellfire sometimes release new coupons that are valid while a past coupon for the same item is ALSO valid. So yesterday I ended up with all of the following, unexpired coupons loaded on my Safeway card:

Shortcuts - Wheaties Fuel cereal $1.00
Shortcuts - Wheaties Fuel cereal $.75
Shortcuts - Wheaties Fuel cereal $.75
Cellfire - Wheaties Fuel cereal $1.00
Cellfire - Wheaties Fuel cereal $1.00

I bought one single box of Wheaties Fuel cereal that was $3.99 and gave the cashier a $1 off 1 box of Wheaties Fuel paper coupon.

I swiped my Club Card and guess what happened? ALL the e-coupons above automatically came off. So I saved $5.50 on a box of cereal that cost $3.99. That means that I not only got the cereal for free, but saved $1.51 extra off my bill, making the ground beef I was also buying a lot cheaper. :)

Yay!

Nivea for Men - Better Than Free at Walgreens

So you've probably already seen the money-making scenario on Nivea Active 3 bodywash at Walgreens. However everywhere I've seen it based it on using a $3/1 coupon from Red Plum on 5/2 or 4/25. Well since I just stared couponing and maybe you did too, we don't have those coupons saved!

However, there is a $1.50/1 Nivea Men's product coupon in the Safeway June coupon book. You can use that to still make the Walgreen's Nivea Active 3 deal Better Than Free!

Nivea Men's Active 3 bodywash - $5.99 + tax = $6.56
Use $1.50/1 coupon
OOP cost = $5.06
Get Register Reward for $6.00
Actual Cost = $-.94

Have fun!

Better Than Free!!!

In the last couple few weeks since I started couponing I’ve posted on Facebook about some pretty amazing deals I’ve been getting and more than a couple ladies have contacted me asking for details. I thought I’d share my purchases at Walgreens this week to give you a concrete example of how you can get stuff for BETTER than free! Yes, I am actually getting PAID to shop sometimes!

Here is a photo of what I’ve bought this week


A few points to keep in mind as you read the below:

1. Register Rewards (RR) are coupons that the Catalina machine prints out when you finish a transaction. (The Catalina machine is the little machine next to the one that prints your receipt.) Register Rewards is just Walgreens' specific name for a Catalina, at other stores they’re just called Catalinas.
Catalinas (RRs) are a credit that a manufacturer gives to you when you buy specific products. They will say something like “Save $5 Off Your Next Shopping Order Over the Value of Coupon.” That means that if you spend at least $5, you can use that to take $5 off your total bill.

This is what a Walgreens RR looks like:


2. I count RR as credit towards my total purchases because they really are unrestricted money I will spend on my next transactions in the next week or two, especially since Safeway now has the official policy that they'll accept any Catalinas from any store.

3. I’m still not a huge believer in Mail-in-Rebates though many coupon-ers have now assured me that they pretty much always receive these rebates eventually (e.g. if it says 4-6 weeks, it will likely take 6 weeks to come). For this reason I do NOT count Mail-in-Rebates as a credit towards my total purchases because frankly I’m not really sure yet that I will ever get that money! LOL!

I have noted them at the end, though, so you can see how Better Than Free can become Much Better Than Free if this whole Mail-in-Rebate thing actually pans out! :)

4. Most deals you will see on other coupon blogs and sites only figure total cost before tax. Because we unfortunately live in a state with near-the-highest sales tax rate in the nation, I am actually figuring mine WITH sales tax – 9.5% to be specific since that’s what I pay at most places around here (different cities can vary slightly). I’ve called out the price and tax for each item separately so you can see.

With all that in mind, here is what I bought at Walgreens this week:

Schick Hydro 5 razor - $7.99
Used $5 coupon from paper 6/13
Each Item Total = $2.99 + $.76 tax = $3.75
Received $4.00 RR for each razor
Purchased 5 razors total
PAID = $18.75
RECEIVED RR = $20.00

Listerine Whitening - $5.99
Used $3 Walgreens in-ad coupon
Used $2 manufacturer’s coupon printed from internet
Item Total = $.99 + $.28 tax = $1.27
PAID = $1.27

Neutrogena Makeup Remover wipes - $5.99
Neutrogena Face Wash Bar - $2.61
Neutrogena Face Wash Bar - $2.61
Used $1.50 off any Neutrogena item x 3 (one per item)
Total = $6.71 + $1.06 tax = $7.77
PAID = $7.77
RECEIVED RR = $10 (for buying 3 Neutrogena items)

Total paid for all items above = $27.79
RR received = $30.00
Real cost for items = $-2.21

And with rebates figured in it gets even better. I’m submitting the following:

Schick Rebate = $7.99
Purchase a Shick Hydro Razor and receive a rebate of the full purchase price up to $10.99.

Listerine Rebate = $10.00
Purchase ANY Listerine Whitening or Rembrandt product and receive a free $10 prepaid debit card

So, if you figure in the rebates, assuming they come (do I seem pessimistic enough?) Then buying all the items pictured above will actually have MADE me $20.20!!!

Amazing, huh?

My Intro to Couponing

So I must admit I have looked into couponing a couple times in the past, but never tried it. I read some blogs and saw all the crazy deals people were getting but just didn't believe it was possible! It didn't help that lots of the blogs mentioned stores that double coupons regularly (a practice I remember from my early years back east) - I figured since ours here don't then it would never work. Happy to say now - boy was I wrong!!!

On May 24th Amber, the wonderful woman who runs Coupon Connections NW, put on a class for my church. Looking at her examples and great presentation suddenly made it all click in my head - and the list of suggested 'stock up' prices she included blew me away. Really?! I should really only stock up on toothpaste when it's FREE? This happens?!?! I was ready to jump in with both feet and give this a shot!

I started by subscribing to my local paper using the great 5-Sunday-papers deal that Coupon Connections NW has negotiated (definitely visit her site for more info) and visited stores to build up my stash (Safeway May coupon book, Add Dairy to your Summer coupon book, etc.)

To organize my coupons I also pulled out an old zipper-closure binder I had sitting unused and ordered a 100-pack of baseball card protector sheets from Amazon. I'll take some pictures of my binder to post later.