My Frugal Adventures » Articles

Reader Question: Difference Between Per Purchase and Per Transaction?

Charlene — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:15:48 +0000

One thing that tends to cause confusion on coupons is when it reads “one coupon per purchase”. I have had a few questions about this recently and wanted to clarify.

Per purchase refers to each item you are buying. You can buy 1 item or 20 of the same items and you may use one of the same coupon on each of those items.

This is most pronounced on the Proctor and Gamble coupons. They will write in red letters “limit one coupon per purchase.” That does not mean you can only use one like coupon per shopping trip, it means you may use one of those coupons on each like item you buy.

Now if the coupon reads “one coupon per person” or “one coupon per transaction” that does indeed mean you can just use one each time you shop. It doesn’t matter how many of the same items you buy, you only get to use one of the exact same coupon.

The Proctor and Gamble coupons do not limit you to one per transaction but they do limit you to four coupons per shopping trip.

Now the example of the Iams coupon above is nice and easy because they say “one per purchase” and then right underneath “limit four per transaction” so to me that is pretty clear. You can use one of those Iams coupons per bag you buy and you can buy 4 bags in total per shopping trip and use (4) of the coupons.

It does get a little blurry with other coupons. Recently some Johnson & Johnson coupons have had a new clause “no more than 4 coupons (of any kind) for the same product in the same transaction.”

Now that is clear as mud really but the coupon also says “limit one coupon per person.” So that is the starting place for me- you can buy one Cortaid at a time and use a total of one of the same coupons.

I believe that they are saying with the no more than four coupons is in very special and very rare circumstances when multiple coupons can be used on an item. The best example I can think of is at Publix where they will sometimes accept a manufacturer coupon, a competitor coupon and a Publix store coupon on an item. That would be 3 coupons for that item.

Another example is at Walgreens where they can occasionally have an in ad coupon, a coupon booklet coupon and a manufacturer coupon for the same item. That would be a total of 3 coupons on the same item. If for some reason there was another store coupon for that same product from a different source (like an activity book or a store flyer) well that would be 4 coupons on the exact same item. That would be the limit and you could not use a 5th coupon.

So obviously those situations almost never come up but that is how I read the new clause on those coupons.

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New Coupon Barcodes

Charlene — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:43:15 +0000

Well some of you might have noticed new coupon bar codes when you print some coupons and perhaps on a few of the newspaper insert coupons as well.

You might notice there is now one barcode and not two as well are used to. This has been in the works for a few years now and the point of these new bar codes is to increase efficiency at checkout for the customer and the retailer.

The main reason we will see a switch from the standard bar codes to the new single bar codes is to prevent fraud. There are a lot of people that feel that if a coupon scans they can use it for whatever they want, regardless of what the coupon is actually intended for.

I hear this all the time when coupons are released for Disney movies for example. The coupon will state is is valid for a BluRay combo pack and people will still use it on the regular DVD. So this new barcode system was designed so that the coupon will only work on the specific item or items it is intended for. In the case above, a Blu Ray coupon will beep if used on a DVD.

So this should also help retail stores because they can have more confidence when accepting coupons. The registers are supposed to alert them to exactly what the problem is if the coupon beeps OR if it does scan they can be much more confident that the coupon is perfectly legitimate.

The goal is for the cash register to alert the cashier as to precisely what the problem is (expired coupon, not the correct item etc…) so all the guess work is gone and it should be a much faster process to check out at the grocery store.

Now these bar codes really started popping up at the first of the year, however retailers actually have up to 6 months to change their registers to start accepting these new coupons.

So the short term issue is that many of the new bar codes might not scan at your store. I have heard about issues with Walgreens and I have personally experienced issues at Safeway and Walmart. I had coupons refused because they wouldn’t scan and since the coupon policies do say a coupon can be refused if it doesn’t scan… well there isn’t a whole lot that can be done.

Now one issue that some of you might experience is with doubling coupons. Currently if a coupon states “do not double” it may or may not double at your grocery store.With the new databar bar codes, the chances a Do Not Double coupon will actually double are slim. Mostly likely they will not. Unfortunately I don’t have any stores in my area that double coupons so I can’t test this personally.

So again, the bottom line is that these new barcodes might be a headache for the short term. I wanted to be sure you were all aware of exactly what is going on so you feel empowered when you go to the store. Hopefully most of these major retailers will have the software updated quickly and the new coupon barcodes should ultimately lead to a much more efficient experience for all of us.

You can read a little more about the new Coupon Barcodes here and the new Databar Bar codes here.

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Holiday Countdown (Free Shopping Worksheets)

Charlene — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:25:14 +0000

Well I really need to get on the ball with the holiday shopping this year. When my children were smaller I would be nearly finished by now, but as they get bigger and we get busier it seems to make “last minute” par for the course.

SO here is an article from last year that I posted and guess what? Just 51 days till Christmas and about 3 weeks til Thanksgiving.

Here are some tips for getting your holiday shopping organized and on track! I really encourage you to start thinking ahead to Christmas, especially if you tend to find yourself with a lot of credit card bills at the first of the year. This is a great way to make a plan to shop within your budget.

Typically I have a calendar that I create at the beginning of the year and I update it with all the major events we have. All family birthdays, anniversaries, any baby showers, weddings- all those events you purchase gifts for. I have a separate list that I keep for Christmas shopping.

As the year progresses, I am constantly on the lookout for great deals. I have found it is much easier on the budget to spend a little here and there than it is to spend a whole lot at once. Not to mention once the holidays are in full swing, I find myself getting swept up with the shopping spirit and tend to spend more than I should.

So I am attaching two worksheets for you, if you want to get organized for the holidays.

The first worksheet is the one I use to keep track of what I need to buy throughout the year. I typically keep track of things by month and check off each event as I purchase the gifts. I also make notes about what it is I bought so I can easily find what I need. (And because I tend to forget what I have bought for people.) I actually have all my gifts tucked into boxes at the top of the closet. This gift list is tacked to the wall in the closet and I can easily update it as I pop items into the boxes.

For those of you with a lot of children’s parties throughout the year, you might especially consider getting started using the buy ahead idea. I know you can’t always predict every party, but we will see wonderful deals on toys and things during the next few weeks and after the holidays. It is a great time to buy a few extra items to put into your gift closet so you are prepared for those last minute party invitations next year.

The second sheet is just for organizing your holiday shopping list. There is space to jot down names, what it is you purchased, your actual spent vs budgeted amount and a checkbox for when you have completed your shopping for that person.

Hopefully this is a little motivation to start really planning your wish list and to establish a budget ahead of time…51 days and counting!

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Halloween Candy Stock Up Prices

Charlene — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:35:25 +0000

I went back through the candy deals from last Halloween to sort of give you an idea of what deals we can probably expect to see.

It looks like the fun size bags of candy- that are roughly 11oz- the best price we saw was about $1.00 for those. It looks like those deals ran pretty close to Halloween.

That works out to about .09/oz for candy after coupons. This week CVS has large Wonka bags for $5.50 for 4lbs- which is roughly $.08/oz.

So if you want to get your candy and just get it out of the way, that seems to be a good price.

My opinion on buying candy early vs. closer to the holiday is to only buy now if eating all the candy won’t be an issue for you. If I went and bought the Wonka stuff my husband and kids would have the 4lbs gone before October 1st.

Now if I bought the snack size Snickers or something that is $1.25 this week- well they wouldn’t have a chance at it because Mommy would polish that bag off herself.

If you have more willpower than we do, I’d say to just get it and that is one less thing to worry about. If you happen to have the same issue that I have, I would suggest printing the candy coupons as they come along and then sit tight for a few weeks and get your bags a little closer to Halloween.

I also wanted to mention that you don’t necessarily have to give out candy for Halloween. Last year we saw crazy good deals on fruit snacks at some stores or some of you may have spotted great deals on Rice Krispie treats and those can be great alternatives to candy.

I am going to hold out myself and wait until October 1st to see what Amazon has in store for us. Last year they ran promotions with Yummy Earth lollipops- which are organic. The lowest price I remember is $10 for 5lbs of lollipops. I bought those and they work great for trick or treaters plus it is something I feel a little less guilty about giving my kiddos if there are leftovers. I am hoping Yummy Earth starts getting aggressive with prices in October and I will keep you posted!

(So now you know if you see me buying “Halloween candy” on a shopping trip just look the other way and pretend it really is for the children.)

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Extreme Couponing: How to Stack Coupons

Charlene — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:33:27 +0000

The next step in the Extreme Couponing course is to learn:

How to Stack Coupons

To “stack” a coupon means using one manufacturer coupon and one store coupon on the exact same item. That is not to be confused with “doubling” coupons which is something totally different.

Often times, stores will issue their own coupon- perhaps in a printable form on their website, via the weekly sales flyer, or in coupon booklets sent to your home or found in store.

Those types of coupons can often be stacked with a second manufacturer coupon for the same item to basically get double the savings.

And example of a store coupon is this one from Safeway:

So there are a few key points that you can note.

The first is the top where it tells you “Safeway coupon.”
The second is the bottom of the coupon- you can see the standard remittance information is not listed. On a manufacturer coupon you will always see instructions to the store as to how they can send the coupon in for payment.
Last, you can check the barcodes. In this case I am not posting barcodes because that leads to other issues but one look at the barcode instantly told me that this doesn’t look like all the other manufacturer coupons I have and so something is different here.

Now the coupon is above specifies a price ($2.99) but it could also just be $1.00 off Tombstone pizza etc..

Now this is also a Digiorno coupon but it is a manfacturer coupon. If this was the same product (Tombstone), I would be able to stack this with the store coupon above and get each pizza for $1.99.

To determine if a store does allow you to stack coupons, you can go online to the store website (such as Target.com) and look for a coupon policy. You can also check out the compilation of Coupon Policies I have listed or you can simply go to customer service and ask for a copy.

Here are the things that seem to cause the most confusion for people:

Q. The fine print on the coupon says “can not be combined with other offers” so that means I can’t stack the coupon.
That actually means you can not use more than one manufacturer coupon per item you purchase. It does not mean you can’t stack a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon.

Q. The coupon says “limit one coupon per offer or transaction” so I can’t stack it.
That means you may only use one like coupon per item you purchase. If you buy 1 box of Cheerios you can use a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon. You can’t use (2) store coupons on the same box or (2) manufacturer coupons on the same box of cereal.

Q. I think this is a store coupon but it says manufacturer at the top?
There are a few stores that throw us curveballs and I hate it as much as you do. Walgreens and Rite Aid or the worst offenders and this can create a lot of confusion with consumers as well as with store staff.

This is an example of the type of store coupon that can create confusion. Now the best advice I have in this situation is to arm yourself with as much patience and information as you can. The coupon above is a Rite Aid coupon from their weekly sales flyer. Now the coupon says “manufacturer’s coupon” at the top but don’t be fooled. This is actually a store coupon- you can see there are no redemption instructions for a retailer, it says “good only at Rite Aid” and the bar code is clearly for Rite Aid stores.

So I can tell you already many cashiers will refuse to allow you to stack coupons because they will tell you that is a manufacturer coupon. What you can do is to go back to the Rite Aid coupon policy and look for this clause:

No more than one “48” Rite Aid Valuable coupon, one “49” Rite Aid Manufacturer coupon, and one “5” Manufacturer coupon can be used on a single item. Rite Aid may accept up to 4 identical coupons for the same number of qualifying items as long as there is sufficient stock to satisfy other customers within the store manager’s sole discretion

So you can see that they expressly allow for the stacking of a manufacturer coupon (that is the 5 coupon they mention- see the pizza coupon above the barcode starts with a 5, the Rite Aid coupon I have pictured says “RC49″ at the beginning. So as you can see the policy does allow you to stack these coupons.

Finally, just a quick note about when the stars align and you can really get the most bang for your buck. Certain stores will frequently offer a total purchase coupon. CVS is the store we see these from most often and what that means is when you get a coupon for say $3 off a $10 purchase or $10 off a $50 purchase.

More often than not, you can also stack that coupon along with others you might have! The only trick you need to keep in mind is that the total purchase coupon should always be given first. This is one of those times that the order you hand your coupons to the cashier is extremely important. Take this example:

Huggies Diapers $10.00
Use $2 manufacturer coupon
Use $1 CVS coupon for Huggies diapers
Use $3 off a $10 purchase CVS coupon

If I hand over the manufacturer coupon first, well now my total bill is $8.00. If I try to give the cashier the $3 off a $10 purchase coupon it will likely be refused because my purchase is actually $8 not $10. So it is important to give that total purchase coupon first and then the other 2 coupons and now you pay just $4 for your diapers.

Here are guidelines for a few of the stores you might already shop at.

{Walgreens}
You can stack a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon. They frequently show this as an example in the weekly circulars. My suggestion is to save one of those circulars if you find one with a good example because many stores can be very difficult about stacking coupons. Find the Walgreens coupon policy here. One other small note is that the coupon policy says “applicable Walgreens coupon(s)” which indicates to me that if there happens to be more than one Walgreens coupon for the same item, you should be able to use all of them on that product. An example would be an in ad coupon and a coupon booklet coupon for the same item- you would just want to double check that the bar codes are different.

{Rite Aid}
Rite Aid allows up to three coupons on a single item- a manufacturer coupon, a store coupon starting in “48″ and a store coupon starting in “49″. The total combined coupon value can not exceed the purchase price of the item. Find the Rite Aid coupon policy here.

{CVS}
CVS does allow you to use a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon on one item. If you also have a total purchase coupon, you can use that as well. See the CVS coupon policy here.

{Target}
Target allows you to use one store coupon and one manufacturer coupon per item. The store coupons do say limit of 1 and it is up to the individual stores as to whether they allow you to use multiple like coupons. For example, if I have a Target store coupon for Oatmeal and a manufacturer coupon that is no problem. If I have (2) of the same sets of coupons and I want to buy 2 oatmeal, you would need to check with your store and see if they enforce the limit of 1 per transaction. The majority of stores will not enforce the limit. See the Target coupon policy here.

You can find more Couponing 101 articles below:

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How to Extreme Coupon: Price Matching at Walmart

Charlene — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:59:37 +0000

Here is a little vlog I did on how you can do price matching at Walmart. The major advantages to price matching include:

1. One stop shopping (saving time and money)
2. Cherry Pick the best deals from a variety of stores.
3. Shop at your convenience without worrying about inventory issues and out of stocks.
4. Walmart’s policy is to give overage on all coupons, so you might be able to get overage on a coupon rather than having it adjusted down.

The major disadvantages to price matching at Walmart include:

1. Employees that are not trained properly on the policies.
2. Not finding identical items to what you want to match.

Hopefully this video helps to explain how the entire process works! If you have trouble viewing this video, you can find my You Tube Channel here.

You can find the actual Price Matching policy for Walmart here and find the Walmart Coupon Policy here.

You can also find more articles on How to Get Started Extreme Couponing here.

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Extreme Couponing: Using the Coupon Database

Charlene — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:42:34 +0000

We had a little conversation about this a few weeks ago on the My Frugal Adventures Facebook page. There are lots of you that might not be aware of a fantastic resource that is available on My Frugal Adventures.

You can utilize the free coupon database at any time and find any coupons you might need in just a few seconds.

So let me start by telling you how to find it. You can bookmark the coupon database or just look for the box pictured above on the right sidebar —–> and click.

To use the database is very simple. You simply enter what it is you need and all the available coupons will pop up. So if you are interested in Grey Poupon Mustard, you might type in “Grey Poupon” or “Grey Poupon Mustard.” I tend to play with how specific I am. If I am looking for a Colgate Total coupon I might try Colgate, Colgate Total, or Colgate Toothpaste and see what I get.

When I searched for Grey Poupon (by typing that in and clicking on Search), I can see only one result. It shows me the description of the coupon (Grey Poupon mustard), the value of the coupon, the date it expires, and the source. Sometimes you find printable coupons, you will see a link that you can click to go directly to where the coupon is located to print it out. In this case the Grey Poupon coupon says source “SS 6/12/11″ and that simply means the coupon is inside the 6/12 SmartSource insert.

Now if I wanted to do more of a general search, I could type in “Mustard” instead. Now that is going to give me lots more options:

If you find that you have a popular product with a lot of results, you do want to note how many pages are listed:

This is at the top of the results and again at the bottom. If there are multiple pages of coupons you might want to be sure to check each page.

You do want to make sure to note if a store is listed- all the monthly coupons for Walgreens and Rite Aid as well as the Target coupons are often listed in the database. Don’t waste your time looking at coupons that are specific to Walgreens if you are planning your Kroger shopping trip.

Once you are more comfortable using the database, you can also click on the Advanced Search link and start narrowing down precisely what you want. If you are a new couponer, you might want to narrow down under “Type” and just look for printable coupons. Maybe you just want a coupon for a specific value- you can click on “value” to see tons of options. Maybe you want to find just store coupons. Click on “Store” and you can search by Walgreens, Target, Publix etc.. etc…

So this really is a great tool to use when you are planning your shopping trips. I use the coupon database numerous times a day.

A few notes that I do want to make about the database in general:

If there was a Grey Poupon coupon released in a specific insert and Arizona got $.50/1, Chicago got $1/1 and Georgia got $1/3- well sometimes the database will have all three listed and sometimes just one of those coupons. Because it is listed in the database as $1/1 doesn’t necessarily mean that is the exact coupon that your newspaper will have. You will still have to double check your inserts and see.
Some regional coupons are not listed in the database. The one specifically that makes me nuts is Golden Grain pasta. That is a very regional product and the coupons are never listed in the database- so keep in mind just because a coupon isn’t listed doesn’t mean it isn’t available.
And finally, just remember this database was built and is maintained by human beings. So there are sometimes errors in the database- like when a recent coupon was listed as “Fruity Pebbles” which you would assume was the cereal and the coupon was actually for Fruity Pebbles Treats which is very different. Obviously that was a mistake that was made when entering the coupon. There is usually a bit of a delay in how quickly the coupons are updated. For example, when I did the grocery store ads on Tuesday, the coupons from the prior Sunday insert still had not been entered in. And also printable coupons can change at any time. So if you see a link to a coupon there is always the chance it has been removed, is out of prints etc…

Overall I think this is a great resource and I have found it very simple to use.

If anyone has questions about the database feel free to ask in the comments below!

Here are more articles available to help you learn to use coupons:

And you can also check the Where to Begin section of the blog!

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Extreme Couponing: Free Item Coupons!

Charlene — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 05:48:13 +0000

Well here is another step in the road to learning how to effectively use coupons. I wanted to discuss a bit about free item coupons and how to obtain and best use them.

WHAT:

So a free item coupon is exactly what it sounds like. A coupon that is valid to try a product for free. There are a few ways to get your hands on these types of coupons.

Via social media promotions. Most often these are on Facebook. There are all sorts of these types of promotions, from Purina to organic yogurt to Coffeemate Creamer. It used to be that these promotions would last for a few hours but now there are a lot more people out there seeking these freebies and coupons, so often times they might be gone in a matter of minutes or even seconds.
Via word of mouth marketing programs. There are a ton of programs you can sign up for and they really do send coupons or products (full size) totally free. Some examples are Vocalpoint or Kraft First Taste. Another type of program would be rewards programs like Huggies and Pampers or Recyclebank where you get free product coupons once you enter enough codes to qualify.
Via coupon inserts. We used to see free item coupons frequently in the paper. Especially when new products were launching. These days they are pretty few and far between but they are occasionally in your Sunday paper. Now the coupons can be regional (meaning only some cities will get them. An example of this was about 2 months ago. A very small demographic received coupons for a free Marzetti salad dressing (about $3-4 value). That same week some people in another demographic received coupons for a free hot sauce (about $3-4 in value). So depending on where you live your newspaper may have had a great coupon inside.
Via the manufacturers directly. One popular thing to do is to attempt to get free item coupons by contacting the manufacturers of various products and either ask directly for coupons or compliment them/offer feedback on specific products in the hopes that they will send you coupons.

One important thing to understand about free item coupons is if they are printable coupons or not. There has been a wave of fraudulent printable coupons over the past year or so and as a result most stores will no longer accept these types of printable coupons. Occasionally manufacturers still release these coupons, in fact Lipton actually just offered a coupon for a free iced tea that was available to print at home. These coupons can still be redeemed but it is important to understand that you may need to try a few stores before you find one that will actually accept the coupon.

A free item coupon that is not printed at home on your computer (such as one mailed to you or in the Sunday paper) is another matter entirely and the vast majority of stores will accept those with no problems.

HOW:

So now that you know where these coupons typically originate let’s move on to how the heck you can get your hands on them! I try to pass along as many of the free item coupons as I hear about on the blog. You really have to be in the right place at the right time though because these promotions can go incredibly fast. Usually following me on Facebook is the best way to find out about them because we can all work together on the Facebook wall to learn when coupons are live etc..

You can register for the word of mouth programs like Vocalpoint, Kraft First Taste, House Party etc… and hopefully get coupons that way.

You can purchase free item coupons online. An example would be the Sunday insert coupons I mentioned above. If your area did not receive a coupon for a product or if you want extra coupons, you can purchase coupons from clipping services or from Ebay. One thing to note is that you want to be VERY careful buying coupons from Ebay. There are occasional sellers that never send the coupons, send out photocopies or otherwise altered coupons (that are fraudulent and should not be redeemed) and so on. If a coupon seems too good to be true- say a $5 off Tide coupon, most likely it is too good to be true and it is best to not take any chances. I have personally used Ebay a handful of times and I have not had problems but I have heard from lots and lots of people that were burned so again just use caution.

And the last way I wanted to mention was via manufacturers directly. I used to do this a lot when I started couponing and then I had baby #2 and now there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. You can select random manufacturers for products that you like and call them, email or even write a letter and compliment or offer constructive critisism on their products.

Sample Letters:

What I used to do was pay attention to the products I already had on hand and make a mental note to contact those companies. For example, during bathtime am I using Burt’s Bees baby wash? Well why not drop them a line. In the morning as I am brewing my coffee- is it Coffeemate creamer I always have in the fridge? Well why not contact them! You can often just turn a package around and find contact information or a simple Google search will more often than not turn up contact information.

When contacting companies it is important to be honest with your feedback but still polite. Telling Luvs that you hated the diapers and they gave your baby a rash is probably not going to get you very far. Here are some examples of things that I have said to companies in the past:

I contacted Huggies when I had a pack of diapers that were defective.

“I have used Huggies diapers on my girls for the past 3 years and have always had great luck with your product. I also appreciate the convenience of finding Huggies diapers in almost every store I shop. I did want to let you know that I recently purchased a package of Huggies Overnights diapers in a Jumbo pack at Target (UPC #:) and the side tabs were missing from 3 diapers in the pack. I have never had any quality issues before and I certainly intend to continue purchasing your product. I just wanted to make you aware of the problem. “

Now that really did happen to me and I really did send them a note about it. Huggies responded by sending me a coupon for a free pack of diapers and two $5 off coupons for any product. So if you do run into any legitimate problems don’t be shy about letting these companies know!

Another example might be something your family enjoys like Newman’s Own Pasta Sauce. You might send something like this:

“I just tried the new Newman’s Own Stockarooni pasta sauce tonight and wanted to let you know how much our family enjoyed your product! Your pasta sauce is a staple in our house and my kids love it on homemade pizza or spaghetti and I love the convenience of just pouring something right from a jar and dinner is served! I also love that your products are organic as that is such an important thing for our family. We will continue to purchase your pasta sauce regularly and if you happen to have any coupons available for consumers, I would sincerely appreciate them! My address is: …..”

And even if you are not a huge fan of a product or you simply want to try something different, you might send a note. Like I happen to be a Coffeemate girl. So I might send something like this to International Delight:

“I tend to purchase Coffeemate creamers most frequently and I do use creamer in my coffee every morning. I recently saw an ad for the new Breve creamer from International Delight and I am really interested in trying this product. I love the packaging on the creamer and the flavors sound wonderful- especially the Caramel Macchiato. If you have any coupons available for consumers, I would really appreciate them as I would love to try your product and see if I like it as much as what I currently use. My address is…”

So emailing companies can sometimes get you incredible coupons and sometimes get you absolutely nothing. I have received several free item coupons from manufacturers, I have received nothing at all in response to my emails and coupons that were very low in value (say $.35 coupons on a $5-6 product.)

If you want to give this a whirl, I would suggest getting started by just looking at the products you use regularly and contacting those companies when you can. You can also see a long list of companies to get in touch with (and hopefully) you will get free coupons in return.

Remember to try to be specific and to be honest with what you say. ”I love Huggies please send me coupons” is probably not as effective as the samples listed above.

WHERE:

Now that you know how to get these coupons, I wanted to mention where to use them. Most people get a coupon for whatever product and they hit the closest store, get the product and leave. That is great but I try to be a little more strategic with these coupons.

I actually tend to hoard my free item coupons. Many of them will have long expiration dates and I like to wait for the best possible time to use them to really maximize savings. So what would be an example of that? Well I had a free coupon for a pack of Kraft cheese recently. I waited until I found a Buy One Get One Free sale on Kraft cheese and plunked that coupon down to get 2 packages for free. Another example would be to hold your coupon until you can possibly make a profit via drugstore rewards or rebates. An example of that might be a coupon for a free pack of Huggies diapers. Maybe you hold onto that coupon until CVS is offering a $3 ECB when you buy Huggies. Use that free package coupon and you get a free product and still get the $3 ECB. So not only did you get free diapers but you made a profit!

I also love to use these coupons as fillers for store coupons. For example, my local grocery store offers store coupons for free products when you spend a certain amount (CVS and Rite Aid also offer these types of coupons with $5 off $20 purchase coupons or $3 off $15 purchase coupons.) So for example I might need to spend $20 at that store and if I do, I get a free package of cereal. Now I just have to hit $20 before coupons so if I had a coupon for a free pack of Huggies diapers- well that is likely going to get me almost halfway to the $20 mark. So if I am smart and hold onto those free item coupons until I have a little stash of them, I can use them at the right time to get the best possible deal.

Hopefully this is clear and I would love to hear from you guys that actually do regularly contact companies. What has your experience been and do you have any other suggestions?

You can read more articles about learning to coupon:

Extreme Couponing: Where to Begin

Extreme Couponing: Understanding coupon matchups

Extreme Couponing: Ready for Action

Extreme Couponing: Determining a Realistic Savings Plan

Extreme Couponing: Understanding Buy One Get One Free Coupons

Extreme Couponing: Organizing Your Coupons

and you can get even more information from the Where to Begin section of my blog!

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Extreme Couponing: Creating a Pricebook

Charlene — Tue, 31 May 2011 21:04:33 +0000

So here is the next step in learning to coupon for those that are following along.

You will want to create some sort of price book. The point of this is to determine what YOUR best price is for products so you have a handle on when to buy a little extra product to get you through to the next sale.

Price books are very individual things because so much will depend on where you live, if you have double or triple coupons and the stores available to you. Here are a few examples to show why price books are such a personal thing- note these are just examples not deals that are currently available.

Recently Safeway stores ran a sale on ketchup. If you live in Northern CA, the deal looks like this:

Heinz Ketchup $1.69
Use $.25 coupon (coupons do not double in my area)
Final Price: $1.44

Not a good deal really. But if you happen to live in MD:

Heinz Ketchup $1.69
Use $.50/1 coupon (exact same coupon insert but the value was higher on the East Coast and this coupon doubles)
Final Price: $.69

So again this is the same chain of stores and the exact same sales circular and the exact same coupon inserts but you can see by living in my city, I would have paid double the price for this product as someone on the East Coast.

Here is another example using Safeway stores once again:

Haribo Gummy Bears are $1.00/bag
There was a $.30/1 coupon available

If you lived in my city, the price would be $.70 after coupon
If you live in an area with doubles, the price is $.40 after coupon
If you live in TX, where they have triples, the price is $.10 after coupon

So hopefully this helps clarify why you really want to figure out the best prices in your area for grocery items in particular. A stock up price for me might be $.70 on candy but for someone in Dallas it might be .10 and you can see why from the example above.

Now how to go about creating your price book... I would encourage you to spend as little or as much time as you want on this project. Really the main goal is to just become more conscience of prices at your stores on the stuff you buy most often.

You can just get a tiny notebook and start jotting down the prices on the products you buy most often. After about 6 weeks you should finally start to see the lowest those products will hit. Once you get a handle on that, just start to narrow down the items you buy from week to week. Rather than buying product x once a week and paying whatever they charge, you wait for product x to hit the lowest it will go and buy extra to last you for 1 or maybe 2 months.

I have a “price book” that is located right upstairs in my head. I just sort of remember what I like to pay for things and it is that simple. For example, before I started using coupons, if I needed chicken, I would buy chicken. I don’t think I ever paid attention to the price. I needed chicken and that was that. Now I know that the lowest price on a good quality fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast is about $1.88/lb or less. So when chicken hits that price I buy a little extra to get me through a few weeks until it goes on sale again. I just know all this stuff after shopping deals and using coupons for awhile- it really becomes second nature.

If you are new to this process or like to have things more buttoned down, I am attaching an excel spreadsheet with my current “buy” prices as a stepping stone. I do not have double coupons or any of the incredible grocery stores like Kroger and Publix in my city so hopefully your prices are significantly lower.

I would encourage you to customize the list to what suits your household. For example, you can get Bar-S hot dogs for probably .20 and that might be a stock up price for you on hot dogs. Bar-S is not a product that our family uses, so my stock up price on hot dogs is probably $2.75 for something like Hebrew National.

I also said I would pay up to .50 for toothpaste. Many people refuse to pay anything at all for certain products like toothpaste, but in my situation I tend to be willing to pay a little extra for convenience. If I have to make an extra trip to Walgreens to get toothpaste for free and then spend $2 cash and roll rewards and such, well I would rather go to Target and just pay .50 for the same product and save myself some trouble. So again, it is all about value to you!

You can see my Price Book here- note there is one tab for grocery and one for drugstore items. You should be able to very easily update this with your own products and prices!

You can check out more articles on the Learning to Use Coupons series here.

You might also check out my vlog with more tips on understanding grocery store sales cycles.

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Learning to Coupon: Realistic Savings Plan

Charlene — Fri, 06 May 2011 21:40:19 +0000

I wanted to continue with the series on learning how to effectively use coupons. Many of you may have seen the new television series called Extreme Couponing and I just wanted to share a little about my perspective on what a not so extreme person might expect to save at the store each week and what kind of time investment is required to get those savings.

First I do want to let you know the shoppers on those shows are doing Extreme trips. I personally don’t feel it is a realistic portrayal of what you can expect to save week after week. For one thing, many of the stores on the show broke their own coupon policies for the sake of sensationalism. A normal coupon shopper would most likely not be able to duplicate those transactions because most stores will not allow overage, many have limits on the number of items and coupons you can purchase and so on.

Many of us do not have double coupons in our areas so that also limits the amount of savings. Finally, the reason some of those shoppers were able to get the transactions so low was by using free item coupons obtained from various sources, catalina coupons from prior trips, and in one case they even used a gift card to partially pay. You also didn’t see the cost of the coupons added back into the final total and many of the shoppers did spend money to purchase coupons.

One last thing to consider is taxes vary by state as well. I saw a show where one shopper had something like 70 liters of soda. In California, the tax on the soda alone would have been $7.00 which can really cut into your savings. Another episode showed a shopper purchasing $236 in headache medicine. In my area, even if those items were free with coupons I would still be stuck paying $18.94 in sales tax on those products. My weekly grocery budget is $50 so that would be a big chunk of my budget to purchase headache medication alone.

So while the savings are impressive, I just want to be sure people aren’t feeling defeated because they can’t save 93-98% week after week at the stores.

So I am going to walk you through what I personally feel is realistic. You will of course want to adjust this to suit the needs of your family.

::Time Investment.

I don’t have a ton of time to dedicate to coupons. I would rather trade off a deal here and there and spend more time with my family and friends. Some of the couponers on that show spend 30-70 hours per week on couponing. I can’t even imagine that sort of time investment myself.

I spend roughly 90 minutes a week. Now that includes doing my menu plan and shopping list which takes the majority of the time. I do not personally use a coupon binder because I don’t have the time to commit to maintaining it and I don’t want to carry it around with me. I just have a small pouch that I keep some coupons in and then I cut the rest that I need when I am planning my shopping trips. Yes, I do miss out on some deals by not having lots of coupons with me but I look at it as a trade off on missing the occasional deal versus saving myself a considerable amount of time.

So I suppose you might want to consider determining how much time you want to commit each week to using coupons. If you have a razor thin budget or a very large family to shop for or you are interested in really going gangbusters with donations, you will probably need to invest a little more time.

::Storage Space.

Another thing to consider about stocking up on products is how much storage space you are willing to dedicate. I don’t like to have a lot of things myself so I just have a few small baskets under the sink in the bathroom that hold the toiletries. A small pantry in the kitchen that holds all our food and cupboards in the laundry room that hold cleaning products. I have found those small spaces allow me to keep enough products on hand for our family. But again if you live in an extreme climate or have a large family you might need to purchase storage shelving and dedicate space to your products. Remember it is still a time investment to manage all that stuff, to keep rotating products out, to find creative recipes to use the items etc…

The one thing I do have is a small freezer in the garage. Mine was $100 at Home Depot and I feel it was a good investment because it allows me to purchase extra proteins in particular when they are on sale.

::Give Me the Bottom Line.

And now for the bottom line about what you can realistically save from week to week. I try to save 50%-70% each week. Obviously it is possible to save significantly more- take one of the Shop for Free lists to your store and you can save 100% on your bill!

What I have found is that many new couponers get very caught up in how much they save. Many people want to come out of the gates saving 96% or more. While that is possible, I think you might also consider the quality of what you are purchasing. We do see coupons for produce, dairy items, meats etc… but not enough coupons to get those products for free week after week. So if you want to purchase a lot of fresh items for your family each week, the savings are significantly lower. To save 90%+ on quality meats and seafood, produce and dairy items is simply not realistic.

To be honest I really don’t even notice the percentage of savings on my bill each week. I tend to focus more on what I purchased and how far I stretched our budget. One of my favorite deals recently was Horizon Organic milk for $3.49 (regularly $6). That is only a 42% savings but let me tell you I was more excited about that deal than coming home with 10 bags of free pouches of cookie mix. (Although a cookie might have made that milk taste even better….)

So in general, I have found that a small time investment each week allows me to save a significant amount of money for our family. I have found that you can absolutely save money regardless of your diet or your location. While you might not walk out of the store week after week with a cart of groceries for pennies on the dollar, I do believe it is very realistic to save at least 50% on high quality items.

One argument I do hear frequently is that coupons are just for junk food. I have to tell you that is a very valid argument. I see a lot more coupons for cookies, processed foods, candy and other stuff that might not always be the best choice. I can tell you that coupons for organic, gluten free, non toxic, and natural items are becoming more and more prevalent and the only way we will continue to see these types of coupons is by redeeming them!

***

Now I’d love to hear what you guys think. What is your average savings each week? How much time do you invest to get those savings?

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Understanding Buy One Get One Free Coupons

Charlene — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:29:56 +0000

I get asked about transactions involving Buy One Get One Free sales and coupons all the time. I wanted to take a minute to talk a little about how these sales work.

You can click below to get the full scoop!

There is something about BOGO sales/coupons that makes people uncomfortable. For some reason it just doesn’t feel right to have a zero balance- especially to a cashier. This is a perfectly legitimate transaction and is even provided for in some store coupon policies. You are doing nothing wrong by combining these offers but you do need to be prepared to occasionally run into issues on these types of offers.

Question: Can you use a BOGO coupon with a BOGO sale?

You sure can do this at lots of stores! Typically the way a transaction might work is like this:

Store x offers Crest Toothpaste- Buy One Get One Free ($3.99/2)
In this case the store is usually offering the free item they advertise.

If you have a Buy One Get One Free coupon for Crest Toothpaste, in many situations you can use that coupon and the deal looks like this:

Buy 2 Crest at $3.99/2- Buy One Get One Free
Use Buy One Get One Free Coupon (takes off $3.99)
Final Price: $0 + a few cents tax.

Now the store has offered the free item they advertised and you have elected to pay for your purchase using a manufacturer coupon. So the manufacturer is paying for one item and the store is paying for the other item. The store will be reimbursed for the coupon value.

The Rite Aid coupon policy and the Walgreens coupon policy specifically allow for this type of transaction. Some stores, like CVS, do not have a written coupon policy so although it should be OK to do a transaction like this, there is always a chance your cashier will simply refuse. Finally, some stores expressly prohibit this type of transaction- like Safeway stores. The Safeway coupon policy does not allow for a coupon on a free item- so depending on how you look at it they can legitimately refuse to honor the transaction. (In my opinion, the coupon is used on an item that is not free so it should be OK but again it will really depend on how the store interprets the policy.)

Question: Can you use a BOGO coupon and a another coupon together?

Here is an example of how something like that might work:

Honest Tea $1.00
Use Buy One Get One Free Honest Tea coupon (should take off $1.00)
and Use $1/1 coupon
Final Price: Both are free

Now with this type of transaction there are a few things to look for before you head out. On the Buy One Get One Free coupon, you will want to check the barcode and see if it has a “14″ listed. You can see the breakdown of a bar code below. On the right side where it says “Value Code” is where you want to look. If the coupon has a 14 listed that means the coupon will attach to both items. If the coupon DOES have a “14″ that means you can not use it with another coupon. (So the scenario above would not work.)

If you do NOT see the “14″ listed, that means the coupon will only attach to one item and you should be able to use another coupon in your transaction. So the transaction above should work.

What about adding store coupons to the mix?

This is where it gets a little trickier. We can see this at Target pretty frequently. The Target coupon policy does not specifically address this situation- but here is a sample of how this might look:

Buy 2 Ore Idea Potatoes at $3.49, Get One Free
Use Buy One Get One Free coupon (takes of $3.49)
and Use $1/1 manufacturer coupon
and Use $1/1 Target coupon
Final Price: $1.49 for 3 bags

Now to make this even more complicated, there are some stores that might allow you to use more than one Target coupon. Technically you can use a Target coupon and a store coupon on each item, so you can try something like this:

Buy 2 Ore Idea Potatoes at $3.49, Get One Free
Buy 3 potatoes at $3.49 (one is free)
Use Buy One Get One Free coupon (takes off $3.49)
and Use $1/1 manufacturer coupon
and Use (2) $1/1 Target coupon
Final Price: $.49 for 3 bags

Can you use (2) BOGO coupons together?

Well, in my option no you shouldn’t use (2) BOGO coupons together. A scenario might look like this:

Buy 2 Reach toothbrushes at $2.50
Use (2) BOGO coupons
Final Price: 2 for free!

I suppose this could possibly work but I don’t want to encourage anyone to try this. I don’t think this is how the manufacturer intends for you to use these coupons. Now this sample scenario would be an appropriate way to use more than one BOGO coupon:

Buy 4 Reach toothbrushes at $2.50
use (2) BOGO coupons
Use (2) $1/1 coupons
Final Price: $2.50 for all 4 items.

That scenario should be fine providing those Reach coupons don’t have a “14″ in the value code.

What about a BOGO 50% off sale?

This is a tricky one and Walgreens at Rite Aid in particular offer these sales all the time. So in this case you buy one item at full price and get the second at 50% off. If you also have a BOGO coupon, the value of the lowest priced item is the one that should be applied to the coupon. So here is a sample scenario:

Buy 1 Gillette body wash at $4.99
Get one 50% off at $2.49
Use BOGO coupon (should take off $2.49)
Final Price: $4.99

Of course there might be some situations where a cashier takes off the higher priced item, but in general these almost never work out to be a very good deal.

What’s the bottom line?

If you are shopping at a store like Walgreens or Rite Aid that expressly allow for this type of transaction in the coupon policy, you should be OK. If you have a store that does not have a written coupon policy (like CVS), or a store that does not make reference to this (like Target)- your luck will vary. It will really be up to the cashier if they allow the coupon through. The way I typically view a transaction like this at a store without any guidelines is that I hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I will trypically try and see- if I get shot down- well on to the next thing. You can always try again another day. If you feel very strongly about a specific deal, you can also try to speak to a manager or contact corporate offices for clarification.

I hope that clears up a little confusion!

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Extreme Couponing: Step 3 Ready for Action

Charlene — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:10:23 +0000

Now we discussed where you can get coupons and we discussed how to understand a coupon matchup.

So what now? Well let’s go shopping of course! If you are ready to get started here are a few very basic things to keep in mind:

1. The maximum you need to buy is a 10 week supply of any item. If you have a huge family that amount might be more than I need for my small family. There is no reason at all to feel like you need to go gangbusters and wipe out the entire supply of pickles for half the United States just because they are free or inexpensive. I just bet you anything pickles will be a great deal again before you know it. So a handful of anything is most likely more than enough to get you through until the next sale. Remember none of that stuff is really “free.” It costs you time and energy to plan your trips, do the transaction, store the products and then try to find 102 different recipes using pickles.

2. You will want to start testing the waters at your local stores. I can tell you from experience that there will be many occasions that you have a wonderful shopping trip and you get high fives from the cashiers and other customers on the way out the door. I just bet you will also have more than a few occasions where you are treated very rudely, where your coupons are denied (even though they are legitimate), where you mess up and where you might be ready to take your entire pile of coupons and toss them in the trash. That’s ok. We all have those days! I like to recommend that people start shopping around for stores- figure out which ones seem coupon friendly, which ones seem to carry enough inventory and on the flip side which ones you prefer not to shop at. I am lucky enough to have a lot of stores in my area- Walmart, CVS, Target, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Safeway- a lot of variety. I have found certain stores are a much more pleasant overall experience for me than others. So I tend to focus on the deals at those stores. If you are lucky enough to have the superstar stores like Kroger or Publix- well you may not need to shop at several stores at all. You can most likely stick with your superstar grocery store, one drugstore, maybe a supercenter on occasion to do the bulk of your shopping.

Now- I like to recommend getting your feet wet rather than diving off the deep end of the pool. When I started using coupons, I started at one drugstore. I found a few deals each week that were appealing and I put the coupons together. I did very small transactions and that worked really well for me. Once I got more comfortable and got a system together, I started branching out to more stores and doing larger transactions.

You can find the weekly coupon matchups for each of the three drugstores by clicking the drugstores tab at the top right of the blog. Once you decide which store you want to start shopping at, I would strongly recommend reading about the programs they have available. Just look for the “Drugstore 101″ tab at the top of the blog.

Personally, I find CVS to be the easiest store overall but I would check the deals for whichever you have available in your area and decide what works best for you.

You will also find a list of Grocery Stores and the weekly coupon matchups by clicking on stores in the upper right of the blog. I am always looking to add more so if your favorite is not listed just leave me a comment below and let me know which one you would like to see.

If you have not noticed the printable list feature on MFA it is very easy! Once you decide which store you want to shop at just look to the left side and you will see little boxes you can click. Once you click the boxes for all the deals you want that week, just click the print this box at the bottom of the post. Now you have a shopping list and you are ready to roll!

If you happen to need a product that is not listed on the coupon matchups, you can find coupons very easily by clicking on the coupon database tab on the right of the blog. You can type in the name of the product you need (i.e. Vlasic Pickles) and click search and you should see a list of current coupons that are available for that product!

So for those of you that have just started to use coupons, I’d love to hear how things are coming along, what is still confusing to you, any little tips you might have to pass on to others etc….

Overall, you will find my philosophy on MFA is that I am in this for the long haul. The tendency is for new couponers to try and chase every single deal, run to the store multiple times each week, purchase quantities much larger than they need and it is very easy to make yourself nuts doing that. I really like to suggest that people start slow just like an exercise routine so that using coupons becomes a seamless part of your routine and not something that takes over your life.

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Extreme Couponing: Understanding Coupon Matchups

Charlene — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:13:40 +0000

The next part of the extreme couponing series that I wanted to discuss is understanding coupon matchups. We talked about how to start accumulating coupons yesterday and I think this is step #2.

I do matchups for several national chains every week like CVS, Target, Walmart and Walgreens. I also do regional grocery store matchups for stores like Safeway and for stores that are not in my area (like Kroger, Publix, Giant Eagle, Meijer etc..) I will post some highlights and point you toward a person that does a good job with coupon matchups.

So what does coupon matchup mean exactly? Well it means that I look at the weekly circular each store puts out and I match up the best prices with coupons that are available. That is how you are going to find the very best deals on products- not by using those coupons the minute they come out but by holding onto them until you find a great sale to go along with it.

I do not matchup every single item in a weekly circular- most of the time the products featured in a sales flyer are at a good price but not always. If my personal buy price for lunchmeat is $2.00 or less and Safeway features lunchmeat for $4.99 that week with no coupons- well it is wasting everyone’s time to point that deal out.

So if you are looking at matchups that I post you can feel comfortable that I think most of those items are a good price.

This is what a normal coupon matchup might l0ok like:

Jello Temptations $1.99
Use $0.60/1 Jell-O Refrigerated Snack, exp. 5-3-11 (SS 04/03/11)
or Use $1/1 Jell-O Temptations printable
Final price: as low as .99

So the example above first lists the item- in this case Jello- and the price the store has it on sale for. The next thing listed is the coupons available for that item. The first coupon is listed as the value of the coupon ($.60), the expiration date of the coupon and finally where you can find it. In the example, the coupon location is listed as (SS 04/03/11)- so that means you need to go find your pile of coupons and look for the SmartSource insert from the Sunday paper dated 4/3 to get the coupon. It also tells you the expiration- so we have awhile before this particular coupon expires but imagine the date was 4/10 instead. Well that tells you that you need to go and purchase this item on the 10th or before. The majority of stores will not accept expired coupons so you may need to plan an early trip to the store.

The second coupon is listed as $1/1 Jello Temptations printable. You should see the word printable as well as a link. You can click that link and it should take you directly to the coupon to print it out. So you have two sources for coupons to get a deal on this product- in this case the better coupon is the one that can be printed out so do that and the price you will pay for Jello is $.99.

So the next question is- well what is a SmartSource insert? Each week your paper will have coupon inserts from different companies. Usually you will find a RedPlum and a SmartSource insert and occasionally Proctor and Gamble will offer inserts as well as General Mills. We abbreviate these companies like this:

SmartSource= SS
RedPlum = RP
General Mills= GM
Proctor and Gamble= P&G

So the picture above is an example of what coupon inserts might look like. You can see right at the top they have listed either SmartSource or RedPlum as the company that distributed the coupons. You can also check the spine of the insert which will have the date and the name of the insert.

So what happens if you don’t have those inserts? Maybe they were before you started couponing or maybe you didn’t get the paper that week. You are kind of out of luck unless you decide to try and buy coupons.

You can either go to Clipping Services or Ebay and purchase coupons. Typically you will pay about .10 per coupon and they have different costs for shipping as well as minimum purchase costs. I would encourage you to be very careful when purchasing coupons. For Ebay sellers it is very important to read the seller’s ratings so you aren’t buying fraudulent coupons. For the clipping services make sure you understand the timeline they have to send you the coupons- you want to make sure you actually get them in time for the sale.

Two clipping services I can recommend are:

Coupons be DeDe
and The Coupon Clippers

Now, the drugstores work a little differently than grocery stores because you have loyalty programs in place. Here is an example of what a CVS coupon matchup might look like:

Zantac 24 or 30 ct $8.99
Get $3.00 ECB (limit 1)
Use $5/1 Zantac coupon
Final Price: .99

So what does that all mean? Well we know the first line is what the store has advertised the product at. We can also see the link to a printable coupon for $5 off this product. Then you see a note about a $3 ECB and the final price is listed at .99. So does that mean you grab the $5 coupon and you will go to CVS and pay $.99? No it does not. What that means is that you will pay $8.99 for the item- give them your $5 coupon. Now your total is $3.99- you pay that plus any tax in your area. The cashier will give you back $3.00 in ECBs.

All three of the drugstores have loyalty programs- +Up Rewards at Rite Aid, ECBs at CVS and Register Rewards at Walgreens. You can think of this basically as monopoly money. This monopoly money can be used to purchase almost anything you want in the store. The idea is that you start off drugstore shopping by paying a small amount in cash for an item you might need- in the case about $4 for Zantac. You now have $3 in CVS money (ECBs) that you can tuck away and use for more items that week or for something on sale the following week. The idea is to keep using the monopoly money that you get on another item that generates money and then another item that generates money and so on. That way you are getting things week after week after week for very little money.

Now with the drugstores you do want to be aware of limits. In the example above I listed the limit as 1. That means you may purchase a total of 1 and any other Zantac you purchase will not generate the ECB reward. The limits are usually listed in the weekly sales ad, in my coupon matchups or on the sale tag in the store.

So that is the basics of understanding what these matchups mean.

A few notes:

You will want to pay attention to the dates the sales are available. The vast majority of stores will run a one week sale- so for the national chains it is typically Sunday- Saturday. Grocery stores are all over the place, in my city most stores have new ads that run from Wednesday-Tuesday- but every area will be different. If I can’t make it to that store during the 7 days the ad is running you will most likely miss out on that deal.

One other note is that it is very important to look at the circular in your area before you shop. Even in ads that run nationally, like Target ads, there can be a few small differences. Another example is Rite Aid, the ad for residents of California can have a few differences from the ad for Iowa. So you can go online to look at the circular for your city or you will likely get them in your newspaper just to double check.

You can read about the loyalty programs at all three of the drugstores here.

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Extreme Couponing: Where to Begin

Charlene — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:42:11 +0000

I know there are lots of people excited about using coupons thanks in part to the new reality TV show called Extreme Couponing. I know this little world can seem very overwhelming at first and I am getting lots of questions about where on Earth you can begin if you are new to using coupons.

I will have a series for you to learn the ins and outs of coupons from the very beginning. I am hoping this is easy to digest information that will have you saving big before you know it.

I should tell you that the show features people that are… well Extreme. I do not typically shop like the people showcased on the show nor do my children sleep in the bathtub so I can make more room to store my deodorant collection. I personally have a very reasonable pantry and we have very little space actually dedicated to the products that I buy or get for free.

So there is absolutely a comfortable middle ground for those that still want to be able to park the cars in the garage and don’t have 30 hours a week to cut coupons. I hope this series I am putting together will be beneficial to those of you that are interested in simply finding easy and fast ways to save a little money. There should be ideas and tips for those of you that really want to go big as well- I encourage you to find the place that makes you comfortable and works for your family.

Soooo.. are you ready?! Let’s get started!

I personally look at using coupons as just one very easy way to put extra money in the bank. I have three newspaper subscriptions that come to my home and I spend roughly 90 minutes a week total on coupons- organizing, printing, planning my shopping trips and our menu for the week etc.. I spend another 2 hours or so actually shopping each week.

I typically save at least 50% on my grocery bills- so I look at it is an extra 90 minutes per week and I probably save at least $300 or more per month. If I had more spare time, I am sure I could save even more.

One important thing I want to mention, is that coupons are not just for people on tight budgets or with limited incomes. The average coupon shopper has a household income of $70,000+. Using coupons doesn’t mean you can not afford to pay for groceries, it is just a smart way to save a little on something you need so you can put the money back in the bank or splurge on something you want!

So if you are interested in getting started learning how to effectively use coupons, the very first thing we need to do is get our hands on some coupons!

I like to suggest starting very small and working your way up. I do not recommend running out and buying 20 copies of the newspaper- because let me tell you this can be incredibly time consuming. I like to suggest people start small and get comfortable and then figure out what is going to be manageable to you.

So there are two primary ways to get coupons- the first is the Sunday paper.

The common perception of Sunday paper coupons is to flip through them and if something appeals to you, rip the coupon out and throw the rest away. The next time you head to the store grab that coupon you tore out and use it and you just saved yourself .50!

WRONG!

What you want to do now is collecting those Sunday paper coupons. I happen to get 3 subscriptions at my house (so 3 inserts each week) and I will leave it to you to decide how many you would like. Once you get those babies you can flip through and see what looks appealing- I usually cut about 10% of them out. Then I tuck them away in my little pouch and I wait for the right time to use it to get the biggest bang for my buck. The rest of the coupons, I toss in a basket in my closet. (And we can talk more about fabulous ways to organize all your coupons later. For now I’d like to start with the simplest things you can do to get rolling.)

Now you want to hold onto those coupons because you never know when they will come in handy. Some of them will expire in 30 days and some might not expire for an entire year. So just hold onto them.

So that is your first order of business, you really want to start researching the newspapers in your area. I would recommend checking out the papers in your city on both Saturday and Sunday- some areas have inserts available a day early and maybe you can get that paper a little cheaper. I recommend flipping through the papers because one paper in the same city might have double the amount of coupons as another paper. So it is important to really look and see what is available. Once you get that sorted out, you will want to track down the best price you can get. If you are paying $1.50-5.00 per paper each week, well that cuts into your savings. I pay $20 per year for my subscription- so .38 per Sunday newspaper. You might check Dollar Stores, call the subscription desk, ask friends- whatever you can do to track down the best price available on the newspaper in your area. (You can also check Discounted Newspaper Subscriptions and see what they offer.) You can absolutely get multiple copies of the newspaper sent to your home. Before you get crazy though ordering tons of subscriptions, I really suggest using coupons for awhile so you can see what you will really need. I know some sites will recommend getting 10 or more papers a week and I can tell you there is 0 chance I personally could manage that many coupons and I have been doing this for years.

Job # 2 will be to start collecting internet coupons. I post them all the time- the first time you print from most coupon sources like coupons.com, smart source or red plum, they will require that you download a coupon printer. Each coupon will have a unique barcode so that is why you need the download. If you install the software once you should not have to do it again. I think as you start getting more experience you will recognize the coupons you want to print ASAP. I will usually tell you if I think it is a hot coupon as well. So this is homework #2. Internet coupons are a great resource, so if you have a printer you will want to be ready to start printing away as coupons come up! The really good ones can be gone very quickly- most coupons will have a certain limit on how many total can be printed and you don’t want to miss out.

Two important notes on printables:

1. You can usually get 2 copies of the coupon by using your back bar to go back and the coupon should spool a second time. Don’t cheat yourself out of your second copy by forgetting to do that.

2. Sadly, you can usually only get those 2 coupons per computer that you have. If you want extras, you either need access to more computers or you need to sweet talk a friend into printing coupons for you. It is absolutely never, ever OK to photocopy coupons. That is actually a crime and please don’t ever put yourself in a situation to get in trouble.

So those are the primary ways to score coupons, you might also start keeping an eye out at the grocery store because you will start to see coupons can be found everywhere! Sometimes you see little machines that spit out coupons- if it is a product you can use grab one or two of the coupons and just tuck it away. You might also be on the lookout for little booklets in your stores that have coupons. Safeway, Publix and Kroger often have great coupon booklets available. (And there is such a thing as coupon karma so again 2 or maybe 3 booklets is plenty- no reason to take the entire stack.)

The very last step, is you will want to start understanding the coupon policies for your stores. Each person will have a slightly different experience and it is important you are aware of policies that might prevent you from getting great deals. You can go to the web site of your store (such as www.Safeway.com) and look for the coupon policy or you can just ask at customer service in your store. Remember those policies can change at any time so be sure you check back every few months for updates.

So that is part 1. You are already on the way to starting to score great deals! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below. There is really a lot to learn so again I am hoping to just take this one step at a time and hopefully it turns into a fun and easy way to start saving big at the grocery store!

… You can continue along with this series by clicking the articles below:

and you can get even more information from the Where to Begin section or if you prefer to watch videos, scroll down here to see topics like price matching and organizing coupon binders.

Finally, you can subscribe to my free newsletter to get daily updates on all sorts of freebies, online deals, coupon deals and more!

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Article: Coupon Organization

Charlene — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:37:24 +0000

I have been getting lots of requests for tips on how to organize coupons. Here are a few methods you can check out and see what works for you. If you are brand new to using coupons, I always recommend you do it for a few weeks before you invest a lot of time or money. It is nice to really see how much time you have to dedicate to this first because this can become very time consuming!

OPTION #1: CHEAP AND EASY.

This is the method I use almost exactly.

I have a small makeup bag that I use- it has color coded envelopes inside that are labeled meat, produce, dairy, baby etc… I only cut coupons on Sundays that I am pretty sure I will use- say diaper coupons or coupons for eggs or high value toothpaste coupons etc… I file those away when I can in each envelope and the makeup bag is usually in my purse. You can probably get a small expanding envelope like this and accomplish the same thing.

When the time comes to do my shopping, I make my list and then I actually go back and cut the coupons I need for the week. In my opinion, this is the least time consuming method but you will miss out on deals from time to time by not cutting tons of coupons. For me, I would rather miss a coupon here or there than spend hours each week managing a complicated system.

PROS: Very simple, easy to manage, inexpensive, less cumbersome, small time investment.
CONS: You will not have every coupon available to you at all times so you may miss out on random deals you find in store.

For the inserts, I have two storage bins that I put them in. I put the most recent on the top and I toss them quarterly. One box is for SS inserts and the other for RP and P&G. There are times that the coupons have not yet expired and I miss out because I tossed them. But again for me it is all about the least amount of maintenance possible. So I’d rather miss a $1 coupon here and there than have to manage piles and piles of coupon inserts.

Some people will organize the inserts by date in a file box. That is even better than my method but it does take a few extra minutes to label the files and put the inserts away. Also you will have the investment of buying the file box and folders etc..

You can watch a video to see exactly how this works here.

OPTION #2: MORE COUPONS.

The binder method is really popular for couponers. You can take a ton of coupons with you everywhere and this might be a good option for those of you that do massive trips, like to buy large quantities of products, get a lot of newspaper subscriptions etc…

You can purchase a zippered binder just about anywhere and most people use baseball trading card inserts inside. Some people like to organize their coupons in categories- such as meats, produce, health and beauty supplies, cleaning supplies etc.. and some like to organize alphabetically.

I believe the majority of people that use coupon binders tend to cut a lot of coupons each week and file them in the binder. If you decide this is the right method for you, keep in mind that you do need to stay on top of expired coupons. So this method is going to be much more time consuming.

PROS: Lots more coupons readily available when you shop, coupons are easily accessible.
CONS: Considerably more time consuming and bulky to carry around.

You can see a video on exactly how to organize a coupon binder here.

What method do you use to organize your coupons?

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Holiday Countdown, Part 2

Charlene — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 11:54:31 +0000

This is part 2 of the series to get ready for Christmas! I know I personally slacked a bit this year. Usually I have finished almost all of my shopping by now so I am playing a little catch up for sure.

So I am attaching two worksheets for you, if you want to get organized for the holidays.

Hopefully this is a little motivation to start really planning your wish list and to establish a budget ahead of time… 46 days and counting!

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Holiday Countdown!

Charlene — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:09:41 +0000

It is that time- like it or not the holidays are in full swing! 47 days until Christmas!

I wanted to start giving some tips on getting ready for the holidays and ideas to stretch the budget this year! So stay tuned this week for lots of ideas.

First of all, I would love if you would leave comments with any holidays items you are looking for this year. I see so many deals each day and it is really helpful for me to get ideas of the popular items so I can prioritize my posting.

Second, the holidays seem to have started with a bang from my perspective. I will be posting all sorts of deals on popular items and just random stuff I find. Many items will go really quickly- some won’t even last a day. You can always follow me on Twitter or Facebook- I usually post the best deals there as well as on the blog- or you might consider checking into the blog a bit more frequently. I typically post 15-20 times a day and there will be lots of days that is doubled during the holiday season. I try not to overwhelm people but I can’t pass up a hot deal so some days my fingers are on fire!

I have had a few questions recently about Swagbucks. I know many of you have been saving them for holiday shopping this year so I thought I’d share a few tips with you.

Cash them in. If you have been saving your bucks, I would strongly suggest cashing them in. Swagbucks limits you to cashing in 2 like gift cards per day. So if you want to cash in for several $5 Amazon cards, you are limited to requesting 2 per day. You are also limited to (5) like cards per month. So that means you can only request 5 total of those $5 gift cards each month. They often take 2-3 weeks to credit to your account, so if you intend to use them for holiday shopping you want to get them cashed in now so they are available.

Redeeming Your Cards. You can redeem as many cards as you have. So if you have $30 in Amazon gift cards and you want to purchase an item for $28- you can absolutely use all (6) of your $5 cards to pay 0 for your item. If you have money left over as in the case above, the balance will remain available in your Amazon account until you order again.

Amazon had some amazing deals last year and many of them went really fast! Amazon offers free shipping with a $25 purchase or they also have free shipping with Prime. You might consider registering for Amazon Mom now so you can get Prime for the holidays. It is totally free and you will get free shipping on any order you place (some exceptions apply with 3rd party shippers.) I ordered tons of stuff last year- like $1 books and the awesome $5 Leapfrog toys- all sorts of stuff. I had Prime last year so my shipping was always free and it almost always arrives in 2 days.

Stay tuned as I will be posting several more tips for the holiday shopping season throughout the week!

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Protect Yourself Online (Follow Up to Pringles Freebie)

Charlene — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 22:19:47 +0000

Carrie over at Pocket Your Dollars was nice enough to send an email out yesterday letting us know she thoroughly researched the free can of Pringles that was posted on many blogs and she felt it was a scam.

When I read her email I agreed with her 100% and deleted the post from MFA and Facebook.

If you signed up on your Facebook account for this offer- I just wanted to alert you to please remove it from your Facebook page. I also wanted to give you a few tips to protect yourself in the future.

I am not the most savvy person in the world (OK I am the least savvy person) and this just took me a second to do:

1. Log into your Facebook account and look at the top right hand side of the page where it says “My Account”. You should see a drop down box like this.

2. Click on “application settings”- you can see it there as the 4th item down.

3. If you signed up for the offer, you will see Pringles under your application. Look for the little x on the right side and click that. It will remove the application from your account.

4. To be extra, super safe, I would suggest changing your password.

Now these types of scammy freebies happen all the time. I try to be very conservative with what I post. You might notice there are tons of freebies and coupons that I don’t put on MFA and that is for a very specific reason. I would rather you miss out on one free piece of chocolate than have to deal with this sort of hassle. I also try to take care with the coupons I post- some of them contain malware and all sorts of nastiness. I changed the direction of MFA awhile back very deliberately. I decided that instead of posting everything as quickly as I could, I would take the time and try to post only stuff that I really felt was legit and I try to focus on quality instead of just posting every single offer that comes along.

With that being said, I do want to apologize for my error in judgement in posting Pringles. I think it is a good lesson that we really do have to be very careful with what we are doing on the internet. If you see something on MFA you think is not right than just skip it! And even better let me know that I have blown it. (I only take it personally if you call me names in the process.) Half the time I am posting things I have Barney singing in my ear, the UPS man knocking at the door and am trying to get a wriggling baby into yet another clean outfit. So I make mistakes more often than I care to admit.

Now here is what I personally do and you might consider these things as well:

1. I have a second (well third actually) Facebook account right now. That account is where I do all of these sorts of things- any of the coupons , freebies and such offered on Facebook I use that account for. I do not have any personal information at all in that account and it isn’t even under my name. Hint:

2. I never, ever give out my home phone number. I don’t even give it out when I place online orders. I figure if I order something and there is an issue- they can email me or I will call them. Nothing makes me angrier than a 3 o’clock phone call alerting me to some “prize” I have won (and waking up my girls from naps in the process.) I have a phone number that is one digit off from my real one that I give out. It is the same every time and I know it is not a working number.

3. I have a seperate email account. I have a personal email, a MFA email and a junk email. Certain places (ahem.. Vista Print..Kohls etc..) like to send out A LOT of emails. I tend to fill in my junk email for those types of things and I check it a few times a week. I do sign up for tons of stuff to my MFA account just so I can be alerted to new deals and promotions and to be honest there are many days I will have 200+ emails from various companies telling me about the lastest promotion. I am guessing many of you would rather not sort through all that every day. So you might consider a free acount with gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc.. and use that for a lot of the things you sign up for and even the online orders that you place.

4. I have been a hot mess for a few days now because my poor laptop was infected with some sort of nasty, nasty virus. My friend Andrea also just got a virus from a coupon printer she downloaded. I do think that the companies I mention frequently: coupons.com, smart source and red plum are reputable but just keep that in mind when you are signing up and installing things from other sites. It might be worth paying an extra few cents to not print a coupon than to put yourself at risk for any nastiness. (Not to mention the bill I will be paying tonight to the computer repair center.) I try to test every coupon that I post on my store match ups- so that you guys don’t jump through a million hoops registering for coupons only to find the offer is no longer available. I am going to try to be much more careful about this from now on because I suspect that is where my virus came from.

So I know lots of you are much more savvy than I am at internet security and I’d love to hear your tips for protecting yourself online!

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Quick Tip for Printing Coupons

Charlene — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:38:54 +0000

There is nothing more frustrating than finding a great coupon and not being able to print it. Most of the time with bricks coupons (the ones that look like THIS and say bricks in the URL) there are two things you can do:

1. If you keep circling back to “install coupon printer” you simply need to change your browser. (Now this is assuming of course you have installed the coupon printer already.) So what does that mean? That means if you are using Internet Explorer just cut and paste the link in another browser- like Mozilla Firefox and it should work!

2. If you still can’t get it to work you can look for the little help link at the very bottom right corner of the screen:

Some manufacturers will mail the coupon to you! If that is the case, when you click on HELP you will see a screen that asks for your mailing information! Now I had some problems with the Stouffer’s coupon about a week ago and I requested to get it in the mail.

And ta da! Here it is mailed right to me within just a few days! Obviously this isn’t as good because I only got one copy not two- but better than no copies at all!

So you can try this if you ever run into this problem- remember not all offer this option. Also, it is VERY easy to discard these coupons as they come in plain white envelopes. You want to be on the lookout because they look like junk mail and usually have just a PO Box or plain address typed in the corner.

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Earn Money From Home: Toluna Opinions

Charlene — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:15:43 +0000

I have talked about a few other survey sites in the past and wanted to add one more to the list that seems to be both credible and worthwhile.

There is a company called Toluna and they send you surveys and if you complete them they will award points which can be redeemed for cash.

This company seems to be good because I understand they send quite a few surveys- possibly 2 per day. Each survey will take about 15-20 min to complete and you earn $1-5 each. I think a $5 return on your time is a pretty good investment, especially if you can do these surveys while you are watching TV or during your lunch hour at work.

I used to do these types of things all the time and it is a very easy way to earn a little extra income. Now that I spend so much time on the blog, I can’t do as many surveys as I used to do. So I do appreciate any feedback you guys have on the companies that I recommend!

As always, I think it is a good idea to set up an email account that is exclusive to the survey sites. I also think it is worthwhile to sign up for a few different ones to see which ones you like best and which seem to pay the most.

Thanks for your tips Koupon Karen!

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Reader Question: How to Determine a Grocery Budget?

Charlene — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:07:33 +0000

This is a question that I get asked quite frequently and I have a few tips that might help you to figure out what a good weekly budget is for your family. I thought I would also share how our weekly budget works.

The short answer to this question is it depends. I don’t like blanket budgets because every family is going to be different. For example I do not have double coupons in my area so my prices are higher than others might pay. I also have 2 in diapers- so that is an added expense for us each week. Personally my philosophy is that you just want to live within or below your means. I could certainly spend less but I try to have a varied menu each week. Also I don’t have any of the great grocery stores like Kroger, Publix and Food Lion that seem to have exceptional sales from week to week.

When we moved to California and I started learning to coupon we had an extremely tight budget. I made $30 per week work for us including every single thing from diapers to groceries to cleaning supplies. Let me tell you that was a struggle! But we both moved here without jobs so we needed to save every penny to avoid dipping into our savings. Once we were both employed, I increased the budget to $50. That includes pretty much everything from dog food to toiletries. The two items I do not include are diapers and formula. This seems to be a very workable budget for us but I would encourage you to find the range that seems to work for your family.

Here are a few tips to get started:

1. Evaluate how much you currently spend each week. Aim to reduce that by 10% every week without sacrificing too much quality in your menus. If you are new to couponing this is the easiest way to immediately see a difference in your weekly budget.

2. Pay attention to waste. Before I started my frugal adventure we would go through the fridge every week and toss a ton of food. Produce that was past its prime, items that expired etc… Now I aim to stop the waste entirely. So I always think every week about what we will really eat. It doesn’t mean I am stingy but I don’t buy 4 pounds of bananas if we can only eat 2 pounds. I also try to freeze as much as I can. So this week we had a bag of potatoes that needed to be used. I went ahead and mashed them up and made a casserole that went into the freezer for a future meal. If you are regularly throwing away items than you are essentially throwing out your money. You might try scaling back a little on what you buy or try to come up with creative ideas to use those items up before they expire!

3. Start menu planning! This alone should help to save quite a bit each week as you are planning ahead for what you might need rather than just buying whatever looks appealing when wandering the grocery aisles.

4. Get creative with recipes! I almost never follow a recipe exactly. More often than not they require a long list of ingredients. I try to omit or substitute as many items as I can. For example, if a recipe calls for Provolone cheese and you have Mozzarella on hand- can you substitute that ingredient? On my menu this week I wanted to try a homemade pizza recipe with Butternut Squash and Pine Nuts. Those two ingredients would have killed my budget so instead I found great deals on fresh mozzarella and Roma tomatoes. Our family had a nice roasted tomato and mozzarella pizza instead. Just as good for a fraction of the price.

5. Be honest with yourself. I would really encourage you to be honest about how much time you have and are willing to spend from week to week. If you can spare one hour per week to prepare and organize coupons I would think you can really get your budget down. You will likely need to spend a little extra time at the store as well if you are using coupons, but in the end you will save yourself from making extra runs to the store to grab those last minute ingredients anyway. If you simply can’t spare that time, or you don’t want to invest the time, you can still reduce what you spend by buying low and stocking up. See my vlog about this HERE. You will likely wind up spending more than what a couponer might spend- but every little bit counts so even just a small difference in your budget can really add up over time.

And now for you! What tips do you have for finding a workable budget?

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List of Free Item Coupons Available

Charlene — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:47:37 +0000

When I first started couponing I learned that you can actually call or email a variety of companies and request coupons from them! More often than not, they will send you coupons.

I used to call a handful of companies a day and sometimes I would get $10 or so in free product coupons and sometimes just .25 off one item. One of my favorites to call is Huggies- you can call them about every 6 months and they will usually send you $3 off coupons. I once got a $5 off coupon from them. I would just look for items we really liked that I already had on hand and I would call the phone number on the back. You can also just look up companies online and send them emails.

See the list by clicking below- many of these are Organic and pretty expensive items. If you decide to try emailing let us know how it goes!

Organic and Natural Food Companies That Mail Free Coupons in Response to E-Mail Requests:

Alexia www.alexiafoods.com

Amy’s www.amyskitchen.com

Apple & Eve www.appleandeve.com

Arrowhead Mills www.arrowheadmills.com

Born Free/Radlo Foods www.radlo.com

Clif www.clifbar.com

Coleman www.colemannatural.com

Country Choice www.countrychoicenaturals.com

Earth’s Best www.earthsbest.com

Earthbound Farm www.ebfarm.com

Eggland’s Best www.egglandsbest.com

Ians www.iansnaturalfoods.com

Kashi www.kashi.com

Lakewood www.lakewoodjuices.com

Lundberg www.lundberg.com

Mrs. Meyer’s www.mrsmeyers.com

Rachel’s www.rachelsdairy.com

R.W. Knudsen Family www.knudsenjuices.com

Rudi’s Organic Bakery www.rudisbakery.com

Santa Cruz Organics www.scojuice.com

Soy Dream www.tastethedream.com

Stonyfield Farm www.stonyfield.com

Sue Bee Honey www.suebee.com

Traditional Medicinals www.traditionalmedicinals.com

Vans International Foods www.vansfoods.com

Yogi www.yogiproducts.com

Amy’s Kitchen www.amyskitchen.com

Bar S www.bar-s.com

Barber Foods www.barberfoods.com

Bayer/Flintstones Vitamins www.flintstonesvitamins.com

Birds Eye Foods www.birdseyefoods.com

Carl Buddig & Company www.buddig.com

Chiquita/Fresh Express www.freshexpress.com

Citrus World/Florida’s Natural www.floridasnatural.com

Colgate-Palmolive www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/HomePage.cvsp

The Dannon Company www.dannon.com

Dean Foods/Garelick Farms www.garelickfarms.com

www.deanfoods.com/brands.aspx

Frito-Lay/Tostitos www.tostitos.com

General Mills/Yoplait http://yoplait.com

George Weston Bakeries (Bimbo and Boboli) www.boboli.com

Grand Brands/True Lemon www.truelemon.com

The Hain Celestial Group www.celestialseasonings.com

The Hain Celestial Group/Terra Chips www.terrachips.com

H.J. Heinz Company www.heinz.com

H.J. Heinz Company/Lea & Perrins www.leaperrins.com

Interstate Bakeries Corporation/Wonder www.wonderbread.com/#/home

Jasper Wyman & Son www.wymans.com

Johnson & Johnson www.jnj.com/connect

Johnson & Johnson/Viactiv www.viactiv.com/index.jhtml

Ken’s Foods/Sweet Baby Ray’s www.sweetbabyrays.com

Kimberly Clark/Kotex www.kotex.com/na/default.aspx

Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe www.martinspotatorolls.com/pages/about.asp

McCormick & Company www.mccormick.com

Mt. Olive Pickle Company www.mtolivepickles.com

Ocean Spray Cranberries http://oceanspray.com

Nestlé/Edy’s www.edys.com

Nestlé/Purina http://catchow.com

P&G http://pgpromotions.archway.com

P&G/Cheer www.cheer.com Click on Promotions link

P&G Febreze www.newfebreeze.com/coupon/MailRequest.php

Pepperidge Farm www.pepperidgefarm.com

Perdue www.perdue.com

Pillsbury/Smucker’s www.smuckers.com

Reckitt Benckiser/Electrasol http://electrasol.com

S.C. Johnson & Son/Glade www.glade.com

S.C. Johnson & Son/Pledge www.pledge.com

S.C. Johnson & Son/Saran www.saranbrands.com

Tetley www.tetleyusa.com Turkey Hill Dairy http://turkeyhill.com

Tyson Foods www.tyson.com

Unilever/Ragú www.ragu.com

Zatarain’s http://zatarains.com

Companies That Mail Coupons in Response to an E-mail Request Via Their Website

Amy’s Kitchen www.amyskitchen.com

Bar S www.bar-s.com

Barber Foods www.barberfoods.com

Bayer/Flintstones Vitamins www.flintstonesvitamins.com

Birds Eye Foods www.birdseyefoods.com

Carl Buddig & Company www.buddig.com

Chiquita/Fresh Express www.freshexpress.com

Citrus World/Florida’s Natural www.floridasnatural.com

Colgate-Palmolive www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/HomePage.cvsp

The Dannon Company www.dannon.com

Dean Foods/Garelick Farms www.garelickfarms.com and www.deanfoods.com/brands.aspx

Frito-Lay/Tostitos www.tostitos.com

General Mills/Yoplait http://yoplait.com

George Weston Bakeries (Bimbo and Boboli) www.boboli.com

Grand Brands/True Lemon www.truelemon.com

The Hain Celestial Group www.celestialseasonings.com

The Hain Celestial Group/Terra Chips www.terrachips.com

H.J. Heinz Company www.heinz.com

H.J. Heinz Company/Lea & Perrins www.leaperrins.com

Interstate Bakeries Corporation/Wonder www.wonderbread.com/#/home

Jasper Wyman & Son www.wymans.com

Johnson & Johnson www.jnj.com/connect

Johnson & Johnson/Viactiv www.viactiv.com/index.jhtml

Ken’s Foods/Sweet Baby Ray’s www.sweetbabyrays.com

Kimberly Clark/Kotex www.kotex.com/na/default.aspx

Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe www.martinspotatorolls.com/pages/about.asp

McCormick & Company www.mccormick.com

Mt. Olive Pickle Company www.mtolivepickles.com

Ocean Spray Cranberries http://oceanspray.com

Nestlé/Edy’s www.edys.com

Nestlé/Purina http://catchow.com

P&G http://pgpromotions.archway.com

P&G/Cheer www.cheer.com

Click on Promotions link P&G Febreze www.newfebreeze.com/coupon/MailRequest.php

Pepperidge Farm www.pepperidgefarm.com

Perdue www.perdue.com

Pillsbury/Smucker’s www.smuckers.com

Reckitt Benckiser/Electrasol http://electrasol.com

S.C. Johnson & Son/Glade www.glade.com

S.C. Johnson & Son/Pledge www.pledge.com

S.C. Johnson & Son/Saran www.saranbrands.com

Tetley www.tetleyusa.com

Turkey Hill Dairy http://turkeyhill.com

Tyson Foods www.tyson.com

Unilever/Ragú www.ragu.com

Zatarain’s http://zatarains.com

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5 Lessons I Learned Using Coupons

Charlene — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:15:28 +0000

forthockey

I know a lot of you are just getting started using coupons and I thought I would share a few things I have learned. For those of you that have more experience please feel free to share your tips as well!

1. Start slow. Just like with anything new there is a tendency to want to hit every store for every deal every week. I would strongly recommend starting slow. You might start off with one drugstore at first and do one or two very simple transactions. Once you get comfortable with that store you can start doing more complicated transactions or branch off to other stores. You will also want to get a feel for each of your local stores and their policies on coupons. I have a wonderful Target and a wonderful CVS in my area, so I try to do as much of my shopping there as I can. Likewise, I happen to have a Walgreens that is very anti-coupons so I almost never shop there as a result.

2. Read the fine print. Many drugstore deals in particular have limits on the quantity you can buy. Typically the limit is 1- especially on deals that involve ECBs, rebates or Register Rewards. You will want to be sure to check your local ad for any limits before you plan your trips. Be sure you carefully read the beginners drugstore series for Rite Aid, Walgreens and CVS HERE before your first shopping trip. I have been doing the drugstore game for a few years and I still make mistakes all the time.

3. All deals will come around again. I promise the chances of seeing an incredible deal come back around are extremely high. If you miss out on free Colgate this week- I just bet it will come back around next month! I usually only go to the drugstores once every few weeks to roll my ECBs or Register Rewards. Your time is an important factor to consider when couponing. When I first started I made myself crazy running all over to get every deal every week.

4. Moderation is a good thing. This is just my personal opinion and your situation might be very different from mine. If you live in a rural area and it is 45 minutes to the nearest store or you have a very large family than I would encourage you to find the balance that works for your situation. It is easy to get a little carried away with coupons. I see people that have 20 newspaper subscriptions or that purchase hundreds and hundreds of coupons for specific deals. I would encourage you to really consider what you need. For drugstore items, I usually keep 3-6 items on hand because most products we simply don’t go through that quickly. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this and that is ok! Just keep in mind that you will have to manage everything you buy. So if you buy 46 boxes of free cereal and you only go through 1 box a month, that is a ton of product that you have to store and manage.

5. Have fun! Hopefully using coupons will become fun and fairly seamless. Once you start to get the hang of it I hope that it gets easier and easier to do. I have discussed my price book in the past and I have a certain price I try to pay for certain items. I usually try to look at the big picture. If an item hits my buy price one week and I simply don’t have time to get to the store, I will happily pay a little more the following week or I just make it work without that item until it goes on sale again.

I also have the same philosophy for stores. If I know a store is going to give me a hard time I just don’t shop there. My regular grocery store is a great example, I drive out of my way to a friendly Safeway store rather than go to the one right by my house. I would rather spend a few extra minutes in the car than get treated badly and wind up angry, embarrassed and upset at a store that is not going to treat me well. I would encourage you to do the same! When I first started there were countless times I was near tears when leaving a store because I was treated so badly. Now that I am a little more experienced I have no idea why I put myself through all that.

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Great Article to Read on Couponing!

Charlene — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:08:07 +0000

There is a great article HERE on couponers if you have a moment to read it today!

This is exactly the way I look at couponing- I figure out how much I get paid per hour. We used to spend $600/month on groceries (for just 2 people) and now we spend $200/month for groceries (for 4 people and a dog). It takes me about 2-3 hours a week between cutting, planning and the actual shopping trip (this would be way less time if I had better grocery stores to choose from! I usually go to a few stores every week to make my budget work.)

So I figure 10 hours or so per month to save $400 which is about $40 an hour.

According to the Wall Street Journal I actually got a a raise to $86 per hour. Yeah me!

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The MFA Price Book: Grocery Stores

Charlene — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:40:54 +0000

This is part 3 of the price book series. As I mentioned before, I don’t usually like to discuss the prices I will pay for certain items because it really depends on where you live and where you shop. I live in a very high cost of living area and I do not have double coupons in any of my stores. So my prices are likely much higher than yours are! This is just to give you a very rough idea of what I consider a good price for certain staple items. I do not have a formal system of tracking prices- I just sort of remember them in my head. When a sale rolls around or coupons get me to the prices listed, I usually buy enough to last until the next sale. Typically I use 6 weeks as a rule of thumb for the next sale cycle, but again you will want to simply watch the ads in your area and see what works for you.

All prices reflect name brand products. I have found I get name brand items for much less than the generic version by using coupons and shopping the sales.

CHEESE: (Basic Cheddar or Mozzarella) $5.49 for 2 lbs (.17/oz)

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD: .99/loaf

EGGS: .99/dozen (usually I can get 18 for that price)

PASTA: .49 (I try to pay .25 or less)

BUTTER: $.99-1.50 (this is for quality butter like Challenge)

BANANAS: .39/lb

COFFEE: I usually pay $5.50-5.99 for a 29 oz tub. I like a specific brand or I could probably get a better deal. I do splurge on Tassimo disks but that is not in our grocery budget.

5 LB FLOUR: $1.99 is the highest I will pay. I try to get closer to $.99-1.49.

PASTA SAUCE: .49-.99 (again with double coupons you can likely get a much better deal!)

5 LB SUGAR: $1.49 or less

CRACKERS: .49 or less

CEREAL: I just reduced my buy price to .25 a box. I will occasionally pay a little more for Organic products or something new I want to try. Also I find Cheerios I have to pay a little more for. I will spend up to .70 per box.

OATMEAL: .49-.99 for instant oats

PEANUT BUTTER: .49-.99

JELLY: .99 (I will pay a little more to get a high quality product)

FROZEN PIZZA: $2.50 or less for a large pizza

CANNED VEGGIES: .25 is what I aim for but I will pay .50

CANNED SOUP: We don’t eat a lot of canned soup- I try to stock up on cooking soups for .50 or less a can

So those are just a few basics. You can see my drugstore prices HERE and meat stock up prices HERE. Just leave a comment below if there are other specific products that you are interested in!

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Earn Money Online.

Charlene — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:33:34 +0000

This is the 4th installment of Earn Money Online- with yet another survey company highlighted.

This time I wanted to tell you about Mindfield Internet Panel. This is a company that will send out online surveys and will compensate you for your time in completely the survey. The nice thing about Mindfield is that you can cash out your earnings as low as $5- so you don’t have to wait for ages for a check. Plus they mail it out within a week of when you request it.

I just signed up for Mindfield and I received a survey within 2 days. I did not qualify for the survey but it only took a second for me to find that out. I didn’t have to fill out a long questionnaire to find out I didn’t qualify.

Also, even if you don’t qualify you are entered into a monthly sweepstakes just for filling out the qualification survey.

So all in all this seems like an easy company and I really like how quickly they pay out. This is a great way to take a few minutes from your day and try to earn a little extra money.

Don’t forget you will want to set up a separate email account for these survey offers so you can keep everything straight. Mindfield is totally and completely free to join.

Head up HERE to see the other companies I already talked about.

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Earn Money Online

Charlene — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:52:49 +0000

Inbox Dollars is another company that you can earn a little extra income from. You get paid for opening emails and you just need to open and check a box and you get paid .02-.10 each. So the money isn’t massive but you get $5 just for signing up and if you are watching TV or talking on the phone why not make a little extra money at the same time by clicking on emails?!

You can also take surveys that pay from $.35-$4.00 so those can add up as well then you can cash out at $30. You can earn points from other means as well- like playing games- so maybe this is one that you can get your husband to participate in!

I have heard that it takes awhile to earn money from Inbox Dollars but on the other hand it is extremely simple to do. I would for sure send this to a separate email account as you can expect to see a few emails from them everyday. They also send out the occasional product review request where you get to test a product and take a survey about what you thought of it.

Click HERE to get started.

Thanks Ashley!

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The MFA Price Book: Drugstore Items!

Charlene — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:02:51 +0000

I get asked for this all the time and I am always reluctant to post. Here is my disclaimer: your prices will really vary according to your situation. For example, I prefer better quality hair care products so I will pay a little more. If you have a large family, you might also need to pay a little more just to have an adequate quantity on hand. Also I have access to CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens so I can choose from the best deals at each store every week. The prices indicated are for moderately priced drug store brands. I have found I can get better quality products for far less than I would pay for generic- so each of these prices is for a name brand item.

Toothpaste: Free-.25
Toothpaste is free after coupons at most drugstores with coupons almost every week. I prefer to pay 0 total for it and usually have 3 or 4 on hand, I have found that is plenty to get me through to the next sale. I am a fan of Rembrandt and if I can get that for $1 or less I will buy it.

Floss: Free
These are also often free with coupons. I find floss a little harder to come by so I buy several when they are free.

Mouthwash: .99
I have found mouthwash free at the drugstores but I will pay up to .99 for a good brand.

Shampoo/Conditioner: Free- $3.00
You can also find deals for hair care products such as Herbal Essences, Garnier, Pantene and other drug store brands for free after coupons pretty regularly. I will pay up to $3 for a higher quality product like Nexxus but you should be able to get brands like John Freida for .99 or less.

Shaving Cream: .50 or less
These deals are also a little harder to come by, so I typically buy several when I can get cans for less than .50.

Razors: Free
I prefer to pay nothing for razors. Fusion razors in particular are free quite frequently at the drugstores- especially when the $4 coupons are out. I am particular about razors and prefer the better quality ones so I will spend $1 or so on higher quality disposables from time to time (like Bic Comfort 3).

Body Wash: Free- $1
I have a large supply of name brand body wash for free. I also like to try new products so I will spend up to .99 for products like Nivea.

Laundry Soap: $1.50/ 32 loads
This one I also find a little trickier to score but if you have double coupons at your grocery store it might be a little easier. I try to pay $1 for 32 loads of lower end laundry soap or $1.50 for better soaps such as All, Arm & Hammer, Gain etc.. That works out to basically .05 per load.

Toilet Paper: .25 per roll
This is a tough one to get. I try to pay only .25 per roll for a quality double roll of TP. I usually wind up trying to get the price of TP down by using store coupons (such as a $5/25 CVS coupon) since it is really difficult to get good deals.

Toothbrushes: Free- .99
Again I try to just get these free but I am pretty religious about changing our toothbrushes every 90 days so this one can be tricky too. I will pay up to .99 for a good quality toothbrush or a fun toothbrush that will make my toddler happier to brush her teeth.

Body Lotion: Free- $1
I also use a lot of body lotion and I will pay up to $1 for a better quality product (like Jergen’s or Vaseline).

Face Wash: Free- $1
This is also a harder deal to come across but fortunately these tend to last quite awhile. I have a large supply of products like Clean and Clear, St Ives etc.. that were all less than $1.

Moisturizer/ Sun Screen: Varies
I try to pay less than $2 for a good product and I tend to stock up when the price is great. For example, I bought 4 Aveeno sunscreen earlier this year for just a few dollars after rebate at Rite Aid. That will last for most of the year. I love to try good quality products so I will pay a few dollars for something really good.

Deodorant: Free
Again deodorant is often free at the drugstores so I pretty much pay nothing for it. It is another product that you don’t go through that quickly so I usually have 3-4 on hand for me and a few for my husband and that gets me through until a good sale.

Baby Products: Free-$1
These include detanglers, baby wash/shampoo, lotion etc.. I typically use Aveeno, Johnson and Johnson and Huggies and I frequently find deals with coupons making these products less than $1. For some reason these are the products that I have a ridiculous amount of because we go through this stuff like crazy.

Diapers: $4 Jumbo packs
If I can get a pack for less than $4 I will typically buy them. I usually only use Luvs, Pampers or Huggies and I don’t like to spend a lot to get that price. For example if Walgreens has Huggies for $10 and there is a $4 Register Reward and $2 coupon, I probably won’t go after the deal unless there are a lot of other items I want to buy that week. I don’t like spending a lot out of pocket and then dealing with a lot of register rewards etc.. I personally pay a little more for the convenience and I use diapers.com for the most part. I have 2 in diapers and I don’t like chasing deals every single week to keep enough on hand.

Baby wipes: .99/tub
For those that got in on the amazing Target deal you probably paid far less than this. But before that deal I used to always buy when the price was less than .02 per wipe. (So 72 ct wipes would be $1.44)

Dish Soap: Free-.49
For some reason I have quite a few dish soaps that I got for free so right now I only buy when it is free. I can usually get Dawn Hand Renewal free at CVS every few weeks. Otherwise for a small dish soap, I think .49 or so is a good price.

Cosmetics: Varies
I have a ton of makeup from brands like L’Oreal, Revlon and Cover Girl that was all free with coupons or rebates. The drugstores have clearance sales all the time that can make for virtually free products if you have coupons. I also LOVE high quality products so I will spend a few dollars to get the higher end brands like Prescriptives.

I don’t have a formal price book I just have these prices in my head. I have already posted meat stock up prices HERE and will work on a Grocery Store price book for next week. Please leave a comment if there are specific products you are curious about and I will try to cover all of them!

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Reader Question: Differences in Newspaper Insert Coupons?

Charlene — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:34:06 +0000

Reader Melinda just sent in a question and I seem to be getting similar questions several times a week so I wanted to address it for everyone.

Newspaper insert coupons vary according to region. Sometimes that means in Chicago they get a $1 coupon for x product and in Los Angeles the coupon for the same product is only .25. It can also mean that Chicago gets the $1 coupon and Phoenix doesn’t get the coupon at all. There is no way to predict what coupons you will get (or even what coupons I will get). I see advance copies of inserts that I share with you weekly HERE. Those are from specific areas of the country and the chances that your coupon inserts will be identical are very slim. There are usually some variations and the coupon previews are just to give you an idea of what is to come.

For the most part a larger newspaper is going to have the most coupons. I can’t tell you what coupons will come in your local paper. The best thing to do is simply check it out yourself. I would recommend buying whatever newspapers are available to you and just compare which one seems to have the most inserts or the best coupons. If you live in a small town you might compare your local paper to a neighboring city and just see which one is better. A city 10 minutes away from you can have totally different coupons than the paper you normally buy- so you really just need to look carefully for a week or two and then decide which paper you want to buy or subscribe to.

Also, if you intend to buy multiple copies of a newspaper to get a specific coupon you always want to check the paper first to be sure your area actually got it. Just thumb through the paper at the newsstand and see if the coupon is included before you purchase a stack of newspapers.

If I reference a coupon or you see a store circular that indicates a coupon is coming and you can not find it in your inserts that means your area did not get the coupon. Other areas of the country did get it.

Also some areas of the country do not get the RedPlum inserts. RedPlum has elected to mail people the coupons rather than have them included in the newspaper. The Philadelphia area is an example as RedPlum has decided to stop including the inserts in the paper and they will mail them to you instead. The advantage is that you get a free copy of the insert and the disadvantage is that you only get one copy.

You can go right over HERE to RedPlum and enter your zip code. It will tell you if the inserts are available in your area and which newspaper they will come in.

In general, there is no resource for printing the coupons online that are included in the weekly newspaper with the exception of the occasional overlap.

I hope that clears up some of your questions!

I am slowly updating all of my beginners resources so I’d love to know what other aspects of using coupons are confusing to you. Just leave a comment and I will try to clarify things!

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vlog: Coupon Organization

Charlene — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:01:58 +0000

I thought I would take things from the beginning and I wanted to show new couponers my system for organizing coupons. You can watch the vlog to see exactly how I do it. I also have included ideas for other ways you can organize them below.

Coupon Wallet HERE or HERE. This is pretty compact and I use mine to hold the stray coupons that I collect throughout the week. This would likely be too small to carry all your coupons. This would also be a handy way to sort all your coupons before you head to the store.

The most popular method and the way to keep the most coupons with you would be the binder system. There is a binder HERE that comes with an expanding file for $19. You can also make your own with the zipper binder HERE and the trading card inserts HERE.

This is my system- I just use a makeup pouch with colored envelopes inside. This system works really well for me and I would recommend looking for a pouch with sturdy sides.

You can also try a larger expanding file like this- I would think this would fit nicely at the front of a shopping cart.

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Reader Question: Getting the Best Deals on Diapers

Charlene — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:58:05 +0000

I get asked all the time about finding great diaper deals. Typically the best way to score a deal is by using coupons and the smallest pack of diapers you can find (Jumbo packs). When diapers go on sale (like Huggies for $8.99 at Walgreens this week) you can use a $3 or $2 coupon to get them for about $7.00. If you register with Caregiver’s Marketplace, you can also get .75 back in a rebate for every Jumbo pack of Huggies that you buy (excludes Pure and Natural). Often times you can also use a store coupon (like a $5/25 Rite Aid coupon or $5/20 CVS coupon) in conjunction with sales to get an even better deal.

Now that I have 2 in diapers I have found it is really difficult to continue to get the great deals week after week. Plus many times I am limited by how many coupons I have or a store imposed limit on quantities.

So I found diapers.com a few months ago and that is how I can stock up on diapers for very good prices. They offer free Fed Ex shipping on orders of $49 or more and the service is excellent. I know a lot of you go to the warehouse clubs to stock up and honestly after comparing prices I think diapers.com offers the best prices and you get them shipped right to your door.

So I have been using them for a few months and every so often if I can find a deal to get a Jumbo pack for under $4- I will take advantage of it. Otherwise, it personally was too challenging for me to continue trying to get at least 2 packs every single week.

So here is how diapers.com works:

Currently Huggies are $9.99 a pack

1. If you buy 5 packs of Huggies at $9.99 = $49.95 (that qualifies you for free shipping)

2. Then use code: 123DIAPERS to save an extra $10 on your first order. That brings the total down to $39.95.

3. First time customers also get a $14.97 rebate or a free subscription to Parenting Magazine. (This rebate takes ages to come but it will come)

4. You can submit for a Caregiver’s rebate of .75 per pack. Also there is a $1.50/1 coupon that you can select for Huggies!

So the net price is $19.73 for 5 Jumbo packs or $3.94 per pack! Now that is about as good as it gets. I also like ordering Jumbos instead of big boxes because I can order different sizes and I don’t have to worry about wasting diapers that my girls outgrow.

I have good luck with Luvs diapers and those are a lot cheaper. So if you order 7 packs of Luvs at $6.99= $48.93. Then add a small filler like soap to get over $49.

1. Use promo code: 123DIAPERS to save $10 off your order.

2. Submit the $14.97 rebate.

3. And the final price is $3.42 per pack. Now it really doesn’t get any better than that. If you go to Walmart with a $1 coupon, you will pay $5.99 for Luvs.

(The $10 off is for first time customers only. I have also placed orders for my parent’s house to stock them up when they babysit my girls.)

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Planning Your Holiday Budget

Charlene — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:07:42 +0000

I know a lot of you haven’t even started planning for the holidays and might be feeling a little overwhelmed. You can head over HERE to check out Shannon’s tips for sticking to a holiday budget this year. One of the great things about writing this blog is that I have readers from a variety of backgrounds- so I have tried to find products at every price range for ideas and inspiration.

What works for me is to start holiday shopping on December 26th every year. I try to grab a few items that I stumble upon during post holiday clearance and I continue shopping for great deals year round. Regardless of your income, stretching out your budget over 12 months is a whole lot easier than cramming it all into just a few weeks. I find that I tend to stray from our tight budget when I actually shop during the holidays. The season tends to get to me and $5 turns into $10 and 2 people turns into 4 people pretty quickly.

So what works for you? I’d love to hear what great ideas you have for planning for the holidays!

Photo Credit: Mrs Shawn

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Reader Question: Inexpensive Gift Baskets

Charlene — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:17:45 +0000

I had a reader write in to ask for ideas on how to score inexpensive baskets to use for gift giving. (And if it was you that wrote it I misplaced the email! So sorry for not getting back to you!)

I have two ideas that have worked for me.

First, you can often find baskets at dollar stores and yard sales for next to nothing.

I also check out store closing sales. I went to a very fancy boutique that was closing last year and they had tables and tables of high quality baskets for .50 each! All sizes! I normally wouldn’t have gone into that particular store but I popped in and voila! Stores that are closing are not just selling their merchandise but often all the other fixtures in the store. These baskets were used for display of her products.

Holiday clearance- as I mentioned previously I shop year round for the holidays. Post Easter and Halloween sales are the perfect time to score baskets for very little. Easter in particular if you look around at stores like Walmart- you can find gorgeous beaded baskets for little girls, or lined baskets for adults. For Halloween, if you hunt around you can find items that are not holiday specific. For example, I saw these little Elmo baskets that were meant for trick or treating at my store:

Post Halloween sales tend to hit 75% off very quickly- so this little basket would make an adorable kids gift and is something that can be used again. (And we actually have this basket which I purchased after Easter at Target).

You can also look for coupons for craft stores- Michael’s frequently offers 50% off coupons and many other craft stores will accept competitor coupons.

Check discounters such as Ross, Home Decorators or TJ Maxx for great prices on fancy baskets.

Think outside the box (or basket!)

I have found non-baskets make perfect gift baskets! For example a colander found on clearance can be used to put together a fun assortment of spices and gourmet foods, cookbooks, etc.. for a home cook.

Every year retailers like Target have big sections of products for college students. Those tend to go on clearance quickly as well. Check out those aisles for interesting and functional storage cubbies. Little tubs can be used for a variety of gifts for adults and children.

I just saw a gorgeous cannister that looked similiar to this on clearance at CVS for $3.99.

Now if you bake biscotti or cookies (or buy them, I won’t tell) and add the gourmet coffee or teas HERE for just $3. This would be a really nice gift for less than $10. In my opinion, something like this is the perfect teacher gift, co-worker gift, item for neighbors etc.. You can often score something similar to this at discounters like TJ Maxx or Ross. No one will suspect you spent so little!

Finally, I see little cosmetic bags on clearance all the time. Something like that would be a great way to present an assortment of beauty products to a friend or a teenager. When Bath and Body Works had a 90% off sale a few months ago they had really nice bags for less than $1.

So those are my ideas for putting together baskets on the cheap. If anyone else has great suggestions I’d love to hear from you!

PS: Old Navy will have holiday stockings on sale for $2 after Thanksgiving. That would be a wonderful way to present a gift to just about anyone!

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What is a Catalina?

Charlene — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:59:39 +0000

A catalina is a little coupon that will print at the cash register. It can be an actual coupon or it can be treated as cash on your next transaction.

Catalina is simply the name of the company that markets these machines. Most stores have catalinas that can only be used at that same store. The exception is stores that accept competitor coupons- such as Publix, Albertson’s or some Walmart stores.

Walgreens has a catalina program called Register Rewards- they have quirks to their program that is unlike any other store.

In general you can “roll” catalinas- meaning you can use one to purchase the exact same product again and you will still get yet another catalina and so on.

You will want to pay attention to these coupons as they are often high in value, can be good for free products or they are worth dollars off on your next transaction. In the case of dollars off- you can literally hand them over just like cash and use them on the majority of items in a store.

If you do not get a catalina in a store that should have printed you can always contact the catalina company directly. They will ask for the information off your store receipt (and providing you purchased the correct products) they will actually mail you the catalina! Typically catalinas do not print because of an error with the machine or it might simply be out of paper. The machines will typically have a little green light on if they are functioning properly so you can also look for that indicator.

Should you need to contact catalina you will need your store details- name and store #- the date of the transaction, and your rewards card/ club card or receipt to verify the purchase. The phone # is 888-322-3814 and you will need to ask for customer service.

There is no central location that provides information on all the current catalinas by store. I am not aware of any means to track the offers other than looking for signs in your store, watching for the announcements that occasionally print at the register or reading blogs!

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Understanding Coupon Acronyms

Charlene — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:35:31 +0000

joshuawillis

You guys have been asking for this for awhile and here goes- part ONE of my series Welcome to Coupon World!! I know some of the acronyms and the lingo can seem crazy so hopefully this reference guide will help you navigate my posts! Trust me when I say that it gets easier and easier as you go along. If you still have questions just leave a comment below because I am sure lots of other people have the same question you do!

BOGO or B1G1: That is a Buy One Get One sale. I usually spell this out so it is clear.
You might occasionally see B1G2 which is just a Buy One Get 2 free sale and so on…
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FAR: Free after rebate! If an item is $2.99 and you can send off a rebate for $2.99 that item is FAR. We also love to combine FAR items with coupons to make a little profit (and cover the cost of the stamp!)
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SS/RP/P&G: This simply refers to my good friends the coupon inserts (which you will find in the Sunday paper). Each insert is from a different company Smart Source, Red Plum and Proctor and Gamble and they change from week to week. You can see exactly how to tell the difference HERE.
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OYNO: On Your Next Order. This is usually used in reference to a catalina coupon. Often times if you get a catalina coupon or a gift card (like at Target) you can not use it on the same transaction- you can use it OYNO.
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Catalina: I have a much longer explanation HERE but basically a catalina is a little coupon that prints at the cash register. It can be an actual coupon or it can be for a dollar amount off your next transaction. Catalina is simply the name of the company that makes these machines. You will ALWAYS want to check the catalina machine at your stores because you never know how much money you are leaving on the table by forgetting these little papers.
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Peelie: This is a coupon that is stuck to the front of an item and can be peeled off. You can see an example of a peelie HERE- see the little sticker that says Free? These are usually coupons but can also be rebates.
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Blinkie: The little machine you might see at the grocery store that spits out coupons. Grab the blinkies when you see them. They are typically available when an item is at the highest price. Just hold those blinkies for a sale!
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MQ: Manufacturer coupon.
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OOP: This is your out of pocket expense. We are always trying to reduce the OOP by using gift cards, rebates, Register Rewards, store coupons etc… The bottom line is to keep your money in your pocket!
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Rolling: This is when you use a gift card or catalina to pay for another transaction and get yet another catalina. For example, if you buy 2 boxes of cereal at Target and get a gift card for $2 back- you might want to “roll” the gift card by buying 2 more cereals- use the gift card to pay and get another gift card and on and on…
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Stockpile: This refers to whatever you are able to stock up on at dirt cheap (or free) prices so you don’t ever have to pay full retail again. You might have a stockpile of 6 boxes of cereal that you bought with coupons and a sale for .25 a box. Since you have multiple boxes you never have to pay $3 or more for cereal again since you have enough on hand to get by until the next sale.
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Stacking: This is when you use a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon. For example, you can use a Target coupon for a specific item as well as a manufacturer coupon on the same item (so 2 coupons for the same product) to double your savings.
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MIR: This is a mail in rebate offer.
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TMF: A type of rebate that allows you to Try Me Free. So the manufacturer will refund your full purchase price- often times you can also use a coupon and still get reimbursed the full retail price of the item. This is different than a Money Back Guarantee as that rebate requires you to be dissatisfied with the product to get your money refunded.
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Register Rewards: The catalina program specific to Walgreens. Read more about it HERE.
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WAGS: Walgreens
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ECBs or EBs: CVS’s store program. Extracare bucks are awarded for specific items you purchase and can be used like cash on virtually anything in the store. See my CVS posts HERE and HERE.
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YMMV: I rarely use this abbreviation as it confuses people but it means Your Mileage May Vary or Your Market May Vary. Basically it refers to deals like a clearance find might be YMMV because not everyone is going to get the exact same clearance deals. It can also mean your luck with your cashier may vary- for example x is priced at $.99, use $1.50 coupon to get $.51 overage- YMMV. So basically if you get a stinker cashier they will refuse the coupon and you are out of luck. The same person can be in the next check stand and get the overage, so YMMV.

So the bottom line is what does this mean:
Kellogg’s Cereal $1.50
Use $1.50 from 8/9 SS
Final Price: FREE

That means to go look in your Smart Source coupon insert from the weekend of 8/30 and cut the coupon for Kellogg’s for $1.50 to get your free cereal.

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Where to Begin: Grocery Budgets

Charlene — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:43:00 +0000

Kathy at $30WeeklyGrocery Challenge wrote a nice post HERE on the basics of putting a grocery budget together and her strategies for shopping. I pretty much follow all the same ideas that she presents. Our budget is $40 per week- it isn’t so much a necessity but more to be able to build our savings account as quickly as possible. We try to be a little flexible with the budget- this month for example we will be a little off as we have run out of so many staples (like TP, laundry soap, coffee etc.. etc..) Also I thought I might try to fit diapers (for 2) and formula into the budget and it just isn’t gonna happen. So we will probably be closer to $50-60/week this month. Which is still pretty incredible!
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One thing I do want to add- is that what works for us may not work for you. I am a stay at home mom so I have a little more flexibility to hit several stores in a week. Also, I do not eat meat so that cuts down on one of the biggest expenses you face at the grocery store. (Although my husband eats enough for both of us). So if $100 a week is comfortable for your family, there is no reason to feel badly about that.
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Also, once you have been shopping smart, stockpiling and using coupons for awhile you will start to need less and less every week from the store. You will also find that you never have to pay retail again for things as you have the ability to hold out until items hit the lowest price. Even better- you don’t need to run around to 5 stores every week. I have enough items on hand that I can pick and chose from week to week what deals I want to take advantage of and what I will pass up simply because I don’t feel like going to the store.

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Have a Debt Free Christmas

Charlene — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:02:00 +0000

Diego Araju
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Ok, it is 98 degrees in California so I realize Christmas isn’t top of mind right now for most people. It is already September though and Christmas is less than four months away. When my husband and I decided to get serious about becoming debt free last year, one item that was slashed off our annual budget was gifts. We used to spend a significant amount every year on holidays, birthdays, weddings- the list goes on and on. One of my biggest challenges was to continue to be generous with gifts on a frugalista’s budget. Last year we spent less than $100 total on Christmas yet we still had an abundance of thoughtful gifts under the tree.
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One way I manage to stick to such a small budget is by planning ahead. Seriously ahead. I typically make a list in January by month of events (such as birthdays) and I also make a complete Christmas list of all the family members we exchange gifts with. Then as I find deals throughout the year at incredibly low prices I tuck them away. I am not a spectacularly organized person but this method works for me not only to stay on budget, but also so I can avoid horrific holiday crowds.
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Believe it or not I have almost all of our Christmas shopping already done! I would encourage you to start thinking about the holiday season and take advantage of the incredible sales we are seeing to start planning ahead.
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If you need inspiration here are the types of things I already have set aside:

::ELF Cosmetics- (I got this today!) $13 for $75 in products- I will divide this up as gifts for my girlfriends.
::Stainless Steel Coffeepot and Gourmet Coffee- (My Mother in Law mentioned needing a new coffee pot and when this one came along at $14 I jumped!) The 3 bags of gourmet coffee or teas for $3 would also make a great gift along with homemade biscotti.
::Toy Sales and Clearance finds HERE and HERE
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And all the great freebies that come along throughout the year like the Glade Candles and the Aveda body product -all of these make great additions to gift baskets. Just like the relief you get when opening a well stocked pantry on a night you are too busy to plan dinner, having a gift closet can be such an easy way to eliminate the stress of racing out for a last minute gift. I have forgotten my share of events in the past (like last week) and being able to put together a lovely gift in just a few minutes is such a relief.

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Sign Up to Try Free Products

Charlene — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:50:00 +0000

I have posted about word of mouth marketing program a few times and here is a recap of the various companies that will actually give you free (full size) products. These programs are completely free and require varying degrees of effort to participate. It is an excellent way to try new products for free- usually full size items along with high value coupons. They offer these great samples in the hopes that you will tell your friends and family members about the products and create a buzz.

These are the ones I have personal experience with:

BzzAgent: This company is the most time consuming as they like to see a lot of reports about how you spread the word on their products. They offer a variety of items from full size samples to high value coupons that make it worthwhile to participate. I have received several coupons for free entrees at Chilis, a box with a free shower cleaning product, and a kit with new mosquito repellent products from Off. The more active you are on their web site, the more campaigns you get to participate in. Click here to register.

Vocalpoint: A division of Proctor and Gamble, this company sends a lot of high value coupons and samples for a variety of products. Simple to participate and they require almost nothing in exchange. I have received samples of cereals as well as coupons for free boxes and a free Bounce dryer bar most recently. Click here to register and pay attention to your mailbox as something fun will likely come along soon!

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SheSpeaks: I haven’t had a lot of freebies from SheSpeaks but recently got a free subscription to Ladies Home Journal. I also got Emergenz C samples for kids a few months ago as well as a full size Bliss Moisturizer valued at $30+. This program doesn’t seem to send a lot of offers but they require almost nothing in return! (I answered two questions after I received the Bliss product) Click here to register.

House Party: I have been selected for a few parties. This requires a somewhat lengthy application but if chosen you get a great package! House Party requires that you agree to host a party that features whatever the theme of the event is. For example, I got selected for a Gerber party and received about 34 two-packs of Gerber Organic baby food. I had a few friends over with babies and we got several coupons for Gerber foods and clothes in addition to the food. There was a great Fisher Price party awhile ago where they provided several expensive Fisher Price toys! Click here to register. You will need to regularly check in and indicate what themes you are interested in. They will then contact you to fill out the application for the party. The downside is that you don’t know exactly what is in the packages until you are accepted. You also need to participate in the online party planning web site which can also be time intensive.

Tryology: This is a new company that provides free samples of new products- most recently a new Vaseline lotion and a full size sample of Gain Laundry Soap. They require that you download a short video of your opinion on the product to their web site in exchange. If you can spare a few minutes and want to try new products before they hit the market you can register here. (UPDATE: I am no longer recommending this one. It is still a credible company but please note any videos you submit can be used anywhere!! I saw a number of videos people submitted for cereal on the manufacturer’s web site- so don’t do a video unless you are prepared to have your face pop up in their marketing campaigns!)

Right at Home: This is another simple program from SC Johnson. They send out a monthly email with an offer for a free item for the first 10,000 respondents. They have sent out Glade candles, Ziploc bags and most recently offered Scrubbing Bubbles cleaners. These are very generous packages. They also provide high value, printable coupons in the emails. Register here.
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I recommend using your regular email address for these companies as you don’t want to miss out on a chance to get in on a great offer.

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Ramblings of a Frugal Blogger: Quality vs. Quantity

Charlene — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:36:00 +0000

I have a confession to make. I hate thrift stores. I hate yard sales too. I have total admiration for those incredible ladies that can hit a thrift store or yard sale and come out with treasures like this, and this, and this. But I have zero patience and I lack the creative vision to see the treasures under the junk. Plus I am a bit of a retail junkie. I love new products- fancy packaging and pretty bags. I rarely shop but when I do I tend to prefer quality over quantity. I would rather have 2 pairs of great shoes for my toddler than 10 pairs of cheap ones that fall apart and give her blisters.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a great deal too- and if I can score an amazing deal on items like this or this- I am first in line. But I have found that when I spend a little more on a quality items I tend to spend less in the long run. For example, years ago when my husband and I bought our first home we had a lovely mix of eclectic college furnishings (can you say futon?) I wanted to decorate our home with classic furniture that we would be able to keep for years.

I went to work at Pottery Barn for a few hours a week and used my paychecks and the incredible discount to furnish our entire home. We have a ton of basic pieces- like our sectional sofa and leather club chairs- that we still love and that look great several years later.

Some pieces- like the dining table pictured above- haven’t lasted as our lives have changed. When we relocated from Washington to California we decided a 300 lb mahogany dining table was not an item we wanted to bring with us. We loved that table and it still looked gorgeous after a year of regular use, but with a toddler it just wasn’t going to be practical. With my employee discount I paid about $1300 for the table and eight Parsons chairs. I sold it on Craigslist a year later for $1500- so we actually made a profit at resale. Granted I got the table at a spectacular discount to begin with, but with smart and careful shopping anyone can score a great deal on a quality item.

This was my daughter’s nursery. I fell in love with the Lambie collection from Pottery Barn Kids and wanted all the pieces. The prices were out of our budget so I waited and waited and finally got the rug and bumper brand new for a great price on E-Bay. I recently sold several of the pieces from her nursery as she is moving into a big girl’s room. And guess what? I was able to sell the items- after 2 years of use- for exactly the price I originally paid.

So for me, frugality isn’t always about what is cheap or free. Frugality to me is about maximizing the resources you have carefully and consciously to get the best overall value.

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If You Have Time Today…

Charlene — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:24:00 +0000

Max Bolotnikov

Check out this wonderful post from Domestic Cents called
“My Daughter Won’t Remember We Were Broke.”

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Tips for Saving on Retail Purchases

Charlene — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:31:00 +0000

dogwelder

When those large purchases crop up, here are a few tips to help you stretch your dollars:

1. Consider a part time job. When we purchased our first home I got a part time job at Pottery Barn. I didn’t work there for the $8/hr but worked there for the discount! I saved every paycheck and used what I made to virtually furnish our 2200 sq ft house. We bought a floor model sectional sofa for 80% off retail, a 6ft mirror for $60- marked down from $400 and so much more! Many major retailers will hire seasonal or part time help and offer massive discounts. Don’t forget the discount can often apply to sister stores as well- in my case I also got 40% off at PB Kids, Williams Sonoma and West Elm.

2. Scratch and Dent stores. Scratch and Dent stores are outlets for retailers and manufacturers to sell slightly damaged, discontinued or returned goods at major discounts. If you are in the market for appliances in particular, this is a great resource as stores such as Sears often have
scratch and dent outlets. We bought a mattress for 75% off because there was a small tear in the fabric from a box cutter. It was brand new and in otherwise excellent condition.

3. Take advantage of registries. Many stores will offer registry programs- sign up is typically very simple. Once you close the registry you will typically receive a discount on one entire transaction. Registries aren’t just for weddings and baby showers! You can also register for housewarming, birthdays, graduations etc..

4. Ask for a discount. I am amazed at how frequently we get discounts at major retailers simply for asking. It is not something you normally think of doing- but if you are making a large purchase they may be willing to work with you on the price. This is especially effective if you can pay cash.

Do you have any secrets for saving on major purchases? I’d love to hear about them!

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Save Money On Diapers

Charlene — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:41:00 +0000

Check out my article- 8 Tips to Save Money on Disposable Diapers- as featured on Little People Wealth today.

Let me know what tips you have to save on diapers!

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Check Me Out on Skimbaco Lifestyle!

Charlene — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:54:00 +0000

Click here to read my guest post about becoming a SAHM on Katja’s amazing blog, Skimbaco Lifestyle. If you aren’t already reading this blog, Katja blogs about living life to the fullest and offers incredible giveaways, home decorating ideas, travel tips and so much more.

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Save at the Grocery Store without Coupons

Charlene — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:46:00 +0000

cottoncandylola

Don’t want to bother with cutting coupons? I don’t blame you- it is extra time and energy every week. For me, the amount I save is well worth the time invested but if you are new to couponing, here are a few tips to save with out using coupons:

1. Know your prices. Do you have to carry around a price book? No. You probably already do this anyway without realizing it. Do you instinctively grab an extra box of Cheerio’s when it is $1.99 versus $2.99? This is the art of learning your “buy” price. I would suggest paying close attention to the prices for a few weeks on the top items your family buys- everything from cereal to chicken and try to get a general idea of when prices are at their lowest. You might be surprised at how much prices fluctuate- for example my buy price on boneless, skinless chicken is $1.69. It can be “on sale” for as high as $3.99 at my store. When you see something you use regularly hit its lowest price, buy a little extra to get you through to the next sale (probably every 4 weeks or so).

2. Study the circulars. For the most part, the weekly store circulars will have a lot of loss leaders to draw you into the store. I have certain stores I prefer to shop at but I take 15 minutes every week with a sharpie and circle the best deals at several of the stores in my area. Then I go back and take a look at the overall picture and decide where I will shop that week.

3. Be loyal to yourself not the store. I have zero loyalty when it comes to stores. I am just as happy shopping at Raleys as I am Safeway or Target. I decide where I will shop based upon who is offering the best deals that week. I would recommend finding at least 2 or 3 stores that are convenient and decide where to shop based upon who is offering the best deals.

4. Price Match. If Walmart is a convenient store for you, then grab all those store ads and Walmart will match the advertised price on any item in store. Simply circle the items you need, hit Walmart and when you checkout the cashier can adjust the prices to make sure you get the best deal. (I would call and confirm your store participates in price matching before heading out).

5. Menu-Planning. You have heard it before, and here it is again! You have to have a general idea of your menu, if not the week’s plan mapped out. When you go to the store without a clear menu in mind, I guarantee you’ll come home with an assortment of ingredients that don’t work together and you’ll likely wind up tossing. Not to mention the three other trips to the store that week to pick up a few more things you forgot.

6. Empty the fridge. I suggest spending 15 minutes a week cleaning out your fridge. Pay attention to what you are throwing away. Did you buy double the produce you needed? Some fancy cheese that you couldn’t figure out what to do with? A loaf of bread because you forgot the lunch meat? See what it is you are wasting on a weekly basis and adjust your shopping accordingly.

7. Stick to basics. If pasta is on sale this week- it is no longer a good deal if you are paying top dollar for gourmet olive oil, buffalo mozzarella and organic heirloom tomatoes. Stick to basic ingredients and basic menu items that can be prepared in a variety of ways. You will not only save time in the kitchen but you will save your pantry from being filled with random items you will probably never use again.

8. Stick to a cash budget. If you have a designated amount you can spend at the store- it becomes easier to say no to the impulse shopper in all of us that wants two of everything. I find that I spend less when I use cash and I have an easier time keeping track of exactly what I have spent. If you don’t want to use cash, I would at least determine a realistic budget and stick to it.

9. Pay attention. It kills me to see people grab an item and pay full price when there were coupons stuck right to the display or package. I also notice people glancing at signs without reading them- the sign might say .99 when you buy 5. I see people grab the item all the time thinking they are paying .99 when they are actually paying 3x that amount because they didn’t actually read the sign and get 5. This applies to your receipt as well. I can’t tell you how many times I am overcharged, double charged etc… It may seem like too much bother to go back and get a refund but those small amounts really add up.

10. Figure out the Game. Some stores have rewards cards and other loyalty programs. Sign up as you never know what may come your way.

11. Check the clearance rack. I always look for the clearanced meat at my store and almost always find high quality items 50% off. I simply freeze the meat when I get home (which I would have probably done anyway). You might find discounted bread, dairy products, wine etc… all in clearance areas at your store. I also look for discounted produce- like this bag of bananas I got for 50% off. I got a discount because the bananas were not together in a bunch.

I hope this helps a little as almost everyone can benefit from smarter grocery shopping.

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Guest Post: The Envelope System

Charlene — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:57:00 +0000

Using a budget is something that I have previously had a really hard time with. It was too much work to enter every receipt and categorize it. It was just too abstract for me. Then I decided to give the cash envelope system a try.

I have been using the cash envelope system for about five months now and it has absolutely transformed my family’s ability to save more money each month. My husband and I do not have the same spending habits. I am very frugal and always have been, he is much more comfortable spending money and likes to have things. This has been a struggle for us throughout our marriage, but using a cash budget has greatly helped this situation.

We decided on a very simple system. We use #10 envelopes that are all be kept in one large Manila envelope. We keep the majority of the money at home (in a safe place), and just grab what we need when we are out and about, so that we are not walking around with large amounts of cash all of the time. We use a very simple system with only 4 envelopes:

Grocery

Household (this is for all money spent at stores such as Target and Walgreens, and it does include some grocery items. I didn’t want to have to separate every transaction, so I left a little extra room in the household budget to include some grocery items.)

Entertainment (this is for all family entertainment, including eating out)

My hubbies fund (this will be money for his lunches and snacks)

To decide on the amounts, for 3 months I made all purchases using my debit card, so that I could track our expenses and see how much we were spending. Then I took those amounts and averaged them out and my husband and I came up with a number that we could both live with. I was a little too optimistic though and after not being able to make it to the end of the month the first two months, I added a little more money where we needed it.At the beginning of each month, I withdraw the amount of cash that we need for the month and separate it into the 4 different envelopes. If there is anything left over at the end of the month, I roll into the next month. This has worked out so wonderfully for us. I have to be selective of what “deals” I decide to buy. Even if things are at rock bottom prices, if I don’t have the money in it for my budget, then I will be out of luck. There are simply no more arguments about going out and doing and buying things. When the money is gone, it is gone. I wish that I had started doing this years ago. It is simple and easy and isn’t too restrictive.

Nicole is a wife and stay at home mom of 4 kiddos. She can be found blogging regularly at Being Frugal Is Fabulous.

We use the cash envelope system as well- see what happened last month when we deviated from this system here.

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Guest Post: So You Want to Work from Home– Seven Opportunities

Charlene — Tue, 12 May 2009 02:46:00 +0000

Working from home can seem like a scary yet intriguing opportunity. Many times you don’t even know where to begin! Fortunately, this generation of moms, have plenty of opportunities that do not have a high start up cost. Gone are the days where you have to go to the bank and take out a loan for thousands of dollars in the hopes that your small business venture will work out. Of course, that opportunity is still there if you have the investment money and a steady heart, but there are many other options for those of us who do not.

Do you have a talent? Put it to good use! Tutoring and lessons can bring in $20-$30 per half hour session. Piano, sports, school subjects, other musical instruments, even cake decorating and crafting skills can bring you that extra money you need. It may not seem like much, but if you get a few consistent students you can be bringing in a decent income without spending a ton of time away from your family.

Put those crafting skills to work! Sites like Etsy.com and HyenaCart.com allow you to sell your wares online for a low startup cost. The customers who frequent those sites are looking for homemade items so if you can create it they will come! If you start selling a lot of items then you can always move to your own website later, but using these sites will start you on the right foot (and many large sellers continue to use them!)

Do you have an eye for the unique? Sell on ebay! There is a lot of money to be made on ebay if you know what you are selling. Pick a category that you are familiar with and look for ways to acquire products in that category at a wholesale cost. I sold baby clothes on ebay for a couple of years. I would find name brand, great condition clothes at yard sales and “lot” them up before I sold them. I turned my starting budget of $10 (January) into just under $1000 (December) by doing this.

So maybe you don’t have an eye for the unique but you do have an eye for detail. Then try mystery shopping! You won’t make much money mystery shopping, but you do get quite a few free products and, in my opinion, it is fun to do.

If an opinion is what you have then put that to work for you! Blogging can be a fun and rewarding way to earn extra income. Keep in mind that you could start doing this and never actually make a profit. According to problogger 37% of blogs make zip, zero, nada. Out of the remaining 63% that do make money 53% of those make less than $100 a month.

If you are looking for something more reliable then try a home daycare. There is some startup work with this one! You will need to get licensed, write up contracts, and find families to watch. The rate per child is pretty low, but if you go to your states max number of children it can be profitable. You can also write off part of your home, food, and other items as business expenses. It also opens the door for babysitting opportunities, which pay better per hour/per child.

If your own children are enough kiddos for you then you can try a sales opportunity. A general rule of thumb is if they ask for a high start up cost then stay away! Also, be careful that you do not spend your profit buying items for yourself! I sold Avon for years. I love their stuff and I would always manage to break even, but sales are not really a strength of mine. There were many people in my district that made a lot of money though (some even made six figures).

Heidi writes for Little People Wealth, a blog that teaches you to spend small in order to live large. She has written Ebay and mystery shopping tutorials and strives to give information that allows women the opportunity to stay at home with their children.

Thanks for the great tips Heidi! Dave Ramsey just featured a stay at home mom that made super hero capes from dishrags for her son’s friends. A small business was born and a few months later she is grossing $4000 a month.

Here is an article I wrote on my experience mystery shopping.

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Series for New Couponers: Rebates

Charlene — Sun, 10 May 2009 14:15:00 +0000

Many drug stores offer rebate programs that are a great way to stretch your dollars and even profit from buying things.

Walgreens and Rite Aid are the two biggest rebate programs as far as drug store shopping. The Walgreens program ended in April and it isn’t clear yet how the new program will work.

For Rite Aid, you can click here to sign up online for the program. I like this program as you can enter your receipts online so there is no need to waste a stamp on a small rebate. It also comes in handy when there are overlapping rebates as you can keep your receipt and submit to both!

An example would be a Chapstick rebate a few months ago. Both Rite Aid and the manufacturer offered simultaneous rebates on the same product. I purchased the Chapstick for $1.99 and submitted the rebate online to Rite Aid- I was reimbursed in full. The rebate from the manufacturer required mailing in the original receipt. I did this and was also refunded by Chapstick for $1.99.

Rite Aid publishes a rebate book at the start of every month. You can pick it up in store or check it out online here. They also highlight certain rebates in the weekly ad to make it even easier.

You can quickly enter your receipts online and at the end of the rebate period request your check. You simply enter the transaction numbers off your receipt and Rite Aid automatically figures which rebates you qualify for. They will send you a check in postcard format that can be cashed at the bank or any Rite Aid store. In my experience, Rite Aid is extremely prompt in mailing out these rebates. They will send you a reminder email if the period ends and you haven’t requested your check.

I also like to take advantage of manufacturer rebates for items we need. Often times I can find a rebate for an item we already intended to purchase or I would like to purchase. An example would be the Resolve Carpet Cleaner Try Me Free rebate. This is an item I would have purchased regardless and for a few extra minutes to send out the form, I will get this item for free.

The best case scenario for rebates are when you can combine a coupon with the rebate. In the example of the carpet cleaner, I had a coupon for $2 off Resolve. The purchase price was $7.17, I paid $5.17, submitted for the full purchase price and will receive a refund of $7.17.

I also utilize rebate offers as a way to roll Register Rewards at Walgreens. If I have a Register Reward that is close to expiration, I can always purchase an item with a rebate and submit for a refund. In doing so I have spent very little out of pocket and found a way to get my money back. I have also padded a transaction at the store by using rebates. Last summer Safeway released several $10/50 coupons. Since my weekly grocery budget is less than $50, I would occasionally buy a rebate item to hit the $50 mark.

Here is how I organize my rebates:

I have a small file folder that sits by my printer. I usually fill out the rebate form right after I purchase the product to avoid losing receipts or forgetting. I find it more convenient to do it right away as many products will require UPCs and such, so you can get all the required information together quickly.

I then make a copy of the information required in the rebate- UPCs, a copy of the receipt etc… I make a note of when the rebate is due- usually 6-8 weeks from the date of mailing. I then address the envelope and put my copy in the file. When the rebate comes I just pull my copy out of the folder and toss it.

I have been rebating for over a year now and have only had 1 rebate I didn’t receive. Once I do get a check in the mail, I pull the copy out of my folder and toss it. If it is a tiny rebate- like the $1.99 Chapstick I usually don’t even bother making the photo copy.

This may seem time intensive for what amounts to just a few dollars- but it is actually a very quick process. It is also a great way to stick to a small grocery budget as every rebate check I receive is added back into what I have to spend for the week.

Ever since I started couponing I love to check my mailbox to see what great freebies have come and it is always a pleasant surprise to see a rebate check as well.

I would encourage you to look into the drugstore rebates and be on the lookout on your shopping trips for try me free forms attached to products.

Another great resource are two rebate blogs- Hurray for Free-bates (check out her running total of rebates received this year!) and Coupons, Rebates and Refunds. I check these sites regularly to see what products may have rebates available online.

For more great ideas check out Frugal Friday at Life As Mom!

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Generous Gifts on a Budget

Charlene — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:47:00 +0000

Even though we are on a very tight budget, I still enjoy giving thoughtful gifts to friends and family throughout the year. Through creative shopping, we have almost completely eliminated the gift category from our expenses and I continuously challenge myself to give more on less. Over the past year, I have learned how to apply the same principles from couponing to save a tremendous amount on another area of our budget.

Here are a few tips that have worked for me to stretch our gift giving dollars:

1. Get Organized. I have a list posted in my office that has all the events & holidays listed by month. This ensures I never need to rush out to buy a last minute gift for something I have forgotten.

2. Plan Ahead. I always look ahead to the next event on the list as the year progresses. My local grocery store recently had a great greeting card promotion so I took advantage of the promotion and bought cards for the next three events. I shop all year long and check the event off my list as I go and keep everything organized in a clear tub in my closet. There is no point in purchasing gifts in advance if you just forget what you have or misplace things.

3. Take Advantage of Sales. Clearance events are fairly predictable and you can often buy things for a substantial discount. An example is the annual baby clearance events that take place at major retailers in January and July. Prior to these sales I will check my list to see what baby gifts I might need. I then follow the sales and try to purchase items at 75%-90% off.
This means I am often Christmas shopping in July which might seem crazy to some people. Last year however, I experienced an extremely relaxed Christmas as most of my shopping was already done. I was able to avoid the pressure to overspend during the holidays as I had no need to go to the mall. I also had time to decorate, bake, go to parties—all the things we want to do but can’t seem to find the time to fit in.

4. Maximize Coupons. I have discovered there are a lot of coupons that can be found outside the grocery store. A great example is the recent $15 off coupon at NY & Co. clothing store. I always utilize these coupons regardless of whether I need an item from that store. I know I can find something that will make a wonderful gift for someone on my list. A friend and I went to NY & Co and we used one coupon each- for a combined total of $8.64 we were able to get a wallet, 2 t-shirts, 2 charm bracelets and 2 pairs of earrings. I kept the wallet, a t shirt and one pair of earrings and tucked the bracelet and second pair of earrings into my gift bin. Since we were at the mall, I also stopped by Victoria’s Secret for a small lotion I had a free coupon for. This lotion will make a nice addition to a gift basket or stocking at Christmas.

Another example is the Kohl’s $5 off any purchase coupon I got for joining the email list. Kohl’s also sent me 2 extra $10 off $10 coupons- I have heard many areas around the country receieved this same coupon in the mail recently. Since this is an ongoing deal at Kohl’s, I registered right before Easter to take advantage of post holiday sales. Click here to see how I got gifts for a baby shower totally free.

6. Think Outside the Box. I always buy tissue paper and gift wrap at Walgreens when it goes on sale for .39 during the year. I know I will use it and it makes a great filler item. Ribbon can be purchased for next to nothing after Christmas or baskets after Easter and providing you find a neutral color, a nice presentation can immediately add class to an inexpensive gift. I also save all the fancy gift bags I receive throughout the year to recycle for gifts I give. Many of those bags are $5 each and just thrown away virtually new.

7. Utilize Online Resources. Swagbucks is a popular way to earn free gift cards and by signing up now, you can probably accumulate enough bucks to buy a lot of holiday gifts at retailers like Amazon or Target.
If you have the time, the multitude of giveaways are a great way to build up your gift closet. Deal Seeking Mom posts a weekly link to hundreds of giveaways around the blogosphere. Many giveaways are for expensive items like strollers and high chairs- or more custom items like jewelry. I try to set aside an hour a week in the evening to go through these giveaways and enter.

I hope these tips are helpful to you in shaving a little extra off your gift budget. I don’t mean to suggest that one always has to buy something to give generously. Sometimes the best gift is something simple like offering baby sitting services to a busy mom or dropping off home cooked meals to a sick friend.

For more great ideas check out Frugal Friday here.

Stay tuned as I will be posting examples of gifts I have put together for $10 or less in the next few days!

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Series for New Couponers: Coupon Organization, part 2

Charlene — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:06:00 +0000

If you missed my last post on how I organize my coupons- click here. I also found a few other bloggers systems here (basket) and here (album). Another popular option is the Couponizer- which is a mini organizer that fits into your purse. Click here for more information on this system. It is really about what works for you to stay organized.

For step 2, I wanted to show what I do with the coupons I don’t clip. As I mentioned, with my system I only cut coupons for products we use, I want to try or I think there might be a sale for. An example would be Egglands eggs. I try to get the best price on eggs and I never know what brand is going to be on sale so I might cut a coupon like this just in case it happens to be Eggland.

I keep the rest of the inserts in three boxes in my “office” (closet) one for Smart Source, one for Red Plum and one for other- like P&G or Unilever or booklets I find in stores.

I usually go through the inserts on Sunday evening- cut and file what I want (during Desperate Housewives)- and then mark the insert with the date in a sharpie. On weeks where there is more than one Smart Source I mark either 1 or 2 as well. This helps me remember there is a second SS insert when I can’t find a coupon I want.

If I have multiple copies of the same insert, I take the extras and tuck them inside the cover of one copy. Then they are all grouped together and I don’t have to go through the entire basket when I want a particular coupon.

That’s it! I like to keep things simple and yes I do occasionally miss a deal because I haven’t cut the entire insert out. There is no way I can keep track of all those coupons though, so I’d prefer to return to a store to get a deal than try to manage 1000′s of coupons at a time.

When the weekly deals are all posted I plan my shopping trip, cut or print the coupons and I need and I am off. I go through the stacks every 6 months or so and toss the inserts that are expired (note these can be donated to military families which I will post all about very soon).

There are lots of other systems out there and again it is all about what works for you. Personally I don’t like a lot of stuff so I keep things pretty simple.

In regards to Internet coupons, I typically print them when I need them or I look for stuff I think I might find deals on. An example would be the $2.00 All coupon that came out a few weeks ago. This was a high value coupon for a product I would definitely use- so that is something I would print for sure. Popular items like the Kashi waffle coupons are also something I would print immediately and I add to my coupon bag as I know those types of coupons will go fast.

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Check Out SuperCouponGirl today!

Charlene — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:40:00 +0000

If you are a Safeway shopper and haven’t found Beeb’s blog yet you should check it out! She is an English expat living in Oregon that does amazing things at Safeway.

Check out my guest post today here.

Geta free subscription to Babytalk or American Baby magazine!