Really getting into the swing of things part 1

Hello Again,

Well  I have really gotten into the swing of things with my couponing. But it does take some real work to make it happen. I have had several people ask me how I am doing it so I thought I would backtrack and give you the steps that I have used.

First off you need coupons. There are several ways to obtain your coupons. You can print them off the Internet from various places. All you need is to do a search for them.

Which leads me to SwagBucks.com .
This site lets you search online for anything that you need but you can earn swag bucks and get free things.  I use my swag bucks to earn amazon.com gift cards. My goal is to earn enough to pay for most of the gifts that I need to purchase this year. You can accumulate them fairly quickly by searching online and downloading the toolbar which often rewards you for just having downloaded it. I earned 1 swag buck this morning when I opened my browser to start this blog entry.

OK to get back to the coupons and where to find them.  Another place to find coupons is in your local paper. To find your local papers insert check here. I suggest you subscribe via email to have the previews delivered to your email. You are going to want to purchase several Sunday Newspapers to get the most out of the coupons.  Or you can ask friends and family members to save them for you if they don't use them for themselves. You can also buy them from clipping services or eBay if you need the extra coupons but don't want to buy the papers. I will get into the clipping services later as I haven't used them yet. A website you need to sign up with is WeUseCoupons.com   They have a great forum for all your questions, a coupon database to help you find more coupons and just a great bunch of people who are more than willing to help you find the deals.

OK so now you have your coupons it is time to check out the sales.  My favorite store is Price Chopper because they double my coupons.  So I am able to get alot of my items for less than a dollar sometimes.  I can save at least 50% off my grocery bill like last night.  So once you check out the fliers for good sales you need to see what coupons you can match up with them.  This is the longest part for me.

OK so this is going to be the end of my 2 part series on beginning to coupon.  I will be posting the second part on Monday.  So your homework is to on Sunday buy multiple newspapers to get the inserts and clip away.

Happy Clipping!

Positive Walgreens Experience and great deals.

Well I made my first trip to Walgreen's using my coupons and overall it was great but I learned somethings too.

1. If you are buying something that will print RR's (the rewards coupons) they have to be in separate transactions or it will only print out one. I didn't know that but Live and Learn.
2. If they don't have something remember to get a rain check. Yes the one in West Lebanon does do rain checks.
3. Bring your other coupons with you for unadvertised savings.

I had 3 coupons for $1.00/2 soft soap hand pumps 8.0 oz or larger. Well the ones they had on sale in the flyer were 7.5oz so my coupons wouldn't work for them. So I figured oh well save them for another time.  I was looking down on lower shelves and noticed that there was a clearance sticker on the sponge bob hand soap pump. Now this was the same one that was in the picture on my coupons.  They were on clearance for $.75 each, so with a coupon for $1.00/2 and I bought 6 I only paid $.25 each!  I am not going to need to buy hand soap for a while but at that price you can't beat it.

I should have paid for my whole order over $55 but I only paid $19. I got 6 packs of disposable schick razors in various styles, 3 secret deordorants, 6 spongebob soap hand pumps and got a raincheck for colgate toothpaste.

There are some good deals this week too.

Lebanon Village Market: ends this Thursday
$.98 Ragu Sauce Limit 6
$1.89/lb boneless Pork Loin

Walgreen's

Vicks VapoDrops are $0.99 at Walgreens Use: $1.00/1 12/26PG or 1/16PG =Free

Kraft Homestyle Macaroni & Cheese – $1.67 (Buy 2) $1 – 1/16/10 Smart Source insert (use 2)
and use $1 off 2 Walgreens Coupon in the January coupon book Final price: .17 each wyb 2
Here is a link to a great page that has tons of Walgreen's coupon Match ups http://networkedblogs.com/daxNC

CVS
Has a great deal on Free Cough Syrup for more details go here

Rite Aid

Rite Aid has several of the Mitchum deodorants marked down 50% ranging from $1.99 – $2.49.
Mitchum Deodorant – $1.99 – $2.49 on clearance
Use the $2/1 in-ad coupon = as low as Free to 49¢
More Deals Here

I could go on and on. Something that I am finding is this is work. You aren't going to pull off the great deals without some work. I am using a lot of different groups on Facebook that  post the coupons and match ups for each store which is making my job much easier.  I am also buying multiple Sunday newspapers which you are probably thinking, you are spending more money on the papers. Yes but the savings from all the coupons has more than covered what I have spent.  If you want to know what groups are the best that I have found feel free to contact me.

Happy Saving!

Great Coupons and links to match ups

Hello Everybody,

Hope that no one is too cold with all this wonderful winter weather going on. LOL.  Well my plan with the new year is to save as much money as I can.  With this idea I am actively using coupons more than I have ever to score some really big deals.  I am very pleased to announce that my Price Choppers will double coupons so I am really doing some savvy shopping.  So here are some new links to coupons. Lots of them refer to Price Chopper and Walgreen's has some great deals and money makers going on too.

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/green-giant/  These guys have a $.50 off coupon that can double up to a $1.00 and this week green giant veggies are on sale.

If you are on Facebook go the Price Chopper's page "like" them and there are coupons for yogurt and  
oatmeal.

Here is a very good list of this weeks match ups at Price Chopper
http://savingsandstewardship.blogspot.com/2011/01/price-chopper-match-ups-19-115.html

 Best of Luck this week!

Welcome to the New Year!

Hello Everyone,


How is the New Year treating you so far? Well not too bad here. I have taken advantage of a sale that was at LVM and got 50 lbs of Potatoes for $9.90, honey nut cheerios for less than $1.50 a box. Now today I am going to make my trip up to Walgreen's and see if I can got stuff for free. According to my coupons and the ad I should be able to. So cross your fingers and wish me luck. Also I was at Walmart last night and what is left of their Christmas items are now on clearance almost down to nothing.  I got the plastic red containers that are 2lb and 3lb each for 25 cents each. So they were in 2 or 3 packs for a quarter each. Trust me I got a bunch. They will be perfect to put my chicken broth, or other make ahead meals in. They stack very nicely so they won't take up alot of space in my freezer.  I am making mashed potatoes for dinner tonight and I am going to make an extra large batch and put some of the potatoes in the freezer for future use.  It isn't going to take any extra work really other than throwing in some extras to the pot.

I bought 5 newspapers back on 1/2/11 since there were 5 inserts in each one and clipped almost all the coupons. I am now looking back over the ones that I didn't choose the first time to see if I have missed anything.  I will have to admit it took me a long time to go over the ads and match my coupons.  I really didn't think it was going to be so time consuming. But the people on the various boards I have talked to say that it will get easier as I build up a stock pile of coupons.

I have received some coupons in the mail that really excite me. I got the Excedrin Coupon that gives me a free bottle. That one is now expired but there are still some $1 off ones here.  I also got into the frequent buyer program for Blue Seal. With every 12 UPC codes I send to them I will get a coupon for a free bag of dog food equivalent to the smallest bag I buy.  Since I only buy 40# bags this will be a nice coupon to get. I am also looking into getting their cat food and sending in for free cat food. I also have signed up on various restaurants friends lists so that I can take advantage of the freebies they offer. My husband and I got a Chili's gift card for Christmas and now with the free nachos and cheese coupon this dinner date is going to cost precious little if anything at all.

I went out and bought a $25 printer so that I can take advantage of online coupons that can really help me to increase my savings.  Right now I have a simple paper coupon organizer, but I want to upgrade to a binder soon.  I had considered adding to my control journal from Fly Lady.net. but I really want to keep the two separate.

Best of Luck saving!