Coupons.com Reloaded

The coupons on coupon.com have been reloaded-Hooray! A couple of my favorite are the $1.50 off Tava (take to Safeway when they have it on sale for 2/$5 with your SDC only $.50) and the $1 off Kotex (take to Walmart for FREE panty liners). Remember hit the back button and print 2. Happy couponing!

Questions Answered

I got a couple questions after my last post so I thought I would answer them publicly because others may be wondering the same thing.

Tonight I was telling my husband about this particular blog and that you got basically paid for getting stuff... He works in retail and is wondering how you are getting cash back on the items. He says most coupons will say "no cash value" or such on them...

I have never gotten cash back. You get overage when your coupons equal more than the product. I have heard of other people getting cash back but I don't feel right about this. So if I know I am going to get overage I get another product and then the overage covers that. As for the Walgreens deal, I get my FAR money put on a Walgreens card which I get at the end of the month.

So yesterday I paid:
$30.81
I will get $46.04 + 10% back on my Walgreens card
that is how I made $12.61

I didn't actually get cash back but I will get it on a Walgreens card which spends just like a gift card.

One more thing... where do I get the SDC?
You get the SDC in Safeway's ad. Most Safeways have a big stack of ads by customer service.

Honey Bunches of Oats

Click here for a $2 off Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal coupon (hit back and print 2). I love FREE cereal-doesn't it taste much better?

Frugal but Great Meals For Your Family

One of the best ways to drastically cut your grocery bill is by planning your menu around what you have been able to get for cheap or FREE using your coupons and what is on sale. Sometimes I get in a rut and want to try new recipes. I just found this great website called recipematcher. You type in the ingredients you have and it brings up recipes you can make. I'm definitely going to try some new recipes using canned tomatoes since I have about 50 cans I need to use! Plus it has a whole section using my favorite kitchen appliance-the crockpot.

What to do with all the cheap school supplies?

A little while ago I talked about buying cheap school supplies for charity. Well, what is up with these stores just giving this stuff away?? I have come up with some other ideas for these supplies as well.
1. Stock pile it. I filled a drawer full of art supplies for my preschoolers to last all year.
2. Give as gifts or party favors to young children.
3. Buy now to put in your Christmas Shoe Boxes.
4. Get creative! I'm a leader at my local moms group and I think some of these items (pencils, highlighters, ect) will be a great gift to give the ladies in my group as a gift on the first day back in the fall.

20 Healthiest Foods Under $1

I love this article: 20 Healthiest Foods Under a $1. One of the great benefits of couponing is you have more money for Organic fruits and veggies in your grocery budget.

ERRR Walmart!

I have a love hate relationship with Walmart. I love the deals I can get there but I hate dealing with the incompetent employees (notice the Walmart sign). Well, yesterday was the worst. I got all my groceries, went to the check out stand, put my coupons first like I always do, the checker scanned and bagged all my groceries, scanned all my coupons, I signed for my debit card and then the machine beeped. So she calls for a manager. It takes 20 minutes for the fake manager to come and meanwhile they have no other check stands open so everyone behind me is getting really mad. FINALLY the fake manager comes and tells me they don't take Internet coupons. Now I always preach to all my readers that you must know each of your stores policies so I KNOW Walmart takes Internet coupons because their coupon policies are on their website and I have read them. I tell her to get the real manager so he comes over (after another 15 minutes) and tells me the same nonsense. He tells me they just changed their policies yesterday to which I say I want to see it in writing. Of course he doesn't have anything saying this. Now the old lady behind me is pissed and starts yelling at the manager some very choice expletives telling me he better let me get my groceries. I tell him I have been standing in line for 45 minutes and my frozen groceries are half melted and he can't put them back on the shelf. He says he would rather throw them away then give them to me (even though I was going to pay him $82!). At this point I am so mad that I can see why people go postal so I decide it may be my time to leave. Before I leave though I tell him he can bet this will not be the end it and he is going to wish he hadn't done this (okay, at this point I am not really in a good place because I am so mad). So when I get home I call corporate and and tell them what a horrible experience the manager John created for me and how he doesn't know his own stores policies. They apologize profusely to me because, of course they take internet coupons and say they are going to look into it and call me back. Later that day I call John again (hey, I did warn him that I wasn't dropping it) and it seems after his corporate manager called him his tuned changed. Suddenly he was very apologetic, saying yes they take internet coupons and he was very sorry. I tell him sorry isn't good enough so he gives me a $25 gift card. The moral of the story is in addition to knowing each stores coupon policies have it PRINTED OUT and keep it with your coupons. I also have the district managers name and number should I ever have this problem again.
Along these same lines you do need to be careful about fraudulent coupons. Of course NEVER photocopy coupons (that is illegal). Some times fraudulent coupons can be hard to spot so freebies4mom has a great post with some tips.

Staples Deal

Staples Deal (from Julie!)

Staples is having a great deal on school supplies today through Wednesday (July 9). For one penny each you can buy 2-pocket paper folders (limit 10), 8-pack of Dixon #2 yellow pencils (limit 2), and 0.5 oz bottles of Purell hand sanitizer (limit 2). If you are a teacher, you can get 25 of each item for one penny each!

Crazy Coupon Lady

My good friend informed me last night that I am now know as the crazy coupon lady. It is true; I've drank the cool-aid. I am so SICK of being in debt that I've taken drastic measures. I have found that, unfortunately in our culture it is very weird to be frugal and live debt free. I have saved so much money with coupons so I am a bit over the top. There are a couple misnomers about coupons however. First: Is couponing for everyone? NO. Second: Will couponing help everyone financially? No.

First off, not everyone should coupon. If you are a person that despises couponing, it is probably not for you. For me I love it. It is a game for me to see how cheap I can get things. Also to be REALLY great with coupons you need to be organized. If you are not a organized person you probably won't do that well with coupons. Lastly, if you work full time or are already feeling overwhelmed by the amount of stuff going on in your life, you might not want to coupon.

Second: Will couponing help everyone financially? You NEED to have your monthly budget WRITTEN down. If you are not sure how to do this or just want to learn some great financial tips I'd recommend going through Financial Peace University. Look at the things that you are spending too much money on. For us it was groceries and eating out. Yours might be different. Maybe you a driving a car you can't afford (if you are making payments and aren't close to paying it off-you can't afford it), maybe you are using your credit card to pay for vacations you can't afford, maybe you spend too much on clothes. You need to look at your own finances and decide where you need to cut. If you use coupons and then turn around and charge up your credit card for a pair of shoes, then it hasn't done you much good.

Saving money on groceries is only a small part of your financial situation. You need to know where your money is going each month and then cute the areas you think are excessive.

So with all that being said the crazy coupon lady will now leave you with a very summery coupon that I am loving right now.
Blue Bunny $1 off-take it to Walmart and get popsicles for $.50

Coupons 102

A few people have been telling me they have been having trouble with Winco taking computer coupons. If you notived I never tell you to take your coupons to Winco. I don't shop there so I don't know what their policies are. I don't find that many great deals their anyway so I wouldn't recommend taking your coupons there.
A basic thing about coupons is you need to know your stores policies. Each store is different and honestly I've found that a lot of cashiers are different. Sometimes they will take a coupon and the next person won't. Whatever store you shop at; find out their policy.

Saving on the Basics

You can live a long time on milk and bread. Actually I'm kidding, I have no idea how long you could live off milk and bread. All I know is we go through a lot of milk in our house. About 5 gallons a week. We should buy a dairy cow. Unfortunately, we have no room for one so I have had to be creative with how to cut costs in this area.
Every other week in the Fred Meyer ad there is a coupon for $1 for half gallon of milk. That is the cheapest I can find it on a regular basis plus the Albie's brand is from cows not treated with rbst. Since I usually go to Albertsons twice a week (to get all my FREE stuff using my coupons) I use those coupons then and stock up on milk for the next 2 weeks until the next coupon comes out.

I put what we will use for the next week in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Now before some of you think "gross-frozen milk" you should try it. The Man was very opposed of me doing this at first so we did a simple test-1 glass of milk that had been frozen and 1 glass that hadn't. If he could tell the difference, I wouldn't freeze the milk. Guess what? We are freezing our milk. A couple things to remember about freezing milk-make sure you give it a few days to unthaw in the fridge, it will last about 5 days once unthawed, and can last about 3 months in the freezer. The milk will settle a little when you freeze it so just shake it before you pour it.

Every other week Fred Meyer also comes out with a coupon for their bread for $1.20. So I take it to Albertsons and they will let you get their brand of bread (Country Farms) with the coupon. Now this is the GOOD bread, 100% whole wheat no high fructose corn syrup. Normally this kind of bread is about $4. So I get enough to last us 2 weeks until the coupon comes out again. You could freeze the bread if you want but I haven't had a problem with it lasting 2 weeks.

Walgreeens One Day Only Sale

I just got this great coupon in my email and I wanted to share it. Note it is for tomorrow only and you must spend $20.

Another Organic Coupon

Here's another organic coupon for everyone (thanks Virginia!). This is Albertsons brand of organic products which when combined with SDC make for some cheap organic food. When you go to the site click on view recipe. Make sure you arrow back after printing because it let me print two.

Organic Coupons

I know many of you are trying to buy more organic foods, like I am, so check out these great coupons here(it is under coupons-Muir Glen) and here. I would recommend taking the coupons to Walmart for the best deal but you could also take them to Safeway or Albertsons and use Safeway's double coupon. Many times to get coupons online you need to sign in. A great thing to do is create an email just for this because you will get a lot of spam.

Coupon Class

I will be having an intro to couponing class at my house on Saturday at 11 am. If you'd like to come let me know-I'd love to have you!

Getting the Most out of Couponing

There are 2 essential things that go along with couponing. First you need to stock up on whatever is FREE or very cheap for that week. I always look at the expiration date and calculate how much my family will go through by then. Of course, if it is FREE or very cheap you may also want to get some to donate to your local shelter or food bank.

The other thing that will really help you save money in your grocery budget is to plan your menu for the week based on what is on sale. This week I got potatoes and mayo for very cheap so for Princessa's bday party I will be serving potatoe salad and polish sausage dogs, which were also on sale. You'll be amazed at how much money you will save by doing your meal planning this way.

Store Coupons

This week Albertsons, Fred Meyer, and Safeway all have great store coupons in their ads. The helpful thing to know is you don't have to go to each store to get these deals-just take them all to Albertsons. As an example: Safeway has their brand of apple juice for a $1 with their store coupon. Obviously you can't find Safeway brand of juice at Albertsons but you can substitute for Albertsons apple juice. Same thing with eggs, milk, and anything else. It doesn't have to be the same brand if they don't carry it. So you can get all the graet deals in one stop.

Online Coupons

While I get most of my coupons from the Sunday newspaper, I have been starting to get into online coupons. One of my favorite sites is coupons.com-has anyone else found any good sites? You print them off and can double them just like a regular coupons (unless it says DO NOT DOUBLE).

Coupons 101

Many of you have asked me to explain how couponing works. I will attempt to explain the basics. If you have any questions let me know. First off, where do you get coupons? If you get the newspaper they are in there. I don't want to subscribe to the paper because we don't read it and why spend money to save money? Elderly people LOVE to give you coupons. My grandmother saves them for me and I've also asked my neighbor. They are usually just throwing them away and most elderly people love to know someone is using them. In their day in age they learned not to waste, something our generation could stand to learn. So just ask your neighbor or that old lady at church. The key is to get multiple coupons and then when you find an awesome deal you can stock up.You also need to find how the grocery stores around you honor coupons. For me I live near an Albertsons, Safeway, and Fred Meyer. Albertsons honors other stores coupons (including Safeways double coupon), Safeway has the double coupon, and Fred Meyer will not take other store coupons. So usually Albertsons is the best bet.So you start by clipping your coupons and sorting them into a little file folder (labeled Dairy, Cereal, Hair products ect). Then every week when the new ads come out you look through them and try to match what is on sale with what you have a coupon for. For instance last week Fred Meyer had a coupon for toothpaste 3 for $5. I also had a one dollar off coupon which I combined with a double coupon (you can only double up to $.50) so I got toothpaste for $.16 So needless to say, I stocked up on toothpaste. I know it sounds confusing but it is very simple once you figure it out. And when you start getting things for dirt cheap-you will be addicted!