Why I Coupon Shop...

The answer is right in this picture! I coupon shop to help us save $$$ so I can continue to stay home and care for this adorable munchkin. Yes, it takes time & energy to find the best deals but it's totally worth the effort. I've cut our grocery and household items charges in half (at least!) and we actually have more stuff we considered luxuries than we did when I started coupon shopping (free candles & lotions & cleansers!).

I'll be back out to take advantage of Walgreens deals shortly but wanted to write a quick blog about my post-library Kroger trip. I did pretty well- bought a gallon of milk, 7 Healthy Choice meals, six Kroger 30 minute Sesame Ginger marinades (these are yummy with chicken and on sale for $1 each this week), 2 Shamrock Farms rocket refuels milk, a jumbo pack of Kroger comforts diapers, chicken bouillon, a 2 liter of Sunkist for the girlies, 2 Purex Naturals laundry detergents (75 cents each thanks to sale price coupled with $1.50/$5 Kroger bonus coupon and 2 doubled 50 cent manufacturer IPs) and a pack of Kroger Reduced Sugar Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal (super yummy brekkie) for a little over $30.

The diapers in particular were a very good deal. The pack was on sale for $6.99 and there's a $3 internet coupon out there bringing the cost down to a very cool $3.99 - you can print the internt coupon from here, just click on Kroger in the itemized selections to find it. Since you can print this twice, I was going to get two packs while there, but could only use one. So I had them put back the other back and will get it during another trip. We'll need to go back for the Coke deal that's going on once I get all my $1 Coke coupons that I recently traded for in my mailbox.

15% off at Walgreens - TODAY ONLY!

Check out the Walgreen's website today. You can print out a discount card good today, August 31st, only for 15% off (20% off Walgreen's products!). Go to www.walgreens.com to get your discount card. Use it for register rewards items along with manufacturer coupons for even bigger savings!

Drugstore Deals week of 8/29

If you're one of the lucky folks who got a $4 off Natural Instincts coupon in your 8/02 P&G Saver insert, this is a great week for you! Both CVS and Rite Aid are offering specials which turn out to be moneymakers with use of this coupon (see links to each store's sections on Southern Savers below). Alas, us here in Raleigh did not get this valuable coupon and will be missing out- no moneymaking hair dye for me. I was thinking of trying to make a quick trade for it then realized this would be impossible as the coupons expire on Monday. *Big frown*

Oh well, there are still other moneymakers to be had...

The highlights:

CVS

$3-$4 moneymaker with the purchase of Glade Scented Reed Diffuser 1.6 ounce or Soy Candle 4.9-10 ounce (limit 1 per card). I'll be using the $3 off coupon found in August's All You as I don't have the larger $4 coupon that was found in 5/31 SmartSource Insert. Item rings up at $6.99 and you'll get $6.99 back in ECBs.

$5 moneymaker with the purchase of the Bayer Contour Monitor (limit 2 per card). You can get these for free with the use of insert coupons for $20-$30 that are out there as these are on sale for $14.99 this week so you'll spend nothing but tax and get $5 back in ECBs.

As always, you can increase your savings/moneymaking potential by using an autofill coupon ($4/20) or a CRT for $5/$25 if you have these handy.

For all the deals (including the hair color one mentioned above), click here to be redirected to the CVS weekly deals section on Southern Savers.

Rite Aid

Stim-U-Dent Mint Flavor 100 ct will be free after $1.49 SCR. I'm not even sure what these are but if they're gum or mints, I'll be picking one up.

Get a $10 Rite Aid gift card when you buy $30 in P&G Products (the Clairol Natural Instincts would qualify and when you use the $4 coupon and the $5/$25 Rite Aid printable that's out there, you'll be making $$ on this deal!).

Since I don't have the $4 Clairol coupon, I'm going to take advantage of this deal by buying Cover Girl products. Jenny lays out a great scenario involving foundation and face products. Click here for all the details and other Rite Aid deals this week.

Walgreens

There are lots of freebies to be had at Walgreens this week thanks to Register Rewards program. Freebies include Rembrandt toothpaste, Reach products, Carefree pantiliners, men's razors and toothbrushes- since we're pretty well stocked on dental hygiene products etc., I'm probably not going to take advantage of any of these. Rather, I'll just stock up on cheap newspapers while I'm there. I think I'm still harboring major resentment against Walgreens over their failure to keep Huggies wipes in stock this past week.

You can find all the details on deals here if you're up for shopping at Walgreens.

Happy shopping all!

Couponing 101- Lesson One

Picture me doing my best Jack Nicholson from Batman impression as I repeat a question often posed by cashiers or those behind me in the checkout lane when shopping as of late..."where does she get such wonderful coupons????"

The answer? Most in my binder come from a couponers bread and butter- that of the Sunday paper inserts. I buy multiple copies of inserts- typically 10-12 each week. Our local Walgreens sell these at 50 cents less than other stores and I've learned that some Dollar Trees will even sell them for $1! Some folks opt to "dumpster dive" for additional newspaper inserts. I am not one of those folks (but no judgments to those of you who are!) Do not bother to scoop up multiple inserts on holiday weekends as you'll find that there are no inserts to be found in a holiday weekend paper.

After couponing for awhile and frequenting various message boards, I've learned that different regions get different coupons- not only for different type of products, but the coupon's face value can even vary from region to region and paper to paper. When super doubles are around, you'll be hoping for $1 and $1.50 coupons for your staple items; when it's triples, you'll be wishing for 50 cent and 75 cent coupon for maximum savings. So how do you get the most bang for your buck? You can hope to get lucky from your paper's inserts...or you can do what I do- trade coupons to get those for the products you need in the most desirable face values!

Trading coupons can be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. There are many sites for which you can trade coupons. There are also sites out there for "clipping services" where you can pay for certain coupons. I don't pay for coupons. Well, that is not entirely true- there are sometimes that I will make a paypal gift as part of a trade- but I don't use clipping services at all. I trade quite frequently on http://www.hotcouponworld.com/. How it typically works is you'll try to work out a trade where it's a dollar for dollar type of exchange- or as close to it as you can come (ie, if you're looking for 10- $1/1 oreo cakester coupons, your trade offer would likely be for $10 worth of coupons). You can also trade with paypal as currency like I mentioned above or for forever stamps- generally these types of trades will work out as 10 cents on the dollar for coupon value (so if you have a trade for $20 worth of coupons, you'd either trade with $2 of a paypal gift or about 5 forever stamps).

I also get coupons online. Typically, you can only print out two internet coupons from your computer/IP address for a specific item. I've grown to use these more and more. I've read that many stores are encounter lots of coupon fraud- so some merchants will not accept these entirely. I haven't yet run across a store that doesn't accept these and I really really hope I won't.

I've recently discovered another great source for coupons at Walmart. It's a magazine that is only sold there entitled "All You." I've started purchasing multiple copies and will likely continue to do so. There are some great coupons you can find in this magazine!

There are other ways of getting coupons- blinkies (those found on the beeping red coupon dispensers along a store's aisles), peelies (those found stuck to the products themselves), hangtags (those found in a hangtag on the neck of a product) and winetags (one of my personal faves as previously discussed in the blog). I'm not a big fan of the blinkie or peelie q's because many of these will not double or triple. You can tell if a coupon will automatically double or triple by looking at the barcode on the coupon- if it starts with a 5, it should double/triple, it it starts with a 9, it will not double/triple.

You can also email manufacturers of products you love and request coupons! I'm going to be doing more and more of this as several of our fave products do not typically have coupons issued in Sunday inserts or magazines.

If any of you have any other tips for hunting coupons, feel free to share!!!

There should be lots of drugstore goodies to be had this coming weekend- I will try to post what I feel to be the best finds tomorrow.

Our next couponing lesson will be ORGANIZING- a trouble spot for most of us who have accumulated an obscene amount of coupons....stay tuned!

Harris Teeter Super Doubles Round 3

Great trip to HT this evening! Landed alot of free lunch school supply items. Thanks to a Stella Artois NBPR seafood purchase rebate, this one will be a moneymaker once rebate is filed & received. Yay for rebates!

Here's the booty:

3 Starbucks mocha frappucinos (29 cents each after coupon)
1 Snyders Pretzel pretzel sandwich multi-pack ($1 after coupon)
3 Nabisco Oreo Mini Cakester 100 calorie multi-packs (FREE after coupons)
1 small can of Underwood Chicken spread (FREE after coupon)
1 Arnold Thins Whole Wheat sandwich bread (99 cents after coupon)
6 pouches of Bumblebee Salmon (FREE after coupons- had 2 different types of seafood WTs)
1/4 lb of honey ham (FREE after coupon)
1 Myoplex protein bar (FREE after coupon)
1 Axe Dual shampoo (FREE after coupon)
1 HT Nonfat Cottage Cheese (full price @ $2.67- wish I had a cheese WT for this!)
2 Lance sandwich snacks multipacks (FREE after coupon)
1 large bottle of parsley flakes (FREE after coupon)
1 Sun Chips Harvest Cheddar 100 calorie multipacks (FREE after coupon)

Total OOP: $5.64-- and I received another Catalina for a free multipack of Breyers Inspirations yogurt!

VIC & Q savings: 60.36

I'll be submitting a $10 MIR for a $20 seafood purchase (the pouches of salmon).

Harris Teeter, Super Doubles Round 2

There really aren't enough great coupon/sales match-ups to warrant daily trips to HT, in my humble opinion. Today was not a banner savings day by any means but I did get stuff we needed at reasonable prices. Here's the booty:

1 32 oz. bottle of Ocean Spray Cranenergy (used $1 q to make it 99 cents)
1 20 oz. Coke Zero (free thanks to a Coke rewards q)
3 pouches of BumbleBee salmon (free thanks to $1 off seafood winetag q's)
1/2 lb of Turkey (free thanks to $1 off deli meat winetag q's)
1/2 lb of Honey Ham (split in 2 orders of 1/4 lb - 50 cents thanks to 2- $1 off deli meat winetags)
4 lbs of bananas (alas, no coupon!)
2 Bloom Plants (free thanks to 2- $2 off flowers winetag)
1 California Pizza Kitchen pizza ($3.69 thanks to $1 IP)
1 Kraft Reduced Fat Parmesan cheese ($1.99 thanks to $1 tearpad q)
1 multipack of YoPlus yogurt (free thanks to $1 IP)
2 multipacks of Sargento string cheese ($5 for both thanks to $1/2 tearpad q)
2 multipacks of Thomas' bagels (no qs for these- rang up at $3.99 as B1G1 price)

Total OOP: $19.32

VIC & Q savings: $42.09

Not bad at all but not one of my recordbook trips, that is for sure!

Our contest has a winner!

Congrats go out to TampaGal (another HCW board member)! She has chosen the coupon binder as her prize.

Thanks to everyone for entering!

There is such a thing as a free lunch!

I'm not a frequent shopper of Whole Foods (or as it's been not so lovingly dubbed "Whole Paycheck") but these freebies made it worth the trip after hubby and I hit the gym for some speedwork on the treadmill- Whole Foods was a short hop away from our gym.

You can get coupons for a free bouquet or a free rotisserie chicken (based on text on face of coupon, I don't think you can use both coupons in one transaction- so hubby and I split up with me picking out the flowers, him picking out a chicken).

Sorry for you Yanks- these coupons are valid only in GA, SC, NC, AL & TN. For free flower coupon, click here. For your free rotisserie chicken, click here. These coupons are good until September 15! The chicken made a most welcome post-run lunch, paired with some fresh grapes, pineapple and buttered whole grain bread.

HT Super Doubles Round 1

I wasn't sure if it was worth waking up for, but off I went to Harris Teeter bright and early this morning for the first day of Super Doubles. Here is what I bought:

2 Starbucks Mocha Frappucinos
2 Fruit 20 Waters
1 multipack of Dannon YoPlus Yogurt
1 Dawn Foam Dish Detergent
1 Dawn Hand Renewal Dish Detergent
2 four packs of Dole Mandarin Oranges
2 multipacks of Dannon Dan-o-nino
3 Clearasil Tinted Acne Cream
2 packs of Borden Fat Free American Cheese
3 packets of Bumblebee Salmon

Total OOP: 53 cents and I got a Catalina for a free multipack of Breyers Inspiration yogurt!

VIC & Coupons Savings: 56.06

Sweet!

Today's Shopping

Well, I've been running around quite a bit today thanks to Stella's one year appointment this morning (poor thing had four shots!!!) and my 6 month dental appt this afternoon. In the midst of all the running around, I did manage to get some shopping done and took advantage of the CVS Glade Sense & Spray deal (as well as score some free Reese's PB cups thanks to this Sunday's 55/1 coupon).

Unfortunately for me, I did not have an ECB lower than $10, so I was out of pocket $3.49 for the 6 Glade Sense & Sprays and 8 Reeses PB cups but I did get $9 back in ECBs so it was still a good trip.

I tried to get some more baby wipes from Walgreens but struck out at two different stores. My mood brightened after following up these fruitless stops with a quick run to Harris Teeter for free Shamrock milk- I picked up 10 bottles of their Rocket Refuel (which is essentially like a chocolate protein drink) for the mind blowing total of 10 cents. A penny each! I'm going to add these to my wishlist for trades on HCW for sure.

HT Super Doubles Match-ups...

Southern Savers put up a list of deal match-ups for Super Doubles. This starts tomorrow!

For the full list, click here to be redirected to Southern Savers. There's quite a good list of freebies and near freebies to be had but since I'm suffering from post-triples exhaustion, I probably won't be making several stops. I think the only thing we really need to stock up on at this point is toilet paper...and a solid uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep which unfortunately they don't sell at any stores.

Kroger....GRRRRR

I have a love/hate relationship with Kroger. When things are good, they're really good. When they're bad, they're really bad- like wait in line at Customer Service to get your order corrected bad. And things were bad today...I went in with high hopes for good freebies, several paper coupons and my Cellfire and Shortcuts e-coupons loaded.

If you're a Kroger shopper, be sure to get an account with www.cellfire.com and www.shortcuts.com - these are programs where you can load electronic coupons onto your Kroger rewards card. You can then use these along with paper coupons to create outstanding savings. When it works, it is fabulous! Unfortunately, I've encountered several bumps along the way using these coupons and today was no exception. The same goes for Kroger's Mega sales events where you get $5 off your order when you buy 10 qualifying items- it seems that more often than not, the $5 is not automatically deducted and I then have to go to Customer Service to determine the problem.

Today, I went in for the following:

2 boxes of Fiber One bars
2 bags of Nature Valley Nut Clusters
2 boxes of Chex Mix bars
2 boxes of Betty Crocker brownie mix
2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights
A pack of Tyson Boneless Chicken

According to my pre-shopping calculations, every item other than the chicken would have been free with e-coupons and paper coupons- the Warm Delights should have even been a small moneymaker. The chicken itself was only $1.49 after my $1 off Tyson chicken coupon. When checking out, the total was $12.30 - sure enough the $5 mega event hadn't come off, nor had my e-coupon for the Brownie mixes. When at the Customer Service desk, I discovered that the Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate brownie mix was not a qualifying item for the Mega Event. I exchanged these 2 for 2 qualifying brownie boxes and received a $5.75 credit.

Upon further scrutiny of the receipt, I learned I had made a boo-boo by using 2 -60 cent internet coupons for the Chex Mix bars rather than the 2- 50 cent insert coupons I should have used. Another con to Kroger shopping is that they only double coupons with a face value of up to 50 cents- so this coupon hadn't doubled. I also learned that one of my Nature Valley Nut Cluster e-coupons had rung up as 40 cents rather than $1.00. I'm not sure if all that even accounts for the total difference between what I thought I should have paid & what I actually paid and I'm just too tuckered out to figure it out for sure. Kroger shopping turns out to be a lot of work when all is said and done.

I'm still not sure whether it's worth all the trouble...

Free 12 oz milk bottles at Harris Teeter

Shamrock Mmmmilk is on sale for $1 this week at Harris Teeter. Use the 50 cent coupon in today's paper and get it for free thanks to coupon doubling! Sale ends on Tuesday night so you'll need to act quick for this deal.

And don't forget - super doubles are right around the corner on Wednesday so get those $1 and $1.50 coupons ready!

Walgreens specials

Walgreens is a distant third when it comes to drugstore freebie favorites...and this is why I don't really go too often. But I did make a trip this morning for the cheap Sudafed- and to pick up my free scrapbook page. I spent $9.62 for the aforementioned scrapbook page, 2 boxes of Sudafed and 6 copies of the Raleigh News & Observer. I used 2 - $2 Sudafed PE coupons and $6 in Register Rewards I earned earlier this week. The Sudafed turned out to be 98 cents for both boxes after coupons and a $5 Register Reward I earned for purchasing 2 boxes.

Why don't I like Walgreens? Where do I begin??? Walgreens has a whole list of rules to follow for coupon redemption which make it tricky to work out a good deal. You're only allowed 1 coupon per purchased item, so if you're "stacking" coupons (using a manufacturer coupon and a Walgreen's store coupon), you need to pick up a filler item to make it work (and in turn end up spending more than you'd like). You can't roll a Register Reward to buy more than 1 of a special item (ie, let's say you received a $4 Register Reward for purchasing a particular body wash, you can't then earn another of the same Register Reward when you purchase another of that same item with a Register Reward).

Oh, and the Walgreen's closest to me has a most diligent clerk. When I recently stacked coupons to get Scotch bubble mailers for free, she stared at my coupons for several minutes with a furrowed brow and mumbled, "well, this can't be right, because you're getting these for free!" She then called her manager who confirmed that yes, indeed, this was right and I could use the coupons in such a manner. She shrugged her shoulders and continued checking me out. I swear some cashiers act as if you're taking money directly out of their pocket sometimes.

I'm wondering if there are any Walgreens fans out there among you. If so, please feel free to comment!

Oh and I nearly forgot- there is a GREAT deal at Walgreens going on right now for Huggies Baby Wipes. Their stock is getting cleared out rather quickly because of this so be sure to call and check on their stock (as well as pricing!) before making the trek to your nearby store. Prices range from $2.79 - $3.39 depending on store. You can use an in-store coupon in their Back to School flier for $2 off Huggies wipes and the 50 cent manufacturer coupon found in most inserts to make these 29 cents to 89 cents. The in-store coupon will automatically deduct off EACH wipe box you purchase - so, let's say you're lucky enough to get 10 boxes of wipes in stock, you'll get $20 taken off your order for the store coupon. If you have 10 manufacturer coupons, better still! Hand over the manufacturer coupons first and then the store coupon to prevent beeping and be sure to get one filler item to account for the in-store coupon.

Great Rite Aid trip

CVS is my fave store for drugstore freebies but Rite Aid is becoming a very close second...

Here's what I got this morning (and made $8 doing so!):

1 Glade Lasting Impressions
1 Glade Sense & Spray
1 Tylenol 8 Hr Back & Body pain 24 ct.
1 Goody 17 ct. ouchless elastic hair bands
1 Colgate Total Advanced whitening toothpaste
1 copy of Raleigh News & Observer (need the extra inserts and they only had 1 copy left!!!)

I used a $5/$25 Rite Aid coupon, a $3 Glade coupon, a $4 Glade coupon, a $2 off Tylenol coupon that was in this morning's paper, a $1 off Colgate coupon and a $10.00 certificate that I received from Rite Aid yesterday for the Zyrtec purchases I made earlier in the month.

I spent $1.63 at the store and will receive $10.49 back in Single Check Rebates when I file my August claim later this week- an $8.86 MONEYMAKER.

For those not yet in the know, Single Check Rebates is a program offered by Rite Aid. You can register for it online at www.riteaid.com and file your receipts electronically. It is super easy to do and when you finalize your monthly filings at the end of the month, you usually get a check in the mail 2-3 weeks after so it's quick too! I should be getting around $80 total for my purchases this month.

Many times, you'll get freebates (free after single check rebates) and moneymakers for those freebate items which you have coupons to match. It's a pretty straightforward program that I highly recommend you join.

Free is beautiful (I hope!)

Alright, I feel like a colossal dork posting this pic, but figured it would be good idea to share the results of my free haircut- particularly for those of you who are on the fence about trusting your locks to a stranger. As previously reported in this blog, Alter Ego in downtown Raleigh is offering free haircuts to first-time customers up until September 7.

Since I have no issues being a guinea pig of sorts and was in need of a cut, off I went yesterday afternoon. Feeling particularly brave (or foolish, I'm not sure which), I asked to get a pretty drastic cut. My hair was probably about midway down my back when walking in and usually styled in the typical harried mom 'do (a hastily made ponytail). I walked out with it a little shorter than shoulder length and layered.

My stylist, Drew H., gamely took on the challenge and displayed no discernible 'tude when I noted that I was there for the free cut (although it should be noted that the client across from me was drinking a glass of wine which I was never offered - yes, I have grown more observant over the years). Drew was warm & personable and I really loved the look of the cut when finished. At first glance, my husband thought I looked like a "snotty soccer mom" but he grew to like it as the day progressed and the styling products wore off.

This was a very impressive freebie! I also walked away with 2 referral cards that I can give to friends for $10 off their first cut, $15 off their second and a freebie for their third. So local readers, let me know if you'd like one of these referral cards for discounts. You can email me at nccouponqueen@gmail.com with your address and I'll send one your way.

Drugstore Deals!

Each week's drugstore deals start on Sunday mornings. While there's nothing that will get me up exceptionally early tomorrow, there are some good deals to be had- an excellent source to get some deal ideas is from http://www.southernsavers.com/ - click on the tabs for stores you're interested in. Jenny does an amazing job at crafting scenarios for freebies, near freebies and (my personal favorite) moneymakers.

Here are some highlights:

Rite Aid
Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste - $1 moneymaker (use a SCR to make it free and a $1 coupon found in 8/9 paper's Smart Source insert)

Tylenol 20 ct- another $1 moneymaker (use a SCR to make it .99 and a $2 off coupon from the 7/26 SmartSource insert or an internet printable coupon)

Zyrtec- can make this an outstanding moneymaker - see http://www.southernsavers.com/ for scenario details. I did this deal earlier this month, buying 2 bottles of Zyrtec in 2 separate transactions and getting a $25 SCR, a $10 Rite Aid certificate and a $10 manufacturers rebate- using a $5/$25 coupon for each transaction, this was one of the best moneymaking deals I've done yet...and a useful one since hubby suffers from seasonal allergies.

Rubbermaid Chug Bottles 20 oz- pay only 50 cents each when you do a $1 SCR and use 2- $1 off Rubbermaid coupons found in 6/28 insert

Goody Ouchless Elastics 17-36 ct hair bands - not sure what the price is but these should be free or nearly free after $2 SCR

Glade Sense & Spray and/or Lasting Impressions - make these 99 cents to $1.99 by using $2 SCR each and either a $4 off Sense & Spray coupon from July All You and/or a $3 off Lasting Impressions coupon found in 8/02 SmartSource insert (NOTE: You can get a better deal on the Sense & Sprays at CVS this week -see below).

Phillips 5 Device Flip Style Remote Control - pay 1.99 for this after a $9 SCR. This is a potential moneymaker as the ad mentions something about a $20 mail-in-rebate as well.

Walgreens
Sudafed PE for 99 cents/box when you buy 2 - use 2- $2 off coupons from 8/02 SmartSource and get $4 back in Register Rewards

On Wednesday, get a free 8 x 10 photo collage with in-ad coupon

CVS
Composition Notebooks free after ECB (limit 2)

Glade Sense & Spray- $1 moneymaker when you buy 2 @ $5 each - use 2-$4 off coupons from July All You and get $3 ECB

Free Scrapbook page from Walgreen's

Tip courtesy of the amazing Jenny from Southern Savers:

Today only you can get a free Scrapbook page at Walgreens online photo center using code SCRAPIT select in store pick up to make it really free! Don’t scrapbook? Just put one 8×10 picture on there and get a free large size picture!!

Remember these don’t have to be picked up today just ordered online today

5 cent pasta @ Lowe's Foods

I'm not a big Lowe's shopper...but from what I hear from other coupon shoppers, it can be a great place to shop & save. According to a poster on HCW, they are currently offering Mueller's pasta 8 ounce boxes of certain pastas for 60 cents each. Pair that price with a doubled 55 cents off 2 insert coupon and you're getting two boxes for a dime! Sweet deal and one I'll be taking advantage of tomorrow.

Oh noooooooo...it's another Super Doubles at Harris Teeter

The rumor mill is a-jumping - apparently, Harris Teeter is throwing a big old curve ball at all of us and doing another Super Doubles promotion this coming Wednesday 8/26! And I barely have had time to recover from all the triples madness. Looks like I'll have to get my binder in gear yet again.

Great Hidden Deal @ CVS- Hurry ends Saturday!

Thanks to Jenny at Southern Savers for this scenario...

There are two Hidden Deals at CVS this week!!

1. Get $1.89 ECB wyb CVS Tampons at $1.89 (limit 1) FREE (some regions have this for $1.49 so ECB will be $1.49)

2. The following Loreal Deal is actually a limit of 2!
$10 ECB wyb L’Oreal Advanced Revitalift Deep Set Eye Wrinkle Repair & any Cleanser
L’Oreal Advanced Revitalift Deep Set Wrinkle Repair $14.99
L’Oreal Age Perfect, Revitalift, or Skin Genesis Cleanser 5-8oz $5.99
-$1 off LOreal Age Perfect product RP 6/21
-$1 off L’Oreal Revitalift product RP 6/21
-$1 off L’Oreal Moisturizer or Cleanser, RP 8/02, 5/31
-$5 off L’Oreal Deep Set Wrinkle Repair printable
-$4 off $20 in Facial products “CVS Autofill” booklet (ask the pharmacy about their autofill program & the coupon booklet you get for asking about it!)

**Deal Idea**
Buy:(1) Loreal Cleanser $5.99
(1) L’Oreal Deep Set Repair $14.99
Use:
-$4 off $20 store coupon
-$1 off Cleanser
-$5 off Deep Set Wrinkle Repair
Total Due: $10.98
Get Back: $10 ECB, makes it $0.49 ea
Repeat transaction all over using your $10 ECB from the first.

I did this deal scenario yesterday using all coupons and splitting my transaction into 2- one with the Daytime Deep Set Repair and one with the Nighttime Deep Set Repair. Normally, I don't buy cosmetic type items but when you're talking $1 out of pocket for two creams and two facial cleansers, I just couldn't resist. Hey, I'm no spring chicken anymore!

And the experience probably gave me some wrinkles- it was my first ever experience where I was made to feel like a criminal for using coupons. When I was handing over coupons for the second transaction, the cashier rolled her eyes, gave a big sigh and grumbled, "how do you get so many coupons? People like you are shamming the system and they'll put a stop to it soon!" It flustered me so badly, that I messed up on the handover of my ECBs and was out of pocket a little over $4 rather than the .98 and tax I would have been had I correctly handed over ECBs. Oh well, now I have $20 worth of ECBs to use for the next go round.

I had a few choice grumblings of my own after leaving the store. If you've had a similar experience, feel free to comment. Let readers know how you handled it.

My First Ever Contest! Enter today.

In order to get things kicking here on the blog, I'm running a site kickoff contest with 4 ways to enter (you can do more than one to increase your odds of winning!).

The prize will be your choice of either:

A) A complete carry to store coupon binder kit- including zippered binder, pair of small scissors, pocket size calculator and baseball card inserts. This prize would be a great choice for those of you just getting in the swing of coupon shopping. You can organize how you see fit- do item categories, aisle categories or (my personal choice of organization) by store. I file my inserts and coupons based on date and type, then clip as needed for stores. I also have a front section for soon to be expired or try-me-free type coupons.

B) $50 worth of coupons - if you have a wishlist on http://www.hotcouponworld.com/, I will include as many on your wishlist as I can, including some great rebates, tearpads and winetags I've lucked into. If you win and don't have a wishlist on hcw, just let me know what type of coupons you're most interested in and I'll create an envelope with as many of your wishes I can.

You can enter in any of the 5 following ways:

1. Follow this blog! Click on the follow tab on the right to start the process.
2. Subscribe to the blog. Click on the subscribe tab on the right to start the process.
3. Post your best savings tip(s) on my "Tales from the Thrift" post.
4. If you have a blog, be sure to include mine on your Reading List. Email me at nccouponqueen@yahoo.com to let me know your blog url.
5. If you have a hot tip involving a freebie or special limited time offer, email it to me at nccouponqueen@yahoo.com.

Improve your odds of winning by entering in all 5 ways!

Entries will be accepted until 9:00 PM EST on Wednesday, August 26. I will draw from a hat of all the entry names on Thursday, August 27 at 10:00 AM EST.

Best of luck to all of you!

Super freebie

I just picked this up from Sue Stock's News & Observer blog this morning and I am astounded...it is a great freebie. Here's the post:

The Alter Ego hair salon in downtown Raleigh is giving away a free hair cut to all first-time customers. That's it. Period.

The offer applies to any first-time customer, from kids to adults, regardless of length or cut. That's quite an offer considering the salon usually charges $21 and up for a kids' cut, $28 for mens' cuts and $45 for women (per the Web site).

The salon is open Monday through Saturday, some days as late as 8 p.m. I'd recommend calling for an appointment, since I am sure this will be a popular one! Or, you can book online on the company Web site at http://www.alteregoraleigh.com/Site/Alter_EGO.html.

An Interesting Dilemma...

One of the tools of the seasoned coupon shoppers trade is actually trading coupons. I began trading a month ago on http://www.hotcouponworld.com/. An unspoken act of trading etiquette is to include some extras in your envelope as part of the exchange. Generally speaking, coupon shoppers are generous folks. I've been known to hand off coupons in grocery stores and I try to look over the wishlist of those I'm trading with and include some extras that they'd want or need.

In trading, I've also received some really wonderful surprises in the mail as extras in the envelopes- most recently, a $20 Mail-in-Rebate when you buy Smirnoff Ice beverages in a minimum $50 total grocery purchase. Upon closer inspection of the rebate form, I learned that since NC law does not require the purchase of alcohol for coupon redemption or rebates I was not even required to make the Smirnoff Ice purchase- I simply needed to produce a receipt for $50 worth of groceries. You would think this would be an easy task but oh no, not since I've become a hardcore coupon shopper. I've looked through two months of receipts and there are no receipts for anything over $30 spent in a single transaction to be found. What's a girl to do??

Harris Teeter Triples - A Primer & The Tally

Ah, the long awaited return of the Triples week-long event! Every so often, Harris Teeter would triple coupons up to a face value of 99 cents. For those new to coupon shopping, I'll provide a quick primer on Harris Teeter's rules during this type of promotion:

1. You are limited to tripling 20 coupons per day per household. This does not mean you can only use 20 coupons per day- this only means that they will only triple 20 of your coupons. So feel free to bring along $1 and up coupons as these won't count against the 20 limit.

2. Of the 20, you can only use 3 coupons per same item per transaction. By way of example, let's say you have a stack of twelve 75 cent coupons for Mt Olive pickles- you can only use 3 of the 12 during one transaction. Many times you can simply split up transactions with no issues. Other times, a cashier may give you grief over this. I'm of the belief that it's never really worth it to stand there and argue your point. Any time I have an issue with a cashier accepting a coupon, I simply have them remove the questioned item(s) from my order and give me the coupon back. Life is too short to waste any of it squabbling over a coupon.

3. Special rules apply to internet coupons- of these, you can only use 2 coupons per same item per transaction.

Harris Teeter was getting in the habit of having a triples weekend event once a month for several months. Then, they switched to "Super Doubles" weeks the past few months where they would double coupons with a face value up to $1.98- the last one taking place just two weeks prior to this week's Triples event. I'm hoping they will alternate between the two each month.

In either case, it's a great time to stockpile items. This go round we stocked up on GUM children's toothbrushes, small bottles of Tropicana Trop50 juice, Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice, Mt. Olive Pickles, Curad bandages, Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray, Viva paper towels, Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn and Snyders Pretzel Pieces. All these items were free or practically free thanks to tripled coupons. When all was said and done, we spent $82.80 this past week for $628.53 worth of groceries - an impressive 86% savings.

During the week, we also purchased various produce items, bagels, milk and other necessities at Harris Teeter. I believe I used a coupon for nearly every item purchased. During my last HT trip, I also picked up a beautiful little flowering plant for 49 cents- it was on sale for $2.49 and I had a $2 off flowers winetag coupon.

Freebie- $10 ITunes Gift Card

Take a short survey at http://www.definetheshift.com/survey.php and get a $10 ITunes Gift Card- not a bad return for just a few moments of your time! Pass it on.

Tales from the Thrift

I'm reposting this from my original blog- I hope you will find it helpful! Feel free to chime in with your own money saving tips!


How do we manage a household of six on one income? The answer is simple: being thrifty consumers by spending mindfully (and, hopefully, armed with coupons). Yes, those who knew me back in the day are taken aback by my newfound shopping savvy. Here are some of our best tips for saving money...

1. The most important rule: think before you buy- and think hard before you make a big purchase. Research major purchases using consumer reviews on amazon.com, epinions.com, tripadvisor.com (for hotels when you vacation) and the granddaddy of all consumer research- Consumer Reports (pay special attention to those items labelled as Best Buy to get the most bang for your buck). Even before delving into research, ask yourself "is this a want or is this a need?" If it's a want, think of all the "wanted" stuff you've bought over the years that have accumulated dust in your garage or storage area. We get too quickly suckered into "wants" that end up rotting away in landfills.

2. Cook! Preparing your own meals at home saves not only your wallet but your waistline as well. We very very rarely go out to eat and end up spending a lot less on food than the typical American family. If we do eat out, it is to celebrate a special day or to take advantage of a "kid's eat free" special (check out http://www.mykidseatfree.com/ to find restaurants that offer this type of special in your area). I'd say we probably dine out once every other month (not counting times when we're travelling). Fast food is practically verboten and purchased only in emergency (i.e. we didn't get a chance to pack lunches for a road trip etc.)- Jon & I usually purchase kids size meals or share a side. When we do travel, we also try to book rooms with a kitchenette so we can prepare our own meals. Yes, these rooms do cost a bit more but the amount we save on meals while on the road makes up for the difference in room cost. If you feel you're short on time to cook, keep in mind that you can whip up a pretty good meal in 15-30 minutes...I know I do most nights at home.

3. Discover the wonders of a secondhand store & Craigslist/Freecyle. We love our nearby Goodwill store and shop & donate clothing there often. I've found some absolutely adorable clothes for Stella there and great designer jeans for myself as well. We've also snagged some really wonderful toys & baby items through Craigslist. Secondhand store shopping (and donating!) is the ultimate form of recycling. Everybody wins.

4. Make camping a family trip. This is the absolute lowest cost vacation you can have- and there are really wonderful campsites across the country. One of our favorites is in the Blue Ridge mountains with some gorgeous hiking trails, a bathroom with heated shower you can use (so you're not completely roughing it). I think it costs about $10/night for the campsite usage and each spot comes with a firepit.

5. Learn to do-it-yourself...you can find instructions on everything from how to change your oil to how fix a water pipe break by using the internet or finding a book. We have repair guides for both our vehicles and Jon uses these regularly for small repairs & maintenance. When something goes amuk in the house, we'll try to figure out a way to fix it ourselves.

6. Take advantage of local parks & libraries. How can you go wrong with free?

7. Don't buy school portraits. This may not be true for all of you, but I know that the school pictures taken each year at our kids' schools are outrageously priced. Since it's tricky to get a really good individual portrait shot on your own (I know, I've tried with terrible results), scout out the low cost packages offered by portrait studios (Sears, Portrait Innovations etc.). Typically, they limit these offers to one per household so when it comes to be annual portrait time, I'll end up taking our kids to several different places and make sure each gets a plain white background for most of their shots. Since I'm on the topic of pictures, we also save money on picture Xmas cards each year by simply taking our own family pic and uploading it to Walmart.com to order cards.

8. Keep healthcare costs in check. You can do this by living a healthy lifestyle AND being an informed consumer. I can't tell you how many times I've asked about pricing (and what our out-of-pocket cost will be after insurance is accounted for) of a health care provider only to be greeted with a quizzical look. I'd swear I'd have sprouted five heads after popping this question. I think the prevailing attitude is "well, it's for your health, why should it matter what it costs?" It SHOULD matter- you should always be able to make an informed decision when it comes to your health. I'm not saying you should forego treatment anytime it's going to be costly...you should have the option to really question your doctor on it's necessity given the potential high cost of the procedure to you. Your insurance provider has that right, so do you - exercise it!

9. Shop clearance! Well, for everything but drugs & food (and some say it's okay to do this as well but I'd rather be safe than sorry when it comes to items with expiration dates). You can find some great deals on clothing at most big box retailers. I am a big fan of the Target 75% off rack for clothes. Yes, you'll likely need to buy things that are out of season but they will come in handy when that season does arrive.

10. My best tip for last: COUPON SHOPPING. The first thing you need to do to be an effective coupons (and specials) shopper is to know your prices. To my amazement, I've managed to keep those in my noggin...but many swear by keeping a price notebook where you list out your family's "staple" items (those items you buy faithfully) and then note store prices and dates. If you keep tabs of this over several weeks, you'll learn which sales prices are the lowest & best. Stores tend to "cycle" item prices and once you spot the true "lowest" price you are ready to stockpile & save.

For example by keeping tabs on pricing, I've learned that the best prices on meats we typically buy here are $1.99/lb for boneless/skinless chicken, $2.99/lb for 93% lean ground beef, 99 cents/lb for whole chicken breast. Keeping this in mind, I can stock up on these meats when they hit these rock bottom prices (which, BTW, mirror that of bulk shopping club prices).

When it comes to coupons, I love the Sunday newspaper variety. I don't often use internet coupons and I still do very well coupon shopping. You can find internet coupons on http://www.coupons.com/. I keep a baseball card organizing binder to store my coupons in and organize them in sections (ie, breads, dairy items, soups/marinades etc). You can come up with your own system based on the layout of your most frequently shopped at grocery store. Bone up on the grocery store's rules for coupon redemption - most limit use to a certain number in a transaction, that you can't use more than 2 for the same item etc. One of our local stores, Harris Teeter, frequently runs a triple coupon weekend where they will triple the value of most coupons. In one recent triple coupon weekend, I landed $172 worth of groceries for $27 and netted lots of freebies.

I used to use http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ to plan out my coupon shopping. This site offers a free trial period then you have to pay based on how many stores you want to include. I've since switched to the totally free http://www.couponmom.com/ which has a less aesthetically pleasing layout but offers the same information- and a kick-butt forum where you can learn some unpublished deals at stores. This site has also helped me land several drug store freebies- click on links for cvs, walgreens, rite aid and you can learn which items are free thanks to store rebates or register rewards. If you have a coupon for a "free" item, you can even make money on the transaction- so it's like you're getting paid to use a particular product.

Well, these are my big tips to save money and run a household well on a tight budget. I hope some of you readers will post your best tips too. Fly your frugal flag proudly!

Yo baby, what a great day!

As you know, I love me some freebies! And today was a wonderful day here at the Hamm household for some free goodies. We received the pictured prize pack from the generous folks at Stonyfield Farm thanks to a giveaway on http://www.southernsavers.com/. Stella is looking forward to enjoying her yummy yogurt gratis. We also received our Kroger rewards from the last quarter that I'm going to try to save for the next mega event.

We also stopped by Harris Teeter after visiting Daddy for lunch to pick up a pack of free baby wipes thanks to the EVic program, a 47 cent loaf of white bread, 2 bottles of free shower cleaner (thanks to 2 75 cent off internet coupons), a gallon of milk for 99 cents (thanks to a $2 off Keebler coupon), 2 boxes of Keebler cookies for a classroom blind tasting test I'll be helping out with, over a pound of practically free tuna medallions (thanks to three $2/off seafood winetags and my strategically ordering individual portions of these that totaled close to $2) and 3 jars of Skippy for 22 cents each (thanks to doubled manufacturer q's) and our guilty pleasure - a 12 pack of Coke Zero (no coupons for this, unfortunately, but it was on sale at least).

I've been trying to pick up 5 free boxes of Electrasol at CVS for the past few days and have yet to find a store that has any in stock. Considering my coupons for these about to expire, I am not a happy camper. But then I see Stella grinning at me and free dishwashing detergent suddenly doesn't seem so terribly important after all.

Rite Aid Roundup

Lots of great drug store freebies this week to be excited about! I bought nearly $100 worth of stuff at CVS yesterday for almost $10 (would have been closer to $5 if my math skills had been better to fully take advantage of my $4/20 coupons) - lots more school supplies, some Softsoap bodywash etc. Since Stella woke up to nurse at 4, that pretty much kept me up from that point so I was sleep deprived and hence even more mathematically challenged than I already am naturally. Despite my fatigue, I was still able to log in my required 3 mile run as part of the early stages of our half marathon training. A slooooooooow 3 miles but 3 miles nonetheless.

I had a Rite Aid trip this morning that will net me about $15 after rebates. I spent $14.72 at the store and will receive a total of $30.97 in rebates. Here are the details for those interested (links to coupons are provided):

I used a $5 off $25 coupon and made sure my total (before coupons, of course!) came to at least this much. Today's total was originally around $27 before coupons.

I then bought the following "freebate" items - these are where you file for Single Check Rebates on the http://www.riteaid.com/ site (it's easy and you'll get your rebate check within 2-4 weeks of finalizing. I usually finalize mine at the very end of the month because you can only do so once within the month period:

Bausch & Lomb ReNu MultiPurpose Solution, 2-8oz Bottles, Twin Pack using a $2 printable coupon. Total = $2 profit!

Natrol Probiotic, 10ct $8.99 using a $3 off Natrol printable

Zantac 150 Original or Cool, 8ct $4.99 using a $1.50 off Zantac printable. I will also submit this $5 mail in rebate to Zantac.

GE Soft White Light Bulbs 2 pack $2 (no coupons for this one, but it's still free after Rite Aid rebate.

I received another pleasant surprise while shopping at Harris Teeter this morning in order to get a $10 off $50 EVic special offer that's only good until tomorrow. I decided to buy 10 Kellogg's items to qualify for the Fuel for School rebate as part of my purchase and ended up with an additional Back to School Cash Certificate through Harris Teeter for another $10!! I ended up spending $26.43 for about $86 worth of groceries and will receive an additional $20 back through the Fuel for School program and Harris Teeter. A particularly sweet deal considering my order consisted of a lot of healthy, whole foods.