Monday, August 31, 2009

Double Coupons at Albertsons


Although ads were a little sparce yesterday in the Sunday paper here, I hope that you saw the one page Albertsons coupon ad. There were 3 Albertson's coupons at the bottom that can be used to double a manufacturer's coupon you bring in, up to $1. For example, if I brought in my $1 off Blue Bunny ice cream coupon and use this coupon too, Albertson's will take off $2 total ($1 from manufacturer's coupon and one from Albertsons). You can pick up a few pretty cheap things this way (I'm really excited about the ice cream--you know where my priorities are--the junk food :)

Friday, August 28, 2009

Borders Reward Club


If you are a book-lover and aren't already a Borders Reward Club member, I recommend signing up for it. You can do it in store and they give you one of those little key chain cards to carry with you. Periodically they send out emails with coupons in them that you can use online or in store. I usually wait for the 40% off coupons (I tend to get one of these every month or so). We are really in to board books right now because my 10-month old LOVES books--not only to read them but also to chew on them--and a 40% off coupon makes for a cheap board book.


I just got an email with their deals this weekend, and they are great. There are several different coupons you can use. My favorite is the $5 off 2 childrens books (I'm thinking maybe Mercer Mayer this time--her paperback kids books are usually only $3-4). Check out their other coupons and deals here.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

I have a confession...

Yes, it's true. I am a "dumpster diver." It's time that I let everyone know that. Okay, it's not as bad as you think. Let me explain...

You know those packets you get in the mail on Tuesdays--the ones with all the ads for the different grocery stores? Well, most times, hidden between the pages of ads there will be one of those priceless RedPlum inserts (alright, maybe not "priceless" but still usually worth about $50 in savings). Most people just toss the entire packet, not realizing what they have.

Come Tuesday evenings or Wednesday mornings when I go to pick up my mail at my apartment complex I can't help but look in the garbage can that sits by all the mailboxes. There are dozens of those packets just sitting in there, waiting for some adventurous soul like me to pick through them and find their "diamond in the rough." I usually end up with at least half a dozen of these inserts. Happy day!
Now I know all of you up in Utah who have mulitple Sunday newspaper subscriptions and are mad that the RedPlum just got switched from being delivered in your Sunday paper to now coming in your mail during the week like down here, don't stress too much. I'm sure if you head over to your nearest apartment complex the day after the insert is mailed out, you will discover dozens of them in the trash. Maybe then you too will become a "dumpster diver."

(PS-did any of you notice this week's mailing? We scored big with both a RedPlum and P&G Savers booklet)

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Walgreens $5 off $25 coupon


There is a new $5 off $25 purchase coupon for Walgreens on their website here you can print off and use in store. It is valid instore from Aug 26-Aug 29. It can really nhelp with some of those deals I posted here.

Free PC Tuneup at Staples


Now through September 19 you can get a free tune-up for your computer in-store at Staples. For more information, go here

Rite Aid $5 off $25 coupons


There are a few places to snag those $5 off $25 coupons for Rite Aid:

Go here and sign up for their online weight loss program. Not only will you get the $5/$25 coupon, but you will also get $50 in Rite Aid brand coupons.

You can also snag one or two coupons here

Unfortunately we don't have a Rite Aid in Las Vegas, but hopefully this helps all you up north in Utah (i.e. Katy :)


Restaurant.com 80% off sale


Restaurant.com is having their 80% off sale again through Aug. 31. You can snag $10 or $25 gift certificates for a couple of dollars or less. If you like to eat out, this is definately the way to go. The promo code for this deal is TASTE.

In addition to using Ebates or Borders Rewards that I talked about last month with this deal to get money back, you can also go through Upromise. You can get 15% of what you spend at Restaurant.com put into a college savings account for one of your dependents. It's never too early to start saving, especially in this economy. There are many other ways to earn money through Upromise for college. Check them out here.

Monday, August 24, 2009

$0.99 Store Baby deals


For any of you with babies, you may be interested in knowing that the $0.99 store on Marks and Sunset in Henderson has Earth's Best Organic baby food for 3 for $0.99. There are 2 fruit flavors and 2 vegetables. The Winter Squash expires in the next couple of weeks but the others have longer expiration dates. They are located in the back right corner.

Also, as of Saturday morning when I stopped by, they had Beech Nut Let's Grow Yogurt Nibbles, Banana Puffs, and Crackers for $0.99. They are usually price at $2.49-$3.49 at other stores. If any are left, they should be located up at the front of the store.

Best deals for CVS and Walgreens 8/23-8/30

CVS and Walgreens are having some pretty great deals this week. Here are some of the best deals they have:

Walgreens
Reach Toothbrush--$0.99 after in ad coupon
Use $3/3 coupon from 8/2 SmartSource insert
Free after coupons

Scotch mailing envelope--$0.79 after in-ad coupon
Use $0.50/1 coupon from the 7/26 RedPlum insert
$0.29 each after coupons

Chinet Paper Plates--2 for $2.99 after in-ad coupon
Use 2 $1/1 coupons from the 8/23 SS
$0.50 each after coupons

REGISTER REWARDS DEALS

Buy two Listerine Products at $4 each, Get $3 Register Rewards
Buy two and use B1G1 manufacturer's coupon from the 8/2 SmartSource insert
Use $1/1 manufacturer coupon from 3/15 SS
Use $1/1 Walgreens coupon from Walgreens Children's Activity Book (should take $2 off total)Spend $1 out of pocket, Get $3 Register Rewards

Buy 2 Kellogg's cereal at $2.50 each, Get a $2 Register Reward
Use $1/2 coupon from the 8/2 RedPlum insert insert or $1/1 and FREE Rice Krispies coupon from Vocalpoint Homemailer
Free to $1 each after coupons and Register Rewards

Buy two Children's Benadryl at $4.99 each, Get $5 Register Rewards
Use two $1/1 manufacturer's coupons from the 8/2 SS insert
Use $1/1 coupon from Walgreens Children's Activity Book (should take $2 off)
Spend $5.98 plus tax out of pocket, Get $5 Register Rewards
$0.49 each after coupons and Register Rewards

Buy two Sudafed products at $4.99 each, Get $5 Register Rewards
Use two $2/1 manufacturer's coupons from the 8/2 SS insert
Spend $5.98 plus tax out of pocket, Get $5 Register Rewards
$0.49 each after coupons and Register Rewards

Buy 4 Keebler Cookies or Club Crackers at $2.50 each, Get a $5 Register Reward
Use 2 $1/2 Keebler cookie coupon from the 8/2 RedPlum
Spend $8 plus tax out of pocket, get $5 Register Rewards
$3 for four packs after coupons and Register Reward

Buy 1 Goody Ouchless Hair Accessory at $2.99, Get $2 Register Rewards
$0.99 each after Register Rewards

CVS

3 day sale (Sunday-Tuesday)
Buy 1 Skittles or Starburst at $0.89, get $0.89 ECB (limit 2)
Buy 1 Paper Mate 1.2 pens 10ct at $0.99, get $0.99 ECB (limit 2)
Buy 1 Efferdent 40 ct at $2.99, get $2.99 ECB (limit 2)
Buy 1 CVS Ibuprofen 24 ct for $3.49, get $3.49 ECB (limit 1)
Week long deals

Buy $10 worth of Glade Products, Get $3 ECBs (Limit 3)
Use 2 $3/1 coupon from the 8/2 SS (for the Lasting Impressions kit)
$1 after coupons and ECBs

Buy $25 worth of Aveeno Skin, Sun, or Hair Care products, Get $10 ECBs (Limit 1)
Use $2/1 coupons from the 5/31 RedPlum insert or here, here, here, here, or here
Use $4/20 from the CVS ReadyFill Booklet (at the Pharmacy Counter) or the $5/$25 coupon from doing a survey here
Spend as little as $0.50 for each item after coupons and ECBs

My Trip


Although my shopping trip today took longer than I would have liked it too, I was very happy with the deals I got and what I came away with for so little. Overall between the 2 stores I spent out of pocket $7.18 ($5.28 of it was tax!! so only $1.90 was pretax money spent on the items), saving 93% overall the retail value of $110.28. I did have RR and ECBs from last week to help me, but I came away from my shopping trip today with the same amount of RR and more ECBs than I had going into it.

I still need to go back this week when they get more toothbrushes to get 6 more (I have 2 more $3/3 coupons) and get my chinet plates that I forgot. Although we have electric toothbrushes and don't even use manual ones, I like to get them if I can get them for free to donate to humanitarian hygiene kit projects. I also forgot to pick up some vanilla pudding. It is pretty cheap there (3 for $1.00) and I use it a bunch for Amish Friendship Bread.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Back to School Clothes Shopping

Back to school time not only means trying to find deals on backpacks, pens, paper, and other office supplies, but it also means shopping for clothes. That in and of itself can put a family with only 1 or 2 children back several hundreds of dollars. Here are a couple of things that I have used to help cut that cost of clothing shopping:



If you live in the Las Vegas area, you are probably very familiar with the Premium Outlets we have here. Did you know that if you go here and sign up for their VIP club you can gain access to many coupons to use at some of your favorite stores at any of their outlets (the Chelsea Premium outlets aren't specific to Las Vegas--go here to see if there is one close to your city). You can also print out a voucher for a free VIP coupon book that you can pick up at one of the outlets, full of hundreds of dollars in savings.



Another place to snag great coupons is at Old Navy Weekly which you can use online or instore to snag savings anywhere from 10%-25% off your entire purchase to coupons for $50-$75 off a $100 purchase or more. This website refreshes every 1-2 weeks at random times, and their are a limited number of the high value coupons, so those go quickly when the refresh happens, but I find that Old Navy tends to have really good deals in store anyways, and if I am going in to snag a couple of things, I go here to see what coupons I can get to lower my out of pocket expense even more.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Possible Free Photobook


I'm not sure if this offer will work for others, but Shutterfly is offering a free 20 page 8x8 photobook using the promo code SUMMERBOOK. My email stated that this code was specific for my account, but my husband got the same email with the same code for his account, so my thinking is that this code will work for anybody who already has an account through Shutterfly. It might be worth a shot. Remember, Christmas is just around the corner, and these photobooks make great gifts. Offer expires Aug. 26, 2009 so you must hurry.

Free Nestle Calendar full of coupons

It's the weekend before public school starts here. If you are looking for ways to save this school year go here to get your free calendar from Nestle full of coupons and other ideas for saving money. Good luck with the new school year.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Almost Free Huggies Wipes--No Manufacturer coupons needed

Through Saturday you can snag some pretty cheap Huggies wipes at you local Walgreens. There are a couple of things that make this deal so sweet:

1. Wednesday Aug 19-Saturday Aug 22 Walgreens is running a deal in store where if you spend $25 in one transaction you get a $5 register reward that prints up to use on your next purchase. (If the cost before coupons is greater than $25 and you use coupons to get the price down, you still should get the $5 RR, although some managers may say it won't work--I tried at 2 different Walgreens at it worked both times).

2. In their Back to School Savings Booklet located at the front of the stores there is a Walgreens coupon for $2 off any Huggies wipes. Since this is a Walgreens coupon and not manufacturer's coupon, you only need one to take off $2 for every Huggies wipe in your purchase.

3. If you have other RR from previous purchases to use it helps. You can't use a previous $5RR from the deal in my #1 point because their system is set up not to give a new RR if one is used from purchasing the same item, but you can use others (ex. I had a 10RR I got from their Dr. Scholl's deal they have this week--buy $20 in Dr. Scholls items get $10RR--there are online coupons here for these items). If I want a deal more than once I alternate what deal I am getting each transaction using another deals RR for that purchase.

Here is an example of a deal you can snag:

Buy 8 Huggies wipes priced $2.79 at many Walgreens
Buy 1 Softsoap Nutriserums body wash priced $3.99
Total: $26.31

Use Huggies $2 off coupon from the Walgreens Back to school booklet
$26.31-$16.00 = $10.61
Use previous RR if you have any (ex. my $10 from Dr. Scholls)
$10.61-$10 = $0.61

Grand total = $0.61 plus tax
Earn $5 RR for a >$25 purchase
Earn $4 RR for the Soft soap body wash
Total: Invested $10RR, spent $0.61 plus tax out of pocket, Earned $9 RR

There are other scenarios that you can do too; this one just worked out the best for me. I actually tried a few and ended up with 24 Huggies wipes, 2 softsoaps, and a chapstick investing $15RR from previous purchases, spending less than $8 out of pocket, and ending up with $10RR. Needless to say we are well stocked with wipes for the next year or so!


Sidenote: For my fellow Las Vegans--many stores are low on their Huggies wipes because of people going and doing this deal, but I tried the Walgreens on Boulder and Flamingo and they still had a bunch left as of today. The one on Boulder and Lake Mead in Henderson should be getting more in on Saturday morning. The one on Warm Springs and Arroyo Grande has a few but they are priced at $3.29. Hope this helps.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Kraft $25 in Free Groceries Rebate

Kraft has an awesome rebate going on right now through August 23. Purchase $25 of participating items in a single transaction and a $5 off coupon prints off good towards your next purchase plus a $20 rebate form prints off that you can fill out and mail in to Kraft. So essentially you are getting $25 worth of groceries for free. Participating stores include:
Acme, Albertsons, Bigg's, Cub, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher's, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's Star, Shop'nSave, and Shoppers.

For those of you here in Las Vegas it looks like Albertsons is the store you have to go to.

Participating items include (but not inclusive):
  • Capri Sun Juice Drink
  • Kraft Natural Shredded or Chunk Cheese, Kraft Singles, or Kraft String Cheese
  • Maxwell House coffee
  • Starbucks Coffee
  • Chips Ahoy cookies, Ritz crackers, Wheat Thins, Triscuit, Nabisco Toasted Chips, and other Nabisco crackers
  • Kraft Easy Mac or Velveeta Cups or Macaroni and Cheese
  • Kraft Mayo, Miracle Whip, or salad dressings
  • Jell-O gelatin snacks
  • Oscar Mayer Deli creations, Lunchables, or deli-shaved meats
  • Planters Trail Mix
  • Teddy Grahams or Nilla Wafers
  • A1 steak marinades or steak sauce
  • Crystal Light sugar free drink mix
  • California Pizza Kitchen and Digiorno for one, flat bread melts, or 12" pizza
I just did my shopping for this rebate tonight, and using coupons that I had, I only spent $15.44 for my items, got a $5 voucher that I used for my next transaction (getting my detergent, dryer sheets, 5 bottles of salad dressing, and 3 bottles of marinade for only $2.67!), and got the $20 rebate form, essentially making $10 on this purchase! Also, at Albertsons, a $1 catalina is also printing up everytime you purchase 2 Velveeta Shells and Cheese cups to use toward your next purchase.

CVS Deals 8-16 through 8-22


I finally back in town again after another quick trip down to San Diego, this time for my brother-in-law's wedding (go to my other blog here to see pictures of the wedding cake I made). I got a late start on the CVS deals for the week since many of them are 3 day only deals that end today (8/18), but I was able to find everything that I wanted at one of my CVS stores nearby and actually made money/ECBs off of this shopping trip.


All in all I did 3 transactions, rolling over ECBs earned. I spent a total of $12.08 out of pocket, a 78% savings over the normal retail value of $54.00, but I also came away with $20.27 in ECBs to use next week, meaning that overall I actually made $8.19 today on my shopping trip!


I was able to get:


1 Extra Laundry Detergent (cost 2.99, earn 2.99 ECB)

1 Loreal Revitalift deep set wrinkle cream and 1 Revitalift cream cleanser (cost $14.99 and $5.99, earn $10ECB)

1 Physicians Formula mascara (cost 9.99, earn 9.99ECB)

2 Papermate packs of pens (cost 0.99 each, earn 0.99ECB each)

4 Johnson and Johnson First Aid to Go packs (cost 4.00, earn 4.00ECB)

1 Hagen Daaz bar (cost 2.00, earn 2.00 ECB)

1 Ice Breakers Gum (cost 1.29 , earn 1.29 ECB)

1 sharpener (cost 0.29)


Here are some of the things that helped get the cost down:

$5 off $25 CVS purchase coupon from the CVS website after doing a survey here

$5 off $15 purchase coupon from the Red CVS coupon scanner at the front of the store

4 $1 off J&J coupons from the 8/2 SS

$5 off Revitalift coupon from the Loreal website here

$1 off Revitalift cleanser coupon from the 8/9RP


I could have also gotten a $4 off $20 makeup purchase coupon from the CVS ReadyFill booklet to help with the Loreal purchase, but I forgot to ask the cashier for one. Oops.

Some of these deals end today, but the Loreal and Johnson and Johnson kits are week long.

I am really excited to try the Revitalift eye cream. I have been getting bad bags under my eyes from working a few graveyard shifts here and there at the hospital. We'll see if this helps. The first aid to go kits are great. I have one in the car, diaper bag, husband's backpack, etc. They are small enough not to get in the way. Happy shopping.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Restaurant.com 80% off sale


July was our vacation month before my husband started back up in medical school the beginning of August. While I didn't do too much bargain shopping and couponing, we did find great deals for eating out. One of our favorite things to use is Restaurant.com. You can purchase vouchers for different restaurants for a fraction of the cost. For example, you can purchase a $25 voucher for only $10. Usually you have to spend at least $35 at the restaurant to use the voucher, but you still save $15 over what you would have spent if you went there without anything.

We usually wait for Restaurant.com's sales. About once a month or so they will make things 80% off their normal price, so instead of paying $10 for a $25 voucher, you only pay $2. They are having one of these sales right now through August 13. If you use the code PORTION, you can get 80% off. If you have Borders Rewards Perks, you can use these towards your purchase, or you can go through Ebates to get 15% back. Either way, you're in for a great deal.

Something that we discovered last month getting some certificates--some restaurants don't have the minimum purchase requirement over the voucher amount. We found several in the San Diego area that only required that we have $25 worth of food to use a $25 certificate (tax and tip are not included), so essentially we only payed $2 for a $25 meal plus tip. I don't know what other cities have these, but if you are in the San Diego area, there are several. Here is a picture of us at one last month. It was a fun little barbeque roadhouse that had my daughter's name (Abby/Abbey) and my favorite state (Texas) in the title. I just couldn't pass it up.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Free food from Schwan's


I saw this deal today on Money Saving Mom and gave it a try and was very happy when it worked for me. Schwan's is giving away $10 worth of food to the first 500,000 new customers who sign up. No purchase is necessary and you don't need to continue getting food from them if you don't want to. Just go here and enter in your zip code to see if they have a truck running in your area then pick a product that is $10 or less. I snagged a 2lb bag of chicken nuggets for my husband--one of his favorites--and is was totally free, even the delivery. You really can't beat that. You'd better hurry since this offer is only good for the first 500,000 new customers.

Kellogg's Fuel for School Rebate Offer


I'm back! I appologize for not posting anything this past month, but I was literally out of town all but a handful of days, and the days that I was in town I was working. But I'm back now and hitting the ground running when it comes to deal shopping.

I made a late night run to Albertsons tonight before their deals for this week expired. I was excited to combine their sales with coupons I have. I was able to get all pictured here for $7.97, saving a total of $47.20 ($17.24 of which was from manufacturer coupons).
The deal gets even better than that. Kellogg's is running their Fuel for School rebate offer between now and 9/30/09 that when you purchase 10 participating products in one transaction, you can submit for a $10 rebate. There are a number of different Kelloggs products as well as Eggo, Keebler, Austin, Morningstar, or Sunshine products. After I submit and receive my rebate I will have made $2.03 on this purchase. I love getting paid to shop! Go here to read more about the rebate offer or pick up a form from your grocery store (Albertson's had them sitting up at the register).