- Free sample of Nature Made Vitamin D3 Kids Chewables.
- Free Red Dress Pin to support Go Red For Women.
- Free Poise samples - includes one liner, one long liner, and one ultra thin pad.
- Free sample of Prilosec OTC.
- Coupon for a free sample of Strivenctin-SD. Available at the Sephora inside JCPenney.
- Free ice cream from Baskin Robbins®:
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Free Samples from FreeFlys
There are several new FREE SAMPLES available today from Freeflys
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Awesome Deal on Men's Journal - 1yr for just $1.99
To get the deal, go to Tanga and you will find that this is the deal of the day for today/tomorrow (good for about another 24 hours as of this posting - 9:44 on 1/11/11), select it and then enter the Coupon Code: NEWYEAR at checkout. Don't forget the coupon code as it cuts the price by 90% (otherwise the subscription is $19.99/yr.
*thanks MavenofSavin for the tip on this great deal!
My Savings - Coupons vs Store Sales
Looking back at my savings so far this year the question crossed my mind of which saved me more, shopping the sales or using coupons? I know that in the end the best savings comes from matching sales with coupons (basically giving me double savings). As I look at my savings so far this year I'm finding that overall I'm saving more with coupons than I have with store sales, I'm definitely saving more with coupons than I am through store sales (even though I'm using them together).
This information is actually a little surprising, since the general rule is that you'll save more from sales than you will from coupons.
My Savings so far this year from Coupons: $102.52
My Savings so far this year from Sales: $61.75
Even if I subtract my store credits (ECBs, +UPs, RRs) from the Coupon Total, it still comes out to $75.02 (which leaves Sales vs Coupons a little closer to even), but I do think those should be included since those are coupons (not cash) and I am using them towards purchases.
I think part of this "disparity" comes from the fact that several major items we buy don't go on sale at any stores (that I've seen so far) - sugar-free peanut butter, Purity Milk & Instant breakfast are all pretty high dollar items that we use a lot of, but that rarely (if ever) go on sale (however, I do regularly find some high dollar coupons for at least 1 of those items).
This information is actually a little surprising, since the general rule is that you'll save more from sales than you will from coupons.
My Savings so far this year from Coupons: $102.52
My Savings so far this year from Sales: $61.75
Even if I subtract my store credits (ECBs, +UPs, RRs) from the Coupon Total, it still comes out to $75.02 (which leaves Sales vs Coupons a little closer to even), but I do think those should be included since those are coupons (not cash) and I am using them towards purchases.
I think part of this "disparity" comes from the fact that several major items we buy don't go on sale at any stores (that I've seen so far) - sugar-free peanut butter, Purity Milk & Instant breakfast are all pretty high dollar items that we use a lot of, but that rarely (if ever) go on sale (however, I do regularly find some high dollar coupons for at least 1 of those items).
FREE Savings Tracker from The Coupon Project
I've been using this free download to track my spending and savings (via coupons and sales) since the first of the year. I'm really liking it so far, as it's really easy to not only see just how much I've spent but also to see how much I've saved. Like right now I know that for the year I've saved $109.85 so far this year (this is all my grocery & drugstore shopping), and I've saved $164.27, which is a savings rate of 62%.
If you are looking for an easy way to track your spending & savings on groceries & any items you want to track, you may want to download this spreadsheet for free. She's also provided an easy to follow manual for how to use it and last night she did a webcast, which is available now as a video, detailing the use of the program.
Download the Savings Tracker from TheCouponProject.com
If you are looking for an easy way to track your spending & savings on groceries & any items you want to track, you may want to download this spreadsheet for free. She's also provided an easy to follow manual for how to use it and last night she did a webcast, which is available now as a video, detailing the use of the program.
Download the Savings Tracker from TheCouponProject.com
CostCo Savings vs Coupons Elsewhere
A couple of other blogs are blogging today about the savings benefits of Coupons vs CostCo, and I've found myself posting this same response (to some degree), so I thought I would flesh it out a bit and post it here to share it with my readers.
By now you should know we are CostCo members. I've been an avid fan of CostCo since my best friend bought me a membership 5 or 6 years ago (after handing over her CostCo card a time or two for me to get gas at their cheap prices). She bought my first year membership for me and since then I've renewed year after year. When a cashier first told me about the Executive membership it just made sense to upgrade.
A standard membership is $50/year. The Executive membership is $100/year but you get 2% cash back on all your purposes (there are a few categories that don't apply - alcohol and tobacco I think), and you are guaranteed at last $50 back (if your purchases don't equal enough to get you at least the $50 then they will round it up to $50 (making the upgrade to Executive free).
Over the years we've bought some big items at CostCo including the double vanity in our master bathroom (about $800 for a very nice real wood vanity with granite countertop) and our bedroom tv, as well as saved some big bucks on purchases like glasses for my husband and his replacement cell phone. You can always find a good deal on a cell phone unless yours just broke. In the case of my husband he goes for the cheapest phone available with a full keyboard; last time he broke his phone the cheapest phone available with a keyboard was $99 - $50MIL (or if purchased online and we waited for 3 days, $50), for some reason we decided to go check CostCo and found the same phone for $20 (no rebate needed) and it came with the full accessory package (additional charger, holder, etc).
When we first started couponing, there were a good handful of items that we always bought at CostCo - toothpaste, paper towels, toilet paper, popcorn, plastic spoons & forks, paper plates, generic Splenda and a few other products.
Toohpaste - Since we've started couponing, I've pulled toothpaste off of that list. While CostCo's price on Colgate Total (our preferred brand of toothpaste) is cheaper than the sale price at most stores, when you combine sale prices and coupons you can usually find it for free and thanks to that we've built up a nice little stockpile of toothpaste.
Toilet Paper - The CostCo (Kirkland's) brand of toilet paper is the one and only brand we've been able to compromise on in this house so we will continue to buy it (despite the knowledge that we could probably stock up on some really cheap to free toilet paper if we were a little more flexible).
Popcorn - My hubby likes the 100 calorie microwave popcorn packs and eats them often as snacks at work. CostCo often releases their own store coupons for $5 off the 42ct box of Orville Redenbacher popcorn, making it just $5 for 42 bags. When they do this we stock up.
Plastic Spoons/ Forks - I realize the cheaper answer would be to not use them at all. But, hubby uses them at work and we end up using them around here so we buy them at CostCo. I've rarely ever seen these types of things on sale for anything remotely resembling a discount.
Mucinex - $25 for a 40ct maximum strength. I did the math on this one and it came out better than the sale prices I've seen elsewhere on the small (14ct) and large (28ct) boxes. Thanks to living in allergy country we both take this quite a bit, so I'm thinking we will start buying it at CostCo (if they continue to have it - I hadn't seen it before my last visit).
Meat - I may or may not continue to buy my meat at CostCo but I like their quality and their prices beat the prices at most stores (perhaps not their sale prices). I've yet to manage to get to the grocery store when there was a better price and attempt to stock up. I also like that CostCo doesn't charge me any extra to portion out my hamburger for me (which saves me time and aggravation) and that their pork loin (priced about the same as I usually see it at the grocery store) comes portioned into 4 pieces (which are about perfect size for the two of us - although probably more like 3 - 4 actual servings).
The biggest savings for us, however are on 3 categories:
- Glasses - my husband's - he gets his frames with transition lenses and all the other add-ons for roughly half the price of what just the lenses would be at your typical optical store and their frames are designer brands. The last time he bought a pair, he wore them about 4 months before deciding that they just didn't fit him right. We went back to the store and had no trouble at all getting them to replace them.
- Gas - I've been comparing gas prices there to the cheapest places near us (short of driving 20 miles to get gas, which pretty much eats up any cost savings) and have found that at worst CostCo is within a penny or two, but usually beats them by .04 to .05cents/gallon. Recently, I found out about Kroger's fuel savings reward program (spend $100 there in a month and get .10/gallon off a fill-up). The Kroger is pretty much right next door to CostCo, and CostCo was the same price as Kroger (after the discount).
- Prescriptions - this is a new one for me and I recently posted about this. I'm still working on getting all my prescriptions switched to CostCo, but we figured out that in the end just the 2% cash back on prescriptions will more than pay for our membership.
By now you should know we are CostCo members. I've been an avid fan of CostCo since my best friend bought me a membership 5 or 6 years ago (after handing over her CostCo card a time or two for me to get gas at their cheap prices). She bought my first year membership for me and since then I've renewed year after year. When a cashier first told me about the Executive membership it just made sense to upgrade.
A standard membership is $50/year. The Executive membership is $100/year but you get 2% cash back on all your purposes (there are a few categories that don't apply - alcohol and tobacco I think), and you are guaranteed at last $50 back (if your purchases don't equal enough to get you at least the $50 then they will round it up to $50 (making the upgrade to Executive free).
Over the years we've bought some big items at CostCo including the double vanity in our master bathroom (about $800 for a very nice real wood vanity with granite countertop) and our bedroom tv, as well as saved some big bucks on purchases like glasses for my husband and his replacement cell phone. You can always find a good deal on a cell phone unless yours just broke. In the case of my husband he goes for the cheapest phone available with a full keyboard; last time he broke his phone the cheapest phone available with a keyboard was $99 - $50MIL (or if purchased online and we waited for 3 days, $50), for some reason we decided to go check CostCo and found the same phone for $20 (no rebate needed) and it came with the full accessory package (additional charger, holder, etc).
When we first started couponing, there were a good handful of items that we always bought at CostCo - toothpaste, paper towels, toilet paper, popcorn, plastic spoons & forks, paper plates, generic Splenda and a few other products.
Toohpaste - Since we've started couponing, I've pulled toothpaste off of that list. While CostCo's price on Colgate Total (our preferred brand of toothpaste) is cheaper than the sale price at most stores, when you combine sale prices and coupons you can usually find it for free and thanks to that we've built up a nice little stockpile of toothpaste.
Toilet Paper - The CostCo (Kirkland's) brand of toilet paper is the one and only brand we've been able to compromise on in this house so we will continue to buy it (despite the knowledge that we could probably stock up on some really cheap to free toilet paper if we were a little more flexible).
Popcorn - My hubby likes the 100 calorie microwave popcorn packs and eats them often as snacks at work. CostCo often releases their own store coupons for $5 off the 42ct box of Orville Redenbacher popcorn, making it just $5 for 42 bags. When they do this we stock up.
Plastic Spoons/ Forks - I realize the cheaper answer would be to not use them at all. But, hubby uses them at work and we end up using them around here so we buy them at CostCo. I've rarely ever seen these types of things on sale for anything remotely resembling a discount.
Mucinex - $25 for a 40ct maximum strength. I did the math on this one and it came out better than the sale prices I've seen elsewhere on the small (14ct) and large (28ct) boxes. Thanks to living in allergy country we both take this quite a bit, so I'm thinking we will start buying it at CostCo (if they continue to have it - I hadn't seen it before my last visit).
Meat - I may or may not continue to buy my meat at CostCo but I like their quality and their prices beat the prices at most stores (perhaps not their sale prices). I've yet to manage to get to the grocery store when there was a better price and attempt to stock up. I also like that CostCo doesn't charge me any extra to portion out my hamburger for me (which saves me time and aggravation) and that their pork loin (priced about the same as I usually see it at the grocery store) comes portioned into 4 pieces (which are about perfect size for the two of us - although probably more like 3 - 4 actual servings).
The biggest savings for us, however are on 3 categories:
- Glasses - my husband's - he gets his frames with transition lenses and all the other add-ons for roughly half the price of what just the lenses would be at your typical optical store and their frames are designer brands. The last time he bought a pair, he wore them about 4 months before deciding that they just didn't fit him right. We went back to the store and had no trouble at all getting them to replace them.
- Gas - I've been comparing gas prices there to the cheapest places near us (short of driving 20 miles to get gas, which pretty much eats up any cost savings) and have found that at worst CostCo is within a penny or two, but usually beats them by .04 to .05cents/gallon. Recently, I found out about Kroger's fuel savings reward program (spend $100 there in a month and get .10/gallon off a fill-up). The Kroger is pretty much right next door to CostCo, and CostCo was the same price as Kroger (after the discount).
- Prescriptions - this is a new one for me and I recently posted about this. I'm still working on getting all my prescriptions switched to CostCo, but we figured out that in the end just the 2% cash back on prescriptions will more than pay for our membership.
Monday, January 10, 2011
1/9 Coupon Listing
We had 3 inserts in the Sunday 1/9 paper; 1 Redplum and 2 Smartsource.
Redplum
See what's coming next week before it shows up at Sunday Coupon Preview.
Redplum
- B1 Gatorade Prime AND 1 Gatorade Recover and G1 FREE G2 or Perform
- $3 off Loreal Preference (any shade)
- B1G1 Temptations Treats for Cats
- .50/1 Soft Scrub
- B3G3 Renuzit
- B2G1 Renuzit
- .55/1 Endust
- .55/1 Hillshire Farm deli select lunchmeat
- .75/1 Uncle Ben's white or brown rice
- BOGO Met-Rx Bars
- $1/1 Jumbone Treats for dogs
- $1/1 Marrobone treats for dogs
- B2G1 Secret Flawless Scent Expressions, Fresh Effects, or Smooth Effects
- .50/3 boxes of Scottties tissues
- $1/any Nature's Bounty vitamin or supplement
- $3/ any Flex-a-min joint care supplement
- $1/ any Sundown vitamins or supplements
- $3/ any Osteo Bi-Flex
- $3/any OneTouch Delica Lancets
- $10/any OneTouch Ultra Meter
- BOGO Pure Protein bars
- $1/ any Pure Protein powder or drink shake
- .75/1 Sara Lee pre-sliced meat
- $1/2 Ken's 16oz dressings
- $1/any Ken's marinade
- $1/any Ken's 8oz dressing
- $2/1 4.5lb bag Purina Chef Michael's dry food
- $4/1 11.5lb bag Purina Chef Michael's dry food
- $1/4 cans Purina Chef Michael wet food
- $1/1 Simply Smart Milk
- .40/1 Finish dishwasher cleaner
- .40/1 Finish Jet Dry
- $3/1 Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap System
- $1/1 GE Reveal Energy Smart CFL or LED or GE halogen product
- $15/1 Sonicare Flexcare+ or Flexcare Rechargeable
- $10/ any Sonicare rechargeable toothbrush
- $5 / any multi-pack Soniccare brushheads or Xtreme battery toothbrush
- $1/1 Depend Guards for Men
- $2/1 Depend Underwear in prints and colors (6ct or larger)
- $1/1 Midnight or Midnite PM
- $1/1 Lysol Neutra Air Fabric Mist
- $1.50/1 Neutra Air Aerosol Can
- $1/1 Resolve high Traffic Foam
- $.75/1 Resolve Product
- $3/any Prevacid 24HR
- $2/ any Benefiber product
- $2/ any Benefiber Stick pack product
- $1/ any Gas-X product
- $1/ any Gas-X prevention product
- $2/ any Keri Lotion
- $5/ any Maalox
- .75 / 1 Exedrin 20ct or larger
- $1.50/1 Exedrin 80ct or larger
- $3/ any Sinus Buster or Allergy Buster Spray
- $2/ any Cold Buster Warming Syrup
- $1.50/ any Lubriderm (excludes trial size)
- $3/ any anti-aging product from ROC (excludes trial size)
- $1/ any PURPOSE product (excludes trial size)
- $2/ any Clean & Clear product (excludes trial size)
- FREE refill pack wyb Clean & Clear Morning Burst Surge energizing power cleanser
- $2/ any AVEENO facial care product (excludes trial size)
- $1/ any AVEENO body or baby product (excludes trial size)
- $1.50/ any AVEENO hair care product (excludes trial size)
- BOGO stayfree product
- .50/ 1 Carefree product
- $2/ any Neutrogena Face Makeup
- $1/ any Neutrogena Lip or Eye Makeup
- $4/ any Zyrtec 25ct or larger
- $2/ any PEPCID product
- $2/ any Tylenol Precise cream or patch
- $1/ any Motrin IB or PM (excludes trial size)
- $6/2 Zyrtec, Pepcid, Tylenol Precise, Motrin PM
- .50 / 1 Listerine or Reach
- $1.50/2 Listerine or Reach
- $3/3 Listerine or Reach
- $1/1 Listerine Whitening Rinse
- $1/1 Listerine Zero
- $1/1 Listerine Total Care or Restoring
- .50/1 Listerine pocketpaks (24ct or larger) or Pocketmist or PLAX Rinse or Listerine Essential Care
- $2/ any Bengay product
- $1/ any Purell product (excludes trial size)
- $1.50/ 2 Johnson & Johnson Red Cross Brand Covers or Tapes
- $1/ any Neosporin Lip Health
- $2/ any Cortaid product
- .50/ 1 Neosporin or Band-aid product
- $1.50/ 1 Neosporin AND 1 Band-Aid product
- $1/ any Johnson & Johnson baby or Natural product
- $1/ any Desitin product
- $2/ 1 Visine with Hydroblend
- $1/ 1 Visine product
- $5/ any EPT product
- $3/ any Monistat product
- $2 any Soothing Care product from Monistat
- $1/ 2 General Mills cereals
- .75/ 1 Wheaties Cereals
- $1/2 Cherios
- .75/1 Fiber One Cereal
- $1/ 1 Gallon (or 2 .5 gallons) Barber's Dairy white milk (or 1/2 gallon or larger chocolate milk)
- .75/ 1 Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair
- $1/ any Glade Plugins Scented Gel warmer
- $1/2 Glade Plugins Scented Gel refill packs
- $1/2 Windex Glass Cleaner
- .55/ any Windex Multi-Surface Cleaner
- .55/ any Shout laundry product
- $1/ 1 Shout Color Catcher
- $1/2 Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom Cleaners
- .55/ any Scrubbing Bubbles Vanish Drop-ins
- B1 Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel, Get any Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Brush FREE
- $5 off Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner starter kit
- .75/ any Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner refill
- .75/ any Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Shower Foamer
- .75 / any Scrubbing Bubbles fantastik All Purpose Cleaner
- $5/ any Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer starter kit
- $1/ any Scrubbing Bubbles Power Sprayer refill
- $3/ any Glade PlugIns Scented Oil Lasting Impressions holder
- $1/ any Glade PlugIns Scented Oil twin refill or Two single refills
- $3/ any Glade Sense & Spray starter kit
- $1/ any Glade Fabric & Air Odor Eliminator product
- .30/4 Campbell's Condensed "Great for Cooking" soups
- $1/ 2 jars Polaner w/ Fiber
- .50/1 Dole Fruit Crisp
- $1.50/ 2 Pledge furniture care products
- $1/ any Pledge floor care product
- .75/ any Pledge Multi Surface product
- $1.25/ 2 Ziploc brand bags
- $1.50/ 2 Ziploc containers
- $1/any 5oz or larger Eatsmart Naturals snack
- $2/ any size Hartz Crunch n Clean dog biscuits
- $1.50/ any size Hartz Crunch n Clean Cat treats
- $1 any size Hartz Training pads
- $1/ any 4pk Activia
- $1/1 4pk or 8pk DanActive
- .50/ any Jolly Time microwave popcorn
- $5/ any twin pack Clear Care Cleaning & Disinfecting Solution or Aquify Multi-Purpose Solution
- $2/ any 12oz or larger Clear Care Cleaning & Disinfecting Solution or Aquify Multi-Purpose Solution
- BOGO Bic disposable shavers
- .75/1 package Kraft 2% or Fat Free singles
- BOGO Splenda (up to $3.99 value)
- $1/ any Post-It purchase of $2 or more
- $1/ any Post-It Super Sticky Notes purchase of $2 or more
- $5/ any Hills Science Diet Light cat or dog food
- $4/2 Dinner Entrees at Longhorn
- $3/2 Lunch Entrees at Longhorn
- .50/1 Land O Lakes Fresh buttery taste spread
See what's coming next week before it shows up at Sunday Coupon Preview.
Cheap Alternative Snow Sleds
As the south gets pummeled by the second snow storm of the season (and one of the worst ever), many folks are wishing they had a snow sled. But, what good would that sled do the other 10 years? Chances are after it sat in your garage unused for 3 or 4 you'd throw it by the side of the road or give it away. So how about some cheap alternatives sleds, made from items you might already have around your house.
What other items have you used (or seen used) for sleds?
- Cardboard box - we did this at least once as a kid. It works, granted it won't hold together for too many attempts but it's light and it works.
- Kiddie pool - you probably have to dig it out from under the snow, but chances are good there is one in your backyard. So dig it out and climb in. The great thing about this option is that you can probably even fit a couple of people in it at once.
- Lids to large plastic storage containers - those 5+ gallon storage containers that you buy for around $5 at the hardware store. Grab the lid and head for the hill.
- Vinyl outdoor cushions - the same material that makes these hold up so well on your outdoor furniture will keep them from soaking through.
- A tarp - you might want to cut it down to a smaller size since these are usually pretty big.
- Innertube - you are used to using it in the summer, but now they are all weather.
- Scoop Shovel - although the likelihood of you having one of these if you don't live someplace that snow regularly hits is low.
- Laundry basket - who doesn't have a laundry basket or tub?
- Trash bags -climb in, climb on, push off.
- Cookie sheet -metal, sylicone, glass... pick one
What other items have you used (or seen used) for sleds?
Nescafe Free Sample & Coupons
The Nescafe FREE samples are back, and while you are over there be sure to grab a couple of really good coupons -
- BOGO Nescafe single serve packets
- .75 off 4oz or larger Nescafe Tasters Choice
Click Here for the FREE sample
- BOGO Nescafe single serve packets
- .75 off 4oz or larger Nescafe Tasters Choice
Click Here for the FREE sample
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