FREE bottled water

Thortons Gas stations are giving away FREE bottled water this month with this coupon (HERE)!

Groupon Fandango Movie Deal

Groupon is running its Fandango special again.

Two tickets for $2 (value up to $12 each).

Just go HERE and get it!

But hurry because this one usually flies out.

FREE Sample of NIVEA

All You (HERE) is offering a link to a FREE sample of Nivea cream oil body wash.

FREE Garnier Moisture Rescue Samples

Garnier is offering FREE samples again.  Click HERE for details.

FREE Chocolate from Walgreen's

Rumor has it that Walgreen's will have Milka chocolate bars on sale 2/$3 starting Sunday 7/17.

Right near the entrance to the store there is a stand with that weeks add.  Next to the should be a Walgreen's coupon book which has $1/2 Milks chocolate bar coupons inside.


Use that plus two of the $1/1 coupons found HERE.

And get your chocolate for FREE!!

FREE Sample of Nivea Body Wash

Just click HERE and fill out your information to get a FREE sample!

7/13 Coupons and Deals

Coupons

Lipton Recipe Secrets and Magnium Ice Cream Bar

PineSol

Blimpe

Michael's Crafts

Quizznos

Panda Express

Yankee Candles


FREE Samples and Deals

Diabetic Cookbook

My $67 "Shopping Spree" on 7-10-11

Went to K Mart, Target and Walgreens and picked up these deals.

Some were free, most were 50% or more off.

Thanks to coupons!

Oh thank heaven!!

Don't forget, today is the day for Free Slurpees at 7-11!!!

Coupons and Deals July 7, 2011

Coupons

Zest

Arby's

Chips Ahoy

Gerber

Marie Callendar's Pie

Capri Sun

Infusium

Starbucks Ice Cream

Coupons and Deals: July 6, 2011

Coupons:

Silk Milk

Wheat Thins


Deals:

FREE Slurpee!! at 7-11 on July 11! Details HERE!

Target Vitamen Water deal

Target has Vitamen water on sale right now, 10 for $10.


Add this coupon (HERE) to it...

To get 10 for $8!

Coupons and Deals: July 5, 2011

Coupons

HP printer paper at Staples

Wisk detergent

Taster's Choice

Deals

Quaker Oats Squares - FREE Sample

The Experiment this far...

Well its been about a month since I began this coupon thing.  So I thought I would take a breather and talk about my observations / lessons so far.

(1) On average I have been saving about 40-70% off of grocery bills.  Smaller shopping trips have resulted in larger % savings but that is probably because I only run in Walgreens / CVS / Target for whatever I know I am getting a good deal on that day.

(2)  Really big savings are not only possible but likely.  Let me clarify this one.  I think that once, twice maybe up to four times a month you will get a home run on an item.  Savings may add up to 90% or more.  Like these pens I picked up at Target this morning with a coupon from their site (HERE).

10 Pack of pens for $0.02?  That is pretty cool. 

But home runs like these are unusual.  Most of the time $40% off or more seems to be about the zone to shoot for.

(3) Sales are not really all that great.  One truely good thing that has come out of this is that I have reexamined what stuff SHOULD cost.  I used to walk into Target or Sam's or some other superstore and grab what I needed (ok what I wanted) off the shelves then marvel at the register at the cost of living.  Now if I know I can get something for less than the sale price, why should I pay the sale price? (or god forbid RETAIL.)

Let me show you what I mean.

A local store (lets call them SCHMARGET) is running a sale on Yogurt 10 for $6.  They even advertised the price in the paper and in the store.

ZOMG its a LIMITED TIME ONLY!!!!  But look closer.  The regular price is $0.67 each.  So for a limited time the store was willing to give me $0.07 off my yogurt.  After all this couponing that little $0.07 just did not feel like a sale.

So I added this (found HERE)

and this (found HERE)

and brought my price down to 10 for $4.90 or $0.49 a piece.  Now $0.49 down from $0.67 DOES feel like a sale and I was happy to buy 10.

Results

One month in, web site set up...check, valuable budgeting lessons learned...check.

Can't wait for what comes next.

Coupons and Deals 7/3/11

Coupons

Infusium

DiGiorno Pizza

Lever 2000

I Can't Believe its Not Butter!

One-a-Day Vitamens

P&G Coupons Mailed to you!

In addition to the other avenues for collecting coupons I mentoned (HERE), there are often mailouts which you can get for the asking.  One such resource comes from P&G.  Just sign up (HERE) every 30 days and they will mail you a booklet of about 30+ coupons.


Happy Shopping!

Free Sample of L'Oreal Youth Code

FREE Sample of L'Oreal Youth Code at Walmart (HERE).  Supplies are limted so you might want to get on this on fast!

FREE Budgeting Software from The Mint.com

If you are looking for a way to keep track of expenses then why not do it for FREE.  The Mint.com is offering FREE softeware (HERE),

Coupons and deals for 7/1

Coupons:

Staples

Scott Naturals

Oscar Myer Hot Dogs

Purex

Free Samples

Bare Minerals

Purex

Please note that some of these offers are time-sensitive so all links may not work.

FREE Honey Nuts Cheerios Sample

Honey Nut Cheerios is offering a FREE sample (HERE).

Happy Shopping!

FREE Sample of Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray has been offering FREE samples of its sparkling fruit beverage on and off for the last few weeks.  To get one go HERE.

FREE Sample from Downy

Downy is offering a FREE sample today!  Just click (HERE) on their site and put in your information.

FB Shampoo Give-a-Ways

There are a couple of products giving away samples or coupons for FREE hair care on their Facebook pages right now.  These offers are limited so you may have to get on this quickly.

Aussie (HERE)

and Herbal Essences (HERE)

FREE Sample from Purex

Purex is offering a FREE laundry detergent sample on their site (HERE).  Not sure how long this will last so hurry over!

FREE Sample of Bare Minerals Moisturizer

Sephora, inside JC Penney is offering a coupon for Free samples of Bare Minerals Purely Nourishing Mousturizer (HERE).





Print coupon + stop in a pick up your FREE sample = Profit!

Free Crest Pro Health Samples

Waltmart's webpage (HERE) is showing a FREE sample of Crest Pro Health available, as well as valuable coupons!

Get yours while they last.

FREE Pantine Sample

If you could not get the Free shampoo sample earler today, try this one!  Pantine is giving away a free trial sample on their facebook page (HERE).

Coupons and Deals 6/27

While wandering the interwebs today I found these coupons and deals for you:

Tylenol Precise

Clorox Products

Honey Nut Cheerios

Snuggle

McDonald's (strawberry lemonaid)

Quest Low Carb Protene Bar (Free Sample)


Happy shopping!

FREE Snuggle Fabric Softener

Snuggle is giving away FREE samples of their fabric softener (HERE).

FREE Sample of Fekkai Shampoo and Conditioner

Head on over to the P&G Facebook page (HERE) and fill out your form to get a FREE sample of Fekkai shampoo and conditioner.

FREE Sample of new SHOUT product!

Brand new FREE samples from shout (HERE).

Suave coupon / sample giveaway

Suave has a game on their website (HERE).  If you play and win you could get coupons or samples!

BR FREE Ice Cream

Basking RObbins if offering a FREE Scope of Icecream when you purchase one with this coupon (HERE)!

Coupons and Deals: June 25

Here are this weekend's coupons:

Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce

Puppy Chow

Pedialyte

Benadryl

V-8

Bacardi Mixers

TGI Friday's Mixable Cocktails

Pine-Sol

Alpo Dog Food

Coupons and Deals: June 24th

Found these coupons and deals on my travels today:

Lever 2000

Dannon

Magnum Ice Cream Bars

Nivea

AWWWWWH Sugar, Sugar....(Well Fake Sugar Anyway)!

Splenda is offering a FREE sample (HERE).

As well as coupons!

I Scream for ICE Cream!!!

Bryers is offering a coupon on their Ice cream (HERE)

Which you can stack with a Target coupon (HERE)

Where Does She Get Those Marvelous Toys?

Lately I have been sorting coupons on the train to and from work.  Its actually a nice relaxing exercise but, almost always, someone asks me about couponing.  Among the questions asked are often “Are you one of  THOSE people?”  “How do you keep track of all of it?”  “Where do you get them all?” and  “Does it really work?”

I have been doing this a bit less time than other people but I will try to answer each question with a post on this blog.  The first one I want to address with you is. “Where do you get all those coupons!?!?!”

I have two main sources for my coupons, the Internet and publications.  In addition, I occasionally trade coupons with a friend from my office.

(1) Publications.

Sunday Paper.  By far the best publication to get coupons is the insert in your Sunday news paper.  Now most areas are served by more than one paper and not all papers serving your area will have the same insert.  For example, my area is served by both the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune.  Often these paper’s get different inserts and sometimes the same inserts have different coupons.  In the past few weeks I have been buying both to be sure I get the full variety of coupons.

Magazines. Second to the Sunday paper are magazines.  Many magazines sport the occasional coupon but the best magazine for coupons I have found so far, is called “All You” which is sold in most Wal-Mart stores and has a website (HERE). 

(2) Internet.

The Internet seems to have overtaken paper publications as the best place to find coupons.  Coupons can be found on the web in virtually every corner (get it…”virtually”  I said there would humor folks…didn’t say it would be good humor). 

Independent sites.  There are third party sites like the one for All You Magazine which offer online coupons.  One of the best I have found is Coupons.com (HERE). 

Store sites. Store who offer coupons often post them on their websites.  Many stores, like Jewel (HERE) and Dominick’s (HERE) offer specific coupons with their rewards cards.  Other stores, like Target (HERE), simply offer their coupons to everyone.

Manufacturer Sites. Many manufacturers also post coupons directly on their sites. Sometimes these coupons are of higher value than the ones in the Sunday paper insert.  Here are a few manufacturers who post coupons on their websites:

Tyson  

Bayer Aspirin

Brita Filters

Woolite

Colgate

This Site.  There are other sites and facebook pages which talk about coupons.  Often items are spammed throughout the day.  Unfortunately, the demands of my “day job” won’t let me participate that actively.  BUT I will be making a daily and /or weekly post with coupons I find about the Internet so you can catch these offers too. A few I found in my travels today are:

Jello

Viva

Well those are currently my main streams of  coupons.  I note that there are sites out there that will sell you coupons (called “cutting services”) and I am honestly not sure how I feel about it.  For now I will just stick with the above.  Please chime in below if you know of a good source for coupons.

Happy shopping!
-K

Twix Game

Click HERE to register and play a quick game for a chance at a FREE Twix bar. Just check off "I don't have a code to play."

Prilosec FREE sample @ CostCo

Costco is giving away a small sample of Prilosec.

Click (HERE) to see the site.

Tide Free sample

Who likes clean cothes?  I like clean clothes.  I am sure you do too.  Well tide is doing a give-a-way and still has about 5000 left. 

Simply go to their Facebook page (HERE) and watch a short video.  Then answer the question they ask (HERE).  Once you answer correctly a form will pop up for you to fill out so then can send you the sample.

FREE Aveda Samples to first 30,000

Aveda is offering FREE samples to the first 30,000 people who request. 

Just head over to their Facebook Page (HERE), Click "Like" and fill in your information.  A message should pop up stating if you are one of the first 30,000.

Target Deal: I Can't Believe it's Not Butter

Here is a double for you:

Target has a coupon on their website (HERE) for $0.50/1 off of  I Can't Believe its Not Butter.

Pair that with this online coupon (HERE) for $1/1 on the same and you will get $1.50 off their regular price of $2.49 (prices can vary between stores). 

That leaves you with a cooking staple for only $0.99!

SHOUT! For a FREE Sample!

Shout is offering a FREE color catcher sample.  Just go (HERE) and fill in your information.

A Little Help for Allergy Season

If you are an allergy sufferor, you will love this one.

Walmart is selling Zyrtec for (approx.) $5.27.  Take this coupon in (HERE) and get 5ct for $0.27!

FREE Sample of Kaboom

Free sample of Kaboom cleaner HERE!!!

Type in "freekaboomtixc" at the bottom of the page.

Falling asleep this afternoon?

Head over to Au Bon Pan between 2-6pm for a FREE iced coffee.  Check it out (HERE)!  Looks like you don't even need a coupon!

Petco: Free Catfood

PetCo is offering two free cans of catfood (HERE), for all of you cat lovers out there.

M&M Pretzel Deal @ CVS

Last Sunday (6/19) Smart Saver had a coupon for $1/1 bag of M&Ms Pretzel.  The coupon does not state a size so you can use them on the regular "single serving" size, which makes this a good deal!

Now lets make it a GREAT deal.  CVS is offering a "buy 2 get 1 free" deal on this candy.  So you can do this:

(1) Purchase M&M Pretzel Package 1 @ $1.19 - $1.00 coupon = $0.19
(2) Purchase M&M Pretzel Package 2 @ $1.19 - $1.00 coupon = $0.19
(3) Get M&M Pretzel Package 3 for FREE!

Works out to be about $0.12 a package.

CVS FB Fan Drive

CVS is running a Facebook fan drive.  If you go (HERE) to their facebook page and "Like" them, they you will see their fan drive page.  Click on the offer and it will let you register an email address.  If they reach their Tier 1 goal you will get a 20% off shopping coupon, and at their Tier 2 goal, you get 25%!

NOM NOM NOM FREE Peanut Butter Sample!

Target has a sample site (HERE) which is offering FREE samples of Jif to go!

FREE Nivea Body Wash Sample

Head over HERE to get your free sample of Nivea Body Wash.

Deal on Suave Body Lotion at Target

Suave Natural's Body Lotion is on Sale this week at Target for $2.69 each

Use the $1/1 Mfr Coupon (HERE) + the $0.75 / 1 Target coupon (HERE) making your price as low as $0.94 each!

Free Slice of Cheesecake @ the Cheesecake Factory!

The Cheesecake Factory is offering a free piece of that wonderful cheesecake (or layer cake) for every $30 you spend, now through June 28th.

Just print the coupon you find HERE



NOM NOM NOM cheesecake!

Hersey Bliss chocolate FREE at CVS

Here is a good one to start off your Sunday / Father's day.

Recall we spoke a bit about store rewards (HERE).  Well starting 6/19 CVS is offering Hersey's Bliss Chocolate at $5.99 each.  Normally, $5.99 would NOT be deal worthy.  But CVS is offering to refund you the $5.99 in Extra Care Bucks!

 You must have have an Extra Care Card for this deal to work.  Obtaining the ECC is free and can be done online (if you wish to wait for them to send it to you) or in store.  Swipe your ECC at the register during check out and a ticket similar to this:

(Yours will be for $5.99 and have your name printed on it.)  That is your Extra Care Bucks!  They are good towards future purchases!  I will be using a few ECBs from prior transactions on this transaction!  Remember your ECB's will expire so keep them handy for future purchases.

Happy shopping!

**Double Coupon Days!!* K MART

Alright folks, last one for this morning (but this one is a biggie), as I am heading out for the day.

Shopping at stores that double coupons is one of the ways that those people on TLC's Extreme Couponing manage such great savings.  Unfortunately very few stores in the Chicago area ever offer double coupon days (check your area for stores that do).

One store that does is K MART!  They only do it on occasion and when they do there are many restrictions (man they are gong to love me coming in with my two binders full of coupons).  Here are the details:

• Double Coupons only happening at SELECT K Mart Stores (check HERE to see if there is a store in your area).
• Coupons only double up to $0.99 -- This means if you have a coupon for $0.65 off a product, you wont get $1.30 off the product, only $0.99.
• You can only participate in this if you have the K Mart Shop your way rewards card.  The card is FREE and you can get it in store or HERE.
• Coupon doubles ends 6/25.

Happy Shopping!

Pinesol half price at Walmart

Pinsol is currently selling fr $1.98 / 1 at Walmart,  grab this coupon (HERE) and head over to pick yours up for just $0.98!

Happy shopping!

Macy's coupon: good until 1pm today

If you are heading to Macy's this morning you may want to take along this coupon (HERE) to save $10 off any purchase $25 or more.


Happy Shopping!

Prevacid Deal at Target

Ok.  The last few days you have seen me win at shopping.  Now here is a chance for you to try.  For heartburn sufferors, Target now has a good deal on Prevacid. This is how it works:

Target has Prevacid (42 ct) on sale for $24.50 (That is a single hit!) through 6/18

Take this $3/1 online coupon (Now you're a double!!):

found HERE!  And stack it with this $4/1 Target coupon (Triple territory!!!):

Found HERE!

Lets see your math:

Prevacid (42 ct) regular price (aporx.) $28.99

• Score on sale (today is the last day) for $24.50
• Use $3/1 online mfr. coupon
• Use $4/1 online Target coupon
• Pay only $17.50!
• Your savings (aprox.) 29%*

*In most cases I will not consider posting deals unless they are 40% or more off.  However medications and certain other accessaries may never see that high of savings so I consider this a good deal and worth attention.

Free tall Coffee (hot or iced) this weekend at cosi

Just stop in and say the word "REFRESH" to get that FREE wake-me-up.  Looks like Cosi will be putting up a new code each Friday to get free coffee.  If you want to keep tabs on this offer then go HERE and "Like" their facebook page.

Target / Petsmart Shopping Trip: The Math

OK folks here is how the math breaks down on my $44 spending spree.

(1) 5 x Pawsafe cleaners regularly priced @ $3.99 each but brought down to FREE using the technique described HERE. 

(2) 10 x Smart Ones frozen dinners regulary priced @ $1.99 each but brought down to $0.99 each using the techique described HERE. 

(3) 2 x Archer Farms frozen pizza regularly priced @ $4.99 each but on sale 2/$9.  Used Target store coupon found HERE to take $1 off when purchasing two frozen pizzas, making the deal 2/$8.  In addtion, Target will give you a 2 ltr. Coke product with the purchse of each Archer Farms frozen pizza (limited time) (valued at $1.89 each).

(4) 3 x Sally Hanson nail files regularly $0.99 each but brought down to FREE using a MFR coupon from last Sunday's paper for $2 off of any nail tool purchase costing $3 or more + Target store coupon found HERE for $1 off any Sally Hansen nail purchase.  (note I did this twice in two separate transactions fora total of 6 nail files).

(5) 5 x Vitamen water regularly priced at $1.49 and on sale for $1.00 each.

(6) 5 x Lipton Brisk lemonaid regularly priced at $1.49 and on sale for $1.00 each. 

(7) 1 x Glade Carpet Fresh @ $1.97 (we needed it). 

(8) 1 x UP Dryer Sheets @ $3.99 - $1 from Target store coupon found HERE = $2.99 (we needed it).

(9) 2 x Aussie Hair Products @ 3.54 each but on sale for $2.50 each - $1 coupon from last Sunday's insert (taken off each one) = $1.50 each.

(10) 2 x UP and UP pain relief (asprin equivalent) 24ct on sale for $0.99 - $.50 coupon found HERE = $0.49 each.

(11) 1 x 3ct Zest pack regularly priced at $2.49 but on sale for $1.99 - $1 off coupon from 5/26 Sunday Insert = $0.99 (or $0.33 each).

(12) 1 x 6pck Up and UP paper towel Sale $6.64 - $1 Target coupon found HERE = $5.64

Total Retail: $91.26
Total Spent: $43.56

Total Saved: $47.70 (roughly 53%)