Hot coupons to print

Print these hot coupons before they run out of prints! You can print most of them twice.















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Free stuff to donate!

Are you getting geared up for the Stamp Out Hunger food drive? What's that, you say, you have nothing to donate? Here are some things you can pick up this week for free that your local food bank would love to have.

Walgreens

Carefree Pantiliners are on sale for $0.99.
Use $1/1 from last Sunday's Smart Source coupon insert.

Tylenol Precise on sale for $7.99. (This is either a cream or a heating pad and is not with the pain relievers in my store, so you know.
Use $5/1 printable coupon.
AND use the $3/1 store coupon from the Walgreens May Coupon Booklet (found in the front of the store)

Nature Made Calcium 120 ct is on sale for $5. This was not marked down in my store but still rung up for $5!
Use $5 printable coupon on the Walgreens facebook page


Target

Aquafresh Extreme Clean .8oz Travel Size regular price .97 (In the travel aisle)
Use $1/1 Any Aquafresh Extreme Clean Product HERE

Reach Floss $1
Use $1/1 Printable coupon (no longer available)

CVS
Similac Ready to Feed Formula (32 oz) – $4.99
Use $5.00/1 Similac Product from 4/3 Smart Source insert

Thanks to Coupon Katarina and Totally Target for finding these deals. If you have more time and more coupons, check out their awesome sites!

Don't forget to join the Facebook cause to ask Campbells to donate a pound of food and like Valpak to donate another $1

Restaurant.com: 70% off and a free $10 card

Ending today, when you enter code ENJOY at check out, you can get 70% off a gift certificate at Restaurant.com. This would make most $25 certificates cost $3 after coupon. Plus, you can get a free $10 certificate with any order.

Keep in mind, most Restaurant.com certificates have minimum order requirements, so these are more like coupons than gift cards, but if there is a restaurant you frequent anyway then this is a great way to save money.

Frugal Christmas shopping: Deals and Points

Around this time of year, everyone is looking for ways to save money without skimping on purchases. I'm hoping this will be the first of a series on the ways I save (or even earn!) money on my Christmas purchases.

1. Coupons. Most online sites have coupon codes available. You can often get coupons by signing up for email lists, but you can also just do a google search for the name of the store and the word “coupon” or “free shipping.” Lots of brick and mortar stores have coupons available too. Bed Bath and Beyond famously accepts those 20% off coupons they send out in the mail, even if they’re expired and you have one for every item in your cart. They also have a 20% coupon available for signing up for their email list. Old Navy also has great in store coupons available, just search around the site for new coupons added every day. JC Penney and Kohls will also send you high value in store coupons if you sign up for their mailing lists.

2.Gift cards. The grocery store where I shop gives you a discount on gas based on how much you spend in their store, and Discover Card gives you 5% cash back on grocery purchases this month, so if I am buying someone a gift card I will generally see if they have it at my grocery store to maximize my rewards. Sometimes I even go there to buy gift cards for purchases I know I will make. This way I get the rewards and can spend the gift cards like cash. If you’re getting a restaurant gift card, though, check the individual restaurant first. Many have much bigger gift card bonuses than I would get at the grocery store.

3.Points programs. Swag Bucks is a great way to earn Amazon gift cards. I also tend to save up my My Points credits and some of my survey credits for this time of year and use them to buy gift cards. It’s a great way to get some free money while you shop.

4.Amazon Associates. If you are going to do a lot of shopping on Amazon, it makes sense to sign up as an associate and add the items you are going to buy to your own zstore. Then you make money off of your own purchases. You can also have your friends and families set up zstores in lieu of wishlists, and all earn a little extra money from buying each other what you wanted anyway.

5.Ship to store. If you can’t find free shipping coupons, it’s generally much more frugal to select ship to store. You can pick up the item at a store near your home, or near your destination if you are traveling. This way you can shop from home without having to pay for shipping, and can even avoid having to carry gifts in your luggage.

6.Cash back. If you’re shopping online check out EVReward first. It lists all the big cashback portals and lets you know which ones offer the highest rate of return for your purchase. If you haven’t used cash back portals before, sign up for several to maximize your sign up bonuses.

7. Store Rewards. Sign up for all the free store rewards programs available. Stores are giving you free money to shop at their stores. Often they will run promotions where you will get bonus points for your first purchase with the program. I will often sign up, buy something, and then come back to the same store to use my points. This is a bit time consuming, but you can always just save your points for later in the year when you need something.

8. Read deals sites. Slick deals, Fat Wallet, and Hot Coupon World constantly post promotions with very limited time frames. If you don't check often you will miss some of the best deals.

9. Win it. This time of year, many companies offer sweepstakes or instant win games to promote their brand. A good sweeps site like Sweeties Sweeps is a great place to learn more about this. While you may not win the car or vacation, many of these contests have smaller prizes like gift cards or free products which are much more winnable - and somebody has to win the car after all. Unfortunately since there's usually a delay (8-10 weeks sometimes), much of what you win now will get to you after the holidays. There's always next Christmas!

If you have any other ideas on ways to find great deals (or secret deals) at the holidays

Where I get coupons

I originally wrote this for a friend of mine who wanted to know where I kept finding high value coupons and how I managed to get great deals, but I thought some of my readers might benefit from it too.

Word of Mouth coupon sites (that mail out full size products and coupons for free products)

Bzzagent Sends big packs of free stuff, but you have to take surveys to qualify for campaigns, and then report back on how you spread the word to earn points and get into a higher qualifying bracket.

Psst Randomly will send you coupons for General Mills products.

Kraft First Taste Same, but for Kraft. Also sometimes has high value printable coupons on the website.

Vocal Point Kind of like Bzzagent, except you don't need to report back. I have a hard time finding offers on their website, but sometimes they send stuff out randomly.

SC Johnson Regularly gives out SC Johnson gift packs that come with lots of coupons


Coupon clipping sites

These are coupon clipping services that charge a handling fee for multiples of newspaper coupons.

The Coupon Master
Coupons Unlimited



Blogs I read to find out about new deals, etc.

Money Saving Mom posts deals for lots of grocery, drug and big box stores
Freebies 4 Mom mostly posts freebies, but also posts rebates and printable coupon deals

Giveaway: Take my coupons, please!

So, we just found out that my husband will be starting his new job much sooner than we expected (good news!), so I have about 3 weeks to uproot my entire existence (less good news). I'm a little overwhelmed right now thinking of all the things I need to do.

Because I plan to spend the next few weeks eating out my fridge, freezer and pantry, and then another 2 weeks in hotels and transit, I need to get rid of most of my coupons that don't have super long expiration dates. I hate to see good coupons go to waste, so I'm giving away a potluck envelope of coupons. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment below with your favorite moving tip before noon tomorrow (Wednesday). We will be provided with movers so I really need logistical, organizational, or sanity based tips more than packing tips. I will select one comment at random to receive the envelope of coupons. Since I have an average of 2.3 readers per day, you should have pretty good odds! :)

How to Grocery coupon Week 4

This is the third in my series on how to use grocery coupons. Be sure to also check out week 1 and week 2.

By now, you should be building up a stockpile and a decent pantry. You should see your need list shrinking, which frees up more money for your sales list and stockpile list. You should also have a somewhat decent coupon file by now. Keep your total grocery budget at the same level, but change the proportion of needs: sales. You should be spending more money on stockpiling every week. Also, as your price book fills up, you should start to recognize which sales are good sales and which are not. Something may deserve to be on a “sale” list but not a “stockpile” list.

Remember, you won’t see the big savings until you have your pantry completely stocked, thus allowing you to buy only those items which are on your sale list and for which you have a coupon, often reducing the price to almost zero.


Consider adding these tricks to your arsenal:

Trade coupons or buy from a coupon clipping service. This is a must if you want to get those 90% savings you read about. Your goal is to get multiples of coupons for items on your stockpile list (and I don’t mean 2 or 3, I mean 10 or 12), so that when canned corn or cereal or granola bars go on sale, you can use all your coupons at once and get these items for pennies.

Shop at a warehouse store. I put this back here in week 4 for one major reason: you have a pricebook now. This will allow you to see what is actually a good deal and what is not. As you develop a good coupon file, you may find this tip to be less and less useful. Warehouse stores often don’t accept coupons, and if they do probably don’t double them. You’ll often find better prices at the grocery store. Make sure that if you are doing your stockpiling at a warehouse store you are still staying within your grocery budget.

Sign up for companies’ mailing lists. Write to or call companies to tell them you like their products. You would be amazed at the coupons that companies mail to loyal customers. They are generally much better than the coupons in your newspaper.