Free goods with coupons

Sometimes I still have a hard time believing that I can go to the store and pay nothing for items.  Or even more unbelievable--items that actually MAKE me money to take from the store!  I know, it sounds like some gimmick... some type of fraud. But, it's not--it works and is totally legal! :)

All the items pictured I paid NOTHING for last night at Fry's.  NOTHING.

And, even better--for those items, I EARNED 24 cents back on my bill!!  Seriously, I was paid money to take those items from the store! I know, I know--it's only 24 cents.  But, hey "a penny saved", right? (or in this case 24 pennies earned, along with 18 items!!) 
If you are new to couponing and have no idea how I could have pulled that off, then I highly suggest that you check out this coupon class.  You can click here to read more about it.

And, if you are already a couponer in an area with a Fry's (which is a Kroger chain store), you can get some of these deals this week too!!  If you have been saving your coupon inserts, then you can get the dial & dawn soaps, toothpaste, and tuna through next Tuesday--all for FREE.  Click here to see the specific coupon match-ups. (The other things were from a raincheck I got for last week's deals).

Coupon Class

So, lately I've had various requests related to sharing my couponing knowledge--requests to do friends' grocery shopping, accompany people to the store to show them how to really use the coupons, and to do a coupon class. And, now I have the perfect solution--The Frugal Find's online coupon class!!

The Frugal Find is a great site that I've been using to help me figure out this whole couponing thing.  The blog owner has been running coupon classes for awhile now in her area (northern California), but now has an online class!  I think this is brilliant!

So many advantages:

• since it's online, you can "take the class" whenever you have time from the comfort of your house.
• it covers a variety of stores so you can learn how to "play the game" not just at the grocery store, but at the drug stores & discount stores too! 
• you get a full year of access to all her detailed help & tutorials for only $9.95 (this is $10-$20 cheaper than other similar on-line 'couponing' courses I've seen out there).

With the information you'll learn from the class, your savings will FAR exceed the $9.95 out of pocket up front!  And, if you "play your coupons right", you will probably make back your money in just your first trip!  In fact, with tips like what you'll learn in this class, I managed to save $10 on just a Cottonelle toilet paper transaction today alone! :)

So, if you've been thinking about getting into couponing & aren't sure where to start...or, if you have been trying to use coupons without seeing those 50%+ savings on your shopping trips, I definitely suggest you check out this class!! 

Do you like free stuff?

I know I do!!

Until I started following some frugal/deal-saving blogs the past few months, I had no idea the number of free products you can get each year!  Now, I'm so glad that I do!! 

From couponing, I've been shocked by the number of free items I have been able to "purchase".  Just last night, I "bought" 10 packages of Philadelphia cream cheese for $0 because of coupons! :) 

But, beyond just watching the ads and scoring sweet free deals from using coupons, did you know that companies will send all kinds of free samples and/or coupons for free items?!  Until recently, I had no idea!  In the just the last week alone, we've received coupons for free boxes of Triscuits and Wheat Thins Stix, a coupon for a free bottle of Advil, a travel pack of Kleenex, a box of Hamburger Helper, two individual boxes of cereal, a Kashi granola bar, along with numerous other high value manufacturer's coupons! WOW! And, I probably only fill out a small fraction of the deals that are out there. There is NO catch (unless you count the fact that you've given a company your email & home address...suggestion, create a junk mail address) and I haven't paid a dime for any of the items or websites I follow to find out about these deals.  

For the most part, I have found out about everything relating to freebies from 3 blogs (and following them on facebook):

www.savingcentswithsense.net

(this one is local for me, so I check it most often)

thefrugalfind.com

moneysavingmom.com

But, there are NUMEROUS others and you will see that they find their information from other similar sites often times as well.  There are so many freebies, coupons, and deals out there that I don't think any one person/site could possibly list them all. I hope to start posting some of the better ones that I find on here in the near future too!

So, if you want free stuff too, find a deal site or two that you like, subscribe to get their emails and/or follow them on facebook, and then start signing up for the free samples you would use.  It's fast, easy, and free! :)  Plus, it makes checking the mail so much more fun! :)

eCoupons

Ok, so did you know that there are "eCoupons"? These are coupons that you can load right to your store cards and they will automatically come off when your card is scanned & you purchase those specified products. There are three sites that do them that I use: Shortcuts, Cellfire, and P&G. Plus, some grocery chains have their own coupons (like here, Safeway & Fry's both have them). So, I periodically go through and load any coupons I think I might possibly use. And, if possible, I try to always check out the ones on my Safeway & Fry's cards before I go.

Two things that are SUPER cool about these (aside from the fact that there is no paper to cut) is that often times multiple ecoupons will come off for the same item. For example, let's say I got a coupon for Fiber One bars off multiple sites (which really happened), then I buy one box and ALL the coupons come off. This happened on a recent Safeway trip. The box was on sale for a great price of $1.49 and 3 ecoupons for $.50 each came off as soon as my card was scanned. So, just by using ecoupons, one box of bars was free.

But, it gets better...if you have a paper coupon for the same item, you can usually still use it ("stacking" coupons)!!! So, when the deals are just right, you can actually MAKE money by using both types of coupons. Again, back to the Fiber One bars...the ecoupons made it free. But, I also had a $1.00 off paper coupon that I was still able to use. So, essentially I made $1.00 profit for purchasing a box of Fiber One Bars. Pretty cool!!

Using this method, here's what that Safeway run yielded us:

The Fiber One Bars and Fruit Roll Ups actually paid me $2.50 to purchase them :)!! So, if you count the pears as 1 item, I purchased 27 items (there are 6 cans of soup there) for a grand total of $16.97! (The total before coupons and sales should have been about....$80!!!!) My savings was 80%!!! (An average of only $.62/item)

And wait, it gets even better, because I got two catalina coupons (those are the ones that the little machine spits out with your receipt) for a total of $3.50 off my next purchase!!! Sweet!! So, less than 17 bucks out of pocket with money back to spend next time!

You should definitely check out ecoupons if you're not already using them!!

Saving with Bakery Outlets

My little couponing addiction recently led me to yet another great way to save on groceries.  The local saver magazines that come with our "junk mail" recently had a "Buy one, Get one free" coupon for a nearby Oroweat & Entenmman's bakery outlet store. I'd been there once or twice before a long time ago (before my mommy days), but had just sort of forgotten about it.  So, the coupon was a good reminder to get me back in the store.

Now, I know some of you are thinking, bakery outlet?! Gross--it's probably all expired food or bread they didn't bake right or something! I totally get why that might have crossed your mind.  But, I promise you, it's not.  

There is a whole section in the store with fresh products and no different from your regular grocery store--except, their prices on these items are still lower than regular grocery store prices.  But, the even bigger savings is in the items that are close to their sell by date.  All the bread products freeze well, so you can maximize savings by stocking up. There are a whole slew of brands that are probably common in many households:

Given all those brands, there is quite a variety of products as well.  Here's what my trip looked like:

If you can't make it out well, that's 1 package of cinnamon-raisin engligh muffins, 1 loaf double fiber whole wheat bread, 2 loaves of light whole wheat, 2 packs of whole wheat bagel things, 2 packs of whole wheat pitas, 1 pack of sandwich thins, 1 bag of flaxseed meal, and 1 72-count package of white corn tortillas.  

Guesses on price??

At Safeway on the day of my outlet trip, the Oroweat light was $4.89/loaf, the double fiber loaf was $5.49, sandwich thins $4.29, bagel things $2.50 each, tortillas $4.19, pitas $2.99 each, flaxseed meal $4.99, and the english muffins were $4.39.  Now, I certainly wouldn't have purchased that same transaction at these prices.  That being said however, before my couponing days, at times, I did pay those prices on some of those items. And, if someone did purchase that same transaction at the regular store, it would have been $44.11!  Instead, I spent $14.32!!!  Sweet!!

By shopping there and freezing the items, we are able to spend significantly less on bread products.  In fact, that trip was one month ago today and the only thing we are running low on is the bread. So, we have not purchased any more bread products the entire month!

In addition to the sweet prices, they have other deals too, like a punch card (a couple days each week they even give you double punches), daily deal specials with at least one $.99 item, and for every $7 spent, you get to choose a free item! 

Definitely another great way to save money!

For more information on the outlets and to see if there is one near you, visit bimbobakeriesusa.com.

'CVSing'

Is there are CVS in your area?  If so, you must start shopping there if you're not already!  Conveniently, CVS is the closet store to our house.  So, with motivation from other savvy saving/frugal bloggers, I decided to try my couponing hand at CVS. 
The best thing about CVS is their Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) reward system.  If you're not familiar, ECBs are essentially reward money that you get to spend at CVS.  Each week in the ad there are certain products that will yield you ECBs.  What many people (and now I) do is pay "x" amount of dollars up front (called a primer trip) and then get "x" amount back in ECBs.  Then, you attempt to "roll" your ECBs, meaning that for subsequent CVS purchases, you use your ECBs to purchase other items that will yield you more ECBs.  By doing this correctly (it does involved a fair amount of math), you could potentially not ever spend a dime again at CVS. 
{Pause...at this point, if you are unfamiliar with CVS or have no idea what I'm talking about, here are two good references both called, "CVS 101".  For the long version, click here and for the condensed version click here.}

I did my first primer trip in August and through some serious good luck, managed to only spend $8.26 out of pocket for everything pictured above!  Here's how:
We got a coupon in the mail from CVS the other day for a $25 gift card when you fill a new or transferred prescription.  So, we transferred the little guy's Zantac prescription over and got a $25 gift card! When dropping off the prescription, we scanned our CVS card at their little coupon printing machine (always do this!) and got a coupon for a $5 off a $15 purchase.  Sweet!  
So, I did this in two transactions: 
In the first, I purchased the razor and the blink eye drops.  I had coupons for each and used my $5 off coupon. I paid with the gift card and that transaction alone gave me $12.99 in ECBs.
Then, I purchased everything else in the second transaction.  I used the $12.99 in ECBs that I just got.  Plus, 75 cents - $1 off coupons for every single item.  I used up the rest of the gift card and owed $8.26 out of pocket.  That's the price of just one of the CoverGirl lip sticks!  
All that stuff would have been a great deal anyway.  But, what makes it crazy good is that I got another $20 in ECBs to use again. My goal has been to see how far I can make that $8.26 go!
Since that initial primer trip, I've been back two more times.  My second trip looked like this:

For that trip, I spent nothing! :)  I used my $20 ECBs & manufacturer's coupons and didn't even spend one penny!  Plus, I got back another $18.97 in ECBs.
Then, the following week I rolled those ECBs (combined with coupons) and I got this:

Sadly, I did have to pay out of pocket for this trip...a whopping $1.53!  Now I have $17.80 in ECBs, plus another $25 gift card!! That should make for some GOOD shopping! :)
To help you in your CVS endeavors, moneysavingmom.com and iheartcvs.com are really  good sites for planning.  

Couponing

Couponing has been my one of my newest endeavors. Obviously, coupons are for saving money and I certainly have used them before.  However, I never used to use them like this! Now, I'm totally serious about couponing.

Just before little brother was born I stumbled upon a Nightline story about people who use coupons and sometimes literally pay nothing on their bill.  I couldn't believe it when I saw the intro, but it's true.  There are people out there who barely spend a dime on the products they buy. To do this, you have to have three things:

1. Be armed with a lot of coupons;

2. Know all the little tricks about using coupons; and

3. Be organized (& able to do some math on the fly).

Until doing some research, I had no idea about all the little nuances to using coupons.  Like, did you know that you can "stack" a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon for the same item at numerous stores?  Or, that you can load coupons to your shopper card? Or that there are about a ba-gillion places that you can print coupons from online?  Until recently, I certainly didn't.

So, armed with this new-found knowledge (and a bunch of really cool websites that give tips and list deals), I have been couponing for the past few months.  And, I love it!!  Each week, I look forward to the Sunday paper for the coupons inserts.  To keep things organized, I created a large coupon binder modeled after some of the couponing pros.  In just a few months, I have saved hundreds of dollars on products just using coupons alone (not counting combining with store deals).
How much have you been saving?
I immediately started averaging at least a 30% savings.  Within a week or two (and learning more savvy couponing skills), I was averaging at least a 50% savings.  Then, consistently hitting somewhere between 60-70% savings on the big, cartful trips and hitting 70-95% savings on smaller, specific deal trips.
What kind of stuff do you get?
Here's a glimpse at some of my shopping trips (taken from posts off my family blog):

I only paid $22 for all that stuff at Fry's.  This was my first 65% savings trip.  What was especially crazy about it, was that my total would have been more than $25 on just the items in the right (the lotions, soaps, body washes, etc) had I not had coupons.
This one was my first 80%+ savings trip:

My total before in-store deals & coupons would have been $62.55; however, I paid only $11.72!!! Wow-ee! That would have been about what just the diapers cost at regular price.
This was my first 70%+ savings on a BIG shopping trip:

This one shows the diversity of things you can get with coupons. And not pictured, were two bags of PurinaOne pet food and a bunch of produce, including bananas, apples, salad, and organic grapes.  Of all this, the only items for which I didn't have any coupons was the Kraft Parmesan cheese and the fruit.


Can you really "purchase" things for free?
Yes!!!! I know, crazy isn't?!  It has been truly unbelievable how many free things I've gotten with coupons--even for some 'expensive' items too.  Here's a glimpse at just a few of the items I've picked up for free. 

And, for these items, I MADE 85 cents!!  

That's right, with coupons, they were all free, plus gave me the 85 cent overage that applied to the rest of my order.  Seriously, what's not to love about making money on groceries?!
I seriously cannot recommend couponing enough--it's been my biggest money-saving endeavor yet!