Some advice and deals =]

Good Afternoon!!

After a post from a friend of mine who mentioned her struggles with really having success with couponing, I figured I would give whatever advice I could to all of you out there! My major advice to her was to focus on one store, and to understand how couponing at that store works. Publix is usually a good place to begin because it has basic B1G1 Free sales and helps you understanding stacking store and manufacturer coupons.. Walgreens and CVS are more complicated because it adds in the third factor of rewards systems. The reason I focus on Walgreens so much is that I have such a large stock already, I don't need to go on huge trips to huge stores. I just shop the weekly best deals and donate most of it anyways. But I know a lot of you are just begining so I'm going to try and do my best to post the BEST deals, whether or not they are something I would personally buy. 

The other trick to getting a great deal is finding out the sales ahead of time. Although I'm posting these deals now, in the middle of the sale period, the Walgreens previews are usually available more than a week in advance, and the Publix previews are available monday. So I encourage you guys to check out the websites I give below for Walgreens and CVS to view the deals that are in effect this week, as well as those that begin next week! I will post my favorite deals from these stores tomorrow!

So here we go!

ALL DEALS FROM IHEARTPUBLIX.COM

Publix Weekly Ad for 7/21-7/27  HERE

This includes everything on sale as well as where to find the coupons to use

The check marks next to the deals indicate that those prices are "stock up" prices.

If you want to print the coupons mentioned below, print them directly from the Weekly Ad page on IHEARTPUBLIX.com

Best deals I see:

Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, 4.4 to 7.5 oz, BOGO $1.59
-$.75/3 Hamburger Helper Printable Rolling - thanks Quen
-$.75/3 Hamburger Helper Printable Rolling

When you buy 6 and use 2 $.75/3 coupons, you end up paying about  $.54 per box! This is an awesome price for a quick meal :D

Morningstar Farms Entrees, 5.25 to 14.25 oz, BOGO $3.95 -$1/ MorningStar Farms Veggie Foods Product Rolling
- $1/2 Morningstar Farms Frozen Items TARGET coupon Target.com (exp 8/9/2011)
-$1/1 Morningstar Farms Veggie Foods Product 5/28/2011
-$1/1 MorningStar Farms Veggie Foods Product (IE) (exp 10/15/2011) Printable (FF)

When you buy 2, use 2 of the manufacturer coupons and 1 store coupon [This is only if your store accepts Target as a competitor]
This makes the cost $.95 for both!

Also, this is a great weekend to get the cereal, priced at 50% off. Combine your favorite flavor with a coupon for a great deal!

Walgreens:

Weekly ad and Coupon Match up HERE

You can read my last post about the great deal on body soap and deodorant. Everything else is self preference. If you want my advice on how to put together your own Walgreens trip, let me know!

Target:

Instead of giving you last weeks deals since they end tomorrow, here is the preview for the deals starting Sunday!

HERE

In my opinion, none of the deals are special. But I do love seeing the sale prices before they even come around =]

CVS:

The only reason I don't shop here anymore is because it is too far away for me to make such a simple, 2-3 item trip every week. But, there are great deals to be had here!

HERE

Best deal I see:

John Frieda full repair or luxurious volume shampoo or conditioner 8-10 oz, or stylers 3-12 oz $6 

Get $10 eb when you buy $20 limit 1

-$5 John Frieda Full Repair Treatment, Styler or Finisher (exp 7/31/2011) 6/5/2011 SS

Buy 4 John Frieda Full Repair Products = $24

Use 4 $5/1 Coupons

= $4 for all products PLUS $10 EB to use in the future

THIS IS A MONEY MAKER!

Awesome School Supply Price =]

HI!!

I JUST THOUGHT I WOULD LET YOU ALL IN ON A GREAT DEAL FOR BIC MECHANICAL PENCILS [IN CASE YOU DIDN'T ALREADY KNOW ABOUT IT].

PUBLIX HAS BIC 10 PACK MECHANICAL PENCILS ON SALE FOR 3 FOR $3. THIS MAKES THEM $1, DOWN FROM THE REGULAR PRICE OF $3.69 EACH.

THE BIC PRODUCT PRINTABLE ON COUPONS.COM FOR $1/2 PRODUCTS MAKES THESE $.50 EACH! I THINK $.50 FOR MECHANICAL PENCILS IS A STOCK UP PRICE. WE ALL KNOW HOW PENCILS AND PENS SEEM TO DISAPPEAR SO QUICKLY WHEN WE USE THEM OR BRING THEM TO SCHOOL, SO I ALWAYS STOCK UP. I ACTUALLY HAVE A TON LEFT FROM A SIMILAR DEAL LAST YEAR!! 

SINCE I'M GOING TO BE AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER IN THE FUTURE, I'M ALREADY THINKING AHEAD AND STOCKING UP ON SCHOOL SUPPLIES WHEN THEY RUN AT AN AMAZING PRICE! I PROBABLY HAVE $100 WORTH OF SUPPLIES ALREADY FROM LAST YEAR AND THIS YEAR COMBINED. WHEN I DID FIELD WORK THIS PAST SCHOOL YEAR, I WAS ABLE TO DONATE SOME SUPPLIES TO MY PARTICIPATING CLASSROOM. THERE TRULY ARE STUDENTS IN SUCH DESPERATE NEED THAT THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE PENCILS TO BRING TO SCHOOL. SO I ENCOURAGE YOU ALL TO CASH IN ON THESE DEALS AND HELP THOSE IN NEED. WHY NOT PAY $.50 FOR A PACKAGE THAT WOULD LATER ON COST THAT STUDENT ALMOST $4? IT'S A SELFLESS ACT, AND IT TOTALLY WORTH IT. =]

MY TRIP:

8 PACKAGES OF BIC MECHANICAL PENCILS 10 PACK $1 EACH

- (4) $1/2 MANUFACTURER COUPON HERE 

[I BELIEVE PRINTS ARE GONE BUT IT DID RESET ONCE, MAYBE IT WILL RESET AGAIN!]

= $4 FOR ALL!

TOTAL SPENT:

$4.00

TOTAL SAVED:

$21.52

WOW!

$50 of Donation Items for less than $4!!

Hello my favorite people! I have a short and simple deal to share with you. Of course the major success of the plan depends on whether or not you have Register Rewards to start with but I can give advice on how to do a similar deal if you have nothing to start with!

A quick reminder to the beginning couponers: BUY THE SUNDAY PAPER! Pretty much all of my deals come from newspapers that came in the past month or two. So if you don't buy them ahead of time, you will miss out on the best deals. 

Here is my deal!

Walgreens Transaction 1:

2 Dove Men+Care Body and Face Bar, 6 pack    2/$12 get $4 RR

- (2) $4/1 from 6/26 RP

2 Mitchum Women's Deodorant 2/$6 get $4 RR

- (2) $.75/ from 6/26 SS

2 Mini Highlighters .09 

Used 2 $4 Register Rewards from previous week

Total:

$1.96 including $1.28 of tax!

[Payed with change out of wallet]

That is .68 before tax!

Saved:

$24.68

Then for transaction 2 all I did was repeat transaction 1 :)

Total Spent:

$3.92

Total Saved:

$49.36

What a small price to pay for $50 of donation items. What a blessing!

____________________________________

Now for those of you who have no rewards to start with, this is what you can do:

Transaction 1:

 2 Mitchum Deodorant $6 

- (2) $.75/1

= $4.50 get $4 RR

Transaction 2:

2 Dove Mens Body Bars $12

- (2) $4/1

1 Highlighter .09

4 RR from Transaction 1

= $.09 

Get $4 RR

Transaction 3:

2 Mitchum $6

- (2) $.75/1

1 Highlighter .09

- $4 RR From transaction 2

= $.59

Get $4 RR!!!

And you can keep repeating =]

FINALLY a good deal =]

Hello all! I have been wanting to blog lately but the deals have been so lame down here in Miami. I feel like we're so stocked up on a lot of stuff already. One benefit of this is that I get to focus on getting deals to share with others. And I have to say I LOVE to give to others :) 

A bit of good news for those of you who know me; I passed the first portion of my Teacher Certification Exam! Just two more years and I'll be putting my couponing efforts into building up a wonderful stock for my own classroom!

Like I said, the deals, in my opinion, have been pretty lame. I've actually been gathering a few good deals together for a week just waiting until I had enough to make a decent trip to Target. I finally accomplished this this week and made an awesome trip. Here it goes!! These deals are either ending this Saturday, or are on regular price anyways.

1 Bowl Appetit Pasta $1.55 [For lunch!]

4 Hefty One Zip Bags $2.04 each [Regular Price]

- (4) $1/1 Target Coupon HERE

- (2) $1/2 Manufacturer from 7/10 RP 

= $.54 each 

8 Benadryl Itch Sticks $2.29 [Regular Price]

- (8) $2/1 Manufacturer from 6/19 RP

= $.29 each.

Here I figured it would be fun to see how many I could get for the price of one =]

2 Paper-mate Ballpoint Pens $1.02 [In school supply section]

- (2) $1/1 Target coupon HERE

= $.02 each.

Since I'm studying to be a teacher, I've been stocking up on school supplies to give to students in need.

4 Scotch Tape $1 [School supply section]

- (4) $1/1 Manufacturer HERE

= FREE

4 Cottonelle Freshmates $2.29 [Regular Price] 

- (2) $1.25/2 Target coupon HERE

- (2) $1/1 Manufacturer HERE

- (1) $1/2 Manufacturer HERE

These were on sale last week but I didn't make a trip lol.

= $.92 each.

2 John Frieda Shampoo/Conditioner $5.99

- (2) $5/1 Manufacturer from 6/5 SS

- (1) $3/2 Target Coupon HERE

= $1.02 OVERAGE

2 John Frieda Style Products [1 @ $5.99, 1 @ $8.99]

- (2) $5/1 Manufacturer from 6/5 SS

- (1) $3/2 Target Coupon HERE

= $.99 each

And the Grand Total?

$15.11 including $2.57 in tax

Total Saved:

$57.65

While I love to rejoice in such a great amount of savings, I was bummed out [AGAIN] at the cashier's attitude towards my coupons. At my Target it seems like they really aren't afraid of sighing loudly and complaining to the customer that they wish they "Didn't have to work this register" because of all the coupons they had to deal with. I also got the whole "OH You're one of THOSE from that SHOW on TLC." I made it clear to her that no, I wasn't, and that I was simply a young woman trying to save some money in a way that follows the rules and doesn't overwhelm cashier's. 

Oh well. I got my deals and I was sure to give her a smile the whole time! Hopefully one of these days all the cashiers will not only understand why and how we save so much, but also how to do it for their own families :)

Toilet Paper Deal.

What you see here... is my new favorite toilet paper.

=]

Lately, this toilet paper has been a special deal at Target. It comes around about every 4 weeks or so, so I finally took advantage of it. Now the deal isn't going on right now, but my Target coupons for it are about to expire so I plan on buying it anyways at the higher price.


This is how it is..

The deal is where each package is $9.99. When you buy 2 you get a $5 Gift card. That already makes the deal really nice, but then add coupons!


Here is the deal as posted by Totally Target. This is completely from her blog, not mine!! So the credit goes to her, I'm just sharing it with you guys. Basically, the packages of toilet paper (like those above) have coupon booklets inside of them. These coupon booklets include $2/1 Charmin Sensitive as well as $1/1 Charmin Freshmates. Using this, you can roll the deal over and over again. And I gotta say, the toilet paper is really nice!


Transaction 1:
Buy (2) Charmin 18 pack ($9.99) & 2 Freshmates ($2.49) = $24.96
-$5.00 (use two -$2.50 off wyb Charmin 6 pk+ AND Freshmates TQ 4-10-11 RP x6/30
-$4.00 (use two -$2/1 Charmin Sensitive Found inside Charmin Sensitive)
-$2.00 (use two $1/1 Charmin Freshmates found inside Charmin Sensitive)
= $13.96 - $5 Gift Card Back wyb 2 = $8.96 for two 18 packs & 2 Freshmates. 
Or like paying .24 cents per roll plus 2 free Freshmates. 

Back in the habit

Wow.

I cannot believe it has been almost a month since I posted. I feel terrible. I feel like I let people down lol. But now that I am officially finished with my classes until the end of August, I'm already getting back into the loop! I have a couple of deals to share with you guys for now, and a couple more I plan to take advantage of next week.

Sorry for falling behind but I do want to ask any of you who actually follow my blog to please share the blog with friends, families, coworkers or whoever else may need some help with saving money. I like to think that my blog is a sort of laid back way of teaching the basics... Thanks for your support.

Walgreens:

What happened here is this... I spent a lot of money lol. Usually I love to roll my rewards, pay pretty much just tax, and have rewards for the next week. Well in this case, I waited until my rewards were about to expire and I needed to use them, but the deals were so lame and not really anything I needed. So I decided this.. I'll splurge a bit. In the end, I payed about $15 for $50 of stuff. Sure its pretty nice but I only got $13 rewards back even though I started with $19. On the bright side, its like I got more stuff this week and free money for next week. I could have used my $19 rewards and gotten nothing back, or, like I did, spent about $15, got $50 of stuff, and have more for next week. That's the beauty of couponing.

Transaction 1:

4 Tresemme 4/$15 get $5 RR

This was my major splurge. I have so much shampoo already... but I've always wanted to try tresemme. It's my first time and they look so professional and expensive... lol. So I went for it.

3 Suave Lotion $3 Each

1 Suave Shampoo $1   
Buy $10 worth of Suave and get $3 RR

Again, I don't even use this stuff but I got some rewards and can give the items to family, who will always appreciate it.
Used 3 $1/1 Coupons on Suave.com

1 Arizona Tea .99

Fernando's choice of a filler.

1 Dozen Eggs .99

Carrots for Guinea Pig =] .89

Used $19 RR

Total:
$7.76 OP including tax.


Saved:
$26.76

Transaction 2:
1 Gilette Razor $9.89 get $5 RR
Used $4/1 coupon from 6/5 P&G
My family seems to like these.

Total:

$6.59

Saved:

$7.10

Publix
Then I went to publix for a super amazing deal on Ben & Jerry's icecream

The pints of these things are so expensive. $4.83 for one little pint???

That's why this week's deal got me really happy.. lol

At my local Publix, we had the icecream on sale for $4.83 B1G1 Free.

Okay. Good deal so far.

Well then there was a manufacturer coupon in 6/12 RedPlum for $1/1. 

Even better deal.

THEN my store accepts Whole Foods as a competitor. They happen to have $1/1 store coupons for the icream on their website right now.

YAY!

So I did as follows

6 Ben and Jerry's Icecream $4.83 B1G1 Free

-(4) $1/1 Manufacturer (only had 4)

- (6) $1/1 Whole Foods coupon

= $4.49 for ALL. 

Wow. Less than the price of one =]

Spent: 

$4.49

Saved:

$24.49


Total Spent Today:
$18.84


Total Saved Today:
$58.35


Not too shabby.