It's hard...with Food Lion around the corner. I used to live in the country, where it was a chore to go ANYWHERE. Now that we've moved to town (and I'm starting to sound like the Beverly Hillbillies) I can run and get whatever I want in a matter of minutes.
The good part about this is, if I am out of something, it takes no time at all to go and get it. The bad part is........I have no self control. None. This week, for instance, I have had coupons for $2 off Capri Sun, $1 off of Holly Farms chicken, and they also had the $5 off sales. Now, I COULD go in there for just those items, but I get distracted. Oh! LOOK! This meat is marked down! Who can't use more meat! OH! LOOK! That's on CLOSEOUT!!! WOOT! (And not to mention that twice now my husband has gone with me, and you might as well be taking a 2 year old because he tosses things in the cart just willy-nilly)
I have gone I don't know how many times for Cool Whip and Bomb Pops. $5 off when you buy 5 of the "sweet deals". 5 Cool Whip are FREE. 3 Cool Whips and 2 Bomb Pops are around $1 How can you POSSIBLY say no to that? I have a freezer full of Cool Whip. Maybe I should just start pretending it's ice cream.
There is also a $5 off deal on some Kraft items. The other day, I bought 2 Miracle Whips, 1 Kraft Mayo in Chipotle, and 2 packs of Oscar Mayer Deli Select lunch meat. The Miracle Whip and Mayo were $2 each and the lunch meat $2.50 each. I used 3 .55 coupons and a $1/2 coupon on the lunch meat, bringing the total to $8.35, and then $5 came off, making it all $3.35. Totally worth it.
The other thing has been the chicken and the Capri-Sun. The $2 coupon they sent made the Capri-sun .07 a box, so I have been getting one every time I go in. (You cannot use the same Food Lion coupon more than once in a transaction, and I am too chicken to do back to back transactions on things. There is nothing wrong with it, but I feel like people are staring at me and it makes me uncomfortable.) The chicken has been $1.77/lb and with a $1 coupon, I have been getting those as well.
I've noticed that my trips to Kroger are becoming less frequent. The only saving grace for Kroger is the major sales and the double coupons. I still do my main shopping there for that reason, but all of my side trips are taken up by Food Lion lately. Of course, this can change from week to week depending on the coupons I have.
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Kmart is doubling health and beauty coupons up to $2 July 4-10. This is going on in MOST stores, but call yours to make sure. A limit of 5 coupons doubled a day per person. You will also need a KMart rewards card (they're free)
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A free Coke? Maybe. Wendy's is having an instant win promotion. A lot of people are winning MyCokeReward points...enough for a free 20 oz. You need to go here and enter code 329492855844 I won this morning. :)
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Since Back to School is right around the corner, here are some post-it coupons. Also be on the lookout for cereal deals. They start around this time and last until school starts, usually. Hopefully, Kelloggs will do their Fuel for School promo again this year.
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BASICS:
I have been meaning to do a post on basics, and I just haven't gotten around to it. Most of this info is in the first few posts I made, but some people don't go back that far. However, I can do a quick overview right now while I'm thinking about it.
First, you need to get a binder or box. Some people use binders with baseball card insert pages in them. I tried that, I kept spilling it. (Really, am just not always on top of things. Surprising, I know.) I got a box from a yard sale a good while back made by Rubbermaid. It's about the size of a shoebox and it has a handle and a latch. Inside, it has an adjustable piece that I can use to keep my coupons and dividers close together or spread out some. I then made dividers from large index cards and tab tops. That way, I could put them in any way I wanted.
Second, you need to get coupons. You can look for printables at Coupons.com (there is a link to your left, there), Redplum.com, and various other coupon outlets. You can get coupons on ebay or from clipping services. You can get them from your own newspaper or from friends and family. You can even join coupon swaps. There are also 2 sites that load them to your shoppers cards for certain stores: Cellfire.com and Shortcuts.com. Usually with these, you can use paper coupons as well. You can also sign up to be on mailing lists for companies who have products you use often. Make sure you get multiples of insert coupons if you can!
Third, set up a seperate email for couponing, surveys, newsletters, etc. Check it often! You don't want to miss out on something!
Fourth...watch carefully. The coupon isn't always the best way. If you aren't going to use it or give it to someone who can, don't buy it. If another brand is still cheaper even after the coupon, buy the other brand! If something is a stunning deal with coupons..by all means...STOCK UP!!
Now, with Kroger...some Krogers are different, depending on region. (Kroger is also King Scoopers, Ralph's, and a few others) My Kroger, for instance, doubles coupons to (and including) .50 every day. However, they will only allow you to use 3 like coupons in a transaction. You need a shopper card (it's free) to get the deals. Also, you can go and load coupons to your card at Shortcuts, Cellfire, and Kroger's own site. You can use paper coupons along with the digital ones. For example, if I am buying Cascade, and I have a .50 coupon loaded to my card, and I have a .50 paper coupon, I can use them together for $1.50 off (because the paper one doubles..digital ones do not)
Walgreens: WG has a program called Register Rewards. On some advertised products, you purchase the product and a coupon will print for xxx amount on your next order. You can use coupons on the advertised products. If I bought Cascade for $2, used a $2 coupon and $2 printed, then it would net me a profit of $2 because the RR are counted there like cash. If I bought Cascade for $2, used a .50 coupon, then I would pay $1.50 out of pocket, but I would get $2 back to use later. RR's USUALLY do not roll. (meaning, I can't use the Cascade RR to get more Cascade and expect another $2 coupon to print. It usually won't) A while back, they did roll. I miss those days. Every now and then, they still do, but it's very rare. Now, the tricky part is...I also cannot use my Cascade RR on another P&G item that prints RR if I want to get the RR. P&G also makes Charmin. If I took my $2 Cascade RR and used it to buy Charmin and Charmin was supposed to print a $1 RR, it wouldn't. However, if I used it to buy a product made by, say..SCJohnson, the RR would print. Pay close attention to that. You can do more than one transaction if you need to seperate them.
Also with WG, you can use a manufacturer's coupon with an in-ad coupon or WG coupon booklet coupon. If the in-ad coupon had Cascade for $1, I would also be able to use my .50 coupon from P&G or whatever the coupon was for. The catch on ALL of these is...you cannot use more coupons than you have items. RR's will count as coupons in this instance. All coupons need an item to "attach" to. If I am buying 4 packs of razors, and I have 1 Walgreens coupon (which usually applies to all packs in that order), 4 razors coupons, and 1 RR, then I will need 2 "fillers". If you are buying something else without coupons, that's great, your coupons will attach to them. If you were only planning on buying the 4 packs of razors, you'll have to go get 2 pieces of cheap candy, or some pencils, or whatever else they have dirt cheap so that each coupon will have an item.
CVS: I don't get to shop here anymore. There's not one close by and I don't get to go out of town as much as I used to. (I heard a rumor we're getting one, and if we are, I'll be on cloud 9) At CVS, you get a card called an Extra Care card. These produce ECB's on certain advertised items, similar to WG's RR's. ECB's print on the bottom of your receipt. They are used like RR's except ECB's don't have the same restrictions. You don't need to have fillers, and you don't have to worry about using a P&G ecb on a P&G item. These can be "rolled" Often, people will buy a bunch of ecb items and use ecb's to purchase more items that produce ecb's, building and building until you have a great stockpile and lots of ecb's to spend. The only real restriction with them is that there is usually a limit per card on how many of one advertised item you can buy. It will usually say something like "Cascade $2, get a $2 ecb, limit 4) You can buy 4 at once, or break them up, it doesn't matter, your card will keep track and after the 4th, no more ecb's will print for that item. You CAN use coupons on ECB items.
Food Lion: FL does not double coupons at most stores. You need to get a shopper card (it's free) to get sale prices. FL will also email you coupons once a week if you sign up, and if you sign up for texts, you will occasionally get a text offering you a coupon to be loaded to your shopper card.
Rite Aid: now at RA, you have to get a "wellness card" to get the good prices. It's free, and is just like your shopper card to other stores. Rite Aid has rebates. Advertised items can be purchased and receipts entered online for rebates on certain advertised items. Make sure you pay attention to limits, and only ask for your rebate once a month. You can do this online.
Target: you can use Target coupons and manufacturers coupons together.
I hope that answers some questions. If you have any that I haven't covered, please send me an email. dimestretchermom@gmail.com.
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Have a great shopping day!
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