Sorry it's taken me so long to get the the couponing lingo part of "Getting Started". There are several abbreviations that fellow couponers, blogs and websites use, but if you have no idea what they mean it can be super confusing. Here's the breakdown:
SS means the coupon is found in the Smart Source coupon insert of the Sunday paper
RP means the same except it's in the Red Plum insert
PG means the same too except it's in the Proctor & Gamble insert
There is generally a date listed before SS, RP, or PG and that is the date the insert came out.
ex. 8/29 PG means it is the Proctor & Gamble insert ans it came out on August 29th.
BOGO means Buy One Get One, sometimes you will see it as B1G1
WYB means When You Buy
ECB are Extra Care Bucks, which is CVS money
RR are Registered Rewards which is Wal-Greens money
Hope this helps all you newbies!!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Publix Round 2
When I went to Publix last Friday I didn't get the deal I was planning on Right Guard deodorant. So, I went back yesterday and returned the ones I bought and got an even sweeter deal!
First Publix Trip
I bought:
2 Right Guard deodorants BOGO @ $3.99
Coupons I used or attempted to use:
1 Buy one Right Guard or Dry Idea and get one free RP 7/25 (the cashier wouldn't let me use this one because they said I had to get a Dry Idea not another Right Guard. Once I got home I realized she was wrong.)
1 $3/1 Right Guard deodorant (but my coupon didn't even work! I don't know why...but I didn't realize it until I got home...bummer.)
Spent:$4.29
First Publix Trip
I bought:
2 Right Guard deodorants BOGO @ $3.99
Coupons I used or attempted to use:
1 Buy one Right Guard or Dry Idea and get one free RP 7/25 (the cashier wouldn't let me use this one because they said I had to get a Dry Idea not another Right Guard. Once I got home I realized she was wrong.)
1 $3/1 Right Guard deodorant (but my coupon didn't even work! I don't know why...but I didn't realize it until I got home...bummer.)
Spent:$4.29
Savings of 53%
Second Publix Trip
I bought:
3 Right Guard deodorants BOGO @ $3.99
Coupons I used:
1 BOGO Right Guard or Dry Idea RP 7/25 (the one they wouldn't let me use last time.)
1 $3/1 Right Guard deodorant (this one is no longer available but there is one for $1/1 here)
Spent:$1.59
Savings of 88%
3 for $1.59 is definitely better than 2 for $4.29, don't ya think?!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Everything Was Free!
The first stop on my Monday morning drugstore shopping trips was CVS. I had $12 in ECBs from last week so my plan was to get everything for free. And it worked!
Total-$23.38
Spent-$1.43 (tax only!)
Savings of 100%
What I bought-
4 Oral-B Indicator toothbrushes
1 Phillips In-Ear Headphones
Coupons I used-
2 B1G1 Oral-B toothbrush coupons 8/15 RP
2 .75/1 Oral-B toothbrush 8/01 PG or 8/29 PG
I also walked out with $12 more ECBs for next week! Woo hoo!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Even Sweeter Post-It Deal at Wal-Mart
After I got 5 Post-Its for free the other day, I decided I was going to print off 5 more coupons and get 5 more and then I would be done. That is until I went to Wal-Mart today and found them marked down to 20 cents!!!! That is an 80 cents profit! I'm definitely printing off a TON more and heading back tonight. They also have the bigger Post-Its with the lines on clearance for $1 so those are free!
I also scored 2 Chips Ahoy 4 packs for 8 cents each with the coupon found here. I also got 2 Pepsi Max's for FREE thanks this BOGO coupon (it will print automatically once you click on the link).
I also scored 2 Chips Ahoy 4 packs for 8 cents each with the coupon found here. I also got 2 Pepsi Max's for FREE thanks this BOGO coupon (it will print automatically once you click on the link).
Publix Trip 8/27
This is my grocery trip for this week (Aside from a few other things from Wal-Mart).
Total:$81.38
Spent-$40.69
Savings of 50%
What I bought and the sales-
4 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars--2/$4
2 boxes of Carnation Instant Breakfast--no sale :(
2 boxes of Orville Redenbacher's popcorn--BOGO
2 bags of Cape Cod chips-2/$5
2 bags of Doritos chips--BOGO
2 2 pk. of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter--BOGO
4 Kikkoman sauces--no sale :(
2 cans of Campbell's Select Harvest soup--BOGO
4 Hormel microwavable meals--BOGO
2 Cole's Garlic Bread--BOGO
2 Kraft mayo--BOGO
8 Yoplait yogurts--no sale
Coupons I used-
2 .75/2 Nature Valley SS 8/08 or .50/2 here
1 $2/2 Carnation found here
2 .40/1 Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn SS 8/01
2 BOGO Kikkoman found here
2 $1/1 Kikkoman found here
2 $1/1 Campbell's found here (Southern Savers also says there
should've been a coupon in the SS 8/15 but I never got it)
3 .55/1 Hormel SS 8/01 or here
1 .40/8 Yoplait SS 8/01
And the deal gets ever sweeter :) There is a mail-in rebate here for the Kikkoman sauces and I get to pick 1 out of 3 grilling gifts!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Freebie from Achooz
Have ya'll ever heard of 'Boogie Wipes'? They are the most amazing wipes to get all that nasty stuff off your kids noses. Now they have an adult version called Achooz, and they are giving away free samples! So go here and try em out!
Staples Re-Do
I did end up going back to Staples like I said i might do in my previous post to return those Composition notebooks. And I was so much happier with the turn out than before.
Transaction from 8/23
2 packs of Highlighters
3 Composition notebook
Total:$1.69
I know that isn't bad at all for what I got, but when you're expecting around 40 cents it seems like a lot.
Return from 8/25
3 Composition notebooks returned
Total:-$1.62
That means I paid 7 cents for 10 highlighters!
I Love Kohl's!
Kohl's is probably my favorite place to get cheap clothes, it's right up there with Target. They have ahhhmazing clearance racks that are sometimes 80% off! I usually go there without a purpose (which isn't normal for me) and scope out the clearance racks. Yesterday I found this bathing suit for my son for $4.80, it was regularly $24!!
I also picked up a shirt for my hubby for $6.60 and it's regularly around $35! I seriously love Kohl's!
TIP: I always shop a year ahead for my kids and buy whatever is out of season at the time. Example, right now my son wears a 4T so I shop for 5T clothes. I do this because the stores are basically just throwing cheap clothes at you trying to get rid of them! And all I do when he grows out of something is pull out a Rubbermaid and the "store" comes to us! My son also thinks he's picking out his new clothes on his own, but really I picked them out. It works out perfectly!
I also picked up a shirt for my hubby for $6.60 and it's regularly around $35! I seriously love Kohl's!
TIP: I always shop a year ahead for my kids and buy whatever is out of season at the time. Example, right now my son wears a 4T so I shop for 5T clothes. I do this because the stores are basically just throwing cheap clothes at you trying to get rid of them! And all I do when he grows out of something is pull out a Rubbermaid and the "store" comes to us! My son also thinks he's picking out his new clothes on his own, but really I picked them out. It works out perfectly!
Hasbro Games at Target
The Sunday paper last week (8/22) had a bogo Hasbro card game coupon in the USA Weekend. I'm so glad I found this on Hip2Save, because I never look through the USA Weekend part of my paper. There is also a $1/1 (1 dollar off one) coupon here. I checked at Wal-Mart and the games were at little over $5. At Target they're cheaper at $4.24, just like Hip2Save said (I should never doubt a professional). I ended up paying $2.34 for each game when they're originally $6.99! These are going to make great Christmas and birthday presents!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
FREE Aveeno & Brookie Cookie
Here's 2 freebies I signed up for today!
Aveeno Hair Care products or coupons. Go here and you can choose if you want a free sample or a coupon!
Brookie Cookie. Just send an e-mail to this address {info@thebrookiecookie.com} and you will recieve a free cookie! I hope it's good! You can also check out there facebook page here
ENJOY!
Aveeno Hair Care products or coupons. Go here and you can choose if you want a free sample or a coupon!
Brookie Cookie. Just send an e-mail to this address {info@thebrookiecookie.com} and you will recieve a free cookie! I hope it's good! You can also check out there facebook page here
ENJOY!
Scheduling & Organizing
I'm going to try to post everyday but you know how life gets in the way of things so we'll see how it goes. Anyway, there are 2 things I wanted to post about today...
First off, I'm only going to be posting the deals that I use or ones that I think are a really, really good deals. Saying that, I'm not going post things before the sales start as the sites I mentioned in my previous post do. I do my drugstore shopping on Mondays because the ads come out on Sundays and I do my grocery store shopping on Fridays because the Publix ad comes out on Thursdays here (they come out on Wednesdays other places). But I also go other places during the week if I have time. So my posts will generally be on Mondays and Fridays, and I will definitely post all the samples or freebies I sign up for as I find them, which there is usually at least one a day.
Second thing or things I should say, when I first started this I got overwhelmed around the second or third week. I have a 3 year old and a new baby that I have to get in and out of the car and lug around with me while I do all of this. Because I felt so overwhelmed I decided to break up my days as I mentioned earlier. On Saturday night or Sunday I get all my deals together for the drugstore trips. I usually visit 3 to 4 stores on Mondays, but I do it all before lunchtime so I can get home feed the kiddos and put them down for their nap/quiet time. If I leave at 10 am it usually works out. For grocery shopping I usually get my deals together and make my list on Wednesday night. If you go to the Publix website and type in Montgomery, AL as your location you can see the ad on Wednesday instead of Thursday when it comes out here in Tallahassee! After I write down everything I want I search for coupons, I find most of the on the Southern Savers website but sometimes I go to Hot Coupon World and use the database there to find others. I then make my list and organize my coupons.
Everyone has a different way of organizing this is mine-
On Sunday night I clip all the coupons from the Sunday paper and take out the ones that are going to expire in the next week to see if I can find any clearance deals with them at the stores I go to. I then put the newly clipped coupons in these organizers I have one for food, another for health & beauty and the last is for cleaners, cat stuff, baby stuff, and stores/restaurants. Once I have them sorted into these 3 categories I alphabetize them. This makes it easier to find the coupons you want while you're compiling your deals.
I then group the coupons together by which store I'm going to. I use Post-Its to keep them together and then label them with the store name. Good thing I got all those Post-Its for free! I then put them in the front of one of my organizers in the order that I plan to visit the stores. This makes it super easy for me, I can just pull out my coupons at the register and they are all together and labeled.
Once I get home with all my goodies that's a totally different story. I never realized how much free or nearly free things you and get with coupons, so at the beginning of my new hobby I didn't even think about storage. Well once I realized Rubbermaids and boxes full of my stuff piled up in my hallway weren't going to cut it.
We got some amazing shelves from Ikea! I love them! Plus, we got them for super cheap! Now I know Ikea is all the way in Orlando but my hubby is a handyman so you could always give me a call and he can build you some shelves! Anyway, I love my new shelves and my hallway is a lot less cluttered :)
People organize their coupons and stockpiles all sorts of different ways. Some people use binders to keep their coupons in, and others don't cut them out of the inserts and file the inserts with the date on them so they can find their coupons by the insert date and name. I do it the way I do because I like taking ALL my coupons to the store with me just in case I find any deals that I didn't plan on ahead of time. I hope this helps you all who want to join the wonderful world of couponing!
First off, I'm only going to be posting the deals that I use or ones that I think are a really, really good deals. Saying that, I'm not going post things before the sales start as the sites I mentioned in my previous post do. I do my drugstore shopping on Mondays because the ads come out on Sundays and I do my grocery store shopping on Fridays because the Publix ad comes out on Thursdays here (they come out on Wednesdays other places). But I also go other places during the week if I have time. So my posts will generally be on Mondays and Fridays, and I will definitely post all the samples or freebies I sign up for as I find them, which there is usually at least one a day.
Second thing or things I should say, when I first started this I got overwhelmed around the second or third week. I have a 3 year old and a new baby that I have to get in and out of the car and lug around with me while I do all of this. Because I felt so overwhelmed I decided to break up my days as I mentioned earlier. On Saturday night or Sunday I get all my deals together for the drugstore trips. I usually visit 3 to 4 stores on Mondays, but I do it all before lunchtime so I can get home feed the kiddos and put them down for their nap/quiet time. If I leave at 10 am it usually works out. For grocery shopping I usually get my deals together and make my list on Wednesday night. If you go to the Publix website and type in Montgomery, AL as your location you can see the ad on Wednesday instead of Thursday when it comes out here in Tallahassee! After I write down everything I want I search for coupons, I find most of the on the Southern Savers website but sometimes I go to Hot Coupon World and use the database there to find others. I then make my list and organize my coupons.
Everyone has a different way of organizing this is mine-
On Sunday night I clip all the coupons from the Sunday paper and take out the ones that are going to expire in the next week to see if I can find any clearance deals with them at the stores I go to. I then put the newly clipped coupons in these organizers I have one for food, another for health & beauty and the last is for cleaners, cat stuff, baby stuff, and stores/restaurants. Once I have them sorted into these 3 categories I alphabetize them. This makes it easier to find the coupons you want while you're compiling your deals.
I then group the coupons together by which store I'm going to. I use Post-Its to keep them together and then label them with the store name. Good thing I got all those Post-Its for free! I then put them in the front of one of my organizers in the order that I plan to visit the stores. This makes it super easy for me, I can just pull out my coupons at the register and they are all together and labeled.
We got some amazing shelves from Ikea! I love them! Plus, we got them for super cheap! Now I know Ikea is all the way in Orlando but my hubby is a handyman so you could always give me a call and he can build you some shelves! Anyway, I love my new shelves and my hallway is a lot less cluttered :)
Monday, August 23, 2010
Toddler Bedding at Wal-Mart!
My hubby and I were just talking the othernight about how we needed to get my son some new bedding. I had spotted some Marvel Heroes bedding at Wal-Mart a few months ago that he would LOVE, but it was $35, a bit too pricey for toddler bedding if you ask me. Anyway, I hit up Wally World today to score some FREE Post-Its and as I was wandering around the baby section I found this:
The same exact bed set I saw a few months ago but it was on clearance for $17!!! Amazing! My son loves it and I love the price!
Total-$42.46
Spent-$20.46
Savings of 52%
Deals I used:
Post-Its @$1
and the clearance deal :)
Coupons I used:
$1/1 Post-Its 8/15 SS or here
You can print as many of these as you want! And it makes them FREE plus tax!
Staples Deals 8/23
Staples has had some awesome deals for Back to School. This week I scored FREE highlighters and some Composition notebooks. I think I'm going to take the notebooks back though because I thought they were .10 each but you have to spend $5 to get that deal so I got them for .50 and I don't need them that bad :)
Total-$8.98
Saved-$3.31
Saving of 63%
Deals I used:
Composition notebooks @.10 (after a $5 purchase)
BIC Brite Liner highlighters @ .50 (limit 2)
Coupons I used:
This coupon makes the highlighters FREE plus tax!
(Thanks, Southern Savers for the deals!)
My CVS Deals 8/23
My trip to CVS today wasn't the best I've had, but we needed toilet paper and I did rack up 12 ECB's! Which means next week's trip should go quite well.
Total-$45.16
Spent-$25.16
Savings of 45%
Like I said not my best but next week will be better!
ECB deals I used:
$10 ECBs when you spend $25 on these products-
Puffs tissue @.99
Duracell batteries @9.99
Charmin toilet paper @9.99
Bounty paper towels @12.99
Listerine Zero
$2 ECBs when you buy
Listerine Zero @3.99
Coupons I used:
.25/3 Puffs tissue 8/01 P&G
.25/1 Charmin toilet paper 8/01 P&G
$2/1 Listerine Zero here
Wal-greens Freebie!
This was my trip to Wal-greens on the 18th. I only paid $6.40! I also got the pens for free!
I'm not sure if they are still on sale this week but these Pilot Friction pens were priced at $2.99 last week. You can use a coupon from the Smart Ways to Save Big! Wal-greens coupon booklet (you can find this at the front of the store by the weekly ads.) and another one found here (you have to sign-up to get it) and score them for FREE!
I did this at 2 different stores and at the second one I went to the pens had a mail-in rebate on the back of the package, so I'm actually making $2.75!
I'm New At This
I have been posting my couponing successes on my Facebook since I started in July, but I'm pretty sure people are getting tired of hearing about it even though I LOVE it! So I decided to dedicate a blog to my new hobby. I will also try to help ya'll who want to get started! So, I usually find my "deals" (as I call them) on other blogs or websites, but I will post the ones I like the best here. My favorite blogs and websites are-
Hip2Save she always has awesome freebies posted on her site, I've gotten something free in the mail for the past 3 weeks or so. It's amazing! She also has great deals for online shoppers.
Southern Savers I use this site to make my grocery lists, she has a complete list of the weekly ads to TONS of stores. She also matches coupons from the Sunday paper and gives you ones you can print off the internet. It makes going to the store with coupons super easy!
Couponing To Disney I go to this site for her 5 a Days and her 4 a Days. What are these you ask? She wants everyone to e-mail 5 companies a day about their products from complaints to compliments. The companies generally send you a freebie or coupons. And this totally works! I've gotten tons of high value coupons from these 5 a Days. The 4 a Days are 4 freebies a day, and I'm all about the freebies! I have also adopted her idea of "couponing to disney". She saves the money she get from mail-in rebates, surveys, and all the loose change in their pockets and puts it in a fund and they go to DisneyWorld once a year! I've decided we are going to have a "Debt Free Fund" hence the name of my blog "Countdown to Freedom". And we are going to pay off our debts one by one, I'm so excited for this!
Sometimes I make up my own deals so I will post those as well!
I have 2 tips to get you started if you're a newbie:
Get 2 Sunday papers EVERY Sunday! I get 4 on the first Sunday of every month because there are great coupons usually.
and DON'T GET OVERWHELMED! I know that it can be at first, but once you have enough coupons stocked up and get the hang of putting your lists together it super easy and so much fun savings money. And always remember I'm here to help :)
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