Monday, November 28, 2011

10 Tide bottles for $5!


The CVS deal on Tide this week is AWESOME! It's a good thing Walmart wouldn't take my coupons for the trial sized Tide, otherwise I wouldn't have had any coupons left to take advantage of this deal.

I started with $16.72 ECB from Black Friday and I had 7x$2 Tide coupons and 3x$3 Tide Free coupons. Here are my transactions:

Transaction#1: 3 Tide original and 1 Dawn, $18.70 less $6.50 in coupons = 12.20 subtotal less $11.72 in ECB = 0.47 + 1.64 tax = $2.11

Transaction#2: 2 Tide Free, $11.88 less $6 in coupons = 5.88 subtotal less $4.99 in ECB = 0.89 + 0.95 tax = $1.84, got $10 CVS gift card

Transaction#3: 4 Tide Free, $23.76 less $9 in coupons = 14.76 subtotal less $10 gift card = 4.76 + 2.08 tax = $6.84

Transaction#4: 1 Tide, $5.94 less $2 coupon = $3.94 + 0.52 tax = $4.46, got $10 gift card

So in total I paid $15.25 cash less the $10 gift card, $5.25 out of pocket!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Black Friday Haul

Here are all the stuff I got from Walgreens and CVS. I started with $9 in Register Rewards. After coupons, ECB and Register Rewards received, all of these only cost me $22! I was so anxious at Walgreens because it was the first time I had to do two transactions and with so many products and coupons involved. I was so lucky that the cashier I got was so helpful and pleasant. Two of my $1 CVS store coupons for the Colgate toothpaste did not work because apparently it is a manufacturer's coupon. Slight hiccup, but it was all good because it was still a moneymaker! :D


From top (L-R): LA Times, Scott Naturals Paper Towels, Arm & Hammer laundry detergent, Comet Cleaner, Finish Quantum, $30 in iTunes gift cards, Scunci elastics, Crest 3D White Vivid toothpaste, Colgate Total Advanced toothpaste, Dentek floss picks, Oral B Indicator toothbrush, GUM Deep Clean toothbrushes, Bic Flex 4 razors

I am looking forward to using my ECB for next week's Tide deal at CVS. I might go to CVS and Walgreens again just to get a few more stuff to increase my ECB and Register Rewards. Couponing is so awesome and I can't believe that I used to pay full price for everything!

Freebies 11/22

These are the freebies I got for this week:


From top (L-R): Gold Peak tea 18.5oz, Arrowhead Sparkling Water 1L, Schick Hydro 5, Vicks VapoDrops

The razor was a $4 moneymaker at Walgreens because I got a try for free coupon in the mail which made it free and Wags gave a register reward for the razor. Awesome! :D I wish we lived somewhere without sales tax so I wouldn't have to be out of pocket even if the subtotal is already zero.


Monday, November 21, 2011

Mail time!

Here is a picture of today's mailbox loot:


(L-R): Schick Hydro coupons, Armani Sport Code sample, $2 off Tide coupon, Tom's of Maine toothpaste sample and Eucerin Daily Skin Balance sample

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Walgreens Scenario Black Friday 2011

Out of all the drugstore sales this Black Friday, Walgreens is my favorite one because I get to stock up on stuff that we use lots of. Getting a $10 gift card for buying iTunes credit is awesome because I would have bought it anyway since we have a monthly iTunes budget. Here is my scenario for Black Friday:

Transaction # 1

Crest 3D White Vivid Toothpaste, 4 oz $2.50
Buy 1, Receive $2.50 Register Reward, Limit 1
Use $1.00/1 Crest Toothpaste or liquid gel, 4 oz+ from PG 10/30
Pay $1.50, Receive $2.50 Register Reward
Final Price: $1.00 Moneymaker

Dentek Floss Picks, 75 or 90 pack $2.00
Buy 1, Receive $2.00 Register Reward, Limit 1
Use $0.75/1 Dentek Floss Picks, $2.00 or more from SS 10/23
Pay $1.25, Receive $2.00 Register Reward
Final Price: $0.75 Moneymaker

Bic Flex 4, 3-pack $3.oo
Buy 2, Receive $4.00 Register Reward, Limit 1
Use 2 x $2/1 Bic Razor Coupon
Pay $2.00, Receive $4.00 Register Reward

iTunes gift card pack multipack
Buy 1 pack, get $10 Walgreens gift card
Pay $30.00, Receive $10 Walgreens gift card
Final Price: $20.00

Colgate Total Advanced 4oz, $3.00
Buy 1, Receive $3.00 Register Reward
Use $1/1 Colgate Total Advanced 4oz
Pay $2.00, Receive $3.00 Register Reward
Final Price: $1.00 Moneymaker

Pay $36.75 plus tax and receive $10 gift card and Register Rewards: $2.50, $2.00, $4.00, $3.00.

Transaction #2

Scott Paper Towels x 3, $3.99 On Sale Starting 11/24
Use 3 x $1.00/1 – Scott towels
And use in-ad coupon Walgreens $3.99
Pay $8.97
Final Price: $2.99 each

Buy 1 Arm & Hammer laundry detergent $6.99 on sale, get 2 free
Use $1/3 – Arm & Hammer laundry products
Pay $5.99
Final Price: $1.99 each

Oral-B Indicator Toothbrush $1.50
Buy 1, Receive $1.50 Register Reward, Limit 1
Pay $1.50, get $1.50 Register Reward
Final Price: Free

GUM Deep Clean Toothbrushes, 2 pack $2.00
Buy 1, Receive $2.00 Register Reward, Limit 1
Pay $2.00, get $2.00 RR
Final Price: Free

Scunci No Damage Hair Elastics, 18 pack $1.50
Buy 2, Receive $3.00 Register Reward, Limit 1
Pay $3.00, get $3.00 Register Reward
Final Price: Free

Comet Cleaner, $0.59

Use GC and RR from transaction #1, pay $0.55 plus tax and receive Register Rewards: $1.50, $2.00 and $3.00.

So basically I get $30 in iTunes credit plus $36.55 worth of product for only $30.80! That's just a little over what I would have paid if I just bought the credit directly from iTunes.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Coupon Box vs Coupon Binder

I started using an expandable coupon wallet that I got at the dollar store. It was perfect for my early days as I would only clip coupons that I would find on magazines or catalogues. However when I started to subscribe to my Sunday newspaper, the wallet soon became too limiting in terms of storage and the very few tabs available.

I created a coupon binder using a zipper binder, sheet protector dividers and baseball card sleeves. I think my initial investment on the binder was about $40. I bought quality stuff because I wanted to be able to use it for a long time. However one month in using the binder was really tiresome. It kept falling into the shopping cart and it sort of screamed couponer. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I would just like to go shopping in peace.

After reading about the Coupon Keeper, I wanted to implement something that would suit me better. I did not like filing by categories because it can quickly go out of hand. Like a category for laundry would hold so many coupons and searching for a particular coupon in that category would take too long. I knew that alphabetical was the system for me. I decided to still have two categories, though. Food and Non-food were my categories. Within each category I have tabs for each letter of the alphabet plus an extra one for each "common" letter so that I can divide that letter into two tabs (i.e. A tab for brands starting with A to AJ; AK tab for brands starting with AK to AZ).



I also created tabs for the stores I go to so that I can put store coupons in there. By putting store coupons there I know that when I am in that store I can check the deals in store for the coupons that I have. If I file the store coupons in the letter tab I might not remember that I have that particular coupon. I also put a little bag at the end to keep things like pens, post-its and paper clips. This little bag also keeps my dividers upright.


It was really lucky that I have an old diaper bag that fit my coupon box perfectly. I won't have to take out the box while in store. I can just keep the bag on top of the cart and have my box open. I taped an envelope on the underside of the box lid so that I can put any coupons I want to use in that envelope. When I go to checkout I can just take all the coupons inside the envelope and know that my coupons will match the products that I have.




Yesterday I brought my coupon box (inside the bag) to Target and it was awesome! I didn't have to worry about my binder falling into the child seat in the shopping cart and going through coupons in a divider was a breeze. Having the big bag was great too because all my stuff was just in one bag, unlike with the binder where I was carrying two bags, my handbag and my binder.


Friday, November 11, 2011

My New Obsession!

I have always used coupons for things like diapers, wipes and cereal. I thought it was great that manufacturer's gave out these coupons so us consumers could save. But ever since I saw the first episode of TLC's Extreme Couponing, I have been hooked! I never realized how much savings could be had if you just knew where to buy and when to buy. I used to just use my coupons at whichever store I frequent. I thought that the $1 saving off the full price was awesome. Of course using coupons for stuff that are on sale is even better because you get twice the savings, one from the coupon and the other from the sale. If you're lucky you could even get something for cents or FREE!

To store my coupons I started with an expandable wallet. After a few months I decided to try the binder method because my coupons were getting out of hand, and it was so hard trying to look for coupons using the wallet. Now that I've had the binder for a couple of months, I have been too lazy with cutting my inserts because I dreaded having to stuff the coupons in the baseball card slots. My next project is to come up with a coupon box. Hopefully next week I can find a box that's perfect for me and work on getting even more organized!