$1 Boston Market Meal Deal!

All week, ends 11/1, Boston Market is offering $1 meals.

Choose from 3pc dark or 1/4 white chicken plus mashed potatoes and a biscuit. Some are letting you choose any side. Offer good at participating Boston Market locations. REALLY, it's only $1! You could feed your whole family for under $5! (Depending on the size of your family. LOL)

You have to print a coupon from this site: http://www.bostonmarket.com/restaurant?page=coupons. After your coupon prints, print it again! Enjoy! The site does take a while to load. 

Love,
Sarah

Coupons 101 - Tip # 3 The BOGO Sale

Ok, so I'm sure you've heard the term "BOGO" a lot; on t.v., in advertising, people talking, etc. BOGO stands for "Buy One, Get One (free/half-off, etc)". It's usually "buy one get one free". The great thing is, if your store offers this, you can use up to four, yes I sad FOUR coupons on two items.

Let's start with an easy one:

Last week at Publix, Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Pasta was BOGO (free). They are normally $1.79 per box. So, I would have paid $1.79 for two boxes, instead of just one. Well, there just happened to be a $1.00 off 2 coupon printable on the internet. This would make two boxes cost $0.79! I don't know if you've seen better, but $0.40 for a box of whole wheat pasta is pretty darn good! I just happened to have 6 of these coupons, so I was able to get 12 different boxes for $4.74! Normally, 12 boxes would have cost me $21.48! That's a savings of $16.74 or 78%!

Ok. Now, here's how you can use four coupons on two items (pretty sure most grocery stores will do this, but you'd have to check with your store).

If you notice something on sale for BOGO, that you have coupons for, check to see if the store's advertisements have coupons on the same item.

There's an internet printable right now for $2 off Tylenol 8-hour. Publix has a coupon for any Tylenol product for $3 off. If Tylenol were to go on sale BOGO at Publix, I could use 2 printable coupons (MQ) and 2 Publix (store) coupons. This would give me a total of $10 off! I'm sure that one bottle of Tylenol is NOT $10, so, I would actually MAKE money by using all these coupons. Now, I haven't actually gotten to do this at my normal grocery store (nothing has been BOGO that I have all those Q's for, but it's definitely a possibility), but I have used 2 coupons (1 manufacturer coupon & 1 store coupon) for lots of items!

The BOGO FREEbie!

Ok, now I've only been able to do this at Kmart during Double Days, because that's the ONLY time Florida doubles coupons! Ugh! However, for those of you North of Florida, you should check with your store if they double coupons and which days. My dad said some stores even have TRIPLE days! (I've heard that some stores don't advertise these, so you do have to ask.) Anyways...during Kmart Double Days, I had a coupon for BOGO Hershey's Bliss chocolate bars. Now, they double coupons valued up to $2.00. So, a Hershey's bliss bar was around $1.00. (I still don't quite understand how this works, but apparently it does). Anyways, the register charged $1.00 for the first one, and $1.00 for the second one. Then, my coupon was for BOGO (the cashier has to manually type in the price of the item), since it was double days, the coupon doubled the $1.00 to $2.00 and I got both bars FREE! I'm hoping this will work with toothbrushes soon at Publix. We always need toothbrushes. =)

So, whenever there's an item that I use often on sale BOGO, I dig out all my coupons, check the internet for printables, and head over to Publix to stock up!

It's amazing, with coupons, you can go back to buying name brand stuff, often for less than store products!

Love,

Sarah

Monday Mailbox Madness - 10/19 - 10/25

This was another GREAT week for mail!

*Sample of Curel lotion and coupons.

*Sample of Philosophy lotion and coupon

* Different samples of Tampons - 3 in each box

*Bealls 20% off coupons

*Old Navy 30% off coupon

*TWO $10 of off $50 Office Depot coupons

*Full size sample of Olay Pro-X lotion

*Publix Baby Club newsletter and store coupons

Still waiting on some other exciting freebies/cheapies that I ordered!

What was in your mailbox?

Love,

Sarh

FREE Snuggie Blanket! Act quick!

Click HERE to get a FREE, yes FREE Snuggie blanket! You don't even have to pay S&H!

Info from STL Mommy!

Monday Mailbox Madness

So, I've decided to move this part of the Cooking with Cents to this blog because I'm writing more coupon related stuff on here.

Here's what I got from 10-11 to 10-18:

*Coupon for a FREE 5-lb bag of Eukanuba Dog Food
*Trial Size of Clinical Secret Deoderant and five $2.00 off coupons!
*Trial of Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal with $0.75 off coupon!
*Costco coupon book
*Dove Dimensions mini-mag with four high-value ($1+) coupons!

I get most of these coupons and such by signing up for manufacturer's websites, trial and survey websites, and emailing the manufacturer. I also find out about a lot of these free trials through the blogs I read!

Here's what I did...I set up a "junk" email account, i.e. abccoupons@email.com. That way, when I sign up for things, the junk email I know will come along with signing up for something, WON'T flood my normal email. All my emails come to my phone, so when I check my email accounts, it's really easy to go to the "coupon" email and delete ALL the emails. I do weed through them a little. Just in case one is an actual coupon (sometimes Manufacturer's/companies will email you a coupon instead of mailing it).

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Love,

Sarah

PUBLIX Candy Deal - Just in time for Halloween!! - Ends Wednesday!

There are 2 great candy printables on Coupons.com! One is for Nestle Candy (Crunch, Baby Ruth, Butterfinger) which is BOGO at Publix until Wednesday! This makes each bag only $1! You can print 2 of these from each computer you own!

here's the scenario:

Buy 2 packs of Nestle Candy - BOGO $5.99
Use two $2/1 coupons: -$4.00
TOTAL COST: $1.99! Each bag is only $1.00

There's also a $2/1 for any Wonka Candy, so be sure to print that one too and hold on to it! Who knows what good deals you could get next week with it!

Enjoy!

Love,

Sarah

Blogs I Read

Ok, so there are a couple of blogs that I read every day. I signed up for their emails, so if I see something I really like, then I know to check it. Unfortunately, they send the emails late at night, and sometimes you miss a "great deal". But, I try to get on and read them every morning, then I check back during the day during lunch, naps, nursing, etc. I only read these 2 daily:

http://www.mymilitarymommy.com/
http://www.stlmommy.com/

I also recieve emails from http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/. But, I only read hers when I see something REALLY interesting in the emails. I find their site a little overwhelming.
Then, there's http://www.iheartpublix.com/. I get her emails, but only read her site on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, in order to plan my weekly Publix trip. She gives you the BOGOs and sales at Publix a couple of days early, so I can prepare what I'm going to buy before the new BOGO sale each Thursday (down here they run from Thursday - Wednesday). However, if she finds a GREAT deal, and I see it in an email, I will definitely check her site right after I read the email.

Usually, you can print coupons from most of these sites, as well as having match-ups. You can print 2 of each coupon for every computer you have.

Hope this helps!

Of course, you can read and subscribe to my blogs as well. I'm not great at updating them daily, but I'm trying! They are http://www.cookingwithcents.blogspot.com/ (cooking blog) and http://www.dymondfamily2001.blogspot.com/ (family/business/couponing blog).

Love you all!

Love,

Sarah

Coupons 101 - Tip # 2 - Coupon Lingo

Here are some of the abbreviations for terms frequently used with couponing. I will definitely be abbreviating when writing about couponing!

•SS –Smart Source insert
•RP –Red Plum insert
•P&G –Procter & Gamble saver insert
•B1G1 -Buy one, get one free
•CAT- Catalina Coupon
•EX - expires on
•GC- Gift Card
•MFR -Manufacturer Coupon
•MIR -Mail in Rebate
•MM- Money Maker
•OOP -Out Of Pocket
•Peelie- Coupon peeled off product itself
•RR- Register Rewards (Walgreens)
•SC –Store Coupon
•WYB –When You Buy
•YMMV-Your Mileage May Vary (a generic term for "It worked for me, may not work for you")

Coupons 101 - Tip # 1 - What is a coupon & where can I get them?

What is a coupon?

From Wikipedia:

In marketing a coupon is a ticket or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods or by retailers, to be used in retail stores as a part of sales promotions. They are often widely distributed through mail, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and mobile devices such as cell phones.


HERE's a link to how coupons work!
Where can I get them?

Copied and edited from several blogs I read:

NEWSPAPER ~ You could sign up to receive your local newspaper on Sundays only. (I didn't even know you could do that!) It's fairly inexpensive to do it this way, especially considering the savings I will be getting. Each Sunday there are 1, 2 or sometimes even 3 coupon inserts. I try to wait for Sundays, to look through my mom's paper, but if I'm not going to be there early enough, I will just go ahead and buy 1. Sometimes I take my time and look through the "preview" on other blogs, which will tell me if it's going to be worth it to me or not.

i.e. I know that tomorrow there will be a $1 off any CoverGirl cosmetic. I also have a PUBLIX $2 off CoverGirl coupon. That makes the CoverGirl $2.99 eyeshadow completely free! If I get 8 of these, I can then apply for the Proctor & Gamble Breast Cancer Awareness cooking kit for FREE! So, basically for the cost of the papers, I will get 8 eyeshadows (donate or save for gifts), 8 sets of coupon inserts (with more savings) and a FREE cooking kit!

****ETA (edited to add): Several dollar stores sell the Sunday newspaper for, yup, you guessed it, $1.00! For me, that's excellent, because our local Sunday paper is $2.00! All I want are the coupons, so I end up with a TON of recycling. LOL. Anyways, I can get 2 for the price of one! Which is great for me because if I know there will be good coupons in the upcoming paper, I can buy 8 papers for the price of 4! (Yes, I generally buy about 4 papers, except on BIG holiday weekends when there are NO inserts!)****
ONLINE ~ There are many websites that offer FREE printable coupons, but these are the ones that I've found, so far, to be the best. Also, keep in mind that some stores do not accept printed coupons. I've already checked in my area and every store where I live does. There are plenty more sites, but I'm trying to save myself time by going to the best ones. I will definitely be adding to this list more as I do more research.

http://www.coupons.com/
http://www.redplum.com/
http://www.smartsource.com/
http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/
http://www.afullcup.com/

EBAY ~ Yes, I just said EBAY! There are tons of grocery coupons for sale there. Now, it is against the law for people to actually sell coupons, but they can charge a fee for their time to clip them. I've never done this, and don't plan on it. But, I've read about people that do! And I bet for Kmart Double Days, this would be a great idea!

STORE ADVERTISEMENTS ~ Lots of times there are coupons in the different advertisements for different stores (ie. Target, Walgreens, Rite Aid, etc.). You would find these in the mail, in the newspaper or at the actual store. Also, a few places post coupons online. Target is a good one to check out for coupons online. Some stores will take competitor coupons. My Publix will take Winn-Dixie coupons, which is great because I get $10 off $50 coupons from Winn-Dixie all the time. They may also price match any sale in our area.

MANUFACTURE'S WEBSITES ~ If there are some specific brand names that you like, go to their website and sometimes you might be surprised to find a coupon right there. You could also, email the company and tell them how much you love their product and see if they might send you something special. I've gotten several coupons from my favorite product's websites.
THE MAIL ~ I was pleasantly surpised to find a bunch of grocery coupons in my mail just this weekend! In the past, I've considered these junk and would have tossed them, but now how could I? It's like money in my pocket that I would be throwing in the trash! I open EVERY envelope now! This past week I got an envelope from SC Johnson, and would normally have thrown it away. I opened it to find a little coupon booklet, with a couple of really great coupons!

PRODUCT PACKAGING ~ I was amazed to find coupons already in my pantry! Some companies put coupons right on the packaging of the food items that you already use.

MAGAZINES ~ I'm not talking about coupon magazines. I'm talking about regular old magazines (ie. Everyday w/ Rachael Ray, Family Fun, Country Living, etc.).

STORE SHELVES ~ A lot of times, you will walk right past a coupon in your grocery store! They have machines that spit out coupons attached right to the shelves! Also, I've found coupons before that someone has actually left on the shelf because they didn't need it! (I call those the coupon fairies!!)
Wow, that is a lot of places to find coupons! Just think, that I've been throwing away all of these things all these years! I am seeing coupons in a whole new light these days. They are like free money.

Do you have any coupon resources that I haven't already mentioned here? I would love to hear 'em!

Publix Yogurt Deal

Now, I'm really NOT picky when it comes to yogurt! As long as I have strawberry, I don't care what brand.

Anyways, Fiber One yogurt is BOGO at Publix this week, making it $2.50/2. Go HERE to print two, $1.25 off coupons to get 8 yogurts completely FREE! If you have 2 or more computers, double it by printing 2 coupons from each computer! We will get 16 yogurts (4 packs of 4) from this deal!!

If you only have 1 computer, but want to buy more than 2 packs of yogurt, go HERE to print two $1.00 off coupons, making each pack of yogurt $0.25!

Love,

Sarah

Awesome Diaper Coupons!!!

Ok, so, I know that some people are picky about brands, BUT, that's the #1 thing you have to let go of if you are going to coupon! Thankfully, when it comes to diapers, I could care less, as long as they are cheap!

BTW, the BEST places to use these coupons would be either Walmart (cheaper prices) or Target (you can stack these with a Target Store coupon!). You can also stack these with any other "store" coupon! AND ALWAYS buy the smallest package available to get the best bang for your buck!
Ok, so here are the coupons:

Go HERE for a $2 off Huggies coupon! This is a PDF coupon, so there's NO LIMIT for printing! Woo-hoo! This one expires 12/31/09!

Go HERE for another $2 off Huggies coupon! (This one may be on any product and can be printed twice!)

HERE's another $2 off Huggies coupon! (This one may be on any product and can be printed twice!)

Go to Luvs.com, and sign up for their Diaper Network. Then, on the right-hand side, there will be a box to check. It says "Check here for your two $2.50 money saving coupons!" (or something very similar). Make sure to check that box and save your information! (The only thing that stinks with Luv's, is that they will mail you the coupon, so it takes 4-6 weeks). These can also be stacked with store coupons!

Go HERE for a $2.00 off Pull-Ups coupon!

Don't forget to fill out your Caregiver's Marketplace form when you buy Huggies or Pull-ups! You can earn $0.75 back for every pack of Huggies you buy (as well as other products). Check it out!

Awesome Diaper Deal from KMart Double Days Last Week

Awesome Diaper Deal!

Ok, so, I'll explain about KMart Double Days in my next post, for now, I'm going to explain the diaper addiction above! LOL.

Anyways, one of the bloggers that I read daily, STL Mommy posted a way to get Huggies brand diapers for just $0.08 per diaper! Now, if you don't have kids, you won't know, but $0.08 a diaper is an INSANE deal! I normally buy Luv's diapers at BJ's Wholesale (a warehouse store like Costco), as they are the most reasonable at $0.17 per diaper. (Huggies usually run around $0.24 - $0.29 per diaper!)

Anyways, here's what I did. I purchased five packages of Huggies diapers for $9.99 each (total of $49.95), then I bought another specific product (they were running a special), to bring my total to just over $50. I then used five $2.00 off Huggies coupons, which double to $4.00 off because of double days. This brings my total down to about $29.42 with tax. So, I pay OOP (out-of-pocket), $29.42. Then, the register prints out a $12 off my next order coupon. When you factor that in to the $29.42, it comes out to $17.42. That's $3.48 per pack of Huggies (with taxes)! Which comes out to about $0.11 per diaper!

When I got home, I filled out a form for Caregiver's Marketplace. They will send me a check for $0.75 for each pack of diapers that I buy, making each pack $2.73! Now, Westley wears size 4 diapers, and there are either 27 or 31 in the pack, depending on the type of Huggies diaper. If it's the 31 -pack, the diapers are $0.09 each! Smaller size packs have more diapers, making each individual diaper less!

Needless to say, I bought 20 packs of diapers! I used two of my $12 coupons towards packages of Luv's diapers, which gave me 104 MORE diapers, basically for free! The other two $12 off coupons, I used towards dog food and other purchases (see pictures below).

There should have been one more picture of the last set of diapers (that my parents went special to Kmart for me to get! Those of you who know my family, can you picture my dad buying all these diapers with coupons and having to make sure that the right coupon gets picked. LOL.)

So, all in all, For the days that I went to Kmart for diapers, I spent a total of: $144.44. I got 22 packs of diapers, a total of: 664 diapers! If you factor in the $15 I will recieve back from Caregiver's marketplace, that makes it $129.44. Then, factor in the two $12 coupons I used towards other things, makes it $105.44. Then, subtract the $6 for the Halloween candy I bought for my mom, brings it to $99.44. That paid for 22 packs of diapers, and all the other stuff in the pictures above! Some of the other items were:

18 pounds of dog food

6 bags of Halloween Candy

4 boxes Special K Cereal

2 Special K crackers

3 Wheat Thins

3 boxes A&H Dryer Sheets

40 Bic Razors (four 10-packs)

Huggies wipes

And lots of other stuff!

If I was ONLY paying for the diapers, my total (after taxes) would have been as follows: $212.79 - four $5 off coupons= $192.79 - four $12 off next purchase coupons = $144.79 - 20 $2.00 off coupons (which actually doubled to $4 off each) = $64.79 - $15 rebate checks I will receive from Caregiver's Marketplace = $49.79 for 664 diapers! That makes all the diapers $0.08 per diaper!! Woo-hoo! 1 box of Luv's from BJ's gives me 180 diapers for $29.99: about $0.17 per diaper.

Anyways, that was a LOT of figuring out. I am sooo excited!

Keep checking back for more great deals, and for Couponing 101!

Love,

Sarah