January 14, 2008

  • Queuing the Coupons

    I haven’t couponed for a long time. I got to a point where I realized that it was a better use of my time to freelance and earn extra dollars than to cut coupons to save dollars. Also, I long ago quit shopping at the mainstream grocery stores, which often charge triple the price of an Aldi or Big Lots.

    Then, I found the coupon mom blog:
    http://www.couponmom.com/blog/serendipity

    Over my Write@Home students’ break I decided that I had the brain space to try some of coupon mom’s advice. The cool thing that she does is show, by store, how in-store specials coordinate with available coupons. Sometimes, like with CVS’ Extra Care Bucks, you can get items for free with coupons in combination with virtual money back to spend on anything next time you go to CVS. Other times, it shows you how to use a buy one get one free special in combination with two newspaper coupons and get products for pennies.

    Because she blogs and databases it all, I don’t have to bust my noggin comparing all the newspaper coupons with all the newspaper fliers to see who might have the best deal.

    By the way, to see the lists for individual stores with their databases for corresponding offers and coupons, you need to register your name and email address. No fee is required. Then you can access pages like “Rite Aid Deals” or “CVS Special Deals.”

    Last week, I saved over $150 among four different stores. Mind you, this is a savings off the regular retail, which can sometimes be outrageous. This week, I’m using the virtual and rebate dollars that I got back to shop with this week’s coupons. It is fun, and I am stocked up on pain reliever, soup, unmentionable necessities, and shampoo. Woo hoo.

    Oh yeah, and remember having to circle items on receipts, matching rebate numbers with the product names and finding a stamp and envelope? Rite Aid now offers paperless rebates! I know you are excited about this one: Online, you type in the transaction number and dates from your receipt and Rite Aid looks up your receipt in its system and determines what is eligible for cash back. Once you are registered, you just click “Send Me My Check.” Yes, send me my check.

    When I start my freelancing schedule again, I will not have the brain space to do all this, but maybe I will have learned some strategies for more deals. Maybe I can offset the skyrocketing gas prices.

    ||||||  lynard

Comments (5)

  • Hubby and I are the rebate king and queen. Our particular favorites are places like Office Max and Staples. We haven’t paid for our blank CDs or DVDs or matching cases for years. We always wait for the free-with-rebate specials and then go to town. We’ve gotten leather highback desk chairs for $20, USB sticks for free, over a dozen power strips/surge suppressors, and tons of things like pens and paper. We have a “system” for filling out the rebate forms quickly … and places like Staples now have online rebates too, so no forms or stamps there at all.
    I’ll do the coupon thing if it’s at a store I’m visiting anyway, but I don’t go out of my way to hit stores *only* for couponed sales. So, for me, visiting Giant Eagle to use a coupon or two (or twelve) is still more expensive than grocery shopping at Wal-Mart with no coupons at all! (Add on manufacturers’ coupons and Wal-Mart’s even cheaper.)
    For me, time is money, and gas is money, so the fewer places I have to go, the better.

  • I like http://www.moneysavingmom.com for similar reasons, especially for CVS deals. I’ve gotten a TON of stuff there for minimal dollars by timing manuf. coupons with store sales and store coupons. I’ll check out couponmom. Money Saving Mom has a link to couponmom so I guess they “know” each other lol.

  • P.S. http://www.moneysavingmom.com has a great tutorial on learning the CVS system.

  • Austruck: I need to look at the office supply-type stores. Love office supplies! So far, I’ve been concentrating on the drugstores because I don’t have to make special trips to get there. Near me, the Rite Aid is a block away from the CVS, and another Walgreen’s is across the street from a RiteAid.A37icia: I checked out http://www.moneysavingmom.com tutorials and found them very helpful. The idea of rolling over Extra Care Bucks at CVS or Register Rewards at Walgreen’s is more sophisticated than meets the eye. I would never have known that the order in which you hand the cashier was important, depending on the store, for instance. Doing it right gets you a lot more free stuff… |||||| lynard

  • You posting are wonderful and informative.Straight talk coupons

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