Something that works well for us is putting our grocery shopping list on the fridge. Below is a picture of the magnet that I taped onto the back of the notepad. This works for us because it’s simple and easy to add things to the list when we run out of something. I then look for deals on the items we need to buy soon.
When I actually go to the grocery store, I find it helpful to take a picture of the list with my camera phone. That way I know I won’t forget it.
This would have been a better picture if all 6 of the mostly used toothpaste tubes I found around my house had made it into the picture. I would like to mention that with these almost empty tubes of toothpaste you could no longer squeeze any toothpaste out of them and yet I hadn’t wanted to throw them away. When we “ran out” of toothpaste around the first of the this new year I decided that I wasn’t going to buy anymore until we had used them up.
My mother had shown me that if you cut open an “empty” tube of toothpaste you will still have several days of toothpaste left inside. Now I realize that this didn’t save us a huge amount of money but for two people we were able to wait another week before having to go to the store to buy toothpaste.
I haven’t found any great coupon deals on toothpaste recently so we didn’t have any stocked up. I find that when you have a coupon stockpile of items it is almost too easy to grab a new bottle of something when you are almost out of the last one without fully using it up. In another example, I recently dropped and broke the corner of a new bottle of body wash. Instead of throwing it away I put the remaining body wash into an empty conditioner bottle and have been able to use it. For me these little projects are more about not wasting than saving money. Yes, I did feel a little odd cutting open tubes of toothpaste even though I knew I was doing this by choice instead of desperation. Why would I feel that way when I should feel smart instead? Because in America we take things for granted and I don’t want to take things for granted that many people wish they had access to. When I did eventually buy toothpaste I used a free gift card. I like to think that now when we use our new tube of toothpaste we’re a little more grateful than we would have been.
I got a phone call from a friend today, who also happens to read this blog, who shared with me a couple of really great deals she got while shopping! The first is the shirt in the picture above. She needed a Christmas shirt and had a Free $10 Kohl’s cash to spend. She found this shirt in clearance for $8 so she got it for free!
Then she was Christmas shopping for an electronic item and found it for $100. She decided to also check at Big Lots and found the exact same item for $75! Now that’s the way to go Christmas Shopping!
I got a big surprise on Saturday night when I found out that CVS was starting most of their Black Friday Sale on Sunday instead of Thanksgiving night like last year(Click HERE to see my deals from last year). I was very excited with what I got! So excited, in fact, that I went to two stores.
HOW TO QUICKLY AND EASILY SET UP YOUR TRANSACTIONS TO SAVE THE MOST MONEY-
I’m not going to list out how I did my individual transactions, because it would take forever and it wouldn’t help you anyway. Each store will have slightly different items in stock so planning transactions ahead of time would just be a waste of time. There is however a quick and painless method for setting up your transactions in the store so that you save the most money.
1. Go through the store and collect all of the items you wish to purchase (most stores have many items gathered in the front so check there first so you don’t run through the store if you don’t have to)
2. Gather the items that you are getting free/almost free after coupons but will receive back a profit of ECBs (store dollars). For example, the command hooks are $1 and there is a $1 off coupon so the item will be free but you will still receive $1 ECBs. Starbucks Refreshers, Glade Plugins Scented Oil Warmer, and Children’s Advil all have deals where you will receive a nice profit in ECBs. This will be your first transaction. For this first transaction you will pay very little out of pocket and you will receive your profit in ECBs.
Note- If you don’t have coupons for any of the items just start by buying around $6 or $9 worth of items depending on how many transactions you want to do.
3. See how many ECBs you now have. For Example you may now have $9 in ECBs so put your items into groups of $9 and then pay for each transaction with the ECBs from the previous transaction. This is called rolling ECBs. It will keep your out of pocket costs as low as possible. Some of my transactions today were free, most were paid with coin change.
4. Buy the higher priced items first until you are left with all of the dollar items. These are the easiest to break into transactions.
Store One-
Spent- $7.47
Saved- $49.17
ECBs (CVS store dollars) left over- $9.50
That’s Like getting paid $2 to buy all of this stuff!
# of Transactions- 5
Store Two-
Spent- $2.45
Saved- $49.68
ECBs (CVS store dollars) left over- $7
That’s Like getting paid $4.50 to buy all of this stuff!
# of Transactions- 6
The Carmex, Somnapure and Command items all came with additional coupons so take a look because you might be able to use these.
If you didn’t make it in time to score a deal you really wanted don’t worry. Unlike last year, CVS is issuing rain checks for items they are out of. Remember these never expire so if there is something you think you might use it can’t hurt to ask. They know people are going to ask for these so in some cases they have them pre-written.
If you would like to see the coupon match ups for these deals and other Southernsavers.com and Couponaholic.net both did a great job of putting lists together.
I’m a huge fan of the show Hoarders but ever time I find myself holding onto something that “might be useful eventually” I think about the show and reconsider throwing it out! A couple things that I’m glad I saved are our old large coffee containers. They are really sturdy and I’ve found that they are great for storing baking ingredients. I wanted to put my sugar and flour in sturdier containers than the paper bags they came in, especially ones that sealed tightly and could be easily opened and closed. The best part is I didn’t have to buy them!
Recently, I keep hearing the same thing “I want to coupon but I don’t have the time.” I have been couponing for enough time now that I have a system set up that I think is fairly quick. It reminded me of an article I wrote for this blog called
Click the link above to read the article.
I would also love to hear your ideas for how you save time and coupon as quickly as possible. If you want to share please leave a comment below 🙂
I love the month of October for many reasons, but it also happens to be my birthday month! This year at at the beginning of the month I did something that I have always wanted to do. I signed up for all of our local restaurants e-mail/mail lists to see how much free stuff I could get. I made sure to do this a few weeks before my actual birthday to make sure I would be in their systems in time. I have been really surprised by all of the stuff I have gotten so far (I didn’t even print all of the deals for the picture above) and it isn’t even my birthday yet. Denny’s was the only one that had to be used on my actual birthday for most of these deals I had a week or two to use the coupons.
Note- It is considered VERY rude not to tip on the pre-coupon or pre-gift card total of your bill so please keep in mind that you will still have to tip even if your bill is zero, you are still taking up your server’s table, time and energy when you go out to eat and they have to make a living too.
I signed up for-
– Ruby Tuesday- A Coupon for a Free Burger and a B1G1 Free Coupon for joining
– I-Hop- A Free Birthday Meal and another free meal for joining, the waitress also told us that if I had a coupon and my boyfriend had a coupon (with different names on them) then we could use both of them at the same time but you may want to check with you I-Hop location first
– Denny’s- A Free Birthday Meal (Only on my actual birthday with ID, I don’t know if this was even a coupon or if you can just show up with your ID) and a 20% off the entire check coupon for joining
– Moe’s- Free Queso for joining and a free birthday meal
– Logan’s Roadhouse- A Free Small desert with purchase of an adult meal and a $5 off of a $20 purchase coupon
– Rita’s Italian Ice- A B1G1 Free Coupon for joining and a free italian ice for my bday
– Zaxby’s- They said they would be mailing me something but I haven’t gotten it yet
– Steak and Shake- Nothing yet
What I was already signed up for-
– Victoria Secret (I have their card with a zero balance of course)- A Free $10 gift card
– Sundown Naturals- A $1 off printable coupon
– Panera – A Free Sweet or Pastry with their free reward card (Good for 60 days)
– Texas Roadhouse- Free Appetizer for joining, nothing for my bday yet
– Redbox- A Free Movie Rental Code good for my bday and about two weeks after
– Swagbucks.com- 50 free Swagbucks for my birthday! I did have to confirm the e-mail to get them.
Note- I will continue to update this list if I get more stuff!
Thanks to Heyitsfree.net for their really awesome list of birthday freebies that made this so much easier!
What Free stuff have you received for your birthday? Leave a Comment Below!
All You Magazine made this infographic about how long your food is good for in the freezer and fridge. While I don’t agree with them on everything I did especially find the freezer section interesting. There is no “Safe to Freeze Until” date on frozen foods so sometimes I throw things out (being cautious) when we probably could have eaten them.
Thanks, Daily Savings from All You
One thing I love to do with my surplus coupon stash is to make gift baskets. Although I didn’t do a great job photographing it, this is a small gift basket I made for some friends of our when they moved into a new place. Most of the items in it are practical- shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, body wash, razors, comet, hand cream, soap, and a bunch of other items. When you first move, practical personal care and cleaning items can be especially helpful. I also like to give these to people as practical holiday gifts or if I want to help someone out. It cost me almost nothing and my friends told me that they really liked their gift and that they already used almost everything in it.
Recently cashiers at both CVS stores by my house randomly told me that they are now accepting expired Extra Care Bucks (CVS Store Dollars). I thought that was great because I was having a very busy month and did very little CVS couponing. However, a few days ago I went back to CVS to spend $2 ECBs that had expired about a month ago and I was told that while they did take them, a month was too long. They will take them expired but they still want you to be within two weeks of the expiration date. Good to know. If only they had told me that the first time…
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