Several of the blogs I read offer match ups. Match ups are when the blogger looks at the ad and has knowledge of their own coupon inventory or coupons that are available from other sources. One website that almost every one checks is the Sunday preview.
I don't know how this website gets it's sources but they are usually right depending on which insert you actually get. Metro news papers differ from suburban news papers, thus the reason why I started buying different papers other then just my local paper.
Bloggers live all over the us, and some even in Canada. The cost of living is different in other cities as well so when you read a blogger's coupon match up you have to take into consideration where they are coming from. I am lucky enough to live in a state that doesn't pay sales tax so if I were to do a match up it would be slightly different then other places. Also some locations price differently based on the local area so if I read a blog from say Portland which is 100 miles away from me, some of our deals will not match up exactly either.
Bloggers tend to give you a key to read their match ups as well. once you get the key down it isn't all gibberish but it still is a bit to keep track of so I have taken to glance at their match ups and then go to the stores web site (say Walgreens for instance) and check the ad myself for my area so that I can figure out what will work for me.
Basically in short, what I am saying is go ahead and read the match ups but also do your own research, maybe you will catch something they didn't!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
My day at Target
Well today was an interesting shopping trip to Target. I am going to do this a bit differently then I normal do my "haul" posts. As much as us new couponers have been getting a bad rep (don't steal inserts, don't clear shelves!) there are some cashiers who just do not like couponers period. I have been a cashier, I knew cashiers who were couponers. Yes, it takes a couple extra minutes to go over the coupons and ring them in. Yes, sometimes you have to manually key in the coupon if the printable coupon does not scan. And us NICE new couponers, will be patient and promise not to jump your tail end over every little coupon. If my coupon doesn't work I am ok with that, i will even put the item back FOR YOU.
(sigh) sorry ok little rant is over, needless to say I had a not so nice/smart cashier today at Target. Here is how my transaction should have gone. ( I do want to say that this is a good thing and a bad thing before I start this 'should have been' scenario and you will see why when i tell you what really happened.)
So as some of you may have noticed, I like going to Target now because you can stack a Target printable coupon with a manufacturers coupon.
I started out in the food section, my target is not a super target yet, so they have a very small food section. I printed out the new coupon from coupons.com for buy 3 pop tarts save $2.00, Target also had new coupons today that included a $1 off of three boxes.
(sigh) sorry ok little rant is over, needless to say I had a not so nice/smart cashier today at Target. Here is how my transaction should have gone. ( I do want to say that this is a good thing and a bad thing before I start this 'should have been' scenario and you will see why when i tell you what really happened.)
So as some of you may have noticed, I like going to Target now because you can stack a Target printable coupon with a manufacturers coupon.
I started out in the food section, my target is not a super target yet, so they have a very small food section. I printed out the new coupon from coupons.com for buy 3 pop tarts save $2.00, Target also had new coupons today that included a $1 off of three boxes.
I had two of each coupon, so 6 boxes of pop tarts...yum!
6@ 2.65 ea = 15.90 - $6 = 9.90, or 1.65 a box.
Then I had 3 Hershey's chocolate bars from last Sunday's paper. $1 off of 2 pkgs. A while back I had printed the target coupon for .50 cents off of 1.
So I bought 6
6@ $2.49 ea = 14.94 - 3.50 = 11.44, or approx 1.91 a package
Target also has there back to school displays already started...my daughter just got out of school 3 weeks ago! However they had some great coupons for back to school at Target.com
Besides they had composition books for .25 cents, I got these really great deals
(whoa wow, I just realized that my not so nice cashier nor myself realized that I got the wrong pencils!)
Paper mate products, for 1.09 . $1 off target printable makes it .09 cents!
Bic writing utensils .99 cents each, I decided to be nice and buy 2. so original price was 1.98 - $1 target printable = .98 for 2
Sharpie permanent marker, original price 1.54 - $1 target printable = .54!
Then I needed to get storage bags...
These were on sale for $2.99 and yes I had $1 off target printable for this too so my total was 1.99 :)
(some locations you might be lucky enough not to have a peelie stealer and be able to get this down just a little bit more.)
... and to top off my shopping trip I needed dog food, Target had Kibbles and Bits on sale for 11.49...no coupon for this one, it was just a good deal :)
So the right way that my transaction should have gone. My 8 year old daughter would hand the coupons to the cashier who would say thank you and then would begin to ring up our transactions.
Here is how it should have came out: 21.34 in food stamps and 15.34 out of pocket, total = 36.68. Thank you and have a nice day :)
............................ Instead this is how my transaction really went.
-My daughter was making sure she had all the coupons when the lady held out her hand for them and put them on the counter.
-The lady rang up our order and then went to look at the coupons. She rubbed one printable coupon up against the scanner with force and says "These printable coupons never work, they are such a pain in the butt."
- Then instead of keying in the coupon sku she uses a master code to take off the coupon amount...of all the coupons!
Food Stamp balance, $27.84. Out of pocket cost $9.74 , total cost 37.58 (the main discrepancy being that I did not get the paper mate pencils, I accidentally bought the bic pencils which are 1.99)
Now like I said this is a good thing and a bad thing. It's a bad thing because the cashier did not do her job correctly...at all! She should be courteous to all patrons, check the coupons with the products and use the correct coupon codes, then we would have approx 5 more dollars on our food stamps.
However since she did not do her job correctly I do not feel bad that we only paid 9.74 for a big bag of dog food, storage bags and school supplies. What have you found out about cashiers when you use coupons? Have a safe and happy Fourth of July
Friday, July 1, 2011
Printable coupons, where to find them and more!
Being the first of the month, this is the best time to print out your monthly coupons. Now granted they add coupons to most sights throughout the month but a lot of them reset at the beginning of the month.
A little advice on printing coupons. Most sights will only allow you to print a coupon twice from a computer. Extreme couponers have several coupons, since I am just starting out I have my house computer and my little notebook laptop computer. So once I have gone through and printed all the ones I want off of my home computer I unhook my printer ( it would be nicer if I had a wireless printer, I just turned one down last weekend, now I wish I didn't) and print the same coupons from my notebook. I have found that the more coupons you have the more you seem to save.
The best source for online coupons is Coupons.com
A little advice on printing coupons. Most sights will only allow you to print a coupon twice from a computer. Extreme couponers have several coupons, since I am just starting out I have my house computer and my little notebook laptop computer. So once I have gone through and printed all the ones I want off of my home computer I unhook my printer ( it would be nicer if I had a wireless printer, I just turned one down last weekend, now I wish I didn't) and print the same coupons from my notebook. I have found that the more coupons you have the more you seem to save.
The best source for online coupons is Coupons.com
Another great source for printable coupons is the Grocery Coupon Network
There are other sites like this one that will allow you to load coupons onto your savings card, but to be honest I haven't tried a lot of them but I hope to soon.
The other two good ones are Smart source and Red Plum... these are the same that bring you the inserts in the Sunday papers :)
I might have mentioned it before but another favorite tip of mine is that there are store out there that will let you combine a manufacturers coupon with a store coupon. My favorite being target. You can get target coupons here!
The new stipulation for this type of coupon stacking is that you can not use two bogo (buy one get one ) coupons...however ask other stores , the last one I heard was that Walgreen's will allow you to do this, therefore getting the item free, but do not quote me on that.
On a side note, I know that some family members of mine are traveling this holiday weekend so i want to say to you as well as them, Be Safe and have a great 4th.
Day 26...
I am very very sorry for my absence, like I said in my previous blog I got a visit from the mean old bill fairy who turned off my Internet because I was behind in payments. Something i do intend to work on. Also, I needed to write my research paper for Law an Ethics, so ethically that was more important then my blog, but I can catch you up over the last 2 weeks.
Like I have said before I do not do much couponing during the week in between school and the family it is a bit hard. So last Saturday (June 25th) I stayed up until 5 am writing my research paper. As the sun started to come up I thought to myself, " I better get a couple of hours of sleep if I intend on getting my coupons and going shopping." I set my alarm for 7 am.
I was still a bit tired when the alarm went off so I asked my husband to go get my papers. He was able to get my 2 local papers but when he asked about The Oregonian ( Portland Oregon's newspaper, usually has better regional ads) they were already completely out of them. I was really disappointed. So my sweet understanding husband (not the one that is sometimes clueless about my needs[ :) ] ) decided to take me all over town searching desperately for an Oregonian. We went clear across Eugene and Springfield and out to the rural town of Veneta , one way is about 20 miles. No luck. So lesson learned, we will get up at 6 am every Sunday to get the paper.
So as far as the world of couponing that should catch you up. now I will write my advice blogs :)
Like I have said before I do not do much couponing during the week in between school and the family it is a bit hard. So last Saturday (June 25th) I stayed up until 5 am writing my research paper. As the sun started to come up I thought to myself, " I better get a couple of hours of sleep if I intend on getting my coupons and going shopping." I set my alarm for 7 am.
I was still a bit tired when the alarm went off so I asked my husband to go get my papers. He was able to get my 2 local papers but when he asked about The Oregonian ( Portland Oregon's newspaper, usually has better regional ads) they were already completely out of them. I was really disappointed. So my sweet understanding husband (not the one that is sometimes clueless about my needs[ :) ] ) decided to take me all over town searching desperately for an Oregonian. We went clear across Eugene and Springfield and out to the rural town of Veneta , one way is about 20 miles. No luck. So lesson learned, we will get up at 6 am every Sunday to get the paper.
So as far as the world of couponing that should catch you up. now I will write my advice blogs :)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
just saying....
Hey everyone, thanks for bearing with me. I got a visit from the overdue fairy and they turned off my Internet (thus the reason why I am writing this quick blog from a school computer...got to love college!) but it should be on again soon. Thank you everyone for still reading I have still so much to share and am thinking about doing a Wednesday Wellness post to blog my healthy couponing/life choice for the week. I will post a lot when I get back up and running. Again thank you everyone!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Being fair!
Day 9
Maybe it comes down to morals, or maybe I have just been paying too much attention to my law and ethics class this term, but some people are down right mean!
So as I have said I have been couponing for a little over a month before I started this blog. One thing I found out quickly is that there are mean shelf clearers in my area.
That I feel is not right! If you have a coupon for the product and you want to combine it with a peelie buy the product, don't take the peelie off a product you are not buying just because you like the savings!
Well here is my last pet peeve. I decided because of people like these I would wake up early yesterday and get the garnier deal at Albertsons (buy 2 garnier shampoo or conditioners - makes them 2.50 each. use 2 printable 1.00 off garnier coupon and the Albertsons twice the value coupon makes the final price .50 cents each). So I walked down to the store at 7 am. I bought 2 local papers from the cashier and went to look for my twice the value coupons. I had planned on buying the shampoo and conditioner and some cat food. I had no problem finding the albertsons ad so I grabbed the shampoo and conditioner but when I headed down the pet isle I realized that I still couldn't afford the cat food I had a coupon for so I went to look through my papers I realized that someone had taken the smart source and red plum coupons! Pouting I walked up to the cashier who was looking at a paper himself when I walked up and began my transaction.
"Really quick, can you check that paper and see if there are any red plum and smart source coupons in there, mine didn't have any." I said
" I was just wondering about that myself, " he said. "Another lady was looking at the papers for a bit before she bought hers and I think she took a lot of the adds out."
We confirmed that my paper had been rummaged through and the inserts had been taken so he went to a just opened bundle of papers and grabbed me 2 more. When I got home I realized that these two had been gone through but I at least had the red plum inserts.Worried that I wouldn't get the coupons I needed I later sent my husband back to the store to get a Portland based paper.
But why if your going to buy a paper anyway, why not buy 2 or 3, not steal from other people buying the paper! Be fair!
there that's my little soap box for the day. Hope you all have a good day.
Maybe it comes down to morals, or maybe I have just been paying too much attention to my law and ethics class this term, but some people are down right mean!
So as I have said I have been couponing for a little over a month before I started this blog. One thing I found out quickly is that there are mean shelf clearers in my area.
A shelf clearer is someone who just because they have the coupon capacity for it will take everything off the shelf. No one else can get this deal after they have done this! At my Walgreens the store has even gone as far to put little notes out saying they are sorry that these items are out of stock and they will not be offering rain checks! Last night I went to Wal-mart to get in on a great deal. Use the $2.00 off Dial body wash coupons from this Sundays insert and buy a travel size body wash...by doing that you get 1.03 overage you can use on other products you do not have coupons for. When I got there I only found 1. The one I found I had to dig for so whoever grabbed the others didn't know they forgot one, yeah! But I still have 3 of those coupons I would like to use!
Another thing I have noticed is that some people like to take peelies. Now if there is a tear pad on a display I will take a couple of those coupons but peelies are stuck right on the product. like this...
Well here is my last pet peeve. I decided because of people like these I would wake up early yesterday and get the garnier deal at Albertsons (buy 2 garnier shampoo or conditioners - makes them 2.50 each. use 2 printable 1.00 off garnier coupon and the Albertsons twice the value coupon makes the final price .50 cents each). So I walked down to the store at 7 am. I bought 2 local papers from the cashier and went to look for my twice the value coupons. I had planned on buying the shampoo and conditioner and some cat food. I had no problem finding the albertsons ad so I grabbed the shampoo and conditioner but when I headed down the pet isle I realized that I still couldn't afford the cat food I had a coupon for so I went to look through my papers I realized that someone had taken the smart source and red plum coupons! Pouting I walked up to the cashier who was looking at a paper himself when I walked up and began my transaction.
"Really quick, can you check that paper and see if there are any red plum and smart source coupons in there, mine didn't have any." I said
" I was just wondering about that myself, " he said. "Another lady was looking at the papers for a bit before she bought hers and I think she took a lot of the adds out."
We confirmed that my paper had been rummaged through and the inserts had been taken so he went to a just opened bundle of papers and grabbed me 2 more. When I got home I realized that these two had been gone through but I at least had the red plum inserts.Worried that I wouldn't get the coupons I needed I later sent my husband back to the store to get a Portland based paper.
But why if your going to buy a paper anyway, why not buy 2 or 3, not steal from other people buying the paper! Be fair!
there that's my little soap box for the day. Hope you all have a good day.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Some hits and misses
Day 7
During the week it's a bit hard for me to post but I will get better.
I do check facebook and my blogs every day. I have even created a facebook for this page here. When I find out deals via facebook or the blogs I usually share them on Face Book.
I did do a couple attempts at shopping this week. 1 was really successful, the other to not so bad. I have an hour long break during school on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I rushed over to Shopko. For thise of you who know Shopko ( they do not have meny locations). I love the place because of thier great clearnace deals. I was able to get a set of 4 glasses for a friends bridal shower tomorrow for only $4.99. The sad part is that they have a really great deal on Pringles ($1.00 each) but they do not accept the food stamp card. (Yes I am on food stamps, no I don't plan to stay that way thus part of this whole couponing craze). Didn't need them anyway :)
On the way home from school that night I decided run to Wal-Mart and give in to my idea that carrying around a coupon binder would make me look silly. I already had a zipper binder that I was using for school, so I was able to grad some baseball card holders for about $5.
Yesterday (even though it still feels like today for me) I decided to put all of my cut out manufacturers coupons into the binder. Would you believe it took me almost 4 hours??? But I felt so much better ater I did it. Now I shouldn't have an excuse for missing any coupons as long as I have my binder with me. I don't have to shuffle through my small cardboard organizer as much. I did decide to put all of my printable coupons back into my cardboard organizer though, they didn't fit nicely into the baseball card pockets. Plus I have made a conscious decision to keep coupon books I get from say, Albertsons or Walgreens,I can put them in the little file folder part of my binder :)
My really successful trip (yesterday) was at Safeway (known by different names in different places.) Right now they are running a sale when you buy 8 participating items they take off an extra .50 cents. Here is what I bought.
Each of these I had a coupon for.
Original price was $2.49 when you use it as part of the sale it goes down to 1.99 each
- $1.00 off of 2 = 2.98 total
(actual picture from the Safeway ad)
as you can see, these are also 1.99 each using the Mix and Match sale.
-$1.00 off of 2= 2.98
(again another ad picture)
2 = 1.58
- .50 off of 2 = 1.08
on sale these were 1.69 each, I bought 2
-1.00 off of 2 coupon = 2.38
So my grand total for all 8 items = $9.42
Total year to date savings = 25.38
During the week it's a bit hard for me to post but I will get better.
I do check facebook and my blogs every day. I have even created a facebook for this page here. When I find out deals via facebook or the blogs I usually share them on Face Book.
I did do a couple attempts at shopping this week. 1 was really successful, the other to not so bad. I have an hour long break during school on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I rushed over to Shopko. For thise of you who know Shopko ( they do not have meny locations). I love the place because of thier great clearnace deals. I was able to get a set of 4 glasses for a friends bridal shower tomorrow for only $4.99. The sad part is that they have a really great deal on Pringles ($1.00 each) but they do not accept the food stamp card. (Yes I am on food stamps, no I don't plan to stay that way thus part of this whole couponing craze). Didn't need them anyway :)
On the way home from school that night I decided run to Wal-Mart and give in to my idea that carrying around a coupon binder would make me look silly. I already had a zipper binder that I was using for school, so I was able to grad some baseball card holders for about $5.
Yesterday (even though it still feels like today for me) I decided to put all of my cut out manufacturers coupons into the binder. Would you believe it took me almost 4 hours??? But I felt so much better ater I did it. Now I shouldn't have an excuse for missing any coupons as long as I have my binder with me. I don't have to shuffle through my small cardboard organizer as much. I did decide to put all of my printable coupons back into my cardboard organizer though, they didn't fit nicely into the baseball card pockets. Plus I have made a conscious decision to keep coupon books I get from say, Albertsons or Walgreens,I can put them in the little file folder part of my binder :)
My really successful trip (yesterday) was at Safeway (known by different names in different places.) Right now they are running a sale when you buy 8 participating items they take off an extra .50 cents. Here is what I bought.
- $1.00 off of 2 = 2.98 total
as you can see, these are also 1.99 each using the Mix and Match sale.
-$1.00 off of 2= 2.98
2 = 1.58
- .50 off of 2 = 1.08
-1.00 off of 2 coupon = 2.38
So my grand total for all 8 items = $9.42
Total year to date savings = 25.38
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