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My Favorite Coupon Sources
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12:08 PM
I had some coupons expiring today that I wanted to use. I also had a few more days before Daniel has to go back to work. So, I left the little people at home and went on a whirlwind bargain run. I'm finally starting to feel better today after 4 days of being sick. Here are my scores...
CVS was out of all 3 things I went there to get. The other bargain hunters must have cleared them out yesterday. Not shopping on Sundays is rough sometimes in the bargain world. I had $12.50 in ECB's expiring tomorrow though...so I shopped the 75% off Christmas clearance, and used a $5/$15 coupon. So my total for all this was...$2.78. And, a $5 ECB printed out because of a survey they emailed me a few weeks ago that I completed.
Items purchased:
2ft pre-lit tree
3 pkgs gift tags
3 pkgs Christmas photo cards
Misc Candy
2 Christmas gift tins
4 large rolls wrapping paper
2 window decorations
2 bags of bows
2 playdoh playsets with cutters (gave to B&J when I got home)
Walgreens. I used my gift card from some rebates, 2 haircolor coupons (1 store, 1 manu), 2 Glade candle coupons, 1 Excedrin coupon, 2 Nabisco coupons. Total spent: $14...total rebate to submit on this $15 for the Jan Easy Saver.
Target. My most glorious trip of the day. This took multiple transactions to accomplish, but it was well worth it. To break it down per item...
-12 boxes of Huggies wipes/washes used Target coupons $3/2 and manu coupons-about $1 total
(I'm officially done using up all my manu huggies coupons. So, I think I'm done with this deal)
-4 cases of Huggies diapers size 3&4. $3/2 Target, $1-1.25 Manu on each, $5 gift card generates every 2 boxes. So basically, $11 per box (full price $26)...this deal is approx equivalent to paying less than $5 per bag for 10 of the jumbo packs.
-4 3pks of Post-its. Didn't want the hassle of overage issues so I just got a bigger pack, paid $2.76 for 12 Post-it pads.
-10 cans of Campbells chicken noodle & tomato soup. Sale 5/$3, manu coupons .50 off 5 x 2, Target coupons .50 off 2 x 4...paid $3 total for 10 cans.
-Santa suit for the new baby (for next year)- $3 on clearance
That was intense. I'm done for the week...probably ;-)
9:50 AM
I've used 3 different methods for organizing coupons over the years. All 3 have had definite weak points, which eventually drives me to take long breaks from couponing entirely. Here are the 3...
1. clipping only the coupons I will probably use. Pro-easy to organize. Con-miss tons of great "deals" that come up unexpectedly.
2. coupon binder with baseball card holders. Pro-easy to find coupons. Con-inevitably get backed up with piles of coupons to file, that never get filed, which defeats the purpose of the system.
3. saving whole inserts. Pro-no excessive clipping/filing. Con-I threw away a lot of coupons that I would have used on my regular items, if I had been able to "see" them.
My coupon binder has already started to suffer from the drawbacks of that system, and I am getting frustrated by it. Time to make a change for the new year. So, for 2008 I will be starting to copy a system used by a lady who posts on a message board thread that I read occasionally. Here is a link to her system. Hopefully the link will work. I see that she has found a way around the main drawback of the "whole inserts" system. This is the simplest system I have used, and other than missing out on my regular grocery item type coupons, it was my favorite. Because of the lack of clipping. I think the indexed list may make this my system that sticks. We shall see.
4:34 PM
It looks like all of the kids shoes at darlingshoes.com have been marked down to $1-$2. I just ordered 8 pairs for $22 shipped. These pictured are my favorite, so I got them in 2 sizes. Here is my order summary...
| 101D-0002 | Little Sports Gear Pack 2 - 2 | 1 | $1.00 | $1.00 |
| 873-0002 | Lazy Sundays - 3 | 1 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| 859-0003 | Pizzazz - 4 | 1 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| 869BRN-0005 | Bloom - 6 | 1 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| 873-0004 | Lazy Sundays - 5 | 1 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| 869BLK-0004 | Bloom - 5 | 1 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| 866 -0001 | Inspector Magic - 2 | 1 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Sub Total: | $13.00 | |||
| Tax: | $0.00 | |||
| Shipping: | $9.47 | |||
| Grand Total: | $22.47 | |||
11:56 AM
I'm going to try to pick up a couple of big boxes of diapers on this deal.
In next weeks Target ad they have the big boxes of Huggies diapers on sale for 18.50. If you buy 2 they give you a $5 gift card. Two boxes would be $37 - (2) $2 coupons (if you have them, or get them from smartsource.com) and the $3 Target coupon = $30 After the gift card $25 for 2 boxes.
I still have $30 in gift cards from the glade wisp deals that I've done this month. So, possibly free for me, plus another $5 gift card. I probably won't bother blowing through all 5 of those gift cards at one time though.
11:49 AM
I never got in on the NovaMax monitor deal where everyone was making $20 every time they bought a NovaMax. My store was out every time I stopped in. There is a new deal coming. The January ECB book shows a $9.99 ECB for buying a Contour Breeze 2 monitor. I have 2 coupons for these that will make them free. The limit is 5 per card. I would be happy to just get my hands on 2 of them. So, ideally I will be trying to get 2 of these (will donate to charity) and will make $20 in ECB's for buying them. There are also supposedly coupons for these in the diabetes coupon booklet, if you still have those (I do, but don't expect to find enough monitors to use them). Good luck!
2:01 PM
No matter how much toilet paper I buy, it seems we are always running out. I need to pick more up desperately. The only decent deal I see at the moment is a 12 pack of Cottonelle double rolls for $5.99 at Kroger. (I bought single rolls a few weeks ago at Walgreens on a good sale and had to change the roll almost daily). I know I have some Cottonelle coupons to pair with the sale, I just need to dig them out.
*Also, here is a thread with link to next week's CVS ad. I will probably grab a couple of packs of the 9 big rolls of Charmin for $3.99, since I have ECB's that need to be used soon.
*Stopped at Target today (wipes were restocked again), so I ended up with 10 more big tubs for almost free, and 2 boxes of Huggies cleanteam flushable wipes for 10 cents each, and 8 bottles of Huggies shampoo and body wash for about 30 cents per bottle.
2:13 PM
I know that this blog has been Target heavy so far. But, Christmas is putting a damper on my time and energy to do CVS, Walgreens, or Kroger runs. Those are basically the scope of all my bargain shopping that is not done online.
I picked up quite a few things not pictured for making Christmas desserts, but they were not bargain related. As you can see, my Target restocked the shelves of Huggies wipes, so I got 4 more tubs paired with 4 more travel packs. That brings my current count up to 20 tubs and 12 travel packs. Its insane that I still have until Jan 10th to keep working this deal. Hopefully my manufacturer coupons will arrive today, and I can bring my wipes cost back from .39 cents for every set of 2 wipes, down to zero. I also used 4- .75 cents off Kraft cheese Target coupons, because I need tons of cheese cubes for 2 holiday events (I'll be getting 3-4 more bags of cheese cubes tomorrow when I do my final Christmas grocery shop). I also used 3- $1 off celery, cauliflower, or broccoli Target coupons, which made all of those free.
5:44 AM
From printing all your "free money". Ink is stinking expensive. I found a solution, and it doesn't involve refilling cartridges. I tend to use my Canon i960 photo printer (we have 3 printers because we are insane, but that has already been established) almost exclusively for photo projects for church and for printing coupons. For these 2 purposes, I decided that I do not need to buy the expensive ink, because I do not need these printouts to last 100 years. (Especially when upon finally submitting a single receipt for reimbursement for ink and photo paper, which was a fraction of what I had used on church photo projects, I got the stunned avoidance at the sheer cost of ink, then the person lost my receipt, so no reimbursement.) But now I'm just rambling.
I ordered knock off ink cartridges for my printer on ebay. So for $9 (plus shipping) I bought 12 ink cartridges from this seller. My Canon takes 6 separate ink cartridges all of which normally cost me $12 each. So, I got 2 refills of every cartridge. That's a cost of $15 total vs. a regular cost of $144. I've had them in my printer for about a month now, and they work perfectly. No complaints.
9:40 AM
I need to find a good deal on size 3 Huggies. L is on her last pack of them. I could use the $3/2 Target printable, and either get 2 packs of Huggies, or 1 travel pack of wipes with one pack of Huggies. Best case scenario...that still only gives me a $2 discount on the actual diapers. Now, if I had some manufacturer diaper coupons too, that would be better. Hmm...I think I'll check to see if CVS or Walgreens would be a better deal with ECB's or something.
If anyone has any better ideas, please comment.
Leslie clued me on to this deal: http://www.parenthacks.com/2007/12/huggies-deals-a.html
But, even with the 20% discount...the cost per diaper would still be equal to paying full price at Target and using the $3/2 coupon. Plus, at Target I would be getting a free travel pack of Huggies Supreme wipes as a bonus. Of course there is the convenience factor of having them arrive at my door from Amazon. But...if Target were to put the diapers on a sale, like 2/$16, as they often do, that would definitely tip the scales. I can't believe I am weighing diaper buying decisions so heavily. I'm just getting spoiled from paying $6 or less per pack, and I don't want to pay more.
1:51 PM
Total cost: $79.10. My total after coupons: $26.32. Total Target Gift Cards that they gave me for the Wisp Candles: $20. Real cost: $6.32 (if you want to calculate it that way...but I usually count gift cards and things on the back end, when I use them)
*I promise not to get anymore wipes until the shelves are fully restocked.
I really am trying to control myself. It is SO HARD! So, now that the Huggies Target coupon of my dreams has been validated by multiple sources, I've lost my mind. I haven't even gotten the 34 manufacturer coupons that I ordered yet, and I still found another way to work the deal for free. I did spread myself to 2 Targets today and only got a few packages at each one. I did not clear the shelves.
So, I forgot to pick up a teacher gift for B's teacher while I was out yesterday. Tomorrow is her last day of school for the year, so I needed to get something today. Since Target has been so good to me lately, I decided to buy her a gift card from there (I try to support the stores that give me great bargains by actually buying regular things there...like filling my prescriptions at CVS).
But I digress. So, I realized that pairing a regular box of wipes ($2.39) with a travel pack of wipes (.97) would also be a valid deal with the coupon. Even if you don't have any manufacturer coupons to pair with (I blew mine out yesterday and it will be a few days until my ordered ones arrive) In order to make them totally free...you can also use this $3 off the purchase of 2 post-its coupon. If you use it on the $1.19 pack of post-its, it generates .60 cents of overage. So, each set of 2 post-its and 2 packs of wipes purchased will be free. I did not fully take advantage of this. I only got 4 packs of post-its instead of 8. I was trying to show restraint.
This worked beautifully at the first Target I stopped at today. The second Target, I got a grouchy cashier who somehow screwed up the whole overage business, so I just didn't get the post-its there. It's hit or miss with coupons. No guts, no glory. By the way, the friendly cashier at that Target, which is a few minutes down the road from my regular Target, said that they have no limit on the Target printables (my close Target limits to 4 identical, which is fine with me, but still good to know).
The other bargain I worked today. Glade Wisp Flameless Candles. Target is giving away a $5 Target gift card with every one you buy. Well, you can print out a buy one get one free coupon here. They are on sale for $9.78. You see what I'm getting at here...free. Both Target's I went to had plenty left.
Misc. items pictured that I had good coupons for: Purell, Scented Oil Candle, Wisp Refill, Archer Farms Snack Mix
Also, as a final note. Somehow the super friendly cashier at the 1st Target didn't get my buy one get one free coupon scanned in. So, I called Target customer service when I got home. The woman was SUPER nice. Like, above and beyond the standard of phone customer service requirements. I told her what happened, gave her my receipt ID number. Also told her, I'm sure there was probably nothing she could do, but I just wanted to check. It's not like I could prove that I had a B1G1F coupon, and she stuck it in her drawer for reimbursement without crediting me. She happily mailed me right out a $10 gift card with no problem. So, I'm loving Target's phone customer service. I made sure to tell her that.
8:14 AM
Hot Coupon World has officially confirmed the validity of the $3/2 Huggies coupon. Go get them people!
7:50 PM
Despite the fact that Hot Coupon World STILL has not cleared the coupon, a lady on one of my boards called Target corporate and they verified that it was valid and fine to use. So, that is what I'm going on.
1:05 PM
And, I am able to access the Target Huggies coupon on the Huggies website. It does seem strange that a Target coupon would be on the Huggies website, but it definitely is the Huggies website.
Through here: http://www.huggieshappybaby.com/offers/target/BannerCoupon.aspx
http://www.huggieshappybaby.com is the site that I was lead to by going straight through the US portal of Huggies.com
Hot Coupon World is the only place I've seen questioning the legitimacy. They say that they are currently trying to clear it as legitimate.
12:07 PM
***One last update: When I checked on Hot Coupon World just now, they were questioning the legitimacy of the $3/2 Huggies Target coupon. Since I got it off of A Full Cup (where I was told she NEVER posts any coupons that don't come straight from Target.com), and since they scanned through at my Target with no issue, I assumed they were put out by Target (otherwise, why would they scan?). I am BIG on ethical and legal couponing. So, I will make sure this printable is cleared as legit before I go back for my next haul.
Total spent on below: $3.86
I'm telling you, it's like crack or something. So, I did the deal outlined in the previous post. As it turned out...between my coupons and the set that my mom always gives me, I had 7 Huggies coupons already in my possession. My Target limits us to 4 identical Target printable coupons per transaction. So, I did5lb box of Clementines on sale for $4.99
1lb Green Giant broccoli on sale for .99 cents
8 boxes of assorted varieties of Huggies wipes at $2.39 per box
Total: $25.11
4- $3 off of 2 Huggies products store coupons
1- $1 off broccoli store coupon
1- $1.50 off Clementines store coupon
paired with
2- $1 off Huggies bath and body coupons
5- .75 cents off Huggies wipes coupons
1-$1 manufacturer Clementines coupon
Total: -$21.25
Final Total: $3.86 (no beeping coupons, everything went through smooth and easy!)
*I can't wait until my other 34 $1 off coupons come. Hello 34 boxes of free wipes (well minus the 4 bucks I paid for the coupons.
* Local ladies...I only took 2 boxes of each type. So, there were at least 20 boxes left on the shelf after I was done.
Update: Some people are reporting trouble with the $1 bath and body coupons. Mine went through with no problem (I'm hoping that trend holds out for me since I've got 34 more coming). I've been told previously that wipes are considered a body product. Plus, they didn't beep when she scanned them in, and showed up as deducted from the wipes price on my receipt, not just as -$1 Manu Coupon at the end of the receipt. I guess it depends on whether you have a persnickety store/cashier or not. Either way, if you have the .75 off wipes coupons, you are golden. There is no arguing that coupon is valid for the deal.
9:31 AM
I hesitate to post this for fear that my local bargain friends will clear our Target out of wipes before I have a chance to get down there. But, I'll take my chances. So, here's the deal...
At A Full Cup, you can print a Target coupon for $3 off any 2 Huggies Products
There are also currently manufacturer coupons out for $1 off any Huggies bath or body product.
So, using one Target coupon and 2 Huggies coupons for every 2 boxes of wipes, they will be virtually free (depending on the retail price at your Target).
This deal is so hot that I ordered 34 of the Huggies coupons from the Coupon Clippers clipping service. I only order coupons if I am planning to really stock up, it's something I really need, and I'll be getting the items free or almost free with the coupon. Don't worry, I'm not planning on getting 30+boxes of wipes in one trip. I'll spread it out to about 4 separate stops over the course of the next month.
This deal arises conveniently when I am about to run out of wipes, and am stockpiling diapers and wipes for "the brother".
**Update: There may be peelie coupons on the boxes of Huggies. That's what I heard. So, check it out. I haven't been out of the house in days, so we may head out just to do some other Target deals and get some fresh air.
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