Office Supplies

After dropping off my recycling in another town, I stopped at Office Depot and Staples on the way home to take advantage of some deals.
Office Depot

I read about some free after rebate items online, but it was really hard to read the fine print and after getting to the store I realized it said "must buy $10 in non-rebate purchases" or something like that. I HATE those little qualifications.
After finding the Labeler I have been wanting and using a $10off $50 coupon, I got my labeler for the original price, and after rebates and the coupon- everything else is free. I got a binder, six notebooks, highlighters, pencils, cold pills, picture frame, 2 pkgs. of Thank you notes, magnet clips, stapler, and my labeler.
Not one of my best transactions...but OK for how much I could have planned.

Staples

I got these things free after rebate (and I used a $1.00 coupon which covered tax). I like Staples a lot. Their Easy Rebates take a while to get to you...but you can do it all online. I was frustrated earlier this week because as a "Teacher" rewards member I didn't think I would be able to get a backpack -free after rewards that was advertised in their add. I e-mailed them on Sunday and I didn't get a response until Saturday...which left it too late to actually go to town and get one (plus they were probably gone). That said, I will continue to shop at Staples because of the friendly employees and good deals they offer.

What I do with all the stuff...

Being as we are a family of 2, and I love shopping (especially for free stuff), I have plenty of stuff to give away.
I am selective of the people whom I show my stockpile to. I fear they will think I am crazy.
Here, in my defense, is a list of what I have done with my stuff so far.

1. I like to donate to specific charities. Some of them give you a donation receipt (which is nice), but mostly I like what these charities stand for.

Pregnancy Resource Center (women who use the services can pick things from a “Life Boutique” during and after pregnancy)

Weld Food Bank

Samaritans Purse: Operation Christmas Child- shoebox gifts shipped to kids in need (some of the donation in this picture came from the kids in my class)

Care packages to soldiers in Iraq (no pictures)
Guadalupe Center (men's shelter) (no pictures)
Luz De Esperanza (orphanage in Peru that our church sponsors)


2. Other things I give away:
Gift Baskets for school fundraisers (and grab bag gifts)



Prizes for kids (there is a ton more that is not pictured)

Random stuff to friends (especially the ones that give me their coupons out of the Sunday paper).
Family: all kinds of stuff to my bachelor brother and his roommates (TP, Cereal, Food, Toiletries…), stuff to my sister and her family (diapers, wipes, kids snacks, kids juice, Dimetapp and other kids medicine…)
Gift baskets to my favorite stores for employee break rooms Yep, I seriously brought this to my favorite Walgreens...and after they stopped looking at me funny, they were very thankful.

Products taken to school and used for my students to create commercials. (I wish I could post some of the commercials on here, because they are hilarious, but because of privacy for my students, I will not)


3. Presents!
I plan on explaining this one in more detail in a different post, but here is the overview: Christmas presents, birthday presents, graduation presents, thank you presents, care packages, baby shower, wedding shower…

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You to Money Saving Mom, Hip2Save, Coupon Cravings, and all the other blogs on my blogroll along the side. Without the deals posted on your blogs, I would never be able to save and give so much.

Taking a break

I read about couponers taking breaks from couponing...and I thought...maybe someday. That day is today. I have gone to MANY stores in the last little while and some of them are a breeze. Coupons work fine, cashiers are nice...it all works out. Others of them, couponing is a HUGE hassle. Most of the time I am doing nothing wrong by using my coupons, but something goes wrong anyway. Last week at Walgreens a cashier (who is kind of annoying) called the shift manager to ring up my order when he saw me THINK about getting in the checkout line. (I guess they must know I use a lot of coupons by now)

I really don't like being a pain in the butt. My DH won't go shopping with me anymore because he hates to make waves. I would consider myself an empowered consumer...but after many times holding up the checkout line because things don't go smoothly, or a RR doesn't print... I kind of want to fly under the radar and be normal again. (By the way, I have let people go in front of me in the Target line EVERY time I go there and use coupons, because I know it will take a while).

Yesterday I planned out my King Soopers trip VERY WELL (like it took 3 hours of planning and coupon matching at home) and today LOTS of things went wrong. First of all I was informed that they have a 3-of-the-same-coupon limit per transaction. I read a LOT of blogs about couponing and have NEVER heard that at King Soopers or anywhere. I had just done my Kellogg's "buy 10 items, get 10.00 rebate" transaction and it took essentially begging a manager to let me use 4-of-the-same-coupons in one transaction, just this time. I guess I got 10 pkgs of Keebler, 8 bottles of Life water, and 2 other things for 9.97 (and I will get 10.00 back after mail in rebate), but I feel horrible and grumpy. NOT because they took the coupons, but because I never knew about the rule. (I am a very rules oriented person). I wrote about most of the other things that went wrong in my transactions at that store...but just deleted them because you would probably read it as "blaah,blaah, blaah" GRRR.

I think rather than going cold turkey on my coupon hobby, I will cut back on the intense deals so I have less stress and feel less crabby.

On a more positive note, there are so many good things that come out of my "deals". I plan to do a series of posts on what I do with all the stuff I don't use, and I think people will enjoy it.

Just to prove that it is worth it... Here are my Rite aid rebate deals for this month: There are TWO promotions going where if you buy $50 of certain products, you will receive a $25 gift card. The money spent is before coupons, so I calculated how much the price was, and how much I paid:)
REBATE #160
Tylenol 8 hr. 24 ct =2.99
Tylenol 8 hr 50 ct=3.99
Stayfree =3.99
2 Listerine whitening =5.98
Neutrogena mascara=8.49
Bandaids =4.99
ept =13.99
Benadryl=3.99
Sudafed=4.99
=54.40
What I actually paid:
2-Tylenol $3.98, 2-Listerine $1.98, Stayfree free, Mascara $5.49, bandaids .74, ept 9.99, Sudafed 4.99, Benadryl 3.99 = 31.16 (minus 2 $5/25 coupons)
So I spent=$21.16 and get a $25 gift card

Rebate #61
2 Kleenex=2.49
2 Scott Paper towels = 14.98
Scott TP = 7.49
2 Schick disposable Razors Men's =11.68
2 Schick disposable Razors Women's =12.73
Bayer Aspirin =4.99
=54.38
What I actually paid:
Razors (first set) 2.89, Razors (second set) 4.24, 2 pks-Paper towels- 10.98, Bayer 2.99, TP 6.49, Kleenexes 2.49
Pd: 30.08 (minus 2 $5/25 coupons)
=pd $20.08 and get a $25 gift card

Ahh. Now I am happier again:)

shopping today

I had a lot of fun shopping and finding the deals today.
First I went to Staples:

There was a coupon in the ad for $5/20 or more, so I picked up some rebate items to make it a good deal.
2 Reams of paper 3.69 each =7.38
1 pkg of glossy photo paper=9.99
2 pkgs of Bic pens 1.00 each =2.00
fridge magnets =2.00
=21.37
-5.00 coupon off 20.00
-2.00 (manufactures coupons for Bic pens)
= 14.37
2 rebates for 3.68 each for paper
1 rebate for 8.99 for photo paper
will receive 16.35 = 1.98 overage:)

Next I went to K-mart, but their clearance toys weren't 1/2 price anymore, so I only bought a pillow. Last week I got a good deal at K-mart so I will show you that one:

Catch Phrase Music Edition (originally 22.00)3.50
Pictureka 6.49 each
Crazy soccer puzzle 2.00
Tool toy 2.50
=20.58
used $5/20 of toys coupon that I found on a blog from the website.
used 2- $5 off Pictureka coupons that I printed from coupons.com (earlier- I think they are gone now)
=a little over $6 for all that stuff:)

Next I went to Rite Aid.

I did 2 different transactions and used 2 $5/25 coupons.
Transaction #1:
2 Quattro shavers (BOG1 50% off store deal) 8.49 and 4.24=12.73
Scott paper towels 7.49
Bayer Crystal pain relief 4.99
Dentek floss clearance .75
= 25.96
- $5 ($5off $25 coupon)
-8.49 (BOGO shaver Coupon)
-$2 paper towel coupon
-$2 Bayer Crystal coupon
-$1 Denek coupon
= $7.47 and $25.21 of the items qualify for rebate (spend $50 on certain products get $25 gift card)

Transaction #2
I found a bunch of stuff for 75% off:
2 Pampers wipes 160 ct. for 1.87 each
2 Dentek floss .75 each
2 Oral B toothbrushes .75 and .87 each
2 Baby kisses balm .75 each
1 Bandaid ultra $1.25
1 Fiber lax pills $2.50
1 FiberSure powder $3.25
Stuff not on clearance:
1 Nutrogena mascara $8.49
1 Renu contact solution .99
= $25
-$5 ($5 off $25 coupon)
- $1 (2 .50 pampers wipes coupons)
- $2 (2 $1 Dentek coupons)
- $2 (2 $1 Oral B coupons)
- $2 (2 Boudreaux product coupons)
- .50 band aid coupon
-$3 fibersure coupon
-$3 Nutrogena coupon
-$1 Renu contact coupon
= $5.50 (and $9.75 qualifies for rebates)

Target

Kashi Golean waffles $2.54
$1.50 MC and .25 target coupon = .79 each
Eggo Bake Shop treats $1.50, $1 MC = .50 each
Cascade (the Electrasol 32 ct. was on sale for $3.50, but they were out, so they substituted the 20 ct. cascade for 2.51. I had $1 coupons for those, so they ended up being $1.51 (very cheap)
Dawn pump $2.29, $1.50 coupon =.79
Softsoap $3.00, $2.00 MC, $1 Target coupon =free
Dibbs ice cream things $2.50, $1 target coupon =$1.50
Degree travel .97, .75 MC =.22
All other travel items and dog food = free after coupons.
=9.62 total


And...I went to Panera Bread for lunch (using a gift card I got for Christmas) and got a salad/sandwich combo. I ate the salad and bread for lunch and saved the sandwich for supper. When I dressed like a Cow at Chick-fil-a they gave me an antenna topper for my car, and if I go through their drive through between 2-5 on Tuesdays (until Sept.) with the topper on I get a free chick-fil-a sandwich. It was right on the way home...so I got out of making supper again:)

I dressed like a cow for free Chick-fil-A

Its true. I couldn't find anyone else to dress up with me, so I went alone...and got almost $7 worth of food for free...and John ate leftovers for supper:) I hate this picture but I will put it here anyway to prove that I did it. You can't see the white pants and black shoes I have on either.

I did buy the AWESOME cow purse at a Habitat for Humanity thrift store for $1 that morning...but I plan to use it every year for "dress like a cow-get free chicken" day:) Let me know if you want to join me next year.

A lot of my blogging friends did it too. Check out THIS POST by Money Saving Mom and the links at the bottom if you want to see some other cow costumes.

The other thing I learned is that there is a K-mart in Loveland. They had 50% off the already reduced price for toys, and I had a $5/20 of Toys coupon for K-mart. I also found a toy reduced at Target for 75% off. I got $86 of toys for around $18. These are GOOD electronic- sound making toys. I choose not to picture them because nephews and our niece might be receiving them:)

Safeway doubles coupons in CO?

My biggest surprise in my shopping trip yesterday was when my local CO Safeway doubled my .25 coupon and added .45 to my .55 coupon. When I asked the cashier about it, she said they were doubling coupons up to .50 but it might not last long. In the meantime...I am VERY EXCITED about this new development...because I have often wished Safeway would double coupons.

Also, Target had 50% off the black dot $1 items in the front of the store. I got some really cute gift bags and packs of thank you cards for .50 each.

Walgreens had exactly what I wanted this week.

I got some cute pencils for prizes for .05 each.
Listerine (and floss) was $3 each and buy 3 get $3 RR. I used 3- $2 coupons to get them for free.
Headband $3.99, used $1 coupon from coupons.com and after purchasing a rebate form printed out= 1.00 overage
Starbucks Ice cream buy one at 4.79 get one free. Used a $2 coupon and a $1.50 coupon. = .65 each.
Shave Gel $2.79 used $2 Catalina coupon = .79 each

15 stop shopping...

15 stops (but not all of them were shopping)- and one of them was to drop food off at the local food bank. A lot of my friends with kids say to take advantage of the multiple stop shopping while I can. Well I did today. I have been gone for a week, and I hope to not go to town again until next week, so here are the "deals" I snagged.
Since my family seemed to LOVE the free mouthwash I got them, I decided to snag some more.
Rite Aid

Rite aid had some super rebate deals last month, and this month they continue. They get kind of complicated, but with the $5 off $25 coupon on coupons.com and the rebate deals, they make for some good deals.
Stayfree Pads $3.99, BOGO store deal, and BOGO coupon = both for free AND qualifies for rebate #160
Pampers Feel and Learn...If potty training doesn't work this month (Lori) you can try again after mom and Dad visit with these. These were on clearance for $2.87. I used a $1.50 coupon and it should qualify for a $2 rebate= .63 overage
Listerine whitening was on clearance for $2.99 I used a $2 and a $1 coupon so total for 2 bottles was= $3 Plus it qualifies for a rebate, and if I take $1 off each because of my $5/25 coupon it would be .50 each!
Tylenol was on clearance, I used coupons and they qualify for rebate.

Walgreens

Listerine (the big size) $4.50 each.
Buy 2 get $3 RR. I used a $4 Catalina I got earlier and a $2 printable coupon to get both for free.
Pringles were .99 each and I used a $1.00/2 MC = .50 each

Bath and Body works had some things 90% off and I had two coupons, so I got all this:

(Sticker price would have been $50) I paid $3.50

Safeway had some great deals, but most of the coupons said you had to have a $20 minimum purchase, so I had to get creative.

I bought 5 Dr. pepper 12-pks (only one is pictured) for $1.99each. I also got Kraft cheese for .50 after coupons, Duracell batteries for 1.99 or 2.99 (I can't remember if the e-coupon came off), and some other fillers that I used coupons for. Luckily I only had to get $20 before coupons:)

Target was fun.

I found some Shaving sets, and after coupons they were around $3.50. Christmas gifts!!!!.
Hair color was on clearance for $2.17 each. I found a $4 off 2 Target coupon on the box, and used 2- $1 MC to get = $1.66 overage
Irish Spring was $2.99 and I had a $1 Target coupon and a $1 MC =.99
Degree was on sale for $3.29, I had a $2 Target coupon and a $1 MC = .29
Pace specialty salsa was on markdown for $2.09 I used a $1 MC and .50 Target coupon = .59 each
The Keebler cookies were 2.54 each. I used 3- $1 MC and got a $5 gift card for buying 5 = .90 each (I take these to church for snacks a lot).

King Soopers was good to me too.

Cheerios (the biggest box) $2.50 used 4- $1 coupons, and as part of the $3 off 10 deal got .30 off each one. = $1.20 each
BBQ sauce .99 used .50 MC which doubled AND took .30 off each because of the promotion =90 overage
Gatorade 1.00, took .30 off each =.70 each
Country Crock butter (the big tub)$1.99, used .50 MC which doubled =.99
Light and Fit Yogurt $1.99, used .60 coupon which took .40 off bc of double coupons to $1.00 = .99 for 6 yogurt cups.
Organic lettuce $2.99, used $1 MC (from flyer in the mail)= $1.99
Kraft Cheese $2.99, used 4 $1 MC and got $4 Catalina for buying 5 =$1.19 each
Jennio ground Turkey $3.99 (I thought it was $4.99 because that is what the sign said) and I used my $5 MC from the biggest loser promo =$1 overage
Tomatoes and green pepper were cheap.

Now I can make my mom's enchiladas =tortillas, salsa, ground turkey, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese:)