I've been trying so hard to be good at this couponing thing...and I'm still not sure if I'm doing it right.
Our library on tuesdays and wednesdays does something called "the coupon club". You can go any of these days and donate your unwanted coupons and you're welcomed to browse through the ones that are there and take whatever you need...seriously..recently, I saw a lady leave with a 2 in stack of newspaper inserts....So, that's how i get my coupons. I try really hard to not print any at home, cause ink is quite expensive and honestly, the coupons.com coupons....are 99% the same found on the newspaper inserts. Recently, I found a website called www.lozo.com. It's actually quite neat, it gathers all kinds of coupons all over the internet and lets you know the price and product....but you get to print them at home. Some are worth it though.
About a month ago, I bought two children's advil (4oz- normal size) because I found a BOGO coupon (up to $7) on lozo. I thought "yeah...that might be worth it"....it was actually on the advil facebook page (I checked...it's no longer there). When the cashier at walmart rang me up, she actually took $7 off both containers (I guess since that was the maximum amount, the register made it worth that much)...so, I only ended up paying like $1 for both of them (since each was $4 a piece). How awesome was that??? I like it when I get stuff really cheap...especially stuff I should have on hand at all times.
I also found a $3 off coupon (at the library) for 2 pantene products. Target has the cheapest 12oz pantene bottle (at least here) for $2.99. I have seent it as high at 5.99 (CRAZY!!!) So, I bought four (you can use up to 4 coupons at one time) shampoos and each ended up costing about $1.50....that's not bad for pantene shampoo. That's cheaper than ALDI shampoo. By the way, that's how I base my prices- if it's cheaper than ALDI price (for a brand name)...totally worth it. This coupon will expire on april 30...so I have about 4 more coupons of that, I will probably just go buy them and start my stockpile (especially since shampoo has a long shelf life).
I LOVE keebler's fudge grahams. I mean...like really. But they're always like $3 a piece. I think that's pricey...especially to buy on a weekly basis. BUT every now and then, shop n' save will have them for $1.88...that's when I buy like 4 packs and then they last me for a while (I can't stock up more than that...cause then I would be super fat...I need moderation). But Dierbergs (which is a pricey store here in the area) had them on sale: 3 for $6. Lucky me, I had saved a keebler coupon that took off $1 for two packs of any keebler cookies...so I only bought two, but each ended up costing me $1.50 a piece. SEE HOW MUCH CAN BE SAVED BY BEING PATIENT??? That's awesome.I still have a whole pack in the fridge...in case of an emergency.
Kohls is having a sale this week and was giving out in the mail $10 gift cards (towards ANYTHING even sale items). We have a recycle mail bin by the mail center, so I get to see everything the neighbors throw away...just paper though. Let me clear.... I would never go dumpster diving for coupons. I saw that a couple of neighbors had thrown their giftcards away, so I took them. So, I went to Kohl's and checked it out. It was true, I ended up getting the baby a cool tent and tunnel for what I thought was $15.99 (the original price was $39.99 but was on sale). I thought paying $6 for it was not bad. But then I remembered that someone was getting ready to have a baby soon, so I bought a baby outfit as well (40% on sale)...by the end...I thought I was going to pay about $10 out of pocket...not bad for two things...but then the lady at the counter tells me that the toy had a 60% sticker on top of the sale price (that made it $7.99) SCORE (and brand new too)!!!. So, my actual out-of-pocket was $4.50 with tax. I felt like I was on a roll here....so I went and tried my luck somewhere else.
Apparently, that's how we watch TV now.
We have a new store opening this week called Menard's...kinda like a Lowe's. The staff is super-friendly and super courteous...so it's highly recommended. They opened last saturday, and we drove by....because they were having a huge opening sale...but there was nowhere to park...I mean there were like 3 cars waiting for each parking spot...they were just sitting there!!! and people were parking on the grass and it was just horrible. I decided to skip it and come back later. Menard's had mailed their summer catalog with a bar code. You were to take that barcode to the store and have it scanned and it could be worth anywhere from $2-$500. Again, most of the neighbors threw theirs away, so I grabbed them. I got them scanned, and of course, of all them were $2 worth. I was going to buy toilet paper because I had a coupon for it too (so I could stack both things and get it almost free) however, I failed to notice that my coupon had expired. So, I went back and grabbed a bottle of fabric softener (which we never buy anymore- I do miss having it though) for 40 cents. Not bad, but I threw the rest of the barcodes away (the fine print said one barcode per guest per day- I'm not coming back, escpecially when it's so busy).
I keep seeing things on Pinterest I want to try, but they seem expensive, unless you actually have all that stuff lying around. It seems, most of the time, I don't and I have to go buy it. So, I give up...I just pin for now. But I did find a couple of things that I could do almost free:
I saw this on pinterest and I had to try it! The original pin came from a lady that owned photoshop. You were suppose to overlap a family picture with the Proclamation to the World with photoshop. It looked fantastic on her pin. We have a proclamation but its hanging in our room. We just have too many pictures out here in the living room, I don't want it to look like an art gallery. So, I liked her idea, but there was a problem with it- I don't have photoshop nor am I going to spend a fortune on ink trying to print this out. So, I got to thinking about recreating it. I had two thoughts- first, using a photo enhancing software...like www.picmonkey.com. I don't use it very often, but I know that it has an overlap feature...but then I need to save it and have it print at a nearby photo place....not bad...but then, I have a new photo...and I don't want anymore photos! Other thought- use vellum! I knew you could print on vellum, as long as you let it dry (otherwise it smears) AND I get to use an existing photo. The cool part? You can also move it around. What if you get tired of seeing it on that photo? That's okay...just move it around to another photo....nothing is permanent. And if you dont' like it at all...then throw it away. Vellum costs anywhere from .40-.99 depending on where you get it. I got transparent white, because I wanted to see the background as best I could. I printed the words on vellum and just placed it on top of an already existing picture. Not bad...It actually looks better up close. The picture does not do it justice. I guess another thought would be to get an existing picture and then place it on your printer and just print the black words on top of it....but I have no idea how that would look like and/or if the ink would smear since photo paper is glossy...I guess it would really depend on the ink. I didn't want to try this last one, because I really didn't want to ruin my perfectly fine picture.
Last project- Mother's day cards. With the holiday fast approaching I had to do something to decorate it. Cricut Craft room is doing free cards for now, so I went ahead and did those, but I'm sure if I would have had more time, I would have done prettier ones....
It's a banner alternating mother's day cards with pics of the kid. Being mother's day, there is no daddy in these pictures. If I were to do the same for fathers' day, then there would be no mommy in the pics. This is just hanging above our tv...kinda like a mantle. So, its the most visible thing in the apartment.
This is me trying to inspire people to coupon and do crafts.....so on you go...do some of each!!
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