Friday, August 5, 2011

Tonight's Bargains

I did my shopping tonight and found these bargains:

United had a sale, buy 10 items get $5 off. I got 5 BBQ sauce and 5 more Planters Peanut butter for 99 cents each after the $5 off. I also had another store coupon so got an additional 50 cents off of one of the peanut butters. We should be set on peanut butter for a while.

At United, they also had Bic pens on sale 2/$1. I had coupons for $1 off of the purchase of two so I got 4 packs of ink pens for free.

At Wal-Mart, I price matched 4 more boxes of Gain. It was on sale for $5 at Family Dollar. This week, the price at Wal-Mart on the Gain was $6.84. I'm not sure if I misread it last week (I thought it was $6.48 last week) or if it has gone up. At any rate, just to give you an example of the kinds of savings you can get by combining a sale and a coupon:

Regular price of Gain at Wal-Mart: $6.84 for a 40 load box. About 17 cents a load.

If you just used the $2 off box of Gain powder coupon, you'd get that for $4.84, or about 12 cents a load.

Combining the price matched sale and the coupon, it's about 7.5 cents a load! That is a huge savings!

I still have 4 more coupons, I'm trying to decide whether to get 4 more boxes (there is a limit of 4 coupons per transaction).

I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to use my Tide coupons. I have some Tide coupons for $1 off any Tide detergent. If I use them on the travel size, I can get them free. I was going to get some to send with my youngest daughter for college. Hopefully they'll get some in before I go next time.

I am aware that other laundry detergents can probably be bought cheaper than Gain or Tide, but the original scents of both of those are ones that I know don't cause any skin problems in my family. A couple of my family members have broken out in hives or a rash from laundry detergents so I try not to get too adventurous with laundry detergent. LOL.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Last Week's Savings

I just want to share a few things that I bought last week so I'm doing two blog posts today so I don't forget! LOL!

Bounty Napkins, on sale for $1 at United, had $1 off coupons-got 4 packages for FREE!

Kellogg's Cereal and crackers, on sale for 2.49 each with a store coupon if you bought 10 boxes, you got $5 off, bringing it down to $20. Used three $1 manufacturer coupons on top of that: average price $1.70 for 7 boxes of cereal and 3 boxes of crackers.

Boneless skinless chicken, 1.49 a pound. Bought about 20 pounds worth. No coupons, but a good price.

Gain laundry detergent. On sale for 4.99 at Wal-Greens, where they were out. Price matched at Wal-Mart. Had $2 off Gain powder coupons, so got them for 2.99 each, got 4 of them (that was the max of those coupons that could be used at once). That is a savings of more than 50% off the Wal-Mart regular price of 6.48. Saw that they are on sale for $5 at Family Dollar this week, hope to buy some more since I still have coupons. We're on our last box of what I bought earlier this summer on sale and with coupons for 3.99. A box usually lasts me about 2 weeks so 4 boxes will last me about 2 months. Hope to get enough to last for several months.

$10.99 Schick Hydro razor at Wal-Greens for $1.

Planters Peanut Butter for $1 at United with a rain check (they were out of the creamy when it was on sale last week). Had a 50 cent off coupon that I could use on one of them so got one of them for 50 cents!

On the back of the rain check, there was a 50 cent coupon for Best Choice ice cream or eggs. I used it on eggs which were on sale for 88 cents, so got a dozen eggs for 38 cents.

More of what I learned from the Money Saving Queen

The first part of the class focused on coupons, the second part focused on saving money in other areas. Basically, take the principles and apply them to other areas of your life.

For example, find out what time is the best time of year to buy certain items. Right now is the best time of year to buy school supplies. Don't just buy enough to get your kids started, buy enough to last the whole year. That way when they run out of paper or all their crayons break, etc., you have extras at home that you bought at the sale price and you don't have to go out and pay full price. And keep in mind that Wal-mart is not necessarily the best place to buy school supplies. I've seen great sales at United grocery stores, Staples, and Wal-Greens. You might be able to do some price matching at Wal-Mart if you want to make it easier on yourself, though. One thing I have noticed about Wal-Mart the last few years, they do not put their school supplies on sale like they used to.

For clothes, do a Google search to see if you can find a coupon code for the store or brand you want. Look for the best way to purchase it. Often you can get better deals online than you can in the store.

She also shared several sites that you can get deals through, or earn points to get gift cards, etc.

Swagbucks
No More Rack
Rue La La


These are just a few. You can do a Google search for Groupon, Living Social, Bzzagent, and Retail Me Not.

Happy Savings!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

What I Learned from the Money Saving Queen

Yesterday, my best friend and I went to see Sarah Roe aka "Money Saving Queen" from the Tulsa, OK area. If you haven't checked out her website, then I highly recommend it: Money Saving Queen. She also has a wonderful book on saving money with coupons, written from a Christian point of view: The Power of Coupons: 13 Ways to Save.

Some of the things that I learned yesterday, I already knew, but sometimes it's still good to hear them again. Here are a few of them:

1. Keep a price log on the things you buy most frequently in order to determine the sales prices. That way, you'll know when it's at the best price.

2. When it's at the "Rock Bottom" price, use a coupon to buy it, increasing your savings even more.

3. Stockpile enough to get till the next sales cycle (as a general rule, about every 6-8 weeks).

4. Match coupons to sales flyers for the best deals (MSQ's website does this for you on many Oklahoma stores).

5. Plan weekly menus around sale items and stockpile.

6. Stack manufacturer coupons with store coupons.

Next time, I'll share some of her tips for saving money on other items!