Thursday, November 3, 2011

Coupon Donations

Last weekend I was disappointed by the lack of "useful" coupons in the Sunday newspaper.  I even began to regret spending the $1.75 on the newspaper.  I clipped out the few that I would use, which just barely covered the expense of the newspaper, and prepared to throw the rest into recycling.

Then it hit me.   Just because a coupon wasn't useful to me, it could very well be useful to someone else.   That's why, last weekend, I posted about searching for a place that did coupon swaps.  

Today I had a change of heart.  No, I didn't decide to keep the coupons for myself.   I decided to give them away.   Today I searched online for options for donating my unused coupons.   And I found exactly what I was looking for.

There are groups that collect unused and expired coupons and send them overseas to military families.  Yes, even expired ones up to six months past expiration can be used by these families.  

To me, this seemed like a great way to help a family.   I may not be able to donate money right now to help others, but this is another way that I can help someone.   So I put over $60 worth of coupons into an envelope and mailed it to "Coups for Troops."  I encourage anyone who has unused or expired coupons to do the same.  For the price of a stamp or two (depending on how many coupons you mail!) you can help someone else. 

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Extra coupons in need of a good home!

First thing this morning I jumped into my car (after cleaning the snow off of it) and made the one minute drive to the local market for my Sunday paper.  Normally I'd walk, but the drivers on my road are dangerous enough in good weather and I wasn't ready to experience their driving during this unusual pre-Halloween snow. 

Anyway, I'm sad to say that I didn't score very well this Sunday for coupons that I would use.  A lot of pet product coupons this week (Friskies, Alpo, etc.).   I have pets, but mine are on special diets so unfortunately these coupons would do little good for me.   My coupon preferences lean toward food (food for me, not the pets!) and overall there were only a few food coupons this week.   Disappointing, but I did manage to get enough to compensate for the cost of the paper.

After comparing my coupon spreadsheet to this week's ads, it appears I won't be making a shopping trip this week.   Fortunately, between the last two trips, I have enough food to last me for at least another week.  

Despite not finding a ton of coupons I would use, I did realize that the ones I didn't want were probably very useful to someone else.    I decided to explore online to see if I could find any sites that sponsored coupons swaps.   Maybe I can find someone who would send me coupons I will use in exchange for ones that I don't need.   So, I ended up clipping a lot more coupons than I planned, and saved the extra coupons that I won't use in an envelope in hopes of connecting to someone who will use them.  

So far I have found one site, ThriftyFun, that does have a coupon swap board.   I'm trying to find other sites, so if anyone knows of any good coupon swap sites, please let me know!   Or, if you are willing to swap, pop me an email. 
Here's a sampling of some of the coupons that are available for swap:
Olay body products
Cover Girl
Pampers
PediaSure
Tide
Downy
Cascade
Duracell Batteries
Chock Full O Nuts Coffee
Tampax
Charmin
Bounty
Softsoap
Advil
Cough medicine
And many more!
 *Most of these have expiration dates for the end of November, so let me know soon if you want any.  

I'm primarily looking for food product coupons, such as soups, veggies (frozen or canned), frozen foods, etc. 

Oh, I almost forgot to mention.  Remember to register at Proctor and Gamble's site to get some great deals.   Even though they put coupons into the Sunday newspaper, yesterday I received a booklet of coupons from them that totaled $34 and many were better deals than the Sunday coupons. 

Monday, October 24, 2011

Interesting Tip

I was told by someone today to not shop at Shaws until at least Sunday.   Why?   Because a lot of the Sunday coupons in the newspaper end up matching sales at Shaws for the week.   Which turned out to be true, as I learned this weekend, when my delayed trip to Shaws ended up working out in my advantage for new coupons that I clipped that afternoon prior to my trip.

Also, I noticed that one of the items I purchased, the Progresso World Recipe soups, were not listed in the Shaws weekly ad, but it was on sale in the store.   So make sure you bring all your coupons with you just in case you run across those unadvertised sale items like I did.

Pepperidge Farm Coupon in Mail

So far I'm up to three companies that have sent me coupons in the mail after my submitting a comment on their website.   The first was Turkey Hill and their $5 worth of coupons.   I had a feeling that it would be difficult for any other place to beat that, and so far no one has.   Yet.

Shortly after Turkey Hill came the $1 coupon in the mail for Perdue, which I used this week at Shaws this week during the buy 1 get 1 free promotion for boneless chicken breasts.

Today I received a $1 off any Pepperidge Farm Product in the mail today.  It's good until the end of December, so I'll be watching the weekly ads for any deals between now and then that will allow me to use this coupon most effectively.  I'm hoping a sale on their cookies will happen soon since I am partial to their Milano cookies!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Maybe it's just me...

I mentioned in an earlier post my love of signing up for free samples.   Unfortunately, I've run into a bit of a roadblock with many of them.  

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not big on all the free samples that can only be earned by "liking" or becoming a fan on Facebook.   I wouldn't call myself an insanely private person, but to me Facebook is a way of keeping in touch with friends and family who don't live nearby, not a place to advertise the products I use.

That's just my preference.  I'd love to hear if anyone has done any of the samples that require one to become a Facebook fan of the product and how it worked out.   Maybe you can even get me to change my mind!

Getting Organized

Watching Extreme Couponing, I see the people having some really cool binders for keeping their coupons organized.  My parents go for the more simple approach of having one of those accordion style coupon organizers that are divided by category.   The binder approach is very appealing.   The coupons are easy to see and it just looks cool.

I tried pricing the coupon binders online today and all the ones I've found run a bit more than I want to spend right now. 

However, I did accept that I needed to do more than my current organizational system, which is basically a large pouch with the coupons paper clipped together by categories.  

So I just spent about 45 minutes making a spreadsheet of all my coupons.   I'm up to 88, with the total value of all at $84.   Not as cool as a coupon binder, but at least I can search the spreadsheet for potential matches to the weekly ads, rather than go through my paper clipped stacks of coupons!

If I do ever decide to spend the $$ on a coupon binder, here's a couple of my fav's:
Of course, if I ever do get my coupon binder, I may need to save up for one of these cool coupon binder covers:  

Hmmm.....I am a knitter, so many there may be a market for knitted coupon binder covers???   Perhaps a little side job to make some extra money plus use up my scrap yarn.   

And this week's savings is.........

You'll have to wait (or scroll down to the end) to find out.

I almost missed out on a few of my savings today, but I have to thank my forgetful nature for some of the coupons I got to use today!

I met a friend for breakfast and a walk this morning, with the intentions of doing a grocery trip afterwards.   My coupons for the trip were ready, after consulting this week's Shaws ad and making a list.   Before I left I put my coupon pouch on the table, got distracted, and left without it.  I decided to skip out on my morning grocery shopping trip.

Good thing.

I skipped the originally planned grocery trip and stopped on the way home to pick up a newspaper for my coupon clipping.  Not as many good ones as last week for me, but I did score for some of this week's trip.  

Among the coupons found in this week's ad were several  for TGI Friday frozen products, as well as one for Progresso soup, both of which were on sale this week.

So, I decided to make a trip to the grocery store after all.  

Today's purchases:
4 cans of Progresso World Recipe's soup (on sale for 2/$3, plus I had a coupon for $1 off four cans of Progresso soup)
4 cans of Chunky soup (buy 1 get 1  free, plus I had a coupon for $0.50 off four cans which was doubled because Shaws doubles all coupons up to $0.99)
3 bags of Orida fries (part of a buy 3 get 3 free mix and match promotion that includes the TGI Friday products listed below.  I also had a coupon for $1.50 off 3 Orida fries products)
3 boxes of TGI Friday chicken wings (part of the above mix and match promotion, plus I had a $2.00 off coupon for 2 TGI Friday chicken snack products)
1 box Jose Ole Taquitos (on sale for $5.99, plus I had a $1.00 coupon)
2 packages of Perdue boneless chicken breast (buy 1 get 1 free, plus I used the $1.00 coupon I received in the mail last week)
Red seedless grapes (on sale for $1.99/lb)
Also, I had my $10 next visit coupon that I got last week at Shaws, which I used today since it was expiring this week

My total before coupons/Shaws reward card savings:  $70.82
After total coupons and Shaws reward card: $22.25
Total savings of 69%


In addition to my savings, I scored three new coupons at checkout:  
1 for $1.00 my next visit (good until November)
1 for $0.75  off 3 cans of Chunky soup (good until Januray)
1 for $0.75 off 3 cans of Campbell's Healthy Request or Chunky  Select Harvest soup (good until January)

I had set a goal of 50% savings for this trip and have beaten it by 19%!   So, what should my goal be for the next trip?   Although I got to 69% this week, I'm thinking that for each trip my goal should be 10% higher than the previous trip's goal.    Since this trip's goal was 50% savings, I think my next trip's goal should be 60% savings.   If I go over it, even better!