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. 

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. 

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!

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:

http://www.zazzle.com/personalized_coupon_organizer_zebra_print_pink_binder-127281897398043927

http://www.zazzle.com/coupon_savvy_queen_fun_2_inch_avery_binder-127520263465247103
 

Of course, if I ever do get my coupon binder, I may need to save up for one of these cool coupon binder covers:  

http://www.etsy.com/listing/71086056/monogrammed-time-to-save-coupon-binder?utm_source=googleproduct&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=GPS

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!

Another coupon in the mail!

I mentioned earlier how I spent a rainy day visiting the websites of different trying to score some coupons by sending complimentary feedback.   Another coupon arrived today, this one from Perdue for $1.00 off any Perdue product.   Not as good as the $5 worth of coupons from Turkey Hill, but still well worth the 30 seconds it took me to write how much I loved their chicken! 

Also in the mail recently was a coupon from Good Earth Tea (www.goodearth.com)  for $1.00.   I actually had filled out a free sample request for them, but they must have run out.   I'll take the coupon though.

I mentioned being a free sample fan.   Often my free sample requests result in things I usually wouldn't use.  Today's free sample in the mail was a box 3 Atkins bars.   I'm not into the whole Atkins diet, but these could probably work well during those busy days when I don't have a lot of time for lunch.

Free Sample Sites

A few years ago I decided to try my luck at scoring free samples.   I started by visiting the websites of different companies to see if they had any free samples available.   I got several samples that way, but found going to each different company's website to be time consuming, especially when I couldn't find any samples available.

Then I was able to find websites devoted entirely to linking visitors to free sample offers.   The first one I found was www.sassysue.com.   The site was organized by category (makeup, hair, etc.) but I do find that it is a bit overwhelming and recently have noticed many outdated listings.   Also, although some links bring you directly to the product's website, I have also found several that link to questionable sites for these samples.  As a rule, I prefer to only request free samples directly from the company itself.   Although this is not my first choice site for free samples anymore, it's still worth a visit. 

My current favorite, which I have been using for a couple years, is Shop4Freebies:  shop4freebies.com. Like sassysue, this is a website devoted to linking users to free samples, print coupons, and online coupons.  In general, I find this site well organized, easy to navigate, and very up to date.   Users also submit comments about offers which is a useful feature. 

In addition to getting free samples in the mail, requesting these samples have an added benefit.   Every time my sample comes, it also includes a coupon!  

I'm always on the hunt for free samples, so please, if anyone has some free sample sites that you know of and love, share them!

Sunday Clippings

I'm routine oriented, and with my recent determination to save, my Sunday routine of course now includes a required trip to the store for the Sunday newspaper.

When I started coupon clipping earlier this summer, I initially balked at having to purchase a newspaper just for the coupons.  That may be one of the things that kept me from coupon clipping in the past.   Yes, I worried about having to spend a big $1.75 on a newspaper only to not find any worthwhile coupons!

I learned quickly not to be picky if I wanted to save.    I've always had my preferred brands and a quick initial glance through the available coupons proved to be disappointing when I didn't find very many of the products I normally bought.   So, I let go of my preferences, and looked again.   At a second, more thorough glance, I found things that I may be willing to try if the savings were good.   With that philosophy, more coupons got clipped.  

Take this weekend for example.   Would I ever, on my own, purchase 10 boxes of pizza rolls?   Or four cans of soup when I prefer to make my own?   Definitely not.    But I knew there may be nights when I come home and don't have the time or energy to do more than open a can of soup.  Or maybe I may have some friends over and may need to through a box or two of pizza rolls into the oven for a quick snack.  

If I want to save, then I need to change too. 

Anyway, this Sunday's newspaper proved to be a good purchase.  Today's coupon inserts included Red Plum. Smart Source, and P&G.  I spent $1.75 on a newspaper and clipped $27.75 worth of coupons.   Definitely worth it!

Online Surveys

This isn't a couponing post, but I wanted to share with you some other methods I have used for a little extra income.   While in grad school, I did not work regularly during the first couple years.   Most of my income came from student loans, occasional pet-sitting, and filling in occasionally at my old job during school breaks.  

After the first year, things started to get much tighter with my finances.  I struggled to find a job that worked around my busy school schedule.   Through a facebook link from an acquaintance, I began to explore the world of online survey sites.   I was reluctant at first, not sure how legit these sites were.

I found one that has worked out well for me:  Opinion Outpost.   During the 2 1/2 years since joining Opinion Outpost, I have made some extra money.  You won't get rich from it of course, but it's a fun way for some extra spending money.  The way it works is that you register, fill out some profile surveys to help match you to possible surveys.  When they have a possible match for you, they email you to let you know.   Sometimes I have gone a couple weeks without qualifying for a survey, other times I've qualified for two or three in a single day.  

When you complete a survey, you are rewarded by points, which will vary by the particular survey.  I've earned up to 40 points (or $4) for a survey.   You can redeem you points for Amazon.com gift cards, checks, or Citi gift cards.  You can also donate points to the American Red Cross. 

Since joining, I have made over $200 taking surveys:

 

Give it a try!  If you are like me and love to multi-task, it's a fun activity to do while watching tv at night.

For more on Opinion Outpost: http://OpinionOutpost.com/join/6957125

Flattery will get you.....$5 in coupons!

Like many coupon seekers, I search the usual spots for coupons: Sunday newspapers, online, product websites.  And from those I've accumulated a good batch of coupons.

Last weekend I decided to try another tactic....flattery.   I visited many product websites, submitting compliments about how much I loved the product.   My hopes was that maybe one, or more, would mail me a coupon.

Today, barely a week later, I got my first reward for my efforts in the mail:  An envelope from Turkey Hill with several coupons totaling $5!  Oh, and the coupons don't expire until 2013!  That gives me plenty of time to plan the best way to use them to maximize my savings. 

Give it a try!  Go to http://turkeyhill.com.  Under "contact us" enter your information, add a compliment or suggestion, and soon you too may receive your $5 worth of coupons!

Off to a good start

One thing I learned from Extreme Couponing is, to be successful, one must research and plan prior to any shopping trip.   This involves comparing coupons to the weekly saving flyers of each grocery store, and carefully calculating out how much of what to buy to make the best savings.

Last night I searched the online versions of the weekly flyers for my two local grocery stores, Hannaford and Shaws.   I finished searching the Hannaford flyers with a feeling of disappointment, not finding anything to match my current batch of coupons.   As I neared the end of the Shaws flyer, I felt a similar letdown.   That is, until I reached the last page.

There it was, an opportunity to earn $10 off my next trip to the store.   Could I do it?

To qualify for the $10 off coupon, I would need to purchase $25 worth of products from the specific list on that page.  And there were specific requirements, such as a certain number of an item would need to be purchased (for example, 10 cans of Green Giant Vegetables for $10, or 2 cans of Progresso soup for $3).   Fortunately, there was quite a bit on this list that I would actually use.

Even better, I was able to search online and find coupons for almost all of what I would be getting!

Then began the planning steps.   First, I had specific quantities I would need to buy in order to qualify for the savings.   Then, because the $25 minimum needed was after coupons were added in,  I had to determine how much the coupons would take off the total.   Shaws also doubles coupons up to 99 cents, so I had to add all that in as well.

I headed off to Shaws with my list and coupons in hand.   As I reached the vegetable aisle, I saw that many had been there before me!   Fortunately I was still able to find 10 cans that applied to the special offer.   I continued through the store, finding items on my list, making one change when I couldn't find a product. 

As I emptied my cart at the checkout, I worried that something would not work.   I think I had a minor version of that feeling of panic that some of our Extreme Couponing participants feel as they hope their planning worked.  

So, did it work???

Yes!!!

My total before my Rewards Card and coupons were entered in: $57.52

After my Rewards Card savings and coupons added in: $34.22

Total Savings:  $23.40

That's a 41% savings, better than I have ever done.  And, I got a $10 coupon towards my next shopping trip.  

So, what did I get?

10 cans of Green Giant vegetables

10 boxes of Totino Pizza rolls (I know, not the healthiest choice, but a fun occasional snack)

1 box of Betty Crocker Instant Garlic Mashed Potatoes

4 Cans of Progresso Soup

2 Bags of Chex Mix

1 container of orange juice (not on sale and not part of the special savings, but I needed it)

Also, many of these items are part of the Boxtops for Education program, so there's an added bonus!  

Today was a 41% savings.   My goal for the next trip will be 50%.   My $10 off coupon (which, by the way, has no minimum purchase requirement) is good until 10/29, so I'll be doing some big planning to put that to good use. 

A good start for the Aspiring Extreme Couponer.

Why???? Let me explain....

So, why do I aspire to be an extreme couponer?

Let me explain.....

Like many, I have watched the show "Extreme Couponing" in awe as shoppers have gone into a store, purchased hundreds (even thousands) of dollars worth of items, and then paid a tiny fraction of that initial total for all of it.  

And, like many, I am trying to significantly reduce my expenses.   Even though I have a full time job and am earning more than I ever have before, my past debts are catching up with me.   A year ago I finished grad school and, in addition to my Master's, I also graduated with over $60,000 in student loans to repay.   The government wanted me to pay them $700 a month, I worked it down to $350.  Somewhat of a relief, but still a big chunk of my income.   Then we add in credit card debts acquired due to my (stupidly) choosing not to work full time while in grad school, car payments, insurance, etc.   Put it all together, along with rent, that barely gave me anything left over from my paychecks. 

Something had to be done.   I knew my parents were big on coupons and savings.  And, of course, I caught a few episodes of Extreme Couponing and became inspired.  Earlier this summer I decided to give it a try.  I began purchasing Sunday newspapers, starting clipping, but barely noticed a difference.   So I stopped.

Now I am ready to try it again.    I watched Extreme Couponing more closely, checked out blogs of people who are big on savings, and started buying those Sunday newspapers again for the coupons.

Although I admire the savings of those on Extreme Couponing,  I do have my limits.   I don't want to leave the store with hundreds of bottles of soda, endless bags of candy, and other things that I don't even use.  I don't intend to have a basement resembling a mini-grocery store, filled with huge stock piles of supplies (especially since I live in a small apartment and don't even have a basement).   So there is my big challenge.   I want to save, but I want to make realistic purchases of things I actually need and will use.  

From here on, I will make my effort to be a better shopper.   A better saver.   Today begins my journey as an aspiring Extreme Couponer.