Mail Call! Home Depot

Received a $5 gift card to Home Depot today. I won it in the Wendy's Home Makeover Combo Sweepstakes.  I only entered about 20 times over 4 days to win this card.  I like to enter sweepstakes because you just never know.  The best I've ever done is 2nd place in a contest held by a software company (I got a copy of every program they made for my prize). I hope I keep winning!

Win a $100 gift card to Lands' End!

Go here and become a Facebook fan of Lands' End to enter. There are 45 $100 gift cards available. If you're already a fan, you're already entered. Hurry 'cause this giveaway ends 12/27!

20% off $25 order of chocolate at Amazon

Click here to look at the selection of Olde Naples chocolates available from Amazon.  Put at least $25 worth of Olde Naples chocolates in your cart and enter code J9JX6OUS at checkout to save 20% on each participating item (restrictions apply). What a sweet surprise for someone this holiday season!

Walmart Value of the Day!

Today's value deal is an XBOX 360 Live Bundle with a $50 Walmart eGift card starting at $259. Each bundle includes at least 2 games! This would be a great gift if you still need one.

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Today is my little sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Lisa!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Mail Call! Excedrin and Kellogg's

Today in the mail I got a free sample of Excedrin courtesy of Sam's Club. They don't offer samples all the time, but you can receive them even if you're not a member (I am not). Their parent company, Walmart, offers samples all the time here.

I also got a $10 Bi-lo gift card from Kellogg's. Awhile back, I bought 10 boxes of Kellogg's cereals in one transaction at Bi-lo. When I paid, I was given a catalina for the gift card.  I ended up paying .41 per box after the gift card. I'm sure this gift card will really come in handy!

Earth Fare --- Free Ice Cream coupon!

Click here to view and print a coupon for free Earth Fare ice cream(any flavor) with purchase. Hurry, it expires 12/29!

Staples ---- today only coupon!

Staples has a coupon for $20 off any GPS. It is good today only; in-store, online, and by phone. If you're on the mailing list, you'll get an email and be able to print it.  Otherwise, the code is 61777.

The importance of buy 1, get 1 free

I talked to my sister the other night and she said she still doesn't quite understand how to save so much at the store. She's getting married soon and would like to save more. I'm planning to give her some hands on tips over Christmas. Couponing and saving can be daunting to someone that hasn't really done it before. I won't be seeing all of you over Christmas, so I'll be giving little tips on saving over the next few days.

Do you know someone that wants to save money, but has no coupons? Tell them about buy 1, get 1 free and similar deals. With buy 1, get one free, even without coupons, you will save at least 50%!

Or maybe you know someone that does use coupons, but never seems to save much money? Combine coupons with buy 1, get 1 free and save more than 50%!

With buy 1, get 1 free, I can even get 100% off. Combine a buy 1, get 1 free coupon with a buy 1, get 1 free sale and you get BOTH items free! I did this recently with paper plates and saved almost $8. I never would have bought them otherwise.

Most of you have probably seen how there are not a lot of high dollar coupons readily available (especially on groceries). Most grocery coupons don't go over $1 and not every store doubles coupons either.  Without buy 1, get 1 free, I would be hard pressed to save 50%+ on items over $2.

Buy 1, get 1 free is so very important when trying to save money. It's so easy too; all you have to do is buy the items. If you can combine with a coupon, you'll save over 50% easily. Wouldn't you like to save 50%+ everytime you went to the store? Just think of how much money you'ld save!

I hope this tip helped! Feel free to ask questions by email or in the comments below.

OT: Christmas Party

Grandma's nursing home had a Christmas party last night. It was nice and Grandma was in a good mood. She even knew who I was part of the time.

We got her a sparkly blue frog (handmade, bought at Prater's Mill). The nursing home gave us cookies, but we're giving them to her too.

Merry Christmas!

Giving back is not so hard

The reason for my Publix trip today was to buy food for my local food bank. I always gave in school, but since then, not so much. I'm planning to do this next year all year long.

I bought 30 items (plus some free balloons). I tried to get healthier items and things with some kid appeal.

As you can see, everything is name brand and good quality items. Since it is for the food bank, I had to make sure all were non-perishable, so there's no meat or produce. Most of these items were buy 1, get 1 and I had coupons for everything to help stretch how much I could buy.

I split the tax three ways with family members (see last post), so my numbers may be a little inflated.

Total before coupons and tax: $27.59
Total after coupons and tax: $4.04
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saved 85% ----- about .13 cents per item (without tax, it was 91% and .08 per item)

Publix trip ---- saved 65%!

Made a quick trip to Publix today to pick up items for the food bank. I'll be talking more about that in my next post. Other family members had made some requests, so I ended up spending a little more than I wanted to. The $5 off a $50 purchase coupon from Sunday's Publix circular came in handy.

I had a very nice staff member help me find items. I've only been shopping at Publix for about 2 months and I still don't know where everything is located. I'm like a chicken with its head cut off in there most days. The coupon fairy kindly left 2 coupons on the potato chips which I'm very grateful for. I had extra coupons, but the items were not sold at that Publix, so I'll have to make it up to the coupon fairy later.

Publix trip overview:
The items I bought included dishwasher detergent, potato chips, and cooking oil.
*My favorite deal was Finish Quantum for only $2.80. It's normally $7.59 (63% savings).*

Total before savings and tax: $106.71
Total after savings and coupons: $37.68
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saved $69.03 ----- 65% off!

International Delight Holiday Giveaway!

Head over to International Delight's Facebook page and become a fan. Then go to the Holiday Giveaway tab and register to receive a coupon for 1 free pint by mail.  They're giving away 100,000! Hurry, their last giveaway went really fast!

Walgreens Trip today ---- saved 92%!

Went to Walgreens today because I had 2 $5 Register Rewards (Walgreens Dollars) from 12/16 that expired today. I didn't really need anything, but I wasn't about to throw away $10!

I went to IHeartWags to help get my list together. The links to online coupons and showing how to combine with store coupons/handouts are very useful.  I had a very hard time getting ahold of the Healthy Savings booklet, but I was able to use it to save a little more.

Walgreens trip:
I bought Viva paper towels, 1 Hot Wheels Car, 1 Walgreens Aloe Moisturizer, 1 Theraflu Liquid Sinus&Cold, 1 Theraflu 6pk Flu&Congestion, and 5 Yes to Carrots Lip Balms. I did 2 transactions because the special RR could not be used together.

I had these coupons:
$2 manufacturer coupon for Viva here
$2 manufacturer coupon for Theraflu (x2) here (where it says "get a free coupon")
$2 Walgreens coupon for Viva here or in-store
$2 Walgreens "Healthy Savings" booklet (in-store only)
In ad coupon to reduce Hot Wheels to .49
*There are $1 Yes to Carrots coupons in some Walgreens, but I had none.*

Subtotal before savings: $29.28
Paid $2.36 out of pocket after coupons and $10 in Register Rewards (tax included)
Received $3 in Register Rewards (from the Theraflu)
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saved 26.92 ----- 92% off!

Thanks so much to IHeartWags!

Walgreens Dollars/Register Rewards expiring today!

If you took advantage of the buy $25, get $5 Register Rewards on 12/16, your $5 RR will be expiring today! So, get out there and start shopping!