Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Free Full-Sized Nikwax Sandal Wash

Go HERE and take the quiz on the left had side of the page. It takes forever to get the right 5 answers, but you can retake the quiz until you get all 5 right.

Please use the following e-mail addy as a reference:
kristyrpl@gmail.com

Thanks,
       Kristy

Monday, November 28, 2011

Rouses trip 11/25 - 11/29

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast $1.67/lb
    This is an excellent stock up price!

Sirloin End Pork Chops $1.17/lb
     This is an excellent stock up price!

Wags trip week of 11/27/11

Softlips Pearl $2 get $2 RR

Wags cold sore treatment $7.99 get $8 RR

Mission Max Muscle Rehab Gel $5.99 get $6 RR

Mission Rehab Foot Cream $5.99 get $6 RR

Quaker Oat Squares 2/$5  get $2 RR
    Use $1 coupon from mail sample

Rite Aid trip week of 11/27/11

TheraFlu warming liquid 8.3oz $4.99 get $2 +UP (limit 1)
     Use $2/1 printable
     Use $1/1 video values rite aid store coupon
I also used $2 in +UP rewards
total oop $.34 in tax and received $2 +UP

CVS trip week of 11/27/11

Complete Muli purpose solution 12 oz $8.99 get $8.99 ECBs

2 Glade Air Freshner 9oz or scented oil warmer $.99
     Use $2/2 any Glade product from cvs.com

Stores and Policies

These are the stores I use:

CVS
Walgreens (Wags)
Rite Aid
Target
Winn Dixie
Rouses
Walmart (a necessary evil)

Each store has its own coupon policy, and unfortunately none of them are alike.
Please note that even though we have the stores policy, some cashiers treat couponers like criminals . . they think we are scum and they will give us a hard time. You just have to be persistent and friendly. If you know the policy and have a copy of their coupon policy it does help. And ask for a Manager if need be.

CVS

CVS accepts MQs, store coupons from their site and ECBs.

CVS has in store rewards dollars called Extra Care Bucks(ECBs). These are just like cash. You can use them toward any future purchase before they expire.

With ECBs, if your total purchase before tax is less than the ECB you will lose the extra ECBs.
    For Example: your item is $1.50 you use a $2 ECB. You will lose the $.50.
At CVS you can use manufacturers coupon or an in-store coupon on the purchase of an item but not both. If you go to cvs.com you can print coupons for their store only.

Wags

There are 3 different coupons to be used in Wags: Register Rewards (RR), Manufacturers Coupons (MQ) and in-store or in-ad coupons.

Wags has in store rewards dollars called Register Rewards (RR). Register Rewards will print after you have finished your transaction. These are also like cash BUT (this is a big and confusing but) you cannot use RR on the same product family and receive more RR in return.

   For example: you buy Colgate Total for $2 and get $2 in RR from that purchase. You cannot turn around and buy another Colgate toothpaste with the RR you just received and get another RR for $2. If you do use the RR to purchase the Colgate you just wont receive the $2 Register Reward.

With RR you cannot have an overage in total before tax. I you have an item that is 1.99 and you have a $2 RR you must purchase something to make your total over $2 or the register will not accept that RR.

The main thing to remember at Wags is you have to have as many items as you have coupons. 1 RR ticket counts as 1 coupon. You will get use to hearing that you need a filler item. That is so you can use a manufacturers coupon and register rewards on 1 item. The filler item should be something cheap, usually around $.10-$.25.

At Wags you can use manufacturers coupons (MQ) and Register Rewards (RR) and in-ad coupons on the purchase of an item. This is called stacking and only a few stores allow this. The in-ad coupons are the walgreens-only coupons in their books and mailers. The in-ad coupons do not need an item to cover it. So say we have Colgate toothpaste (normally $3.99) we could use in-ad coupon(weekly circular) Colgate for $3.50, $1 off MQ, and use $2 in RR. We need to buy the Colgate and 1 filler item to cover the MQ and RR.

Wags has many different publications for their in-ad/in-store coupons. The main booklet is usually by the front door of the store with the weekly circular. Its a monthly book containing LOTS of wags only coupons (in-ad). Another area for coupons is in the Pharmacy area. There are many different types of books, hand outs, informational guides and they usually have coupons in them. A few that come to mind are Diabetes and You, Pediatrics, the Flu and You, Answers.

Rite Aid

Rite Aid accepts MQs, +UP, and they also have Video Rewards. If you go to their web site and watch a short video you can receive a coupon.

Rite Aid has in store dollars call +Up. They are like cash without restrictions, kind of like a gift card.

You can stack coupons at Rite aid. 1 item can have a MQ, a store coupon like the video rewards and you can use +UPs on any 1 item. no need for filler items (yay).

Target

Target accepts MQs and their own coupons you can print from their website. Also they have Catalina coupons.

Catalina coupons are the one that print at the end of a transaction. The cashier will usually hand them over to you with your receipt. you have to look at the coupon because some are manufacturers coupons and some are target coupons.

You can use 1 MQ and 1 Target coupon per item. So don't assume the Catalina coupon is a target coupon.

You can get target coupons HERE

Winn Dixie

Winn Dixie accepts MQ and their store coupons, They mail out coupons every month(baby club).
I don't shop at Winn Dixie a lot, so I'm uncertain of how they handle coupons. They are suppose to stack coupons.

Rouses

Rouses accepts MQ. I have yet to get a store coupon if they even exist. This store usually has great deals on meats.

Walmart

Walmart accepts MQs.

Walmart will also price match any other local store. So instead of getting some items at Walmart then heading to rouses for some produce, you just tell the cashier the dollar amount at other store. Most cashiers take your word for it, some cashiers will hunt down a flyer to check the price. With couponing at walmart you need to try to remember the cashiers that give you the least amount of hassle. Ive had problems with many cashiers at walmart, so keep your guard up and stand up for your coupons!






Sunday, November 27, 2011

Getting Started

Coupons

There are many ways to get started in the couponing world. The easiest way is to buy a paper on Sundays. It can either be the Sun Herald or the Mississippi Press (For the MS gulf coast). These two papers have coupon inserts including Smart Source (SS), Red Plum (RP), Proctor and Gamble (P&G), General Mills (GM) and others. You hold on to these coupon inserts and wait for the deals to roll in.

Another way to stock up on coupons is to get printable coupons. There are many sites to print out coupons, the main site is coupons.com. There is also smartsource.com, redplum.com, and others . . .(I will add more later)

Finally you can submit to companies for free samples . .usually they will send a coupon for their products when they send the sample.


Storage for your coupons and inserts

You may want to start out small like I did so you can figure out if this is something you'd like to do.

When I started couponing, I had a small accordian file that held my coupons. I have graduated to using whats deemed a coupon binder. Its a large 3 ring binder enclosed so I don't lose any coupons.

With the Sunday inserts I initially had them paper clipped together with the date of the newspaper on a piece of paper surrounding the inserts. I had them laying on the floor beside my computer. I have graduated to a legal sized tub with file folders hanging in the tub with the Sunday papers date on the top to organize. This way its easier to jump to the date and pull out the insert you are in need of for the coupons. This becomes essential later on. The blogs I follow tell me which insert to pull out to get the coupon for the item that we will get a good deal on.