Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Free ice cream at Burger King and more

Select Burger Kings are offering free ice cream cones with purchase of a value meal. After you get the receipt look on the back and there is a coupon for a free whopper or chicken sandwich with the purchase of any size drink or fries after online survey.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Mega Walmart Match Up

I priced matched several items at Walmart here in The Woodlands, TX. The prices were from HEB, CVS and Walgreens. A few things I got, prices are after price match and coupons:

12 Totino's Party Pizzas (75¢ ea)
4 Totino's Pizza Rolls (75¢ ea)
4 Febreze Plug-in  (3¢ money maker ea)
24 Soft Soap 4pk (49¢ ea)
7 Crest toothpaste FREE
6 Glide floss (25¢ ea)
7 Crest toothbrushes (25¢ ea)
Huggies diapers size 5 jumbo pk ($3.99)

My total was $151.27 before coupons
I paid $49.94 OOP

Friday, September 16, 2011

Free at CVS this week

This week a coupon for a free bag of Newtons Fruit Thins prints from the CVS kiosk.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Stores in Spring, TX that triple and double coupons


I currently live in Spring, TX and the two stores in my area that double and triple coupons are Randalls on 4775 W. Panther Creek Dr. and Hodges Food Basket 26824 I-45 N in Spring, TX.

Randalls will triple any coupon 1¢- 39¢ and double any coupon 40¢-50¢. Randalls will only triple and double the first like coupon, so if you have more than one of the same coupon to double or triple you would have to do separate transactions for each like coupon.

**For example, Randalls had Colgate toothpaste on sale for 99¢, and I had six coupons for 50¢ off any Colgate toothpaste. I had to separate the toothpastes in 6 different transactions in order for the coupons to double making all six toothpastes free.**

Food Basket will triple any first like coupons 1¢-50¢, and double second like coupons 1¢-50¢, but they do not allow more than one transaction per visit.

**An example would be if I had two coupons for 25¢ off Heinz ketchup  which is on sale for 99¢. The first coupon would be tripled to 75¢ off one bottle of ketchup and the next coupon would double to the value of 50¢ off the second bottle of ketchup.**

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Printable Coupons

I have a lot of friends and family ask me what sites I use to print coupons. A lot of them express to me how annoying it is when they search for printable coupons online and get a million websites in their search that just refer them to other websites. The answer is simple: go back to the source.

What do I mean by "go back to the source"? Simple, think about where coupons come from. The manufacturers and the companies that put the inserts in the Sunday paper. So we should start looking in those places for printables first.

Most manufacturer's websites will have a promotional area that will list any coupons or promotions available. Many manufacturers put coupons and other offers on their Facebook page, which is why it is important to be plugged into an online couponing community. I highly suggest Slick Deals and WUC (we use coupons). Next you will want to check the companies that put the inserts in the Sunday paper. They are Smart Source, Red Plum (aka Valassis) and P&G. Both Smart Source and Red Plum have internet printable coupons but P&G does not; what it does have is a mailer you sign up for that comes out every few months. Last but definitely not least I use Coupons.com. This site is the most widely accepted site for printable coupons for grocery stores.

A few things I'd like to mention about printable coupons that is very important. One, is about making several copies of printable coupons. It wouldn't strike some as surprising that it is illegal to take coupons from the newspaper, copy them with a copy machine and try to use them in a store. But many people do not realize that you cannot print several copies of internet coupons. Do not save the image of the coupon and attempt to print it off as this is illegal. Each internet coupon comes with a spare UPC code that is unique to each printed coupon, so a manufacturer can limit customers to a certain amount of prints per family. Internet printable coupons are usually limited to two per computer. For example, if there was a coupon for Tide laundry detergent and I have a home computer I could print off two of the same coupons and still be able to use both because the upc codes would be different. If I wanted to be extra savvy I could also use my son's computer and print out two more so that I would have a total of 4 legit coupons. This is not illegal. There are instances however, that a manufacturer will allow more than two prints per computer, this is usually when you have bought a product and need to enter a code or a number on the purchased package to get the coupons. Use common sense when printing coupons off the internet make sure the coupon is from a source you can trust like the ones mentioned above to discourage any issues you may encounter at the checkout lane.

A few more tips to make coupon printing easy, cheaper and more enjoyable:
  • You do not have to print coupons in color (save your expensive ink)
  • Coupons normally print 3 per page uniformly when from the same source, so you can stack several pages and cut out several at a time.
  • Printable coupons generally have a shorter life span, around 30 days or shorter, so print frugally.
  • Sometimes you will run across store specific printables that will display the name of the store and possibly a logo, this means the coupon is only good at that certain grocer or store. Make sure you read the coupon carefully and look for the words manufacturer's coupon, if you do not see these words it is likely a store specific coupon.
I wish you all luck in finding what you need online. Happy savings!

CVS Trip 9/4/11

Here are a few things that were on sale that I got today from CVS, I didn't have a lot of time to plan anything this time and did not get any extra care bucks:

2 Dreyers 48oz ice cream: BOGO sale and coupon $1/2 Dreyer’s Ice Cream coupon from 6/12 Smart Source
(approx $2.50 ea)

1 Milky Way candybar $1.19  was FREE with CVS printout coupon

8 Axe Shower gel 12oz ($5.79 ea) on sale buy 1 get 1 50% off  coupled with coupon AXE Shower Gel or Detailer B1G1F up to $5.99 (9/24/11) Red Plum  was $1.45/ea.






Friday, September 2, 2011

Hodges Food Basket possible deals

 Here is a short list of match ups I did with advertised deals and coupons. I used an alphabetized list of unexpired coupons and my Sunday paper to match up with the ad.


Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs 99¢/each  
Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs $1 on 2 (8/14/11) makes it 49¢ each wyb 2.


Butterball  Lunchmeat  9oz. 2/$5
Butterball Turkey Franks or Bacon, Turkey Dinner or Breakfast Sausage, Lunchmeat or Chicken Strips $1 on 2 (8/31/11) makes it $2 each wyb 2.


Lipton Family Size Tea Bags $1.99/each
Lipton Tea Bags, Lipton to Go, or any Lipton Iced Tea Mixes .60/2 (8/28/11)  makes it $1.69 wyb 2.


Slim pickings this ad but the produce was not bad 49¢/lb yellow onion; 99¢/lb broccoli crowns and 89¢ iceberg lettuce.

Randalls Deal

My Randalls trip was a short one this time. Today only they had six packs of Viva paper towels for $5 and I used a 50¢/1 which doubled, also I got 6 FREE Colgate toothpastes 4oz. which were on sale for 99¢. The coupon I used was in this past Sunday's paper and was 50¢/1 which doubled making the items free.

Randalls had some BOGO on produce and other items but when I looked at the price of the item you buy it was seriously high. For example, the cantaloupe was BOGO, sounded good till I saw the tiny price was $3.99 for the one you pay for. That's $1.50 ea. which is not a deal. Lesson learned if it looks like a deal double check, sometimes stores will just use lingo to get you to buy, allowing you to think you saved money when you have not.


Crazy Kroger Trip

I had to separate my trip into two transactions because some of the coupons restricted me to 4 like coupon per transaction. My shopping trip went a little like this:

Coupons Used:

  • Olay Body Wash FREE up to $7.99 wyb Olay Pro X, Regenerist or Total Effect Moisturizer (9/30/11) V 8/14/2011,
  • Olay Regenerist Moisturizer $3 (8/31/11) P & G 7/31/2011
  • Secret Deoderant free (excludes clinical) up to $4.99 /wyb Olay Pro X, Regenerist or Total Effect Moisturizer(9/30/11) P&G 8/28
  • Febreze Air Effects $1 (9-30-11) P&G 8/28
  • Febreze Set & Refresh $1 (9-30-11) P&G 8/28
  • Old Spice Products, 1.7oz+ $1 on 2 (9-30-11) P&G 8/28
  • Old Spice Deodorant Free up to $5.49 wyb Old Spice Body Wash, no trial (9-30-11) P&G 8/28
  • 2 free coupons from Kroger booklet one for a free bag of Oreos and one for a free bag of Lays chips
  • $1 off household purchase at Krogers from booklet
Items bought & sale prices w/ card before coupons/Prices after coupons in bold
8 Febreze air effects $1.79 / $0.79
8 Febreze set and refresh $1.79 / $0.79
7 Old Spice deodorants $0.99 / FREE
7 Old Spice body wash $1.99 / $0.99
2 Olay body wash w/ samples attached :D $5.49/ FREE
2 Olay Regenerist moisterizers $17.44/ $14.44
4 Gilette shave cream $0.42* no coupon
4 Secret deodorants $0.99/$0.50
Oreo cookies $2.50/ FREE
Lays potato chips $2.19/ FREE

Total before coupons and card savings : $169.42
Total after coupons/card and w/ tax: $47.12!!!
72% savings!