Sunday, January 31, 2010

Great Instant Win Game!!!

Seriously awesome instant win game over at Kikkoman. I played twice and won both times!! They are giving away several different prizes (some are coupons that you'll need your printer ready to get, the others they will mail to you) all of which are quite awesome!

Prizes You Could Win:
• Silicone basting brush
• Spoon rest
• Stainless steel tongs
• Cookbooks
• Buy One Get One Free
• Coupon for $1 Off 10 oz. bottle of Kikkoman Soy Sauce
• Coupon for $1 Off 10 oz. bottle of Kikkoman Curry Sauce

I won a spoon rest and the tongs!! Good luck, oh and use pin # 0996753 :-)

Sending Nice Emails

I have covered this topic before, however I wanted to share my most recent nice email stories! First, I emailed Glade to tell them how much I love their product, they sent me a nice email back, and a coupon for a free candle (the 4.9 oz fragrance collection)!!! Then, thanks to Sandy telling me about her experience, I emailed Bar-S (the people who make those great hot dogs that are always so on sale), and then sent me a $5 off any $5 Bar-S product (so if I catch the good sales I could score possibly 5 free packs of hot dogs) and lots of 25 cent off coupons!! These will triple at Kroger or Albertsons, so if I just watch for one of their good sales, I could potentially get free or near free products! Now, not all companies send you some sort of reward or coupon for saying something nice, but most do! Plus, you're doing something nice for them in return by giving them some positive feedback! 

On the other side of that, if you have a bad experience please tell them that as well. I emailed Starbucks about a recent experience and they are sending me 2 free drink coupons! You may think that's not nice to send them a negative email, but they need this feedback to improve their customer service. Otherwise the next person they make angry may not email them, they may just go tell everyone they know and that company may lose lots of customers. 

So basically, remember to give feedback!! It's important for all involved and could save you money!! :)

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Sorry for the delay!

As usual, life happened lol, so the rest of my post will be up tomorrow! I will say however that Target was awesome with fixing my problem!

My Grocery Trips January 2010

Here is what I promised, the details of my 2 grocery trips!

Market Street

8th Continent Soymilk $2.99
Red River Milk $2.39
International Delight Vanilla Latte $1.79
Red River Heavy Whipping Cream $.99
Glade 4.9 oz Soy Candle $5.79
Lawry's Marinade $2.79
Mrs. Bairds Bread $1.99
Mrs Bairds Hot Dog buns $1.99
Food Club Long Grain Rice $.69
Food Club String Cheese 24 pk $6.49
Boneless Skinless Chicken 1.71 lbs $6.14
Boneless Pork Chops 1.15 lbs $5.76
Eckrich Smoked Sausage (2pks) $6.00
Market Street brand Sausage $2.29
Bar S Hot Dogs (2 pks) $1.98
White Seedless Grapes 2.82 lbs $10.12
Del Monte Orchard Select (jars of fruit) $3.59
Del Monte Orchard Select (jars of fruit) $3.59
Bag of Baby Spinach (fresh express) $2.99
Navel Oranges 1.70 lbs $2.70
Red Pears 1.58 lbs $.93
4 Bring your own bag discounts = -$.20 

Total Sales $68.32
Health Food Meal sale (free spinach, long grain rice, and lawry's marinade)=  -$5.47
$1 off Bar S when you buy 2 packs = -$1
$1 off Ochard Selects (2 coupons) = -$2
$1 off any Mrs. Bairds product (got this for emailing them) (2 coupons) = -$2
$1 off 8th Continent Soymilk (peelie coupon on package) = -$1
Free International Delight coupon (for being a facebook fan) = -$1.79
Free Glade candle 4.9oz (for emailing company) = -$5.79


Total Coupons $13.58 
 

Total after coupons $54.74


This was my smaller shopping trip, next is Target! The healthy food meal sale is going on and it is when you buy the boneless skinless chicken breasts (cost me $6.14) you get free fresh express spinach, long grain rice, and a bottle of Lawry's marinade!

Target  


I was typing up the details from my Target trip, when about halfway down the receipt I noticed some extra charges, something I didn't even buy is on there, so Target will be posted later tonight, I have to go back up there and figure out what they are charging me for on my receipt!! So stay tuned for part 2!!






Making the most out of Samples!

You may notice a lot of buzz about free samples lately, not just on my blog but on a lot of others as well. And you may be thinking "it's just a little sample, it won't do me any good, so I won't get it", however samples can really last you a long time if you put them to good use! As an example, I got a free facial from Clarins (all natural facial products, sold at Macy's and Dillard's) a while back, and along with my facial they gave me 2 samples of their amazing products. I got this facial back in November and was given a .5 oz sample of their face wash, and I am still not out of it. You barely need any to lather up and wash your entire face, so it has lasted me a full 2 months, and I still have a few more weeks worth in the bottle. As a result, I haven't had to buy any face wash since November, saving me at least $4/grocery trip!

Another one that is one of my favorites is Aveda Rosemary Mint Body/Hand Wash. I received a sample of this (4 oz.) back in October, and just ran out right after Christmas. So 2 months of not having to buy body wash which saves me at least $5/grocery trip and that's just if I was buying Nivea or another less expensive brand.

This may seem like only a small amount of savings, but remember every dollar counts, and eventually those dollars add up to a lot of savings! My dad picks up pennies off the ground, and I used to think that was crazy until I saw the jar of coins he had saved up (about $40 worth). That's $40 we wouldn't have had if he wasn't keeping an open eye and performing such a simple task!

For those of you who are new to couponing, just keep stocking up on these little freebies and eventually you'll realize you haven't had to pay for body wash or face wash or whatever else you may have stocked up on in a really long time! I won't have to buy lotion for at least 2 years now because of all the lotion freebies I've gotten.

Another small but great thing is whenever you go to certain fast food chains (and some sit down restaurants), you will notice on the bottom or back of your receipt that there is a survey you can take and in turn you will receive a free item (Wendy's does free frosties and free burgers, Sonic does free route 44 drinks, Taco Bueno does free burritos, etc). This is GREAT for when you just want a small meal for free, or if you forget to take your lunch to work, and can save you LOTS of money! I had a string of the Sonic surveys at one time, I got around 7 in a row, that's a savings of around $14!! Plus, I didn't waste any gas because I got them on my way home.

As a reminder, you can sign up at Kohls.com with only your email address and they will send you a $5 off any $5 or more purchase coupon! I used these a lot back in September and got my son a lot of free toys for his birthday!!

All of these things can save you lots of money, and they add up to some really great savings!!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Swagbucks!

If you look at the side bar of my page, and also at the bottom, you will notice some Swagbucks widgets! If you haven't tried Swagbucks yet, I would definitely recommend giving it a try!
Basically you just search on their search engine (works just as well as any others) and you win "Bucks" for your searches. You won't get a Buck every time, but I get at least 1 out of 5. Then they have Mega Swagbucks Fridays where you can even win 500 Swagbucks!!
These Swagbucks can be used to buy great gifts, there are gift cards, movies, toys, even a Wii or an Iphone!! I have earned about 35 in the past 2 weeks, so it's not very hard to do, and one of my friends has already gotten enough to get a Starbucks gift card!
Oh, and another awesome part, they have a place where you can return your old cell phones and get points for them, and there are never any shipping charges!!
I haven't gotten any spam mail from them either, so I feel pretty safe about the site! You can start searching from my sidebar!

Coming Soon...The Big Scoop!

Tomorrow I will be posting my amazing grocery savings!
Just as a sneak peak...I saved over $70 with my coupons and got
1 month worth of food for under $250!

Check back tomorrow night, I will also post an update on Facebook once I get this page updated!

Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Free Window Cling!!


Get a window cling for your car! This window cling is a fabulous reminder for you to grab your reusable bags when you are going to the store! This isn't a sticker, it's removable and reusable. :)

Thanks Brandie!!

Great Kroger Deal!!


Kroger is having an amazing sale on lots of handy items! I got lots of free food and other items tonight, here is the breakdown:

Hormel Pepperoni 3.5 oz packages (look in the ad, it's a specific kind) on sale for 10/$10 (I got 2 packs, I had 2 coupons)

Printable coupon here $.50 off (doubles to $1.00) Remember to hit the back button and print twice!

= free!

International Delight $1.99

Facebook fan coupon I just received today for a free bottle

= free!

Gatorade G2 on sale 10/$10

$.50 coupon from last week's paper (doubles to $1)

= free!

Starkist Tuna pouches (I got really lucky on this one) on sale 10/$10 I bought 4

I had a bogo free coupon from vocalpoint, and 2 $1 off coupons from the same site

Then I found a $.50 off coupon from one of the last few papers in my coupon book (doubles to $1)

= 4 packs free!! (that's 4 lunches for me!)

Birds Eye frozen Vegetables 10-12oz - $1.00

-$.50 coupon from either the 1/10 paper or the 12/6 paper (doubles to $1.00)

= Free!

Hall's Cough Drops - $1.00

-$.50 coupon here (doubles to $1)

= Free!

You'll also notice the lovely bag in the background, one of my reusable bags :). (Yeah, I did have to sneak that comment in there somewhere)

Thanks Leah for the heads up on the sale and for taking the time to look through the ads and find these great deals!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Free Uniball Pen for first 10,000!!

Starting at 12:00 pm Central every day you can go sign up for a FREE Uni Super Ink pen from Uni-Ball. 10,000 pens will be given away daily thru April 30, 2010!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Extra Special Post coming soon!!

Stay tuned to Money Saving Mommyfor a very exciting post! I'm going to put even more effort into it with my shopping trip this weekend just because I love you all so much! I'm going to (hopefully successfully) make a list of every coupon I use and the original prices of all the items I buy so I can show you just how much I saved per item! This will be a daunting task so I'm sure the post won't be until Sunday, but I will update you here and on Facebook so you can see it as soon as I post it! I know you are all so very excited lol, just try to get some sleep anyways :).

Reusable bags!

Just wanted to remind everyone of the rewards of using the reusable bags! Many stores now are rewarding us for using these bags with 5 cent discounts which may not seem like much, but it comes in handy, especially if you coupon and get really close to free, sometimes it will take your total down to free! The rule is usually you only get the discount on the bags you actually need to use (for example, you can't bring 5 bags for one item), however if you get a really awesome cashier they will give you however many you bring!
This helps the environment, gets the clutter of the paper/plastic bags out of your kitchen and actually probably in a small way helps the economy. I used to work for a grocery store and plastic bags back in 2005 cost 5 cents per bag for the company to buy, 7 cents per bag for paper. So you are saving the company some money by using them, which in turn allows them (and hopefully they take the opportunity) to lower their prices.
I don't like blah bags, so I buy them when they are A.) on sale and B.) really cute! If you live near a Market Street, they have really adorable bags, even some that look like footballs if you are male or have a man who goes to the store!

Free stuff today!

I made another Target stop today, I wanted to look for these items last night but didn't have time as Target was closing :).

Gillette body wash $2

  • I used a $2 off any Gillette body wash coupon (I think it came in one of my other gillette products I bought a long time ago)

Gillette Clinical Strength deodorant $2

  • I used a $2 off coupon (also came off another product)

Huggies wipes $1.57

  • I used a $.50 off Target coupon and a $1.00 off Mfg coupon (found in a coupon book I got at Tom Thumb in the health/beauty section)

Then I had 2 bags that I brought, so when that discount was taken off the wipes were free instead of 7 cents + tax! (See, this really does come in handy!)

Freebies Monday Night!!

Here are the awesome deals I got last night:

Kashi cereal on sale at Target for $2.75
  • I had a $2 off Manufacturer coupon and a $.75 off Target coupon (remember, you can stack a mfg and target coupon on items at Target)
Ham Steak $2 (also at Target)

  • I had a $2 off any Archer Farms ham product from the Target website

Libby Vegetables at Kroger 2/$1.00

  • I had 2 $.50 off of 2 coupons that doubled to make them all free!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Don't forget to get your monthly coupons!

Don't forget to go to a few sites and get your coupons for the month! One of my favorite things about this is that you can pick out only the ones you will use, so it saves you some time and saves some paper! :) My favorite sites to get coupons are:

coupons.com

target.com

redplum.com

Also, if you have a newer phone there are some great sites where you can download coupons directly to your phone. I have a RAZR (yeah I know, I also live in a cave :) ), so I can't use this function, but if you have anything newer than that it should work! Check Brandie's page, she has a really good list of these cell phone coupon pages.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Awesome Kroger Mega Deal!!

Update: This deal is good through Tuesday!!
This is such a great sale they are having at Kroger! I'm not sure how long this deal is going on, once I find out I will let you know! They have these "mega deals" pretty often, however they usually aren't quite this awesome! The one they are currently running is when you buy 3 boxes of Kellogg's special K cereal (select varieties) you get a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, an 8 oz package of sausage gravy and a gallon of milk free ($7.08 value)!!! The cereal is on sale for 3 for $7, so without coupons you would be able to get everything for $7.58. I had 2 coupons to use, one was $5 off when you buy 4 boxes, so I got 4, then I also had a coupon for buy a box of Kellogg's cereal get a box of the new Kellogg's special k granola for free! So, my transaction went like this:

Kellogg's Special K x 4 = $9.33
Kellogg's Granola = $2.34
Kroger Bread $1.00
Kroger Sausage Gravy $1.50
Kroger Eggs $1.59
Kroger Milk $2.99

Total (w/o tax) = $20.81
- Kroger sale = 13.73
- Coupons = $4.43