973beachbum
Senior Associate
Politics Admin
Joined: Dec 17, 2010 16:12:13 GMT -5
Posts: 10,501
|
Post by 973beachbum on Jan 4, 2013 12:55:44 GMT -5
Dancin said... beachbum: Would you please post the upcoming Staples deals or refer me to a blog/site that lists them? I would have totally missed out on this week's deals if it wasn't for you and leanna's posts. I may try to play the Staples game since the customer service/friendliness at my store was excellent and I don't think I'm going to have to deal with "lack of stock" issues. Dancin I think Sourthern Savers is probably the best for you. The main link with helpful hints is www.southernsavers.com/2011/12/save-at-office-supply-stores-staples-rewards-easy-rebates/The link for the weeks deals which isn't updated until maybe Sat of each week is www.southernsavers.com/category/office-supply-stores/Next weeks ad is up on Staples.com though. They have what looks like different Totes free after rewards and different card board storage boxes also. The Avery binders seem to be the same deal though. Reams of Paper are $2 a ream after rebate with no coupon in the ad. If you need HP ink there is a triple recycling deal also. I stay away from that because I don't have any HP printers and it is expensive just to get $20 extra dollars in recycling rewards. Not that I don't love my recycling rewards but it still wouldn't make the ink free. I would take a pass on that one if I was you unless you need HP ink. I have 2 of the $1/2 dawn hand renewals if you want them I will get them out to you. I don't have any of the cat food though. Is there anything else you need?
|
|
973beachbum
Senior Associate
Politics Admin
Joined: Dec 17, 2010 16:12:13 GMT -5
Posts: 10,501
|
Post by 973beachbum on Jan 4, 2013 12:59:48 GMT -5
FYI about Staples Dancin, separate transaction are you friend! If they ask, which mine doesn't often, I just say I have a home business and like my house stuff on a separate receipt. I keep all items that earn rewards completely separate from things that don't or rebates or items with coupons with rare exception. Trust me it is much easier that way. ;D
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 4, 2013 13:48:30 GMT -5
FYI about Staples Dancin, separate transaction are you friend! If they ask, which mine doesn't often, I just say I have a home business and like my house stuff on a separate receipt. I keep all items that earn rewards completely separate from things that don't or rebates or items with coupons with rare exception. Trust me it is much easier that way. ;D That's exactly how I did my transactions last Sunday. I bought the rebate item (paper) on one receipt and I bought the rewards item (totes) with the Sharpies on another receipt. I wondered if I should have put the Sharpies with the paper, but in the end, I don't think it mattered. If I ever get questioned about anything like that, I just "claim" that I am easily confused and that I need to do it that way to keep everything "straight" (in my mind). Sadly, it's becoming more truth than an excuse. One question though: How will I get the reward for the totes? For rebates I'm signed up to get them in the mail. Will my reward for the totes come the same way? Also, if I had purchased the totes on separate receipts would I have gotten them in separate checks? That might help in spending them later if they were in smaller "chunks". And along the same lines, if I had purchased an additional reward item would they have combined it with the totes or would it come separately? Oh, and thanks for the links to Southern Savers. I'll bookmark them and check them out on Friday/Saturday before the new ad breaks.
|
|
973beachbum
Senior Associate
Politics Admin
Joined: Dec 17, 2010 16:12:13 GMT -5
Posts: 10,501
|
Post by 973beachbum on Jan 4, 2013 13:58:47 GMT -5
With Staples the words "checks" is in name only. All rewards are done online. You sign in to your online staples rewards account and you can print them from there. On the left under Rewards Dashboards it has a spot that says "View and Print Rewards". Hover your cursor over it and you can click on it and go to the page with your rewards. You only get two checks a month total. 1 for ink cart recycling and 1 for everything else. Each can be used in 2 transactions so when you use it in a trans that cost less than the rewards check you will get a balance rewards check on your receipt. The balance rewards MUST be used in one transaction. That is seriously probably the main reason I try and not do more than $100 in rewards stuff a month. I just don't want to have to come up with much more than that in the next month. Rewards do last over 2 months though so you can wait a little to use them plus if you get less than the $10 min in a month it will "rollover" for the quarter and count if you end up adding to it to total more than 10. I am probably confusing you by now but as you do more Staples rewards I will answer any questions that come up. That was actually the best way for me to really learn and I still manage to mess things up from time to time. ;D
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 4, 2013 15:04:58 GMT -5
With Staples the words "checks" is in name only. All rewards are done online. You sign in to your online staples rewards account and you can print them from there. On the left under Rewards Dashboards it has a spot that says "View and Print Rewards". Hover your cursor over it and you can click on it and go to the page with your rewards. You only get two checks a month total. 1 for ink cart recycling and 1 for everything else. Each can be used in 2 transactions so when you use it in a trans that cost less than the rewards check you will get a balance rewards check on your receipt. The balance rewards MUST be used in one transaction. That is seriously probably the main reason I try and not do more than $100 in rewards stuff a month. I just don't want to have to come up with much more than that in the next month. Rewards do last over 2 months though so you can wait a little to use them plus if you get less than the $10 min in a month it will "rollover" for the quarter and count if you end up adding to it to total more than 10. I am probably confusing you by now but as you do more Staples rewards I will answer any questions that come up. That was actually the best way for me to really learn and I still manage to mess things up from time to time. ;D Okay, so I have to do something online to get my reward? I did put my rebate info in online, but I didn't do anything for the reward. I thought that it would automatically get "picked up" and come to me. I tried to create an account to check my rewards, but something got screwed up. I guess I'm going to have to call them and have them walk me through it. Okay, good to know about all rewards coming in one check/coupon. To start, I'll just be careful not to accumulate too many. I want to see how feasible it is to roll them into rebate products. leanna seemed to think it would be pretty easy. It's DH's birthday and he wants to take off, so I'll have to deal with Staples later.
|
|
973beachbum
Senior Associate
Politics Admin
Joined: Dec 17, 2010 16:12:13 GMT -5
Posts: 10,501
|
Post by 973beachbum on Jan 4, 2013 15:26:26 GMT -5
|
|
emhalf
Established Member
Joined: Mar 30, 2011 7:15:17 GMT -5
Posts: 362
|
Post by emhalf on Jan 4, 2013 15:30:48 GMT -5
FWIW, I think you can choose to have your rewards certificate mailed to you rather than printing it. At least that used to be an option. When I used to do staples rewards, on 2 separate occasions someone hacked my account (or an employee accessed it), printed and spent my rewards. It must be something that Staples is fairly familiar with, because both times when I called they didn't even ask for any kind of verification, they just reissued the rewards. Either way, it was extremely annoying, so I chose to have my rewards mailed instead. I've never heard of anyone else having that problem.
|
|
constanz22
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 14:32:17 GMT -5
Posts: 4,219
|
Post by constanz22 on Jan 4, 2013 16:03:12 GMT -5
I guess I'm kind of confused with Staples now, too. I bought one of the storage totes for 13.99 today. I guess I didn't pay that much attention to the ad, cuz I thought it was a rebate, but a rebate receipt did not print. So, I guess it will be coming as a Staples reward? Like the ink rewards? Blah, I probably wouldn't have spent 13.99 for a tote just for Staples rewards
|
|
973beachbum
Senior Associate
Politics Admin
Joined: Dec 17, 2010 16:12:13 GMT -5
Posts: 10,501
|
Post by 973beachbum on Jan 4, 2013 16:13:04 GMT -5
I guess I'm kind of confused with Staples now, too. I bought one of the storage totes for 13.99 today. I guess I didn't pay that much attention to the ad, cuz I thought it was a rebate, but a rebate receipt did not print. So, I guess it will be coming as a Staples reward? Like the ink rewards? Blah, I probably wouldn't have spent 13.99 for a tote just for Staples rewards I love those totes. The totes are rewards. You will get rewards to spend. The rewards from this month won't come out until about 2 weeks into the next month in this case feb. What you should do if you want to "cash out" your rewards is use them to buy things that are free after easy rebates. So if you had rewards of $25 from last month this is what you could do. Buy 4 reams of hammmill paper @6.99 ea.....27.96 minus coupon $5/$25.....................................-5.00 subtotal..........................................................22.96 pay with rewards so no sales tax.....................0.00 OOP Do easy rebate online for 5.99 each and get back $23.96 in cash.
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 4, 2013 21:10:08 GMT -5
beachbum: Sent you a PM with my addie. I didn't know whether you had it. Thank you sooo much.
|
|
973beachbum
Senior Associate
Politics Admin
Joined: Dec 17, 2010 16:12:13 GMT -5
Posts: 10,501
|
Post by 973beachbum on Jan 4, 2013 21:11:48 GMT -5
beachbum: Sent you a PM with my addie. I didn't know whether you had it. Thank you sooo much. I got it. If you need anything else let me know. I don't need anything but thanks for the offer. ;D
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 5, 2013 9:08:28 GMT -5
Can you guys ever remember a store having such great across the board lotion deals and clearance?Clearance, yes. CVS does their HBA re-set in January every year. I always get tons of cheap/free stuff when combining clearance and coupons this time of year. It goes fast though. Luckily I have around 10 stores I can hit pretty easily. And I really love it when some stores don't put clearance tags on but I KNOW the stuff is clearanced. SCORE! I guess one of the reasons that I'm in awe is that my store rarely has any clearance at all. Last year I think I remember there being "some" hair care on clearance, but I didn't get very excited about that as I already had a great stockpile of hair care (and that was before the VO5 and Pantene deals of '12 ). I don't remember there being ANY hand/body lotion on clearance. I probably spent more in EBs than I needed to on some of the Lubriderm that I bought (got it at 50% instead of 75%). I wasn't really focused on hanging on to my EBs anyway, so it's all good; but if I had been, I would be bummed. Next year I'll know to just watch and wait - even if I don't have any EBs. Throughout the year when I have heard about CVS clearance, especially for one of my "favorite" stockpile products (laundry detergent, bath tissue, paper towels, etc.), I've gone to check my store and the item/UPC that several people are getting is not tagged at my store. I grab the product and scan it hoping, hoping, hoping and it is still full price. I think that is what happens when you live in a small town with a single store.
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 5, 2013 9:40:27 GMT -5
Okay, since I don't know how to download stockpile pics, but I DO have an inventory list, I'm ready to share my inventory of another product that I have in my stockpile. This time it's paper towels. (20) Bounty Basic 8-roll (2) Sparkle 8-roll (4) Bounty HUGE pick-a-size (ea. pkg. = 5 regular rolls) (9) Bounty 8-roll pick-a-size (6) Bounty 8-roll I have to give a shout out to constanz for a large part of my stockpile of the Bounty Basic!! She posted about the original Home Improvement GC glitch. I was able to get (8) $20 GCs which gave me $80 in UPs. My first roll included (16) packages of the Bounty Basic which was giving UPs and there was an unheard of $1/1 Bounty insert coupon at the time. Even though I spent a lot of UPs getting the Bounty, I knew that it would be about the best deal that I would ever get on them. Here's to finding more great glitches in 2013!!
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 5, 2013 11:05:20 GMT -5
murphath's little anxiety attack brought on by a couple of us posting that we were going to get out of CVS for a while got me to thinking..... I'm curious. Is there anyone on here who shops at Target, looks for the best deals there on a regular basis, and keeps up on their coupon policies? How about WalMart? I know beachbum and leanna are doing Staples. I think rubyslippers is doing Rite Aid. leanna also seems to be shopping WAGs more than anyone else. Several are shopping CVS. Maybe someone else is tuned into Target and another WalMart, etc. If the GC took the resources that we have and "organized", maybe we could continue to save a lot of money with the least amount of time/effort expended "as a group". Let's face it. The deals are not what they used to be. How many of you are having a hard time justifying spending much in OOP and are spending more time than before trying to find those deals, glitches, and great clearance finds that still allow you to coupon strategically with low/no OOP? For me, I would have never known about the RA Home Improvement GC deal without constanz's post. I wasn't shopping at all at RA at the time, so I was not "tuned in" at all. I would totally have missed out on what I think was the best glitch of 2012 without her watchful eye and coming to the GC to let us all know. I would not have known about the Home Depot Zombie Mulch coupons if a nice young college kid on WUC who for whatever reason has taken a liking to an oldie like me , hadn't PMed me about the game. Again, I would have missed out on what I think were the best coupons of 2012. BTW, this kid is amazing. He's 20 and he finds the very best deals all over the place. Anyway, the idea of banding together and organizing a little more popped into my head as a result of murphath's post and I just thought I'd throw it out there.
|
|
constanz22
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 14:32:17 GMT -5
Posts: 4,219
|
Post by constanz22 on Jan 5, 2013 11:28:09 GMT -5
I do not regularly shop for deals at either WalMart or Target. Neither is very convenient for me and to be honest, I avoid WalMart like the plague. I can count on one hand how many times I stepped foot in WalMart all of last year, and most of them were the week or two after Christmas looking at holiday markdowns, so, I will be of NO help there. There is/was an iheartthemart blog that I would look at for WM deals but I haven't looked at it in ages.
I do the occasional deal at Target, if I happen to read about something online, it's something I need, and can get there. It's not near home or work really, so, I usually have to go on a weekend, but don't like to make the 20+ mile trip for just a couple things. If I go, it's early am so I can get in and out before it gets busy. I went Monday early am to look at after Christmas stuff. I occasionally look thru the Target coupons online and print them, but I definitely don't "regularly" look for or do deals there.
From time to time, on WUC, I see all kinds of great deal talk about Kmart. There is one right by work, but honestly, the thought of trying to do more than RA and CVS and the OCCASIONAL deal elsewhere, I think for me is just too much. My stockpile is more than healthy and I don't need to chase every deal at every store.
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 5, 2013 11:37:39 GMT -5
The latest scuttlebutt at CVS from WUC is: Very, very few are getting the % off email coupons on Thursdays anymore, if any at all. Several that have gotten them recently are reporting that there has not been a deduction on the non-sale items that are giving EBs. The wording has changed on them indicating that they are not valid on sale or promotional items (i.e. items giving EBs). No one is reporting getting nor or have there been any actual transactions showing the use of any $10/$50s. They seem to have completely dried up. Many stores that did allow the auto-deduct are no longer allowing it. It has always been a rarity for me and a surprise if I get it. At my CVS it totally depended on which cashier I got and very few allowed it. More and more stores are no longer doing early activation on Saturdays. This was discontinued at my CVS a loooong time ago. Several stores lately have discontinued allowing customers to use expired EBs, CRTs, etc. Again, this was discontinued at my store a loooong time ago. It's not ALL bad news. ;D The bright spot is the upcoming Buy $30/Get a $10 CVS cash card deals. So far they are running the weeks of 1/6 and 1/13. I keep looking for the 1/20 ad to break to determine how many of those deals I want to do before then in order to "cash out". So as I mentioned in my previous post, many of the "tools" that we once used at CVS to get low/no OOP in order to stockpile the products we use on a regular basis do not seem to be currently available, to the majority anyway. Some of the CRTs might occasionally be a big help as they have been in the past, but for right now that seems to be "it". Hopefully, they will be rolling something wonderful out in the near future (although I'll be out and be trying to ignore it, whatever it may be ).
|
|
marvholly
Junior Associate
Joined: Dec 21, 2010 11:45:21 GMT -5
Posts: 6,540
|
Post by marvholly on Jan 5, 2013 12:08:24 GMT -5
Dancin Don’t fret. Even w/ my multiple stores neither of my regular CVS stores EVER has clearance when people online are discussing it. In fact local bloggers from the western suburbs have been writing about this but here in the north – NADA.
I very, very seldom shop at either Target or Walmart and I pass both at least 2x/week. My stores are NOT supers so the deal are just NOT as good. Also both chains are in LARGE strip malls w/BAD parking/traffic patterns and and drivers who got their licenses out of Cracker Jack boxes (if they even have a license). Also if you go between 8 am and 10 pm parking is nearly impossible to find. This may change when we get a super Walmart in the next year or two.
My CVS mgr IS still allowing me to use expired EB BUT that is prob because I give him a list of HOT items before he orders for an upcoming sale and I pick up the ads at the local independent markets that he & his wife do not get in their paper.
It is NUTS the way stores distribute their ads. They have no clue where we work, volunteer or otherwise routinely travel. i do not get the ad for the produce market in the burb just south of me-accross the street from my bank so I do NOT shop there. I do NOT get the ad for another produce market IN my town but a different zipcode.
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 5, 2013 13:03:04 GMT -5
I do not regularly shop for deals at either WalMart or Target. Neither is very convenient for me and to be honest, I avoid WalMart like the plague. I can count on one hand how many times I stepped foot in WalMart all of last year, and most of them were the week or two after Christmas looking at holiday markdowns, so, I will be of NO help there. There is/was an iheartthemart blog that I would look at for WM deals but I haven't looked at it in ages. I do the occasional deal at Target, if I happen to read about something online, it's something I need, and can get there. It's not near home or work really, so, I usually have to go on a weekend, but don't like to make the 20+ mile trip for just a couple things. If I go, it's early am so I can get in and out before it gets busy. I went Monday early am to look at after Christmas stuff. I occasionally look thru the Target coupons online and print them, but I definitely don't "regularly" look for or do deals there. From time to time, on WUC, I see all kinds of great deal talk about Kmart. There is one right by work, but honestly, the thought of trying to do more than RA and CVS and the OCCASIONAL deal elsewhere, I think for me is just too much. My stockpile is more than healthy and I don't need to chase every deal at every store. constanz: I'm with you 100%. I think a lot of us aren't chasing a lot of deals anymore for the same reason. I think a lot of us are cherry picking and are much more picky about the deals that we do. I know that I certainly am. Show me a deal on a free toothbrush and I can't be bothered. Show me a glitch where that toothbrush is turned into a huge MM and now you've got my attention. Even though I don't shop at Target or WalMart or a lot of other national retailers on a regular basis, if someone else on here did and posted a great deal/freebie/MM for something that I needed, I would be all over it. It is the time taken so that I "happen to be online" to find those deals that I thought might be saved by organizing and banding together especially since many of us are in cherry picking mode and because a lot of the deals that we might be most interested in (but not all) would be that glitch (like the RA Home Improvement GC deal or the Zombie Mulch coupon) and/or that clearance find that is not ever found in the weekly ad and that would be missed if you were not "tuned in" to that particular retailer on a regular basis. Anyhow, it was just an idea that came to me as a result of murphath's post that I thought could possibly work to help us continue to find the freebies on the products that we still "need"....or not.
|
|
murphath
Well-Known Member
Joined: Dec 22, 2010 16:12:33 GMT -5
Posts: 1,981
|
Post by murphath on Jan 5, 2013 17:06:26 GMT -5
Dancinmama wrote: I'm curious. Is there anyone on here who shops at Target, looks for the best deals there on a regular basis, and keeps up on their coupon policies? How about WalMart? |
I shop at Target. It's not really much further than going to Safeway/Raleys for me. It's 5 miles to Safeway and @ 8 to Target--just a different direction. I find their prices to be much lower than either Raley's/Safeway. For instance, we love Grey Poupon mustard. It's $2.59 or so at Target and the same size jar is $3.99 at Safeway. When a q comes out, I stock up--there was one for .75 awhile back. Frozen veggies are also less there. Coffee can also be a good deal--especially if there are q's and one of their gift card offers. MFA usually has the deals outlined very well. It's great when you can stack a Targe q with a manufacturer q. I also bring my own canvas bags, so get .05 off for each of those. I use the Target red card to pay so get 5% off for that. Mine's a credit card but we pay it off each month. I usually just cherry-pick at Safeway/Raleys. Except for meat--that I usually get on sale at Safeway.
|
|
hinil
New Member
Joined: Jan 16, 2011 20:44:14 GMT -5
Posts: 30
|
Post by hinil on Jan 5, 2013 17:57:20 GMT -5
Dancin- I live smack in the middle of a big city (Chicago) and we NEVER have any of the clearance prices at CVS. Like you, I diligently price scan when they are reported (and have multiples stores to check), but we never get them. The auto-deduct has also ended at our stores. Before, my favorite 2 CVS locations have self-checkout and the coupon just scanned and took it off. Now a cashier has to swipe their card after EVERY coupon at self-checkout. You can imagine how much they love that. I agree it's a great idea to "organize and conquer" the various stores. I'll post any good deals I see at Wags (just got another 2 free Quaker granola bars this afternoon with the $1/2 Quaker items) there, but there is no Wal-Mart here, and Target is far from me , so it's rare I go. It's extremely helpful and big thank you to whomever knew that CVS clears out their lotions in January so we're getting the big sales -- just bought 2 more full size Aveeno for 50 cents each after coupon and EB, even though I have several bottles in my stockpile. Does anyone know of any other "scheduled" lowest prices? If we can't get so many huge MM, at least we could spend the least out pocket possible if we knew when to stock up!
|
|
rubyslippers
Well-Known Member
Joined: Jan 2, 2011 19:32:42 GMT -5
Posts: 1,001
|
Post by rubyslippers on Jan 5, 2013 19:58:01 GMT -5
Most of today's hounding was pretty successful. I spent $9.43 OOP for everything I brought home.
Meijer: $.98 OOP for 2 Chi Chi salsa and 1 gallon milk after using a $1/2 Kroger mailer Q for salsa and mperks for free milk
Dollar Tree: $.50 OOP for 2 sm. Planter peanutbutter after two $.75 IPQ
Family Dollar: $1.00 for 2 boxes Xmas cookies 75% off for DH to bring in to the coffee room at work
Bath & Body: $0.00 OOP for 5 lotions after using $10.00 IPQ/$30.00 plus giftcard
Kroger: $4.87 for 1 whole chicken, leeks, 2 Seafood Snackers, 4 Secret deodorant, 1 Old Spice deodorant, 3 Campbell's cream of celery soup. I had $6.00 in ecoupons, 1 free Old Spice Q from Kroger, $.60/3 Kroger Q for soup, two $.50 IPQ doubled, and two $2.00/2 Secret MQ's
Local grocery: $0.00 OOP for 4 bags frozen stirfry vegetables after using four $.50 MQ's doubled
Mall: I used a giftcard from DH for a jogging suit and a couple of shirts and got my total down $20.00 less using IPQ's
CVS: Aveeno deal was a NO GO! Two managers looked at the ad and seemed to want to side with me. Then they looked at the store tag which said "select". I told them that their customers were not going to be getting those tags in the mail as they will be going by how the ad is worded. Anyways, I was nice about it and told the manager to take it up with corporate as the ad is misleading. I wanted to be on good terms with her and she promised to do all she could for me. Never-the-less, I used up all my ECBs on three 6 pks. Dove bar soap and 2 trial Curel moisturizer so I could use the $4/20 face CRT. I used up DH's ECBs earlier on a CVS food storage container. I spent $2.08 OOP. They didn't have the right glucose meter either. I might go back next week and get a raincheck for that since my coupon has a long expiration date, but as of now, I'm done with CVS for awhile.
Walmart: I only shop there because it is closer to home than Meijer, Kroger and Aldi. I usually just pricematch the best produce deals of the week. I had better luck last year getting overage from the Schick razors with the $3.00 MQ inside. I was stocking up on butter, bacon, pecans, milk and things I didn't have coupons for. I haven't seen any deals giving overage in a long time. I do quick in and out purchases at Walmart and thankfully, their produce is right when you walk in so I spend very little time there.
|
|
FreeSalsa
Well-Known Member
Joined: Dec 27, 2010 18:43:26 GMT -5
Posts: 1,013
|
Post by FreeSalsa on Jan 5, 2013 20:03:48 GMT -5
I know that there is probably nothing that anyone can say to relieve your anxiety about the situation. I know that when things like that have popped up in our lives, I feel better as long as we have a long range plan that incorporates the various outcomes that may arise. If A happens then we'll do this; if B happens then we'll to that. Perhaps your DH should start putting feelers out there for work. That doesn't mean that he has to take a job or even interview if his freelance work picks up, but at least there might be options given to you (meaning the two of you as a team) that wouldn't be there otherwise. The more "options" you can create, the better.....if that makes any sense. Good luck and I'll be thinking of you. Thanks, Dancin. I have to remember that we do have money, it's not that we're broke, I just have to find a way to make it ok in my mind to allocate it differently. It's just a point of view that needs adjusting, I think. There's no "I" in "Team", right? I'll figure it out eventually, I think. But it is a bit stressful. I re-started my spreadsheets to find out what I've been spending and that made me feel better, more in control. I found that when I last did my monthly totals, I spent less than what I remembered. I also reminded myself that I've saved a lot on rent since we moved in together. You're right, we should make some plans B, C, and D. He did say he might have to go back to his old job if things got too bad, which I don't want him to do because it made him miserable. DH is doing some part-time paying jobs, somewhat related to his new field and yet also partly in his area of expertise, but he won't get paid for them for a while. They are projects he has to finish and then turn in an invoice for them. But he's happy so it's all worth it, I think. I did the same kind of quit-your-bad-job thing before I met him so I'm glad he can do the same. I hope to do it again one day too.
|
|
FreeSalsa
Well-Known Member
Joined: Dec 27, 2010 18:43:26 GMT -5
Posts: 1,013
|
Post by FreeSalsa on Jan 5, 2013 20:14:21 GMT -5
FreeSalsa: Take a deep breath. Life just hit you hard. I know how it feels to lose an income. Very scary--mostly because options are taken away. It's very do-able, though. Don't know what kind of freelance your DH does, but does it take all his time? Perhaps a little p/t job somewhere? Thanks, it's tense but I'm sure it will be ok in the end. At least he's very happy, which was not at all the case before. He made tons of money but he was so unhappy it was making him sick. He did take some part time freelance work but won't get paid for a while.
|
|
FreeSalsa
Well-Known Member
Joined: Dec 27, 2010 18:43:26 GMT -5
Posts: 1,013
|
Post by FreeSalsa on Jan 5, 2013 20:16:43 GMT -5
I know that this is waaaaay out there, but: HOUND ALERT: Purina One Beyond Cat Food Free 16 oz. (1/13 RP) I am down to my last bag of kibble for Milo the Lizard Slayer. I will post a repeat late next week, but please keep me in mind if you get these and have no kitty. I would love, love, love to rebuild my kitty kibble stockpile. TIA If I get them in my paper, you can have them. Coupon Hater Kitty only gets 9 lives because she is really sensitive to food changes and cleaning up cat puke is not high on my list of enjoyable activities. I should get at least 5 RPs and I'll probably have them by next Wednesday. I also have 4-5 of those duracells you wanted, so I'll send them out next week. Let me know if you're ISO anything else. Emhalf, if you have any of the $3 off Duracell hearing aid batteries I wouldn't mind those if you don't need them. Since you were on the Duracell page anyway I thought you might have extras.
|
|
FreeSalsa
Well-Known Member
Joined: Dec 27, 2010 18:43:26 GMT -5
Posts: 1,013
|
Post by FreeSalsa on Jan 5, 2013 20:37:14 GMT -5
murphath's little anxiety attack brought on by a couple of us posting that we were going to get out of CVS for a while got me to thinking..... I'm curious. Is there anyone on here who shops at Target, looks for the best deals there on a regular basis, and keeps up on their coupon policies? How about WalMart? I know beachbum and leanna are doing Staples. I think rubyslippers is doing Rite Aid. leanna also seems to be shopping WAGs more than anyone else. Several are shopping CVS. Maybe someone else is tuned into Target and another WalMart, etc. If the GC took the resources that we have and "organized", maybe we could continue to save a lot of money with the least amount of time/effort expended "as a group". Let's face it. The deals are not what they used to be. How many of you are having a hard time justifying spending much in OOP and are spending more time than before trying to find those deals, glitches, and great clearance finds that still allow you to coupon strategically with low/no OOP? For me, I would have never known about the RA Home Improvement GC deal without constanz's post. I wasn't shopping at all at RA at the time, so I was not "tuned in" at all. I would totally have missed out on what I think was the best glitch of 2012 without her watchful eye and coming to the GC to let us all know. I would not have known about the Home Depot Zombie Mulch coupons if a nice young college kid on WUC who for whatever reason has taken a liking to an oldie like me , hadn't PMed me about the game. Again, I would have missed out on what I think were the best coupons of 2012. BTW, this kid is amazing. He's 20 and he finds the very best deals all over the place. Anyway, the idea of banding together and organizing a little more popped into my head as a result of murphath's post and I just thought I'd throw it out there. I like it! I would love to take advantage of all the knowledge. How do you think something like that would be organized? Just curious as to what you had in mind. I also have to reorganize since it looks like I'll have to do most of my coupon work from home now. I need a whole new system. But I have a "new" (to me) computer now and hope it will help. I try to share my deals at Sprouts for natural/organic deals in case there are some closet lurkers, but I very rarely get anything free there. I like The Centsable Shoppin, that's where I heard about the Zombie Mulch game (though I didn't get to play it) and some other cheap/freebies. I was going to Target now and then and got some things for cheaper, but rarely free. That Target was really tough on coupons too. Often when I heard about a deal, they didn't have the right size, or the price was higher at my store than what was listed. Still, I feel like I was getting some decent deals.
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 5, 2013 20:37:27 GMT -5
CVS: Aveeno deal was a NO GO! Two managers looked at the ad and seemed to want to side with me. Then they looked at the store tag which said "select". I told them that their customers were not going to be getting those tags in the mail as they will be going by how the ad is worded. Anyways, I was nice about it and told the manager to take it up with corporate as the ad is misleading. I wanted to be on good terms with her and she promised to do all she could for me. Never-the-less, I used up all my ECBs on three 6 pks. Dove bar soap and 2 trial Curel moisturizer so I could use the $4/20 face CRT. I used up DH's ECBs earlier on a CVS food storage container. I spent $2.08 OOP. They didn't have the right glucose meter either. I might go back next week and get a raincheck for that since my coupon has a long expiration date, but as of now, I'm done with CVS for awhile. rubyslippers: I was just coming to post that the travel size is a no-go. So are you waiting for them to contact CS and get back to you as to whether the EBs should be printed or not? I haven't decided whether I am going to buy them and see if they'll force print the EBs (highly unlikely) and if not, do a return and transfer $12 in EB to a money card - spends just as good as a cash card so it is a win/win as far as I'm concerned except they'll hate me for it more than they already do. I do have a rain check for (8) @ $4.99 with no EBs attached, but since it's a monthly deal as long as I buy before the end of the month, it ought to be all good. I need more lotion like a hole in the head, but you can't beat $.50/12 oz. for Aveeno and it has an EXTREMELY long shelf life.
|
|
rubyslippers
Well-Known Member
Joined: Jan 2, 2011 19:32:42 GMT -5
Posts: 1,001
|
Post by rubyslippers on Jan 5, 2013 20:52:41 GMT -5
Dancin, she will let me know when I go there next week. I doubt it will work, but you never know. I do want a raincheck for the meter so I will go in to do that. I'm all out of ECB's on both DH's and my cards. It has seemed like a lot f work doing CVS lately. Maybe it would be different if I lived closer and could take advantage of all the CRTs. This past week I did get 4 trial Tressemes using CRTs.
Hound alert: If anyone could print out the Flav-R-Pac $.50 Q from smartsourcedotcom, I'd really appreciate it. There is one store in our area that has these on sale for $1.00 and they double the coupon, so it would be free. PM me if you can help. The expiration date is the end of March. TIA.
|
|
FreeSalsa
Well-Known Member
Joined: Dec 27, 2010 18:43:26 GMT -5
Posts: 1,013
|
Post by FreeSalsa on Jan 5, 2013 21:15:55 GMT -5
Has anyone seen any organic coupons around in the newspapers or printables?? I switched my kids & I to mostly organic foods, and as we know, its more expensive. Thankfully, in California, the organic produce isn't too much higher than the "industrial" produce. ;D Hi twinmama! I'm glad you asked! I wish JennysMom was still on the board to give her two cents but I'm glad to share what I've learned in the last few years. I found that the stores near me that sold the most natural/organic products are Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes. I did a search for "Sprouts coupon match ups" and found a few sites that made lists for these stores. Even if you don't have these stores, these sites do provide links to IPs for items that are on sale that week. If a product is on sale there one week, it's likely that it will be on sale the same week or soon at another store. At WF, they have a lot of store coupons that can often be stacked with an MC, as long as the manager will allow it. I found the matchup sites that work best for me are Organic Deals dot com, Saving Cents with Sense, and Couponing 101. The Centsable Shoppin has organic deals on her site sometimes too. Sites that have IPs on just natural foods include Mambo Sprouts dot com. I can't think of any others at the moment. However, regular products sometimes have an organic version that you could use a coupon on, like Any Dole Pineapple or Kraft macaroni and cheese makes an organic version that you could probably use a regular IP or newspaper MC coupon for. Red Plum's site has some, as well as the Smart Source site, and of course, coupons dot com. Muir Glen and Cascadian Farms often have IPs because I think they're owned by GM now. You can try writing to the manufacturer of each product that you like and raving about their product and asking them to send you coupons. They often will send you some in the mail or give you a link to IPs. Go to the Earthbound Farms site. They've been doing a promotion for months, something about 'taking an organic step.' You have to register for it (with your junk mail account) and they send you a bunch of e-mails but about every 4 days they offer a coupon (print 2) $0.75 off any item. On the site it says it's for a particular item but when it prints it's for any item. There is a coupon out right now for 55 cents off any item that has the Real California Dairy seal on it, which I've been using on organic/natural milk and yogurt (Alta Dena, Brown Cow, and Organic (Farms?)). It expires at the end of this month so I need to stock up. It was 55 cents but I think it might be 35 cents now. Let me know if you want the IP and I can send it to you. For meat I watch the sale ads and just buy at the lowest price and stock up. At Sprouts, organic grass-fed beef was once $3.99/lb and once there was a store coupon for $3 off any ground beef. There is a brand of organic chicken legs that goes on sale for $1.89 about every 3 months, but it's unadvertised so I just check the shelf every time I go. JMo once told me that she checks the meat and other clearance items at Safeway etc. because organic is not so popular there and they often have to get rid of it. A coupon on top of that makes my day. Where we live we can grow food all year long so I've been doing that. I don't get a lot but I've had enough baby lettuce for individual salads every few days. I also try to get extras from co-workers that have fruit trees. I just got a huge bag of key limes from a co-worker and squeezed and froze the juice for later. I made a key lime pie for a company party in exchange, and he was happy to get rid of the extras, which seem to come all at once and litter the yard. He was glad someone could use them because otherwise he would just throw them out. Another year it was Meyer lemons from someone else. I made lemonade for the group and put it in the company kitchen for everyone to share. Another guy brought in Ruby Red grapefruits once. When we were growing up it was sort of rural and my mom sometimes found an abandoned house with apple trees overloaded and she helped herself. Having said all that, I've found that I spend more at the store when I buy organic processed items with coupons, than when I buy the raw ingredients and cook from scratch, so keep that in mind. Let me know what you find too because I really prefer organic as much as possible and of course, I really don't like to spend a lot doing it! ETA: As JMo would have said, the word police are going to come after me! Sorry for the long post.
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 5, 2013 21:52:44 GMT -5
murphath's little anxiety attack brought on by a couple of us posting that we were going to get out of CVS for a while got me to thinking..... I'm curious. Is there anyone on here who shops at Target, looks for the best deals there on a regular basis, and keeps up on their coupon policies? How about WalMart? I know beachbum and leanna are doing Staples. I think rubyslippers is doing Rite Aid. leanna also seems to be shopping WAGs more than anyone else. Several are shopping CVS. Maybe someone else is tuned into Target and another WalMart, etc. If the GC took the resources that we have and "organized", maybe we could continue to save a lot of money with the least amount of time/effort expended "as a group". Let's face it. The deals are not what they used to be. How many of you are having a hard time justifying spending much in OOP and are spending more time than before trying to find those deals, glitches, and great clearance finds that still allow you to coupon strategically with low/no OOP? For me, I would have never known about the RA Home Improvement GC deal without constanz's post. I wasn't shopping at all at RA at the time, so I was not "tuned in" at all. I would totally have missed out on what I think was the best glitch of 2012 without her watchful eye and coming to the GC to let us all know. I would not have known about the Home Depot Zombie Mulch coupons if a nice young college kid on WUC who for whatever reason has taken a liking to an oldie like me , hadn't PMed me about the game. Again, I would have missed out on what I think were the best coupons of 2012. BTW, this kid is amazing. He's 20 and he finds the very best deals all over the place. Anyway, the idea of banding together and organizing a little more popped into my head as a result of murphath's post and I just thought I'd throw it out there. I like it! I would love to take advantage of all the knowledge. How do you think something like that would be organized? Just curious as to what you had in mind. Well, I'm not sure. I think that we could all put our heads together and think of something, but this is what "came to me". I thought that, for example, beachbum could be our resident expert for Staples (if she has the time and wouldn't mind). She would let us know which rebate offers and rewards offers are going to be available on Sunday and whether there are extra coupons that we could use to sweeten the pot. If she's doing Staples regularly anyway, it might not be too much trouble to pass the info along here. Then none of us has to bother with looking up Staples. Just thinkin' out loud, mind you. If someone else checks totallytarget or another blog that lists the best Target deals, they could volunteer to be the "resident expert" for Target keeping us up to date on the best deals and any great clearance they see reported. And so on and so forth. That way all of us aren't individually checking out the blogs and coupon networks for every store; instead we'd break them up among us to focus on one store and post the upcoming deals or the best deals or the MMs etc. and then any glitches/clearance that might come up during the course of the week by keeping an eye out for them being posted on WUC or slickdeals (if you dare to participate), or afullcup, etc. For some stores, like CVS, the "resident expert" would probably have no choice but to cut/paste from another site and give them credit as there are just too many deals to expect any one person to list them all with coupon matchups. But they could keep an eye on clearance and look for glitches regularly that they could then post as they find them. I don't really know. I am trying to think it all through myself. Maybe someone else has a different idea that would work better or more efficiently. I don't plan to be shopping at CVS much longer, but there is a Dollar Tree (albeit a very small one) right near the liquor store where I pick up my coupons. I could go in every Sunday night and scope out what I find that can be matched with coupons and post it. I could also post anything found by posters on WUC. Then no one would have to look up anything for Dollar Tree because they would scroll by my post every week or a couple of posts per week depending on the information I come across. I know that I was spoiled by frugalsuz's blog. She used to do a lot of the "research" for us for the drug chains. Her blog was like all the ihearts rolled into one place (except better), in addition to occasional extra posts for Staples when something great was going on there. And she didn't try to list EVERY deal - only the freebies, MMs, and occasionally something that was REALLY CHEAP after coupons and then any glitches that she ran across or read about during the week. Those are along the lines of what I was thinking about. Don't try to list EVERYTHING; just the very best deals. Or not.
|
|
dancinmama
Senior Associate
LIVIN' THE DREAM!!
Joined: Dec 18, 2010 20:49:45 GMT -5
Posts: 10,659
|
Post by dancinmama on Jan 5, 2013 22:02:45 GMT -5
Dancin, she will let me know when I go there next week. I doubt it will work, but you never know. I do want a raincheck for the meter so I will go in to do that. I'm all out of ECB's on both DH's and my cards. It has seemed like a lot f work doing CVS lately. Maybe it would be different if I lived closer and could take advantage of all the CRTs. This past week I did get 4 trial Tressemes using CRTs. Hound alert: If anyone could print out the Flav-R-Pac $.50 Q from smartsourcedotcom, I'd really appreciate it. There is one store in our area that has these on sale for $1.00 and they double the coupon, so it would be free. PM me if you can help. The expiration date is the end of March. TIA. Can you give a link or zip? I looked and didn't find it, but I found a couple that I will use.
|
|