Sunday, January 30, 2011

Its Like Winning At Roulette

Walgreens FTW! So far I have 25 transactions planned for my Walgreens adventure this week, so Im thinking I may need to split it between stores so they don't hate me! The plan is to purchase the following for around $20-25, and yes I do have magical powers.

3 Thermacare Wraps
1 Advil
11 Arnicare Pain Relief Gel (I may have to donate some of this...)
5 Blink Tears/Gel Tears
4 Dove Deodorant
1 Package O-Cel-O Sponges
4 Gillette Fusion Proglide Razors
4 Four Packs Duracell Batteries
3 Puffs Tissues
Various Valentine Things (cups, pencils, stickers... fun stuff!)
1 Box Turtles Candy
Misc Candy Items

The Pièce de résistance....

A Sobakawa Cloud Pillow, which is basically FREE after all my Register Rewards.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Lets Wheel & Deal

I've been scoping out the deals from my favorite blogs (listed on the right side bar of my blog) and thought I would pass along a few that I think are pretty exciting. If you didn't know, you can print coupons from Target's website and fairly often you can find corresponding manufacturer coupons to use at the same time, this is called a "stack". Sometimes this means you can get items for free or pretty darn close! My two favorite deals for this week are almost freebies or what I like to call FREEish.

Finish Powerball Dishwashing Detergent $3.79 (prices may vary by store). Coupons available: $2.25 off (20 count or more) in the Jan 2 SmartSource or $1.00 off in the Jan 2 or Jan 23 SmartSource, PLUS stack it with the $1.50 off  Target printable coupon and you can score yourself some dishwasher soap for $0.04 (if the 20 count box is priced at $3.79 and you have the $2.25 and $1.50 coupons)!

Garnier Nutritioniste Nutri-Pure Towellettes $4.22 and Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew Brusher $4.04 (price cuts, prices may vary by store) Coupons available: $2.00 in either the Oct 10 or Dec 5 Red Plum insert PLUS stack it with a $2.00 off Target printable coupon (if still available).Facial cleanser for $0.04-$0.22, yes thank you!

Target Gift Card Deals
This week there are quite a few gift card deals, many of them on various exercise equipment, so if you're in the market its worth a look. The two that caught my eye are for diapers and cat supplies.


Get a FREE $5 Target Gift Card When You Purchase Any 3: All Pampers and Huggies jumbo-pack diapers and training pants on sale for $8.99 each. Coupons available: Pampers $1.50 off in the Dec 26 P&G insert and/or $1.50 and $2.00 off Huggies from the Jan 23 SmartSource. Pay as little as $20.97 (for 3 Huggies with 3 $2 coupons) PLUS get a $5 Gift Card!
 


Get a FREE $5 Target Gift Card when you purchase any 2: Cat care items listed/shown (in the ad) for $10.99 each. From what I can tell this applies to big boxes of Fancy Feast and Scoop Away liter. I couldn't find any coupons for this deal, but if you have to buy it anyway getting a $5 card isn't too shabby.

If you want to look at these and more deals, you can check them out on Clippin' with Carie or Totally Target.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Consolidation Nation

Before I fall asleep at my computer, I wanted to share the rest of my shopping adventures of the weekend so you get the consolidated boring version. Yay!

Walgreens
1 Thermacare Single
2 Pantene
3 Maalox
4 Gax X Prevention
2 Butterfinger Heart Candy
4 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
4 Kit Kat
5 Vicks Cough Drops
4 Dove Visible Care Body Wash
1 Listerine Zero 1L
2 Doritos
4 Newspapers

Total Spent $19.34
Total Savings $87.40 ($62.46 coupons\register rewards)
Remaining Register Rewards $0.00

CVS
7 Coke Brand 12-pack
4 Xtra 28-load Laundry Detergent
16 Vitamin Water

Total Spent $21.90
Total Savings $52.97 ($30 coupons\extra care bucks)
Remaining Extra Care Bucks $5

"Midnight" Shopping

I don't know about the rest of you avid couponers, but I've noticed that if you don't JUMP on those really hot deals you will never get them. Some helpful hints for this problem:
  1. Plan ahead! Stores like Walgreens and CVS post their ads for the next week around Thursday so you can start looking and see what you might want.
  2. Check the coupon blogs since a lot of them do the work for you and match up the upcoming ads with coupons (Links to my favorite blogs are on the side bar)
  3. Shop early
  4. If something is out of stock that has a reward - find out when the next shipment is due in and ask the manager if they can place a special order and hold it for you
  5. And when all else fails institute "Midnight" shopping
Generally if you can get yourself together and arrive at your destination just prior to midnight on the eve of a new sale day that is the best case scenario, but hey when that's not possible just go at 3:00 am. Yes you read that correctly, I said THREE AM so load up on Red Bull and get your booty out there!

Target-Tastic

Armed with a giant stack of coupons and my trusty list I ran over to Target last night after my Office Depot trip, to get just a few things... I was in a hurry since I was running late to go celebrate my mom's birthday, but I just could not miss some of the deals that ended yesterday. (Sorry mom!)
 

I bought a LOT of stuff, so I just took a representative photo to give you an idea (and I already put some of it away). This is going to be a kinda long list, if you just want to know the end result you can scrolly scroll down.

1 Up & Up Baby Wipes
2 Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Brush Starter Kit
2 Scrubbing Bubbles Gel Toilet Cleaner
5 Tide Single Load (Travel Item)
2 Xhiliration $1 Socks
1 Xhiliration 3 pack Trouser Socks (which was apparantly on sale for $1 but was marked $5 - SCORE!)
1 Fiber Plus Bars
4 Classico Pasta Sauce
1 Little Debbie Valentine Heart Cakes
1 Jimmy Dean D'Lights
12 Weight Watchers Frozen Entrees
2 Jello Pudding & 2 Jello Jello
1 Garnier The Brusher Gel Cleanser
6 Reach Dental Floss
2 Glad 84 count Trash Bags w/Febreeze
1 Up & Up Paper Plates
1 Swiffer Wetjet
1 Downy 150 Load Fabric Softener
1 Up & Up Eye Drops for Contact
1 Up & Up Multipurpose Contact Solution 2-pack

Total $85.68
Less $25.00 Gift Card (Christmas Present)
Grand Total Out of Pocket $60.68
Total "Saved" $81.58

Office Depot & The Free Gift Card

After goofing around most of yesterday I finally got my coupons, lists, and gift cards ready to go. My first stop was Office Depot to get more ink for the hungry printer and use my $10 off $50 coupon. They had a good deal of organizational things on sale last week, which was great considering my significant lack of organization in general. I quickly managed to fill up my cart with many pink and colorful things! I've even started organizing already!!

2 Pink File Totes
2 Boxes Multi-Colored Hanging Folders
1 Canon XL Black Ink Cartridge
1 8" Shears
1 Box Jumbo Paper Clips
3 Pink Sharpies
3 Pink Plastic Envelopes (Great for separating your coupons and lists when you go shopping!)

Total $55.97
Less $10 coupon
Less $30 gift card I won for FREE
Grand Total Out of Pocket $15.97