Big CVS Clearance going on here in our town June 1st 2010

I intended to get a Shopping CVS blog going this week, had to make cookies and muffins for the men and their fishing trip. So I did not get to it yet.
HOWEVER, you will want to check out their CLEARANCE items ASAP and be sure to take your coupons with you for any items they carry. It will make the deal a steal. I am sure of that!
SO GET TO CVS FAST! Before all of the good deals are gone!
And watch for my CVS way to shop post very soon!

Deal Shopping at Noble's IGA

I have had some success at getting a few good deals at Noble's lately, but not like I used to. Since they do not have a website, website coupons, or accept internet coupons anymore, it is a little bit harder to get good deals there. You need to have their printed add to check for what is on sale each week. Then use your normal ways to find manufacturers coupons that will match their sales each week.
I really like to shop there as they are locally owned, but some of their prices are really high.
So it is best to use your manufacturers coupons for sales items and then purchase items you don't normally find coupons for if their prices are comparable to other stores you shop. This might be fresh produce, eggs, milk, fresh meat etc. I score some pretty good deals there on cereals, dog food, cat food and other products
I really wish they were still accepting the internet coupons as I felt I was able to shop there and purchase more than I do now. But Coupon Bandits had to make up fake ones and ruin it for all of us. Don't people know that when they rip off companies that causes the companies
to raise prices on their products to make up for the losses and they ruin it for everyone including themselves??
I really prefer going to Noble's over most other stores.
So watch Noble's sales adds and keep a close eye on what brand name products they carry that you may have a manufacturers coupon for to get some good deals. Then purchase what other non coupon items you can to support our locally owned store.
So get busy and check out your Nobles add and hope you get some good deals there!

Coupon shopping at Save-A-Lot

I seem to have pretty good success using my coupons and getting some deals at our Save-A-Lot. They are OK with internet, Manufacturers and Save-A-Lot coupons.
I signed up on their website http://save-a-lot.com/ for their Smart Shoppers Club and every so often I will get sent a link for $5.00 off $20.00. Also there is a link when doing this sometimes that lets you invite your friends to join and if they do they send you a link to print off another $5 off $20.
I have not seen a post on slick deals for them, but their add is on their Save-A-Lot website along with their own printable coupons. You can search the coupons on slick deals for coupons you may be able to use when shopping there and also your regular coupons websites. And of course check all of your regular manufacturers coupons for any products they may carry. I have got some pretty good deals by using their coupons.
Just this week I was looking for some cheap meats and I had .75 cents Butterball coupons, so I went there armed and ready. I got .44 cent Butterball Turkey bologna and $1.54 Butterball Turkey smoked sausage. I sure can't get those deals around here at the other stores very often.
I recently purchased Sara Lee frozen pies for 1.99 each using Save-A-Lot coupons from their website and also go a $1.00 off a bottle of vegetable oil. I used my new Banquet Single serve frozen pie manufacturers coupon there. I got it for maybe 30 cents or so. Sorry, do not remember the exact price on it, but was what I considered a pretty good deal for a nice size single serve pie.
They do carry quite a few name brand items that you will find coupons for and be able to get some good deals. They also carry quite a few low salt and no sugar added/sugar free products for those on special diets.
So far I have not had any problems with my coupons there and the ladies who checked me out have been kind and did not act the least bit upset to scan my coupons.
So if you need to cut down on your food budget is seems to me Save-A-Lot is an OK place to start. In my books so far they are thumbs up. Hope this post leads you to some cheap grocery deals to cut down on the food budget.
Needless to say the .44 cent bologna would be a great item to donate to area food banks and those you know who are struggling to feed their families!
Happy Save-A-Lot shopping!

Using Coupons at Dollar General and Family Dollar shopping "NO FREE PRODUCTS!!"

Before shopping at either of these stores be sure to check out their sales add. They can be found on line at www.familydollar.com and www.dollargeneral.com and there you can sign up for their email updates also. They both have printable coupons I think on their website now. You can use a Family Dollar printable coupon along with a Manufacturers coupon as long as the item will not be free when both coupons are combined. I believe the same goes for Dollar General.
Dollar General also has a post on www.slickdeals.net as Walmart does if you go to forums and then Drugstores/Grocery and B&M deals, then search out the Dollar General post. People will tell what deals they got at their local Dollar General. They will also put links to print off coupons on there if there are any available for the products.
As far as coupon usage for both of these stores. NOT GOOD! You are not allowed to use any free coupons. You are also not allowed to use a cent off coupon or dollar off coupoon for any item that makes it free. In other words, I use to get Snuggle there for free because I had 3.00 off coupons on any snuggle. There snuggle is 3.00 so you can not use that coupon and get the item for free. Of course when I say free, I still have to pay the tax on the amount it should have been without the coupon. You also can not use manufacturer internet coupons at Family Dollar, but Dollar General will accept them.
The Regional Manager from both stores Family Dollar and Dollar General have both spoken with me about their coupons policies. I probably don't have to tell you I am not happy with what they told me and I and many of my friends and family member who use coupons will no longer shop at any of those stores unless they reconsider their coupon policies.
It states on coupons that the store will be paid back the full price of the coupon, plus a handling fee for each coupon. So, those stores are just hurting themselves by not letting us shop there with the coupons.
Something they might know if they did a little research about people who use coupons is that the largest percentage of coupon users went to college. We use coupons because it makes sense to use them and not throw them in the trash because they are in a sense a form of money that is free to us, except for the cost of the newspaper or ink to print, or however we obtain our coupons.
So, hopefully we can still use our high dollar coupons at Walmart to get free products. As long as they have not changed their coupon policy.
As you can tell shopping with your coupons at Dollar General and Family Dollar will probably not be worth your time to even stop in unless things change.
Neither store has their coupon policies posted on their door, or anywhere in plain sight, so you don't even know about them until you go to check out if you don't read them on their website.
I am sorry. I only wish I had better information to post about these stores.
Until my next post! Happy couponing and I hope you get lots of freebies and bargains!

Another Houseparty.com Let Down Today!

We've got the Houseparty.com blues again today! My husband had applied for the OSCAR MAYER Thrill of the Grill Hot Dog House Party and we just got the I'm sorry email. We were going to ask all of the family to get together and visit and party. Oh well, that's how the ball bounces. I am still looking forward to my cousin's House Party "DiGIORNO". Can't wait to get together with all of them to party and visit! I have got some party drink buckets mixed and ready to go! If you all like to party, Houseparty.com is a great way to party. Most all of us love free products!

Ways to shop with coupons for bargains at Walmart

During the week before visiting your Walmart, in order to get all of the bargains, it is helpful to go to www.slickdeals.net. Go to forums, then click on Drugstore/Grocery B&M Deals and then search for Walmart thread. Start from the last page and read what post people have put there in regards to what deals they have recently got at their local Walmart. It will have links there on some of the post as to where to print off coupons. Work your way backwards on the pages for a week or so in the threads to get all of the information you can about what kind of bargains you may be able to get there in the next few days when you go there.
Your local Walmart may or may not have prices the same as what people have posted, but if you are lucky they will. I have went to ours on several occasions armed with coupons and expecting to come home with some really good deals only to find our Walmart did not have the same deals as others. But I will come home with some good deals always.
If you go to www.walmart.com and go to in stores now and look for coupons you may find some to print off of their website to help in your shopping. While you are there click on free samples and sign up for all of the samples they will send to your home at no charge. Do this weekly. I get free samples weekly from them.
Even samples I have got before, they will put up again and I sign up again and get the sample again a few weeks later.
Also go to a www.afullcup.com and www.couponmom.com and check out their Walmart posts on what the good deals are. You may also find some coupon links on their website to help.
Then go to all of the coupons printing websites I told you about in the last post to check for coupons: www.coupons.com , smartsource, redplum , slickdeals, etc. You can also go to www.allyou.com and print coupons on their website. Also look at all of your manufacturers coupons for any products you may purchase there when you go and clip them out. And if you purchased an All you magazine, be sure to check it for any coupons you might use there along with any other magazines you may have had coupons to clip from.
When you have all of your coupons printed and clipped, then organize your coupons buy products like, meats, frozen fruits, frozen veggies, frozen entrees etc. Then next thing to do is organize them by the aisles in the store. If you don't have a coupon organizer, then put them in order by what aisle you will go down first and so on and the last batch of coupons at the back. Sometime I just put them in a business envelope.
It is best to look at the expiration date on all coupons and to make sure you use the correct coupons to purchase the correct item. If you are in doubt about a coupon, take it anyway. If you don't, you will probably get there and wish you had, believe me!!
It is nothing for me to save 50.00 or more each time I go to Walmart armed with coupons. This past week it was like $86.00 I saved with my coupons. I had some really good coupons and managed to come home with all different types of food, meat, cheese, low calorie snacks, frozen entrees, low calorie ice cream snacks, and more.
I have to tell you my husband never much cared for me to mess with coupons, but he has finally come around and is glad that I do and when I come home with all of the goodies, and he sees how much I save, he actually tells the men at work and his friends about it now.
It does take some time to cut out the coupons, so if you have to sit in a doctors office, or anywhere like that, when you will have spare time, you can make use of it by cutting them out.
When my Mom was recently in the hospital and I had to sit with her each day, I took mine and cut them out, sorted and got rid of all of my outdated ones.
If you have young children that are always wanting money. Teach them the correct way to cut them out. Make sure you point out that sometimes there is a coupon on the back that is right next to the one on the front and if they don't cut down the line, they may cut half the coupon off the back page. Then reward the child with a dollar or two for cutting them properly for you.
Of course, you possibly could use this for punishment for them not behaving HAHA! But this may discourage them from shopping wisely when they are older.
Well, so much for the crash course in bargain shopping at Walmart. Hope this helps you save lots of money and come home with some excellent deals from Walmart.
Happy Wally World shopping!
Barb
PS My good friend Kelli says be sure to remember you can take a sale flyer from Dollar General, Family Dollar and CVS to Walmart and if the same picture of what you are buying is on the sales add then you can get their sale price at Walmart.

And now for the first Shopping Bargain Post

If you are serious about taking the time to hunt down coupons, spend lots of time cutting and sorting then I would love to share with you how I am able to get lots and lots of free or almost free products.
You can work it so you can get so many free or almost free products, that your family may not be able to use all of them and you will be able to help others in your family. You will even be able to give some to your friends, plus be able to help those in need of donations such as your local food banks and your local animal shelter. There are only three in my home, so I am able to donate way more products than we could ever use here.
I read once in an article by a lady who writes about couponing that you should consider buying at least 4 local Sunday newspapers. The cheapest way to do that is to go to your local Dollar Tree on Sunday morning or early afternoon and purchase them for $1.00 each. Or you can beg them from your family and friends who don't use theirs. However if you depend on them to get them to you, you may not have them in time, or when you want them to use. So hopefully your Dollar Tree is not to long of a drive from your house. And last but not least, know several ladies who now do this: GO DUMPSTER DIVING!!
If you have access to more than one Sunday Newspaper like I do. I can get one from Louisville, KY and one from Evansville, IN. Buy 2 of each for a couple of weeks and compare those coupons. I have found that the Evansville one has only about half or less than half the amount of coupons that Louisville does and that Louisville gets more free coupons in theirs and higher dollar coupons in theirs quite often.
Many coupon websites say to just put a date on the front of their coupon inserts and file them in dated file folders and then cut out the coupons when they need them. Instead of having boxes of coupons and have to sort forever in search of the coupons you need each week.
Normally there will be a sale anytime within the next few weeks after a coupon is released. Sometimes the same week you get them, possibly within 1 to 6 weeks later it will go on sale. But usually there will be a sale on that product so you can use that coupon. I have noticed often the coupons for products will go on sale the last week before the coupon expires.
When you catch the item on sale, be sure to purchase enough of the item to last you for 2 to 3 months so you do not have to pay full price on that item and can purchase again when it is on sale again.
Now for more coupons you will need to search any magazines that you may subscribe to. I subscribe to a magazine called All You. It has many and very nice coupons in it and sometimes a free coupon in it. You can also purchase this the last week of the month at your local Walmart. It cost around $2.00 a magazine. You can also get it delivered to your home for around $20.00 for the subscription.
You can search out coupons on the internet. There are many places you will find them on there. You can purchase them from Ebay and also from people who search out coupons, sort, clip and post them on the internet for you to buy. They charge you a fee for finding, cutting, sorting and packing those coupons to mail to you. Some of the ones I have purchased from are www.thecouponclippers.com., www.couponsandforms.com, www.thecouponmaster.com, and www.coupondede.com. I have had wonderful service from all of these, however often the mail will fail me. They do offer quicker forms of delivery at a higher cost, but if you need the coupons ASAP, for sure, you may consider using the quicker mailing. These nice people have posted when to expect your coupons to ship, by what day you purchase them. Your finders fee may be 5 cents or more depending on the value of the coupon.
There are coupons to be found on products website sometimes and also coupon websites to search out coupons. The ones that come to mind are www.coupons.com, www.redplum.com, and www.smartsource.com. Smartsource doesn't always cooperate with one of my computers and will not let me print sometimes. But coupons and redplum seem to work well on both my computers. Also manufacturers will have coupons to print on wesites. Betty Crocker, General Mills and Box Tops for Education are good for printing coupons. If you can it is good to have two or three computers to print coupons since you are only allowed normally 2 of each coupons to print. They know if you try to print more than two coupons and they will not let you print a third one.
One of my favorite places to print coupons also is www.slickdeals.net. You go to that website and click on forums, and then click on coupons. Then you search all of the latest post for coupons you might use. Also, you can go to slickdeals, then forums and then Drugstore, Grocery and B&M deals and search out the store you intend to shop at and then look at the post for the week you intend to shop, say CVS drugstore, the week of May 23, If you look at that post you will see that often there are coupon links for the items on sale that week so you can click on that link and then print the coupon for purchasing that product. Print them off a week early, because when the company sees they have so many coupons printed they will turn off the print and you will not be able to get that coupon.
Now earlier I told you that you can put a date on the front of your coupon insert each week, the reason being is that on slickdeals by each item on sale, they tell you what week your coupon should have been in your newspaper. It might say SS 6/31. That would mean the coupon was in the Smartsource coupon insert the week of June 31. That is IF you were luck enough to get the coupon in your newspaper. Not always will you have one that they have listed, but most of the time you will have one.
There is also a website called www.couponmom.com who has on her website, the Kroger, Meijer, Walmart, etc and drugstores weekly sales posted and also the coupons to go with the products listed just like slick deals. Also www.iheartcvs.com, www,iheartwags.com and www.iheartriteaid.com. The lady does the same thing so you will know what week the coupon was in the paper.
It is a good idea to check all of these websites. The reason for this is that one website may have a link to a very good coupon, but one of the other website may have overlooked this coupon and did not get it posted for you to see.
Other places to search out coupons are in the stores newspaper adds, tear pads on the store shelves and coupons stuck to the product. So keep your eyes open while in the store. You can also just do a search for a coupon you are looking for. A good place to search and make money off searching is http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/DiamondGirl1. If you start up with this link it will automatically give you 30 points. Every time you search you have a chance at winning points. You can save your points and purchase gifts and gift cards for free. I think it only takes around 500 points for a gift card and you can get that in very little time. I have been using this for about a week and I am getting ready to cash in for my first gift card. Can't decide on the one to get. Maybe Amazon, not sure.
I think I will quit here for awhile, more to come later. This is probably more than enough information for you to consume at one time. I hope to provide more information soon that
will provide you with a lot of good information to help save you some money and to let you provide products that you have not been able to purchase for those in your household before and hopefully some extras to help out those in need.
I think the Council on Agencies here is open M-W-F for a few hours each day and they are tickled to death with any food donations you can provide. They will take anything non perishable and they do have refrigeration for frozen products. The Animal Shelter loves dog and cat treats and chews and often there will be free coupons or almost free coupons in the inserts often. So when you have an abundance of products, please think of those in need and pass some one.
Happy Coupon Shopping! I hope you have an overflowing shopping cart full and spend at least 3/4 the money you normally would have spent!!
Barb
PS I was not fond of English and the older I get the worse I type. So please forgive me for misspelled words, twisted letters, and improper grammar.

Another Houseparty.com Let Down Today!

Applied for the DIGIORNO® pizza party, but found out this afternoon I did not get it.
But I got a call from my Cousin who lives an hour and 1/2 from here that she got it.
So we will be Pizza Partying next month down her way! So, you win some, you lose some and then sometimes you get to party with someone else !! Glad to be partying with my cousins!
If you have never had a house party you may want to consider signing up and applying to host some of their great parties! It is really nice to be able to invite friends over and not have to ask them to spend money and buy something. Not only that you get to send them home with nice products when they leave the party.
Oh well, off to apply for another HOUSE PARTY!

House Party Blues

You probably wonder why my Bargain Blog so far has been about Houseparty.com. I consider those parties a real bargain as I get nice things for free and get to have my friends over and give them free stuff also! I love being able to give stuff to my friends along with those in need.
I signed up for the Ball Canning House party ( The Fresh Taste of Summer) only to cancel my application because I heard from House Party they were looking for men to host House Parties.
Well, my husband started canning salsa recently and told me to see if I could cancel my party and create him an account and sign him up for the party because he wanted that party. He wants to learn more about canning. I did and then last weekend got an email from Houseparty.com that he did not get the party. So we called all of our friends and family members who also want to learn about canning and let them in on the sad news.
He was offered a survey to fill out for House Party just after getting the sad House Party email that makes me think that maybe they do plan on offering another one later this summer or before Christmas so people can make gifts to give for Christmas. Well WE WOULD SURE LOVE TO HAVE THAN ONE! because I am unemployed since Christmas and I will be making most of my presents. . . .
I sure hope there will be another one and I sure hope that Gary gets in on this one as he and all of us sure have the "HOUSE PARTY BLUES" this week! NUFF SAID

Spring Into Brunch House Party™

Spring Into Brunch House Party™