Class updates!

So I received a call today from Mentor letting me know that the Mentor class is filling up and definitely a go! I am really not sure how many they cut it off at in Mentor but I have a meeting to see the facility so I will soon know.

So a couple days ago I was contacted by a PTA association to speak to their group! We decided on a condensed form of the class, but this is still very exciting because it means that the class will be reaching people that might not have had the time to schedule one through their local community center. This is also exciting because it gave me a great idea, I contacted my kid's school PTU and am hoping to do a class for them. Our community includes a food bank and I just think it would be awesome for a few of the moms to pick up on coupons and then see our very own food back benefiting from my class!

If you have any ideas of an organization that might be interested in holding a class, send me an email and let me know! Thanks

WTH Walmart! and the Snoopy Noel mug

So...Madison, Ohio Walmart is no longer doubling coupons! That was short lived. A Madison friend of mine, Corrina, informed me of this and after a quick and simple call it is confirmed. I'm not really sure on the details, but I can guess several reasons why. The choice to except coupons was left up to the store manager and although Madison is a newer Walmart and located very close to Giant Eagle, who doubles up to .99 cents, it's difficult to implement a coupon policy without having your registers updated for it. I'm sure that it was creating a nightmare of paperwork and you always run the risk of dishonest employees who just assume that they can say they didn't understand what they were doing. I doubt that enough people knew about the doubles for our not shopping there now to affect Walmart in Madison, so unless it goes corporate, I doubt we will see double coupons at Madison Walmart again in the future.
In other news, we made an impromptu yard sale shopping trip last weekend. During our travels, I found an interesting mug with Snoopy on it and the theme was Christmas. I had remembered seeing an 80's McDonald's Peanuts drinking glass in an antique shop for $8.00 and thought that maybe just maybe the Noel Snoopy mug dated in the 60's in front of me might be worth something. It was definitely a diamond in the rough, I paid $3.00 total at the yard sale for 6 mugs and a Christmas lamp. The mug was listed on Ebay and selling for $46.00 when I got home, so I posted the one I found. 7 days later, the mug sold for $46.50! Not bad for a random stop at a yard sale! So keep your eyes peeled, just because something isn't 100 years old, doesn't mean that it doesn't have value!

Get your Plain Dealer and my Fair Princess!

If you haven't snagged the Plain Dealer yet today, I suggest going out and picking up one or two. I normally do NOT suggest purchasing more than one news-paper because A. it's costly and what Extreme Couponing doesn't tell you is that when you purchase 30 bottles of Maalox, you had to obtain those coupons from somewhere! Be it time or money, "Extreme Couponing" is expensive and B. it's a lot of waste to buy an entire newspaper that you are only going to take the coupons out of and toss or recycle. I'm not knocking those who recycle, just saying why add extra waste. Imagine how many news-papers the chick with 25 Maalox coupons recycles (hopefully) each week! Anyways, there are really good coupons in the Plain Dealer this week and I actually picked up two myself, or I guess I should say Jim did. Also, in the Parade insert there is a FREE Dannon Oikos coupon. I'm not sure how much this yogurt costs but the coupon says up to $3.00 so basically one coupon will pay for your entire news-paper. There are also great lunch item coupons as it is back to school time.

I am not doing too much couponing this week as it's the Lake County Fair and if you haven't heard, my little girl is the Princess!

And the kids are starting back to school on Tuesday! Summer flew by.
But in other coupon news...I had planned a deal at CVS for the new Huggies Slip-on diapers using the $3.00 off coupon but it seems that no CVS around me has them in stock yet! Not sure what is up with that since it was huge on the front of last week's flyer but I did get my very first rain check! If CVS happens to get them in before my coupons expire, I should be looking at a sweet deal on diapers.
I also plan to stop at Target today as they have the summer printed Pampers on clearance for 13 something, I have $5 off a box of Pampers that I have been hoarding so we'll see if it makes for a good deal!
Also, I have heard that Babies R Us clearance clothing may have dropped way down so I am also going to head up there as Jax is in need of some shorts and I don't really want to pay retail since summer is over. I will update on how that works out!
Since it's back to school time, I'm slacking but keep watch as I will be doing a post shortly on the "school recommended" supply kit versus buying my own and a possible list of great deals at Sam's Club.
Also....if you are in the market for school shoes, Payless has buy one get one half off. We did this yesterday and it came out to like $27 for a pair of cheer shoes and dress shoes for school, not bad.

Cute kid clothes, cheap!

This morning at Zulilly you can use the coupon code MONDAYFUN at check out to take $20.00 off. The adorable outfit above was priced at just $9.99, so I got that one and this one:

Both for $19.98, used the $20.00 off coupon code and paid $7.95 shipping for both! Four dollars for an entire outfit for Taylor, not too shabby. They have tons of different items available and you could even purchase Christmas presents! Super cute tutus for little girls and headbands for babies too. Lots of items, books and kitchen as well! Hurry on over here and see what you can find for free! Shipping starts at $5.95!

What am I getting for FREE this week????

thiThis week's drug store trips started out slow as I had planned to begin at CVS and purchased the Huggies new Slip-on diapers, but they weren't in stock! I've been told Thursday is the day for these, so we shall see. In other news, I did make a trip to Rite Aid and Walgreens and found some great finds!

At Rite Aid, I bought 5 Mead notebooks which Maiya needs for school and paid .29 cents each for a total of  $1.45. I purchased 2 bags of M&M's for 2/$5.00, 1 box of Playtex Gentle Glide tampons for 3.99 and 2 packs of Carefree panty liners for $1 each. My total was $12.44.

I used $1.00 off 2 M&M's, $2.00 off Playtex and .50 cents off Carefree (all manufacturer coupons)
Total= 12.44-3.50= 8.94
I then used a $1.00/2 Carefree that I printed from Rite Aid's Video Values, bring my total to 7.94.
After that I used $5.50 in previous UP rewards bringing my final total to $2.44 and I received $1.00 UP reward for purchasing the Playtex! So $1.44 out of pocket, the regular price of ONE notebook that I had to purchase for Maiya!

My next stop was Walgreens where I got a great surprise! Currently at Walgreens, you can purchase the 6 count Expo dry erase markers on sale for $3.99. There is a $2.00 off 2 Expo manufacturer online and a $3.00 off the 6 pack in the Walgreens August coupon book, available in store. So this makes them free, but the regular six packs were sold out by the time I got there at 3pm. I continued to look around the school supplies and found the above six packs with a BONUS dry erase board, I wasn't sure if it would work but I figured why not try. At the register, the BONUS pack with the board was $3.99 and the coupons all worked! So here is the break down from Walgreens:
At Walgreens I purchased 2 Expo dry erase combos for $3.99 each, 2 boxes of Kleenex for the kid's back to school supplies for $1.09 each with in-ad coupon, and 2 Hefty zip bags BOGO for 3.29, for a total of $13.45.
I then used the manufacturer Expo coupon and the Walgreen's coupon book coupon (subtracts the amount twice with one coupon) for a savings of -$8.00. I then used a .50 cents manufacturer coupon for the Kleenex and $1.00/2 for the Hefty bags. My out of pocket total was $3.95 plus tax! Now I don't think the Kleenex deal is that great, but I needed them for the kid's back to school kits. Sometimes even the best planning, requires purchasing items without a coupon or when the sale isn't as great as it could be!

In other news...I had debated whether or not to do match-ups on this blog with store deals and current coupons. I have recently decided that I am going to stick with just informing my reader of what deals I purchase myself and keeping this blog as a site for my class participants to communicate through. In the future, I may tackle the Giant Eagle ad, as the Big Bird is our local grocery store and I haven't found a site yet that I think does them justice. I currently still love Hip to Save and Totally Target for match-ups.

So what deals did you get this week?? Anything really exciting? What is your favorite site?

Willoughby Coupon Class

This just in.....Willoughby coupon class is scheduled for Thursday, October 13th!

Walmart in Madison, Ohio does DOUBLES!

So recently in the coupon world, there has been a little bit of silent hype over Walmart starting a double coupon program in select areas. One of my girls was over the other night and said "Did you know Madison Walmart doubles?" I had to investigate and after a simple phone call, it was confirmed. Right here in Madison, Ohio; Walmart has decided to double coupons! At first this is VERY exciting but before you stop what you are doing, grab your binder and jump in your car...let me tell you a little about my experience at Walmart. I have tried doubles at Walmart in Madison 3 times now and although my cashier experience has been EXTREMELY different each time, the product availability has been the same each time. Walmart doubles are any day, any time and coupons up to .99 cents; as long as they don't read "Do Not Double." BUT the cashier has to manually double each coupon, as in literally break out her calculator take the item price, subtract the coupon amount, over ride the price in the register and then scan the coupon. Some cashiers are great at this, have their own system for how they like the coupons organized and do a fabulous job! Other cashiers DREAD the word coupon. I even had one beeyaching to the customer ahead of me, right in front of me, when she seen my coupons! She made several mistakes and when all was said and done, I had to wonder if I saved any money at all. Another issue is product availability, I went to Walmart yesterday with a list of FOUR items. I did this because the deals seemed great and I only had the baby with me. Here's what I had and how it went:

Keebler Fudge Shoppe Jumbo Cookies $1.98
Use $.70/1 Printable HERE.  (doubled)
= $.58Madison Walmart did not have the Jumbo cookies in stock! 

Buy Hunt’s Snack Pack Pudding 4 pk. $1.00
Use $0.45/3 Hunt’s Snack Pack Pudding 8/7/2011 (doubled)
Total: $2.10
I got this deal but Giant Eagle has a VERY competitive deal with these this week, that also includes a $3.00 off your next purchase.

Hormel Pizza Style Canadian Bacon, 3.5 oz $1.73, Regular Price
Use $1.50/1 Hormel Canadian Style Bacon, any variety
Total: $0.23         
Madison Walmart only carries the Hormel Pizza Style Canadian Bacon in a larger size that was substantially more:(

Philly Cream Cheese 4packs: $1.50
Use $.50 off Philly Mini’s (doubled)

Total: $0.50

Madison Walmart did not have these either, not sure if they don't carry them or if they were out. I did happen to pick them up at Giant Eagle up the street for the same price!

I have heard from others that Madison Walmart is good for the "travel" items that you can get for free with double coupons and other small items. IMO it hasn't really panned out and I could really take or leave their double coupon policy.

Now if we could only convince Target..............................

Please feel free to voice your opinion about Madison Walmart's new double coupon policy! 

Randomness

Well I didn't exactly order the free Kindle yet because I am still a little bit off, not because the opprotunity wasn't there but because I kept finding incredable deals that pertain to building my coupon classes that I haven't been able to pass on! I will get there though, it's so close I can almost start reading now! Actually, I have downloaded a few out of print things free! (I will not be telling you what I downloaded for free so you don't realize what a massive nerd I am but know that my Blackberry is amused!) When I posted to Facebook that I was considering the Kindle with special offers, I was hoping for responses from someone who has a Kindle "with special offers." However, the question spurred a debate over purchasing a Kindle or hitting up the library. While I have my own reasons for not choosing the later, did you know that you can "purchase" out of print material for FREE on Amazon? This means that if it's no longer being published, it's free. I realize that many people like to read what is current and popular but believe me there is tons of fabulous reading material from the past that is no longer being printed because well basically it isn't selling anymore. To read "the best that has been written" would take a life time and most of it, you won't find at Barnes and Noble. So there is my rant, if you have any device that has a Kindle app available, you should really click on the link on my page and download it!
In other news...I have been working on scheduling more classes and if you know of a community group or employer that might be willing to host a class for their employees please let me know.

Free Kindle!!!

So my current mission and what I get extremely hyped about is purchasing a Kindle on Amazon for free! Now don't get me wrong, everything in America COSTS something, be it cash or time, but I have been using my time wisely and hope to be purchasing my very own, brand new Kindle shortly. All while using credits and cash that I earned online. If you would have told me two years ago this was possible, I probably would have laughed but it is actually possible.

The first, most important step is to get yourself an Amazon Prime membership. Some people purchase these but you can obtain one by signing up here for Amazon Mom (if you have children) or here for Amazon Student, if you have a .edu email address. Having an Amazon Prime membership will get you free unlimited 2-day shipping when you purchase participating "Prime" items, and trust me there are tons of them.

The next step, is to consider what books (even though it says "text books" they except random books under text books, so just try), text books, cds, dvds, and video games you have laying around that are no longer being used. These can be traded in to Amazon for free Amazon credit. This is also the point where you have to be really committed to passing items along, sometimes you will be surprised with how much something is worth and at other times you will be disappointed but the reality of it is that I go garage sailing all the time and see tons of novels with dust on them on the last day of the sale. Amazon is offering something and unless you LOVED the book, let it go! I had a large supply of books, so I also price shopped what different websites would give me and found that textbooks.com was better for some than others so they got some of mine (warning: this is very time consuming, so you have to decide how much of your time this is worth.) From Amazon, I got 29.86 for my first trade-in but I have since needed to use 17.98 for deals that I couldn't pass up, so my total from Amazon trade-ins to date is 11.88. I did a trade-in with Textbooks.com and the total from them is 31.00.
Next, I traded in our points for checking account rewards and received a gift card for $25.00 to Amazon.
Another way to earn money or credit online is to complete surveys. Back in May, I completed a survey for Nielsen Digital Voice and received a $35.00 virtual Visa card! It required answering questions one day a week for a few minutes about what I watch on television and BAM $35.00 free.
So far the total for the Kindle is at: $102.88!
And the last most exciting way to earn Amazon credit is through Opinion Outpost. You complete simple surveys for points and your points can be used to purchase Amazon credit. Some surveys are worth 10 points and some up to 35 or 50. 10 points equals $1.00 at Amazon and when you have over 50 points you can request a gift card! So far from Opinion Outpost, I have received $17.50.
This puts the grand total on the Kindle fund at $120.38!! The Kindle that I want to purchase is $139.00, leaving $18.62 to earn still. Opinion Outpost also offers a referral bonus after each person you refer takes their first survey, so if you would like to help me reach my Kindle deal, you can sign up for Opinion Outpost, complete your first survey to earn yourself some free Amazon bucks and I'll get $2.00!
I will update the blog when I finally get my new FREE Kindle! Get yours too!