Unexpected Money Maker, Free Dinner & More

This week I had my coupons ready to use at Walgreens.  It was a deal I found at momsbyheart.net:

Kotex Pantiliners 64 ct. $3.79, B1G1 50% off = 2/$5.69
Earn $2 RR
-$2/2 Kotex printable
Final Price: $0.85 each

My Walgreens ended up being out of them but today I was in Kroger (not my usual grocery store) getting some milk and saw a container with Kotex liners on sale for $1.  I grab 2 boxes so I could use the coupon I had in my purse—thinking they would be free.  Well, it ended up Kroger had the same catalina deal (like Walgreens RR) and I made $2 on the 2 boxes.  I ended up going back home and printing some more coupons and also finding some $1/1 coupons, too.  Due to this unexpected deal, by the end of the day this is what I bought:

2 Containers of Milk (Reg.$3.99, Sale $2.97)

1 Wheat French Loaf (Reg. $1.99, Sale $.99)

2 Loaves of Wheat Sandwich Bread (Reg. $3.99, Sale $2.99)

28 Boxes of Kotex Liners 22 ct (Reg. $1.49, Sale $1)

16 Boxes of Kotex Liners 14 ct (Reg. $1.49, Sale $1)

1 Bag of Flour ($1.77)

1 Pkg of Chicken Thighs (Reg. $7.62, Sale $5.43)

1 Oikos Greek Yogurt (Reg. $1.29, Sale $1)

I ended up spending $1.15 (pre-tax) but with an additional 13 $2 catalinas off your next purchases, so bottom line I walked out after paying the little I did with $26.  This means minus my payment I ended up making $24.85 (pre-tax).  There was a little work—I had to do a lot of separate orders to earn the catalinas and use them on my other items.  It was the time of day there weren’t many customers and it only took 30 minutes so I think it was worth it.  The total cost of these items purchased at regular price with no coupons would have been $91.21 (pre-tax) and I ended up making $24.85 instead paying.  WOW!!!

With all I got I made some homemade mozzarella cheese, ricotta cheese, yogurt and a delish simple dinner.  The yogurt will last the family for at least a week for breakfasts and frozen yogurt pops.  We had a delish free dinner tonight and I will figure out something to make using the fresh ricotta cheese.  Below is my FREE dinner:

Caprese Salad (homegrown tomatoes & basil, homemade mozzarella cheese from milk)

Green Beans—homegrown

Chicken Thighs-free from deal

Hope you accidentally (or on purpose) find some great deals this week.

Diaper Drive

Today I hit the jackpot at CVS for a diaper drive with my daughters' American Heritage Girls troop.  I have been watching momsbyheart.net $10 stockpiling challenge (check it out--I love her blog) and saw this deal plus I had a few extra coupons.

I first bought 6 Huggies diapers--1 diaper was on clearance. I had 2 newspaper manufacture coupons ($3.00--8/18SS), 4 printable manufacture coupons ($2.50 if you share with 3 friends), 6 CVS coupons ($3.00). I was going to check out with an additional $6 ECB, a $10 off $50 CVS coupon (printed out at bottom of previous receipt), and a $5 off $25 Huggies CVS coupon  (accidentally found on cvs.com when I was linking my card for double rewards).  I ended up not having enough spent to use my $6 ECB--so what did I do I spent more :) Remember you can only print 2 coupons from each computer--we have 4 computers and a friend printed some for me.  Also, if I would happened to snag the $1.50 Ibotta deposit I would have made money--it is gone now though.

I ended up buying 4 M&Ms tubes, 2 M&Ms packages that were B2G1 and gave him 3 B1G1 M&Ms coupons (tearpad from Kangaroo). Sale was totaled and the total pre-tax still was not higher enough.  So what do you think I did--grabbed a Diet Dr. Pepper (with no coupon).

Finally the total was higher enough.  Totally pre-tax:  11¢

So bottom line I got lunch not a healthy one (M&Ms & Soda), after school Friday treat for my kids, and diapers for the diaper drive for 11¢ and tax.

Here is the breakdown:

5 Huggies Diaper(jumbo) $9.49                  $47.45

1 Huggies Diaper(jumbo) $5.99                  $5.99
                (clearance ??)
1 Diet Dr. Pepper                                             $1.60
4 M&Ms tubes $1.00(B2G1)                        $4.00                    
2 M&Ms—Free due to sale)                        $0.00
TOTAL                                                                   $59.18

 

Coupons

1 $10 off $50                                                       -$10.00
1 CVS $5 off $25 Huggies                               -$5.00
3 Manf. Huggies $2.50                                    -$7.50
3 Manf.Huggies $3.00                                     -$9.00
6 CVSHuggies $3.00                                         -$18.00
3 B1G1 M&Ms                                                   -$3.57 (took regular price of$1.19 off x3)
CVS ECB (last week)                                        -$6.00
                                                                                -$59.07
 
Total after coupons (pre-tax)                     $0.11

Happy Shopping!
Andrea

$224 worth of Old Navy Gift Cards for $161.60

Lately I usually buy most of my gift cards through Plastic Jungle or Cardpool where you can purchase gift cards at a discount (all gift cards are guarranteed).  I usually got through topcashback.com  and earn and extra 2.5%-4% on my purchase just because I got through their site.  (Cashback sites are a great way to earn extra money on online orders.)

For example a few months ago I bought some JC Penney gift cards for 30% off the retail price.  My husband just bought some things on sale in the store and he got an AWESOME deal.  I also bought a few things on sale online and used the gift card-- during this online sale I went through a cashback site to save even more.  :)

Well, Old Navy cards are hard to get on these sites because of their popularity so when I saw the recent Coinstar deal to get a $10 extra when you exchange money for a $40 gift card I went for it.  (You exchange coins for gift cards--some machine allow you to do bills, too.) I ended up buying $160 dollars worth of Old Navy cards and got $40 worth of free gift cards.  There is $200 worth of gift cards for $160 but WAIT . . . . I happened to see that when you buy gift cards at Old Navy this week you get 10-15% off.  (10%--everyone, 15%--Old Navy Credit Card holders) 

So I went to Old Navy and bought $224 worth of gift cards with my $200 coinstar gift cards (they are paper receipts and I would prefer real gift cards anyway).  I ended up having to pay $1.60 in addition to my coinstar gift cards.  Now I just need to wait for sales and coupons and I will get another AWESOME DEAL!!!

Here are a few other cashback sites I use:

mrrebates.com

ebates.com

bigcrumbs.com

The 12 Days Left Teaching Gift

Today while I was driving I started singing "The 12 Days of Christmas" and an idea popped in my head.  A fun gift basket for my kids' teachers called "The 12 Days Left of Teaching".  I thought of items I already had in my couponing stockpile and went to work putting it together.  First I made a card with all the 12 Days (using my items--you could change it up with what you have)--here my 12 days:

12 Eraser Pencils

11 Headache Tablets

10 Thank You Notes

9 Candy Canes

8 Packets of Coffee

7 Pieces of Chocolate

6 Sticks of Gum

5 Doodle Pads

4 Candles of Joy

3 Santa Tizers

2 Calorie Mints

1 Target Gift Card

 

I put each item in a celaphone bag, tied with some red and white baker's twine. Then I put a tag on each item. My tags said the following:

12 Eraser Pencils
For the students to correct their mistakes due to holiday gaze.

11 Headache Tablets
To help you get rid of those headaches due to the students ready for vacation.

10 Thank You Notes
So you can write notes for all the “lovely” holiday mugs you receive.

9 Candy Canes
Just because it s the holidays.

8 Packets of Coffee
To help you stay awake during the last few days of school.

7 Pieces of Chocolate
You always need chocolate.

6 Sticks of Gum
For your chewing pleasure.

5 Doodle Pads
To help you keep track of all the last minute things you need to do.

4 Candles of Joy
To help you relax and enjoy your day.

3 Santa Tizers
To fight off all those germs and stay well during the holidays.

2 Calorie Mints
To help you always have fresh breath and be prepared for the mistletoe.

1 Target Gift Card
So you can go and buy a little something for yourself.

 

Here is gift basket once I finished.

 

 

Tomorrow my kids will take the baskets to their teachers even though I am one day late.  I hope they enjoy their goodies.

 



Walmart Paid Me to Shop!

Well, today I read about the new Walmart coupon policy--here are just a few highlights:

 

• Coupons may exceed the price of the item. Change may be GIVEN or applied toward the cost of the basket purchase.
   
• “Catalinas” that are printed at our competitors’ registers, have “Manufacturer Coupon” with specific requirements printed on them, a valid remit address for the manufacturer, valid expiration date, and a scannable bar code.

 This is major, especially since Walmart has not been coupon friendly in the past.  Well, I couldn't wait to go to test it out.  I finally got at 8 pm and I ended up making a big line at my register.  None of the managers had heard about the change but I had the coupon policy in hand.  After reading and shaking their heads they gave me $15.23.  (I will go shopping anytime at Walmart if I make money!)

 

 

 

Items bought:

• 2 strawberries
• 1 pineapple
• Bunch of bananas (4)
• Bunch of tomatoes (3)
• 2 Tropicana OJ
• 1 Gallon of Milk
• 1 Tide stain release
• 14 Gain fabric softener sheets (40 ct)
• 8 Purex Complete 3 in 1 (2 ct)
• 2 John Frieda hair spray (travel size)

Coupons Used:

• 14 $3 off Gain fabric softener (2/13 RP)
• 8 $3 off Purex Complete (2/20 RP)
• 1 $1 off 2 Tropicana  (1/2 RP or 3/6 RP)
• 2 $1.50 off John Frienda (printable)
• 1 $1 off Tide (mailer--had a $3 one but pulled out wrong one)

CASH BACK: $15.23

No rebate, no store rewards--just cold hard cash in my hand!!

 

 

Olay!!!

Well, this week I went to Target so I could make some money.  Here is what I did:

Olay Facial Wash $3.50 (Buy 2 and get a $5 gift card)
Olay Age Defying Cleanser $4.45 (Buy 2 and get a $5 gift card)

This is what I bought:
12 Olay Facial Washes -- $42.50
2 Olay Age Defying Cleanser -- $8.90
$51.40

Coupons Used (these both expired 10/31 but new P&G insert might have more):
12 $1 off Olay product
2 $1.50 off Olay product
$15 coupons

Total spent -- $36.50 and received $35 Gift Cards so reality only spent $1.40

Now I will submit the Olay $20 off $50 rebate and end up making $18.60 and I have lots of Olay products to donate to a women's shelter.

Post-its, Printers and More

This last week has been crazy with the school supplies. My daughter’s teacher needed some Mr. Scent Markers so I figured out a way to get them free and get lots of post-its. Rite Aid I just made money. In addition, I got a great mobile printer that unexpectedly made money on. (I used office depot coupons at Staples along with Avery Label coupons.) Here is what I did:

Rite Aid (3 transactions)
33 Post-it Notes (various sizes and colors)
Coupons : $65.00
Total : $32.12
Earned: $30 UP Money
Earned: $20 Back to School Rebate
After Rebates: $17.98 MONEY MAKER!!

I forgot about a few Rite Aid coupons so I could have made $10 more dollars!

Staples (3 transactions)
4 Hammerill Paper
3 Expo Writing Tablet
79 Avery Label Pads (various sizes and colors)
2 Mr. Sketch Markers
3 Pilot Frixon Pens (3 ct)
1 Kids’ Scissors (2 ct)
2 Avery Return Labels-Clear
2 Scotch Tape Rolls

Paid: $30.61 (using Staples rewards that earned from ink cartridges)
Earned: $28.46 in Staples & Frixon Pen Rebates
After Rebates: $2.15

So after Staples and Rite Aid $15.83 Money Maker!!!

PRINTER at STAPLES

My husband and I wanted to get a specific mobile printer that Staples did not have in the store so we asked the manager if we could buy it at staples.com, return it to the store and rebuy it. We wanted to do a printer exchange--he said that would be fine. So here is what happened.

Printer online cost:
$203.41
-143.03 Staples Rewards from turning in ink cartridges
-$61.37 Credit Card

Returned it and they credited everything to our Credit Card:
Credit Card: $203.41

Rebought at store:
$59.12 (Used our credit on card from staples rewards)
TOTALLY SURPRISED BY PRICE!!

$50 Rebate from HP for trade-in--HP will mail it to us.

(We bought a used printer on craigslist for $10 but it had 3 ink cartridges so only paid $1 with rewards from ink.)

BOTTOM LINE--Total $9.12 with Staples Rewards.
Also, the transaction converted $133.91 Staples Rewards to Credit Card credit (this was a bonus that we weren't trying to do)