Frances | October 21, 2009

We love it when Frugal Fairhope readers tell us about their experiences and shopping trips. We have been saying one of the greatest ways to get access to your favorite coupons is to email the companies of the products you buy. Reader A… has had a great success with this and she wanted to share her story to all of you.

A couple of weeks ago, Publix had a special on Purex All-in-one sheets. I had a $1 off coupon, and with the sale price, which made the sheets $3.99.

I came home that night and did a load of laundry with them – btw – they are really easy to use. I was folding laundry later, and I had a load that I washed using the ALL small and mighty detergent from the sale a month ago, then another load that I had just washed using the Purex product. The Purex load was much better. So, I went to the Henkel North America website and sent a comment to their customer service people. Yesterday, I got a letter in the mail thanking me for the kind words and six $1 off Purex All-in-one sheets.

Also, a couple of weeks ago, I emailed Aquafresh customer service because I couldn’t print a toothpaste coupon from their website, and they sent me a coupon for a free tube of toothpaste.

It just goes to show sometimes it pays to send comments to these companies!

Indeed it does! She even included the letters from the the Aquafresh and the Purex companies.

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Frances | October 19, 2009

Pepperidge Farm Baked Natural Snack Crackers printable (IE) printable (FF)

We have so many questions about trouble printing, we thought we would break down a common question. We have previously talked about this on our Trouble Printing post.

The Pepperidge Farm Cookie coupon is a good example of the differences in links between IE (Internet Explorer) and FF (Fire Fox). The Pepperidge Farm Crackers link is short so it will be easier to look at:

IE Link

http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=qjpkdrc72426024&bt=wi

&o=58779&c=PF&p=CiU0OFmY

FF Link

http://bricks.coupons.com/Start.asp?tqnm=qjpkdrc72426024&bt=wg

&o=58779&c=PF&p=CiU0OFmY

Do you see the difference? We have highlighted the two letters in bold; the “wi” in IE link and “wg” in the FF link.

Any link that you run across that will not print in your Internet Explorer browser you can change those two letters to a “wi” and it should print. This especially works for the bricks links.

• “wi” or “vi” Internet Explorer
• “wg” Fire Fox
• “xs” Safari

Check it out at Trouble Printing post for even more ideas you can use to get those coupons to print.

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Frances | October 18, 2009

Quilted Northern is a great opportunity to show you how to break down of using sales prices, with coupons, with manufacture rebates to get the best deal to stockpile. It is time to stock up on bathroom tissue for our household.

There are three drug stores running great deals this week for Quilted Northern. Here are the breakdowns:

• CVS $6.99 for 12 double rolls
• Walgreens $3.99 for 9 big rolls
• Rite Aid $6.49 for 12 pack

There is a Real Simple rebate of $5 WYB $15

Using the sale prices at each of the stores, with the printable coupons, and sending off for the Real Simple rebate you will get the best deal on bathroom tissue. There are additional coupons in the 10/4 RP and the September All You magazine that you can use as well, we are using the printable to make it easier to understand.

Here are the breakdowns per store:

CVS
Buy 3 CVS Quilted Northern 12 double rolls $6.99 Get $1 ECB (limit 3 per card)
-Use 3 $1 Printable & $1 printable (register)
-$3 ECBs
-$5 Real Simple Rebate
Final Price: $3.32 each WYB 4 12 double rolls

Walgreens
Buy 4 Walgreens Quilted Northern 9 big rolls $3.99 (starting Sunday)
-Use 4 $1 Printable & $1 printable (register)
-$5 Real Simple Rebate
Final Price: $1.74 each WYB 4 9 big rolls

Rite Aid
Buy 3 Quilted Northern 12 pack $6.49
-Use 3 $2 $130 in coupons at Rite Aid by watching videos (Fairhope Rite Aid considers these as Rite Aid coupons not manufacture, other stores may not since they have manufacture printed at the top)
-Use 3 $1 Printable & $1 printable (register)
-$5 Real Simple Rebate
Final Price: $1.82 each WYB 3 12 packs
Final Price not using video coupons manufacture  coupons:  $2.89 each WYB 3 12 packs

FFF Tip: Quilted Northern also has a money back guarantee on one of their products. If you are not happy with your purchase you can get back the value of one. You will need an original receipt for this so keep this in mind if you have already applied for the $5 Real Simple Rebate which also requires an original receipt.

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Frances | October 12, 2009

Most if not all Register Rewards (RRs) will not roll over. In other words if you pay for an item with a Register Rewards, Register Rewards for that item will not print, even if they are suppose too.

Walgreens is not my favorite place to shop for this very reason. There is a way around this and take full advantage of your Register Rewards. You just have to make sure you purchase items that do not produce RRs.

For example if you buy Huggies diapers this week at Walgreens for $18/2 you get $4 in Register Rewards that you can use on your next trip or in a second transaction.

You could use that to purchase a small tub of Huggies Wipes on sale this week for $5/2 or $2.50 each.  If you have signed up for the Huggies newsletter you should be getting coupons in the mail for wipes and diapers. This month we received a $.75 coupon for wipes. Here is how we see the entire Huggies diapers and wipes deal in two transactions.

1st Transaction

Buy 2 Huggies Jumbo Pack $18/2 or $9 each
-Use 2 $1 Walgreens Children’s Activity Book
-Use 2 $2 Huggies printable (IE) & printable (FF)

Out of Pocket (OOP): $12
Received $4 in Register Rewards
-$1.50 Caregiver Maketplace Rebate

Final Price: $6.50 or $3.25 each

2nd Transaction
Buy 3 Huggies Tub $5/2 or $2.50 each
-Use 3 $.75 coupon (mail)
-$4 RRs from 1st transaction

OOP & Final Price: $1.25 or $.42 each!

Final Price of 1st & 2nd Transaction: $11.75 for 2 packages of Huggies and 3 tubs of Huggies wipes. That is $2.35 each!

What is interesting is a refill package of 216 count wipes is $8.49 at Walgreens (even with the $.75 & $2 Walgreens coupon) is more expensive than buying 3 tubs of wipes (72 count).

Let’s take another look at this as a reader that doesn’t have a coupon in the house. The only access to coupons this person would have is what they can print online.

1st Transaction

Buy 2 Huggies Jumbo Pack $18/2 or $9 each
-Use 2 $2 Huggies printable (IE) & printable (FF)

Out of Pocket (OOP): $14 or $7 each
Received $4 in Register Rewards
-$1.50 Caregiver Maketplace Rebate

Final Price: $12.50 or $6.25 each

2nd Transaction

In this case only buy 2 tubs of wipes.
Buy 2 Huggies Tub $5/2 or $2.50 each
-$4 RRs from 1st transaction

OOP & Final Price: $1 or $.50 each!

Final Price of 1st & 2nd Transaction for someone with only the printable coupons: $13.50 for 2 packages of Huggies and 2 tubs of Huggies wipes. That is $3.38 each!

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Frances | October 11, 2009

Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t.

Luck was with us today at the Fairhope CVS store. We walked in to find 2 Mega packs of  Huggies diapers on clearance for $4.49 in the exact sizes we needed. Sold! Using the $2 Huggies coupons we got these for $2.49 each.

Look for these clearance tags on the bottom shelves at your local CVS store. Most stores have a end cap or in this case a shopping cart with clearance items.

CVS has five clearance stages that products go through. There are four separate tags marking each stage of clearance. The price of the product will be marked with a green sticker.

There are no standard policies on how and when products will hit each stage. If you have a store that follows the clearance process exactly this is what you will find with five stages of clearance:

Stage 1 “Clearance” Product is still full price but this will tell you that the item is being discontinued. So look out for it to be pulled to another stage shortly. This could be 1-2 weeks depending on the store and staffing.

The next four stages will give you the new price of the product.

Stage 2 “Clearance 25% off you pay $”
Stage 3 “Clearance 50% off you pay $”
Stage 4 “Clearance 75% off you pay $”

Stage 5 Item is typically removed from the shelf and placed in separate clearance area. This could be a shopping cart, end cap or a table near the front registers. The item will now be marked 90% off.

Sometimes products, like in our example, may skip to the last two stages of clearance. Don’t rely completely on these stages, shortage of staffing or communication between the management and store employees, products may not be marked correctly with the appropriate tags.

It is also important to know from store to store what has been marked down or discontinued. All stores do not operate on the same schedule. For example you could see these Jumbo Huggies diapers go on sale at another store in the next couple of weeks.

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Frances | October 11, 2009

Did you know that Kmart is offering a 20% discount for unemployed customers until July 2010. This comes at a great time when so many people are looking for employment.

The way this works is first you need to register for your card. Click here to register to get your card. The card is good for 6 months from the date of issue. At checkout, you need to show the Kmart discount card, state issued photo ID, and your state-issued unemployment benefits enrollment verification.

This 20% discount is good for Kmart brand grocery and drug store products.

Receive a $10 coupon when you register.

Here is the information from their site:

20% discount off regularly priced Kmart brand grocery and drugstore merchandise to eligible customers who register for the Program on kmart.com.

Our own brand grocery and drugstore merchandise includes:

• American Fare
• Aviya
• Biostyle
• Champion Breed
• Little Ones
• Hercules
• Image Essentials
• Quality Guaranteed
• Smart Cents
• Smart Sense
• Torq
• Vitasmart
• Our Family products (available exclusively at Super Kmart stores.)

This program excludes sale and clearance merchandise. Cards will be issued from June 21, 2009 through January 2010.

Savings cards are good for 6 months after the date of issue.

We have been hearing more and people who have lost their jobs and have not found a job or had to take a job with less pay. If you have recently suffered a job loss here are some links to saving money that we have talked about in the past:

Out of the Box Solutions for Job Loss Part 1 of 3
Out of the Box Solutions for Job Loss Part 2 of 3
Out of the Box Solutions for Job Loss Part 3 of 3

Free medications for Pfizer customers

We started a series of posts on Silent Programs after we noticed that there are programs (government and private) that no one seems to know about that may be of interest (especially the free child and low cost health care).

Silent Program – FEMA 1835 – 1836 DR-AL
Silent Program – Charitable Pharmacy
Silent Program – Children’s Dental Assistance
Silent Programs – Discount Drug Cards
Silent Programs – WIC

Church on the Eastern Shore in Fairhope will provide a low cost health care facility in Fairhope. Clinic is still under construction but will take donations.

Free Cell Phone & Minutes

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Frances | October 10, 2009

Once you understand how to work ECBs at CVS (it is not hard) you are ready to move on to another level of couponing.

Using Fillers

A filler can be anything that brings the total to where you need it in order to use a coupon. In this example we needed the total (before coupons) to reach $25 in order to use the $5 off $25 CVS printable. The $5 off $25 CVS printable does not state that the total needs to be $25 after coupons, so we needed the value of the products to reach $25 before coupons. Most of your Walgreens coupons will state that the total must be $25 after all coupons (we lovingly call this a “Yuck Deal“).

This week CVS is offering $10 RRs WYB $20 in Dove products.

The total of 5 Dove products is enough to qualify for the $10 ECBs but not to use the $5 off $25 CVS printable, so we used a filler. This filler was something that we had a coupon for free by requesting a free sample.

5 Dove $4.99 each ($24.95 total)
-Used 5 $1 coupon 10/4 RP
-Used 1 $1 CVS $100 Coupon Book (can only use one per customer)
Always $5.29 (filler)
-Free $5.29 coupon from requesting a free sample
-$5 off $25 CVS printable

Out Of Pocket (OOP): $13.95
Received $10 ECBs
Final Price: $3.95

This example is the ideal filler situation; purchase the filler item, get the filler item free with a coupon, and qualify to use the $5 off $25 coupon.

We like to save our free coupons for cases like this where we can get the maximum value for buying that free item.

If we had purchased another Dove product at $4.99 would have brought the total to $29.94. This would have qualified us to use the $5 off $25 CVS printable and we could have used another $1 Dove coupon, but this would have put us at a OOP of $17.94. Here is the breakdown:

6 Dove $29.94
-Used 6 $1 coupon 10/4 RP
-Used 1 $1 CVS $100 Coupon Book (can only use one per coupon)
-$5 off $25 CVS printable

Out of Pocket: $17.94
Received $10 ECBs
Final Price: $7.94

Using this same example you could have purchased something a little cheaper, like a candy bar as your filler.

5 Dove $4.99 each ($24.95 total)
-Used 5 $1 coupon 10/4 RP
-Used 1 $1 CVS $100 Coupon Book (can only use one per customer)
Candy Bar $.99
-$5 off $25 CVS printable

Out of Pocket: $14.94
Received $10 ECBs
Final Price: $4.94

We would have used this example if we didn’t have the free Always coupon.

If we could have found another Dove product that was less than $4.99 it would have been a little cheaper on our OOP. We could have purchased only 4 of the $4.99 Dove products and only one cheaper Dove product. If we had been able to find that Dove product we would had to make sure that the cost of the filler was enough to make up the difference to get to the $25.

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Frances | October 3, 2009

As you know we hit our back button until we get an error message every time we print a coupon. Most times we get two coupons, but then there are times that we get more than two coupons.

We were able to print the $1 Bumble Bee printable six times. These coupons will not expire until 12/31 so we will wait for a B1G1 sale before we use our 6 coupons.

As we have mentioned before one of our computers does not play well with SmartSource coupons. We used our other computer to print these and got six copies before we got the final red error message.

Here is how we did it. Only select the Bumble Bee from this printable link. After the coupon has printed, hit your back button twice until you get the white screen and the “your coupons are printing” blue bar. Wait for it to complete the printing and repeat the steps. Hitting the back button just once will result in an error, it is important to go back twice but not all the way to the original coupon selection screen.

Good luck and let us know how many you were able to print.

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Frances | October 2, 2009

We have heard that 4 of our friends have lost their jobs this week. Thinking about this, we realized that this could easily happen to us at any time without notice.  These are very scary thoughts, and there are those of you out there who might be thinking the same thing or it has already happened to you. We thought we would bring a post forward that we did back in March of this year and we hope it will get you thinking about some of the things you can do now to Stay Ahead of the Disappointment.

We all have disappointments in our lives, all we can do is go day by day and deal with life as it comes to us. We have all heard the phrase “carpe diem”; seize the day. What does this really mean “seize the day”. There are some days we don’t want to seize, like the day we loose a job? Do we really want to seize that day?

Then there are days that we may want to seize and to keep in our memory forever, wedding day, first kiss, or perhaps the day your child was born. Now those are days to seize.

What can we do to prepare for the financial disappointing days that happen in our lives? Things so bad you just want to stay in bed with your head below the sheets; hide away in a movie theater watching other fictional lives flash before you; or escape in food you know you shouldn’t be eating?

Now we know that not every one can go to this extreme and some of you may not want to. But think about what you can sacrifice to save a little money for your future?

• Could you take your lunch to work or eating at home instead of going out to eat ($1,212)? www.bls.gov/cex/csxann06.pdf
• Could you increase your car insurance premiums to cover a $1,000 deductible that you put in the bank in case of an accident ($456)? www.consumerreports.org
• Could you increase your deductible on your homeowners policy (25%)? www.smartmoney.com
• Could you rent your movies from the local library and turn off the cable ($600)? Do you really care what house is being remodeled on HGTV, couldn’t you use that time to get some exercise or spending that time with the people that you love? www.moneycentral.msn.com
• Could you rent the books from the library instead of buying ($117)? www.bls.gov/cex/csxann06.pdf
• Could you cut off the home phone and only use a cell phone ($980)? www.consumerreports.org
• Could you get rid of that cell phone or trade it in for a pay as you go phone for emergencies ($720)? www.associatedcontent.com
• Could you turn down the hot water heater and the thermostat and use ceiling fans or dress warmer ($512)? www.consumerreports.org
• Could you ask your spouse and family to not exchange gifts this year for birthdays and Christmas and just spend time with each other? ($400) http://americanresearchgroup.com
• Could you commit to go one day a week without spending any money? Not using the debit or credit card for a 24 hour period.

If you did all the items listed above you would save an average of $4,997 a year!

What could you do with that extra money? Pay off a credit card or pay down on the mortgage, of course!

Think about this if you are already swimming in debt, is that shinny new car worth the work it takes making the payments every month and worth the stress that car could place on your family if you lost your job? We are not saying you shouldn’t buy a new car, but if you are already in debt, think about what not making that $400-$700 payment would mean to your families future (paying off debt, college, vacations, retirement).

We may not be able to prepare for the emotional disappointments that happen in our lives but think about some of the things you can do now to ensure you are prepared for the financial disappointments. Go through your bills and write down everything you spend on paper. You will surprise yourself on how much money you are spending without even thinking about it.

You can do this, just start today!

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Frances | October 1, 2009

Remember this?

Not Printing Coupons is Frustrating, Try This

We mentioned that we were writing P&G about the condition of our coupon booklet that afternoon.

Today, we received a wonderful letter with their apologies and a new coupon booklet with over $35 in coupons from P&G!

We received a lot of comments and emails about the original post and we hope those of you who received the coupon booklet in the same condition, will receive your new coupon booklet in the mail. If you didn’t, now you know what to do. If you receive any future coupon booklets in the condition mentioned above send it back with a nice letter to the following address:

Procter & Gamble
100 Jamison Court
Hagerstown, MD 21740

Way to go P&G and Thank You

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Frances | October 1, 2009

We had mentioned earlier this week on Facebook that Emily Thrift Store in Fairhope is having a bag sale.  Pay $5 for all the clothes you can fit in a paper bag, if the bag is over the top you pay $6.

We drove by this morning and the bag sale is still going on, so we stopped in to see what we could find. Along with the bag sale, everything in the store is 1/2 off.

The kitchen you see above was marked $5. We couldn’t walk out of the store paying $2.50 for this so we paid full price. We should have paid more, we know.

That is not the best part, as we were talking to some people in the store a lady asked us if we were interested in another kitchen set. Of course! She said she had one at her home that her kids were not using and that we were welcomed to have. We offered her money for it but she wouldn’t take it. We told her she should sell it at the consignment store but she said she just didn’t have the time. So we got the following kitchen set for free.

We are not angels and not perfect in any means. But, we are a strong believer in if you do good things, good things will happen to you. What goes around comes around and in this case it was a lot faster than we ever expected.

If you get anything out of Frugal Fairhope we hope that it is not just to get the best deals but to give back to your community. The smallest thing could mean a lot to one person.

“You Can’t Help Everyone Everywhere, ButYou Can Help Someone Somewhere”.

This is one of our favorite paragraphs from this post:

A “happy” (gift) as my 99 year old great grandmother Mamo use to put it. She loved getting “happys”. She was such a caring person that she wanted to re-gift the “happy” and give it back to the original person or to someone new. It was almost like she wanted to share the happiness with everyone.

Today we received our happy from a wonderful stranger. Thank You!

We will not sell these kitchen sets, they are too precious to us to make money from them. Once we are finished with them, we will give them away so that others will enjoy.

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