Coupons at Target

I love coupons -- and I love Coupon Mom for doing the work of figuring out the best way to use them.

As I've mentioned several times, I'm a bit short on time these days because of my upcoming wedding. (One month to go!) Yesterday, I realized that I was in desperate need of some breakfast and lunch foods. I haven't had the time or energy to really sit down and think about menus, sale ads, and coupons. However, I also can't just eat out for the next month either.

I knew Target had a couple of things on sale that I wanted and needed to get. So, on my lunch break yesterday, I took a look at Coupon Mom's website to see if there was anything else (particularly food) that I could get for a good deal while I was there. I wrote down what I wanted. I quickly grabbed the coupons between work and my final wedding dress fitting and spun by Target on the way home from the bridal shop. I got a few things to add to what I already have on hand, and I'm good for the rest of the week.

Here's what I got:

Pringles (25% extra in the can for no additional charge)
Sale Price: $1.00
Target coupon from their website: $0.50
Final Price: $0.50

Skippy peanut butter
Regular Price: $2.34
Target coupon from their website: $1.00
Final Price: $1.34

Classico pasta sauce
Regular Price: $2.39
Target coupon from their website: $1.00
Final Price: $1.39

Quaker Chewy Granola Bars (with 2 extra bars for no additional charge)
Regular Price: $2.19
Target coupon from their website: $0.50
Manufacturer coupon: $0.50
Final Price: $1.19

What's great about Target is that they will let you use store and manufacturer coupons on the same item. They will also let you print and use multiple store coupons (for the corresponding number of items) from their website.

I always forget to look at their coupons online -- so thank goodness Coupon Mom lets me know about the deals. Granted the prices in my area aren't quite as low as she has listed on her website. However, I realize that my area is probably more expensive than hers. These are all good deals for the DC area.

What I want to figure out is how to get on Target's mailing list. My sister gets great coupon books from Target every few months. She's not sure how she got on that list. She doesn't have their credit card, which is how I thought it might happen. Does anyone know about those coupons and how I can get them in the U.S. mail?

It's time to get back to my chores...

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Welcome Coupon Mom Readers!

If you are visiting Save 4 Fun from Coupon Mom's blog, a special welcome to you! I'm a huge fan of Stephanie Nelson's and have so appreciated her great website and blog. I hope you will find my blog to be useful, interesting, and inspiring too. If you do, while you are here, subscribe to get my blog posts via email or in a reader through Feed Burner.

If you are visiting Save 4 Fun from another source and aren't already familiar with Coupon Mom, go check out her site. You don't have to be a mother to find savings through her website. She has great, free resources and tips available including Grocery Deals by State which does the work of looking through grocery and drug store sales ads for you each week. She'll even tell you where to find coupons that are available for this week's sale items.

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Restaurant Deals When Traveling

I mentioned yesterday that we do some planning in advance of traveling partly as a way to stretch our vacation budget a little further. In addition to looking on the Internet and in tourist magazines for restaurant coupons, I will usually look to see if I can find a restaurant on Restaurant.com that interests us in the place where we are visiting. If you aren't familiar with Restaurant.com, you can buy a $25 gift certificate for a restaurant for $10 (or less if you can find a coupon code -- CouponMom.com usually has one).

We've had this work well for us two times -- in Hartford, CT and Oklahoma City, OK. I found a restaurant that looked good that offered a Restaurant.com certificate. I bought it and then printed directions to that place from our hotel. (We don't travel with a computer or a printer, so we have to do this in advance.) We'd never been to either of these cities, much less the restaurants, so it was done completely based on their websites and the fact they offered Restaurant.com certificates. Both places turned out to be pretty good.

Following the same steps, we've also had this not work out two times. The first time was in the Outer Banks, NC. It turned out that the restaurant was kind of like a bakery, and they no longer served dinner (and we would have never spent $25 on lunch at a bakery for two people). The other time it happened was in Waynesville, NC. The restaurant was permanently closed. There was no indication of these issues on Restaurant.com or the restaurants' websites. The good news is that I didn't lose the certificates. I just emailed customer service at Restaurant.com before the 90 day exchange period ended, and they issued me a credit that I could use for a certificate at a different restaurant with which they are partners. So, we didn't get those particular deals on the trips, but we also didn't lose anything either. It's worth a try again the next time we are going somewhere that has Restaurant.com restaurants.

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Free & Low-Cost Activities on the Road

Today Coupon Mom had a post on her blog about a website called Free-Attractions.com on which you can find things to do for free in all 50 states. That's new to me. I'll have to keep it in mind when we start traveling again in the fall.

Michael and I have taken lots of trips together and are always on the look out for fun, interesting, and free (or at least, low cost) things to do. He's a master at searching the Internet for great attractions to visit during our travels. We also always request for the local and state visitors' centers to send us their packets of information before we go. (Their contact info is easily found by doing a quick Internet search.) We get free maps, brochures, and magazines about the area we are going to visit. They often include coupons for attractions and restaurants too. We usually plan several months in advance so that we have time to scour the brochures, tourist magazines, and websites to find the best things to do -- and to see if we can get a deal.

We love to experience a bit of local life when we go somewhere. Often those types of things are free. Here are just a few of the things we've done over the past few years: In Milwaukee we visited the Miller Brewing Plant and took their free tour. In Oklahoma City we, city folks, actually really enjoyed sitting in on cattle auctions at the Stockyards -- also free. In Kentucky we went on a couple of tours of distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail -- of course, they were free. We always make a point to take the free capitol building tours when we are in a state capital. We also got a great view of Hartford, CT by going to the top of the Travellers Tower -- which has an observation deck that is open to the public for free May through October.

Use your resources and do some research before you go. You can find a lot things to do for little or no money!

PSA: do plan to have a designated driver if you are visiting a brewing plant or distillery. Some of them (i.e. Miller's and Jim Beam) will give visitors who are of legal drinking age several full-size samples!

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Coupon Organizer

I have a coupon organizer -- you know, one of those little file folders to carry to the grocery store. It used to be my companion on every trip to the grocery or drug store. However, in the past few years I've used it less and less, even though I'm using coupons more and more. The main reason for this is that I now only clip and carry the coupons I need. I figure out which ones those are in advance with the help of Coupon Mom's website.

I use an old/used envelope (that is blank or nearly blank on one side) for my shopping list. (If I'm going to multiple stores, using one for each store works well.) Then, I tuck the coupons that correspond with items on that list inside the envelope. I'm all set when I get to the store. I know what I want to buy. I have the coupons ready. Shopping and saving are easy!

By the way, this system is great way to give new life to an old envelope that is otherwise trash!

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Saving More on Airfare - Priceline

As I mentioned last week in Saving on Airfare, I recently got a good deal on tickets to my honeymoon destination. Beyond the good deal, I was also able to use a coupon for American Airlines that was in the Entertainment Book and get some extra money back from Discover Card's current 5% Cashback Bonus program.

Coupon Mom just picked up my tips for one of her blog posts today. (Thanks, Stephanie!) And in that post, she also mentioned that Priceline will give a contribution to your Upromise college savings account when you book a reservation. I love Priceline!...and I love that they are a Upromise partner! But why, you ask, didn't I use them for my honeymoon flight reservations?

There is a potential drawback to bidding for your airfare on Priceline: flight times. Their website states, "Domestic flights are scheduled to depart anytime between 6am and 10pm unless your city pairs require off-peak travel. International flights can depart anytime on your travel dates." In the case of this part of the honeymoon, we aren't going to be gone a full week, and we want to see, do, and relax as much as we can. So, for this trip, we opted not to go the Priceline route for fear that we'd arrive late and have to leave early, which would cut into our already short vacation. The savings wasn't worth the risk.

However, we have bid on airfare on Priceline in the past. Here are some of what I think are their great benefits (pulled from their website): "Your flights will be confirmed for the dates and airports you agree to. Your flights will have a maximum of one stop each way, unless you agree to two connections each way. If you have a connection, your layover time will never be longer than three hours for domestic flights. You will never be put on a red-eye or off-peak flight unless you agree to one. You will know the total amount of your purchase before completing your transaction."

So, if arrival and departure times and the carrier aren't important to you, Priceline is a great option.

Here's an example from a trip we took last spring:
For the flights we took, the airline website was offering $330 (total price with fees and taxes). Kayak.com found the best deal on these flights to be $321 (total price). Our winning bid on Priceline was $263 (total price). That was a 18% savings over the lowest fare we could find. At the time, Priceline was offering a 1% contribution to a Upromise account, which meant another $2.63 in savings for me. Currently, Priceline is offering a 2% contribution to your Upromise account when booking through them -- so check it out, travel, and save!

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99 Cent Latte Day

For those of you who were particularly interested in the Cutting Down on Coffee and More Coffee Savings discussion that we had last month, I thought I'd mention something that I saw on Coupon Mom's blog today: 99 cent coffees at Dunkin' Donuts on Tuesday! The deal is only good from 1 PM until 10 PM on February 26th. You can get a small latte, cappuccino, or espresso for just 99 cents!

So, if you are looking for a cheap treat, this sounds good!

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Budget Article in the Loudoun Times Mirror

I had the good fortune on Monday to speak with Lina Hashem, a reporter from the Loudoun Times Mirror, about some of my savings tips. The interview with me was mostly in regards to Coupon Mom's website. The whole article has some good ideas and inspiring money-saving stories. Read Trimming the Budget Without Trimming the List. (Kudos to Kim Jenkins of Leesburg for racking up on some awesome deals on toys!)

For me, it's fun to share my savings tips and to find out what ideas other people have. I hope folks in Loudoun County find Lina's article useful and make their way to Save 4 Fun on a regular basis. It's exciting that Lina referenced my January 5 post of this blog.

Lina mentions Target's clearance items in the article. I know where all of the clearance sections are in my Target store (mostly end caps in out-of-the-way areas). I always make it a point to swing past these sections every time I'm in the store. While I don't find something I need or want on every visit, I do often find great deals.

I've noticed that some of the best clearance items at Target are in the health and beauty section. Sometimes they'll get a promotional package of lotion, toothpaste, or the like. It might have extra ounces or a sample of another product attached for free. (For example, 30% more lotion for free or a free toothbrush attached to the package of toothpaste.) They don't always keep those things on the regular shelves until they sell out. After a certain period of time, they'll move them to the clearance section. So, you might get a larger size of a product you want on clearance for 15%-50% less than the regular size on the regular shelf. You just have to look for the areas of each department that have the big red "Clearance" signs and see what good stuff might be there. I've found it's worth the extra minute to take a look.

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Are Coupons Worth It?

A lot of people don't think coupons are worth using. "Saving 25 cents isn't going to help me," doubters say. However, over the past two years, I've tracked my manufacturer coupon use to see if it's worth my time and the amount we spend on newspaper subscription. I have found that it is worth it. (You can get coupons from other sources, even free sources. However, I've found the newspaper to be the best means for me.)

In 2006, I saved $246.52 in coupons (and that includes the face value plus any doubling or tripling of value that some stores do). In 2007, I saved $276.65. My sister and I pay a total of $192 for the Washington Post (daily subscription plus a little tip for the carrier). Since we split the bill 50-50, I only pay $96 annually. So, there's definitely a savings there. (Of course, we get more value out of the paper than just the coupons because the newspaper itself is worth the price.)

Knowing that we are getting a "divorce" this year (since I'm leaving my sister as my roommate and taking on Michael as my husband), Angie is working hard to do better with her personal finances. After several years of hearing me talk about Coupon Mom (and making fun of me for being so into that website and the coupons), she finally registered the other night. (Registration is required but free.) She was amazed at how easy it is to use that system and what great deals you can find. Did she think I was making this up?

So, if you too are resolving to use your financial resources more wisely this year, try out the Coupon Mom system and give coupons a whirl! It's not that hard or time-consuming...and you'll definitely save.

Disclaimer: don't just buy something because you have a coupon. Only get it if you need/want it. Do some comparison shopping and figure out if the name brand with a coupon really is cheaper than the generic or another name brand.

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Coupon Codes for Online Shopping

There's still time to do some online shopping before Christmas. A few years ago I discovered Coupon Cabin which is a website that lists a lot of online coupon codes. It took me a little while to remember to actually look before making a purchase, but now I always do. You might find that you can get a percentage off or free shipping for your purchase. Coupons can sweeten a deal that you were already going to buy at a certain place or help you decide where to make the purchase.

There are a lot of places where you can find coupon codes online. Coupon Mom offers them on her website. Sometimes you can find them on Upromise. Look around before you click "

A final tip about online shopping: be sure to check on shipping dates before you order. Obviously, even if you have a coupon code for a percentage off, if the rush shipping is going to cost a lot in order for you to receive it in time, it's not a deal. Think about braving the stores and don't pay for expensive last minute shipping.

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Making the Most of Your Coupons

For any of you who aren't already familiar with how the Coupon Mom system, which I've mentioned in previous posts, works, here's a segment from WTAE TV/DT in Pittsburgh in which Stephanie Nelson explains how to use it. I've done really well over the past few years using this method to make my grocery and drug store shopping list. It does take a bit of planning before going to the store, but then shopping is super easy and fast...and you save big! As you can see from his comment on my 11/7/07 post, Bryan has had success with Coupon Mom's system too. Both of us prove that you don't have to be a mom to benefit from Stephanie's system.

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10 Ways to Spend Less in Stores (for the Holidays)

Stephanie Nelson (aka Coupon Mom) has an article in the December issue of Good Housekeeping. Check it out here and see if you recognize anyone mentioned (hint: in tip #6)! I'm online and in print now! The article is on page 121 of the magazine -- look me up this month when you are in line at the grocery store. ;-)

Like I said in my tip, you can get some really good deals for Christmas by using rebates. Last year, my sister had a flash drive on her wish list. I got one (1 GB) at Office Depot which had a regular price of about $60 for $12 because it was on sale and had $32 in rebates.

Each year, my sister and I get some gifts for the Salvation Army Angel Tree kids in Lynchburg. I got Twister and Connect Four for part of the gifts last year. I saw them for regular price at Toys R Us for $14 and $13, respectively. However, I got them the day after Thanksgiving at Target for $7 each, and I had a $2 rebate from the manufacturer for each game. That made them just $5 each!

As part of our gift to our brother last year, my sister and I got him an Ethernet adapter. The brand he wanted runs about $60-$70 regular price. I found it on Buy.com for $44 (after a $20 rebate), and they were offering free shipping...and there's no sales tax charged for shipping to Virginia!

Actually, Buy.com was a really great discovery. Last January, I got a $45 1-GB disk for my digital camera for free after rebate. They didn't charge shipping or tax. Okay, if you want to get technical, I may have had to actually mail in the rebate versus submitting it online (which some places offer), but then it was only the price of a first-class stamp.

I've added the link to Buy.com's Deal of the Day to my blog (left column). You can find some really great deals (like my free camera disk) that way. You can find other great deals on everything from toys and baby products to sporting equipment and books to appliances and computers to cameras and electronics through Buy.com too. Free shipping is available on many items. Tax is only charged for items being shipped to CA, MA, and TN.

Here's to having an enjoyable, but less expensive, holiday season!

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Triple the Fun!

Great news for those of us who have a Harris Teeter nearby -- it's triple coupon time! The deal is that they'll triple the value of coupons with a face value of up to 99 cents (limit 20 coupons per visit). This offer is running from Thursday, November 8th through Saturday, November 10th.

Harris Teeter had triple coupons in September, and I saved a bunch. I actually made trips to two different nearby HTs to find items in stock. The first time was one of those transactions that made the cashier say "Wow!" to the amount I saved. I bought $43.87 worth of food, OTC meds, and health & beauty products for $12.62 (a 71.2% savings). On the second trip, I spent $1.04 on $8.05 worth of stuff (an 87.1% savings). These purchases included 7 cans of Campbell's tomato soup, 8 cans of Campbell's chicken noodle soup, and 4 cans of Spaghetti-Os for $4.79 (regular $19.61). I'm giving all of those to charity. Saving like this with coupons and donating the items to charity is what Coupon Mom calls the Cut Out Hunger program. It's a great way to help the needy for just a little bit of money -- all right, and give me a deal fix! ;-)

An easy way to maximize with triple coupons is to use the Grocery Coupon Database on Coupon Mom's website. (You have to register to access it, but registration is free. You can also read the easy instructions on how to use the Coupon Mom system at the Grocery Coupon Database page of her website if you aren't already familiar with it.) Unfortunately, you can't sort by value of the coupons. However, I just scroll down the list looking for coupons less than 99 cents. If it's for a product that I could use or donate to charity (or that a friend would use), I clip the coupon. I then make a shopping list of the items for which I have a coupon (which is easier for me than flipping through a whole stack of coupons at the store). While I'm shopping, I'll look to see if it really is a good deal (comparing the triple coupon item with other brands, including generic). If it's a deal and I need it or could give it to someone who would need it, I get it. If not, I pass...yep, don't use the coupon if it's not a deal!

Coupons are great -- so far this year, I've saved $246.60 in coupons at grocery and drug stores. To me (and my budget on a non-profit salary), that's a decent chunk of change.

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Deal of the Weekend

Saturday night, Michael and I went to dinner at the Front Page restaurant in Arlington. They have really great food, and the atmosphere and service are nice too. Thanks to a contest I won on Coupon Mom's website, we had a $25 gift certificate from Restaurant.com. The total food bill was $35.89, but we got it for $10.89. Once we added in the tip (on the full amount), we only paid $17.50, which was 59% off! Mmmm...that made my grilled shrimp taste even better.

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