And the savings continue....

Many of you have kept me faithful for at least a second blog, so I am taking the time today to finally getting around to writing it.  No more pinterest for me until its done!  :)  If you don't already feel like a coupon pro I hope I at least gave you the confidence to get started!  This blog is going to dive a little deeper into those savings as well as give you a great idea for Birthday tricks to save you $ & give you a fun birthday week/month!  

Competitor Coupons....

I wanted to revisit this topic as some of you  that I have been talking to are still concerned on what this means....basically visit your superstore of choice (Publix for me) and ask them "What competitor coupons do you take?"...you can even call and do this to save gas!  Once you know that, then go to the competitor stores and sign up for anything and everything.  Kroger has the Kroger card, Winn-Dixie has the baby club, and Winn-Dixie Card, etc.  Make sure you go into the store...I have the hardest times getting my coupons to send when I do it on-line, so now I always go into the store when setting up my "savings passes".  Why do I do all of this?!  Here is a diaper example for you involving both store and competitor coupons:

Winn Dixie sends me a $3 off Diapers...and Publix sends me a buy any 1 Huggies diapers get a Huggies wipes free, and I already have $2.50 off Huggies & $.50 (which will double) off wipes, I use ALL the coupons together.  YES even the $.50 off wipes, doesn't matter I am getting them free from a store coupon, I now am getting another $1 off my diaper purchase.  In total a $10.99 pack of diapers (Publix full price, which I never pay) is now only costing me $4.50 and my wipes were free!!  Normally, I wait a few weeks and Publix diapers are on sale (they are on sale usually every 3 weeks for Huggies) and then my diapers start at $8.99, and so I end up paying $2.50 for diapers and wipes!!!  That's a good savings!  If your diaper cost more than $.167 a piece, your spending too much.  Occasionally it is a good deal to buy from Costco, when they put our the big $5-7 coupons off the boxes...but not always, so be careful!  

Here is another great example of why competitor coupons are so crucial for savings:

Alex and I found a Family Dollar Manufacturer Coupon (it was placed in their advertisement, but it was actually a manufacturer so we could use it anywhere...which was great as they were not a "competitor" of Publix...but because I subscribe to many places I had access to their coupons) in one of their ads for $2.50 off Kibbles and Bits dog food.  We decided, hmmm that's a large coupon - let's get a few (or 75) of these.  So we collected numerous Family Dollar ads.  What do you know, the next week Publix put Kibbles and Bits on B1G1 free making them $2.49 each.  Guess how many we got?  Your right!  We did not buy dog food from the time I was 7 months pregnant until Maddie-Grace was 16 months.  That's 1.5 years of free dog food!!!!!!  Currently I have still yet to pay more than $1/bag for dog food thanks to an amazing summer of IAMS and doubling coupons at Publix.  Hoping the future holds another great dog food deal!

 Birthday Fun and how to feel special for many days :)

If your like me, you love your birthday!  But what I love even more on my birthday is eating FREE and eating out!  How can I do it free?

First step: create an email account that you don't really care much about

Second: sign up for Moes, Captain D's, Ruby Tuesday, etc. and you will receive a coupon for a FREE entree!!  

There is literally not a day in the week that we don't eat free on our birthday's.  What we love so much about it, is that we can pick it up and bring it home.  My favorite is the Ruby Tuesday, who doesn't love RT?  You can go in there pick up your hamburger, fill up an entire salad plate to go, and then Alex and I share it.  Such a fun night for us every year!  Since Alex is working on the road now, he loves that I share my fast food birthday treats with him: Moes, Captain D's, etc.  Make sure you sign up!  It's such minimal work and such a fun reward, especially with a little one - MG loved my captain D's this past weekend =)

Can I really get paid to shop online?  Let's be serious...

Yes you can.  EBATES.  I did not know about EBATES a few years ago, but I am sure glad I know now.  Especially around Christmas time.  I do a lot of on-line shopping, so much easier when you have a little one.  EBATES works like this: you log into your EBATES account and then through EBATES website, search for the store your shopping from: Kohls, Disney, Amazon, etc. EBATES will give you a % of what you spend back in cash.  So Disney this week might be 5-12% cash back!  Every quarter EBATES will calculate your savings, if its greater than $5 they will send you a check, if not greater, then they hold the money until the next quarter and re-evaluate.  How do you do it?

Search EBATES for the store your shopping from

See the % cash back

Click the link to shop the store

fill your bag/check out

the store sends EBATES a notification of what you spent

2-3 days your EBATES account will reflect that you spent $ in X store on X date and your cash back amount is XX.

*I am not saying go on-line to just spend $ to get cashback..but if your already purchasing online...go through EBATES!  Plus when you refer a friend...you get an extra $ amount in your bank =)

   

All for now, 

XO

Holly