Marnie’s Coupon Blog

“I’ve dedicated years to getting deals for myself and my family. I love the thrill of the chase and finding ways to get something for less. Check this blog often. I’ll highlight the top coupons, coupon codes and deals. I’m also posting highlights on Twitter throughout the day. Oh and please email me if you have any hot coupon tips!”

- Marnie Moore

Sunday Coupons, and Holiday Deals

We’ve got two inserts this weekend, a SmartSource and a Redplum.  See our list of  list of what’s inside the inserts. Remember, not all coupons are available in all areas.

It looks like the coupon advertisers want to help you get ready for Thanksgiving and holiday baking.  There are coupons for Pet Evaporated Milk ($1/3),and Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk ($1/2) and it looks like there are other baking items as well. You’ll also find coupons for giftable items such as Build a Bear and Coty Fragrances.

Here’s a holiday offer you will like.  Get $10 back when you buy 10 participating Nabisco Crackers.  Remember the coupons you got in the Save $55 throughout the school year booklet, and the 2 rebate forms for $20 each?  Well, here’s another rebate on top of that. Nabisco really wants you to like their crackers!

You only have a few days left to take advantage of Harris Teeter triple coupons.  Lucky you if you are in their area!

And here is a bonus from Right @ Home. There are some great B1G1f and high value coupons right now on Glade products, Windex, and Drano, along with an opportunity to win a $100 Visa Gift card.  They promise that beginning December 6 there will be a 6,000 basket giveaway on baskets filled with products from Ziploc, Glade, and other SC Johnson products.

The Holidays are going to be fun this year, and it’s clear that it will be easy to get in the mood early!  Kmart will be offering a rebate program similiar to CVS ExtraCare Bucks, and Kohls continues to have success with Kohl’s cash.  In fact, Safeway stores are currently offering $10 Kohl’s rewards at checkout for every $50 you spend.  You only have till November 8 to score those, and you can only redeem them for a limited time.  Finding all these great deals that can double up and triple up for great savings is part of the holiday fun!

See our page of past insert lists here.

Pay Attention at the Check Out Counter

Are you carefully clipping those coupons and matching them to the sales but then forgetting to follow up at the check out counter? You could be losing money. Here is why.

Many stores utilize a bonus card or club card for their store. You can’t get the sale or discounted price unless you have this card. The problem is that sometimes the cashiers are so busy that they forget to scan the card during your order. This means that you won’t get the sales price and instead, you will have to pay the full regular price. Always make sure your cashier scans your card. You can even assign this job to a child or another member of your family, so you can get busy loading the belt or getting your coupons out.

If cashiers forget to scan cards, they also forget to scan coupons. Sometimes they forget to scan all of your coupons, and sometimes they only forget to scan a few. Either way, you are out some cash. Since it is easy for the cashier to get distracted, I usually tell them I have coupons and then hand the coupons over after all of my items have been scanned. This way, the cashier has the coupons in hand when he or she is ready to scan them. And, I can watch the screen as the money comes off for each coupon.

Finally, here is an error that isn’t the cashier’s fault. Just because an item is on sale, doesn’t mean that the scanner will record the sale price. Many items scan in at full price, even if they are advertised on sale. When this happens, you are often entitled to a cash bonus in addition to having the price corrected. Usually the bonus is to simply get the item for free, or it can be up to an additional $5 back. This all depends on the store policy and the state law.

Entertaining on a Budget

Okay, now that we are into November, I am starting to panic. There will be a whole host of gatherings at my house starting with the big one on Thanksgiving. I don’t even know how to brine a turkey, but I guess I’ll just have to learn. One thing I do know, though, is how to save money. You bet that I am going to apply that knowledge this year to save as much as I can with entertaining.

Here is what I plan on doing.

I think food will be my biggest expense. To save money on groceries, I’ve been gathering the coupons for some of the special foods that we will need for the holidays. Our local grocery store offers a free turkey with points, and with a family of five, I should be making enough purchases there to qualify. Anything that is non perishable can be picked up as soon as a good sale comes along.

I’ll also be combining coupons and sales, and then stacking the coupons when I can.
This strategy also applies to cleaning products. I will definitely be stepping up the cleaning for company. Generic cleaners and home made cleaners (such as vinegar and water to wash windows) will save a bunch of money.

For some affairs, I can get away with hosting a pot luck. This will cut down on the food costs, and we will all get the benefit of everyone’s favorite dishes!
When I provide all of the food myself, it is often cheaper to make it all from scratch or at least assemble it myself. For example, instead of buying a cut fruit platter, I will buy the fruit whole and cut it.

For music, I already have a bunch of holiday music on my iPod, but I’ll still be looking out for more. Amazon often offers free music downloads. Napster is offering a free trial of downloads, too. There are also a number of online sources for streaming holiday music, such as http://www.accuradio.com/holidays/

Did you know that you can often save on wine and alcohol when you go almost to the source. Large distributors often sell to the public. Local shops may also have some great recommendations on less pricey but excellent wine and other beverages.

Do you have any other tips for saving money when you entertain?

Target Matchups - Free Cereal and More

Did you know that you can stack coupons at Target to receive extra savings?  Use Target’s printable coupons, or the ones they have in the newspaper, and then use manufacturer coupons on the same item.  You will receive extra savings.  If Target has a sale, so much the better for you!

Here’s a great matchup:

This week Target has a great sale on Kellogg’s cereals.  They’re on sale for $2.66 each. Buy any three boxes, get a fourth one free.   Print as many as you can - usually you are allowed 2 prints of each coupon. Try to get four of these.  Then combine them with these manufacturer coupons:  $1, $1/2, .75 on Coupons.com, Redplum.com, and Kelloggs.com.

You could get these four boxes for FREE.  Wow.

Target also has an incentive for you to buy the higher priced items that were featured in this week’s P&G Brandsaver insert.  Purchase any 2 of the following items, get a $5 Target gift card.  Use these coupon matchups for extra savings:

Swiffer WetJet Starter Kit $18.99

Cheer $14.99
- $1 RP 10/18

Gain $14.99

Charmin $14.99
- $1/2  P&G 11/1 or SS 9/20

Bounty $14.99
- $1/2 P&G 11/1

Gillette Fusion Manual or Venus Embrace Razor $7.99

Bounce Dryer Sheets $8.99
- .50 P&G 11/1

Downy Liquid $8.99
- .40 P&G 11/1
- .50 P&G 10/11

Puffs $8.99
- .25 P&G 11/1

This week in Target coupons, you will also find discounts on Archer Farms deli meat, bread, and bakery products, and $1 off 2 pounds or more of bulk apples.  Just in time for fall apple pie!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of Coupons.com’s great features now.  The best deal for families that use diapers is the Huggies $2 coupon on any size.  ANY SIZE!  That is rare.  Print your maximum on these.

My Toys R Us, Kohls and Marshall’s Trip

Sunday was one of those big errand days for me. We try to combine errands so we aren’t going out every week shopping. We had some gift cards to use up and a few groceries to get, so we left on our mission right after church.

I wanted to check out the Disney Store for Halloween costumes. I love their costumes because they are usually so well made. I try to hit that store as well as several others to stock up on Halloween costumes for the kids in bigger sizes. Not only can they use them for Halloween, but they can also use them to play dress up.

I didn’t actually make it to the Disney Store because we spent so much time at Toys R us. They had their costumes already marked down to 75% off! This was a good deal, and they did carry some of the favorite kids characters, such as the Little Mermaid, Star Wars Darth Vasder and Storm Trooper, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. They also had some generic costumes, as well. I saw a lot left over for little ones, especially. The costumes ranged from $3 to $10 after the discount.

Toys R Us also has a lot of deals that gave you free items, from gift cards when you buy Disney movies, to a free Crayola anniversary tin set when you buy Crayola products and a free Spongebob Squarepants game when you bought two other games. A large, nice plush dog was available for only $4.99 when you spent $50.

Another good deal that I picked up for my daughter was the Barbie and the Three Musketeers DVD for only $9.99. This is the newest Barbie DVD, so finding it for that price was pretty good.

Select Lego (and other building blocks) sets were on sale as well, and they are always a sure things with kids. The sets averaged about $5 off, when it is rare to find any sale on Legos, Duplos or Mega Bloks. The Lego Website does have a few other deals going on, including a free shipping deal.

Next, I went to Marshall’s Homegoods store. I usually find good deals there. In fact, I picked up the same tablecloth I later saw at Kohls for much less! The real deal at the Homegoods store were the Halloween costumes again. They had plush, PLUSH! animal costumes for only $2 in sizes up to 5T. I picked up a monkey and a beaver. They were warm and thick.

My last bargain hunting stop was at Kohls. They had a lot of stuff for the home on sale, such as 60 percent off of table linens. Thanksgiving and Christmas seasonal themes were already marked down. It just turned November, didn’t it?

Did you do any shopping this weekend? If so, what deals did you find?

Black Friday Starts Early

This is an exciting weekend for Frugalisters.  You’ll find tons of coupon matchups and great deals in the newspaper.  Our usual list of coupons in these Sunday inserts is here. Take a look at the P&G Brandsaver insert, and see if your store is offering the deal of free cookware for $25 in P&G products purchased in a single transaction.  This is a very good deal.

We’ll be linking in future blogs to expert bloggers who specialize in particular regional stores - the better to increase your matchups and give you more information.

If you think that Christmas shopping has started early, you are right.  The traditional start to the Christmas shopping season, the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend, has been moved back a month! This weekend begins the Black Friday Now promotion at Sears. You’ll be seeing different specials throughout the season, so be sure to check back every day.

Walmart is announcing “tis the season for unbeatable prices”.  Their local flyers are full of great deals on electronics.  Remember those $800 wide screen tvs people waited outside the store all night for?  Well, those tvs are a lot cheaper now.  Look to see great deals on electronics this year, and shop wisely.  Walmart also announces that they will match the price of any local competitor’s printed ad for an identical product.

Walmart has also announced that any websites that get a copy of their official Black Friday ad cannot publish it before November 23.  So, we may not have so much Walmart info on the web as Black Friday approaches.  That just builds the anticipation - if the deals are this good now, what will they be during the traditional season?

CVS has a new booklet out Sunday called “Season to Save”.  There are $35 in ECBs (Extra Care Bucks) included.  It lasts until November 25.  It will be interesting to see what CVS rolls out for the traditional season after November 25.

This two tiered approach to introducing savings may turn out to be profitable for retailers, sensible for consumers, and spread the savings among those who simply are not going to go shopping at 4 am on a Friday morning.

Halloween and Fall Freebie Fun

Whether you celebrate Halloween or just the season of fall, there are plenty of freebies and fun Internet activities out there to keep you occupied at zero cost. Here are some of my favorites.

The Toy Maker Halloween Town

The Toy Maker is a little known web site that is really one of those gems on the Internet. The artist created all sorts of paper toys that can be printed out and put together. These toys are ingenious in their design and just lovely with their colors. Last year I printed out the Ghost Show for the kids in my son’s class. There are cards, treat bags, a candy corn box, a dancing skeleton and more.

Pumpkin Carving Templates

Getting a great looking carved pumpkin isn’t as hard as it looks when you follow a pre-made template. Templates are wonderful for someone like me who always creates jack o lanterns that always look like the sphinx, since inevitably a nose or something accidentally gets carved off.

Family Fun is offering a bunch of free pumpkin carving patterns, as well as some unique carving ideas such as the Marshmallow man Jack-o-Lantern. Check out the Tiki pumpkin carving pattern.

DLTK offers plenty of whimsical and non-scary patterns to carve. They even have a pumpkin carving pattern for Scooby-Do and one for Blue from Blue’s Clues!

Ben & Jerry’s Halloween

The scrolling Halloween scene offers plenty of fun. You can visit the flavor graveyard, do some virtual pumpkin carving, look up recipes, print out games, and play virtual games such as the Undead Smackdown (It is all about the zombies, isn’t it?).

Halloween Coloring Pages

There are so many Halloween coloring pages out there, that you are sure to find something to keep the kids occupied, no matter what their ages. We usually go trick-or-treating with other friends in a group. I like to keep some of these around for when kids are getting into costumes before going out. It keeps the ones that already have their costumes on busy so we can get the rest of them dressed.

http://www.raisingourkids.com/hol/halloween/freehalloweencoloringpages.shtml
http://www.coloring.ws/halloween.html
http://www.landolakes.com/halloween2008/Free-Halloween-Coloring-Pages.cfm
(Pick up coupons while you are at Land O Lakes under the promotions tab! http://www.landolakes.com/promotions/)
http://www.hersheys.com/trickortreats/activities/coloring.asp
http://holidays.kaboose.com/halloween-color.html

If you need a last minute costume, check out the Disney store. They have a deal going on for 50% off costumes!

Facebook - Fun and Frugal

Facebook isn’t just for connecting with friends and playing games anymore.  It’s becoming more and more a place to become a “fan” of certain products and companies - and for them to test their online market.  Have you noticed lately that more restaurants, and couponed products want you to become a fan?  They want to see how many people they can get to sign up as fans in a limited amount of time, how many people register for a freebie, a giveaway, or a coupon.

It’s frugal fun!

And it’s relatively cheap for companies who sponsor the promotions.  What better way to gain online visibility for an ad campaign and collect email data about the people who use the product - all while those very people are “sharing” the promo with others?

A few months ago, Starbucks had a promotion for a free pint of ice cream.  You signed up on facebook to send the coupon for ice cream to someone else!  What a neat way to get friends who don’t understand what you are doing with all those coupons to see a sweet value.

Recently I got a free coupon in my email for free Edible Arrangements chocolate dipped fruit.  This is a $15 value, a six pack of chocolate dipped fruit - promoted on Facebook.  The promotion is over, but a $5 coupon is now offered at the link.

Get a free Nature Valley Nut Clusters Sample clicking the link on this page. You can also enter for a chance to win a trip to the 2009 Birds of Prey ski race.

Muir Glen Organic tomatoes have a $1 coupon on this Facebook page.  Print the coupon, and they will donate to the Chefs Collaborative which promotes sustainable farming.

You can connect with promotions for Little Debbie here.  They had a giveaway of their chocolate cakes which is ended now, but by signing up on Facebook, you will hear of more promotions.

TGI Fridays Facebook page has a link for their Give Me More Stripes Program, where you can earn incentives for free food and drink.  You can also find out more about what is happening at this popular restaurant chain.

Facebook is becoming more and more a way for people to connect - and you will connect with the savings and opportunities.

Coupon Matchups - Anyone with a Deal to Share?

There are two Sunday coupon inserts this weekend, a SmartSource and a RedPlum.  They are chock full of good deals.  I like having $1 coupons for Wholly Guacamole products, Progresso, and Colgate.  There’s a 50 cent Betty Crocker frosting coupon which will add up to big savings on double coupon days.  And cat lovers, there are coupons for Science Diet from PETSMART and there are also 9 lives coupons.  See the whole list here.

There have been some great matchups lately at Walgreens and CVS for sale items.  I’ve enjoyed the deals for Glade candles - at CVS there was a 6.99 ECB this week for the Fragrance Diffuser or Soy candle - with the coupon that came to half price (All you or Printable) and then there is a $5 SC Johnson rebate for buying three products which include the Glade candles.  It’s a super deal.

Walgreens will have a great opportunity for you to stock up on Dove Conditioner next week.  It is B1G1F at 2/$ 4.99.  Buy 8 and get a $10 register reward.  Now this is why you want extra inserts and to clip everything usable.  On Oct 4, there was a $ 1.50 coupon in RedPlum.  If you clipped multiples of that you could buy 8 of these with 8 coupons.  You would buy eight for $20, use eight coupons for a total of $12, and you would spend $8 out of pocket and get a $10 register reward.  YOU GET BACK MORE THAN YOU PAID, and you also get 8 bottles of conditioner.

Do you have a matchup story that you would like to share?  Let me know.  We have a forum section where you can post your great shopping story!

Holiday Shopping and Printable Store Coupons!

While I love having all of those printable grocery coupons so I can save money at the grocery store, I am so excited to be finding printable coupons for some of my favorite retail stores.

I am already doing some of my holiday shopping. Last night, after we dropped my eldest off at a church activity, we headed to TARGET. I was excited to find some things on sale, and I picked them up to put away for holiday gifts.

There were those magic stretch gloves on sale: two pairs for only $1. They also had hats for $1 as well. A friend of mine got a bunch to give away as a charity project she is doing at work. What a great idea! I also saw a bunch of holiday DVDs on sale.

There was the “Polar Express” (with an additional 3D disk), “Miracle on 34th Street” and “The Tale of Desperaeux,” along with some others. Girls underwear, boys PJs and socks were also good deals.

But enough about this one store. Let us get to those printable store coupons. I plan on printing every one and keeping them with me in my purse as I am out and about. You never know when you might be near a store anyway for something or other.

My friend, Laura just sent me this great SEARS coupon that she got in her email box. You can print it out for $5 off of a $20 toy purchase. This is a great way to get a jump start on the holidays. Here is an extra tip, some stores might still have some summer stuff on clearance, so check well, and you might really clean up with this coupon.

For me, I think it really sets the atmosphere to have a teddy bear under the Christmas tree as a gift or on the fireplace mantle for decoration. Here is an amazing printable coupon for Build-A-Bear. You can get $5 off of a $10 animal! Part of the fun is actually building the bear. I can see printing a bunch of these coupons for all of the little ones in the neighborhood.

I spotted this one over at Common Sense with Money.

Another friend, Carol, sent me this coupon for 15% off at Kohls! The coupon says that it is good on everything, and you can use it multiple times during the shopping period that started yesterday and ends after the 27th. Scoop up all of those holiday linens that are already on clearance, the small appliances, the kids clothes and other great bargains that they have in the store right now.

Happy (Holiday) Shopping!

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