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Friday, April 30, 2010

Current Free Samples

Here's a quick list of current free sample floating around the interwebs. Either Shanna or I have tried every single one so they should all be legitimate.

Free Bounty Sample for Sam's Club Members
Free Sample John Frieda Root Awakening
Free Sample of Renu Contact Solution
Free Cacique Panties at Lane Bryant
Free Sample of Breathe Right Strips
Free Sample of Lacoste Cologne or Perfume
Free Sample of Eucerin Lotion
Free Sample of Pantene Pro-V through Sam's
Free Sample of Orville Redenbacher Popcorn

Elizabeth's Kroger Trip 4/29/2010



So I also went to Kroger last night. This was the first time I've couponed at a grocery store. I've been sticking to Walgreens, CVS and Target, and while I did not know exactly how the couponing would work here (what would double triple, etc) I decided to just buy the list and see what happened.

Here's the loot:

$1.00 - Green Giant Frozen Boxed Vegetables
$1.00 - Green Giant Frozen Boxed Vegetables
$1.00 - Country Crock Margarine
$2.00 - Dannon Activia Yogurt 4-pack
$1.34 - Fage Yogurt with honey
$1.00 - Pillsbury Grands Biscuits
$1.00 - Pillsbury Grands Biscuits
$1.00 - Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta
$1.00 - Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta
$1.00 - Hunt's Manwich
$1.00 - Hunt's Manwich
$1.00 - Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli
$1.00 - Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli
$1.25 - McCormick Grill Mates Seasoning
$1.25 - McCormick Grill Mates Seasoning
$1.00 - Tabasco Hot Sauce
$2.00 - Lady Speed Stick Deodorant (this was supposed to be $1, I must have taken the wrong one)
$1.00 - SoBe Water
$1.00 - SoBe Water
$1.59 - Mission Tortillas
$2.99 - Mirra Makeup Brush
$2.99 - Mirra Makeup Brush

$29.41 - Total before tax and coupons

Coupons (remember that Kroger triples coupons up to $0.39 and doubles up to $0.50 excluding cellfire coupons):
$5/2 (this means $5 off the purchase of 2) Mirra Makeup Coupon (this made them $0.98 for the pair)
$0.50/2 Green Giant Boxed Vegetables (from Cellfire loaded onto my Kroger Card)
$0.50/2 Green Giant Boxed Vegetables printable (these two together with this one doubled made the veggies $0.25 each)
$0.40/1 Country Crock printable (made the country crock $0.20)
$1.00/1 Dannon Activia Yogurt (this was just a coupon Shanna found at a store somewhere which made the yogurt $1.00 for the 4-pack)
$0.50/1 Fage Yogurt printable (made the yogurt $0.34)
$0.30/2 Pillsbury Grands Biscuits (made the biscuits $0.55 each)
$1.00/1 Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta (I honestly can't remember where I got this coupon but it looked like a magazine cutout and the only magazine I have is the All You mag, but it made the pasta free)
$0.75/1 Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta printable (made this pasta $0.25)
$1.50/4 ConAgra Products printable (2 manwich and 2 chef boyardee - made them $0.63 each)
$0.50/1 McCormick Grill Mates printable (made this free)
$0.50/1 McCormick Grill Mates printable (made this free)
$0.50/1 Tabasco printable (makes it free)
$0.50/1 Speed Stick Deodorant from 4/25 Smart Source Insert (made the deodorant $1.00 - again I bought the wrong one, this was supposed to be free)
B1G1 Free SoBe printable
$1.00/2 SoBe Kroger eCoupon (these two together made the 2 SoBe's free)
$0.75/1 Mission Tortilla printable (made the tortillas $0.84)

Total after tax and coupons - $10.13
Savings of 78%

Although I expected to pay under $5 for all of these items, I'd say $10 isn't too shabby.





Shanna Kroger Trip 4/29


Well I went to Kroger today with a great list of things to buy and coupons in hand. When I got there it was packed from everyone getting off from work and I got a little overwhelmed and didn't end up getting my whole list. I did ok, though. Went home and had free frozen vegetables and cheap yogurt for dinner. Not bad!

Total Spent: $1.20

Green Giant Frozen Vegetables - Cost $1
= Free

Mennen or Lady Speed Stick Deodorant, 1.4 – 2 oz $1
- 50¢/1 Speed Stick Antiperspirant/Deodorant Coupon (4/25 SS, SmartSource)
=
Free

Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta $1
- $1/1 Ronzoni Smart Taste Coupon (Parents or Family Fun Magazine – April Issue; or Everyday with Rachael Ray or Everday Food Magazine – May Issue) OR
-
Printable Coupon orPrintable Coupon
=
Free

Tabasco Hot Sauce 2 oz at $1 ea
-.50/1 off Tabasco Pepper Sauce SS 4/25 printable
= Free

Dannon Yogurt 5/$2.00
-.40 off Coupon (4/25 SS)
=.24 each


Thursday, April 29, 2010

Our First Post

Welcome to our new blog, and for that matter, our first post! I can't remember exactly how Shanna and I turned into these deal obsessed maniacs so quickly, but I blame Google reader and our jobs. We have been "couponing" for three weeks now and it's crazy exciting, however lame that may sound. We know there is already an overage of couponing/deal seeking blogs out there, but we thought we'd make our own nonetheless. Even if it is only our family and friends that read it, maybe we can help a few people save some money with our limited knowledge. So the plan is to post the most exciting coupons, freebies, etc. here that we see on other blogs basically. There is no reason to spend all of our time figuring out the great deals ourselves when someone else has already done it. Just so you know, the stores we are most interested in are CVS, Walgreens, Target, Walmart and Kroger. No other grocery stores will make it on our list unless there is a really great deal there. It's just too much trouble to go all over town for a few items.

So there it is folks. That's our story. Just for fun, below is a picture of 1 day's worth of shopping for Shanna. If you can believe it, she only spent around $3.50 OOP (out of pocket - gotta start using acronyms now) after ECB's (CVS' Extra Care Bucks), RR's (Walgreen's Register Rewards) and MIR's (mail in rebates). So we're not necessarily saying that she only forked over $3.50 today, but once everything is accounted for, she did. P.S. Things like ECB's and RR's will be explained in more detail ASAP.


Pretty impressive huh? And this has been totally normal for us. We've only done one transaction so far that we were less than impressed with and it was our own fault for not doing some research first.

Now you might also be thinking - seriously girls, do you really need this stuff? Heck no, we don't need half of it! But if something is TOTALLY free, we buy it anyway. We can always give it to charity or friends. It seems crazy not to buy it if it's something simple like soap or deodorant. At least that's what we tell ourselves.

Signing off for now!