Updates!

Hello all! I have been so busy with the Holiday that I have not had time to finish my new posts. I apologize for my lack of posting. I do have some new posts in the works that just need some fine tuning and fact checking, I like to make sure the information I share with you is accurate. These will be out sometime this week.

 I had some people say that they were having trouble leaving comments because they did not have an account, I changed the setting and you can leave a comment anonymously now.

I want to hear from you! How did your Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday shopping go? Get any spectacular deals? Please leave a comment and let me know what great deals you got!

Happy Couponing! : )

Shopping Local- Part 2, The Pledge

Independently owned businesses offer some great features that you will cannot find in box stores or online. They offer a one-on-one shopping experience, high quality goods, American made, Hard to find items and more. Supporting your local businesses ensures that your money is going back into your local economy to better your city or town.

The city I live in started participating in The 3/50 project, which can also be found in many other cities. The basic idea is to spend $50 across 3 independently owned businesses each month. For every $100 spent in independently owned businesses, $68 returns to the local economy through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays local and when you spend online nothing comes home.

I decided to take a break from looking over my coupons and sale fliers and took my daughter for a walk through our local downtown. My goal was to see what my downtown offered for goods and services and to see how I could save money by shopping local, here is what I found:

1. It was so nice to be able to walk from one store to another, get some fresh air, and have a lot of different items in each store that I know I wouldn't find at Walmart or the like.
2. I met the owners of each business. They were all very friendly and willing to help me in anyway they could. The customer service just goes above and beyond anything I have experienced in big box stores. Every employee had extensive knowledge on the products they sold.
3. The products were high quality, well made, and most were made in America.
4. EVERY store was having a sale! These businesses understand that the economy is not in the greatest place and they want to help their customers in anyway they can.
5. All of them offered mailing lists either snail mail or e-mail. Sign up for all of them, they will send you a notice when they are having sales.

With the holidays here most of these stores will be offering sales. For one example in my downtown area I visited a children's clothing store, Lakins, all of the clothing was American made, the fabrics were high quality, the detail work was just beautiful, and there were sections of 20%, 50%, and 75% off! You can get some of the most gorgeous dresses and suits for the holidays around $30, that is an awesome deal! If there is a store near you that has some items you want to purchase but are out of your price range ask an employee if there are any sales coming up and let them know that you are interested in buying items but they are out of your price range. They will usually be understanding and want to get your businesses so they can let you know when the sale is and you can go back!


I have decided to make a pledge to shop downtown first for the rest of my holiday shopping before heading to any big box stores. I would love to see you make this pledge too! If you are willing to shop independently owned businesses first before heading to a big box store please leave a comment below and let everyone know that you will do your part to save the independent businesses!

For more information on the 3/50 Project you can visit the links below:

http://www.the350project.net
https://www.facebook.com/The350Project

Gardner Square Two Inc. has a list of participating stores in the area for my local readers:
http://gardnersquaretwo.com/members/member-list/

I hope that we can all try and remember the local businesses. If we keep forgetting about them, they wont be there anymore.

Happy Couponing! : )

Giveaway! His and Her's Razors.

Welcome to my second giveaway! I have 2 prizes this time going to 2 lucky readers! 

His Prize                      Her Prize

Follow the instructions below to earn entries. Contest closes Sunday, 9/18/12, at Midnight. 2 winners will be picked at random and announced on Monday! Good Luck everyone!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Coupon 101: BJ's Coupons

I have heard people who swear by BJ's prices, that they are getting a better deal. I have always been skeptical so I really only used my membership for gas, random items here and there, or if I was having a get together and needed a lot of food. I was recently looking over my new coupon book that came in and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if I could use these high value coupons to buy items at retail stores that were smaller quantities and less in price?"

So I started calling around to the stores near me and I asked if they would accept BJ's coupons? The answer I got was, as long as they carry the item listed it should be no problem. I called around just in my city I found that Walmart and Price Chopper took the BJ's coupons. If you have different stores in your area give them a call and see if they will accept them. 

SO! I started looking through my coupons to find ones that said something along the lines of "$3.00 off any Arm &  Hammer Liquid Detergent." Where it does not specify a certain size that the bottle would have to be I will be able to use it on a smaller bottle but pay nothing or close to nothing for it. 

I usually buy a big ol' bucket of Arm & Hammer powder detergent at BJ's. I use a BJ's coupon for $4.00 off and always get it for $15. The bucket says it will do 220 loads. There is a coupon out right now in the BJ's Journal that says, "$3.00 off any Arm &  Hammer Liquid Detergent." You can buy a small bottle at Walmart that does 32 loads for $3.97, with my coupon that is $0.97!! So I did some math and figured out that if I bought 7 of these bottles at $0.97 ea I would get 224 loads for $6.79! That is a savings of $8.21!! 

After I figured this out I got rather excited and started really pawing through my coupons to see what else I could get for free. I ended up going last night and here is what I got:

I gave the Cetaphil to a friend.

Softsoap Hand Soap:       $1.47
Cetaphil Bar of Soap:       $3.47
Oral-B Toothbrush:          $1.50

All Detergent (32 loads):  $4.97
Total:                               $11.41

Q for Hand soap:           -$1.50
Q for Cetaphil:               -$3.50
Q for toothbrush:           -$2.00
Q for detergent:             -$4.00
_____________________________
Total After Q (coupons):   $0.44 (w/tax)!!!!!

If you are looking for extra coupons there are a couple of different way to get them; Go to BJ's and ask for extras. I think they only hand out one at a time but if you are able to make a couple of trips you could get multiple books. Ask your friends and family if they would not be using certain coupons and start swapping. You can buy the books on Ebay, I have read in a lot of different forums that people feel they are getting a better deal by buying them online rather than paying for the membership. The membership is $50 a year so if you just got it for the coupons it would be $4.16 per book and you have the perks of being able to go in the store and get more books instead of buying more. Also you can use the membership to buy gas or other items in the store.

I am so excited to keep seeing what good deals I can get!! Let me know what deals you score!

Happy Couponing! : )

Shopping at Toy R Us

Toys R Us is offering 2 specials for holiday shopping, 1) Buy $75 in-store and get a $10 gift card or 2) Spend $100 online, *on participating items*, and get 20% off plus free shipping!
A great way to work this deal: Look up the toys you would be buying online and see which ones qualify for the 20% off online and mark them down, I usually add them to my cart so they are there when I get back. Now go to the store and buy any other items that do not qualify for the online discount, spend $75 get $10. Remember Toys R Us is price matching when you shop in the store, click here for details, so make sure to compare other stores prices before you go. Go home and order the items you left in your cart, get 20% off plus use your gift card to get another $10 off.

WAIT IT GETS BETTER!! Pair it up with Ebates and get 1% CB (Cash back), The other day it was up to 8% CB so watch it because it could change from day to day. So here is a quick break down of how this could go and how much money your could save:

Shop in Store:                           $75.00
Shop Online:                             $100.00
Total:                                        $175.00

20% off online:                         -$20.00
Gift Card:                                 -$10.00
1% CB on online total ($70):    -$.70

Total for $175 worth of items:   $144.30 (Savings of $30.70)


Another couple of ways to save is to use your Toys R Us card, or open one if you feel comfortable with doing so. You will earn 10% CB  on all your purchases, details here. They are also offering free pick up in store, when available, on your online purchases. So you can buy online through Ebates to get CB and then pick up in the store and not pay for shipping, details here. Last but not least, they are offering free layaway if you want the option of paying for it over time, details here.

Let me know of any good deals you get!!

Happy Couponing! : )

Toy-A-Day Giveaway

Right now Mattel is doing a Toy-A-Day Giveaway. You can enter once everyday for a new toy and you will be entered to win a $500 shopping spree! Whoo-hoo!

When it comes to contests and sweepstakes I usually send myself an e-mail with the link and everyday I go into my e-mail and I have the link right there. If you are not good at remembering to look for it try setting a reminder on your phone to enter the contest everyday until it ends.

Click here to enter. If you win something let everyone know here!

Happy Couponing!

DEAL! P&G Coupon Booklet

You can get your own P&G coupon booklet FREE! Click here to get yours!

Big Thanks to www.savingandmore.com for posting this on her site!

Happy couponing! : )

Shopping Local- Part 1

With Thanksgiving around the corner and Christmas on the horizon my brain has been locked on one thing, shopping. I have posted a lot about online shopping, we have talked a little bit about shopping at big box stores, and great daily deals have been posted. 

There is something that I feel should be addressed, though, and that is shopping locally. I would love to hear from you, my readers, how you feel about shopping locally. Here are some of the questions I am asking:

• What are some of the reasons you do or don't? 
• What do you feel are the pros and cons? 
• Do you currently shop locally or have you ever?
• If you don't, what would have to change to make you start?

I am looking for your feelings on this topic because I am in the process of writing a piece on shopping locally and want to know how you feel about local businesses or what things you wish to see change. I hope to hear from a lot of you so that I may share whatever knowledge I can with all of you.

Thank you in advance for your input! Happy Couponing! : )

Free AEROSMITH Concert!

Monday November, 5th Aerosmith will be on the streets of Boston to perform a Pre-Election day concert!

The band will be performing at 1325 Commonwealth Ave. (Comm Ave.) where their old apartment used to be around noon time! I got the details from my local radio station WXLO check it out for more details. Check it out, it's Free!

Happy Couponing! : )

Free Oil, Gas, and Electricity?

With cold weather and Christmas on the horizon now is a great time to start shopping and earning yourself free Oil, Propane, or Electricity to keep you and your wallet happy. 


There is a website www.neighboroil.com which started a rewards program, similar to Stop & Shop gas reward points, that rewards you with free oil when you shop online. They have also recently expanded to include Gas and Electricity.

The basis of the program works a lot like Ebates where retailers partner up with the company and offer you a certain reward value. With Neighbor Oil each retailer offers points instead of cash back so, for example, PBS.org offers 1 Point for every $1.76 spent in their store. They have a lot of different retailers to choose from so take a look around to see who offers the best point to $ spent ratio. They are working on a program so that you can shop in store and earn points but it is not available just yet.

Are you not totally sold yet? Well there are other ways you can earn points. After you create your free account you will receive 10 points! Hey, that was easy! After that, you can download the  Neighbor Oil toolbar. This is basically the same thing as the Ebates toolbar, when you are on a site that is partnered with Neighbor Oil it will notify you there are points available to earn. For installing the toolbar you will get 10 points. Share the current oil price near you on your Facebook and you will earn 10 points! Right now they are holding a promotion; for every friend you invite and registers you will earn 10 points!

*WARNING* In case you had the same thought process I did I wanted to warn you that you cannot combine Ebates CB (cash back) with Neighbor Oil points. I tried to have both toolbars installed and went to the Wal-mart site (as it is partnered with both) to see what would happen. One toolbar cancels out the other, so you can only use either CB or points.

Neighbor Oil also lets you use your points towards propane purchases as well. I have oil, so I am not up on the propane end of the site. There is a sister site www.neighborpower.com that allows you to shop online AND in stores to save money on your electric bill. When you sign up you automatically get $3.00 in credit. You can register your store cards and add offers to your account that will earn you cash credits when you buy them and scan your registered store card!

Christmas, Birthday, or everyday shopping these sites can help you cut down your bills! I will leave you with a quote from Kathy Spencer, "More money isn't the answer. Saving money is."

Are you already using Neighbor Oil or Power? Let me know the best deal you have gotten on a fill up!