artofthecoupon.com

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Keybank is giving away a free Garmin nuvi GPS if you open a bank account and make one debit card transaction plus a combination of two direct deposits and/or automated payments each of $100 or more.  I like this offer because it doesn’t require a direct deposit, since I don’t like to switch my paycheck around to different banks.  Its pretty easy to set up and cancel an automated payment after I get the GPS, and the GPS looks pretty nice.

FYI- You will get a tax form at the end of the year with the value of the GPS on it.

Here are a few things on my shopping list this upcoming week:

At CVS, you can get $4 in ECB for purchasing the Schick Quattro for Women razor with 2 cartridges or trimmer.  The Razor is $8.99 and there was  $4.00 coupon in the 4/26 Smart Source, so the razor ends up being .99.  The limit on these is 5.  Extrabucks role, unlike at Walgreens where Register Rewards don’t.  So, you can buy 1 razor, get the Extrabucks, and use those extrabucks to buy another razor.

Also at CVS, you get $2 in ECB for purcashing the 4 count box of Bayer Quick release crystals.  The product is $2, so the item is free after ECB’s.  There are coupons available on tearpads at CVS for $1 off this product.  The limit on this is 1.

Finally, you get $5 in ECB for purchasing the Bayer/Ascensia Contour Diabetes Monitor this week.  The emter is $14.99 but there was a coupon for up to $30.00 off (in the 3/22 Smart Source, the 10/26 Valassis, and the 2/1 Valassis).  Use the coupon, pay $0 and get $5 back.

Best scenario for newbies with no ECB’s:

• Buy 1 contour. Pay $0. Get $5
• Buy 1 razor and 1 Bayer for $10.99.  Use a $4 Razor coupon, a $1 Bayer Coupon, and your $5 ECB.  Pay about $1.  Get $4.00 and $2.00
• Buy 1 razor.  Use a $4.00 coupon.  Pay about .99.  Get back $4.00 Repeat.

Inspired by the delightful quizes I used to partake in in Seventeen Magazine back in the day (and which I think still adorn the pages of Cosmo and other magazines I am too cheap to buy) I bring you the Are You a True Blue Coupon Shopper quiz.  Enjoy. (more…)

When shopping online or buying anything online, you should never ever click the Purchase button without doing a quick search to see if there is a coupon available.  Unlike paper coupons for brick and mortar stores, which some people find a hassle to cut, find, store, carry with them, and remember to use, there is almost no excuse for not using an online coupon.  All you need to do is copy the coupon code into the relevant box on the website, and you could get yourself free shipping, save yourself a percentage off the purchase price, earn a free sample, or get yourself any number of discounts.  Of course, the key is finding a good place to look for these online coupon codes, so you never miss anything and so you are using the coupon that benefits you the most.  To that end, I’m reviewing Coupon Chief, a site that claims to be one of the fastest growing coupon sites, with over 200,000 visitors/month and over 40,000 coupons for use in over 8000 stores, giving them one of the largest databases of online coupons on the net. (more…)

For those of you, like me, who do Walgreens Easy Saver rebate- this is the end of that free ride.  Walgreens has officially discountinued the rebate books, having switched entirely to a system of Register Rewards.  This is bad, bad news!  The Walgreens Easy Saver Rebate program alowed shoppers to get a 10% bonus for putting the money on Walgreens gift cards- this nice little bonus covered tax on the free items plus a little extra, which reduced the amount of money spent at Walgreens by a lot (since, for free items, most people only pay tax).  The program always allowed you to convert register rewards to gift cards by buying rebate items- a very useful thing to do since RR’s expire in two weeks, don’t roll (i.e. you can’t use a RR to buy another item that generates that same RR) and can’t be used to pay for tax.  All of these factors, plus the fact that you have to make sure you have as many items as RR’s, plus the resistance some people find towards RR’s from the staff and managers at the stores, all add up to suggest that shopping at Wags may become more of a chore than a pleasure.

To go along with the poem, A Law Students Lament, that I wrote a few months ago, I decided to write a Couponers Creed.  So, here it is, I hope you enjoy: (more…)

I read this post the other day over at The Simple Dollar in which Trent explained a situation at Target where another customer had to spend twenty minutes with the cashiers and manager to get $10 taken off her order because she had a raincheck.  Trent pointed out that her decision to spend the 20 minutes meant that she valued her time at, at most, $30 an hour and that he wouldn’t have spent the 20 minutes.  I, on the other hand, take the complete opposite position- not only would I have argued for the $20, but I have spent time (not 20 minutes, but definitely 5 minutes, arguing for a $2 coupon or even a $1 coupon).  (more…)

I just went and used some Register Rewards to get some free hair ties, Fibersure, and Toothbrushes.  The deals are pretty simple:

• The Colgate max White or Max Fresh Toothbrush is $3.29 with $3.29 back in Register Rewards.  There is a printable $1 coupon here if you click Sign Up now which actually makes this a moneymaker
• The 18 pack of Scunci Elastics is on sale for $2 with $2 back in Register Rewards
• 10 count Fiber Choice is on sale for $2.49 with $2.49 back in Register Rewards

I purchased the Scunci first for $2.00. I then used that $2.00 register reward to purchase the Fiber Choice, and paid .49 and got back $2.50.  I then used the $2.50 register reward plus the coupon to get the toothbrush, buying a .15 clearance breath freshner so I would be able to use both.  Then, use the $3.30 register reward to get the $2.49 Fiber Choice and a .50 “filler.”  My “filler” was the Big rolls of toilet paper on sale for .50 with the coupon in the ad.  Use the $2.50 Fiber choice to get the Scunci and another .50 filler.

Then rinse and repeat. End up with a whole bunch of toothbrushes, fiber choice, hair ties, and toilet paper (or your filler of choice- there were some dog food cans on clearance at my Wags that would also make a nice .50 filler) for only a few cents plus tax.  True, you’ll have spent the original $2 if you don’t have register rewards to start with, but then you should have the register rewards at the end to spend on whatever you’d like.

For a beginners guide to Saving Money at Walgreens, check here.

Spending almost nothing on food is a big theme around these parts lately.  I mentioned in this post that I get most of my milk, eggs, and butter from Walgreens or CVS using Register Rewards or ECB’s.  I neglected to mention, however, that I do a great deal of baking.  Making things from scratch with your own two hands, baked goods included, is one of the other keys to being a frugalite.  Of course this means you need to have a set of additional staples on hand, including 1) Brown Sugar 2) White Sugar 3) Flour 4) Oatmeal 5) Chocolate Chips. (more…)

As I wrote in The Truth About Saving Money with Coupons, the art of coupon shopping goes beyond merely cutting a few coupons.  I wrote a guide to saving here, but one component I left out of my original guide was the importance of the cashier.  Some cashiers are wonderful.  They effortlessly handle a stack of coupons, ringing them through the register, fixing “beepers” (coupons that beep for no reason) and resolving problems.  Then, there are the other ones.  The cashiers that act as though coupons are magical tools that rip money right from their paychecks.  The ones that scrutinize every coupon, sometimes pulling items out of your bag to make absolutely sure they match.  The cashiers that read every word of a coupon, line by line, to look for some reason, any reason, not to take it.  Here are some common “lines” that these second types of cashiers uses, and some great comebacks that can help them come to their senses. (more…)