My First Post!

Many people have asked me about the great deals that I get week after week, so I thought I would use this blog to share some of those things, and if you have ones of your own, feel free to leave those in a comment!

So here goes nothing:

The September Issue of "All You" that you can pick up at Wal-Mart has TONS of savings. Literally you can get a free box of Wheat-Thins, free Kraft American Cheese Slices, free hot dogs, free crystal light, and free Kraft dressing. All you have to do is buy 3 Kraft products each. Low and behold I bet you didn't know that Kool-Aid is a Kraft product. So if you buy 3 of the 20 cent Kool-Aid packets and you can get one of the above items for free. Its amazing! There are also a bunch of other coupons that will save you a bundle. I used quite a few on Sunday and saved almost $19.00 just from coupons.

Sign up for Pillsbury.com and BettyCrocker.com newsletters. Not only will they send you great recipes, but they'll also allow you to print online coupons. These have saved me so much money and they come straight to your mailbox.

Next, this is a little obvious, but get the Sunday paper from a large city. i.e. St. Louis. This will allow you a lot more coupons than if you pick up a regional paper.

Check walmart.com once a week and under In Stores, select Free Samples. This is updated weekly and will allow you to check out different products before you have to go buy an entire box or package.

Off topic a little, if you get an account with I-Tunes, weekly (I believe Mondays), they give away two free songs. There are some pretty lame ones at times, but I've gotten some really great songs for free.

On Sunday mornings I get online and check out three ads - Staples, Target, and Walgreens.

Staples has been running great ads - especially for teachers. This past week I walked out of Staples for $.91, and a full bag of goodies. Just for walking in I could pick up 10 2-pocket folders, 3 packages of pencil top erasers, and 3 hand held pencil sharpeners for free. Then pencil case for 5 cents, and 4 packs of glue sticks were $.25. So I had a full bag for next to nothing. While I may not use the erasers and sharpeners myself -- they are a great way to give my students rewards.

Target has some great deals, but not near enough as Staples or Walgreens.

Walgreens has also been doing some great deals. When you walk into Walgreens they usually have the flier there and also the Easy Saver Catalog. Two things that you should get to know very well.

Their flier usually has store wide coupons that have some awesome deals and usually during the month some of the things that are listed in the Rebate Booklet go on sale so you can get an even better deal for your money.

Rebate Booklet - The Walgreens EasySaver catalog. These are usually located next to the weekly store flier displays at your local store. You'll want to make sure and grab one on your next shopping trip. The monthly EasySaver catalog usually includes a few free after rebate items for the month and also a number of other rebates they are offering for the month. Some of the items listed in the booklet which are not free after rebate at their normal price will usually go on sale one week during the month and will then be free after rebate at the sale price.

In order to take advantage of the rebate deals, you'll need to go to the store and buy the items listed, paying out of pocket. Then, you'll fill out the simple rebate form and send it in along with your receipt with the price you paid circled. (Or you can now do it online and it is so much better. Faster, Cheaper, and Simpler)

You can choose to have the rebate sent back to you in the form of a check or a gift card. Unless you are not planning on shopping at Walgreens more than one time, you should always choose to have your rebate put on a gift card. Why? Well, for one, you get 10% extra for choosing a gift card so this will usually cover the cost of the stamp to send in the rebate, plus any tax you paid on the items.

Best of all, once you've sent in your first rebate request and gotten your gift card with the rebate plus 10% on it back, you will never need to spend a penny more out of pocket at the store! You can just use your gift card to buy the rebate items, send in your rebate form and they'll recharge your gift card with the rebate amount plus 10% and you can roll it over and over month after month.

It usually takes around 4-6 weeks for your first rebate to be processed and for you to receive your gift card. Once you have the gift card and just need them to recharge it, it normally takes 2-3 weeks. They'll send you a postcard saying your rebate $$ have been added to your gift card. You can also always log in to their website at any time to check on the status of your rebate.

The EasySaver catalog also includes a number of store coupons which are good all month.

There are also a couple of websites that I've grown to LOVE. Check these out and save big!

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/
http://print.coupons.com/
http://www.couponsavingfamily.com/
http://www.thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/

These moms know WAY more than I do. All I can do is keep trying to learn! Hope that this has helped some of you out there who want to know great ways to save money. Leave me a comment!