Friday, October 16, 2009

Coupon Savings

On OHiH this week I clicked on an ad for Pillsbury, and printed out a bunch of coupons, worth up to $1 each. Most large companies have sites that include coupons for their products, and a lot of chain restaurants and entertainment outlets do too. Just type the company name in your search bar and look for the company's official website, then look for their coupon tab. I find these coupons at the official company website are often the best.

I never buy anything unless it is on sale or I have a coupon, preferably both. My grocery receipt last week showed $51.24 owed, $37.76 in savings. Best find was a $5.99 cheesecake absolutely free. Normally I would not buy a frozen cheesecake, but for free I will keep it until the kids pay a last minute visit. To get it I had to buy 2 Voila Frozen Entrees. They were on sale $1 off, I had a store coupon for $.50 off each and an online coupon for $1.25 off 2. So the 2 family size meals cost $4.73. Not too bad. I also got a coupon for $5 off my next order when I bought a loaf of bread and 5 cans of soup that totalled $5.74.

I always start my week by looking through the grocery store fliers. I check what is on sale, make my menus from that, and check for coupons on items I will be buying. I stock up on the sale items if they are things I will use, and I use items from the pantry to fill in, so that I will not buy items unless they are on sale. By now the grand kids know when they shop with me -"We can't buy that one; it doesn't have a yellow sign."

Other than groceries, I mostly shop online. Again, I will not buy unless it is on sale, I have a coupon, or I get free shipping - preferably all three. We run a website that is an online mall with more than 400 stores. We spend hours every day finding and posting coupon codes, sales, and free shipping offers. If people shop through our links they get the deals and we get a small commission. We were among the first sites doing this and did very well at www.usacodes.com until a lot of slick big companies came in with technology we don't understand, leaving us relatively clunky and hard to navigate. But we still have really good offers, and we still work really hard at it because we are saving money for our small but loyal following. If you are interested in online savings please check it out, and check out my twitter box in the corner here. Feel free to post our link anyplace you might want to share it. We could sure use the exposure.

I bought yards of fleece online with free shipping and a 20% OFF coupon to make all the kids and grands robes for Christmas. I'm watching for a deal on the flannel for matching pajamas. I need 44 yards! Tonight I worked on drafting a pattern to make booty slippers to match. They will be made with fleece lined flannel. For the prototype I used old flannel sheets and scraps of fleece. They turned out so cute! Since our house is usually cold we always wear slippers so I will be making a bunch of these! And the best part is, by using scraps they end up being free! My favorite price point.

6 comments:

  1. I had no idea you ran a company! That's great - I will check it out.

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  2. Gosh, I need to start doing this. I love to use coupons, but sometimes to lazy to actually search for them. If I am ordering something online, I will search for some sorta code.

    Great post!

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  3. Hey RF, I clicked on that same link and got that coupon, but I also put my information into that site, and was able to print out about 50 more coupons that were really good! I was completely shocked!

    Thanks for the coupon tips....I am quickly becomming addicted!

    {{{HUGS}}}

    Robin :o)

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  4. I love to look thru the coupons in our weekly paper! Some weeks it's like striking gold, some weeks, not so much. I do love to see when coupons get doubled too.

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  5. I will have to check your site more often - as a single mom I need all the help I can get.

    Stay warm in Michigan, mom just got back last Thursday. She had some really gorgeous pics of the lake on a cold morning, simply stunning. Can't wait to go visit!

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