Free newspapers, the best!

I just had to share this story.  I've been feeling kind of burnt out on couponing lately.  I have been working full time, and I find that couponing is kind of like a part time job.  Although I enjoy it, lately I just haven't been spending the time to do it well. 

On the fourth, I was pretty busy.  I worked most of the day, and then went to a BBQ.  I was so busy, in fact, that I forgot to get newspapers!  Wow, this hasn't happened since Easter.  On Monday, when I was on my way to Wags, I decided to swing by a store that I have seen carries the Sunday paper through the week.  But before I went there, I had this nagging feeling that I should give the old Starbucks recycle bin a shot.  Usually My Coupon Rival gets there before me, unless I get there right at close on Sunday night.   It was getting late on Monday afternoon, But I decided to take a quick peek anyway.  Score!  There, sitting on top, was a stack of fully intact newspapers!  I grabbed a handful and scurried to my car, where I flipped through them to make sure the inserts were still there.  They were!  Sweet!  So, I scored 4 free newspapers, and went on my merry way to Wags. 

The moral of this story is:  Give yourself a break.  Couponing can be alot of work.  Sometimes life gets busy, and couponing needs to take the back burner.  You can pick up where you left off, more refreshed and ready to go!  Also, the other moral is: Free is better than not free.  :)

coupons.com > redplum.com and smartsource.com

Redplum and SmartSource, why do you hate me?  I have Java installed.  I have the coupon printer installed.  Why do you always tell me that I don't?  Why can't you be more like coupons.com, and work all the time?

Seriously, I groan every time I realize a coupon I want to print is from smartsource or redplum.  They are so hard to print from!  At least 75% of the time I can't print it.  SmartSource always tells me that I don't have Java installed.  But I do.  The most updated version.  Redplum always tells me I don't have their printer installed.  But I do.  Even if I try to click on the button that says "Install Printer!"  Nothing happens.

Granted it may be my computer, which at nearing 4 years old is a dinosaur. But I still feel that I should be able to print my 2 coupons hassle free.  If coupons.com can do it, so should RP and SS.

Examples of coupons I would have liked to print TODAY, but couldn't because SS and RP suck:

$1/1 Ocean Spray Blueberry Juice for .50 cents Juice at Safeway PRINT if you can

$2/1 Smart Balance Milk for a great deal on my milk of choice PRINT if you can

Coupon Girl Solidarity

So, my trip to Wags last night was nearly a disaster...OK, that might be an exaggeration, but it wasn't great.  My first mistake was taking J with me.  He always wants to come, but then he doesn't have the patience to wait for me to finish my shopping.  Since it was the end of the week, I wasn't sure what they would have in stock.  I went in with 2 $6 RRs from the Nivea.  I wanted to do a Neutrogena Money Maker, but all the lower priced items were sold out.  I wandered around for awhile trying to figure out how to make a scenario, when I finally thought I figured one out.  I was able to figure a Neutrogena scenario with the $1.50/1 coupons I got from the Safeway coupon book I posted about HERE.  I bought 2 Neutrogena Deep Clean Scrubs and One Oil Free Acne Wash.  These were the cheapest items in the store.  They were on sale for $4.86 each, so $3.36 each after my coupon.  Total was $10.08, and then got a $10 RR.  So basically .08 cents for 3 cleansers.  I got 2 $1 candys as fillers because I had to use my 2 $6 RRs.  I planned on turning around and using my Neutrogena $10 RR to get
1 Schick Hydro - $7.99 - $4/1 MQ = $2.99
1 Nivea Men's Body Wash $5.99 - $3/1 MQ = $2.99
1 Gillette Pro Glide $9.89 - $4/1 MQ = $5.89
1 filler (butterfinger .39 cents)
Here is where it got funky.  This Gillete Pro Glide coupon keeps messing with my math ( I think it has something to do with the fact that the coupon is actually a $4/1 and I keep thinking it is a $5/1 because the RR is $5, and the Schick coupon is $5).  Somewhere along the way, I figured my scenario would be under $1 OOP - But after handing over all my coupons and RRs, I still owed $2 something OOP.  And I only had like $1.25.  At this point, the line had started to build, and I felt like a deer in the headlights.  I could not figure out why my total was so high, and I didn't know what to do.  About that time, the girl in line behind me started talking to me about coupon blogs.  She was a fellow coupon girl!  I asked the cashier to void my transaction, because for some reason I just couldn't get it together.  She was sooooo annoyed at me, but called over a second person to open another cash register as there was quite a line building up (and this was like 9pm on a Friday night, who are these people?)  I apologized to the general public around me, as I felt my cheeks flushing - talk about humiliating!  My coupon friend casually said "Been there, done that" and kept chatting away to me about various coupon related things.  After chatting with her for awhile, I decided to head home for the night.  I still couldn't figure out where I got so tripped up.  When I got home, I realized that I could have just removed an item and added a filler to keep my oop lower, and then made a second transaction to get the rest of my items.  I had planned on doing that today, but my work schedule didn't really allow me to get back to Wags.  And some time today I realized that the world would not end if I didn't get another Schick hydro for the rebate.  All I can say is Thank Goodness for coupon girl solidarity!  If that girl hadn't been there, I think I might have died of embarrassment.
Anyway, here is what I DID end up with.  Luckily, I really like the Neutrogena face wash, so I don't feel like I threw away a bunch of RRs.  I did loose 2, but really didn't do that bad.  Oh, I almost forgot that I did find the Scotch Desk Grip Pop Up Tape on Clearance for $1.09.  I used a $1/1 Printable to make it only .09 Cents! (coupon no longer available, but there is a .75/1 HERE!  Please remember that clearance varies greatly from store to store, so this may or may not be available in your area!)

Paid .16 cents OOP!

Lifestyles of the ridiculously broke

So, yesterday I was very excited about the rumored coupons that were going to be in the inserts.  Sweet Baby Rays is my favorite commercial BBQ sauce (and BBQ sauce is my favorite condiment), plus the money making Noxzema razors, and the Smart Balance milk?  Super score.  I actually got an early start for once, but maybe it was too early.  I printed the Noxzema coupons from redplum.com (after much difficulty, but my love/hate relationship with redplum will have to wait for another post), so I didn't need a paper before my Walgreens shopping.  I swung by Starbucks for my weekly recycle dive, but there were no papers in the recycle rack - maybe it was too early in the morning.

J and I went to his Grandma's later to take her to Walmart.  She gives me her inserts because she rarely uses them.  After flipping through them, I realized again that our town's paper gets the crappiest inserts!  I should have known by looking on the front of the papers: My Town's Paper: "$58 worth of coupon savings inside!" (wowserz)  The Big City Paper: "Over $165 worth of coupon savings inside!"... I don't know, which one would you choose?  So I knew I needed to get my hands on the Big City Paper.

The problem is, I have $3.00.  Like, to my name.  So, I obviously am not going to spend 2/3 of my fortune on a newspaper, and then only have one anyway, when I want 6.  Solution?  I've already told you my philosophy on "recycling" newspapers that no one purchased.  If they are going in the recycle bin, why should they go to waste?  Anyway, I ran to my favorite Starbucks right before they closed, and I asked their permission to peruse the recycle bin.  They girl had no problem with it.  I just want to make it clear that a.) I have permission to do this and b.) it is not gross in any way.  These newspapers are in a designated newspaper recycle bin.  The only thing in there is newspapers.  There is NO TRASH in there - I have a sort of aversion to trash.  But, to make a long story short, I ended up with 7 copies of the inserts!  Seven!  That is by far the most I've ever had.  I usually get 4 at the most.  Sadly, there was NO Noxzema or Smart Balance coupons in there :(  But, the most important coupon, Sweet Baby Ray's WAS.  So, I hope to have some free BBQ sauce in my future!

Capt'n Crunch Crusade Continues!

Wow, you would not believe the trouble I went through to get that Capt'n Crunch. First, as I whined about yesterday, I was unable to get the .50/1 coupon that was supposed to come in the Redplum. Then My Coupon Rival took all the inserts. THEN I ran out of ink - after wasting one of my prints on redplum.com and realizing that I was running out of ink. THEN I remembered that my old printer still has ink in it, so was able to print one good coupon. I still cut out the coupon I printed with not enough ink, in hopes that I would still be able to use it. So, I only had 2 coupons, but I was going to make the best of it, and use the Safeway doubler to at least get 4 boxes for $2.00 - still, a really good deal (but not free, dang it!). So I FINALLY get to Safeway, coupons in hand, and guess what I found?


Yes. Not a BOX of Peanut Butter Capt'n Crunch in sight. Oh, yeah, did I mention that it is only the Peanut Butter Capt'n Crunch I wanted? You all should know by now how much I love peanut butter. So, I asked customer service to check and see if there was any in the back (My Coupon Rival had probably just come with her 20 capt'n crunch coupons that she took ALL of and bought ALL of the PB CC. Betch). No, none in the back. So, they called another store, and THANK GOD, they had it. And I didn't mind driving over there. At this point it had become a Vendetta. A Vendetta for Capt'n Crunch. Also, it was near Target, where I was planning on going anyway.

So, thinking that my problems were over, I drove happily to the other Safeway, when suddenly I start to notice a bunch of construction guys. And some machinery. And, oh, the intersection that I have to turn left at to get to Safeway is BLOCKED OFF! Can you believe it? Is God trying to tell me that I should not buy Capt'n Crunch? Well, really, he shouldn't have made it so hard for me to get it, because that just made me want it more. I took a detour through the Walgreens parking lot ( OK, I did stop and go into Walgreens to see if they had a clearance deal posted on WILDFOR WAGS, but no, they didn't, so that doesn't count), made an illegal left turn (is it illegal if the two cars in front of you do it too? They were all trying to get to the same place as me) - And finally made it to Safeway, got my cereal, and was even able to use my crappy half printed coupon WITH doublers, to get 4 boxes for $2.00. Or .50 cents a box. I actually CHEERED when the cashier told me my total. She must have thought I was crazy.