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The "Cheese" face

We haz it.

Hilander Mega Saver is back!

Last spring I wound up with 24 free bottles of Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner during the Mega Saver sale, so I was excited to see that it was back again this week. I was counting on it coming - Ohio Kroger stores (Hilander is owned by Kroger) had the deal last week, and Kroger deals tend to travel around the country, so I was already making plans.

This sale has a lot of baking items included, so I'm focusing on stocking up for my holiday cookie and candy making. Customers of the Ohio stores had reported Carnation evaporated milk and Nestle chocolate chips on sale, both of which I'll use a significant amount of, so I went ahead and ordered coupons for those items, as well as some Bic razors which will be free after coupons. It does sound counterintuitive, but I spent about $10 on coupons that will save me $80. I usually order my coupons from The Coupon Clippers, but have also used the Coupon Master in the past. TCC is my favorite - super fast shipping, though coupons for hot items do go quickly so you've got to be on the ball. This time I also ordered from ebay - I'll let you know how that goes! (Side note: I am not actually buying the coupons - those are illegal to sell. I'm paying for the time it takes to collect and clip them. That's the official word ;))

First, a few Hilander tips:

• Sales in this area run from Thursday-Wednesday - the sale flier arrives in my mailbox on Wednesday, and also goes out in the paper if you get the fabulous usually less than worthwhile couponwise Rockford Register Star (and don't even get me started on their "journalism"). If you don't get either you can view the ad online at http://www.pay-less.com/.
• You need to sign up for the Kroger Plus card - another one of those goodies to put on your keyring. Scan it every time you shop even if you're not buying anything on the card - you can rack up points toward 0.10 off a gallon of gas if you buy it at the Hilander next to the mall. Sometimes you may also receive coupons in the mail, depending on how much you spend that quarter.
• There are also websites to link e-coupons to your Plus card - Shortcuts and P&G E-saver. When you buy an item for which you've loaded a coupon onto your card, it comes off automatically at the register.
• Hilander doubles coupons up to $0.55 everyday. Given the choice between a $0.50/1 coupon or a $0.75/1 coupon, I'd choose the lesser because it will actually give me $1.00 back.

So this is how the Mega Saver sale works: If you buy any ten items included in the sale you get $5.00 taken off your transaction immediately at the register. These items are sale priced from $1.00 to $3.00 - basically you get $0.50 taken off each item. Combined with coupons, especially those that double, you'll make out well on certain items. Here's a few of my scenarios for next week:

Johnson & Johnson baby wash 10x3.00 = 30.00

Q's:
Mega Saver bonus = 5.00
J&J coupons $1/1 (from 11/2 SS) 10x1.00 = 10.00

Total after q's = 15.00 (1.50 per bottle!)
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Nestle chocolate chips 10x2.50 = 25.00

Q's:
Mega saver bonus = 5.00
Nestle coupon $0.50/1 10x(2x0.50) = 10.00

Total after q's = 10.00 (1.00 per bag)
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Carnation evaporated milk 10x1.00 = 10.00

Q's:
Mega saver bonus = 5.00
Carnation coupon $0.50/2 5x(2x0.50) = 5.00

Total after q's = 0!

These can be mixed and matched as well, meaning I could buy 3 J&J, 5 bags of chocolate chips, and 2 cans of milk and still receive my $5.00 bonus. As long as I have ten items included in the deal I'll get it. One word of warning - be careful if you're using coupons that require you to buy 2 items - make sure you have an even number of those!

Some other great deals:

-Bic Razors 2.50 (use 2.00/1 coupon from 10/12 SS to make them free after Mega Saver)
-Quaker Oats 1.50 (use 0.50/1 coupon from 9/7 RP; after it doubles and the Mega Saver these are free too)
-Swiss Miss hot chocolate 1.00 (use 0.50/2 shortcuts coupon, combined with MS it's 0.50 a box)
-Domino sugar 2.50 (use 0.50/1 coupon from 10/12 RP, making it $1.00/5 lb bag after q and MS)
-Scotch lint roller 1.00 (use 1.00/1 coupon from 10/5 RP; after the MS deal this is a money maker!)

So you know where I'll be in all my spare time for the next week or so! I hope it's helpful to you to see how I work out my scenarios - it helped me when I first started couponing to see what others were doing. If you're inspired to try for yourself, leave me a comment and let me know!

Great day at Walgreens!

Walgreens used to be hit or miss as far as deals, and those they did have were sometimes clunky and difficult to understand, but they've been fine-tuning their system and it's become increasingly lucrative. Combining their store coupons with manufacturer coupons and their Register Rewards deals is a great way to get things for very cheap, if not free. Their monthly rebates are also a great way to save money - I get mine on a gift card so that I can use that to pay for OOP expenses and not have to use cash.

The important Walgreens points:

• Instant Value coupons (IVCs) are found in the weekly ad - they're only good for that week.
• EasySaver coupons (ESQs) are from the smaller books found in front of the ad display - these are good monthly.
• Rebates are also listed in the EasySaver book - often there's at least two items that are free after rebate (FAR).
• Register Rewards (RRs) are coupons to use on your next order that are generated when you buy certain items according to each week's ad. They print from the machine next to where the receipt prints. You can only use one per transaction, however.
• You can't have more coupons than items you're buying - sometimes you end up with 2 q's for one item because you're using an ESQ and a manufacturer q, or you use a RR and wind up not having an item to match that q with. So count your q's before you go to the register - if you have 8 q's and 7 items, grab a small filler. I usually buy the individual Crystal Light mix-ins for .59 - certainly not a bargain, but I drink them and since I save so much with q's it's not that big a deal.

I've hit Walgreens four times since Sunday (three of those times were today!). I had a bunch of RRs from a deal a couple weeks ago, so Sunday I went and bought 8 boxes of gallon-size Hefty bags, which are B1G1F with the IVC in this week's ad. After 4 0.55/1 coupons, my total was 10.96 plus tax, and I used a $10 RR. You can do the math from there :)

Today I decided to get serious about burning up some more of those RRs. I did three transactions and came home with the following items (plus the 6-pack of Ensure I got for my mom) for only $2.10 OOP, and that's only because I forgot to use my gift card to pay for the first transaction - it should have been $0 OOP.

Transaction #1:

Hefty bags 4x3.29 = 13.16
Ensure 1x6.99 = 6.99
Total before q's = 20.15

Hefty IVC B1G1 2x3.29 = 6.58
Hefty man q 2x0.55 = 1.10
Ensure 1x3.00 = 3.00 (I also have a mail-in-rebate for the full price, so I'll make 3.00 on this deal!)
RR 1x10.00 = 10.00

Total after q's = 2.10 (includes tax)

Transaction #2 (done twice):

Almay makeup is B1G1F, so there is no price for the second Almay product. I bought the Almay one coat mascara, which is FAR this month so I'll get back 6.49 twice for that.

Celestial seasonings tea 2x1.50 = 3.00
Schick Quattro disposables 2X5.99 = 11.98
Almay eye makeup 1x7.99 = 7.99
Almay mascara B1G1F
Filler 1x0.59 = 0.59
Total before q's = 23.56

Celestial seasonings ESQ ($2/2) 1x2.00 = 2.00
Celestial seasonings man q 2x1.00= 2.00
Schick ESQ 2x3.00 = 6.00
Schick B1G1F man q 1x5.99 = 5.99
Almay 1x2.00 = 2.00
RR 1x5.00 = 5.00

Total after q's = $2.72 with tax, put on a gift card. Notice that the tea and razors were free after q's!

Coming tomorrow - Hilander Mega Saver preview!

CVS - Week of November 2

I was in desperate need of diapers (that's one thing I haven't focused on building up in my stash yet) and Pampers are on sale this week at CVS (2/$20 with $5 ECB) so I bit it and ran over Monday night. I had a $5/$30 q to use, so I had to add on some extras. The Crest ProHealth whitening 4.2 oz is a free monthly deal - buy one for 3.49 get 3.49 ECBs back. The limit for this appears to be 4, so you can do it 4 times. Ice cubes gum is a weekly deal - buy 10 get $5 ECB - so I threw that in too. And the Huggies swimmers - I walked in and spotted them immediately, marked down to 0.89! I had coupons that I'd left at home, but knew that the diapers wouldn't last that long, so I just bought them - you really can't beat that price!

Here's my scenario:

Pampers 2x10.00 = 20.00

Crest 2x3.49 = 6.98

Ice cubes 10x1.00 = 10.00

Lil Swimmers 3x0.89 = 2.87

Total before q's = 39.85

Q's:
Pampers 2x1.50 = 3.00

Crest 2x1.00 = 2.00

Ice cubes 4x1.00 = 4.00

CVS 5/30 1x5.00 = 5.00

Total after q's = 25.85

Pay with ECBs - 15.00

Total OOP = 10.85 + tax

Receive $16.98 back in ECBs

So I got more ECBs back than I spent, which is my goal every time! My OOP total is more than I'd usually spend OOP but we needed diapers, and I can sell the swim diapers next spring so it was definitely worth it!

Bargain Christmas Shopping

Bath & Body Works is turning out to be a great place for getting some early Christmas shopping done on the cheap. There's an IP out for a free Scentport starter kit with any purchase (x11/23/08). I've been buying the cheapest item I can find in the store to go with these - a $1.50 votive candle. Total OOP is $1.61 - not bad for a little gift set!

However, when you make any purchase, you receive a coupon book that has a coupon for a free item up to $13 with a $10 purchase. I took the gift set idea a step further and used that q to buy, first, some extra votives and a set of tealights (all in the same scent as the Scentport), with a free pair of slipper socks (super soft and adorable, with nonskid bottoms). The second time I did this deal, I bought the socks with some candle holders. Combined with the free tea from my Walgreens and Target deals, these items will make great hostess or teacher gifts!

Total OOP for everything in the below pictures: $25.58.

Halloween Fun

This year was the year Amelia finally understood what Halloween was all about. She picked her own costume, willingly told everyone "Trick or Treat", and was thrilled with each piece of candy added to her bucket. Halloween lasted nearly a week for her this year, starting with the RMG Halloween party on Sunday the 25th.

All week she talked about how she said "Trick or treat" and "thank you" and got candy in her purple bucket. So she was rarin' to go on Friday when it was time to really trick-or-treat. We met up with a group of friends and set out with our three pirates.

Amelia was a bit intimidated at first by all the people in "scary masks" but once she figured out all the candy that was to be had she got over that. She loved wearing her costume and said all the pirate things we taught her to say - "arrrrrgh mateys", "shiver me timbers", and "walk the plank!" And especially for Aunt E - "There's a bounty on me head!"

So now, just like the fair, Halloween is over (however, the candy does remain). Amelia's not ready to wait another year though - she keeps asking for "more Halloween fun!"

Target deals

I made a couple Target runs over the weekend and found some great clearance deals, as well as some overage using coupons. (Please ignore the laundry in the background, I assure you it's clean and just waiting to be put away.)

Mitchum deoderant: 2x1.99 = 3.98
Ziploc bags 9x0.85 = 7.65
Extra gum 10x0.48 = 4.80
Lipton tea 4x1.09 = 4.36
Glade Scented oil refills 4x2.50 = 10.00
Total before q's = 30.79

Q's:
Mitchum Target q 2x0.50 = 1.00
Mitchum man q 2x1.00 = 2.00
Ziploc IP 1x0.75 = 0.75
Ziploc man q $1/2 4x1.00 = 4.00
Extra B1G1F 5X.48 = 2.40
Lipton Target q 4x1.00 = 4.00
Lipton man q 4x0.60 = 2.40 (overage!)
Glade B1G1F 2x2.50 = 5.00
Total q's = 21.55

Total OOP after q's = 9.24 + tax

Through December 15, holiday Glade products marked 2.50 are generating $5.00 gift cards, so I also got a $5 GC back as well.

Just in case, here's a quick guide to some of the abbreviations I'll be using when discussing my coupon usage:

q - coupon
man q - manufacturer coupon
IP - internet printable
B1G1F/BOGO - buy one get one free