You can do this, too!

As you know, I teach a Coupon Mastery course at Waubonsee Community College.  It's a fun class and not just because I sometimes bring in shopping trips for show-and-tell that may or may not have the shampoo lid securely fastened, thereby covering all my purchases in Pantene.  Ahem.

In my class, I teach the basics of frugal shopping: finding coupons, which blogs and websites are worth your time, organizing coupons, efficient and ethical coupon use, and how to get the best deals at area stores.  By using coupons and shopping smart, I regularly save 50-60% off my grocery bills, and I get many items for free at area drug stores. 

For example, here's my CVS Thanksgiving Day shopping trip: 

Here are some close-up pictures of what I got:

There's brand name cereal, dishwasher detergent, medicine, candy, nail polish, toothbrushes, Kleenex, a universal remote control and more.

This merchandise is worth $136.17, and I only paid $13.75 out of pocket for it.  And the truth is, I even made a mistake during this shopping trip. Had I gotten my coffee before I shopped instead of after, I would have been more alert and saved myself about $4.50 out of pocket. 

Here's what I got from Walgreen's on Thanksgiving:

And here are some close-up photos of the merchandise:

At Walgreen's I got toothpaste, laundry detergent, deodorant, razors, hair ties, toothbrushes, medicine, probiotics, vitamins and more. 

This merchandise is worth over $242.14, and yet I paid only $17.68 out of pocket.  Keep in mind that the majority of the out-of-pocket expense is tax. 
I can teach you how to do this!  My class is aimed at folks who are new to couponing, and those who coupon a bit but are looking to take their skills to the next level.  Of course, everyone is welcome, no matter if you are a coupon newbie or a coupon master.  If you have doubts about taking a couponing class, read this testimonial from a student who took my class in Spring 2011.  Then, sign up for Coupon Mastery.  There are two sections this semester, and the first one begins in two weeks at the downtown Aurora campus from February 9-23.  The second session will be at the Plano campus March 15-29.  I hope to see you there!

Happy couponing!

Walgreens shopping

Walgreen's has had some amazing deals lately. And when you use coupons, register rewards and strategic shopping to your advantage, you can get many health and beauty items for free or nearly free.

Take a look at my Walgreen's purchases on Sunday...

Note that 3 12-packs of Dr. Pepper didn't make it into the picture. The value of the merchandise is $58.28. I paid $3.88 out-of-pocket for all of this.

I had so much fun, and I am so into dental health, that I did it again on Monday (again, the Dr. Pepper is missing from the picture).

The value before sales/coupons/register rewards $67.26. I paid $4.37 for all this.

The key is to buy items that produce register rewards, use coupons to get the total down, and use the register rewards to buy other products that produce register rewards.

This week is a good week to get started on this: buy 2 participating Listerine products, use 2 $2.00 printables (found here: print the coupon, hit the back button, refresh, retry, and it will print again), pay $5.00 plus tax, and the register will print out a reward for $4.50.

Use this register reward to buy the Colgate toothpaste for $4.49 and pay only tax. Then, the Colgate purchase will produce a $4.50 reward.

There are rules to successful shopping like this at Walgreen's: you cannot have more coupons than items (and register rewards count as a coupon) and you cannot 'roll' register rewards on the same deal. Example: The reward that prints out for the Colgate can be used to buy another Colgate toothpaste, but another register reward will not print.

I'll be covering deals like this and more in my class at Waubonsee Community College.

For the basics and how to get started, check out I Heart Wags.

For more ideas, check out Jamie at I Am A Money Magnet and Suzanne at Hounding with Frugalsuz.

Wags and CVS

I made my weekly pilgrimage to Walgreens and CVS this week.

Walgreens: 1 Garnier Fructis shampoo, 1 GF conditioner, 1 GF 2-in-1, 3 GF styling products, Colgate toothpaste and Right Guard deoderant. The Garnier products (all 6 of them) and the toothpaste were free after coupons. I paid $2.45 for the deoderant, paid $4.16 total including tax, and got $2 in Register Rewards for my next trip.

CVS: 1 Palmolive dish soap, 1 Crest Pro-Health rinse, and 2 Zone Perfect bars. The bars were free after coupons, and I simply rolled Extra Bucks on the dish soap and rinse. The $0.39 tax was put on my CVS gift card.

Overall, I think I did okay. I'm not convinced I should have bought the deoderant (watch it go on sale in a few months!) but it was delightful to go to Wags and (especially) CVS and have everything I wanted in stock. Good times!

CVS and Wags for this week

Oh, how I love it when Walgreens and CVS have all that I want in stock for me. I slipped out for an hour on Sunday and got the deals:

At Walgreens:



Dry Idea deoderant $5.99

Revlon concealer $9.99

Zucol cold relief $7.99

Wags aspirin $0.99

Thermacare $2.49



After coupons, the total was $23.96. After a $5.00 wags coupon and $9.12 on a gift card, I owed $9.84. I'll get $22.51 in Wags rebates, and I received $5 Register Rewards for buying the deoderant. Not bad!




At CVS:



The long and short of this trip was that I spent 8 EBs, $0.57 on a gift card and $0.19 out of pocket, and I walked out with $14.48 in EBs. With coupons, the candy was free and the conditioners were only $0.05 each.



This summer, I'll be teaching a community education class on Savvy Shopping at Waubonsee Community College (provided enough people sign up, of course). I'm going to use the deals above to show folks that with a little planning and coupons, it is possible to get many health and beauty items for free, or next to free. Hooray for Wags and CVS!

A Garnier Fructis kind of day

Shopping yesterday was extremely pleasant. I got a bunch of good deals, and a bunch of free (or next to free) Garnier Fructis products. Take a look:

My first stop was Jewel. I'll list the items regular price, the sale price, and the price I paid after coupons, moving from left to right in the picture. Hold on to your hat!

Rubbermaid storage containers, $1.79, $1.00, $0.50 x 2

Garnier Fructis skin revitalizer system, $14.99, $7.49, $6.49

Ronzoni Smart Taste pasta, $2.25, $1.25, $0.25 x 4

Garnier Fructis facial cleanser, $4.99, $2.49, $1.49 x 2

Wild Harvest organic marinara sauce, $3.50, $1.50, $0.50 x 4

Various Rubbermaid storage containers (all on clearance) $0.73, $0.80 and $1.20

Wild Harvest organic garbanzo beans $1.20, $1.00, FREE x 3

Had I bought these items just as is, the total before tax would have been approximately $61.15 (I don't remember the original prices of the red-lidded Rubbermaid containers). By shopping the sales and clearance items, the cost was $35.80 including tax. After 18 $1.00 off coupons (and 17 of those were expired--remember Chicago area Jewel/Osco stores take expired coupons!), my grand total was...$17.80! That's less than $1.00 an item and a savings of almost 71% (thanks for the math help, Tom!). All products were name brand or organic labels and I certainly didn't sacrifice on quality.

On to Walgreens for more Fructis...

Items bought: Quilted Northern TP (9 rolls), 2 Fructis shampoos, 2 Fructis conditioners, 1 Fructis shampoo + conditioner, 4 Fructis styling products, 1 Electrosol box (20 tabs) and 2 sugar-free Russell Stover candy bags. Before coupons = $54.83. After coupons and a $5.00 Register Reward from a previous Wags trip = $3.75. That's a savings of over 93%!!!

The highlights of this trip were that all the Garnier Fructis products were FREE after coupons. Actually, Wags paid me $0.81 to take one of the products off their hands. Jamie from I am a Money Magnet gave notice in her blog that some of the Fructis styling products were on clearance, so after the Wags coupon and manufacturers coupon there was overage that would be applied to the rest of my purchase.

In addition, I only paid $0.99 out of pocket for the Electrosol tabs, and I'll submit the receipt for the $1.50 rebate, giving me $0.51 in overage and $1.65 overall on a Wags gift card. The Russell Stover chocolates were Buy 1, Get 1 Free with coupon.

I'd say this was a very good shopping day for me. I'm sure Martha would agree, but I don't think she'd approve of my crazy printed vinyl table cover. Martha would probably have a very beautiful and pricey tablecloth. Of course, with all the money I saved today, I could have one, too!

Another deal at Walgreen's

While going through the newspaper inserts, sale ads and my coupon stash, I noticed another great deal at Walgreens (Wags for all you avid couponers out there!). This week, Electrosol dishwasher tabs (20 count) are on sale for $3.49. There is an Easy Saver rebate of $1.50. But, this deal is a moneymaker! There is a $2.50 off coupon for Electrosol tabs in the Nestle coupon insert in today's paper.

Electrosol tabs $3.49

minus coupon -$2.50

equals $0.99 out of pocket

submit for the $1.50 rebate from the Easy Saver catalog, and make a $0.51 profit!

If you choose to have your rebate put on a Walgreens gift card rather than have a check sent to you, they add 10% of the rebate total to the card. So, this $1.50 Electrosol rebate turns into $1.65 for future Wags purchases, and you'll have dishwasher detergent for free.

Frugality is a good thing!

I bet that when Martha Stewart started out, she was a frugal shopper. Even now she grows her own vegetables and fruit, bakes her own bread and even gets eggs from her own chickens. That Martha is money smart.

I don't have an extensive garden or laying hens, but I match those money smarts by shopping the sales and using coupons. In the Chicago area, the main supermarket chains are Jewel and Dominick's. In other areas of the country, offshoots of these two stores often double coupons, especially in the East and South. Here, Jewel and Dominick's do not double/triple coupons; however, they do take expired coupons. And using coupons with sale items can get you a great deal. For example:

Right now, Jewel has a 10/$10 sale going on for Aquafresh toothpaste and toothbrushes. I had five $1.00 off coupons for any Aquafresh toothbrush. Once I got to Jewel, the toothbrushes that were on sale were actually twinpacks. Bonus!

I got 10 toothbrushes for free (I paid tax, of course). Not bad! And you can get your free toothbrushes, too: in Sunday's paper, there is a $1.00 off coupon for Aquafresh toothbrushes. There's also a $0.75 off coupon for Aquafresh toothpaste, making it just $0.25 at Jewel--not bad! Look for the coupons in the insert with the Nestle logo on top.

And a heads up for a great deal at Walgreen's: From Jan. 4 through Jan. 10, Walgreen's will have Garnier Fructis shampoo, conditioner and certain styling products on sale for $2.99 each. In the January 2009 Easy Saver Catalog, Walgreen's has a $2.00 off coupon for those products, bringing each down to just $0.99. This is a good deal for Fructis, but it can get even better: in tomorrow's Red Plum insert in the coupon section, there are two coupons. One is for $1.00 off any Fructis shampoo or conditioner, and the other is for $1.00 off any Fructis styling product.

At Walgreen's (as well as Target and a few other stores), you can stack the store coupon with a manufacturer's coupon. So, after the Walgreen's coupon and the Red Plum coupon, you can walk away with FREE Fructis hair products! What a great deal!

As an avid couponer, I have approximately 10 manufacturer's coupons from previous inserts, so I'll be stocking up on my Fructis shampoo and conditioner. I like the shampoo and conditioner (and their shampoo & conditioner in one), and while I haven't yet tried the styling products, now is the time to do so, since they'll be FREE! For all you coupon newbies out there: the Walgreen's Easy Saver catalogs are located at the front of every store in the same caddy with their current sales ads. If you don't see it, ask an employee for one. Take several, and get in on this great deal.

Frugality...as Martha would say, It's a good thing. ;)