Giveaway: Safeway (and Affiliated Stores) Coupons

I have kind of a different kind of giveaway this time. Two of my recent free magazines came with several coupons that are good for Safeway stores and since we have no Safeway near by and since they are such good coupons I decided to do a giveaway for them in hopes that someone else can enjoy the savings.

First off, these coupons are good at Safeway, Vons, Dominicks, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Genuardi's, Pavillions, and Carrs stores.

Here's the list of the coupons being given away. There are 2 of each coupon. All coupons expire 9/30/11.

* $1.00/1 Frozen Safeway Store Brands Products. (Fine print: Safeway Select, Lucerne, Eating Right, Open Nature, Safeway, O Organics, or The Snack Artist. Excludes Frozen Meat & Seafood Items. Minimum $3 Purchase on Participating Items Required.)

* $1/1 Open Nature Product (Fine Print: Minimum $3 Purchase on Participating Items Required.)

* $5/$15 Any Frozen Items Purchase (Fine Print: Excludes Frozen Meat and Seafood.)

* $1/1 Totino's Pizza Stuffers (4 ct. selected varieties), Pillsbury Breakfast Scramblers (7.4 to 8 oz. selected varieties), OR Eggo Muffin Tops (12.9 oz.). Minimum $3 Purchase on Participating Items Required.)

You have four different ways to enter the give away and each thing counts as a separate entry. Please leave your email address with each entry! The giveaway will end 9/10/11 at 8 p.m. (EST) and the winner will be chosen via random.org. I will then notify the winner by email and they will have two days to respond before the next winner is chosen.

MANDATORY ENTRY:

1. Tell me one interesting thing about yourself. (Hey, I might as well make this interesting for me too! )

OTHER ENTRIES (to be done after mandatory entry)

2. Become a follower of this blog (see top left hand corner of blog). If you are already a follower, give yourself an extra entry by posting that in a comment.

3. Subscribe to this blog (see top left hand corner of blog). If you already subscribe, give yourself an extra entry by posting that in a comment.

4. Tell other about the giveaway via Facebook, Twitter, or your blog and leave a link to your post in your comment.

Is Couponing Worth It?

Sometimes I ask myself, "Is using coupons really worth it?" I'm usually thinking of all the time spent clipping coupons, getting my shopping lists together and then of course shopping. And it just makes me wonder somtimes.

And then I've had people ask me that very question, "Is it really worth it?". Occasionally I've even heard some very rude comments about "those people that waste their time couponing". So finally last week as I was thinking about this whole thing some more, I decided to crunch some numbers and see what I could learn. Here's what I discovered.

Between coupons and sales, this is what I saved each month on my grocery and household items for the first six months of the year.

Jan.: $551.47
Feb.: $624.50
March: $554.15
April: $410.34
May: $265.12
June: $405.28

Total Saved: $2810.86

Now say I was doing this as a job and wanted to see what my "pay" was based on the money I saved buy using coupons and shopping sales. There were 25 weeks in those first 6 months and say that I spent 10 hours each week clipping coupons, planning my shopping trips, and actually shopping. (And trust me, I'm pretty sure I spend NOWHERE near that amount of time!) I would still be making the equivalent of $11.24/hr.! (This is calculated from the amount I saved.)

Not only did I save $2,810.86 in those six months but I also got LOTS of grocery and household items for myself. Plus I was able to have fun sharing my stockpile with others.

So, the next time I have someone ask me, "Is couponing REALLY worth it?" I'm going to ask them if they think making $11/hr. by going shopping is worth it.

What do you think?

Weekly Spending Summary

Total Spent: $37.09
Total Saved with Coupons: $40.16
Total Saved with Sales: $16.31
Total Saved: $56.47

CVS: $0 (gift card)
Saved with Coupons: $9.00
Saved with Sales: $3.00


I had a rain check for the Bic Soleil Shimmer razor. Both stores that I frequent had been out of the razors since they were on sale back at the beginning of August. My coupon for it expired but one of the managers assured me that they would honor it anyway when it came in since they weren't getting it in stock. I was pretty impressed!

Rite Aid: $5.37
Saved with Coupons: $13.00
Saved with Sales: $5.58


Giant: $0
Saved with Coupons: $5.16

I had two FREE product coupons that I used for these items.

Weis: $9.98
Saved with Coupons: $7.00
Saved with Sales: $7.73

It's been a while since I was able to get free pasta and I was nearly out, so I was excited to be able to stock up again this week! The sugar wasn't an amazing price, but still cheaper than Aldi so I went ahead and got it since I still have applesauce to do and will need sugar for that. Oh and I can't forgot the moneymaking cheese!

Walmart: $7.04
Saved with Coupons: $6.00

I had two FREE product coupons for the yogurts. And the Cascade sample packs were free after coupons as well. Gotta love doing dishes for free! :)

Aldi: $10.13


Centerville: $0 (used cash that I had gotten out for grocery)

So what's in all those bags? Apples, peaches, lemons and potatoes. Lots of fresh, yummy stuff!

Toys R Us: $2.99
I had called several weeks ago to inquire about ToysRUs.com being out of stock of diapers that were on sale. Anyway, to make a long story short, the customer service rep offered me a $15 online credit good on anything as well as free shipping. So I took advantage of that and got an 84 ct. package of size 1 Huggies diapers. I was pretty pleased as I made out better than I would have with the original deal!

Bed Bath & Beyond: $1.58
I bought a Yankee Candle votive with ShopAtHome's Wild Deal. Since I'll get reimbursed via ShopAtHome for this purchase, I figured it was easiest to just put this under grocery.

Can You Help?

Reader Lorenda left this question in the comments of one of my recent posts:
"Do I need to look through the insert and keep tab of what coupons are in it or is there a list already compiled for me somewhere that I can get? For example, a certain thing goes on sale and I know I saw a coupon for it a week or two ago, how do I find it? Do I need to look through each insert?"

I personally use the coupon database at Hot Coupon World to find what coupons are in what insert. But Lorenda's question made me wonder if there perhaps is a place that lists all the coupons from each insert. Do any of you know of such a website?

Thanks so much!

The Cheese that Made Me $0.80

I got back from Weis a little while ago feeling both frustrated and happy. Frustrated because they were all out of the cereal I was going to get for $0.50 (I got a rain check) and happy because I made $0.80 on cheese that I had figured I'd pay $2.00 for. Yes, you read right, I got PAID to buy cheese!

So what happened? Well, when I was ringing up my two blocks of cheese I realized that instead of ringing up at $2/each they were ringing up at $2.40/each. So after I rang up the cheese I headed to customer service to get my $0.80 back. Then about the time I thought about the fact that they might have an accuracy scan policy, the gentleman at customer service informed me that I'd get the whole $2.40 back for the one block since it didn't ring up correctly plus the extra $0.40 for the other block. I also had two $1 coupons for the cheese which resulted in me actually ending up with $0.80 extra in the end.

There are two reasons I am telling you about this little incident. One is because it was a good reminder for me to always check my receipt. I had bought 2 blocks earlier this week and never noticed that they were ringing up wrong. It really does pay to look over your receipt and make sure that everything rang up at the correct price.

The second reason is to remind you that many grocery stores have an Accuracy Scan Policy. This simply means that if an item doesn't ring up at the shelf price, you will receive that item for free. This is typically only good for the first item and any item after that you just receive the adjusted amount for whatever you were overcharged for the item. So really, although it's a pain to have to fool with going to customer service when an item rings up incorrectly, you do usually make out pretty good.

Now, I think I'll go enjoy a slice of that delicious sharp cheddar cheese that made me money! :)

How I Organize My Coupons

I was organizing my coupons yesterday and thought about the fact that you all might find it interesting to see how I do it. I know there are many different ways that people do this and mine is kind of a hybrid between several of the "typical" ways. I like it because I feel like it takes less time than clipping every single coupon and yet I feel organized with it too.

I have three different places that I keep coupons- an envelope that I keep just clipped or just printed coupons in, a small coupon folder that I put printed/clipped coupons in that I take to the store with me, and a file folder satchel where I file my coupon inserts.

Envelope
I have this envelope tacked to the cork board by my desk, right next to where my computer and printer are. (Very glamorous looking, eh?) :) When I cut a coupon out of a magazine, print a coupon online or get a coupon in the mail with a sample, I tuck them in here. It's kind of my landing place until I have time to put them in my coupon folder in a more organized fashion. But in the meantime, I don't have them cluttering up my desk, which is what used to happen.

Coupon Folder
I store all my clipped coupons in this little file folder. When I am getting my shopping trips ready for the week, I take any coupons from the envelope (as talked about above) and put them in their correct spot in the file folder.

I have the file folder set up with these categories: Grocery, Household, Personal Care, and Baby. I know that isn't as many categories as many people use but I like it and find it easier to work with than when I tried having categories like Oral Care, Feminine Hygiene, Cereal etc.

Then in the front I have a spot where I put the coupons that I plan to use that week for my shopping trip to each store. I take all the coupons for each store, paper clip them together and put them in the front. Then when I get to the store, all I need to do is pull out the appropriate clipped together stack of coupons and I'm ready to go. I also keep all my FREE product coupons clipped together and put in the front there so I am reminded of them often and can use them before they expire.

File Folder
I found this lovely file folder at ROSS one day. I was excited because I was looking for something to file my coupon inserts in that wouldn't look ugly sitting by my desk. It fits the bill perfectly.

Anyway, I'm kind of getting on a bunny trail am I not? Back to how I use the file folder to organize my coupons. When the coupon inserts come each Sunday, I immediately get them and mark the date on the front of the insert in the top corner. Then I file them in my file folder, putting each month together in order by date.

So one slot in my file folder will hold all my June inserts. One, all my July inserts and so on. Then when I need a coupon from a certain insert, all I need to do is locate it and cut out the coupon.

At the end of every month or so, I go through the inserts and take out any pages that have only expired coupons on. In other words, if the page has a coupon that is still good I keep it, otherwise it gets tossed. This keeps my file from getting too huge and thick and saves me from leafing through pages unnecessarily.

I really love this system because I found that cutting out each coupon took way too much time plus my coupon folder soon had so many coupons in it that it was frustrating to find what I was looking for. For me, this has been a real time saver.

So there you have it. Nothing glamorous or amazing but it's what works for me when it comes to organizing coupons!

CVS Advisory Panel

Not too long ago I learned about the CVS Advisory Panel. Not sure what rock I've been hiding under, because the Advisory Panel has been around for a while, but somehow I don't remember ever hearing about it.

Anyway, if you shop at CVS at least occasionally you'll definitely want to sign up for the CVS Advisory Panel. In exchange for doing occasional surveys regarding CVS products and services, you'll get Extra Bucks emailed directly to you.

Just today I got an email request to do a survey about some programs CVS is thinking about rolling out. The survey took me less than 10 minutes and as "pay" I got a $5 Extra Buck coupon. Not bad pay in my opinion!

Are you a CVS Advisory Panel member? What has your experience been like?