Thursday, April 29, 2010

Couponing for Charity Update #6: $40 of products FREE


I've had a marginally successful week scoring deals for charity. Since many of these coupons expire 4/30, hurry to take advantage of them. Here's where I had outlined my plan, and here are my results:

Kroger: Sadly the free Speed Sticks and Tobasco were all gone, but I did "splurge" for the Dial deal (normally $1.63, on sale for $1, used a $.35 coupon which doubles, making it $.30). Thanks to Coupon Mommie, I got a Srubbing Bubbles sprayer for just $1 ($8.99, used $5/1 coupon, and got $3 to use next time). She had it as free; maybe other stores have it cheaper. Regardless, I'm going to keep this one to try. I also managed to get three deodorants as money makers. Here's how:

Thanks to a tip from Coupon Katie, I remembered I had loaded a $3/2 Old Spice deodorant e-saver from Kroger.com. With a B1G1 coupon (expires 5/30) and a $1/2 coupon (expires 4/30) from the paper along with the $3 digital savings which deducts automatically, I actually made $.50. (normally $4.29 each, on sale for $3.50 each). So that was an $8.58 value for -$.50.

Last month I had printed a rebate form for Sure (can't seem to find it now, but here's their website with a $.75 coupon). Thanks to this rebate form, if you buy a Sure for Women with the designated "Try me Free" sticker before 11/15/10, you'll get the full refund up to $2.99. They're regularly $2.29 at Kroger and I had a $1/1 coupon (expires 4/30). Once I get my rebate, that will be a $2.29 value for -$1.

Walgreen's: I had a frustrating experience at Walgreen's this week--all three of them! Yikes--I know! My initial trip was cut short by squirming and out of control kids. I made the mistake of looking at Hallmark cards. Sometimes you have to know when to walk out of a store. My second visit I had a few minutes to kill and had only Brooke with me, but that store was out of all the free promotions. The third store was also out of the shaving gel, but I did get the Stayfree, dental picks, and two free chocolate bars. The Stayfree was $2.99, get $3RR, I used $1/1 coupon and made $1. The dental picks were $2, get $2RR; no coupon there, but it was free. The chocolates are for me! Since both charity items were on sale, I'll take the full value for accounting purposes: $3.79 for pads and $2.99 for dental.

CVS: Despite two kids running up and down the aisles and a clerk's error, I still managed to get good deals here too. The Irish Spring body wash was $3, get $2ECB; with a $1/1 coupon, that was free.

They had two Oral B toothbrushes left that qualified for the spend $3, get $1ECB; limit 2. I bought 2 for $6, used a B1G1 and a $2/1 (both expire 4/30), paid $1 and got $2ECB. So that was a $1MM. At first the clerk said I couldn't use both, but she scanned them and they worked.

Finally the Nivea deal worked out to $1.25 a product for 2 body washes and 2 lip balms. It should have been $.50 a product but the clerk didn't key in one of my B1G1 coupons. Maybe she doesn't like clever couponers, maybe her machine malfunctioned, but her mistake cost me money. Live and learn. Each body wash was $6 and each lip balm was $3. I used a B1G1 for body wash, a B1G1 for lip care (didn't register), and a $2/1 coupon for body wash (all came from the All You magazine). If you spend more than $15 before coupons (my total was $18 before and $10 after coupons), you earn $5ECB. I'll be keeping one of each and donating one of each. So charity will be getting $9 of product for $2.50. Not everything has to be totally free, right?! The values before sale prices for the Irish Spring: $4.99, for the toothbrushes: $7.58, and for the Nivea products $17.96.

THIS JUST IN: Right after I originally posted this, I turned the corner to discover the dental picks all over the dog's bed. Smelling the mint flavor I suppose, she tore into them. Seriously?! I couldn't make this stuff up. So the new totals below will reflect one less product. Ugh!

Total products to donate this week: 1 hand soap, 3 deodorants, 1 feminine care, 2 body wash, 1 lip balm, 2 toothbrushes
Total value of products to donate: $37.84 ($1.63 for hand soap, $10.87 for deodorant, $3.79 for feminine care, $2.99 for dental picks--NOW TRASH, $10.98 for body wash, $2.99 for lip balm, $7.58 for toothbrushes)
Total spent: -$.70 (yes, all that and I made money: $.30 for hand soap, -$1.50 for deodorants, -$1 for feminine care, $1.25 for body wash, $1.25 for lip balm, -$1 for toothbrushes)

Total products to donate to date: 3 tubes toothpaste, 4 deodorants, 2 bars of soap, 1 hand soap, 3 body wash, 2 shampoo, 1 conditioner, 1 heat wrap, 1 feminine care, 1 lip balm, 2 toothbrushes
Total value of products to date: $74.54
Total spent to date: -$10.20

So how did you do?

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