Let the Donating Begin!

Note: My computer is doing funky things; sorry for the weird formatting: If you've been following my Couponing for Charity weekly posts, you know I've been gathering FREE deals (mainly hygiene products) to donate to deserving organizations. Our MOMS Club chapter has chosen four local organizations over the course of a year to be recipients of our crafty couponing skills. Every three months, a different one will benefit. I've felt a bit like a squirrel--hunting, gathering, and storing my precious finds--but it was finally time to relinquish my gems to our first deserving group: a non-profit, interfaith agency serving the poor and homeless of Knoxville called the Volunteer Ministry Center.

This from their website: "The Volunteer Ministry Center helps people find their way out of homelessness by offering “tough love” programs that work. It’s not enough to meet the basic needs of food and shelter. Real progress means that people face their problems and overcome them. It means that they set goals and achieve them – and in a timely manner. It means that they are held accountable. The work of The Volunteer Ministry Center has one purpose – to help our clients achieve housing and a higher level of self-sufficiency so that they are no longer homeless."

I actually got involved with the VMC through my church, The Church of the Good Samarita, an Episcopal church in the Cedar Bluff region.There's a group of 10-15 female parishioners who attend a monthly "ladies night in" at the VMC. It's a chance to share some life skills, but more importantly, an opportunity to build relationships with women struggling to overcome homelessness. They seek to give them a comfortable bridge to the community.

So when I began my Couponing for Charity mission, this group was the first to come to mind. I was excited that not only was this a chance to "give them fish" but to "teach them to fish." Over the weekend, I began pouring out some of the knowledge I'd gained the past nine months and tips for how to get the great deals at Walgreen's and CVS in a hand-out. I quickly filled 4 1/2 pages. Would they be overwhelmed? Will they be able to stockpile? Would they call me Crazy Coupon Lady when I walked out the door?

When I put all the goods I had in a box, along with several donations from another member of MOMS Club, I could barely carry the box. In total, we had at least $250 of products and we broke even with paying tax. Here's what we gave:

9 tubes toothpaste, 7 toothbrushes, 2 dental floss,

14 body wash, 7 shampoo, 2 conditioner,

1 hand soap, 2 dish soap,

9 deodorants,

9 feminine care,

1 sinus spray, 1 multi-purpose eye solution, 1 heat wrap, 2 lip balm, 1 barrette, 1 box of tissues, 1 box of vitamins, 2 boxes of cereal, 1 box of crackers

Seeing it all on a table was very gratifying. When I said I got it all for free, some women looked astonished and a bit wary, as if I were about to pull a rabbit out of hat. Surely it isn't possible to get all that for FREE in three months! What's the catch? was reading on some of their faces.

Unfortunately only 2 of the 11 expected VMC clients showed up. Periodically KARM (where many of them live temporarily) has a lock-down and they will not let you come back in after 6:30pm if you leave. So I think most of them were trapped. However, there were about 10 women from our church, and they were all eager to figure this out for themselves. Though some of them were new to using coupons and many had never shopped at drugstores with this strategy, they soaked in the knowledge. I think I inspired several of them to give it a try and begin bringing to the VMC each month some of the deals they pick up.

Probably the most important person I educated tonight was Lisa Wells, a caseworker who plans to work with their clients one-on-one to help them get these deals themselves. Since you can't use food stamps on hygiene or cleaning products, this is a huge way to stretch their dollars. The VMC also have three computers clients can use to print coupons and access the weekly blogs detailing the deals like Southern Savers, Coupon Katie, and Coupon Mommie. Finally I have to give a big thanks to the one who educated and inspired me to start this couponing mission for others: Gabrielle at Couponing in Critical Times.

Though I didn't get to see the excited expressions of the recipients, Lisa was thrilled to now have items that she can put in "welcome home baskets." Four of their clients signed leases this week, and she's giving them each a basket full of goodies to get them started. She expects any extra products will be quickly snatched up.

As I walked out the door and glanced back at the stockpile, it was a little hard to leave it behind. After all my hard work, I now start with a clean slate for the next organization. Will I be just as successful? What will the next box look like? One thing I do know: it sure feels good to give.

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?

Couponing for Charity: A Mission Begun

Over the past six months that I've been eagerly couponing, I've sometimes picked up deals that we don't typically use or more of a product than we really need. If I buy one more box of toothpaste or can of soup, my husband may insist I seek counseling for my addiction.

However, rather than give up my thrill of the deal, I've decided to channel my money saving super powers to help those less fortunate. The idea is to gather some of the freebies or super deals out there and donate them to a good cause. I'm calling it "Couponing for Charity" and will begin writing posts regularly with specific deals if you'd like to join along.

First of all, I'm not talking about all the free samples you can sign up for. I find most of those a waste of the manufacturer's resources (packaging, shipping, etc.) and would rather they channel their energies into coupons. I'm talking about the freebies that bloggers highlight all the time, if you're willing to do a little homework.

To help me on my journey, I've enlisted other savvy shoppers, members of our MOMS Club chapter that supports SAHMs and part-time working mothers, to do the same. By the way, if you live in the 37931, 37921, 37909, or 37923 north of I-40 zip codes, we'd love to have you check us out! I've learned that many of these fabulous ladies are already experts at finding deals, clipping coupons, and working the specials at places like Walgreens and CVS. So now it's just a matter of hunting and gathering.

For simplicity sake, we're going to have a trial run for six months and see what we get. We're aiming for hygiene products mostly (things that qualify for register rewards / ECBs or items we can get for free with coupons). After looking at weekly match-ups that other bloggers do, I'll make my recommendations on my blog. I'll list what I plan to pick up for charity that week and how it will cost me little to nothing or even save me money. At the end of the summer, we'll look at what we've all acquired and vote on a charity to donate to (probably something related to women or mothers). Service is a big part of what we do.

Here's an example. A few weeks ago, Walgreens had a RR for Dove Men's Body Wash: spend $6, get $6RR. Since I had a $1.50 coupon for that product, I only spent $4.50 and got $6RR. In a separate transaction, I bought a pack of Huggies diapers on sale for $9 and used my $6RR and a $2 coupon. I had to buy another item to get the coupon ratio correct, but stay with me. In the end, I only spent $5.50 for both diapers and body wash (cheaper than if I'd bought the diapers alone), and as a bonus, the diapers gave me another $3RR. Since my husband is more of a bar soap man, I'll donate the men's wash to our cause. It's a win-win: I saved money and a charity gets a great product for someone.

I plan to keep a running tally of my finds (value vs money spent). In the above example, I'd record a $6 value and -$1.50 (a "money maker"). That will make me feel better when I spend some money on products--like $.24 for a tube of toothpaste.

Thanks to Gabe from Couponing in Critical Times for the inspiration to get this going. If you need guidance for mastering CVS or Walgreens deals, Coupon Mommie has put these tips together.

There are several deals you might consider this week. At Kroger, if you buy 8 qualifying products, you save $4 instantly. With that sale, Speed Stick deodorants are $1; with a $.50 coupon that Kroger doubles, that one's FREE. I'll buy 2 3-count bars of Irish Spring soap on sale for $1, use a $.50/2 coupon, and pay only $.50 each. Dial hand soap (also $1) will only be $.30 after a $.35/1 coupon.

Click here for Coupon Katie's Walgreens recommendations and here for all the Walgreens match-ups. I'll be picking up the Colgate (spend $3.99, get $3.99RR) and will use a $1/1 coupon. I'll be doing this in twice in separate transactions to get two register rewards to use next week. I also have all the coupons for the $.38 toothbrushes and the $.22 boxes of Kleenex.

Click here for Coupon Katie's CVS recommendations and here for all the CVS match-ups. This will be my first trip to CVS, but I have my new card and I'm ready to give it a try. I'm excited about the Dove and Degree deodorant special (spend $15, get $5ECB) that should make 6 of them $.17 each with coupons. If you have not printed these high value coupons, do it now before they're gone. I have 3 $3/2 coupons (hoping the Degree Girl is included in the special) and 1 $1.50/2 Dove coupon if not. I'm hoping the shelves won't be clear by the time I get there. Save a few for me, will you?

I'll let you know how my plan works out (with totals) in a future post. If you have any tips for me and my money saving mommas, please leave a comment.