Newbie talk POSTPONED!!!!

Hi ladies...I am SO SORRY...but, I'll have to postpone this week's newbie talk.  It just simply isn't going to work out. 

However, keep your eyes on Hip2Save.com for Kmart doubles updates and a great week at CVS.  Thanks for understanding.

Newbie Talk...this Monday 4/4

Happy Easter!!!  I hope you will have a wonderful day tomorrow as we celebrate our Savior's resurrection!  One of my favorite parts about Easter is when someone says to me, "He is Risen." and I reply back, "He is Risen, Indeed."  Why do you look forward to Easter?

Well, Monday, the kids are back in school (if they go to school), the pastel colors get put away and we are all munching on left over ham sandwiches:-)  Don't forget to come to our Clipper Chicks meeting, and bring a friend because I will be there to do another "Newbie" presentation.  I am hoping to highlight CVS, however if there are a lot of new people, I'll obviously have to start at the beginning to teach the basics.  But, I promise, I will hit CVS....I even have a few examples from my shopping in the last couple of weeks, yipee!

So, I look forward to seeing you there...8:00 on Monday, April 5th in Chick-Fil-A near the restrooms.

****Also****don't forget that KMart doubles starts tomorrow.  Keep up to date with KMart deals on Hip2Save.  She usually updates her KMart posts through the week.

What is a coupon?

Collin, over at Hip2Save has an interesting post dissecting the bar codes on coupons and giving you a quick idea of the life of a coupon.  Check it out here.

Target and Bayer Contour

Hello my friends!

Have you seen some of the toy deals at Target this week?  We got a ton of coupons for games in this week's paper.  Match those up with some great sales, and you can get some cheap games.  Stock up for birthday parties...games of note (to me anyway) Connect 4, Bop-it and Monopoly.

ALSO....I HAVE several extra Bayer Contour meter coupons.  The coupon will make them free at CVS this week AND you get a 5 ecb.  If you do not have one, let me know and we'll try to get you one.  Generally...you would pay at least a buck for them if you bought them from Ebay or Coupon Clippers...but, just because you know me...I'll give it to you for free.  We just need to meet up.

Edited to add....this offer is for ladies involved in The Clipper Chicks or new to the Clipper Chicks who live in Naples.  I will not be mailing these to people I don't know.  I got extra to give to newbies in our area.

BTW..the limit is 1, so if you already have a coupon, please don't take one of mine...it's a good way to start out at CVS without paying anything.

....speaking of that...I'm still planning on highlighting CVS at our next couponing 101 class the first Monday of April the 5th I believe.  SOOOOOOO.....if you are new to CVS, contact me, get this coupon, and you will have 5ecbs to start out with.

couponmama08 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Explaining BOGO sales and coupon usage

At the last Clipper Chicks meeting I was at (the first of the month), I was asked, "How do we explain to cashiers that we are using our coupons the right way when they tell us we can't use them". OK...honestly, the question was asked MUCH more eloquently than that.

Well, I found a couple of samples that people say when they are question about their coupon usage...specifically BOGO coupons with a BOGO sale (which would mean you get both items for free). I hope this helps....and, please please forgive me for not citing the source. I know one quote (but I don't know which one) came from a forum discussion on Hot Coupon World, and the other quote came from a blog post. All I can say is that I have been searching for good answers in the middle of the night as my three children alternate their attempts to NOT allow me to sleep. I'm a bit of a zombie...and quoting my resources was not what I was thinking about at the time.

Number 1

Understanding coupon lingo and logic is critical. Coupons are considered a form of payment, similar to a check, because the store will get money back from the manufacturer for each coupon you give them. So you will buy the first item using your BOGO coupon as payment. The store will cover the price of the second one. So you get both products for free. This is how it ought to work, anyway.

Number 2

Here's the logic - when the store offers bogo, the customer pays for one item, and Kroger gives you the 2nd item free. When you use a bogo coupon, they write $4.79 on the coupon and send it in to the manufacturer. The company doesn't care what the sale was, they just reimburse the store for the $4.79, in effect paying for the one you would have been paying for.

So, it's completely legal and ethical. The store is getting paid for one item (from the manufacturer instead of you) and they are giving you one item free.

So, when clerks give me a funny look, I explain that the coupon is paying for the one I would normally pay for - "See, just write $4.79 right on that line there, and the manufactur will send your store the money for the other bottle of shampoo."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Look ladies, if a cashier doesn't want to scan your card...ask for a manager. If a manager hassles you, very kindly and patiently ask he/she would mind calling corporate to figure this out. If you have more questions or problems, let us know and we'll try to help.

Did that answer your questions?

KMart Doubles....

Hopefully coming soon to a Kmart near us. According to Hip 2 Save starting April 4.

I'm excited...I'll do a talk the "newbie talk" on April 5th...so we'll definitely highlight some Kmart deals.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to get stocked up again on deodorant, shaving cream, toothbrushes, tooth paste....and all sorts of other things. Woohoo...Kmart doubles if F.U.N.

Swagbucks video

Ok, so we talked about SwagBucks on Monday night and many of you seemed interested (and several have signed up). They have been giving lots of codes away the past few days....but are you wondering how to find them?

First...put their blog on your feed reader. Sometimes there is a code in their blog or they give a hint of where to find a code.

Second...if you twitter...follow them. If not...you can check Both their blog and twitter on their site. It's on the left vertical menu bar.

Third...become their friend on facebook. They'll often post codes there or you can read chatter about a code that is out (sometimes someone posts the code, but that is not "legal" NEVER post a code...give hints, but don't post, you can be deactivated).

Fourth...download their search bar. You will not get points every time you search, but you should get them every once in a while. Again my personal "goal" is to get 30 points a day...which would be enough for 2 $5 Amazon gift cards a month...but you can do better.

Check out this short video on their blog from a swag user. Since last January (09) they have cashed in over $1000 in Amazon gift cards, books, a HP mini book (I think) and now a Wii. That's a lot in one year! They must Swag all the time! hahaha. AND...they probably get a lot of referals.

Oh yeah...#5...refer people. You get a points for every point your referal earns, up to 1000 I believe. (That's two gift cards if your thinking like I'm thinking)

You do have to sort of "work" for the bucks. You've got to check out their site, blog, twitter, facebook, every once in a while. You have to search on their engine (which is run by google and ask). You can earn by shopping through them, turning in old cell phones....doing special offers...there's all kinds of ways. Anyway, I thought the video would be encouraging to you.

If you haven't sign up, use this link.

OH...WOOHOO....I just click the sign up link and if you sign up today, they'll give you 30 free Swag bucks! YES! You have to use my link though....

Newbie Talk on Monday

Hey there,
I wanted to remind you all that Michele will be giving a newbie "How to start couponing" talk this coming Monday March 1 at The Clipper Chicks meeting. The talk will begin at 8:00 pm at Chic-fil-a on Airport Road.

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about how you can save money using coupons and reduce your weekly shopping bill. Come and join us. I'll give a broad overview of organizing your coupons and using coupons at stores like Publix and CVS. We'll talk about internet coupons, helpful blogs and give real life examples of great shopping trips.

If your a seasoned couponer come add to the conversation and encourage others to take the time to use coupons too.

See you then!

SwagBucks birthday

Today is a good day to join swagbucks. It's their birthday and they are going to give away a ton of bucks. I'm close to earning my second $5 Amazon gift card this month.

If you want to sign up, click here

Coupon Trends

Jennifer K. sent me this e-mail with this info. I thought it was interesting and wanted to pass it along.

The numbers are out for the entire year of 2009 and coupon use. It’s staggering in many ways, but at the same way not surprising.

Coupon Trends

Coupon use rose 27% with $3.5 billion in redeemed coupons! This was the first annual increase in redemption since 1992. Companies saw this increased redemption and they stepped up to the plate with more coupons! Brands issued 367 billion coupons with an average value of $1.44 ($528.5 billion total). This was the highest number of issued coupons ever recorded.

Manufacturer Coupon Changes

Manufacturers did alter the offers they released to help compensate for the increase of coupons. The face value of coupons decreased by 1 penny on average and expiration dates were shortened by 10% over previous years .

Future of Couponing

The economic downtown in the last 18 months has drastically changed the way that people look at shopping. Many wonder if we all start using coupons, will they stop releasing them. I think this past year is proof that the companies are not looking at ending this system but instead are putting more of their resources into it!

For me it is great to see so many using coupons, but at the same time look at all the coupons that were not used. We redeemed $3.5 billion but they issued $528.5 billion, that’s only 0.7%. It’s my goal that we can at least break 1% for 2010!!

(source Coupon Info Now)

SwagBucks

If you are a follower of all the great couponing and deal blogs, you have no doubt heard about Swagbucks. I signed up a while ago, but I didn't really do much in the way of trying to earn them. In fact, I did nothing. Recently though I decided to put a little more effort into it, and I just "cashed out" last night for my first $5.00 Amazon gift card. My "goal" is to earn 2 $5.00 gift cards per month, which would be $100 in gift cards by Christmas (since I sort of missed the month of January). That's not a bad little start to my Christmas shopping budget for doing nothing but searching.

What is Swagbucks some of you are asking? I'm not a great expert on it, but I'll try to explain. You earn Swagbucks in several different ways by

a) using their search engine instead of google. You randomly earn between 1 and 5 swagbucks (or more), just for typing in a search (this is how I earned almost all of mine) You can install a toolbar to make it easier to search.

b)You earn them by finding Swagcodes that are released. I just put a widget on our side bar. You can check for random Swagcodes on that widget. If a code is published, type it into your account and earn a Swagbuck

c) Earn them by signing up for offers....you earn lots of Swagbucks for that

d)OR earn them by viewing offers and saying no thanks. You may only earn one...but you don't have to worry about canceling offers later (this is the only thing I've done so far)

e) Earn them by having people sign up under you.
This is the part I feel weird about because I don't usually ask people to do things like that. BUT....if you've been wanting to try Swagbucks out and haven't yet, click the little icon to the right and you would sign up under me. Basically, for the referral, I would earn 1 Swagbuck for every Swagbuck you earn up to 100 Swagbucks. So, there is a real benefit in having people sign up under you. So...if your going to do it, do it under someone from our group and not a random coupon blogger I guess. Or...sign up on your own, whichever you please.

f)You can also find Swagcodes by following them on their blog, on facebook, on twitter and all those other social network things. I don't do those, so I don't know how many codes are out there.

g) There are other ways to earn too like being a random hourly winner, giving them your old cell phone...etc....

I kind of thought Swagbucks would be to hard to earn to be worth by time, but I read a comment somewhere recently that said they try to earn 3 Swagbucks a day, either by searching or by looking at no obligation offers. They should get to the 45 Swagbucks needed to earn a $5 Amazon gift card in 15 days....so that equals 2 cards a month. That sounded do-able to me...and it even took less than 15 days to get to my 45 Swagbucks for my gift card.

I guess I've jumped on the wagon. If you want to jump on too...then click the box to the right or above this paragraph that says Swagbucks and join today. Don't forget to use your "junk/coupon" email address! And...let us know when you earn a gift card (or there are A TON of other things you can win if you want. I just like money for Christmas)

Publix Video

Hey guys...I wanted to send you over to Hip2Save. The blogger, Colin, just traveled to to Tampa and did a Publix video with one of her readers. It's really good and should get you pumped up about great ways to save money at our favorite grocery store.

Click HERE

Newbie Talks....Coming Soon!!!!

Hey there Clipper Chicks - Michele here.

So, I'm pretty sure that most of you know that Teri has stepped away from The Clipper Chicks for a while, and I stepped away also with the arrival of Nathan. However, our family is finally starting to fall into somewhat of a predictable schedule and he's sleeping pretty well...and I'm in need of adult contact:-)

My dear husband has given me the "OK" to commit to coming back to The Clipper Chicks to present a basic Coupon "How to" newbie talk the FIRST Monday of each month.

From what I understand, there is still a group of you meeting to socialize, clip, eat and chit chat each Monday still. Woohoo...glad to hear it! I've had several people over the past few months e-mail and ask if we are still doing the newbie talk...so that's one reason why I'm going to pick it up again. I'm excited about seeing you all again. I'm excited to help teach other ladies how they can save their family money on items they would be buying anyway, and I'm excited to encourage and be encouraged by others who are trying to live a more frugal lifestyle. So....here's the scoop!

Newbie Talk
The FIRST Monday of the month (the first one is Mon. March 1)
8:00pm
Chic-fil-a at Naples Walk (near Hollywood 20)

If you have any questions e-mail couponmama08 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Invite your friends or ladies (or guys...we had a clipper dude one time) who are interested in learning.

I'm sure people will continue to meet the other weeks of the month (I just can't commit to it right now), so come then too....but if you want to learn clipping, or know someone who wants to learn, send them on 3/1.

See you then!

Naples Daily News

Hey girls,
So I've heard from several of you that you are having problems finding NDN with coupon inserts. I think it's been 3 weeks with NO inserts. Has this been happening to you too?

Yesterday I was able to find the News-Press and there were 2 inserts in there. But every NDN paper were empty of coupons.

I'm going to contact the NDN and try to find out why they aren't putting the coupons in as of late (unless someone else already has and can inform me). Please take the polls to the right so I know what's been going on with your coupons too. Thanks!

Michele

Blender and diapers at Target....thought I'd share.

So, I've sort of fallen off the coupon bandwagon again. It's just tough to keep up with it right now. But, I'm slowly starting to get back on. I had a fun bargain deal today I wanted to share.

Target had a blender on sale this week. If you purchase it, you get a $10 gift card. It had pretty good reviews, and a blender is something we've been talking about getting, so I bought it.

Target also had a diaper deal, and it worked out beautifully for me. Buy 3 packages of Huggies diapers, get a $5 gift card. The diapers were onsale for $8.99.

I had these coupons

2 $3/1 coupons
1 $1.50/1 coupon
and 1 $1/1 Target Coupon
So...subtract $8.50 of coupons.

3 packs of diapers $26.97
- $8.50 in coupons
-$10 gift card
= $8.47 oop
Receive $5 gift card for my next purchase....in the coupon world, that means my 3 packs of diapers cost me $3.47...that's $1.16/pack. I like that!

I was able to buy my blender and 3 packs of diapers, for less than what the blender all by itself would have been. Not bad for my rusty couponing skills:-)

FYI....CVS has their diaper deal coming up starting Sunday 1/31. If you need diapers, have ECBs and some coupons, this is a great way to score some cheap Huggies diapers or wipes.

Have you had any deals lately?

A ton of coupons

Hello???? Is anyone out there???

It's been a while....a long while! I'm not sure if anyone checks this blog anymore or not. But, if so...I have 4 or 5 of each insert from the beginning of the year. Some of the coupons have been clipped, but there are a lot left over. If you would like some (or all) of the inserts, please leave a comment and let me know. They are from my family up north, so there are some coupons that we never received here.

Soooo...I hope everyone is doing well and still couponing. I'm trying to jump back on the bandwagon. I've still been in survival mode since having the baby. 3 children 3 and under is a busy life. I've been under budget in my grocery shopping, but it's mostly because of my stockpile...which is quickly dwindeling. I'm hoping for some good Publix sales and a KMart doubles soon (anyone hear if that will happen again soon?).

Let me know if your still checking the blog. It'll inspire me to start checking in more often and posting deals when we find them.

Happy New Year (can't believe it's almost February already!)