Thanks GIVING!

I mentioned in a previous post that I'm participating in the 30 day giving challenge. 

Over the years I've heard people say things like "I don't have the money to give anything to anyone."  Money isn't always needed.  I get tons of stuff free at stores.  You have talents.  I'm sure there's a couple who would love for you to watch their child for a couple hours.  You can pray for someone.  There's lots of ways to give that don't cost anything.  A hug to a friend going through a tough time.  Listening when someone needs a friend.  Saving Boxtops for Education for a local school.  Saving Coke reward points for a local school.  (If you don't have a school you are giving these to, let me know and I can give you the address of a school who could really use them.)

One of the ways I love to give is by getting free stuff either through sweepstakes or using coupons and being able to give them away.  I know some people won't ask for help when they can use it, so I try to give directly as well as many times through organizations who provide Christmas gifts and such to children.  A few years ago I was able to buy $1700 of games for $65.  They went to a few different organziations for raffle items to help them raise money ("Family Fun Night" baskets).  I gave some to a friend who didn't have the money to buy much for her children for Christmas.  (Se nearly cried as she left with about $200 of stuff.  My cost was about $5.)  When I see a good deal, I jump on it.  Did I need all those games?  No.  But someone could use them.  That I knew. Same with the cereal deal I did last week.  I was amazed at the number of people who asked me what I was going to do with all that!

Food banks are really hurting right now.  In fact, to encourage giving, the West Virginia lottery is doing a "Give and Win" food drive.  They do this nearly every year.  November 10, 2010 if you take a non-perishable food item into certain lottery retailers you'll receive a free instant scratch-off lottery ticket.  You can see the list of places HERE.   It think it's a cool idea to raise awareness of food banks!

The only thing I often get free I can't figure a place to donate is over the counter medicines.  I can give them to people I know, but other places won't accept them.

A few ideas for giving stuff you've gotten free:

• Toilet paper:  churches, schools, Christian camps, homeless shelters, food banks, etc.
• School supplies:  schools, churches
• Food:  food banks, churches often help people who need assistance
• Toys:  save for Christmas and give at Angel Tree, Toys for Tots, churches, schools can often use toys as prizes/rewards
• Pet Food:  animal shelters, food banks (people often have pets even if they need assistance from a food bank)

Let's see how you can GIVE this week!  Like I said, it doesn't need to be something that costs money!

DO NOT DELETE

Cereal Savings

This week I'm drowning in Cereal Savings!  I went into Giant Eagle and found Monster Cereals on clearance at 75% off after Halloween.  Now they don't expire until August, so plenty of time to eat them.  I often donate extras or give them to people who can use them so I try to stock up on good deals.

Then I had 12 coupons for free Honey Nut Cheerios I won from an instant win game.  They were on sale at Giant Eagle 2/$10 AND you got a free box when you bought 2.  So I was able to get 18 boxes of cereal for free.

In total I ended up with exactly 100 boxes of cereal.   $328 retail value for the Monster Cereals, and at sale price for the Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch was $90.  So that's $418 of cereal.  My cost?  $82.  And with bonus boxtops for education on there, it's over $13 of Boxtops, which I save for a school where over most of the kids live below the poverty line.

The Psychic Cash Register

I just returned from Walgreens.  I need to make sure I am not charged twice for the things I bought today.  I was expecting my bill to come to about $1.50 and it was over $6.  Upon investigation, the pretzel M&Ms rang in at $3.49 instead of $2.49.  Also, I didn't get the Register Rewards for buying 4.  (Buy 4 bags of 9.9 oz. M&Ms and get $5 back in Register Rewards.)

I pointed this out to the cashier,who by the way is my FAVORITE cashier there, she never complains about coupons and is so good about them and actually enjoys seeing how much I can save.  She then turned this problem over to the front end manager who insisted the cash register knew in advance I was going to use a $1 coupon and since I "can't use a coupon on a sale item" the cash register added the coupon to the price of the item.  I pointed out the cash register had no way of knowing this, and that yes, I could use a coupon on a sale item.  She said I wouldn't get a Register Reward back if I used one.  I said that yes, I could receive one even though I used one as long as they were issued by different companies.  She shrugged her shoulders and refused to do anything else for me.  I asked to call corporate (I left my cell phone at home.)  She asked if I would like to talk to the general manager.  Same song and dance about the register adding the coupons onto the price and the same Register Reward story.  I KNEW I was right.  (My grandpa used to love a poem that said "He who knows and knows he knows is wise, follow him."  In this instance I knew what I was doing and knew I knew.)  The manger finally said he did think it was ringing up at $3.49 instead of $2.49 because the holiday packaging was not included in the sale.

So we go to the shelves, get four non-holiday packages of M&Ms.  He still said I couldn't use coupons and a Register Reward, the register wouldn't let me. I was trying to explain I could.

So, I finally said, "Would you please try it just to humor me."  I could tell he didn't want to.  I added, "And if it doesn't work, I'll believe you."  So it was a showdown as to who was right.

Needless to say, I won.  Four  9.9 bags of M&Ms.  One package of Ramen noodles.  Four  $1 off coupons.  One $5 Register Reward applied to order.  Total came to $1.95.  It often takes about 10 seconds for Register Rewards to start printing.  I could tell he was feeling smug in that it wasn't going to print, but after a moment, I was able to say, "There it is!"  :) 

So, for my Walgreens wrap-up of the week:

Four bags of 9.9 oz. Pretzel M&Ms
Three packages of Ramen Noodles
One bag Ghiradelli chocolate squares
Fives boxes of Sinex
Five boxes of Nyquil
Two bottles cough syrup
One weekly local newspaper

Total I paid after coupons and Register Rewards:   $25.61 (includes tax)   Total I have in Register Rewards to spend next week:  $31  My receipts said with sales and coupons alone I saved $55.93.  So that's over $80 of stuff I got for $25, plus $31 back in Register Rewards.

I have been sick lately so the Nyquil is a welcome addition to the house!  In fact the other day I said to the cashier, "I've been going through this stuff like crazy lately."   He asked if I meant the Nyquil or Ramen!

Photo of my stuff:

75% off Halloween

I don't celebrate Halloween, but that doesn't mean I won't shop bargains once Halloween is over.  :)

I was at the store today and saw a man with a cart full of candy, so I went poking around.  I first saw bags of mini Clark bars (one of Mom's favorite candies -- I actually paid $1.59 for a full sized Clark bar on Sunday night.)  Bags of the mini ones were 60 cents a bag.  Jackpot.  A little further on, I saw a lot more clearanced candies, and I thought of the "Christmas store" that my church does where everything is free.  I figured some candy in non-Halloween wrappings would be a welcomed donation for people to get to add to stockings, so I got a number of bags of candy.  The candy ranged in price from 24 cents for a bag of caramel apple candy corn (which I wanted to try) to $2 for a huge bag of Wonka candies.  Everything was 75% off.

I found mini-boxes of Russell Stovers candy for 32 cents.  Someone had unwrapped one of the "spider" wrappings from it, and underneath the outer Halloween wrapping was a normal mini-box of Russell Stover candy that would usually sell for about $1.29.  I got a few of these thinking they would make nice basket stuffers at Christmas.

And then I looked to a bottom shelf.  My gold mine!  I absolutely love General Mills' Count Chocula.  There was a huge display of it, and it, too, was 75% off.  Not only that but there were some cereal bars with bats on them for Halloween also at 75% off.

In all I spent a whopping $59!  (Originally $236!)  That's a lot just for candy and cereal.  But the cereal has a best if used by date in September of 2011 and I know we will use it up.

Also, on two bags of candy I found peelie coupons that if you bought three bags of candy you got $1 off!  I looked for more of those coupons but couldn't find any more.  The coupons didn't expire until Nov 15, so that fun to spot!

In all I bought:

28 boxes of cereal  (26 Count Chocula, 1 Boo Berry, 1 Franken Berry)
3 boxes of cereal bars (wanted more but couldn't reach them)
32 bags of candy
4 mini-boxes of Russell Stovers Candy
3 Chocolate Peeps

I went to a few other stores for regular shopping, and everywhere but this one grocery store had their Halloween stuff at 25% to 50% off depending on what it was.  I almost never stop at this store, but decided to today!

Looks like we won't be buying any cereal for a year or so!

30 Day Giving Challenge

I saw about this on a fellow blogger's website today.  I was looking at The Things We Hope For and she is participating in this challenge.

It's simple.  It's easy, and you don't need to be a blogger.  So what if I'm blogging late at night and you missed day one?  Start on Nov 2.

The 30 Day Giving Challenge has this as it's theme:

The goal is every day for the month of November is to do something for someone.  It doesn't need to be publicized, it doesn't need to be big.  Just something.

Maybe take some stuff you've gotten free or cheap after coupons and give them to a family in need.  Or buy some pencils and take them to  a school.  Save boxtops for education and give them to a school.  It doesn't need to be expensive, it doesn't need to cost money.  Just give of yourself.

I don't want to say what I did for day one, but I will say the recipient was quite grateful.

So, just give of yourself!

WOW! You $aved How Much? review

This post contains affiliate links.

The author of Wow! You Saved How Much? asked if I would like to review her book.  My first reaction to the book was how thin it was.  It's only 52 pages, but then again that makes it easy to read, and I've seen some "how to coupon" books contain a lot of fluff or all kinds of extra details that can confuse the "newbie".  You certainly won't find any of that here.  It's a very well written, straight forward book that anyone can understand.

You might think coupons are a waste of time or boring or not worth it or a number of other excuses, but as you've read on my blog and as Renita Perrone teaches in Wow! You Saved How Much? you'll see those excuses are just that -- excuses.

I will say, though, that anyone can see some nice savings with coupons.  While this book does explain what I call "hard-core" couponing, you will learn the basics and if you use what you learn in this book it will pay for itself in the first trip to the grocery store.

Bottom line, this is a simple, easy to understand book about couponing.  I'd highly recommend it to anyone just starting out with coupons.

What I liked:   The concise, easy to follow way this book was put together.  I also liked the ideas of how to trade coupons, where to find them, and other information it took me a while to figure out when I was first learning to coupon.

What I didn't like:  She didn't mention coupons that spit out at the register when you buy certain items.  These can be a gold mine.  However, I understand this is for new coupon users, and that can be a bit confusing at times.   I did see on Amazon this is called "Volume 1" so possibly she is planning another book.

Also, this book was published in 2009, so information will be dated in this volume.

As mentioned, I received a book to review.  Receiving this book free did not influence my opinon whatsoever.  My opinions are my own.