Back to School Blowout!

Woo Hoo! I love office supply stores! First, go get cards for all your local office supply stores: Office Max, Office Depot and Staples. Cards are free. My favorite way to save money at these stores is to take advantage when they offer 100% rewards back on products that you will use or donate. I've seen it offered on paper, batteries, printer ink, etc. So when they offer these deals, I will buy the products I would buy ANYWAY and then wait for my rewards. The rewards are given quarterly so whatever you rack up in rewards each quarter, you'll get a certificate that you can use on most anything in the store! AND most office stores give rewards back for turning in empty ink cartridges too. Office Depot several months back was doing a weekly special where they offered $5 per cartridge! I got all my cartridges together and sent my hubby down to turn in all the ink. I was so excited because you typically get between $2-$3 for empty ink cartridges. Another way to rack up your rewards!

So I share this with you to tell you about my AMAZING trip to Office Depot! I had rewards to spend that were going to expire in a couple weeks. School is coming up so on my mind was school supplies and a couple other things. Here's what I got: 100 pack blank CDs, 2 Elmer's glues, 8 glue sticks, pack of 24 #2 pencils, 2 school boxes, 1 Crayola crayons box of 16, 1 kids scissors, 2 packs of 3 pink erasers (brings back memories!!), 1 mini notebook, 2 Crayola Wonder coloring pads with markers and guess how much????? Drumroll please.....After rewards I spent $2.50 out of pocket!!! I hear applause! How fun was that!! I saved over $50 easy! So go get signed up for your office reward cards and check the weekly ads!!

 

 

 

Tip Tuesday #5

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream, then beat them.  

YUMMY!!

 

Tip Tuesday #4

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.  The water will help pull the grease away from the meat when cooking. 

Payless Deal!

Want to create a great sale??   Check it out!!  Right now Payless Shoes has lots of cute sandals for 50% off!  Order online and get additional savings!!  Did you know too, that you can order online and have them shipped to the store for F.R.E.E!!

Happy Shopping!!

Order Your Sunday Papers: Save time, money, and avoid Jail time!!

After teaching coupon classes for over 2 1/2 years now, I have heard it all when it comes to people's reasoning as to why they would NOT order the Sunday newspaper subscriptions.  Here are a few of the best bits:

#1 - "I will just go to the Dollar Store and get my papers."

The Dollar Stores actually sell the paper for $2, and you may not have any coupons inside depending on whether or not someone came a swiped them.  Plus you have to add an extra errand (and gas cost) into picking them up.  I MUCH prefer to have my papers delievered to my porch for less than $1 per paper and I get 5 delivered!  Save me a trip, save me money, I love it!! 

#2 - "I get extra coupons from my friends and co-workers."

 That will work until they realize how much you are saving and want to get in on the action!  Plus, if you forget to pick up coupons, you will be so bummed when a great sale and coupon match up and it's a week you don't have (I know this one from personal experience).  Again, I would rather invest a little bit into my 5 newspaper subscriptions and know that I will have them EVERY week!! 

#3 - "I will order my inserts from coupon clipping services."

As far as I can tell, some of the larger coupon clipping services no longer sell 'whole inserts' due to fraud investigations (seriously).  You can still order individual coupons, but you then have to spend extra time to plan your trip, order your coupons, then wait for your coupons, then go shopping.  Then you run the risk of the item being out of stock by the time your ducks are in a row.  As a mom of 5, I don't have that kind of time to invest in my couponing.  5 Sunday papers is plenty to stock up on my great deals without hardly any effort. 

#4 - "I get extra coupons from the trash can at an apartment complex by my house."

I draw the line at dumpster diving.  That's all I got. 

#5 - "I put in my money in one of those boxes, then just take as many as I want."

Ummmm ... Last time I checked ... that is called STEALING!!  I just got this email from one of my readers about a gal who was just ARRESTED for this very thing!  

Blotter: Woman charged in coupon thefts

06:59 AM CDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2011

By Donna Fielder / Staff Writer

Extreme couponing cost a Denton woman a criminal charge Monday afternoon.

Police conducted an investigation after a man hired to watch local newspaper stands saw a woman in a black Cadillac SUV stop at two different vending racks, insert money for one Sunday newspaper and remove the plastic coupon packages from every newspaper in the rack, according to police reports.

The man called police about 8:30 a.m. June 5, saying he had been hired by the vendor to watch the racks and try to discover who was stealing the packages. The papers cannot be sold if the coupons are missing, he told officers.

He saw the woman stop and take coupon packages from a vending box in the 1700 block of Malone Street. Then he followed and stopped behind her at another rack on Sunset Street a few minutes later, and she again opened the newspaper vendor box.

He approached her and told her that police had been called. He told her to wait there with him for officers to arrive. But the woman would not wait, according to the report. She climbed into her vehicle and drove away.

The man was able to describe the woman and the SUV to police, who launched an investigation. Officer Ryan Grelle said detectives arrested Sybil Hobson, 37, of Denton, about 4:30 p.m. Monday on a charge of fraudulent destruction or removal or concealment of writing, which is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a $4,000 fine and up to one year in jail.

Grelle said the woman at first was arrested on a Class C theft charge, but after conferring with the Denton County District Attorney’s Office, detectives determined that the more serious charge was appropriate.

SERIOUSLY!?!?  There is no reason for this!!  Check out this post to see all the great deals we can offer for multiple Sunday newspapers to be delivered to your door, every week, for less than $1 per paper!!!  That is the best, most consistent place to get your coupons, and you can do it so cheap and oh, so legal!!!  

Have you heard any other people's tricky ways to get around getting their own coupons?  What extremes have you taken to get your great deals?? 

Family Fun Calendar

I am working on adding a bunch of fun things on the Family Fun calendar.  If you have any ideas of things to add for this summer, let's get together and share some ideas. 

Plus I LOVE comments!!!