dealdivas

"Here's a picture of the free and cheap items I was able to get at Meijer a few weeks ago. The Jello was a moneymaker. There was a coupon on the Meijer mealbox website for $1.50 off 2 Jello. Meijer had Jello on sale for $0.50 a box. I bought three at a time, scanned the mealbox coupon, and paid nothing. When I finished the order a $2 OYNO (on your next order) catalina coupon printed. So, for every 3 jello boxes I made a $2 profit. There were also coupons on the Velveeta boxes, and they also gave you a $2 OYNO catalina coupon. I would buy 4 at a time, scan 2 coupons ($2/2), scan a $2 OYNO cat from the jello, and pay $0.67 and get another $2 OYNO cat. The taco bell sauce was on sale for $1.09 and there was a mealbox coupon for $1.50 off any Taco bell salsa or dinner kit. I made a $0.41 profit on each one I bought. I also had several free Good Bites dog treat coupons to redeem so I threw those in and used some of the overage and catalina coupons to cover the tax on those. I don't know how much I paid out of pocket but it wasn't very much and I have over 120 boxes of Jello, 30 bottles of Taco Bell Sauce, lots of dog treats, and tons of Velveeta. I had so many of the $2 catalinas that I was able to buy a food dehydrator (we've been wanting one for a long time), meat to last us several weeks, and some other groceries we needed. Thanks to everyone who posted about the deal! And to my cousin and fellow RC-er Alicia, IN who sent me the Meijer mealbox taco bell sauce coupon after they pulled it!!" Dana Schrader

"Our Dillon's only doubles to .50 so Mom got:

15 Betty Crocker cookie Mixes for $0.50 each
4 boxes of Quaker Oatmeal for $0.50 each
11 boxes of Betty Crocker Muffin mix for $1.10 each Daddy’s favorite.
Mom also got 1 tub of Betty Crocker Frosting for $0.14
19 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for $0.50 each
1 tube of Crest sensitive tooth paste for 2.69,
4 cans of pineapples $0.50 each
2 boxes of Mac& Cheese $0.50 each
2 Daisy Sour Cream $0.50 each
12 cans of Carnation cooking milk for free
12 Swiss Miss hot cocoas, for free
1 swiffer wet jet free after rebate
1 swiffer duster free
2 Duncan Hines frostings for free
2 hamburger helpers for free
1 box of Trix cereal they paid mom 1.05
2 boxes of Cheerios they paid mom $0.50 each to take them.
Total OOP after rebates 39.47 total savings 222.22 after rebates savings of 86%
WOW what a great deal!"
Lilly Age 5 ½ months
Anna R, KS (Mom)

A Cereal Castle
"Lately, our church’s food pantry has been pretty bare. Each week, the church provides a list of the items it needs the most in the bulletin. Cereal and toilet paper are always items on the list. Fry’s ran a Breakfast Mix and Match sale. When you purchased 6 items, you received $3 off your order. When deals like this come along, I know it is time to call in the troops. I gathered all my coupons, my Mom, my sister Amanda and her friend Kami. My son Jayson and daughter Emery (in the picture) also tagged along for the fun. We split up the coupons and went in for the attack. I am sure we looked pretty funny as our row of shopping cars followed each other to the deal. We had a pretty good system set up. We loaded up the cereal, headed over to check out, and the person who made it thorough the line last had to take the cereal out to the car while the other three carts headed back to the cereal isle. We each did multiple orders to accumulate all of the items in the pictures. Each order consisted of 6 boxes of cereal totaling $9. When the order was totaled, $3 came off. After the coupons ($1/2 Life and Captain Crunch cereals) the final cost OOP: $3. The Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal was free after the 50 cents coupon doubled. To sweeten the deal, the Cottonelle toilet paper was 99 cents with a 50-cent coupon that doubled. Free toilet paper! Bounty Basic paper towels were 88 cents with 25-cent coupons that doubled, making each roll 13 cents. Another great find! Finally, we stopped by Albertsons on the way home and using a rain check for $1 from a previous week, we were able to pick up the Scott toilet paper with coupons, making them free as well. I can’t believe at the end of this shopping trip, the kids were still smiling. Jayson and Emery thought we were building a castle out of all of the items. They would grab items out of the grocery bags and help us line them up. They insisted the “castle” wasn’t big enough. Sometimes, we get together this way to shop for deals for ourselves, but it was a great feeling to all work together, knowing it was for someone else. The next Sunday, we piled all of these items into the car and headed to church. Refund Cents has saved my family so much money. It was a great experience to be able to share the savings with someone else." Angela S.

"I went to the Kroger Mega Sale yesterday. Hubby helped to check out one order of 30 items, and I had two different orders, one with 30, and then went back in to do another order with 20 items. They were out of the Tylenol & Shout, so I had to re-figure my orders, which took awhile, but still did pretty good. I ended up with $178.50 worth of groceries and only had to pay $31.05. And this also included some extras I needed, such a hamburger meat, milk, salad mix, hot dog buns, and a loaf of bread. I ended up with these, plus 16 pkgs of BC cookies, 12 pkgs of BC potatoes,3 Crisco oil, 24 cans of Carnation milk, 4 Dial liq soap, 6 5lb. bags of sugar, 3 Quaker oats, 1 Welchs grape juice, 6 bags of Nestles choc chips, 4 Eagle Brand milk , and 1 Pledge, plus had free coupons from Kroger for the following: frozen bag of blackberries, box of small tomatoes, and Oscar Mayer hotdogs. I had already put the blackberries and hotdogs in the freezer, so they did not make it into the pix. It took close to 2 hours to shop & check out, but was worth it."
Larie Chandler/Ky

"My heart will always belong to CVS...However for the first week of November, I had the time of my life at Jewel. I regularly get 10-20 newspapers every week ($1 each my local Menards and Dollar Tree) and do very well at stockpiling health and beauty aids, but in the LOND, I very rarely score free food. I was once again able to justify this expenditure when I picked up my Sunday paper on Saturday evening (lucky me). I noticed they were featuring General Mills and Unilever products as part of a deal offering $15 to spend on your next order when you purchased $30 in qualifying items. This automatically resulted in some really great deals with coupons, but I was soon to learn that the deal was even sweeter.

I had joined the Illinois Good Deal Loop (IGDL) several months ago, after seeing other mentions of state loops on RC. I checked out the link Michelle has posted and signed up. The wonderful posters there alerted us to the fact that each item had two sale prices. The first price was the sale with the Jewel Preferred Savings Card, and what I would ultimately pay for each item before coupons. But the best part was that the $30 was based on the sale prices without the Preferred card.. You would automatically pay less than the $30 even without coupons, and still get the $15 in Catalina coupons. There were several items such as Green Giant small boxes, were a moneymaker, Betty crocker cake mixes were free, and ALL liquid laundry detergent was dirt cheap.

GG w/out the Preferred Card was $2.30, but after scanning the card they were 10/$10. I only had to buy 14 to total $32.20, but paid $14 and got $15 in the form on 3 $5 coupons good on my next order. Betty Crocker Cake mix was $2 before the preferred card and I paid $15 get 15 boxes and still got the $5 coupons. All was only $6.33 for 5 bottles after the preferred savings and the $15 coupons. Using coupons brought these prices down even more, and they quickly became profitable to purchase. The deal was stackable 2 times, so getting $60 would result in getting 6 $5 coupons and the registers did not restrict rolling, so I was able to use those to pay. I started by paying $13.92 and a $10 catalina. (From the Con Agra Catalina deal which was and still is, at the moment I write this, is going on simultaneously - but that's another story and picture, lol!) Each transaction ranged from $.23 - $34.34 (when I didn't get my $30 in Catalinas on the prior order).

My biggest money maker was Progresso broth which I had $1/1 coupons for. The price was 6/$16 so 12 would put me over the $30 mark. The Preferred price was 6/$10, so I paid just $8 after preferred savings and manufacturer coupons and $15 would print out. I immediately went to my usual coupon resources for times like these. I ordered 120 of broth from the store and coupons to match.

Over the week, I hit 3 stores and did 43 transactions, and another 3 days to unpack, tally, and come down from my shopper's high. I paid $185.88 out of pocket, saved $2785.07. The sweetest part, my returns gave me back $85 to use on my next orders. Thanks and Happy shopping" Amanda Jasinski, IL
(Read Amanda's complete story in the Jan/Feb issue of Refund Cents.)

"This is my daughter with just one of our Kmart trips we took last week. We went 3 times and got almost $1000.00 worth for about $75.00 out of pocket. I purchased a Sears giftcard for $50.00 at Giant Eagle first with my Giant Eagle credit card which gave me $.24 off my gas and $5.00 off my next shopping order at Giant Eagle. Then I used that card at Kmart for an even better deal!" Annette

As I put things away from my recent shopping trip I overheard this little conversation:
"I think she's on to us."
"Why, why do you say that?"
"I think she knows we don't plan to potty train anytime soon."
"Oh I don't think so, we keep her pretty tired. Does she think?"
"She's just being nice and giving us some of those big blocks to stack again."
"Can you reach that purple one or should I get it?"
"Well, if we work together we could just take care of them all..."
"Yeah, you're right. You're always right. Is that because you came first?"
"Nah, just because I'm smart enough to know I am NOT using that potty thing like the big kids, till I'm like, at least 4, yeah 4. Did you know it eats your poop?"!
"Wow! No- thanks for the heads up. I'll wait till I'm 4 too then."
"Good thing we've got such a smart Mom to buy all these diapers all the time then."
"Yeah, no kidding she's the best, she signed up for Refund Cents and now shops in bulk!":) - M. Ashland

"My cat Frankie and my daughter Holly are enjoying all the almost free things we got at KMart. We saved over $100 dollars and spent less than $20! We love Refund Cents!" Shirley Smith, St Augustine, FL

"On this day I made two trips, one to Walgreens and one to Target. The Target items are on the left and the Walgreens items are on the right in the picture. Some items are missing in the Wags picture. First I went to Walgreens and purchased the 6 hour energy shot which was FAR, Scrubbing bubbles gel for $4.49 had a $2 coupon and received $1.50 Easy Saver Rebate, 4 Glade plugins which were free after coupons and Easy Saver Rebate, 3 Robitussin for $3.99 using 3 $2 coupons and getting a $10 RR, 2 Pert shampoos which were free after coupons, Chemistry shampoo for $9.99 which was FAR, 1 pack of Quilted Northern for $2 after $2 coupon and Wags coupon, Arm and Hammer laundry detergent for $2.99 which was $1.99 after Easy Saver Rebate, 2 cans of Wags peanuts, and chapstick for $2.99 that I will get a TMF rebate on. I also used a $5 off $25 purchase and my total was $31.81. After all was said and done this trip cost me about $2.34. Not a bad deal. Then my trip to Target I bought 6 Johnson's Buddies soap for .97 each using 2 $3 off 3 coupons making a profit of .18, then I bought some Cascade 2 in 1 dishwasher tabs for $3.69 before a .50 coupon (not a great deal but I needed some), next I got some Purina cat treats for .94 using a $1 coupon making a profit of .06. The last item is a fire truck bookcase for my son's room. I found it on clearance for $39.98 which was 50% off. I wanted to buy it awhile back but it was too much. I was very excited to stumble upon it. I couldn't get my kids to sit still to take a picture so my cats had to do. They were both very interested in the treats." Jessica Sloan, MN

"Here's a picture of my sons, Jon and Jae, trying to make a surprise getaway with my Powerade Deal! The real "steal" was the deal I got at Kroger! Using the $5 instant reward for buying 10 (three times), combined with 6 $1/3 coupons (tearpad at Walgreens), 1 free coupon (Coke Rewards) and 2 B10G5 coupons (hang tag at Publix a while back... I wasn't able to use them all at Publix since every third bottle had a tag!!!), I was able to buy 30 bottles and I got paid $2!! The Nortons

I bought $292.02 worth of stuff
and paid $63.48
For a Savings of $228.54 !!!

Total before coupons $170.44
OOP after coupons $49.59
Savings of $120.85!!

Total before coupons $ 193.85
OOP $ 34.49
savings of $ 159.36
tax: $ 14.35

"Kmart had super doubles the first week of October (10/1 to 10/5) and I happily partook of it twice in that week even if I did have to drive one hour each way to do so. It was worth it. They were doubling coupons $2.00 and under with a limit of 4 like coupons and 75 coupons per customer pre day. In my opinion, Kmart is a little pricey on many things but I still found some deals. Here are my three trips."
Laura Williams

"Mommy and I did a lot of shopping this week @ Walgreens. We got 12 St. Ives Elements, 22 bottles of Pert Plus, 2 bottles of Infant Tylenol, 2 Nutra Air Freshmatics,1 L'Oreal cleanser,1 energy drink, 10 cans of Pringles, 4 jars of peanuts, 1 Fusion Razor, 1 Venus razor, 2 Lysol toilet cleaners, 6 Alka-Seltzer cold, 3 boxes of paperclips, 1 protractor, 1 pack of note cards, 1 bottle of Nivea body wash for Daddy, 1 tube of lip lipslick and 7 packs of wrapping paper. Total value $350.88. Mom paid $77.49 and expects to get rebates back of $28.95 so total OOP will be $48.05 and $20.56 of that is tax. I love it when Mom brings home good deals like these. It makes Daddy very happy! Thanks" Lilly age 5 months, Annie R.-- Mommy

"Mommy and I did the 2/$2.98 diaper deal on the way to the doctor's offices for our well baby appointments. We went to 4 different Walgreens and picked up 42 packs of diapers. It was so easy Mommy just filled up the cart with diapers, showed the cashier the coupons. They typed them in and gave them back to her. Mommy only paid a little over $65 for all these diapers. I hope they last until I am done with potty training. Mommy's Little Sweetheart, Lilly"

"I do not have access to loads of inserts every week. I purchase 2-4 papers each week, and a relative gives me another set, so my max is usually 5. My local stores only double one like up to $1 now (so a $0.75/1 becomes $1 off total), so it has been getting harder and harder to do great deals with limited numbers of coupons. Add to that three children 6 and under that accompany me on my shopping, and you would be correct in assuming I don't usually do multiple trips a week or multiple times through the checkout! However, in good news, a brand new Walgreens just opened a couple miles from our home, and thus far they have been extremely friendly with coupons. I wanted to share a fabulous trip (for us) with limited coupons and limited time!

Now armed with my $25 GC I was ready to collect some deals I had read about on Centsible chat. I had been in a few times prior this month, but had never gotten any Pert as they were always out. This time I scored 3 bottles and had three of the $1.50/1 coupons to combine with my $2.50/1 ESC from the booklet (leaving one on the shelf for someone else!). So already it was a good trip as I knew I would have overage on those as they were $3.49 and the total of the coupons on each bottle was $4 off. I went and grabbed three of the Quilted Northern Ultra Plush TP for $4 each, because a family of 5 can always use more TP. I had 3 insert coupons of $1 off each package to combine with the $1 off each from the ESC. I then went and got two of the St. Ives Elements, which I knew had a $5 RR right now. They were $4.99 and I had a B1G1, so ended up with 2 free St. Ives. DH had been hinting about me not finding any gum deals lately and he was out, so I found the Orbit gum packages on sale for 3 packages for $2 right now. I didn't have coupons on those but was doing so well that didn't bother me ... much at least. LOL.

"My OVER THE HILL Gift Basket ~ My family went to a birthday party yesterday. The person was turning 48 and a good sport. So I made a gift basket and included:
3) Benefiber sticks 18pks (WG RR deal)
4) pain patches (CVS ECB deal of past)
1 ) artheritis patches (CVS current ECB deal)
2) vitamins (CVS and Publix freebies)
3) Excedrin Artheritis (trail size freebies)
2) BC powder (CVS ECB deal of past)

It all went in a plastic bin I got at CVS 90% off so $.10. I wrapped it in mesh touling. All in all, it was about $40 or so worth of stuff (but of course my net cost was a profit). Everyone at the party thought it was a hoot! The birthday boy was really eying the pain patches since he has a bad back."
~Maryjane S. of SW FL

"I have been to KMart 3 times... more stuff than this I got, but already put it away. I got $550 worth the first trip for $46. Don't forget to use those KMart Beauty books in the front of the store." Amy Thomas

"This was an awesome deal I didn't know I was going to get. I went to Food Lion with the plan of getting the Sierra Mist that was on sale buy 5, get them for .79 each. I had some coupons for B1G1F and 1/.55 a 2 liter. When we got in the store, I went for the drinks and sent my son to find more coupons. We did 2 transactions. On the first, we did five 2 liters and the little 6 packs of Halloween Cream Soda. We scanned five .55 coupons and two of the B1G1F, which took off $1.59. At the end, they owed me .10. Second transaction: same deal. I was so excited I rushed home to tell my husband. If only all grocery bills could be this low! My little girl Natalie is waiting to drink it all up." Yvonne Byrd

"When I found out from my friend (Lindsay Auran, another RMC member) that our Kmart was honoring the double coupons, I screamed and jumped up and down!! I was so excited! I live about 10 miles from town so I went home and planned my strategy carefully. I gathered my coupons, printed off lists that other people had posted (including Lindsay's examples) and planned! Then my mother in law called and asked if my girls (ages 5 and 7) would like to spend the night at her house! Oh yeah!! Shopping ALONE! What a rare and glorious treat! So I dropped off the girls, kissed them good bye and RAN to Kmart! I walked in and went to the service desk and asked if our store was indeed honoring double coupons and I was told 'Yes! Just mention it when you check out'. OH YEAH! I spent 2 1/2 fantastic hours wandering the aisles. When I was ready to check out, I had a very sweet lady who was so pleasant to check me out. She didn't know about the double coupons and asked the front end person about them. She was told 'Yes, double the coupons'. Betty, the cashier, was just amazed by the coupons (we get awful coupons here in ND, I traded for most of them) and was having so much fun scanning them and watching the total go down, down down. I 'complicated' things a bit by throwing in a $10 gift card and at the end, I bought $116 worth of stuff for....... drum roll...... $10.45!! That INCLUDES the $10 gift card so I only paid .45 for everything! I was as excited as I could possibly be, I could have cried from happiness! Here is a picture of my goodies. My dog, Cooper, wanted to be in the picture too."
Michele Goldade Minot, ND

"Here is my 4 year old son loving the idea that I got 50 bottles of Nesquik chocolate milk and 11 boxes of tea for free excluding tax. We got many other good deals on our shopping trip but this is what we were most excited about. I just want to thank Refund Cents and Christy H, and my girls at work for helping find and get the good deals." Denise L., IL

Treats for Cats & Humans
"I want to introduce you to our cat, Montana. Our little one has feline leukemia. Her brother died and she is left by herself as the veterinarian told us not to have any other cat without the condition around her. She seems to fend well for herself. She is a good mouser and lovable little cat. Kate and our son found the two little ones just before they married in the summer of 2005. Our last cat had died and they knew we wanted another one. Kate is a cat lover herself and has two at her house. Kate was volunteered for this picture with my good deals and promptly rewarded. I love getting cat and dog food and treats for free and this time was lucky to get Sara Lee Bread for free also. I have shared the treats with Kate so she has some for her two cats also. I have a few months of free cat food and that is pretty good for me. I have enough treats to last longer. I have tried to take advantage of any of the free cat and dog food as our cat and dog are not particularly fussy about what they eat. Although since eating the more expensive type they do not like store brand. I guess in that respect they are a lot like us humans! Also I ran across L’Oreal hair products B1G1F and I had two coupons that were B1G1F so I ended up with two shampoos and conditioners for free. It is so nice to try the new products for free and they smell so nice nowadays. They also promise to make your hair look wonderful; what more could you ask for? I want to thank my wonderful traders who always send me the best coupons. I also wanted to show you that every little bit helps with refunding and couponing. You don’t always know when these deals might come up so it is best to be prepared and be ready for last minute deals you see. If an item is for free and you will use it then make sure it is on your coupon list and let those traders know you can use it as they will pass it on if they don’t need it. Also, share what you receive since what comes around, goes around. Kate and Montana are both happy as am I." Kathleen Mincks, WA

Kmart Double The Fun!
"I kept reading about this Kmart and that Kmart doing double coupons on chat and skipping the posts thinking it doesn’t apply to my store and kept reading. Then…someone posted that every store should be participating. After phoning to be sure it was true!! I used a list posted on Refund Cents to give me ideas on what coupons to use and started pulling all high value coupons out of my box (like $1.00, 1.50 and 2.00 coupons). Since we moved this summer I had not been to a Kmart, around us, but passed one by accident, so this is how I knew there was a Kmart near me. I didn’t know the layout of the store or anything, but I knew the potential I had with the coupons I pulled out, so off I went having only an hour to get in and out! I remember reading on Chat about a Kmart beauty book with high value coupons in it and was amazed to find them in several places throughout the store, like in the jewelry department, and health and beauty section. On my first trip I saved $103.80 and paid $43.62. After I got home I realized I had not given the cashier $12 worth of coupons!! I was horrified that I overpaid, but chaulked it up to my “first time” and decided to plan trip #2. I read more about Kmart on Chat and came up with a few more ideas, some coupons to match with sale items etc. I was determined to do better. After slowly scanning each aisle as not to miss any deals I saw that Kmart had Delmonte fruit cups on sale for 1..00 each, I remembered having coupons for these so I dug in my box and came up with $1 off 2 coupons for these, after doubling they should be free. So up to the cash with coupons in hand (recommending to those in line around me to go ahead as I have a lot of coupons!). This time I saved $134.64 and paid only $23.20 OOP! Woohoo, I am getting the hang of this! After going over my receipt (it helps me to go over my receipt and write down exactly what I paid per item so that I can fully appreciate my savings), I realized the Del Monte coupons did not double. This seems to be a pattern with coupons that say save $1 on 2. Still .50 per pack for 6 cups of fruit isn’t that bad, and the trip was so much fun! So, on to trip #3. This time I realized that the October All You magazine had some coupons I needed to use. There was the $2 coupon on the new Ziploc vacuum starter kit and then the $1 coupon on the special bags that go with it. The starter kit was $3.99 so free after the coupon. Just walking around the store I realized that there were some on-shelf coupons I could use too. Above the Sally Hansen nail section there were $1 coupons on any Sally Hansen nail tool, so after doubling that equaled free tweezers. On the third trip I saved $106.94 and spent $27.36 (on this trip I had to throw in some children’s motrin and a couple other things we really needed). This is basically what it came down to: $449.56 in value less $104.18 OOP=$345.38 in coupon savings!! I was so impressed I made sure to fill out the online survey and mention how great I thought the double coupon events were! Here are photos of the loot with my daughter Maria just pleased as can be to be photographed! Some of the items I ended up with were Dove Shampoo and Conditioner, Aussie stylers and Shampoo and Conditioner, Good Bites dog treats, Renuzit, Glade candles, Tylenol pm, Advil pm, Sally Hansen tweezers, Revlon emery boards, Zest bar soap, Del Monte fruit cups, Celestial seasonings tea, Easy Mac, Ziploc bags, Dawn, Palmolive, Resolve, Glade carpet, Comfort 3 razors, Gillette shampoo, Vaseline mens lotion, Purez, Gain softener, bic lighter, sure, trident gum, snickers, 3 musketeers, Kids bandaids, and more! I plan on bringing some of it to share with some special sisters, and friends at our annual women’s retreat in November. I hope you all get in on the Kmart double fun and that Kmart continues it!" Teresa Davis, Bradford,MA

"These are the deals I got at Target today. Everything was on clearance. I had a coupon for almost everything as well! (I couldn't find my Extra gum coupon though. I had already used it!). Juice Juice clearanced plus coupon. Archers Farm juice clearanced plus Target printable coupon. Werthers and Dove chocolates clearanced plus printable coupons. Johnson buddies FREE with the $3.00 off any 3 purchase. Extra gum clearanced. Just for the three Juicy Juice at regular price would have cost $10.00. I bought all of this for $7.00. Awesome deal!!" Jill Kirk

Those were my MAIN purchases. I had to add A TON of filler items to get my total over the RR's, especially on the St Ives, where I had the $2.00 Coupon to cover in filler items. ALL of my filler items came from the clearance section of the store. 3 Color Wonder Sets, 1 Little Pet Show Wonder Book, 1 Eraser, 13 Chapstick, 1 Pair of Ladies Socks, 1 Child's Tee-Shirt that says, 'Daddy Does My Hair', 2 pouches that hook to a wheelchair to hold stuff, 5 packs of Ponytail Holders, 2 packs of Pens, 2 Battery Operated Toothbrushes, 1 Pack of Mickey Mouse Stickers, a Playing Card Gift Set, 1 Pack of 2 Hannah Montana Lip Gloss, Twizzlers, Altoids Chocolate Mints, Kahula Chocolates, Kissables, Cream Savers, 2 Pop Rock Chocolate Bars, 3 Boxes of Powdered Drink Mix, a Christmas Scrunchie, a Christmas Keychain, a Christmas Booth Poof and a pack of gum!

"My local store double coupons only 10 coupons per purchase~ up to 50 cents (Wiseway~ Indiana). Better then nothing. They had a lot of juice, and teas on sale for 10/$10. I recently found some 50 cents off coupons.( happy dance) I did 2 trips alone, since everyone was at work/school. 20 Lipton teas and 4 Fuze drinks after coupons = 2.00 ( I only had b1g1 on the Fuze). The next day I armed myself, daughter and hubby with their own envelope loaded with coupons and boldly printed on the front what they were to get. For a total of 4 Fuze drinks, 19 Sobe, 10 Lipton teas and 1 Grandmas cookie. (Hubby strayed from his bold print) Grand total of 4.99 (Would have been 4.59 but the lady didn't double 1 coupon) For 8 Fuze Drinks, 30 Lipton teas, 19 Sobe, and 1 cookie. The pic is my daughter, who loves to find deals with her mom." Christine W., IN

"Last night I went to a Chinese Auction where my husband and I donated about $170, but won over $550 worth of baby goods! This included over 20 designer name baby boy outfits, numerous accessories, baby care products, Huggies, formula, and a really great white changing table! Then today with the diaper deal at Walgreens, I was able to pick up 23 various bags of diapers and pull-ups for about $24 (using several RR from the St. Ives deal 2 weeks ago and the $2 Pharmacy c/o)! They would have been even cheaper if I had known the orange bags of pull-ups wouldn't work with the $2 c/o. I can't complain though! We're stocked up for quite awhile! -Meghann Heilala, NJ

"This is a picture of my 60 boxes of Jello plus I have $18 in Register Rewards from the deal, plus I still have 15 coupons to use! I paid $0.00 for all of that jell-o. I just used that coupon from Meijer website and did 3 jell-o, scanned coupon, 3 jell-o scanned coupon then ended my order, total $0.00 with a $2.00 RR, I ended up going back later that day and ended up with 82 boxes and $24.00 RR which I was able to get gas with so PROFIT 82 BOXES JELL-O AND $24.00 FREE GAS, ALMOST A FULL TANK!!!! THANKS RC!!! That was a fun moneymaker!"
Holly W, IN

"I left with $100 and came back with my goodies listed below. I traveled for two days and it cost $180 in gas expense (also covered by my profits during the trip). I had a blast!! When I go out to do a trip like this I have to be able to justify my gas expense......we have to travel a good 3 hours to start getting great deals! No problems at any KMarts and they were not limiting any coupons. WOWEE!!
Phone Card ($50)
$180.00 Gas Cards (used these up travelling)!
$450.00 American Express Gift Cards (Save 4 XMAS!)
Phone Charger (10.00)
Davids Toy& Outfit (64.00)
Bras (20.00)
3 Diet Coke 12pks (12.00)
3 Packs Smokes (12.00)
Shirt for Honey (2.00)
Minnow Net (1.00)
Licorice(1.00)
20 Glade Oil Refills
8 Cheerios Snack Mix
6 Durex Play
6 Panty Hose
3 Johnson & Johnson Lotion
3 Loreal Make up remover towelettes
2 Loreal make up remover
3 Robitussin DM
50 Powerade
2 Breeze 2
27 Endust
5 Oust
2 Pairs Gloves
1 set Halloween Towels
6 M&M big bags
23 Dove Face Cleansers
2 Electrasol
21 Keebler Cookies
30 J&J Buddies
63 Sobe Drinks
17 Tylenol Travel Size
8 Revlon Emery Boards
5 Glade Scented Oil Candle Kits
3 Glade Glass Scents
23 Glade Flameless Refills
6 Vaseline Lotion
23 Dove Body Wash
46 Glade Candle Holders
184 Glade Scented Oil Plug Ins (my little moneymakers! Each one generated a $4 CAT. I had $2c/o so they cost .19 each after doubled and gave me unlimited CATS which I rolled into gift cards.
12 Almay Eye Makeup
7 Almay Eyeliners
17 Almay Mascara
20 Almay Eye Makeup
2 Midol
12 Tylenol Trial
3 Advil PM"
Cheryl Gravelle

"I could not believe my eyes when I left 4 stores and spent a total of $32 and some change for the day. At Albertsons I took advantage of the of the buy 10 items from a certain group and you get $5 off your bill and I only purchased items I had a coupon four. My bill was $22 for 30 items. At Super one I was able to by 12 boxes of Hamburger helper for 88 cents each then the store let me use 8 coupons for $75 cents off a purchase of 3 boxes and 4 coupons for 80 cents off a purchase of 3 boxes. I used register rewards at Walgreens to pick up diapers and cold meds and I am expecting a $5 rebate from. And picked up a few children cold items at Rite that I had a coupon for and I expect a full refund for. My most expense item was the 2 packs of razors that I paid 99 cents for. Rite Aid had them on sale for $2.99 and I had two $2 off coupons." Stacy S.

"Here is my trip to Kmart! I got over $700 in items, and paid about $35 out of pocket after double coupons! INSANE! Thanks so much for the site...LOVE IT!" Amy Thomas

3 Trips to KMart:
"Total of all items shown $276. Actually spent $7.15 and most of that was the high price of the dog food that the coupons didn't cover. I have also included my picture as I am the one taking the picture of my savings and have no way to get myself in it. <G>
They are really being fussy about doing the doubles and each time you enter the store you have to stop at the customer service desk and show them the letter that was posted on Centsible Chat before you start shopping. So I have made several copies of it and keep them in my car, and purse. Ours is not a Super K-Mart and it has very little food. The checkers do not know how to run the coupons right and I have had them run them twice through the cash register, add them up with a calculator, add them up in their head, and double scan each one. Most all of these methods gave me all the overage I shouldn't have gotten and when I pointed this out they were very rude that I was trying to tell them how to do their job so I just shut up and let them do their thing. This is why you'll see 2 magazines - but not the 2 pops I drank that I had to throw in so they wouldn't owe me money

2 - Always Pads
5 - Beggin Strips for dogs
6 - Bic Disposable Razors multi packages
4 - Calgon Bath Beads
2 - Dog Food - 4 lb bags
3 - Dove Shampoo
8 - Dove Body Wash
2 - Glade Carpet Cleaner
5 - Good Life Dog Treats
5 - Herbal Essence Shampoo & Conditioner
10 - Holiday Candle Holders
2 - Johnson & Johnson First Aid Gauze Pads
4 - Kotex Lightdays
2 - Pert Plus
8 - Pure Protein Bars
2 - Reach Toothbrushes
1 - Resolve
4 - Revlon Nail Polish
10 - Revlon Implements (tweezers, emery boards, nail cutters)
3 - Rolaids
12 - Sure Deodorant
4 - Tums Smoothies
6 - Tylenol Extra Strength
3 - Wholesome Goodness cat food
20 - Wiskas Temptations for cats"
Kathy Hardie

"In this picture is my son Alex, who I hope is taking note on how to save as I am still learning. I did this in 2 orders at CVS. First order was 1 Swiffer Sweeper on sale for $7.99. I had a $1 coupon, 1 Swiffer Duster on sale $6.99 and I had a 'buy Swiffer Sweeper, get a free Duster'. One Swiffer refill on sale for $6.99 and I had a .50 coupon. Two Colgate Total Toothpaste and I had a $1 coupon on each. The Swiffer had a 'buy $10 worth, get $5 Extra Bucks', and the Colgate was giving $2 Extra Bucks each, limit 2. Total out of pocket was $20.49 on the 1st order and gave me $9 Extra Bucks. The 2nd order was 1 Lysol Toilet Cleaner on sale for $2.50, had a .75 coupon coupon on it. 4 Soft & Dri on sale B1G1F, had four .50 coupons, and 3 Softsoap on sale for .99 and I had three .35 coupons. Used the $9 in Extra Bucks and total out of pocket was $1.60, so I got all this for $22.09. My savings was $44.96. I am still learning but this little deal made me happy." Yvonne Byrd

Got the 5 Crest Toothpaste last week at WAGS (Oct W/E 10-11-08) 1.99 sale 5 Wags Coupons 1.00 off & 5 1.00/1 MFR Coupons. FREE Plus .05 profit.

Ziploc Deal: Ziploc Deal from last week at Wags. I was a little nervous about trying Michelle's theory out about the Coupons on the quantity you are buying & using the coupons, but tried it anyways on a few items. It worked... I had B1G1 FREE Ziploc Bags (up to 2.19). They were on sale for 2/5.00. Ended up going back & doing it again. No problem. Had to go to 4 WAGS for 27 boxes total & get 2 rainchecks for Quart Freezer. OOP with tax 8.79 for 27 boxes.

12 Quart Storage

3 Quart Freezer

2 Snack

2 Sandwich

4 Gal Freezer

2 1/2 Gal Expandable Bottom

2 Gal Storage

My Return for Rainchecks Items

Not to many deals I wanted this week. Did do the B1G1 FREE Cartridge refill I use alot of ink. It's a better deal than the 25% off coming next week. And the Mars Candy 2/5 & 1.00/2 Coupon & Rebate in ESC 1.00

This week went back to WAGS for my Raincheck items. ( 10-17-08)

6 Ziploc

4 Windex Wipes

2 Sunmaid Raisins

Had the

5/25 Walgreens Coupon

3.00 RR

6 B1G1 (up to 2.19) FREE Ziploc

2 2.00/1 Windex

2 1.00/1 Windex

1.00/2 Sunmaid Raisins

1.00/2 Mars Candy
1 Treat for me Bailey's Irish Cream Candy REG 1.49 sale .99
Total 5.72 OOP!! This is my other Kitty. Pink Twin. She looks like she is saying """Egads Mama how do you do it???? """ ( Her mouth is open) We have 2 blacks Kitties they look exactly alike no way to tell them apart except with different color collars. Green Twin will be introduced soon enough I am sure!!! Could not get them together to take both of them."
Estelle L, Boston, MA

"I just wanted to share my picture of the great deals I scored at Rite Aid (October Rebates). I did it in (2) transactions at (2) different Rite-Aids. Some of the items are duplicate because I got medicine for my mom and family. All in all I spent about $100.00 out of pocket and will get it ALL back. What a great time of year to stock up on cold, flu and cough drops. My 14-year-old son, Evan, just had to be in the picture. I am hoping to teach him some of my refunding & saving tricks."
- Tara S.

"I got these deals at Walmart today. I bought 12 Johnson's Buddies @$0.97 each, 10 packs of Kotex pantiliners @$1.00 each, 2 packs of Scotch tape @$0.94 each, a small box of Milk Duds @$0.96, a pair of scissors (I forgot mine in the car!) @$0.97, 12 Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom bottles @$0.75 each, 2 Mr. Clean Spray Bottles with bonus Magic Erasers Free with 2 BOGOF c/o's, and 2 Large Bottles of Mr. Clean Refills with bonus Magic Erasers @$2.50 each. I ended up having to do all of this in 4 transactions because of the current over-the-counter drug laws (only 3 Tylenol Colds per transaction). My total before coupons was $45.20, and after was only $6.20! I already know that this winter my family will be clean, healthy and living in a tidy house!" -Meghann Heilala Brick, NJ

Skippy Peanut Butter for $0.51 EACH!!

"I've been slow getting back into 'full coupon mode' after having a baby a few weeks ago. However, the deals at Rite Aid and Walgreens this week were enough to get me out the door first thing Monday morning with all six kids age 7 and younger, my coupon binder and the block format list for both stores. Thanks to the early ad previews from Michele, I traded for Skippy and Hellaman's mayo coupons that weren't available in my area. After grabbing up all the great FARs at Rite Aid, I called both my local Walgreens from my cell phone to see how much Skippy they still had (no need dragging kids into a store with no product) One store was already out of stock, but the other reported that they had lots. Hurray! When I arrived, I was thrilled to find 36 jars of Skippy on the shelf which meant that I could stock up for my family and still leave plenty for the other coupon moms out there. I had enough coupons for 18 Skippy. Here's what I did:

1st Transaction:

4 Halloween pencils @ 4/$1: $1.00

9 Skippy Peanut Butter @ $1.67 each: $15.00

- 9 (.60/1) SKippy coupons : -$5.40

- 2 ($5) catalinas from the Oral B promo: -$10.00

60 + tax (used a gift card )+ $5 OYNO catalina

2nd Transaction:

9 Skippy Peanut Butter : $15.00

- 9 (.60/1) Skippy coupons : - 5.40

$9.60 + tax (used gift card so $0 OOP for me!)

+ $5 OYNO catalina

All together I got 18 jars of peanut butter, 4 pencils and 1 margarine tub for $20.20 + tax which I paid for with gift cards so no OOP. I also received $10 in catalinas that I'll use later this week towards more cheap Walgreens diapers. If you factor in the catalina savings, the peanut butter were $0.51 EACH!!! The picture is of my 4 years old daughter Savannah dressed up as the Peanut Butter Princess. Thanks RC!" Nike Ben Peterson

"This is my first posting and I am so psyched about my deals! As you can see, my 2 year old daughter is impressed and has already broke into the 6-pack of raisins. When a friend called me to say she had located a KMart that accepted the double coupon deal, we drove about 45min to get there. It was so worth it. My register total before all sales and coupons was $145.20. After all coupons (including a $5 off $50 coupon I printed from the KMart website just for signing up for email alerts) my total paid was $34.79 ($8.38 of which was tax!) One of my favorite deals was the Hershey's Bliss bagged chocolates- on sale for 2/$5.00, I used a $2.50 off 2 coupon...and the cashier doubled it!!! Making both bags free. The other awesome find was 2 Biore products marked down on clearance for $1.50 each. With my $2 off 2 coupon, I got both for free and made a $1 profit. Besides the terrific deals, my friend and I had a fun "Ladies Roadtrip" and got to know each other even better...priceless!" Yvonne N. NY

"Here are some pictures from my deals this week. I have gone in several different stores at several different times so as not to clear out every item completely. I have
15 total PERT shampoos FREE
24 Oral B toothbrushes FREE
3 razors for .99 each
2 diapers packages for $13 total.
My little boy is pretending to brush his teeth in the first picture, and the second picture he had fun practicing counting his numbers. What a great object lesson for him!" Jill, MO

"The first picture is from when I went to Walgreens for the Pert Plus Deal! I got 36 bottles in all. I used the $2.50 coupon and the $1.50 ESC, profited .51 and $1.01 per bottle even on some of them. I will end up with $24 back on top of it from getting the FAR items with my overage!

"The second picture is from Walgreens when they had the great catalina deals a few months back. I got the Cover girl items with the free blush coupon and free Cover Girl item coupons plus the $1 off any CG item coupons.

"The third picture is from my first trip to KMart when they were doubling up to and including $2 coupons. I went back again and got just about as much as the first time. All of it for about $12 out of pocket!

"The last picture is from Walgreens when they had the huge diaper sale!! I got over 100 packs of diapers and pull Ups for very little out of pocket." Amy Thomas

"By the time I figured out Kroger was part of the Powerade deal I had 4 days left to get going. I made 3 trips & 7 transactions. Missing from the picture are 3 Whiskas, 5 Powerades,1 bag of ice, 2 packs of gum, 2 boxes saltines, 1 case of beer, 1 pair of scissors, 3 packs of stuff pork chops. My husband asked me “Don’t we have enough Powerades?” My response was not if it’s free. I have 3 kids & they love Powerades. Plus I mailed in for a $6.00 rebate for the beer & meat. Total was $179.38.I had $114.42 in coupons & paid oop $64.96.Now to figure out were to put them all." - C Garza

He provides comic relief for those cashiers who have had a rough day"!Thanks, Heather Greenwood Sacramento, CA

K-Mart freebies "Here's what I came home with. TOTALLY FREE:
32 bottles of shampoo (Pert, Sunsilk, Dove, Suave) 2 Pert had TMP forms on them
(6 of the Pert are extra large bonus size)
9 sample triple packs of trial size shampoo (Sunsilk)
9 hair sprays (Sunsilk)
2 Large bottles of Cascade dishwasher liquid
2 bag of Busy Bones for my dog
4 bags of Pedigree good bites - Brandy-dog
1 Electrasol bonus box (26 tabs) for the dishwasher
1 Colgate toothpaste
1 Colgate toothbrush
4 Pledge furniture sprays
1 Kotex pantiliners
TOTAL SAVINGS $87.51
I can't list how the coupons worked out but I know I should have owed something. Some of the items were $4.29 and doubling a $2.00 coupon would have made me owe .29¢. Some of the $1.89 items she insted on doubling the $2.00 coupons to $4.00 so I had a profit. Had to buy a paper and pop because she was doing some of the coupons wrong but she refused to let me help her. She says she does it everyday for a living...LOL." Kathy H, OR

"My daughter Bria is showing off the deals I got at Walmart and Target. At Walmart, the J&J Buddies Bars were free after coupon (got 12 total) and the Gillette Fusion Razor gift packs were a $1 after coupon. They come with the razor, extra cartridges and shaving gel. Got 6 total. My OOP was $8.xx. Great yard sale stuff!" - Heather, Griffin, GA

"This is the stuff I got at Kmart during their Super Double coupons. Before coupons it was $166, and after $38. The actual checking out process was horrible, but I won't go into details. The Pert and Gillette shampoos were free, Kids Crest was .50 each, travel size Pantene was free, travel size Secret was free, Revlon nail polish was .20 each, Trident gum was free, J&J first aid bandages/tape was either free or very cheap, Suave deodorant was free, Lysol was about .40 each I think, Tylenol and Advil PM was .79 after coupon, Tums were free, Easy Mac was free, and some other *personal* things (condoms) were $2.00 a box after coupons. The KY was .29, Caltrate was $2 after coupon. All in all I did good, but I wish they were better prepared for the super coupon checkout process!" - Heather, Griffin, GA

"Thank you - I could not have done it without you. Both my grandmothers either are or were members of your site for YEARS! They are the ones who taught me refunding for the past 15 years (I'm 33 so I had a good head start!) You and the other ladies have saved us so much money for my family and MANY others - and I am able to spread it on and refer people as much as I can. I'm about to teach our ladies in our church a few tips on how your site works and how they too can save like I did. I just want to show them that it CAN be done and we thank you for it! There are some things missing that I already gave away - 2 more Purex detergents, 2 cases of Powerade Zero, 4 toys and a few other things I can't remember :) Thank you SOOOO much!"
Anne Myers - IL (not Ann M from IL - it's so close)

"I have recently joined Refundcents and this is one of my first deals. I purchased 25 packs of diapers over 2 days with the $5 off $20 purchase, buying 5 packs at a time. I have also signed up for the W card and will receive 10% off all the diapers. I ended up paying about $2.XX per pack of diapers. I have also found some of the larger packs on clearance and paid about 10 cents per diaper, which is also a great deal. Last Sat I went again for the $5 off $20 purchase and saw more diapers on clearance, I got 5 packs for $10. This is a picture of my youngest son Maxwell who just turned 1 year with most of the diapers, and my dog Tyson with glowing eyes in the background. I also have a 2 1/2 year old still in diapers. Thanks Refundcents!!!!!!" Jessica Sloan, MN

So, I armed myself with the printed copy of a letter sent to a shopper spelling out the nationwide promotion and my coupon file. I felt I may need this copy in the event this K-Mart would not honor the promotion. I only keep the coupons I use on a regular basis in my coupon file. All the others (there are thousands!) were in boxes at home. K-Mart normally has higher prices than other stores I shop, and I didn't expect to find many bargains. I felt even if the coupons were doubled, I would pay more than at another store. I did not take a lot of coupons with me. I had 30-45 minutes to shop prior to going to work. There was no plan. I was flying by the seat of my pants. I did have 10 Electrasol tablet coupons I wanted to use that expired THAT day!

"I remember, not too long after I started couponing and refunding, one of the other newbies asked “what are Super Doubles”? An older, and wiser couponer replied that Super Doubles were the couponing world's equivalent of saying “gentlemen, start your engines” to a race car driver. The adrenaline rush, and excitement can only be fully understood once you've experienced it. So when I first heard that Kmart was holding Super Doubles I could hardly contain myself. Not only were they doubling coupons- they were doubling up to, and including $2. I've got to admit that I'm pretty lucky to live in an area where double coupons up to $.50 every day are fairly easy to find. We even have one store that doubles one like coupon up to $1 every day, but $2 doubles is completely unheard of! So I pulled out my trusty coupon box (it's the black object in the picture under the cleaners and air fresheners in the picture just in case you were wondering) and started sorting. Then I called my local store, only to have my hopes dashed. The woman that I talked to told me that they NEVER double coupons- she wasn't even nice about it. Heartbroken, and with a list already started I watched as the lucky ducks in other parts of the country participated in Super Doubles. I just couldn't bring myself to throw that list out in the hopes that it would eventually come to SE Michigan. As much as the anticipation of watching Super Doubles move around the rest of the country had almost killed me, it also provided me with the benefit of having learned from those that had gone before me. I had slowly added to my list as other people found deals around the country and new coupons came out, and learned a lot of tricks to make the checkout process go smoother (like having the checker select 2 products from the list that comes up for any coupon that is off of 2 items).

On September 30 I saw on Centsible Chat that Super Doubles had been confirmed as close to me as Port Huron, MI (about 45 minutes away). I called my local store, and Eureka! They were participating! My co-workers thought I was absolutely nuts because I could barely sit still for the rest of the day mentally going through my coupon box and compiling an even longer list than the one that I had already started. I tried to explain to them that if we weren't so busy at work right now (I'm an accountant, and we had to close the books for the quarter) I would have been taking a day off work just to go shopping. After all, it takes time to get all of the toothpaste, shampoo, and various other goodies that I periodically bring in for them. Normally I clip any coupons that I'm not using immediately throughout the week while I watch TV in the evenings. That Tuesday I left work as early as I could, and asked my husband to help me finish clipping all of my coupons from the prior weekend just so that I would be ready to hit the ground running the next day.

I was so excited that I could barely sleep thinking about it. I have a 24 hour store about 3 blocks from my house, but they had told me that the doubles didn't start until 6am (I later found out that they did start at midnight after all). My plan was to browse the store beginning at 4:30am, so that I would be hitting the registers just as the promotion was officially beginning. You'd have though I was a kid at Christmas by how fast I jumped out of bed that morning, rushed through a shower, grabbed a Special K bar, and headed out the door. I had to be to work by 7am, but if all went well as long as I was out of the store by 6:30 I would still be able to make it. When I walked in the store and opened up my coupon box a very nice cashier that was walking by noticed and said she would be waiting for me up front when I was ready. She had apparently checked out someone earlier in the night, and learned how the register system worked then. I hit the air freshener area first, then hit up the pet area before heading over to health and beauty. By that time I had 60 items in my cart, and starting to run out of time. As promised the cashier that had seen me walk in was waiting. She was so nice that she even asked me for my $5/50 coupon that was in the weekly flier (I had it sitting on top of my box, but had forgotten to tear it out) to make sure that I maximized my savings. On that trip alone I saved $150.16, and paid $22.76 out of pocket. A savings of 87%- less than $.38 per item on average! I also walked away with 4 $1 off any one item catalinas, 2 $.75 off any one item catalinas, and a catalina for a free package of cat treats that I didn't even know I had coming until they all printed out. The amazing thing was even $'s off catalinas doubled on my subsequent visits!

Well, that was it, at least for now Kmart had redeemed themselves in my eyes. Between October 1^st and October 5^th I went into various Kmart stores in my area a total of 6 times. I got 276 items including shampoo, conditioner, styling products, lotion, razors, cat food, cleaning products and air fresheners worth $831.08 Only about half of the things I ended up with fit in the picture with my daughter Joy. I paid $148.74 out of pocket for everything. Many of these items my family (especially my cat) will enjoy. Others I will use in gift baskets at Christmas, donate to charity, or save for my Spring yard sale. Now it's just a matter of watching and waiting for the next time someone declares Super Doubles, and I can once again start my engine!" Nora Cash

"Here are my boys, Will and Alex, showing off what Mommy brought home. I suppose there are better and certainly more experienced divas out there. However, for only becoming familiar with Walgreens in July, I think I did pretty good. Maybe I should be called a Newbie Diva. I spent out of pocket $98.16 and did this in 5 separate transactions. Here is what I received:
$20 Register Rewards (2 $9 JF, 2 $1 Mitchum)
$10 rebate for Garnier products
$12.36 rebate for L'oreal product
$4.99 Chemistry product
$11.98 BioOrganics products
= $59.33 plus 10% more for adding it to a gift card I forgot one Soliel coupon for $3.00 and the register would not accept my Huggies coupon from the activity book. I was too tired to push it, so I told them to skip it. So, I paid $38.83 for the items pictured. One of the items you can't see is a Thomas the Train DVD plus Percy train that was on clearance for $2.50. Talk about a great filler item. And not pictured was the Walgreens activity book that has a page of coupons. I've continued to read Centsible Chat and the Comprehensive guide to Walgreens Shopping and have gotten even better deals. My boys think mommy shops a lot and no I don't take them with me. I can't do "University math" with them talking to me. Thanks to all of you that post and especially Michelle, Taylor, and Sheena!"
Julie McClain

"Here is what I got for $3 OOP when I went to Kmart on Sunday. I had been to Kmart earlier in the week so I had a number of $ off of next purchase coupons. (These printed from the Renuzit pearls and Glade -I think the gel refills). My total started at $106 for the first transaction. With coupons it came down to $18.55. The cashier reminded me about the coupon in the paper (which I had forgotten in the process of taking care of my 2 month old as I prepared and executed my shopping.) After the $5 coupon from the paper and $12 in 'good on your next purchase' bucks my total was $1.55 OOP. I did a second transaction where the total started at $47.00. So I grabbed the Whoppers to bring the total over $50 so I could use another $5 coupon (and so I could placate my husband about being gone all afternoon while he was home with the 4 older boys). Coupons, including the $5 one from the ad, brought the total to $16 which I paid with 'good on next purchases' Kmart bucks. I had to pay $1.47 OOP but only because the Kmart bucks I had left were both for $2 apiece. I came home with $10 in Kmart bucks and $5 off $50 and a $7 off $70." Shannon Edwards

Anyone have some ice?
"The register receipts totaled a little over $1200. I paid less than $100 out of pocket. I ended up with $120 in receipt coupons, $275 in gc, loads of hot dogs, Wheat Thins, Crystal Light, sliced cheese, salad dressing, etc., etc., and of course KOOL AID!! Many neighbors are still enjoying this great deal with me from Kraft and Shaws."
Simone 'n Giada (18 months), CT

"I did the powerade deal for about 2 weeks. I even had my husband going with me. Shame on me but I didn't keep track of my spending nor did I do an official count. My husband can drink them as fast as I can buy them! Here was the deal. Giant Eagle had them on sale 10 for $10. If you bought 10 in one transaction you got an automatic $5 off. Then if 6 of the 10 were Powerade Zero you got a catalina for $4 off your next order. So after initially spending the $5 and tax on the first order I paid $1.30 with tax for all of the others! I would say I got over 250 in all. Sorry the picture isn't so creative but I didn't have anywhere else to put them." Thanks, Melissa Kalich

"Here is a picture of my son Tai and his friend Tia with my purchases from KMart... and you'll never guess what I paid for all of this! Our KMart wasn't one that announced the Double Coupon Days, but the manager talked to the corporate office and because I knew about the promotion they let me double my coupons. It felt like an early Christmas present from KMart to me! There were plenty of items in stock since nobody really knew about the double coupons here. At checkout, I watched my total start at over $210.00 and slowly watched it dwindle down as they scanned each coupon and then doubled the value. My final purchase price came to................ $28.33!!! I couldn't believe I had saved nearly 87% on my total purchase. With the double coupons I got the following items FREE: Endust, Greased Lightning, Sunsilk Products (some were bonus packs!), Dove Shampoo, Pert Plus, Ziploc Vacuum Bags, Old El Paso Taco Shells, Resolve Carpet Cleaner, Colgate, and Revlon Eye Liner. I also paid less than a quarter per item for: Revlon Nail Polish, Bumble Bee Tuna, Renuzit Spray, and Glade Carpet Powder. This was the first time I've ever been able to double any coupons and it was even better than I thought it could be!" Lindsay Auran

"This is my daughter, Jonna, showing you my Walgreens bounty from this week and last week. We have a very small store here in Claremore, OK, and the shelves are almost always empty. So if I am actually able to do the deals posted here on RC, I am very grateful. Last week, I was able to switch back and forth between the Crest Pro Health Rinse and the Nabisco Cookies. The mouthwash was $4.49 and produced a RR for $4.49. I then took that and purchased 2 pkgs. of cookies. I was thrilled to learn from the postings on chat that the cookie RR would print even without the milk! I used the cookie RR to purchase more mouthwash, and so on and so on. Some of the cookies didn't make it into the picture because they were already eaten! This week, thanks to a heads-up from RC, I was able to use about 9 coupons for Pert Plus shampoo. Combined with the EasySaver coupon, I actually got an overage off of every bottle that I bought. The overage helped lower my OOP cost on the cereal bars and toothbrushes that I was switching between. The toothbrushes were $4.49 and produced a catalina for $4.50, I then used that to pay for the cereal bars that were 2/$5 and produced a catalina for $2.00. I also used some of the $3 RR I had left from the cookie deals last week. The Dawn dishwashing liquid was B1G1F with store coupon, plus I used a manufacturer's coupon for 50 cents off and another for 25 cents off. My OOP cost for all of the items pictured was about $15 before taxes, plus I got at least that much in RR to make up for it!" Jenna Scott

It all started when I told my husband we needed a freezer to keep up with my stockpiling. He finally agreed! I had stocked up when our area was lucky enough to get the FREE Sara Lee bread coupons. With two little ones and packed lunches everyday, we seem to go through a lot of bread. My good friend, and fellow couponer called to tell me that Albertson's had their Sara Lee bread for B1G1F. Could I really use all my coupons and score on Free bread? What else is there to do on a Saturday? Finding deals and using coupons.. Of Course! My husband and I and our two children went to Albertson's for our first trip. I grabbed 8 loaves. (We can use 4 like coupons at a time) That was when I saw the Powerade display. Buy 10 Powerades Get a 24 pack of Dasani water for FREE. I had $1/2 Powerade coupons in my binder. So I grabbed the Powerade and Water. The cashiers were all amazed. They suggested we split up so that my husband and I could each do an order. So we went back and duplicated my order.

"Here is my son, Evan, he was so excited to see all the PowerAde’s that we were able to get. We got over 120, plus the ones that my husband has already taken to work to drink. We were able to get them for about $.14 once we paid for the taxes and whatever money was left over. We hit every Food Lion, Bloom, and Giant store that we would go by. Tomorrow is the last day so we are going to be hitting the stores for more in the morning." Carissa Grayson, VA

Free KoolAid and Snacks, Anyone?
"Our mom had a field day at Meijers when KoolAid Singles were $1 a box. She had coupons for free Crystal Light, free Wheat Thins and free Oscar Mayer Beef Franks when you buy 3 Kraft items - then KoolAid! Now we have yummy crackers and drinks for a long time! Thanks Mom!"
Isaiah, Paulie and Lucy from Defiance, OH

Today was one of the overlap days from the September to October Easy Saver Catalog. It was also one of the 2 days to use the $5/$20 coupon that I received in my email. I worked on getting the best deal for a few hours this afternoon using the RefundCents & Walgreens website. :) Full price for the order was $125.02, sale price with all coupons was $35.82. Rebates from the transaction was $41.98, $6.59 mail in for Scrubbing Bubbles, $14.84 for the September ESC & #21.45 for the October ESC. So I ended up making $6.16 on the deal. Talk about savings!!!! My husband took a picture of me & all my items from this shop. I bought:

2 Walgreens Pomegranate juices - reg $4.79 = sale 2/$6
1 Hefty basics trash bags 40 pk - reg $4.99 = clearanced $2.49
1 Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber - reg $5.69 = - $1 coup, - $1.50 ESC MIR & - $5.69 Man. MIR = - $2.50
4 Glade jar candles = reg $2.99 = -(4)$1 coups, $4 ESC MIR = $3.96
4 Glade Plug in Scented Oil 2pk refills - reg $5.49 = sale $4.49 - (3)$1 ESC coups, (3)$4.99 peelie coups - $2 ESC MIR, - 1 item, she didn't ring up (found out once I got home) = - $6.50
4 Glade Scented Oil Candles - reg 5.99 = -(4)$2 coups, - (4)$2 ESC coups, - $8 ESC MIR = - $.04
4 Altoids mints (red can) - reg $1.99 = 2/$2 InAd coup, - (4)$1 peelie coups = $0
3 Garnier Fructis Shampoo/Conditioner 25.4oz - reg $6.99 = - (3)$2 coups, - (3)$3 ESC coups, - $10ESC MIR = - $4.03
1 Pert Plus 2 n 1 - reg $4.29 = sale $3.49 - $2 coup, - $2.50 ESC coup, - $3.49 ESC MIR = - $4.50
4 Glade Fabric & Air Odor Eliminator - reg $3.99 = - (4)$1.50 coups, (4)$1 coups - (4)$1 ESC MIR = $1.96 Used the $5 off $20 purchase coupon & donated $1 to the Walgreens Walk/Diabetes drive = $35.82 She left off 1 of the Garnier Fructis shampoos & we couldn't figure out why it was only taking $6 instead of $9 off. I am glad I paid attention, I wouldn't have been able to do the rebate if I hadn't. But I did miss 1 of the Glade refills and lost out on that overage also. But I had a great time." Thank you, Amanda Wilson - TX

"This is Emily the youngest and Alison the oldest sitting in a house made of tissue boxes. Our Kroger has had 120 ct Kleenex on sale for .88 each. I traded my Coke points and some other things for 249 .50/1 coupons. I did take three trips to get all of those boxes of Kleenex home, but it was well worth it. I made 1 trip each week so I could get other shopping done at the same time. My kids have been having a great time building things with them." Christy H.

"My cat Chandler has to see every deal I bring home even if it is not for him. I was so excited to get in on the Robitussin and Scrubbing Bubbles/Windex deals. I went to three different Walgreens many times thro