Christmas Tunes - FREE

Target has 13 FREE Christmas tunes that you can download. I downloaded it earlier today but haven't had time to listen to them. Not sure that they will all be added to our Christmas playlist but it's the right price! The list of songs follows:

Tiny Tree Christmas by GUSTER
Toy Jackpot by BLACKALICIOUS
Snow is Falling by DARKER MY LOVE
Perfect Gift by NATALIE HEMBY
10,000 Watts by CRYSTAL ANTLERS
You'll Never Find My Christmas by BISHOP ALLEN
Get Down for the Holidays by JENNY O.
Mrs. Claus Ain't Got Nothin' On Me by LITTLE JACKIE
Got Something For You by BEST COAST, WAVVES
It's Christmas by COCONUT RECORDS
Party Hard by LITTLE ISIDORE
Súper Mamá (Supermom)by THE PINKER TONES
Un Regálo Para Mí (A Present For Me)by CECI BASTIDA

Click on this link to go get your free music from Target!

TGI Skillet Meals & Dunkin Donuts Coffee DEALS!!

I wanted to share two great deals taking place this week at Target. The first one is an awesome deal that I took advantage of last week but it looks like it's rolling into this week at Target.

Buy 3 TGI Friday’s Skillet Meals on sale buy 2 at $5.99 get one FREE
Total = $11.98
Use the $4/2 Target store coupon found here
Plus, stack with 3 $2/1 coupons from the 9/26 SS or new coupon from the 11/7 SS
Final cost ONLY $0.66 each! What an awesome price!!

To print two Target store coupons, hit the back button after the first coupon prints. I reload my paper the reverse so that I use one piece of paper for both coupons.

We had the Firecracker Sesame Chicken and I was impressed with the packaging. All of the items were packaged separately. We have never had these before and I don't think I would ever buy them but I couldn't pass up on the price for this meal.

We needed two of the meals to feed our family of 4 and I served up some rice on the side as well. Everything tasted really good and my hubbie enjoyed it the most. It was a little spicy for the kids (the rice tamed it down) but that was one of the few I could get. You can't beat the price!

Deal #2 - Centsible in Seattle noted a great deal on Dunkin’ Donuts coffee this week at Target. My caffeine-lovin’ friends needed to hear about it!!

Dunkin Donuts Coffee Bags $6.49
Buy (3) and use (3) $1.50/1 coupons from 10/31 Red Plum
Pay: $14.97
Then, get a $5 Target Gift Card!

Bottom line: $3.32 a bag! That beats the price that Fred Meyers had a few weeks back on Seattles Best of $3.99!

Thanks, Centisble in Seattle!

By the way, if you like coffee deals, don’t forget that every Friday in November you can score a free 12-oz Seattle’s Best Coffee at participating Burger King restaurants.

So, print your coupons and RUN to your nearest Target to take advantage of these deals but save some coffee for me! I'm going later today!!

Stick it and 4 get it & a coupon giveaway!

Recently I received some coupons from Vocalpoint to try out a new product. For those of you unfamiliar with Vocalpoint, it is a sampling site created to promote word-of-mouth advertising by sending out samples and coupons. The coupons I received were for the Bounce Dryer Bar. It is a fabric softener bar that you adhere to the inside of your dryer and this website has some great Q&A videos for any questions you may have about the the Bounce Dryer Bar.

The coupons that they sent enabled me to snag a great deal at Target last week. In fact, I now have a years supply of Bounce Dryer Bars! Let me explain...

The bars come in different sized packages and the ones that were on sale were the 2 pack. Two bars last about 6 months depending on the frequency of use and your dryer settings. I selected the Outdoor Fresh scent and it is wonderful! My clothes smell great and I do not need to worry about adding a fabric softener to each load now.

Let's be honest, haven't you been busy answering questions from your kiddo's or your spouse and then couldn't remember if you put a fabric softener in the dryer or not. Then, you've used up two!

The ease, convenience and great scent of this product are all great selling points. I would recommend you give it a try! In fact, for any of you local folks, Vocalpoint was kind enough to send me some extra coupons for some friends. So, the first 2 people to leave a comment about there favorite Halloween costume will receive a $1.50 coupon for the Bounce Dryer Bar so you can it it a try.

P.S. I've got another giveaway coming up so stay tuned!

Target Mobile Coupons!

Here's a couponing option that saves on ink & paper. You can now sign up to have Target send your cell phone mobile coupons. Every few weeks, you will receive a text message with a link for some Target mobile coupons. When you click on the link, it will open up your phone's internet browser and take you to a link for the coupons. Head to Target and do your shopping and then hand your phone to the cashier for them to scan and your coupon savings will be deducted! It's really that easy!! I've used it twice now and haven't had any problems. Both times, my cashiers were a bit surprised and had not scanned mobile coupons before but it scanned fine.

This weeks coupons were for $1 off Purex laundry detergent, $0.75 off 6-pk. Hershey milk chocolate candy bars, $1 off 12-pk. beverage item (A&W Root Beer, Canada Dry, Sunkist or 7Up), $1 off Hanes apparel item and $1 off InStyle magazine. They do not expire until 8/7/10 so I'm holding off on these to pair them up with a good sale! Go here to sign up for your Target e-coupons. Message and data rates may apply.

A Peek in My Coupon Binder and My Categories

I thought I would share my coupon binder for anyone looking to get serious about couponing. I wish I knew about this when I became a stay-at-home mom! It is saving my family so much. It is a part time job for me right now but it is totally worth it! I plan on bumping my family grocery budget down by $50 per pay period in a month.

Above is the binder I recently moved up to after my other binder was getting too full. Also, you really want a zipper binder to keep from losing your coupons if the binder get's dropped. This binder was purchased at Walmart for $10 in the Office/Supply section.

Weekly, I make my stop at the Dollar Tree after church and pick up the Sunday paper for $1.00 each. I pick up one paper per family member. You may think that's a little crazy but when you have 5 coupons for Cheetos and you can snag them for $0.29, you'll thank me! We're not talking about the small lunch Cheetos either. Yes, I bought 5 bags of Cheetos at Safeway for $0.29/bag and my girlies were thrilled!!!

At the front of my binder is the Stock-up Prices that I got here at Fistful of Coupns and here at Faithful Provisions. The Faithful Provisions is an 11 page pdf file and very detailed. Stock-up Prices is the price you pay to stock-up your pantry and freezer. This list also includes the sale price they are willing to pay for items. Example: A good sale price for cookies is $1.25 but the stock-up price is $0.99. That way when you are making your list, you can make sure it is the best deal for your family or you may decide to wait until the price is lower.

These are the categories that I have in my binder. I have added to them since I started and you will want to modify it for your family. I no longer have Babies at home so if you do, then you will want a section for that.

*Free

*Produce/Dressing

*Condiments/Sauces (includes your BBQ sauce, mayo, salsa, marinades, etc.)

*Beverages

*Packaged/Canned Goods (includes pasta, bread, boxed mixes like Zatarain's, etc.)

*Baking (Includes sugar, chocolate chips, cake mixes, etc.)

*Cereal/Breakfast

*Snacks/Candy (Includes chips, granola bars, gum, crackers, etc.)

*Dairy (Includes milk, butter, cheese, sour cream, yogurt, etc.)

*Meats (Includes meats from deli and meat dept. - frozen meats like chicken nuggets are filed in the next section - frozen foods)

*Frozen Foods (Includes meats, icecream, rolls, prepared frozen meals, etc.)

*Personal/Razors/Deoderant (I have all three of these together and plan to break them down when I get more dividers! Personal includes feminine products, etc.)

*Oral Care/Make-up (I also have these combined but plan to break them down when I get more dividers. Oral Care includes toothpastes, whiteners, dental floss, etc. I keep all cleansers, etc. in the Make-up sections as well as nailpolish, lipstick, etc.)

*Medicine/Vitamins

*Hair Care

*Body/Lotion/Soaps (Body includes body washes. Soaps includes hand soaps, soap systems, etc.)

*Cleaning Supplies (Includes your toilet and glass cleaners, dish soap, etc. I also include sprays and candles here.)

*Paper Goods (Includes toilet paper, ziploc containers and bags, kleenex, paper towels, etc.)

*Office Supplies/Misc. (Includes light bulbs, batteries, pets, bug sprays, etc.)

*Kids/Toys (Includes coupons like The Littlest Pet Shop you can snag here! Click on the link and select Toys on the left side to see and print the BOGO coupon and score them free at Toys R Us this week since they are on sale Buy One Get One!)

I use the baseball card holders for my coupons. You can find these at Target and Walmart by the registers and trading cards. I have three packs of them now but you can start out by buying 1-2 to get going. They are around $5 for about 30 sheets. This way you can flip through all your coupons and see what you have. A little more time consuming than some of the other couponing methods out there but I won't miss things by having them all filed and visible.

A couple of tips:

1) To make clipping those coupons easier, grab all your coupon packs from the newspapers you buy (ex. SmartSource) and open up and lay out the like pages on your kitchen table or living room floor. Grab a stack that are the same and snip them leaving a bit of a border so you don't cut off the expiration date, etc. This way you are not clipping coupons from 5 of the same SmartSources. Really speeds up your clipping!

2) Only print computer coupons that you know you will use. Otherwise, you are wasting your ink. Lots of times, the newsletters/emails I receive will say to print the latest coupons and in the beginning I did. Now, I've learned that you can usually print the coupons that you need when the product is on sale.

3) See a newspaper coupon that is not a product you use/want...keep it! I am not a contact lense wearer but yesterday, I bought contact solution and profitted $1.26! They paid me to buy the product and I'll pass it along to a family member if they can use it or to my local food bank. How did I do that? The product was on sale for $7.99 and after I paid, I received a Register Reward for $8 for a future shopping trip. I used a $2.00 off coupon so after paying for the product plus the taxes, I profitted $1.26 - Wahoo! You may be thinking, it's only $1.26 but I could buy 4 bags of those $0.29 Cheetos with that money! That is what couponers call a Money Maker or MM.

4) Keep in mind that you pay the tax on those free items so make sure it's an item you need or that you'll use. Those free deoderants and lotions are not really free when you consider the tax but they are really inexpensive.

Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions. Good luck!

Swag Bucks - Earn Free Gift Cards!

Since I've started getting more serious at saving money for my family, I discovered another way that I can do that. Everyday most of us do at least a search or two of some kind on the internet. Why not get "paid" to do that?!?



Let me explain...I have recently registered (for free) at Swag Bucks. It is a search engine, similar to Google, that you can use to perform searches and earn points that you can later redeem for gifts. You can trade in your points on a variety of items and what interests me the most is the $5 Amazon gift cards! I have been using the Swag Bucks site for my searches for about 2 weeks and at the rate I'm going, I'll have one of the $5 Amazon gift cards in about a week. Not bad for 3 weeks of casual searching on the internet!

They offer a variety of items that you can turn in your points for. Just to name two more of them...Target as well as Barnes & Noble gift cards. I find that you earn the most swag bucks when you search first thing in the morning and in the evenings. Usually, I'm getting 20 swag bucks a day. If you earn swag bucks, it seems to be a while before you are rewarded with more.

You can sign up for the newsletter and you will receive codes so that you can earn more swag bucks. It's important to know that you cannot post these codes for anyone else to use or you will put your account in jeopardy and could lose all of your points.

Daily, you can go to the "ways to earn tab" and select "special offers". Complete the no obligations offer. You only sign up for the things you want and you do not have to sign up for any of them to receive swag bucks. Just hit the skip button to move along to the next offer. After about 5 offers, you will receive your swag bucks. You usually only receive 1-4 swag bucks for completing this but it only takes about 1 minute.

How do you get started?

• Go here and register on Swag bucks by creating an account
• You will get 3 Swag bucks just for signing up!
• After registering, you can immediately start searching for anything you want on the web just by using the Swag bucks search engine!
• Periodically, while searching, you may see a pop up that says you’ve won anywhere from 1 to 12 or more in Swag bucks. Sometimes you will need to enter in a code that is there in order to obtain the Swag bucks.

I am so excited to be using Swag bucks on a daily basis and getting closer to my 450 points I need for the Amazon gift card! I’ve heard that other bloggers were able to pay for all of their Christmas presents last year by using Swagbucks! Can you beleive that? They had earned so many Amazon.com gift cards, that the gift cards covered the full cost of their purchases! With that being said, my goal this year is to pay for several of my Christmas presents with gift cards I’ve earned through Swag bucks! I’m so excited about this challenge and I hope some of you are up for the challenge too!

They also have an excellent referral program! If you refer someone over to Swag bucks and they earn a Swag buck, you will earn a Swag buck too–up to 100 Swag bucks! So you could potentially earn 100 Swag bucks from each friend you refer! Let the searching begin!

My Coupon Shopping List for the Week

I thought I'd share what's on my coupon shopping list for the week so far. That way, for those of you new to couponing, you can copy the text, print it along with the coupons and head to the store. You will need one of the coupons from the Sunday paper.

There are so many other offers available so be sure to check out the two websites that I've mentioned in previous post... Thrifty and Thriving as well as Hip 2 Save.

By the way, for those of you in need of printer ink...I need some and priced it at Walmart & Target for $39.00!! You can get it at Walgreens only on Thursday, Earth Day, for $1!!!!! Now that's a GREAT savings. Hope this helps those of you just starting out. Have a great week!

My Shopping Deals

RITEAID (go on Monday)

U By Kotex Pads 14-18 ct., Pantiliners 50-60 ct., Tampons 18 ct. $3.49
Get a $3.49 Single Check Rebate #36
Use the $1/1 coupon found here
Final Cost FREE + a $1 moneymaker!

TGI Friday’s Snacks $0.99
Use the $1.50/1 coupon found here
Final Cost FREE + Overage! FYI...I Need to go back and try to find these. I thought it was a frozen good but I think it's a chip.

Hershey’s Candy Bars 4-4.5 oz. $0.99
Use the $1/1 Hershey’s Extra Dark Chocolate Bar 3.5oz+ coupon from the 4/18 SS (SmartSource coupon from newspaper)
Final Cost FREE! FYI...tried this today at Rite Aid and it would not work with the coupon on had.

WALGREENS (go on Thursday)

Colgate Total Advanced or Enamel Strength Toothpaste 4oz. or Wave Toothbrush $2.99 = $2 RR
Use $0.75/1 coupon found here
Final Cost $0.24!

Printer Cartridge Refill black or color $1 with in-ad coupon BRING INK CARTRIDGES!!
Available 4/22 (Earth Day) ONLY! Wa-hoo! What an awesome price! BRING INK CARTRIDGES!!

Buy 4 Velveeta Shells and Cheese cups $1 each = $1.50 RR
Use 2 buy one get one free coupons from here
Pay $2
Get back a $1.50 RR
Final cost ONLY $0.50 for all 4 cups!

Walgreens Reusable Shopping Bag 3/$1 with in-ad coupon
Final Cost $0.33 each! Great “filler” item for your coupon to item ratio!

TARGET (go on Friday)

Quaker Instant Oatmeal Single Serve Cup $0.93 (Price Cut until 4/24)
Use the $1/1 coupon from here
Final cost FREE!

Men’s Merona Classic Fit Jersey Polo Shirts are on sale this week for $8
Use the new $3/1 Men’s Merona Item Target coupon from here
Final cost only $5!

Simply Go-Gurt $2.12 (On Price Cut until 5/8)
Use the $1.10/1 Go-Gurt coupon from here
Final cost ONLY $1.02!

Pure & Natural products– 2 pack Bar Soap or hand soap priced around $2 or less
Use the $2/1 coupon from here
Final cost FREE! !

Shout deal scenario without coupons:
Buy 3 Shout 4-Pack Travel Size Wipes $0.97
Pay $2.91
Then submit for the $5 SC Johnson rebate in folder for a final cost of FREE + a $2.09 profit!

I'm Hip 2 Save

Since we've started our Financial Peace class at church, I'm working on becoming a couponing queen and having financial peace. My latest and now favorite couponing email/newsletter that I receive is from http://www.hip2save.com/! You get an email a day from this fun, sweet, and helpful gal with all the latest deals that are out there.

Sometimes, all the coupons are linked for you to grab online and other times, you'll need to have past coupons that you've saved to get the greatest savings. She even has videos to explain some of the in's and out's of couponing that are quite helpful. Did you know that Target will take 2 coupons!?! They will take a manufacturer's coupon and a Target coupon. That doubles your savings!

Still trying to get a system down for it though. I used to get the coupons, go through them and pull out what I'd need or use and toss the rest. Now, I'm starting to file all of the coupons and keep them so that I can get in on all the good deals and freebies!

Our new budget is starting to become fun now. I've always loved a good deal and yesterday I was just giddy over what I was able to get at Target.

I was able to get the five items above at Target for $4.18 (before taxes)! The price I would have paid is $11.18!! I had a savings of $7.00 in coupons. Now how cool is that!! I paid $.84 each for the Degree Girl deoderant rather than $2.34 each. The Reach Dental Floss, I paid $.52 instead of $1.52. The Nivea Body Wash would have cost me $3.49 but I had a $2.00 off coupon and paid just $1.49!

The savings are adding up so I'm able to spread that out in our grocery fund. I'll be adding the hip2save link on my blog for others to see when they visit. You just can't go wrong here ladies. It takes a bit of time in the beginning to get more organized and get your game plan but it really adds up! Happy Shopping!!