Awesome new Publix Coupon Booklet

Keep an eye out for this one! Iheartpublix.com has a post on this booklet with included coupons. Check it out: http://www.iheartpublix.com/index.php/2011/08/new-publix-booklet-toss-4-cash-gameday-plays/

New Publix Coupon Booklet

Iheartpublix has a new post about a new coupon booklet sighting:http://www.iheartpublix.com/index.php/2011/08/publix-big-deals-for-baby-booklet/

Last Day to Print Coupons

Dont forget to print your coupons from redplum, smart source, coupons.com, and coupon network! They reset at end of month!

Don't throw out your Sunday Papers yet....

Coupons in 8/28 Parade Magazine

Check your newspaper. Many nice Proctor & Gamble coupons appeared in 8/28 Parade Magazine.

$0.50 off one Mr. Clean with Gain Scent, exp 10/31

$0.50 off one Cascade ActionPacs Product, exp 10/31

$0.50 off one Swiffer Product, exp 10/31

$1.00 off one Febreze Product, exp 10/31

$0.25 off one Dawn Power Clean Product, exp 10/31

$5/$30 Publix Booklet

There is rumor about a Publix booklet being handed out at a register during checkout over in Tampa. This booklet supposedly contains coupons for $5 off a $30 purchase. One coupon for every month until May 2012! I have not seen this in our neck of the woods but am crossing my fingers! $5.00 is not much but it adds up when you combine it with all the coupons and sales.

Keep your eyes and ears open and please if anyone sees this over here on the east coast, let me know!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend!

Last Minute Deal

Well, unfortunately Publix Stores in this region are not doing BOGO on Natures Own Whole Wheat but instead on Butter Bread. I don't eat Butter Bread so I opted to let my coupons expire and go to waste. :(

On a brighter note I was able to make good on the Advil deal! Now I do want to state two things here:

1. Today was the last day to get this deal since the Publix coupon expires today and I purchased them one hour before store closing. I did this so that I would not hoard the store's inventory and possibly ruin it for others.

2. Obviously the amount I purchased is more than my family of three needs and I will be donating most of these!

28 boxes 50ct Advil Pain Medicine

Retail: $169.36, Actual: $0.00

100% Savings

FREE aside from taxes of $0.68

Two last minute deals @ Publix

Two deals ending today due to expiration dates. Advil Free with Publix Green Flyer that expires today and Natures Own Whole Wheat Bread $0.67/each with printable coupons. The coupons are no longer available so if you have them use them. Mine expire today!

Advil Pain Reliever $4.49

-$5/2 Advil Publix Green Flyer, 8/6/2011 expires TODAY!!!!

-$2/1 Advil 8/14/2011 RP Insert

FREE!!!!

Nature’s Own Bread Whole Wheat, BOGO $2.85

-$0.75/1 Printable not available anymore

67¢ per item

My Publix take for week of 8/18/11

Didn't need to do too much shopping this week. I decided just to go and get some of the really good deals that I saw.

-Six V8 Splash 64oz bottles for $1.00 each

- Four packs of Chinet 90ct napkins for a total of $0.08

- Got paid $0.12 total to take home four Degree Deodorants

- 24 McCormick Grill Mates Steak and Chx Seasonings FREE!

-$10 off of groceries with Winn Dixie Flyer coupons @ Publix

Total take at Publix

retailed: $207.30, actual: $71.68

65.4% Savings

Winn Dixie Flyer $5 off Coupon

We here in Central Florida may not have had the benefit that South Florida had in today's papers with the $10 Gift Card for Publix but if your local Publix considers Winn Dixie a competitor go over and grab a Winn Dixie Weekly Flyer or two or three or four. They have starting today a coupon for $5 off of your bill with a purchase of $30 or more. If you have a large grocery list then you can break it up into multiple transactions and use multiple coupons on each $30 transaction.

Not as good as South Florida's deal but close. $10 gift card for $50 purchase vs. Winn Dixie's equivalent $10 off of $60 purchase.

New Publix Green Advantage Flyer

Don't forget guys there is a new Publix Green Advantage flyer coming out 8/27 - 9/16

Head on over to iheartpublix for the associated match-ups:

http://www.iheartpublix.com/index.php/2011/08/green-advantage-buy-score-big-savings-coupons-827-to-916/

Free $10 Publix Gift Card for South Florida

Sorry guys but we didnt get this one here! If you have any friends that live in South Florida though, let them know and direct them to this iheartpublix post:

http://www.iheartpublix.com/index.php/2011/08/south-floridians-check-your-paper-for-publix-coupon/

Remember, if you have a grocery bill that is over $100 you can use two coupons for two gift cards and if over $150.00 you can use three for three cards etc etc.....

Coupon Trade

All right everyone....... We need people to start joining the forum! I want to start trading coupons! :)

I currently have a ton of Birds Eye SteamFresh mfr $0.35 coupons, $1/2 Knorr Pasta Sides Publix coupons, and $2/1 mfr coupon for Woolite Laundry Detergents that I am willing to unload among others!

I am looking for Pampers, Toilet Paper, Paper Towels, and Hebrew National Hot Dogs coupons. If you are interested let me know. Maybe we can even start a Coupon Train here in the Space Coast area!

Hidden Coupons in Sunday Paper

I have not picked up my Sunday Papers yet because I do not usually get them until early Monday mornings but I got an email alerting me of some hidden coupons in the PARADE magazine that is in the Sunday Paper.

Look for the following:

$2/1 any size Keri (exp 9/30)
$2/1 any size Vagistat-1 (9/30)
$2/1 any size SlowFe (9/30)
$3/1 any Glade Sense & Spray starter kit (10/1)
$1/2 Dannon Oikos 5.3 oz cups any flavor (9/4)

$1 off Publix Produce Coupon

My wife picked this up in the Produce section. $1.00 off of Publix Produce when you buy any 2 Tostitos Tortilla Chips. I thought this would be a perfect post to include my wife's recipe for the World's best Nachos but she is keeping it a secret. Sorry guys!

Do not fret though, the coupon comes attached to a recipe for a Killer Quacamole Dip! Enjoy.

"Follow" Button

Hey guys. Hope your weekend is going well! Just wanted to let you know that for some reason the Blog "Follow" Button had been inadvertently removed and is now back at the top left of the screen.

Don't forget to get your Sunday Newspapers today! Remember that there will only be one coupon circular today.... Smart Source.

If you want to know what circulars are coming out when you check out the following blog:

Coupon Insert Schedules

New Publix Freebie!!!!!

Not seen in Publix's weekly flyer, McCormick's Grill Mates Spices went on sale yesterday according to the Publix Yellow Advantage Flyer "Backyard Barbecue" 8/20/11-9/9/11. The spices are now 2/$1.99 and in the Publix Sweet Savings Free Booklet there is a mfr coupon for $1.00 making them FREE!!!!!!

Be sure to stock up on these as deals on spices like this only happen this time of year from what I hear (barbecue season).

I did not see this on any other coupon blog or site. I would have missed this had it not been for the friendly staff at my local store. They know me by now and get excited every time I come shopping. They seem as if they want to be a part of the coupon experience and try to help me in any way they can. One of the Customer Service employees in particular approached me yesterday to ask if I was aware of the McCormick Spice deal and handed me the flyers. Good people!!! I love Publix or should I say IheartPublix?

"Extreme Couponing" facing big changes

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/12_for_action/extreme-online-couponing-facing-major-changes-call-for-action

"Extreme Couponing" is in the news again. Found an article (link above) that talks about what we all knew would eventually happen. The Big Wigs of The Coupon Information Corporation have taken notice of the TLC tv show and of the mass response by the public. They are pressuring Ebay to stop the sale of coupons online. Keep in mind though, currently it is not illegal to buy or sell coupons online! I am sure that this is just the first step for the Coupon Information Corporation in regaining control of and moderating coupon usage in this country.

This week's take @ the Drugstores

CVS - This week CVS on Facebook had a printable coupon for a Free bottle of body wash if you "liked" them. I printed two. Also this week CVS still had the ongoing deal where if you buy $30 worth of specific products you get a FREE $10 gas card. I noticed that one of these specific products was one that I needed; 24pk case of Nestle Pure Life Water. I just so happened to have some coupons for Nestle Water; $.50 per case and I will be buying gas soon anyway. I then opened my email to find that I just received a 25% off coupon for CVS. Printed it and ran to the store and brought ten cases of water to the register along with the body wash bottles.....

-Ten 24pk Cases Nestle Water
-Two bottles of CVS Body Wash

Retail: $49.17
Actual: $20.26 - (value of $10 gas card) = $10.26

A savings of 79%


Walgreens - This week they were running a special for 6pk Expo Dry Erase Markers for $3.99. Using an instore coupon for $3 and two printable $2/2 mfr coupons I brought that price down to -$0.01. Four Packages of 6 markers FREE! Can't beat that!

FREE!

FREE!

Holiday Gifts @ Vistaprint

I noticed that on my Freebies page one company was showing up over and over again. Vistaprint. Vistaprint is always giving away samples of things such as prints and business cards. They offer high-quality printed marketing materials, promotional products and marketing services such as copywriting, design, websites and postcard mailing.

I decided to try out their business cards and decided to get the free sample before I purchased and I was totally satisfied! Since then I have been hooked; I get all of my office supplies from them. I recently purchased a Car Door Magnet for my business and it was perfect.

Vistaprint transactions are fast and seamless. Shipping is no hassle and with their track record you can be sure you are getting excellent savings! The Holiday Season is approaching quickly and I am always in search of good deals. Check out their savings on personalized Holiday Cards and Gifts! You can find some great savings on Holiday Cards, Calendars, Holiday Labels, Photo Gifts, and Stationary. You will not be disappointed.

Just a friendly reminder to keep an eye out for the new Publix Yellow Advantage Buy Flyer This week!

This week's take @ Publix

This week turned out not to be too shabby. I didn't get the amount of Gatorade that I had planned on due to an error on my part. I didn't have the particular coupon that I thought I had. Oh well, C'est la vie. I am not going to list every single grocery item like some of these other blogs do. Instead I will just list my overall savings and a few of the Extreme Savings.

Today's grocery trip:

Retail: $331.64

Actual: $97.02

Savings Percentage: 71% BEST YET!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!

These numbers were obtained through my regular couponing and three Publix $25 Gift Cards. Here is the kicker though...... the gift cards were free money! This past week's Winn Dixie flyer had a coupon for a Free $25 gift card from the pharmacy when you fill a new prescription. I previously posted about this. Since Publix Stores around here accept Winn Dixie as a competitor they honored that coupon. We transferred a total of three prescriptions and only had to pay a total of $8.52 for the medication leaving us $66.48 in FREE money!!!!! Woohoo!

The following are some savings of note:

-Twenty Four bottles of Soft Scrub Retailing @ $78.96 all for only $19.44. 63% Savings!

-Thirteen jugs of FAB Laundry Detergent Retailing @ $51.87 all for only $3.48. 96% Savings!

Smart Phones = Smart Saving

There are many money saving apps out there for today's ever growing Smart Phone market. There are some new ones on the horizon though that have me excited. I am a self-admitted Tech Junkie. I love any and all new tech gadgets. I have been hearing about some new iPhone apps that allow the user to bring a coupon or coupons on to the screen for scanning at a store for instant savings. There is one in particular for coupons.com and it is only on the iPhone right now. I already take advantage of my smart phone for storing my store rewards bar code key chain cards. I simply take my phone out and scroll to the correct store and it will show a bar code on my screen for the cashier to scan. It works wonderfully and thus I am super excited for these new Mobile Coupons!

Mobile Coupons: Otherwise known as Show&Save Coupons are a niche that is still small, but will certainly be growing as applications for iPhone and Android continue to develop. So far the flagship for Show&Save digital coupons is Target. Keep your eyes open for these and I will post anything I hear especially if any new stores start accepting them.

Just went to http://www.couponcleanout.com/ to see if I could clean out any of my coupon circulars. According to couponcleanout.com I only had one stack to toss. I have over 40 P&G's from 6/5/11 if there are any military families out there that want 'em. I know that our U.S. military families stationed overseas are able to use them on base for up to SIX MONTHS after the manufacturer's expiration date! If I do not hear from anyone then I am just going to donate 'em at one of the following sites:

Coupons to Troops

Where to send coupons

Overseas Coupon Program

Update on Pharmacy Coupon

My wife went today to attempt to use the Winn Dixie Flyer Coupons for $25 gift certificates with every new prescription at Publix. As I said in my previous post, the Publix in Merritt Island will honor these coupons, however they will not honor them for Antibiotic Prescriptions since those are already free (already have a discount promo). As far as I know there is no limit though! We found two old prescriptions that we never had filled because we didnt need them. The generics will cost us $10 on each so we are going to go ahead and fill those unneeded ones in order to make a $15 profit and put it towards this weeks groceries.

Online Price Tracker

You may have heard years ago that someone came out with a website that monitored The Airlines and their pricing as it varied over years. Using that info the site would predict what time of the year was a good time to buy airline tickets and would recommend either you "Wait" or "Buy Now". The website was called FARECAST.com. It is still around but Microsoft purchased it and tweeked it to their liking. I do not know if it is still trustworthy or not.

Now there is a new website out following in FARECAST's footsteps when it comes to online merchandise. WWW.SHOPOBOT.COM . Shopobot monitors pricing trends on the internet for merchandise and with the help of some nifty algorithms it will predict high or low prices for specific dates and will recommend either you "Wait" or "Buy Now".

Too bad they don't have something like this for groceries! That would make our lives so much easier with this couponing thing. ;-)

FREE $25 Gift Card

I got Winn Dixie's weekly flyer today and found a coupon for a FREE $25 Gift Card for purchasing a new prescription at their pharmacy. I called around to see if any of my local Publixs' will accept this coupon since according to their coupon policy they accept Winn Dixie coupons as competitors coupons.

The only one that gave me a YES was Publix at:

125 E Merritt Island Cswy

Merritt Island, FL 32952-3699

(321) 452-0288

Note: This will make a nice combo with this weeks Publix $10 off $50 gas cards. I plan on getting two prescriptions this week and one of them is an antibiotic for my wife. Publix has a policy now where they fill prescriptions for certain antibiotics for free (http://www.publix.com/freeantibiotics/)

. Not sure if they will honor the Winn Dixie coupon for the FREE antibiotic prescription but I will try and let you guys know. Even if you don't take advantage of the Gift Card, the FREE Antibiotics from Publix Pharmacy is a great save in itself!

It's official, www.spacecoastcouponing.com

Took the time to register the domain name today and redirect the blog. The new web address is: www.SpaceCoastCouponing.com

You will automatically be redirected if you go to the old address so no need to worry!

This week is lookin' a whole lot better!

iheartpublix.com posted a few days back Publix's Super Deals Match-ups for this week and it's looking very good compared to the past few! I am learning my lesson though.......

Back when I first started my couponing I had a chance to sign up for Publix's "The Savings are Stocking Up" mailer but did not do so and it would be coming in handy this week.

Hope everyone is having a great week. Don't forget we are in the middle of the Tax Holiday right now!!!

Space Coast Coupon Group Forum

Well, I am an impatient man and decided not to wait to post another poll and wait for the poll to conclude only to not have enough responses so here it is..........

The Space Coast's first Official Coupon Group Forum!

I have also put a link under the Tab "Forum" at the top of the page.

Hope to see some action there soon!

Space Coast Coupon / Couponing Group Forum for areas including Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, Merritt Island, Cocoa, Rockledge, and others, Space Coast Coupon Trade, Space Coast Couponing Trading, Coupon Trading,

FREE GAS @ Publix again!

In this week's Publix Savings Flyer they are again offering $10.00 off of a $50 Gas Card when you buy $25 or more in groceries.

This comes in handy especially if you have over a hundred dollars in groceries! The last time they had this deal I had a bill that was over $160.00 (I was still in the beginning stages of couponing) and I purchased three of these $50 dollar gas cards. Buying each card for $40.00 enabled me to get $30.00 in gas absolutely FREE! $150 dollars worth of gas for $120 is not too bad!

This actually brings up another cool little savings tip! When I bought those gas cards I wanted to find the cheapest gas station around to use them at so I downloaded a nice little smart phone app called GAS BUDDY. You can use the phone app or just use the website! It allows you to search a specific area for cheap gas prices. You can filter your search by specific gas stations which is great because the gas cards at publix are for specific stations. You can filter your searches by price too! The cell phone app comes in handy when you are on the road and suddenly find that you are on empty! Turn on your GPS settings and GAS BUDDY will use your GPS location to find stations near you. This allowed me to make the most of Publix's Free Gas promo!

Pet Products

For those of us that have pets it can get pretty expensive between vet visits, medications, supplements, and food. Here are some savings options that may be able to offset some of your pet expenses:

Vet - A new standard in veterinary medicine comes to Cocoa Village: Owner and veterinarian, Dr. Donna Ragona, DVM, CVA offers a full service veterinary clinic – integrating low cost soft tissue surgery and preventative medicine with alternative therapies.

Medications - PetcareRX and/or PetMeds offer great discounts and occasional coupon promos

Pet Food - When it comes to Pet Food many choose to just shop at their local grocery store. If that is what you do than using the basic couponing methods can help you save a bunch on pet food. Winn Dixie right now has a flyer with over $15 in coupon savings specifically for pets! For our pets we decided early on to feed them a holistic dog food sold at local pet stores. Our brand usually retails around $32 per 15lb bag. Since my plunge into the couponing world I now print the occasional manufacturer's $7.00 coupon from their website and combine that with a $5.00 store coupon (via email sign up) at Pet Supermarket. From my understanding, Pet Smart doesn't allow combining of coupons. I have not verified that though myself. That in my opinion is the best way to save on pet food..... Store coupons + manufacturer coupons + store sales if any.

80% off on Restaurant Gift Certificates

80% off of Restaurant Gift Certificates

Posted over at iheartpublix.com, restaurant.com is offering 80% off at checkout with the code: HOT

Click Here

Remeber Florida Tax Holiday Tomorrow

Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, August 12-14

Here is a list that I found of some good Tax Holiday match-ups:
Tax Holiday Match-ups

Looking for more good "Tax Holiday" match-ups including for clothing if anyone knows of any!

My Publix take for the week

Just like the past couple of weeks, this week did not allow for any AMAZING deals. I managed to do ok though saving 41% at Publix.

Retail: $138.71

Actual: $81.82

Deals of note:

1. With the help of a BOGO sale + mfr coupons I got four Skippy Peanut Butter Jars for $0.22 each

2. Four 3oz Weber Seasonings at $0.50 each after 2/$3 store sale + four $1 mfr coupons

My CVS take for the week

Good deal on Pampers diapers over at CVS this week. Pampers "Baby Dry" 31ct are on sale for $8.99 with $3.00 back for ECB's. Combine that with a $2.00 manufacturer coupon from 7/31/11 RP coupon circular and you get the the diapers for the equivalent of $3.99 each (60% savings). Pampers Sensitive Wipes 64ct are on sale for $2.49 each and Nestle Pure Life 24pk water is also on sale for $3.39 each. Nestle Water coupon $1/2 is in the 7/31/11 RP2 circular.

I just got back from CVS with the following:

1st purchase - Five Packs of Diapers and two cases of wipes

(One $3 CVS Birthday Reward, Five $2 mfr coupons and two $0.50 mfr coupons)

Retail: $66.53

Actual: $35.93

2nd purchase - Four Nestle Pure Life 24pk water cases and two 96ct CVS brand Antacid Tablets

(Two $1/2 mfr coupons and $15.50 in ECB's from the Diaper purchase above)

Retail: $26.54

Actual: $3.84

All totaled.......Retail: $93.07, Actual: $39.77.

I saved $53.30 which comes out to 57.3% savings!

NOTE: In order to take advantage of the Extra Care Bucks (ECB's) that I earned I had to break my transaction up into two seperate ones. That comes in handy when shopping at CVS.

Wholesale Oreo deal at Sams Club

Thanks to Steelersbabe of Cocoa we have a sighting of wholesale Oreo Cookies 180 ct marked down to $4.99 at Sam's Club. Get 'em fast deal ends soon!

TLC's show EXTREME COUPONING good or bad?

I personally had heard about the immense savings one could garner from couponing long before TLC's new show but I must admit the real motivational trigger that got me off of my butt and learning how to actually do it was the show itself. So do I condone the show? No. You would think I do but nope. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the informative side of the show but there is definitely a negative side to having this knowledge spread so widely around the country. The obvious reason is that it is now no longer a little known secret. What was once for a select few is now so popular that coupons are becoming more and more scarce, stores are adopting new and more restrictive coupon policies, and of course there are those who take advantage of things and ruin it for the rest of us......

Example: 'Extreme Couponing’ show blamed for rise in newspaper thefts

New additions to the Blog

If you have not been here in a while or usually just skip straight to the Freebies page then I wanted you to know that I just added a section on the sidebar giving you a preview of daily FREEBIES from Craigslist Space Coast Region. I also added some feeds for news results containing Extreme Couponing and Publix.

Enjoy!

Space Coast Couponing Group Forum

We are indeed getting a steady stream of visitors here every day however we only had one vote on the Poll asking how many of you would like to see an actual forum where we can all get together and share ideas, trade coupons, etc...

I am planning on conducting the Poll again sometime in the near future. Thank you to the one person who voted! :)

$15 worth of coupons in Aquafina 24pk

Here at my house, we have yet to drop the water bottles in favor of a water filter. Just to reiterate, I started my Frugal Savings Journey only back in May. Old habits die hard and I am making progress. I hope to soon cut out cable tv, eating out, and our bottled water. It is just so darn convenient though!

So we ran out of water the other day and I went to the store just for water. I normally wait for Walgreens sales on their water which is usually around $2.39/24pk but I can't wait for the next sale so my options were $3.99/24pk Aquafina or $3/Nestle 24pk with coupon. I opted for the Aquafina and I will tell you why. The Aquafina case had $15 worth of misc. manufacturer coupons inside. I figured that as long as I use $1 worth of those coupons I made up for my choosing Aquafina over Nestle. Ideally I would always go for Dasani if it were cheaper due to it's enhanced taste! Alas, Dasani is never cheaper.

These are the things you need to keep an eye on. Most people would not even notice the "$15 In Coupons Inside" label and just get the $1 cheaper case. Reward for catching this was the following 12 coupons:

1. $1 off any 1 Starbucks Frappuccino Coffee Drink or Doubleshot 4-pk

2. $1 off 1 20-22 cnt Frito-Lay Multi-pak

3. $1 off any two 12 oz. can 12-pks or two 2-liter bottles of Lipton Brisk products

4. $1 off on any two 16.9 oz 12-pks, 1-gallon jugs or 1.5 liter bottles of Lipton Iced Tea products

5. $1 off any two 64oz Gatorade or G2 products

6. Buy any four Snack Pack Pudding 4-pks, get one FREE

7. $1 off any two 20 oz. Sobe Lifewater products

8. $1 off any two packages of Energizer MAX brand batteries

9. Buy any eight Chef Boyardee products, get two FREE

10. $2 off when you buy one 16 oz. 4-pk Rockstar Energy Drink product

11. $1.50 off any three Orville Redenbacher's products

12. $1 off when you buy any two 10-16 oz. bags of Rold Gold Brand Pretzels

Modern Bartering

Before currency everyday goods were bartered. Items that were not needed or wanted were traded for items that someone else had that you needed or wanted. Unfortunately the old method was not exact when it came to the actual value of the items.

www.listia.com is today's version of bartering.

List your stuff, earn credits, buy other stuff with credits. I have not used it yet myself but I thought it fit the whole saving/couponing theme.

New Apron Station Coupon

The Birds Eye Coupon at the Publix Apron Station has been replaced with the following coupon:

Found Publix Booklets

Ok so I went to the Merritt Island Publix today to check for some of those rumored coupon booklets and found the following:

1. Publix Pharmacy Booklet : August 2011 : Children’s Health

2. ConAgra College Care

I was not able to find the following though:

1. Kashi Do Right With Every Bite

2. Savings are Stocking Up at Publix

*To see what coupons each booklet contains head on over to:

http://www.iheartpublix.com/index.php/booklets/

New Publix Flyer Rumors

There have been a lot of new coupon flyer sightings at Publix lately. Personally I have not been so lucky to find them yet. Keep your eyes peeled and check out this link to know what you should be looking for:

http://www.iheartpublix.com/index.php/booklets/

Florida Sales Tax Holiday

Anyone see any good deals coming up for the State's Sales Tax Holiday? Any good match-ups to take advantage of during this tax free time?

Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday, August 12-14

List of tax-exempt and taxable items

2011 Sales Tax Holiday Tax Information Publication

Publix Pet Coupons

Here is a link to some printable Publix Pet Coupons that I just got in my email:

http://www.publixcampaigns.com/pet/2011_August/

Where to store your growing collection of circulars?

Ok so now you are starting to get quite adept at this couponing thing. You learned to print mass quantities of online coupons, you purchased a binder, you've established a source for multiple Sunday Newspapers, and you have created stacks of coupon circulars in the corner. What do you do with these hundreds of circulars? How do we organize them? Where do we even start? Of course everyone is different and what works for some may not work for others but I am going to show you what some have done in hopes of sparking some creativity in you.

Ever use milk crates as furniture back in college or when you got your first apartment?

The perfect square geometry of these handy dandy crates allows for stacking and excellent shelve making! Milk Crates stack very well and are fairly sturdy/stable and they obviously are perfect for carrying circulars from one room to another if needed. Here is an example of what is possible.

I keep my growing collection in my garage. I keep them sorted by date bottom to top and by circular brand (ss, rp, p&g) left to right.

Note: Industrial Milk Crate use by you may not be really legal in your state. By no means am I recommending that any of you run out and swipe these from behind your local grocer nor am I even suggesting that you use them in your storage needs. This is just an example of what someone may or may not have done to organize their circulars.

Getting Organized

Organizing Your Coupons

*In the beginning remember, you do not need a binder right away. Take a few weeks to assess your needs and shop around.

Option 1:

Some people may decide not to go to the "Extreme" when it comes to couponing and may not need a huge binder. These people may settle for a simple coupon "pouch" organizer. The organizers may come with pre-printed tabs to help get you started or they may come with blank ones. In a small pouch like this it may help to make more generalized categories such as: Produce, Dairy, Meats, Food, Drinks, Snacks, Personal Care, and Cleaning.

Option 2:

Others decide they want to save more money and start stocking up. This requires mass coupon clipping/printing. This is when you need to determine a storage method for your coupons. Once you start collecting mass amounts of coupons, you will notice VERY QUICKLY how they pile up and become very cumbersome. A little old coupon pouch just will not cut it anymore. Most "Extreme Couponers" opt for a 3 ring binder. There are different size rings out there and it just depends on how "Extreme" you are going to be. Some binders are cheaper than others and thus in the beginning I just got one of the cheapest so that way if my needs changed I could upgrade without losing too much money. If you watch TLC's tv show Extreme Couponing then you may have noticed almost everyone on the show has a Case-It Binder. These seem to be the best and the price reflects that. I have not personally purchased one of these binders yet. I emphasize yet!

Unfortunately unlike the smaller coupon organizers the 3 ring binders will not come with pre-printed tabs or pages/files. You will need to purchase coupon storage pages and tabs separately. Tabs can be found at most any store that sells office supplies. As for the coupon storage pages, I have found that most people including myself have turned to Vinyl Trading Card Pages. Obviously you would be able to find these at any baseball card store but they may be heavily marked up in price there. The best deals can be found online via Google Shopper!

When deciding on Categories for your tabs a lot of people/sites will tell you what they think is best but I say do what works for you. You can keep it simple like I mentioned above for the small pouch organizer or you can get more detailed and have more categories. It really depends on who you are, how you work, and your personality. As of right now my needs and my personality helped me determine that I wanted to keep things simple and I have limited categories. In fact my specific categories are the exact ones that I mentioned above for the pouch organizer. Everyone is different!

When you start printing out mass quantities of coupons you want to print out any and every coupon that you not only need now but think you could need or use some time in the future. That is what the binders are for. Store all of these coupons that could come in handy at a later time into your binders and then when in search for future coupons for stuff you need or for match-ups always check your binders in addition to searching online. Online printables don't last forever so you want to grab 'em as soon as you see them and store them in the binders.

No grocery photos for this past week

No photos of this week's take due to no grocery shopping this past week. The wife was not feeling well this week and was not up to cooking. Since I do not cook we ate out a bit and still have a full fridge. Don't get me wrong, I can cook......I just choose not to. You can not give me any grief on this ladies because I do the grocery shopping and that should count for something! :)

Oh and it was my birthday today so of course we ate out again! :) This upcoming week looks like it may be a good one so hopefully I will have some good numbers and cool photos to share.

When to throw out your Sunday Coupons

One thing that seems to keep people from jumping on the bandwagon and learning how to really coupon is the belief that the Sunday coupons are only good for that one week or that one month. This is completely wrong and in fact these coupons can be valid for many months. The question then is when do we throw them away?

Over at IheartPublix.com there was a post referencing the following link: http://www.couponcleanout.com/

You can register here for free and supposedly use this site as a tool to tell you when and what coupon circulars to trash.

Couponing Tip #7

Tip#7: When buying OTC medicines that have different strengths and are all the same price buy the strongest. You can always cut them in half or in quarters depending on the type of medicine. For example: I had a combination of coupons that enabled me to obtain multiple packs of Zantac medicine all for free. Normally I only buy Zantac 75 strength but the Zantac 150 was the same price. I took all of the Zantac 150's off the shelf and now I just cut the pills in half. This allows me to have double the amount of pills that I would have had if I had only purchased the Zantac 75's.

Kashi Coupon Sheet

There was a post over at IheartPublix.com about a new Kashi Coupon Sheet being distributed by Kashi reps at Publix locations. There are some good coupons on it however, according to the the following site they will no longer be distributing them at Publix Stores. Check out the the itinerary here: http://www.terracycle.net/do-right-with-every-bite

Unfortunately I was unable to get any of these. If any of you have any extras and want to trade then let me know. Thanks!

Space Coast Forum?

Hello everyone and happy Monday! I started Space Coast Couponing initially to document my couponing trek and to determine a need if any for a "space coast couponing" forum. We are getting some regular visitors here already and so I am wondering if any of you would be interested in a forum specifically for us in this geographic area? If you are interested, please vote at the poll on the right hand side of the page. Thanks!

Publix "Buy Theirs, Get Ours Free" Deal

Publix is running a promotion called "Buy Theirs and Get Ours Free". Supposedly they run these promos on select products every now and then. Basically you buy a National Brand of any of these select products and you get the Publix version of that product free.

Select Items for this current Promo:

1. Crystal Light Canister

2. Sandies Pecan ShortBread by Keebler

3. Lipton Onion Dip