Pageant!

Today I was up in Secaucus participating in a scholarship pageant! It was a ton of fun but not much of my thought went into coupons.

Fundraising and Donating

Next week I plan to look into different charities and start to decide where to donate, what items are needed and  what items can I buy the most of for the least amount of money. My initial thoughts are to choose some where local (within Burlington county) and it seems that health and beauty items are easiest to buy so I could donate those items to programs that benefit women. I also have to come up with a way to raise the money that I will use to buy the items. Ill look into everything over the next two weeks so that when I come back from spring break I can put a plan into action.

Mentor meeting 8

Since I will be on a field trip tomorrow I had my mentor meeting today. It we brief because Mr. Reising had something else to take care of but he seemed impressed by the amount of money I saved during my 2 shopping trips this week. We also began to discuss ideas of how I will use coupons to donate things to charity. Mrs. Sardo gave me the date for the next faculty meeting so I plan to email Mr. Wigley asking permission to attend and ask the staff to donate their coupon inserts.

response from the Krazy coupon lady!

The Krazy Coupon Lady emailed me back this weekend and today I spent some time reviewing her answers and checking out some of the links she posted. Her responces to the interview questions I sent last week are as followed:

The best way to find deals is to check out our store matchups. Each week we take the ad from several stores and match the sales up with the available coupons. We then post the information for you to use. You can view them by clicking "Find My Store" at the top of our home page. If you are looking for local deals that we don't cover, I would suggest going to Google and typing in the name of your closest city and something like "coupon blog".

There are several great stores to shop at. The BEST stores depend on what region you are in. I love Albertsons, Safeway and Publix. Drug stores like Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid also have great deals and you can often get free items.

We have created a stock up list with our rock bottom prices for most items you could think of. This includes our super cheap and free items. Click here for the link.

It's very important to have multiple copies of a coupon. This allows you to really stock up on an item when it's free or very cheap. Often newspaper offices will offer "couponer discounts". They will allow you to have several copies of the Sunday paper delivered to your house at a reduced rate. If there is a particular coupon you are looking for, you can purchase multiples from online clipping sites like thecouponclippers.com. You can also print coupons from the Internet. Check out our Printable Coupon Database where we have thousands of coupons listed for you to print from your computer. You can access it by clicking "Print Coupons" at the top of our home page.

Stores will usually have somewhat of a sale cycle. A certain kind of item will be on sale during a particular time of year. We have created a list of these cycles. You can view it here.

If you can devote 1-2 hours per week couponing, you should be able to save a lot of money! I generally save 75%-85% off my monthly grocery bill for my family of 5. As you can image, couponing has helped us tremendously to get in control of our finances and pay off debt. I will also purchase cheap or free items to give to shelters and food pantries in my area. You or others in your community could also accomplish those achievements for yourself, your family and those around you.

My number one tip would be to save your coupons for a sale. Clipping a coupon that is $0.25 off is not going to save you a large amount of money unless you combine that coupon with a great sale or promotion.

I would also like to mention that our book is a great tool that will be able to answer ALL of your couponing questions. It is available for purchase here. Good luck with your project and have a great weekend!

all you have to do is ask

In the section titled "all you have to do is ask" in the last lecture Randy describes a trip to Disney were 4 year old Dylan wanted to sit in the front car of the monorail and Randy's dismissed the idea thinking that they would never be allowed to. Randy walked up and asked and the conductor gladly let them sit down.

I think with my project I need to just ask. If a question pops into my head instead of just dismissing it and believing the answer is no I need to just ask. The worst that can happen is that the answer really is no. But with out asking I will never know and could miss out on a great opportunity or good information.

2nd shopping trip

Using the CVS circular that came in the sunday paper yesterday today I planned another shopping trip to CVS.
I purchased everything in one transaction.
I bought halls cough drops, jelly beans, snickers easter candy, whisk laudry detergent and bumble bee can tuna. The regular price for these items would have been 21.00. I used the 4 ECB from last week plus 4 coupons and paid 2.85 + tax and recieved 2.99 ECB back.
This trip was like paying $3.86 for  $ 21.00. Thats a savings of 81% !

sunday paper

I picked up the paper today and this week it includes a smart source and red plum insert plus a Hasbro insert with coupons for toys. A toys r us circular was also including and by combining sales at toys r us with coupons from the Hasbro insert you can get some good deals on toys for Easter presents !

Grocery Shopping

Lately my mom has been going grocery shopping with out me even though I continually ask her to wait until I can go with her so I can help her get the best deals. Today she gave me a list of items we needed such as snacks, juice and breakfast items. I looked through the coupons in my collection and picked out the items that we normally buy and combining them with sales in the weekly shop rite circular. Just by taking a half hour to do this I was able to cut the bill in half ! I purchased 65.16 of items at regular price for only 31.91 + tax using only 8 coupons combined with the store sales :)

Mentor Meeting 7

I took the day off from school today to catch up on my work and relax a little. But I did come in 9th period to have my mentor meeting. We went over the shopping trip I went on Wednesday. Mr. Reising seemed excited that I am finally getting out in the field instead of just sitting on the computer. In thinking about the types of items I was able to buy and which items seem to have the most  coupons in the Sunday paper, it seems that items or brands that are less popular seem to have the most coupons. New or promotional items also seem to have alot of coupons. So far it seems that health and beauty items are the easiest to buy at low cost.

Interview questions for the krazy coupon lady

I emailed the krazy coupon lady back  today with the following questions:)

• What is the best way to find local deals? Websites like yours are extremely helpful but not all the deals and coupons match up exactly to what is available in my area.
• Which stores are your favorites to shop at? Which allow for the best deals and the most savings?
• What types of items are easiest to get for free or at  an extremely low cost?
• What is the best way to gather coupons? What is the best way to get multiple coupons inserts from the Sunday paper without spending a lot of money?
• Are there certain times of the year/month better for finding sales and deals? if so when?
• What is a realistic margin of savings for someone who uses coupons regularly?
• In your opinion, in what ways can coupons be used to benefit myself and my community?
• What is your number one tip for anyone who is trying to use coupons?

Shopping!

Last night I received an email back from the krazy coupon lady! She said she would be happy to help and to send a reply email with my questions ! yay:)

I used the opportunity to sign out today to go to CVS and go shopping. Things turned out not exactly as planned but pretty close. Before I went I made sure I had a detailed list of what I planned to buy and what coupons I would use.
They did not have the crystal light individual drink packets so I was not able to get those.
I made my purchases in two transactions.
transaction 1

• biore face wash 7.99
• biore pore strips 8.29
• buy one get one free coupon up to $9 (cashier took $9 off )
• paid 7.28 +tax
• received 5extra care bucks

transaction 2

• 3 suave body wash 8.61 on sale 6.00
• suave lotion 3.49 on sale 3.00
• 3 suave deodorant 4.11 on sale 3.00
• bic razors 3.99
• buy 2 body wash get 1 free
• 2- .75 off deodorant
• 1.00 off lotion
• 3.00 off razors
• 5.00 ECB from 1st transaction
• paid 3.49 +tax
• received 4 ECB

trip toals

•  36.48 regular price total
• 15.77 sale price total
• paid 10.77 + tax
• 9ECB
• like paying 6.77
• total savings of 29.71
• 81% savings!

first shopping trip planning

I looked on thekrazycouponlady.com at the CVS weekly match ups and decided to plan my first shopping trip there. I plan on buying Suave body wash, deodorant and lotion all for $0.46 each, Biore face wash for $1.50 each and individual packets of crystal light drink mix 2 for free.
hopefully things will work out how I want and I won't run into too many issues.

while I was on the Krazy coupon lady website I filled out the contact form requesting an interview either on the phone or through email

finally some luck

Today I started off my afternoon with a free icetea from Dunkin Donuts :) Later I posted on facebook and asked if any one had any coupon interests from the Sunday paper that they would be willing to give me. Turns out my neighbor had more than one from the past three weeks! Tomorrow I will plan a mini trip so I can sign out and go on wednesday!

Free Fries !

Today on my way home from work I stopped at Burger King for free french fries! I heard of this deal on 6abc's deal of the day! I also picked up the Sunday paper but was disappointed to see it only had one Red Plum coupon insert in it.. I was expecting there to be a Smart Source also.

shopping trip fail

Last night I attempted to plan a small shopping trip to CVS using the coupon circular I had gotten in last weeks paper (which includes symbols to tell you which items have coupons available in recent Sunday papers ) and online resources. I search for online blogs that post weekly deals and tell you which coupons to use on which items. I encountered a ton of problems :

1. store sales and the coupons available vary from region to region, state to state and store to store so while online sources can be helpful they don't match up where I live
2. coupons needed to get current deals might have come from Sunday papers that came out weeks ago
3. printable online coupons have a limit to how many times they can be printed and run out very quickly for the big deals
4. to get the best deals you need more that one copy of the same coupon (by one get one free sale using two coupons, one for each item)
5. products with the best sales go out of stock fast
6. one missing item or miss calculation can throw off your whole trip

so with all that I decided to hold off on the shopping until I had a better handle on how to plan a successful trip. Hopefully  my friend will get me in touch with his mom soon so I can ask her about how she plans her "extreme" couponing trips.

Mentor Meeting 6

Today Mr. Reising and I went over all of the things I did this week. He suggested that I get out more and interview people. He also thought I should start to plan small shopping trips to get some experience. Later today I'll try to put a small trip together using the coupons I've collected over the past few weeks.

the last lecture - 2

we talked about our next section of reading for the last lecture today. I only read half of the section (whoops! totally slipped my mind) but Ill catch up later today. One of the things in the book that I can relate back to my project is the part where Jai puts dents in both of there cars and tries to hide it thinking that Randy will be mad, but it turns out he doesn't mind and doesn't even want to get the cars fixed. It is not worth getting upset over the small things that don't go your way. It is important to keep the big picture in mind and separate what really matters from what is not such a big deal.

Couponing Clipping

today I used my class time to cut out all of the coupons I had received in the past two Sunday papers. It took longer than I thought and was a little tedious. I then separated them into different categories including: food, medication, cleaning supplies, beauty, air fresheners (for some reason there's alot, enough to form their own categories) and misc. I need to find a good system to keep them organized so that they are easy to find and use. I have scrapbook pages that have pockets to put pictures in so ill try that and see if it works for me.

special guest

today Gabby came to visit our class. She talked to us about her experience in WISE two years ago, what she learned through out the process, her frustrations and how she is currently using the skills she learned. It was definitely cool to hear from someone who is been through the whole process. The project she is planning for going to Africa sounds completely awesome and it seems like alot of the skills she learned during WISE have helped her alot in the process. It was motivating encouraging and inspirational to hear from her.
( I also got the chance to ask her about the paper clips she always wears- something Ive wondered since my freshman year!)

double checking paper prices

I called Burlington County Times to double check the subscription prices and they were similar to what I found online but the lady told me they were as followed:
for 13 weeks:
Sunday only- $24.05
                  - $1.85 each
Thursday, Friday, Sunday- $26
                                    -$2 each
6 day- $45
        -$3.46 each
Mrs. Sardo also came up with a great idea today. I am going to create a flyer to put in the teachers lounge to see if there are any staff members who receive the Sunday paper and would be willing to donate their coupon inserts to me. I started to make a flyer but ran out of time in class so Ill work on this week.

it doesn't make sense..

Today I picked up the Burlington County Times on my way home from work. When I got home I searched online for subscription rates to see if it would be more convenient and cost effective to have the paper delivered. The news stand price is $1.50, to subscribe for 6 papers a week it cost $2.80, to get Thursday Friday and Sunday it cost $1.50, but to only get the Sunday paper each week it cost $1.75 (rates )... This makes no sense to me. Why would it be cheaper to subscribe for 3 papers a week than for just the Sunday paper and why would the subscription price for the Sunday paper be more than the news stand price? Since I have no interest in reading the paper and there are some weeks when I wont need to buy one Ill just continue to buy them from the store (unless of course i can find a way to get the coupons free).

6abc

Checked out the 6abc website today. It has great tips and local deals including a list of coupons that feature printable and online coupons of all types. There is also a saving-tip-of-the-day each day which seems to be really cool deals like free stuff. Credit is given to the site where the deal originally came from so I can use the links to check out those sites for more deals. Ill defiantly be checking the site often!

Mentor Meeting 5

Its hard to believe that Ive already been working on this project for 5 weeks. Today me and Mr. Reising talked about my frustrations with finding out about getting the coupon interests for free. It looks like i will have to contact the newspaper directly and maybe they will be able to tell me.  He suggested that I check out the 6abc website because they have a series about couponing.
Truthfully I did not spend as much time as I should have on my project this week.  I was so busy with work, other assignments and the crazy HSPA schedule. I'll need to spend extra time next week!

asking around

today I asked a few of my friends who work at various stores in the area to see if they could help me figure out what happens with the sunday papers at the end of the day.  I was told that at Rite Aid they get recollected and my friends who work at Wawa and Shop Rite told me that they would ask their managers and get back to me. Hopefully this will help me get some answers!

Updates

Today we all got to share a little bit about how our projects are going.  Since we had shortened class time we only got a few minutes each. It makes me happy to hear that I'm not the only one running into issues with things I at first thought would be simple. I think we all are running into similar problems and can relate. It seems that most of us are having trouble contacting people or getting people to respond to our questions. It is interesting to me how peoples original ideas are evolving and beginning to take shape. I am really excited to see where everything ends up.

The Last Lecture

Today Mrs. Sardo give us the book the The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Although I am usually not a fan of inspirational books I am intrested to see what I can learn from reading it.

Wawa

I tried to contact Wawa today. Of course what I thought would be simple once again wasn't. I went to the website contact page which offered the option of emailing or calling. I sent an email asking what they do with the Sunday papers that are unsold. (They only allowed a response of 160 characters so I couldn't go into alot of detail) Since I said that I would receive a response after 2 days I decided to call as well. I explained what my project was about and asked the same question. The response was the same as the one I received the later today in an email. It states "As we are held privately, our information is proprietary. And information that is shared  publicly on our website at www.wawa.com ". Basically they can't answer my question and they can't give me contact information for anyone that could. It looks like the only way I will be able to get in contact with the over night manager is if I go to Wawa in the middle of the night...

$274 worth!

I picked up the Burlington County Today for the coupons. On the top of the front page it says there are $274 worth of savings! When I was at the register I asked the cashier what they do with the left over sunday papers at the end of the day. She said that some are recollected but most are thrown away. She said I would have to contact the night shift manager to find out if I could have to coupon inserts that are left over. I guess I will be contacting him this week!

long dayy

longest day ever. I was out of the house at 8am and didn't come home until 11pm. I think this is the first day I didn't get a chance to even think about coupons. Although on the kitchen table my mom left me a Dunkin Donuts coupon for a free iced coffee every Monday for the next 10 weeks! yay!

Mentor Meeting 4

Today Mr. Reising and I discussed alot about what I researched this week regarding coupon circulars in the Sunday paper. We brainstormed ways to try to get the coupon inserts for free (ask friends/ neighbors who receive the paper, find out what the stores do with the paper at the end of the day). Next week I plan on starting to interview some store managers and people with experience. I also want to start to narrow down which sources online I will use to collect coupons.

too good to be true

I was doing a search to try to find local couponers and got distracted by these two articles: Alleged TLC Extreme Couponing Fraud, Extremecouponing Breaking Rules Again. Turns out that most of the shopping trips featured on the TLC extreme couponing show are not very realistic. The stores work with the couponers and allow them to bend the coupon polices in order to create the best deals imaginable. Some times the couponers even use coupons for items they are not meant for. Also you usually cant buy all the items they did in one transaction. You can still get amazing deals by couponing but what is featured on the show is exaggerated. I want to look into this a little bit more and maybe contact the show to ask about it.