Skip to main content
Just a quick list of before buying tips...

Have rewards cards!

Staples, Kmart/Sears, Roundy's, County Market, CVS, etc... Staples has many items rebated back with your card and they give you rewards for recycling ink cartridges ($2 each with a max of 10 recycled a month). I save them up until I have 9 or 10, since rewards are issued in $10 increments monthly. You also get a 10% rebate back on ink and paper purchases.

If you're smart and don't go crazy - store credit cards - Victoria's Secret and Kohl's. Victoria's Secret sends out lots of coupons and freebies to card holders. Kohl's sends out up to 30% off your total purchase coupons a bazillion times a year - PLUS you can get Kohl's cash back, which sometimes is valid over a 30% off coupon time as well!

Example - this week I got an email from Staples for a bonus $5 rebate reward. I also had an ad coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase. This was great because I'd just run out of ink! I had 9 cartridges to recycle, so will eventually get $18 for those. I purchased the ink ($14.99), trading card holders (for couponing! $3.99), a clearance dual ring zipper binder with strap and handle! (regular $24.99 for $4.50), 2 sets of binder divider pages (regularly $2.99 each on clearance for 50 cents each!), and 2 rolls of clearance clear contact paper (50 cents each) = $16.58 oop after tax. So, basically I bought the ink and got the rest free :) AND I earned about $19 in rebates (the purchased ink gets discounted from the coupons, so the rebate isn't off the regular price which is kind of a bummer - but still savings). They also had a special of buying a pack of16 Duracell batteries for $9.99 and get the full amount of $9.99 rebated back (I passed on that since we mainly use rechargeable batteries and already have 2 16 packs of regular at home). Of course, my husband said I should have gotten them - but that would mean I'd have to find $40 worth of stuff to buy next time with the rebates! As much as I like a deal, I am trying to not buy just for the sake of buying.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Today was a shopping day! I ended up with $137.31 worth of merchandise and paid $54.03 OOP. It gets better as I also received a $10 American Express gift card, $2 off my next Rainbow purchase, and $1 ECB. That brings the total down to $41.03 for a savings of - 70%. This included trips to 5 stores. Note: It was double coupon day at Rainbow and double coupon week at Kmart - and in Oakdale they just so happen to be right next to each other making it easy to go to both! Staples (52 cents for $10.52) - 95% savings Victoria's Secret ($0 for $9.50) - 100% savings CVS ($23.55 for $52.58 + $10 AMEX GC + $1 ECB) 55% savings (76% if you count the OYNO) Kmart ($6.12 for $12.08) - 49% savings Rainbow ($23.84 for $52.63 + $2 catalina) - 55% savings (59% if you count the OYNO) Should have been higher savings, but our FAVORITE Fuze (Strawberry Guava) was on sale at Kmart and I didn't have a coupon for it and no stores closer to us carry that flavor. If you take out the Fuze my Kmart tota...

Escape through Television

Last month, unbeknownst to any of you, I wrote a blog post that I never published entitled Understanding Unpopular Views that used television as my examples.  I wasn't really happy with the writing, so it sits...  It did, however, bring up thoughts on recent television series.  I've always been a television junkie.  As, I've gotten older, the likable shows seem to have dwindled.  Have I become picky in my old age, or has the formula for writing television shows changed drastically? I can rattle off numerous television shows from the 70s, 80s, and 90s that I watched from start to finish.  Now, it's only a handful - and most I missed on first airing because it didn't grab me with their promos, so I binge watch them.  If they are good, I binge them all - or they head to the unwatched, possibly never to be finished "pile." Thinking back the first show that I had been excited about in quite some time was Heroes.  It did not disappoint!  That f...

Payge's Pakistani Kima

Tonight was a what do I have ingredients for kind of dinner.  Wanted to make tacos, but we didn't have any shells - and I'm trying to not go grocery shopping the rest of the month! (except for milk).  Looked at my Pinterest list of recipes and I had 2 for Pakistani Kima - which last time I made it was years ago and who knows which one I made or if I made up my own?  I didn't have all the stuff they listed and googled more recipes and found they all have different things, so decided to wing it! If you don't know what Pakistani Kima is - it's basically hamburger curry.  If you don't like curry...  maybe you shouldn't make this...  The cost for this comes out to less than $8 to serve 4-5 people (depending on the current price of ground beef).  Steps are separate for a reason - so add things slowly as directed - or things get too mushy (they're already mushy because they're canned, but you can use fresh or frozen, just prepare them prior to adding into...