I wouldn't touch gift cards on eBay. Too much opportunity for scams, IMO.

The reason people pay over face value is due to cashback sites that give you a decent percentage back for eBay purchases. For example, in the past Bing has given a 10% cashback on eBay purchases, so if you buy a $500 Walmart gift card for $525 (for example), you've got $500 in purchasing power plus $52.50 more cash back.

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how do you "buy" these coupons and get them in time to use them?? also, if the store does not have enough stock, will they issue a rain check along with the ability to get the reward?

Well, previews of coupon inserts are online a week or more before they come out. Sales circulars for the drugstores are usually online a month or more in advance. When you see a good combo coming up, you start watching eBay or clipping sites for the coupons to go on sale and buy 'em. Most "big" clippers get the inserts early, so often they'll get mailed out the week before the sale starts and you'll have them in hand early in the sale week.

Yes, most stores will issue rainchecks.
CVS is the easiest for this - they can print the reward when you purchase the item on raincheck. If something is $4 with a $3 reward back and you have a $3 coupon, you'll pay your $1 cash and they'll force-print the $3 reward.
Rite Aid will write the raincheck for the amount after reward, which can get dicey sometimes. Some sort of painkiller was on sale for like $3.99 with a $3 reward back, so they wrote the raincheck for $.99ea. The problem was that I had coupons for $2.50 off, and I couldn't take full advantage of the savings because there's no overage at Rite Aid.
Walgreens is completely hit or miss on raincheck + reward. I have no guidance for you on that. Sometimes they'll write a raincheck for the price minus reward value, sometimes just for the sale price. I only bother with rainchecks at Walgreens for prices I want to lock in (BOGO sales, usually), not for any reward items because there's no consistent policy about it.

$40 for $50 gas cards are back at publix again.

Chelie- i don't know if this is new or I just didn't notice before but I had to pay sales tax on the full amount.

I bought the 20 bottles at walmart for 2.97 each, so I was thinking itd be free but the total was 62.97 so after the coupons I ended up paying 2.97. I'm not going to complain though.

Matt - it varies state by state as to whether you pay tax on the pre-coupon amount or not. Here in Ohio we pay pre-coupon tax on everything but food, which is why I've been MUCH more selective about non-edibles. Food isn't taxed so I'll "buy" anything that's free after coupon.

Because of the tax thing, I've cut WAYYYYY back on my shopping since getting pregnant. For the time being I'm limiting the couponing to food; I've got us a nice stock of health & beauty items that will last a year. I plan to coupon for immediate-use items like paper towels, garbage bags, etc.

Instead I'm shifting my shopping to baby stuff - diapers mostly. Those ****ers are expensive; it's about $15-20/week minimum if you don't grab the great sales. I just got a pile at Walgreens for $3/pack this week and will go back later in the week to get a raincheck for more to lock in the price. In 2 weeks they'll be on sale for $2.99/pack after coupon, so I'll get more then and another raincheck. If my calculations are right, that should work out to under $4/week once baby is here.

preggo?

congrats!!!!




scratches chellie off list of chicks to hit on

We should start coupon-central for diaper coupons for Chellie.

Get into a diaper study. We got in on one when our first was born. Essentially, they send us a bunch of diapers and have us test them under real-world conditions (and document the results, heh). We get something like sixty free diapers at a time. Even better, as long as you have two brain cells to rub together and properly fill out the results, you'll get invited occasionally to participate in more diaper studies.

Matt, with my rapidly disappearing waistline and all the other weird things going on, I'll accept any sort of hitting upon as a gentle boost to my self esteem. As long as it's all in good fun, of course. ;)
I posted in The Bar about it last week, you must've missed the thread.

Briar, I'm in good shape for diaper coupons, but I'm still collecting as many as I can. Fortunately I have a mountain of 'em (hundreds & hundreds of coupons, for real) good through the end of the year that will bring the price down to $3/pack or so during the sales. That works out to $.06-.10 per diaper which is crazy cheap.
The only possible kink in my plan to stock up everything before baby arrives is if there's two of 'em...

... or three!

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... or three!

NO!

Chellie, I'm sorry, but there are some kinks in your plan. Different diapers fit different babies different ways. I could never use Huggies on any of my children...they leaked out the legs almost 100% of the time. To me, Pampers reeked. Luvs were way to expensive & rarely any good sales/coupons. Also, if your baby is prone to rashes, some diapers will exacerbate the situation. So, even though I mostly cloth diapered, on the occasions where I did use a disposie, I always had good luck with the Walgreens and Food Lion brands...in fact, any generic seemed better than the name brands.

It was alot less hassle using cloth too. Never had to worry about running out of diapers & going to the store to buy them. When did I use disposibles? On trips. Also, when my kids were about 2 & still not potty trained, they tended to go #2, at specific times...ds was between 4-5pm; dd was between 8-10am...other dd not consistant at all, but usually in the middle of the night-lol! Anyway, by 2 years of age, I'd slap on a disposible before their regular scheduled dump (and at bedtime for my youngest), and change them back into cloth when they were done. It took a load off-lol!

Good luck.

wakeupcall- you're a ****ing genius. I've never heard of a parent more proactive with pooping.

chellie- look on the bright side. at least you'll be sporting a nice rack for the next year.

Hey Matt, after a couple thousand diaper changes, you take any shortcut you can-lol!

I can count on my boy cat to hit the litter box within seconds after I change the litter. Do I get credit for knowing that?

My cats are the same. They love a clean litter box.

Depends...what do you do about it, Briar?

starving artist is a cat lady. marriage is off. :(

Chellie, the CVS deals that say limit one per household - is that at one time? can you go back later in the week?

It's one per loyalty card for the whole sale period.

Yes, you can get more than one loyalty card, however at CVS the rewards (store credit coupons) you get back can ONLY be used with the card they were issued on. So if you have a CVS card and your wife has a CVS card, you couldn't buy item X with your card, item X on her card, and then take the two $4 off your next purchase coupons (for example) to buy an $8 item.

If it's for something that's a good price on its own, multiple cards are worth it. If it's for something that's only a good price after reward - probably not worth it.

My kid has cats. Sorry.

Chellie, I looooove CVS. If you watch the sales and coupons, you can really get some fantastic deals there.

Got a great deal on Minute Maid 12 pack lemonades today. Its a coke product. Farm Fresh is having a 4th of July special; buy 5-12pks for $10 (full price if less than 5; limit 10-12pks per transaction). So, that works out to $2 each. BUT, a couple months ago FF put out some coupons in their flyer, $2/2 12 pack of coke products...excluding coke. I did some research & it included: Barqs, Fanta, Pibb Xtra, Sprite, Cherry Coke and Minute Maid (among others).

I thought I would never get to use the coupons because they expired 6-30 (today); but a sale started yesterday! So, I bought 10-12pcks, using 5-$2/2 coupons; for a final cost of $1 per 12 pack. (Usual price is over $5 now; usually on sale for $2.50-$3.l00).

Usually every summer, I load up on Capri Suns for the kids. They're getting Minute Maid lemonade this year-lol! The MM Orange is also on sale...I got a few of those; but haven't tried them out yet.

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Got a great deal on Minute Maid 12 pack lemonades today. Its a coke product. Farm Fresh is having a 4th of July special; buy 5-12pks for $10 (full price if less than 5; limit 10-12pks per transaction).

Here's the problem I have with extreme couponing, and no offense Wakeup it's not a dig on you, just couponing in general.

First off, I'm a health and fitness nut and very particular about what goes in my body so I want to caveat my statement.

That said, whenever I see people bragging about the great deals they get through extreme couponing, 99% of the time it's garbage that's not fit for human consumption. Wake me up when I see healthy meat/vegetables where I can get $100.00 worth of groceries for $0.45. Unitl then, it's not worth the effort IMO. I mean, who in the hell would want 30 packages of bacon or 50 boxes of Kraft mac & cheese? This stuff is pure ****!!!

Cs, the key is moderation. Very very few people eat 100% healthy 100% of the time. You mention bacon? Okay, we're a family of 5 & eat bacon once a week or once every 2 weeks (every week during the summer because dh & I love blts). Bacon will hold up well over a year in the freezer. So, if we go through 50 packages a year, why pay full price 99% of the time? I'd rather buy 50 during a sale period for $1.50 each & freeze them, instead of getting one package that week & paying $6/lb the other 49 weeks. 50 packages sounds like a lot; but if you stretch it out over a year, imho, its not.

I don't eat Kraft mac & cheese. But the kids love it & we have it once or twice a month. Again, not excessive.

I actually got a couple boxes of Hamburger Helper a couple weeks ago...the first time my kids had ever had it & the first time I had had it in about 30 years-lol. We don't eat alot of that type of foods around here. (Fwiw, it was really good, but really disgusting at the same time-lol! Won't be buying it on a regular basis.)

The lemonades are mostly for a treat when we go to the beach or to the zoo. It's much less expensive and more healthy than the sodas and junk food that they try to gravitate towards when out at an event. Its not an everyday thing.

Don't get me wrong; there are alot of couponers that eat crap (actually, there are even more non-couponers that eat crap-lol). But if one judges w/out seeing everything that is purchased over the course of a couple months, then you will get a distorted picture. I'd say close to 80% of my grocery bill goes towards fresh produce & veggies, non processed meats and grains, breads & pet food/litter for the cats. Most couponers that I know in real life, are pretty much the same. As a matter of fact, by saving money on basics, people have more money to spend on more expensive, non processed foods.

Wakeupcall -

This is exactly why I coupon. By saving money on paper products and the staples I can buy with coupons, I am able to afford our CSA membership and buying organic local dairy, eggs and meat. It is a balance for my family. Do we eat well all the time? No, we order pizza every few months and get Chinese take out sometimes. But overall, couponing has made it much easier to afford better food where it counts! That said, most of the extreme couponers I know do eat a lot of junk!

Sharon

Of course never mind all those diapers I just got for $2.50 per pack. I guess I could pay $14 per pack instead because couponing is just for "garbage."


*shrug*
I don't even bother explaining couponing to people anymore. All they see is Hamburger Helper and nothing I say will change it.

I haven't gotten a package of Costco mailer coupons since I used $40 worth in March. They know who I was when I scanned them. Still waiting on them about 1/4 of a year later when they came every month before that.