talesofacouponingnovice

[talesofacouponingnovice]

[talesofacouponingnovice]

Coupon Novice of the Month

January is just about over, and as promised, I'm bringing you the Coupon Novice of the Month. It is *drum roll*.....................Nievea Walker!

Nievea has been an A1 awesome sauce contributor to our Coupons & Beyond Facebook page and is always on the lookout for deals she can share with her fellow couponers. She was the first to post and is always coming up with ideas of places and ways to stack coupons and dollars. She is the master of penny stretching! Thanks for coming on board, and for all of your great ideas, enthusiasm and contributions! As a thank you, Nievea will be receiving an uber cute coupon keeper and 2015 calendar from my favorite company Gooseberry Patch! Congratulations, and keep couponing! :-)

-T

[talesofacouponingnovice]

Working Tech To Save You Money

If we are blessed, and all of us are, we own a smartphone, tablet of some sort and a laptop or desktop computer. Even if you do not have a printer at your disposal, you can still take advantage of applications and websites that allow you to link loyalty cards with coupon clipping websites that can be scanned right from your phone. 

One such example would be the website Coupons.com. It is a reputable website that combines lots of savings. You can create an account and add store loyalty cards to take the think-work out of clipping coupons and using them in the store you shop at most. Some stores with loyalty card links are:

Meijer

Baker's

Kroger

Giant Eagle

Fred Meyer Market

Some of these are geographically out of this Couponista's area, but perhaps they are near you.

Meijer has an mPerks loyalty card that you can sign up for on the website. They also have a Meijer app available in Google Play and Apple Store for download. Once you download it, sign in with your phone number and selected pin and you can add coupons from Coupons.com and the Meijer website that will automatically deduct the balance from your register total when you check out and scan your mPerks card from your phone! Now that's super convenient for even the least coupon savvy person!

Kroger also has a way to register online and link your account to a card in which you can download digital coupons.

Also, don't be afraid to hold on to the Catalina coupon! Catalina coupons are the long coupons that print out with your receipt at the register after you make your purchase. Usually they get lost in the blackhole of my purse with the rest of the time-space continuum, but with the coupon binder I am building, there will be a place for those as well. A lot of times you can double those in-store coupons with manufacturing ones from the Sunday paper, along with loyalty points or bucks to save so much, you end up getting money back!! That is what I call the goose laying the golden egg, or Golden Egg Savings©, also called a "money maker" on other websites. 

Check out your local grocery store's website and see if you can sign up for a rewards program that may have an app for your smartphone. If you can download Candy Crush Soda, surely you can get the app that will save you money on real soda...im just sayin'. :-) Come on my Novices, let's get tech-y!

See you on the web,

-T 

[talesofacouponingnovice]

How many times have we stood in front of the fridge or cupboard at 5pm making a last ditch effort to plan a meal before picking up the phone to order take out? *raises hand* I know, I know. There is not enough time in the day to wrangle the kids, get in some last minute laundry, call your friend back, change the trash bag AND make a complete meal that will leave everyone in your house happy and satisfied. We are superwomen, but even the woman with the best multi-tasking power needs a little organization every now and then. Sometimes even we need help with answering the question: "What's for dinner?" Normally we would ask our co-workers, friends, even neighbors what they are making to get an idea. What if I told you there's an app for that? Well there are several apps for that, and I encourage you all to try them out. Some are free and some are for a nominal fee.

Check out reviews of the 5 best Meal Planning Apps around.

http://lifehacker.com/five-best-meal-planning-apps-1533809184

I want to check out the 30 day trial of Plan to Eat because they don't require a debit or credit card for the trial period so there is no need to remember what date you need to cancel. If you like it and decide that you want to keep using it, they will hold your meal planning account so that you can set up payment. It is either 5 dollars per month or 39 dollars for the whole year. I will test it out and let my Couponing Novices know if it is worth it. It also makes a grocery list for you to print out or save in the phone app so that you can shop for everything you need to make everything in your meal plan for an entire month! Pretty nifty.

What other things do you do to save time and the headache it takes to figure out what to shop for, and what to make for dinner?

-T

[talesofacouponingnovice]

Happy Tuesday my Novice Couponistas! I'm afraid that this week was not the week for me monetarily to take advantage of the great sales and coupons I imagined I could have. *sad face* 

That doesn't mean that I still won't be updating the site with Deals 4 Reals and chronicling any perchance deals I have come across until I can work my way up to the big hauls...did I say perchance? Anyway, some of you aren't new to this, you are true to this. In that case, feel free to post finds and deals as well. Right now, I am trying to find some cheap baseball card holders. Those plastic sleeves will make up the innards of my coupon binder. I'm gonna check out my go-to, eBay, and see what I can find. Until then, shop lovely and cheaply!

-T

[talesofacouponingnovice]

Household Items I Coupon

I am not ready to travel into grocery coupon territory yet, so I'm starting with something that we can all find great coupons for; household items.

As promised on FB, here is a list of things that I frequently buy to keep up my household. At least on a monthly basis. I generally give myself a 75- 100 dollar budget monthly for these things, but I'm hoping to chop that down by at least 75%. Lofty goal? Maybe. It's worth a try though. 

Tampax Tampons/Always maxi pads or pantiliners

Summer’s Eve Feminine Wash

Summer’s Eve Feminine Powder

Ivory, Dial, or Lever 2000 soap

Secret Outlast antiperspirant

Dove and Degree Men’s antiperspirant

Scott Tissue Toilet Paper or Scott Soft

Kleenex hand drying cloths (for downstairs)

Air Wick oil scents

Air Wick or Glade automatic refreshers

Lysol or Clorox toilet bowl cleaner

Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Foam shower cleaner

Lysol Foam Cleaner

Windex or Sparkle glass Cleaner

Sparkle of Bounty paper towels

Glad Flex Force or regular tall kitchen garbage bags

3M Dobie dish scrubbers

Dawn dish liquid

Pine-Sol or Lysol cleaner (for mopping)

Tide Clean and Fresh detergent (big bottle)

Downy liquid fabric softener

Lady razors BIC or Gillette Venus

Bath and Body Works body lotion

Dial or Suave body lotion for the family

Clean and Clear (generic or brand name if on sale) morning burst face wash

Clean and Clear oil free moisturizer

Ty d bowl blue toilet water cleaners

Lysol automatic hand soap refills

Bath and Body Works Antibacterial hand soaps and antibac sanitizers

Yankee Candle tart wax melts (Soft warm blanket, Cotton Breeze, Pink Sands)

Crest Toothpaste

Colgate, Oral B, toothbrushes (one child electric, two adult ones)

Kids toothpaste and kids mouthwash

Shea Moisture Shampoo and conditioner

Duracell or Energizer batteries (AA and AAA) (for toys, remotes, video games controllers, etc.)

[talesofacouponingnovice]

I bet they coupon! :-)

[talesofacouponingnovice]

Found in 12/28/14 Walgreens sale paper. But 3 for 12, $1 off manufacturing coupon and $2 earned in Balance Rewards to use on your next purchase. Ladies, also check your tampon boxes for an additional $1 off coupon for a separate transaction in which you can use your $2 rewards for a total of $3 off and another $2 in rewards. It's like they are giving this stuff away! ;-)