Late Night Savings

How do we spend our Saturday nights? We take late night trips to the CVS to save some money!! I have a confession. I have really been slacking on couponing. I have been hoarding the last several weeks of coupon inserts. Procrastination at its finest, ladies and gents? (Are there any men that read my blog?) Anyway, I still have a lot of coupons to go through, but I've been trying to get caught up little by little each day.

As I was clipping my coupons, I came across coupons for laundry detergent, and I knew I had seen an ad for them on sale.
CVS had an AWESOME deal on laundry detergent, while there was an AWESOME coupon available. Perfect! Because we were desperately needing laundry detergent, or people were going to have to start wearing clothespins on their noses, when we walked in. I had to call around to 4-5 different CVS stores, before I actually found one that had detergent left.  (It was such a good sale!) But we finally found one that wasn't too far away from the house, and off we went. We bought 6 bottles of Arm & Hammer detergent, and 2 things of Brookside dark chocolates (if you haven't had them before, go try them! They're soooo yummy!)

My Deals

Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergents - Regular price, $7.49 

• The laundry detergents were on sale Buy 1, Get 2 Free. CVS was kinda sneaky on this. Their sign out front only said they were B1G1, but their paper ad told the true story.
• I bought 6 bottles of detergent and used 3- $2/2 manufacturer's coupon from the newspaper (See! This is where it comes in handy to have multiple papers!) Even though you are only paying for 1 item, you are still technically purchasing 6 items, so you can use the $2/2 coupons.
• Total price for the bottles of detergent: $8.98!! That's only $1.49 a bottle!! 

Alternate deal - Just so you can see the difference in savings.

• I could have done this deal with only  buying 3 bottles of detergent, but I would have only been able to use 1 - $2/2 coupon. Making the total price for 3 bottles: $5.49, or $1.83 a bottle (so still saving, but not as much as you would, if you bought 3 more.

Now, some of you are probably saying, "Buying 6 bottles of laundry detergent sounds a bit like extreme couponing to me", but I really don't think it is. Laundry detergent is something you will ALWAYS need, and with having a messy hubby and baby, I am ALWAYS doing laundry around here.

Brookside Dark Chocolate - Regular price, $4.49

• CVS had them on sale for 2/$6 (not a very good deal, BUT there were coupons to make it a good deal!) 
• I scanned my CVS card at the kiosk in the store and received a $2/2 coupon for them. I also had 2- $1/1 coupons from the paper. CVS allows you to use 1 store coupon and 1 manufacturer's coupon per item purchased, so I bought 2 bags of chocolates and used 3 coupons.
• Total price for both bags of chocolates was: $2.00, or $1.00 a bag! 

Total savings that trip = $43.54! 

I paid less for 6 bottles of detergent and 2 delectable bags of chocolate, than I would've paid for 2 bottles of detergent regular priced. 

#winning

Even though it took a little bit of time to find a store with enough detergent left to get the good deal, I consider this deal worth it. I wouldn't have had to call around, if I had hit the coupons and the store earlier in the week, but eh, I'm not an extreme couponer. I do things at my own pace.

As you can see, Jackson was very excited about my savings.

Where Do I Get My Coupons?

Just wanted to give y'all a quick run down of the types of coupons I use and where I get them:

1) Newspapers. 

• I have two newspaper subscriptions. One gets delivered to my MIL's house and one gets delivered to my house. The News Sentinel typically has a deal for Sundays and you only have to pay around $5 (find more info about that here), which is a savings in itself, because Sunday papers are $2 a piece. I highly suggest getting two papers, OR trying one of the following options.

2) Neighbors/Friends. 

• I posted on Facebook, asking my friends for leftover coupons and I didn't get much of anything, but my MIL's neighbor saves me her coupons, after she's done with them.

3) Co-workers. 

• We have a coupon box in our department and we share coupons with one another.

4) Online. 

• There are a lot of coupons you can print online (I don't do this a lot, because it requires me to buy ink for my printer, and/or download a coupon printing app).

5) My Phone. 

• Some stores will offer coupons via text, if you send a particular code to their number. (I use these at Target ALL the time). This is perfect for combining store and manufacturer's coupons.
• Also, some stores have apps you can use to automatically add coupons to your shopper's card (Kroger, for example).

6) Mail and Email. 

• Some of you are probably hesitant to give out your email or your mailing address, because of the amount of junk mail you'll receive.
• I have an email address specifically for coupons, and one for junk mail (sites that require your email address, but you really don't want anything from them). 
• A lot of companies will mail you higher value coupons, if you give them your actual address, and who knows?! They may even give you samples with their coupons. I get free samples of things all the time! So you need to decide if you want to wade through the junk, because you will still get junk (sad, but true).

Why do I suggest having multiple papers? Deals. You can normally get better deals, if you buy more. Now, remember, I'm not EXTREME couponing, so I'm not suggesting dumpster diving for coupons OR buying 25 boxes of cereal at one time. I'm simply saying, you can save money buying in smaller increments, but it may not be as much as you would save with buying in bulk.

It's nice to have "help" sometimes with organizing coupons!

Checkout 51

 Checkout 51 is another one of my favorite money-back apps. (You can download it here.) This app is SO much easier to use than iBotta, but doesn't always offer as many rebates. They're actually offering the most rebates I've ever seen right now.

Unlike iBotta, Checkout 51 doesn't have specific stores you have to buy the item from, which is AWESOME. Also, there's no unlocking rebates. Occasionally, they will ask you to share a product on Facebook, but this is optional, and it actually raises the amount of the rebate, if you do share it! Also, they don't have referral codes or teams, so it's all about your savings!

To redeem a rebate just hit "upload receipt", select the rebates you want to claim from that receipt, take a picture of your receipt and...viola!

You can only cash out once you reach $20, and they will send you a check in the mail. I haven't actually cashed out with this app yet, but I have a few friends who have and haven't had any problems.

I forgot to mention this about iBotta, but you can use coupons on any of these items and still get the full amount of the rebate even if you got the item severely discounted or even free! So, this is not only a way to get money back, but it can also be a way to make money! Yay!

iBotta

As I said in my first post, the electronic world has really made some big improvements in the couponing/ money saving world. There are quite a few apps (applications for your smart phone/tablets; for those less tech savvy) you can download for free out there that give you money back or points for using them, buying certain items, and showing them your receipt. iBotta is one of those apps.

iBotta is actually one of my favorite money back apps, and it's fairly easy to use. First download it to your phone from free in the app store. (Click here to go to their website.) Note: I tried downloading this to my iPad and it didn't work very well. Something to do with the camera?.. I don't know. I'm not that  tech savvy. 

You will need to create an account to use this app and they will ask to link to your Facebook page for you to share rebates with your friends. Also they keep track of your friends, who are already using iBotta, OR friends that join, using your referral link. If your friends join iBotta using your referral code, you both will get money in your account after their first rebate!!

How It Works
iBotta has a list of categories you can choose from to search for rebates. The list ranges from groceries to box office movie tickets! Once you pick your category, you get to choose from a list of stores that show you where they are currently offering rebates. After picking your store, you can scroll through the items listed and unlock the rebates you think you'll use. TIME OUT!! I know this sounds like tedious process, but I promise you it's easy, once you know what you're looking for!! TIME IN!!

              

Redeeming Rebates
When you have finished unlocking the items, and you've made your purchases, simply go into the app and select "Redeem". Select the store you purchased your item(s) from and select the item(s) you purchased on that one receipt. One annoying thing about this app, is that they make you scan the UPC on all the items you're redeeming to confirm it matches the rebate item. Then you take a picture of your receipt. One they confirm the rebate, they'll add the money to your account.

Cashing Out
iBotta let's you cash out your rebates in three different ways: Vemo, PayPal, and gift cards. You can cash out with the first two options, once you reach $5.00 in rebates. The gift cards typically have a $10.00 minimum, and they only have three options for gift cards. Right now they are iTunes, Starbucks, and Regal.

I've been using the app, since the beginning of summer and I've earned $19.00, and I haven't religiously been redeeming rebates. I've cashed out once and got a gift card to Regal. It's an e-gift card, so they email it to you. We enjoyed a date day, using my gift card and had no problems redeeming the gift card.

If you decide to download the app, please use the referral code above! (It should ask you while you're creating your account, if you have a referral code.) Let me know if you have any questions!

Intros.

Howdy. My name is Melissa and I'm very much like any of you that may have stumbled onto my blog today. I am a full time employee, wife, and mother just trying to find a way to save money in this expensive world we live in today. Whereas, I would LOVE to be an extreme couponer, well, a couple of things... 1) I don't have time to clip 5,000 coupons, 2) I don't have enough storage room in my house for three people, let alone 100 boxes of cereal, or 500 razors, 3) Who needs100 boxes of cereal or 500 razors?!?! (Unless, of course, you're the Duggers), 4)  I just don't have the energy to put that much effort into my shopping.

I am by no means lazy, well, I guess I can be, but who wouldn't stay in their pajamas all day long on Saturday, if you weren't going anywhere?! (Don't judge. (You're judging me. I can tell.)) Being a full time employee, a wife, and a Momma (to a precious little 9 month old baby boy) is hard stuff, but who doesn't want to save money? I plan on showing you simple tips almost anyone can do to save a few dollars here and there without going nuts. Saving money is easier than you think, and the digital world we live in makes it easier and easier to do! Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have!