Try Me Free - Arm & Hammer Essentials - Mail In Rebate

Purchase any Arm and Hammer Essentials Cleaners Starter Kit (refillable spray bottle with cartridge) by 11/15/08 and receive the full purchase price of up to $3.50 back by mail. The mail-in certificate can be found here.

You can also obtain a $1/1 coupon here. Combining the $1/1 coupon with the mail in rebate is highly recommended to reduce out-of-pocket expenses as well as lead to overage.

Drugstores

Although I can not recall the details of my first rebate purchase with each store, I have been drugstore rebating ever since my high school freshman year. It was just pure teenage curiosity that first lead me to the practice of rebating shopping, not parental influences or budgetary constrains.

My love for drugstore rebate shopping has only grown as time has gone on. Although, in my college years, I did experience a slight heartache as Eckerds was bought out and went out-of-business. In my college town, all the Eckerds were converted to CVS stores. As the stores were transitioning I inquired if the new CVS store would have a comparable rebate program. I was initially told that CVS would not. As a result, I became very distraught and refused to shop at CVS for sometime. That was until ...

Try Me Free - Ensure - Mail In Rebate

Buy one 6-pack of any Ensure product by 12/31/08 and receive the full purchase price of up to $10.00 back by mail. The mail-in certificate can be found here.

You might also consider answering a few quick questions to receive two coupons — one for a free Ensure 8-fl-oz shake and one for $3/1 savings on the many flavors and varieties of Ensure six-packs. Click here for the extra savings. Combining the $3/1 coupon with the mail in rebate is highly recommended to reduce out-of-pocket expenses as well as lead to overage.

How I First Met Walgreens

After moving at the end of middle school to start high school, the community I moved to had drugstores. Next to one grocery store, there was an Eckerds and across the street next to another grocery store there was a Walgreens. At this point, I had no expectations of drugstore shopping and thought nothing of it when I first carelessly strolled into my first drugstore. As usual, I was just diverting to the nearest store to pick up a few basic necessities. That’s when it hit me, completely unexpectedly and out-of-the-blue. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Easy Saver rebate catalog. I picked it up and checked it out, flipping thru all the pages and reading the fine print. It seemed like it couldn’t hurt to give it a chance. I also subsequently discovered Eckerds rebate program and found it to be strikingly similar. So there I was a new girl in a town with two different major drugstores in walking distance of each other and both vying for my attention.

Try Me Free - Zout Stain Remover - Mail In Rebate

Buy one 22 oz bottle of Zout Stain Remover by 10/31/08 and receive the full purchase price of up to $4.00 back by mail. The mail-in certificate can be found here.

Tales From The Past pt. 3

We are approaching the part in the “Tales From The Past” series that actually explains how I initially became a rebate junkie.

During middle school, grocery shopping days occasionally switched to Mondays. It seems the library was wise enough not to be open on Sunday. Thus shifting grocery shopping to Monday gave my "dad" something to do while I checked out massive stacks of books from the library that I never actually read or returned on time. I was usually sad I missed out on the shopping trips, but for the most part he could be trusted to fulfill my requests for a half-dozen boxes of Fruit-By-The-Foot and some Eskimo Pies. Nonethlesss, I eventually abandoned the library to return to grocery shopping to ensure I got all my desired personal items.

As I am sure you could imagine, as an adolescent, I had teenage “unmentionables” that I needed and didn’t exactly what to openly request or buy with the pops standing over my shoulder. Thus I would make a sidetrip to an adjacent store to discretely buy the teenage “you-knows.”

Okay, perhaps that part of the tale was just to make you squirm, but all awkwardness aside, there are just some things that are best bought at a discount wholesaler (ie. Target, Walmart, K-Mart) than a grocery store due to lower prices and increased selections.

It is this pattern of venturing to nearby stores that first introduced me the practice of rebating.

Try Me Free - Land O' Lakes - Mail In Rebate

Buy one package of 1 lb. LAND O LAKES® Butter in 8 Half Sticks by 10/15/08 and receive the full purchase price of up to $4.39 back by mail. The mail-in certificate can be found here.


LAND O LAKES® Butter in Half Sticks is only available in select retailers in the states of ME, VT, NH, MA, NY, CT, RI, PA, NJ, DE, MD, VA, WV,
KY, TN, NC, SC, GA, AL, MS and FL

Tales From The Past pt.2

I think now would be a good time finish up my psychoanalytical examination of my life that has contributed to my obsession for coupons, rebates, and thrifty shopping.

As I ended the last “Tales From The Past” post, when my mom handled the shopping, I wasn’t involved very much in the process. She was smart enough to not allow me to unleash the power of the “nag effect.” I know she shopped between the stores in town and occasionally made runs to Aldi to stock up. We also had own our garden and would can various vegetables. I can vividly recall canning tomatoes and making our own salsa. (I guess that is why paying attention to canned foods was of importance to my “dad.”) Although I was too young to really make an accurate “rich/poor” distinction, I am relatively sure we were poor and we definitely less well-off than in my middle school years. Then again, maybe elementary aged bodies just naturally function better with cheap, low quality foods. Now that I think about it, I do recall my mom having a coupon pouch. To what degree she was able to master the art, I can not recall. Nonetheless, she did not directly influence my passion for coupons or rebates.

Western Family - Watch Web Episodes, Get Free Food

I know, I know, enough blabbing already. Coupons blogs are supposed to be about coupons and finding deals. So if you are ready for my first actual shopping tip, here it is:

For all you that live and shop at an Associated Foods store, you can watch web episodes online and get a coupon at the end for a free food item. Just visit http://mywesternfamily.com

This weeks (September 17-23) free food item is Western Family Mac and Cheese. In terms of actual savings, I think Mac and Cheese is on sale this week anyway, but a free box of Mac and Cheese is a free box, even if it only saves you a quarter.

Associated Food stores are what most people indentify as their small, local grocer. Associated Food stores are known by a variety of names. Check the website for a detailed listing of particpating stores.

Tales From The Past

I feel inspired to share some tales from the past to frame my attitude towards coupons, rebates, and thrifty shopping. Thus, the first in a series:

When I was in middle school, my "family" used to go grocery shopping every Sunday. (Shoppping on Sunday has since become taboo as it is the Lords' day. I'm sure I will make a post later about how shopping on Sunday is a pet peeve of mine and expand on the matter.) Nonetheless, we would go to the store without much of a plan, but on a set day each week. My "dad" would occasionally "plan" the meals while we were in the store. However, most of the time we would just buy stuff and figure it out what we would eat later. His primary concern was making sure we had plenty of meat and did try to an extent to buy it on sale and freeze it for later use. He would also pay attention to canned goods. Canned tomatoes seemed to be most commonly monitored canned food product and when it went on sale, we would buy a lot. However, for other canned products (or food items in general), whenever I could suggest buying the store brand of something because it was a few cents less, I would be told to just "buy what I want and like." I was more-or-less given the freedom to buy whatever I wanted. (Looking back now, it was great. I wish I could just go into a store now and buy whatever I wanted and liked.) I would always ask, "can we get this...", but it was more of a rhetorical question as the answer awas always "yes." The weekly bill for two bill was always about $100 and somethings even a bit higher. At this point, money wasn't really an issue and a budget wasn't really important. As well, prior to this point, I wasn't really involved in the shopping as my mom did it and while I can not really recall anything about the shopping dyamanics then, I know it was not the same.

Two For One Coupon Song - Wally Pleasant

I found this song the other day on YouTube, and I absolutely love the song! Of course, not just any guy could pull this off in real life. I do not want to date or marry a tightwad. But, there are a few situations that this song could be suitable in a sweet and endearing manner in real life. Without further delay, here it is ... Two For One Coupon by Wally Pleasant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9qn1-GQLbo