It's been A WHILE... a LONG while...

Life has been busy as the kids have grown up, but as I get back to teaching some coupon classes, people ask about my blog, so I am gonna try to get it back up and running. 

Feel free to ask questions if you have any and I will try and answer them!

How do you get so many coupons?

People often ask me where I get all my coupons from.  I get them from a variety of places!

• I subscribe to the Chicago Tribune because it has much better coupons than our local Pantagraph.  I have 8 copies of this delivered to my house each Sunday.  I pay only $0.50 per paper.  The Tribune only delivers to some areas though.
• I know two paper carriers who give me any extras they happen to have (these are the Pantagraph).
• I also know someone who works at a gas station who saves me any extras they have.
• I go dumpster diving!  OK... it's recycle bin diving to be exact.  Town of Normal has large recycle bins in the parking lots at various grocery stores.  People dump their papers in these bins and I go through them and get the coupons only when there's good coupons out!  (Just bring your hand sanitizer for when you're done LOL)
• Ask around!  I have numerous friends who save me their coupons from their papers!

So... you may be wondering why do you want MORE coupons?  If you find a great deal on something - you wanna buy as many as you can!  This is especially true on shelf stable items or items that can be frozen and it's something your family uses often.  

Store Policies

I always stress one of the most important things while couponing is to know your store's coupon policy! 

Most store chains have a corporate policy and you can find this by searching their corporate website.  Here are links to the stores in Bloomington-Normal and their coupon policy.

Walgreens Corporate Coupon Policy

Meijer Corporate Coupon Policy
Our local Meijer store also doubles coupons up to $0.50 ($0.40 coupons become $0.80, $0.50 coupons become $1, $0.55 scan at face value).  Only TWO of each coupon will double per transaction (if you use three of the same coupon the third will scan at face value)

CVS Corporate Coupon Policy

Jewel Corporate Coupon Policy

Schnucks Corporate Coupon Policy

Where do I find my deals?

People often ask me - "How to you figure out the deals?" 

I always look through my coupon inserts when they arrive on Sunday to see what coupons there are.  Then I look through all the sales flyers for my area.  I usually notice a few things this way and start my list of deals.  Then I get online and start scouring the coupon blogs to find more match-ups!  I've listed below some of my favorite blogs for the Bloomington-Normal area.  As always - let me know if you have any questions that I can answer.  These sites take the local ads, and use a coupon database to list the current coupons that match-up with the current sales.

Coupon Databases (these list all current coupons and tells you where to find them)

www.coupontom.com
http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/coupon.php

MEIJER
http://meijermadness.com/
www.bargainstobounty.com

JEWEL
http://www.couponingfor4.net/category/jewel/

WALGREENS
http://wildforwags.com/
http://www.iheartwags.com/

CVS
http://www.iheartcvs.com/

TARGET
http://www.totallytarget.com/

SCHNUCKS (Our store doubles differently than the one in the matchups so need to be careful)
http://couponstl.blogspot.com/p/schnucks.html

Sites with multiple stores
http://myfrugaladventures.com/
http://www.theshoppersapprentice.com/

Busy Busy Busy

So I know the posts on here haven't been very recent.  Life has been hectic between being a stay at home mom, teaching coupon classes, working from home, and couponing in any and all spare time! 

I am teaching another coupon class on July 29th if anyone is local and interested:

http://www.facebook.com/events/438132809542515/

Feel free to ask questions here - I will try to get more posts made as the year continues. 

May/June/July Rebates

I have been SUPER busy these last few months and haven't kept up with my blog here. My husband lost his job so I've been working to add to the income.  We've been eating mostly off of stockpile and buying on necessities and freebies or super cheap items.  I will work on getting the receipts tallied up in the next week or so and then make a new post for those.

Rebates Mailed:
(5) $25 Miller Lite
(2) $3.99 Sun Burnt Gel
(2) $15 Flora vitamins
(4) $2.99 Nexcare
(5) $2 Build A Better Burger

Rebates Received:
Finesse $1.99
Crunchy Nut $2.50
Pork $3
(2) $6.99 Biggest Loser Meals
(2) $2.50 Crunchy Nut cereal
(2) $2 Beef
(3) $25 Miller Lite

April Shopping & Rebates

Total spending for the month: $85.42!
Jewel $20.42
Walgrees $27.02
Target $3.68
Schnucks $17.70
Meijer $12.96
Other stores $3.64

Rebates mailed:
(4) $4.99 Theraflu Warming Try Me Free
(4) $2.50 Kelloggs Crunchy Nut cereal Try Me Free
(2) $6.99 Biggest Loser Ready to Cook Meals
(1) $21.99 Neuragen

No rebates received this month.

I did get "rejection letters" from the 4 Theraflu rebates and the Neuragen rebates already though.  I mailed after the postmark date.  Oops!