Total cost before coupons: $40.32, after coupons, $16.32.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Going Crackers!
If you have some of the $3.00 off 3 Nabisco cracker and cookie coupons that expire on the 27th, you might want to check out your local Hy-Vee store. I've heard that some couponers are using these coupons on the tiny "cups" of cookies that some stores sell, but for a full-size bargain buy, Ritz and Nabisco crackers are on sale this week for $1.68. Now, $1.68 is a great price. The Nabisco Triscuit Thin Crisps I love so much are normally well over $3 at our local Fareway. Combine the sale price with those $3 coupons, however, and you will be paying just 68-cents a box! I had 8 of the coupons remaining in my coupon binder, so picked up 24 boxes of assorted crackers. Most of them are now stored on shelves on my back porch. I don't want to make those Ritz Bits too easily accesible to the children or they'll be gone in 24 hours!
Total cost before coupons: $40.32, after coupons, $16.32.
Total cost before coupons: $40.32, after coupons, $16.32.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Promoting Yourself on a Budget
I can't believe how many times I ignored the Vistaprint ads popping up on my computer, thinking "Free" was just too good to be true. 250 business cards for Free, proclaimed the ad I saw most frequently, and I'd think, yeah right. Then when the Groupon and Living Social savings sites offered $70 in Vistaprint products for $15, I decided to try Vistaprint products. Were they as high quality as some of the office supply products I'd ordered? I ordered business cards and printed stationery with those offers and was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Because of those orders, I got on their mailing list and started receiving e-mails with special offers for free products; sometimes it was a pen, notepad, and maybe more letterhead stationery. The trick was not to order more than what they were offering for free and the qualifer for this deal was that I had to pay postage, but the postage ended up being very reasonable. I'd once ordered "rack cards" through Staples, paying more than $25 for 50 rack cards for a book-signing I was doing at Barnes & Noble. These rack cards are about twice the size of a normal bookmark and give my contact information and describe both my writing and the public speaking I do. I've gotten at least one phone call for a public speaking engagement as a direct result of that book signing, and only ten people picked up a rack card. Identical rack cards were shipped to me for just $5.38 through Vistaprint. Vistaprint walks you through the steps to designing your own business cards, rack cards and even brochures. I have now designed magnets to give away at my coupon workshops (average less than twenty cents each, shipped), a tote bag, a mousepad,and thank-you notes. I only go for the "FREE" offers, never click on other products that are offered (and you will be offered many more products as you go through the checkout process) and I am careful to avoid clicking on any of the boxes at the bottom of the page or I might find myself with a website charge or some other "wonderful" offer that I didn't realize I was signing up until 30 days later. It is fairly simple to avoid these additional charges; just read everything carefully before ever clicking on "I agree," or "Add to cart."
I've designed postcards to advertise upcoming couponing and writing workshops and even a tote bag to carry my couponing workshop materials in. Technically, these products aren't virtually free~ the postage costs do add up, but this is still a low-cost way of promoting myself and my services as both a writer and a coupon workshop presenter. And whether we like it or not, any successful author needs to learn how to promote themselves, and what better way than through the colorful and quality Vistaprint products. My advice is to try out one of their business card offers, and then wait for the FREE offers to deluge your mailbox. If time is not of the essence, you won't want to pay the extra postage for faster service, either. In this case, I should have paid for faster shipping for my Couponing Workshop postcards~ I ordered them on December 31 and just got them today. I have just two weeks to promote that particular workshop, but the Writing Workshop postcards I designed last night will still get here in plenty of time to promote my March 17th workshop, even if they take the standard 20 days to arrive.
I've designed postcards to advertise upcoming couponing and writing workshops and even a tote bag to carry my couponing workshop materials in. Technically, these products aren't virtually free~ the postage costs do add up, but this is still a low-cost way of promoting myself and my services as both a writer and a coupon workshop presenter. And whether we like it or not, any successful author needs to learn how to promote themselves, and what better way than through the colorful and quality Vistaprint products. My advice is to try out one of their business card offers, and then wait for the FREE offers to deluge your mailbox. If time is not of the essence, you won't want to pay the extra postage for faster service, either. In this case, I should have paid for faster shipping for my Couponing Workshop postcards~ I ordered them on December 31 and just got them today. I have just two weeks to promote that particular workshop, but the Writing Workshop postcards I designed last night will still get here in plenty of time to promote my March 17th workshop, even if they take the standard 20 days to arrive.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Transformation From Coupon Box to Coupon Binder
I used a coupon box for more than 25 years of couponing, but after the Extreme Couponing show debuted on the TLC channel, I had to admit those coupon binders did look pretty impressive. When I saw a black binder on sale for just $5 at a Goodwill store, I bought it and began the transformation from coupon box to coupon binder.
It turned into quite a fiasco, involving quite a few dollars invested into plastic sleeves and dividers and several hours transfering coupons.
I wasn't sure it was going to be worth all the work, but I did like the organized look of the binder. I knew, however, the true test would be with my first shopping trip.
That first trip was to a Walgreen's. The binder sat nicely on my purse inside the baby seat of the cart and I liked being able to have the ads laying inside, along with my lists. The coupon box always took up the whole seat and ads didn’t fit on the side.
Score one for the binder.
My husband did one order and I did three, two of them just Reach toothbrushes. My husband’s order looked like this: 2 Finesse shampoos on sale for 2/$7, 4 2-packs of Reach Advanced toothbrushes on sale for 2/$5, and a Gillette Fusin razor on sale for $9.89. He used a $4 coupon on the razor, $1 coupons on the Finesse shampoos and $2 coupons on each Reach 2-pack. Out of the register popped a $5 catalina from the shampoo, a $5 coupon from the razor and TWO catalina coupons for Reach, one a month-long offer and one a weekly offer, $3 and $4 respectively. A woman behind him saw the catalinas come out and asked how he got so many. She had a coupon binder and said she was just learning how to use coupons. I came over and explained the Reach offer to her and gave her four $2 coupons so she could do it herself. I did a total of three Reach transactions, one of them combined with other merchandise, including 6 Gillette deodorants that I had Buy One, Get One Free coupons for. With the purchase of 6, I got a $10 catalina. I also bought the Finesse shampoo, one Bic Solei razor, Revlon clippers that were on sale for Buy one, get one half price and I had a $3 and a $1 coupon on, as well as several toothbrushes I found on clearance for 99-cents that I had $1 coupons for.
It was fairly easy to flip through the pages to find my coupons. Score another for the binder, or maybe it was simply because I organized specifically for this trip.
Our total for all our transactions was $67.52, minus the three $10 register rewards= $37.52. And we had $60 in register rewards to use on our next trip.
And all this stuff either to stock in our own cupboard or to fill Christmas baskets for our adult children.
Could I have done as well with my coupon box?
Probably.
But I wouldn’t have looked as cool doing it.
It turned into quite a fiasco, involving quite a few dollars invested into plastic sleeves and dividers and several hours transfering coupons.
I wasn't sure it was going to be worth all the work, but I did like the organized look of the binder. I knew, however, the true test would be with my first shopping trip.
That first trip was to a Walgreen's. The binder sat nicely on my purse inside the baby seat of the cart and I liked being able to have the ads laying inside, along with my lists. The coupon box always took up the whole seat and ads didn’t fit on the side.
Score one for the binder.
My husband did one order and I did three, two of them just Reach toothbrushes. My husband’s order looked like this: 2 Finesse shampoos on sale for 2/$7, 4 2-packs of Reach Advanced toothbrushes on sale for 2/$5, and a Gillette Fusin razor on sale for $9.89. He used a $4 coupon on the razor, $1 coupons on the Finesse shampoos and $2 coupons on each Reach 2-pack. Out of the register popped a $5 catalina from the shampoo, a $5 coupon from the razor and TWO catalina coupons for Reach, one a month-long offer and one a weekly offer, $3 and $4 respectively. A woman behind him saw the catalinas come out and asked how he got so many. She had a coupon binder and said she was just learning how to use coupons. I came over and explained the Reach offer to her and gave her four $2 coupons so she could do it herself. I did a total of three Reach transactions, one of them combined with other merchandise, including 6 Gillette deodorants that I had Buy One, Get One Free coupons for. With the purchase of 6, I got a $10 catalina. I also bought the Finesse shampoo, one Bic Solei razor, Revlon clippers that were on sale for Buy one, get one half price and I had a $3 and a $1 coupon on, as well as several toothbrushes I found on clearance for 99-cents that I had $1 coupons for.
It was fairly easy to flip through the pages to find my coupons. Score another for the binder, or maybe it was simply because I organized specifically for this trip.
Our total for all our transactions was $67.52, minus the three $10 register rewards= $37.52. And we had $60 in register rewards to use on our next trip.
And all this stuff either to stock in our own cupboard or to fill Christmas baskets for our adult children.
Could I have done as well with my coupon box?
Probably.
But I wouldn’t have looked as cool doing it.
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