Look Ma! No Coupons!

I recently began a new job as a director of a small-town library. Every Monday we host an after-school program that includes a half hour craft project. On Wednesdays there is a story time for the younger set, which also includes craft time.  So when I stopped in a Michaels craft store this afternoon with my girls and spotted large bags of Christmas stuff for just $2, and I could see craft kits through some of the bags, you would have thought I was a kid in a candy store. My teens rolled their eyes when I asked for help carting ten bags up to the checkout.  We'd just watched several episodes of "Hoarders" on television last night, and I know what they were thinking: Mom's turning into one of those hoarders.

contents of one bag

Abby and I had a blast going through the bags together. Some of the items in the bags had originally been priced at $9.99 each, and there was even a few things priced at $19.99, including Christmas baskets I will use for gift baskets.  Four tall kitchen garbage bags were set aside for my sister's consignment store late this year. I'll store those on the attic steps.  What was left was a huge pile of craft kits and materials I will donate to my library, slated for craft time in December. Not everything was holiday merchandise, either. I found some journals, mouse pads, rubber stamps, and decorated lunch bags in amongst the Christmas items.  It just goes to show; you don't always need coupons to net some super savings. Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time~

 

Post-Christmas Coupon Savings

Like the good little couponer I am, I headed to our local Walmart yesterday morning to see what kind of damage I could do with my coupons that are about to expire the end of this month. Sure enough, there were three Axe gift sets sitting on the shelves waiting for me to purchase with my $2 off Axe gift set coupons. Just as I was adding the last one to my cart, I felt a light tapping on my shoulder, and there stood one of my three sons.

"Don't look! I'm doing Christmas shopping for next year!" Twenty-year-old Matt smiled broadly. Working the night shift at Walmart, he knew exactly what kind of gift sets had been placed in that aisle a few days previous, and he loves AXE products.

What got me even more excited than the brush sets and Caress gift sets I purchased (without coupons) for our own cupboards was the selection of Febreeze products marked down. Normally $2.97 each, the sprays were marked down to $1.48 and the candles and car scents were 75-cents. I knew I had some Febreeze product coupons in my binder. Sure enough, I had $1.50 off two Febreeze product coupons and 50-cents off any Febreeze product coupons. I made two trips through the register so I could use four of each (P&G coupons now limited to four like coupons per transaction) and came home with these:

I was happy to find some cheap (and free!) products to fill baskets for the coupon workshops I am starting to schedule for 2014 (one in February, one in April and one in July, thus far)  I love beginning my workshops with a fun game where attendees are to guess how much I paid for everything in the basket. The one who guesses the closest wins the basket at the end of the presentation. These products will make a nice addition to those baskets. The car scents might also end up in my adult children's stockings next year.