Friday freebies: Mars chocolate and Amazon mp3

The Mars Real Chocolate Relief has been a great ongoing freebie! If you haven't done so yet, go sign up for your coupon for a free chocolate bar from Mars here. There's a limit of 4 per household for the giveaway period. yummy!

In addition to that, Amazon is giving away one free download (valued at $1.29) to everyone in celebration of their twitter reaching 1 million followers. The place, and instructions, can be found here. What a fun freebie!

Another Old Navy Thursday...

It's Thursday once again, and I'm headed over to the chat at ThriftyNWMom to keep up with all the Old Navy updates today! (the chat doesn't appear to be working at the moment, but I'm sure that's just a glitch!) There are no $75 coupons this week, but there will be the $65 off a $100 purchase and those are still nice coupons to have. I'm going to try to be around for most of the day, but my uncle just arrived in town so we may run out and show him a little bit of couponing. I'm also going to post my to-do list here to keep me motivated, since it's so easy to get sucked into the ON madness and not get anything done:

• Make and freeze baby food: carrots, squash, and green beans
• Unload dishwasher and get kitchen cleaned up
• Clear off the pool table
• Find a nicer way to store Trent's dipes (the cardboard box under the table looks silly)
• Wash and sort through the next size up clothing for Ryan
• Get the husbands work laundry washed
• Get coupons organized and week's shopping planned
• Update the calender for the month of September
• Make counting book with Trent
• Brownies!
• clean the couch

Grocery Deals around town 9/2-9/8

This is in no way a complete list, rather a quick list of the deals I like. I'm having one of those days, and will try to get links up to other sites with more matchups when I get a chance!!

Albertsons:

• Oreos are $2.50, paired with the $2 off 2 coupon in the ad, that's $1.50 each (look for save $1 on milk wyb oreos peelies to save even more!)
• Kingsford is $6.49, pair it with the $6 off pork printable for a good deal
• Lifesavers are still $1 each, some with $1 coupons inside= free (after you buy 1)
• Whole seedless watermelon $.25/lb
• plus, there are some neat catalina promos going on...will try to post details on those when I get a chance!

Safeway:

• There's a nice $5 off any $20 purchase of meat (we'll be getting some good steak with this- likely the ribeye at $4.99/lb)
• $1 large haas avocados
• Kraft Singles are $0.99 with in-ad coupon
• 80% lean ground beef $1.49/lb

I'm a freebie addict- my second Albies run today!

$4.57 spent, $34.02 saved

I did two transactions, one with 2 spray Lysols and the Wild Harvest Lamb that cost $0.92 cents after all coupons and doublers. I goofed up the second transaction because I had one $3 coupon I thought was still good but it had expired in July (oops! I honestly thought that 7 was a 9- yikes!) so my total was $3.65 instead of $0.65 but that's okay. I used a $5 catalina to pay and had coupons for everything else...it was still a good transaction (especially since I was craving chocolate and the grand total was LESS than the watermelon by itself). Albertsons, I think I'm in love with you!

Free undies & another Albies trip!

We started out with VS to get free panties today. Luckily, we asked about the free panties with pink purchase- and it turns out that works with a lollipop purchase! So, 2 regular panties from the back (reg. price $8.50 each), one pair from the Pink Collection (should be the "lace thong" but anything valued at $7.50 should work...it did for me!), and a yummy looking lollipop for $1.50 total. Amazing!! Receipt is below for proof that it works, but is a bit blurry...sorry.

Since we were in town already, it was hard to resist one more trip to Albies. Here's what I purchased in 2 transactions today:

Spent $0.76, saved $25.32 (or 97%)

The cookies are for the husband who wanted them Sunday (at $3.99!!), they were down to $2.50 so I used my $2 survey coupon to help pay for those. Everything else was free, but I did have to pay $0.26 in tax on the Lysol wipes. This was a nice simple run, I'm hoping to fit more in later today.

a few free samples!

I'm listing a few of the current free samples for you all. It's a great way to try something new, adds some fun to checking your mail, and they sometimes come with great coupons!

Always Flexi-Style Liner

Bare Naked granola bar or cereal sample

Beachnut babyfood starter kit (coupons)

Honey Nut Cheerios

Kashi Cereal Sample

Kotex Ultrathin Overnight Pads

Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal

Pampers Potty Training Kit

Walmart Samples: Fancy Feast Appetizers, EmergenC Multi Vitamin, NoDoz, Tenna, Free Hallmark Card, and a Nicorette starter kit.

And don't forget to pick up your free undies at VS today! Know of anything I missed? Leave a comment below!

Stockpiling- Thrifty Tip Tuesday

I'm going to be honest with you, when I first started seriously couponing and got peeks at some peoples stockpiles- I thought they were nuts. Really, who needs that much stuff? Of course, as I got more and more into it and realized how much I was getting for free or close to free, it began to make sense. Why not buy extras when they're priced this low and then not have to buy them at a higher price?

Of course, there are some obstacles...like finding enough room for all your extras, it takes a while to establish a decent stockpile of items without going over budget, and it can be hard to tell what price really is *rock bottom* when you first get started. The benefits are wonderful though. I don't have to run to the store when we realize we just ran out of something, I can skip a week of shopping and eat from the stockpile, we've got added variety to the menu, and I've cut my spending like crazy! Another bonus to the stockpile is the ability to gift it. One of my sister's friends recently had a baby and we were able to throw together a nice box of food to take over for her. You could do the same with a family you know going through a rough time or someone who needs just a bit of help. It's neat to see how excited people can be for something as simple as that.

Now that you know why I stockpile, here are a few tips to get you started:

• Focus on the free at first- starting out your stockpile with extra freebies will allow you to stay within budget while expanding your pantry
• Don't buy more that you can store- getting 50 free somethings is great, but not if you don't have anywhere to put it.
• Keep an eye out for deals on things you use all the time or things you wish you could afford to have all the time- I recently bought 10 bottles of vegetable oil because I love baking and was tired of searching for deals and paying full price all the time.
• Don't be shy- Remember all that free pasta salad? I had a conversation with a lady in front of piles of boxes, she was super excited to see it on sale for $1 a box because it was her favorite food. I politely told her they'd be free if she'd buy 2 or 10 boxes instead of just one. She was not interested because it was just her and she'd look silly. Thing is, the cashier doesn't know how many people you're feeding. If you feel really ridiculous, you could always make a comment about the amazing price and your excitement to donate it.
• Don't buy it just because it's free- if you don't like it, won't use it, or can't donate it then you don't have to buy it. You don't even need to buy it to donate it (I just like to when I can). It's really easy to go overboard with free and cheap things, so try to keep yourself in check.
• Not sure how much to buy? Be sure to look at expiration dates, and try to imagine how much of that item your family will use/consume before that date is up. Keep in mind that sales cycle through (on an 8 week basis generally) and you'll probably have an opportunity to get more in that time.

That's it for today's Thrifty Tip Tuesday- if you have any questions about stockpiling (or anything else) feel free to comment or email me at maybefrugal(at)hotmail(dot)com.