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Sales and Deals for March

March 13, 2013 - Leave a Comment

One of the biggest secrets to saving money is knowing the sale cycles! Buy when the price is at it’s lowest and you will save every time!

March is a great month to save on….

Frozen Food:

March is national frozen food month. This means you will find almost every variety of frozen food on sale at some point during the month! Keep an eye out for frozen juices, frozen waffles, frozen potatoes, frozen vegetables, and more!

Print these March sale item coupons…

St. Patrick’s Day:

Find sales on corned beef, cabbage and clearance deals on St. Patricks days stuff after St. Patricks day.

Find pre- St. Patrick’s day baking supply sales and deals.

Easter:

Easter comes in March this year so be on the look out for deals for your Easter dinner. Find sales on ham, eggs, rolls and candy. Be sure to hit the clearance sales after Easter.

Print these March sale item coupons…

Visit our Sale Cycles page for a full list of the sale cycles and a free downloadable version for your coupon binder.

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By Monica

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Filed Under: All Things Coupon, Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education
Tagged With: frozen food month, MARCH SALE CYCLES, sale cycles

Sales and Deals for January

January 5, 2013 - 4 Comments

One of the biggest secrets to saving money is knowing the sale cycles! Buy when the price is at it’s lowest and you will save every time!

January is a great month to save on….

Christmas clearance items: Not all stores are cleared out for Christmas the day after Christmas. Keep your eye out for Toys on clearance, wrapping paper, decorations, lights, ornaments, candy and much more. Look for the Target toy clearance sale in January too! One of my favorite clearance items to find is Glade candles. You can often get them FREE when you combine these coupons with the clearance price.

Health Products: Diet shakes, diet bars, vitamins, medicines for cold and flu season and smoking cessation medications.

Fitness Equipment: It is time to think about getting healthy again! You can find workout games, Fitness DVD’s, fitness equipment and fitness magazines at great prices.

Quaker products: Look for a sale on Quaker products at your local grocery store and stock up on granola bars, oatmeal and cereal for a great sale price!

Super Bowl Party : Super Bowl is around the corner and stores will have sales on food and snacks for Super Bowl. Looks for deals on soda, crackers, chips, dip, salsa, cream cheese, crackers and cookies. This is also a good time to get a new TV if you have been looking for one.

Linens: Towels and bedding tend to go on sale.

Semi-annual sales: at Bath & Body Works and Gap and many other stores in your local mall.

Winter Clothes: Look for winter clothes on clearance and stock up for your kids, spouse or yourself for next year.

Storage Bins: Storage bins go on sale every January. January is a great time to clean out the house and put things away.

Snow Sleds: Get great deals on gear for the Winter Snow. Here are some Snow Sled Deals.

Diapers for Babies: January usually brings a good sale on diapers and other baby products. Albertsons usually runs a baby promotion in January.

Cleaning Products: Cleaning products tend to go on sale in January.

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By Monica

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Filed Under: Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education, Frugal Living
Tagged With: sale cycles

Rules for Combining Coupons

October 17, 2012 - 6 Comments

{ Extreme Coupon Education }

Do you know how to combine store coupons and manufacturers coupons to save even more money at the grocery store? Because they don’t tell you everything on reality television we are here to reveal the secrets of Extreme Couponing. TLC’s Extreme Couponing is really not about education it is more about entertainment. Our goal is to educate you and empower you to save money for your family.

Many moons ago when we were figuring out how to coupon we were astounded when we learned this!

You can actually use TWO coupons on ONE product!

You can not use two manufacturers coupons on the same product BUT…

You can combine a store coupon and a manufactures coupon for one item!

Here is a scenario to show you how it works…

Many stores offer store coupons to their customers Here are a few of our favorite stores that have store coupons: Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and Target (Target store coupons are on their website).

Why does this work? The store coupon acts as a voucher allowing you to get the store sale. You can always combine your manufacturers coupons with a store sale. This sale you just need to have a store coupon to get the sale price!

More Coupon Education Resources:

Read more tips to answer your couponing questions or get more Extreme Couponing Educatio n tips.
Get a quick start on Extreme Couponing done right with our coupon class on DVD!

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Filed Under: All Things Coupon, Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education
Tagged With: combining coupons, coupon stack, coupon stacking, coupon strategies, manufacturers coupons, stacking coupons, store coupon, store coupons

Secret to Getting Out of Costco for Under $100!

October 10, 2012 - 31 Comments

{ Extreme Coupon Education }

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I used to call Costco the $100 store. I could not seem to get out of Costco with out spending at least $100! You probably did not learn this secret on reality television. We are here to reveal the secrets of Extreme Couponing. TLC’s Extreme Couponing is really not about education it is more about entertainment. Our goal is to educate you and empower you to save money for your family. I first talked about Costco and coupons a few years ago, but a few things have changed since.

Before I started to coupon the fabuless way you could say I had an addiction to shopping at Costco. I live near a Costco so I would go 1-2 times every week, and I could not get out of the store with out spending $100!

Old way of couponing- The only form of couponing I knew was to use the coupons in the Costco coupon booklet. Buying in bulk was saving me money, but I had no idea how much more money I could be saving.

Know your price points- When I started doing more research about price points I was finding that if I am patient and wait for a deal I can get a better price with coupons! So I started buying more things with coupons at other stores.

When I started couponing I had to still shop at Costco sometimes because I was still in stockpile building mode. I would stop by Costco to get the items that I had not found on sale with coupons. As I got my stockpile built with some good basics I was shopping at Costco less and less. When I walk through the store now it makes me sick to see how much I used to pay for things I now pay pennies for.

We often get this question in our inbox:

Do you use the Costco coupons?
The answer is rarely. I find that almost every time I can get an item for less if I wait for a sale and use my coupons from the newspaper or printable coupons. Or buy the item on amazon.

Can Costco coupons be used anywhere else?
No they can only be used at Costco!

Items I used to buy at Costco, but can now get for less shopping the fabuless way:

Chicken Now I stock up on this and freeze it when I can get it for $1.88/lb or less for boneless skinless
Carnation Instant Breakfast
Prego Sauce
Bagels
Hamburger I stock up and freeze why I can buy from Zaycon
Oatmeal
Bread
Cheese I buy cheese for $2/lb or less and buy several. These can be frozen. They have a long shelf life in the fridge as well as long as you do not open them.
Toilet Paper Find great deal on amazon here.
Diapers & Wipes Great diaper deals on amazon
Fruit Snacks
Sour Cream
Juice
Granola Bars
Vitamins
Shaving Cream
Produce I buy the produce that is on sale usually at Fred Meyer or WinCo
Paper Towels
Kleenex
Shampoo I like to get FREE shampoo
Body Wash
Razors will not pay more than $1 for razors
Tampons
Toothpaste I only buy free toothpaste
Toothbrushes
Floss
Laundry Soap
Dish Soap
Cereal do not pay more than $1.00 a box!
Dish Detergent
Yogurt

Download the price point list.

After getting the hang of couponing I found that I did not need to shop at Costco much at all. Instead of spending $5,000 a year at Costco I was spending more like $500 a year at Costco. So here is the next big question we get…..

Is it worth it to keep your Costco Membership?

Yes. To me it is. Why?
I can still get some great deals on some staple foods and I don’t pay much if anything for the membership. I pay for our membership with cash back from our executive membership and our American Express Card.

Electronics: Costco has great prices for electronics and a 90 day return policy no matter what!

The Return Policy: Costco will let you return almost anything for any reason, even dead trees! haha. (you know you have seen it)

Clothing: It is hard to beat Costco’s price for name brand jeans!

Gifts: We love to shop Costco at Christmas time, we alway find some great gifts there! Although since I discovered Amazon for Christmas shopping, I do most of my shopping from home online.

Gas Prices: Costco has the lowest price in town for gas! Yes, I can get if for less at Albertsons some of the time with my preferred card gas rewards, but not every time.

Prescriptions: Costco usually has the lowest price for prescriptions! Don’t believe me? Check out the Costco Drug Price Checker! Type in any prescription you usually buy and I bet it will be less. They even give you the price for the generic alternative! (You do not have to be a member for this benefit.)

So how do I get out of Costco spending under $100?

I can easily get out of Costco now spending less than $50! I only buy the staple items that I have not been able to get for good deals with coupons. Now that I have learned my price points I know which items are worth buying at Costco.

bread
eggs
produce
milk (If I am out for milk coupons)
gas
take and bake pizza
croissants (My weakness)

PS One rule I often follow is to only buy what I can carry!

So I want to know.

Is it still worth it for you to shop at Costco?

More Coupon Education Resources:

Read more tips to answer your couponing questions or get more Extreme Couponing Educatio n tips.
Get a quick start on Extreme Couponing done right with our coupon class on DVD

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By Monica

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Filed Under: All Things Coupon, Costco, Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education
Tagged With: Costco, Costco Coupons, coupon strategies, couponing at costco, rain check

Know Your Price Points { Extreme Coupon Education }

October 3, 2012 - 2 Comments

One of the Secrets to Successful couponing is knowing your price points. If you know your price points you never have to pay full price for individual grocery items. You can wait for a sale to come and then stock-up! Because they don’t tell you everything on reality television we are here to reveal the secrets of Extreme Couponing. TLC’s Extreme Couponing is really not about education it is more about entertainment. Our goal is to educate you and empower you to save money for your family.

When I first started couponing I would make lists of prices for products I normally buy at my top three grocery stores. I would then track which store had the best price. Then I would not pay more than the best price. I needed some kind of guide so I knew if I was getting a good deal. Just because you have a coupon does not mean you are getting a good deal. You must have a good sale price to go with your coupon!

Diapers for Less: When my children were babies I was always looking for good prices on diapers. So once I formulated my diaper price point guide I shared it with you here on fabulesslyfrugal. If you have a baby you need to be using this diaper price point guide!

295 Item grocery price point guide: Get our free grocery price point guide. You will have access to price points on baby items, baking, beverage, canned goods, condiments, dairy, dry goods, frozen, household, juice, meat, personal care, pets, produce and snacks.

More Coupon Education Resources:

Read more tips to answer your couponing questions or get more Extreme Couponing Educatio n tips.
Get a quick start on Extreme Couponing done right with our coupon class on DVD

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By Monica

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Filed Under: All Things Coupon, Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education
Tagged With: Diaper Price Point Guide, grocery prices, price point guide

Avoid Leaving the Store Without The Deal! { Extreme Coupon Education }

September 26, 2012 - 3 Comments

You do not have to leave the store disappointing and with out a deal when couponing. Even with crazy extreme couponers clearing the shelves there are ways to avoid missing out on the deal. Because they don’t tell you everything on reality television we are here to reveal the secrets of Extreme Couponing. TLC’s Extreme Couponing is really not about education it is more about entertainment. Our goal is to educate you and empower you to save money for your family.

Has this ever happened to you? You find a great deal! Giddy with excitement you take time to print coupons, organize coupons, drive to your local store and find the place where the item SHOULD be in your store. Only to be heart broken by empty shelves. Someone TOOK ALL OF THE PRODUCT! Well maybe? But maybe 20 someones got there before you and each took 2-3. Empty shelves can be common when lots of great deals are circulating through the stores you shop. You do not have to leave the store without the deal. I first addressed this in my post Fabuless Coupon Tip Tuesday: How to Avoid Leaving the Store without the Deal. I thought it was about time we revisited these ideas.

Shelf clearing is not cool, we do not even think it is cool to clear a shelf in the name of charity. I have seen many cleared shelves in my couponing days. Remember the crazy diaper lady? Even after 4 years of many cleared shelves I still find it worth my time to coupon if I remember to use these strategies…

Eight Ways to Avoid Leaving the Store Empty Handed

Place an order of the items you really want or need a lot of. You can do this with your manager or at customer service. It can be done on the phone or in person. Here are some details on how to place an order.

Get a rain check(s) for the item(s) out of stock. You can not get a rain check for a catalina, but you can get a rain check on most store coupons and store sale prices.

Choose another store! Some stores are overloaded with coupon shoppers and are always going to get cleaned out. Some stores are within a demographic that has many coupon shoppers. Shop in the area of town that does not have lot’s of couponers. It is always worth a few extra miles for a hassle free shopping trip.

Don’t wait until the last day of the sale to shop, your store is likely to be out of the items you need!

Learn your stores ordering schedule. Then shop on the days you know they will be stocked. Many stores receive shipments 3 times a week and it is always the same three days. Keep in mind the time of day the shipments come in too. So you don’t show up a few hours before it arrives.

Don’t be afraid to ask if they have items in the back. Many times the store has just not had time to re-stock. If you ask a grocery manager they may be able to get you more product from the back.

Call right before you leave to see if your top 3 items are in stock. That will help you decide if it is worth a trip to the store. Try your three closest stores and choose the one that is stocked the best.

Be a team player- Be a part of the solution not the problem. Never clear a shelf. Avoid taking more product than you can reasonably use before it expires.

Feel free to add in the comments any tips you have to make the shopping trip worth while!

I hope these tip help YOU! I hope everyone will remember to be considerate of other shoppers when making your coupon shopping trips! It is up to us (you and me) to give couponers a good name.

Learn the 7 Secrets of Successful Couponing

in our 90-minute DVD!

More Coupon Education Resources:

Read more tips to answer your couponing questions or get more Extreme Couponing Educatio n tips.
Get a quick start on Extreme Couponing done right with our coupon class on DVD

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By Monica

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Filed Under: All Things Coupon, Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education
Tagged With: coupon strategies, Empty Shelves, order ahead, rain check, shelf clearing

Coupon Security Features { Extreme Coupon Education }

September 19, 2012 - 17 Comments

Do you know how to tell a legitimate coupon from a fake? Because they don’t tell you everything on reality television we are here to reveal the secrets of Extreme Couponing. TLC’s Extreme Couponing is really not about education it is more about entertainment. Our goal is to educate you and empower you to save money for your family.

This week the Walmart on Greenhurst and 12th in Nampa, Idaho quit taking black and white coupons due to coupon misuse. Maybe this has already happened in your area? If it has not it may be just a matter of time. We do not want any Fab Frugals to misuse coupons so we are going to review the security features of the coupons so you can all be sure to use coupons correctly. Giving couponers a good name is the responsibility of each and every one of us.

That last time I shared this information was in the Coupon Tip Tuesday series. I wrote a post called How to Tell a Fake. So this is a little review from that post…

Rule 1: Be sure to stick to reputable sites when printing coupons like: coupons.com, smartsource, and redplum. If you print from a manufacturers website or a bricks coupon link you will be safe as well. We have a more comprehensive list of reputable coupons printing sites here

A few things to looks for on a legitimate coupon from coupons.com:

Product watermark behind the coupon value
Little dots in the expiration date box (yellow in color)
The time and date stamp around the coupon
Unique serial number on the coupon (See “Features that are different” below)
Coupons.com logo and verify logo

Knowing these features come in handy if you have to show your cashier that you did not copy coupons!

A few things that raise a red flag when printing coupons:

Coupons from an email sent to you by a friend and not the manufacturer
Coupons found in a PDF form
Coupons that do not have a print limit
Expiration date that is really, really far out
Coupon that does not have a bar code.
Coupon is for a FREE product {These are rarely printable off the internet normally obtained directly through a manufacturer}
Coupon value is unusually high

This Doritos coupon and the huggies coupon above are coupons that were sent to people by email. They may have been legitimate coupons once, but when people started copying them and emailing them around they became fraudulent.

If you suspect a fraudulent coupon you can check to see if it is listed on the counterfeit coupon list. If the suspicious coupon is not listed and you think it is fake you can report fraudulent coupons here.

Never copy your coupons doing so makes them fraudulent! Learn more about coupon ethics here!

HOW DO YOU TELL A FAKE?

More Coupon Education Resources:

Read more tips to answer your couponing questions or get more Extreme Couponing Educatio n tips.
Get a quick start on Extreme Couponing done right with our coupon class on DVD

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By Monica

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Filed Under: All Things Coupon, Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education
Tagged With: copy coupons, copying coupons, Coupon Ethics, coupon security features

Gluten Free Coupons & Savings Strategies {Extreme Coupon Education}

September 12, 2012 - 5 Comments

You can eat gluten free food and still save money! Because they don’t tell you everything on reality television we are here to reveal the secrets of Extreme Couponing. TLC’s Extreme Couponing is really not about education it is more about entertainment. Our goal is to educate you and empower you to save money for your family.

Eating Gluten Free Foods and using Coupons

Coupons.com - Our favorite site to print coupons is Coupons.com. They often have coupons for gluten free brands like Chex, Glutino, Udi, and more. They also offer coupons for milk. yogurt, cheese, organic agave nectar, organic sweeteners and Dole Salad blends. One secret I like to share in our coupon classes is that if you use zipcode 90210 on Coupons.com you can often find more coupons for organic or gluten free brands.

Coupon Database – Our coupon database is a great resource for coupons. If you search the words gluten free you can find a huge list of gluten free coupons.

Facebook – Gluten free food manufacturers want people to buy their gluten free products just as much as other manufacturers. Think of your five favorite gluten free food companies and go like them on facebook. Then see if they are offering any coupons.

Manufacturers - Gluten free manufacturers are a great source for gluten free coupons. Gluten free manufacturers will often offer organic coupons on their websites. You can also write to gluten free manufacturers and ask for coupons! This is also a good way to get high value coupons.

Vitacost – We absolutly love Vitacost.com! Vitacost has lots of organic and gluten free products. My favorite thing about vitacost is that when you sign up here, you get a $10 credit to use on anything on the site. If you tell your friends about them you can earn more $10 credits! See what I bought at Vitacost. Try vitacost for your gluten free food needs, you will find brands like Bob’s Red Mill, Ener-G, Annie’s Naturals, Tinkyada, Udi’s, Glutino, Gluten Free Pantry, Blue Diamond, and many, many more!

PS You can get the $10 credit NOW!

Amazon – You can find lots of gluten free products on amazon.com, including organic foods. Amazon carries gluten free foods from brands like Annie’s Homegrown, Bob’s Red Mill, Pamela’s Products, OrgraN, and many more! See a full list of gluten free products carried on >>>> Amazon.com. To save on EVEN MORE on gluten free products on amazon simply subscribe & save when you order. You will get a discount for subscribing. You can easily cancel your subscription at no charge, if you change your mind. You will still save money even if you cancel!

More Coupon Education Resources:

Read more tips to answer your couponing questions or get more Extreme Couponing Educatio n tips.
Get a quick start on Extreme Couponing done right with our coupon class on DVD

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By Monica

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Filed Under: Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education, Gluten Free
Tagged With: Annie's Homegrown, annie's naturals, Bob's Red Mill, gluten free, udi's, vitacost

Extreme Couponing Education {I Admit, Sometimes I Buy Junk Food}

September 5, 2012 - 4 Comments

Because they don’t tell you everything on reality television we are here to reveal the secrets of Extreme Couponing. TLC’s Extreme Couponing is really not about education it is more about entertainment. Our goal is to educate you and empower you to save money for your family.

We have been talking about how one of the myths of couponing is that coupons are only for processed foods, junk food or food my family does not eat. I also told you we were featured in the New York Times Magazine and many of the people writing in the comments accused us of only eating junk foods. All of this brought me to the conclusion that some people just need to be educated in the way we save money and still eat healthy. So for the past eight weeks we have been talking about….

But I have a confession to make…

Sometimes I Buy Junk Food

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If I can get a good deal on junk food sometimes I buy it. I do not buy it every time it goes on sale. Buying junk food when it is cheap does not mean that we eat it for every meal. In fact we do not even eat it every day. We probably do not even eat it every week, but in the following situations it kinda comes in handy!

For Last Minute BBQ’s, Football Parties, Get togethers, Camping Trips and any road trip ect…

I keep on hand:

chips
cookies
chex mix
soda/pop
crackers
candy

I never pay full price for junk food! If I can not get it for cheap I do not buy it. So I admit this stuff is not healthy, but when I need a quick treat for a party it saves me a TON of money to not have to go to the store and pay full price. I can just go to my pantry and pull out something from my little stockpile.

What do you have in your “treat” stockpile?

Read more tips to answer your couponing questions or get more Extreme Couponing Educatio n tips.
Get a quick start on Extreme Couponing done right with our coupon class on DVD!

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By Monica

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Filed Under: All Things Coupon, Awesome, Extreme Couponing, Extreme Couponing Education
Tagged With: Couponing, Extreme Couponing

This Coupon Tip Changed My Life!!!!

August 29, 2012 - 72 Comments

I have been busy writing the articles below to show you that you can coupon and save money and still eat HEALTHY! I have a few more articles for you in this series, but I have to interupt my series this week to bring you LIFE CHANGING NEWS!

Monday afternoon I was printing my favorite coupons from coupons.com and it was taking FOREVER! You see coupons.com just had a site remodel. When a site makes changes the goal is to make the site more user friendly for it’s users. But sometimes it takes a while to figure out how the site is more user friendly. That can be frustrating. Do you know that after printing your first set of coupons on coupons.com they kick all the coupons you just printed to the last page? You can then print them another time. With the new format on coupons.com you can not click on the numbers and skip pages to make it to the last page faster. UGH. so it takes FOREVER. I was wasting so much time scanning through 13 pages and waiting for each one to load.

Last night after another frustrating episode of printing coupons (the milk and cheese coupons reset), I asked our friends on Facebook if anyone had found a solution to this problem. Fab Facebook friend Magen had a solution! ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?

Click on “show more coupons” then hit the space bar 10 ish times until all the pages quickly roll out before your eyes! Woot!

Now go try it and see how it works for you!

Click here to try it.

UPDATE: It appears this tip is not working on the mac. Fab Frugal Sherry got it to work by clicking on the show more coupon button and push the space bar and then tap the mouse. How is it working for you?

P.S. If you missed my tip for changing the zip code on coupons.com <—- check it out!

Next week I will have more on this series below and I will also have a confession to make.

Read more tips to answer your couponing questions or get more Extreme Couponing Educatio n tips.
Get a quick start on Extreme Couponing done right with our coupon class on DVD!