Ok, it's been too long!! I was without internet for a bit while changing providers, and I slacked :( But, right back to it! Jump starting the series back. Stay with me as I try to catch up on the things I still need to cover.
Love to all who actually read this. I really don't think there are many, but thank you!!!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is where you earn "bucks" and redeem them for cool stuff, in a nutshell. It's really easy to sign up, and it's easy to use. So go sign up (the red "Swagbucks" at the very start of this post), and come back here to read all about it. It's ok, I will wait on ya! :)
OK, now that you are back, and officially a cool swagger like myself, let's go over the basics of Swagbucks. First, you want to instal the toolbar and make SB your homepage. I know, I'm weary of things like this too, but this one really isn't bothersome at.all. I love mine, and I'm a toolbar skeptic. Ok, so once it's there, it's very simple to use. On the far left, if you click the *Swagbucks* button, it will take you to the home page. This is where you can read the blog, enter codes, search for things, do surveys, and basically anything that involves earning bucks. Don't get discouraged if you don't earn tons and tons fast. There are days where I earn a lot, and there are days where I earn 1. It will add up, trust me. So some awesome ways to earn bucks are to always try to go through this site to search for anything. There is a little blank box right next to the SB button, and you can type anything in there to search without going back to the home page. Next, if you are shopping online, go to the SB homepage and go to the "Earn" tab. This is where you can find all the ways to earn. The best one, in my opinion, is you can print coupons. For every coupon you print AND redeem, you get 10 SB. That is awesome! Then, you can get more by searching, doing small polls, watching short videos, and the newest thing I have discovered, is Groupon. If you are a part of Groupon, you can go through SB and purchase your Groupon, and get SB for going through them. The other day I got the Old Navy voucher of $20 for $10 AND earned 200 SB!!
After you start racking up the SB, you can start to redeem them at the swag store. There are a lot of different things you can use them on, but take my advice on this one. The best deal you will get is the Amazon.com gift cards. For 450 SB, you get a $5 Amazon.com gift card. There is no limit on how many you can use during a purchase. And if you order leaves you with a remaining balance, it rolls over, and Amazon keeps track of it for you. The reason I mention the limit thing is because there are a lot of gift cards that you can redeem SB for that seem like great deals. But there is a catch to almost all of them. You can only use 1 card per transaction, and sometimes that gift card wont even cover shipping. Not cool. The only thing I have run into with Amazon.com is that you have to buy from Amazon.com. If it's coming from another company/seller, your gift card may not work. But 99% of what I've seen/wanted on Amazon, has been from Amazon. So save those up, and you never know what you could get! So far I have been able to redeem SB for $60 worth of Amazon.com gift cards. So far I've used $55, and just earned one yesterday. You know what that got me? 20 sheet protector sleeves for coupons, and a Kodak Mini video camera. Just imagine, you could earn enough and buy that Kindle! Or nice new camera! Or a bunch of little things. The sky is the limit! So start up with SB and start earning those bucks!!
OK, now that you are back, and officially a cool swagger like myself, let's go over the basics of Swagbucks. First, you want to instal the toolbar and make SB your homepage. I know, I'm weary of things like this too, but this one really isn't bothersome at.all. I love mine, and I'm a toolbar skeptic. Ok, so once it's there, it's very simple to use. On the far left, if you click the *Swagbucks* button, it will take you to the home page. This is where you can read the blog, enter codes, search for things, do surveys, and basically anything that involves earning bucks. Don't get discouraged if you don't earn tons and tons fast. There are days where I earn a lot, and there are days where I earn 1. It will add up, trust me. So some awesome ways to earn bucks are to always try to go through this site to search for anything. There is a little blank box right next to the SB button, and you can type anything in there to search without going back to the home page. Next, if you are shopping online, go to the SB homepage and go to the "Earn" tab. This is where you can find all the ways to earn. The best one, in my opinion, is you can print coupons. For every coupon you print AND redeem, you get 10 SB. That is awesome! Then, you can get more by searching, doing small polls, watching short videos, and the newest thing I have discovered, is Groupon. If you are a part of Groupon, you can go through SB and purchase your Groupon, and get SB for going through them. The other day I got the Old Navy voucher of $20 for $10 AND earned 200 SB!!
After you start racking up the SB, you can start to redeem them at the swag store. There are a lot of different things you can use them on, but take my advice on this one. The best deal you will get is the Amazon.com gift cards. For 450 SB, you get a $5 Amazon.com gift card. There is no limit on how many you can use during a purchase. And if you order leaves you with a remaining balance, it rolls over, and Amazon keeps track of it for you. The reason I mention the limit thing is because there are a lot of gift cards that you can redeem SB for that seem like great deals. But there is a catch to almost all of them. You can only use 1 card per transaction, and sometimes that gift card wont even cover shipping. Not cool. The only thing I have run into with Amazon.com is that you have to buy from Amazon.com. If it's coming from another company/seller, your gift card may not work. But 99% of what I've seen/wanted on Amazon, has been from Amazon. So save those up, and you never know what you could get! So far I have been able to redeem SB for $60 worth of Amazon.com gift cards. So far I've used $55, and just earned one yesterday. You know what that got me? 20 sheet protector sleeves for coupons, and a Kodak Mini video camera. Just imagine, you could earn enough and buy that Kindle! Or nice new camera! Or a bunch of little things. The sky is the limit! So start up with SB and start earning those bucks!!
Friday, June 3, 2011
WAGS and CVS
Quick reference:
RR: Register Reward (Walgreens, aka. WAGS)
ECB: Extra Care Bucks (CVS)
I lumped these together because they work very similarly :)
WAGS
One thing I love about Walgreens is their Sunday papers are $.98, as opposed to $1.50 everywhere else. Then on Sunday, I find what the RR's are, and sometimes use them towards my papers! Sometimes my papers end up free, which is always a good thing :)
Walgreens, in my personal opinion, is the easiest drugstore to *work* with coupons and deals. This could also be because I worked there when I was learning to coupon, so it was the first "system" I learned :) So how RR works is you buy an item, and you will get a RR print out of the coupon printer at the end of your transaction. So when you see the ad and it says "It's like paying $$$", it basically means that if you subtract the amount of the RR you will get back, that's essentially what you paid for the item. You can still use coupons on the purchase as well. You may not use the same RR on the item you originally earned it on in a different transaction. Well, you can, but you will not get the RR print out. And a RR is a manu. coupon, so if you are using the RR on another transaction and have a manu coupon for the item you are buying, you will need to add a filler item because you can only have one manu per item. *whew*...That's a lot, I know. It took me forever to write it. It's just kind of hard to explain. So I will be true to form and use ExAmPlEs!! :)
These are a few from this week's ad
Icy Hot Naturals .5 oz $.99, RR back for $.99
Buy:
(1) Icy Hot Naturals @$.99
Use:
(1) -$1 off any Icy Hot product
OOP: $0
RR back: $1 (RR's round up FYI ) MONEYMAKER!
So you make $1 on each one. You can't purchase another Icy Hot and use the RR on it if you want another RR to print out for the $1. But, if you didn't have anything else to buy and didn't want to have any extra RR, you could buy another one and use the RR on it to get it for free :)
Listerine kids rinse $2.99, RR back for $2
Buy:
(1) Listerine Kids rinse @$2.99
Use:
(1)-$1 off Listerine Kids product (internet printable)
OOP: $1.99
RR back: $2, making it FREE!
Does this make sense? I hope so, but if it doesn't, ask me!!
CVS
I don't go to CVS every week, but if there are some good deals, I will go take a trip. The work similar to RR, but they are linked to your Extra Care Card, and there are set limits on how many ECB for an item you can purchase. The part that is cool about this is it could cut down on your difference transactions at the register. If there is an item that has a limit of 2, then you can purchase both in the same transaction, and get both ECBs at the end of the transaction. You can also buy one, get the ECB back, but another one, and still get the ECB at the end. Pretty much everything else, works just like the RR. You can use coupons along with the deals, just like RR, and get some items for really great prices! :)
RR: Register Reward (Walgreens, aka. WAGS)
ECB: Extra Care Bucks (CVS)
I lumped these together because they work very similarly :)
WAGS
One thing I love about Walgreens is their Sunday papers are $.98, as opposed to $1.50 everywhere else. Then on Sunday, I find what the RR's are, and sometimes use them towards my papers! Sometimes my papers end up free, which is always a good thing :)
Walgreens, in my personal opinion, is the easiest drugstore to *work* with coupons and deals. This could also be because I worked there when I was learning to coupon, so it was the first "system" I learned :) So how RR works is you buy an item, and you will get a RR print out of the coupon printer at the end of your transaction. So when you see the ad and it says "It's like paying $$$", it basically means that if you subtract the amount of the RR you will get back, that's essentially what you paid for the item. You can still use coupons on the purchase as well. You may not use the same RR on the item you originally earned it on in a different transaction. Well, you can, but you will not get the RR print out. And a RR is a manu. coupon, so if you are using the RR on another transaction and have a manu coupon for the item you are buying, you will need to add a filler item because you can only have one manu per item. *whew*...That's a lot, I know. It took me forever to write it. It's just kind of hard to explain. So I will be true to form and use ExAmPlEs!! :)
These are a few from this week's ad
Icy Hot Naturals .5 oz $.99, RR back for $.99
Buy:
(1) Icy Hot Naturals @$.99
Use:
(1) -$1 off any Icy Hot product
OOP: $0
RR back: $1 (RR's round up FYI ) MONEYMAKER!
So you make $1 on each one. You can't purchase another Icy Hot and use the RR on it if you want another RR to print out for the $1. But, if you didn't have anything else to buy and didn't want to have any extra RR, you could buy another one and use the RR on it to get it for free :)
Listerine kids rinse $2.99, RR back for $2
Buy:
(1) Listerine Kids rinse @$2.99
Use:
(1)-$1 off Listerine Kids product (internet printable)
OOP: $1.99
RR back: $2, making it FREE!
Does this make sense? I hope so, but if it doesn't, ask me!!
CVS
I don't go to CVS every week, but if there are some good deals, I will go take a trip. The work similar to RR, but they are linked to your Extra Care Card, and there are set limits on how many ECB for an item you can purchase. The part that is cool about this is it could cut down on your difference transactions at the register. If there is an item that has a limit of 2, then you can purchase both in the same transaction, and get both ECBs at the end of the transaction. You can also buy one, get the ECB back, but another one, and still get the ECB at the end. Pretty much everything else, works just like the RR. You can use coupons along with the deals, just like RR, and get some items for really great prices! :)
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
How does BOGO work??
BOGO. Most of you know this acronym. Buy One Get One. If not, just refer to my post on coupon slang :)
So, how do they work? Depends on where you go, and how you use coupons. Bear with me here. I'm going to put together some examples to help make sense of it all for you. First thing to know is that drugstores and grocery stores work a little different on BOGO. Let's start with drugstores, then go into grocery stores. For the record, I only shop at 2 drugstores, 99% of the time. CVS and Walgreens (WAGS). RiteAid isn't usually worth it to me, and I am not crazy about their system. I do,however go to the RiteAid clearance centers because those are realllllly good deals. Anyyyway... both drugstores and grocery stores can mean amazing deals, it's just different in each place.
Drugstores
At places like CVS and Walgreens, you have to purchase both. The first one will ring up full price, and the second one will ring up free. You can use one coupon per item. You can also stack a store and manu for the same item.
Example:
Buy:
(2) vitamins that are BOGO- reg. $10.99/ea
Use:
(2) -$3 off each STORE
(2)-$1 off each MANU
The first bottle will ring up $10.99, the second will ring up $0 (since you have 2 of these that you have rung up, you can use coupons for each, no matter what it rings up). Then you will take the (2)-$3 off store, and that will take $6.00 off, then use the (2)-$1 manu, and that will take $2 off. For a total of $8 off.
Final OOP- $2.99 for BOTH bottles of vitamins, or about $1.50 for each bottle, which was originally $10.99...how's that for savings?!?!
Get it? Good! (if not, no worries, leave me a comment with your questions and I would love nothing more than to answer ya!) Now, before I leave the Drugstore chapter, I am throwing you one more little loop. Moneymakers.
These are deals that you will essentially make money. Most (if not all now) will NOT give you cash back if you are in the negative. The other money makers are with RR and ECB, but those work different. One thing at a time...moneymakers. So if you have a moneymaker deal, you need to make sure you have enough in your transaction to make it even. SOOOOOOOOOO
Moneymaker Example:
Buy:
(2) Vitamins BOGO reg. $10.99/ea
(1) candy bar 1.59/ea
Use:
(2) -$5 off store coupons
(2) -$1 off manu coupons
Total OOP is $.58 (this doesn't include tax)
Same as above example, except there is $10 in store, and $2 manu. This makes it $12 off, but it's only $10.99 for the vitamins. So you add a small item (candy bar?) to cover the overage. So your total is $.58 for (2) vitamins and a candy bar!
Here is the last thing I should mention about drugstore BOGO. If you have a coupon for a BOGO, this means you can get BOTH items for free. When the register asks for the price for the free product, it will be the full price item. You can also use a second coupon for $$ off the product if you have them. I know, this is sort of confusing. Let me break it down for you with something that was available few weeks ago :) PS. This is also a moneymaker :)
BOGO/BOGO example:
Buy:
(2) Clean and Clear body washes- $5.29/ea BOGO
(3) Snickers bars $.39/ea
Use:
(1)BOGO any Clean and Clear body washes manu
(1) -$1 off any Clean and Clear product manu
Total OOP: $.17
You got BOTH body washes free, plus a $1 moneymaker, which was used on the Snickers, which were on sale that week, making your total only $.17!
Grocery Stores
Here is the main difference in grocery stores. You do not have to buy both items to get the BOGO offer. It will ring up 1/2 price. You can still use one coupon per item of manu and store. The only other big difference is when you have a BOGO coupon. You will pay half price for one item, and the other one will be free. That's pretty much where the differences end :) Here is a little example of some grocery store BOGOs
Example:
Buy:
(2) BBQ sauce BOGO (reg $1.98/ea- which means they are $.99/ea, or 2/$1.98)
Use:
(1) -$.75 off 2 BBQ sauce manu.
OOP: $1.23 for both
BOGO/BOGO Example:
Buy:
(2) BBQ sauce BOGO ( reg $1.98/ea, now $.99/ea)
Use:
(1) BOGO manu.
OOP: $.99 for both
I hope all of this didn't confuse too much, but like I said before, if it did, ask me anything and I will answer ya!!
So, how do they work? Depends on where you go, and how you use coupons. Bear with me here. I'm going to put together some examples to help make sense of it all for you. First thing to know is that drugstores and grocery stores work a little different on BOGO. Let's start with drugstores, then go into grocery stores. For the record, I only shop at 2 drugstores, 99% of the time. CVS and Walgreens (WAGS). RiteAid isn't usually worth it to me, and I am not crazy about their system. I do,however go to the RiteAid clearance centers because those are realllllly good deals. Anyyyway... both drugstores and grocery stores can mean amazing deals, it's just different in each place.
Drugstores
At places like CVS and Walgreens, you have to purchase both. The first one will ring up full price, and the second one will ring up free. You can use one coupon per item. You can also stack a store and manu for the same item.
Example:
Buy:
(2) vitamins that are BOGO- reg. $10.99/ea
Use:
(2) -$3 off each STORE
(2)-$1 off each MANU
The first bottle will ring up $10.99, the second will ring up $0 (since you have 2 of these that you have rung up, you can use coupons for each, no matter what it rings up). Then you will take the (2)-$3 off store, and that will take $6.00 off, then use the (2)-$1 manu, and that will take $2 off. For a total of $8 off.
Final OOP- $2.99 for BOTH bottles of vitamins, or about $1.50 for each bottle, which was originally $10.99...how's that for savings?!?!
Get it? Good! (if not, no worries, leave me a comment with your questions and I would love nothing more than to answer ya!) Now, before I leave the Drugstore chapter, I am throwing you one more little loop. Moneymakers.
These are deals that you will essentially make money. Most (if not all now) will NOT give you cash back if you are in the negative. The other money makers are with RR and ECB, but those work different. One thing at a time...moneymakers. So if you have a moneymaker deal, you need to make sure you have enough in your transaction to make it even. SOOOOOOOOOO
Moneymaker Example:
Buy:
(2) Vitamins BOGO reg. $10.99/ea
(1) candy bar 1.59/ea
Use:
(2) -$5 off store coupons
(2) -$1 off manu coupons
Total OOP is $.58 (this doesn't include tax)
Same as above example, except there is $10 in store, and $2 manu. This makes it $12 off, but it's only $10.99 for the vitamins. So you add a small item (candy bar?) to cover the overage. So your total is $.58 for (2) vitamins and a candy bar!
Here is the last thing I should mention about drugstore BOGO. If you have a coupon for a BOGO, this means you can get BOTH items for free. When the register asks for the price for the free product, it will be the full price item. You can also use a second coupon for $$ off the product if you have them. I know, this is sort of confusing. Let me break it down for you with something that was available few weeks ago :) PS. This is also a moneymaker :)
BOGO/BOGO example:
Buy:
(2) Clean and Clear body washes- $5.29/ea BOGO
(3) Snickers bars $.39/ea
Use:
(1)BOGO any Clean and Clear body washes manu
(1) -$1 off any Clean and Clear product manu
Total OOP: $.17
You got BOTH body washes free, plus a $1 moneymaker, which was used on the Snickers, which were on sale that week, making your total only $.17!
Grocery Stores
Here is the main difference in grocery stores. You do not have to buy both items to get the BOGO offer. It will ring up 1/2 price. You can still use one coupon per item of manu and store. The only other big difference is when you have a BOGO coupon. You will pay half price for one item, and the other one will be free. That's pretty much where the differences end :) Here is a little example of some grocery store BOGOs
Example:
Buy:
(2) BBQ sauce BOGO (reg $1.98/ea- which means they are $.99/ea, or 2/$1.98)
Use:
(1) -$.75 off 2 BBQ sauce manu.
OOP: $1.23 for both
BOGO/BOGO Example:
Buy:
(2) BBQ sauce BOGO ( reg $1.98/ea, now $.99/ea)
Use:
(1) BOGO manu.
OOP: $.99 for both
I hope all of this didn't confuse too much, but like I said before, if it did, ask me anything and I will answer ya!!
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