Free Stuff = AWESOME

I'm not talking about freebies or samples, though those are pretty awesome too. I used to sign up for those all the time when I was in college, and it was fun to get random packages in the mail. But now I'm more wary about giving out my address all over the internet, so I'll only sign up for a freebie if it's something I really need or I'm just dyinggggggg to try.

Although I did buy into this freebie last night (ha), from 1 Sale A Day. It's a business card holder that originally retails for $29.99, and the offer includes free shipping and handling! You don't get to choose the color (but I hope I get the dark woodgrain one hehe). Obviously this doesn't fall into either of the criteria I listed above for freebies, but I thought Appa would really like one. :D

Anyhow couponing is still fun for me, and I think even Appa is secretly interested in my shopping trips lol. I'm seriously starting to drool over the 95%+ savings I see all over the blogosphere. But for various reasons I can't separate my produce and couponing grocery trips, so I don't think I'll ever see that kind of savings... sadness.

I did get a bunch of 20ct Carefree pantiliners for $0.50/pkg at Rite Aid a couple days ago. That's just 2.5 CENTS per pad! For comparison, I normally I pay about 5.8¢/pad. They're not my absolute favorite pantiliners, but they're from the same brand and line so no complaints here! But I recently learned that there'll be a $1.00OFF Carefree coupon in the 05/08/2011 Sunday insert--which would make the 18-22ct pkgs completely free--so that's a bit of a bummer since I still have so many of the $0.50OFF coupon. I'll just have to get a bunch of the new coupon and seriously stockpile on pantiliners. It's not like pads expire so it's all good! :D

I also had a pretty good Giant Eagle run yesterday, if I leave out the produce. With high hopes that my calculations are correct, I saved 65.72% on the couponing portion of my trip! That's about 15 points more than my goal of 50% savings! For $27.95 worth of items, I paid just $9.58 OOP. But more than two-thirds of the OOP total was 2 cartons of organic milk, I really love my baby lol. Everything else I got either for free or for $1. Not too shabby!

When I was first looking into couponing, I really thought I'd end up switching my main grocery store to Acme or Marc's. But Acme is the new guy in my neighborhood, and I've been feeling nervous about venturing into a new and unfamiliar store. Marc's irritates me because they don't take Visa or Mastercard, and I'm one of those young whippersnappers that never carries cash.

I'm starting to think it doesn't matter though, because Giant Eagle offers some really amazing benefits that the others don't!
      -Doubled coupons up to $0.99
      -Self-service checkout lanes--no need to bother a cashier with a stack of coupons!
      -Many locations are open 24 hours--I can shop at night, after the baby's asleep, and take as long as I want checking out!
      -Occasional B1G1 sales on meat :D
      -Great selection of merchandise
      -Spacious aisles
      -Fuelperks--for every $50 worth of groceries you buy, you get $0.10 off per gallon of gas at their GetGo gas stations

Now there's a lot of people who dislike Giant Eagle because they jack up their prices. They're the "big box" store of groceries in my area, and in this economy their Fuelperks program is really attractive to the average non-discerning customer. There's also a lot of people (maybe the same people actually lol) who feel that the Fuelperks program is a big scam, claiming that the amount you'd save on gas would be grossly negated by the amount you'd overpay on their expensive groceries. I do agree with this. But! (You knew it was coming lol.) If you're a good little couponer who plans your trips and only buys on-sale items that you have coupons for, then there's plenty of opportunities to score great deals. And Fuelperks becomes just what it should be, an added benefit! :)

I can't wait for tomorrow, I just love looking at weekly sales flyers and ordering coupons! Actually on that topic, I ordered from Coupons By Dede last time. The shipping took longer than I'd like, but through NO fault of hers! She's located all the way in Texas, and for her part, she did mail out my order very quickly. She's got the largest inventory and the lowest prices I've seen so far, and she offers both clipped coupons and whole inserts. Plus new coupons are available immediately--I'm talking the day of instead of 2-3 days like most other sites. There's just so many pros that I may have to suck it up and wait a few days longer for my coupons!