Sunday, February 23, 2014

Deals, Coupons, Rebates, and Blessings Part 2

Yesterday I blogged about some of our recent deals that were blessings to us. I will continue today hoping that some of you find this useful too.
*Ram and I think the Boise newspaper is really short and doesn't have much news as compared to the Twin Cities newspaper. Every once and a while I would buy a Sunday paper here hoping for coupons. Sometimes I would buy the paper but there weren't many coupons in them. Recently I received a postcard asking if I would be interested in getting the ads for free. I returned my postcard right away. I think the local stores pay for it. I was so happy the first time I got my bag of ads and coupons that are in Sunday papers. It is all delivered together so I can compare the different grocery store weekly ads without looking online at multiple sites. Plus I can see which manufacture coupons match up with the store ads. This has been perfect, the part of the newspaper that we want, and it is free. This began in January for us.
*I noticed in one of those ads that St. Chapelle huckleberry wine was on sale at the store plus there was a rebate plus if you bought 6 you got a discount. We bought 6 and we're waiting for our rebate check but we got a great deal. We had a bottle on Valentine's Day and the rest are in the pantry. I have done rebates for vodka for homemade vanilla, but this was a first for me to do a rebate for wine.
*When a store doesn't take American Express, they usually take Visa. We got a Visa card from AAA. Now that we live in the city more places take A.E. than when we lived in rural MN. We don't use it often, but we pay off the balance when we do. They send a coupon based on your purchases on the Visa to be used in the AAA office. For us that means paying for our yearly AAA membership. In MN we used it more often and we didn't pay anything for AAA each year. This year we had to pay $12, but the rest was paid with these "coupons".
*I purchased something from Memoria Press last year. At the end of the year they sent a $10 gift card to thank me for my business. In January there was a free shipping deal so I combined that with the gift card. I got a CD of Latin songs and prayers for less than $2. I will purchase from Memoria Press again instead of buying their products at Amazon or somewhere else. I'm also on their e-mail list so find out about their sales.

I do not consider myself a great couponer or great at finding the deals online. I know that often I end up buying something with a coupon that I may not have purchased without a coupon. I only use a few of the coupons that are now delivered to me on Sundays. But there are deals out there like I posted yesterday and today. Even if you can't get the specific deals that I blogged about, keep your eyes open. Check clearance sections and see if you can combine a coupon with them. Be patient with your coupons, wait to match them up with free shipping or with a store weekly deal. I don't do Facebook so I'm on store e-mail lists and I spend a few minutes daily looking at the deals and deleting the ones that I'm not interested in. See if your credit card will reward you with something you will use like paying for your Costco membership. I thank God for all these blessings of deals. It all ads up to stocking our pantry, office supplies, and lots of treats for our family at a very low cost or free plus some memberships that we will use all year.

1 comment:

Kristen said...

What a great deal to be able to get the ads for free! That's my favorite part of the Sunday paper, too! And like you said, to find a good deal, you learn to be patient. That's how the best deals often come about - keeping your eyes open for matching deals.