Free PopTarts at Target!!

I am a very happy camper. And my son is even more so! He loves Pop Tarts; ever since he was two years old and could barely say "pppp trt". SO, when I read about the deal this week I made my plan.

I was very happy several weeks ago when there was a $1.00/2 coupon in the inserts for PopTarts. I clipped them from the three local papers and then I found even more on Coupons by Dede. I've forgotten how many coupons I had to begin with.

This week I found the Target deal at Refund Cents. They had Pop Tarts and several other snacks on sale - buy 4 and get a $5.00 gift card. The ad said "while supplies last" and the closest Target is 30 minutes away, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to do this. But, I was going to be near Target on Thursday, so determined to stop in with my coupons and at least give it a try. I ended up with 16 boxes of 12 PopTarts; paid $22.94 for everything (including 1 Instant Breakfast) and came home with $20.00 in Gift Cards. That's 192 PopTarts for $1.00! Whoo Hoo!

Here's how the deal went:
Transaction #1
8 12 count PopTarts for $2.25/each = $18.00
1 Carnation Instant Breakfast $2.94

Paid with 8 $0.50/1 Pop Tart Target coupouns ($4.00)
4 $1.00/2 Pop Tart Mnfr coupons ($4.00)
1 $1.00/1 Instant Breakfast coupon ($1.00)
Out of Pocket $11.94
Received $10.00 Gift Card

Transaction #2
8 12 count PopTarts for $2.25/each = $18.00

Paid with 8 $0.50/1 Pop Tart Target coupons ($4.00)
3 $1.00/2 Pop Tart Mnfr coupons ($3.00) (I was one coupon short.)
Out of Pocket $11.00
Received $10.00 Gift Card

This was a a super great deal I could not resist. The Pop-Tarts aren't the healthiest choice, but free is free. And my son has been warned he may only eat one per day and only on school days, so these should last a loooong time!

To view more Super Savings go to MoneySavingMom.

Walgreens - Bought $41.98, Paid $0.00 !!

In the past I've had a difficult time making good deals at Walgreens. But, today was different. With a little help from Coupons by Dede and Refund Cents I had enough coupons and information to make this really work for me. I bought all this at Walgreens and spent exactly $0.00 of my own money. Here's the way the way the deal went:

Transaction #1
Bought 6 Skippy 16.3 oz @ 3/$5.00 = $10.00
Bought 2 Peparation H 10 ct Portable Wipes @ $3.99 = $7.98
Total: $17.98 (before coupons)

Paid with 2 Skippy coupons $1.00/2
Easy Saver coupon $2.00/1 (this coupon works for both Preparation H items)
2 Manufacturer coupons $2.00/1 here

Remaining Total: $7.98
Paid with Walgreens gift card earned from previous monthly rebate items.
Out of Pocket: $0.00, Earned $4.00 Register Rewards

Transaction #2
Bought 6 Skippy 16.3 oz @ 3/$5.00 = $10.00
Bought 4 Breyers Ice Cream (our favorite) @2/$7.00 = $14.00
Total $24.00 (before coupons)

Paid with 3 Skippy coupons $.60/1 (bought from CouponsbyDede)
$4.00 Register Reward
$5.00/$20.00 Walgreens coupon (here - good ONLY Friday & Saturday)
Remaining Total $13.20
Paid with Walgreens gift card earned from previous monthly rebate items.
Out of Pocket: $0.00, Earned $5.00 Register Rewards

So, I came home with $41.98 worth of groceries, paid $0.00 OOP and earned $5.00 in Register Rewards for my next Walgreens purchase. I am a happy camper!

This deal could have been a little bit better (less off my gift card) if I'd had more Skippy coupons, but I'm not complaining. I got a little help on this deal from reading the chat on RefundCents and the coupons I ordered from CoupnsbyDede. Thank you to both companies and to MoneySavingMom and CommonSenseWithMoney for leading me to them.

Bounty Basic Paper Towels & Pop Tarts

There are two really great deals I have to pass along.

K-Mart: Bounty Basic paper towels 15 pack/$10.00 = 0.66/roll. That's the best price I've seen in a quite a while. This deal will last through Saturday, August 23.

Wal-Mart: Our local Wal-Mart has a new size of Pop-Tarts on sale.
box of 16/$2.50 - $1/2 coupon (08/03 Kellogg insert) = $0.125 per Pop-Tart!

These deals are just too good. I had to pass them along.

You May be Right, I May be Crazy!

Remember the old Billy Joel song that said, "You may be right, I may be crazy!"? Tonight as I was sorting through this tremendous stack of coupons that I've collected over the past two days I had this song ringing through my head. No kidding, it took me about 2 hours to get them all sorted and organized into my coupon box. I think I've become a maniac trying to clip coupons and save as much money as possible from them.

This week I had coupons from four newspaper inserts, 3 magazines, and a bunch I'd printed online. The pile was tremendous and it just seemed to keep growing. I don't usually have coupons from magazines, but I'd seen another post about "All You" having coupons that matched some of the May CVS deals. I think I made money on the magazine purchases in the ECBs I got back at CVS. But, as I sorted this huge stack tonight I really began to wonder - was it really worth it??

Maybe it's because I've only started collecting them in earnest over the last few months. For a while I had given it up completely because I just didn't have the time. But, this winter our budget became very tight and I realized I had to cut some costs. Coupon clipping seemed the most logical place to start. After doing some reading on MoneySavingMom.com I decided to start clipping basically everything. In just a few short months I've gotten to where I collect hundreds of coupons each week, and yet, I think I only use about 10-15 in a given week. So, now I'm wondering, Have I gotten out of control? How do other people keep their coupon clipping beneficial and not let it take over their lives?