Daphne Price, LA
It's official. I am now a coupon/refund addict. Off and on, since I started a family and we began buying our own groceries, I've used a coupon or two here and there, if it was a high value and when I could remember before it expired. I just could never "get it", the big deal about saving .25 off of one bottle of ketchup because there was only one store around that doubled, and their prices were so outrageous that even with a coupon it was hardly beneficial to shop there. So, I would put my mom off when she would try to give me the Sunday insert coupons, and laugh at my sister-in-law (husband's sister), when she would brag about how much money she saved using coupons because I couldn't see the logic in buying things that you didn't normally buy just because you had a coupon. Well, she introduced me to a free sample website and that's really how this all got started, searching for those free samples (and playing those instant win games, of which I've won lots of really cool stuff: several Visa gift-cards, video games, CD's, and even a Clorox Cleaning Caddy full of Clorox Products). I was looking through a section of the site and they were involved in these "coupon trains", where you receive an envelope of coupons, take what you'd like, add something to the envelope, and mail it on to the next person. Now that was a coupon concept I could see real promise in, at least for me, not the "coupon train" itself, but getting my hands on 20 of the same coupon without buying 20 Sunday newspapers. Because to me, it may not be worth running out to the local stores with one coupon for .25 off one thing, but if you have a bunch of those coupons and you can stockpile while those things are on sale, well, that's just good common sense. I realized that before I even found out that was the norm in the coupon world. And, so, the trading began! I told my husband what my new hobby was, and he was thrilled because his mom was a true Coupon/Rebate Queen getting lots of free groceries and promotional things for her kids (he and his sister still talk about the great TIDE rocket ship their little brothers had), back in the days when he was a teenager, all the stores doubled, and you didn't have to have the receipts for the rebates. He began encouraging me, probably more excited about it than I was, his motto; "Every dollar you save, is one less dollar I have to make!" My enthusiasm really sparked when he was able to get his hands on many copies of the inserts each week from work, (he works all over the country) and most of them were better values than our locals, so that made it extra great! It took me a few weeks but I finally learned most of the lingo and patterns of the trading and coupons and the way that many times they coincide with the sales at the drug stores (Walgreen's & CVS especially) and I started building my stockpile. Getting high-cost name brand toothpaste for .50 a tube was fantastic to me. I'm sure many have gotten it cheaper or even free, but this was one of my first tastes of the good coupon life, and I loved it! And, we now have toothpaste for the next 2 years. A couple of weeks into this coupon hobby, I began learning about the rebate forms, and that's how I came across Refund Cents. I can't tell you how happy I was to have found this website and magazine. I've already saved a ton thanks to tips about sales at various stores I've received from reading Centsible Chat posts and I just saved over $100 today when I bought the KitchenAid mixer that I've wanted for years for less than half price thanks to Michele's daily updates, from Amazon.com! This coupon mania is definitely addictive, and highly contagious! When I started bragging to my sisters and my brother's wife, they all wanted me to show them how I was getting all of this stuff! Two of my sister's each have 4 children, the others have 2, and so they could all really benefit from this money saving way of life. I took one of my sisters to the stores last week and we got so many great things, including a ton of free Zest soap, Cereal, Suave shampoo, and Dog food, doubling coupons, plus the store gave us the overage, so they paid us to take home their stuff. How cool is that! Even our children have gotten excited about it, they are all in the 8-9 age bracket and they love the idea of getting stuff for free, even if it is just shampoo. They are like little hawks in the store watching out for those blinking coupon machines, it's so adorable, and they're learning valuable math and economic skills that will stay with them when they get older. Some people probably prefer to leave their kids at home, but involving my son has really made an impression on him. When he wants something he now starts the sentence "Mommy, do you have a coupon for this?" and because I've included him, he doesn't get upset when I say no, he just tries to find something else that I do have a coupon for. I don't believe I've bought anything in the past 2 months without a coupon, even milk! My sisters and I have now decided to start a once-a-week Coupon Club, where we can get together at one of our homes, and peruse the sales papers with our coupons figuring out the best deals and coming up with our shopping strategies for the week. I hope we are able to keep this going because it really is a lot of fun sharing the great deals with someone. Now, there are really only 2 things left I have to do with regard to all of these coupons and stockpiled items. Organization is going to be the next project. I need shelves and an area for all these great deals. My mom's been teasing me because it looks like I'm trying to start a store in our family room. And, finally, I have a little more crow to eat with my sister-in-law. I've heard "I told you so" a couple of times, but wait until she hears about all the stuff I got for free! The best deal so far, is probably the Suave shampoo. The recent coupons were for .60 off any one and almost every store had them on sale for .88, but the store only doubled to .50, so not free but still a great deal at .28 for a bottle of shampoo for the kids. Then, I still had a good many of them when one of my sisters told me that our Fred's doubles up to .70 on Saturdays – jackpot! So, even though it wasn't on sale, at .99 a bottle, we earned .21 per bottle with our coupons. We also got really lucky this past week when CVS had Sparkle 8-pk. paper-towels on sale for 3.88 but there was a problem with a shipment so they substituted the Bounty 8-packs and we had coupons for those, and got them for around $3.25. I have so many Caress and Lever Bodywashes, Dove shampoos, conditioners, and deodorants, Skintimate shave gels, Ziploc Containers that were bought when they were B1G1 Free, plus the coupon, that I don't believe I paid more than $.50 for any of them, and many of the items you see were free. Probably the best part, I won't have to buy any of these personal hygiene items for at least a year. This is the best hobby ever!