Perfect Baked Potatoes

Frugal Tara's post here for this week's Hilander/Kroger deals made me want to share this spectacular recipe for perfect baked potatoes.  We actually just had these for dinner last night and the potatoes were soo big that they were a meal in themselves!  Ours actually looked much more yummy than this one in the photo, but you get the idea.  My husband topped his with left-over chili I had made earlier in the week and it looked amazing. 

For years I struggled with making a baked potato just like you can get in a restaurant.  My skins would always come out soggy and the potato would be under cooked.  I always used my mom's method of wrapping them in aluminium foil to bake them.  One day I finally decided enough was enough and I searched for the perfect baked potato recipe online and I came across this one.  As soon as I tried it I knew this one was a keeper!  Now we have baked potatoes more often and I think they are better than any potato I have had in a restaurant.  Give this recipe a try, you won't be disappointed at all!

Logli Quaker Deal

Logli is currently running a deal on Quaker Granola Bars and Oatmeal. If you purchase 5 participating items, you will get a coupon for a free gallon of milk (up to $3 value). Now, the oatmeal is included, but it's not that great of a deal in my eyes. What I did focus on was the granola bars. All varieties of the bars are on sale (dipped, regular and even the new cocoa ones) for 5/$10. There aren't any coupons out there that I know of.

I had purchased my first set of 5 and then got my coupon for my free milk. Wanting to do another set of 5 and also get my first free milk, I went back in. I decided not to get the Dean's, which was still under my $3 value, but did purchase the Logli brand for $2.39. What I didn't expect was for the coupon to still scan for $3, so I got a little overage too! I'm not sure if this was my cashier's error or just the way it scanned. I think it scanned this way as I don't recall seeing her plug in any numbers. Also, this transaction does roll, meaning, even though I bought milk and used my coupon, a new coupon for free milk printed with my purchase of 5.

Hilander Game Day Sale 1/27-2/2

There is another fun sale going on at Hilander. This one is a buy 10 participating items and get $5 off instantly. Sales like this one can be really fun with the right coupons and the right cashier. A few highlights from this sale with coupon matchups are (the prices below reflect the .50 per item discount for buying in sets of 10):

Ken's Dressing $1.49 - $1/1 1/9 SS
French's Spicy Brown Mustard $1.19 - $1/1 11/7 SS and .50/1 here
Hormel Chili $.79 - $1.50/3 Feb AY, .75/1 Chilimaster here, and .55/2 any here
Rotel $.42 - .30/1 1/23 SS, B3G1 Jan AY
SoBe $.75 - Free with recent mailers
Goldfish $1.19 (not the lowest, but pretty good)
Cream Cheese $1.29 - $1/2 in store coupon book
Motts Apple Juice $1.49
Kraft Singles $1.49 - $1/1 2% slices here
Progresso Soup $.99 - $1/4 1/16 SS & 1/2 GM, also check e-coupons
Franks Red Hot Sauce $1.49 - .50/1 1/23 SS
Franks Wing Sauce $1.49 - .75/1 1/23 SS
Pace $1.49 - .60/2 12/5 SS
Tidy Cats $1.49 - $1/1 1/30 RP & here
Honest Tea $.75 - .50/1 here (can print 3 times)
Kleenex $1.19 - .50/3 1/2 SS & 12/5 SS, .75/1 here or $1.00 off 5 here, and recent catalina coupon printouts from Hilander
Del Monte Canned Vegetables - $.49
Hunts Tomatoes $.49 - $1/3 Jan AY, .45/3 1/23 SS
Jello $.75 - .55/3 on coupons.com
Del Monte Fruit cups $1.49

This sale can be stacked in multiples of 10 and you will receive the $5 instant discount for each set. Remember Hilander doubles 2 of each like coupon per day up to $.55, so split your trips up if needed. With sales like this, you MAY get overage due to the $5 instant savings discount being taken off at the end. Free items MAY also come off at the pre-instant discount price. YMMV depending on your cashier, so choose wisely :)

Also not included in the above sale, but good deals this week:
Seedless Grapes $1.28/lb
Tyson Boneless, Skinless Chicken $1.97/lb
Kroger Cheese $1.50 - coupons in recent Kroger home mailer
Kroger Jumbo Russet Potatoes 8lbs $2.99 (these giants are great for baked potatoes)
Campbells Soup $1 - .40/3 1/2 SS, check your e-coupons too

Milk Prices

If you buy milk regularly for your family you undoubtedly have noticed that the price of milk has spiked recently.  The last time I checked at Wal-mart the Great Value brand was $3.07 a gallon!!  I was shocked.  Luckily it was a week that Walgreens had it on sale for $1.99 a gallon so I was able to price match and stock up with an extra gallon. 

The past two weeks I have been getting my milk at Sam's Club.  Here's the prices that I found there today:

Fat Free = $2.28 a gallon
1% = $2.34 a gallon
2% = $2.38 a gallon
Vit D = $2.44 a gallon

That's a little easier to swallow, since our family drinks a lot of milk.  I have heard of several frugal friends who freeze milk.  I have never tried this, but I am told all you have to do is leave a little head room in the container and then put it in the freezer.  Once you are ready to use it, let it thaw in the fridge and then shake it up.  The only milk I was advised not to do this with is whole/vitamin D milk.  Apparently it separates too much and doesn't really ever go back to it's pre-frozen state.  If you want to read more about freezing milk or it's "best buy" date check this info here (this page seems to take a minute to load).

If you have ever froze milk, leave us a comment and tell us what your experience was.  How did it turn out?  Did it taste the same?  Did you leave it in the plastic jug?

Upcoming Jewel Promos

For those of you who have been yearning for a Jewel Catalina promo, or those chomping at the bit to try one out, I have a ray of sunshine for you on this dreary, gloomy day! 

Over on CW it is being reported that there's a couple upcoming Catalina promos in our future!  Sharpen your scissors, gas up the car and get ready to save!!  Here's the details:

There's a ConAgra Catalina promo scheduled for 2/10 thru 2/16.   This one is being reported as a "spend $25 get $10 OYNO".  There's no UPC list available at this time, but as soon as I see one I will share it with you. 

It's also rumored that there will be a General Mills Catalina promo sometime at the end of February or beginning of March.  This one is being reported as a "spend $30 get $15 OYNO".   A store manager at Jewel let this out of the bag to a shopper who reported back on CW. 

While I cannot guarantee these will happen, it is nice to know that there's a possibility of something right around the corner.  For those of you who have never shopped a Catalina promo at Jewel, you might want to start reading here so you are ready to hit the store when these roll out.

Graveyardmall Deal of the Day - Men's Sunglasses just $9.99

Think spring!  Graveyard Mall Deal of the Day today is 9 pairs of brand name Men's sunglasses for only $9.99 plus shipping.  The retail value of this lot is approximately $179.99.  I have ordered women's sunglasses from Graveyard Mall in the past and really liked what I received.  These are a great value, especially if you can split up this order with a friend or family member.  Go here to check out more of the details and place an order.  Just click on "deal of the day" to find this awesome deal on shades!  Don't wait on this one, the offer is only good today - and these usually go "out of stock" very quick!

Walgreens 1/23 thru 1/29

Hello Frugal Friends!  It's another week of savings with some money making opportunities again at Wags.  Here's my list for this week:

Omega Smart Fish Oil is on sale for $10 each, with a $10 MIR making these FREE.  You can turn this one into a MM by printing off the $2 off coupon here.  This coupon is a .pdf so you can print as many as you have addresses to mail in rebates for.  You also may want to save this coupon to your computer, it doesn't expire until 12/31/2012!  We are sure to see another MM or FREEBIE on this product before the coupon expires. 

There's a really great RR promo running right now on "digestive health" products.  Products included are Maalox, Gas-X, Ex-Lax, Benefiber or Prevacid.  Spend $20 on product, get a $5 RR or Spend $30 on product, get a $10 RR.  These products are all on sale this week, all are 25% off with the exception of Prevacid which is on sale for $20.  There's many ways you can work this to get to the $30 threshold, and what you get will greatly depend on how many coupons you have available to use and what your store has in stock.  The regular price of these products vary by store also, so the 25% off will be different at various store locations, as I witnessed first hand this morning.  Here's the two really great coupons that match up to this deal and makes it a MM:  $5 off Maalox from the 1/9 SS and $4 off Gas-X Prevention from the 12/12 SS.  If I were you I would bring along all of your available coupons for these two products so that if your store has low stock of one product you can mix and match.  You must get to the $30 threshold AFTER the sale price in order for the RR to print.  Just about anyway you work this with these high value coupons you have yourself a MM. 

Vicks drops are .99 each or 2/$1.79.  Use the $1.00 off ANY Vicks product coupons from the 1/16 PG to get these FREE.  If you are lucky you will gain a few cents in overage with these - I wasn't so lucky, but FREE is always good too!  These little boxes of Vicks drops are usually up by the main registers. 

My frugal friends with small kids tell me that the deal on diapers this week is a pretty good one if you need them.  Huggies jumbo packs are on sale for $8.99 each with a $2 RR in return.  If you use the $2 off coupon in the 1/23 SS your jumbo packages will be $4.99 each after coupons and RR's.   **See the comments to this post for more info regarding this Huggies promo**

Lastly, if you are looking for a filler item to roll some RR's, might I suggest Kit Kat candy bars?  These are .49 each this week after the in-ad coupon.   Since I have no plans to head to Jewel anytime soon I needed to do some rolling and Kit Kat happen to be my favorite candy bar - how convenient!  :)

New Hilander Instant Win Game

It doesn't matter which team you are a fan of to play this one ... Hilander has a new instant win game with over 25,000 instant prizes to be won. You can play once a day through February 6th. Go here to play and let us know if you win any Game Day Greats.

WRMN Radio Shopping Show News

Over the summer months, I introduced you to WRMN 1410 AM, The Radio Shopping Show.   You can see my original post here that explains what The Radio Shopping Show is all about.  The great news is that The Radio Shopping Show now has online shopping 24/7!  You don't have to wait for the show to be on the radio, or at a roadshow, to shop these great deals.  You can shop from the comfort of your own home, anytime of the day.  If you didn't check them out before, or you did and thought it wasn't right for you, it's worth a first or second look! 

If you want to try this out and want a great deal, I have one for you!  I have 6 cards for $10 off your FIRST purchase of $20 or more from The Radio Shopping Show.  This offer is for NEW customers only.  Be one of the first 6 to contact me and the $10 card is yours!

Check out The Radio Shopping Show website here. 

Woodman's Store Coupons 1/23/11

It's a pretty rare occasion that we get a Woodman's store flyer in the newspaper so I wanted to be sure you don't overlook it!  In today's paper there is a Woodman's flyer with store coupons!  YAY!  Here's what you will find:

$1.00 off Dairy Products (with $4 purchase of dairy products)
$1.00 off Produce (with $4 purchase of produce products)
$1.00 off Meat Product (with $4 purchase of meat products)
$1.00 off Frozen Pizzas (with purchase of 4 frozen pizzas, 12 inch or larger)
$1.00 off Paper Products (with $4 purchase of paper products)

These all expire 2/5/2011 - be creative with what you use these on!  Since these are pretty vague, I am sure you can get some great freebies or really cheap products.  Think outside the box!! :)

**NOTE**:  This flyer appears to be regional so you may not have received it in your paper.  If you didn't get it, keep your eyes open at Woodman's for the flyers out in the store.

Walmart Clearance

I just was at the Walmart in Belvidere and checking out the clearance section (over by seasonal stuff). They had lots of toys there at pretty good prices, but the thing that made me really excited was to find clearance school uniform clothing! There are currently twin packs of short sleeve polo shirts (in white and dark blue) on clearance for $3...that's $1.50 a shirt!! There was a good variety of sizes, more so for boys than girls.

Walgreens 1/16 thru 1/22

Sorry I am so slow with sharing my Wags run with you this week - I feel like I am going in ten different directions at the moment! 

Here's what I got this week:

ThermaCare Heat Wraps(neck, wrist, shoulder) are on sale for $2.50 each with a $2.50 RR in return.  Turn this into a MM by using the $1.00 off coupon here.  This coupon is an unlimited print so go to town with this one!  The stores that I have been to are well stocked with this product. 

Gillette Fusion razors are on sale for $9.99 with a $5 RR in return.  Use the $4.00 off coupon from the 12/26 PG insert to get these "expensive" razors for .99 each after RR and coupons. 

Oreos are on sale 2/$5 this week.  If you are having an Oreo crisis, as we were in our house, this is a pretty good sale. :) There's no manufacturer coupons to match up, but normally these packages run just around $3 each.  These would be good items to add in if you like them and you want to roll some RR's. 

Lindsay Olives are .99 a can after in-ad coupon.  We were starting to get low so I grabbed a couple cans.  This is the large can and it's a good price if you need them.  No manufacturer coupons available right now for these either. 

Planter's Flavor Grove skinless almonds are on sale this week 2/$5.  If you have any of the $1.00 off tearpad coupons that have been out at some stores, you can combine two of them with the $1.00 off TWO packages in the Wags monthly coupon booklet to get these for $1.00 each.  We love nuts so I always try to grab some when I see them this cheap.  I was curious about these flavored nuts, but they are pretty good! 

If you are signed up at the Just For Men website, you may have received a mailer coupon for a FREE Just For Men product.  Check your binder, and if you have it now is the time to use it!  These are on sale for $5.99 each at Wags this week with the in-ad coupon.  They will ring up as $7.99 each.  Use the "FREE" coupon first, and then scan the in-ad coupon to gain $2.00 in overage.  This would pay for your almonds above if you were getting those - just make sure you have something in your cart to cover the overage.  Next, you will want to submit for this rebate to get your $7.99 back in the form of a rebate check.  That turns this into a grand total $9.99 MM deal!

Lastly, the Kraft Home-Style Mac n Cheese is on sale 3/$5 this week.  This doesn't happen that often at Wags, but these are actually ringing up $1.67/$1.66 each.  Normally the register won't take off the discount until the third item is scanned.  There's a $1.00 off coupon in the 1/16 SS, and if you only got two of these (like me) you can still take advantage of this deal.  Pick up TWO, use TWO $1.00 off coupons and then scan the $1.00 off TWO coupon from the monthly coupon booklet.  Makes these only .33 for TWO or about .17 each.  If you still have those FREE coupons that were mailed out by Kraft you could use that here to make this even better!

I had also planned to grab some of the Carefree panty-liners that are .99 each after the in-ad coupon.  I was going to combine that with the .50 off coupon from the 1/9 SS to make these only .49 a package, but my store was out of these.  There was a spot on the shelf but it had a clearance label there so I am wondering if this is a discontinued item...if I can get to another Wags before the sale is over I will grab them, otherwise these are .99 quite often at Wags and I should be able to get them later on because the Q doesn't expire until 3/31.

**Review** - Buying Whole Coupon Inserts

My frugal friend, Shauna, sent me a note about Whole Coupon Inserts and I wanted to share her experience with you.  Shauna can't get the Tribune delivered where she lives so she has been seeking out different options to get coupon inserts.  Shauna writes:

"I also ordered a few inserts from the whole coupon inserts last week and was very happy. I placed my order late Tuesday night, received a confirmation that it had shipped on Wednesday afternoon, and received them on Saturday. They come from Florida, so I thought that was decent shipping time. I did have an issue with one of the inserts not having all the coupons that it was supposed to, and received a message this morning that she was shipping me out a few more. It will definitely be a good option for me. The inserts were about 50 cents each and shipping was pretty cheap as well. I think I got 6 inserts last week for a cost of $4.50 total."

It sounds like this service is a great alternative to getting multiple newspaper subscriptions or if you can't get the Tribune in your area. 

Thanks for sharing with us, Shauna!

Unilever Coupon Insert 1/30

1/30/2011 might be a good Sunday to try to score some extra papers for the coupon inserts.  I just received an e-mail that Unilever will be having an insert that week.  There's going to be $21 in manufacturer coupon savings on Unilever products.  Some of Unilever brands: Lever2000, Lipton, Pond's, Popsicle, Promise, Q-tips, Skippy, Ragu, Suave, Vaseline, Wish Bone, Axe, Bertolli, Breyers, Caress, Country Crock, Dove, Hellman's and Knorr.  If you would like to see all their brands and sign up for e-mail alerts, go here.

Unilever inserts don't come out that often so make sure you jump on this one!  Now, if we could just get Jewel to run a Unilever Catalina promo after 1/30 that would be sweet!  I am so not feeling the love from Jewel lately!

FREE YMCA Membership for Boone County (IL) Residents 12 and Under

I am a member of the Belvidere, IL YMCA and I had no idea that they had this great program going on until I received a newsletter yesterday.  This program has been in effect since January of 2010.  Any youth, 12 and under, who reside in Boone county can receive a YMCA membership AT NO COST!  What a wonderful program!  If you want to check out what the Belvidere YMCA has to offer, you can go here.  They have already granted about 1,000 free memberships to youth and this program is sponsored by the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign and the United Way of Boone County.  If you live in Boone County and have kids under 12 go check this out!  If you live in a different county, why not check and see if your local YMCA is offering this same program?

Also, if you are already a member and want to refer a friend to join the YMCA, they are offering a program that will get the joiner fee waived  ($100 savings) for your friend and a free month of membership for yourself.  If you are interested in joining the YMCA - I would be happy to refer you for a waived joiner fee, just let me know!

Cheap Toilet Paper @ Wal-mart

If you already received the February issue of All You, inside there's a $1.00 off coupon for any White Cloud toilet paper.  It's a card type coupon insert in the center of the magazine.  Wal-mart has the 4 double-roll packs for $2.00 each.  Use this coupon to get this for $1.00 or .25 a double-roll.  .25 a double-roll or less is a stock up price for toilet paper in my book.

If you are seriously low (like in our house), you can grab a 12 double-roll pack of Angel Soft for $5.00 each right now at Wal-mart.  Use the $1.00 off Angel Soft coupon here using zip code 03110 to get these 12 packs for $4.00.  These come out to be .33 a double-roll, which is not my target price but when you need TP you don't want to fool around and run out waiting on the next great deal if you know what I mean! :)  Watch for which package you grab at Wal-mart though, they had two different packages of 12 double-roll Angel Soft TP.  One was $5.97 and one was $5.00 - go figure, leave it to Wal-mart to try to pull one over like this!  The ones I found were in the TP aisle as well as a feature on a pallet in the main aisle.

Hilander Week of 1/13-1/19

This weeks deal that caught my attention first was the GM Cereal and Breakfast bars. Now the price alone of $2.49 each is not great, but when you combine it with coupons, electronic coupons, free boxes of cereal, and 2 catalina deals it gets better. I focused on Nature Valley Granola Bars and Fiber One Chewy bars in my trip this morning. Both have a deal running where if you buy 3 boxes of bars at $2.49 each, you get one free box of Cinnamon Chex or Cinnamon Burst Cheerios (this part does stack).

The two catalinas running (and I didn't test if you could combine them, just that they worked separately) are buy 3 boxes get $1.50 OYNO, buy 4 boxes get $2.50 OYNO, and buy 5 boxes get $3.50 OYNO. This will be in the form of a catalina coupon that will print out and given to you with your receipt, not an instant savings. Here are a list of coupon matchups.

Nature Valley: .50/1 smartsource.com (prints with do not double), .50/1 target.com (does not contain the Target logo), .50/1 coupons.com (prints with DND), .50/1 ecentives.com, $1/2 boxtopsforeducation.com and .75/2 from the 1/2 GM insert. Also .50/1 electronic coupons from Hilander.net and cellfire.com (always load from the Hilander site first).

Fiber One Chewy: .50/1 smartsource.com (prints with DND), .50/1 target.com (no logo), .50/1 coupons.com (prints with DND), .50/1 ecentives.com, and .40/1 from the 1/2 GM insert. Also .50/1 ecoupons on Hilander.net and Cellfire.com

Chex Cereal Coupons (which they may or may not accept): $1/2 smartsource.com and $1/2 ecoupon on shortcuts.com (this will actually affect the ammount the free one comes off as - for some reason the computer detects this coupon and deducts $1 less automatically).

Here's how I worked it:
6 NV bars at $2.49 each + 2 boxes Cinnamon Chex also $2.49= $19.92
6-.50/1 coupons (my cashier doubled all) & $1/2 chex (and took this)= $12.92
2-.50/1 eQ's (bars) & $1/2 eQ (cereal)= $10.92
$2.49 (first free box cereal) & $1.49 (second free box because of the EQ)=$6.94
and get back $3.50 catalina = $3.44 or .43 per item

6 Fiber One Bars and 2 boxes Chex= $19.92
4-.50/1 Q's & 2-.40/1 Q's (my cashier doubled all) & $1/2 chex (and took this)=$13.32
3-.50/1 eQ's (bars, I had one previously loaded)= $11.82
2-$2.49 (both free boxes of cereal)= $6.84
and get back $3.50 catalina = $3.34 or .42 per item

You will need to break up your order as only one catalina will print out per transaction. I also used the first catalina to help pay for the second. Your transactions may be different than mine depending on the coupons you have and the cashier you get.

Keep in mind Hilander only doubles 2 of a like coupon in one day. This can be interpreted by your cashier as only two .50/1 for a product or they may double more .50/1 coupons because they 'look' different. They also may or may not take a coupon on a free product such as the cereal. It is definitely a YMMV experience at Hilander these days.

Other deals to mention:
Quaker Instant Oatmeal is $1.99 - use the $1/1 from the 1/2 RP
8 lb bags of Jumbo Russet Potatoes are $2.99
Tyson boneless, skinless chicken is again $1.97/lb
Hillshire Farms Deli Lunchmeat is $3 - use the .55/1 (doubled) from the 1/9 RP

Walgreens 1/9 thru 1/15 - Advice on using the B1G1F Special K Coupon - Please Read! **Comments Updated!**

I have to admit that I have been a bit off my couponing game the past couple weeks.  Too much to do and not enough time in the day to get it all done.  At least there has been a lag in deals and I haven't really been missing out on too much.  Wags is a bit slow this week with only a couple things that drew me into the store. 

First, Nature Valley Granola Bars are on sale 2/$4.  There's a couple .50 off coupons here and here and a $1.00 of TWO here.  You  will need a minimum of coupons for 5 boxes to work this deal to your best advantage, so be sure to print two from each link.  There's a RR promo running right now on these bars that gives you back $1.50 wyb 3 boxes, $2.50 wyb 4 boxes or $3.50 wyb 5 or more. 

Then there's the Special K cereal.  In my rush to put together my deals and list for the week I realized after I shopped yesterday that I had used an incorrect coupon on one of the blogged about deals.  Many of the money saving blogs are listing that you can use the B1G1F Special K coupon printed from here to get Special K this week for .25 a box after coupons and RR's.  Well...after reading the fine print on these coupons today, this is not proper coupon usage and I think that we should all refrain from working this deal any further so that we don't abuse the system.  You see, when the coupon prints, it specifically states "Buy any one box of Kelloggs Special K cereal and get one 12 oz. Special K Original or 13.6 oz Multi-grain Oats & Honey cereal FREE.  The problem with this deal that I have is that the only one on sale as part of this RR at Wags is the Special K Red Berries cereal.  You should not be getting a FREE box of Special K Red Berries using this coupon.  Yes, it may work and yes, the cashier might accept it because she/he doesn't read the fine print, but it's still not right.  I made an honest mistake and my cashier did not catch it, but knowingly, I cannot advocate using this coupon again for this deal.  Instead I am going to take the rest of my B1G1F coupons to Hilander and get them for .43 a box, as Tara blogged about here.  I hope that you will refrain from using these coupons as part of this deal also.  **Please see the comments section for more details about using this B1G1F coupon at Wags this week**

I wanted to grab some of the Go! Kids Multi-Vitamin Gummies on RR for FREE this week, but my local stores were out of stock.  Maybe they will have more later in the week.  These are a great way to roll some RR's to extend expiration dates since there's no recent manufacturer coupons for these out. 

Keep your eyes out for clearanced items at Wags stores, there's been loads of things I have seen that are being marked down, from make-up to toothbrushes. 

I also had planned on picking up some FREE toothbrushes with the $2.00 ff 2 Reach coupon listed here, stacked with the $2.00 off in-ad coupon, but I did read that there were lots of beeps when trying this scenario out and since I have enough toothbrushes to last until I am 50 I decided to pass on this one. 

I am planning on heading back to take advantage of a Maalox RR promo running right now.  Buy $30 in participating products, get a $10 RR.  With the recent $5.00 off 1 Maalox coupon we had in the inserts this will make for a great deal.  This is a product that we actually use at our house too!

Jewel Freezer Sale

Many of you have heard me talk about the freezers that Jewel sells every year.  They always have the freezers for sale in February and it has been confirmed over on CW that the freezer sale will be held again this year. 

Here's how it has worked in the past: Jewel will offer a nice chest freezer for right about $149.00.  They will be sold on a weekend (usually the first or second weekend in February), starting around 6AM.  These freezers go extremely fast, so you want to get there early if you think that you want one.  Each store only has a set number of these freezers and once they are gone, you don't get another shot until next February.  The reason why these are such a hot item?  Not only is $149 a really good price on a chest freezer, the freezer always comes with $150 in coupons for FREE items to fill your freezer with.  These are not $ off coupons...these are coupons for FREE items.  And it gets even better - most of these items that the coupons are for usually go on sale B1G1F at some point before the coupons expire.  When you use a FREE item coupon in conjunction with a B1G1F sale, you get TWO for FREE! 

There is usually info ahead of time on when the exact date will be and a listing of all the coupons that are included as part of the coupon package that comes with the freezer.  That info isn't available just yet, but as soon as I see it I will pass it along to you.  In the meantime, if you are interested in this freezer deal, start setting aside some money to get one of these.  You can use Register Rewards to pay for the freezer too! 

Hilander - Kelloggs Deal & Yoplait Surprise

This week Hilander is also running a deal on select Kelloggs cereals and products. They are $2.99 and you get $4 off instantly for every 4 you buy. You can stack this deal and that actually can be the best way to work this one depending on your coupons. Included in this sale is Special K cereal (almost all varieties including granola), Nutri Grain bars, Special K bars, Kashi Go Lean cereal (including Crisp), Special K fruit crisps, and Fiber Plus bars (NOT Fiber One chewy bars:). So, here's how I worked the deal:

4 boxes Special K cereal (I got granola)
4 more boxes original Specal K cereal
5 Nutri Grain bars
1 Kashi Go Lean Crisp
2 Special K bars

Ecoupons: $5/5 select Kellogs snacks (for me the Nutri Grain bars) Hilander.net
Printables: 4 B1G1 Special K cereals (two from the link Renea mentioned here and two from their facebook page here) and two $1/2 Nutri Grain bars (from Kelloggs.com)
Insert Coupons: two $1/2 Special K cereals and one $1/2 Special K bars (both from the 1/2 RP)
Special Mailers Coupons: $3/1 Kashi Go Lean Crisp (recent Kashi promotion)

Subtotal: $47.84 - $16 (4 sets of 4 items) - $11.96 (4 free Special K cereals) - $5 (Hilander E coupon) - $2 (Nutri Grain) - $3 (insert coupons) - $3 (Kashi - this did NOT beep) =
$6.88 TOTAL or .43 per item

In connection with the above sale, I have three $1/1 coupons for Kashi Go Lean Crisp to share. If you'd like one, please leave a comment below or send me a message.

YOPLAIT - This was a surprise deal for me this week and since as Deb mentioned below we are unable to locate any details this may or may not still be going on. Yoplait cups are on sale for $.50 each this week. I bought 14, used a $.50/8 and $.40/6 (both from the 1/2 GM), and also had loaded two e coupons from Cellfire. I paid $4.40 and got back a $1.25 OYNO catalina making them just $.23 a piece. If you buy any Yoplait this week, please leave us a comment and let us know if you get a surprise catalina too.

Logli/Schnuk's Coupon Match-Ups

My frugal pal Danielle headed over to Logli to see what kinds of deals she could round up over there.  She sent this write up to me so I could share it with everyone.  Logli is a Schnuck's affiliate store, so the deals and ads should be the same.  If you would like to check out the weekly ad, go here.  Keep in mind that this Logli store doubles coupons up to .55 each.  None of these are super-great deals, but if you are low and in need of these items it may be worth a trip to Logli.  Since it's been quite a while since we have seen any real Catalina promos, I suspect that everyone's stockpile is starting to look pretty pathetic. Here's Danielle's match-ups. 

Danielle writes:


Buy 3 Hunt's pudding: $2.40 (½ SS)
Pillsbury Grands refrigerated biscuits (buy 4) - $2.00
Totino's Pizza Rolls (buy 4) - $2.00
Campbell's Condensed Soups (buy 5) - $3.70
Hunt's Tomatoes (buy 3) - $2.00 (AY Jan. '11)
Healthy Choice Soup (buy 2) - $1.00 (½ SS)
Hamburger Helper (buy 3) - $2.25
Betty Crocker boxed potatoes (buy 4) - $1.00
Del Monte Fruit Naturals (buy 6) - $4.00
Progresso Soup (buy 4) - $3.00 (½ GM)
Yoplait Yogurt (buy 8) - $3.00 (½ GM)
Old Orchard Healthy Balance Juice (buy 2) - $1.00


This is my "what to buy" list and what you'll pay OOP. If there's not a source listed (like 1/2 SS), it means I went to Coupon Tom and found a printable. So, you don't necessarily have to buy the quantity I did, but just however much you wanna get within the restrictions of your coupons.


The Old Orchard juice was the best one, I think. And the Yoplait is actually on a better deal this week at Pacemaker and Sullivan's (4/$10), so I wouldn't do that one through Logli. There was also a problem with the Del Monte coupon, but my girl finally pushed it through...

As a side note, Danielle mentions Yoplait.  Frugal Tara reported in to me that at Hilander she received a surprise Yoplait OYNO Catalina when she purchased Yoplait.  I have searched high and low for a national Catalina promo or a local Hilander promo for Yoplait and have come up empty handed.  I don't know the dates of the Yoplait promo, but Hilander may be your best place for that this week.

Thanks for sharing your finds, Danielle!

Hilander P&G Sale Continues

The P&G sale that Deb mentioned here has carried over to this week. Since I was out of town, I didn't make it until Wednesday, I posted my shopping trip in the comments section of that previous post. Since the sale is still going on, I thought I'd repost my trip again in case you missed it. Here is how I worked it. It is a possible YMMV although this is how almost all the cashiers at my Hilander will ring it up...

1 Old Spice Deoderant $2.29
1 Old Spice Body Wash $3.50
1 Herbal Essences Shampoo $2.99
1 Herbal Essences Conditioner $2.99
1 Charmin Basic Toilet Paper $6.99
1 Oral B Toothbrush $2.50
1 Dawn Dish Detergent $2.79
1 Cascade Action Pack $5.99
Subtotal: $30.04
E coupons:
-$3.00 Charmin
-$.50 Cascade
-$.50 Dawn
-$.75 Oral B
Man Coupons (from PG Everyday Savings Mailing):
-$1.00 Charmin
-$1.00 Oral B
-$1.00 Cascade
-$1.00 Dawn
-$2.99 B1G1 Herbal Essences 1/2 RP
-$3.50 Buy Deo Get BW Free 1/2 RP
Subtotal=$14.80
-$8.00 for 2 sets of 4 P&G items
Total=$6.80 for the above 8 items

Buying Whole Coupon Inserts

If you are having difficulties getting the Tribune delivered to your home and you want to get the good coupon inserts each week, you should check out Whole Coupon Inserts.  This is a service that you can purchase whole, complete coupon inserts.  My frugal friend Erica used this service and was impressed with it.  It only took 3 days for her to have the coupons in her hands.  With that kind of turn around, you could potentially purchase them and have them to use for the same week's sales. 

I am adding this service to the links on the sidebar so that you have this for future use.  You will find it under "sources for coupons".  If you give them a try, stop back and give us your opinion and review of what you think!

Walgreens 1/2 thru 1/8

My Wags receipts are pretty pathetic this week, not much in stock at my local store and I don't have much time to do a "Wags crawl" to find what I was hoping to get.  However, yesterday when I stopped back in I did work in a nice MM scenario that I wanted to share with you.  This deal goes out to my frugal friend Danielle, who turns 25 today!  Happy Birthday, Danielle, I hope this little MM tides you over until the next deal comes along! ;-)

There's a RR promo running on L'Oreal products - Buy $15 or more and receive a $5 RR in return.  My store had many L'Oreal lip sticks on clearance for $2.59 a tube.  You will need to grab 6 of these to get up to $15.54 ($15 for the RR promo).  You will want to bring along the L'Oreal coupons from the 1/2/11 RP.  There's two L'Oreal coupons in this insert, so clip both, and depending on how many inserts you get will determine how to work this deal the best.  If you get three inserts, use three of the $5.00 off 2 coupons.  Using those three coupons on the 6 tubes of lip stick brings your price down from $15.54 to .54 for all 6.  Then you get back a $5 RR.  That's a $4.46 MM!!   If you don't have three of the $5 off coupons, you can use a combination of the $5 off TWO coupons with the $2.00 off ONE coupons to make this deal work out, you will have a smaller MM, but still a good deal - FREE "expensive" lipstick and the store pays you to take it off their hands.  It doesn't get much better than that!  (Just a side note, the $5 off coupon beeps for some reason.  It's a legitimate coupon so the cashier should push it through.)

I also wanted to point out that some stores have John Frieda products on clearance.  If you printed the $2.00 off coupons that were recently available you could score some cheap John Frieda products.  There was only one bottle of conditioner on clearance at my store and it was marked $2.29.  .29 for a bottle of conditioner is a good deal.  Check your coupon binder for this coupon and if you have it, why not stroll by the John Frieda products to see what they have on clearance? 

If you have been couponing for almost year, you will find a $2.00 coupon in the 1/24/2010 RP for any size Oscillococcinum.  The Children's Oscillococcinum is on sale this week for $8.99 with a $9 RR in return.  Using this coupon turns this into a $2 MM.  If you want to take advantage of this but haven't been couponing for long, you can print a $2 off coupon here.  This is a .pdf so you might want to save it to your computer for future use, it doesn't expire until 12/2012. 

There's also a MM on Finish dish washing detergent, if you can find it!  I wasn't able to locate any at my Wags store, but found a good deal on it at Jewel stores where it's priced at $2.99 using the $2.25 off coupon from the 1/2 SS.  If you do get lucky and find it at Wags you turn it into a MM with the RR promo running this week.

CVS 1/2-1/8

There are a couple of good deals this week at CVS!

Special K (originial and red berries) are on sale 3/$10 with a $4 ECB, making them 3/$6. Head to Special K to print a "Buy 1 get 1 free" coupon. There is a trick to getting this (thanks to Hip2Save for the info). Check the upper right corner to be sure you are not signed in. Then click "get started" and create your plan. Once you have selected your start date, hit save. Then create new account, skip the questionnairres and you will then find your coupons to print. Be sure to hit your back button to print it twice!
You will also find a $1/2 coupon in the 1/2 RP.
So...here's the deal:
Buy 4 boxes of Special K
Use 2 of the B1G1F coupons
Use $1/2 coupon
Get back $4 in ECB
Making these cereals just under 42 cents each!

Next, spend $20 on any Excedrin product, get $10 ECB. Rumor has it (according to iheartcvs) that if you spend $19.96, this deal will still work.
There is a coupon for $2.50 Excedrin PM in the 12/5 SS.
If you happened to be lucky enough to get the free Excedrin coupons for Excedrin E/S and Migraine that were on Coupon.com (sent via snail mail), this makes for a great deal on these!
Here's the deal:
Purchase 2 boxes of Excedrin PM 20ct $4.99 each
Purchase 1 box of Excedrin E/S 24ct $4.79 each
Purchase 1 box of Excedrin Migraine 24ct $5.29
Use the free box of Migraine and E/S coupon
Use 2 of the $2.50 PM coupons
Pay $4.98, get back $10--a $5 MM!!

Now if you were unable to score the free coupons, you can still get these for free.
Buy 4 boxes of Excedrin PM 20ct. $4.99 each
Use 4 of the $2.50 PM coupons
Pay $9.96, get back $10

With my $14 in ECB, I now plan on rolling them into my next transaction.

There is a "spend $25, get $10 ECB" deal when you buy any of these products:
Wisk liquid detergent 2/$10
$2 1/2RP
$1 Printable (located under the Try Wisk tab) Remember to print twice!
Angel Soft 24 pack $9.99
$.50 11/14 RP
Planters Mixed Nuts, whole cashews, nut-trition, or smoked almonds 2/$7
$1 Nut-trition 1/2 SS
Sparkle 8pk $5
Quilted Northern 12pk $7
Chips Ahoy, Lorna Doone or Nilla Wafers 2/$5

Buy any combination of the above, spending $25, use any coupons you have (listed above) and rolling ECB's...and you have a good deal.

Don't forget to scan your Extra Care Card when you get there. Today I was lucky and it printed out a coupon for $1 off Colgate Total. This just happens to be on sale this week for $2.99, with a $1 ECB, making it $1.99. Use the coupon that printed from the machine and pair it up with a $.75 1/2 SS coupon...and it is now $.24!

Also, CVS gives back 2% of your purchase, via ECB, every quarter. The quarted ended Dec. 31st, so earnings are also printing at the machine.

*UPDATED* Wal-mart policy change?

Could Wal-mart possibly be getting their act together and start to be more coupon friendly?  Did you notice that there was some new wording on this week's Wal-mart ad?  Go grab your ad, I will wait.....OK, take a look in the upper right hand corner.  There's some wording in black that is very interesting.  It's in regard to their price match policy, but they have added something else that's new.  It states "We'll match the price of any local competitor's printed ad or coupon for an identical product."  WOW!!!  I need to start paying more attention to the Target and Walgreen's coupons - this could be good! 

As with any coupon usage at Wal-mart, I remain skeptical about this, so hang onto this ad and bring it with you if you are going to try to use competitor coupons at Wal-mart.  They will most likely give us a hard time about it until the stores realize this has changed.  I also remain skeptical that Wal-mart will let us "stack" a manufacturer coupon with a competitor store coupon.  If you get to try this before I get out to Wal-mart please come back and let us know how it worked out for you.  Good Luck!! :)

UPDATE:  I e-mailed Paul over at Iheartthemart.com to get his opinion on this policy change since he seems to be the expert Wal-mart deal seeker.  He must have had quite a few readers contact him because he's got a post up now about it.  Check out what he has to say about it here.