Deal on Halloween Candy

Our church, CrossRoad Church on Gate Parkway, has been asking for donations of candy for their Fall Festival. The Fall Festival is an outreach to the whole community, and it's very popular every year. Last year, I was working at one of the booths that had a lollipop game, and these cute little kids that had been bussed in (they had their names and a contact phone number pinned on their shirt!) kept coming to the booth--I gave them extra candy! Anyway, it made me wonder if there might be some ways to buy candy for little or no money using coupons and then donate them to the church. Here's a deal to get bags of fun size M&Ms for $1 a bag. I'm counting ExtraCare Bucks:
This week at CVS, bags of mini M&Ms or Snickers are buy one get one free. They also have a deal where you can get $5 in ExtraCare Bucks if you spend $20 on Halloween candy. In this Sunday's paper, the RedPlum had a coupon for $1 off 2 bags of candy, including and M&Ms and Snickers. Here's how this would work:

Buy 6 bags of "fun size" M&Ms for $3.50. You'll get 6 bags for free.

The total cost of 12 bags with this sale would be $21.oo, qualifying you for $5 ECB. Subtotal=$16

Use 3 coupons from the Sunday RedPlum (I habitually buy 2 Sunday papers every week, plus my mom gives me her coupons. If you only bought one paper, you can get another one any time during the week at any Gate gas station. I've also seen them at Publix after Sunday). That will give you $3 off. Subtotal=$13.00

That makes the total cost $13.00, or $1.08 per bag. Total out of pocket would be $18.oo, and you'd have $5 ExtraCare Bucks to spend.

You can save another $5 by going to CVS.com and taking the flu quiz, which is only 5 questions. They give you a coupon when you're done. You have to spend $25, but they have some other items for free this week (through Tuesday) that would push your subtotal before discounts up to $25: Halloween nylon treat bags and 4-in-1 carving tools. There's a limit of 2 tools and one bag.

Great Ideas for School Supply Deals!

I found some terrific ideas for using those school supplies that stores such as CVS and Walgreen's are practically giving away right now on a blog called "Life as Mom" There is absolutely no reason to pass these deals up, even if they aren't on your child's school supply list. There are people in need out there who could use them! Life as Mom suggests saving them for Operation Christmas Child boxes, creating affordable gifts from them, and donating them to local teachers. For you crafty people, she has links to instructions for making journals from composition books and flower pens from Bics.

One local example of a worthy cause is BEAM (Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry) of Jacksonville Beach. BEAM gives school supplies to local children in need at the beginning of each school year. Also, my church, CrossRoad United Methodist Church on Gate Parkway in Jacksonville, collects school supplies to distribute to children at Windy Hill School.

Check the weekly ads on Sunday to find deals like 19 cent packages of pens, 10 cent boxes of crayons and 25 cent notebooks at CVS, Target and Walgreens. The deals at CVS have been 3 day sales, but all this week at Target you can buy...

• composition books for 50 cents
• glue sticks, rulers and erasers for 20 cents
• Crayola colored pencils for 88 cents
• construction paper for 88 cents (Target at Jacksonville Beach was sold out of these Monday)

These deals often sell out quickly, so try to shop early in the week. I'd suggest keeping a copy of the school supply list for your child's school, which can often be found online or in the front of some stores like Staples. Here are a few local lists:

Ponte Vedra Palm Valley/Rawlings

Ocean Palms Elementary

Seabreeze Elementary

Windy Hill Elementary

Swiffer Bargain

If you need Swiffer supplies, head to Target. Many of them are currently marked down.

As you may recall, I was quite distressed last week when my coupons were stolen from my mailbox. One of the coupons I was expecting was my $5 SwifferVac coupon. Luckily, my mother-in-law received her coupons intact, and gave me the SwifferVac coupon. She's also the person who recommended the SwifferVac in the first place. According to both her and my sister-in-law, the SwifferVac is great for picking up all the debris left on the floor by small children, including cheerios, raisins and boogers.

Yesterday I priced the SwifferVac at Publix, and it was $30. Today at Target, I was very excited to find it was marked down to $14.98! With my coupon, that made it only $9.98! Woo-hoo! Now I will no longer need to wipe my feet on the doormat beside my bed...

$5 off at Walgreens

There's a $5 coupon on the Walgreen's website for use in the store today and Friday only. Go to http://www.walgreens.com/dmi/instorespecials/default.jsp?ec=hn1060s_getcoupon to print it out. Print two and go today AND tomorrow if you want, but remember that the coupon will only work if your purchase is at least $25 AFTER all the other coupons you might use (even the ones in the circular).

New Coupons at Publix

I picked up a brochure at Publix today called "Publix Family Fitness Weekend" that had a number of coupons in it. You might want to grab one before they're all gone if you see something that looks good:

• 55 cents off any 6-pack of Propel
• $2 off BullFrog products
• $1 off Gold Bond
• $1 off any Dannon 4-pack, 6-pack, 8-pack or 12-pack
• 50 cents off Lipton Iced Tea 12-pack
• $1 off 2 2-liter Pepsi products
• 65 cents off Acai
• $1 off 2 Tuttorosso Tomato Products
• B2G1 Naked Juice
• $1.50 off TrueNorth nut snacks
• Buy 2 Crystal Light products and any bottled water, get $1 off

These coupons can be found in the front of the store where they keep the weekly circulars. It's a good idea to check for them on a regular basis; they've had some really good ones lately!

Bed, Bath and Beyond Coupons

Did you know that you can use more than one coupon in a single transaction at Bed, Bath and Beyond? I didn't. The cashier told me about it during my trip today. I was enjoying a blissful hour of shopping without the children, and I found 3 items to purchase. They have a fairly large collection of clearance items right now, and some are marked with a sticker to take an extra 33, 50 or 75% off the lowest price.
When I checked out, she used my coupon for $5 off any purchase of $15 or more from the back of a mailed catalog, then she scanned two of my 20% off any item coupons that I'd received as postcards in the mail. All three had expired, by the way. I knew already that they accepted expired coupons, but not multiple ones. This information could prove dangerous for my credit card balances...

Don't MESS with my coupons!

Three weeks ago I requested a coupon book from "Home Made Simple" which included over $30 worth of coupons for household brands including Swiffer, Cascade, Mr. Clean, Febreeze, Dawn and others (Request yours at http://www.startsampling.com/). I waited for it to arrive with great anticipation. (I'm planning to buy a Swiffer vac, and I'm letting the dirt collect on my floor to give it an accurate trial when it arrives...) I was excited to find it waiting in my mailbox last Thursday, but my excitement turned to dismay when I observed that both seals had been broken and all the inside pages of the booklet ripped out, leaving only one 75cent coupon for Mr. Clean. "N0. Way." They only send one of those to each household--I can't just request another one! I looked on the website, and there doesn't appear to be a way to report not receiving your copy. I immediately called my mom to ask if she'd received her booklet, because we requested them on the same day. Lo and behold, her copy had suffered the same fate. Now, we both live in the same neighborhood, and our mailboxes are not curbside but rather centrally located locked boxes. I drove to the post office and told them I needed to report some stolen mail. I brought my sad, torn booklet with me. The postmaster came out to receive the report. After all, this is not just about a few stolen coupons: who knows what else I haven't received? And my private information is included in much of my mail, such as credit card statements and bank statements. What if those are tampered with? Apparently, the Post Office has an agent assigned to investigate such reports, and he is going to speak to me on Monday.
This all goes to show that if you want to see me get angry, just try to MESS with MY COUPONS!! :)