Target has a sample spot. Wal-Mart does, too. I just got a sample pack from Target in the mail of beauty supplies. It’s called the beauty bag or something and you can sign up for it on Facebook several times a year. My mom and I worked out a deal, she’s giving me the ‘thick hair’ shampoo stuff and I’m giving her my color treated hair stuff. Good deal. There’s a sample of lip gloss, some sunscreen and a pack of coupons, too. There’s different things each time. It’s a nice little thing and this is the third one I’ve gotten. I don’t buy conditioner, most of the time it bugs my hair, but I like to have a different ‘smell now and then and so when I’m in the mood I grab a sample pack out of my drawer. Does anyone else do this?
If I had coupons for something, I used to leave them on the shelves at Wal-Mart near the product. I guess stores finally got wise to this and put a coupon box at the front of our local store. They’re not organized in any way though, and with 2 kids, I don’t have time to paw through and see if I can get 25 cents off of toilet paper. Occasionally I’ll use an online coupon printer and print something out, but most of the time, it’s just a time suck that pulls you into printing coupons for stuff you don’t need. I’ve noticed, though, that in both online coupons and those from the paper that a lot of times the coupon value is halved. What might have been 50 cents off of mustard is now ‘buy 2 get 50 cents off’. Or a 35 cent coupon when they used to be $1 or whatever.
I’m part of a couple of programs now, Vocalpoint is one of them, I blogged about the swiffer duster they sent me a while back. So far my subscription to Pssst (it’s now called something else) from General Mills has been a waste of time. I’ve filled out about 50 surveys and not gotten any coupons or anything. When they changed the name I updated my profile and it basically says ‘you have to be chosen to get free stuff or coupons’…. sheesh. I’ve been doing Kraft first taste for a while, too. That has been the best overall. They send either free product or coupons for free product and often have high $ value coupons for a friend, which I end up using myself most of the time. I’ve done ‘house party’, too, but it has gone viral and only people who are willing to spend hours making videos and such seem to get those spots.
Obviously, I sign up (and have in the past won at least 25) for cloth diaper giveaways. In turn, I’ve given several that I have won away.
I’ve got a credit card through a retailer that gives me bonus $ for charging certain amounts of money. My kids have gotten a lot of ‘free’ clothes by us charging things like refrigerators during triple bonus times, etc. In fact I just placed an order the other day and got 10 items for $50 (which qualified me for free shipping). In addition to that, all of them items were on sale, I got an extra 20% off of them, and with the shipping waived and the $20 coupon bonus from my credit card, I paid $26. TEN ITEMS! That’s about $2.60 apiece, right? A couple of them are matching shirts for the girls for next year and one of them was a gift for someone else.
I’m the kind that raids the clearance racks on a constant basis and wants to pay $3 or less per item. Only occasionally have I spent say $8 on something like a glammed up pair of jeans for Keeley. I’m glad that ‘DIY’ stuff is ‘in’ right now, because I found her some $2.50 jeans from Tar-Jay that I’m going to either get her aunt to bedazzle or iron on some cool stuff for the fall. I’m unbelievably excited about it. I found a $3 ‘chipmunks’ tshirt in a size 4/5, clearly boys stuck in the girls section on Monday. It rang up $1!!! Since Keeley just saw a chipmunks movie in the last couple of weeks, she’s going to be floored and fall in love with it, I’m sure.
Do you sign up for freebie programs, sample spots from stores, or find coupons online? Do you ever buy anything ‘full price’? How do you save?
