Tab's Tips Thursdays!

This is a day early since I will be out of town tomorrow:

Tip #5

I do A LOT of multitasking! When you are doing dishes or cooking or cleaning, look on the back of products you use the most and call the 1-800 numbers on the back and ask to be on their coupon mailing list. Some companies will just send out coupons as a one time thing, others will add you to their mailing list. You can also sign up on a lot of their websites. Also sign up for free samples, there are great websites for this, http://walmart.com has free samples and http://www.totallyfreecrap.com . Yes, this takes some time, but you will be surprised how far sample size toothpaste, shampoo/conditioners, diapers, soap, feminine products, and lotion lasts and helps out! And a lot of the samples comes with coupons!

Home Depot Free Workshop

Coupon Organization!

Go here to get great coupon organizing tips! I did mine a little differently-I have a zippered binder which I wanted so my coupons wouldn't fall out and I did not want to get a "coupon purse!" My first divider is free, then each store individually since I get rainchecks/coupons from stores...Target, CVS, Walgreens, Food Lion, Winn-Dixie, Wal-Mart, & Publix. And then I alphabetized all my coupons which have been working out great! I use to have a Misc tab but I would forget about the coupons, so this way I can just turn straight to the item. I love it! I also keep my restaurant coupons in it also. But watch this video if you need to know how to start-very helpful for beginners!!

You can snag a FREE Night of Theater for two in October. What a great entertainment freebie! There are 120 cities participating in this promotion. You can go on over here and see if there are any participating cities near you. They are giving away over 75,000 FREE tickets too!

If you do live in or by a participating city, you'll want to check the date when they will start accepting reservations. It various a little for each city, so definitely check out all the details for your participating city. When you find the date--make a note of it and remember to come back that morning and request your FREE tickets! I'm guessing they will sell out quickly!

Thanks It's Hip 2 Save!

Unfortunately the closest theatre to us participating is South Florida, but there are lots of other places that you can tell friends/family about...Utah, Atlanta, GA, NC (statewide)....

Free admission to St Augustine Lighthouse!!

It is free to walk up the St. Augustine Lighthouse starting now and during the month of October for all ST JOHNS COUNTY RESIDENTS! You have to be 44 inches to climb up, you can go in the musuem, walk in nature trails and in the gardens/Contact 904- 829-0745 for more info!

FREE flu shots!

Free flu shots for adults on Tuesdays at 650 Christopher Street from 9-4. For children, they will go to the Health department. First come first serve!

Go here for more info! Or call 825-5055 press 3.

Free Towel offer

Weavefield Mills want to prove the superior quality of their woven towels. They are offering you a hand size towel sample FREE! Click here and then on the right side bar click Hand Towel Sample.

Thanks A Thrifty Mom!

If you plan to take advantage of the free entrance into museums this weekend, you will need to go here and print out the admission card. It is good for 1 adult and a guest. As far as getting into the Fort here in St. Augustine, I called and they said you don't need to bring anything, the video will be played every 15 minutes and they will have the canon firing also on Saturday.

Fun, FREE weekend here in St. Augustine!! Lots of other parks/museums also participating so call and ask the ones in your area~

Greetings from Honeyville Farms:

SUMMARY: Greetings from our new, state of the art warehouse in Southern California! 10% OFF YOUR ENTIRE ORDER* from Thursday, September 24, 2009 thru Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 6:00PM PST. Simply enter the coupon code NEWHOME09 during checkout. Act now! Don't forget to stock up on staples like Powdered Eggs, Long Grain White Rice, Beans, and our Canned Wheat.

Go here to get a free ABC board book from Leapfrog!

Thanks Heather!

Tab's Tips Thursdays!

Tip #4

Be smart! When I first started out I would clip a coupon, go to the store and see that the store brand was cheaper and throw away the coupon-but what I should have done is save the coupon and waited for it to go on sale! I also would stock up when I would see something cheap...for example toothpaste for $1-then I learned that toothpaste is free and you can even make a profit off of it at Walgreens or CVS. Also I want to mention price per ounce...Wal-Mart has the amount on the stickers on the shelf under the item (you can also just calculate it). I use to always base my choice on that-whichever was cheaper I got it BUT I was so glad when I learned-hey even if it is cheaper by the ounce to buy a larger container of mayonnaise would I eat it before it expired...of course not because no one eats mayo in my house but me and I hardly eat it-so I started saving a lot more money being smart in that way. If it is something you know you will finish (like ketchup doesn’t expire for at least a year)-then buy the bigger one because chances are it will get eaten (at least it does in my house!). Store brands aren’t always the best buy either for a couple of reasons...when the name brand is on sale and if you use a coupon it is most likely cheaper than the store brand. The second reason is for example diapers...I found I used way more store brand diapers than name brand so it was cheaper for me to pay a little more for name brand because I didn’t use as many...I haven’t had too much of a problem with store brand food products except for the taste and it is wasted if no one will eat it! I have found that most everything store brand at Publix tastes the same, sometimes even better!

Mark your calendar!

Ancient City Kids Day! Attention Parents! Looking for something fun to do with your kids that doesn’t cost a lot of money? Then the 14th Annual Ancient City Kids Day is for you! Ancient City Kids Day will be held on Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 11am-4pm at Francis Field on Castillo Drive. This event, coordinated by local agencies, is a day of fun-filled activities for children and families. Free for the public! Over 40 youth service agencies will offer carnival style games and activities, arts and crafts, contests for the kids and entertainment all day. There will also be new and exciting vendors and exhibits! No child will leave empty-handed as t-shirts, prizes or goodies are given out all day. Educational information on resources in our community is available for parents. The only cost to the public will be for food or drinks. Ancient City Kids Day has grown to be one of St. Augustine’s biggest youth activities, and is a popular event for the whole family. Last year’s event brought approximately 3,000 people out for the fun. For more information, please feel free to contact EPIC Community Services at 829-2273.

UPDATE: If you need more of the Delmonte $1/5 you can print them HERE

I was going through the early copy of the Sunday paper and noticed a coupon that is a match up to the current Publix ad:

Del Monte Tomatoes, Assorted Varieties, 14.5-oz can, BOGO $1.49
-$1/5 from 09-20-09 RP
The coupon makes each can .55¢

Del Monte Fresh Cut Vegetables, Assorted Varieties, 11 to 15.25-oz can, (Excluding Specialty Varieties and Asparagus), BOGO $1.29
-$1/5 from 09-20-09 RP
This coupon makes each can .45¢

Thanks I Heart Publix!

CVS has a great coupon for $5 off $25 purchase, when you test your flu IQ. This will make this weeks CVS deals even better. Click here to get yours.

Thanks A Thrifty Mom!

Are you looking to purchase something on eBay? Well, here's a way to sweeten the deal! Go here and sign up for the eBay Daily Deal Email Alert. The first 100,000 people to sign up will get a $1 off any eBay purchase coupon.

As you may know, a buck can go quite far on eBay. There are lots of things priced at or under $1, so possibly FREE after the coupon. Also, keep in mind that you can purchase manufacturer coupons on EBay too!

**The $1 Coupon will be issued in the "My eBay" section of your eBay User Account within 7-10 days of registration.

Thanks It's Hip 2 Save!!

This is a great class! She has one at WGV & in the Cultural Arts Center next to the Splash Park, the first class is FREE! It is different than the one she does at the library being that there is less children and she can do more things in these classes. We start going in October & can't wait!

Contact info below if interested:

Michelle Smith
Licensed Kindermusik Educator
#904-808-8535
magicalmelodies@bellsouth.net

Stress Management class

I saw this advertised at work but I think it is great!

Bayview is offering a 10 week Stress management Wellness Series for those diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Program begins Wed, Sept 30th 5:30-6:30pm. Enrollment limit of 20 people. NO CHARGE but pre-registration is required. The program runs once weekly for 10 weeks. Dr. Kurt Hubbard teaches it.

Call Anita Portman at 806-1035.

FREE $10 Gift Card from Emergency Essentials!

Do you have your own blog or website? If so, you can score a $10 gift card fromEmergency Essentials, a Utah-based company that sells a wide variety of emergency preparedness supplies.

Simply put one of their Preparedness Pantry blog buttons (found on the right column of the blog) on your blog or website and they’ll send you a $10.00 Emergency Essentials® Gift Card for free!

Claim your free $10.00 Gift Card by emailing them at blog@beprepared.com with a link to your site/blog so that they can verify the button (put Gift Card Giveaway in subject line). Include your contact information in the email so that we can mail your Gift Card to you. Hurry! they need to have received your email by Monday, 9/21!

Thanks A Thrifty Mom!!

Free Betty Crocker Potatoes

GO HERE!

Saw this on It's Hip 2 Save:

Saw this on It's Hip 2 Save:

Sears Update & JCPenney $10 Coupon Code!

Well, I just wanted to update you all on the $10 Sears Juniors apparel coupon. Sear corporate sent a letter to every single Sears store telling them NOT to accept anymore printable versions of the $10 coupon. I guess too many people were abusing the coupon.

Please note the coupon found inside the October issue of Seventeen magazine is still being accepted.

**********************************

On a positive note, though, it looks like JCPenney is offering up a new $10 of your purchase of $10 or more coupon code! Just go on over here to shop online and then type in this code ( ENJOY10 ) at checkout. Shipping starts at $4.50. Find an item on sale or clearance to get a sweet deal!

Remember to go through Ebates.com! You'll get a $5 sign up bonus if you're a new member and 5% cash back from your JCPenney purchases! The $5 sign up bonus will make shipping FREE!

If you haven't done the Target Kashi deal yet, you can go here to get a $1 coupon off of Kashi cereal (Thanks It's Hip 2 Save).

This would make the cereal .88 after the gift card deal....and if you have the walgreen ad, you can pricematch them at $2.50 so would make them .50 each! I would take them to guest services and do it there, because they are unable to do it after the transaction since refund value is only $1.88 after the gift card offer.

Charity

Got this in an email today:

St. Francis house needs bath towels. New or gently used.

They provide a shower area for the homeless. They have 5 times more people than usual.

Many people are living out of their cars and getting showers and food there.

I overheard a conversation of a woman staying in her car with her grandkids. She didn’t feel safe staying in the shelter.

But she showered and ate there.

She was gone before I had a chance to talk with her.

Thanks Gayle!

If anyone from church wants to donate any I can drop them by if you bring them Sunday.

Receipt Day is Back!!

Chick Fil A is doing Receipt Day again next Wed, September 23rd at the St Augustine location! This is how it works: You go in that day and you will get a green receipt for whatever you purchase, and you bring that receipt back in before October 31st and get everything on that receipt for FREE!! I did do this the last time they did it and it was VERY busy!! I got there a little earlier before the lunch crowd and I didn't have to wait too long, but by the time I left the lines were almost out the door!

Binders

I was at Target today and they have binders for sale that would work great for coupons. They are $5.00, zip up and have a carrying strap. I found some by the toys, but noticed a few others in other sale sections around the store.

FREE CHOCOLATE FRIDAY!
Don't forget to register for your FREE chocolate! Go here!

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

HERE is the segment by Sherry Williams on KHOU Channel 11 News.

This is my favorite homemade product. It is so simple and inexpensive to make.

Items that you will need:
1 Cup Borax (estimated cost is 25 cents)
1 Cup Baking Soda (estimated cost 33 cents)
Large Mixing Bowl

Directions:
Mix equal parts Borax and Baking Soda in a large mixing bowl.
Mix until well combined.

This recipe will yield 14 uses.
**Use TWO Tablespoons per load.

The cost to make this product is approximately 58 cents. Divide that by the number of uses (14) to get the cost per load/use.

4 cents per load! Yes, that is correct 4 cents per load.

Compare that to the dishwasher detergent that you are currently using and see the money that you will be saving your family in a year.

Comments about this Homemade Dishwashing Detergent:

Yvette C. said: "The dishwasher soap did a good job cleaning the dishes."

Jennifer V. said: "The dishwash detergent worked great as well. I usually use Electra powerball cubes (also from Costco). I did not see any difference in dishes between the store bought and homemade. Would definitely use again.

Jeff said: "I can not tell the difference. The only difference is the money I spend at the store. This is a keeper."

Calia L. said: "This is amazing. Thanks for teaching me how to hang on to my money."

Thank you for trying something new. I realize that brand loyalty exists and that we all are creatures of habit. Please try these products for yourself and let me know what you think... and how much you have saved by using them.

Thanks JoAnn for sharing!

I don't know if anyone reads comments but here are some codes that may work in Blockbuster Express to get a free rental:

GW99A3 exp 9/21 and PTPX91X exp 10/31

Thanks Lacey!

Free Entrance on 9/26?

America`s Best Idea - National Parks and You

Date: September 26, 2009 Time: 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM Location: Castillo de San Marcos

Details:

Beginning at 9:30 a.m., there will be a special outreach station in the Castillo which will target children interested in taking on the challenge of becoming a Junior Ranger. There will also be a station for those children or adults interested in becoming a Volunteer and helping to preserve and protect the Castillo or in helping to bring its story to life! At 12:00 noon in the Fort`s theater, there will be a special showing of a preview of the new Ken Burns documentary, "The National Parks: America`s Best Idea". This 12 hour program is scheduled to premiere on PBS stations the evening of September 27 and run for six consecutive nights. Please help us make America`s Best Idea even better. Join us for a national day of service and celebration in your 391 national parks.

Fees:

Contact:

Doyle Sapp 904-829-6506 Click here to email us for more information.

I'm guessing it is free-but I will call to verify when they are open! But got this off the website here: Join the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation for a day of service, celebration, and a sneak peek of the Ken Burns film, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea premiering the next night on PBS. September 26 is also National Public Lands Day and entrance to all 391 national parks is free!

Want a free hat? Go here!

Blockbuster Express

I forgot to mention yesterday that Publix now has Blockbuster Express! It is located inside the store! $1 a night!

Free photo editing program!

My sister in law let me know about this great photo editing website that is FREE! Go here to check it out! You can also download Picasa 3 for free, but this one seems to be better.

Thanks Brooke!

Have I went coupon crazy?!

Yes I ordered one of these! I vowed to never get one for many reasons-it is HUGE & it stands out and lets everyone know hello I use coupons!! But I was in Target yesterday and someone was trying to get down the aisle and I had my coupon holder out and went to move the buggy (does anyone else call it that?!) and my coupons fell out!! I have SO many and am not looking forward to reorganizing them all again! The guy helped me pick up 1!! They were all over the place so now I am getting a zippered organizer so it won't happen again! Plus I am now on my 4th coupon organizer since all my others have broke from being stuffed too full so I really don't have a choice! But if you don't have one already I recommend it-you can watch you tube videos how to create one. To do it cheap, buy an organizer, buy some sport cards inserts, and you can make your own charts they try to sell ya. This way is so much more organized and I love organizing so I am excited to get mine all put together! If you ever see me in the store just ask to see mine if you want to learn how to make one! But I know this will save so much more time (which is not something I have a lot of with 3 kids!) not having to dig through all my coupons each time I am in the store when I see something on sale to see if I have a coupon for it!

Tab's Tips Thursdays!

I posted 2 Tips today since one was short!

Tip #2

Once you get use to using coupons, start looking on blogs and they will tell you where to find the coupon in which insert on the specific date. Common abbreviations they use are SS (Smart Source) RP (Red Plum), and PG (Proctor & Gamble). I only use this to get things for free or to make a profit...for example if Walgreens has an item for $4.99 and they give you $4.99 RR (Register Rewards) if you have a coupon for $1 off then you make $1 profit! I usually cut out deodorant , toothpaste and most other health and beauty coupons because this is typically what is free. So if you have saved your past inserts and labeled them, they are easy to go back to, to cut the coupon.

Tip #3

Next is internet coupons! These are very helpful but can use up a lot of ink and paper! Some tips are to print out more than one coupon on each paper....for example if you print out 2 coupons, there is typically enough space to print out another one, so flip the paper over and run it back through the printer to print out another one. Also-a lot of coupons print out a lot of advertisement after the coupon, so I watch it, and once it prints out my coupon, I hit cancel printing button on my printer to cancel it so more room to print out 2 more coupons! There are lots of great websites to find coupons such as http://www.coupons.com and http://www.smartsource.com. A lot of companies post coupons on their website, simply do a google search to find them. For example, if you are looking for Yoplait kids coupons, type in Yoplait kids in the search engine or Yoplait kids yogurt coupon and it will come up! You can normally print out 2 coupons per computer and no making copies!

Kashi Pizzas are 50% off at Publix starting tomorrow-and Target has a $1 off coupon here! A lot of Kashi cereals have $1 off coupons on them for the pizzas and I also saw coupons near the Kashi products at Publix last week. So it would make them $1 a pizza! We LOVE these so I am way excited about that deal!! The TGI Friday deal ends tonite but there was a $1 off coupons on the items I got, and I used the publix $2 off from the Toss for Cash Booklet from Publix, and they only costs $3.79 so I got .21 in overage! Whoo hoo! That's the best deal I got at Publix this week! I was dissapointed cuz most things were out of stock but got my rainchecks! But my grocery bill was $30 and after all coupons I spent $9!

I was in Target today and used the cheese coupons for 2 string cheeses and they fixed it in the computer where it takes off .80 automatically instead of a 1.00 so no hassle and free cheese!! If you didn't print them out before you can go here!

And Michael's had there $1 stuff 1/2 off today! They have TONS left! It is over by the Christmas (already??!) and Halloween stuff....scrapbook items, party supplies, toys...

BJ's has a new coupon available here for a FREE 60-day trial membership! Just bring this coupon to the membership services desk on or before 12/31/09 to activate your FREE 60 day trial! (Thanks, Lynn!)

**To entice you even more-- BJ's is the only warehouse type club I know of that accepts manufacturer coupons!

Thanks It's Hip to Save!

The closest one I know of is in Jacksonville off of Phillips Hwy (near Avenues Mall)....make a day of it-get your FREE portrait package at Picture People at the mall & use your FREE trial at BJ's!

Get child safety seats inspected tonight

Project Buckle Up is holding the National Seat Check event from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Home Depot, 1750 U.S. 1 South tonight. As part of Child Passenger Safety Week (Sept. 12-18). Project Buckle Up will have certified technicians available to provide on-site child safety seat inspections and education at that time.