As you may already know, there are a lot of stores out there that want your stimulus check. They know many people will be getting money, and want you to spend it with them!

If you want to spend some of the money though, this can be a great opportunity for you to make the most out of it, and even get some free money!

Note that each store has its own rules. Some you need to cash your stimulus check with them, others you can show your direct deposit from the government, and still others don’t care if you got the stimulus yet or not! While I’m sure I’ve missed a few, plus more will be announced, here are some of the many opportunities you can take:

Grocery Stores:

I really like the idea of these, and will probably do one of them myself. Everyone needs to go food shopping, so why not get some free money where you know you will be spending money anyway?

Shoprite – They’ll give you an extra 10% on any gift cards you buy, with a maximum of $1,200. You can do this in $300 increments. So if you buy a $300 gift card, you’ll get $330. If you buy a $600 gift card, you’ll get $660. If you buy a $900 gift card, you’ll get $990, and if you buy a $1,200 gift card, you’ll get $1,320. How to get it:Bring in either your stimulus check or tax refund check, or if you had direct deposit you can bring in a copy of your bank statement.

Kroger – They’ll give you an extra 10% on any gift cards you buy, with a maximum of $1,200. You can do this in $300 increments. So if you buy a $300 gift card, you’ll get $330. If you buy a $600 gift card, you’ll get $660. If you buy a $900 gift card, you’ll get $990, and if you buy a $1,200 gift card, you’ll get $1,320. How to get it: It looks like anyone with a Kroger Plus Card can get one, although you can only buy one. But it doesn’t look like any proof of your stimulus check is necessary.

SuperValu (Acme, Albertson’s, bigg’s, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Shaw’s/Star, Shop ‘n Save, Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, Save a Lot, Jewel-Osco, and Lucky) – They’ll give you an extra 10% on any gift cards you buy, with a maximum of $1,200. You can do this in $300 increments. So if you buy a $300 gift card, you’ll get $330. If you buy a $600 gift card, you’ll get $660. If you buy a $900 gift card, you’ll get $990, and if you buy a $1,200 gift card, you’ll get $1,320. How to get it: Bring your stimulus check or tax refund check, and cash it there. You can convert as much of it as you want to gift cards in $300 increments.

Stop and Shop/Giant – get 10% off your next order when you spend $200 or more in one transaction and use your Stop and Shop or Giant card. How to get it: Use your Stop and Shop or Giant Card, and spend $200 in one transaction. The coupon will print out at the end giving you 10% off your next purchase.

Retail Stores:

Sears – Get 10% added to your stimulus check. You must use your entire stimulus check on the gift card though, and direct deposits are not eligible. You can use the gift cards at both Sears, and on the Sears web site. How to get it: Bring in your stimulus check to get the gift cards. You can split the total amount onto more than 1 gift card if you prefer.

Lands’ End – Get 10% added to your stimulus check. You must use your entire stimulus check on the gift card though, and direct deposits are not eligible. You can use the gift cards at both Lands’ End, and on the Lands’ End web site. How to get it: Bring in your stimulus check to get the gift cards. You can split the total amount onto more than 1 gift card if you prefer.

Kmart – Get 10% added to your stimulus check. You must use your entire stimulus check on the gift card though, and direct deposits are not eligible. You can use the gift cards at your local Kmart. How to get it: Bring in your stimulus check to get the gift cards. You can split the total amount onto more than 1 gift card if you prefer.

Menards – Get a 5% bonus added to your stimulus check. You must use your entire stimulus check on the gift card though, and direct deposits are not eligible. How to get it: Bring in your stimulus check to get the gift card.

Boscov’s – If you cash your stimulus check at Boscov’s, they will give you the full amount in cash as well as a 10% Boscov’s Bonus Card. So if you cash your check of $1,200, you’ll get your $1,200 in cash along with a $120 Boscov’s Bonus Card to use. How to get it: bring your check to Boscov’s, and cash it there.

Radio Shack – Buy an item at your local Radio Shack that is $50.00 or higher and you’ll get 10% off the purchase if you pay with it using your stimulus check. You’ll get the balance on a Vision Silver Prepaid MasterCard, which can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted. How to get it: Buy something at Radio Shack that is at least $50, and use your stimulus check to pay for it.

I had a lot of fun at A&P this week. They have a bunch of “buy $x.xx worth of these products, and get $x off your next order” deals, and I really took them up on it!

I often eat Lean Cusine for lunch since it’s quick, easy, and I like a lot of their different meals. I refuse to buy them at $4+, and they were on sale for $2.00 each. I would have stocked up at that price…but it was even better. When you bought (I think it was) $30 worth, you got $7.00 off your next order! Plus, I had a $1.50 coupon for Lean Cuisine. So I ended up getting 15 Lean Cuisine’s for about $1.33 each! You can’t beat that price! They also had a similar deal for Kleenex, so we ended up getting 15 boxes…but we’ll go through it!

Now for the coming up week. It looks like both Shoprite and Pathmark are going to have Unilever deals, where if you buy x amount of food, you’ll get money off your next order. There are a bunch of Unilever coupons coming out on Sunday too, so this will hopefully be a great deal! Some items include Dove deodorant, Knorr sides, Ragu, Wishbone, and more…so this will hopefully be a fun week! I haven’t gotten my circulars yet, so we’ll have to wait and see.

It seems that a lot of people come to this site looking for information on Ziploc Bag Coupons. I completely understand why. They can be pretty expensive, and it’s a product that almost everyone uses, and can sometimes go through quickly.

So I thought today I’d mention how I get my Ziploc Bags for less, going step by step. Sometimes I even get them for pennies, or for free!

• First I wait until there is a coupon out for Ziploc Bags in the Sunday Newspaper. (If you’re not sure if there was one recently that you might have missed, you can just skip this step.)
• Once I know there is a coupon out, I go to eBay to search for coupons. That link will take you right to all of the Ziploc Bag coupons that are for sale on eBay.
• You will notice that there are both auctions as well as “Buy it Now” items. I don’t want to wait for an auction to end and not be sure of the price, so I never bid on auction items and just look at the things I can buy now.
• I then look for the best coupons out there – and make sure the expiration date is still a little while away. Even if I only got a coupon for $0.25 off in my newspaper, somewhere else in the country they may have gotten a coupon for $0.75 off. Also note the number of items you have to buy to use the coupon. Different areas of the country will get different numbers as well. So I look for the coupon that best works for me.
• I then look for the best price. Make sure you add up both the price and shipping as well as how many coupons you’re getting. Some people only put the actual cost of shipping (which is usually just the cost of a stamp), but others sometimes add extra to it, so if you don’t pay attention, you could end up paying a lot more. Also, some people will only charge shipping for the first set of coupons, while others charge for each set, so you could save money if you end up buying more and read how they are charging for shipping.
• Then I wait for a sale. I have 6 supermarket chains within a 15 minute drive, so each week I look at 6 circulars, looking for a sale. Once I find a good sale, I use the coupon on top of the sale price, and usually get a great deal – if not get the item for free!
• If the coupon is about to expire, and you really are in need of Ziploc Bags and want to use the coupons, take a look at all of the prices at your local stores. You’d be surprised how each chain can have a completely different price on the same item…even if the stores are only a mile apart!

Following the steps above, I usually end up getting really great prices on items I use coupons for. Sometimes no good sale will come up while the coupon is good…but unless I really need the item, I just let the coupons go bad. Yes, I will have wasted $1-$2 for buying them, but when I actually find a sale and get to use the coupons, I save a LOT more than that, since I buy 15-30 coupons at a time…so it’s worth it to me to “waste” a coupon every now and then.

Hope that helps people who are trying to save money using coupons, whether it is for Ziploc Bag coupons, or any other kind! If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I’ll be happy to try to answer.

Starting tomorrow, A&P is having Triple Coupons for the week. This means that Waldbaums is also having Triple Coupons.

Just in case you don’t know what that means, a coupon under $1.00 is now worth three times as much, so a $0.75 cent coupon will now be worth $2.25.  As you can see, it can really be worth it to shop during triple coupons!

They are also having another promotion this week, where if you buy a certain number of specific products, you’ll get money back for your next purchase! This combined with triple coupons can mean a really low grocery bill!

I hope to get a chance to go to A&P this coming week.

Lately I’ve seen a bunch of people talking against using coupons. They have nothing against saving money, but say that it isn’t worth the time that you have to put into it.

While I understand that someone might not want to put hours and hours into using coupons to save a few dollars (I feel the same way), I don’t understand why someone would just throw out a blanket statement like that.

I use coupons, and enjoy using them to save money…but really don’t have the time to put my all into it. Because of that, I only spend maybe 10-15 minutes a week getting coupons, and only take advantage of the deals that I am really interested in. But I am still able to save quite a bit, even with just a little bit of work.

Here are some tips I would give the people that are against using coupons because it takes too much time for too little gain:

• While you’re going through the Sunday paper, have a pair of scissors with you. As you look at the coupon section, just cut out anything that you think you’d use, or would be interested in. You’re already going through the paper, so this will only add a few extra minutes of time.
• Go through the store circulars. Even if you don’t use coupons, you should be going through the circulars to look for loss leaders and other items on sale so that you can save money.
• If you see a good deal, go over to ebay, and order a bunch of that coupon. Most likely it will cost you under $2.00, and will take less than 5 minutes total.  I only use the “Buy it Now” for coupons.  I’m not going to wait to see if I won them.  I just want to buy them, know they will be coming to my house, and then move on.
• I understand not wanting to go out of your way to take advantage of deals…but if it’s something you would get if you were already at the store, keep those coupons in your car. If you happen to be in the area, or stopping at the next store, then you can spend the few extra minutes to get the deal.
• Be picky. At first I would try to take advantage of every deal I could. But that took a lot of time. Now I only take advantage of a deal if it’s something I really want (or need), or if I’ll be going to that store anyway.  You’d be surprised at how many deals you can still take advantage of without spending too much extra time.

Following these tips, you can easily save a lot of money, and not have to spend much extra time. Even by just cutting out coupons from your Sunday paper (5 minutes max), you can still easily save $10+ dollars each week assuming your grocery store doubles coupons. For people who like to say that they are worth $x.xx an hour, don’t you think that a savings of $120 for an hours worth of work is definitely worth trying at least once?

When cooking, you probably do as we do. You have a bunch of dried spices that you use. It’s a lot easier than always making sure you have fresh, plus it’s a whole lot cheaper!!

Sometimes dried herbs won’t do though. For example, when I’m making bruschetta, I need to have fresh basil. Using the basil from my spice rack just doesn’t cut it. The problem is that it can be very expensive to buy fresh herbs and spices. Also, many times you have to buy a large quantity, even if you only want to use a little bit.

This is where an indoor herb garden comes in. You can easily plant a bunch of different herbs in front of one windowsill. This way you don’t have to worry about weather, since it’s indoors. You can have fresh herbs in the middle of the winter…without having to pay a dime!

You will also always have fresh herbs. You won’t have to run to the store just to get one or two spices for a dish you’re making.  You won’t have to spend money to get these nice fresh herbs when they are off season.

Also, food tastes better when you use fresh herbs!  You’ll also end up saving a lot of money by doing this.

Herbs are very easy to grow, so you won’t have a problem even if you don’t have a green thumb. I have grown quite a few herbs outside – such a basil and chives, and they grew like weeds. It was great all summer to have the fresh spices to use when I was cooking. Of course now that it’s the middle of winter, I miss it. I am thinking about starting an indoor herb garden myself!

When you hear about “coupon queens” going to the grocery store and getting hundreds of items for $1.23, the first thing that might come to your head is that it’s all junk food. You might think that the healthy stuff never goes on sale, never has coupons, and is never cheap.

The good news is, if you thought that, you’d be wrong! While yes, it is a lot easier to eat cheaply if you don’t mind eating more “junk” food, it is very possible. You just need to spend a little extra time figuring it out.

It is true that most of the coupons out there are for prepackaged foods, things higher in calories, and maybe not so high in nutrition. And it is very, very easy to get those foods for free or almost free when they go on sale, using a coupon.

But…if you’re someone who wants to eat mostly vegetables and fruits, or organic foods, it’s still not a problem. Here are 5 ways you can eat healthy without spending a lot of money:

1. Eat fruits and vegetables that are in season. The prices of fruits and veggies that are in season will be a lot less than when they are not. For example, in the middle of summer, green peppers can be as low as .49c a pound. Corn can be 12 ears for $1. In the middle of the winter however, those green peppers can be over $2 a pound, and just 2 or 3 fresh ears of corn will be $2 or more. In the fall, apples will be a lot less expensive than it is during the rest of the year. As you can see, if you eat what’s in season, you’ll save a LOT of money!

2. Shop the circular. Even in the middle of winter when you don’t think any fruits or vegetables will be cheap, they do put some on sale each week in the circular to get you into the store. So take a look at those. Just last week we had cherries in the circular for $1.99 a pound, which is a great price for the middle of winter. This week they are back to $4.99 a pound, but last week we ate a lot of cherries, and didn’t have to spend a lot of money on it.

3. Look in the freezer section. When you think of “fresh” vegetables and fruits, you always think about the produce section…not the freezer section. Surprisingly enough, many of the frozen vegetables and fruits are actually fresher than the ones in the produce section. The ones there might have been sitting around for a few days – or even a week by the time it gets from where it’s grown to your store…but when they are going to freeze the fruit or veggies, it is done just a few days after it is picked.

So by picking up frozen fruits and vegetables, you will sometimes get even more nutrition from them than their fresh counterparts. Also, there are often coupons out for frozen vegetables, and there are often sales for both, making them very inexpensive…and still very tasty!

4. Get on your favorite company’s mailing lists. Yes, most of the coupons out there are for more “unhealthy” foods, but if you like something in particular, go to their website and get on their mailing list. Every so often you might receive a coupon in the mail from them! Also, sometimes the customer service center at your favorite grocery store will have sections of coupons that are specific to healthy foods, or even organic. It is possible to get coupons on your favorite healthy foods, you’ll just have to take a more active approach in getting them!

5. Comparison shop. You might have one grocery store that you use all the time, but check out the prices of some of your favorite and more expensive foods at some other nearby grocery stores. I can’t tell you how huge the difference in regular every day prices can be from one grocery store to the next. It might be worth going to a second grocery store every now and then to get certain foods that are a lot less expensive there!

If you follow these tips, you really can eat healthy for less.

Here is a video I recorded yesterday, just to show how easy it is to get a huge selection of shampoos, conditioners, soaps, toothpaste, body washes, shaving lotions, and more for free – or almost free.

I’m almost embarrassed to say that what’s shown in the video is after a lot of stuff has been used, or given away to friends and family!! The good news is except for the toothpaste, none of the rest of it will go bad. So we keep an eye on the toothpaste and won’t get too much of it so we don’t waste any…but the rest we can just keep getting if the price is right (free) and not have to worry about it.

I do have to say it’s nice to get a whole lot of shampoos etc, because it’s fun to share them. I recently got a whole bunch of the L’Oreal Vive Pro shampoo (which is usually $4.59) for free, so I had fun giving some to my sister and a friend. I am happy to share when I have a lot of stuff, since I got it all (or most) for free.

Also, just to show how much savings that is…in the video there are:

• 42 bottles of shampoo & conditioner (regularly $1.00 each)
• 29 bottles of SoftSoap body wash (regularly $3.99)
• 16 bottles of hand soap (Dove and SoftSoap) (regularly $2.49)
• 16 bottles of Gillette Complete Skin Care Shaving Lotion (regularly $3.99)
• 13 tubes of Colgate Total toothpaste (regularly $3.69)
• 9 bottles of Dove Shampoo (regularly $4.99)
• + more that I won’t even bother putting in…

That all adds up to more than $354.27. I paid less than $5.00 for it. Not too bad, right? That’s worth a few minutes each week going over coupons and the sales going on at your local store, right? You really can save money on groceries easily!

You hear it on the news all the time.  So and so said you should drink more water to be healthy.  They say 8 glasses a day is what everyone should be drinking, as it has many health benefits.

While I agree drinking water is better than drinking many other things (especially as far as calories go), there is an even better reason to drink more water.  The savings…it’s free!

I’m not saying to give up your favorite juices, sodas, coffees or teas.  But if even once a day you have a glass of water (which is free) instead of  that other drink, you will save money.  While one glass of juice really doesn’t sound like much money, it does add up over time.

If we assume a bottle of juice cost $3.00, and you will get 8 drinks out of it, each glass is about $0.37.  If each day you were to replace that glass of juice with water, you would save $135 a year.  While the cost of different drinks can vary greatly, saving over $100 a year for replacing one glass with water is incredible.

Plus, each little thing helps.  Would you miss drinking that one glass of juice or soda a day?  Probably not.  But, that same $135 that you just saved could go towards a lot of things.  It could pay for a night in a hotel room on vacation, or quite a few meals out! It could probably even pay for a few of your bills.

Think about that the next time you’re trying to decide what to drink.

If you’re like most of us, one of your biggest expenses is food. You don’t want to eat ramen noodles all week just to keep to a budget, but you don’t want to spend all of your money at the grocery store either. There are many ways to keep your grocery bill down though, and you’ll still be able to eat really well! Here are 7 ways to get you started:

1. Design your menu based on the sales circular. Each week stores will have what they call “loss leaders”. Many times the grocery stores actually lose money by selling these items at such a low price, but they do it to get you into the store, hoping you will buy a lot more to more then make up for the loss. If you plan your weekly menu based on the sales circular, you’ll mostly buy what is on sale, and you will spend a lot less money than if you had to buy things that are at full price.

2. Use coupons. I can’t tell you the amount of times I have heard people say that it isn’t worth spending all that time cutting out coupons to save a few pennies. I really don’t think people realize how much you can save with coupons! Each week in the Sunday paper, there are anywhere between 1-3 sections of coupons. They can be anywhere from .25c to over $1.00 each. Many grocery stores offer double coupons, and once in a while a store will have a promotion of triple coupons! This will make your .75c coupon be $1.50 most of the time, and even $2.25 sometimes! If you use coupons on items you find in the sales circular, you can end up getting items for free!

Of course, if you can get one item for free or for a very good price, why not get more? Many grocery stores will let you use up to 4 of the same coupon. So, get your friends and family to give you the coupons they don’t use each week. If you still want more coupons, you can go to eBay and you can get more coupons. You can’t buy coupons, but you can pay someone for the time and effort it takes them to cut them out and mail them to you. When you think of eBay you might only think of auctions, but you can also just buy an item.

So for example you can get 10 of the same coupon for something (let’s say you use a lot of cereal for example) and for .65c you can get 10 coupons giving you .75c off of each box of cereal. If you only use one of the coupons you have more then made your money back on it…and if you use all 10 coupons, if you have double coupons you will have saved $15.00 (minus the .65c). Isn’t that incredible for a few minutes of work?

3. Don’t be brand loyal – but don’t necessarily buy only store brands either! Another thing I hear a lot is that store brands are always cheaper, so they buy that and then don’t have to “waste time” cutting coupons. Well I have news for you. When an item is on sale, it can often be cheaper than a store brand! When you use a coupon on an item, it can be a LOT less expensive than a similar store brand item. Also, we all have our favorite brands on certain things…but a lot of time you can’t tell the difference. So it’s always worth trying out a different brand if the price is right. Sometimes with a coupon you can get an item for free, or very close to it. So even if it’s not what you normally buy, it can still be worth trying!

4. Keep track of prices. Just because your grocery store is having a sale on an item, it doesn’t mean that it’s a good price, and time to stock up on that item. Sometimes a grocery store will only cut the price by a few cents, and call it a “sale” item and put it in the circular. But if you know what the prices usually are, you’ll know that the item does go on sale for a lot less, so you should wait. Also, different grocery stores have different prices. So even when an item is on sale at your regular grocery store, it might still cost more than the regular price at another grocery store. If you keep track of the prices on at least a few of the items you buy regularly, you’ll soon be able to tell when it is a good time to buy something, and when you should wait for a better price.

5. Consider going to multiple stores. It sounds like a lot more work, but sometimes by going to a second grocery store during the same week, you can save a lot of money. Like mentioned above, different stores have different prices and different items on sale each week. If it’s not too far out of your way and if the prices are better on some things at a different store, it can save you a lot of money to buy the other items at a different grocery store. If you can buy the loss leaders at each store, you will end up saving a lot of money!

6. If it’s a good deal, get many. A lot of times the expiration dates of something you are buying could be weeks, months, or even years away. If you know that a sale is a very good sale (by tracking prices as noted above), then why not get a bunch of that item? That way you won’t run out and have to buy it again when it isn’t on sale – or when the sale isn’t as good. This will also help your budget in later months when you don’t have to buy any of that item since you already have a lot of it on hand…and it didn’t really break your budget at the time since you got it at such a good price.

7. Make a list. A lot of times as you go through the isles things start to look good, especially if you are hungry. You might end up throwing in a bunch of items that you didn’t plan on. Not only does this inflate your grocery bill, but also a lot of times you end up having to throw uneaten food out because you bought more than could be eaten, and certain foods went bad. If you make a list of what you need for the week and stick to it, you will notice your grocery bills will go down, and you will also have less to throw out.

If you follow the above suggestions, you will see a huge difference in your grocery bills. It’s great to be able to spend just a little bit of time and be able to save so much! Be sure to check other posts to see more tips about what’s going on at a grocery store near you and other ways to save at the grocery store.