Combining Upromise ECoupons with Sales

Last year, UPromise introduced Ecoupons as an additional way to save for college. I think they're great, because you can use them in addition to any manufacturer's coupons that you have (as well as sale prices).

Here's an example of how the Ecoupons can work at Meijer this week.

1st Example - Add the Beechnut toddler food Ecoupon for $1.00 into your UPromise account (and make sure you have registered your Meijer loyalty card). Purchase 1 Beechnut Let's Grow toddler food on sale this week for $1.18 while using a manufacturer's QP from either 11/16 S or 1/4 S for $1.00 off any Beechnut product and presenting your Meijer loyalty card. You will pay $0.18 for the toddler food (which can be donated to a food pantry if you don't have a toddler) and earn $1.00 in college savings in your UPromise account. Thanks to Tosha at Savings Make Cents for this scenario.

2nd Example - Add the Red Gold tomatoes Ecoupon for $0.50/2 into your UPromise account. Purchase 2 cans Red Gold tomatoes (which are part of the Buy 10/$10 and get 11th free sale this week). You will pay $2.00 for 2 cans of Red Gold (and if you buy 11 of the sale items, you'll get 1 item free) and earn $0.50 in your UPromise account.

Those are just 2 scenarios for using the coupons. The Ecoupons also work at CVS when you use your ECB card. I usually load all the coupons into my UPromise account, because there have been times that I've accidentally purchased an item with a coupon and earned some extra college savings without knowing about it!

For more information on UPromise or how to load/use the UPromise Ecoupons, see the related articles below.

Other related articles:

• Upromise 101
• Upromise Ecoupons

Works for Me Wednesday - Stop Junk Mail

Do you get tons of junk mail everyday? Do you want to eliminate some of it? I dislike junk mail for several reasons (besides the obvious...that it's junk):

• Junk mail wastes resources (paper to print and gas to deliver).
• Junk mail wastes my time, even though it's ultimate destination is my trash...I still have to sort through it.
• Credit card applications sitting in my mailbox could be an identity theft hazard.
• If you have a problem with debt, it may be too tempting to receive credit card applications in the mail.
• Catalogs waste lots of paper.
• Catalogs are like window shopping...you may be tempted to buy something you don't need just because you saw it.

There is a way to eliminate much of your junk mail. It's a free service called, ProQuo. They claim they have saved over 25 million pounds of junk mail waste in 2008, which is the equivalent of 64 jumbo jets. You choose which marketing companies you want to eliminate (so you can continue to get the coupons in your mail), they give you information on how to stop the credit card offers through the credit companies, and you can manage your catalog subscriptions, so they quit coming.

I signed up last summer through them, and I barely get any junk mail (except for the coupons, which I allow to come). I have not gotten a credit card offer for as long as I can remember. I still need to sign up some of my catalogs (you have to enter some info about each catalog), but I plan on doing that soon. Otherwise, my way of avoiding temptation is to send it directly to the recycling pile. I'd rather they never printed it to begin with.

Reducing junk mail works for me. For more ideas that work for others, visit Rocks in My Dryer.

Photo courtesy of lizerixt at stock.xchng

Walgreens and Rite Aid Trip this Week

Walgreens (not pictured - 3 packs of One a Day vitamins)

Walgreens is having some great sales this week (and on some of the monthly free after rebate (FAR) items). I wanted to buy a pack of Electrasol gelpacs for free after $2.50 QP and ESR, but they weren't in stock. The FAR Auto Expressions Vent Fresh Auto Freshener was also not in stock. I'll check another Walgreens on the Electrasol this week, and get a raincheck if I can't find it.

I needed a filler in order to have as many items as I had coupons, so I purchased a gallon of milk, since it was on sale for the same price as at Meijer this week. I also should have probably purchased the vitamins in an initial transaction, and then used the RR's for the next transaction, but I didn't think of it until after. It doesn't really matter, since I used a GC to pay for it, so I didn't pay anything OOP. For help with the coupon lingo that I use throughout this post, visit my Coupons 101 post.

Purchased:
(2) One a Day Women's vitamins and (1) Mens vitamins $7 each ($21 total)
Orajel Cold Sore Brush $8.49 (monthly rebate item)
Garnier Fructis 2 in 1 shampoo $2.99
Ben & Jerry's ice cream pint $3.00
Gallon milk (filler item) $2.49
Revlon Matte Lipstick $7.99 (monthly rebate item)

Used:
(3) $1.00 One a Day vitamin QP's from 1/4 S and printable
$1.00 Orajel QP from 10/26 S
$1.00 Garnier QP from 1/4 RP
$2.00 Walgreens IVC Garnier QP from January ESR catalog
$3.00 Ben & Jerry's printable QP (you can no longer print this one)
$1.00 Revlon QP from 11/16 S (or 12/7 S)

Total OOP: $36.13 - paid on Walgreens GC from doing rebates previous months

(Will) Received: $37.13 after 10% bonus for getting the ESR on Walgreens GC
$10.00 RR for vitamins (buy $20, get $10 RR)
$8.49 ESR for Orajel (monthly FAR item)
$7.99 ESR for Revlon lipstick
1/2 price MIR for the One-a-Day vitamins (after coupons) from 1/4 S - so I'll get $3.00 per bottle - total $9.00
There is also an Orajel rebate from 10/26 S for $8.49 (but I forgot to do it on a separate transaction than the vitamins or get another receipt).

Rite Aid

They also had Soy Joy bars on sale for 10/$5 with a $5 SCR. Plus, I had a QP from 1/4 S for $2 off 10 (so profit of $2), but they were completely sold out. I got a raincheck for the bars, and will pick them up another week. Here's Rite Aid's policy on getting an SCR when you have a raincheck. It's a little bit more complicated than the normal method of submitting online (you have to fax or mail your receipt to Special Services), but you can still get the rebate.

Purchased:
Garnier Fructis 2 in 1 shampoo $3.00

Used:
$1.00 Garnier QP from 1/4 RP (could also use 10/5 or 11/9 RP)

Total OOP: $2.18 - paid for with Rite Aid GC from P&G promotion back in November

Will Receive: $2.00 in SCR

Get a Free Swagbuck Today

Swagbucks has a new free swagbuck code for today- freeswag. I'm not sure how long it will last...

To claim your free Swagbuck (click here to sign up, if you're not a member already...it's free!), go to the Swagbucks site, login to your account, click on the number of Swagbucks you've earned (on the right side of the screen), and then enter the code, freeswag about halfway down the page.

Don't know what Swagbucks is? It's a great program where you can earn Swagbucks when you do your normal everyday searches. Earn enough Swagbucks, and you can exchange them for prizes...for example, 45 Swagbucks = a $5 Amazon gift card or 50 Swagbucks = a $5 Starbucks gift card.

CVS Trip This Week

I thought this week at CVS was just OK (still dreaming on the sales the week before Christmas). But, I managed to find a few things. Unfortunately, they only had 1 of the Throat Coolers in stock, so I couldn't use my B1G1 Free coupon...but it was still free after ECB's. For help with the coupon terminology, see my Coupons 101 post.

Purchased:
(2) Colgate Total toothpaste 6 oz. $5.00/2
(2) Glade Scented Oil refills 2 ct. $5.49 each ($10.98)
Garnier Fructis 2 in 1 shampoo $2.99
Children's Throat Cooler $4.99

Used:
(2) $1.00 Colgate Total QP's from 1/4 S
B1G1 Glade refill QP (rang up as $5.99 off)
$1.00 Garnier QP from 1/4 S
I wasn't able to use it, but if you can find 2 throat coolers, B1G1 from 12/7 S and get 2 for free after ECB's
$14.97 ECB's from previous weeks

Total OOP: $0.24

ECB's Received:
$4.00 for Glade ($2.00 per Glade refill)
$4.99 for Throat Coolers
$2.00 for Colgate Total
$2.00 for Garnier Fructis
Total ECB's Received: $12.99

Tightwad Tuesday - Save Money Now for next Christmas

It's now the beginning of January, which means that for many people the Christmas bills will soon start to arrive. Oftentimes, it's a stressful time - worrying about how to pay the bills, and if only the monthly minimum is paid on the credit card, you may still be paying for last Christmas at next Christmastime.

Or, you could save all year for Christmas gifts and have a cash-only Christmas (or at least pay all the credit card bills with zero stress, because you already had the money in your savings account when you made the charge).

In my family, we treat birthdays and Christmas like it's a monthly expense. In a spreadsheet each year, I calculate how much money that we plan to spend for the entire year on birthdays and Christmas and then I divide it by 12 and have that amount moved into my savings account automatically each month. When I purchase a gift, I make a transfer back into my checking account to pay for the gift (I usually do a transfer back to checking around the 15th and 30th of each month, since I'm only allowed 2 transfers per month).

I want to make sure that I include everything in my budget, since often the "little" things can really add up fast. Some of the items that I account for in my spreadsheet include:

• Determine the number of people I will be purchasing gifts for (both Christmas and birthdays) and multiply by the budgeted amount per person. I usually spend $15 per child (since we have 8 nieces and nephews for both birthday and Christmas presents). We will spend more on our parents and we've agreed as a family not to purchase for adult siblings. We also spend a higher budgeted amount for our immediate family (like hubby, myself, and my 2 boys). I usually am under budget on the boys' gifts, since they receive so much from other family members too.

• Budget an amount for Mother's and Father's Day both for our parents and for gifts to each other...from the kids of course :-).

• For Christmas, I budget an amount for helpers gifts (like teachers, tips for hairdressers, etc) as well as for stocking stuffers. I always think that stocking stuffers are little things...but it can quickly add up to about $20 a stocking. I want to make sure that $80 is budgeted.

• If you send out Christmas cards, I budget an amount to print out the picture card, letter and stamps to mail them out.

• Now that my kids are getting older, they're beginning to be invited to friend's birthday parties. You need to budget those gifts, too. I try to purchase those presents (and other family gifts) during clearance sales. I pick generic gifts that my kids would enjoy and save them for a birthday party invite.

What ideas work for you to pay for Christmas and birthday gifts each year? For other frugal ideas, head over to BeingFrugal.

Photo courtesy of sh0dan at stock.xchng.

Mailbox Monday

This is what I got in my mailbox this week. The Good Nites, Orville Redenbacher Natural popcorn, and Glad Forceflex bags all came from Walmart. None of them are still available, but check below for more freebies available from Walmart. The Cheerios didn't technically come in the mail, but with my newspaper on Sunday, I thought it was pretty neat...they used a special bag where the Cheerios (and a coupon) were in a separate pouch at the end of the newspaper bag. Did anyone else get one of these?

Here are some more freebies available to order this week:

• Always Infinity pads (Walmart sample)
• Gold Bond Ultimate Soothing Skin Therapy Lotion (Walmart sample)
• Kotex Lightdays Thin Liner (Walmart sample)
• Gas-X Thin Strips sample
• Bear Naked Fruit & Nut Granola sample
• Cascadian Farm chocolate chip chewy granola bar
  
• Free admission to DisneyWorld on your birthday this year
• Free 2 year subscription to WonderTime for filling out a short survey about your deorderant through RewardsGold
  
• Ester-C sample - you'll need to find it in the middle of the page, click the checkbox and click request product info at the bottom
• Link to all Walmart freebies - Benefiber and Serenity pads are not new offers
• Link to all Costco samples (no membership required)