STOCKPILE Cheers & Jeers for 2009

So how did you do with your Stockpile in 2009?
While I've always had a pantry of foodstuffs & a closet of toiletry extras, this year was the first time I had stocked and maintained an actual Stockpile of food and toiletries.

My Best Stockpile Buys for 2009....

1. Marcal Small Steps FREE Toilet Paper/Napkins/Facial Tissue
2. FREE Bags of Iams Dog Food
3. Sugardale Bacon for $1 a package
4. Free or almost free Gillette Products
5. Free Crest Toothpaste (large hauls from Weis and Wags)


My Worst Stockpile Ideas for 2009....

1. Free or almost Free Soy Joy
2. Free or Under $1 Cold Cereal
3. Free Diabetic Meters
4. Moneymaker BC Fruit Snacks
5. Almost Free Kraft Salad Dressing (good to get but just not so many at one time)


My Toiletries Stockpile went from this in March....

To this in early October.......wait for all the photos  lol......

those photos are a 2 year supply organized and put away.
There was also THIS EXCESS STUFF beyond that 2 year supply....

Those 18 Boxes and a few Bags of stuff are what ended up going to the Flea Market in October and this is ALL that came home with me from there.....

The Flea Market Report is HERE if you'd like to read about it again.

My Toiletries Stockpile multiplied faster than Bunnies in those 7 months from March to October!
It got out of hand so fast!!
And that amount of Excess Stuff is AFTER I had a Garage Sale in July too!lolol
So with what I sold at the Garage Sale added in, the overall stockpile was even larger than what you see in the photos!

And just to remind you......this is JUST THE TOILETRIES STOCKPILE!
I'm not even talking about the FOOD STOCKPILE/PANTRY.
Oh, you don't even want me to show you photos of that!!


So, what is the state of my stockpile today?
I still have my 2 year Toiletries supply organized and put away.  I've added a few things to it that we weren't stocked up on, but not more than I have room for in the organized storage.
But more excess has crept back in.
Excess meaning free stuff we don't need more of....like toothpaste, shampoo, soap, razors.....

My Toiletries Stockpile Goal in 2010 is to replenish as we use up items in the 2 year supply.
I am also going to try to only "buy" other toiletry items if they are free or $1 or less with coupons/sales.
I will collect these other toiletry items until May, at which time I'll evaluate how to dispose of them-by either donating them and/or setting up at a flea market again.

So what state is your Toiletries Stockpile in?
The new year would be a good time to take stock of what you have, what you need, organize it and see what you need to get rid of by donating, selling or passing on to neighbors or friends in need.

Sluggy

December BUDGET RESULTS-Food & Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for DECEMBER 2009.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in December.
These Totals include Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5(4 at home-all 5 home for 2/3 of this month)& 3 dogs. No kids under 13.

BIG LOTS
OOP $18.08
Qs/Ads $19.94
Value $38.02
Savings 52.45%

BOYER'S(local Independent Grocery)
OOP $13.76
Qs/Ads $15.25
Value $29.01
Savings  53%

CARONE'S(local Independent Grocery that doesn't take IP Qs)
OOP $28.06
Qs/Ads $43.34
Value $71.40
Savings   60.70%

ENTENMANN'S OUTLET
OOP $43.78
Ads/Sales $89.28
Value $133.06
Savings  67.10%

FIVE MOUNTAIN MARKET(local Independent Grocer)
OOP $6.05($26.05 spent, $20 on Gift Certificate)
Ads/Sales $14.00
Value $40.05
Savings  84.90%

PRICE CHOPPER
OOP $30.32
Qs/Ads $59.91
Value $90.23
Savings  66.40%

RITE AID
OOP $48.00 before rebates/$12.06 Moneymaker  after rebates qualified for
Qs/Ads $456.58
Value $504.58
Savings 90.50%(100%+ after rebates of $60.06 due)

TARGET
OOP $12.70
Qs/Ads $51.52
Value $64.22
Savings  80.22%

WALMART
OOP $17.97
Qs/Ads $9.79
Value $27.76
Savings  35.27%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store that doesn't take IP Qs in my town)
OOP $111.59
Qs/Ads $173.62
Value $285.21
Savings  60.87%

I've decided NOT to track CVS's ECBs & Walgreen's RRs. They will be included when used on purchases under "Coupons".   I'll keep track of what rebates are received monthly.  Rebate money/gift cards will be considered 'income' & go toward Food/Toiletries budget purchases, offsetting the Out of Pocket. Cash will go immediately into the Budget kitty, while Gift Cards will be calculated in when spent.

REBATE CHECKS RECV'D. IN DECEMBER

Kraft Back2School.....$20.00

Kraft Jingle in Your Holiday...$10.00
Olay/Pantene......$20.00
Palmolive Dish Liquid....$1.49
Perdue Chicken...$5.98
Pinecone Research....$9.00
Real Simple....$10.00
Rite-Aid SCR........$132.30
Suave Lotion/Body Wash...$4.98
Venus Razor....$7.99
Zyrtec....$7.02
Subtotal........$228.76

FREE ITEMS

Chik FilA Sandwich
Little Debbie Cupcakes (a box)
Avery/Dennison Prize Pack I won

COUPONS

None Received 8-(

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES

KMart Cereal Offer $5.00
Office Depot $25(part of the prize pack I won)
Rite Aid  $10.00
Rite Aid GOS Certificate  $40.00

SubTotal...$80.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received..$308.76

My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 90.50%,  5 Mtn. Market at 84.90% and Target at 80.22%.

TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$330.31
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$953.23
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased.............$1283.54
TOTAL Savings of..........74.26%

TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$228.76
TOTAL OOP After  Rebates....................$101.55
TOTAL Savings of..................................92.08%

This closes out the December spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
With the high amount of income from Rebates received I was able to have a low out of pocket for this month.  While an OOP of $330.31 for food spending for a month is good, just over $100 after the rebates are applied is GREAT! 
I was able to stay our of the grocery store for almost 2 weeks total this month and we ate through quite a bit of food in the freezer...food in the stockpile?....not so much.   I made headway in my USE IT UP CHALLENGE but we have more to use up.

What's ahead for January 2010.....
Since I have #1 son home for most of this month and my Sis-In Law is coming to stay for a week mid month, I should be able to continue to eat down in the Freezer and Stockpile.  The SIL though will prove to be problematic for my food budget as she eats from a very narrow selection of foods so the challenge for that week is to come up with meals that include these few foods but are acceptable to my family's palette as well.  I am trying very hard to avoid having to cook TWO meals each night!  Two meals will mean more waste and more cost.

The January 2010 Food/Toiletries Budget is set at $200 cash out of pocket.  Any rebates received this month will offset this OOP spending.  This means that I have UP TO $200 of regular income to spend on the food budget and any rebates that are received are added to that budget.  (IE; If $150 in rebates are received in Jan. so I'll have $350 to spend on food shopping this month.)If I don't spend all the money in the budget in January, I'll carry over whatever is leftover into February's food budget.

How did you do in December with your Food Budget?  Leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear!  By sharing our struggles and efforts we can help each other stick to our budgets and learn to be better guardians of our resources.

Sluggy

The Couponing Year in Review....My List of Deal FLOPS in 2009

Now that we are safely into 2010....
Here is my Rant about what I consider to be the DEAL FLOPS of 2009.  I kept it to 12 items.  Wish I had less to report in on.lolol

COUPONING DEAL FLOPS & FAILURES FOR ME IN 2009.

1.Natural Dentist Rebate

THIS is the ONLY Rebate I sent away for in 2009 that DID NOT HONOR THEIR OFFER.
A great big Phhhht!! to you Natural Dentist. Your products are WAY overpriced and work like crap! This is one consumer who is NEVER BUYING another of your products. I hope your company goes belly up and fast!

Me disgruntled?
Nahhhhh....

2. KFC GRILLED CHICKEN GIVEAWAY

Offering a Free Meal to anyone in America on 1 certain Day to advertise your new healthier chicken option. How did you think this would NOT turn into a Major Cluster Copulation?lol

What a big fiasco that probably ended up costing KFC millions more than they had envisioned and caused hard feelings with the public. They did do a good job of damage control though by offering subsequent FREE MEALS with a FREE DRINK a few months later.


3. LEE JEANS GIVEAWAY

In December Lee Jeans held a Giveaway via Facebook for a FREE Pair of Jeans. They gave away in the neighborhood of 150 pairs a day for most of the month.  I'm not sure what the deal was, but the Way to Enter the Giveaway changed after the Giveaway began, so Lee made a rules change on the Giveaway. This led to an unfair advantage for some entrants, so Lee declared that if you entered the contest before a certain date and time, you are an automatic winner.

This has been very confusing for the entrants and has led to a lot of hard feelings among the public.
This will cost Lee Jeans massive amounts of product and has done damage to their business's image.
And in case you are wondering, I entered but missed the cut-off under the Original Entry Rules by 45 minutes to get a free pair automatically.lol

4. BEE Md REBATE

A new cough drop product, Bee MD, offered a $1 Mail-In Rebate this year. After you paid for the postage, the ink to print the rebate form and the cost of an envelope, your gain was about 50¢. A full price rebate would have been worth sending away for, not 50¢. Thanks for nothing Bee MD! Luckily Rite-Aid offered this item as a FAR(=Free After Rebate) plus you didn't have any mailing costs associated with the rebate if you sent for it online.


5. KMart Kellogg's $5 CEREAL GIFT CARD REBATE

Back in March or April, Kmart offered a Kellogg's Cereal Catalina Deal. You had to buy 10 boxes of Cereal and submit in a rather short time frame receipts, form and 10 UPCs to qualify for a Whopping $5 Gift Card. $5....not even cash but a KMart Gift Card. Lots of product to buy and mailing costs for $5GC. Not such a great deal, but if your KMart held Double Coupon Events, you could have gotten the 10 boxes of cereal for cheaper during the DCE and saved the $5 GC to use during a subsequent DCE, it was an ok offer.


6. ConAgra "GREAT TASTE BIG SAVINGS OFFER"

Don't quite remember what I had to buy for this....5 certain items?.....but I sent away and there were no FREE Item Coupons or any Cash Rebate involved. All you got was 5 coupons for items I don't buy/use much if at all and the amounts were crappy too. Of the big corps. out there, ConAgra has not impressed me with any of their offers-EVER! Kraft, Kelloggs, Unilever offer some good ones....ConAgra, notsomuch.

ConAgra....feh!


7. The lack of FREE TURKEY DEALS at area Grocery Stores

Use to be, it was a given that once Thanksgiving time rolled around(and sometimes at Christmas too), your local grocery stores, both big and small, would offer some kind of FREE TURKEY DEAL. Either you had to spend a certain amount during a certain time period at their stores or you had to buy certain items and be a frequent/loyalty card shopper to qualify. In the last 2 years, 2 years that have seen consumers earnings fall and food prices rise significantly, these Holiday Free Turkey deals have all but vanished. Locally the best you can do is a reduced price for Turkey with a qualifying purchase at Price Chopper. The only Grocery Chain I found offering FREE TURKEY when you spent $Xs was Acme and that is NOT a local chain here. Luckily, it was also running at the same time as a Spend $30/Get $15 Catalina Deal at Acme, and since I went to Acme for that Cat Deal, I got a free turkey as well.

The WORST Thanksgiving Scheme locally was at WEIS. During the pre-Thanksgiving time period you could qualify for a % off 1 Shopping Trip. The more you spent during the qualifying time period, the larger your % off that Shopping Trip. The Shopping Trip & % off Discount had to be taken within a short time at the end of the qualifying period too. So you had to spend something like $300 on groceries and then the week after you qualified by buying $300 worth of food, you got a 5% discount on your next trip. Now, maybe it's just me, but if I have bought $300 of groceries, I really don't need A LARGE AMOUNT of food in my next shopping trip, so coincidentally, my actual savings on the 5% discount trip won't amount to very much saved. Buy $300 in food......make your discount % trip and spend $100.....get $5 whole dollars off. In the end you've spent $400 and you've saved $5....which is a Savings of only 1.25%!!! When they gave FREE TURKEYS out instead, figuring $.99 a lb. on a modest sized 18lb. turkey, you were saving $17.82 for those qualifying purchases.
Thanks for NOTHING WEIS!

Which leads us to #8 on the list....

8. The Local WEIS Grocery Store

Not only does the WEIS chain hold crappy Thanksgiving Promotions and half-hearted Catalina Deals or better yet, Catalina Deals for items when their are NO AVAILABLE COUPONS for these items, but my local WEIS store is even more stingy with savings.

In this enlightened computerized digital age, my local Weis store has an owner/manager who REFUSES to ACCEPT INTERNET PRINTED COUPONS! My guess is that since the local teeny tiny independent Grocery Store in our town also does NOT accept IP Qs that they feel they don't need to honor these valid forms of couponage either. But the head scratcher here is that 1--every other Weis store in the chain DOES accept IP Qs and 2--the WEIS Website offers printable Coupons that I can't print and use at my local WEIS location! Yes, their own website says, "Here! Have these coupons and use them at Weis." and the store management says, "NO! You can NOT use those coupons here!"

Why does WEIS Allow this store to remain part of their Chain?
Whatever.....WEIS has lost a lot of my business over this year that other Grocery Stores are more than happy to accept.

9. Local WALGREEN'S

First they did away with the Easy Saver Rebate Program mid year and as of now have NOT replaced it with anything.

My other problem with Walgreens has been 2 fold....1-having LARGE AMOUNTS of employees who do NOT know the Coupon Policy or how the REGISTER REWARDS really work. The people who run the store, the MANAGERS here on the whole, have NO CLUE how it works. The worst thing is they misinform the staff and the employees give out wrong information constantly. I have been in line and heard some of it first hand. Oh brother!lol I can guess that the arguments and embarrassment these employees cause some non-confident customers works against Walgreens profits. Some customers choose not to go back and find somewhere else to shop. I have found overall, the employees that are most likely to actually know how to take coupons properly and know how the Cats work are the full time Cashiers! They are also the only employees that are TRAINED in how to run the registers, the Managers are mostly clueless on how to operate a cash register correctly!lol

And 2-never having the Register Reward Items on the shelves. The RR item Deals run hot and cold for me....some weeks what's a deal is great and some weeks I couldn't care less about getting a deal. It really doesn't matter though since no matter what RR Deal item I want, it is always sold out. Locally, it's probably a case of too many customers wanting their deals and not enough stores to stock it. We only have 2 Wags within an hour's drive here. This area is not lousy with Walgreen's yet. I am hoping that if they have a few more stores locally, it will be easier to get in on some of their deals. Let's just hope they train their employees on how the RRs really work.


10. Local TARGET...or lack thereof

Target makes the list for basically the same reasons as Walgreens. 1--employees who are clueless on the coupon policy or even worse, employees who don't care about the coupon policy and enjoy giving people who use coupons a hard time! Now that Target has officially come out with an "In Writing" Coupon Policy it's a little easier for couponers and we don't have to stand there and let some coupon-hating cashier look down their nose at us! We can just whip out our copy of the Q Policy, look them in the eye and INSIST on our coupon discounts at the register.

2--Again, there is ONE Target here for 50 miles so unless you are there waiting in line for the doors to open on the morning a sale starts, you are SOOL on finding that deal on the shelves. I won't be held hostage like that so I generally avoid Target unless I happen to be over there. I NEVER expect to get any deal at Target so I am never dissappointed anymore when it happens.


11. TERRIBLE Coupons in Local Newspapers

Living in an area where the Marketing gods give us bad coupons or don't give us coupons at all for certain products is not something in my control. It sucks and it's something you have to find a way to work around. It causes me at times to have to spend more to buy Sunday papers from other regions or to have to spend money ordering from a clipping service or off of eBay.


12. ME+No Restraint on Which Deals I Did=Overspending & Waste

Buying things just because they are FREE or buying things for FREE or cheap to get something else for FREE has got to be my Shopping Achilles Heel. At least now I recognize this is a problem for me, so I can be aware of making better choices.
In 2010 I hope to be more aware of whether my shopping choices are wise or not.

So what do you consider the Deal Flops of 2009?
What did you buy that your regret you spent the money on now?
Leave a comment and let us know what the losers were for you.

Sluggy

Happy New Year & Welcome to 2010!

I just wanted to wish all my Readers a Happy New Year!
2010!!
Time just flies...No, it takes the Bullet Train, doesn't it?!lol


My hope for you is to achieve everything you Hope for this Year.

Don't let your failures of last year spill over into 2010.  
Remember, it's a new year and every sunrise brings a new day, ready for you to write your life upon it!
No regrets.
No bringing the old unproductive thoughts into your daily fresh start.
Only bring the positive energies to write upon your clean slate.
Move forward in your life.

And make your life the best you can envision for it!


And for all my fellow Couponers....

May all your cashiers be coupon-friendly, all your coupon inserts be filled to brimming with only GOOD coupons, and may plenty of stock be left on the shelves when you go to do your Deals!


Sluggy

Looking Back At My Favorites of 2009

So it's been quite the year in the Deal Hunting and Couponing World in 2009!

While I was sitting here doing my End of December and End of 2009 Financial Numbers, I got to thinking about all the deals and rebates that made up my year. 
Here is a List of my 15 Favorite Deals, Rebates and Ideas for 2009, in no particular order.

1.  KMart Super Double Coupons Event
From April until October of 2009, the KMart Corporation sporadically offered weekly Sales Events where they DOUBLED and in some cases TRIPLED the Value of Manufacturer's Coupons/Internet Printed Coupons that were redeemed in their stores.  Combined with some weekly sales, KMart $X off a $X Purchase Coupons and Catalina Offers and there were many FREE or very Low Cost items to be had this year.  As there are 5 KMarts within a 30 mile radius here which all participated in this Double Coupons Event each time it was offered by the chain, and these locals also reordered/restocked fairly rapidly, KMart was one of my favorite places to be in 2009.
TWO BIG THUMBS UP KMART!

2.  Acme Grocery Catalina Deals
Though I don't have a SuperValu chain Grocery Store locally,  this chain offered a Catalina Deal twice this year that was so awesome that it was worth it for me to drive an hour away to an Acme Store get in on these deals.   I actually made two trips down for this one HERE.

3.  Rite-Aid Single Check Rebates
The adage, "It Takes Money to Make Money", is central to to getting stuff for FREE at Rite-Aid.  With their system, you buy items and submit for your rebates either online or through the mail, and you receive ONE combined Rebate Check.  You can combine these rebates(some of which are for the full purchase price)with using store and manufacturer's coupons and buying the items when they are on sale as well to end up being PAID to buy SCR items.

4.  Weis Gillette Catalina Deal 
In June Weis offered the BEST Catalina Deal I ever saw them offer thus far.  Between sale prices, Instant Savings at the Register and Coupons, you could get Gillette products(Body Wash, Shampoo, Razors, Shaving Cream) for FREE or almost free.  Check it out HERE, the Double Dip HERE and my final haul HERE.

5.  Price Chopper Unilever Deal + Ham Rebate
Buy $40 in regular shelf price of select Unilever items and receive a $20 OYNO Coupon.  Keep your Out of Pocket to $20 using sales and coupons, and each subsequent transaction cost you ZERO out of pocket and generates another $20 OYNO Catalina.  Unilever simultaneously offered a Mail-In Rebate when you bought $40 in their products AND a Ham or Turkey(up to $20 in price) and submitted your receipts and qualifier, you received a Rebate on the cost of the Meat.  HERE

6.  Staples Reams of Paper Deal
 Back in late March/early April there was a great Rebate offer at Staples on Cases of Multipurpose Paper that was being discontinued. Between the sale price, the rebate offer and the Staples reward on paper purchases I posted about HERE, lots of folks got paper for around 72¢ a ream!


7.  Free Purex 3-in-1 Detergent
Back in March, I was selected to be one of the 1st 100 people in the country to try this new product.  It was all very hush-hush and we all got a package of the Detergent Sheets and a Free Item Coupon, as well as the ability to have the company send Free Item Coupons to our friends with email addys.  With the new product release later in the year came alot of high value coupons and sales, making for very cheap or free Purex product.  I enjoyed the great deals but I also had some misgivings about this product as you can see HERE.  Later it turns out that the sheets are not only not eco-friendly but they can cause washing machine malfunctions and end up costing you money in repairs.  That being said, they are GREAT to send with #1 son so he can do his laundry!lol

8.  Free Chocolate Fridays
The Mars Company held a Candy Bar Giveaway every Friday over the summer months.  You could 'win' a free candy bar up to 5 times over the course of the Giveaway.  After the 1st Friday that turned out to be a disaster due to an overwhelming response, as my post Here demonstrated, this was quite the popular Giveaway and scored major points with most consumers.  I suspect there are a lot of us here who had free chocolate thanks to the Mars Company. 8-)

9.  Price Chopper Triple Coupons Event in March
Early March saw the local regional grocery chain, Price Chopper, offered 2 Coupon Tripler Coupons in the local Sunday paper.  After buying 11 newspapers that week to get 22 Tripler Qs, I had 11 good shopping trips that week to Price Chopper Here.  While it wasn't an epic scale shopping extravaganza, it was all good.  The bad part is that this was the ONLY time in 2009 that the local Price Chopper offered these Triple Coupons on any product.

10.  Kellogg's Fuel 4 School Rebate
Late Summer to Early Fall Kellogg's ran a MIR called "Fuel for School".  You had to purchase 10 qualifying Kellogg's/Keebler items in ONE RECEIPT, then send in one of the numerous forms available for this rebate with the receipt and the UPCs from the products and Kellogg's sent you back a check for $10.  With sales and coupons, this Rebate turned out to cost less than $10 out of pocket so a nice Moneymaker!  Even better, though the rebate was a limit of 1 per name/address, there were Four  DIFFERENT PO BOX ADDRESSES to send the rebate to(depending on which rebate forms you had), meaning you could send up to FOUR Times for this Rebate per name/address.  I only mentioned this rebate a few times, HERE I mentioned it briefly in conjunction with a Kmart Double Coupon Event Week haul.

11.  SC Johnson Rebates + Glade Deals + Free Holiday MP3s
SC Johnson offered a $5 MIRebate(WYB 3 SC Johnson products)this fall that I blogged about HERE.
Target and KMart along with other stores offered great sales deals on the Glade line of SC Johnson products so you could have ended up paying out LESS $ than you got back in the end.  Add in that you could do this MIR up to THREE TIMES per name/address and there were 36 FREE Holiday Music downloads available if you had the UPC from the products you had purchased I posted about HERE.

12.  Hickory Farms Clearance Deals
January brought us After Christmas Clearances.  You can see what I bought Here.  Looking back, I do think I overdid it a bit.  I did end up having to throw out a couple of items that didn't get eaten before it's expiration date.  Again, it's NOT a deal if you have to throw it out.lol

13.  FREE Reese's Whipps Candy Bars
Again, another new item in the market, so Hershey's releases good coupons for this item.  Pair those Qs with a lot of sales and you get a lot of free candy bars!  We were eating free Candy Bars until we just couldn't stand looking at one of THESE another moment.

14.  Deal Trifectas--Any Company that offered one
A Deal Trifecta is a product that is on sale, has a high value coupon available for it and also offers a rebate of some kind(either Catalina/Mail-In/Free Product Offer).  In the best of all possible worlds you not only get the item for free in the end, but you also MAKE MONEY for buying it.   This is often the case at Rite-Aid if you buy prudently.

15. Me + Meal Planning=Less Waste/Less Spending
Since I began a weekly menu/meal plan in 2009, I find I am better at not letting food go to waste but I am also making better purchasing choices and my family is eating a better diet.  It has led to my being more organized in the kitchen, which has led to being more organized in other areas of my life.
I HEART Meal Planning!
This is not to say that there is NOT a time and a place to be spontaneous in the Kitchen.  Both have their place in my life.

So what were Your favorite Couponing Related Deals & Happenings in 2009?
Leave a comment and let us know!

Sluggy