The Coupon Whisperer

Family Dollar Surreal Coupon Experience

2012-01-22T04:35:00.001-08:00

The Family Dollar stores have a DESERVED reputation for being hostile towards coupons. Some of the stores accept coupons with no problems but others act like they absolutely HATE coupons...and couponers. One Family Dollar store in Broward County, at the corner of Broward Blvd. and State Road 7, is especially notable for their hostility towards coupons and I normally avoid it like the plague. However, on Friday, I was looking for some easy laughs so I went to that particular store more for entertainment purposes than to get the product, Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Kits. Yes, I did get my comedic entertainment but at the same time I also entered a surreal Twilight Zone.

I came up to the cashier with four Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Kits and this is what happened after the cashier stared at my coupons as if they were radioactive objects from an alien planet:

ME: I believe those strange things are called "coupons."

Then the cashier left her post and rushed over to the manager in the back office for consultation.

The manager comes over to me with his "sincere" regrets:

MANAGER: Sorry, we can't use those coupons because they expired.

ME: Read the date on the coupons.

MANAGER: December 31.

ME: Right but what year?

MANAGER: December 31, 2012.

ME: So what's the problem?

MANAGER: They're expired.

ME: What year is this?

MANAGER: 2012.

ME: Right, so what's the problem?

MANAGER: They're expired.

ME: Not until the last day of THIS year.

MANAGER: Oh, I see now. They aren't expired. I'm sorry for the error.

Okay, so cashier is about to scan the coupons when ANOTHER manager comes up to us.

NEW MANAGER: I have to check these coupons first on the computer.

ME: For what?

NEW MANAGER: I have to make sure they're not fake.

ME: Ma'am, these coupons are printed on both sides on cardboard. Not printouts from the Web.

NEW MANAGER: I still have to make sure.

(Five minutes goes by while New Manager checks on the computer.)

ME: Can I use my coupons BEFORE they expire at the end of this year?

NEW MANAGER: Sorry. Okay those coupons aren't on our list.

ME: Good. Let's finish this purchase.

MANAGER: But first, I need to call the corporate office.

ME: What for?

NEW MANAGER: To make sure these coupons are okay.

ME: Right because obviously the North Koreans could be taking a break from forging hundred dollar bills by switching to forged $3 coupons. One just can't be too careful.

(New Manager talks on phone for several minutes.)

ME: Why do I feel like I am trapped in a rip in the space/time continuum?

NEW MANAGER: Okay, they couldn't find anything wrong with the coupons.

ME: You mean we can finally complete this purchase?

NEW MANAGER: Yes, but first I have to double check with someone else at corporate.

ME: Why do I feel like I travelled back in time 70 years to a train checkpoint in Occupied Europe? Achtung! Papieren!

(Confused look on New Manager's face.)

(Minutes go by)

NEW MANAGER: Okay, I think I can let you use the coupons.

ME: Are you sure you don't want to completely waste another 15 minutes of my time?

NEW MANAGER (to cashier): Go ahead and check him out with the coupons.

ME: Gee! I finally get to see what life is like on the other side of Checkpoint Charlie.

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

Some of you might have seen the 60 Minutes interview last Sunday with the founder, Andrew Mason. I've been using GroupOn for over a year and maybe it isn't a great business model for them but for us customers, some of the deals are absolutely spectacular. For example last week I got myself a propane tank refill for absolutely NOTHING using my GroupOn coupon that I "purchased" last summer using my GroupOn bucks which means the propane cost me NOTHING. Perhaps the GroupOn business model might ultimately fail which was hinted at during the program but for now the deals are fantastic for us so I'm not going to worry much about the future.

If you haven't already signed up with GroupOn, you can do so by clicking HERE. It's FREE to sign up and the deals are tailored to your geographic area.

After you use GroupOn the first time, I earn more GroupOn dollars so I can continue getting FREE stuff. You can do the same via referrals.

99 Cent Quarter Chicken Meal!!!

2011-08-31T15:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have some good news and some bad news about this INCREDIBLE 99 cent quarter chicken meal. First the good news:

It truly is only 99 cents and it includes rice and beans at La Parrilla restaurant. NO coupons needed. I checked it out today with some trepidation since I usually like to eat a half chicken. However, while waiting for my order to be presented I noticed a plate with a HUGE mound of rice plus a large bowl of beans. I figured it must be part of an order for a whole chicken. I was WRONG! It turned out to be my order. I went to condiments table and piled up a bowl chock full of marinated onions. Then I mixed the rice, beans, and onions together. That along with the quarter chicken really filled me up. In fact, I was so full, I don't know if I could have even finished a half chicken if it had been available. Also the chicken itself was outstanding. Definitely MUCH better than Boston Market chicken and I think even better than Pollo Tropicale. The onions are really outstanding due to the way they are marinated for an incredible flavor and texture.

And now for the bad news and this will make many of you cry:

This deal is ONLY available at La Parrilla restaurant in Margate, FL from 11 AM to noon on weekdays. If you show up at 12:01 PM you are out of luck. You MUST be there at the time stated for the deal. For those lucky enough to live in South Florida, especially in North Broward County, you can find La Parrilla at 1875 N. State Rd. 7, south of Copans, in Margate. Be sure to take advantage of this deal as soon as possible because the ad flyer stated this will be available for a LIMITED time only.

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

Are any of you out there planning to visit Disney World between now and next March? Have you given any thought as to WHERE you will be staying? Well, good news! GroupOn is now offering a half off deal at the Mike Ditka Resorts in Kissimee. Among the amenities are full kitchens, separate living room areas, FREE shuttle service to Disney World, Wi-Fi, multiple flat screen TVs, and two thematic heated outdoor swimming pools. The prices range from $69 to $85 per night. The latter is for a total of six people in two bedrooms. You can buy two GroupOns if you want to stay for 2 nights. Hey, even if you don't need this deal, I highly recommend you join (free to join) and find out any great deal in the future by clicking HERE.

And, remember, only suckers pay full retail.

FREE Propane!!!

2011-08-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

Think "propane" and probably the first thing to come to mind would be Hank Hill of "King of the Hill." Lately, however, when I have been thinking of propane, the word "expensive" comes to mind.

I used to get a tank of propane for a mere $10 per tank at the City of Sunrise. Years ago that town had a fleet of vehicles that ran on propane (and what happened those vehicles?) but as that fleet was drawn down they still had a big propane station. So what they did was offer really cheap propane to the public. I used to love it. Just pull up to the propane station, hand them 10 bucks, and fill up my tank. So imagine my distress last May when I pulled up to the Sunrise propane station only to be hit with a notice that the service would NO LONGER be available. Talk about depressing...especially when I went to a regular propane station and shelled out 20 bucks.

However, good propane news hit me yesterday. Groupon sent me a notice that I could get propane locally for 50% off or just $10. Even better I had earned a bunch of Groupon bucks for referrals so paying with those, it meant NO money out of pocket, i.e. FREE!!!

I know there are some who claim that Groupon only offers deals on stuff that you don't need. Really? You might not need propane but The Coupon Whisperer sure does for his barbeque. If you have an emergency and lose power that propane comes in mighty handy for cooking up hot meals.

Anyway, it doesn't cost anything to join Groupon and you will be sent deals specific to your area. Refer your friends and it is amazing how many deals you can get for FREE like I did with this propane deal.

So what are you waiting for? Click GROUPON and get in on the deals. It costs NOTHING to join and you could end up scoring FREE propane.

Scour Your Dollar General Trashcans

2011-07-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

Reach into your local Dollar General trashcan? Yecccchhh! Yeah, maybe the more sensitive among you might revolt at that idea. However, if you do reach in and grab the sales receipts you will find some gold in the form of a $5/$25 coupon attached to each receipt that you can use on Friday only.

I don't know about you but I already have scenarios worked out where using this coupon in conjunction with manufacturer's coupons, I'll be getting tons of stuff tomorrow for FREE!!! If you really can't stomach reaching into the trashcans for the valuable sales receipts, then you can buy candy for about 75 cents each. I did that PLUS grabbed the receipts out of the trashcans to net me a total of 27 of the $5 off $25 purchase coupons. I recommend that you turn in your $5/$25 coupon FIRST followed by your manufacturer's coupons.

Over the past year I have noticed Dollar General stores popping up all over the place. With this type of marketing strategy it is no wonder. I just hope they have more such coupons in the future because The Coupon Whisperer will put them to full use.

Happy Couponing!!!

FREE "Personal" Product Week of July 3

2011-06-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

Who says they don't have a sense of humor at Walgreens? Here is their DEAL for the week of July 3-9:

Extenze Male Enhancement Formula 2 oz 2 pk $4.99 get $5 RR

So was this deal inspired by the recent news about Anthony Weiner? And I bet 95% of these items will be purchased as gags. Come to think of it, does anybody know Weiner's address? I will soon have a very special gift to send to him.

FREE Dial Body Wash

2011-06-13T15:17:00.001-07:00

If your are even just slightly involved in couponing and don't have at least a three month supply of FREE body wash stockpiled then HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME! FREE body wash is among the easiest products to obtain with very little effort. This week is an example. Publix has a BOGO sale on Dial Body Wash for both men and women at $3.97. In last Sunday's Red Plum newspaper insert there were Dial coupons for $2. Use a coupon on each of the body washes and you get them both for FREE with a 3 cent overage.

I picked up 4 bottles of my FREE body wash yesterday at the same Coral Springs Publix where I TOLD you that I bought my Combat roach killers with coupons. And who should be my cashier but May the super sales girl. Apparently she is quickly moving up in the world of commerce. She had read this blog and expressed an interest in renting out the BEST movie ever on the subject of selling---"Tin Men" starring Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfus. I also recommend that everybody else check out that movie as well. It shows what the world of selling is like in a very funny way.

One technique used in this movie is when a couple of aluminum siding salesmen posed as photographers who were working for a Life Magazine story about the benefits of aluminum siding. When the woman who owned the house they were photographing said that they didn't have aluminum siding, one of the "photographers" replied that her house would be the "before" house and that another home would be the "after" house to illustrate the improvement aluminum siding could make on a home. When the woman objected that she wanted her home to be the "after" house, the photographers told her that would be impossible due to her lack of aluminum siding. Then the woman begged to be the "before" house since she wanted to get the aluminum siding and asked the "photographers" where she could get it done. The "photographers" replied that they did know of an aluminum siding salesman who could fix her home up for her Life magazine story. Of course, the salesman was part of their team.

Your humble correspondent laughed at that scene since I had my own technique for closing a sale on high ticket items back when I used to sell 10 foot satellite dishes. My client was a guy named Charlie who lived in the California desert boondocks about halfway between Lancaster and Los Angeles. He was very interested in getting a satellite dish since cable wasn't available where he lived plus broadcast reception stunk. Well, I went over all the details as to the number channels he could receive plus price of the system and the installation cost which was $300. It was at this point where the all important "close" came. The natural inclination of almost everybody was that they wanted to "think about it." However, I had an ace up my sleeve. When Charlie hit me with the inevitable "I want to think about it," I mentioned that if we closed the deal that night I might be able to talk my boss into waiving the $300 installation fee in exchange for him putting one of our company signs in his front yard for 6 weeks. Well, I called the "boss" who was actually anybody who happened to answer the phone at the satellite dish company. When I mentioned the idea about waiving the installation fee in exchange for Charlie putting the sign in his front yard, I heard a chuckle and nothing more as I made like I was arguing my case with the boss. Finally, after "convincing" the boss to waive the installation fee I turned back to Charlie and told him the "good news."

It worked perfectly as it always did. As a finishing touch I told Charlie to PLEASE leave the sign in the front yard for at least six weeks and not take it down before then or I would catch hell from boss. In reality, Charlie could have tossed the sign in a dumpster the minute the installation crew left for all I cared. The sign had already fulfilled its main purpose---to get Charlie to sign on the dotted line. Unfortunately sometimes my sales pitch worked a little too well.

A couple of weeks after the sale, I got a phone call about 3 AM when the Santa Ana winds were blowing hot and furious:

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!!" the voice on the phone screeched.

"What," I asked sleepily.

"NOT MY FAULT!!!"

Who is this?

"IT'S CHARLIE AND IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!!"

I had no idea who this Charlie was waking me up so early in the morning.

"Charlie who?" I asked.

"CHARLIE THE GUY WHO BOUGHT THE SATELLITE DISH! THE WIND BLEW AWAY MY SIGN AND I CAN'T FIND IT!"

Suddenly it became clear to me who Charlie was.

"Charlie, don't worry about it. It was an act of nature."

"BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR BOSS?"

Charlie was actually worried that my boss would become enraged about the loss of a sign that we really didn't give a damn about and would maybe reclaim the satellite dish equipment.

"Don't worry. I'll straighten it out with him so please get back to sleep."

And that wasn't even the strangest of my experiences selling 10 foot satellite dishes. Like there was the time I sold a 10 foot satellite dish to a couple of guys in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles who bought the satellite dish on the condition that it be painted bright pink. Actually there were three guys there but the third guy was chained half naked to the wall so I guess he didn't count. Hey, it was Silver Lake. Any other place and it would be considered criminal enslavement. In Silver Lake it was just part of the local lifestyle.

Oh and in case you think I sold only high ticket items, I also sold Jesus nightlights for 2 for a buck. But that's another story which perhaps the Coupon Whisperer will someday tell in another story entitled: "Attack of the Jesus Nightlights!"

Combat Roach Killer---$1.19!!!

2011-06-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year when the cockroaches come out in force. Fortunately there is a really inexpensive way for you to get Combat Cockroach Killer in the syringe form which dispenses gel pellets that the roaches eat and ultimately kills them.

Here is how to do this deal IF you live in a Publix area: Get the Publix Yellow sheet and clip out the Combat store coupons for $3 off. Then go to the section of your Publix where they sell insecticide and take note of the "Blinkie" which dispenses coupons. Right now the Blinkies are dispensing $1 Combat product coupons. Now be sure you grab the boxes of Combat with a picture of the syringe on the front that look like the one above since it is selling for $5.19 each. Stack the two coupons together and you deduct $4 total leaving you a net cost of only $1.19 per box. A real cheap way of combating (pun intended) your roaches.

In my case, a fringe benefit of buying these boxes of Combat roach killer was meeting the BEST salesperson ever. It happened yesterday afternoon at the Coral Springs Publix on Sample Rd. near State Road 7. I had just entered the store when May the bag girl gave me a big smile and tossed a baguette of bread into my cart and chirped, "You're gonna absolutely LOVE this bread." And that is EXACTLY how great sales people make their sales. They assume the sale is done even before it ever happens. During the course of my checkered career I have sold everything from 10 foot satellite dish systems for $5000 to 50 cent Jesus nightlights and the most important thing about selling is COMPLETE CONFIDENCE in what you are selling. Assume ahead of time that the sale is done and 99% of the battle is done. Anyway, you sort of had to be there to appreciate what a pro May was at selling.

Oh, and if anybody out there wants to see a terrific movie about salesmen, then check out "Tin Men" starring Richard Dreyfus and Danny Devito. Some of the techniques used in that movie were very similar to what I used when selling the satellite dishes. Yes, they were big ticket items but for a certain stretch I was selling one or two of those dishes per day (once I even sold 3 dishes in a day) mainly because I assumed the sales were a done deal.

If you go to that Publix I mentioned, don't be too surprised if you walk out with a baguette that you originally didn't intend to buy. And does Publix know they have a top sales person in one of their stores?

Gillette Fusion Proglide Razor Cartridges---45¢ Each!!!!!

2011-05-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

When The Coupon Whisperer last left you, there was some doubt amongst you about his special powers due to the fact that the deal for the 89¢ Gillette Fusion Proglide Power Razor involved a Ping-Pong technique in which you would need to buy a hair product that many of you have no need for. Even though I quickly came back with an UPDATE in which I informed you that no Ping-Ponging was needed since the Gillette deal was rolling. This meant you could use your Gillette Register Rewards immediately on another Gillette and another Register Reward would print out. You could repeat that deal over and over again. With the manufacturer's coupon from the May P&G insert, the total cost for the Gillette Fusion Proglide Power Razor (including the kit which contains shave gel, thermal pack, and coolant) would be only 89¢.

Unfortunately I am sure many of you missed that vital update. On top of that you might also be hit with sticker shock over the cost of the Gillette Fusion Proglide razor cartridges. They can be quite pricey, selling in a pack of 4 for $16.99. Well, I am here to REDEEM myself with the incredible news that you can get those razor cartridges for only 45¢ each!

How to do it? Simple. Just buy the Gillette Fusion Proglide Razor as pictured above. Look carefully and you will see it includes TWO cartridges. The price is the same as the previous Gillette deal I posted but this time you get TWO cartridges. Since after coupons (manufacturer's and RR) the cost is only 89¢ total that means each of the TWO cartridges that come in this pack costs only 45¢ each.

No longer will you be forced to pay buku bucks for cartridges. My advice is that you stock up on these. The Coupon Whisperer himself bought a dozen such packages today for a grand total of TWO dozen razor cartridges. Buy those at straight retail and it would cost you over a HUNDRED BUCKS instead of less than $12. A savings of more than $88.

Be careful to make sure the package reads 2 cartridges when you purchase this because the power razor has only one blade cartridge and the packaging looks almost identical.

Remember, NEVER pay full retail. That's strictly for suckers and idiots.

Ping-Pong Your Way to 89¢ Gillette Fusion Proglide Razors

2011-05-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Great News!!! There is no need to buy the Optimum Care hair relaxer to do this deal. I checked it out today and the Register Rewards on the Gillettes are rolling. Use them over and over again on getting more Gillettes.

Well, it's been at least 6 weeks since I hit Walgreens hard. Yes, a couple of weeks ago they did have Air Wick compact air freshener starter kits on sale but after you've gotten the full sized Air Wicks at Publix for FREE like I did, it was hard to get excited about the Walgreens deal. On top of that, as is typical, all the Walgreens Air Wicks were gone within a couple of days.

However, this week there is a terrific deal on the Gillette Fusion Proglide razors, perhaps the best razors out there. They are on sale (power or manual) for just $9.89 with Register Rewards yielding $5. Use the $4 Gillette coupon in the May Procter & Gamble insert and your net cost will be only 89 cents. The best way to work yourself into this deal is to first buy Optimum Care hair relaxer or coloring kit for $6.99. You can print out unlimited $2 coupons for it HERE because it is a PDF file. Your first OOP on this will be $4.99 and will yield a $5 RR. Then use that RR on the Gillette razor which in turn will yield $5 RR which you can now use on the Optimum Care hair product. PING...PONG! Just go back and forth on this. Oh, and be sure to use fillers in each deal. Candy is on special for just 49 cents this week.

However, there is one glitch in this deal as The Coupon Whisperer found out yesterday. Since Optimum Care hair products were on sale last week, the Walgreens shelves are almost all EMPTY of this product. However, the Coupon Whisperer might have found a way around this problem and will do some experimentation on this later today. So how can I get around this glitch? Hey, that is why I am called the MIGHTY Coupon Whisperer.

This past weekend I was very busy with all sorts of coupon deals. However, my favorite deal came to me unexpectedly on Saturday when I found a J.C. Penney's $10 peelie coupon on the front of a local newspaper good towards any purchase of $25 or greater. Since I really needed a new pair of shoes plus the fact the coupon was good only for that day, I entered a Penney's store for the first time in years that afternoon. I knew I had a chance of scoring big since there was a sign on the door announcing a huge sale. When I got to the shoe department I noticed all LA Gear and Avia shoes marked down from $50 to just $28. I tried on a pair of Avias and, using my $10 peelie coupon, picked it up for only $18. And I must say this is the most comfortable pair of shoes I have ever worn. A real pleasure to wear them and that price can't be beat.

So ALWAYS keep an eye out for the front of newspapers. You will often find valuable peelie coupons on them. And I notice that these coupons tend to be in the higher dollar range.

And now off to my couponing!

A Spectacular Few Weeks

2011-04-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting to The Coupon Whisperer but I've been incredibly busy for the past few weeks due to a flood of SPECTACULAR deals. During this time I have been able to restock my supply of Ken's Marinade with about 4 dozen bottles. Also I now have enough coffee to last me until well into autumn. Other items which I now have in plentiful supply include olive oil, vegetable oil, dish soap, A/C filters, and TONS of both body wash and Air Wick starter kits including the new odor detectors. Meanwhile, my refrigerator is bursting at the seams with all the stuff I bought including lots of OJ, steaks, hams, beers from Spain, Australia, and Japan as well as wine, and a plethora of other items. Best of all the price was right...namely FREE or better than FREE which means MMs.

So what is the current great deal? Well, until tomorrow, you can get Nivea body wash for either men or women for FREE at Walmart using the $3 coupons found in last Sunday's SmartSource. Since they are on sale at Walmart for $3 that means they are FREE after coupons.

On Sunday I plan to take a break from couponing and then jump right back in next week since the Bic razors are on sale at Publix BOGO which, combined with the $3 coupons makes them FREE with a small MM.

As to the latest episode of "Extreme Couponing," did you see when Missy Eby stated that she collects 5000 coupon inserts per week? As to how she gets so many, she claims she gets them from "God." Well, either from God or from a friend at the local newspaper who gives her the unused inserts.

Right now battling a bit of a cold which I am fighting with my FREE Dayquils/Nyquils. They sure come in handy when you need them. I keep them right next to my stockpile of Advils (FREE at Publix this past week plus a $1.01 MM).

Remember, anybody who is even a half decent couponer should NEVER have to pay for body wash.

Some of The Coupon Whisperer's Favorite Couponing Sites

2011-04-11T08:36:00.001-07:00

If you want to be a successful couponer it is absolutely essential that you check out and research the many couponing websites on a regular basis, both as a way to find out the recent deals as well as to broaden your education and understanding of couponing in general. Here is a list of some of The Coupon Whisperer's favorite websites:

LiveFabuLESS

This is the website run by Jodi just up the road in Palm Beach County. Back in the Summer of 2009 this was the website (then known as NeverPayRetailAgain) which got me into couponing. I saw a deal there which had a link to coupons for Nathans hot dogs and which also informed me that I could use the coupons on each pack of Nathans even though it was on sale BOGO. I never knew that before. I always assumed that because something was on sale BOGO you couldn't use coupons on it. Not only that I was astonished to learn that you could not only use a coupon on the item you pay for but also for the free item as well. I immediately printed out the coupons and made a beeline for Publix even though it was after 10 PM. I was very happy to find out that I got each pack of Nathans for, instead of a about $5.00 for just about a buck or a buck and a half each. At that moment, it was like a switch went off in my head and from that point on I made every effort to learn everything I could about coupons...mainly by studying the many couponing websites. ...Oh, and a few weeks after I scored those cheap Nathans hot dogs, I scored FREE containers of Starbucks ice cream. My freezer filled up with those and since checking out Jodi's site, my refrigerator has always been packed solid with free/cheap food.

iheartpublix

Just a little while ago, I performed my Monday morning ritual. Checking this website for the upcoming Publix sales scheduled to commence later in the week. What is really great is that the sales are matched up with the coupons you will need to get yourself a great deal. Okay, many of you live outside the Publix area so you can still do the same by looking up the major supermarkets in your area. Most of them have websites dedicated to providing you with similar information about your local supermarkets.

Slickdeals

The best thing about Slickdeals is the forums. Check them out to find discussions of the latest deals. BTW, did you know that today only you can score yourself a FREE BlockBuster rental? You want that deal? Well, check out the Slickdeals forums and find out the details for yourself.

Southern Savers

This site provides info on great deals on a regular basis so I check it out daily...often several times a day. Check it out RIGHT NOW to find out how to score a FREE pound of Handmade Rotisserie Chicken Salad. If you're too late to take advantage of that deal, not to worry. There will be plenty of other deals cited there so keep checking back.

WeUseCoupons.Com

A wealth of coupon information here. Reading this site is like attending a Coupon University. In particular check out their Couponing 101 forum with their virtual Coupon Classes to get up to speed on the subject of coupons.

The Crazy Coupon Lady

You saw her grabbing coupon inserts in a dumpster on the original "Extreme Couponing" show last December and you can read her website which is highly informative as to the latest deals. Check it out NOW to find out about some great CVS Coupon Machine printouts this week.

i heart wags

There are several Walgreens websites out there and this is one of my favorites. The latest WAGS deals are matched up with the coupons. I also check it out to get a heads up on WAGS deals coming several weeks in the future so I can plan a long time in advance.

How to Shop for Free

The title is self-explanatory as to what you will find in this website by Kathy Spencer. Check it out RIGHT NOW to find out how to score FREE Colgate and/or Air Wick starter kits at CVS. Keep checking back to find out loads of other FREE deals.

And finally...the Mother Ship of all coupon sites...

Hot Coupon World

No serious couponer can do without bookmarking this site. It is the grand composite of all store deals as found in their Store Deals Forums. I not only check it out daily, I almost always check it out several times a day. You are almost sure to find your store deals at this site. Since so many couponers gravitate to Hot Coupon World, you are almost sure to find out the latest in vital coupon information here. Even if you fail to check out the other couponing sites, you MUST check out Hot Coupon World.

This is but a partial list of coupon sites bookmarked by The Coupon Whisperer. There are many more that I also check out. Oh, and be sure to check out the forum posts. Sometimes it is just a stray comment in one of those forums that can change your couponing strategy for the week. That has happened to me several times.

"Extreme Couponing"---Episodes 1 & 2

2011-04-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

The first two episodes of "Extreme Couponing" aired this evening on TLC. Many similarities with the original show which aired in December although I noticed some new bits of interesting information. Specifically "money maker" deals or "making money" was alluded to. For those of you new to couponing that means when you have a coupon so good that it is worth more than the product you are buying. The amount of "overage" aka "moneymaker" aka "mm" is applied toward your other products. That is why you saw the people on today's show able to buy meat, milk, etc. and end up owing hardly anything.

One criticism I do have of the show is that for dramatic purposes the people bought HUGE amounts of items on each shopping trip. The Coupon Whisperer prefers not to do that for two reasons:

One is that it makes me uncomfortable to piss off the people behind me on line who have to wait a loooooong time for me to do my couponing deals. The other reason is that if there is an error, it can be a real nightmare if you have a lot of items. Like how would you like to have over a hundred of items rung up only to have the cashier and/or store manager tell you that you can't do that deal. Even if they are in the wrong, the bottom line is that you WASTED your time being rung up only to have that effort go to naught. I much prefer to make several trips with relatively few items (compared to a hundred or more) being rung up.

For example, today The Coupon Whisperer had over $300 worth of items rung up (while spending only around 20 bucks total) but it was done in half a dozen different trips. No deal was nixed by the store today but that is exactly what happened yesterday. A store manager refused to allow my deal to go through. Both her and the cashier were surprised how calmly I took it. Why? Because I knew other stores would have no problem with the deal plus a HUMONGOUS rainstorm had just struck and it was a great excuse not to have my stuff get soaked on the way out to the parking lot.

BTW, that was one thing I liked about this episode of "Extreme Couponing." It showed how stores can complicate deals with new rules or their interpretation of the rules. Did you see where that couple had to call their friends to help them out to divide up their transactions? I hope future episodes of "Extreme Couponing" shows problems caused by store managers. Specifically I am thinking of a WAGS manager who claimed that we couldn't get Register Rewards on any items for which we use coupons. WHAT? If that is the case then his Walgreens is the only one to have such a ridiculous rule. The Coupon Whisperer would love to have the "Extreme Couponing" camera focused on the manager explaining that absurdity while your humble correspondent right there speed dials WAGS HQ to have a nice "chat" about this with the store manager.

Looking forward to future episodes of "Extreme Couponing." It will be interesting to see if they go into more detail on such conflicts. Of course, any show down here would be like "Extreme Couponing" as written by Elmore Leonard. In South Florida we sort of have a more relaxed (and eccentric) lifestyle than most of the outside world.

Well, that was the view of tonight's show by The Coupon Whisperer. What was YOUR impression?

FREE Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kits

2011-04-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

If you live in the Southeast, you're in luck for the next couple of weeks. Why? Because you can score FREE Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kits at Publix. How? Simple. The Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kits are all on sale for just $5.99 until April 15. Simply combine a $3 Publix store coupon for any Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kit found in their "One Stop. One Store" booklet with the $4 off any Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kit manufacturer's coupon and you will score your Air Wicks for FREE plus a $1.01 MM. And if you are wondering what "MM" is then Google that info because it doesn't stand for M&Ms in this case.

What is great about this deal is that it includes both the compact and the larger Ultra Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kits. I picked up several of the motion detector (batteries included) Air Wick Ultra Freshmatic Starter Kits for FREE (plus a $1.01 MM for each).

If you merely need a refill, you might as well pick up one of these starter kits since with this deal they are cheaper than refills. Also they make great gift items.

Don't forget to set your DVRs for Wednesday night to record "Extreme Couponing" on TLC. The actual show begins at 9 PM EDT but there is also some sort of preshow at 8 PM EDT so set your recorders for both hours. The preshow might be a repeat of their December show but I won't be taking chances so I will be recording both. And, of course, this show will be discussed here at The Coupon Whisperer.

Meanwhile enjoy your great smelling homes thanx to the FREE Air Wick Freshmatic Starter Kits.

SPECTACULAR eBay Gift Card Deal!!!

2011-03-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

How would you like to pay just $7 for a $15 gift card? In effect you are being GIVEN $8. Well, that is exactly what is happening right now with eBay OFFERING you this spectacular gift card deal. Yes, you pay only $7 but you get to buy up to $15 worth of anything you want from eBay with this card. If you buy more than $15 then the first $15 is charged to this eBay Gift card for which you pay only $7 and the remainder is charged to your PayPal account.

I've used these eBay gift cards many times. Simple to use. At payment checkout for your eBay item, you will see a box for entering your gift card Promotional Code. That will charge your gift card. In this case you will be sent via email a link to print out your online gift card which contains your specific promotional code.

I assume most of you already are PayPal members but you also need to sign up with GroupOn. Very quick signup and then you are ready to purchase this gift card. I was going to write up a special report on GroupOn for The Coupon Whisperer and I will do that in the near future but this is a great opportunity to jump into GroupOn with a great deal.

You have until Thursday night to buy this $15 eBay Gift Card for just 7 bucks. When I purchased this gift card last night, about 82,000 of them had been purchased but now almost 200,000 have sold. With a deal like that it is no wonder. A few hours after you purchase it, you will receive via email the link with your gift card promotional code and you can use it at any time. No expiration.

The Coupon Whisperer plans to use his eBay Gift Card to purchase, what else, coupons on eBay.

Don't procrastinate on this deal because it will be gone after tomorrow night. BTW, when you register with GroupOn for the first time, The Coupon Whisperer will receive a $10 GroupOn "bucks" referral. Hey, you can do the same and maybe earn enough GroupOn bucks to buy lots of GroupOn deals for FREE or close to it. But more on that later. The important thing is that you don't miss out on this deal. Oh, my local newspaper even had a small blurb about this deal in their Money section.

"Extreme Couponing" Returning as a Series to TLC Next Week

2011-03-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

Set your DVRs for 9 PM EDT next Wednesday, April 6. That is when the new TLC series, "Extreme Couponing," kicks off. They had it as a special last December and the response was so great that it has been turned into a series.

Judging from the video on the HOME PAGE of this series, it looks like they have new couponeers featured. I don't know if they will stick to the same group each week or if new couponeers will be featured each week. If the latter, I wonder if TLC would ever get around to contacting The Coupon Whisperer. They might not want me since I prefer to deal in quality, not quantity although when I first started out I went whole hog by getting enormous amounts of stuff that I had no room for. Also the Elmore Leonard quality of my life here in South Florida might be a bit too bizarre for the TLC folks. Like, for example, Randy the Gollum to whom I gave a lot of chicken wings just might be too strange for TV. Somehow I don't think images of this homeless Gollum washing himself off in a dirty canal would go over too well with audiences. Also some of the problem managers I run into which might make for good TV would probably be on their best behavior knowing they are being recorded. A certain throwback redneck store manager comes to mind and I don't think he would want the outer world to see him as he really is.

In any event I highly recommend that you record ALL these "Extreme Couponing" shows. They should have some very good tips that you can use.

Somewhat Off-Topic but there is now a TERRIFIC Publix deal going on. I won't tell you what it is but if you research you should be able to discover the deal. One hint: It is a $1.01 MM per item.

Enjoy "Extreme Couponing" next week! I will probably have "debriefings" of some of these episodes here at The Coupon Whisperer.

Save Your Ken's Marinade Coupons

2011-03-24T15:44:00.000-07:00

If there is one coupon you should be saving, it is the $1 Ken's Marinade coupon in the current SmartSource insert. I am planning on saving about 40 to 60 of them. They expire April 30 and there is a good chance that Publix or another store will sell them BOGO before then. Since they usually sell for $2.99 that means you can get this marinade for only about 50 cents each. Even better, Albertsons sometimes put them on sale for only a buck each which means you can score these FREE.

My favorite of their marinades for steaks is the Honey Teriyaki marinade which you can see above. However, for pork ribs, the Herb & Garlic is OUTSTANDING. I used this marinade a couple of weeks ago on some ribs you won't believe how incredible it made them taste.

Yes, marinade makes all the difference in the world when cooking meats. I don't see the point of buying expensive meat and then not soaking it in marinade. And with these coupons, the marinades can be incredibly cheap.

Of course, some people are clueless when it comes to marinades in particular and sauces in general. Such a person is my aunt whom I have always found to be quite annoying. Anyway, when I was sixteen I was visiting my uncle (her husband) and she made breakfast for myself and my 3 younger cousins who at that time ranged in age from 6 to 11. And what a HORRIBLE breakfast it was. Since my aunt was big on teflon she fried eggs by themselves in one of those pans sans butter or any other sauce. Then she cooked the bacon separately. As I told her at the time, her breakfast tasted more like it came out of a chemical lab than a kitchen. I also loudly told her that she was KILLING HER KIDS with such lousy tasteless food. Sooooooo..... I took it upon myself to RECOOK the breakfast fit for normal human beings.

First I cooked the bacon and THEN I fried the eggs in the same grease. As I told my aunt, that way the taste of the bacon would permeate the eggs. I really laid it on thick telling her that you can't cook food without using sauces, butter, marinade, garlic, etc.. I even asked the kids to rate my breakfast against that of my aunt it really pissed her off when the cousins gave my food their enthusiastic approval. What was really frightening is that until that time those cousins probably thought it was NORMAL for food to taste bland.

I knew all this was irritating my aunt which is why I thoroughly enjoyed that cooking lesson. As to my cousins, I haven't seen or heard from them in years but I am sure they still remember that breakfast that I prepared as the first time they ate food that wasn't horribly bland.

And right now, The Coupon Whisperer has three ribeye steaks sitting in some Ken's Honey Teriyaki marinade. Ready for cooking in just a few minutes.

Cheap Dog Food and Some Great Body Wash Coupons

2011-03-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

If you live in the Southeast, you're in luck. Starting Thursday, Publix will have a BOGO sale on 4 lb bags of Kibbles & Bits dry dog food. They normally sell for $4.99 but when you apply the $2 coupons from the Feb. 20 Red Plum they will only be about 50 cents each. This would be a good time to stock up on it. For only about 30 bucks you could have enough to feed your dog for a year.

However, if you don't live in a Publix area, there is still good news. This Sunday's Red Plum insert will have Axe shower gel coupons for Buy One Get One Free (BOGO). The only problem is that I have yet to see a store offer this item BOGO but there is always a first time. Even better news is that the April P&G insert will have a BOGO coupon for Gillette Body Wash and those I have seen BOGO in the stores so using your coupons on this item, you will get them for FREE.

The Coupon Whisperer is pretty well set in Body Wash thanx to the BOGO deal last week for Right Guard Body Wash. About a 4 month supply but I am looking to extend it to Thanksgiving if the Gillette deal works out.

Remember, the secret to effective couponing is to match the coupons with spectacular sales... And you don't get more spectacular than the BOGO sales.

Score FREE Right Guard Body Wash or BO Sticks

2011-03-12T18:37:00.001-08:00

If you don't score yourself a couple of FREE Right Guard body washes or BO sticks in the week ahead, then you have only yourself to blame. Why? Because this Sunday's Red Plum insert has a coupon for Buy One Get One FREE coupon for any Right Guard product. Combine that with the fact that Walgreens has a Buy One Get One Free on Right Guard body wash and BO sticks and that means you can score two of either of these products FREE. You only pay the sales tax unless you are one of those lucky souls who live in a state with NO sales tax. And I am really jealous of you folks!

A lot of you probably don't know yet that Right Guard recently introduced their own body wash. I admit that I was one of those who resisted that notion but after having used body wash, I'm sold on the concept. After all maybe half of your bar of soap is going to melt away in the shower. Better to keep soap bottled in liquid form. My wife resisted even longer than I did. I actually bought her some Nivea for Women body wash plus a bunch of Oil of Olay body wash (all FREE of course) yet she never touched them. When she asked me to get her some bars of soap, I told her no way since she had lots of body wash. This forced her to try it out and she immediately wondered why she resisted so long.

Well, this seems to be the best Walgreens deal this coming week but if any of you have Register Rewards, PLEASE give them a try at Walmart and report back here the results. Yes, you will have some resistance but the new policy definitely allows for the usage of Walgreens Register rewards there. So far this week I scored 2 FREE steaks, a barbeque chicken, sugar, and coffee at Walmart by using register rewards. A whole new world of couponing has opened up because of the new policy.

Oh, and enjoy your FREE body wash!

The Coupon Whisperer Scores FREE Walmart Steaks Via WAGS RRs!!!

2011-03-08T13:11:00.000-08:00

Yes!

YES!

YESSSSSSS!!!!

Please stand by as The Coupon Whisperer performs his victory dance.

Boom! Shaka-laka-laka!

BOOM! SHAKA-LAKA-LAKA!

BOOM!!!

Well, today The Coupon Whisperer performed his magic. I went to the Walmart located here in Broward County at the corner of Atlantic and Pine Island. I walked in armed with 6 Walgreens Register Rewards...Four $3 RRs and two $2 RRs. Usually I have RRs in larger denominations of $5 or more but because the deals of the past two weeks worked out best where I got the $3 RRs, I had to work with what I had.

The first thing I did before even buying anything was to ask one of the cashiers if she was aware of the new Walmart policy about accepting Walgreens RRs. Of course she wasn't aware of this policy so she conferred with manager Chuck who confirmed that they got an e-mail last week allowing the use of WAGS RRs.

Woo! Hoo!

Then The Coupon Whisperer took his shopping cart and picked up two sirloin steaks. One was $8.21 and the other was $7.57 or just under the $16 in RRs that I had. Because my RRs were in smaller denominations, I also picked up four bottles of soda to make the total number of products 6 to match the number of coupons. Hey! I had to get soda anyways.

Well, I get to the same cashier again and after she rung up my stuff I whipped out my Register Rewards to pay. Trouble. Suddenly she gives me some spiel about "double couponing." Huh! Then she called another cashier over who I was sure hadn't a clue about the real coupon policy and the other cashier also mumbles something about "double couponing." At that point a newbie would probably be intimidated but I replied in my most confident voice:

"I am The LEGENDARY Coupon Whisperer who lives, sleeps, breaths, and writes about coupons and I can assure you that I know what double couponing is and this is NOT double couponing since the number of Register Rewards in this case does NOT exceed the total number of items purchased."

That seemed to have put both cashiers into a hypnotic trance and my cashier suddenly nodded in agreement and took my Register Rewards.

And so, my fellow Couponeers, The (LEGENDARY) Coupon Whisperer has scored his first FREE steaks at Walmart via the WAGS RRs. Right now both steaks are marinating in my FREE Ken's Teriyaki marinade which I picked up at Publix a few months ago. It is going to taste soooooo good in about an hour.

Already The Coupon Whisperer is envisioning FREE gasoline sometime in the near future.

Walmart Field Report On Accepting WAGS RRs

2011-03-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I got pretty excited over the weekend when RummyChick ANNOUNCED Walmart's new coupon policy in which they will now be accepting Walgreens Register Rewards. Suddenly a whole new world full of glorious possibilities opened up for The Coupon Whisperer. But first to test out the new coupon policy in actual practice out in the field. Therefore, earlier today The Coupon Whisperer entered the big Broward County Walmart at the corner of Oakland Park Blvd. and State Road 7 armed with a $3 and a $2 Register Rewards.

I didn't want to start out trying anything fancy like a transaction with overage where Walmart would owe me cash change. In fact, I preferred to owe them a little bit OOP just to test out if they were accepting the Walgreens Register Rewards. With that in mind I picked up a bag of sugar and some coffee. When I got to the cashier, the expected happened. She didn't know a thing about the new policy. That was okay so I told her to check with the manager. No rush. I would smugly wait until the manager updated her. I shouldn't have been so smug. It turned out that the manager hadn't heard a thing about the new policy either. Rather than argue the point, I told her that she should check with corporate and that I would return in a couple of days WITH a copy of the new COUPON RULES.

Later this afternoon I stopped at the Walmart at Oakland Park Blvd. and University. This time I was fully expecting that EVERYBODY there would draw a blank. Same deal again. The Coupon Whisperer entered with the two register rewards and again picked up a bag of sugar and some coffee for his shopping cart. I get to the cashier and, again, a blank is drawn. Then she calls manager Kandee over and again I am expecting another blank when Kandee reassures the cashier that, yes, the new rules allows for the use of Register Rewards.

WOO! HOO!

The principle was established that Walmart WILL accept Register Rewards. However, a minor glitch. As I hand my two register rewards to the cashier for the two items she hits me with something about only ONE Register Reward per transaction. HUH? Manager Kandee wasn't sure so the transaction had to be split in two. After some awkwardness (and wasted time) splitting the transaction into two parts so I could use my two Register Rewards The Coupon Whisperer walked out of there making history as the FIRST customer to use Register Rewards at that particular Walmart. I just hope everyone gets up to date that you can use more than one RR per transaction so long as they don't exceed the number of items.

I can definitely see how a newbie couponer would be intimidated by the professed unfamiliarity with the new rules by the Walmart personnel. Such newbies would obviously feel that they, not the Walmart folks, would be in the wrong. Not so. Walmart HQ really needs to update all their managers (and cashiers) about the new policy PRONTO. And while you're at it, PLEASE let the Walmart at Oakland Park Blvd. and State Road 7 as well as at Atlantic and Pine Island, Atlantic and State Road 7, and Atlantic and Powerline know about the new policy and that would pretty much cover all the local Walmart bases for The Coupon Whisperer.

So if you are having trouble getting your local Walmarts to accept the Register Rewards then take it to the top. And I do mean the VERY top in the form of Mike Duke, the Walmart CEO. Don't be shy. E-mail Mike Duke at michael.duke@wal-mart.com. Tell him that The Coupon Whisperer is DYING to buy himself a nice juicy Walmart T-bone steak with his register rewards and that he is getting sick of eating microwave Walmart taquitos. Hurry. Because I am getting really really hungry and don't know if I can hold out much longer. Ah! Ah! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Oh, and after you take care of that major piece of business, go ahead and tell Mike about your own problems getting your local Walmart to accept your Register Rewards. However, the important thing is that The Coupon Whisperer gets access to his beloved T-bone steaks as rapidly as possible.

One Day Left to Score 50 Cent Purex

2011-03-05T18:01:00.000-08:00

If you had been following the coupon forums at HotCouponWorld.Com, you would have already known that Family Dollar store has a fantastic deal on Purex. The Purex with Zout 33 load bottles are on sale for just $3.50 so when you use the $3.00 Purex with Zout coupon from the February 20 Red Plum you could have scored it for only 50 cents. Tomorrow is the last day of that deal so if you have those coupons, you can stock up.

Yesterday The Coupon Whisperer was stocking up on his Purex and I had a STRANGE encounter with a Family Dollar store manager. When I showed the coupons to buy 4 bottles, the store manager said he had to check with Family Dollar HQ to find out what their coupon policy is.

WHAT???? How does a store manager NOT know what the coupon policy is? Does this mean that no one before me has ever handed more than one coupon to the cashier? BIZARRE!!! Anyway, after about 15 minutes of keeping me waiting, he said someone at HQ told him that only 2 of the same coupons would be accepted at a time which I know to be a complete crock since I have used many coupons at Family Dollar stores before. In fact, why would Family Dollar even object to the use of more than 2 coupons since they are the SAME as money. Actually even better than regular money since they also get a handling free for each coupon.

Anyway, there was no arguing with him so I got my 2 bottles of Purex and simply went to another Family Dollar store without a clueless manager.

This was like the captain of a ship wondering if rope could be used to secure his vessel to a dock.

Did You Score Your FREE Motrin + RRs Today?

2011-02-27T14:36:00.000-08:00

So did you score your FREE Motrin PM PLUS get your $3.00 Register Rewards today? If you didn't, then it is probably too late to take advantage of this deal. Since there was a big buzz about it on the Walgreens websites, the folks in the know most likely grabbed up the Motrin PMs already. It was a really sweet deal. For every Motrin PM 20 count you purchased, you got $3.00 in RRs. But wait...THERE'S MORE!!! There were also coupons out there for $6.00 off any two Motrin PMs. Since these Motrins are on sale for $3.00 each, that means you could have gotten two Motrin PMs for FREE as well as scoring $3.00 in Register Rewards.

The Coupon Whisperer got up bright and early this morning and a good thing he did. Although I scored a bunch of these Motrins early, it started slowing down by 11:oo AM since the smart folks were clearing them off the shelves. I had a dry spell that lasted over an hour in the afternoon but I lucked out at about 1:30 when I found a Walgreens with 20 in stock on its shelf. In total, I scored a grand total of 76 Motrin PMs which also yielded me 38 $3 Register Rewards worth a total of $114. Nothing OOP. I still have 3 of those $6.00 off 2 Motrin PM coupons left and perhaps I can still use them later in the week IF Walgreens restocks but I'm not really counting on it.

Meanwhile I have plenty of Register Rewards "ammunition" to play with this week. Luckily there are a PLETHORA of great RR deals this week at Walgreens so buying more stuff will yield me even more Register Rewards especially with coupons that make many of these deals moneymakers (MM). I am thinking of the Colgate Total Advanced deal as one example. A tube that is on sale for $2.99 yields $3 in RRs. Since I have coupons that knock that cost down to just 99 cents, this would actually INCREASE the value of my current Register Rewards. I am thinking that just ONE $3 RR can be used to buy the Colgate plus a $1.99 Polygrip which yields a $2.00 RR. Therefore by just spending sales tax OOP and the $3.00 RRs, I would get both these items PLUS $5.00 in Register Rewards. This is why it was important to score all those Motrin PMs earlier today so as to get lots of RRs to play with.

BTW, I have already used some RRs on food items. I had a $10 RR left over from a Neuragen deal last week. Since the WAG Wings are just $2.99, I figured I would use that RR plus $2.00 OOP to buy 4 boxes of WAG Wings. However, imagine my surprise when the WAG Wings rang up at just $2.50 each. An unadvertised sale which meant I spent NOTHING OOP to score those four WAG Wing boxes. I also used 2 of my $3 Motrin PM RRs to buy 2 59 oz bottles of Simply Orange OJ bottles which were on sale at 2 for $6.

Moral of the story here: Be alert in ADVANCE to the good deals because they run out FAST.

p.s. Am now working on a coupon method which might shave several dollars per gallon off your price of gasoline. If I can work this out, then please prostrate yourselves before The Coupon Whisperer and worship the ground upon which he treads. Hey, humility is my middle name!

FREE McDonalds Breakfasts and MORE!!!

2011-02-21T16:17:00.000-08:00

Had you checked out the back page of yesterday's Red Plum Sunday coupon insert, you would have found a GOLD MINE in FREE McDonalds breakfasts as well as a bunch of other Mickey D freebies. The big coupons are for the FREE Fruit & Maple Oatmeal as well as another coupon for a FREE Fruit & Maple Oatmeal with purchase of medium beverage. My strategy tomorrow will be to buy a medium coffee, score my freebie oatmeal, and then use the the straight freebie coupon to get oatmeal seconds. This is obviously a marketing attempt by McDonalds to introduce the public to their new Oatmeals which was introduced at the beginning of this year. I don't know how good it will be but at the price of FREE I can't go wrong.

Yesterday's Red Plum also had some other great McDonalds coupons on the same page such as a FREE Filet-O-Fish sandwich with the purchase of the same. Same BOGO deal for breakfast sandwiches and any regular menu sandwich. So why pay full price when you can score Mickey D meals for FREE or half price? All these deals are good thru March 27.

This is the best fast food coupon deal I've seen since KFC offered FREE chicken sandwiches with the purchase of a soda. The Coupon Whisperer is often on the road getting his bargains and always appreciates those fast food coupon deals.

Finally, are there any other Arizona Iced Tea addicts out there? If you are, then the good news is that you can get the large 23 oz cans of Arizona Iced Tea at Walgreens until Saturday. Just use the coupon inside the weekly flyer. Limit of 4 cans which means The Coupon Whisperer will be making several stock up trips to WAGS. I much prefer this iced tea to soda.

Next week will have many register rewards opportunities and one thing you might want to consider using those RRs on are the WAG Wings which is the Walgreens brand of chicken and buffalo wings. I already had them and give them a hearty thumbs up in the taste department. You should score so well with the RRs that you will be looking for stuff to spend them on and you can't go wrong with WAG Wings if they are on sale for $2.99 each.

p.s. I hope McDonalds has better luck with their new Oatmeal serving than they did with McRibs. The latter was a bigtime flop but they tried to revive it after many years but it also flopped on the second run.

Sensible Stockpiling

2011-02-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, many of you have learned some of the fundamentals of the art of couponing and you have gone HOG WILD! Suddenly you are stockpiling vast quantities of FREE (or almost free) stuff. However, you might also find out that you are quickly running out of space for storing all those freebies.

Welcome to the club. When I first began couponing in a big way nearly 2 years ago, I went overboard in the couponing department. Suddenly I had like a year's supply of toilet paper covering my walls. However, after a few weeks I had to ask myself whether I really enjoyed sitting down to dinner next to a wall covered with TP. The answer was NO. Therefore, after my TP supply began running low after nearly a year, I only stockpiled a modest amount which was completely hidden from view. My couponing skills have grown to the point where I never worry about running out of TP so I keep no more than about a 3 month supply on hand. Trust me, my tush will never do without TP because there are FREQUENT deals on TP as well as paper towels.

So do you really need to stockpile? On a modest level, yes. I have about a 6 month supply of BO sticks which has the advantage of being stored in a very small space under my bathroom sink. Ditto the body wash, shampoo, hair conditioner, etc.. I have Colgates aplenty to last me until this summer. Sometime before then, I have every confidence that I will once again score more Colgate to last me until next Autumn.

Anyway, this was one of the reasons why I had to laugh when watching that "Extreme Couponing" show on TLC a couple of months ago. I mean, come on, a woman who gets all emotionally full of pride over the fact that her walls are covered with rolls of toilet paper? Scoring free/cheap TP is NO big deal and can be done over and over again. The only thing I got slightly emotional about this past year (other than getting a laptop for FREE via coupons) was scoring really cheap milk to the tune of 76 cents per gallon. It was Lactaid. The coupons at the store were Blinkies for $2 and no size restrictions which meant I could buy quart sizes of Lactaid for just 19 cents each ($2.19 minus the $2.00 coupon) or 76 cents per gallon. I didn't mind the lack of lactose especially at that price. My refrigerator size sort of put a limitation on the amount of milk I could stockpile but since this deal lasted about a couple of months, I ended up with about 3 months of incredibly cheap milk.

So go ahead an stockpile but do it sensibly. Remember, almost all the good deals return again so you can relax and live in a home without TP lining your walls.

Restaurant.Com Review

2011-02-17T04:31:00.000-08:00

Most of you have probably heard of Restaurant.Com and are probably wondering if the hype lives up to the reality. In a simple word: Yes! However, there are certain things you must be aware of to properly use your Restaurant.Com gift certificates...

The basic way that Restaurant.Com works is that you buy a gift certificate ($25, $50, $75, and $100) which you can use to apply toward paying your total restaurant bill. Officially a $25 gift certificate costs $10 but The Coupon Whisperer is telling you to NEVER pay that amount. Why? Because several times a month, Restaurant.Com certificates sell for an 80% (sometimes 90%) discount which means that a $25 gift will sell for only $2 after you apply the coupon code they supply you. The higher denomination gift certificates also can be purchased for these same steep discounts.

There are a few simple rules that must be observed in order to use these gift certificates. In the case of the $25 gift certificates you usually have to have a total bill of at least $35 and leave a tip of at least 18% of the total undiscounted bill. No big deal for The Coupon Whisperer since he always leaves a tip of at least 20% (easier to calculate).

So how does this work in a real life application? Well, I have used Restaurant.Com certificates at the nearby Cannoli Kitchen which serves excellent oven baked pizzas. My last bill for a couple of extra large pizzas came to about $37. After applying my $25 Restaurant.Com gift certificate, that was reduced down to just $12. The tip brought my cost up to $20 so with the $2 cost of that gift certificate the total cost came to just $22. Had I not used the Restaurant.Com certificate, my bill would have been $37 plus $8 tip for a total cost of $45. Therefore my net savings were $23 or more than half.

The best deals you get with Restaurant.Com are for $25 where the total bill must be at least $35. For some reason the $50 gift certificates and higher have to be used on total bills of double or more of the certificate face value.

So what are the pitfalls of using Restaurant.Com? The biggest problem is that while the certificates themselves don't expire, the restaurants often do. In October I bought a bunch of Restaurant.Com certificates including for a Japanese sushi restaurant and a Chinese restaurant. Guess what? Both are now closed. So my advice to you would be to CALL the restaurants for which you are planning to buy gift certificates to make sure they are still in business plus don't wait too long before using your gift certificates to avoid any restaurants that might expire before you can visit them.

It is FREE to join Restaurant.com and you can search via your zip code to see what restaurants are available to use the certificates at in your area. You can even take a look at their menus online.

Once you decide on restaurants for which you want to buy certificates, simply enter the discount code (remember, NEVER pay the full amount) and pay via credit card. You can either print out the certificates from online immediately or print them out later from your account to avoid losing them.

Remember, the 80% discounts are offered several times a month so no need to panic and think the deal won't come around again. Restaurant.Com will notify you via e-mail of these discounts.

Bottom line is that with this service available, you would be crazy to pay full price for your restaurant meals. Just follow the simple rules (regarding total bill and tips) and you will save BIG by using Restaurant.Com.

Happy dining, Couponeers!

"You're Cheating the System"

2011-02-10T04:48:00.000-08:00

"You do know that you're cheating the system."

Those were the actual words said to me by a clueless cashier the other day.

Cheating? How? Was I using counterfeit coupons? No.

Was I using coupons for unauthorized items? No.

Was I using too many coupons? No.

My only "crime" was INTELLIGENTLY using coupons for the greatest price reduction possible.

Of course, that ignorant statement by the cashier drove me NUts!!! I replied by asking him how I was cheating. He could not answer with other than a general grumbling that I was somehow cheating.

The store manager noticed this scene and quickly took the place of the cashier who was embarrassing his outlet.

Anyway, I got to thinking that all store cashiers need to be thoroughly educated in the subject of coupons. In fact, it is because of coupons that most cashiers have their jobs. Just imagine what would happen if a store were to suddenly announce that it was no longer taking coupons. The first result would be an immediate drop in at least half (and probably a lot more) of its business with the result that many cashiers, including those who were badmouthing coupons, would be laid off.

It is the fantasy of The Coupon Whisperer that all retail establishments hold weekly Coupon Worship Services for their coupons. Attendance by their cashiers would be mandatory. Among the worship activities for the cashiers would be to drop to their knees and shout out in praise of the blessed coupons.

"HALLELUJAH! These coupons have given us our daily bread in the form of our jobs! Blessed be these coupons for we shall not want nor shall we be led unto unemployment."

Finally, there should be reeducation classes for the hard core anti-coupon cashiers such as the one who made the statement to about "cheating" the system. The reeducation instructor should hold up a coupon in his hand and ask the cashiers what they see.

"Coupons," they would respond.

The reeducation instructor would slam his swagger stick hard upon the desk and scream, "NO! What you see is MONEY! It is the same thing since your store gets reimbursed for the full amount plus a handling fee. Actually it is BETTER than money since it pulls in customers resulting in you keeping your cashier jobs. Now drop to your knees and shout 'Hallelujah' to the mighty coupon!"

As you can imagine, my fellow Couponeers, any cashier who gives The Coupon Whisperer grief about using coupons gets an earful from Yours Truly.

p.s. And the item for which the cashier in the incident above complained about has a normal retail value of $29.99 but after intelligent use of coupons, it only cost me a total 42 cents which also included a Valentine's pencil filler.

Learn From The Coupon Jedi Masters

2011-02-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hello Couponeers!

Today we shall learn that you can NEVER stop learning about effective couponing. Just when you THINK you might know all there is to know about coupons, whole new previously undiscovered worlds can open up to you. And in the case of The Coupon Whisperer the world of PDF file coupons opened up for me last night.

You see, I have been operating under the assumption that you can only print out a couple of coupons of a particular type from the Web. In most cases that is true. However, as I learned last night, there is a BIG exception to this rule.

Some of you might recall that I previously MENTIONED the Walgreens Yoda. Here is part of what I said about the Walgreens Yoda:

So last evening as I made my last Walgreens run of the day, who should I run into but the legendary Walgreens Yoda. Of course, I looked inside his cart to see what deals he was working on. I saw lots of Colgate which was great since that is what I was also buying. However, I also saw a whole bunch of Arnicare gel along with a stack of Arnicare gel coupons. It is selling for $5.99 with a Register Rewards of $6.00. However, sans the online $2.00 coupon, it was just a bit steep for me. So seeing all those Arnicare coupons in the Walgreens Yoda cart, I asked him how he could print so many since the online limit is usually just a couple. The Walgreen's Yoda answered me wearily:

"That coupon is a PDF file. There is no print limit."

Huh? That was NEWS to me. So late this afternoon I checked it out. Of course, the Walgreens Yoda was exactly RIGHT. No print limit so I printed out 20 of those Arnicare coupons. (BTW, I took advantage of a $1 ink cartridge refill day at Walgreens last year and am waiting for another such day.)

So there you have it. Don't assume you know everything. Even The Coupon Whisperer can be wrong and in this case I was spectacularly wrong so a course correction is in order for the rest of the week. In my case I am thinking of playing coupon Ping-Pong between the Arnicare and Neuragen PN. See, the Neuragen which normally sells for $29.99 is on sale this week (unadvertised special) for only $14.99. Using a $10 Diabetes & You coupon knocks it down to only $4.99. Then using the $6.00 Arnicare RR buys me the remainder of the Neuragen with a buck left over for whatever else I want. But wait...THERE'S MORE!!!

That Neuragen also spits out a RR for a whole $10 which I will Ping-Pong back to buying another Arnicare for just $4.00 after the printout coupon. And the remaining $6? Well, I have some terrific Colgate coupons which knock the $2.99 Colgate Total (6 oz) sales price down to just 99 cents each which means that $6 left over when buying the Arnicare will be used to purchase half a dozen Colgate tubes. Wash, rinse, repeat. PING-PONG!

Remember, the coupon learning process NEVER ends. And when you are around a coupon Jedi Master, observe and pay attention.

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Today's couponing adventure included me catering to a case of the munchies. It was late afternoon and I was getting hungry for a FREE/CHEAP supper. Sooooo.... I used a couple of $3 Natrol coupons to buy a couple of Natrol Melatonin bottles which sold for $3 each making them FREE! However the best part is that each bottle gave me $3 in RRs for a total of $6. Then using those $6 in RR plus my $10 Neuragena coupon, I bought a Neuragena plus a couple of cheap candies to account for the coupons I had to use plus bring my total over $6. Total OOP was only 56 cents and while the Walgreens Catalina machine was spitting out my $10 in RRs, I told the female cashier that the real purpose was to buy MY SECRET LOVE. The cashier looked at me with curiosity.

A few minutes later I returned to her with a couple of large DiGiorno pizzas in my hands that were on sale for 2/$10. As I approached the cashier I broke out into the Doris Day "My Secret Love" song which I saw her perform a few days ago on the tube as "Calamity Jane." Imagine the scene there with me singing horribly off key as I used the $10 Neuragena RR to pay for the pizzas while blaring out this SONG to my two beautiful DiGiornos:

Once I had a secret love
That lived within the heart of me
All too soon my secret love
Became impatient to be free

So I told a friendly star
The way that dreamers often do
Just how wonderful you are
And why I'm so in love with you

Now, I shout it from the highest hills
Even told the golden daffodils
At last my hearts an open door
And my secret love's no secret anymore

My intent was to give the cashier a bit of a break from her dreary routine. Didn't exactly work out that way since my rendition of singing "My Secret Love" to my two pizzas only seemed to irk her a bit. But, hey, I had fun and it made my couponing that much more interesting.

p.s. The DiGiorno pizzas purchase which was FREE spit out a RR of $1. Therefore calculating the 56 cents I spent OOP to buy the Neuragena that means Walgreens paid me 22 cents to eat my pizza tonight ($1 minus 56 cents equals 44 cents or 22 cents per pizza in my favor.)

Land of Double Coupons

2011-01-29T12:35:00.001-08:00

Do you live in the Land of Doubles aka Land of Double Coupons? This is an area where stores double your coupons, usually up to $1. The Coupon Whisperer used to live in the Land of Doubles when he was in Los Angeles. Back then, most of the big supermarkets doubled the coupons up to $2. There was even one supermarket that would TRIPLE the coupons twice a year. No problem at all buying like $400 worth of groceries for only about 50 bucks. And this was before the Internet was around to offer an easy guide for strategic couponing.

Since that time it seems like the doubling of coupons has been restricted to only a maximum of $1 but there are still a lot of places that continue doubling coupons. One downside for me was that doubling coupons got me lazy. When I moved to Florida, I was quickly bummed out by the fact that this state doesn't have any stores that would double coupons. As a result, I lazed off on my couponing because I thought there was now no point to it since the doubling factor was removed. Little did I realize that there are MANY other highly effective coupon strategies out there. In fact, I prefer that Florida is the Land of True BOGO where we can buy BOTH items free during a BOGO sale when we have BOGO coupons for that item. It seems that areas within the Land of Doubles are not also Lands of True BOGO.

So check to see if your state falls within the realm of the Land of Doubles. For example, I know that most of the state of Georgia doubles coupons. Even here in Florida, K-Mart sometimes allows coupon doubling but they put so many caveats and restrictions on it that it seems like you need to consult a lawyer first before doubling your coupons.

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One final note: the next two weeks look to be INCREDIBLE for working the WAGS Register Rewards deals. Investigate the coupon forums and find out the details for yourselves.

Happy Couponing!

How to Convert 54 Cents to 10 Dollars Via Coupon Magic

2011-01-23T18:24:00.000-08:00

What if I were to offer you $10 for every 54 cents you give me. Even better, to sweeten the deal for you, I would kick in 30 bucks worth of stuff for FREE. Sounds like a fantasy. Too good to be true, right? Well, guess again because that is EXACTLY what I did today many times over.

Had you been taking the advice of The Coupon Whisperer and been monitoring the Coupon forums, you would have known over a week ago about the big buzz surrounding the Walgreens Maalox deal. Here is how it works:

For every 30 dollars worth of Maalox you buy, you get $10 in Register Rewards. No need to shell out any where near $30 because in the January 9 SmartSource newspaper insert there was a coupon for $5.00 off any Maalox product. To make things even better the 12 oz Maalox Extra Strength bottles were discounted 25% starting today. Depending on which Walgreens you were at, that would make the price either $5.24 or $5.09. I, of course, chose chose the Walgreens stores where the $5.09 price reigned. Therefore, when I bought 6 bottles this brought the price to $30.54 which put it over that $30 needed to qualify for the $10 RRs. Then after applying the 6 five dollar coupons, the price OOP was only 54 cents thus earning me the 10 bucks plus getting 30 bucks worth of FREE stuff.

So what will I do with all that RR money I earned today? Plenty. One thing out of many is to simply apply the RRs to 4 Red Baron's pizzas since there is a WAGS coupon for 2 pizzas for $5 (limit 4). So dividing each pizza by the 54 cents it took to earn the $10 RRs, that comes to just under 14 cents per pizza. Not a bad deal.

And now I have Good News, Bad News for you. The Good News is that this deal is good until next Saturday. The Bad News is that the SMART people have already pretty much cleaned out the shelves of that Maalox today. To make things even worse, towards the end of the day, the Maalox coupons started beeping. The WAGS registers wouldn't accept them. Why? Most likely because someone in corporate HQ decided too many coupons were being used to score TONS of RRs. Actually this is pretty stupid on their part if this is what happened since those Maalox coupons are the same as money to them. Exactly what caused the beeping is still a mystery but I just gave my theory.

Anyway, it still worked out pretty well for me since I got an early AM start and had used up most of my Maalox coupons by the time the beeping set in.

So it looks like perhaps another good deal is Gone With The Wind but not to worry. I see another spectacular deal on the horizon. Better not talk about it since the WAGS HQ might nix that one as well.

So happy couponing everybody. And just remember, when one good deal is done, there is always another great deal just around the corner.

My FREE Thanksgiving Dinner

2011-01-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I was in the checkout line when I recognized the cashier. She was the same young woman from whom I bought a FREE 24 pound turkey the weekend before Thanksgiving. I remembered that her eyebrows jumped up a bit when the total price of my turkey rang up at only about 40 cents or something in that neighborhood (I like to owe a few cents so I don't feel completely guilty). Anyway, I mentioned to her that I bought my turkey from her prior to Thanksgiving but she didn't remember it. No wonder. Thousands of customers buying food from her and she is going to remember me, even though I did buy my turkey virtually for FREE.

Anyway, I thought back to those shopping days leading into Thanksgiving and recalled how my theme for that holiday was FREE. I had resolved that everything I would buy would be FREE. And it worked out even better than I planned due to couponing Not only did I get FREE turkey but also FREE stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, pumpkin pie, and other trimmings. I even got a case of Key West Beer for FREE (okay, really a couple of bucks due to tax).

So how did it work out BETTER than I planned? Because on the morning of Thanksgiving Day, I went to Walgreens for a little over an hour and worked a few deals that gave me almost a hundred bucks in Register Rewards. I then used those Register Rewards to buy toys for my two nephews and niece who were coming later that day. That was something I hadn't planned on.

Exactly how did I get my complete Thanksgiving dinner for FREE? I honestly can't remember. I racked my brain but still couldn't recall exactly how I did it. At first I was irked by my lack of recall but later I was happy about it. Why? Because there are so many creative ways to use coupons that I couldn't remember which scenario I used.

However, I can tell you just one of many ways to get free stuff at the supermarket: save the coupons that knock dollars off the final price of your bill. For example, yesterday I was in Winn Dixie and noticed 3 coupons in the waste basket that gave you $5 off a total bill of $35. So how does that get you to the sacred state of FREE? Simple. That $35 is for the total sale before coupons so if you have coupons that make the items totaling $35 FREE then you get to toss in a $5 item of your choice and you get that FREE due to the $5 off $35 coupon.

Of course, that is not the only way to get free stuff. Today I picked up a large DiGiorno pizza, 2 large cans of Arizona tea, and a loaf of bread for FREE using a $10 Walgreens Register Rewards and a WAGS coupon for the Arizona tea.

Each day is a new adventure in the Land of FREE for the Coupon Whisperer. Yesterday, my adventure was getting a FREE 2 month supply of coffee.

What I am telling everybody is that there are MANY ways to attain the golden state of FREE. Oh, and did I tell you that I got my Compaq Presario laptop computer less than a year ago for FREE via coupons?

Ping Pong Couponing

2011-01-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

Ping Pong.

I have fond memories of that sport since we had a ping pong table in our enclosed patio when I was a kid. Other kids from around the neighborhood would gather and play and the early evenings after supper were punctuated by the sound of the paddles smacking the ping pong balls. However, all was not sweetness and light. I still remember when the kid we called The Monk, who had what we would now call Anger Management problems, would often turn bright red with rage when he narrowly lost and would frequently smash open the ping pong balls with his paddle. Once he even tossed a ping pong ball into his mouth and began angrily chewing on it.

Ping Pong even featured in diplomacy since Red China first opened itself up to the USA by inviting the American Ping Pong team into that sealed nation. At the time legend had it that Senators Spong and Fong sponsored a bill to recognize this diplomatic effort by the mass ringing of church to mark the arrival of the American Ping Pong team in Hong Kong following its tour of China. Supposedly it was called the Spong-Fong Hong Kong Ping Pong Ding Dong Bell Bill.

Yes...I know, I know. By now you are angrily screaming "Enough with this Ping Pong shtick! Teach me how to save a bundle of money via Ping Pong couponing. Well here goes...

Today was a perfect example. All you needed for Ping Ponging entry to a veritable mountain of FREE riches in great Walgreens stuff was just 4 bucks. And that was the $4 you paid for 4 boxes of Sinex Nyquil (and Dayquil) on sale for $5 each. Then you apply four $4 Sinex coupons to each box and your net cost is that $4 entry fee I told you about. Okay, great. For just four bucks you get 4 Sinex Nyquil/Dayquil boxes worth 20 bucks but what has that got to do with Ping Pong Couponing? Well, notice that I mentioned that the total was worth $20. As it turns out, this month Walgreens is giving customers $10 in Register Rewards for every $20 of Vicks products purchased. Note that you don't actually need to shell out 20 bucks. That is the original value which you have just discounted down to $4 that you pay Out Of Pocket (OOP).

That $10 in Register Rewards represents the "PING" in this round. To get the amazing Pong return, just apply that $10 Register Rewards to a 20 oz bottle of Joint Juice selling, coincidentally, for $10 which means you pay NOTHING. Best of all, there is a return "PONG" serve of $10 Register Rewards generated by that bottle of Joint Juice for which you paid NOTHING OOP since you used the "PING" Register Rewards generated by the Sinex boxes.

Now we come to the truly amazing part of this particular couponing Ping Pong game. When you use the "PONG" register rewards to pay for another 4 boxes of Sinex (on which you will use 4 more Sinex coupons worth $4 each) you will have SIX dollars left over. What to do? What to do? Hey, I'll tell you what to do. You will add a Gillette Power Pro-Glide Fusion Razor. It is on sale for $9.99 and after you apply the $6 still left on your Register Rewards (be sure to add a small filler) you have gotten not only 4 boxes of Sinex Nyquil (and/or Dayquil) which will generate yet another $10 in register rewards but also that razor. But wait...THERE'S MORE.!!!

That FREE Gillette Razor which you will also be getting in that "PING" transaction generates another $5 in Register Rewards so the return ball is even more powerful since it is now worth $15 total in Register Rewards. Now all you have to do is go back and forth in this transaction. Each round of PING PONG couponing will generate $25 of Register Rewards. Twenty dollars you use to buy the Vicks boxes, Gillette razors, and Joint Juice and $5 more generated from the Gillette razor in Register Rewards to use any way you want. After just five back and forth rounds you get $200 worth of stuff almost free (just pay sales tax and for fillers) PLUS you will have $25 worth of extra Register Rewards with which to splurge on whatever you want at Walgreens.

My last round of Ping Pong Couponing today was quite fun. There were two registers I could have gone to for checkout. One register had a Darth Vader type of guy. Nix on that. The other register had an absolutely humorless cashier. Perfect! Why? Because I knew that after dealing with me she would always do her utmost to get me the hell out of there as fast as possible. Here is what happened:

I got to the cashier and began dancing in place and singing something like "I'm doing the Walgreens shuffle! One-Two! Ping-Pong!"

By then the humorless cashier was rolling her eyes and informed me that because I handed her a register rewards for the Joint Juice, I wouldn't be getting any Register Rewards which I knew to be incorrect so I continued dancing and singing:

"The Coupon Whisperer is correct 99.7% of the time. My infallibility is almost total!"

So I am sort of dance hopping in place when the Catalina machine mocked the humorless cashier by spitting out a $10 Register Rewards. The Coupon Whisperer made it worse for the cashier by dancing in place in an even more exaggerated manner and pumping his arms in victory:

"Yes! Yes! Yes! BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA...BOOM SHAKA-LAKA..BOOM! And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the grand finale of the Walgreens two-step!"

I handed the FOUR boxes of Sinex AND the Gillette Power Pro-Glide Fusion Razor along with a small filler to the humorless cashier who by now seemed to want nothing more than to escape from whatever planet The Coupon Whisperer was on.

"Bring it on! Bring it on! Bring it on to The Coupon Whisperer!" I sang as she rang up my items along with the coupons and the $10 Register Rewards generated by the Joint Juice. I stopped dancing and squatted down to eye level while talking directly to the Catalina machine:

"Bring it home to PAPA! Bring it home to PAPA!"

Suddenly the Catalina machine began furiously spitting out the $10 generated Register Rewards by the Vicks followed by another $5 generated by the Gillette Razor.

"Yeah, baby! Oh YEAH! Oooooh that felt sooooo good! Was it good for you? It was good for me!"

The humorless cashier couldn't take it any longer. She split the scene leaving a few people waiting for another cashier. But you know what? If I ever get that humorless cashier again, there is no doubt that she will do everything in her power to get me checked out quickly. And, okay, I have to admit that it was fun to tweak her. Hey, you gotta have FUn when you're out couponing.

I hope this has been instructive in getting you on the road to Ping Pong Couponing. I also scored 2 packs of FREE Wild Lox Salmon, a couple of bags of FREE Lenders bagels (or "bah-glez" as my wife pronounces it), and salmon spread cream cheese (also FREE). However that was via another method than Ping Pong Couponing known as "MM" but that is a subject for a future lesson, boys and girls.

Free/Cheap Pizza

2011-01-15T18:33:00.001-08:00

Ah, pizza! Who could possibly not love it? In fact, pizza is probably the most loved treat in the world. And the amazing thing is that most pizza is easily available at a price you can afford: cheap or, better yet, FREE!!!

However, as popular as pizza is today, it was a relatively recent development in the history of food. In fact, the basic recipe for pizza is entirely accidental. Although what I would call pizza precursors, flat bread covered with olive oil and seasonings, have been around for over three thousand years the basic elements of the pizza were entirely unavailable until fairly recently. The Coupon Whisperer should know since he wrote a TREATISE on the subject back in his Write4Cash (aka MakeAnEasyBuck) days. So be sure to take notes boys and girls because not only the amazing history of pizza but how to get it Free/Cheap via couponing WILL be appearing in your Blue Book exam.

The mozzarella element of pizza had to wait until after the 7th century AD when water buffaloes were imported into Italian peninsula. It still took many centuries, until the 17th century, when the mozzarella cheese from those water buffaloes was made and became popular.

Tomatoes were even more problematic. They had to wait until Columbus discovered them in the New World. And even after that it took several more centuries until Italians even began eating them because they thought tomatoes were poisonous. Were the Italians that stupid? Hey, no stupider than the Pilgrims who considered lobsters to be inedible and tossed their carcasses into the ground to be used as fertilizer.

And now we come to the accidental, yet wonderful birth of the modern pizza. Gluttons the world over must memorialize that great day in 1889 when Raffaele Esposito, a Neopolitan chef, decided to bake something special for Queen Margherita of Savoy. What chef Esposito baked for the Queen was the Italian flag. I'm not kidding. That is exactly what he intended to do. See, the colors of the Italian flag are red, white, and green. So the chef baked a flat bread covered with tomato sauce for the red, mozzarella cheese for the white, and basil for the green. Taste wasn't even a consideration. It was just supposed to LOOK good. However, some party guests couldn't resist. They desecrated that Italian "flag" by munching on it. The chef was probably quite angry when he found out but the guests raved about that tasty flag aka pizza. And now you know how pizza was born...it was really meant to be a flag. Which makes me wonder what would have happened had the Italian flag had the same colors as the Irish flag. Let's see. A pizza covered with basil, mozzarella cheese, and...orange slices. Hmmm...Somehow I don't think it would have been quite the hit as that other recipe.

By now you are drooling in hunger at the thought of pizza and are impatiently awaiting for The Coupon Whisperer to reveal how to get free/cheap pizza. Well, now you know how I felt this afternoon. I was in a Publix and a demonstrator there was giving out free slices of Red Baron microwave pizza. I prefer oven baked but I liked the price. Plus who in their right mind would turn down a free slice of any kind of pizza. So after gobbling down my sample, I asked for a Red Baron coupon which the lady demonstrator handed me. It was for a dollar off. I noticed that the Red Baron pizza is currently on sale at Publix at $5.97 BOGO so I asked Miss Demonstrator for another coupon. This time she refused stating that she was only allowed to hand out ONE coupon per customer. She also stated that since the sale was Buy One Get One FREE, I could only use one coupon anyways. WRONG Mozzarella Breath! You can use one coupon on EACH pizza...the one you pay for AND the free one. This would bring the total price down to $3.97 or just a couple of bucks each.

So how to resolve the dilemma of how to get my second Red Baron's pizza coupon? The moment I got home, I fired up my laptop and simply typed "Red Baron Pizza Coupon" into Google search and quickly found several sites where they are available. I went to one of the sites and printed out one of the coupons. Problem solved. So guess what I will picking up cheap at the supermarket tomorrow? Actually I will probably getting them for FREE using The Coupon Whisperer Secret Decoder Ring to resolve that minor problem. As you might remember, it was only a little over a week ago when I scored a half dozen FREE DiGiorno pizzas at Walgreens using my Register Rewards.

The fact is, most pizza brands have LOTS of coupons available whether online or in your Sunday coupon inserts. Because of intense competition there are so many coupons available that you can easily score free/cheap pizzas especially when they are on sale. Remember, match the coupons to the sales. And that tactic works with all other products as well.

Happy Munching!

The Importance of Fillers

2011-01-13T04:32:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, when I am out on a coupon run, I cross paths with the Walgreens Yoda. The Walgreens Yoda is a friend who eats, breaths, lives for couponing at Walgreens. He basically knows all the deals and is usually armed with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars of Register Rewards stuffed in thick envelops. So do I ask him for inside tips on the latest Walgreens deals? Nope. That question is strictly for amateurs since both Yoda and myself know exactly what the good deals are thanks to the many Walgreens blogs and forums available on the Web. The question I usually ask the Walgreens Yoda is: "What are the good fillers here?"

Huh? Fillers? What are they? Well, it would be impossible to do good couponing without fillers. They are the low priced items you often need for your couponing strategy. Ideally, it would be something you need like the tangerines above currently selling in the local supermarket for a dime each which I actually do consume. However, sometimes it is stuff I don't really need personally but is necessary to work out my coupon deals.

There are two basic reasons why fillers are important to effective couponing. The first is in places like Walgreens where you have Register Rewards or something like it. Let us say you have $10 in Register Rewards and you want to buy an item selling for $9.99. If that is all you're going to buy your Register Rewards won't work. Your total purchase must equal or exceed $10. This is where fillers comes in. If you buy a pencil for say, 16 cents, that would put you over the $10 you need to use the Register Rewards.

The second reason why fillers are very important is the coupon count. Most stores require that the total number of coupons you use do not exceed the number of items you buy. Therefore if you stack coupons (manufacturer's on top of store coupons) then you would need a filler for each item you need to meet the requirements of the coupon count. Yesterday, I was doing my "background buzz" couponing in which I was buying items in pairs. Each pair of items had one store coupon for a discount on both items plus I had manufacterer's coupons for each item. Therefore a total of 3 coupons for 2 items. If I bought nothing else the cash register would not have accepted it. The problem was resolved by buying one filler for every pair of items to make it 3 items to match every 3 coupons. In my case yesterday, I was using ten cent tangerines as my fillers.

And now you know why fillers are important. And now I'm off to munch on yet another of my tangerines.

FREE Tide!!!

2011-01-10T05:50:00.000-08:00

I used to get some really incredible deals via couponing on a variety of laundry detergents but my wife wasn't satisfied. She wanted only one brand: Tide. It seems that people from Venezuela have developed VERY strong loyalties to various product brands. For example, she also disdained any toothpaste except for Colgate (or "Col-gah-teh" as she pronounces it) although I have finally gotten her to become a fan of Crest as well. This wasn't a problem because I have been able to score a lot of FREE tubes of both Colgate and Crest via creative couponing. However, Tide had remained a problem.

The Tide coupons seem to always be for just a dollar. The 100 oz Tide is usually $15.99 in the store although sometimes it is discounted down to as low as $9.99 which makes the cost after applying the coupon $8.99. The 50 oz size is normally about $8.99 and when they are discounted down to $5.99 it is still going to cost you 5 bucks after the coupon. So how to get FREE detergent while keeping my wife from griping all the time?

Simple. I discovered travel size products which are numerous and include Tide. Just do what I did last Saturday and go to either Target or Walmart. I went to the travel size bin of Target and, using 10 Tide one dollar coupons, picked up 10 travel size packets of Tide. Each Tide packet has enough detergent for one laundry load. They were selling for 97 cents each so my final cost for them was FREE!!!

And now my wife isn't complaining about a lack of Tide. Now she is griping about how she has to go through the "trouble" of opening a Tide packet every time she wants to wash a load of laundry. You know what? TOUGH!!!

Oh and all the info about the travel size Tide packs and the coupon you need to use is pretty much self-explanatory in the photo above. You will probably find that same coupon again in your local Sunday newspaper on January 16 in the P&G insert.

Happy Tiding!

BOGO Salami! BOGO Salami!

2011-01-07T15:26:00.001-08:00

In the previous episode of The Coupon Whisperer I told you about the BOGO Hebrew National hot dog deal at Publix. Well, today I went to Publix to pick up a few packs but when I got to the display, my eyes bulged out. Next to the hot dogs was something I had been waiting almost a year to go BOGO: Hebrew National salami. Since it is so rare to get that salami BOGO and because it seems like there is a good BOGO hot dog deal at least once a month, I ditched my plan to buy the hot dogs in favor of stocking up on the Hebrew National salami.

A year ago when that salami was last BOGO, I had some good overage going so I got the salami FREE. On one run, I was near the home of my sister-in-law, Marisol, in Miami so I picked up some salami for her. Amazingly she had never even heard of salami before. Actually not so strange since my wife was completely unfamiliar with it as well. I guess salami isn't something that is very available in Venezuela. Probably even less available now since food in general in that country is in short supply thanx to the antics of Señor Hugo.

Anyway, both my wife and Marisol went wild after their first taste ever of salami. They couldn't get enough of it. After that sale was over, I assured them that the salami would probably be on sale BOGO soon. Oops! I was wrong. Almost a year has passed until the salami went BOGO again but I'm sure glad it did. I just hope it doesn't take almost another year until the next such sale.

BTW, food availability seems to be much different in Venezuela. Another item that neither Marisol nor my wife had ever heard of was "bah-glez." If you are unfamiliar with that word, let me explain:

Years, ago, when The Coupon Whisperer lived in his previous mortal form in California, he met a Mexican guy who told him about a remarkable breakfast item called "bah-glez." The Mexican guy excitedly explained to me in Spanish how terrific those "bah-glez" were "especialmente los bah-glez de jalapeño y queso." This was strange to me because I am quite familiar with Mexican food but had never heard of "bah-glez." I figured it was some really exotic item so I asked the Mexican guy for the address where I could pick up some "bah-glez" and wrote it down.

A few mornings later, I showed up at the address in the San Fernando Valley and let loose with a big laugh when I saw the sign: "Western Bagel." Well, I stood on line outside with the crowd in which I was probably the only non-Mexican and waited for them to serve up "los bah-glez." When it came my turn, I of course ordered several of the jalapeno and cheese bagels. After one bite I realized the enthusiasm of these folks for those types of bagels. It was probably the GREATEST bagel I had ever eaten. It wasn't just the incredible flavor but the texture of the bagel itself. The chewiness of the cheese which worked perfectly with the cheese oils and the kick of the jalapeno to make it by far the KING of all bagels. Over the next couple of years, I made it a regular routine to pick up those Western jalapeno and cheese bagels on a fairly regular basis. It was one of the few things about California that I missed when I moved back to Florida.

Years later, I discovered that my wife was completely unfamiliar with bagels when I took her to the Boston Bagel Cafe which was rated as serving the best bagel sandwiches in Broward County. Again, I chuckled when I showed her the menu and she pronounced it as "bah-glez." Mispronunciation aside she really enjoyed her lox, bagels, and cream cheese although it took some effort to convince her that lox is not the same as sushi which she hates. However, to this day, I have never corrected my wife on her pronunciation and, in fact, make sure I call them "bah-glez" myself around her.

I hope she never finds out because she gets FURIOUS whenever she finds out that I don't correct her English. Yeah, imagine how angry she would be if she ever finds out I didn't correct the way she says Colgate ("Col-gah-teh") or Palmolive ("Pah-moh-leeveh"). Come to think of it, during the past week I have picked up several tubes of FREE "Col-gah-teh" and FREE bottles "Pahl-moh-leeveh" dishwashing liquid using my amazing couponing skills.

So enjoy your BOGO Hebrew National salami if you live in a Publix area and perhaps you can use them to make salami "bah-glez" sandwiches.

Hot Dogs.....BOGO Hot Dogs!

2011-01-06T16:29:00.001-08:00

If you live in the Southeast, you are in luck this week. Publix is selling delicious BOGO hot dogs. Yes, nothing tastes so good as those BOGO hot dogs. Huh? What brand is BOGO? Actually any brand can be BOGO if the supermarket deems it so. In case you haven't heard, BOGO stands for Buy One, Get One FREE! And in this case the BOGO is for Hebrew National Hot Dogs for just $4.99. That means you get TWO packages of hot dogs while only paying for ONE.

A savvy couponer will be on the lookout for great deals even when no coupons are involved. However, I bet many of you thought that BOGO is such a good deal that coupons wouldn't be allowed. Well, you would be WRONG, Kosher beef breath! Even though I haven't found coupons to apply to this deal, you can use coupons on BOGO sales. In fact, what turned on the couponing switch for me back in the summer of 2009 was when I read online about Publix selling Nathans hot dogs BOGO plus I found a link to print out two Nathans coupons for $1.50. The amazing thing for me and why I got so excited at the time is that I was informed that I could use one of the coupons on the Nathans package that I pay for AND the other coupon for the free Nathans hot dog package.

I couldn't believe it so I made a beeline to Publix armed with the two coupons at about 10 P.M.. When I later walked out of Publix with two packages of Nathans for just a buck each after applying the coupons, I became a devout couponer.

Sounds great, huh? Guess what? It gets even better! Not only can you use a coupon on both the paid item and the free item but you can actually use TWO coupons on each item. Yes, if you have, say, a manufacturer's coupon for a dollar and Publix or some other store issues their own coupon for the same item for a dollar, you can use BOTH the manufacturer's AND the store coupon on each item. So if both coupons were available for the current Hebrew National hot dog sale, you would take $2 off EACH package making the total amount you pay just...99 cents or about a half a buck per hot dog package.

But wait...THERE'S MORE. However, we will now pause to give you time to fasten your seat belts because what I am about to tell you will cause many to fall out of their seats in astonishment. Also a few of you might punch yourselves in the face for not taking FULL advantage of the BOGO sales.

Okay, are you ready? Here goes. In many places which are known as the Land of True BOGO (which includes Florida), if you happen to have a BOGO coupon and apply that to the same product which also has a BOGO sale going on, you get everything FREE! Yes, you read that right...you get it all for FREE!!!!! All you pay is sales tax and not even that if it is food or medicine (no sales tax on those in Florida).

Right now some of you are probably in a state of disbelief at that deal. Believe me, so was I. The first time I used a BOGO coupon on a BOGO sale was last summer when Publix had a BOGO sale for Right Guard BO sticks. At the same time BOGO coupons for Right Guard also appeared in the newspaper inserts. Yes, I was informed online about this incredible combo of BOGO sales and coupons but I still couldn't quite believe it was true. Therefore when I went to Publix and turned in my 4 BOGO coupons for 8 Right Guard BO sticks which were $2.99 each, I closed my eyes. I did not want to see either the cashier or the machine go berserk. I was both relieved and incredibly HAPPY when a few seconds later the cashier told me my total was...72 cents for all 8 Right Guard BO sticks (the free BO stick half of the BOGO is not taxed).

So a word to the wise. Be on the lookout for those valuable BOGO coupons especially since stores often coincide their BOGO sales with their publication in the inserts. In fact, a little birdie has whispered into the ear of The Coupon Whisperer that there just might be a BOGO coupon for packages of BIC razors in this weekend's newspaper coupon inserts.

Rocky Couponing

2011-01-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

ONE-TWO!

ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO!

LEFT-RIGHT!

LEFT RIGHT!

LEFT-RIGHT!

LEFT-RIGHT! LEFT-RIGHT! LEFT-RIGHT! LEFT-RIGHT! LEFT-RIGHT! LEFT-RIGHT!

Combination after coupon combination!

Getting strong now
Won't be long now
Getting strong now

Yeah, baby! Today to an outside observer I probably appeared like some ordinary shlub obsessed with coupons walking up and down the aisles of Walgreen's. However, in my own mind I was the ROCKY of couponers scoring hit after hit on deal after deal. They just kept coming one after another. FREE Omega Factor 3 which yielded Register Rewards to get me FREE SalonPas Arthritis Pain Patches which yielded me Register Rewards to get me FREE (almost) Sinex spray which yielded up yet more Register Rewards to get me FREE Omega 3 again orrrrrr....the mother lode of all deals...a big $30 box of Colonaide cleanse which, after simply using the WAG booklet $20 coupon plus a $10 RR, fell before me in a FREE knockdown.

Did I need most of this stuff? Not really but it won't hurt to try out, say, that colon cleanse. Hey, it was FREE!

And I got a LOT of other stuff as the Walgreens Catalina machines kept spitting out out a horde of register rewards...even for stuff I didn't expect like FREE Afrin nasal spray and FREE Breathrite.

Reward after reward. Coupon after coupon. Overage after overage as one product after another product fell before the might of The Coupon Whisperer. A sea of FREE Omega 3s, Sinex, SalonPas, spaghetti sauce, bread, Jimmy Dean Breakfasts, Afrins, Breathrites, and TP. Ay! Ay! Ay! Acai! Cai! Cai! Ma...Ma...Macai! Cai! Cai!

And as the day went on with the stuff piling up I kept getting...stronger and stronger. Yes, I am running up those steeply ascending steps armed with my mighty coupons. Getting closer now. Almost at the top now. And HERE I AM as I jump up and down with my arms upraised in VICTORY!!! Can you hear it? The Rocky theme tune. ADRIAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!!!

YO!

Profiling Cashiers

2011-01-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

Profiling. That word has taken on such an ugly connotation in recent years. And yet, if you want to be a successful couponer, you MUST profile. And don't feel guilty about profiling cashiers. We all profile in one way or another. Those "enlightened" souls who claim they don't profile are lying. In fact, they are probably profiling people more than the rest of us.

My favorite part of the recent TLC show, "Extreme Couponing" was when Joanie Demer aka Krazy Coupon Lady flat out admitted that she profiles cashiers. And how does she profile the cashiers? As Joanie stated she definitely prefers young cashiers (such as the friendly cashier in the photo above) to little old lady cashiers. And from bitter experience I can tell you she is absolutely correct. If you want to spare yourself a lot of time and aggravation, avoid little old lady cashiers like the plague. You want a sad tale of just how horrible it can be if you throw caution to the winds and choose a little old lady checkout line? Just read what happened to me back in September when I was scoring a few free boxes of Advil at Publix...

I was in Publix and had picked up several bottles of 40 count Advil Liqui-Gels. All lines were very long EXCEPT for the 10 item or less line which, unfortunately, had the type of cashier that I just warned you about. I knew problems would ensue but I also didn't want to wait 20 minutes on line soooo... I get to the elderly cashier who had an angry looking mouth.

I handed her a couple of Advils. Normally they are $6.75 each but they were on sale for just $4.49. I handed her a Publix coupon for $5 off two which lowered the total price to $3.98. She pulled the coupons up close to her eyeglasses as she tried to figure out what the clearly stated $5 off two means. After about a minute she very reluctantly knocks 5 bucks off the price.

And then...I hand her two Advil manufacturer's coupons which were $2 each which made the Advils...FREE! That's when she violently shook her head and declared that I couldn't use those coupons.

I then explained that Publix policy allows a manufacturer's coupon to be stacked on top of a store coupon such as in this case. She still refused to ring me up so I requested the store manager. It was late at night so the store manager was a really young guy yet despite his youth he knew the rules and told the cashier to ring up the coupons.

The little old lady cashier grumbled and said the rules vary from store to store and I replied that the rules in each state for Publix are CONSISTENT. Then she mumbled something about how I shouldn't complain since she is ringing up all the coupons so I reply that she should just go ahead and do that without the grumbling.

All of a sudden she screamed "AHA!" (she actually used that word) and in an incredibly triumphant voice declared that the coupons are only good on 50 count or more.

She wasn't a good reader since in this case (which I admit is rare) the coupon actually said "50 count or SMALLER." I drew her attention to that "little" detail and she very sadly began to do the discount that she should have done without all the drama. But she wasn't done yet because she came up with an absurd final line of defense when she again triumphantly declared that the coupons didn't apply to my Advils because they were Advil Liqui-Gels.

I showed her the coupon up close and pointed out that it said good on ANY Advil. She countered again by claiming that my Advils weren't included because they were Liqui-Gels.

"Lady, what part of the word 'ANY' can't you figure out?"

Again more argument from her so I turned to the young manager who was listening and said, "Could you please bail me OUT of this nightmare?"

The manager looked at coupon and told the cashier, "These are good. Ring him up."

So she FINALLY rang up the coupons in the most depressed manner imaginable. ...And now you know why I say NEVER use coupons with elderly cashiers with tight angry mouths. They ALWAYS cause trouble for you.

Should you think I'm exaggerating the problems almost inevitably caused by the little old lady cashiers, then I invite you to give them a try while couponing. Trust me. You'll be sorrrrrrrryyyyyy...

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The Oscillococcinum Flu Medicine deal that I posted yesterday for Walgreens didn't work. See, the medicine that gives the Register Rewards is for CHILDREN'S Oscillococcinum and the $5 coupon in the WAGS January booklet is ONLY for the adult version. However, no big deal since I heard that stuff is not much better than a placebo. PLUS I did some QUICK research at Walgreens today when that deal fell through and came up with an even BETTER deal that worked perfectly for me. Here is how it works:

Buy OMEGA FACTOR 3 premium blend 1300 mg fish oil pills (tuna & krill). They sell for 10 bucks but when you buy it, you get $10 back in register rewards. So what to do with that $10 back? Well, the big boxes of Colonnaide 14 day programs is selling for $29.99 but with in the January WAGS there is a coupon for $20 off that product. Soooo....use the $10 register rewards from the Omega Factor 3 (plus the WAG coupon) and you get it FREE! Great deal but in my case I don't need it since I already had the Fantastic Voyage routine (sans Raquel Welch) done on my colon and everything in there was A-OK. In my case, I used the $10 register rewards to buy 2 DiGiorno Supreme pizzas which were on sale for...$10. Therefore FREE! Plus I used the WAG sales sheet coupon to get 4 Progresso Soups for $5. Then used a couple of $2 register rewards I had on my person to buy all those soups for just a buck. I actually could have gotten it free but I didn't feel like scrambling outside to my van to look for a $1 RR that I knew was sitting in an envelop.

So let's look at my shopping trip. I didn't get that flu medicine like I thought but I quickly switched gears and used a $10 RR I already had to score a FREE bottle of Omega Factor 3 premium blend fish oil pills (which I take everyday) then rolled the $10 that generated to score 2 free DiGiorno pizzas. Plus got myself 4 cans of Progresso soup using $4 in Register Rewards that I had from last week. Total out of pocket for all that...a buck.

The Strange Story of Coupon Mike

2011-01-01T13:33:00.001-08:00

I'm kicking off the New Year with a new blog. The main purpose of "The Coupon Whisperer" won't be to provide hot coupon tips, although I will be doing that. The primary purpose of this blog is to provide you with entertaining "war stories" from the field. Think of it as adventures in couponing. And so we start off with our first story...the strange story of Coupon Mike...

I met Coupon Mike earlier this year at his job when I was introduced to him by a mutual friend, who worked at the same place, because of our common interest in couponing. Upon meeting Coupon Mike, I must say I was very impressed by him. Rarely have I seen a more animated person. Coupon Mike had over the top enthusiasm about couponing which was highlighted by his wildly gesticulating arms, wide sparkling smile, and bright eyes as he happily related many of his couponing tips to me which I did my best to absorb as they tumbled out of his mouth at a furious pace. He was particularly enthusiastic about couponing at Walgreens and I have to credit Coupon Mike with sparking my interest in that store since I had mostly ignored it prior to meeting him. Since Coupon Mike proved to be a wealth of couponing information, I visited him several more times at this workplace and he always eagerly provided me the information that I sought which was much appreciated by me.

And then I met him out in the field... It was inside a grocery store where I spotted Coupon Mike filling up his shopping cart.

"HELLO, MIKE!" I happily chirped. "Doing some couponing today?"

He looked over at me but something about him seemed different. It was as if a balloon had been almost completely deflated. Gone was his previous enthusiasm and extroverted self-confidence to be replaced with someone with a diffident hunched over posture. Instead of his normal booming voice, something like a frightened whisper said:

"Um...um...um... I can't talk now. Have to leave right away."

The change in Coupon Mike was shocking and I soon found out the reason when he introduced his wife. I can't remember her name but the impression she gave was the angry Eye of Sauron which is what I shall call her. She never said a word to me following that introduction. The only response she gave to me after I said hello to her was an angry death ray glare. The Eye of Sauron effect was accentuated by the fact that at nearly 6 and a half feet tall, she towered over both Coupon Mike and me. Anyway, no matter how much I tried to get Coupon Mike to talk shop, he persisted in timidly warning me away about how he had no time or that he had an appointment somewhere.

Okay, perhaps Coupon Mike was having a bad day. We all do. And, in fact, a couple of weeks later when I saw Coupon Mike back at work he was back to his old self again. Wildly gesticulating as he described the latest coupon deals he found.

Then a few weeks after that, I again spotted Coupon Mike at another store...accompanied by the Eye of Sauron. And again, Mike timidly begged me to leave him alone as I thought I was sure to get zapped by an angry ray from the Eye of Sauron. Either that or she would just flat out strangle me. That is how much rage was boiling inside of her.

This pattern repeated itself yet again. I met Coupon Mike at work where he was back to his old happy self only to be followed by a complete metamorphosis when I saw him at the store when he was towered over by the Eye of Sauron.

Finally I showed up at Mike's workplace but not to see him about more valuable coupon tips. My purpose was to question my friend what the deal was with the Eye of Sauron. I figured maybe it was something I did or said that so enraged her. Fortunately my friend assured me that it wasn't my fault. It turns out that the Eye of Sauron just hates EVERYONE. However, this makes me more curious. If someone hates everyone, how does that person even survive socially? In fact, how did the incredibly friendly Coupon Mike end up being married to the Eye of Sauron? How did they first meet? Also how do you get attracted to a woman who hates everyone and lets it be known with her perpetual Eye of Sauron death ray stare? Perhaps I'll never find out the answers to those questions but I must say that I do appreciate the friendly coupon advice that Coupon Mike has given me...when he is out of range of the Eye of Sauron.

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And now for a hot coupon tip of the week. Starting on January 2, Walgreens has a $9 register rewards when you buy a 6-pack of Oscillococcinum Flu Medicine at $8.99. On top of that the January Walgreens coupon book is supposed to have a $5 coupon for that same item so when you pay $3.99 out of pocket, you get $9 back to spend on almost whatever you want. Since I have had a lingering on and off cold since Thanksgiving weekend, I think I'll give this medicine a try. You can't beat the price which amounts to FREE plus $5 net back.

UPDATE: The Oscillococcinum Flu Medicine deal didn't work. See, the medicine that gives the Register Rewards is for CHILDREN'S Oscillococcinum and the $5 coupon in the WAGS January booklet is ONLY for the adult version. However, no big deal since I heard that stuff is not much better than a placebo. PLUS I did some QUICK research at Walgreens today when that deal fell through and came up with an even BETTER deal that worked perfectly for me. Here is how it works:

So let's look at my shopping trip. Didn't get that flu medicine like I thought but I quickly switched gears and used a $10 RR I already had to score a FREE bottle of Omega Factor 3 premium blend fish oil pills (which I take everyday) then rolled the $10 that generated to score 2 free DiGiorno pizzas. Plus got myself 4 cans of Progresso soup using $4 in Register Rewards that I had from last week. Total out of pocket for all that...a buck.