Free things #2 Freecycle and a mascot

Bargain hunters know the value of free. There are many ways of getting free things, many of them legal. My favorite is FreeCycle. This is a grass roots group dedicated to help keep items with usable life out of landfills. Most counties/regions have a FreeCycle group, you just have to look for it. I know over the past year or so I've picked up a bread machine, fish gravel, a quilt rack, even a 6 foot air hockey table! All given away to prevent those items with usable life from cluttering our landfills. Here's a link to the Hendricks County FreeCycle group.  Everyone else will have to search for their own group. You can do so at the Freecycle homepage.


I highly recommend you join. You never know exactly what  you'll find. Today I found a mascot for this blog!

This is Risotto. He and his big brother Cannoli were offered up on FreeCycle, and I couldn't resist. I know they aren't the most popular animals in history, but I've always had a soft spot for them. Like everything else I've received from FreeCycle, their condition is better than expected (perfect, really) and both of the fuzz butts have adapted quite nicely to their new home.

Walgreen's Freebies 5/9-5/15

Ladies,
Get a free 7oz bottle of EOS shaving cream.

EOS Lavender/Jasmine Moisturizing Shaving Cream
EOS Pomegranate/Raspberry Moisturizing Shaving Cream

Both are $2.99 ea and get a $3.00 Register Rewards (RR) coupon for your next purchase.

Gents,
Walgreen's is offering a $5 RR for purchasing either the Schick Hydro 3 or 5 Blade Razor Systems. Both sell for $7.99 each. Now to make some money...

There will be a coupon in tomorrow's paper for $5/1 Schick razors. So combine the coupon with the RR and come out $2 ahead!

It feels amazing when a store pays you to shop!

Remember, 1 Q will print per transaction, even if you buy multiple eligible items, so do several transactions if you want to stock up.

Coupon friendly stores will let you do a few transactions at a time if there's no line. Avon - yes; Brownsburg - not during the day.

DON'T pay for your second transaction with the RR coupon from a previous transaction for the same item (this is called rolling the coupon, and Wag's doesn't support it most of the time).

I'll be updating my How/Where to Shop page tomorrow sometime with details on squeezing the most out of your Walgreen's trip.

This page has been updated. Click the link How/Where to Shop or here to see it.

A big thanks to MFH over at We Use Coupons for giving us a sneak peek at tomorrow's circular.

5/5/10 trip to Target in Avon

I started today with 3 $5 Target gift certificates. I did some searching to find some freebies while I was at Target redeeming them. Here's what I ended up with:

Transaction 1:
2 Venus Breeze razors (for LT), 4.99 ea (9.98 total)
Retail: 9.98
Qs:
2 $2/1 coupons for Venus razors from the 5/2 P&G insert
1 coupon for a $5 Target gift card WYB 2 Venus razors from the 5/2 RedPlum (which was mailed the previous Wednesday)

Subtotal: 5.98
Tax: 0.35
Total: 6.33

I used one of my gift cards and spent 1.33 out of pocket and received a replacement $5 GC.

Transaction 2:
1 Windex Multi-purpose grease cutter, 2.69
2 Tide single load samples, .99 ea (1.98)
1 pk underwear, 6.04
1 pk socks, 6.04
1 bottle Dynasty Oyster Sauce 2.39
1 gal 2% milk, 2.09
6 sticks Right Guard travel size, .99 ea (5.94)
Retail: 24.78

2 $1/1 any Tide, 5/2 P&G
3 $2/2 any Right Guard, coupons.com
1 $1/1 Windex Multi-Purpose, 4/11 SmartSource

Subtotal: 18.17
Tax(on 22.69): 1.59
Total: 19.76

Used my 3 $5GCs and paid $4.76 OOP.

Trip:
Retail: 39.09
Paid: 6.09
Saved: 33.00
Percent Savings: 84.4%

Notes:
The Windex completes my requirement for the SC Johnson Wax rebate (buy any 3 SCJ products and receive $5 in rebates,limit 3/HH. The form is Here(PDF)). I can claim 2 more times and have already purchased 5 Scrubbing Bubbles products earlier in the week.

The Venus razors for LT only come with one blade, but blades for her current razor are more than $1/ea. I got her 2 for $1.33.

The cashier gave me the overage on the coupons. Normally they adjust the value of the coupon, so I earned an extra 8 cents...

Which was more than wiped out by the milk. The shelf stated milk was $1.99/gal. I paid 2.09.

The cashier was extremely rude about my use of coupons. I called to complain to her manager when I got home. I've never done that before. A shopping trip like this shouldn't ruin your day AND make you want to never go back to the store.

Finally, oyster sauce is the secret ingredient to the brown sauce in Chinese restaurants. It's also fabulous on fried rice.

1 cp stock, (chicken, beef, vegetable)
1-2 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce

Mix and reduce over medium heat, yields 1/3 cp brown sauce