There is free lunch when you shop with strategies

§ December 5th, 2008 § Filed under bento, shopping § No Comments

I am a skeptic of FREE stuffs advertised and usually are able to stay away from all the marketing gimmicks. Few weeks ago, I read a feature story on the local newspaper, a woman talked about how she was able to save money and got great bargains using all the coupons. I went on the websites/forum given at the end of that story and started my research for two weeks.

It’s a game you play against the retailers and the manufacturers. As a math person, I find it really fun to find the best way to stretch the dollars or even get stuffs for free. At first, I clipped the coupons that I thought I might use and threw away the rest. Then, I learned about “coupon trains” and you can trade coupons that you don’t want for coupons that you can use with fellow couponers.

The strategy is to use the coupons combine with store sales and you would be amazed what you can buy for FREE.

Selection of stuffs that I bought for FREE or almost FREE using the coupons during store sales.

Organic tomato sauce

Organic pinto, garbanzo and black beans

The tomato sauce and beans were on sale “5 for $5″. With the $1 coupon, they are all FREE. Did not even have to pay sale tax! I don’t even know what to do with the beans, but they are FREE, I am sure I will figure out a way to use them.

Colgate toothpaste

The toothpaste was on sale for $2.99, with $1.50 coupon, and the $2 store voucher, a profit of $0.55 each!

Elastics and hair bands

Some elastics were on sale for $2.xx and $1.xx. The hair band was $3.99. A mix of them and use $2 manufacturer’s coupon for each, there are FREE !

Raynoc Batteries

On sale for $1 for a pack of two AA and AAA. With the $1 manufacturer’s coupon, they are …FREE! T said they may not last as long as other name brands, but who cares when they are free.

Organic Whole Wheat Pasta

They are normally $3+ per box, last week it was on sale for $2.50 with buy one get one Free, with the two $1 coupons, it’s $0.25 per box! This pastas don’t get bad and I bought enough to last us for a long time. : -)

Couponing 101 is to stockpile things when they are on sale and you have coupons that match up with the sales. Our pantry is stocked up with this whole pile for less than $10!

Aluminium Foil and Deodorant

They were on sale and were all FREE after coupons.

Scented oil candle holders and refills

These scented oil candle holders usually are $9.99 to $11.99 a piece! I bought them when the candle holder were on sale for $4.99 each and the refills were on sale $5 for two. I got them FREE with coupons! All I have to pay was taxes due at store that calculated taxes before coupons. At the drug store that calculated taxes after coupons, didn’t even have to pay a cent. They are going to be some of the Christmas gifts we plan to give to family and friends.

Scotch tape and gift wrap

These tapes were on sale $2 for two packs, with the $1 coupons, they were free. The store also gives $2 rebate for the tapes. So, I got 6 packs for FREE and will receive $2 in rebate. Not a bad idea to go to the store to get six packs of tapes and earned $2!

Arm and Hammer Laundry Detergents

Full retail price of the Arm and Hammer laundry detergent normally is $6.99 at the drug stores. With the $5 store coupon  and $1 manufacturer’s coupon, one bottle of laundry detergent is $0.99. The drug store was having a buy $25 get $5 voucher promotion.

First transaction, I bought 4 bottles of detergent, which rang up $27.96. After deducting the 4 X $5 store coupons and 4 x $1 manufacturer’s coupons, the total was $3.96 before tax. Sale tax is 7.5 % at where we live. So I paid $4.28 and get a $5 voucher for the next trip. Not only I get 4 bottles of laundry detergent at a bargain, I also gained 72 cents from this shopping trip. The $5 voucher can be used to buy the next 4 bottles of laundry detergent. I rolled that $5 voucher and wiped out the shelf.  Basically I got 18 bottles of the laundry detergent for NOTHING! Gave 2 bottles to the in laws and now we have 16 bottles in the store room.

I like my new hobby! Which hobby helps you to save money? All my other hobbies caused a hole in my pocket!!

Bringing bento to work

§ October 22nd, 2008 § Filed under bento § No Comments

In the last two years, in fact, in all those years as a bachelor, T often just had some junk food, coffee or skipped the first two meals of the day totally! By dinner time, he would be so hurry, he would have eaten a horse, if it’s available!

A combination of heavy dinner at odd hours and then late night snacks in front of TV. Are you even surprised he put on back the 30 pounds that he lost in the first two years of our marriage? Since he wanted to lose weight and stay healthy, we thought bring lunch to work might help.

As a start, we got a food container from Walmart, it’s not strictly a Bento box, just a plastic container that has two compartments.

The first day, I cooked a little extra during dinner and have the leftover Ginger Onion Chicken to go with the rice. Cut some celery and tomatoes for some extra fiber. It’s good that T loves vegetables! He just put the vegetables on a plate and reheated the rice and Ginger Onion Chicken in a microwave.

The next day, there was no leftover from dinner because he cleaned up all the Steamed Asam Catfish we had for dinner. So, I made him two slices of Peanut Butter Sandwich with Blueberry Jam, egg rolls and cut half an apple.

It went on well for the rest of the week except for one day he came back with the lunch unopened as he was too busy that day. It’s cold in the morning, my brain might be still trying to defrost, in a blur, forgot to take pictures of his lunches! I prepared most of the food at night, some days the lunches were all packed, he just have to take them out from the refrigerator and go.

I went on to purchase a Clickety Click three-tier Bento box from Ebay.

Thought the yellow Monkey who says “My name is Mink, I like to read the fantasy story. I am very excited when I read” is so cute, though T is not totally impressed with a monkey lunch box. He thought it’s for the little boys, not a big boy like him.:-)