Fru-Gal Column March 31

It is time again for the TLC program “Extreme Couponing” that will air on Wednesday, April 6 at 9pm. You can watch a preview of the program on TLC giving you a little taste of what to come. I watched the preview and didn’t know to laugh or cry for these people. I know the show wants to be dramatic but what they are portraying is shopaholics stockpiling products they will never be able to use. I hope what we don’t see is that a good portion of what they buy goes to charity. I personally do have a stockpile of products but a reasonable amount. Most sales come around every three months so having six boxes of toothpaste will be more than enough to sustain you. The smash and grabbers out there that clear the shelves of products are not being fair to other couponers. I also feel that stores are going to crack down on limits which I don’t think is such a bad idea. I would like to see a four or five purchase limit imposed. You do know that you are allowed to get rain checks on items that are on sale but the store does not have on the shelf. Does watching the show help you coupon better, I don’t think so. What it does show you that it isn’t that hard to get things at a discount. You do have to spend some time on the process but not thirty hours a week like some of the extreme couponers. On the internet there are many blogs that even help you find the deals. Going on my site fru-gal-friends.com or new Herald Leader site findnsave.kentucky.com will give you direction to get deals on many different products. Learning how to shop is the best way to get deals. Open your eyes there are deals throughout your stores. Right when you enter a store they will display the weekly sale flyer, pick it up. Make sure you have your coupon organizer on you. Many times I have gone shopping to find manager specials or clearance sales match with a coupon getting an item free. If there is one store where you usually shop look for their clearance section, most stores have them. If I can teach you one skill, that would be organization. Cut out your coupons on Sunday; go to coupons.com to print out coupons on your computer of products you use then file in your organizer. Just think if you walk out of a store saving up to $10 a week that is over $560 a year. Not bad for a little bit of time. Can you save over $3000 a year, yes you can. I do! http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/01/extreme-couponing-date/ Do you have questions on couponing or just don’t know how to start? Come to my class sponsored by The Fayette Extension Service Homemakers at Central Library on April 14 starting at 6:30pm. Call (859) 231-5500 to register. Want to score free samples right to your mailbox. Be the first to weigh in on new products. Become a member of shespeaks.com forum, where you can sound off about your favorite products. The site matches members to sample products and services by their interests and asks them to write reviews. When you sign up at pssst.generalmills.com, General Mills will send you free product samples and coupons and might ask for your honest feedback about any of the products you try. Register for free at kraftfirsttaste.com and you will snag new products as they become available. When you join startsampling.com the company brings packaged-goods manufacturers together with consumers who want to test-drive new products. Just register and click on items you’d like to try. Want to sample products before you buy them. Walmart.com offer free samples of the newest brands and latest products. Start getting great samples in the mail. Become a member of vocalpoint.com then take some short surveys to tell them what you like, dislike and they will start sending you samples. When the samples arrive try them and then give your thoughts about the product. Kroger Supermarkets are giving away free sample sized bag of Frito-Lay chips on April 1 from 3pm to 8pm to each shopper. Watch a special Spring Gardening Webcast with Jamie Durie, HGTV’s host of The Outdoor Room on Saturday, April 9 at 9am. Enjoy exclusive offers and special giveaways only available during the live event. Pre-register at lowes.com/webcast. Surprising Stuff you can get for free. Savor a complimentary piece of Godiva chocolate every month and enjoy other benefits like free shipping on your first online order and free gifts with a purchase of $10 or more by signing up for the Rewards Club at any U.S. Godiva store or at godiva.com/rewards . Go to openoffice.org to download a great no-cost software alternative to pricey presentation and data-processing, use the free online editing tool docs.google.com Every day Amazon.com selects a free song of the day, which is available as a downloadable MP3. It also offers hundreds of free songs and albums in the free song and special deals section of its site. Join Aveeno to receive free benefits from special offers and promotions to free samples. Right now you will be able to receive a free sample of Aveeno Hair care along with coupon for buy any two Aveeno Positively Nourishing Lotion or Body wash and receive one free ($8.99 value). Rite Aid has Aveeno on sale for buy one get second one 50% off this week. https://www.aveeno.com/positively-nourishing-registration?coupon=10339 If you haven’t tried Amazon on Demand Movies yet, you can get a free $5 Amazon Video On Demand Credit. Expires March 31, 2011. http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/start In this week sale flyer at Rite Aid you will see a coupon for $3 off three American Greeting Cards purchase. I bought a Mother’s Day card for $2.79 along with two 99 cents cards getting all three for just $1.77. Coupon offer of the week at coupons.com is 50 cents off Stove Top Stuffing. Print out coupon use with sale at CVS to get stuffing for just 27 cents. Buy Tangled DVD with two boxes of Success Rice receive $5 mail-in-rebate. http://www.successrice.com/en-us/content/1413/Save$5-Mail-InRebate.aspx Print out $1 coupon for two boxes of Success rice www.redplum.com This week at Rite Aid buy Tangled DVD for $19.99 along with one Nexxus hair care item receive $10 back in UPs rewards. You can print out $3 Rite Aid video coupon for Nexxus. http://riteaid.adperk.com/ Don’t forget you will be able to do both $10 deal at Rite Aid and $5 Success Rice deal. This Saturday at Home Depot have your child attend the free How-To-Workshop from 9am to 12pm. They will be building a Planter/Basket in addition to the newly constructed project each child will receive their own orange apron along with an achievement pin. http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentView?pn=Kids_Workshops&langId=-1&storeId=10051