CCCCC
Refund Cents
CCCCC
Tips & Talk
Working Out a Deal
(Front cover)
“I remember growing up inupstate NY and my parents collecting those green stamps. I remember licking them and sticking them into the books. Iwas always counting the books andsaving up for something special. It wasalways fun to go to the redemptioncenter and figure out what my familywould get. I guess that excitement hascarried over into my adult life.“I have only been refunding fora few years, but I’ve been couponing most of my adult life. I have always beena sale shopper and bargain hunter.It all started when I saw an ad inthe Sunday paper for one of thosecoupon wallets. With the wallet Iordered, I received info on
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, so Idecided to try it out. Boy, am I gladI did. I have learned so much fromthe people on the chat boards, thetraders and the magazine. I have used allthese tips to purchase many items forminimal cents, to get lots of free itemsand refunds. Living in San Jose, CA, wedon’t get the double coupons or many of the big deals that I am always reading about; but when I do see a great offer,I’m trading for coupons and I stock up asmuch as possible. We also don’t see manyrefund or rebate slips out here, soanything I get comes from a trade.“One of my favorite buys waswhen Maxaroni first came out, therewere $1/1 c/o floating around. When itwent 10 for $10 at our local Albertsons,I knew I had to try it. I traded for somany that my 2 freezers were full to thebrim, but what to do with all this food?My 4 kids could only eat so much. Icreated a soup out of them, adding thefrozen packages to chicken broth withcarrots and sausages. The end result wasa very delicious, cheesy soup that we allate happily many times.“My most successful deal is theone in which I’ve included the picture of my kids. I have 4 kids--Riyana is 13, Jerik is 11, Kerene is 9 and Jaeton is 6. All 4 of them are very involved in sportswith the 3 oldest being on highlycompetitive traveling teams. As a general rule, they drink a lot of Gatorade and eat Powerbars for in-between meals and snacks. Theproducts the kids are holding andsitting on were all free!!! When I look atthis picture or tell friends how I did it,I am still amazed myself.“It all started last summerwhen I noticed an ad in
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aboutgetting free Gatorade stuff with labelsand CRT. Well, I always keep the CRT onevery purchase, so I was in good shapethere, but what about the labels? This issomething I don’t usually keep around just in case. I needed 50 labelsfrom the 32 oz. size for eachcooler and I was hoping to getat least 2, one for each of my2 older kids’ teams. At thetime, Gatorade was also10/$10 at Albertson’s. Myhusband bought cases since he coaches a youth team and he is always bringing drinks for the team. My kids, the teamand myself were busy stripping labels off the bottles. No one could drink a Gatorade without first giving me thelabel. At my daughter’s soccertournaments, I would ask anyone whohad a bottle if I could get the label. Mostwould look at me funny but would gladlypeel it off the bottle.“As the summer wore on andthe number of games increased, wefound ourselves buying more Gatoradeat every sale. Without realizing it, I hadcollected 150 labels by the end of thepromotion. I was so excited to havefinally collected the labels and CRTs,even if it took all summer andparticipants from multiple sports teams.I happily sent them away and anxiouslyawaited my rewards. When they finallyarrived, I was very pleased. I received 3large coolers, each with 6 water bottlesand a holder for them. We have usedthem many times. It’s so easy to fill thewater bottles and carry them to a game.The large coolers make wonderful icechests on the soccer field.“The other great deal in thispicture are all the Powerbars. My kidseat these as snacks before games, so wetend to go through quite a bit of them,and they are fairly expensive, at least$1.50 each. Just recently, they were onsale at Albertson’s 10/$10. I knew thatthere were 1/$1 c/o floating around, so Itraded for all I could get. I ended upgetting enough coupons topurchase over 100 bars. ( Ilost count because as I wasbuying them, my kids wereeating them, so I never gotan official count!) On top of this, there were Catalinasthat came out with eachorder--‘Save $3 on yournext trip.’ Tiger’s Milk barswere also on sale at 2/$1, so for eachCatalina, I was able to get 6 Tiger’s Milkbars. The cashiers would see me gothrough the cash line many timesbecause as soon as a Catalina came out,I would get more Tiger’s Milk bars. Iended up getting 3 full cases of thesebars also.“As you can see by my picture(on the cover), my athletes had funposing for this picture and trying to holdall the bars for display. They now trulyunderstand why Mom spends all thistime and energy clipping coupons andtrying to get free stuff.“Thanks
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for such a greathobby. I really appreciate all that itteaches my kids about budgeting,spending and shopping for deals.”
Diane Straetker, San Jose, CA
Couponing Coast to Coast
“This summer I went to HiltonHead, South Carolina with my family--my husband and two boys, a 10-year-oldand 5-year-old. We stayed at a timesharethat we had traded for. What a beautifularea!“My coupon friend, Julie, hadasked me to do one thing for her while onvacation. She asked if I could go to thevarious East Coast supermarkets and gether copies of their circulars and evenEast Coast coupons to compare the oneswe have here in San Diego, California. Ifigured ‘no problem,’ my husband andtwo boys are used to coupons being aneveryday part of their lives, though theytease me about it, too.
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