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January 31st, 2018
This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.
When I was in my 20s, I worked part-time in retail management as a way to build up savings as I launched my own business. I’ve always had a penchant for dying my hair all kinds of colors, but since my workplace had a dress code requirement of natural hair colors only, I had to take a break from the bright pinks and blues for a while. Then one day, it occurred to me that perhaps a wig might be an option. What if I bought a wig that was a natural color, like brown, and then I could dye my hair whatever color I wanted? Genius!
But then, I started looking at wigs and realized just how expensive they can be – easily running over $100+. I looked around to see if there were any more affordable options, and ended up getting a $20 wig from an auction site. My clever plan worked, and I was able to go to work with brown hair while concealing my real, fire engine red hair underneath!
 Hard at work That was over 10 years ago, and there are way better options available today than just buying a random cheap wig! I was recently introduced to Divatress, an online wig retailer that specializes in remy hair, wigs, weaves, ponytails, accessories and more. They have a great variety of wigs in beautiful colors for as low as $14.95 with free shipping over $49 in the continental US. I work for myself these days, so I can have whatever hair color I like, but I still have fun wearing wigs from time to time so I’ll definitely be looking to Divatress the next time I need to pick one up!
Posted in Articles, Online deals | No Comments »
January 29th, 2018
Sponsored post.
Driving is a big expense, and one that’s hard to avoid. However, there are some ways to reduce the cost of having a vehicle – today, I’m going to share three things that I have done personally to cut costs on driving:
1. Buying a Car:
Buying a vehicle is a big expense, so I have personally always opted to buy used. This option is not for everyone, but it’s worked very well for me. The key here is to do extensive research on the type of car you want to buy, and when you’re looking at a listing, check through everything thoroughly: What is the vehicle’s mileage? Does it have any known problems? What issues does this model generally end up with over time? Buying a lemon that requires tons of repairs will not only negate any potential savings from buying used, but even worse, can pose a safety hazard; so it’s crucial to know exactly what you’re getting into. I would recommend talking to car-savvy friends and doing online research on a site such as Cars.com, which provides information and videos on popular vehicles so that you can begin your research, as well as listing cars for sale in your area. Knowledge is power, so read everything you can find and weigh up if buying used might be a good option for you.
2. Auto Insurance:
Jai and I go through an insurance agent to get the lowest possible rate on our auto insurance, while maintaining a good level of coverage. I’ve personally found that using an agent gets me better rates than calling insurance companies directly to compare, although I’m sure this varies. If you’re also a homeowner, there may be a discount for bundling your home and auto policies, but not always – for us, it’s actually cheaper to keep both policies separate! We also keep our policy affordable by having a good driving record; driving safely is its own reward, but it also has the side effect of lower insurance rates.
Finally, my last tip is something no one can control: Aging! Being over 25 gives both of us a better discount on our policy. I guess we can take that as cold comfort as we get older? 😉
3. Gas & Carpooling:
Currently, Jai and I are a one-vehicle household. I work from a home office the majority of the time, so there simply isn’t a need for us to have two cars, since we can coordinate our schedules for when either of us may need the car. This would be difficult for most people, but you can consider if there may be opportunities to carpool or reduce your driving time by walking or taking public transportation; this is not always feasible, especially if you live in a rural area, but it’s something to look at as a way to cut down on maintenance and gas costs.
 2008, the golden year of coupons! You can also take advantage of rewards programs to save money on gas at many grocery stores. When I started this blog 10 years ago, I wrote a post about an epic deal we got on gas at Safeway when I bundled my gas rewards where we ended up filling up my father-in-law’s large truck, and then siphoning off some of the gas into mine and Jai’s cars at the time. Yes, you have to be crazy committed to get that kind of deal, but hey, we did get 32 gallons of gas for $48.25! 😉 Extreme couponing aside, I still take advantage of gas rewards at places such as Safeway and Fred Meyer; I also find that having a Costco membership is a good way to access lower gas prices.
Do you have any tips I missed for saving money on your automobile?
Posted in Articles | No Comments »
May 3rd, 2017
This is a partnered post.
I’ve been couponing for eons now, and after a certain point, you think you’ve seen it all. So I’m always pleased when I discover a new and unexpected way to save money, which is exactly what happened this week. I’ve been using Groupon for years, including their more recent addition of Groupon Coupons, a database of over 77,000 promo codes for online retailers. I check for coupon codes every time I make an online purchase, but it’s never really occurred to me to look for coupons when I make a purchase on eBay. I’ve been shopping with them since the late 1990s and have seen maybe one or two coupons in that entire time, so I always just assumed they were a rarity. So imagine my pleasant surprise to discover that they have an entire page of eBay promo codes on Groupon Coupons! Current coupons include:
- Promo code for 20% a purchase of $25 across most categories (Specifies “Fashion and jewelry to home decor and more”), valid for two uses per customer. This offer ends tomorrow, 05/04/17 so hurry and use this if you have any eBay purchases planned!
- Promo code for 20% off musical instruments – some exclusions may apply, must be a purchase of $25 or more. This coupon also expires on 05/04/17.
Click here to snag these and other eBay promo codes. I’m pretty happy to find this new way to increase my savings on eBay – I’ll be making a few purchases on there this summer as I prepare for my August wedding, so now I know to check Groupon Coupons first! I guess you can teach an old dog new coupon tricks, after all. 😉
Have you discovered any creative new ways to save money recently? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Posted in Articles, Online deals | 27 Comments »
May 3rd, 2017
Click here to sign up for a free coupon for o.b. Original Super tampons or a free 40-count sample. I’m not clear on which one you actually get (maybe they send out the coupons when they run out of physical samples?), but you’ll get something free regardless. 😉 Thanks, Money Saving Mom!
Posted in Free coupons | No Comments »
July 28th, 2015
This is a partnered post.
I’ve been talking about Groupon for a good five years now – wow! Time flies when you’re saving money! 😉 Of course, Groupon is still going strong with their local voucher deals; and recently, I learned that they have expanded their site and added a new section: Groupon Coupons.
Groupon Coupons works differently from their voucher deals in that you don’t need to purchase a coupon or register for these specific deals. Groupon Coupons is a collection of promo codes and discounts for major online retailers such as Walmart, Target, JCPenny, and many others: At current count, there are 55,000 offers in their database.
To get started, you can check out the “Featured Coupons” on their landing page or browse by store. The deals from each retailer run the gamut from current promo codes for money off or free shipping to listings of current sales and deals. Here’s some current deals that I spotted:
75% off photo books at Walgreens
20% off select merchandise at Macy’s
10% off plus free shipping on $50+ at Forever 21
15% off at Payless Shoes
I always, always check around for extra deals before I complete any online purchase, because duh, I’m Super Coupon Girl! It only takes a minute or two and can save you some cash before you buy something you have to get anyway. I’m always on the lookout for new resources for coupon codes, so it’ll be interesting to see how Groupon Coupons will evolve!
Have you used Groupon Coupons yet?
Posted in Online deals | 9 Comments »
May 16th, 2014
Gift bags, gift cards and meal provided by Natural Grocers.
Earlier this month, Jai and I attended a blogger event from Natural Grocers in Gresham. Their Gresham location just opened in March of this year, so this event was something of a welcoming party to introduce locals to what Natural Grocers has on offer. This was the first time I’d ever stepped foot in one of these stores, so I was interested to see what it would be like.
As you might imagine by the name, Natural Grocers is something of a “Health food” grocery store, carrying nothing but organic produce and naturally raised meats – meaning no hormones, antibiotics, growth promoters, or animal by-products in feed. They also do not carry any products containing hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils and no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners. They actually gave us a big leaflet of products that they won’t carry and why, which is different for a grocery store! I care about supporting organic/free-range products whenever possible, and while I’m not necessarily a huge health food eater myself, I appreciate that many people are so it’s nice for them to have options for what they want to buy.
With their emphasis on food and health, they also have a Nutritional Health Coach in each of their stores who teaches classes in the store and community and provides free one-on-one nutritional coaching sessions; Gresham’s Nutritional Health Coach, Cathy Cooke, was on hand to talk to us during the event. Natural Grocers are big on the paleo diet, so they served us a brunch of paleo foods. I don’t follow this diet myself, but I did enjoy the food they served and will be sharing their recipes on my cooking blog next week for anyone who’d like to try them!
One thing that stood out to me during their presentation is that they made a point of telling us that they offer a living wage for employees – I thought that was a bold, unusual statement to hear from a company and I liked it! They emphasized their practice of hiring full time employees so that they can receive health insurance and other benefits. Also, Natural Grocers employees receive discounts along with “Vitamin Bucks”, a .75 cent voucher per every hour worked on top of pay which they can use towards purchasing items at the store. Sounds like a good job for a couponer! 😉
Which brings us to the part you’re all wondering about: How are the prices? Jai and I each received gift bags full of product samples along with gift cards, so that we could go shopping after the event. This is what I picked up:
1 tube of lip balm: .75 cents
1 tube of toothpaste: $3.95
32 oz bottle of body lotion: Regularly $9.99, on sale for $6.99
12 pack of recycled bath tissue: Regularly $4.99, on sale for $4.29
1 bottle of all-purpose cleaner: $3.95
Total: $19.93
We had 7 cents left on our gift cards, so I gave it to the next person in line so they could save a few cents, too. 😉 From what I observed looking around the store, it certainly seems like the best pricing I’ve seen for these type of products; the recycled toilet paper was actually a lower price than what I often see some of the regular toilet paper going for in our local Seaside stores. These certainly aren’t dollar store prices, but they’re also specialized products, so if you regularly buy these brands and go out of your way to get things like organic produce, I think this store would be a good bet because the pricing is the most competitive that I have personally seen for this type of stuff. Keep in mind that we have no chain health food grocery stores here in Seaside, so I haven’t done a ton of comparison shopping in this arena, but I have certainly visited other stores in this genre while traveling and the ones I’ve seen have been pricier. I was pretty impressed that they had small “Filler items” under a dollar, since I naturally wanted to get every bit of value out of our gift cards. 😉
If you’re in the Gresham area, you can stop by Natural Grocers at 407 NW Burnside Road, Gresham, OR 97030 (Right across the street from Kmart). They have some fun raffle boxes at the front of this store this month to celebrate their recent opening, so check it out, have a look at their prices and selection and let me know what you think!
Do you have a Natural Grocers in your area? Have you shopped at one before? What did you think?
Posted in Natural Grocers | 27 Comments »
September 29th, 2013
Because I’m so very frugal, I get free issues of All You magazine for review consideration. 😉
I just received my favorite issue of All You ever. When I pulled it out of my mailbox, the first thing I saw were these adorable Halloween crafts on the front. You guys know how much I love Halloween – I get ridiculously excited when I see fun Halloween recipe books or craft how-tos. Jai has been with me many times at the supermarket checkout when I’ll be marveling over the latest recipe for Ghost Shepherd’s Pie, or what have you. Before Pinterest, I used to buy these magazines pretty frequently – and I still love them, although I’m more pressed for time these days!
But then I flipped the magazine over:
Yep, an ad for The Voice! I have purchased magazines before just because they had a Maroon 5 article in them. So this magazine has Adam Levine, Halloween crafts, AND coupons! I can’t think of anything I could possibly add to make it better. 😉
I haven’t had much time to flip through magazines recently with all the traveling we’ve been doing. You’d think that being in a car for 5 hours would be the perfect opportunity for this, but ironically I’ve had my head buried in my iPhone most of the time writing work emails. I did, however, clip a cat food coupon out of August’s issue of All You for one of my friends who has cats and appreciates savings. I actually tucked a couple of cat food coupons into her birthday card, because that’s the exciting kind of friend that I am. 😉
All You also put out a Back To School issue filled with hints and tips for parents getting back into a Fall routine with their kiddos. There’s some yummy recipes in here also, along with a few coupons, although this is mostly a content-based special than a coupon-packed savingspalooza like the standard issues.
Posted in Reviews | 6 Comments »
August 5th, 2013
Click here to “Like” Safeway on Facebook and you’ll be able to sign up for coupons good for a free box of Cheez-Its and Dr. Pepper TEN or 7-UP TEN, valid at Safeway stores. Thanks, Free Hot Samples!
Posted in Free coupons, Safeway | No Comments »
July 29th, 2013
I’m on a lot of press mailing lists, which means that I will receive promotional copies of magazines, DVDs, or other items for coverage consideration. As I mentioned recently, I’ve been getting complimentary issues of All You coming to my door this year, which is great for this coupon-clipping journalist. 😉 I’ve discussed this magazine on here multiple times as a coupon resource; I think the number of coupons that will be useful to you from each issue all depends on your proximity to Walmart and regional deals. I can’t always use the coupons from All You because the closest Walmart to me is 64 miles away and this town is notoriously slow in getting new products that I might see featured; it all depends on the issue and what I’m up to that month!
Here’s my thoughts on the summer issues of All You thus far:
June: With all the traveling I did over June, I didn’t even get a chance to sit down and clip out the coupons I wanted from this issue until last night. Sheesh! Anyway, I clipped out a coupon for Stayfree with a long expiration date that I will definitely be using soon.
July: I’m not immediately spotting any coupons from this issue that I know for sure I’ll use, but that all depends on what sales are going on. I never disregard a coupon until it expires, because you never know what sales are going to come up.
All You Summer Fun Special Issue: There were $27.75 worth of coupons in this, but I didn’t realize they had a fairly short expiration date; looks like they all expired on July 28th. Whoops! Oh well – I’m going to pass this on to Grandma next time I see her. She’s enjoyed reading these before, so I pass on issues to her once I’ve used the coupons. I would share my coupons with her too, but she doesn’t like to mess around with coupon shopping so I share deals with her in other ways!
The nice thing about All You is that there are a lot of recipes, household hints and general lifestyle articles that are fun to read after you’re done with the coupons. I seriously still have some issues in my magazine rack from 2010 that I need to finish looking through…
In other All You news, I was reading that this magazine is now being sold at Publix, so there’s an extra option for getting your hands on a copy now! Previously it was only sold through subscription and in Walmart/Sam’s Club stores.
Posted in Coupon Resources, Reviews | 12 Comments »
July 21st, 2013
On Friday, I stopped by Fred Meyer to redeem a stack of free coupons:
Total Spent: $6.49
Total Before Coupons: $32.71
Got:
1 bottle of Soft Scrub Cleaner – regularly $3.67, used one free coupon I received from a product review I did on Contest Corner.
1 box of Wheat Thins – regularly $2.00, used one free coupon that I got from a recent promotion – I believe it was on Twitter? They had an “Insurance policy” joke where you could fill out a “Claim” to get a free box of Wheat Thins.
1 bottle of Satin Care shave gel – price: $2.00
1 tub of Pillsbury Gluten Free Cookie Dough – regularly $4.69, used one free coupon that I received through a recent free offer – I guess they and Betty Crocker have both been running competing offers lately!
2 bags of Simply Potatoes – regularly $2.99, used two free product coupons I received for a forthcoming product review on my new food site, Cooking Catastrophe.
1 package of Foster Farms Oven Ready Chicken Breasts – regularly $6.89, used one free coupon I received for a review on Contest Corner.
1 bottle of Purex Laundry Detergent – regularly $2.99, used one free coupon I received for a another product review on Contest Corner. I thought this was only available at Target, but I found it at Freddy’s so I was able use one of my coupons! Yeah!
1 package of bath tissue – price: $4.49
I also stopped by Dollar Tree to stock up on some items that I didn’t have coupons for, as Dollar Tree has the best shelf price on them:
I spent $7 and got some things I was running low on – cotton swabs, floss, and dishwashing detergent for my new dishwasher! I also bought a bottle of conditioner because I finally ran out of my stockpile a few months ago. I know! It feels so weird to pay full price for conditioner…
I also got two tubes of hydrocortisone cream and a hula hoop. Now if those two items don’t encapsulate summer, I don’t know what does! 😉 I was inspired to get a hula hoop after going to the Oregon Zoo earlier in the month and getting a lesson from the “Mayor of Hooperville”. I was only able to keep the hula hoop going for 30 seconds, but my abs were sore for 3 days – that’s got to be the most efficient ab workout ever, so I wanted to get a hula hoop so I can start doing this regularly for exercise!
I also had to share this Instagram picture that I took at the end of June, because it was a classic Super Coupon Girl moment. I had the pleasure of attending the FitBloggin’ conference in Portland, and every attendee received a swag bag full of promotional items from the conference sponsors. Well, at the very end of the conference, there was a table with all the leftover sponsor items, both from extra swag bags and also excess items left over from tables in the Expo Hall, where sponsors were handing out samples to attendees. The conference organizers were encouraging all of us to take home whatever extra we’d like, as they just had to offload it anyway. All the attendees left at this point were from out of town and had already taken all they possibly carry in their suitcases, since you can only take so much baggage on a flight before incurring big fees. I was the only person local to the area and driving, and they told me to to take anything left that I wanted.
I had so many boxes of freebies that I actually had to use a pallet to take it out to my car. That’s right – Super Coupon Girl brought home a pallet full of swag from the conference. 😉 And it was all great stuff: Food such as cereal, protein bars, shakes, free coupons for food items, vitamins, socks; tons of very practical things that we’ve been using every day. The few things we didn’t need personally, we shared with our family and friend, so every single item was put to use!
Have you had any adventures this summer?
Posted in Dollar Tree, Fred Meyer | 17 Comments »
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