CRAZY Coupon Carol

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Looking for Crazy Coupon Carol???

Well...you came to the right place....but we moved :) Once upon a time this was the correct address!!! You aren't very far away though.

Please update your link to reflect the change to:

WWW.CRAZYCOUPONCAROL.COM :)

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/CRAZYCOUPONCAROL

Friday, June 25, 2010

Mega Swagbucks Day

Today is Friday and that means today is my favorite day of the week... Mega Swagbucks day!! So head on over to Swagbucks and search your little hearts out.

What is Mega Swagbucks day?? It is the day when swagbucks are awarded in even larger denominations than usual (100, 200, 500) and I've heard they are awarded more frequently than normal. The most I have ever won on a search was 50 SB's but I know many folks have won much, much more.

What are these Swagbucks thingies??
Well, Swagbucks is a search engine that rewards you with points called Swagbucks (These can be traded in for prizes.) There is a wide variety of prizes to choose from but my personal favorite is $5.00 at Amazon.com!!! It costs 450 swagbucks and really it's not that hard to get to 450 between swagcodes and searches. You get 30 Swagbucks when you join. Since January 1st, 2010 I have snagged $150 worth of amazon.com giftcards!!! July 1st I plan to snag my next $25!

You might be thinking about or may have recently joined Swagbucks and I don't want you to be as lost as I was for so long...and since I love Swagbucks and love you..I want you to be successful and to love Swagbucks as much as I do!! I have compiled my best tips & tricks for maximizing your Swagbucks every day to help you get as many gift cards or prizes as you want :)

Swagbucks is totally free. I have NEVER spent a dime towards earning Swagbucks. I have received over $140 in giftcards without altering my own behavior very much or spending even one red penny out of pocket...this is a reason why I think everyone should be Swagging!

**Swag Codes are codes that are put out by TSG (The Swag Guy!) as a treat!!! They give out a range of Swagbucks codes now...sometimes they are worth 10 Swagbucks, sometimes they are worth 7, 13, 25, whatever. These codes are put out on Twitter, in Facebook, on the blog, in newsletters, in the form of a swag hunt etc.**
**A Swag Hunt is an awful lot like an easter egg hunt for letters that go into the code**

Tips for getting more out of using Swagbucks:
*Try changing all of your bookmarks (or at least the most frequently used bookmarks) to swagbucks searches for that website to get extra chances to win each day. I search gmail, blogger, facebook, franklin goose, etsy, amazon, hootsuite and slickdeals about seven times daily EACH! I WIN that way too!! I have won about 150 SB's that way in the past two days.

*Don't ever go straight to a website. Want to check out facebook and see who burned their tongue on soup at lunch? Go to swagbucks.com and SEARCH for facebook then click on the result that says http://www.facebook.com/ :) SUPER SIMPLE and you might win. If you don't then you don't....but winning is the best!

*Set Swagbucks.com as your homepage or a search for your old homepage as your homepage ;) That way every time you open your browser - you get a free search. Gmail has earned me at least 100 swagbucks alone!!!

*Check out the no-obligation offers each day. They change on a daily basis and as you are looking through them you will be awarded with 3 swagbucks for just looking & considering their offers!! (You can skip them all, all the way through - usually there are 6-10 offers) Here is the link to their special offers section.

*Check out all 3 walls on the special offers page. There are several "Free" offers available. On wall 2 I spent 2 minutes watching the karate kid trailer and earned 2 SB!!! They also offer tasks for you to do that are totally free and only take time for you to earn swagbucks. The one task available to me is for 45 minutes of my time for 31 swagbucks. I don't have that much free time - so i'll skip that option!

****As with ANYTHING on the internet.... ALWAYS be wary of signing up for anything that asks for identifying information....don't automatically assume they are scams. I post several affiliate links here and would never scam you or allow you to be scammed!!! Advertisements are not bad! Mailing lists are not bad. I get random high value coupons in my mailbox each week because I have been added to mailing lists!!! Use common sense and trust your gut!! Read the fine print! ****

*Search until you win in the morning - it doesn't matter what you search for - try a few searches or if you do a lot of searching throughout the day try your search on swagbucks first - it uses ask.com and google.com as the actual "engine" behind it so frequently it works just as well as google.com by itself!!!

*Search until you win in the evening - same rules apply as above. I use Swagbucks as my regular search engine and once in a while i pop over to google depending on what i'm looking for. In the morning and in the evening I do sit down and search for random things until I win at least once so I can get that extra 20 or so swagbucks a day.

*Be sure to become a fan of swagbucks on facebook - frequently there will be a swagcode announced there or a swaghunt will be announced. (PS - NEVER post an active swagcode ANYWHERE. They WILL Deactivate you!!!)

*Be sure to follow swagbucks on Twitter.

*Grab the swidget from swagbucks (Or just use mine - you can search with it or check it for swagcodes - mine is at the top right of my main page)

*Read the swagblog daily - there are frequently codes in the blog!

*Sign up for the Newsletter! - There is almost always a code in the newsletter!! (I can't link this one!!) on the main swagbucks page scroll down on the left till ya see "Newsletter" with the mini envelope beside it. Click there and a javascript window opens asking for your email addy.

*Submit Poll ideas - They award swagbucks for and poll ideas that you submit :) You can submit them to the email address: pollideas@swagbucks.com I can think of at least one person who is hillarious enough to rack up some swagbucks this way.

*Share swagging with your family friends and strangers and help them figure out how to sign up because when you refer someone - every time they win swagbucks - YOU DO TOO!!!

*Download the swagbucks search bar (For IE and Firefox) or install the Plug Ins for your browser!! Then use it to search - the search bar also tells you how many swagbucks you have and they sometimes send you codes right to the swagbar!!

*Create Swagbucks Referral cards! Vistaprint almost always has deals where you can get 250 FREE business cards and pay shipping of something like $6.00 and then you can put your referral address there on the card along with your email address and maybe start a blog somewhere with the purpose of posting a page just like this to help folks learn to use Swagbucks. Put that address on the card too. This works - trust me! I can't tell you how many times i've had to guess at my referral address while I am out in the grocery store or at church telling someone how I get stuff free.

That is all I can think of. Veteran Swagsters ... do any of you have more suggestions????

You can go here to join.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Mega Swagbucks Day

*Be sure to follow swagbucks on Twitter.

You can go here to join.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Mega Swagbucks Day

*Be sure to follow swagbucks on Twitter.

You can go here to join.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Rite Aid: Pampers & Easy Ups on Clearance 50% off!!!

According to My sister (a Rite Aid Pharmacist), Rite Aid has Pampers and Easy Ups clearanced to 50% off.
Remember the $5/$25 coupon HERE
-$1.50/1 Pampers Diapers or Pants, any - 06-06-10 PG

Quiznos: $2.99 for a Sandwich, chips and a drink!!

Quick! go print this coupon for any small sub, chips and drink for $2.99 at Quiznos!! It went fast the last time it was available!!

PSA: Blog will soon be moving

Hi!

Just want to share a little bit about what's going on to hopefully avoid you being confused!!

Several other bloggers have found their blogs locked or deleted by blogger/google for no reason. There is a lot of speculation as to WHY their blogs are being locked (The use of words like Sale or Free ; Multiple posts linking back to the same blog; many posts that are similar to each other etc)

Out of the fear of waking up one morning to my blog being locked I am moving my blog over to the wordpress platform.

If you are currently visiting the blog via the url: http://www.crazycouponcarol.com/ then you should be okay up until I am ready for the new site to be unveiled.

If you currently use http://crazycouponcarol.com/ then you will end up on the new site for now. So in order to continue getting all the great deals, you will want to point your browser to http://www.crazycouponcarol.com/

if you are using crazycouponcarol.blogspot.com then you are still good :) that will always point right here!

I'm not real sure how long it will take me to get the blog moved since i'm doing it all myself but i'm hoping to get it done within the next two weeks. :)

Nothing major ;) Just wanted to give you a heads up in case you are someone who gets here by typing crazycouponcarol.com :)

Coupon Lingo

Hello! I hope you are enjoying my series Coupons for Beginners If you have not been following along or are just now seeing this, you can catch up with Coupons for Beginners, and Coupon Basics.

When you are first plopped into the couponing world it can be very confusing. When I first began learning to coupon I felt like I was losing my mind. Reading lines like this one:

"Use $3/1 and $2/1 SQ and GB $4 OYNO!"

made me want to cry. I was like "What is a MQ? What is an SQ? Grab Bag? They misspelled Oh no?" The translation of that line is:

"Use a $3.00 off one Manufacturer Coupon and a $2.00 off one Store coupon and you get back (a coupon) for $4.00 On Your Next Order!"

So in the interest of not forcing you to sit and wonder what I am saying...here are some Couponing "Vocabulary words" you may or may not be familiar with:

General Terms:

Blinkie – Red SmartSource box that spits coupons out with a red blinking light. These are generally located in front of/nearby the item they are intended to be used on. If they are for one of your favorite products that is NOT on sale at this store - you CAN take a few (2 or 3 - not the whole box :) ) and use them at another store.

BOGO/BOGOF/B1G1F - Buy one get one. Most grocery stores the items are just 50% off - but Harris Teeter is sometimes different. Most stores that run BxGxF (sometimes stores run Buy 2 Get 1 or Buy 2 get 3 promos) will require you to buy the actual specified quantity.

Catalina - Coupons that come from the printer beside the register tape. They are typically manufacturer coupons and are rumored to be usable at any store. Sometimes these can be for random amounts off of your next order coupons. (Register Rewards are Catalinas)

Filler - Item added to purchase so you can use a coupon or qualify for something.

FLIP - Food Lion Internet Printable coupon

HT - Harris Teeter

IP – Internet printable coupon

OYNO - On Your Next Order

Rolling – Used with multiple transactions. First transaction prints a coupon off your next order and you ROLL it onto the next transaction with the intent to reduce your Out of Pocket Cost.

OOP – Out of Pocket

MFG - Manufacturer

Q - Coupon

MFC/MFQ/MQ - Manufacturer Coupon

SC/SQ - Store Coupon

Stacking - Using 2 coupons together. Usually a manufacturer coupon with a store coupon

Overage - Extra money in your favor on a transaction. ex: Using a $1.00 on any Muir Glen tomato product Coupon on the 89¢ cans of tomato paste at Publix generates 11¢ of Overage.

WYB - When You Buy

DrugStore info:

IVC - Walgreens in ad coupon (Instant value coupon)
RR –Register Rewards - catalina Money off on your next order from walgreens
ECB –Extra Care Bucks - CVS instant rebate "coupons"
SCR - Single Check Rebates - Rite Aid rebates that are mailed to your home.

Newspaper Inserts

GM – General Mills insert
P&G – Proctor and Gamble insert
RP – RedPlum insert
SS – Smart Source insert

If you didn't finish reading about Coupon Basics yet feel free to hop back over THERE to do so. If you did finish reading Coupon Basics then I hope you learned something today from the two posts and please be sure to tune in soon when we learn (Where to get coupons).

Other posts in this Series:
Couponing For Beginners
Coupon Basics
Coupon Lingo
Where do I get coupons??
Coupon Organization
Setting and Sticking to your Budget
Meal Planning 101
What is a Stockpile?
Sale Strategies

Coupon Basics

Hello! Welcome to the next post in my Coupons for Beginners series. If you are just coming in to the series, that's fine. Sit down, take a load off and prepare to learn!! You can always catch up with the introductory post "Coupons for Beginners" later. Today we are examining the basics of coupons. Specifically the little paper coupon in your hot little hand ;).

Topics of importance in this article will be:

The anatomy of a coupon.
What types of coupons are there?
Coupon Lingo
Coupon Fraud? What's that!

The Anatomy of a Coupon

As you can see from my coupon here, I am going to soon be selling my very own brand of cereal. It comes in Quarts instead of Ounces ;). Okay, all kidding aside - I thought it might be helpful to come up with a coupon mock-up for us to look at together while I show you a few important landmarks on a typical coupon.

Here are the basic parts of the coupon you should be familiar with:

Coupon Category: See in the upper left hand corner where the coupon says "MANUFACTURER COUPON"? This means the coupon is put out by the manufacturer and can be used at any store. Store coupons are limited to specific stores (or stores that accept competitor coupons) and may say STORE COUPON or be branded in a more specific manner.
Expiration Date: The upper right corner of the coupon is the normal location for the expiration date. Not always, but pretty frequently, you can find it there. This coupon expired 12/1/1975.
Coupon "Value": This coupon is for $1.44 off ONE box of cereal. in coupon matchups this might be reported as $1.44/1. Note the requirements for box size. You must buy at least a 10 Quart box. Now, THAT is a LOT of cereal ;)
The Fine Print: This is made up of two separate sections. A message to the consumer and a message to the store who redeems the coupon. Sometimes you will see specific limitations for coupons in this section. A common one is "LIMIT: ONE COUPON PER PURCHASE." This confuses many people. Going back to our example, this means you can use ONE coupon per box of cereal. You cannot use 4 coupons on the SAME box of cereal but if you have four coupons you may buy four boxes of cereal and use a coupon on each box all on the same transaction. Sadly, some cashiers believe this statement means "one per transaction" and will make you check out with multiple transactions.
UPC or Bar Code: The important part here is the grouping of numbers below the barcode. We are only going to look at one number. Do you see the baby number "5" off to the left? All by himself? Yeah...him. He tells us that this coupon WILL double as long as the store doubles to or above the value of this coupon, REGARDLESS of any text on the coupon that says otherwise. The reason for this is that coupon scanners cannot read, so they rely on the barcode to TELL them whether or not to double coupons. The cashier can suppress doubling and it is their right IF the coupon says "Do not double or triple" on it. The number "9" in that location will always prevent doubling. This number will always be either a "0", "5" or "9." The 5 allows the system to double it, the 9 prevents doubling and I have read that the 0 forces the system to double the coupon but so far that is unverified information as I have never personally run across a coupon that starts with a 0 there.

Coupon Categories

There are several categories you can break a pile of coupons down into. I will share all of the ones I can think of :)

Manufacturer vs. Store vs. Total Amount Coupons.

Manufacturer Coupons- Issued by the manufacturer. You can use these anywhere. They are typically for a dollar amount off of a particular product. ($1.00 off 3 boxes of cereal)
Store Coupons- Issued by the Store. Can only be used in a store of the issuer. Sometimes accepted as competitor coupons. Sometimes also come as "Total Amount" coupons.
Competitor Coupons - Coupon issued by a competing store to where you are shopping. (example: You are shopping in Publix and have many Kroger Catalina coupons. Those are Competitor coupons) (NOTE: A Catalina coupon is that little slip of paper that prints on the printer beside your receipt printer. Register Rewards at Walgreens is an example of a Catalina Coupon!)
Total Order/Total Amount Coupons - Coupon issued by the store OR a manufacturer stating a total dollar amount off the order. Sometimes these have no strings: (Save $4.00 off your next order!) and sometimes they have limitations: (Save $5.00 off your next purchase of $30 or more.) I have seen this type of coupon range in value from 50¢ off your next order all the way up to $15.00/$50.00 purchase.

Coupon Lingo....Confused yet???

When I first began couponing, I went through life confused for several weeks. Always trying to figure out this abbreviation or that one and it was so frustrating! I hope to fix all of that for you :)
Coupon lingo can be very confusing. I have placed the Couponing Lingo information in a separate post in case you want to bookmark that post and use it as a handy reference guide.

Coupon Fraud - I didn't know that was illegal!?

While listening to the radio a few months ago, I almost drove off of the road because of something I heard! This particular station has a game called "Are you cheaper than a (Producer's Name)?" The producer IS pretty cheap, this lady who called in said that she had actually photo copied coupons onto newsprint with her color copier. Front and back...so it would look like a regular coupon. That is fraud! You absolutely can't do that! So I want to be SURE I address this subject before we are too far along.

I don't want anyone to break the law accidentally. There are PLENTY of ways to save tons of cash legally. No need to commit fraud! It should go without saying but a lot of folks don't know this so I'm going to go on ahead and say it...do not ever, ever, EVER Photocopy a coupon. Printable, insert or otherwise....I've overheard some people say that the stores/manufacturers can't tell who printed the coupons anyway so they photocopy them. If you read that microscopic print that makes up the line around your coupon...you will find YOUR IP Address there. :) They WILL find you....and it won't be pretty :(

I hope that you enjoyed todays installment of Coupons for Beginners and I hope you are looking forward to tomorrow when we will answer that timely question "(Where do I get coupons??)"

Catch up with the other posts in this Series:

Couponing For Beginners
Coupon Basics
Coupon Lingo
Where do I get coupons??
Coupon Organization
Setting and Sticking to your Budget
Meal Planning 101
What is a Stockpile?
Sale Strategies

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

What stores do you shop most often?

What stores do you shop the most often? I checked my stats at Google Analytics today and in looking at where most of my traffic is coming from, I have a good portion here in Middle, TN but I apparently have several folks who have found me from New York, Alabama and Atlanta as well as several other cities!!! I am so excited to have you reading :)

I am interested in hearing from you about which stores you shop the most often. I'd like to be sure that I am covering stores that you can use. :)

So if you could comment with that info, that'd be great :)

Thanks in advance :)