Archive for November, 2007

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Throwing money down the crapper? Toilet paper and frugality

November 29th, 2007

I got a good laugh today on my lunch break reading this post over at AskDong. Dong talks about how he scolded his dad for buying super cheap toilet paper and proceeds to analyze how little money would be saved by using the cheap TP as opposed to the “luxury” TP. According to his analysis, one would only save about $1100 over the course of a lifetime by using the super cheap store brand sandpaper TP as opposed to a super nice brand like Quilted Northern, and argues the real savings is likely even less than that because he didn’t account for “the fact that about half my toilet paper usage is provided free at work”.

For us, we are pretty cost conscious and not brand loyal by any means. However, we don’t buy the super cheap 1-ply stuff that is like sandpaper. We used Angel Soft for over a year after hitting a big grand opening sale with coupons at CVS a couple of years back, and lately we have been using either the Member’s Mark or POM stuff from Sam’s. Both of those are decent 2-ply toilet papers and are reasonable soft. For us, either of these are a good compromise between comfort and cost.

So here’s the question: Do you go cheap on the TP, or splurge for the good stuff? Leave a comment and give us an idea of just how much money you’re throwing down the crapper (literally)!

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Posted in frugality

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ING Direct Orange Savings $25 Bonus Codes

November 29th, 2007

For anyone out there who doesn’t already have an ING Direct Orange Savings account, here is a quick way to make $25. If you are a new customer and open an ING Direct Orange Savings with $250 using one of the codes below, ING Direct will pay you a bonus of $25 (in interest of full disclosure, I also get $10 for referring you). That’s a quick 10% return on your money! You can use either of the reference codes below:

CH924/HFHUAVDFD

CH924/GNGXAWGZ

To open an account, go to ingdirect.com/houston or call 1-800-ING-DIRECT. These codes expire tomorrow (11/30/2007), so you need to do this in the next couple of days to get the bonus using these codes. After tomorrow, you can always request a referral link by emailing me.

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Posted in About, Banking, Deals

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My Black Friday Exploits!

November 23rd, 2007

Well, like so many other bargain hunters I headed out before the crack of dawn to take advantage of all the Black Friday deals. At least to me the deals don’t seem up to par with last year, but I found a few things I thought were good deals. Here’s my itinerary from this morning:

PepBoys – To show how few great deals there were out there, I chose PepBoys to start my BF experience this year. The prize was a Mio Digiwalker C220 GPS system. The system was advertised for $79.99 after $40 mail-in rebate. I also had a $10 off $50 printable in-store coupon and received a $10 gift card for being one of the first 50 people there this morning, bringing my cost down to $59.99 after rebate.

I showed up there at about 4:35am for their opening at 5am. There were five people in the line at that point, and only about 20 by the time they opened. The folks there aren’t the most savvy deal seekers. The first two guys in the checkout line couldn’t understand that the advertised price on the GPS was after a mail-in rebate and that the price they would pay today was not the advertised $79.99. Oh well. Even with the retards in front of me I was in and out in 10 minutes, and on to…

Babies R Us – I went there thinking they opened for 5am as noted in the SD thread, but when I got there at 5:20 the sign in the door said they opened at 7am. OK, change of plans. Let’s head to…

Linens N Things – Nothing terribly exciting there, but I had one thing I wanted there and I had time to kill until the next batch of stores opened at 6am. I got a Norelco electric razor that was advertised for $29.99, and I used a 20% off coupon from the BF ad to bring it down to $24.00. I had two $10 gift cards that I got from one of the Trilegiant trial offers I had never been able to find a use for, so I finally got those used. After tax, I paid about $6 out of pocket. And thankfully time to head to…

Home Depot – I wanted the Husky 2 gallon mini-air compressor kit that was advertised for $59. I had a $10 off $25 printable Lowe’s coupon, and since Home Depot honors competitor coupons I made a copy for this transaction. This brought it down to $49 plus tax, which I paid for using gift cards I got from Citi Thank You and AMEX Membership Rewards. And now on to…

Exxon – For a 64oz. fountain Diet Coke for 99 cents.  Deal hunting makes a man thirsty. And on to…

Lowe’s – I had to wait a few minutes for their opening at 7am. Thankfully they opened about 10 minutes early, and the ShopVac wet/dry vacuum with detachable blower was within 10 feet of the door. It was $39.99, and I used the $10 off $25 Lowe’s coupon previously mentioned to bring it down to $29.99. Used a $10 gift card from another Trilegiant trial and paid the balance with my AMEX. And on to…

Babies R Us – Now that they were open, time for some cheap diapers. The ad circulating online showed the store brand value boxes of diapers on sale for $10 (normally $22.99). I got 4 of size 1 and 4 of size 2. None of the sale prices were in the computer, so everything had to be overridden.  According to the manager supposedly the BF ad was supposed to be regional to the NE only, but since the ad was circulated so widely online corporate had directed the stores to honor the prices. So with diapers in the truck, it’s across the parking lot to…

Best Buy – I wanted the 32″ Philips in the ad. I already have the TV, but they were advertising it for $150 cheaper. Unfortunately they didn’t have any more in stock, so on to…

Office Depot – Nothing spectacular here, but I did want the shredder they had in the circular for $29.99 after $40 rebate. I had a $20 off $75 coupon, so I added a ream of copy paper for filler. I ended up with my shredder and a reap of paper for $20 after the rebate, tax included. Not bad. So on to…

Home Depot (again) – I had two other items I was considering: an electric pressure washer and a Ryobi gift pack that included a cordless drill and a circular saw. Both were $59. I decided against the Ryobi set, just because I already had a drill and couldn’t come up with a real use for the circular saw (other than the coolness factor). I decided to go ahead and get the pressure washer, and I used that trusty Lowe’s $10 off $25 coupon again to bring the price down to $49, paid for using gift cards. And on to…

Walgreens – The last stop of the day. I got the free after rebate Venus razor for the wife, as well as three $25 AMEX gift cards. There was a rebate for $20 off the purchase of three cards, and after the activation fee of $3.95 per card and the 10% rebate bonus for requesting a gift card you make about $10 on the deal. I also got some paper towels and king size Hershey’s bars. Paid about half with the gift card from last month’s rebates and the rest using my AMEX.

Overall not a bad Black Friday, although not nearly as good as past years. And today’s deals aren’t nearly as good as yesterday’s CVS adventures.

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Posted in Deals

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CVS Black Friday Sale Results

November 22nd, 2007

In the last installment of CVS Deals 101, I posted my game plan for CVS Black Friday Sale, which actually started today (Thanksgiving Day). I went out and was at my location for their opening at 8am. Things went mostly according to plan, with a few exceptions:

1. The Jergens lotion listed in the spreadsheet wasn’t actually on sale. Apparently this piece of information from SlickDeals was bad.

2. My location did not have the Tylenol vials that were free after the ECBs. They also only had one 2-liter of Diet Coke, so I just got that one and a regular.

3. I had to get a pack of C-size batteries. My wife bought a new toy for the twins that takes that size, and that’s the one size we don’t already have.

4. Somehow my total after coupons came up negative, so I grabbed a couple of cans of CVS nuts to get back to a positive total.

My pre-coupon total was $71.33. I used $28.00 in CVS coupons along with $11.00 in manufacturer coupons, bringing my total down to $33.33. I paid using a $29.99 ECB, bringing my out of pocket for the transaction to $2.33. The transaction resulted in $49.79 in new ECBs to spend later, meaning I had a profit of $16.46 in addition to all the stuff I got this morning.

Observations

1. A few of my coupons I really shouldn’t have been able to use. The Colgate CVS coupons was for the 6 oz. tubes and not the 4.6 oz. tubes that were on sale, but the cashier let me use them anyway. Also, my pre-coupon total should have been at least $75 to use all of the $ off coupons I had, but again the cashier let me use all of them. The cashier didn’t say a single word to me during the entire transaction, so I think he just preferred to put everything through than argue any of them.

2. While it is good to plan out your transactions, you must always be flexible. In this instance, two of the things that were actually on sale that I wanted they either didn’t have or didn’t have sufficient stock of.

3. This is still a pretty sweet deal, even excluding the coupons I shouldn’t have been able to use.

I still have my wife’s card that doesn’t have any accumulated ECBs, so I’ll have another challenge trying to do those transactions to minimize my out of pocket.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! 

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Posted in CVS, Deals

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CVS Deals 101: Part III – Combining Coupons

November 20th, 2007

This is the third part of my series on how to do CVS deals. In part one I discussed the basics of CVS deals, and in part two I went through the different CVS coupons that are out there. In part three, I will go over the art of combining coupons to get the best deal. This is what takes your deals from good to amazing.

The main thing to remember is that you can stack coupons as long as you meet the terms of all of the coupons you want to use. For instance, I will give you the deal I am planning for their Thanksgiving weekend sale:

CVS Black Friday

As you see in this example, I have used manufacturer coupons, CVS item specific coupons, CVS $ off purchase coupons, and CVS $ off specific department coupons. Even without the ECB I earned from another purchase, I’ll get $75 worth of stuff for $32.16 after coupons plus I’ll earn another $60.76 in ECB to use on another purchase. Ultimately you make a $28 profit on the transaction. As an FYI, most of the manufacturer coupons listed as available online to be printed. See the CVS Black Friday thread at SlickDeals for links.

I will note that your mileage may vary (YMMV) on using multiple coupons, but this is entirely within their policy because you have met the terms of each of the coupons. Note that on the $ off purchase coupons, your total before coupons should exceed the total of the purchase requirements. In this example, I used coupons that required a $30, $20, $15, and $10 purchase. To be within the rules, my purchase should equal at least $75. On top of that you can use department specific and $ off total purchase coupons together.

This is just one example, and your options will vary based on the CRT coupons you receive. But this should be a great example of how to take advantage of the system for the absolute best deals.

Congratulations on your completion of the CVS Deals 101 course. To further your education in the coming weeks, I will post on more advanced CVS Deal topics. Good luck in all your CVS adventurers!

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Posted in CVS, Deals

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Chase Professional Card – You’ll apply if we mail you the application times four?

November 20th, 2007

Nothing really important with this post, but still funny. In the mail today I got a pre-approved application for the Chase Professional Card. In its infinite wisdom, Chase must have known that the offer wouldn’t initially appeal to me, so they sent me three more pre-approved applications for the card on the same day. I had a total of four applications for this card in the mail just today, not including the one addressed to my wife. Sadly, it isn’t even that good of a card.

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Posted in Credit Cards

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CVS Deals 101: Part II – More CVS Coupons

November 20th, 2007

This is part two of my series on how to do CVS deals. Previously I laid out the basics of CVS deals, namely the Extra Care Card, Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) , and the Cash Register Tape Coupons (CRTs). However, there are even more coupons out there to take your CVS shopping to the next level.

Internet Printable CVS Coupons – One of the incentives to registering CVS Extra Care Card with your email address on the CVS website is that CVS will periodically email you coupons to use in their stores. You simply print the coupons and bring them into the store. Unlike the CRTs, these coupons are not necessarily specific to your card, and there is an active community of CVS shoppers on Slickdeals that continuously post the coupons they receive for everyone to use. These are most often $X off $XX purchase (2/10, 3/15, 4/20, 5/30, and 10/50 are the normal ones), but there are also ones for amounts off specific category purchases and specific products.

Direct Mail Coupons – Occasionally CVS will send out coupons via postal mail, most often for free gift cards with a new or transferred prescription.

In-store booklet coupons – CVS puts out booklets on various health topics that often include CVS coupons. For instance, CVS recently released a booklet on managing and preventing Diabetes that had several pages of coupons inside. Most of these books are back around the pharmacy counter. There are also occasionally coupons in the weekly circular.

Remember that all of these CVS coupons can be combined with any manufacturer coupons you have. More on the art of combining coupons in part three.

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Posted in CVS, Deals

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CVS Deals 101: Part I – The Basics

November 19th, 2007

I’m a huge fan of CVS deals. I’ve done deals there off and on for the last four years since they first came to town, and have gotten so amazing deals there. But how does this all work? This will take several posts, but let’s start with the basics you need to know.

CVS Extra Care Card - This is the CVS loyalty card, and is the key to all of your CVS deals. To get the sale prices on items in the store, you have to use the card. Any Extra Care Bucks and Cash Register Tape coupons (explained below) you earn are connected to your card number and are non-transferable. The card is also how they enforce limits on some specials. Extra Care Cards are limited to one per person, however each person in your household can get one.

Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) – This is one of the main things that make the CVS deals so lucrative. Many CVS specials will be that you earn ECBs when you buy a certain product. ECBs are very similar to mail-in rebates, which the exception that you don’t have to mail in any forms to get your reward. If you buy a qualifying product and use your card, an ECB coupon will print on your cash register receipt. Sometimes CVS even offers specials where the ECB will be equal to the price of the item, essentially making it free. That ECB coupon can be used like cash (with a few exceptions) on a future transaction.

It is important to note that the ECB reward is not an instant discount. For instance, last week CVS has Coke 12pks. on sale for $12 for 4 and you earned $3 in ECB for the purchase, which is like paying $9 for 4. However, the $3 has to be used on a future transaction, so your initial purchase in this instance will be $12 plus tax. During one of my trips to CVS last week I witnessed two people who got pissed that the discount wasn’t instant and left without buying anything, so it is apparently a more difficult concept to grasp than one would think.

Cash Register Tape Coupons (CRTs) - Like the ECBs, these will print on your receipt and are connected specifically to your account. Sometimes the coupons are random, other times they are driven by the items you have purchased on your account. Some examples of the coupons I’ve received recently are $4 off $20 purchase, $2.50 off $10 CVS Brand purchase, $4 off any $20 baby product purchase, and $1.5o off any pain reliever purchase. Occasionally you can also get coupons for specific products.

If you’ve put your cheap bastard hat on, you can probably already see how you can get some good deals with ECBs and the CRTs, however there are more coupons out there that can make the deals even sweeter. More on that in the next post!

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Posted in CVS, Deals

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Brother-in-law a CVS virgin no more!

November 17th, 2007

My middle brother-in-law has had his first CVS coupon experience! I’ve been a big fan of CVS deals for a while, as I first indicated on this post in April. Tonight I was able to show brother-in-law #2 the ropes and he did reasonably well for a rookie.

The deal involves a coupon for the Ascensia Contour blood glucose monitor. The coupon is for $50, however the monitor is on sale this week for $9.99. This creates a $40 overage if the cashier processes the coupon for the full amount (most do), meaning you can essentially get $40 worth of free stuff with the coupon. I’ve been taking advantage of this all week to stock up on diapers and wipes, and have had only two instances out of eight where the cashier adjusted the coupon amount.  Usually the biggest challenge is just finding the monitor in stock. It remains to be seen what the price of the monitors will be after this week, but as long as it is under $50 the deal works to some extent.

As an added bonus, the monitor has a rebate of $50 or price paid (whichever is lower), meaning that if you submit the rebate you also get $10 back by rebate. There is a thread about this on SlickDeals here, however discussion has been minimal for whatever reason.

The coupon can be found in the CVS Diabetes Book, which is often available at the pharmacy counter. There is also a printable coupon in the SlickDeals thread.  For your other CVS adventures, there is a master thread of printable coupons at SlickDeals here.

My brother-in-law’s first run resulted in success and he got away with the monitor and $51 worth of stuff for $8 using the $50 monitor coupon and a $3 off $15 purchase coupon. More coaching will be needed to get the total next time under $1.

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Posted in CVS, Deals

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Welcome to the new Close Encounters of the Cheap Kind!

November 17th, 2007

Welcome to my blog’s new home here at CheapEncounters.com! You’ve probably already noticed that our site has a new URL and a new look, thanks to our move away from free provider Wordpress.com. The move provides more flexibility in design and allows us to add additional features through add-ons and widgets that weren’t available on the free server. I am new to the software and I’m still learning, so you may see a number of changes while I tinker with the site and figure out what looks best.

Here’s a rundown of what has changed:

  • The blog URL is now http://www.CheapEncounters.com.
  • The blog feed URL is now http://www.cheapencounters.com/?feed=rss. There are also now quick links in the right sidebar to the feed address and to add the feed to My Yahoo!, Bloglines, Newsgator, and GoogleReader.
  • Design flexibility is a major plus. For security reasons, Wordpress.com would not allow bloggers to add widgets or unapproved themes. Here I will be able to apply new widgets and themes to customize the look and content of the blog.
  • Yes, there will be advertising. I will likely just add Google AdSense to the site. I will also add the links to request ING Direct Savings and ING Direct Electric Orange Checking accounts, which were on the old site for a while but had to be taken down because they were against the Wordpress.com terms of service. I may also add referral links as they are relevant to my posts, but I won’t be making this an ad farm by any means.

Here’s what is still the same:

  • All of the old posts from the Wordpress.com have been migrated to this site. Any of the old posts you know and love are now here on this site.
  • I’m still writing the posts, with subject matter of whatever is on my mind but mostly around personal finance.

I’m always looking for feedback and suggestions, so feel free to leave me a comment or email me. Thanks again for making me a part of your day!

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