There are many reasons one should be frugal and use coupons and freebies. The obvious reason is that those on a limited budget can feed their family quite well. Many have religious reasons for it. Many look at it as a "game". And then there are those (like me) who coupon not only because it becomes a game, but because it frees up so much money for things I want to buy (like shoes) but don't want to put on the credit card.
One thing that we like to do is take our children to amusement parks. We have some great ones within a 2-hour drive but even though they aren't DisneyWorld, this family of five can't even get in the door for under $150...much less food, souvenirs, etc. And that is even figuring that our 2-year old is free!
So when Giant advertised a promotion of "Buy $45 in Kraft/Nabisco/Oscar Meyer products, get a free ticket to Hershey Park", I took it as a personal challenge. I figured I would be happy with 1 or two free tickets. I bought 8 papers on Sunday. Then I saw the "Free Kraft Cheese Coupon wyb 3 Kraft/Nabisco/Oscar Meyer" in Parade magazine (in the Sunday paper) and knew I was getting all 4 tickets for free! And I did!
So here is what I got
Ticket 1 & 2 (sorry for the bad lighting):
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Kraft Mac & Cheese (5 pack)
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10 Oscar Meyer Beef Franks
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4 Oscar Meyer Bacon
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2 Oscar Meyer Weiners
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15 Sugar Free Jell-O
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18 Kraft Barbecue Sauce
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8 packs Kraft Cheese Slices
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2 Planters Cashews
Total After Store Savings but before Coupons: $90.57
Total Out-of-Pocket: $59.04
And I got 2 Hershey Park Tickets for Free (value $48 each) which makes up for only saving 33% in coupons (if you include the store savings it would be about 62%)
Then I heard that the Free Cheese (and free Planters coupons) work even when you just buy those $.20 packs of Kool-Aid, since they are also Kraft. Back to the Dollar Store I went on Tuesday and bought 15 more papers (the way I look at it, the papers cost $1 each and each one had a coupon for $2.79 cheese in it...It's worth it!). Why didn't I buy more than 15 papers? Well, I didn't want to go overboard!
Ticket #3
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8 Kraft Cheese Slices
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3 Boca Crumbles
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3 Boca Lasagna
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3 Jet-Puff Marshmallows
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2 Jello Rice Pudding Snacks
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2 Jello mixes
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11 Packs of Kool-aid (if you are asking "why the kool-aid?", each free cheese coupon required 3 items to be purchased. Since I was using 8 Free Cheese coupons, I had to have 24 items in addition to the cheese)
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1 Hershey Bar (I was hungry)
Total after store savings, but before coupons: $47.45
Total out-of-pocket $17.15
and I got a third Hershey Park ticket
I still have enough coupons to do the 3rd deal again, perhaps with even better savings as I have some friends who are printing off some more Planters coupons for me (it's a limit of 2 per computer).
I would say that I absolutely stretched my dollars so that my family could have more fun....wouldn't you?
6/28 UPDATE: I went back this AM and because I had managed to snag 7 more Planters coupons, I got the 4th ticket and $53 in groceries for only $5 ....and my husband has enough cashews to make him a very happy man. HersheyPark, here we come (for FREE)!
Carlie
Great job!! I wish we had a good park near us - I'd be working that deal too!!
have fun!!
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Daisy
So you will be having one HELL of a BBQ or you will are donating a LOT of BBQ sauce to charity - right? LOL - Bravo, Min - you have a gift, Girl!
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Darla
Free Suze Orman book Women & Money good through the 27th.
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200802/tows_past_20080213.jhtml?promocode=HP14
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tiffanie
wow, that's amazing dealing right there! i'm astonished 🙂 i took advantage of the free cheese too, but not to that extent. just stocked up on some shredded cheese that is normally like $3.50/bag that i got on sale 3/$6, plus the free cheese. =P
Mindi
Daisy - put it this way....my husband puts barbeque sauce on EVERYTHING. And if it isn't barbeque sauce, it's ketchup (which I am buying 20 of today at Acme...I love 4th of July sales!)
tiffanie: stick with me and I'll have you shopping Giant like a pro! 🙂
kristina
I shopped at Giant today with the plans to get $45 worth of the products listed to get the Hershey Park ticket. I kept track of what I spent and it came to a little over $46. So I cashed out and I got no ticket. I used a lot of coupons and the lady at costumer service said it is supposed to be $45 after all bonuscard and coupons, but I was looking at the ad about it in the Red Plum coupons from a week or 2 ago, and it says $45 after bonuscard saving. There is nothing stated about after coupons too. Do you know anything about this? I was so dissapointed that I bought all of those products and I got no ticket!
kristinas last blog post..I Paid .25 Cents At CVS Today!
kristina
$53.45 is the exact total before coupons after just going through my receipt and totaling everything up. I am going to be giving costumer service at Giant another visit!
Here's what I got...
2 - Kraft Shredded Cheese = $5.00
1 - Jello Gelatin = $2.00
3 - Jello 6pk Puddings = $6.00
1 - Breakstones Sour Cream = $1.34
1 - Capri Sun 10pk = $2.79
1 - Digiorno Pizza = $5.00
2 - Oscar Myers Hot Dogs = B1G1 Free $2.69
1 - A1 Merinade Sauce = $2.00
2 - Cool Whip in the can(not sure if that qaulified for this, but it shouldn't have mattered) = $3.86
2 - Planters Nuts Mixed = $4.78
1 - Kraft Mac N Cheese 5 pk = $2.99
2 - South Beach Living Cereal Bars = $5.00
4 - Boco Meat Alternatives = $10.00
Comes out to $53.45 and after coupons it was much less, but I don't know an exact amount.
kristinas last blog post..I Paid .25 Cents At CVS Today!
Mindi
Hi Kristina!
I went through your list and although I don't think that the Aerosol Cool Whip counts towards the Free ticket, it still looks good to me!
Only 1 of my 3 tickets actually printed at the cash register. The others I had to take to my reciept to CS and they took a look at my receipt and printed one out no problem! (It helped that, aside from ticket #3 and the Hershey Bar, I purposely bought NOTHING else in each transaction...so they were looking at a "100% Kraft/Nabisco/Oscra Mayer receipt")
The coupons have ABSOLUTELY nothing to to with the required $45 amount. It has to be $45 after all BONUSCARD savings (so even though you got 2 hot dogs, for example, you only get "credit" for one of them towards the ticket because they are BOGO)
Go back to customer service TODAY (they may not have the ability to print them tomorrow) to get your ticket. If the customer service lady won't give it to you, insist to see the manager.
You are 100% completely in the right here and entitled to your ticket!
kristina
Thanks a lot for your help! I am headed there in a little while to talk to costumer service again =) I'll let you know if they gave it to me! Thanks again!
kristinas last blog post..I Paid .25 Cents At CVS Today!
kristina
i went back in yesterday and it was the same girl at costumer service that i had the day before. i went in with my receipt, a prepared list of everything i bought, and the prices and total of all of the kraft products. i told her that i looked at the ad closer and i found nothing about not being able to use coupons. she looked everything over and said sorry very softly and went on to print my hershey park ticket! i was very happy to get it, but she didn't seem so thrilled, lol! so now i only need to buy one ticket for hershey park at giant and my family and i can all go for a total of almost $37! not too bad!
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