Deals That Look Good

Cheesecake Factory

National Cheesecake Day, july 30, half price cheese cake
Click Here for Info

Proctor & Gamble Coupon Books

I ordered the book for Dawn, but there are a whole variety, you can order once a month
Click Here for Info on This from MoneySavingMom

Panera Pastry

You can get a free pastry for signing up with them.  Take the card to any Panera to get your free pastry.
Free Panera Pastry

HoneyNut Cheerios Sample

Okay, so what good is one little sample?  When you keep getting samples and actually accumulate a stockpile of them.  Plus, you do get a coupon with the sample.
  HoneyNut Cheerios Sample

Shout Wipes Sample
  Another sample to keep in your car or purse.
Shout Wipes Sample

Worth Mentioning Again, McDonalds Smoothies
   This is a good coupon, and you know there is a mcdonalds on every corner
just about.  Just in case you didn't get the last coupon, here it is again.
Buy One Get One Free Smoothie

Free I-Tunes Songs?
This is from a reader on MojoSavings.  I haven't been near a Starbucks to check this one out.
I made my own frap today, saved myself a few dollars.  If you happen to be near a Starbucks, run in
and take a glance at the counter. 
Free I-Tunes Possibly

Buying In Bulk-Is It For You

     Buying in bulk used to be the best way to save a few dollars but I noticed it is no longer the case.  Just because something is in bulk packaging, or a large amount doesn't always make it a better deal.  What matters is getting the best price possible no matter how it's packaged. 
Also, there are different interpretations of "bulk" buying.  Basically your buying a large amount of an item to get a better deal.  But now there are bulk bins, where you have the luxury of buying any amount.    
         
      Considering the price first, why bother with a large amount if it isn't cheaper:?  Just remember, if we are just shopping price, then we need to look at the price per pound, the ounce, gallon, quart, or the square foot.  Look at toilet paper for example, as it's really easy to be fooled with this.  Go by the square foot, then choose your favorites from the packages with the most square feet.  Scott used to have the most, they not too long ago changed it, to be better.  The square feet might be the same, but they made the actual square a tad smaller.  Kind of like what they did with candy bars and ice cream. 
     
     I do bulk shopping on quite a few items, with my most recent large purchase a 50 pound bag of sucanat.  Now, I know that sounds like a lot of sugar, but we do manage to go through it.  If you think about it, it would be equal to 10-five pound bags or five 10 pound bags.  If a lot of baking or jam making is happening it can disappear real quick.even if I cut back on the amount of sugar I add to those recipes. If I was to buy it on Amazon it would cost me 116 dollars, where I get it for $65.  That's a pretty large price difference. 
      I made  a trip this last week to a store called Winco.  I don't buy produce there, but they have a ton of bulk bins carrying a lot of products.  If I want organic oatmeal, I can buy a pound, or I can ask one of the sales clerks for a 25 lb bag.  It's important when you are buying bulk that you are going to use it up before it expires or gets old.  Sometimes it's hard to judge on some items, especially if you are new at using it.  When I first tried out spelt flour I only bought a pound or two.  We loved it and now buy at least five pounds of it.  That is one nice thing about buying from the bulk bins, you can try just a little bit to see if it's something you even like before committing to a large bag.   
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       Of course, you should always shop with a calculator or the very least a pencil and a scrap of paper.  For meat, always buy according to the price per pound, not the total price of the package.  If you find a great deal on meat, don't just buy one package, buy as many as your freezer will hold, and still have a variety of other items. 
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      Now you have to put your bulk purchases away.  I have a pantry in my garage, so I keep canned goods there, juice, extra coffee beans, my bucket of coconut oil, and of course, sucanat.  I keep all items sealed up in the original package, or I put it in containers.  For flour I freeze it for about 48 hours before I seal it up in a container.  That ensures that you didn't bring home any bugs, and if you did, they won't spread.  I've been doing that for a couple of years now and so far it's working.  Another trick with flour is to throw a few bay leaves in the container.  You'll have to look at the amount of storage you have, and the containers you have ahead of time so you aren't stuck with a ton of bulk items and no where to put them.  I've heard of many different ideas for storage, including inside closets.  I keep smaller containers inside the kitchen to refill as needed.  My containers for the flours hold about five pounds each and were just over a buck at Walmart.  My first choice for containers are jars or glass.  I think it's the safest purest form of container to use.  I haven't totally built up my collection yet, but I'm working on it a little at a time.

    So do consider buying bulk if you find a good deal and you know you'll use it and you have a place to put it. 

Deals That Have Caught My Eye

Cascadian Farms
  If you go to their website and join their mailing list you get a dollar coupon.  Otherwise you can go to the coupons.com, link on the right for a $.75 cent coupon.  I think it's best to avoid any processed cereals or make your own, but hey, we don't always have time, or we just used up our last frozen waffle.  So, although this is still a processed cereal, at least it's organic, meaning less pesticides. 
Cascadian Farm Coupon
Thanks to WeUseCoupons for this.

CVS
   If you do couponing in CVS, do not forget to use their coupon kiosk as from what I'm seeing you never know what kind of coupons it's going to kick out for you.  You scan your card and keep scanning it until it stops giving you coupons.  Check it out.

JCPenney
   JCPenney has a $10 dollar off $25 Coupon.  If you plan on going over there this weekend, it expires on Monday, take this coupon.  It's not a favorite place for us to shop, but we have found a few things to make it worth our coupon.  Last time it was clearance socks for the little guy.  Another time it was cargo shorts for a guy.  Can't beat getting $10 bucks off your purchase if you actually need that item.  This is one of those times when you shouldn't rush out to save $10 bucks if you don't need anything.  It's cheaper to stay home.
Here's the link   JCPenney Coupon

TGIFridays
  They have a Give Me More Stripes program.  If you sign up HERE you immediately get a coupon for a free appetizer.  If it was me, I'd hold out for the buy one, get one free meal coupons they send to you.
It's not the healthiest place by far, but if your out and about, want to avoid a regular fast food place, the coupons are usually pretty good.  You get a card that is supposed to be scanned, so then you earn points for more coupons.  Here's the deal, (only relating my personal story), is when we pulled our card out they looked at us like we were from Mars and said we didn't need it.  Only later did I find out that I have zero stripes in my account because of the "servers" there not wanting to do their job.  Oh yeah, I have contacted corporate and complained.  I almost can't wait to see how it's going now.  They wrote me back promptly, but did not offer to "give me my stripes" for which I had a receipt/proof.  They also will not give you a receipt unless you specifically ask for it, which I did.  Again, it put them into a bit of a quandary over a receipt.

7-11 Day
   Don't forget, every year on July 11 you can get a free Slurpee.  Okay, not worth driving out of your way, in fact, I very rarely drink out of any fountain drink area where people fill it themselves.  Not to be overly phobic, but a string of things I happened to see kind of "changed" my mind a bit.  First time, I was at the free 7-11 deal, we were buying gas anyway, so I ran in for the freebie.  There was a group of kids hanging out there, putting their mouths over all the nozzles and turning on the machines and "testing" them.  I complained to the owner/guy at the counter and he didn't seem to care.  He pretended to be busy.  The next time, I was at a station on the 76/I-15 area.  A bunch of "big" dudes sauntered in with their Gatorade bottles which looked like they'd seen a lot of use (the bottles that is) and proceeded to put their nasty disgusting bottles up over the nozzles of the soda drinks.  Not once, but many times.  They'd glug down their drink, fill it up, drink again.  I decided to get something out of the cold case, sealed up in a bottle that day.  Yep, I pretty much do it that way, or bring my own.  For those who aren't like me, every time you pass a 7-11, get your free Slurpee.

Free Einstein Bagel Poppers
  Just follow the link.  I used to get their emails, but unsubscribed after I tried their bagels.  I mean, I got an entire dozen for free and we used them for hockey pucks.  The thing is, they aren't bad the day of, by the next day they are harder than the rocks in my yard.  So, I suppose a few free bagels are good, as long as you eat them right away.  These bagel popper things don't look too bad, maybe worth trying.
Free Einstein Bagel Poppers