Extreme Couponing?

Did anyone else catch the show?

I was AMAZED and shocked that people would go on national TV and do this... I mean toilet paper for 30 years?

Now the high they talk about I know about because I did it for some time.. But I did not do it to stock pile 17 years of food in my garage I did it to donate it. And then when that failed I liquidated some of it to friends and some of it made it to the flea market.


I still will not buy it without a coupon or if its on clearance and I WISH I would have kept tabs. Actually its a new year I am going to start a spreadsheet to document the money we save.

We still get mostly everything we need for free or next to it and I feel so BLESSED to have been able to learn this and teach it to others so others can save too!

it just bugs me that of the 3 people shown only 1 of them actually talked about donation...

The nerve of some people!

Where does the time go?

I have been such a bad blogger! I have been peaking in here and there but as for posts from me I have slacked a little.

Do y'all go through that? Where you have so much to say but can never really muster up the energy to say it?

I have 1/2 a day off today which means I have to work 1 of my 2 jobs today. Its getting so tiring and exhausting it seems, putting in ALL these hours and it seems we can just not get any further ahead?

Friday I have a day off and I am going to pack up all my coupon stuff I have acquired (with the help of the hubs) and take it to the flea market!

I am so exciting to get rid of most of this stuff. I never thought trying to "give it away" or "donate" it would be such a hassle.

Really I started couponing as a way to help others (and our pocket books) and its a funny hobby. Well one of the places I brought a HUGE amount of shampoo and conditioner and body wash to, I checked in to see how they were doing....

THEY WERE SELLING THE STUFF!!! And I am PISSED!

I donate this stuff (they happen to be a food cupboard) so that they could GIVE IT AWAY to people who needed it with their food donations.

Well the lady who runs the place states "Well people take advantage of it and "claim" they need soap and shampoo and conditioner, we have to sell it so people do not just ask for it!!"

WHAT THE F!! I mean really. PEOPLE NEED THESE THINGS! They are a item that its kinda hard to live without, sort of like food and water?

SO they are off my list of places to donate and its just so frustrating to have been taken advantage of like that.

I am a little hurt.

Does anyone need diapers??

So I do not.

And I only know a few people that actually have children in diapers but I was at Walgreens today and Walgreens brand diapers are on clearance!!!

FOR $2.29!!!

I bought all the newborn for baby baskets but this is a GREAT price so if you know anyone who knows anyone who does not care about brands of diapers

SPREAD THE NEWS!!




Regular price $8.99!! This is one great deal!! Its like buying one and getting 3 FOR FREE!!!

I am NOT a hoarder!!

I like to think of myself as a "collector" lol but in all seriousness our back room was bulging at the seems and the husband was getting a little upset a little out of control.

Exhibit A: (ok maybe a "bit" embarrassed?)


Exhibit B: (notice you can NO LONGER walk into the room?)


Exhibit C:


Now in my defense this is all stuff from couponing!! I am getting so good and I am LOVING giving most of it away. The hubby is too, he is bringing stuff in to the people he works with too. But I have actually been running into problems GIVING it away!!

See I had brought a huge box to a food cupboard that we had volunteered with? Well they REFUSED to give the stuff away.

THE WERE CHARGING PEOPLE FOR IT! So I asked for the reasoning behind it, I mean they give away food why not the toiletries and they said, and I quote " People take advantage of it so we have to charge for it."

And they were charging like $2 for shampoo and $1 for baby wipes!! I did not donate the stuff that I got for next to free for them to make a profit on it!

And then I called this womens shelter because I had TONNES of makeup and "lady stuff" that I had aquired and call to see if they would like it and was told "No we do not take donations like that because of an incident they had YEARS ago"

Want to know what it was? Some lady donated a BUNCH of Avon stuff and then tried to "enlist" the ladies at the shelter to do the business because it would help them get their lives on track?

Oh yeah.

Anyhoo.. Moving on I will find some other places that need it! I was thinking of the Ronald McDonald House and there are a few shelters around here that I have to call.

But in the mean time while I build up my stock again I am going to get a table at a flea market and DOWNSIZE everything I have then only get stuff that the places I contact will be needing...
Voila! There is a bed in there!

Need your help!

If you have not entered the Giveaway GO HERE!

While I was shopping at Target and pushing my cart with my biggest haul ever through the store, a lady stopped me to ask me about my coupons.

I gave her my business card and since then she has emailed me about my "rates" because she would like a one on one lesson?

What do I do? I mean what do you charge for this? I will be doing free classes at a church and I was thinking about doing it by "donation only" and then donate the donations?

What do you think? And what would you charge for your time?

Also here are SOME MORE of my favorite things being added to the GIVEAWAY!

Have you seen these out yet?? They are YUMMY peppermint crush?? When you see it smell it ITS FABULOUS!!

And also these? They are SO expensive but I got these for a steal and the scents are AMAZING!!!


This package is going to be SO BIG I am so EXCITED!!

My best haul to date!

Over 100 things of baby wipes!!!


You'll never guess how much I paid??


..........












$0.00!!!!


Yep, nada, zero, nothing not a penny!!

I have given a bunch away already, the rest are going to a church tomorrow!

Care package for the neighbors

So we have lived here for about 10 months and we have met our neighbors that live right across from us a few times. They have a police dog that daisy seems to think she can take on and fight every time she sees him.....

She is in law school and he is a police officer. They just had the cutest little baby boy and when he was born I bought them a little onesie and left them a little note...

Well they just bought a house and they are moving on.... So in true Random fashion I put together a cool little "congrats on your new house basket" and brought it over....



Needless to say they were surprised, the husband said it was the coolest thing they have ever been given **gush**

And can you guess who was the only donation?


Yeah I brought over a huge box of food for the donation box, they posted these signs on all 170 units.. I hope some other people pull up their socks and donate too!!... I sure do love this...

The power of Oprah!!

I am sure y'all have heard by now about Oprah mentioning that if you go to her site and print your coupon Payless Shoes will offer 50% off EVERYTHING in the store. No exceptions? For today only? Get your coupon here.

Yeah well me and 50% off shoes. Oh yeah. I went. Generally I am not a HUGE fan of payless, but because they sell shoes I can usually see past the cheapness of most of them... I was #33 in line.... And the line went through THE WHOLE STORE!


My buys... only $7.43 for both pairs!!! Now thats a deal!


I was a little disappointed to see the selections that were still left, I was hoping for some cute boots but there were NONE left in the store.....

I guess I am going to have to follow Oprah a little more carefully? See what other deals I can score this year?

Anyone else hit up this HUGE sale?

$2.30 Oh yeah I am getting good!!!

All this stuff for $2.30 PLUS I got $10 back to spend back at Walgreens... This is so fun!

And what am I going to do with 36 Dove deodorants? I am going to donate them of coarse!

But I am also going to do up a SUPER SPECIAL surprise basket of a bunch of my favorite things!

Yep a HUGE basket so check back later for details of my Fall Favorite Things Giveaway!

Whats in your mail box?

I do love me some free stuff! Well this was all in my mail box last week and the week before!

My US magazine subscription that I used a coupon for only $4.95. I only took about a week to get my first issue! And a $10 Visa gift card from a swiffer rebate I sent in for about 6 weeks ago.
FREE chocolate!! And energy drink just for signing up!
And the MOST FABULOUS lip balm from E.O.S. Free!!


I also recieved some rebate checks too

One for $3.47 for clorox, one for $6.99 for Vitamin shampoo and one for $3.99 for something that I can not remember!

$24.45 FREE MONEY!!! I love this stuff!

Hi, my name is Random and I am an addict!

I am an addict.

To coupons.

I LOVE them.. Love, love, love them. I love getting up early on Sundays (and I am a HUGE sleeper I love to sleep in.. not on Sundays) I get up and go out to buy the paper to see the new coupons.

I love getting them organized, sorted. Going through all the flyers to see the deals for the week.

Love it.

This is my overstock shelves.

Well one of them anyways... this is just the "cleaning over stock"

View on the other side.... And yeah it goes ALL the way back.. like super stuffed....
See all this stuff? Yep $8 at Kmart this week. It was double coupon week.... And I got $17 back in kmart dollars to use back in the store!


And I wend to Kmart EVERY DAY. 2 times a day, I used so many coupons this week that I think I may be couponed out a little....

And the other overstock? I have about 30 bottles of shampoo and conditioner, body wash, tooth paste, and floss sitting in a box ready to head off as a donation to a church.....

This is SO addicting.. and fun.. I would be lying if I was not walking through kmart and eyeing other peoples carts and asking them if they have a coupon for that? And if they did not I gave them one and told them about the doubles!!

My name is Random and I am addicted to coupons!

This is fraud

To Whom it may concern,

I am directing this to corporate because the issue is with one of your store managers.

I was a customer at your store LOCATION on 9/14/2009 at 3:00pm.

I am seriously offended about the service I have received from Matt one of your store managers at this location.

Due to the economical crisis I value that your store accepts coupons.

I have never had an issue using coupons with your store. Matt had the audacity to say that using coupons was "fraud" and that "If he had his way Walgreens would go without accepting coupons" he also went on to say that "He wished Walgreens would not have the register rewards because they are so much hassle"

To say I was offended does not even touch on the matter. For a customer to be made to feel the way Matt made me feel. To use the word "fraud" while using coupons. To be obviously not impressed to be assisting an honest paying customer.

I am flabbergasted that any store employee, let alone a store manager would talk to a customer like that.

I am really upset and frustrated at this situation. I could understand if I was rude or unpleasant but because one of the coupons (a Walgreens coupon) would not scan and I explained it was fine and not to worry about it he went off on his tangent.

I hope that something is done about this situation.

Thank you

Your dissatisfied and offended customer

Random Musings

On a lighter note there is a "rule" written that you do not officially "coupon" until someone accuses you of fraud... so YAY me!

So this is what heroin feels like...

So coupons are like my crack. I think coupon clipping and redeeming is like what crack would feel like. Or heroin. Not to make light of people who have suffered or are dealing with families that suffer I am just saying is all...

Its SO LIBERATING and EXCITING and there is SUCH A RUSH!!!! And getting stuff for free knocks my socks off (well if I would wear socks which rarely happens cause I am always wearing flips)

Anyhoo I am doing GREAT with this coupon deal. I just wish I would have caught on sooner.. I mean some of these companies are giving stuff away!! And all you have to do is shop there with coupons when they have sales and BOOM!! 16 rolls of toilet paper and 8 rolls of paper towels for UNDER $1!! And that is with taxes...

See this??


2 things of FULL size secret deodorant for $0.07 cents!!

I just wish I would have started this sooner!!

***edit to add** How did I get this deal? Well Jacylann asked so how I did it was Hyvee was having a sale in Secret Deodorant for $.99. I had 2 coupons for $1 off Secret Deodorant so the total after coupons was $0.07** I am still learning and I use A LOT of sites that tell you where the deal are and where to go to get the deals!

Sunday morning

I woke up early (7am) went to the gas station and bought some YUMMY coffee, which I may add I only drink about once every 6 months (caffeine and I are not friends) and picked up 2 Sunday papers. I was SO EXCITED to get home and clip coupons (crazy I know)

Then the hubby and I set out to do our grocery shopping with my coupon book in hand. I asked him at one point "Does this embarrass you?"

He said "No, it just slows it down a little bit"

The grand savings was $20 on our purchases some of it was sale stuff and some was coupons but the hubby was so impressed he said we should have been doing this sooner!! We also got a $5 gift card to use at another time! If we do this 10 times that $200 in our pockets!

And because I had to work Sunday night I was not finished till about 11 so I thought I would stop back at the same gas station to see if they had any papers left. They still have about 5 so I smiled nicely and asked "Seeing how its 11pm could I maybe have the coupons out of some of the newspapers you have left?"

AND THEY LET ME!!! I only took 3 more in case someone did want to purchase a paper but WEEHOOO I love me some coupons!

One of my favorite sites to check every day is My Frugal Adventures she explains what coupons and what store is having the deals (takes all the work out of it) she also links the coupons you can clip and how to "do" the sale....and Coupons.com

The LOOT!

I am so getting a hang of this coupon thing!! I did not do as well as I could have because I did not have a coupon for EVERY ITEM, but I did pretty good and I know where I made my mistakes.

My total bill was $56.09 and out of pocket I only paid $8.67!! A savings of OVER $47!!

So I also purchased this


So I can duplicate the binder this lady had!! I am going to be a coupon MONSTER!! I spent a few hours yesterday scouring sites with coupons. Watching you tube on "how to do it" I am SO EXCITED about saving money on stuff we need anyways..

And I also discussed with the hubs when I can get stuff for free I am going to start a big box of stuff for one of the charities or "food banks" in our area! I can see the overflow becoming a certain problem..ha ha..

Look out retailers I am going to find you and the best deal I can get!

We have a WINNER!!

The winner of the book giveaway is



Mrs R over at Blogging away!! You should go say "hi" She's a military wife and she plays the guitar!



I used Random.org to pick the winner.. (such a cool site!) I wish I knew how to do the cute little cut and paste thing but I can not figure it out!

Congratulations!! Email me at crazyrandommusings@yahoo.ca and I will get your FABULOUS book out right away!

I will let you know tomorrow what the next book is!! I need to get to reading!!


In other FABULOUS news. Actually in HUGE news I was at Kmart last night and I walked passed this lady with a HUGE binder of coupons. She looked approachable so I said "hi" (thats the Canadian in me) and she was SUPER nice. I totally did not get her name though however she did show me HOW TO SHOP FOR FREE!!!!

With coupons. See I can clip coupons with the best of them but I rarely use them. She had this binder set up super user friendly and she gave me a BUNCH of tips.

I think we created a MONSTER I have been up all night printing coupons for FREE STUFF, well not free really (yet) but Kmart has a double coupon week and she showed me how (I was buying shaving cream for the hubs) to do it.

Shaving cream $1.99 (on sale)
Coupon $1 off x2 (double coupon)
= FREE!!!

I am so excited to shop for free.... I am heading back to Kmart with all my coupons and I will let you know when I return how I did! I am sure I will not be able to master it like she did, her and her husband bought $193 worth of stuff for $1.89. WOW!! I am so going to learn how to do this. She says its been YEARS since she has paid full price for anything she uses on a regular basis including house cleaning supplies!