Friday, January 13, 2012

Have you noticed the Labels list?

Since we're having a snow day and everyone is still asleep this morning, I wanted to take a sec to direct you to a new-ish feature on the Hopkins County Couponer: Labels.  I had been seeing labels or tags on other websites and blogs and for the life of me couldn't figure out how to add them to this blog.  Then, one day, while looking for another gadget to post, I saw "labels" in the list of choices.  I swear blogger just added it, because surely I hadn't been overlooking it all the other times!  Any hoo, I have added it to the left hand side, right below the "subscribe by email" box.  It's kind of like a quick search of things I commonly blog about. 

Labels, what are they?  In a nutshell, when I make a post about something I can assign a label to it.  I try to be specific when I assign the labels: store names, insert names, topics.  I also like seeing the number of posts that I've made for a specific topic or store.  As of this morning, I have made 5 posts and labeled them "Couponer's CAN".  If you click "Couponer's CAN" all of the items should be related to my favorite saying:  Couponer's CAN make a difference, one donation at at time. 

I just started adding Labels so my older posts are label-less.  But, if you want to find that post from last week about Kmart (or whatever), just click the Kmart label on the left and you'll get to a list of Kmart related posts!  You may also notice the "Random" label for all the posts that just don't fit in anywhere else!  And, for beginning couponers, you may want to take a look at "Know How".  This is a series of posts I made for a Couponing Workshop at the Southside Family Resource Center.  I hope you find labels helpful!

No School Friday, Hello Long Weekend

In case you didn't get the call, there is NO SCHOOL in Hopkins County Today!  Friday, January 13th.  Our first official Snow Day for the 2011-2012 school year and it is on Friday the 13th!  If that's not a sign to stay home, I just don't know what is!  If you have to get out and about today, please drive safely!

Printables: Velveeta, ChapStick, Butter x3

My favorite coupons from Coupons.com....Under zip 77477.

Save $1.00 on any ONE Velveeta Dips product.

I can't tell you the last time I purchased chip dip, so I have no idea what the shelf price may be.  But, with a $1.00 off any ONE coupon, I hope you can get chip dip for under 2-bucks.  Maybe?  I'll have to check this stuff out!




Save 25-cents on Any One ChapStick product.
I think this could be my favorite coupon of 2012! 
Regular ChapStick is about a buck, so I'll gladly pay 75-cents for a tube!



There are also three coupons available for butter! 
You may be wondering if you can buy 2 Country Crocks and use a $1.25 q and a 60-cent q for a combined savings of $1.85 on two tubs.  These coupons print with the new, longer barcode so I am going to say you probably can't buy two and use two coupons.  You, of course, could buy three and use both coupons but the savings wouldn't be as significant.  Actually, upon closer inspection of the fine print, it reads: one COUPON PER PURCHASE, on product/quantity specified.  The quantity specified is two which means you'll have to buy three if you want to use both coupons.  You'll still be saving 62-1/2 cents on each tub when you use the $1.25 q!

Check out the "Click-able" Sunday Coupon Preview List

I began couponing exactly a year ago this month.  So, I was a little curious about last year's coupons when I started seeing the 2012 Sunday Coupon Previews each week.  So, I went to Sunday Coupon Preview and realized that the yearly insert schedule is just a list and you can't click on the dates to go to the list of coupons.  Did that sentence make any sense?  To make a long story even longer, if you want to find a past list of coupons, you have to search the SCP website and it didn't make me very happy.

So, I have added a "tab" on the Hopkins County Couponer called "Insert Schedule" where you will find the 2012 list with "click-able" links that I plan to update as the information is available.  You can also use the 2011 Sunday Coupon Preview link to get to a "click-able" list of last year's coupons, which I'm also updating each week!  This is especially helpful if you're curious about coupon values from last year.  You'll hear from time to time that coupon values are decreasing because of TLC's Extreme Couponing.

If you're just getting started and you think you have to buy 10 newspapers this week to get that great toothpaste or cereal or makeup or whatever coupon, be sure to take a stroll through some of the 2011 coupon lists.  You'll begin to see the same coupons make appearances on a very regular basis.  You really don't need to buy 10 newspapers each week.  If it's a coupon you really like, try using a Coupon Clipping Service.  Just google "coupon clipping service" and you'll be bombarded with search results!  About 427,000 to be exact. 

I hope you'll find these lists as helpful as I do!

This year's schedule of inserts: 2012 Sunday Coupon Preview.
A look back at last year's coupons: 2011 Sunday Coupon Preview.

Got my Shutterfly order!

Remember my post earlier this week about the Shutterfly certificates I received in my kiddos school picture packets?  Well, I used both $20 certificates on Monday and received my prints in the mail yesterday (Thursday)!  I knew they would be glossy, which I'm not a big fan of for larger prints, but I think the print quality is just as good as the Lifetouch prints!  Getting the order in three days is just plain amazing!  If you got a certificate, don't let it expire!  I did have to do two checkouts to use both certificates, but it was worth it!