Leahs Cafe

I am a skeptic of FREE stuffs advertised and usually are able to stay away from all the marketing gimmicks.  Few weeks ago, I read a feature story on the local newspaper, a woman talked about how she was able to save money and got great bargains using all the coupons. I went on the websites/forum given at the end of that story and started my research for two weeks. :-)

It’s a game you play against the retailers and the manufacturers. As a math person, I find it really fun to find the best way to stretch the dollars or even get stuffs for free. At  first, I clipped the coupons that I thought I might use and threw away the rest. Then, I learned about “coupon trains” and you can trade coupons that you don’t want for coupons that you can use with fellow couponers.

The strategy is to use the coupons combine with store sales and you would be amazed what you can buy for FREE. :-)

Selection of  stuffs that I bought for FREE or almost FREE using the coupons during store sales.

Organic tomato sauce

Organic pinto, garbanzo and black beans

The tomato sauce and beans were on sale “5 for $5″. With the $1 coupon, they are all FREE. Did not even have to pay sale tax! I don’t even know what to do with the beans, but they are FREE, I am sure I will figure out a way to use them. ;-)

Colgate toothpaste

The toothpaste was on sale for $2.99, with $1.50 coupon, and the $2 store voucher, a profit of $0.55 each!

Elastics and hair bands

Some elastics were on sale for $2.xx and $1.xx. The hair band was $3.99. A mix of them and use $2 manufacturer’s coupon for each, there are FREE !

Raynoc Batteries

On sale for $1 for a pack of two AA and AAA. With the $1 manufacturer’s coupon, they are …FREE! T said they may not last as long as other name brands, but who cares when they are free. :-)

Organic Whole Wheat Pasta

They are normally $3+ per box, last week it was on sale for $2.50 with buy one get one Free, with the two $1 coupons, it’s $0.25 per box! This pastas don’t get bad and I bought enough to last us for a long time. : -)

Couponing 101 is to stockpile things when they are on sale and you have coupons that match up with the sale. Our pantry is stock up with this whole pile for less than $10!

Aluminium Foil and Deodorant

They were on sale and were all FREE after coupons.

Scented oil candle holders and refills

These scented oil candle holders usually are $9.99 to $11.99 a piece! I bought them when the candle holder were on sale for $4.99 each and the refills were on sale $5 for two. I got them FREE with coupons! All I have to pay was taxes due at store that calculated taxes before coupons. At the drug store that calculated taxes after coupons, didn’t even have to pay a cent. They are going to be some of the Christmas gifts we plan to give to family and friends.

Scotch tape and gift wrap

These tapes were on sale $2 for two packs, with the $1 coupons, they were free. The store also gives $2 rebate for the tapes. So, I got 6 packs for FREE and will receive $2 in rebate. Not a bad idea to go to the store to get six packs of tapes and earned $2!

I like my new hobby! Which hobby helps you to save money? All my other hobbies caused a hole in my pocket!!

We got a pair of used washer and dryer for a steal but ended up have to resell the dryer due to it being a gas dryer and we have only electric hook up in the laundry room at the basement. It’s necessary to get a dryer as we won’t be able to dry the laundry on the lines when the weather turns cold.

They are many people in the opposite situation i.e. moved into a place that has gas hook up and try to get rid of the electric dryer. So, we have been looking at craiglist.com for a reliable ,less than two years old used electric dryer for a couple weeks. We did find some very good deals. But T was concerned about hauling it home and bring it down to the basement, and it’s not worth hurting our backs doing that.

We finally decided to get a new one from the store today, so we don’t have to worry about delivery and installation! We went to Sears to check out the GE dryer that we saw online. It was priced at about $750 on sears.com.(not including all the taxes and delivery charges, which will be about $100+)

But then we saw a LG dryer that in the same price range, has the same functions and a larger capacity, but was on clearance due to a scratch on the top of the dryer. We don’t mind the scratch as it ’s hardly visible and saving of $200 is a substantial amount of money for us who are just starting out.

So, we decided to buy the LG dryer instead. They are going to deliver the dryer on Tuesday morning and I am looking forward to clear the laundry piles.:-)

In this economy, the appliances and furniture stores are not doing that well, so if you shop around, you can really get some good bargains on discount furniture and appliances, especially if you pay cash!

We went down town to shop for warm clothes and household stuffs after dinner. We wanted to check out the dryers at Sears but it was closed when we reached there at 7.15 p.m. In this small town, most stores close at 9.00 p.m and some close at 7.00 p.m!

We first went to TJMax, a discounted store, it’s quite small, thus the selection is quite limited. Found a few trousers that I like, but could not find the “short” ones, the “normal” and “long” ones were too long for me. Bought a pair of jeans that has the “short” version and two pairs of tights. Also went to JCPenny, which’s just a few blocks away, bought half a dozen of warm socks and a pair of chenille gloves with the $10 coupon we got in the mail!

Then, we went to Target, bought some hand towels and wash clothes. These were on sale  for  $1.58 per pack, four wash cloths in one pack and two hand towel in one pack. They are not the plush and soft type, but I prefer the thinner ones, they are easier to dry and save on energy. :-)

Though we do have enough hand towels and wash cloths, they are all in brown color and got mixed up a lot. So, we got them in two colors, beige for him and green for me, so they don’t get mixed!

We also checked out the clothes drying rack. We saw one selling for $29.99 on target.com, but it’s not available at the store. Drying racks are probably not very popular here as most people just dry their clothes in the dryer. We wanted a rack to hang the almost dry and some of the sweaters as dryer tends to shrink them.

Actually, this chrome metal drying rack is quite small and won’t be able to hold too many clothes., but it’s the better built one that we can find. We actually found one wooden drying rack almost the same size  of this metal one at the garage sale and paid $2 for it.

It’s quite light and was blew off from the balcony on second floor to the lawn few days ago!  Despite falling from 12 feet height, it’s still in tact and nothing is broken. It might look flimsy, but it’s surprisingly well built!!