Safeway Deals

Ok, I'm going to detail these deals at Safeway this week because of how phenomenal they are! Seriously, get in on these if possible!


I paid nothing for any of these products. Actually Safeway paid me $3.65 the first time around but I realized once I looked at my receipt in close detail at home that they actually made a mistake and that's why I got money but the other time around, I paid just $1.70 and got back $17 in catalinas. A catalina is like coupon but it's just money off your next order. It doesn't matter what you buy. So I guess it's more like a gift certificate in coupon form :)

I had fun on these trips. I went to Safeway twice and the second time around a wonderful older lady was behind me in line. She was amazed at the great deals I was getting. I got $65.67 worth of groceries for $1.70. I ended up giving her 5 of the Philadelphia cream cheeses because I already had 10 of them! If you also end up with mass quantities of items, consider giving them away or donating them to a local soup kitchen. They'll definitely accept them!

Safeway deals
Buy (2) Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean Starter $6.99 each
Buy (2) Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean Refill $3.50 each
- (2) $5 Coupons in 4/11 Newspaper
- (2) $1 coupons hanging from bottles
- (2) Buy Starter Kit Get Refill Free Coupons Here (www.scrubbingbubbles.com/promotions/pages/drtv-promo.aspx)
=$1.98
Plus you'll receive $12 in catalinas
= $10.02 money maker!

Buy Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis $.49 each when you buy 5
- (5) $.55 "blinkies" (these are coupons in a little red box right in front of the cream cheese)
= $.30 money maker!

Buy (4) Windex at $1.99 each
- (4) $1 off coupons at www.coupons.com
=$2.96
Plus you'll get (2) $2 catalinas at checkout
= $1.04 money maker!

Buy (4) Betty Crocker Boxed Potatoes at $.99 each
- (4) $1 off coupons at www.coupons.com
= $.04 money maker!

Yay! Have a good time!

Restaurant Discounts

I first started "couponing" with restaurants about a year and a half ago when I suddenly found myself unemployed. I was looking for cheap entertainment ideas and my group of friends loves to eat out! But eating out is very expensive (unless you stick to the dollar menu at Mcdonalds but that doesn't really fit in with my goals for fitness!). So, I found creative ways to cut that restaurant tab! Here are my top favorites.

1. www.restaurant.com: this website sells $25 gift certificates to certain restaurants for anywhere from $1 to $10. They advertise that it's $10 but at least once a month, many times more often than that, they have a discount code that brings it down to $2 or $3. I've seen it go as low as a dollar. For the most part, they're not chain restaurants (here in the Springs, Ted's Montana Grill is the only exception). But a lot of the more expensive restaurants are on the website. Briarhurst Manor and Mona Lisa Fondue for example. I've tried most of the restaurants in the Springs and a couple of favorites are on there. Tomo Sushi, Nosh, and Bhan Thai are regularly visited in my family. The bad thing about this website is there are a lot of stipulations. Most restaurants say you need to spend at least $10 more than the gift certificate, sometimes double it. So basically it's just a 50% off coupon. But hey, that's not too shabby!

2. Restaurant E-Clubs: Most chain restaurants now have an online club you can subscribe to and get deals and free food from. Some of my favorites have been Mimi's Cafe, Perkins Restaurants, Noodles and Company, and P.F. Chang's. If you join no others, join these. All but P.F. Chang's gives you a completely free meal when you sign up. P.F. Changs gives you a 10% discount each time you go. And if you have more than one email account, you can sign up multiple times (don't tell my mom that I'm recommending this. She's already yelled at me because she thinks that's cheating!).

3. Free (or cheap) food events: Usually the Gazette (here in the Springs) or one of the grocery websites will alert me to special restaurant events that are happening throughout the city. To find one in your area if you don't live in the Springs, go to www.becentsable.com for a listing in your city. For example: the Mike Boyle Radio Show hosts events called the Boyle Lunch Club and he gives substantial discounts to area restaurants. My family attended the lunch at L and L Hawaiian Barbeque a couple weekends ago to get lunch for half off.

So there's some ideas to get you started. Anybody know of any other restaurant price cutting ideas?

Swagbucks.com

Ok, I know I've mentioned this before but it's such an amazing site! Are you on the web alot? Do you search in Google? If you do, get a swagbucks account! There's a link on the righthand side of this page that will take you directly to them and reward you with 30 "bucks" right off the bat. Just because you're friends with me :). Let me tell you about this site...

1. It's a search engine powered through Google. It rewards you with points when you search for things through it. They call them Swagbucks. It's not an automatic point each time you search though. Sometimes you get 10,20,or 30 bucks, sometimes none at all. It's just a random surprise. I average 20-30 bucks a day.
2. There are other ways to earn these points without searching. Every day they have special offers and all you have to do is look through them and it will reward you with a few bucks. Also, they give out codes that you type in on their site to earn an extra 10 or 20 bucks. Check out the site, it will give you other ideas on how to win faster.
3. Now, you may be asking, why should I do this? What's so great about getting "swagbucks"? Well, you trade in those swagbucks at their store for all kinds of things; gift cards, toys, clothing, electronics. I have only gotten Amazon gift cards with mine but since Christmas, I've earned about $50 worth! I've seen people who pay for their entire Christmas with these Amazon gift cards.
4. The downside: There's really no way to get cash out of it. You could get a Paypal gift card with points and then transfer the money from your paypal account into your bank account but those cards are very expensive (they take alot of points) and I don't think it's the best use of your bucks. But you could if you wanted. Also, unless you've got a lot of referrals, the points don't rack up that fast. Be patient, you'll get the hang of it and the bucks will start flowing in. And hey, it's totally free to you and if you're going to search anyway, you might as well get some money out of it, right?

Ok, any questions? If not, seriously check this out. It's fun and who doesn't like to get money?