Rebate Basics

Rebates are a win-win situation, and businesses are making it easier and easier for people to take advantage of rebate offers.

There are tons of different ways to find rebates. One of the easiest is through your local stores. Check your local store circulars for rebate offers. Drugstores are the best for this. In my area, both Rite Aid and Walgreens have monthly rebates. In the case of both of these stores, you can view the pamphlet on-line. Rite Aid even lets you create a shopping list.

I especially like Rite Aid because they have an easy-to-use on-line rebate system. You enter in your receipt information, they electronically pull up your receipt and automatically tell you which items on your receipt are eligible for rebate. This has come in super-handy for me. The 1st time I used the Rite Aid system, I mailed in my rebate. I bought a conditioner for curly hair instead of straight hair - not exactly, but I made some small mistake like that and ended up not getting a rebate for my purchase. In August, I bought the wrong size of a product, but since it didn’t show up on my on-line rebate status, I know something was wrong and brought the product back to the store to exchange it for the right size. Now, when I buy items ate Rite Aid, I don’t open them until I enter my receipts and later come back and check my on-line rebate status to make sure I purchased the right things. Just now, I checked on my Sunday & Monday purchases (which I didn’t tell you guys about yet) and they had already pulled my info – so I already know that I purchased 9 items eligible for rebate, and they were the correct items.

Walgreens also has an on-line system, but this is my first month using it. It’s not as savvy as Rite Aid’s, so I’ll have to let you know in the future how it works out. You enter in your receipts and check off the items that are eligible for rebate, but it doesn’t confirm or deny anything for you.

Another to find rebates is to check the coupons in your Sunday paper. There have been an increasing number of rebate offers from companies with new products. When introducing people to new products, companies used to simply give you a coupon of sizable amount and often, coupled with a store sale, you could get the product for quite a deal or even free. One of the reasons I think some have switched is that they make more money off rebates. How? Because people forget to send them in. So be extra-diligent in keeping track of your rebate offers. Often the rebate offers in the paper will cost you the price of a stamp, unless you can couple it with a coupon. Manufacturers will most often reimburse cost paid before coupon, especially if your receipt has other items on it. When a store takes the coupon off your purchases, the receipt doesn’t generally specify what the coupon is for, and therefore, the manufacturer doesn’t know whether or not you used the coupon on their item or some other item. Businesses are getting wise to this, though, as is evidenced by the recent Theraflu rebate, which clearly stated that your rebate would be purchase cost, minus $2 coupon.

With the rebates that you actually have to fill out & mail in, it’s up to you which ones you should take advantage of. You have to pay the price of postage, so if it’s not something you’d pay 42 cents for, plus the time it takes to fill out the form, then you should pass on it. If it’s something you’d use anyway, and you can couple the rebate with a coupon, then by all means! Go for it.

And then of course there are blogs about rebates. Some of the blogs I read (see a list of recent posts in the right navigation) post about these deals in their regular updates. There are also several blogs that I’ve recently subscribed to that’s sole purpose is to talk about rebates. I’ll let you know what I think of those after I spend more time reading them.

And remember! Rebates only work if you remember to submit them. So don't make rebating your main thing if you have trouble remembering to submit them :)

Basics of Couponing

Often, I get asked how complicated it is to begin couponing. People have this misconception that it takes hours and hours and tons of trips to the store, but that doesn't have to be the case.

Here are some things you can do today to get started on couponing.

1. Subscribe to blogs about couponing and saving money. Pick a blog reader that works for you (such as Bloglines or Google Reader). I use Google Reader because I have a Gmail account already and I like the way it works. Most bloggers have a "Subscribe to this blog" button on their blog that looks like this:
You can see I have a "Subscribe" feature up on the upper-right side of my blog. If it's a Blogspot blog, like this one, there will also be a link at the very bottom of the blog that says "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)". You can click on that link to subscribe. Also, in Google Reader, there's an "Add a Subscription" link on the left where you can simply cut & paste the blog's URL and add it that way.

You'll learn pretty quickly which blogs are helpful and worth reading and which are not. It's easy to unsubscribe in the Google Reader if you find that blog unhelpful; just click on the blog, and then select "Unsubscribe" under "Feed Settings".

2. Get the Sunday paper. Occasionally, coupons appear in the Thursday or Friday paper, so double-check with your local newspaper to find out when they are there. I used to get it delivered to my house for a discount, and I'm waiting for them to offer me a good deal before I subscribe again. I got this week's paper for free at CVS. So if you can get a good deal in your area, subscribe. Otherwise, pick it up at the store & make sure it has the coupons in it before you buy it.

3. Print coupons off the web. Click on my Coupons.com banner on my site, and I get some sort of compensation when you print coupons :) Also, check out manufacturer's websites. Often, they have coupons for products you use that you can print out. Sometimes, they require registration, so set up a junk e-mail account that you use for those purposes. You can contact companies directly and ask them to mail you coupons.

4. Make a coupon binder or folder. Everyone has a different system for this. Trent over at Simple Dollar organizes his coupons by expiration date. Money-saving Mom uses an envelope system. I used to have an index card box that was similar to Money-saving Mom's system. After that, I had a plastic accordion-style coupon holder. Now, I've decided on a hybrid of Trent & Money-saving Mom's system. I'll share about that in a separate post.

This will get you started. Simply having the coupons, having a system for organizing them, and seeing how others are using their coupons and what deals they're scoring will get you off to a good start! I don't want to overwhelm you, so I'll share more ideas in upcoming posts :)

Hello!

Welcome to the couponing blog of Brenna Kater, the Oceanskater. I decided to make a separate blog so those who aren't interested don't have to read it :) In this blog, I'll share some basics of couponing that can be done simply by reading some blogs, getting the Sunday paper and printing coupons off the internet. I'll also share freebies, giveaways, and random ideas about making money, scoring deals, and getting gift cards.

If you go over to my other blog, you can find some of the deals I've gotten recently:
Rite Aid paid me $6.92 to take Citre Shine Gloss Gelee, Chapstick Natural Lip Balm, Charles Worthington Dream Hair conditioner, Contour blood glucose monitoring system, Kotex feminine hygiene product, Orajel Cold Sore Brush, Joy dishwashing liquid, and Citre Shine Hair Serum off their hands.

CVS paid me $2.94 to take 5 Soyjoy bars, a 4-pack of Bic Comfort3 Advance Shavers, a Sunday paper off their hands.

Walgreens paid me $1.47 to take a L’Oreal Pro-calcium Radiance Perfector lotion, a Halloween Mask, 4 Lindt Chocolate Bars, 12 rolls Quilted Northern, Ultra Plush, 3 boxes of Benefiber Kiwi Strawberry drink mixes, 1 20-ct box of Alka Seltzer Plus Cold, Plain, 1 Almay One Coat Mascara, and 2 Rolls Scotch Packing Tape off their hands.

So add me to your blog reader!