Archive for ‘Donating’

Donate Personal Care Items to Charity for FREE!

I’m feeling the Spring Fever/Cabin Fever/Spring Cleaning craze. This time I completely COMPLETELY emptied my to-donate stash!

alpha womens center

I can easily tell you these items cost me no more than $5 (and that’s purely accounting for the expense of the coupons and sales tax.) I sound like a broken record might have mentioned before that using coupons is a great way to get FREE toiletry items to donate to your favorite charity.

UPDATE: Just realized I didn’t finish the story on how I got these items FREE! Oops! So, my OOP was about $5 due to coupon expense and sales tax, BUT I got $15 in Rite Aid Single Check Rebates back for the Biore/John Frieda… so technically… I made money for donating

This batch of girlie products is going to the Alpha Women’s Center in Newaygo (it’s close to work.)
All the men’s products will go to Guiding Light Mission in Grand Rapids.

What charities do you support and how? Do you give items or is it just “easier” to give a monetary donation?

By Jolon, 26 March, 2010, Leave A Comment

$1 Johnson’s Baby Coupon + Upcoming Deal

Next week 2/21 – 2/27, Rite Aid will have Johnson’s Baby Products BOGO for 1 cent.

1. Print this $1 Johnson’s Baby coupon (print 2 per computer), $1 Baby Shampoo (IE link), or various Johnson’s coupons HERE

2. Order more of the insert coupons NOW if you need them.

3. The deal will look like this:

$4.49 Baby Shampoos & Lotions
Savvy Scenario:
Buy 2 Johnson’s Baby Products $4.50
Use (2) $1 Johnson’s Baby coupons
Also use (2) $1 RAVV Johnson coupons
Final Price $0.25 ea wyb 2

$4.29 Baby Powder & Baby Oil
Savvy Scenario:
Buy 2 Johnson’s Baby Products $4.30
Use (2) $1 Johnson’s Baby coupons
Also use (2) $1 RAVV Johnson coupons
Final Price $0.15 ea wyb 2

By Jolon, 18 February, 2010, Leave A Comment

Hygiene for Haiti: Deals This Week

haiti

Please review my earlier post about a local initiative requesting Hygiene for Haiti. Jen Kroll is having a Silent Auction/Gala this Thursday at her studio and is still accepting toothbrushes and toothpaste!

Here are some great deals for this week to send along with Jen:

Walgreens:

Crest Cavity Protection Toothpaste $2.29
Use $1/2 coupon from 2/7 PG
Also use $1.50 coupon from Walgreens February Coupon Booklet (deducts $3)
Final Price $0.29 ea wyb 2
Thanks, Shellie!

Target:

Aquafresh Extreme Clean (trial size) $1.07
Use $0.50 coupon from HERE
Final Price $0.57
Thanks, KCL!

By Jolon, 15 February, 2010, Leave A Comment

Hygiene for Haiti: Deals this Week

haiti

Ok, so we talked about the 2 local Hygiene for Haiti projects HERE – get the details on how you can help.

Here are the best deals this week for the hygiene items that were requested.

Rite Aid:

Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste $2.99
Use $1 coupon from 1/17 SS
Submit $2 SCR
Final Price FREE
*Counts towards SCR #550

Reach Total Care Toothbrush $2.99 (buy 2)
Use BOGO coupon from 1/3 RP
Also use $1 coupon from 10/18 RP
Final Price $1.00 ea wyb 2

Walgreens:

Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste $2.49 ea with in-ad coupon
Use $1 coupon from 1/17 SS
Final Price $1.49

Walgreens Bar Soap 3/$1.00 with in-ad coupon

Meijer:

Colgate Total Advanced Toothpaste $2.50 ea
Use $1 coupon from 1/17 SS
Final Price $1.50

Do you see any I missed? Please share in the comments & I will update…

By Jolon, 1 February, 2010, Leave A Comment

Hygiene for Haiti: Need Your Help!

haiti

So, we all texted in our donations for Haiti… but it’s not yet time to stop giving. Here are two local initiatives that need YOUR help. Drop off/send-to locations are listed below.

World Vision:

Jen Kroll (Jen Kroll Photography) will be traveling to Haiti to rebuild schools with World Vision at the end of March.

Collecting:

toothpaste
tooth brushes

Send donations to: Jen Kroll Photography, 401 Hall Street SW, Suite 110, Grand Rapids, MI 49503.

Rays of Hope for Haiti:

Accepting donations through February 11, 2010 at the Newaygo Career-Tech Center, Newaygo, Mich.

Collecting:

Staple Dry Foods:

Rice
Beans
Powdered milk
Canned meat
Peanut butter
Canned milk

Comfort items:

Tooth brushes
Toothpaste
Bar Soap

This coming week and the following, I’ll do a special posting of all the FREE/cheap toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, and food items in one post so you can print your shopping list and go! Easy!

**If you are local (within my reach) and are unable to ship/drop-off your items, please contact me and I’ll be happy to do it for you! savvychicwestmi (at) yahoo.com

By Jolon, 29 January, 2010, 1 Comment

Frugal Living Tip #5: Shop At Home

savvy_125

In this case, I’m not referring to Shop At Home (to get cash back on your purchases.) I mean: shop your pantry, shop your linen closet, shop your stockpile. Just to be clear, stockpiling does not equal hoarding. There should only be two objectives when stockpiling: to avoid EVER paying full retail price and to collect more to donate!

Today’s Frugal Living Tip is: SHOP AT HOME

Shop Your Pantry:

If you’re grocery shopping with a strategy similiar to mine, you’re buying multiples of staple ingredients. (Read the first two paragraphs of any Meijer weekly deals for my strategy. Example HERE.) Make an effort to plan menus #1 using the items already in your pantry/freezer and #2 from items in the weekly sale ads. This was the idea behind NO SHOP January – I’ll humor myself and imagine you all participated in your own way

Shop Your Linen Closet:

(Or where ever it is you keep your personal care and household items.) Because I make the effort to gather more coupons, I have 6 months worth of FREE toothpaste in my closet. When I run out, I don’t have to throw a full-priced tube in my grocery cart. I can spend that $3.00 on perishables.

Shop Your Stockpile:

This one is my favorite. My goal is to keep about 6 months worth of necessities on hand in case ________.
a. I run out
b. I have an unexpected change in my employment situation.
c. Disaster strikes. (No, I don’t have a bomb shelter.)
d. Someone I know needs something.
e. Someone I don’t know needs something.

By Jolon, 23 January, 2010, Leave A Comment

Why Coupons? TO DONATE MORE!

I have to be honest, I’ve been a little touchy about this couponing subject lately. I want people to see past the jokes about free razors and free toothpaste and see the bigger picture.

For me, it’s two-fold. #1 Save money on things you will always HAVE to buy, so you can afford to spend the money in other areas (or not spend – SAVE!) #2 Give more than you could previously afford to give:

3 kids donation

Mom called today. A family of 5 is living in someone’s basement. The mom is sick, the dad lost his job, and there are three kids ages 7 months, 2 years, and 5 years. A not-so-uncommon story, unfortunately…

So, I did some quick shopping in my stash box and it yielded a small gift for each of the kids and a few odds-n-ends for the parents. A total of about $100 worth of stuff I spent about $5 on (including tax!) That’s why I get crazy about coupons and free shampoo… because it gives me more than I need and I can give the rest!

My goal is to give away every last item in my stash box before Christmas… maybe it will mean something to someone…

By Jolon, 14 December, 2009, Leave A Comment

Rite Aid trip 11/9

Retail = $52.90 (sale price $29.95)

# of coupons used = 8

# of FREE items = 12

OOP (out of pocket) = $1.50 (all tax!)

On this trip, it came in handy to have the Rite Aid coupon policy with me. It states we can use BOGO coupons on the BOGO sale items to get both items FREE. I also had to call the 800 number while I was in the store and hand my cell to the store manager.

Best Policy = spend coupons correctly, know the policy, and be polite! Coupon shopping is not always easy, but now I have 10 bottles of hair care to donate!

transaction #2

Retail = $29.43

# of coupons used = 5

OOP = $3.72

By Jolon, 11 November, 2009, Leave A Comment

Donating Rocks!

So, the coolest thing about savvy shopping is getting a ton of stuff for next to nothing and… giving it away! There are 11 Special Olympics kids living nearby and I’m putting these items in their trick-or-treat bags!

Here’s $205 worth of products that I got for about $8.50. I spent $6.70 of that on the nail polish (retail $23.66,) but I wanted something girlie for the girls!
*special thanks to D&SW for contributing the toothbrushes and toothpaste!*

The final product
I found awesome gift bags on clearance at Target for $0.48 ea!