Before I retired, I volunteered a lot and was at one time even the Philanthropy Director of Executive Women International of Jacksonville.  As Philanthropy Director, I organized a monthly event for our women to give back to our community.  One charity that we did many service projects for was Community Connections of Jacksonville.  Previously the YWCA, Community Connections is a Critical Resource for Jacksonville providing:

• Help for the Homeless – safe housing alternatives for women, children & families
• Children’s Services – child care, after school and summer camp programs
• Parenting Programs – training and support for parents
• Special Literacy Programs – breaking the cycle of family illiteracy

Never Pay Full Price

Did you know that you don’t have to pay full price when you donate products to your local charities?  They won’t ever know how much money you spent out of pocket, so you should never pay full price if you don’t have to.  Your charity dollars can stretch even further when you can get items for a reduced price.  I was asked to provide $25 worth of products to my charity so I decided to make a nice little Easter Basket for a child at CC.

The first thing I did was study several websites to see this week’s coupon matchups to sale products for Wal Mart and check out this month’s issue of All You Magazine.  
This week I was disappointed that there was not anything for *free*, but happy there were still many deals to be had.  Coupon Matchups to Current Sale products are extremely important for savvy shopping.  Couponing sites (like my own) will provide you with where to find the exact coupon as well as tell you what price you should expect to pay.  Sunday Newspapers and Printable Coupons are your typical coupon sources, but you can also find lots of coupons in All You Magazine.  All You is found only at Wal Mart or by subscription.  If you are a serious couponer you’ll want to get a subscription.  If you end up buying it on the news stand it is only $2.49!  When is the last time you bought a magazine that only cost $2.49 ?  (tip :  the subscription price is even cheaper!)

What’s in your Easter Basket?

I know it is Easter, but these children probably don’t need any extra sugar to help them bounce against the walls.  So I decided to be somewhat non-traditional! I did not find any coupons in this month’s All You that I wanted to use for this Easter Basket, but it was  full of other coupons that I will use later.  So after carefully studying the coupons and the sales, I decided on two of each of these products which would make up my $25 :

Hubert’s Lemonade, $1.69
B1G1 FREEHubert’s Lemonade printable
$0.75/1 Hubert’s Lemonade printable coupon
$0.47 each after coupons!

Pretzel Crisps and flavor: $1.98
Use $1/1 Pretzel Crisps printable coupons
Total: $0.98

Renu Contact Lens Solution (travel size), $1.47 ea.
$2/1 Renu Fresh Contact Solution printable coupon
FREE after coupon!

Minute Maid juice boxes (10 pk.), $2.98
$1/1 Minute Maid juice box (10 pack) printable coupon
$1.98 after coupon!

On these printable coupon websites you may print 2 coupons per item by using your back button after the first one prints.  If the back button doesn’t work, then you can still get your 2nd print by going back in and selecting the items again.

As with most best laid plans … I had to alter my list a little.  My Wal-mart did not stock the Hubert’s Lemonade so luckily I had printed some other coupons just in case for some fun Kiss brand Nail Art.  I always try to print coupons when I see them because they could be there one minute, and gone the next.  Manufacturer’s may only have a certain number of prints available per coupon and once that is depleted they pull those printables and replace them with new coupons.

How much did it cost?

Here is my total before coupons :

How much did you save? Read More→