"Last Friday I made a quick trip to Target for cat food. I had just received the coupons I traded, and I decided to look for the Chef Michael's that would be free with coupons. I Grabbed a couple bags of cat food and a few of the Chef Michael's.

"I'm in the midst of getting "The Binder" organized but I managed to get things in order enough to score at Walgreens! I made two trips to take full advantage of the great deals!
Trip #1
6 Skippy PB
4 Rice Krispie Treats (8 count)
2 Little Bites Mini Wheats
2 Nutri Grain cereal bars
2 boxes of Pop Tarts
Grand total (at sale prices) $38
- coupons worth $10 = $28
- $10 Kellogg's Rebate = $18
- $13 in register Rewards = $5 .....good but they were out of Ragu

So I made Trip #2 after work near my house:
2 Kellogg's Frosted Flakes
5 Rice Krispie Treats
5 Wags Activity Books
6 Ragu
Grand Total of $32
- coupons worth $6 = $26
- $13 in Register Rewards = $13

All the wonderful goodies in that picture for a whopping $18 and now I have a ton of Register Rewards to keep rolling! My "Boy Genius" was VERY happy to see what I brought home! It's good to be back at it. I've missed the good deal adrenaline rush!!! Happy shopping!!!"  ~Heather Greenwood (and my handsome model Joshie) Sacramento, CA

"I have been a member of Refund Cents for quite some time, and, in the past I've been in your print magazine buying $1000 worth of groceries for only $24 and change......but, I've been on a short break. After 13 years of trying, my husband and I had a baby. At age 40 and 50, it was quite a shock - but, such a blessing. Anyways, when the photostamp opportunity came up, I jumped on it. I think I bought all of the photostamps at both of my Walgreens here in Chico! Well, I bought about 20 boxes and I used RR items to lower the cost even more. Half of the boxes I bought only cost me $5.55 a piece. I was really excited that they would be costing me only $7.19, and, I would then be getting $8 each into my Upromise account, but, now that THAT has fizzled, I am still thrilled at all of the cute stamps of my little Eddie Santino. So, I wanted to share a picture of us both and the photostamps we got.
Additionally, I did the AXE movie ticket deal, and CVS actually paid me $1.47 for all the markers in the last picture. They didn't have the markers pictured on the coupons at the store, but the checker let me get the fat highlighters of the same brand that were .99 cents, and, I used my ECBs to pay for the rest and got $2.00 back. I've been so busy with my new little guy that I haven't had a chance to refund. But, now that I've started up again, I'm having a ball. Thanks Michelle!!" Nancy Raimer

"I wanted to share my little triumph at Kmart this morning. You and I know that not all Kmarts participate, and, Chico was one of the stores that never doubled anything. Well, this morning in the Kmart ad, there was a small section that advertised "up to $2 manufacture coupons doubled." Well, ofcourse, there are so many rules and restrictions in the fine print - like, only (10) coupons per day, and, only (4) of the same item, etc.....I was hesitant to even ask if they meant doubling UP TO $2 (so, you could only use up to $1 manufacturer coupons), or, doubling up to $2 (so, you could use up to $2 manufacturer coupons). But, I thought I'd give it a shot. I prepared all the $2 coupons that I had and when I got there I asked the customer service rep and she didn't know. She called a manager, and they didn't know. So, she offered to ring me up herself and force the matter if it didn't work since she didn't have an answer for me - but, she was leaving in an hour. No problem!!!! I scoured the aisles for products that I had $2 coupons for. I found five of them. I couldn't find alot of the products that I had coupons for??? Anyways, the customer service rep was still there when I finished and these are the items I got and how much it cost me:
Viva Paper towels (6-pk)
Huggies Overnights (27-pk)
Peter Pan Peanut Butter
Aveeno Shampoo
Pert Shampoo for Men (already sent for the rebate on this one, darn it)
Skintamate
Tag Spray for Men
and, Nivea Kid's Sunblock
Before coupons, $5159............And, after my double coupons, it cost me $24.81. I don't know how long this will last, but, I like it!!" Nancy Raimer

"I did it, I did it, I did it!!!!  I am still so excited about my 2^nd shopping trip I did at CVS I can hardly contain myself when some asks me about it.  I have to say this is my first almost free shopping trip I have done.  I knew when I started out that night I would do good but had no idea I would do as well as I did.  Some of the things in my favor that helped sweeten the deal were: 

1.     Wonderful Cashier named Andrea

2.     Grand Reopening of a previous Longs

3.     Back to School sale

4.     lots, and lots, and lots of coupons

"Wow, I’m smiling because my mommy got 15  Johnson & Johnson products for $1.88 after all of her coupons and rebates at Rite Aid.  Here’s how she did it.  Johnson & Johnson products were on sale for $3.50 one week.  In the August Single Check rebates book, there was a rebate for $25 when you spend $50 on Johnson & Johnson products.  At home mommy took time and figured out that she could break up her purchases into three $25 transactions and use three $5/25 Rite Aid coupons if she added some other FAR items to her order to get a total of $15 off.  There were $1 manufacturer coupons for J&J baby products that had expired just a couple days before, so mommy made a quick trade and got 15 more coupons in case Rite Aid would take them.  So after she got her coupons in the mail, we went up to Rite Aid and really stocked up.  It turned out she was able to use all of her coupons to get a phenomenal deal.  We got (2) Desitin, (2) J&J Head to Toe wash, (3) J&J Foaming bath wash, (3) J&J Bedtime bath, and (5) J&J Bubble bath.  The retail price on all of these products was $75.75.  After the rebate check our total will be $1.88 and that was for tax.  I’ll be a clean little girl for quite a long time!" - Dawn Green

"Since reading Refund Cents, I have been slowly turning into the crazy coupon lady. Over the past few weeks I have learned so much about couponing and have even begun to have my own successful couponing trips.
With spreadsheets, coupons and husband in tow, I spent my afternoon hitting store after store, taking advantage of the best sales out there.
Check out the goods:
Stores visited:

• Walgreens
• Rite Aid
• CVS
• Target
• Shaws

$192.95 - Purchase price before coupons
 -$85.19 - Coupons
$107.76 - Total out-of-pocket
 -$40.46 - Rebates, Register Rewards, Extra Care Bucks for future purchases
 -$50.00 - Gift cards from transferring two prescriptions to Rite Aid.
  $17.30 - Amount of money spent

So the total out-of-pocket ($107.76) minus minus my free earned money ($90.46) means that  I got all of this for only $17.30 of my own money.

That's nearly $200 worth of goodies for a mere $17.30.
Who would have thought it possible?" Megan Capone

"Here is my 7 year-old son Zac with all our K-Mart doubles deals this week. All of the items to the left of the Whiskas cat food boxes were totally FREE after coupons - $253.46 worth. Total OOP was $53.60 w/tax -and would have been less if I had printed more $5 off $50 K-Mart coupons:( So, here are the grand totals: $523.68 before coupons, $53.60 after = $470.08 saved!!! That's about 90% off! Zac is always asking "Can't you buy anything WITHOUT a coupon?" Well, after our first visit Sunday morning netted 50 items for less than $5, he said, "Mom, I totally understand now why you like coupons so much!" My husband was out of town, so Zac had no choice but to go with me. He was such a trooper. We went to 4 different stores and did 2 transactions at each, staying well within our limits of 25 coupons and 4 of the same coupons. For all his help, he got a clearance Easter basket and was excited that it was on sale too!" Natalie Harris

"Total before coupons (including tax) was $65.83. Total after coupons $10.61. I saved $55.22 total between coupons, Advantage Buys, and Advertised special savings. Had the BEST most COUPON FRIENDLY cashier ever, she's always been one of my favorites (her son and my husband are both Marines). She also noticed that some of my coupons were stuck together, and I had 5 more than I thought - so she went back and grabbed me 5 of the grinders and rang those up FREE too! She was so awesome, I gave her 5 coupons for the McCormick GrillMates to get more free. She was so excited, it was funny.

Then went over to Kroger and got 5 bottles of the Kraft BBQ sauce for 1.25 total. Michele’s updates stated the bottles were 1.08, but my Kroger had them 4 for $5. Looked a little harder, and saw they had bonus sized bottles for the same price (26oz at the same price as the 18oz). So, 5 huge bottles (3 original, 2 honey) for $1.25 total. Forgot to get the Kraft salad dressing for .19 - opps! It's apparently on sale for $1.69 and I have some of the $1.50 coupons. I also had to buy diapers while there for my son (potty trained, but wears diapers at night). I was grabbing those, when a vendor stopped me and handed me 5 coupons for .75 off diapers (and a few other brands). She was from Caremark, which I’d never heard of and was putting up some signs for an upcoming Huggies deal and putting some peelies on Poise pads. The diapers were $9.97 a pack, and I had a coupon for 1.50 off. I also had a coupon ‘electronically stored" through cellfire. You can use a coupon in the store, and your electronic coupons together - so I got $2.50 off total. Total for this trip was $9.61 after coupons for the Kraft and the diapers, plus tax.  AWESOME day, and I am such a dork - I took a photo (for this article) but I posted the photo on Facebook too." Lori Vann GA

"After reading an article in our local paper about the shortages of the local food pantries, I decided to shop for the food closet. Superfresh was doing one of it's rare triple coupons to 50 cents with a limit of 4 like coupons, and I had my coupons somewhat organized. This is what I was able to purchase:
4 Fiber One bars
4 Lipton Tea
4 Lipton herbal tea
4 bags of Chex mix
4 boxes of Success Rice cups (only 2 can be seen in the picture)
2 46 oz V8 juice
4 Jolly time Popcorn
2 Minute Rice cups
3 Crunch & Munch
4 Nature Valley Granola bars
4 Temptations cat treats (for the ASPCA)
Total before coupons a little over $70, total OOP: $9.79 Not my best, but this is all going to the Food closet.
The day before, I delivered 45 cans of dogfood, 3 bags of cat food, 15 bags of cat treats, and about 3 weeks worth of newspapers to the ASPCA, and so far about 40 packs of Wrigley's gum to the USO. I have decided to try to do a shop at least once a month for the 3 charities I support: USO, Kent County ASPCA, and different food closets. I will also be picking up things as I find them. I keep 2 large new kitchen trash cans beside my dining room table where I put my goodies for the ASPCA and Food Closet. The USO things, I drop off directly to my mother who delivers whatever I've given her the previous week on Wednesdays when she goes to volunteer at the Lounge where in transit military members travel through. I usually have something for her each week to take out there. (Not everything collected goes to Iraq and Afghanistan, some goes to the people who are traveling through and might get stuck, or any service member that needs something.)
Our ASPCA has opened a food closet for people to get animal food, which hopefully will enable them to keep their animals as our no-kill facility is at capacity, and the satellite facilities are at capacity. When I purchase my cat's food, I usually try to get cat food, dog food, or treats depending on what coupons I have.
Coupons have enabled me to expand my donations, which are really necessary these days. Right now, I'm working on rebuilding my stockpile for a yard sale later this year." Debi J

"Hello to all of our coupon clipping friends. My husband and I put our newly found hobby and side job of clipping coupons to work. I used to think people in line with coupons were a pain, but I have seen the light and showed my husband the path as well.
    I work with a friend that showed me that coupons are much more than just an way of blocking up lines. She showed me that it can actually benefit your way of life and living, not to mention save you a boat load of "$$money$$". In her honor we would like to dedicate her with this little tribute and show her just how well she has done in turning non-believers into a coupon crazy couple. We have been working at building our coupon skills for the last three months and we have even amazed ourselves at just how well we have grasped the coupon way of life.
   Here is just a sample of what we have learned to do in just a few months time. (Picture attached)
We just had Kmart Super Doubles & Kroger 10/$10 in our neck of the woods in the same week and boy did we ever hit the mother load!!!!!
    We made our plans and trips to Kmart & Krogers every day without fail and the benefits were huge. Here is a picture of our 3 year old daughter Savana with our latest haul of goods. We raked in over $900.00 dollars worth of goods for only $153.00 OOP, (that's out of pocket for you novices :) . We were so excited that we just had to share it with everyone. Our family and friends were amazed at the amount of stuff we got for so little. 
    We are future coupon people for life and will be teaching our daughter the tricks as she gets older. Thanks to our friend "Deb Grimes" (we are sorry we forgot to mention you when we signed up for RefundCents) and the wonderful world of Refund Cents we have learned a ton of stuff from the both of you. We have also found a new lease on life, that hardly cost a thing and the fun we have shopping is an adrenalin rush in itself. Thanks again and Happy Shopping!" From Rebecca, Raymond & Savana Meeks (Peru, IN)

"Not only did Petsmart have the Chef Michael canned dog food B1G1F the package also had get 1 can free or up to $1 off and they had the cans reduced from .79 to .50 with your petperks card. So this is how my day went buying out Petsmart of the B1G1F.
My 1st trip into the store I had 8 coupons for B1G1F from the Sunday insert. I purchased 8 cans and got the 8 free but with the in-store promotion I got 16 free cans on top of that. On this trip I also had a $3 off coupon from taking one of their surveys. So I got 32 cans for .73. After taking the 16 coupons off of the packages I got 32 more cans for .73. And my last trip I  took the new 16 coupons off of the packages and was able to use 14 of them which got me 28 cans free for .63. Needless to say I cleaned out Petsmart of the B1G1F promotion cans and I still have 16 free coupons to use. My final total 92 cans of Chef Michael canned dog food for $2.09." Marde S.

"When I was going through my receipts for tax time this year back in January, I noticed a bright pink sticky note with this on it “CVS 90% Gift Sets-Feb 28”.  I took my note and stuck it on the calendar last month.  When February 28^th rolled around (it was a Saturday morning) I woke up and was at a CVS that opens at 7am at 7:15am.  Unfortunately they did not have ANY gift sets in stock.  So, I went to another store about 10 mins away that was open.  Thankfully they had a self scanner and I found a cologne set-only 75% off-bummer!  I went back home and then read the next day of reports that CVS went 90% off on March 1.  I was not able to get out Sunday, but my mom offered to watch the kids so I could run around town on Monday night, I called my sister and we set out on The Great CVS Treasure Hunt’.  Honestly, we hadn’t had this much fun since double coupons at K-Mart back in November.  We hit about 4 CVS stores in one night over a three hour period.  Our method was to first look behind the counter for gift sets, if nothing there, check the first display closest to the locked down fragrances.  Then, sometimes we would find things further down the aisle.  Most of the stores we went to had self scanners so one of us would check prices while the other hunted for products.  I think every time something rang up 90% off we felt like we hit the lottery.  We were able to get bath robes, bubble bath and lotion, oil diffuser/candle sets, perfume sets, cologne sets, and some cute bath salts.  You might ask what we’re going to do with all of our loot.  Well, our extended family does a ‘BINGO’ type game for Christmas so some of it will go to that.  My mom is throwing a Bridal Shower so these will make some nice door prizes, my sister-in-law is throwing Dana’s baby shower-so I volunteered to provide the door prizes for that. In addition, I teach at a community college and often give prizes to those who do well on quizzes so the lotions and bath sets will be good for that, I plan to give all the ladies in my MOPs small group next Christmas robes and bath sets,  and the fragrance sets will go up on Ebay.  Little Brady helped me set up everything for the photo, and here was what my final ‘booty’ was:
(10) Essence of Beauty Robes-$1.49 ea
(7) Essence of Beauty Lotions-.39
(6) Essence of Beauty Body Spray-.59
(6)Essence of Beauty Bubble Bath-.39
(10) Candle/Oil Diffuser Sets-1.49
(1) Single Oil Diffuser-.99
(2) Gingerbread scented bath pack-.49
(2) Bath fizz/flake set-.39
(1) Essence of Beauty purse pack-.49
(1) Essence of Beauty Coconut gift set-.99
(4) Essence of Beauty Shower Gel set (with bath poofs)-.99
(1) Mustang Men’s Cologne-1.99
(1) Elizabeth Arden Red Door-1.99
(1) Mariah Carey Perfume-1.99
(1) Curve for Men-1.99
(4) White Diamonds Small Perfume-1.29 each
(1) Curve for Men Mini Set-1.99
(1) Elizabeth Taylor Mini Set-1.99"
Dawn Green 

"Wow! Who would have thought that anybody could get Huggies Diapers for under $2 per pack.  I read RC daily and saw the new Walgreens Ad posted for the week of 3/9-3/16 a week early, and got pretty excited.  On the last page of the ad was a fantastic Register Reward deal for Huggies and Kimberly Clark products for “Buy $25, get a $10 Register Reward”.  Remebering that there were $3 and $5 printable coupons for Huggies diapers on coupons.com, I printed out my coupons.  Also, I made about 6 trades with people for their internet coupons a week before this deal started.  My trades were mostly for stamps, PayPal, or coupons from other people’s wish lists.  I also contacted about 10 of my neighbors asking them to print coupons for me via a little note in their mailbox, and 4 of my neighbors actually printed them for me.  Initially, I figured the best deal I could do was to get (3) diapers for $30, use (3) $5 coupons, spend $15 (plus tax) and send in for $.75 on each pack of diapers through the Caregivers Marketplace.  The end cost per pack after RR would be around $1.66 per pack.  We are blessed in the South Bend/Mishawaka, Indiana area with about a dozen Walgreens and two 24 hour stores within a 20 minute drive to my house, and quite a few that open at 7am.  I woke up at 6am Sunday with my coupons ready and spread my 10 transactions over three different stores.  I wanted to make sure other people could get in on the deal.  Later that afternoon I heard that coupons.com re-set the Huggies coupon and it could be printed again.  I contacted the people I had traded with previously asking to trade again-almost all of them agreed to trade for the same terms we traded before.  I anxiously awaited my trades and when they arrived Wednesday that week I headed out to Walgreens again.  Earlier in the day, it was luck that I was able to find about 15 of the Walgreens coloring book with the Huggies coupon in it at two different stores.  Using my W card I got an additional 10% off the coloring book.  I bought some myself and for my sister (Dana, S., IN) and left them in her mailbox-I called her at work and was so excited to finally find these!  This time around my strategy was to get (2) diapers or Pull Ups, (1) wipe, use (2) $5 coupons, (1) $3 coupon, and my Walgreens coloring book coupon for another $2 off ($1 per pack of diapers).  My total for (2) diapers and (1) wipe was $12.82, minus my $10 RR, minus $1.50 back from Caregivers Mkt Pl-total of $1.32 for two diaper packs and a huge pack of wipes. With all of my coupons I was able to work this deal about twelve more times.  Previously in the week I had rolled my initial 10 $10 RR into a Walgreens gift card, but when I went back to roll them on Saturday I was told that I could no longer do this.  That’s okay, we had a good run around here of being able to do that for the last two years.  All good things (like this diaper deal) must come to an end.  I plan to use my RR towards my FAR items and things that have rebate offers on them-like the Quilted Norther TP, and to stock up on milk, eggs, cheese. My kids (Patrick and Brady) were a big help in unloading the diapers into the new baby’s room.  They had a great time stacking them in the crib and posing for the photo. While our pile looks un-impressive the entire crib is FULL of diapers, triple stacked.  We are expecting little Vivian Marie in the beginning of June this year and WE ARE READY!  After totaling everything up, here is our haul:
Diapers: 1,766
Pull Ups: 390
Wipes: 2,760
I would also like to extend a big THANK YOU to everybody who traded coupons with me!  Without YOUR HELP I couldn’t have stocked up so much!" Dawn Green
"Sometimes when it rains it pours.  The kids and I were down on the other side of town and popped into a Walgreens one night that we NEVER go to.  My cousin always tells me of horror stories about how they hassle her with coupons when she goes in, so we just never stop there.  Anyway, we ran in to get some milk and saw an end cap with a bunch of designer fragrance gif sets and bath sets with orange stickers on them.  They were marked around 90% off or more.   I couldn’t believe my eyes, the kids and I hadn’t grabbed a cart, so we immediately got a cart and filled it full.  We had to get another cart too, the cashier at the cosmetics counter was so nice and friendly.  She mentioned that there was even more product on an endcap near the back of the store.  She volunteered to watch my carts while the kids and I went and got what I initially intended to shop for, and check out the other endcap.  She said that they had just marked all of that stuff down and they were so happy that somebody was buying it all.  Even the manager came over and thanked me!   I was floored-I told her how I usually never shop there due to the negative remarks I had heard.  I told her I was going to use RR to pay (from the Blink and Colgate deal) and asked if I needed to split my transactions up. She was so nice, she said ‘Honey, you come here at night it’s just us old ladies and the manager, and we LOVE coupons and helping people get a good deal, we’ll just use these Register Rewards you have until the register beeps.” Well, I was able to use them up and only spend about $5 out of pocket.  I left with over $500 in merchandise for under $50.  I guess it just goes to show you never know what you’ll find sometimes at Walgreens!" - Dawn Green

"Walgreens, the week of March 15th had 2 Register Rewards deals that could be used back and forth. Reach, Listerine Products, buy 3 for $9 get $6 in RR. I used a $5 coupon from Sunday's paper on 3 and my total came to $4.Out came a RR for $6. Next purchase 8 bars of Dove soap at 25% off for a total of $10.24...I used 1 $1 off 6 for a total of $9 and the $6 RR for a total of $3 oop. This I did 5 times.  Also CVS had some good deals. My Middletown CVS lets me use $5 off RiteAid on $25 so I used a few rain checks to bring my order up.  All together I spent $$22.63 oop and have 2 $10 Walgreens rewards. My total register receipts came to $181.57. So, $2.63 is a great price for this weeks sales. Here is my list
9 Listerine
3 Reach Ultra Clean Floss
30 Dove soap
2 Irish Spring Body Wash
1 Vitamin D CVS brand
1 snack mix (filler)
3 Huggies wipes $5.99
5 4.6 colgate (raincheck)
2 Colgate Max white
2 sour patch kids
10 Wheat/thins Ritz
2 Gamer Fusion (raincheck)
4 pairs Flannel pants (90%off) ($.69 each)
3 sets hats and gloves (90%off )($.89 each)
5 cans mixed nuts CVS and Walgreens
2 planters trail mix
It was great fun to do these deals and still have $20 to spend next week. Love this web site." Cheryl Modica

"Our local Acme Fresh Market grocer was running some really good sales this week and along with my coupons I saved over $30 ! My total before sale/coupons was $57.01 and after was only $26.54 plus I got an additional coupon at checkout for $2 off more cereal. The picture is missing one loaf of bread I forgot to include. I think everything I got was on sale. After I scanned the grocery ad I went to work pulling out coupons I had and searching for more online. I nearly never see coupons for PopTarts but a Google search yielded me a link to the PopTarts website and I got the maximum 2 coupons for .55cents off one box each. For the General Mills cereal I used these coupons... $1 off 3 boxes, $1 off 2 boxes, and .50cents off one Cheerios...there was my 6 boxes which included 3 free boxes! Smuckers Grape Jelly was 2/$3.00, I added through in one more jar and used the $1 off 3 Smuckers. I had a coupon for a FREE bottle of Cascade dishwasher rinse-aid..my second such coupon. I've been getting them in the mail. It pays to sign up for coupons with your favorite brands! These are my boys posing with my deals of the day." Tracy Zdelar/ Canton, Ohio

"I don't know if he'd like to be referred as a Diva, but my DH Scott is my hero. He's disabled so that turned him into a stay at home dad. He's a great shopper and loves to use coupons. I put the deal's together from the ad's and he executes them, never having problems from cashiers, lucky guy. He does the couponing while I'm at work and our teenager is at school. He's such a great deal hunter that most of the staff at our local Walgreens address him by his first name. This is just what he got at Walgreens from last Wednesday to today. His total before using the Walgreens ES card balance, coupons, rebates, RR & advertised savings was $571.16. His actual oop before rebates was $158.65." Carrie Tomes