Thursday, August 6, 2009

Voters Needed

Well, I have 4 valid entries (one will be featured at a later date due to a glitch with the mail) in the running for the Yay! Yay! Giveaway! title of TOP SHOPPER!

These 4 ladies won $5 gift cards to Target and agreed to purchase as many items as possible with the $5 and coupons... lets see how each contestant fared...


#1, In her own words "Well, I did the challenge today to take advantage of coupons expiring on 7/31. I'm a little disappointed in myself because I lost 2 coupons in the store so I couldn't purchase two free items. I also should have bought two more packages of pens but the $1/2 confused me and since I had two more coupons to stacked, I could have bought more and paid $0. Live and learn.

Additionally, because the cashier manually adjusted every coupon, I did not have any overages. It also appears that she scanned a couple of coupons twice because when I got ready to pay, my bill only came to just over $2.00 so I quickly picked up some gum but honestly, the gum cost as much as everything else I bought. Since I've only been couponing since mid-June, I did okay.

Here are the statistics: 46 items purchased46 coupons used including stacking coupons on the Pens, Paper Towels & Dawn29 Free items$43.82 total cost$41.36 in coupons used$2.46 + $2.22 tax = $4.68 spent on the card. "

#2, In her own words, "My oh my...now *that* was fun shopping!!!! :) Thanks again for the inspiration and the opportunity. Okay...so I attached my picture, and it doesn't seem like it should be that difficult, but I'm not sure how exactly to report my transaction.

So this is what happened. At the end my total was $10.54. I rolled in a $5 gift card and got another one back (no net loss) so my final total was $5.54. I used your $5 gift card and paid $.54 oop.

But then I went up to customer service with my receipt and tried out the new price matching policy and got $5.80 back on a gift card. So REALLY in the end I made $.26. Gotta love a cashier who pushes through coupon overage!!!

So when you list how much you spend, would you do $5.54 and say you got a new card for $5.80 or that you made $.26??? Whatever you think is best works for me!

Other transaction facts:Used 69 coupons65 items for free (just with the coupons that went with those items - I suppose I got all 75 items for free after coupon overage???)The receipt says I saved $101.46 + $5.80 from customer service."
#3, In her own words, "Here are the results from my $5 Target gift card challenge:
Shopping Total: $19.34
Money Spent: $4.85
Money Saved: $14.49
13 Coupons Spent
3 FREE Items"
#4, In her own words "I'm pretty excited about my Target shopping venture tonight! It's great to get things you actually need for FREE! The best part was I bought the 10 participating Kellogg's products in my one transaction and I will be getting the $10 rebate! (Thank you!!)
How cool to have nothing in my cart over $0.48!! I did go a bit over the $5 because I miscalculated my sales tax liability, but there were 4 people in line behind me and I didn't want the cashier to have to adjust/delete. (She was extremely cool because I told her I was in a contest! She was geeked at how much I was saving!)

Here's my summary
Retail $58.73Spent $5.33 (includes sales tax) (and $2.60 of this was my 10 boxes of Pop tarts for the rebate!)
Saved $54.94
53 coupons used
33 FREE items
OOP $0.33
$10 Kellogg's rebate = $9.67 PROFIT!"

OK, you be the judge... who do YOU think should be crowned TOP SHOPPER?

22 comments:

Anonymous

I'm going to have to go with Shopper #4. You can't beat nearly a $10 profit!

Jolon

I have sooo been stalking your blog to see the results :-) WOW everyone did an awesome job!

To #2 - I'm so envious you figured out how to get the Scrubbing Bubbles $5 gift card into your one transaction? I wanted to do that too, but thought the gift card would be given to use on the next purchase... how did you do that? :-)

Anonymous

Wow, everyone did a fabulous job! I just wish I hadn't been listed after #2...my purchases looked very pathetic in comparison. (smile)

I tried to do my best, scouring the internet and signing up for one website after another for coupons, calling friends and relatives for their coupons, walking around Target to see what the best deals were, etc. In the end, I was proud of myself since I just started and haven't attended your coupon class yet, Laura, but these ladies blew me out of the water!! Way to go!!

I did a separate transaction for my family (over the $5 card) and I included some of the deals you ladies did (BIC, for example), but where did you get the coupons for some of the items you included? I wanted to do the scrubbing bubbles but couldn't make it work (atleast not in my head, anyway). I have just one word...wow!

I need to do this so much more efficiently than I did, so I can't wait for your class on August 29, Laura! Will you teach me how to do this, please?!

Excellent savings, Ladies...I'm envious!
PAM

Anonymous

Can someone tell me where the All coupon is? The only one I could find listed in the HCW database is one from a miejer insert. I need some travel-sized All!!

Anonymous

Yes, I agree. I could use some of the travel-size ALL, too! It's way more convenient than my large size to take to the laudromat when I have our sleeping bags to wash.

BTW, I wasn't whining above, really (!), I was absolutely amazed at what the other three women were able to do, and I can't wait to be able to do it myself!

I had a ton of fun doing this, Laura. Thanks for the learning experience!

PAM

Jolon

The All coupons were in last week's inserts. Red Plum, I believe? :-)

Anonymous

I'm wondering the same thing too, I've never been allowed to use a gift card that I just received on the same transaction. Different store location, different rules? Hmmmmmmm!

Anonymous

I vote for #1 or #3 because they didn't spend more than the $5 gift card which appears to be the point of the challenge. Laura didn't say anything about using additional gift cards or factoring in rebates/overages, etc.

Mom C

Wow, amazing job everyone!

Mom to Alexa, Elyse and *Audrey*

For the people wondering about the $5 gc - I always keep one $5 gc on hand to use in deals like this. I use that gc during my transaction and get a new one back for next time. So in the end I always walk away with a $5 gc and haven't spent anything out of pocket. I asked Laura if that was okay to do for this and she thought it was fine (and creative!). I hope that helps. No matter what I had a great time at Target getting some really great deals...best of luck to everyone. #2!

Heidi

I vote for number two...great job everyone! :)

Anonymous

I vote for #2...great variety of items and awesome savings of over $100!!! I can't wait to see what she would do with a $10 gift card ; )

Anonymous

This has been a lot of fun to watch. Everyone did such a great job but I vote for #2...savings of over $100 and all of those items?? I don't really know how she did it, but she knocked my socks off! Love it!

Anonymous

This was fun! I hope to see this again.
My vote this time goes to #2. You Rock!

ldholmes

I vote for 2! Awesome work by all the ladies though!

Amanda

Wow! I am so impressed with all of your couponing abilities!

Anonymous

I vote for #4. To be able to get all those items and make almost $10.00 dollars, is outstanding

Anonymous

I'm #2 above, and one of the things I didn't realize is that the All, Tide, Kotex and Nexcare bandaids were travel sizes. I had coupons for some of these (although not as many as others had...darn!)and I could have gotten these items for free! I disregarded them in my coupon stash because I thought the regular sizes would be too expensive to do for this challenge, never realizing I could go to the travel size aisle of the store.

I went to Target last night to check some of this out, and I'm glad I did...I made a few super discoveries. There is a coupon out now for Pepperidge Farms cookies and we can get the trial sizes for free at the Dollar Spot, or wait until the regular sizes are on sale.

Thanks for the lessons, ladies!
PAM

Kim

Although they all did great, my vote is #2 without a doubt! Way to go girl!!! :o)

Anonymous

I vote #2, if she saved $100 on a $5 gift card, can she save $200 on a $10? I want to see!

Amanda

I vote for #2!

Theresa

#2 is AMAZING, and I'd really like a more detailed explanation of how it worked and what coupons she used! How did she get that Cranium game? I love Cranium!