TODAY ONLY! Pinkberry is giving away free mini servings (smaller than pictured) of mango frozen yogurt today, March 12, from 5-9 p.m. only.
Print this Borders coupon for 30% off, good through Monday, March 15, 2010 and you’ll be sittin’ pretty.
Blockbuster express just released a free one-night movie rental code.
Celebrate National Pi Day (3.14.10) with free and steeply discounted pie at Morton’s, Marie Calleder’s, and many other restaurants.
CVS created an exclusive coupon for Walletpop (and BargainBabe.com) readers. It’s for 40% off their new line of lip products.
Jamba Juice smoothies are $1 off with this Jamba coupon.
Newman’s Own and Newman’s Own Organics now release printable coupons directly to shoppers.
Check out all the coupons and deals on my Walletpop blog.
My frugal friends at Savings.com shared these coupons.
Get $20 off $100 or more at HP. Expires April 30, 2010.
Get 20% off entire order at The Limited. Expires July 21, 2010.
Get 20% off $50 or more at Harry & David. Expires April 5, 2010.
Get 10% off at Modcloth. Unknown expiration date.
Get $5 off at TOMS Shoes. Unknown expiration date.
If you saw heard me on Martha Stewart Living radio on Sirius this morning, welcome to BargainBabe.com! We share tips and strategies to save money on everyday expenses like groceries, gasoline, and household bills – because the little things add up.
If you like what you see, sign up for my daily or weekly email list here. Next week I’m giving away $500 worth of groceries so it’s a good idea to stick around!
If you’d like to learn about more coupon clipping techniques, strategies, and helpful websites, check out my coupon tips.
Looking for an easy way to budget? I must have tried a dozen different budgeting systems before I discovered one that worked for me. It’s simple, practical, and really helps trim your credit card bill. I shaved $2,000 off mine the first month I used it!
A reader asked me how I keep my weekly grocery bill to $27 and I laid out all my grocery tips for her.
Win a $45 membership to BJ’s warehouse club if you guess how much it costs to make their lemon-chicken bowtie pasta recipe. Contest ends Monday night!
Thanks for visiting BargainBabe.com!
Art Comments/Flickr
I’m waking up at 3:45 a.m. tomorrow, March 12, to share coupon secrets on the Martha Stewart Living radio show starting at 4 a.m. PST/7 a.m. EST. (I’m going back to bed as soon as it’s done.) You can hear the show on Sirius satellite radio channel 112.
The show is live and there is no podcast. If you miss it the segment will re-air Friday night at 11 p.m. PST/2 a.m. EST. Another option (for all you die-hard fans and stalkers) is to sign up for a free Sirius radio seven-day trial.
If you sleep in, you can catch me most Fridays at about 8:30 a.m. PST on the David Magee show. I talk to David for a few minutes about the hottest deals on BargainBabe.com.
TODAY ONLY! Get a free serving of honey walnut shrimp at Panda Express.
Get a free turkey product from Jennie-O with this $5 mail-in rebate.
Restaurant discounts are happening at Restaurant.com right now with a coupon code that expires Thursday, March 11, 2010.
If you live on the East Coast, check out this Filene’s Basement coupon for an extra 10% off their designer sale.
Here’s a Coldwater Creek coupon for 20-25% off when you spend $100 or more, now through Saturday, March 13, 2010.
Snag a Kenneth Cole coupon for 20% off when you donate gently-used shoes for Haiti. Ends March 31, 2010!
Buying books, DVDs or Blu-Rays? Check out these two Borders coupons for 25-40% off.
Plus, did you hear that Disneyland gave away all its free passes for 2010? The volunteer-for-a-day-and-get-a-free-pass proved more popular than Mickey Mouse.
Speaking of buying groceries on a budget, here are seven recipes that serve four people for less than $12 per dish courtesy of BJ’s, a warehouse club on the East Coast. (If you are not near a BJ’s, check out my tips for getting Costco deals without paying for the membership.)
Guess how much each the recipe for Lemon-Chicken Bowtie Pasta costs and the person who comes closest will win a free one-year membership to BJs, valued at $45. Leave your answer as a comment on this post, on my Facebook page, or on Twitter. One guess per email, please.
The giveaway will work a bit like “The Price Is Right.” The reader whose guess comes closest to the amount without going over wins. If multiple readers guess correctly the prize goes to whoever answered first.
BJ’s has 187 locations in 15 states. Find a BJ’s near you.
Lemon-Chicken Bowtie Pasta, serves 4 at ??? price – guess for a chance to win a $45 BJ’s membership
8 oz. Barilla® Farfalle
4 Perdue® Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (1¼ lb.)
5 Green Onions, sliced
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. Wesson® Canola Oil
1/ 8 tsp. McCormick® Cayenne Pepper
1½ cups Progresso® Chicken Broth
2 tsp. Grey Poupon® Dijon Mustard
¼ cup fresh Lemon Juice
White Sauce (see below)
1. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside. 2. Cut chicken
into ¾” pieces. Set aside. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high
heat. Add green onions and garlic and sauté one minute.
3. Add chicken and sauté, turning chicken occasionally until
cooked through, about 12 to 15 minutes. 4. Add pasta, toss
and set aside. 5. Adapt Basic White Sauce recipe (see previous
page): mix cayenne pepper into flour before adding. Reduce
milk by 1½ cups, substituting same amount of chicken broth.
Add chicken broth-milk mix to fl our mix per recipe instructions.
6. While sauce is still hot, whisk in mustard and lemon juice,
then immediately pour over chicken-pasta mixture; lightly toss
to mix. 7. Garnish with sliced lemon and serve immediately.
BASIC WHITE SAUCE Makes 2 cups.
Your microwave’s cooking times may vary.
Please watch carefully.
4 Tbsp. Land O’Lakes® Sweet Butter
4 Tbsp. Gold Medal® All-Purpose Flour
2 cups Milk
Salt and Black Pepper to taste
1. Melt butter on high in 1-qt., microwave-safe
bowl, about 20 to 30 seconds. 2. Stir in fl our,
using spoon to break up lumps, until smoothly
blended. 3. Add milk, salt and pepper and stir
until completely blended. 4. Microwave on high,
pausing to stir every 30 seconds or so, until sauce
is thick and bubbly, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Variation: Add 2 cups of shredded Cracker Barrel®
Sharp Cheddar Cheese and toss with cooked elbow
macaroni for mac and cheese. See pasta recipes
for more variations.
For six more recipes that feed four for less than $12, keep reading.
TODAY ONLY FROM 4-7 p.m. get a free peach tea drink at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (not as pictured). No coupon needed, no purchase necessary. The freebie is 12-ounces. Valid only on Thursday, March 4, 2010.
Free address labels! This deal is for 140 labels through Vista Print, which charges you $3-5 for shipping. Not too bad!
Nab a free sample of the vitamin-packed powder packets known as Emergen-C, which has recently added four flavors.
If you don’t clip coupons, how are you going to get free tomato paste and Tylenol PM this week?
It doesn’t get much better than free candy, so check out this buy-one-get-one free candy coupon for Skittles and Starbursts.
Here’s another free sample, this this for PowerBar Gel Blasts, which give you an energy boost on long workouts.
Check out all the deals on my WalletPop blog.
Randy Son of Robert/Flickr
The weekly roundup of Los Angeles deals from BargainBabeLA.com includes:
Got kids? This weekend (Fri-Sun) is the California Kids Consignment sale in Santa Clarita.
Get tickets to a new play called The Rose Bowl Queens that are marked down by 55 percent. For a limited time only.
Steinmart is 20 percent off this weekend only when you donate clothes to the Salvation Army.
The Ponte Family Winery in Temecula is offering big discounts on small weddings. (Shared by oceangreen33)
Through March 14 you can use a coupon to get into the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley for half-price. (Shared by marie)
This coupon tip comes from a reader named Isabella, who reads my column in the Friday Star-Ledger.
I have been clipping coupons for year’s and save an average of $35 a trip. I once saved $100 (free turkey included of course) and the cashier couldn’t believe how well I shopped. I only buy what I need, look through the weekly circulars, and compare the items that are on sale to the coupons I currently have. I LOVE saving money!
One of my favorite coupon organizing tools that you or your audience may like:
The Couponizer saves me a lot of time and people always compliment me when I’m in the supermarket on how easy my coupons seem organized.
I’m thinking about starting my own organizing company, as I love to do this. I’ve pretty much taken care of my mom most of my life, which I love. I think I want to specialize in helping elderly folks choose the right medicare & secondary plan for their needs. I have learned a lot by helping my folks and saved a lot of money for them. Thankfully. I also really love organizing kitchens, closets, etc.
Sorry to talk your ear off, I just really enjoyed your site and wanted to share!
What system do you use to organize coupons?
I bought a simple booklet with six folders from Rite Aid years ago but have taken to filing my coupons my week and then only clipping them when I’m heading to the store. If you have used the Couponizer, please let everyone know if it is worth the $15.
Related:
Ben & Jerry’s is selling scoops of Blond Maple for $1 today in honor of Olympic Hannah Teter. (A different flavor is pictured at right.)
Through March 8, 2010 get 30 percent off at Borders with this coupon.
Snag a free $10 gift card to Bahama Breeze, a restaurant located in 12 states.
The magazine subscription sale at Amazon has a bunch of year-long subscriptions for $7, including Good Housekeeping, Nylon, Popular Mechanics, Smart Money, and Town & Country. There are also some great magazines for $10, like Seventeen and Entertainment Weekly.
Spring fashions are 20 percent off at Old Navy online through March 4, 2010. Get the coupon code.
Get a free Uni-Ball pen when you share a little info about yourself.
Check out all the deals on my WalletPop blog.
My frugal friends at Savings.com shared these hot coupons with me this week, including four exclusive coupons.
Get free shipping on purchases of $30 or more at Avon. Expires March 11, 2010.
Exclusive! Get 15 percent off with free shipping at Bare Necessities. Expires March 10, 2010.
Exclusive! Get 15 percent off your order at Michael Stars. Expires March 15, 2010.
Exclusive! Get 20 percent off chocolate at Ghirardelli. Expires March 13, 2010.
Exclusive! Get $10 off orders of $75 or more at EpsonStore. Expires March 31, 2010.
This week’s round up post of free products includes free deodorant, dessert, body wash, and gift cards. Get all the freebie deals here.
Borders just released four coupons, from 25-50% off. Some are quite exclusive, others are more open ended.
At 2 p.m. PST today I will publish a coupon code for 80% off restaurant gift certificates on my WalletPop blog. Check back later!
If you have not joined Swagbucks, now is a great time because the site has doubled the bonus you get for signing up, from 30 to 60 Swagbucks using a special code below. The bonus is to celebrate their second anniversary.
Swagbucks is a site that rewards you for searching for stuff on the Internet. Basically, you sign up, install the Swagbucks toolbar and every few searches you do you’ll earn a few Swagbucks. Then you trade in Swagbucks for gift cards and prizes. I’ve earned more than $300 in about six months of using the site. Where do you think I get all those Amazon gift cards for BargainBabeLA.com, eh? Hehehe.
If you join by March 4 and plug swagcode BARGAINBABE1 into the box that says “Enter your swagcode,” you’ll earn 60 swagbucks instead of the normal 30. The code is case sensitive and only works for new members.
Note, as part of the second anniversary, Swagbucks decided to inflate their currence, so everything is not multipled by 10. So if you had 45 bucks in your account you will now have 450. If a prize cost 45 swagbucks, it not costs 450. The ratio is the same the prizes still cost the same amount, relatively.
CVS.com is putting a bunch of CVS-brand products on sale by 20-30% off, including products for weight loss, dieting, hair loss, and smoking cessation. Plus, toothbrushes are as low as $.69 and vitamins are on sale.
A reader named Tami let me know about a fabulous sale + rebate offer that makes money and gets you free Olay Body Wash at Target. This week only!
Here’s another hot drugstore sale. All Rite Aid brand products are buy one get one 50% off Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 25-27, 2010.
Get a free sample of Tide Febreeze laundry detergent (not as pictured) when you sign up for the P&G email list. Already on it? You are still eligible.
See all the deals and coupons on my WalletPop blog.
I was putting together a new tab on BargainBabe.com that features long-term strategies for coupon clipping (as opposed to coupons that expire in a few days) when I realized I had never written a basic how to clip coupons post. Shocking!
There are five steps to coupon clipping for grocery products, toiletries, and drugstore items.
1. Subscribe to the Sunday newspaper, which is when coupons are distributed. If you don’t want to subscribe, you may live in an area that the three major coupon inserts – RedPlum.com, SmartSource.com, and PGeSaver.com – want to reach. You can inquire directly by signing up on their sites. Online coupons are becoming more prevalent and may replace newspaper coupons someday.
2. Quickly flip through the inserts and clip any coupons that you are absolutely sure you will use no matter if the item is on sale this week. (I used to recommend clipping every single coupon and filing by category but that is not as efficient as this method).
3. File the rest of the inserts in one folder, noting the publication date. (i.e. Feb. 28, 2010).
4. Look for sales in the store circulars that arrive by mail or in your inbox if you have signed up for store email lists. Match sale items with what there are coupons for. There are two main “matching” databases that tell you when coupons were published so you don’t have to sort through each insert by hand. They are AFullCup.com and HotCouponWorld.com. To help find matches, read some of my favorite coupon match blogs, including CommonSenseWithMoney.com, CouponCravings.com, and KouponKaren.com. These blogs often do much of the work for you!
To get an idea of how much you can save by coupon matching, check out my extreme couponing adventure.
5. Take your coupons to the store and buy when the item is on sale! It always helps to be especially nice to the cashier when you are using a lot of coupons. Sometimes their cooperation can make a big difference in your total bill.
Bonus Tip: If you want more coupons than you can clip in your newspaper, check out these websites to buy and trade coupons.
