It’s Karen back to tell you about what to do with all those FREE Samples you’ve been sending for, or should be sending for.  But first I want to mention that I have a new blog name.  I am no longer Frugal Rhode Island Mama, I am now Koupon Karen!

I always jump at the chance to send for a FREE Sample, I mean it’s Free so why not, right? And you can find a ton of free samples all over the Internet and also in stores.  So what do you do with them once they arrive? Do you toss them in a draw or a bag in your linen closet?  Or do you put them to use right away?  I’m sure there are people out there thinking “What am I going to do with all this stuff now”.

Here are a few ideas I wanted to share with you about what you can do with all those fun FREE things you’ve been collecting:

1.  Put them in your travel bag.  You have to pay close attention to what sizes you carry on planes and the FREE Samples are almost always the perfect size.  Take two if you need to.
2.  Make up a basket of Freebies and display them in your guest bedroom for when you have guests just in case they forget something.
3.  Send a care package to a college student or someone in the military.
4.  Add them to a gift.  If your buying a bridal shower gift or a house warming gift and you purchase something that goes in the bathroom, make up a gift basket and toss in a bottle of shampoo & conditioner, toothpaste, lotion or whatever you may have that would be appropriate.  For a baby shower make up a cute basket with some onesies, bibs and a bunch of baby samples.  They are great for the diaper bag.  It will make the gift ‘cuter’.
5. Make an emergency car kit.  Toss in some food samples, tissue, band-aids and more.
6. For a couple just moving in together, give them samples of cleaning products and detergents to help them try out some different things.
7. Stocking Stuffers!!  Free samples make the best stocking stuffers and you can put in a lot since they are small!

Free Samples are a great way to try out a new product before you buy it.  This can save you a lot of money.  Just because your best friend likes it, doesn’t mean you will.  You can also save a lot of money on things you don’t use often.  For instance, if you only use lotion in the winter, send for all the free samples of lotion you can find and you’ll never have to but it!

My favorite Free Sample is shampoo.  I like to change what I use every month and the free samples are a great way to find out what I want to buy (or try to score free) the next time there’s a deal.  My daughter’s favorite free sample is cereal!  She loves the little size box and trying something new.  We then tape the box and she uses it in her play kitchen!  See two uses for one free sample!

I’m sure there are way more uses for free samples and if you have an idea leave a comment and share.

You can find a nice list of free samples on my site and also right here at ShopAtHome.  I’m sure there’s something you’ll like. And maybe you’ll get lucky and score a FREE Full Size sample!  Those are the best!!!

It’s Karen from Frugal RI Mama and I’m excited to be back again blogging for ShopAtHome.com!  This time I’m going to tell you about how you can save money at Rite Aid with their Single Check Rebate program.  It works pretty much the same way as CVS’s Extra Care Bucks and Walgreen’s Register Rewards except these are not instant, these actually come in the form of a rebate check.  But it’s super easy to submit, I’ll tell you all about it.

At the beginning of each month, Rite Aid will put out a Single Check Rebate (SCR) book in the front of the store with the weekly store ads.  This book will contain every rebate for the month.  Some of these rebates are only good during certain weeks and others are all month long.  Now Rite Aid makes it pretty easy for you to know when the best time is to buy these products because they will also tell you each week in the weekly ad if an item qualifies for a Single Check Rebate.

When you get the weekly ad you’ll notice that some products will offer a Single Check Rebate with your purchase.  For example, Colgate Total is on sale for $2.99 and you can submit it for a $2.00 Single Check Rebate.  Now there is also a coupon for $1.00 off Colgate Total so if you combine that then you’ll end up getting it for FREE after you receive your rebate. Not everything will be FREE after the rebate but any money back in rebate form is money saved!

Now in order to receive the Single Check Rebate you must enter some information from your receipt online.  There is no cutting UPC’s or sending in your receipt.  All you need to do is open an account online at www.riteaid.com where it says Single Check Rebate and then each time you purchase something that has a rebate, just enter the receipt information and at the end of the month you can request your rebate check!  It’s VERY easy.  But you must make sure you do not request your check before the end of the month otherwise you can’t submit any more rebates for that month.  You have 30 days after the month ends to submit all your receipts and if you don’t request your rebate check at the end of the month, they will automatically send it to you 30 days after the month ends.  So that’s even easier!

So next time your looking through the Rite Aid weekly ad, notice if any of the items are giving a rebate! It’s another way to save money on everyday products!

Continuing on with the ShopAtHome.com-sponsored giveaways, I’m pleased to present Blogger Advisory Board blogger Karen at FrugalRIMama.com’s latest giveaway: win $200 to spend at The Body Shop.

Here’s a little bit from Karen’s post:

How about some pampering for yourself to start out the New Year?  What would you do if you had $200 to spend at The Body Shop?? Here is what I’d do:

• I would replace all my makeup with The Body Shop makeup. I would get the Moisture Foundation with SPF 15 and Nature’s Minerals Foundations and I’d try the Chamomile Gentle Eye Makeup Remover.
• I would grab some of their yummy smelling Body Butter and try some of the Spa Wisdom products
• I would stock up on shower gels and soap bars. My kids love fruit smelling hand soaps and it gets them to wash their hands more often.
• I would love to try the Olive Glossing Shampoo too!

I think having $200 to spend on myself at The Body Shop sounds like a GREAT idea and so do the people at ShopAtHome.com!!!

Head over to Karen’s post to enter… this giveaway will be going until January 26th, so get your entries in NOW!

It’s Karen from Frugal Rhode Island Mama back again.  I’m so excited to be featured on the Shop At Home blog again this month!  The last two times I talked about saving money at CVS and Walgreen’s using their “rebate” programs and next month I’ll talk about doing the same at Rite Aid but this month I wanted to move in a different direction since it’s almost the beginning of a new year.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have money set aside to do all your holiday shopping next year?  It would be, huh?  I’d like to tell you about a way you can do this starting today into 2010.  How you ask?  Taking surveys… real surveys… ones that pay you actual cash or gift cards for your opinion.  There are a LOT of real survey company’s out there that want to do exactly that.  Here are a few things to know in order to get started.

1. The first thing I want to point it is NEVER pay to get a list or gain access to a website of survey company’s.  This is a scam to get your hard earned cash.  You can find all the information you need for FREE online in so many places, including my website.
2. Open a different email account to use when you start to join survey companies.  There are several reasons I suggest this.  The most important reason is so that your survey invites will all be together in one place so when you want to access them you can.  Also some companies will email you several times a day so your inbox could fill up fast.  The other reason is for SPAM.  I want to point out that the real, good survey companies WILL NOT spam you nor will they sell your email address.  But unfortunately you may sign up for one you think is OK, but isn’t so it’s better to be safe then sorry.
3. You will have to give your name, address, telephone number and other personal information to the survey companies.  Unfortunately, this will be required especially if you want to get paid but mostly not to waste your time.  They will try their best to match you up with surveys that are fit for you.
4. Once you join a survey company, you’ll need to likely fill out some sort of profile. Some of these can be very in depth and others are not.  Again, this is to match you with surveys in their system.  It just makes it easier if they know your likes, dislikes, family, hobbies, etc.
5. Usually once you sign up you will receive emails asking you to take a quick screener to see if you qualify for the survey.  In that same email, it will usually state how long it should take and how much you’ll make, whether in points or dollars.
6. You will be paid either cash or you’ll receive points.  If you receive points then you’ll be able to cash them in for either cash, gift cards and/or prizes.  Some companies will give you an entry into a drawing on top of or in place of a cash/point payment.   The ones who pay cash with either send you a check or Paypal payment and sometimes you can even choose.

Once you are signed up with several companies, you’ll start to receive a bunch of survey invites every single day.   Now these survey invites are likely screener surveys that will be short and then you’ll either get into the longer survey or you won’t qualify.  Don’t get discouraged if you don’t qualify, you will at other times.

As you earn money or points you can let them build up in your account and then in late summer or early fall request payment and you’ll have money for holiday shopping!  It’s very possible you could have all of your holiday shopping money depending on how many survey’s you take throughout the year.

It’s a great way to earn some extra cash.  It is slow coming so you’re better to leave the money in your account and let it build up for a while and set a goal.  Holiday shopping is a good one, but vacation or a shopping spree is another.

Now that you know all this you probably want to know what companies are the good ones and which ones you should join.   I’ve done all the research for you so if you head on over to my site and look in the Paid Survey Sites Section you’ll see a nice list of each survey company I’ve worked with, my thoughts about them, and even proofs of payment from some of them.  It took me a while to find them all so I’m saving you the work.  It was a bit of trial and error and sometimes I did sign up for some that lead me nowhere and I also found some great companies through friends.  Word of mouth is always great!

The most important thing I forgot to mention is not only will you get paid to take these surveys but you will be able to give your opinion or perhaps tell of your experience with a particular company, service or product.  Sometimes, you’ll even receive products to try out and then give your opinion on.  I like when that happens!  But I especially love knowing that I have an impact on things and what I have to say really matters.   Because when it comes down to it, the extra money is nice but it’s also nice to know that companies want to know what we have to say and they even take it into consideration.

OK, go sign up for some companies and make some Holiday Cash for next year!!! Then come back to ShopAtHome.com and spend it all through there and earn more money back!!

Big congrats to Karen from FrugalRIMama.com for being featured on her local ABC station, and she even spoke about ShopAtHome.com! Check out the video above for more tips and tricks on how to save this Black Friday!

Hello!  It’s Karen from Frugal RI Mama again here to talk about more drug store deals.   Last month I talked about how to get things for FREE or next to FREE at CVS with their awesome ECB’s (Extra Care Bucks) program.  This month I’m going to talk about doing the same thing with Walgreens Coupons.   I also get so much FREE or next to FREE at Walgreen’s.  Believe me when I tell you I have so much shampoo in my closet, that I give some to my friends all the time!!!  It’s one thing that is always on sale at all of the drug stores!

Walgreen’s program works a little like the CVS ECB’s program in the way that you’ll receive instant rebates when you buy certain products during a certain time period called Register Rewards (RR).  I will refer to them as an RR which is what you’ll see on most blogs.  RR’s (Register Rewards) will print out at the end of your transaction from a machine called a Catalina.   You do not need any kind of reward card at Walgreen’s, it’s automatic when you make your purchase, which means there really are no limits on how many times you can go back into the store to buy the items, however, it’s nice to leave product on the shelves for other people.  Just a common courtesy!

Each week in the sales ad you’ll find all the deals that will print out RR’s.  These are always a limit of one per transaction.  You can use coupons when buying these products which means if the RR is for the full value of the item, you not only get it for FREE, but you’ll make money on it.  Here’s an example:

Robitussin To Go 2pk, On Sale $2.99 Get $2.99 RR
Use $1.00 coupon from Sunday paper or printable coupon (what ever it happens to be)
Total Out of Pocket = $1.99
Get $2.99 RR for your next transaction

Now you can go and buy another Robitussion To Go 2pk with that $2.99 RR you just received BUT if you do, you will not receive another RR.  Reason being is they will not print since you received the RR for the same item you are purchasing.  But if you want another FREE one, then go right ahead!

Walgreen’s also has store coupons that you can combine with manufacturer’s coupons to maximize your savings.  These Walgreens store coupons can be found in the store, usually right next to the weekly ad.  Each month, they print a booklet with store coupons that are good all month.  Grab one at the beginning of the month and keep an eye on these items going on sale because if so, you’ll save even more.  Use a manufacturer’s coupons and possibly get it for FREE.  Here’s an example:

Kleenex Tissue, On Sale $1.19
Use $.55/3 coupon from Sunday paper or printable coupon
Use $1.00 Walgreen’s coupon from monthly booklet (this will take $1.00 off for each one you buy so if you buy 4, the register will deduct $4.00)
Buy 4 (you’ll need one extra to eat up the overage because the register will not give you money back)
Total Out of Pocket = $.21 for 4 boxes of Kleenex

One thing you have to watch out for when using the RR’s on your next purchase.  The register reads them as manufacturer’s coupons and for each item you purchase you can have 1 manufactures coupon and 1 store coupon.   If you are buying 1 item and using 2 coupons, you won’t be able to use your RR because you are already using a manufactures coupon, as far as the register is concerned.  When this happens, all you have to do is toss in a small item as a filler and then you’ll have no problems.  Here is an example using the $2.99 RR from the first example above:

Charmin 9pk, On Sale $5.99
Use $1.00 coupon from Sunday paper or printable coupon
Use $.50 Walgreen’s coupon from monthly booklet
Use $2.99 RR from first transaction above
Pencil, On sale 2/$1.00 – Buy 1 (filler item)
Total Out of Pocket = $1.75

If you did all 3 transactions above you’d have the following items for only $3.95 out of pocket with a regular price of at least $13.99.
(1) Robitussin To Go 2pk
(4) Kleenex
(1) Charmin 9pk
(1) Pencil

And make sure when looking through the weekly sale ad check to see if milk, bread, eggs or even snacks for the kids lunches are on sale.  You can use your register rewards to get them for FREE or next to FREE.  That stuff doesn’t all have to be bought at the Food Store.  It may also save you a trip!

Each Sunday, I list the best Walgreen’s deals and what you can get for FREE on my blog.  You can see them here.

My name is Karen and I am a mom to two girls ages 4 and 2 and married to a wonderful man who totally supports my blogging and saving habit.  I blog at Frugal RI Mama and I have fun finding and sharing good deals especially at the Drug Stores.  Did you know that you can get Health & Beauty items that you use everyday like soap, shampoo, deodorant, razors, lotions and more for FREE at the drug stores!  Yup, you read that right I said for FREE!!!    Now I don’t just mean the travel sizes, I mean full size, name brand products.

Unless you’ve done this in the past, your probably wondering how this can be possible and what do you have to do in order to get this stuff for free.  I can tell you this, you don’t have to jump through hoops but you will need to do just a little bit of planning ahead of time to organize yourself and if you read my blog each week, I’ll tell you exactly how to do it.

Have I caught your interest?  I hope so!  Here is how this works.  Pretty much every week CVS, Walgreens or Rite Aid will offer you something for free and here is how they do it.  Since each store does it differently I’m going to briefly explain how CVS works.

CVS has a program called Extra Care Bucks.  Basically it’s like an instant rebate that you can apply to your next purchase.   They will put an item on sale and then give you Extra Care Bucks if you purchase that item and you can then use it to either purchase another product or hold onto it and roll it into another product.  And the best part is you use coupons to maximize your savings.  Here is an example.  Colgate Total toothpaste is on sale for $2.49 and when you purchase it you will receive $2.49 Extra Care Bucks.  You find a coupon in the Sunday paper or a printable coupon for $1.00 off any Colgate Total toothpaste.   Here is what the transaction would look like:

Colgate Total, On Sale $2.49
Use $1.00 coupon
Total Out Of Pocket = $1.49
You get $2.49 ECB’s for your next purchase or next week’s sale

What I like to do is roll this into another sale so I don’t have to pay much or even anything out of pocket and here is how I do this.  Next week Pantene Shampoo is on sale for $3.99 and you find a $1.00 off any Pantene product coupon in the Sunday paper or a printable coupon and when you purchase the shampoo you will receive $3.99 in Extra Care bucks.  Now you have $2.49 ECB’s from last week.  Here is what the transaction would look like:

Pantene, On Sale $3.99
Use $1.00 coupon
Use $2.49 ECB’s from last week
Total Out Of Pocket = $.50
You receive $3.99 ECB’s for your next purchase, or next week’s sale.

Then the following week Speed Stick Deodorant is on sale for $2.99 and you find a coupon for $1.00/2 in the Sunday paper or a printable coupon and you will receive $2.99 in ECB’s.  The limit is 1 so you will only receive the ECB’s once.  If you want to use the coupon and buy 2 that’s ok.  Sometimes I will do this and sometimes I will just forget about using the coupon and only buy 1.  It depends on what I need/want or how many ECB’s I have.  For this example I will buy the 2.  Here is what the transaction would look like:

(2) Speed Stick Deodorant, On Sale $2.99
Use $1.00/2 coupon
Use $3.99 ECB’s from last week
Total Out Of Pocket” $.99
You will receive $2.99 ECB’s for your next purchase or next week’s sale.

After these 3 transactions you have :

Colgate Total
Pantene Shampoo
(2) Speed Stick Deodorants

And for all of this you paid only $2.98 (+ tax) and you still have $2.99 in ECB’s that you can keep to roll into another deal or grab something you need that may not be on sale.  You can’t beat that deal!

As a few of you may know (and all of you who follow us on Twitter!), Monday marked the day where we had four power bloggers come out to the ShopAtHome.com offices for an official “Day with ShopAtHome.com”, filled with lots of chatter, new friendships, way too much candy, fun presentations, and many great ideas that we can’t wait to start working on!

The day was packed full with different activities: everything from presentations by our employees to give them a sneak peek on what goes on at ShopAtHome.com, sessions on social media and website usability, to even a fun shopping experience on the site! Much time was spent picking their brains (and they ours) to figure out ways to make ShopAtHome an even better destination for shoppers to find the best deals on the web. From testing out brand new technology to trying (and loving!) the toolbar, we tried to make sure they learned everything they could about what we do here at ShopAtHome.com.

At the same time, we learned so much about the blogging community overall and, more specifically, about how these amazing women have managed to make blogging a career and still succeed at  finding a balance between family, kids, household chores, their career as a blogger, and a million other things. They were sharp, witty, funny, and extremely informed. It quickly became clear to us that blogging is not really a hobby for these women – it is both a passion and a job that actually helps pay the bills!

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce the bloggers to you and to provide a little background on what they do. If you aren’t already reading their blogs, I highly recommend that you start today! I have already learned so many new tips on saving money, finding the best deals, shopping efficiently and being smart about my spending from their daily posts.

Crystal runs MoneySavingMom.com, the biggest personal home finance site on the Internet, where she strives to make each reader a better home economist. We are convinced she succeeds hugely at what she does! She has three little ones (we met the youngest, her son Silas, and he was one of the most adorable, well-behaved babies I’ve ever seen!) whom she provides homeschooling for, a busy blog and a gift for bargain shopping.

Kate of TheShoppingMama.com is a fab, fashionable mother of two. She started her blog after the experiences she had while living in Germany (since they don’t have any Babies ‘R’ Us out there!) as a way to share her shopping savings. Plus, she looks like a model and features some of the coolest giveaways on her site.

Karen of FrugalRIMama.com is a feisty New England mother of two adorable girls with a gift for finding the absolute best Drugstore Deals! She has amazing insight on how to be an intelligent couponer, and even explains to you the ten (yes, TEN!!!) different kinds of coupons out there and how to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Carrie, who writes MoneySavingMethods.com, is a fun and fabulous woman who really knows how to save you money. She graduated with an Accounting degree in college, and totally puts that to use on her blog (and in her home, where she’s raising three kids!) Her shopping and saving smarts have saved her over $41,000 just this year!

These are four strong, assertive and intelligent women, and all of us here were honored to have them come (and I’m honored to have them be a part of this blog, too!) and visit us. You’ll see a lot more about them (and from them) in the future!

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