How to save yourself from daily store emails (in Gmail)

A friend asked me what I do about retail store email lists that I'm on.  Since I rarely buy items at full price, I'm a huge fan of coupons and sale emails... but I'm not a huge fan of seeing them daily and having to delete them, since I'm often only in the market for such items quarterly?  yearly? Definitely not daily!  And my time is too precious to waste deleting so much junk every day.  So, I had the hair-brained idea to respond to her question with a step-by-step blog post... maybe it can help someone else, too.  Essentially, what we're doing is setting up a filter for Gmail.

I started by doing a search using the email address the store emails come from.  In this case, I'm creating one for my "daily deals" emails, and am starting with Half Off Depot.  My search pulled up a few emails.  If nothing pulls up, you may have used the wrong email address or something.  If you chose to search by the store name, make sure nothing else pulls up with this search or you might miss other important emails.

Then, I clicked the small down arrow at the right of the search box, which opens a window like this:

I could add more search details if needed, but most store ads shouldn't need any more than the email address.  So then I clicked "Create filter with this search" at the bottom right, and got this:

I clicked "Skip the Inbox" (which will keep them from accosting me daily), and "Apply the label" (which will allow me to find them when I want them).  I already had a label called "Store Ads", but you can create one - using your name of choice - by selecting "New Label" from that little drop down box.  This time, I created a sub label called "Daily Deals".  You can choose to check the box at the bottom to automatically apply this filter to emails that are already in your inbox if you want... no real reason I didn't.  Obviously, you could also select other options, but for the purposes here, I don't think any are necessary.  Then click "Create filter."

The above is my "Store ads" label.  You can see that I got 25 emails from 4 stores in 9 days.  Hence why I don't want them in my inbox!  Since most of the time, the deals/coupons are only good for a week - max - usually every few days or so I click on my "Store ads" label, skim the titles, and delete all of them if I don't need them.   But I could also leave them here indefinitely to search when I need something, or clear them out more or less often, as desired.  Now that you've created the label, you can repeat as many times as you want to put as many stores in here as your heart desires.  Groupon and Living Social are headed to my new "Daily Deals" label as soon as I post this!

Comments?  Questions?  Throw them at me and I'll do what I can to help.

Managing email-time-tidbits... Soli Deo Gloria.

HT Super-Dups - 1/6

Today is "el Día de los Reyes" in Spain (or Three Kings' Day, or Epiphany).  Our family across the pond has the day off and spent the day enjoying each other's company and opening gifts.  We saved a few little gifts from Christmas to open today, but we haven't gotten around to it yet.  My treat to myself, though, was to get back on the coupon wagon and hit up Harris Teeter's super doubles sales.  It feels good!  Here's what I came home with:

In list form (with the final price after coupon/sale):

• 1 bottle Soft Scrub - $1.99
• 1 4oz can HT green chiles - 77¢
• 2 bags Snyders tortilla chips - $2
• 1 box Banana Nut Cheerios - $2.12
• 6 Clif bars - $4.10
• 1 8oz box Annie Chun brown rice noodles - $3.49 *no sale/QP for this one :(
• 4 boxes Honey Bunches of Oats cereal - 94¢
• 2 jugs HT premium orange juice - $4.54
• 10 Yoplait yogurts - $5
• 2 Chobani yogurts - 80¢
• 2 1/2 gals Smart Balance milk - $1.50
• 2 HT soda 2 ltrs - $1.74
• tax - $1.10

TOTAL: $30.09
TOTAL SAVED: $38.90 = 56%

Definitely worth the trip.  Now if I can keep the momentum going, but without buying so many deals that I blow the budget :)

Feeding my family on the cheap... Soli Deo Gloria.

AO Update

I realize that after many months of not blogging, the LAST topic anyone who reads this expected me to blog about would be my produce delivery :)  However, I've been meaning to do this math again anyway, so I went ahead and figured I'd share it with the world while I was at it.  Here's a picture of the box of organic produce that I received from Absolute Organics just today:

And here's the cost comparison if purchased at my local Harris Teeter:

• head of cabbage - $2.07* (assuming it weighs 3 lbs - who knew they sold cabbage by the pound? and i'm too lazy to go weigh it now that i've put the scale away.)
• 3 kiwi - $2.37*
• 1.5 lbs banana - $1.50
• 2.5 lbs pink lady apples - $7.23
• 2 red navel oranges - $2
• 1 bunch kale - $2.49
• 2 yellow bell peppers - $5.58
• 4 lbs potatoes - $8

TOTAL: $31.24 at HT and the * indicates that that item is not available organically.  Not to mention that HT won't deliver to my doorstep.  And I paid only $30 for 100% organic produce dropped at my door.
I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever owned a cabbage before!  I have no idea how this is going to work out, but I have 2 recipes that I'm interested in trying with it, so when I saw it on the list I decided to take a leap and go for it!  Within the next week or two I hope to try Lynn's Coconut Milk Asian Noodle Soup and Vonda's Spiced Cabbage and Apple Slaw.  And you can bet your bottom dollar that the kale and potatoes will end up in a Kale and Potato Spanish Tortilla on a day when I have plenty of time to be in the kitchen!
So, nearly 2 years after starting to receive Absolute Organics deliveries, I'm still glad to be getting them and we're still eating more (clean) produce and saving money in the process... Soli Deo Gloria.

AO Price Check-Up

It's been a while since I've posted about my Absolute Organics deliveries, but have no fear - I still get them!  Don't know what I'd do without them.  Well, not completely correct... I DO know what I'd do without them, but it wouldn't be pretty (i.e. wouldn't eat nearly enough fruits & veggies).
Anyway, no picture today (my kitchen is a bit of a mess), but I weighed and price-checked my goodies and have a list to share with you.

• 2+ lbs plums = $5.75*
• approx. 1 lb carrots = $1.49
• 1 dry pint cherry tomatoes = $4.64*
• 1 lb red onions = $1.99*
• 1/2 lb spinach = $5.58
• 1 small head Romaine lettuce = $2.99
• 4 lbs 6 oz Fuji apples = $12.20

All prices are listed from my local Harris Teeter's website, and a * indicates that they don't seem to offer it organically, so the price is for non-organic.  If my calculator adds correctly, that adds up to $34.64 - and mine was ALL organic and delivered straight to my door.  Ummhmm.   You know you want some.  Go ahead, just call/email Vonda and she'll be happy to get you set up (if you live in her delivery area... sorry for those that don't!).  Tell her you've got a brochure that says $10 off your first order (I'll give it to you next time I see you) and be sure to tell her that I sent you, too.  I would love the free box of yumminess she'd send my way, just for you trying them out :)

Eating organic produce... Soli Deo Gloria

Bi-Lo Clean Sweep

I most definitely should be in bed by now, but I'm practically too excited to sleep... which says something about me, I guess.

Anyway, a while back (think a year-ish) Bi-Lo sent me several flyers with coupons for free grocery items. Each flyer would have 8 total coupons - 4 coupons for free food (usually for related items), and 4 for $8 off a $50 total purchase - and they'd each be good for a different week.  Somewhere along the line (I think when a flyer arrived after one had already expired) I found out that they take them expired - no matter how late.  So, I've saved most of them up until I had a need for the particular item.  Many of the items I haven't yet had a need for (or, at least not when Bi-Lo was on the list for that week, or I remembered about the coupon, or whatever).

This afternoon I went to Bi-Lo for the first time in probably several months to grab a few good deals (primarily Organic Peaches for $1.79/lb).  I wasn't getting much, so I almost didn't go, but with my hubby traveling, I've got plenty of free time and I went.  While standing in line with my 3 items, I saw a sign that said "As of Sept. 1 we will only except Bi-Lo coupons that are less than 30 days expired."  As it turns out, Sept. 1 is tomorrow - and all those freebie coupons are waaaay more than 30 days past due.

You can imagine where this is going, right?  I headed home, grabbed the coupons, went to Back-to-School night for a few hours, and then back to Bi-Lo - at 9:30 at night.  I grabbed all the free stuff, and a few extra items so I could hit the $50 and get $8 off (essentially scoring $8 more of free food - mostly organic stuff that I would hesitate to buy because of the price), and headed to the (oops!) only open register.  My list:

• 2 bags of Pirate's Bounty puffs
• 2 pouches of Uncle Ben's Ready Rice
• 1 loaf of Nature's Own Premium Specialty Multi-Grain bread
• 1 box of Strawberry Cereal Bars
• 1 8-ct bag of hamburger buns
• 12-ct brown-and-serve rolls
• 1 10-ct box of instant oatmeal
• 1 bottle of ketchup
• 50-ct heavy duty paper plates
• 1 8-oz bag of shredded cheese
• 1 lb of butter
• 4 yogurt cups
• 1 frozen pizza
• 1.5 qt Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream
• 1.33 lbs ground beef
• 4 lbs Earthbound Farm Organic Oranges
• 16 oz deli potato salad
• 1 small bag of Earthbound Farm dried mangos
• 1 small bag of Earthbound Farm dried plums

Total:  $60.13. 
I paid:  $4.41.
That's an average of 18¢ / item.
I think that means I saved 93%.
See why I couldn't sleep 'til I "shared" this with someone?
I think burgers and ice cream will be on the menu for this weekend when our friends come in town for Labor Day.

Buying free food... Soli Deo Gloria.

What $20 can get you

I guess I took the latter part of the summer off of blogging, even though it wasn't exactly intentional.  Oops.  I've got at least one post in my head, but haven't taken the time to get it out yet... but you still have to wait for that one :)  Don't feel too bad, though.  Most of what I would've written would probably have involved commentary about the TV show Bones, since I spent a good chunk of my free time this summer watching the first 4 seasons on Netflix.  Now I've got to wait until October for season 5 to come out on DVD... argh.

Anyway, I've also taken some time off from couponing a bit.  Between 10 days of vacation (and the preceding days of clearing out the fridge), and then my husband's extensive business travel lately, I haven't been cooking much and thus haven't been shopping much.  But with school starting up, I decided to stock up on some lunch snacks - especially when I saw the General  Mills promotion on Southern Savers.  Yes, I probably spent an hour finding the right coupons and trying to determine whether it was worth it or not to run the deal, but I'm totally thrilled that I did!  Basically, a bunch of GM products were on sale, and if you bought 20 items, you got $6 off your order instantly.  So... grab a bunch of items you've got coupons for, and it works out pretty well.  Here's what I ended up with:

Grand total:  $20.00 (yeah, even... which is awesome in and of itself), and most of these items have BoxTops on them that give money to the school, which I love.  The organic tomato paste was not part of the deal, but in working up the deal I found $0.75 coupons which doubled to $1.50... and since they're only $1.55 and I needed some anyway, I grabbed some nearly-free ORGANIC tomato paste - sweet!  I also realize that most of these items are very NON-organic, but there is a convenience factor :)  And they were cheap.  Let's face it - 7 boxes of cereal, 5 boxes of granola bars, 4 boxes of fruit snacks, 4 4-pks of yogurt, and 2 cans of tomato paste = 22 items for $20.  Who could turn that down?  I think my receipt said I saved $40+.

And it gets even better!  The granola bars and fruit snacks had special promotions as well... buy 3, 4 or 5 and get coupons for $$ off your next purchase.  So the 2-lb bag of frozen shrimp (normally $26) that was on sale for $8.65 ended up costing me a little over $3.  See why I had to post?  As one blogger I read would say - yeah, I took an hour to organize the coupons... but I saved over $60.  That's like getting paid $60/hr :)

Saving money... Soli Deo Gloria

Yeah for CVS! or how I got them to pay me to wash my dishes.

Okay... so this deal was more about the challenge than about the current need.  That being said, if I weren't on Pantry Challenge, I wouldn't have the time to track it down.  First, the pic.  Then, the monetary breakdown.

The SoyJoy bars were 6 x 12¢ = 72¢.  At $6 each, with a $6 ECB, all I was paying was tax... and since they're food, tax is only 2% around here!  Unfortunately, they were essentially out of most everything but Mango Coconut, so we'll probably be sick of that flavor before long.  I'll just spread them out, mixed in with other lunch-packing snacks.  And yes, there are only 5 in the picture... that's because I already emptied one into our snack bin and recycled the box :)

The Finish/Electrasol tabs is the biggest deal.  In case you can't tell, I got 9 boxes of 20 dishwasher tabs (=180 dishwasher loads).  I had a raincheck from a while ago for 4/$9, spend $20 get $10 ECB.  Hmm... that's $2.25 each, not counting the ECBs!!  When I saw the $2.50/1 coupon that came about recently, I was stoked!  Now... how to track down 5+ of them to make these guys free?  I had 2, and asked around to see if anyone didn't need theirs.  Eventually, I ended up with the other 7 from two of my dear friends/coworkers/fellow-couponers.  So...

• sale price:  $20.25/9
• coupons:  $2.50 x 8 = $20 (they wouldn't let me use the 9th b/c it would've gone over the total value... fair enough)
• paid OOP including tax:  $1.82
• received in ECBs to use later:  $10
• TOTAL COST:  -$8.18 or -91¢ each!

If I didn't have to keep eating for the rest of my life, I just might retire from couponing.  You know, quit while you're ahead and all that.  But lo, I do have to eat, and so does my hubby.  Funny thing is, I already had like 3 of these boxes already in my kitchen.  So that means I get to share most of them with my coupon-sharers, and my pastors' families... even better!
Now... what good deals will they provide me with during the next month to use those $10 ECBs toward?  Hopefully something else I can share!

In other news, I had a very yummy & healthy breakfast this morning.  Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:  the organic milk featured here.

This box of cereal came from my Pantry Makeover that I did earlier this week at EarthFare.  You, too, can bring in a near-empty box of cereal with High Fructose Corn Syrup and replace it for free with this better-for-you product, if you just go here, sign up, print out the coupon and take it to your nearest EarthFare.  Oh yeah, and when you sign up before Jan. 31 (which I know you'll do, because you love me), shoot me an email telling me the email address that you used.  If I can get a few more volunteers, I can get a $25 gift card to EarthFare, which I'd really like!  For what it's worth, I was pleasantly surprised that this actually tasted like Frosted Mini Wheats, instead of like cardboard with sugar on it :)

Soli Deo Gloria

The Cheapest Cheesiest!

Thanks to a Walgreens in-ad coupon and those handy Buy 3 Get One Free (B3G1) coupons from mid-December, I have now purchased 12 boxes of Kraft (is there any other?) Mac & Cheese for a whopping $1.35!  Yes, that's right... if my math serves me, that's less than $0.12/box!  Now, one of the stores I went to only had the "Thick and Creamy" variety, so I guess we'll have to see how they do.  I definitely felt like a college kid in the checkout line :)  Now... how to hide them from my hubby so they last more than a month!!

Soli Deo Gloria

This Week's Grocery Deal!

This is what I went to buy today, and it was a good enough steal deal that I wanted to share :)  I paid $10.11 OOP, and while it is more than the $5 goal I mentioned in my previous post, and I didn't end up getting the cheap lunchmeat (they were out, so I got a raincheck), I still think I did pretty well.  The 24 washcloths are for this year's Operation Christmas Child boxes, and one of the Oust cans is going to Turning Point.  The milk and lettuce are both organic!  According to my receipts, I saved $41.85... a "mere" 4x what I spent :)

Soli Deo Gloria