Rebates!

Today I received my first rebate check in the mail. This one was a $5.00 rebate for purchasing three packages of Huggies at one time. If you're interested in that rebate, click here. You have to purchase them before June 15th though, so don't waste any time.

I had always considered rebates to not really be worth the time, but now I'm finding that they're a nice way to bring a little bit of your money back home. I'm surprised at how many rebates I'm finding out about on products that I need to purchase anyway. For example, with the Huggies rebate above I had already purchased the diapers when I found out about the rebate. So the $5 back was a nice bonus.

Here are some other rebates you might be interested in:
Orajel $1.50 Rebate
Fresh Sacks Rebate
HP Ink $10 Starbucks gift card rebate
BGE Energy Star Appliance Rebate for those of you in the Baltimore area
Rite Aid monthly single check rebates
Walgreens monthly rebates

You should also watch the coupon inserts of the Sunday paper, store shelves and product packaging for more rebates.

So what do you think of rebates? Are they worth the time it takes to send them in?

Earn Free Gift Cards

For quite a few years now I have been a member of MyPoints. They have a service where you can earn points in various ways and redeem them for gift cards. They have a very wide selection of gift cards. I just ordered my $10 Starbucks card today. I have been trying to limit my Starbucks visits so this card will be a special treat for me. In the past I have gotten gift cards from Barnes and Noble this way since I am also a major book lover. I treat these gift cards as a reward for myself.

You can earn points by completing surveys on their site, responding to offers, shopping through links on their site, and responding through emails. I get most of my points simply by responding to the emails. You are able to opt out of their emails, but that makes it easy to miss offers and points. They also recently added printable coupons on their site. So now you can earn points by printing coupons and redeeming them. Earning points and saving money, now that's a combination I love.

If you want to check them out, click here to go to their website.

Watch Those Medical Bills

We have a rule in our house that no medical bills get paid until they are compared to explanation of benefits from our insurance company. With having a baby last year, I received a lot of medical bills. Out of the dozen or so bills we received from the hospital, only two of them were correct the first time. They also sent us a few bills for things we had already paid. So when we'd get a bill I would have to call up the hospital and have them correct it. It got to the point that I had to keep a spreadsheet of the bills, how much they should be and when they were paid.

Also, if the bill is significant (over $100 in my opinion), don't be afraid to call and ask for an interest free payment plan. We did this with several bills to avoid depleting our savings all at once. By spreading the payments out over several months we were able to avoid completely depleting our emergency fund.

You should also be aware of your insurance schedule of benefits. In the last year I've had two instances where our insurance company underpaid our benefits. Our insurance company has been great every time I've had to call them and both of these situations were corrected right away. They were also both slightly unusual situations so I understood why they didn't pay correctly the first time. Our total savings from just from the insurance corrections was $150.

Lysol $5 Reward

Lysol is currently offering a $5 reward promotion if you purchase two products and take your child to the doctor for a check-up between 1/1/08 and 3/31/09. I was happy to stumble across this one because I just recently purchased some Lysol products and my daughter has had a few well baby checkups this year. Now I just need to get all the paperwork together and mail it off. Click here to get the details from the Lysol website.

The Reluctant Coupon User

Lately my brother has been grumbling about the cost of things and money being tight. So I offered him a few suggestions for saving money. My biggest suggestion was to clip coupons and use them, but if he didn't do that, to at least look through the sale paper and plan out your shopping trip before you go. He still hasn't really done either one, but I did get him to use a few coupons.

On Sunday we had a family breakfast at our parent's house and he was grumbling again about money. Well, I already had my list drawn up for Target and my mother offered to watch my daughter so my husband, brother and I headed to Target. Before we went I told him about a few coupons in the paper he might want to use so he cut them out of my mother's paper. Once we were there I pointed out a few deals to him and even gave him a couple of my coupons to save money. In the end he wound up saving about a third off of his bill. Not too bad considering he didn't really put much effort into it.

Knowing my brother he still won't clip coupons on his own, but he is willing to use them when I point out the deals to him. I guess that's something. I do try to notify friends and family members when I see a product I know they use on sale. Do you have anyone that you help find bargins on a regular basis?

Free Samples

I love signing up for free samples. It actually makes getting the mail fun because you never know what you're going to get. In the mail yesterday I got free samples of:

Kotex (Click on Free Sample on the left. This link is for a new sample, not the one I received)
Kashi granola
Shell stickers
Dove lotion (This link is for the Dove free samples page)

With the samples I even got coupons for the Kotex and Dove. I love it when you get free stuff and coupons.

All You Magazine

A great resource for coupons is All You magazine. I just discovered this wonderful magazine last month and have been loving it. Last month I used several coupons from their magazine to get items free or extremely cheap. This morning I just picked up the current issue. You can pick one up at Walmart or you can order a subscription online at their website here.

This month they have coupons totaling $24.00. You can see a list of the coupons in their current issue on page 144. I will try to edit this post later to add a list of the coupons here.

EDIT to add coupon list:
Apple & Eve Fizz Ed Sparkling Juice $1.00
Ban Anti-perspirant Deodorant $1.00
BRUT Fragrances & Deodorants $1.00
BUNdinos Frozen Snacks $0.50
Colgate Total Advanced Whitening Toothpaste $1.50
Glade Air Infusions $0.50
Glade Carpet and Room Odor Eliminator $0.50
Greased Lightening $1.50
Jane Cosmetics Mascara $2.00
Jerky Treats Dog Snacks $1.00
Kotex Individually Wrapped Liners $1.00
Luxurious Color Glaze $1.00
Northland Cranberry Blends and Pom Plus 100% Juice $1.00
Right Guard Anti-perspirant Deodorant $1.00
Sea Breeze $1.00
Snausages, Snawsomes or Scooby Snacks $1.00
Soft & Dri Anti-Perspirant Deodorant $1.00
Stouffers Easy Express Entrees $1.00
Tava Sparkling Beverage $1.00
TrueNorth Nut Snacks $1.00
Weather Works by Frizz Ease $1.00
Wisk 2x Concentrated Laundry Detergent $1.50
Ziplock Brand Bags $1.00 on two