Through a combination of Facebook and other promos, strategically (honestly and sincerely) written letters to companies, survey offers, and prize wins or redemptions, I had a lot of free product coupons stacking up through the latter half of January.  I still have a dozen or so on the list that haven’t arrived yet.  I hoarded them for a while, wanting to go drop them all at once, just for fun.  Finally I couldn’t wait anymore – I’m not a patient person – and I took what I had and went a-shoppin’.  It wasn’t just the grocery store either; I was all over town with this one.  Unfortunately actual needs (and plenty of wants) crept onto the list so the total wasn’t nearly as dramatic as I’d hoped for, but I still had a lot of fun.  I’ll try to gloss over the long bits, but this will still be a two-parter, I can tell.

First stop, on the way out of town: Sonic, for a free iced tea.
Whoever dreamed up the survey promotion should get a medal.  For those of you not blessed with a Sonic or otherwise don’t know what I’m talking about, on random receipts a survey request will print.  When you call in and take the survey you get a code for a free 44oz drink.  My vice of choice has been vanilla Coke for a very long time, but I’ve been very, very good lately and switched to plain iced tea.  Yay me – and yay Sonic for the freebie.  $0

Second, breakfast:
Ihop has the same kind of receipt survey business going on, except it’s on EVERY receipt, and it’s a free short stack of pancakes.  If I were really doing this right, I would have had cash with which to leave a tip so I could just get the pancakes and be on my way.  But I didn’t, so I figured I should order something else in order to use my card and leave a tip that way.  And I was hungry.  Two eggs, toast, pancakes (yes, I see the redundancy of the toast and pancakes but I’m not using pancakes to soak up runny egg yolk), and more tea, plus tax and tip: $9.21

CVS:
3 12-packs of caffeine-free Diet Coke, 3/$10 with $3 ECB, 3 $1.50/1 tearpad coupons on the display
3 Vitamin Waters, 3/$3 with $1 ECB
3 Gain dish soap, $.88 each, 3 $1/1 coupons adjusted to $.88
1 Glade Sense n’ Spray, clearance-priced $6, $5/1 coupon
2 Colgate toothpastes (large), $3.79 each with $3.79 ECB, 2 $1/1 coupons
1 Speedstick deodorant, $2.99 with $2 ECB, $.50/1 coupon
1 Clairol Nice n’ Easy foam hair color, $7.99 with $1 ECB, FREE coupon
3 boxes large Bandaids, clearance-priced $2.24 each, 2 $.50/1 coupons
1 Neosporin spray, $4.79, $1.50/Neosporin+Bandaid coupon
6 Snickers bars (4 plain, 2 peanut butter), $.89 each, 2 B2G1 coupons
20% shopping pass, $1.08
$29.06, $14.58 ECB to carry over

Academy Sports for a basketball for C to practice at home: $9.99

Mrs. Baird’s bakery outlet (which is closing forever in a week, waaaaaaahh!!):
1 loaf of sandwich bread, $1.89, FREE with full loyalty card
1 snack pack of donuts, $.65, FREE with full loyalty card
6 bags of plain bagels, 3/$5
2 double-packages of large flour tortillas, $2.89 each
1 4 pound bag of corn tortillas, $2.89
2 bags of whole wheat sandwich thins, $1.79 each
1 box of snack apple pies, $1.09
1 bag of mini donuts, $1.09
1 reusable shopping bag, FREE with purchase over $20

Taco Bell for more of a snack than lunch because I was still full from breakfast: FREE crunchy taco coupon: $0

To be continued…