Coupons, Freebies and More!

I'll admit when David first decided to start our family blog I wasn't exactly crazy about the idea and thought it was a little silly. I mean why would I want to sit and expose my thoughts for the world to see and who really would care about what was going on in the Winberry household. Well, I'll have to admit I'm really starting to enjoy the world of blogging and also enjoy reading others blogs (I don't think of myself as a "lurker" since I have my own blog and to be honest am not really crazy about that term so CB read away). I love how blogging now connects friend and families out of state to Caleb's development, reading about others passion and love for the Lord (BTW did you know Patsy Clairmont has a blog?), journaling about Caleb, learning how other Christian women deal with the joys and frustrations of motherhood, finding out more about my Christian family at Southside, sharing recipes (ok so I haven't shared one yet but I enjoy others that do), and my new favorite obsession discovering how other moms are saving money on groceries and in same cases are receiving them for free. This is something I just accidentally stumbled upon last week while I was home sick and I love it. Here is an example of some of the things that I recently received for FREE! In fact Wal-Mart actually paid me $1.00 for the cereal.

While checking out random blogs tied to some of the ones I typically read I stumbled across "Money Saving Mom" and was just amazed at what some ladies have figured out. Now I already new about the free samples site on Walmart.com and have enjoyed various samples of diapers, toothpaste, lotion, etc. but this is just amateur work compared to what these ladies are doing! You have got to check it out. These women have it down to a science. So I've decided to experiment a little myself using tips and coupons from the site and here is how I received the items above for free and Wal-Mart paid me a $1.00 to shop with them.

1. I was able to get a roll of film developed at Wal-greens for free by printing off a coupon on their website. (sorry this was a one day special)
2. I received the Scotch-Brite Disposable Toilet Scrubber with Bleach Starter Kit for free by using this coupon (4/25/08 update: this coupon is no longer available)
3. Certain flavors of Malt-O-Meal cereal are on rollback for $1 at Wal-Mart. Use this coupon for $1.50 off plus, go ahead and get some more for free using this $1 off coupon! I was actually able to print of the $1.50 coupon twice. So 3 bags at $1.00 each minus 2/$1.50 coupons and 1/$1.00 coupon = $1.00 extra in my pocket book (I'm not sure all places will give you the overage like this but I was lucky and they did at the store I went to).

I'm currently on the hunt for the McDonald's Spring Treat coupons ($1 will buy 12 free coupons for various items such as ice cream, kid size drink, small fry,etc.) that I read about. Let me know if any of you see these.