Lately a lot of attention has been given to Extreme Couponing. This is exactly the way it sounds, couponing taken to the extreme.

It’s not like buying 4 boxes of cereal because they’re on sale 4/$6. It’s like buying 40 or 80 boxes because of the sale; or toothpaste on sale for $1.49 and buying 2 tubes, it’s buying 100 tubes. Of course each purchase would also have the additional coupon savings, bringing the cost way down.

The situation is that some folks have 1000 tubes of toothpaste, or 1400 rolls of toilet paper, or enough detergent for 20,000 wash loads of clothes. Where are all of these items stored and is freshness ever compromised?

I live in comfortable-size home and at times I do buy in quantity. For example, 5 cans of tuna for $4. I bought 10 cans, or 4-12 packs of Coke for $10. Combined, in addition, with my coupons naturally. I’m able to store these and use them easily within the printed dates

My feelings are that everything should be in moderation. And perhaps more important is that these sales constantly repeat themselves so there’s no reason to stock up just for the sake of it.

There are always items on sale, and with 350 billion coupons being issued yearly, coupons readily available. My advise, buy what you need on sale and with a coupon, but buy that quantity that fits the size of your home and use.

For over 100 free printable and digital coupons go to my www.couponqueen.com site.

Tropicana started an ongoing rewards program more than 2 years ago, called Juicy Rewards. There were some good rewards associated with the program. It worked like this.

Whenever you ought Tropicana orange juice, a code was printed usually under the cap. After signing up for the program, you entered your codes and could use your rewards for various savings. I got Steve a buy one get one free for golf.

Recently, Tropicana Juicy Rewards has updated its program. The codes that have been inside the caps of participating products can no longer be entered in your online account. The last date you could enter them was 2/28/11.

There is a new alphanumeric code on the outside of the participating products that you now enter.

The cap codes on 59 oz. & 64 oz. cartons had been worth 15 points each. Now the alphanumeric codes are worth 6 points each! Read about the new changes in the link below.

http://juicyrewards.tropicana.com/JuicyDetails

One of the longest running promotions is the Labels for Education and Box Tops for Education programs.

General Mills runs the Box Tops for Education. They have donated hundreds of millions of dollars since 1996 to purchase new books, computers, playground equipment and much much more. Last year alone, they donated $49 million. There are now 330 participating General Mills products.

For more information and to start collecting for your school go to: www.boxtops4education.com.

The other great program is Labels for Education sponsored by Campbells. Once again hundreds of products are accepted for the promotion.

For more information go to: www.labelsforeducation.com

As a matter of fact there are bonus offers from Campbell’s Labels For Education (LFE) program, to help your school earn Bonus points. Now through May 31st, your school can receive one bonus point for each UPC submitted! Start collecting today to help your kid’s school reach their goal! Learn more at http://www.labelsforeducation.com/earn/bonus-offers.aspx?EID=4468&MID=3461418&LID=3767

Susan B. Komen and other charitable organizations have excellent corporate support and sponsorship. A few companies that seem to have ongoing programs include:
• Yoplait collects its lids and donates $.10 for each one received
• Energizer has offered a bracelet, a magnetic hard-covered journal in support

Campbells participates in the Stamp out Hunger Program.

Look for other programs from some of your favorite manufacturers.

Certain companies have set up programs to aid schools in acquiring equipment for technology, playgrounds, arts and sciences. Two of the oldest programs are Labels for Education sponsored by Campbells and Boxtops for Education sponsored by General Mills.

In each case a point system is developed by the company and schools create a setting for collecting and redeeming these points. In most cases the process is handled by the individual school PTA. Schools have been rewarded handsomely for participation. It’s best or have a committee organize your school for participation since a few people can work together best to maximize the potential.

You can check all the specifics of the 2 programs at each of the web sites.

In the October 2010 issue of Consumer Reports a study was conducted on the quality, value and taste differences between store brands and national brands. The results were quite interesting and surprising.

I have always touted using National Brands when they are sale-priced combined with a coupon savings. This has given me a 50-60% savings each and every time I shop. So here’s what Consumer’s found. They used 21 test items for taste and quality. Of the 21, 7 National Brands came in first, 3 Private Labels were the favorites and the other 11 items were a tossup. On the value scale, Consumer’s concluded that Private labels could save up to 30% or $1500 over the year.

To put this in perspective, if you never use a coupon, Private Labels might be for you. However, the best way to save is to combine many methods: Store Sale, coupons, double coupons, private labels, store coupons and any other tool that saves. All of this should take a common sense approach and you’ll achieve the best methods for you.

I love eating out, but not as much as I love using a coupon to help pay for the meal.

Many chains offer coupons, distributed in a variety of ways. Probably the most widely used medium is the Sunday insert.

Splashed throughout the flyer are coupons for Olive Garden, Subway, Quiznos, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Domino’s Pizza, Pizzeria Uno, TGI Friday’s and more. The discounts vary
from a BOGOF entrée to a free appetizer or dessert or a % off an entire meal. Just a note of caution: most of these coupons on not accepted at the highway version of these chains.

Some like IHOP offer free kids meals. Others like Panera Bread have a loyalty program for beverages. For every 8 beverages, the next is free. Some offer a senior discount too.

The internet is another source of restaurant coupons. By signing up for the various enewletters, alerts for discounts come through on a regular basis.

Virginia Ann Senyk sent email coupons for TGI Friday’s, which offers a loyalty program called ‘Stripes’. Other restaurant internet coupons boasted savings at:

• Quiznos
• Subway
• Wendy’s
• Taco Bell

Many local chains and restaurants have discounts too. Spiga, a locally owned restaurant, has a BOGOF lunch up to $11.00 from Monday to Thursday.

The Entertainment book offers many meal discounts. Some of the repeat offers can be printed off the internet once you own the book and sign up on the site. These savings vary from $5 off a meal to one free lunch or dinner entrée.

Two sites I found very helpful are www.idine.com and www.restaurant.com. These work in entirely different ways.

Idine gives a % back on your dining experience. Just sign up your credit card or cards, and you’ll start racking up the saving. The savings start at 5% and increase to 15% depending upon usage. Once again loyalty counts. The more you spend the higher your savings percentage.

Restaurant.com sells certificates. The regular cost is $10 for a $25 certificate or $20 for a $50 one. However, there are always sales of 70 to 80% off the $10 or $20 bringing the cost down to $3 or $2 for the $25 certificate or $6 or $4 for the $50. I find the best is to buy the gift certificates and use them as I want.

As an example, we celebrated Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Mark’s birthday at a restaurant in Manhattan. I found a $50 certificate off a $100 purchase, and we brought our own wine. For the 6 of us, our final cost was $53 or $8.50 per person (plus tax) for dinner. I think that was pretty darn good.
There are a few local restaurant web sites. The best is to try and google them for your local area. I find tastes better when I pay half price. I bet you will too.

One of the first refund offers I sent away for was Lipton Cup of Soup. I found the certificate or the write up in a local store. Today, I still find some of these on tear-off pads usually near the product itself or as a write up on the package.

These write-ups are most commonly found on cereal boxes, cookie wrappers, household cleaners and pet food. In refunders’ jargon we call them Specially Marked Packages. Kelloggs, Keebler, Hersheys and General Mills are among the most popular for these unique boxes.

A very big portion of rebates are now found on the internet. These range from rebates submitted directly online or more often where you can print out the necessary form.
I love the internet submissions because it’s easy and nothing to send off. Staples is popular for these easy-rebates as is Rite Aid.

But many other great offers are found on the company web sites under promotions or special offers. I always check that link to see what’s new. As a matter of fact, I daily postings are made to our www.couponqueen.com website so you can see all the new and current offers.

For anyone who sends me an email at: susan@refundlebundle.com I’ll send you a list of 100 plus refund offers to get you started.

As part of my union health coverage I’m entitled to eyeglasses every 2 years with a value of $100.00. Since I now wear reading glasses this was perfect.

I checked my health brochure for local participating optometrists. Quite a few were listed including Pearl Vision and Vision World. Both included the eye exam and I chose Vision World on the recommendation of my friend Eileen.

I took the exam, and found that I also needed glasses for distance, To solve the problem 2 possibilities were available. I could get bifocals that had both options (reading and distance) but there would be a visible line. If I wanted to avoid the line I could get progressives lenses.

With my $100 certificate, the progressive lenses were an additional $250.

At home I found a Pearl Vision coupon in a Sunday flyer offering Progressive lenses for $150, but they would not accept my insurance certificate as part of the payment.

I made the following decision. My distance vision is barely affected. I really just wanted the reading glasses and felt that in the future if I wanted to get a combination pair, I’d look for a special as in the case of Pearl.

I got my reading glasses, and realized how important being informed can be. Rather than being upset or disappointed because I had the $100 voucher, I felt I took the best advantage of the options available to me.

Manufacturer’s sites have a wealth of information, goodies, coupons, and promotions.

It’s best to start off with some of your favorite companies. All that’s necessary is to take the name and add .com. You can sign up for their weekly or monthly e-newsletters that alert you to new products, coupons, samples and other fun stuff.

I have an email address for just this type of e-newsletter or information so I don’t fill up my entire inbox with these often precious goodies. And then I can check them at my leisure.

Some of my favorites include:
• Betty Crocker
• General Mills
• Kelloggs/Keebler
• Hershey
• Eat Better America
• Gortons
• 3m Company (Scotch Brand products)

Post some of your favorites on our discussion board at www.couponqueen.com