The Labels for Education® program is proud to welcome new participating brands–GLAD® Food Storage, Emerald® Nuts, Dannon® kids yogurts and select magazines purchased at retail, including People, Real Simple and more. There are now over 2,500 participating Labels for Education products that can help your kid’s school earn even more FREE educational merchandise. For the complete list of Participating Products, click here. http://labelsforeducation.com/assets/pdf/EnglishParticipatingProductsPage.pdf?EID=4787&MID=3461418&LID=4333
There is a variety of offers in the LFE newsletter. Here’s one below. At retailers like Giant Eagle and Albertson’s, you now will be able to earn 1 point electronically each time you use your Shopper Card to purchase participating products. It’s just another way they are making it even easier to earn FREE educational merchandise for our kids’ school! For details and a full list of participating retailers, visit www.eLabelsForEducation.com. You can also get $20 in Campbell product coupons at http://www.campbellskitchen.com/coupon.aspx?EID=4787&MID=3461418&LID=3428&fbid=NSZ3kkoD_VG

So much is FREE on the web. Here are some sites if you enjoy reading.

Go to www.WhatShouldIReadNext.com. Get suggestions for books you may enjoy by entering your favorite titles and/or authors.

More than one million books are available for free downloading or reading online at: http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

Many of the world’s great works of literature and philosophy can be downloaded for no cost and printed in a variety of formats at www.Gutenberg.org

If you like to Listen, you can Listen for Free. Get audio books for free from www.LibriVox.org a worldwide digital library with more than 4,000 unabridged classics in the public domain. Read by volunteers (you can be one), they can be played on your computer, MP3 player, cell phone or burned to a CD or car stereo. Free audio books are also available through www.literalsystems.org and www.audiobooksforfree.com.

Recycling not only helps the earth, but sometimes offers incentives. I found a few programs to keep in mind.
You can sign up on the Brita Website for information as to how you can recycle your spent Brita filters. Stores in selected locations have had collection bins where you can drop off those spent filters. If you don’t have a collection site in your area, you can mail them in to a certain address. Visit http://www.brita.com/support/filter-recycling/

Mission Foods promotes Terracycle and Share Our Strength. Mission® partners with upcycling company TerraCycle, Inc.® to create the Tortilla and Tostada Bag Brigade™. For each unit of packaging waste collected and sent to TerraCycle through this program, two cents will be paid to either Mission® Foods’ charity partner Share Our Strength® or a Brigade™ location’s charity of choice. The collected tortilla and tostada bags and salsa/dips lids will then be repurposed into innovative consumer products. Visit http://missionmenus.com/makeadifference/utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tile-text-getfacts&utm_campaign=feb2011
Staples gives $2 for each returned printer cartridge. Check for their double days and double rewards.
Bring your gently used women’s, men’s and children’s prescription glasses, bifocals and non-prescription sunglasses to your local LensCrafters. Our associates will then clean, repair and hand-deliver them to those in need.

Inmar, the nation’s leading promotion transaction settlement provider, reported that annual coupon use is on the rise for the first time since 1992 and coupon distribution hit the highest level recorded since the company began tracking trends in 1988. For the first time in 17 years, consumers used more coupons than they did the year before, with 3.3 billion consumer packaged goods coupons redeemed, an explosive 27% increase over the 2.6 billion redeemed in 2008.

The rise in coupon use started in October of 2008, coinciding with news of the U.S. financial crisis. That has led to five double-digit growth (based on percentage change from the same period of the previous year).

The increase in redemption goes hand-in-hand with an increase in distribution. Despite the tight economy, marketers invested heavily in coupons, boosting the number available to the highest level in over 30 years.

Online coupons also contributed to the rise in coupon distribution and redemption, with Internet distribution up 92% and consumer redemption of these coupons up over 360%.

With this news it’s a great time to be a consumer with coupons filling not only our supermarket basket but also our other retail purchases. For over 125 free printable and digital coupons and coupon codes go to my site www.couponqueen.com.

It would be impossible to count, but the average supermarket contains about 70,000 different products and variations of the product that could make any shopper dizzy.

How do manufacturers manage to get your attention with yet another new product? COUPONS. Coupons are still one of the best forms of promotion, and as good shoppers we want to please the manufacturers by using them, and using them a lot.

Most new products never make it past the first year. Depending upon its’ budget, information about the product floods the market during that time. Which mean more promotions, more coupons and more sales.

General Mills is one of my favorite companies for coupons and new product introductions. My family has always been a fan of Honey Nut Cheerios, but when Chocolate Cheerios was recently introduced it captured the palate of one of my sons.

When I found a sale 2/$5 I bought 4 boxes, using a coupon on each, and getting double value to boot. My final cost was 2/$3 or $1.50 per box, about a 75% savings. General Mills made the coupon value so attractive it was hard to pass up the special deal. And it served its purpose, we now buy Chocolate Cheerios on a regular (sale of course) routine.

Enewsletters from many of the manufacturers also alert you to the new introductions and high value coupons on their web sites. That was the case with Comet Cream. The product was introduced with a $1 coupon.

Using high value new product coupons you will reduce your grocery bill and get to try lots of new items, so now it’s time to give it a shot.

For quite some time, many retail stores offered a Senior Day, a day that seniors could get a discount on a purchase. The age for a senior varies according to store. For example, at age 62 you can get a senior discount at Kohl’s department store. The day is generally Wednesday.

Museums, hotels and attractions may have a senior day as well. The discount and the age vary according to the venue. Some start at age 55, others 62 and still others 65. The discounts usually start at 5% and generally don’t go above 10%.

Local restaurants offer senior savings as well. Just take a look at IHOP, The International House of Pancakes. They have senior discounts as well as kids’ discounts.

In my latest A&P store flyer, I found an advertisement for Senior Appreciation Day. The age: 55, and the discount 5% with a $30 purchase. A coupon is required to get the discount and can be obtained from either the store flyer or from the online enewsletter from A&P.

I’m thrilled, in addition to double coupons and great sales I can now take advantage of Senior Day.

To take advantage of these bonus savings, check with all of your local retailers to see if they have a Senior Day or discount. Get to learn the different rules and regulations so you’re never disappointed, and if you find some new ones, send them along so we can all share.

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.

Coupon organization is key to saving. If you can’t find a coupon, if you leave them at home, no matter how many coupons you have, you won’t save a cent. With a little bit of time, preplanning, and organization you can begin your savings journey.

Start with an organizer and divide it into categories just like the supermarket aisles. The categories should be in alphabetical order. Keep all varieties of the same category so you’re ready when then brand goes on sale. For example, in my detergent category I have coupons for All, Biz, Cheer, Dynamo, Era, Fab, Gain, and Xtra among others. When I recently found Dynamo on sale for $2.99 I could easily locate the coupon. With 3 Dynamo coupons, I snagged 3 bottles for $1.99 each, a great buy.

My cereal category looks the same. I’ll try and so will my sons try almost any brand if the savings are substantial. One of our favorite brands is Honey Nut Cheerios, so of course when it goes on sale, I’ll not only use coupons, but I’ll stock up. Trying new brands can be exciting too. Just recently Corn Flakes came out with a ‘Simply Cinnamon’ selection with a full purchase price refund. The new variety was delicious.

If you’re just getting started with coupons, try a few categories to ‘get your feet wet’ so to speak. Since household items such a detergent, cleaners, fabric softeners are among the most expensive start with that category. Then use the ‘sale plus coupon’ method and see how much fun saving money can be.

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.

Coupons as we have already determined are a great source of savings and is one of the most powerful marketing tools, if not the most powerful. Retail stores have come to realize this and are issuing coupons in record numbers. Every event, season or opportunity brings a whole array of retail coupons.

On a given Sunday, I’ll find upwards of 6 or 7 coupons inserted or printed in my newspaper. Some are mailed directly to my home. Clothing and department stores are among the tops: Bloomingdales, Macys, Kohl’s, Lord & Taylor, have a steady stream of sales and coupons. Old Navy, Banana Republic, and The Gap (all under the same umbrella) have coupons as well as a loyalty program. These include a registration process for your register receipt that nets you an extra 10% off your next total purchase. Last year during the holidays, I got 3 extra $5 coupons good on any purchase.

Stationery and office supply stores offer coupon savings, dollar days, loyalty programs and an entire rebate center. Sign up for the programs is easy and secure, and once you’re signed up your savings begin. I’ve been receiving $25 off a $75 purchase at Staples on a regular basis. Each time I use the coupon, I’m mailed a new one.

Other retail outlets include: Golfsmith, Brookstone, Bye Bye Baby, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace, Truvalue, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical and Bed Bath & Beyond. In all of these cases you can and should buy the product when it’s on sale and then use the coupon. With Bed, Bath & Beyond they not only offer coupons but have a rebate sheet found behind the courtesy desk. Combine both the coupon and rebate for a fabulous savings.