The following is a guest post by Caitlin:
I ordered some coupons off of a coupon clipping site for the Gillette shaving gel coupons and got 10 $6 off 3, 10 $3 off 2 and 10 $1 off 1 coupons. I decided to take these to my local Target to redeem.
I had to do 2 separate transactions and had my sister do the 2nd one because the coupons have a limit of 4 like coupons per transaction per household per day. I received this in total for both transactions:
*43 Travel Size Gillette Shaving Gels — $1.47 a piece
*5 full size Gillette Shaving Gels — $1.98 a piece
*BIC Flex 4 Razor — $4.78
*Nivea for Men Lotion — $5.34
Transaction #1:
24 travel size Gillette shaving gels ($1.47 each)
Use 4 $6/3, 4 $3/2 and 4 $1/1 coupons
Final Cost: FREE1 package of BIC Flex 4 Disposable Razors ($4.78)
Use the $3 off 1 BIC Smart Source coupon and the $2 off 1 BIC Soleil or Flex 4 Target coupon found at coupons.target.com
Final Cost: FREE1 Bottle of Nivea Men’s Lotion ($5.34)
Use the $2 off 1 Nivea Body Lotion Smart Source coupon and the $2 off one Nivea Body Lotion Target coupon.
Final Cost: $1.34Transaction #1 OVERALL Total after coupons: $2.98
Transaction #2:
19 Travel Size Gillette Shaving Gels ($1.47 each)
5 Full Size Gillette Shaving Gels (1.98 each)
Use 4 $6/3, 4 $3/2 and 4 $1/1 coupons
Final Cost: FREE
Some Target’s will still make you pay tax after free items, but mine does not so this transaction we ended up owing nothing!!
The shaving cream deal would be better to do at Walmart because they will let you use the overage from the coupons to apply to other items.
We will donate the shaving cream to our local homeless shelter. I will keep a few to add to gift bags here and there.
Hi, my name is Caitlin. I work full-time and go to school full-time. I also have a young child which is the reason I started to coupon. I never believed that “extreme couponing” was possible, but I have come to find out that it truly is. Couponing has helped me open a savings account for my child and give back to the community with a lot of good free finds that I find!
Summer says
Thanks Caitlin for sharing. Amazing deals! What is more amazing that you donated all the stuff 🙂 I am new to Couponing. I do not buy Sunday coupon inserts as we do not use all the stuff. So i print coupons online. But not all coupons are available online as this $6/3 Gillette coupon. I searched eBay for this coupon but I did not find it. I will appreciate it a lot and will be grateful to you if you could please tell the exact coupon clipping service you used and also the coupon buying and selling process. Thanks!
Staci says
My coupons say
illette Fusion ProGlide Shave Prep, excludes trial/travel size $2/1 (8-31-13) PG-7/28
NOT valid on Trial OR trial size do yours?? Guess I can’t do it.
ShoppingFool says
These coupons aren’t the same as the P&G coupons, they came out a week ago in one of the other inserts. The ones she used(assuming they’re the ones I’m thinking of) don’t have that restriction. They have several, but amazingly trial size exclusions aren’t one of them.
ShoppingFool says
*if this posts twice, I apologize, my computer is having difficulties*
The coupon you’re talking about is not the coupon she used on these transactions. The ones she’s mentioned are from the inserts from the week of 8/11 and while they have a lot of restrictions, trial size isn’t one of them.
Denise says
I love that you donate what you buy when it is way more than enough for your family! Sometimes I get annoyed by the super coupon moms because they buy 20 cans of something knowing they really only need 2-3. So thank you for being generous with your good deals!!!
Debbie says
I thought buying coupons or selling them was illegal.
Kathy says
It is illegal to charge for a coupon, but okay to charge for your time to clip and send coupon. That is how they get sold online.
LB says
It is a sneaky way to get around a law. I’m glad that ebay is cracking down on this.
Karen says
I agree, it seems quite unethical. Most also say, “Void id copied, SOLD, PURCHASED, EXCHANGED or TRANSFERRED.” It saddens me to see this promoted on what is normally an ethical website where so many people come to learn ways to save money.
ShoppingFool says
Doing this at walmart actually wouldn’t change your oop(as in overage) because in the fine print for these it states:
“No cash or credit in excess of shelf price may be returned to consumer or applied to transaction”
A good deal at target though and even better for donating. I want to find some here and take them to our local children’s home. It’s huge and the kids there have almost nothing!
Jessica says
Why would kids need shaving cream?
Melissa says
look on Pinterest – TONS of ideas/uses for it for kids! 🙂
ShoppingFool says
Teenage boys shave? I know my nephew has been for three years regularly and he’s 17 😉
We regularly donate to the children’s home, and toiletries are something the teens there regularly enjoy. People think about donating toys to the little ones, or clothes that live there, but the teens often get left out. Shave items, hair items, colognes, perfumes, body washes, cosmetics, deodorants, and many other similar items are a huge blessing for those who have no family to care for them.
ShoppingFool says
oh the typos there….
“clothes to those who live there”***
Caitlin says
Well I guess Wal-Mart is not abiding by the coupon policy because I got my other 12 cans at Wal-Mart and they took the full coupon price off of them all. I didn’t see that on the coupon, but I usually only look to make sure I am not overusing what the fine print says in reference to per transaction or per day limits. Weird! I have noticed my Wal-Mart usually only pays attention if there is the box on the coupon that makes them fill in the price. The last few times they have completely ignored those coupons too both at Wal-Mart and Target. I don’t want to tell them how to do their job, but I know they will get in trouble if the price is not filled in on those ones!
Caitlin says
I paid $3.99 for the coupons I actually got them from a coupon clipping service that sells on Ebay. Due to Ebays new policy they now have a website ashoponlinenow.com, but they do not have anything listed as of yet on their new site. I got 30 coupons in total (10 get $1 off 1, 10 get $3 off 2 and 10 $6 off 3…enough to buy 60 cans of shave gel and I did get the additional 12 cans in a different shopping trip, so I paid about 6 1/2 cents per can. If this deal was done at WalMart it would be a money maker though.
Kristi says
Yes please factor the cost of the coupons. That raises the out of pocket expense.
Caitlin says
$3.99 for 10 of the $1/1, $3/2 and $6/3 so about 6 1/2 cents per can and enough for 60 cans. This would be a money maker at Wal-Mart though. I did not actually pay anything out of pocket for them though because I was selling coupons that I had gotten from selling free product coupons I had won from facebook giveaways etc. and I just let it sit in my paypal account and put the money back into purchasing coupons 🙂 Unfortunately, selling those coupons will no longer work for me due to eBay’s new coupon policies.
Melissa says
glad your store was had so many shave gels in stock! mine is usually always out, or 1 left on the shelf… :/
Caitlin says
I originally planned to do this at Wal-Mart, but they were completely out and I had the coupons to get the free razor at Target and they had well over enough for me and my sister to do the deal, so I decided to just go ahead and do it rather than drive to the Wal-Mart clear on the other side of town.
Caitlin says
I got lucky! I tried Wal-Mart first and they were completely out and so I decided to go get my free razor and my cheap lotion at Target and saw they had a HUGE stock of them and decided to just go with it rather than driving to the other side of town to go to a different Wal-Mart.
Melissa says
awesome! can i ask what area you’re in? (pron no where near me though i’m sure 🙂 i’m in metrodetroit)
Caitlin says
I am in Council Bluffs Iowa
Erin says
I read that eBay no longer allows coupon sales on its site. There are still other clipping services, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some crackdowns there, though it does seem that couponing is declining a bit.
Caitlin says
They still allow coupons, but they have gotten strict. You can only list so many coupons per month and can only have 1 listing of the same coupon out there at once. No more selling of “free” product coupons on ebay as well as some other guidelines.
heather says
Im glad you were able to get such a great deal at Target. I use to love shopping there but I stopped doing any business at all there about 3 months ago. I had a couple of cashiers be really careless with my coupons, they werent scanning all of them and my total was never right. The final straw as when a cashier told me you could not use a coupon to get a travel size free even if there was no size restriction. When the manager came over he said I could but tried to argue with me. It appears the manager at Hanes Mill in Winston Salem thinks that when a coupon says Limit 1 per purchase and 4 in same transaction means only 1 coupon per person.
Caitlin says
I have had problems in the past with coupons at Target, but I always remind myself that I am not doing anything wrong and that I am using the coupon as it states to use it on the coupon itself…male cashiers really are the best to checkout with! 🙂
Lisa says
Teenage males! For some reason, female cashiers seem to think your savings are coming out of their pockets. 🙁
Jami says
It would be lovely if you would share which coupon clipping site you found the coupons on! As much as I love reading about your deals, it truly only excites me if I can duplicate them. Thanks for the inspiration! I would love to get some shaving cream to add to our care packages we keep in the car to hand out to our local homeless.
Caitlin says
I got them from a coupon clipping site that sells on ebay, but due to ebays new policy they now have a website ashoponlinenow.com …it is not fully functional as they do not have any coupons listed yet, but should soon. If you go to buy it now under ebay and then list them low cost to high is usually how I find the best deals for coupons and a lot of coupon clipping sites post their items on there. The auctions will go up to 10 or $12 and under buy it now it is usually A LOT cheaper…really boggles my mind sometimes
Laura says
What was the cost of the coupons? I’m just wondering b/c that is part of the oop cost of the products purchased. It is still a bargain, just not “free.”
Caitlin says
$3.99 for 10 of the $1/1, $3/2 and $6/3 so about 6 1/2 cents per can and enough for 60 cans. This would be a money maker at Wal-Mart though.
Caitlin says
I did not actually pay anything out of pocket for them though because I was selling coupons that I had gotten from selling free product coupons I had won from facebook giveaways etc. and I just let it sit in my paypal account and put the money back into purchasing coupons 🙂 Unfortunately, selling those coupons will no longer work for me due to eBay’s new coupon policies.