Thrifty Thursdays | Coupons and Freebies

Just to give you some more ideas of other items you can get for free/cheap when you use coupons, here's a few deals I scored earlier this week:

• 6 6-packs of Arrowhead Bottled Water = FREE plus $.78 in overage!
• 2 packages of Smithfield bacon = FREE!!
• 24 ct. Tylenol Extra Strength and Colgate Advanced Whitening Toothpaste = FREE plus $2 in overage!

All it takes is clipping a few coupons and following a few blogs. I've added the couponing blogs I follow in a blog roll down the page on the left. Check them out, you might be surprised at what you find! =)

Even if you don't want to go full-out coupon-crazy, I'd encourage you to at least try to match-up some coupon deals at one or two stores you regularly shop at. Several bloggers post weekly deals for specific stores (for example: this week's Safeway post at the Krazy Coupon Lady here or Frugal Living NW here). Just watch out for those posts and you'll be on top of the best deals to be had where you normally shop.

Also, the Krazy Coupon Lady has an excellent resource: a database of most of the online printable coupons available. Just browse through her alphabetized list and click on a link. Some of them take you straight to product websites, and some to coupon websites like coupons.com. On the former, you often have to sign up for an e-newsletter (make a hotmail/yahoo email account just for these if you want) and sometimes on the latter you might have to look through several pages of coupons for the one you want (but you may see some others you might want to print as well!). You may not score the "free/dirt cheap" deals, but you'll certainly see some savings as you match up your shopping list with $.75, $1.00, $1.50, etc coupons! Click here to check it out.

To finish up for this week, here's a few freebies for you:

• Sign up here for your free candy bar on FRIDAY ONLY from Mars (first 250,000 to sign up).

• Read Utah Deal Diva's post here on how to get a free Starter Kit (contains coupons and free samples) from Beech-Nut, makers of all-natural baby food.

• Mark your calenders now for the upcoming Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day, Septemer 26th! Enjoy FREE general admission for you and a guest to hundreds of museums and cultural venues nationwide (limit one offer per household). We did this last year and had a great time! Check here for a list of participating venues.

• FREE photo book from Winn-Dixie (regularly $11.99). You don't have to live near a Winn-Dixie, just have it shipped to you for $4.95 - still a really great deal! This is perfect for a grandparent gift or to show off your recent summer vacation photos. Click here to get your coupon code to use within 15 days.