michellephilippi.com

Sometimes in your comments – and I love that you leave comments, thank you – you ask me questions.  I’m not sure how to answer questions though.  Like if I post a response, will you see it?  Like who would go back and look to see if I answered?  Then I thought about putting one of those little things on the sidebar where you can type a question and I can type back an answer but just my luck, the second I put it up there no one will ask anything and I’ll look like I think I’m all important and people want to know stuff and find out that I’m not and they don’t – LOL!  So I thought I’d go back through the comments and post a little posty post with some Q&A – – mostly about couponing.

Molly asked if I sell the bags that I embellish or just the bag themselves:
I don’t sell embellished bags – or any of my creations for that matter.   I put some cards for sale on ETSY a long time ago and only sold 1.   So what I make is for using or giving as gifts.  I have gotten orders for things (cards and embellished bags) and I’m totally cool with that.

Charlene asked if there is a way to get more Swagbucks faster:
I score a $5 Amazon card – 450 Swagbucks – every week.  I take the daily poll every morning – 1 Swagbuck, I do all my searches there and instead of using favorites, I go there to get to places.   Even my most common places like “Papertrey Ink” or “People Magazine” – I get to them via search.  I also get Swagbucks off referrals.   Post your referral code on your blog, tell people about it and have them sign up and you will get Swagbucks when they get Swagbucks (not as many as they do, but you get some).  And occasionally I’ll watch the little videos – but you don’t have to watch them, click it, start it, and then read a news story while it’s going 😉

Rae asked how long I’ve been couponing:
I think it’s been about 3 years.  Could be 2 maybe.  Seems like forever.

Cindy asked how I get the quantity of coupons:
Most newspapers have a Sunday coupon bundle you can buy so you would get 5 copies of the Sunday paper = 5 sets of coupons.  That being said, probably 75% of my coupons come from online – coupons.com and manufacturer Facebook sites.  Remember that you can hit the back button and print 2 of each coupon, and that you can do this per computer.  We have 4 computers at home.  So say each coupon you can print twice, and I have 4 computers = 8 coupons.  Most of the time if there is a coupon online it is in the paper as well, so take my 8, add 5 from the paper, and that’s 13.  I also never throw away a coupon until it expires and sometimes I have run in to having my 13 or so coupons expiring on Sunday and the new ones come out online and in the paper for that very same item just that same day so now I’ve got 26 to go to town with.

Sheryl asked how I find out about Albertsons doublers:
I have a really good relationship with my store so they will often tell me.  And, online blogs.   Because I don’t go to my couponing Albies every week I don’t always know way before so I’ll find out via the blogs.  Sidenote: the Albies that I coupon at is not the store that’s close to my house.  I hate the store that’s close to my house.  They are not coupon-friendly and beyond that, they are just downright rude.   So I go to an Albies that is like 20 minutes from my house, but close to my office, where I can go during the day or take the long way home and stop there.   Customer service is everything to me.

Lorraine asked if the stores really give me money back,
like when I say “they paid me $1.35 to take these…”:
Yes and no.  When you buy something that’s “better than free” meaning that the item is $3 and you have a coupon for $5-off, that goes in to your total.   No store will outright hand you the overage money.  But you can use it to buy more things.  And stores vary on their policy on this as well.  Some stores will adjust the coupon down so that you get the item free without overage, Walmart however just released their new policy which gives you the overage amount towards the rest of your order.  So say I am getting $2 overage on something, and I also have (2) coupons for $1-off (2) $2 items, I will now get those free too from the overage of the first item.  Make sense? Rite Aid and Walgreens however when I say they paid me to take something I get +Ups or Register Rewards which are store money that I can use to pay with next time.  So it’s like money but you can only use it there.  However if it says manufacturer’s coupon on it like the ones at Walgreens, you can use them to pay like cash at Walmart per their new coupon policy.  That’s a big score right there.

Jill asked if I would go on Extreme Couponing:
No.  Fat people on TV is not pretty….except for the chick on Glee and I just love that Puckerman is hot for her.