Questions for the veterans

[asenap01]

I am wanting to know what is a great price to pay for paper towels, toilet paper, and laundry detergent. Obviously I know free is the best but what is second best. I have found a couple of deals but am afraid to pull the trigger for fear that I can get it cheaper later.

[townshipboy07]

Buy price for purex 50oz is $1.50 with a coupon 2.50-$1
paper towels should never pay more than .50/towel
tp never more than .50/4roll if desperate

[mrsjschultz]

I would never pay more than .29 - .50 for a roll of paper towel
Agreed on the .50 max for 4 rolls of TP
Laundry detergent never more than .05 an ounce...

GL!

[spork]

Buy price for purex 50oz is $1.50 with a coupon 2.50-$1
paper towels should never pay more than .50/towel
tp never more than .50/4roll if desperate

On the tp, are you figuring per roll on regular size rolls, double, mega?

[asenap01]

Thanks both of you and repped.

[tmsmalley]

I'm not sure you can really use a figure like this. It is going to depend a lot on whether or not you have stores that double, what stores you do have and what they carry, how tied you are to any particular brands, how much stockpile you've got/room to stockpile you've got/available funds to stockpile you've got, PLUS, how much you really need something right now.

So, as you start, you may have to pay a lot more than the prices listed for things you need, but as long as they're a lot less than you were paying before couponing, it all works out to your favor in the end.

Tess

[cpnmaniac44]

Thanks both of you and repped.

what grocery and pharmacy stores do you have?

[Freeman36]

I am a newbie here and need to know if you receive gift cards at Target at the time of purchase or if they are mailed to you. Thank you for any help.

[cuzisaidso]

I am a newbie here and need to know if you receive gift cards at Target at the time of purchase or if they are mailed to you. Thank you for any help.

At the time of purchase.

[carisal]

for me:
laundry detergent - I use arm and hammer liquid and buy it when it goes $3 or less per bottle and use the $1/1 IPs to make them $2 or less, I usually pay about 1.50. I think they are 52 oz bottles? -- I'm not too brand specic on detergent but, I have seen this go cheap more often than others. when the $1/1 any tide comes out you could get the travel/trial boxes free but thats a lot of work for me. I did get 4 totally free bottles of purex recently at CVS w/ the bogo printable and on sale bogo, but I dont expect that happens too often.

TP- I use Scott and have been getting it consistently about 3.50 for 12 rolls (the 1000 sheet roll variety) , using $1/1 coupons - there used to be an IP but I think it has come down :( so about .30 per roll. but these last quite a while. I am pretty much brand and variety specific on TP... there are definitely better deals out there (free cottonelle and/or angel soft if you get lucky and have one of the stores around that sells them for $1 and doubles the .50 coupons)

Paper towels- I'm actually not too brand specific on PTs. I love when I get Bounty for free on sale for $1 or .99 and use a $1 coupon that is good on any Bounty. but, those qs are hard as heck to come by. I will NOT pay more than .50 a roll for PTs.

[cpnmaniac44]

I assume you mean Target gift cards when you transfer a prescription.
Once you get the card, on your next pharmacy visit you can use the gift card toward meds.

[Betsy33]

Ah, these prices sound so lovely. I live IN the city of Los Angeles, so these seem really cheap to me. Any of you getting these prices and living in major cities? I'd love to know how. :-D

[thickbluebug]

My early days were just buying with coupons so I am sure your deal is better than my start up stockpile prices.
The longer you stock pile the lower the prices go.
So after getting a stockpile I can afford to be really picky.

We just had triple coupons at one store and I was able to get paper towels for less than a quarter a roll. Store is out of business now so it won't happen again. I did enjoy it while I had it!
The good thing is I have been hunting a store to replace it and have found other stores that double to higher values and I am coming out better. Thing is the stores have been there for a long time and I just assumed they were too high. I never even checked them out before.


My Now Prices, If I needed the stuff:

paper towels are less than .35 per roll (bounty was our last sale)

toilette paper is .50 for any brand of 4 pack db rolls or 12.5 a double roll (northern was our last sale)

laundry detergent...just changed my price to .05 a load (based on sun detergent). I still have a bunch of tide, purex elements, arm and hammer from last year - that I paid 5 times that much for.
I just came across a deal for sun detergent for .09 a box. The box has 4 cups in it. I have a front loader and will use less than a cup per load, so really it is even cheaper than .05 per load.

When I can't get it for that, I will make my own. Directions are on the board and comes to .03 a load. Suppose to make your clothes cleaner and softer so it eliminates the need for fabric softener. The initial cost isn't cheap and it's a lot of work to make, but when the time comes and I can't get my detergent on the cheap - I will make my own.

[ladypilot777]

Where are the directions for how to make laundry soap posted? I have a pretty good stock pile of laundry detergent, but am curious on how to make!! TY!

When I can't get it for that, I will make my own. Directions are on the board and comes to .03 a load. Suppose to make your clothes cleaner and softer so it eliminates the need for fabric softener. The initial cost isn't cheap and it's a lot of work to make, but when the time comes and I can't get my detergent on the cheap - I will make my own.[/quote]

[thickbluebug]

here's a thread
http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/hcw-media/192038-nancys-homemade-laundry-detergent.html

here's a link
Making Homemade Laundry Soap (http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm)

I had about 3 saved on my computer and I can't pull up 2 of them. I had recipes for both dry and liquid. I had recipes that used bars soap like castille and ivory bar soap

here's a link that has 10 recipes.
10 Homemade Laundry Soap Detergent Recipes : TipNut.com (http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/)

this is from one of our threads, can't find the thread - but here's a cut and paste I had saved, lol the other part is where someone shows how to make hot pockets out of biscuits.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)

Powdered Laundry Detergent- Top load machine

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

-Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use 1 Tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 Tablespoons. Yields: 3 Cups detergent. (Approx. 40 loads)

[childofsolitude]

See, I think TP and PT are complicated. When people say "I won't pay more than .50 for 4 rolls", I don't think this strategy is particularly the best way of finding the cheapest TP. What if you could get 6 rolls for $1? You automatically think "Well it's cheaper to just pay .50 for 4 rolls". Not necessarily. What if you get more sheets per roll with the 6 roll package? What I do is divide the cost of the TP (including coupons I may have used) by the number of rolls. If it's a 6 double roll package, I consider that 12 rolls. Then I read on the package how many sheets per roll. I'll show you an example so you can see the difference:

Last week, I got 6 double rolls of Cottonelle Ultra. They were on clearance at Target for $2.44. Then I used a .75 coupon which made it $1.69 for 12 rolls. Two days ago, I saw Angel Soft 12 regular rolls for $2.69. These were regular price. I then used a $1 coupon which made them $1.69 for 12 rolls. Now both the Cottonelle and the Angel Soft come out to the same price. But let's see what the difference is between the amount of sheets per roll. Cottonelle has 200 sheets per roll. Since I'm trying to figure out the cost of one single roll, I'll divide that by two. So each roll would then have 100 sheets per roll. The Angel Soft has 176 sheets per roll. So, that comes out to 76 sheets per roll more than one roll of Cottonelle. You multiply that by 12 and you end up having 912 sheets per roll extra than what the Cottonelle had! Based on what I figured my household goes through, the package of Angel Soft would last about 25 days more than the Cottonelle. Crazyness.

Now, let's figure that out using the "no more than .50/4 rolls" rule that people have. Say you see 4 rolls of Angel Soft for .50. Then you go to another store and see 4 rolls of Cottonelle for .50. Each regular size roll of Angel Soft is 176 sheets. Each regular size roll of Cottonelle is 100 sheets. In total, the Angel Soft has 304 more sheets than the Cottonelle does. Now, if you want to be real scientific, I remember reading somewhere that the average person uses 6 sheets whenever they use the bathroom. If you divide 304 by 6, you'll get about 50 more uses out of the Angel Soft than the Cottonelle.

All of that to say, when I figure out how much to spend on TP or PT, I consider how many feet or sheets as well. I don't have a rule where I say "I spend no more than xx amount for xx amount of rolls". There's a heck of a lot more math that goes into it when I consider which TP to buy.

Edited to add: Forget to mention that I know when to stock up when the sale price (and usually using a coupon) is about half or 60% off of what the cheapest TP is at regular price (which is usally the store brand). And I only stock up when I'm running low. If I have 6 months worth of TP, I'll only buy more if it's free or nearly free.

For example, I don't know what the cheapest TP is at my local store off the top of my head but I will use what my mother buys regularly as an example. She uses White Cloud. She gets the 12 double rolls at $5.49 which comes out to about 23 cents per roll. I have no idea how many sheets there are per roll but let's just say there are 100 so the math is easier. Now say this particular brand and amount of TP is the cheapest TP that the store carries. So that comes out to .23 cents at 100 sheets per roll. I know when to stock up if there's another kind of TP that is either the same amount of sheets per roll BUT calculates to 11.5 (half of 23) cents per roll. OR if there's another brand that's 23 cents per roll BUT there are 200 (100 doubled) sheets per roll. Hope that makes sense. And the only reason why I stock up is because, yes, you can always find coupons and sales on name brand TP. However, usually even with the sales and coupons, the store brand comes out to be cheaper per roll and with the amount of sheets calculated.

And I use that method for everything. Say the cheapest per oz. toothpaste at regular price was Pepsodent at .99 for 6 oz. If I only have one tube of toothpaste stocked up and I find toothpaste either at .50 for 6 oz. or .99 for 12 oz., I'll get a couple. The reason why is because I figure that I'm getting two for the price of 1 of what I could expect to pay without sales or coupons. HTH someone.

[Dore]

I got a coupon in the mail for free Mars Candy from the weekly promo they are running. Can I pair this Q with a BOGO Mars candy from a recent insert to get 2 free?

[notmstewart]

I got a coupon in the mail for free Mars Candy from the weekly promo they are running. Can I pair this Q with a BOGO Mars candy from a recent insert to get 2 free?

I did, twice.

It's probably a YMMV situation. Depends on store policy, & cashier attitude.