What are you getting cheap or free in February 2019?

Welcome to February! The shortest month of the year and I hope you all find the most bargains ever. After doing some research I found the following article.

https://www.thebalance.com/comprehensive-guide-to-seasonal-sales-1289892

Here's hoping you get some ideas and deals after reading the above article. Growing up, I seem to remember white sales in February and would see great sales on comforters, towels and sheets . Winter is still in full swing, but watch for prices being slashed on winter apparel and holiday items (if there are any left) should be 90 % off. I kind of missed the boat on that one and have not been in the stores much in 2019. However, I plan to do more shopping this month and will be posting my bargains. I look forward to reading about yours, so let the posting begin!

 

This morning, since it is the first of the month, I cashed out for $35 in Walmart Gcs from Swagbucks. When posted, I will put them on my Walmartpay account and do some stock up shopping.

 

Today I printed some gift cards I earned at work. From Fetch rewards, I printed a $3 gift card for CVS. The Financial Horizons survey awarded me $35 for participating and Skyping with them, and I printed out $35 in CVS gc from the Tango reward site.
I plan to shop this weekend and their timing is perfect.

 

I cashed out $35.00 from a market research site that I do surveys about laundry.

 

I went to CVS and while not the most exciting trip, I stuck to my list and did get a couple of frees. Best of all I paid for most of it with 2 of my gcs.
A 6 oz box of Chips ahoy cookies were free, as was one Renuzit and I used coupons for both. Cookies were $1/ box and Renuzits were .89 cents, both on sale.
ALL detergent was on sale b1g1 and used a $2/2 coupon getting 2 for $5.16.

Please check the ounces on the detergents you are buying. I prefer Tide, but All was the better deal. Tide Simply was on sale, however, it looked smaller and sure enough the bottle is now down to 34 ounces. The last time I purchased Tide Simply, it was a 40 ounce bottle. The number of ounces in bottles of ALL are 46.5. Everything is getting smaller and we are paying more for it.

I needed to get some cold medicine and Ibuprofen. Luckily, CVS had a b1 g1 50% off and I purchased 4 boxes that were $7.99 each. I sent a coupon to my card for $5/20 off a CVS cold medicine purchase and luckily it came off correctly. I paid just over $17 for 4 boxes of cold medicine. Since there was none left at home, I needed to stock up. CVS ibuprofen 80 ct was on clearance for 50% off and I paid $4.64. So relieved that headaches and colds are now covered.

A twin pack of Mitchum deodorant was on 50% clearance and I used a $1 coupon. The total cost for 2 deodorants was $3.39.

Cvs has lots of stuff on clearance if you can find any left. For $2.32 (75 % 0ff ), I purchased a super charger wall charger for our phones. Never hurts to have an extra one on hand.

For 16 items, I used $3 ecr and $35 in gift cards. My OOP was $3.82.

I put back 4 items after the cashier/MOD had trouble with my coupons, re -rang my order when I told him to take off the items. Funny how my order rang up higher with 4 more items off, so I had him do it a 3 rd time. Luckily, that worked better and he was not happy. Not sure what they do, but do not play dumb with me when you are the manager, and cannot deduct the coupons correctly the 2nd time (that worked the first time). So now, I just put back any item where the coupon does not come off. More work for them and more savings for me. It probably will not do any good, but CVS corporate needs another call.

 

Today, I used my Amazon GC balance to order D1 her favorite Bigelow tea (vanilla caramel), 2 large jars of pretzels and school supplies. I only paid $6.25 OOP and delivery to her college dorm was free thanks to Amazon Prime.

 

This morning I cashed out for $15.19 cents from Paidviewpoint and chose the Walmart gift card option. I will combine that with my $35 in gcs from Swagbucks and plan a stock up shopping trip sometime in the next two weeks.

 

Thanks so much for all your great posts @jastwins...you are doing great and getting a lot of bargains, but LOL, of course, like any success in life it takes a lot of time and effort...well worth it IMHO!! The days are too short for me right now, but I want to help out my two granddaughters with some gift cards. I would really appreciate knowing which reward sites you would recommend for maximum amount earned for time spent? I have so many interruptions I usually don't do really long ones (30+minutes), unless you can stop and go back to them later without losing all that's done.

 

@busyasabeecrg , you are so right..it is time-consuming,but I do it to help with the extras. You put as much as you can into it and use it to your advantage.
Most of my gift cards are earned from Swagbucks. Here is my referral link if you have not joined.
https://www.swagbucks.com/refer/jastwins

I try to do what I can and do I hit my goal every day....no. Since you mentioned you are busy, SB allows you to use their site and apps to run videos to earn points. It can be done on the computer, tablet or phone. My other success with SB is getting referrals and you can get 10% of their earnings for as long as you are both members.
I am so grateful for my referrals and appreciate any points they earn. Another bonus from being on SB is completing a survey and becoming a member of a community where you discuss products, take surveys or answer questions. These pop up intermittently and some have been great. You never know what survey will offer them, but I am glad I found the ones I did. Also, Sb has little contests where you can get bonus points for being on a team, filling out a bingo board (SWAGO) and spinning a wheel for some double search wins or double survey credits (or 20 %).
Shopping thru Swagbucks can also earn you points.

Other sites I used include FETCH (my referral code is TWOHJ). I use this site since they offer $3 cvs gift cards. Check the site for the type of gift cards you have in mind and see if it is offered.

I am a member of Ibotta (referral code 7nhba) and it is store specific. You can download your receipt to earn a certain amount (multiples allowed sometimes) and they have a $20 payout level.

Checkout 51 is another app I use
referral https://checkout51.app.link/jkvQ14qSLR
This app is related to Saving start and they both have the same offers sometimes and you can only collect on one site.
Other sites I use include Receiptpal and Receipt Hog. Both sites allow you to load up receipts and cash out at certain point levels. Minimum effort for these 2, but they may have a waiting list to join. Fun and easy, so these 2 are worth the wait. I used them for Amazon and paypal credits.
I shop through Ebates and they run deals, offer coupon codes and you get a percentage of your purchase back 4 times a year. (by check, gc or paypal) https://go.ebat.es/imsk/8bcuxeFwAI

Feel free to ask me any more questions. I learned about all these sites on HCW and am very happy I joined.
For gift cards, you can purchase them at a discount on Giftcard Granny. Worth a look.l
Once you join any of the abov3 try to get your family or friends to join under your referral link. You can earn money that way, as well.

 

Went to a city about 45 miles from home. Petsmart gave me a $10/50 coupon good in store since I haven't been there lately. Now I remember why I don't go there, way overpriced and they don't carry many brands. I did manage to get 2 large bags of some food, both marked down 50% for expiring soon. Each bag will only last me a week, so I don't have that problem. Both bags, 2 cans of cat food (needed to get me just over $50) and some free samples for $40 plus tax. Stopped at Panera for a free sandwich they gave me for not being there in a while. Ordered the turkey sandwich over the app while at Kohl's, went to the shopping center that Panera used to be and drove all over looking for it. It had moved down to the end of the shopping center. Luckily I ordered a cold sandwich and it was fine by the time I found the new building.

Went to Meijer, got free cottage cheese after mPerk, free Ready Pasta after ecoupon, s*, and Ibotta. Picked up a 3 pound bag of organic apples for the nbpr rebate that expires today, should get my whole price of $3.99 back. They had a gallon of milk for 99¢ and eggs for 59¢. Put the stuff in the soft cooler in the cargo area. Immediately after, one of the dogs jumped back there to bark at someone walking near the car. Thought the eggs were goners. Turns out she dug her nails into the bags of dog food and it ripped and spilled out all over the back. Had fun cleaning that out when we got home and carrying 2 torn bags of food into the house.

At Kohl's my mom got a pair of Isotoner gloves, not free nor cheap, but she got a pair and really likes them and they were sold out in our town. I wanted to wait another week to use the 30% off, but settled for 15% today because she wanted them now.

Stopped at Rite Aid, they moved out of our town but they are still around other towns here. Didn't find a single thing to buy. I guess I'm over Rite Aid. Used to be my favorite drug store. Meant to pick up Chick Fil A for dinner, but totally forgot and was on the interstate and I'm not going down an exit and turning around.

 

Just got home from work, but want to thank you @jastwins for all the good info. I will check them out after I cook dinner and will definitely use your referral codes for any I join.

 

After travelling to my other house an hour away, I took advantage and shopped a few stores for things I needed.
Have all the scissors in your home disappeared....well, mine have. A pair that came with our cutlery set broke on Friday, so I added that to my list of items to purchase. Really, I think my girls relocated them or took them and it was time to get a new pair.
At Micheal's I picked up a titanium Scissor for me and a cheap scissor ($1) for my junk drawer. Competitor coupons are accepted at Michaels and I used a 50% off any item from ACMoore. I just brought the coupon code up on my phone, showed the cashier and she took $4.70 off the titanium scissors. Other items on clearance I purchased included 2 washi tapes @ .20 cents each, Chalk stickers 99 cents per set and a small book of stickers for kids was marked down to .47 cents.

In Marshall's I did not find much, but decided to replace a small 1.5 qt pot and found one I like for $9.99. The color was very close to my TFal set and my the one I am replacing is an old one that has the teflon peeling away. Another steal was a 26.5 ounce bottle of Bed Head TiGi shampoo for $2. Yeah!

At Bath and body works, I used a coupon to get a free lotion (up to a $5.50 value and treated myself to a lip gloss for 20% off.
In Dollar tree, no frees, but I did stock up on Valentine's day cards (the heartfelt line from Hallmark is .50 cents a card) and Glad freezer bags.

 

Finally, I figured out the error of my ways and what I was doing wrong at CVS. After looking at my coupons, both kiosk and mfg, I realized that CVS lets you load manufacturers coupons from their app and it is tied to your extra care card. You cannot use a mfg coupon on the app and a mfg from inserts on one item. However, you can use a CVS coupons (from the red machine) and one mfg coupon per item purchased. The one on the app comes up first, so unless you bought a second item, your mfg insert coupon will beep.

Using this strategy, I bought 7 bottles of laundry detergent for $7.58. Arm & Hammer (50 oz) was on sale for $1.99 and I purchased 5. Persil (40 oz) was on sale for $4.99 and I bought 2. On my cvs card, I had loaded 1 Persil coupon for $2 and $1 off A& H. My mfg coupons included $3/3 A&H and $2 off 1 Persil. From Fetch, I used 2 $3 CVS gcs and just over $7 for 7 bottles of detergent (including tax) was a great deal for me.
Today, I decided to do smaller purchases and this was better for me since I only had an issue with the last order. One of my many cvs kiosk coupons was $4 off $14 Colgate purchase. I bought 2 optic white toothpastes @ $4.99 each and 2 Colgate toothbrushes @ $3.99 each. On my card I had $4 off 2 optic white Tp and used $1 mfg coupon. I also used $1 off the toothbrushes and $4/$14 from the red machine.
My OOP was $9.51 and I earned $8 in ecr.
I decided to treat myself and purchase some face cream. CVS had a deal that if you spent $30 on L'Oreal face products, you get $10 in ecr. My receipt and the red machine gave me some great coupons...40% off L'Oreal Paris, $5 off 1 L'Oreal Paris face cream, and I had $6/$24 purchase of any face moisturizers and cleansers. The L'Oreal Paris age perfect day cream , 2.5 oz was $19.99 and I purchased 2. On my card, I had a $2 L'Oreal Paris coupon and used all 3 coupons listed above, plus my $8 in ecr from the prior purchase. My OOP with tax was $14.40 and I got back $10 ecr.

My last purchase included hair care items (5), JTB water 24 pk, 3 small boxes of cookies ($1 each), 1 Garnier face mask, 2 Palmolive dwl, 2 Kleenex tissues (120 ct on sale 2 for $3) and Kleenex wet wipes. A receipt coupon was for $4/14 L'oreal hair care and I did get 4. this coupon would not deduct. However, the MOD took it off another item and I let it go. When I got home I realized they never took off the shampoo and conditioner (she said the elvive name was causing the issue) and I had her take it off my order but she did not deduct it off my receipt. How do i prove that one, except to say you did not put the shampoo and conditioner in my bag????
I used $10 ecr and lots of other coupons, so my OOP was $13.66 for 16 items but I only brought home 14 items.. Um, I will just let this go and be more careful next time. The store is an hour away and not worth the gas to drive back there. UGH!!!

On the bright side, I will get credit for full purchase price on the Kleenex wet wipes from FETCH rewards.

Update--Fetch rewards worked and I earned over 2800 points from this receipt. I ordered another $3 cvs gc and my beauty purchases will get me some more beauty bucks.

 

I went through Ibotta to order 2 things on Ebay and received a $5 credit to my account. They put this up frequently and I need to pay more attention when they do.
On Ebay, I located forever stamps, with a design from 2 years ago and paid only 10.50 for 20 forever stamps. There are several styles available, so if you have an ebay account, check it out. I paid for the stamps and some rebates with my paypal funds.

Also, my CVS shopping trip earned me $2.75 from Ibotta. Good thing I check the app today so I did not miss out on a credit for my L'Oreal skin care and hairspray purchase, as well as my Kleenex wet wipes purchase. The Kleenex purchase also allowed me to get another CVS $3 gc that I printed out today.
At the IGA, I bought 3 packages of Snyders pretzels and was able to request another $3 CVS reward that I will print out tomorrow.

My purchases at CVS will get me some beauty bucks and I am within a couple of dollars for 2 more $5 ecr when I meet the total required. Just waiting for CVS to update my app.
Swagbucks sent my $35 in walmart gcs. I will load them to Walmart pay and plan a shopping trip soon.

 

Went to Walmart yesterday, paid $6 OOP and $40 in Walmart gcs via Swagbucks, for some reason iBotta is less than stellar this time and crediting items and then reversing the credit, e.g. did not credit the $2.50 beer, after complaint credited it and took $6 of hair color rebate, still waiting for an e-mail from their support.

Swagbucks credited me $2.25 for redeeming printable coupons which I absolutely love, $0.25 for each coupon redeemed and that counts toward daily goal. Also got $25 Amazon gc from Swagbucks and bought a $25 Netflix, thus paying for two months and one week of the service, Hulu is paid for until the end of June and the only thing left to pay for is BritBox.

 

Last night, I went shopping to CVS and Walmart. I had gift cards and extra care rewards to use and did find some bargains.
After reviewing my receipt from CVS, I realized I was a small amount away from earning ecr's on a couple of deals.
For my first purchase, I bought another Arm & Hammer liquid detergent on sale for $1.99 and used a $1 coupon I printed earlier in the day. A L'OReal deep condtioner put me over what I needed for $5 ecr and I earned $1 from Ibotta. One Lady speed stick deodorant was free with a coupon and a SEcret deodorant was on 75% clearance and I used a $1 coupon to get it for .87 cents. Another free was a Pantene Hairspray using a coupon from the P & G circular. The larger size Pantene Sh & Cond were on sale so I picked up 3 and used a $3/12 and $3 online coupon. Kleenex tissues 160 count were 2 for $3 and I used a .50 coupon. I used $6 in Beauty bucks, $6 in gcs to pay $14.97 OOP for 12 items and I earned $15 in Extra care rewards.

On my second order, I purchase 2 8 packs of Zest soap that was on 50% clearance and Yardley oatmeal soap 2 pk and I used $2/8 soap purchase that came off twice on my receipt. I paid $2.08 for 18 bars of soap. Got an awesome deal on headache medicine and sleep aids again. I used 2 cvs coupons on 5 boxes of items that were 75 % off and in the end I paid $3.96 for all 5. Whole blends shampoo and conditioner were $4 after coupon and I got $2 back in ecr. I used a cvs coupon for $1.50 off baby wipes and bought some Pepperidge farm gold fish 2/$4 and Oreo 6 oz box was $1. A coupon for Maybelline mascara brought the price down to $3.49.
After using $15 in Ecr, I paid $13.29 OOP for 15 items. This CVS location had some good deals and I am glad I shopped there. No coupon problems at all and I got all my items.

The last $2 in ecr was used at another cvs to get a Mitchum Clinical deodorant on sale for $2.99 (using a $1 mfg and $1 cvs coupon) for .99 cents and 2 Palmolive dwl on sale for .99 cents each. I paid $1.40 including tax for all 3.

In Walmart, I needed to get some food items and was happy to find school supplies on sale and picked up 14 plastic folders for .25 cents each. One subject notebooks were .50 each (3) and .10 cents (1). I used a Ka me coupon to get one pack of noodles for .38 cents. A box of U by kotex pads was .84 cents with coupon. I needed spices, beef broth, tuna fish and also bought some frozen food items. My total OOP for 46 items was $1.13 after using my giftcards (50.19) on WAlmart pay. I was so happy a receipt printed out since it never did the last few times I used Walmart pay. I also got $1.10 back from Ibotta for buying playtex tampons. Also got some points from my receipts from FETCH rewards.

 

SBKC sent me an email that I will be receiving a $20 visa gc for the month of January. It will be used to add more items to my stockpile. Also cashed out for a $1 Amazon gc from receiptpal and added it to my Amazon account. Still waiting for $12 in Amazon gcs from SB to be credited to my account.

 

The other night, I used $14 in Amazon credits and paid $7.19 for a nice pair of German nail scissors. It seems D2 confiscated my favorite pair that I had for 25 years and I decided to treat myself to a new pair. Hope they are nice and work well.

I logged on again to the OneVoice survey site and was glad to see they reloaded their rewards. I chose the Tango rewards and selected a $5 cvs gc. Another email brought me a promised $30 reward from Financial Horizons. They also use Tango rewards, so I chose a $25 WAlmart gc (already loaded to my Walmart pay) and another $5 Cvs gc. On SB, I cashed out for another $11 in Amazon gcs and am waiting for my gc codes to be sent.
My plan was to go shopping tonight, but I was asked to cover a game and could not say no to my boss. The extra money will be appreciated and I may have to go shopping tomorrow night.

I deposited 2 settlement checks into my account and will use the funds to purchase a birthday gift for my friend's daughter.

 

Last week I hit Lowes Foods for $1.00 tiolet bowl cleaner and 0.10 candy bars (the Hershey's gold bars had the coupons inside of them). Really learning Publix and racking up the deals. Last week I got pop tarts, lysol cleaners, multi-snack Nabisco cookies, garlic toast, Hellmann's ketchup, mission mini tacos, dishwasher cleaner, candy bars (snickers and more gold's with raincheck), finish (raincheck) and baby food to make dog treats.
My stockpile is big but the gaps always need filling so adding Publix weekly is working. I went last night and did this:

5- Newman's Own Pizzas (used 2-$1/1 ip's, 3-homemailers I got last year)
2-Lysol Wipes (last two 0.50/1 inserts I had)
4-Cole's Garlic Bread (2-$1/2 ip's)
1-Greenwise Granola Bar (free digital)
1-pound of shrimp (for my v-day dish I'm making)

$27.87 OOP saved $44.89

Food Lion this week is awful. The only thing I'm getting is $50 gift cards because I get $10 in free groceries for buying them.
Lowes Foods is pretty much the same way. A few digital coupon deals I'll pick up tomorrow.
I'll hit Publix again for cat treats and dog food. I plan on hitting Harris-Teeter this weekend because I have to go out of town.

 

Last night, I went shopping and it all went well until my last shopping trip. Luckily, it all worked out in my favor.
For CVS, I had $10 in gcs and $6 beauty bucks to use, so I picked up a JOAH eyeliner and mascara, using a $2/12 cosmetic purchase and received $7 in ecr for spending $10. Small Hefty trash bags were on sale for .92 cents (75%) off so I bought 2. Picked up 4 General mills cereals using a $2 mfg coupon (beeped), $2 in cvs coupons and $1 back from saving star, making 2 cereals free (on sale for $1.99). Also purchased 24 pk of jtb water ($2.49), a kinder egg and toothpaste. I spent $12.33 OOP after gcs & ecr and got back $9 in ecr and $1.50 in online rebates.

At Walmart, I had a $25 gc loaded to my walmart pay plus .52 from savings catcher. I was able to get free a 12 pack of diet coke (had to pay bottle deposits), and Persil pods were $1.94 after coupon. I submitted the one to Ibotta for $2 back. The register would not take my second persil coupon and I had to ring it up separately. Missed an opportunity to use Walmart Pay (I forgot & paid cash) and cannot get savings catcher refunds on that one. I found more plastic folders for .25 cents and 2 notebooks for .50 cents. D3 wanted Biscoff spread and I picked up 2 at $3.78 each. Large box of Always infinity pads were $2.56 after $4 coupon.
I bought 2 frozen dinners (selection was not great), (one had an ibotta rebate). Scotties tissues were .92 cents and Ibotta had a .50 rebate. I picked up a gallon of milk because it was so cheap and .25 cents back from Ibotta. Also picked up great value vegetable oil for $4.73. My OOP was $6.50 after my gcs. The second bottle of Persil came to .69 cents with tax. Ibotta rebates helped me get two bonuses, 2nd week streak $1 and VAlentine $3 and my Ibotta total was $10.10 after all my shopping trips.

At Shoprite, I had a coupon for a free carton of Blue Diamond milk and a blue diamond nut product. The milk coupon would not deduct and I had to put it back. After going to the courtesy desk and talking to the store manager, I was finally allowed to get the milk. They claim they coupon was invalid,but I bought the right item. If they take competitor coupons, how can it be in their system to deduct, but a mfg coupon would not work. I spent 15 mins getting this rectified. All I asked for was the address for corporate and they would not give it to me. I was calm and just kept repeating the store policy of accecpting coupons. Glad it worked.
I also got free Green mountain 12 count coffee pods and free Blue diamond nuts.
Two Dannon triple zero yogurts were also free with double coupons. Sargento 3 pack balance break snacks were $1 after digital $1 coupon and $1 mfg coupon.
Used my bottle deposits and paid $19.04 for 20 items.