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  • What to do With Free Items From Couponing: New Video

    7 Comments

    What to do With Free Items From Couponing


    If you are reading this via RSS, go here to watch the video.

    Wondering what to do with your free items from couponing? Let me share share this tip…

    There are so many things you can get for free with coupons (or you can get them very, very cheap). In the end, you may wind up with quite a few free items that you can’t possibly use before they go bad.

    So, what do you do with all of those free items?

    What most people would tell you, is to simply not buy so many, but there are some items out there that you can actually get paid to purchase, when you combine the sale prices with coupons and/or mail-in rebate offers.

    Why wouldn’t you “buy” something, if in fact the store/manufacturer were going to pay you to take them home?

    If you don’t use those items that you get for free, or you end up getting more than you can use, I recommend donating as much as you possibly can.

    There are sure to be many food banks and shelters in your area and I can almost guarantee that they are struggling to find donations. Find those locations, figure out what they are in desperate need of and if you can, donate those items.

    This is a much better thing to do with your free (or very, very cheap) stuff than just letting it sit in your stockpile and go bad.

    You should definetely give not only to food banks and shelters, but to friends and family members as well.

    Being able to donate is one of the best things about couponing.

    Up until recently, I was never able to financially donate to charities, so donating stockpile items was a great way for me to use my couponing habit for good, and to pay it forward.

    If you have lots of extras in your stockpile, I encourage you to do the same.

    How often do you donate items from your stockpile?

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    Posted By: on July 11, 2012 Filed Under: How To Coupon, Videos 

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    7 Responses to »
    What to do With Free Items From Couponing: New Video

    1. Marianne T. says:
      July 12, 2012 at 12:17 AM

      I regularly pass out things to friends and family, and I donate to my food bank about once a month. The local couponing group I help co-ordinate has a meet-up and coupon swap about every 6 weeks or so, and we always ask for donations, usually changing the charitable group we support every few times so we can spread the support around. We are starting to also pick a particular focus for each meet-up to try and think about in advance, based on what we know to be a particular need at that time, although people are of course welcoem to donate anything they want to give.

      Reply
    2. Krista says:
      July 11, 2012 at 9:05 PM

      There are so many uses of free items, that it isn’t funny.
      What we don’t need right away, is perfect for a gift basket, like someone moving into a new home or apartment or dorm at school.

      There always seems to be a friend or family member or coworker who could use one of our freebies.

      If there are any freebies left over, at the end of the year, it’s off to the homeless youth shelter, or pregnant teens home.

      Don’t forget about the senior citizens on low income too.

      Reply
    3. Virginia says:
      July 11, 2012 at 3:18 PM

      There are a lot of things I will save for stocking stuffers at Christmas. Scented candles, beauty products, razors, those makeup remover wipes that came in the Neutrogena sample pack, etc. It gives me a huge head start at Christmas time so Im not running around looking for last minute items and it saves my budget.

      Reply
    4. DianeG says:
      July 11, 2012 at 2:43 PM

      Love your site!!! It’s easy to view and very helpful!! I have a “Shelter Box” in my storage room that I will throw freebies into. Things like toothpast and tooth brushes, tampax and such, deoderant, lotions etc… even the small items they give you at hotels. Then I get together with my other friends thgat are doing the same thing and put it all together to take to any doation centre . One time it might be a single mothers, other times a womens shelter or emergency services. I enjoy getting a freebie in my mailbox and feel great donating them…a win win situation!

      Thanks!

      Reply
    5. teachermum says:
      July 11, 2012 at 2:18 PM

      I probably take a load to my church (where a gentleman then takes it to our local foodbank-he likes to weigh it-they keep track of donations at the foodbank that way) once a month. Myself, I donated more than 750 pounds last year! (Much thanks to the defunct P&G save $5 on 3….shaving cream is heavy!) Most of those things never make it into my stockpile, they go straight to the spot in the living room near the front door. I have asked people at church to save their flyers and will use those coupons that are a good deal (perhaps one per flyer). I don’t get very many, but I do what I can. Much of what I buy is just a good sale price. I have 8 bottles of $1 No Name ketchup waiting right now for the next load-apparently ketchup is a rare donation-who knew?

      I hardly ever use coupons for our family as we don’t buy processed/packaged foods as a rule but the FB needed “sides” so I used the Sidekicks coupons and bought a dozen. They rarely get meat so when eye of round was recently on for $1.99/pound I bought 6 (no coupons). I was going to pick up $1 hotdogs (sadly, when given the choice between fresh meat and hot dogs-most often hot dogs are chosen) at Giant Tiger 2 weeks ago but tripped over their store brand of chicken weiners for 4/$1!!! 16 packages of those were purchased. Apart from the flyers that were my own or from family, all the rest bought “free” Resolve for the foodbank. I also bought 24 boxes of Raisin Bran (need for cereal at FB) at $1 each combining No Frills sale with $3/3 coupon recently. I tripped over Stayfree on clearance at Walmart for a buck (we NEVER have those kinds of deals!) and happened to have 10 coupons for $2 printed out with me–that overage paid for a lot of the Raisin Bran I bought!

      Odd donation? yes, 16 hot dogs, 10 Stayfree, 24 Raisin Bran and 16 Resolve and 7 Sweet Baby Ray bbq sauce. A great deal for $24….but all badly needed-apparently our food bank is really low right now on everything-I’m sure most others are as well.

      Once in a while I’ll check my own stockpile for things we aren’t using, but that is rare as I usually just put there what we use. Right now I may need to get rid of those little apple sauce cups-they were a good deal and I thought ds liked them…turns out he doesn’t and I’m not sure how to use them all up! Hopefully the expiry hasn’t passed, but if it has, I’ll just use them myself-there is nothing wrong with most things that have expired, but I can’t donate them.

      Reply
    6. yoko says:
      July 11, 2012 at 1:07 PM

      hi, I was just wondering from your post the other day, in which section did you find those protein bars at wal-mart? I also have FREE coupon for it but I couldn’t find them at wal-mart. Thank you in advance !

      Reply
    7. Julia says:
      July 11, 2012 at 12:57 PM

      I’m a constant “donator” to the people in my life. Many of my family members and even some friends collect coupons on my behalf which I greatly appreciate, so naturally I share all my goodies with them! Not that you could EVER pay her back for everything she’s done for you, but it feels so nice to make sure your mom isn’t paying for cleaning supplies etc since you can get them for her for free!

      Reply

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