They also have a loooooooooong list (over 1300) of totally free songs.  Not just a handful every week like iTunes does, but a bunch that are free every.single.day.  Some are good, some are not, but there’s a little something for every musical taste in there.

And if you like Christmas music, they are offering a new song FREE each day this month!

Now if I can only save enough to get myself an iPod dock…

1. Hot Coupon World — This site has forums, coupon databases, link to sites where you can print your own, etc.  It has good info, but can be overwhelming for newbies.
2. Taking Stock — This is a blog by a Raleigh N&O reporter.  It’s a lot of local information on couponing.  And because I had a hard time figuring out how to do an RSS feed (I am RSS stupid) for my blog reader, I’ll just link you up to that, too.  And if you want even more access to info, you can follow her on Twitter @sue_stock.  Look in the left hand column for links to some basic information on couponing in this area.
3. Southern Savers — This blog has lots of deals for Southern grocery stores.  She’ll lay out all of the deals for you…all you have to do is find the coupons in your super-organized coupon folder.  There are also some good posts about getting started.

Those three sites alone give me pretty much all of the information I need to plan shopping trips to maximize my savings.  I don’t spend more than a few minutes scanning the sale papers each week because most of the good deals are spelled out on those sites.  That means my couponing time investment is in clipping and organizing on Sunday nights.  (Or whenever I get to it…sometimes Tuesday afternoon!)  That doesn’t take more than a couple of hours if I have no interruptions.  And it’s well worth the time if you’re looking for an easy way to save some money!

Some of the items I got included:

• Betty Crocker fruit snacks for 80¢ a box
• 32 oz jars of Welch’s Concord Grape Jelly for FREE (and I got 4 of them!)
• 6 oz cups of Dannon yogurt for 15¢ each
• Colgate Total for 25¢
• GUM toothbrushes for FREE
• Jell-O for 14¢ a box
• Bounty paper towels for 64¢ a roll
• Betty Crocker Warm Delights for 17¢
• Kix cereal for 74¢ a box
• Red Baron Singles pizzas (box of 2) for 75¢
• Dawn Dishwashing Liquid (which I use to strip cloth diapers!) for FREE
• Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice FREE
• Wishbone Dressing FREE
• 3lb bag of Mahatma white rice FREE
  

And the list goes on and on.  Obviously I got multiples of a lot of these items.  I had 2-3 of each newspaper coupon, as well as some printed off the internet.  I knew that I if I had 5 of one internet printable coupon, I could only use 2 at a time.  I knew that only the first 20 coupons under 99¢ tripled.  And I knew that they might run out of things so that even if I planned ahead, I might find that flexibility was the key to a successful shopping trip.  I also learned about how I could better plan ahead so that the next time they run triples I can save even more!

Here’s the math…

My kids love fruit snacks, but they’re expensive at $2.89/box.  They are each allowed one package a day, so we go through a box of 10 in less than a week.  This gets expensive, so when they go on sale for $2/box, we stock up.  Except this time was triple coupons and I had a whole stack of 40¢ coupons for BC fruit snacks!  This knocked an additional $1.20 off each box, bringing us down to 80¢.

• $2.89 each (or about 29¢ per individual package)
• minus 89¢ = $2 each sale price
• minus $1.20 for manufacturer coupon = 80¢ total for each box (or 8¢ per individual package)

For the jelly, I found coupons online and printed them.  The regular price is $2.59 per 32 oz jar.  They were on sale 2/$4, which made them $2 each.   I had a 75¢ off coupon that tripled to $2.25, which made these completely free.

• $2.59 each
• minus 59¢ = $2 each sale price
• minus $2.25 for manufacturer coupon = FREE!!!