Chobani Champions Tubes

I haven't been the best blogger lately. The purpose of my blog has always been to keep family and friends updated on my life. This is especially important as we are in medical school and have limited contact with everyone as we keep busy. On top of our busy-ness, I haven't been passionate enough about anything lately to blog about it.

In an attempt to regain the love (and frequency) of blogging, I am here to tell you about the Chobani booth. Last week I had the privilege of going with my parents to Florida. My mom called me up sometime last year to invite me to travel with her and my dad to a pediatric nurse practitioners conference. The conference is always at a nice hotel in a fun city, but this year the offer of Florida during the rainiest season in Oregon was beyond tempting. I readily agreed and arranged to take a week off of work and leave my studious husband to live the bachelor life for eight days.

There weren't a lot of events in the conference that I was welcomed to as a guest of a participant (keynote speaker, main stage presentations, etc.), so my dad and I spent most of our time by the pool.

I'm not complaining. It was heavenly. If you are a lazy river connoisseur like myself, please note that the Hilton Orlando has a lazy river complete with many hidden water cannons. A sudden blast of cold water can be shocking and I guess slightly refreshing when you are trying to be lazy on a tube.

Arguably the best part of the conference for me, though, was the vendor booths. Pediatric conferences have to have the best vendor booths for women - free Johnson & Johnson samples, swag bags with family friendly giveaways, and healthy food samples. Enter the Chobani booth!

Chobani only recently released a new product - Champions Greek yogurt tubes. Sure, they are marketed for kids, but these are the best four flavors of amazing goodness yogurt I have ever eaten (insert shout out here to "Chillin' Cherry"). On top of a bucket full of ice cold free yogurt tubes, Chobani had available booklets of Cobani coupons. And when I say booklets, I mean 50 coupons for $1 off one box. Perfection! Of course, Safeway in Oregon would be having a sale the week I was gone for $2.00/box.

Let's just say that I visited that booth almost every day during the conference, and Scott is now planning on a year's supply of the best yogurt tubes available in our refrigerator.

Still Couponing

I realized that I haven't blogged about couponing in Oregon in quite some time. My last post contained all the nitty gritty about my favorite places to use and find coupons. We haven't had a newspaper subscription while in medical school, so I have mostly used internet coupons, coupon inserts from family or colleagues, or purchased on ebay clipped coupons if there's a really good deal that we will use in our house.

I love shopping at Rite Aid. There is one near my house and one not too far from work. Rite Aid has excellent deals on toiletry items and sometimes candy or food. My last shopping trip to Rite Aid included using internet coupons to purchase these five Garnier hair products for the price of one on sale, or about $0.60 each. I definitely buy more shampoo than conditioner, because we don't use conditioner fast enough to keep up.

The coupon blogs that I follow on my Google Reader alerted me to a deal on Mahatma rice packages. These little rice packs were on sale for $0.99 and there was a 50 cent coupon available from a newspaper coupon insert. Safeway in Oregon will double any four coupons up to 50 cents at each shopping trip. So I can use these coupons to get free rice for the Food Drive. Yay for charitable couponing!

I've talked to a few people about my couponing, and each time they tell me they just don't have time. I will admit that it takes some effort. I have coupon blogs updating A LOT on my google reader, but they do most of the work for me by finding deals and matching them to coupons. I usually just click and print or visit an online coupon clipping service. Besides that minute effort, the only other work is shopping for the right products; and I'm pretty sure I can spare some time to shop!

Couponing in Small Town Oregon

When we decided to move to Oregon for medical school I remember bragging to friends that our small town in Oregon would likely have very few coupners. I was so excited to rake up all the savings and have full shelves of products on promotion to choose from. I think I was also imagining a native coupon tree where I could freely grab local newspaper inserts on Monday.

Upon arrival this summer, I staked out my favorite coupon spots and searched for Oregon and Pacific Northwest couponing resources. As far as couponing goes Lebanon, Oregon is home to a Rite Aid, Walgreens, Safeway, Bi-Mart, Mega Foods, and Walmart as well as mom and pop stores. Oh, and an Ace Hardware. It was on my first couponing trip that all of my tiny Oregon town couponing dreams were crushed. It was Monday at a pharmacy, the shelves with promotional items were bare, and there was a lady standing next to me with the same coupon in hand.

I have come to discover that there are MANY couponers in small town Oregon. In fact, I even went to a garage sale one summer day where all the items being sold had been bought (or more likely were free) with coupons. The gall!

My coupon tree didn't exist either.Our local library receives a few daily newspaper subscriptions and has a bin for all the newspaper ads. I was so excited to discover this, but then shortly thereafter found that if I came after noon on a Monday that the inserts were gone. There are others who knew about the library resource as well. Newspaper subscriptions seem tricky for our situation. We live in a large apartment complex 15 miles from the nearest printed newspaper and 60+ miles from the nearest major printed newspaper. I don't really trust an accurate delivery, and newspaper coupons are where it's at!

Here are the best resources I have found for couponing in Oregon:

The Krazy Coupon Lady - These ladies post nation wide deals, and what I love most about their posts is their method for letting you know when there's a good deal!

Frugal Living NW - There are specific deals for Northwest stores that vary from nationwide circulars. This blog will keep you updated on those.

The Frugal Find - I use this blog for their coupon database and Winco updates. We do have a winco in Corvallis, which can be a convenient errand after work. I have yet to find a good resource for any grocery store besides Safeway or Winco.

The Oregonian - I've heard this is your best resources for coupon inserts in the Portland area. We have a local newspaper, but often the inserts are a bit on the slim side.

MyPoints.com - I use my MyPoints account to download available coupons from Coupons.com or Smartsource. All the same coupons area available through MyPoints and I receive points towards rewards by using the MyPoints printouts.

Though my utopia of small town quiet couponing was dashed, I still occassionally have some "Free" time!

The other day I bought three individual bottles of Simply juice and a Diet Coke  for 2 cents at Walgreens! It would have been free or better except for Oregon's bottle cap tax, but I'm not complaining!

Not-So-Extreme Couponing

I started using coupons a few months ago when I moved into the Chandler house and started benefiting from their Sunday newspaper inserts. I'd been following couponing for about a year since Provo had some great resources available, not to mention amazing stories! Back then I felt limited in my couponing quest without a printer (I now have one) or a newspaper subscription.

When I started using coupons and teaching Martie about the budgeting benefits of shopping sales, Curt requested to stock up if I ever saw a sale for paper products. Martie loves Charmin! I don't blame her! Living in her house for six months, I am now a convert. So I watched The Krazy Coupon Lady site for the yellow box symbol, signifying that Charmin had gotten to a good enough deal to stock. That deal didn't appear until two weeks ago. Good timing, considering we are packing up for the move.

I told Big Curt, ordered from a coupon clipping service and insert shipping service, and prepared for my haul. With coupons and gift cards towards your next purchase at Target, the deal included 24 Double Charmin rolls, 8 large Bounty paper towel rolls, one single Bounty roll, and Charmin Freshmates - normal retail around $31, all four for $15.

The deal isn't Extreme Couponing by any stretch. In fact, I took Scott with me to push two carts around Target, and he really wasn't impressed with the amount spent. But Curtis and Martie now own a Matrix-load of tp at half the price they normally pay, and I have more experience for my couponing resume.

I am excited to bring my coupon skills to Oregon, mostly because I think shelves will be better stocked with sales items, as opposed to Elk Grove where couponers abound! Images dance in my mind of the stockpile I could accumulate in my Cascade Ridge apartment! These skills will be priceless during our medical school years.

Coupons for Beauty

Scott and I just returned from a beautiful vacation. We visited Virginia to see Steve graduate from Dental School at VCU, we met up with my parents and brother's family in Orlando for a splash in the rain, and we ended the trip with a mariachi wedding in Sacramento over Memorial Day Weekend! It was definitely a whirlwind tour, and we're still recovering from time zone changes.

While I was in Sacramento, Amy was teasing me about how I hadn't shaved my legs for the beginning of summer. I know, gross right? Well she forgot that I was using her guest bathroom, in which shower it could be potentially dangerous to prop up body appendages. In any case, when I returned home I found the perfect solution on my door step.

It was a package from BzzAgent, the word-of-mouth marketing company that I do reviews for. (I can send you an invite to join if you're interested in reviewing products for free.) The campaign I'm currently involved in is for Bic Soleil Bella Razor. So take that "sasquatch legs"! I'm going to have smooth and silky legs in no time!

If you're interested in getting mega discounts on either of the products below, drop a comment and I'll be sure to give you coupons: