Just when I thought the golden age of couponing was over for good, I get a brand new entry for the Haul of Fame! That’s right – I walked into a store in 2025, got a cart full of merchandise, and then paid with two single dollars – and still got change back!!! I got 121 items total: All but one item were one cent each. The exception was a set of Easter bunny paper plates that were on 70% clearance for .30 cents – this category of seasonal item tends to completely sell out before they reduce to a penny, and this was the last set of Easter paper plates left, so I figured I’d go ahead and get it because .30 cents is a good price, and they will be cute for my bunny birthday parties. 😄 So here’s the haul:

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Note: The “original price” listed for each item below is the sum total. So if I got 4 of the same flower duffel bags that were originally $5 each, I then listed the “Original price” as $20, because that’s what you would have paid for all four before they were marked down. Most of the items had the original price on the tag, but I had to look up a few online – I couldn’t find a purchase link for these Hot Shot lighters, but Google said their average retail price is $6.99 each, so I just went with that.

1 pink flower backpack – original price: $10
1 black vinyl backpack – original price: $8
4 blue flower duffel bags – original price: $20
4 slippers – original price: $20
8 purple & white backpacks – original price: $80
35 monster pens – original price: $35
3 knit hats – original price: $15
8 wristlets – original price: $24
7 baseball hats – original price: $35
1 set of paper plates – original price: $1
1 pink glitter cat duffel bag – original price: $12.50
2 ArmorAll Complete Car Care kits – original price: $29.94
5 water bottles – original price: $15
3 clear cross body bags – original price: $24
4 lighters – original price: $27.96
2 black Cee Klein purses – original price: $25
2 pink unicorn purses – original price: $20
13 HotHands hand warmers – original price: $13
15 HotHands Super Warmers – original price: $22.50
1 keychain – original price: $1

So that’s $438.90 worth of items for $1.50!!! If you notice that long piece of paper on top of the Car Care kits in the photo of my haul, that is my extremely long receipt. It’s so long that I had to fold it in order to take a picture of it!

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When I started my shopping trip, I had a mental map of exactly where I wanted to go in the store, and I brought Jai with me because on a previous trip, I had spotted some items that were on the upcoming penny list up on a skyshelf, and I knew if they were still there, I’d need someone taller than me to reach them!😂 Indeed, it was invaluable having him there as the items I had noticed previously were in fact still up on the same shelf, along with some additional penny items I spotted on a skyshelf in a different aisle. I always think of the advice from Craz-e Coupons, who always says in her videos: “Look high, look low, look everywhere you go!”

As we first walked into the store, I swooped through the aisles picking up penny items like I was a contestant on Supermarket Sweep, putting entire cardboard display boxes full of slippers in my cart and loading it to the brim with backpacks and bags. Jai asked me how I knew these items were the right ones, and it’s because I’ve developed what Kristie’s Connections calls “Pennyvision”: I’ve now seen these items so many times during previous trips, and I watch the visual videos from creators like Kristie’s Connections and Craz-e Coupons over and over. Huge shoutout to Kristie’s Connections, who has such comprehensive visuals both in her videos and on her website here; this is my #1 resource for learning about penny items! And I also want to shoutout Craz-e Coupons, because she showed a visual for a blue dot item in this video I haven’t seen listed anywhere else, which are the kid’s water bottles that I got. I recognized them right away when I saw her video, especially since I’ve been spending so much time in the NCI section this past week, so I was able to pick these up for a penny as well.

I’m so excited about this haul – there’s so many fun things here! I’m so happy to have extra slippers, and I love the fun accessories like the sequined baseball caps! I’m also really excited about all the HotHands – I have chronic illnesses and use a heating pad religiously to make myself more comfortable, and I find these little warmers are fantastic to use while I’m out and about!

So I’ll be keeping some of these goodies for myself, and the rest will make great gifts and donations. (In case you were wondering what in the world I was going to do with 35 monster pens.😉) My BFF is a teacher, and some of these things will be perfect for her classroom. Remember the Oregon Ducks youth t-shirts I found for a penny recently? I gave her a big bag of those for the students, and apparently the school was excited to receive them; teachers spend a lot of their own money on school supplies, and are often funding food/hygiene pantries for children in the school as well. So if you also hit the blue dot jackpot today and are wondering where to donate your extras, check with your school or a teacher!

Did you go out penny shopping today?

Today I’m sharing my Dollar General Haul, plus info for 3 new penny items I found that I haven’t seen listed elsewhere – read on to see my whole shopping trip or click here to jump to the images of the new penny items!

It’s been a long dry spell for me as far as coupons and deals are concerned, because the coupons on offer recently just haven’t been the same as back in the glory days. However, I’ve noticed that coupon deals have been picking up lately, and it’s been exciting to start doing hauls again! This morning, I scored a deal that reminded me of hauls I did during the early days of this blog: I picked up 44 items from Dollar General, worth approximately $146.66, for just .43 cents! That would be a great deal any time, but that’s an extraordinary deal for 2025!

My receipts shown in the DG app – I did 2 transactions, because I found a few more items on my way out and got back in line before I left!

I got one item for free with a coupon, and the rest were clearance items priced at 1 cent each. If you’re unfamiliar, Dollar General marks some clearance items down to a penny; I just learned about this recently through a video from Coupon Daddy, who was showing a penny haul and recommended the fabulous resource Kristie’s Connections. To learn more, check out Kristie’s “How To Penny Shop Dollar General” page and bookmark her site and YouTube channel, as this will be your go-to resource for finding penny deals! Last night and early this morning, I watched this video and this video from her channel about today’s penny deals, and with this list in hand, went in to my DG first thing this morning and hit the jackpot! I’m brand new to penny shopping, and this was a fabulous way to get started!

Click the image to see my haul full size!

So here’s the breakdown of what I got – the first item on the list was free after coupon, and each item after that was one penny. I’ve listed the full retail price for each penny item, just to give you an idea of what an amazing deal this was; since these are clearance items, it didn’t say what the original price was on the receipt, so what I did was look up the price of each item online in order to get an approximate retail value.

1 Air Wick Warmer – regularly $4, free after using the $4 off coupon in the DG app
4 bags of Ghirardelli chocolate – regularly $5
1 Fisher-Price Poppity Pop Hipppo – regularly $21.79
1 Fisher-Price Poppity Pop Turtle – regularly $7.88
1 Kiddy Dough Mini Dough Factory – regularly $7
1 Nerf gun – regularly $18.99
3 Storm Squad Blasters – regularly $12 each
16 fuzzy creature keychains – regularly $1 each
5 sparkly bird pens – regularly $1 each
10 Christmas 6 Color Pens – regularly $1 each

So my total from both transactions came to .43 cents for approximately $146.66 worth of items!!!

And, just in case anyone is wondering why I need 16 big-eyed, fuzzy keychains: The only products I am keeping for myself from this haul are pens and chocolate. The rest will be either gifted or donated – I have a little bag set aside to donate to a local classroom, gifts picked out for my nieces and nephews, and products being saved for other future gifting as well as this year’s Christmas toy drives. Early, I know, but I collect things year-round as I find sales! 😉 I only mention this because sometimes when people see a photo with a ton of items/multiples of the same product, it can be perceived as overconsumption or hoarding, and I see that kind of question come up a lot. So don’t worry, because nothing’s going to waste here and everything will be shared widely and enjoyed! 🙂

3 New Dollar General Penny Deals: The products are listed below, followed by a closeup photo of the item and a photo of the UPC number – you can click on all of these images to view them full size.

None of my penny deals today would have been possible without Kristie’s Connections, so huge thank you to her! One of the things she mentioned in her video this morning was that she expects that a lot of other clearance toys may be marked down to a penny also, and she recommended scanning all of the clearance toys at your local store by using your phone and the DG app to check the price. I did just that, and thanks to that tip I ended up discovering 3 new products that were also a penny!! I did not see these anywhere on Kristie’s list or on any other coupon creator content, so I wanted to share them here in case you guys can find them at your stores and snag a deal too!! If anyone has listed these already and I just missed it, please let me know, and I’ll update this and add their blog/social handles to this post! The first item I’m sharing is a brand/product I didn’t see anywhere on today’s list, and the second two are new variations of products from the list, i.e. separate items from the same product line with different UPCs.

Product #1 – Storm Squad Blaster:

Product #2 – Kiddy Dough Mini Dough Factory:

Product #3 – Fisher-Price Poppity Pop Turtle:

Readers: Did YOU score any penny deals today? Did you find any new penny deals you want to share with us? Tell us in the comments below!