As I recover from this major knee injury, I’ve gradually been able to resume some of my normal activities one by one. I’m slowly but surely starting to clip coupons and shop again, and since I felt up to it today, I finally got a chance to reorganize my coupon stash. Since I’ve been out of commission for so long, my coupon cabinet was full of coupons that had long since expired.

This filing cabinet is filled with folders, which I use to file coupon inserts by date. I went through all of the folders and recycled everything – since these are so far out of date, they’re too expired to send to military families.

This is like reverse dumpster diving!

With all the old coupons purged, I had room for my most recent insert, as well as my current store ad circulars. The “SS – 1/15″ stands for Smart Source, 01/15/12 edition. By filing them this way, I can quickly and easily locate the coupons that I need.

Here’s to a fresh start, new coupons, and better health!

It’s a good day for free coupons! Click here to “Like” Red Gold on Facebook, and you’ll be able to fill out a form to receive a coupon good for one free can of Red Gold Tomatoes (Max. value $1.25). This offer is only open to residents of AL, AR, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, NE, OH, OK , NC, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV, and WI. Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

Click here to watch a 30-second commercial for Voskos Plus Granola, then send an email with the three captions that appear in the video along with your mailing address to FB (at) Voskos.com. You will then receive 7 coupons, each good for one free Voskos Plus Granola Yogurt. You can click here to view the original post about this offer on their Facebook page. Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

Super Coupon Girl is back online after our 24 hour SOPA blackout – all posts and functionality have been restored. We appreciate your support!

In case you missed it yesterday, you can click here to read my article about SOPA/PROTECT IP and the blackout. It breaks down key points of concern in this legislation with extensive citations and sources for further reading. As someone with a background in music and journalism, ensuring that artists are duly compensated for their works is an important issue to me. Ironically, the vague wording of these bills could actually result in the removal of legal, non-infringing websites that musicians, painters, and writers rely on to promote their works – not only harming their careers, but destroying the livelihoods of countless others and permanently altering what Americans are allowed to see on the Internet.

It is because of the threats which these bills pose to legitimate sites such as Super Coupon Girl that we decided to participate in this widespread blackout. And it is working – as of this writing, many senators have withdrawn their support for these bills. But while this is a step in the right direction, SOPA and PROTECT IP have not been scrapped. This is why it’s important to continue voicing opposition and let Congress know that these bills are not the solution to the complex issue of copyright enforcement.

If you haven’t already, click here to read my article about SOPA, then click here to write to your representative and tell them how you feel about SOPA and PROTECT IP. Or, if you’re really in a rush, click here to visit AmericanCensorship.org and use the form they provide to write to Congress – it literally takes 30 seconds to fill in your name and hit “Send”.

I made a quick trip to Safeway tonight:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $7.34 on a Visa gift card
Total before coupons: $11.84
View receipt

Got:

3 packages of Carefree Acti-Fresh pantiliners, 22-ct – on sale for .99 cents each. Used three coupons, each good for .50 cents off, which doubled; final price for all three: Free plus .03 cents overage. I received these coupons through SheSpeaks, which is a product testing community. It’s free to join, and I was able to participate in a product testing campaign for Carefree. Not only did I receive a free product in exchange for taking a survey and sharing my thoughts, but it also came with a nice stack of product coupons!

1 package of Stayfree pads, 16 ct. – regularly $2.79, used a $1.00 off coupon, which doubled; final price: $1.29. I received this coupon through the same SheSpeaks package mentioned above.

2 quarts of half & half – price for both: $3.58

1 Sunday newspaper – looking forward to re-building my coupon stash this year! Price: $2.50

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the name on my receipt…while I was transferring items between purses last year, I ended up misplacing my Safeway card. I found it again the other day – or so I thought. Turns out, this is actually my dad’s old Club Card! I guess mine is still MIA!

Last Friday, I went through my coupon stash so that I could redeem any coupons that were expiring at the end of the month and purge anything that wasn’t going to be used. Jai then headed to Safeway with a handful of coupons in tow and got the following:

Total spent: $0.00 – Nothing!
Total before coupons: $20.68
View receipt

5 boxes of Fiber Plus bars – regularly $2.50, used five free product coupons. I received these coupons as a surprise thank-you for hosting the Kellogg’s FiberPlus giveaway.

1 bottle of Trop50 Lemonade – regularly $3.69, used one free product coupon. I received this coupon in order to write an upcoming review for Contest Corner.

1 tub of Open Nature Ice Cream – regularly $4.49, used one free product coupon. I received this coupon thanks to the free offer on Safeway’s Facebook page back in September (Now expired).

What was your last deal for 2011?

I just wanted to wish all of my loyal Super Coupon Girl readers a safe and happy New Year! I hope you have a great time tonight, however you choose to celebrate. 2011 has been a tough year for me with my health issues, but I’m so excited at the progress my knees have been making thanks to physiotherapy and can’t tell you how relieved I am to be able to slowly ease back into my normal activities. I’m excited for 2012 and really looking forward to resuming all the things I’ve missed out on this year – like using coupons and scouring out deals! Here’s to a new year and a new start!

We have a slew of winners to announce today in our Kellogg’s FiberPlus free coupon giveaway! And they are:

Winner #1 is comment number 2, Ashley H., who said: “I’d love to try the fiber plus bars.”

Winner #13 is comment number 27, Marsha Cooper, who said: “I know that if I would happen to win we would sure appreciate getting to give them a try. Free food is always a plus too in this hosue!”

Congratulations to all the winners!

I just read a great article from The Wall Street Journal titled “Doing the Math on Coupons”. It was published in 2010 but I hadn’t read it prior to today, so I wanted to share because it’s still a good read. It’s nothing we haven’t talked about many times here on Super Coupon Girl, but it’s refreshing to see a publication like WSJ pointing out the same financial logic behind clipping coupons that people like myself have been extolling for years!

Thanks to Life Blessons for pointing me to this article!

One of my favorite bloggers, Money Saving Mom, just wrote a book which will hit shelves in January. It’s a great read, and I am currently giving away five copies over on my other blog, Contest Corner. Click here if you would like to enter!