When Sales and Coupons Align

I am doing another swap on Crochetville and was out shopping for it over the long weekend. Swaps present unique shopping challenges. When I shop for craft items for myself, I can wait until I get the right combination of sale or coupons to get the price I want. The time limits of swaps create a challenge of getting the items I want for my swap partner at the best price I can find in the time allotted. With this challenge, I often find I have coupons for items that are sale items, thus making the coupons useless, or a previous sale has often cleaned out the items I wanted to use my coupons for leaving me with limited options. Sometimes I think the companies do plan for this when they issue their best coupons. They place certain items off limits or have them, as sale items for a price that is higher than a coupon would have made it if used. When I have time to shop, this is not an issue because I can usually find the deal and wait until I get it before purchasing. The challenge with a deadline is to find the deal in a short time allotted for the swap.

This week was different. I must have been out of their shopping cycle because I managed to get sales on some of the lower end items I needed and was able to use my 50% coupons for the higher priced items on my list, which at one point brought me to getting two items for the price of one. This means more items for my swap partner. My husband picked up one item on my list that was the last one on the shelf. I have heard that it can be challenging to find at this store so I was thrilled when he told me he found it as they have the best non-sale price for the item.

I also got lucky finding Lily Sugar & Cream brown cotton yarn at AC Moore. I had planned to order it online because I have never been able to find brown locally. Sure enough, I checked at Joann’s and Michaels while we were out and they had no brown. I am hoping because I cleaned out their supply that AC Moore will order more due to demand.

Even online, I hit sales at Knitting Warehouse and was able to use online coupons at Joann’s. It does not often happen this way, so it is important to celebrate when it does.

Craft Coupons There is an App for That

After my cell phone died, my DH and I decided to leave the dinosaur ages of phones and enter the world of smart phones. I had intended to buy a basic phone, but the current promotions actually made the smart phones an affordable alternative.

I have slowly been exploring what this phone can do. I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of the free apps available include ones for JoAnn Stores and Michaels. I frequent these stores regularly and always cut out the coupons or download the ones that come to my email box. The problem is that on occasion, I forget to bring the coupons with me or I make a stop that I had not planned on making and am without my coupons. The free app lets me download coupons targeted to smart phone users.

For instance, this week I had a paper coupon for JoAnn's that was a 40% off one non-sale item in the store. The sales clerk informed me the 50% coupon on my phone was only available to smart phone users. I had not missed it when I was cutting paper coupons. I was able to give my paper coupon to my shopping companion and use my smart phone one for myself.

I will still be cutting coupons and comparing the best offers available. I have not been able to find an app for AC Moore, which is the store I do most of my brick and mortar craft shopping at yet. I hope that that will change, as they are the coupons I most frequently forget.

This is just one more way to save a little cash and increase our craft dollars.