Deals, steals, and freebies!

I don't know if I've ever met somebody who doesn't like a deal, steal, or freebie. While I haven't gotten into the whole coupon-ing craze, I check out a coupon-ing / deal / freebie website about once a day now called Hip2Save. And I have to say, many good things have come out if it! This week, I received coupons in the mail for a free full sized Pantene product and a free 6 pack of Jiff To-Go, and a box of free K-Cups.

With the deals, the site compiles different sales from around the web, and puts them all in the centralized web site. Most of the time, along with the deals, they'll have a coupon that you can use along with the coupon to lower the costs.

For example, Burt's Bees had a summer grab bag event. For $25, you get the grab bag filled with all kinds of goodies. And Hip2Save offered a $5 off coupon code. Thus, I paid $20 for the grab bag and received the goodies in the picture below - Full sized sunscreen, full sized hand soap, full sized after sun lotion, full sized lotion, regular Burt's Bees chap stick, lip gloss, 3 mini hard soaps, tooth paste, eye cream, a pumice stone, a wash cloth, a scrub brush and the handy bag!

Until today, I thought that the Burt's Bees deal was pretty amazing. Then the Bath and Body Works deal came along. It's a combination of several different factors:
1. Free Amour lotion coupon (it's the little lotion by the register, but hey, it's still free)
2. $10 off a purchase $30 coupon
3. The Bath and Body Works VIP Bag - kinda like the Burt's Bee's summer grab bag - but with a purchase of at least $30 you can get the grab bag for $20

All of this culminated in the perfect shopping storm (and a good chunk of Christmas shopping being accomplished!). You can see the majority of my loot below:

7 Hand Soaps (on sale 7 for $20) - a couple of the soaps got cut out of the pic
6 candles (on sale 3 for $5)
3 travel sized products (on sale 3 for $10)
1 Amour lotion (FREE! with coupon)
1 VIP Grab Bag ($20 - includes full sized lotion, full sized body wash, full sized body mist, fill sized soap, car air freshner with lady bug holder, candle, lip gloss, small hand lotion, hand sanitizer with holder, bath poof - all in a nice bag!)
All of that swag was $50... and I have successfully Christmas shopped for at least 10 people at Bath and Body Works! PLUS - I have a couple new things for myself!!!