I am new to the extreme couponing i have recently started doing. We are a family of 5 on about 30,000 a year income and qualify for food stamps. So i have a huge "allowance" for food but still want to stock up my house. My question is in the case of Catalinas? Since i have a bajillion coupons for the pillsbury with the catalina coming out for $4 oyno when you buy six I know it would be smart to roll those for more free food but I am more in need of household items like tp or baby stuff like diapers. Those Catalinas are good on anything except booze gas and tobacco right? I think i have found a way around pulling my hairout over how i am going to afford the non food items. Any insight you might have would be so so helpful. Thank you so much. I dont have alot of money to fork out for anything at this point unless its free . I know you have to fork out to get back but that initial oop is gonna kill me and my boys wont wait for a good deal on diapers for me to stock up...nature calls! TIA for any and all help. you guys so far are awesome!!!

While most catalinas are good on anything except booze, gas and tobacco there are occasionally other exceptions. If you ever have doubts any restrictions can be found listed in the fine print. There shouldn't be anything wrong with you using the Pillsbury catalinas to buy diapers or toilet paper though

I was in the same situation as you, earlier in the year. We are a family of 7, and my husband was laid off from his high paying job. With no savings to fall back on (trust me, if I had to do it all over again, I would have saved, saved, saved, when the money was there, but can't do anything about the past, except learn from it) and only receiving unemployment, we qualified for assistance. The amount we received monthly was far more than I could ever use, so I took the opportunity to get our food supply stockpiled, using coupons to stretch that money even further. I remember a Pilsbury biscuit/crescent roll Catalina at the time, where I received $3.00 OYNO catalinas with each transaction. I also had a batch of $3.00 off Kroger Comforts diapers peelies, and they were on sale for $5.99. So, I would buy my Pilsbury, get my $3 OYNO catalina, get my pack of diapers, and pay with the catalina and Peelie. I can't remember how many packs of diapers I bought that week! AND we had biscuits, rolls, pizza crusts for months and months!!! I guess survival mode takes over, and you figure it out and get creative on how to make it work. =)

Thanks so much!!! I figured I could do it but it almost seems like cheating in a way too. It been a rough year for us financially and I wish I had been more thrifty over the years and saved every penny. It didn't get this bad though until I had my last son in July. Besides the c-section recovery I had to go through my incision got super infected so I wasnt even able to carry my own newborn he was too heavy. That required my husband to miss almost a month of work. Its been slow goings since. Whats sad is my family probably has never eatten so well. They give us almost double what I would normally spend if not more. And with the coupons it goes even further. This whole situation has been a blessing in disguise really. It Has opened my eyes greatly to savings and stretching that dollar as far as humanly possible. I am not proud of my situation but I am proud of how my family has stuck by each other and as soon as we can we will give up the assistance. It has opened my eyes in a wider manner too. When I was younger my family qualified for help for a short time. The embarrassment of going shopping with my mother as she torn the food stamps out of that little booklet was at the time something i thought i would never recover from. Now as i whip out my card every month to pay along with my huge stack of coupons I am no longer embarrassed because I am doing what has to be done to feed my family.

Thanks for reading this and thanks for your help as well. Its encouraging to know there is a group out there that not only can understand but are willing to help and teach along the way. Now to find some good coupons for those diapers...

Another way to get non food items (HBA/cleaning supplies/paper goods) is shopping the drug stores.(CVS/WAGS)!

Glad I could help! I know what you mean with it feeling like cheating, and I struggled with that in my head too. But, honestly, you are allowed to have the assistance, the money is being used to buy food for your family, and it just so happens that there is a promotional deal going on, that happens to give you $, and you obviously don't need to buy more food, since the assistance is more than enough. So, I really don't think there is any harm done, and in fact it is just opening an opportunity for you to take care of your family in a round about way.
Oh, and YES, our whole situation has been a blessing in disguise as well - so many lessons learned, and we are so grateful for all those who "carried" us through our ordeal. My husband and I had gotten into a great deal of debt over several years time - long story. Then, we had our twin boys, which brought on more debt with medical bills etc. In late 2007, we signed up with Consumer Credit Counseling, and cut up the credit cards and were put on a payment plan. That was the end of our credit card spending, but it was going to take 5 years to pay off the debt. My husband was making 6 figures, so there still should have been more than enough to pay down the debt AND put money away, but our biggest downfall was eating out AND not paying ourselves first, and hiding money into a savings account. Honestly, like so many others, you never think it will happen to you. He had heard nothing but good things from his boss, so there was no other reason to think differently. Then the recession started making his boss nervous, and with my hubby the highest paid on the payroll, the boss panicked, and let my husband go with only 2 weeks severance pay - talk about breaking down on the phone. Unemployment didn't even cover rent of $2200 a month. Our landlords were amazing!! We fulfilled our 1 year lease in April, and they decided to put the house on the market, as it didn't look like we would be staying in that area, and they never thought it would sell quickly, as it had been on the market for 11 months prior without an offer. Well, it happened to sell the first day to the first person at full price - we were all shocked! We took it as a sign that we were not meant to stay there, and needed to head back north and stay with family. The landlord cut our payment in April AND paid our electric bill, and then for May. allowed us to stay there rent free, and only asked us to help out with a few chores around their house! =) Talk about a blessing. Our church helped us with our COBRA, while the govt helped with it as well (since hubby was involuntarily laid off, he qualified for a reduced COBRA payment, which the govt supplemented) And then their were gift cards from friends and family, and a yard sale, that allowed us to move cross country. My husband has been employed since late July, and has already received a promotion, and we have been able to once again move into our own place! We no longer are on any assistance, but I am soooo thankful that it was there when it was, and I am in no way embarrassed or ashamed for needing it either. While we have a long way to go in our recovery from this, I am so glad couponing got us through the hardest thing we have experienced to date.

I wish you the best of luck! And soooo sorry this is so long, but I just felt the "URGE" to tell ya, YES, I do understand, and YES you will get through it, and YES, it will get better! =)

Can you point me to some websites on the reduced COBRA payments? My job is ending the end of this month because it is moving to Puerto Rico and we will be without insurance. COBRA is so expensive!!! If we get insurance through my husband's job, he may as well not work.

I have fallen in love with couponing and finding bargains!!!

Thanks. I started doing the cvs trips again. I used to love Wags but when we moved i stopped doing that because the nearest one isnt worth the gas spent to get there vs savings Although when i have drs appointments in the area i always stop. Something always comes up so I just dont have a ton of money to spend even if i get it back almost immediately. The holding on to roll the bucks into something else is like a loan almost that I cant afford right now. I am doing it slowly for the things i need that are immediately free with coupons and bucks back or money makers but diapers just never seem to be. I know its all about finding that deal and right now with cellfire and shortcuts and the cats for the pillbury and man q's it looks like free diapers from krogers this week. Thanks for the help!

Dont worry about length!! I just thank you for the encouragement and for you sharing your story. Thanks again for everything.

COBRA Continuation Coverage Assistance Under The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009

There are several factors that have to be in place in order to qualify. I know that in our situation, I did not work, so there was no other qualifying insurance policy for us to be on. I would hope you could qualify, but it may be that if your husband's employer offers it, then you are not eligible. Not sure how the govt expects you to pay it, and I may be totally wrong, so please check it out! Our COBRA premium went from $1600+ a month, to $568, which was still high, but nothing like it would have been. And your employer is supposed supply you with forms, when you receive COBRA information to apply for this assistance. Our employer was in the dark, and so we had to request it and tell them where they were to obtain it from. The government will then pay them the 65% of the premium directly, and you pay the 35% directly. At the time we applied, they would pay it for up to 8months, though it may have changed by now. HTH