Queen Mother Blog

For quite a long time, I have always loved clipping little things like upc's, box tops for education, Campbell's labels, etc.  Iit all started when as a kid I would clip the "Homeless Homer" labels off of the dog food cans.  I think that program is long gone, but at the time the dog food company would donate 5 cents for each label clipped and redeemed by your local shelter.  I loved saving up an envelope full of labels and mailing them off to my nearest participating shelter.  It was especially rewarding when the shelter wrote back to thank me for my continued support.  My little benevolent heart would swell with each clip.  

To this day I still get a strange little satisfaction taking something off of an empty container before I throw it away.  You all know I enter MyCokeRewards points and redeem them for printable coupons.  I also save soda can tabs for someone who collects them for charity.  But one way to actually save yourself some money from collecting little things like this is to mail your upc's in for coupons.

We tend to go through quite a few jars of Beech-Nut baby food in my house and Beech-Nut famously has a UPC's-for-coupons plan.  Save 48 proofs of purchase, print the form they have available on their site here, and mail it all in to get $10 in coupons (and be put on their mailing list).  I am in a constant cycle doing this and I now never find myself without a baby food coupon.

There are also different UPC offers being offered by Gerber and Earth's Best.  Go here and login to Gerber's Start Healthy, Stay Healthy program (or register if you aren't a member) and browse the promotions they have available.  Most of the items are things you pay a small fee for (which includes the 'free' shipping), but the price is lowered when you mail in some UPC's.  Also, when you do join the Start Healthy, Stay Healthy program you will receive a coupon book with coupons for Graduates products.  There is also a mail-in form in that booklet to get coupons in return for 10 Graduates UPC's.  When you mail this in and get the coupons you will get another form, turning this into another UPC for coupon deal you can do over and over.

Earth's Best is currently offering a 'free' Elmo Loves You dvd to celebrate Elmo's birthday.  Save 3 Earth's Best Sesame Street product UPC's, mail it in with a card for Elmo, the completed form (you'll print both of these) and $1.49 for s/h.  You will also be entered in their current sweepstakes to win some cool prizes.  Get all the information here.

So it may seem like a lot of work, but once you start doing it clipping random things becomes a habit that takes no time at all.  I just clip and throw everything into a little sundae cup in my cupboard and every so often I sort them and mail them away.