Disney Photo Pass Discounts!!

Going to Disney? Been to Disney and Have a Photo Pass? 

Check Out These Deals!  If You Have a Trip Planned In the Future, Check This Out and Pre-Order Your Photo CD NOW to Save About 33%!

*Ok, first, what is a Disney Photo Pass? When you go to Disney, there are Disney Photogs EVERYWHERE. They happily take pictures of your family enjoying the sights and attractions and characters.. and then hand you a photopass card, or scan a card you already have. Once you get home, you can go HERE to the Disney Photopass site and link your account to all the wonderful pictures they took of you on your vacation. You can order the pictures and do all kinds of nifty things with them. It does get a little pricey, so I love finding the deals on these.  (Also, ask nicely, and the photogs will also use your camera to take a picture too!)

• Get one set of 28 FREE Address labels WYB One set of Stationary Cards Use code NFREELABEL by October 30
• Save 10% on a Photo CD when you use code FALLCDSAVE by October 30
• Save 25% on folded cards with HolidayCard25 by Dec 1
• Buy 2 sets of Cards, Get one FREE with BUY2CARD (exp unknown)
• Get $5 off PhotoCalendar with 5CAL2012 (exp unknown)
• Get $4 off Photomugs and Mouse Pads with MMP4OFF (exp unknown)

**Disney PHOTOPASS IN PARK FREEBIE!**

Have a Disney Visa? Call them and inquire about the free character meet n greet available only to Disney Visa cardholders. For example, in Epcot (at Imaginations West Pavilion, I believe) there is a meet n greet. You go at the time slot they post and show your Disney Visa. Then, you get about 5 minutes, depending on the day and line behind you, with some characters. When I went, we got Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy to ourselves in a private room with no other guests. Just the characters, their "friends" (handlers? what's the term they use?) and the Disney PhotoPass photogs.  We got to play with the characters and get signatures.  All the while, the photographers were taking candid pictures. They did pose us at the end of the session.  Then, as an added perk, we got to pick our favorite picture from the session to take home for FREE!   Ask a castmember for details, and/or call the number on the back of your Visa for more information.  The rest of the pictures were available for ordering from our PhotoPass account once we got home if we wanted them.

THE BEST BEST BEST DEAL IS TO PREORDER YOUR PHOTOS BEFORE YOU GO! 

Check out the deals HERE! 

Basically, instead of paying $150 for your photo cd, you will prepay $99.95.

OR

Get a really great package:

$149.95 for the CD plus a Souvenir Album that you create!  This is valued at just under $230. 

When you pre-order, only the photos added to your account AFTER you order this deal will be available for use with these items.  

The neat thing is that you get ALL the photos the photogs take of you while in the parks.. plus a copy of whatever edits you do on the site on the CD you order! They have all sorts of neat borders and such. I get sticker shock to think about this, but when you stop and think about how much an individual souvenir picture at Disney costs, I really think this is the way to go!

**WHY ORDER A CD?**

Your Disney PhotoPass Pictures only stay in your account a limited amount of time. Then, they go away, and/or become unavailable to you for ordering, etc. With a cd, you have them forever and have unlimited access and unlimited prints.  When you preorder a photo cd, you walk into the parks and can relax a little more. You can smile for the Disney photogs, let them take the pictures of the character encounters and just enjoy your trip a little more. Sure, still snap away with your camera. But know you are getting some really great professional pictures as well. AND, your family photographer can actually join you in more pictures!! :) Just make sure to keep up with your photopass card. And don't worry. If your group splits up and you end up with more than one PhotoPass, you can enter multiple PhotoPasses into your account.  I am not necessarily promoting the other pricey products on the site.. but the CD is almost a necessity!! I have ordered a book before and it came out really gorgeous too!

**HOW TO PAY** 

OK, DisneyPhotoPass.com takes Disney Gift Cards as payment. Why this rocks: Sam's Clubs Sells Disney Gift Cards. They run about $98 for $100.  AND they come with a bonus $10 gift card! Hooray! So, run out and track these down if you can! They stay sold out locally for me. I end up buying a few to help pay for this and my vacation when I go visit folks elsewhere.  I now have a small stack of $10 gift cards to use on souvies when we go! (The $100 cards have been used at Disney.com to pay off our vacation balance. Just as a reminder, I saved Disney Rewards for 5 years so now my family of 5 gets to go for 8 days and pay $500 out of pocket for the package! Yes, we are staying at a resort with a dining plan! yay!) 

IF you do pay for ANYTHING with these gift cards, do NOT throw them away. KEEP them. JUST IN CASE you end up needing a refund and they have to put it back on the original card or whatever. 

Ok, so I had a few folks ask about PhotoPass and deals. I hope this covered that. Please send me your emails to couponcouture@gmail.com if you have any other questions about this or any other deals! 

Amazon Kindle Fire and $250 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

Amazon's Giving Away a Kindle Fire and $250 Gift Card  to Fancify Your Kindle Fire!

*or Buy Whatever You Want From Amazon.com if You Win a Gift Card

Hurry and Enter this giveaway sponsored by Amazon! What a really awesome prize pack! Go HERE for more info... Enter before Nov 4.

Huggies and Pampers on Sale At Target This Week

Diapers and Pull Ups/Easy Ups are On Sale at Target:

$5 Gift Card WYB Any 3!

This week at Target:  Buy any 3 participating packages (basically the Jumbo sizes) of Pampers or Huggies Diapers or Training Pants at $8.99 a pack.

It is pretty easy to get $1.50 or $2 off coupons for either items.  SOMETIMES, you can find a stackable coupon or, rarely, a $3 off one.   

If you printed the $2 off Huggies coupon twice from Coupons.com, and you have one of the plentiful $1.50 off one pants or diaper in many Sunday papers, you can get some great savings working a straight coupon deal.

Scenario:

Buy 3 Diapers/Pull Ups, etc. (You can buy a mix of Pampers or Huggies, diapers or Pull Ups. You don't have to buy 3 of the exact same ones.)

Use 2 $2 off Coupons and 1  $1.50 off coupon. 

$8.99 a pack x 3 =  $26.97

- $3.50 for coupons

Equals  $23.47 for 3 packs, or $7.82 per pack.

Then, You Get a $5 Gift Card. IF you want to figure that back into the cost of the diapers, etc, using what my husband refers to as "fancy math", it is LIKE you paid $6.16 per pack after taking the $5 gift card into consideration.

OR You can do this deal a couple times.

You would pay $23.47 for the first three packs, after coupons.

Then you would get a $5 gift card.

Use the $5 gift card to pay for the next 3 packs, and use the same 3 coupons (just for a rough idea of what you will pay.)

Therefore, the next three packs come to 18.47 AND you get a $5 gift card back again. (called Rolling Transactions.. when you do a deal a couple times and use the rewards from one to pay for the next one.)

So, to get 6 packs of diapers (about 24ct ea pack or so) or training pants, you will pay $41.94 out of pocket, and get $5 gift card to use later.  OR, $6.99 a pack plus an extra $5 Target Gift Card to use on just about anything in store.  IF you want to use Fancy Math and apply that bonus $5 to the cost per pack, it would come out to "Like Paying $6.16 per pack."   Not having to run out and buy an emergency pack of diapers for $10? Priceless! ($6 per pack is a great idea for a baby gift... don't buy Newborn if you are gifting. Some babies come out of the womb bigger than newborn.. or grow quickly!)

Looking for Diaper or Training Pants Coupons? You can check Ebay, etc.  Or you can go HERE to Coupons.com  or HERE to Huggies' site for printables.

If you get Huggies, don't forget to clip those Box Tops For Education! Also, Don't forget to enter your Huggies Enjoy The Ride Codes into your account, or your Pampers Gifts To Grow Points.  Earn Free stuff just bc you have to put a diaper on your baby!

Coupon with Integrity and Stand Firm Against the Shenanigans

Even a Seasoned Couponer Who Is a Store Regular

Will Come Across "That" Cashier From Time to Time

I always try to coupon with integrity. Also, I try my hardest to be kind and patient with newer cashiers that are not as well versed in their store's coupons or coupon policy as other cashiers may be.  When you shop in a store and have a big 3-ringed binder full of coupons with you, you tend to get pretty well known. This is especially true when you are a regular of that store.  So, I work hard to develop and maintain a reputation for being straight-forward and honest in my deal seeking ways.  I also try to have a reputation for friendliness too.  Even so, sometimes I come across a cashier who is not so knowledgeable about the whole couponing thing and will still try to make you feel like a criminal of sorts for getting such good deals. They even try to bully you into getting less of a deal by making all kinds of "we don't accept x, y, z" claims.  

When this happens, as it did to me today, you have to stand firm and take comfort in the fact that you are NOT a criminal. You HAVE developed an honest and forthright reputation. And, you KNOW the store' s coupon policy forwards and backwards and even have it on you when you shop.

This is what happened today:

I went in to do my weekly shopping run at my Target. I love my Target. The managers there all know me now. When certain cashiers see me get into their line, they smile. When they are done ringing me up, they write down the total before they scan my coupons. They get almost as excited as I do to see how much money I save.  Today, I did not see any of my fave cashiers. I chose a friendly looking lady to check me out.

The main issue occurred when I went to work a deal on a sale item today.  The sale was that when you bought this item, you would get a $5 Target Gift Card FREE.  **A NOTE: Sometimes Target cashiers will tell you it takes 24 hrs for the promotional gift card to activate. This is another form of shenanigans. They tell you this so that you won't break up your transactions and roll gift card deals into each other. Shame, shame! You can turn around and use your promotional gift card on the very next transaction you make 90% of the time or even 100% of the time. ** Ok, so the sale was buy this item, get a $5 Target gift card FREE.  Then, I had a Target Coupon that stated that when you bought the item, you would get a FREE greeting card of your choice, up to $3 value. Also, I had a Manufacturer's Coupon for $4 off the item. 

Now, the Official Target Coupon Policy is that you can put a Target Coupon and a Manufacturer's Coupon on one item, "stacked" together. It does NOT matter if the item is on sale for the week or not.  Theoretically, you can put one Target and one Manufacturer's coupon on the purchase of every single item in your shopping cart, if you have those coupons.  This is THEIR POLICY. When you shop and make purchases using coupons according to their policy, you are not doing anything wrong. You are not trying to pull a fast one on them. Any cashier that makes you feel like that should be reported immediately. 

This is what happened to me: The cashier rang my items. The gift card drawer popped open, per the weekly sale, to prompt the cashier to give me my $5 gift card. She did. I handed her the coupon for $4 from the manufacturer. I handed her the Target coupon to make the greeting card free. The computer has a sort of glitch from time to time. Sometimes, for no good reason, it will beep at the cashier instead of taking the coupon. In these instances, the cashier has to confirm that you bought the right item(s) according to the coupon fine print. Then, they manually override the computer to give you the right discount.  The two coupons I handed the cashier made the computer beep. Sigh.  So, the cashier looks at the coupons and informs me this happened just yesterday when another lady tried to make the same purchases with the same coupons. Ok, great. So, she knew to override the coupons, then right? Wrong.

Ready for this? She told me to PICK ONE COUPON to use. Either the free card one or the $4 off one. I said, "No, that's ok. I will use both. Thanks though."  She insisted I had to choose one. I told her that one was a manufacturer's coupon and one was a Target coupon. That the coupons were even technically for two different items. That I was legitimate in my use of them and I was more than happy to show her the store's coupon policy.  I stayed polite and friendly.  She responded that she already knew the coupon policy. I begged to differ and offered it to her again. At this point, I am requesting the manager on duty by name. You know, just so I can make sure I understand the policy too. 

Another cashier walks up, curious. And she looks at my coupons and says the problem is that they are both manufacturer's coupons. Although I am now annoyed another inexperienced cashier is playing buttinsky, I calmly flip the coupon over and show her the bold printed words "TARGET COUPON".  Finally, my fave manager walks up. I tell her I am causing trouble. She chuckles. She hears the cashier's argument. She hears my POV. She tells the cashier I am totally right. (DUH) and tells the cashier to override the coupons. (DUH)  The cashier said NO!!! Can you believe that nonsense? She starts saying all this stuff about couponers trying to get away with stuff and how she isn't going to lose her job over a $4 coupon and that the manager can enter the coupon herself if she wants to take responsibility for letting it go through.  So, the manager entered the coupon in.

Trying to further prove that she understands how to coupon and such, as the cashier continued ringing up my items, she took a peelie coupon worth 50 cents off one of my items, said, "Here, see??!" and scanned it. I sighed. I said, "Please take that coupon off and hand it back to me. I left it on the package because the coupon I have for that item expires sooner and is for $1 instead of 50 cents. Thanks so much for looking out for me though."

What an experience today was at Target.  

The point here is that you have to learn the store you shop in's coupon policy. It is smart to even carry it with you. Always be polite, but stand firm.  This cashier was trying to block a legitimate $7 in savings I had in those coupons.  Just coupon with integrity, without being a bully about it or trying to pull fast ones. Get to know cashiers and managers by name. Things will go much more smoothly.  Every now and then, you will get challenged or bullied like I was today.  But, you know what? I held my head high as I walked out of there having saved about $60.

And yes, I did thank the girl for her patience and for helping us figure out the coupon thing.  Throwing a fit or causing a scene might have felt good for half a second, but it would not have gotten my deal worked out.  But, don't think I wont write a nicely worded email to corporate should I have more of these encounters.