Care package shipping 04/29/09!

I'm excited to mail out this care package tomorrow! It is going to a soldier in the Army who is in Afghanistan right now. He said his troop requests candy (all kinds), books, stationary (pens, paper, envelopes), deodorant, shower gel among the list of items.

In this care package I'm mailing him the following items for him & his troop (not all is pictured) and I'm listing the prices I paid for these items thanks to COUPONS!

Lots of fruit snacks (removed from boxes to make room for other items but is still individually packaged) - 50¢ ea


Fun dip candy stix $2.99/box
Ramen 15¢ ea
Sweet Tart Jelly Beans 50¢
Yogurt-type fruit bites 50¢
Caramel Quakes snacks 32¢
Mint candies 21¢
Deodorants Free to 50¢ ea
Axe Shower gels FREE
2 Mary Higgins Clarks books (had them)
2 pads of paper (had them)
1 box of pens (FREE through Staples)
Stack of envelopes (had them)
2 packages of Huggies wipes (46¢ ea)

This box weighs 11 lbs but will only cost $11.95 because it's a flat rate box and it costs the same no matter where you ship to!

Introduction

Hi and thanks for visiting my blog! I love to save money with coupons and felt that it would be nice to "give back", and my way of giving back is by using my coupons to purchase items that the troops want or need and send them care packages to thank them for what they are doing for my country! I currently use the site http://www.anysoldier.com/ and you can read posts of what the soldiers would like to receive in care packages. Let this be a warning - you can spend countless hours there and a lot of it is heartbreaking to read.

A lot of the soldiers ask for basic things that a lot of us probably take for granted - like soap, shampoo, deodorant, hand sanitizers, wipes, cookies, snacks, hair bands, etc. I had recently read some websites on couponing and read how some couponers buy things they don't even need if it's free and they donate them to their local charities and send items overseas to the troops. What a wonderful idea I thought that was! That's when my wheels started spinning. While going through my Sunday paper one morning I saw a lot of coupons that I could match up with store circulars for very low cost, and in some cases free.

I ordered some FREE Priority Flat-Rate Military boxes through the USPS website. They are free to order and they will be mailed to your house in a couple of weeks, and they cost $11.95 to mail to any APO/FPO address. You can cram a lot of wonderful, needed things in these boxes!

I will be updating this blog whenever I ship out new care packages to the troops so please follow this blog and bookmark it as a favorite! If you have sent out care packages to the troops I'd love to hear what you sent them and see pics if possible - and I'd be happy to publish your story on my blog!