Coupons for the Troops!

Rec'd another email from a soldier!

2009-06-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

I have received another email from a soldier that I sent a care package to last week! This just made my entire day, knowing I put a smile on a few soldier's faces who are overseas fighting for our country!

Good evening, Im SGT XXXX XXXXXX, I was born and raised in washinton state, live in the Seattle area. This is my third deployment to iraq and the frist one being a Combat Advisor for the Iraq Army. Unlike previous deployment I did volunteer for this one. I heard of it and knew right away in my heart that it was the right thing to do, that it is history in the making.
I would like to share with you a quick conversation I was having with one of our Iraqi interpitors (being that we dont speak arabic well at all, they work with us to combat that language barrier). Im sick of this Milan says. Of what? I ask but already knowing the answer. War, we lost a lot of family and friends in such alittle time he continues. We both have, but its for a better future, right I say. I hope so he finishes. That I hope so I would like to think we are all over here.

I want to say thank you bottom of my heart from my team and I. The package we received today was very generous and was deburst out as needed. Which put a smile on everyones face! The care package couldnt of came at a better time, besides work there isnt much to do, so opening them up took our minds off of everything for a breif minute.
Even though I cant go into detail my team is making a lot of progress here working and advising the Iraqis . They are very welcomming to us and we treat eachother with the upmost respect. Which is a must because we actually live with them and count on them to provide for our safety. So its a win V win situation.

By the way the DVDs and CDs are very much appreciated as well being that we dont have a PX like most soldiers would. The dog food and treats we be great for Woofy2. She wont know what to do with herself when we give her a treat in the morning. A project we are working on is getting basic school supplies for the iraqi kids (i.e. crayons, pencils, pens, paper). We think this would go along way with our partnership and help us succeed our mission. If you happened to have these things or know someone that does, we could find a use for them. Actually pretty much anything we could and will find a use for.

Thank you again and God Bless,

XXXXXXXX

Care pkg going out 6/08/09!

2009-06-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

I am sending out another care package to a soldier today!

This soldier mentioned in his post at AnySoldier.com that they have a force protection dog and could use some food for her as well, so being the animal lover I am, I couldn't resist sending her some treats as well! I had no idea there were dogs serving for our country overseas! Below is a list of items I sent to this soldier, and the prices I paid for them, thanks to COUPONS!

3 Pert Plus for men shampoo - FREE
1 Edge shaving gel - FREE
3 Axe shower gel - FREE
10 Mentos gum - FREE
5 Degree for Men deodorant - FREE
5 Colgate toothpastes - FREE
4 Purell hand sanitizers - 52¢ ea
4 Granola bars
Variety of fruit snacks
Huggies hand wipes - 46¢ ea
1 pkg Keebler cookies $2
Mary Higgins Clark book
5 cans of dog food
1 bag of "Better Than Ears" dog treats - $1.46
1 bag of Dentastix dog treats - $1.50

Another care pkg going out 5/15/09

2009-05-14T21:24:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone! Thanks again to the coupons we receive every week, and the sales from our coupons we are unable to use, we have another care package going out tomorrow!

This one is going to a female soldier. The following is a list of items in this care package, and the prices we were able to get these items for, thanks to coupons!

Several packages of fruit snacks (50¢/bx)
Schick Quattro razors (FREE)
Kotex liners (25¢ ea)
Huggies Wipes (26¢ ea)
Several deodorants (FREE)
Pkg of 200+ hair bands & ties, & brush ($1)
Toothbrushes (FREE)
Toothpaste (FREE)
Dentyne gum (30¢ ea)
Purell hand sanitizers (52¢ ea)
Couple magazines (n/a)
Granola Bars - not pictured ($1/box)
Bags of Quaker snacks - not pictured (32¢ ea)

Coupons for sale - benefits the TROOPS!

2009-05-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

We have just started a site to sell our unused coupons, it is located at http://couponsforthetroops.mybisi.com/

The money we make from these coupon sales will help pay for the postage to ship these care packages to the troops. The cost is $11.95 to ship a care package to the troops via flat-rate Priority Mail so the sale of the coupons will go towards mailing these to the troops. The more money we get for postage, the more care packages we can send to the men & women who are fighting for our country!

And we are also on Twitter! http://twitter.com/coupons4troops

Thank you for your support!

Rec'd email from soldier!

2009-05-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

I just received an email from the soldier I sent my care package to last week and I have to say it was so touching to receive a reply! I had never expected a reply at all - they are busy protecting our country, you know?

Here's what he wrote:

I wanted to drop you a note to say thank you for the thoughtful gift you sent to me and my Soldiers. They were very excited when I shared what you sent us. It means the world to us to have supporters like back home. Thank you so much.

Here is a little about us. We are the 82d Airborne's only Chinook helicopter unit. We just got back from a deployment a little more than a year ago and were are already back on the battle field. When I joined the Military 15 years ago I always new there was a possibility of going off to war, but I never expected it to last this long. I'm married and have a wonderful family that I miss very much. I feel like I am missing out on so much with them. i just learned that my youngest son, Roman just took his first steps and it was sad for me because I wasn't there to see them. We are just at the beginning of this deployment and we have a long 11 more months to go. I would love to try to send you some pictures of my soldiers doing their job, they are the best around, but that might be difficult because we work in a photo restricted area. I will do my best to try and get some pictures of them off the airfield in their free time.

Our living conditions are getting better. We just moved out of tents into real buildings. The rooms are very small and we have 42 soldiers living a building that was designed to house 21, but we are doing our best to keep our heads up. It's real easy to lose your cool when you have people living right on top of you. My bunk mate and I share an area that is about 6 ft by 5 ft. I'm just glad that we get along.

Thank you again for your support and feel free to keep those care packages coming.

If that doesn't inspire you to send out a care package to the troops who are putting their lives on the line to protect our country, I don't know what will!

Getting ready to ship another care pkg

2009-05-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Walgreens has been offering free Pert Plus shampoo, Right Guard deodorant & toothpaste this week so I've been stocking up and I'm working on another care package for the troops. I also got some great deals on snacks thanks to coupons and I'll be sending them along to the troops as well. Will post more details later when the package is ready.

Care package shipping 04/29/09!

2009-04-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

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!