How couponing helped my kid win an ice cream party

I love couponing for all the money I've saved, but sometimes there are other benefits, too!

For instance, last week my daughter's school had a contest to see which class could collect the most Box Tops for Education. This is a school fundraiser which last year raised $59 million for schools.  Box Tops appear on various brand-name products (here's a list of participating products).  To participate, parents buy products on the list, cut out the Box Tops label, and submit it to their child's school.  The school then submits them and receives money for each one.

Now, before I couponed, I collected very few Box Tops.  My strategy was to buy store-brand items at Walmart, which at the time was the least expensive place to buy groceries at full price.  (Of course, we have ALDI in my area now, which beats Walmart for most items.)  I didn't buy brand names because I thought they were more expensive.  And I certainly didn't follow what was on sale this week.  So I rarely had any Box Tops to give to the fundraiser.

But now, I buy a lot of products on the Box Top product list - recently, I got several large boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios for 74¢ each.  So I've been able to collect quite a few of them.  I had a small plastic bag full of them, so when I heard about the school's contest, I sent it in with my daughter.

And guess what?  My daughter's class won!  And for winning, the class gets an ice cream party.

So couponing has some great rewards besides saving money!  How has couponing rewarded you?

For more frugal tips, please check out the bloggers listed on the left sidebar under Frugal Tips Linkups. There are lots of great ideas on each blog and I'm sure you'll find lots of wonderful tips!