[KellyMarie]

Hawaii

[nellenelli]

*Sniff am I all alone in Hawaii?

[latrice0723]

Originally Posted by nellenelli@hotmail.com

*Sniff am I all alone in Hawaii?

If you are lonely I really don't mind making a trip to Hawaii, LOL.

[rcmadrigal2]

I use to live in Hawaii and I miss it terribly! I would give anything to go back! Enjoy the islands for me!

[charmi]

Aloha Nellenelli! I am in Hawaii too. Love this site although we don't have half of the stores listed and our pricing is a lot more than the mainland. Would love to hear the deals that you get here.

[centsationalwoman]

I am originally from hawaii and miss it terribly as well. Many of my friends and family still live back there trying to make ends meet. I wish I could help them save as much $$$ as we do here in the states. I try to post a few deals when I see their ads and match 'em up with coupons I have but it's not as much savings as we have here.

What can I do to help?

[charmi]

centsationalwoman,

Yes, it can be disheartening for me to see all the free items that can be had with coupons that don't apply here in Hawaii as the prices are bumped up. I do know from being on coupon trains that the coupons are regional and I am lucky to be the recipient of Spam coupons all the time. Even that is going up in price! You could send them those since we hardly ever get them in our inserts. The Target and Walgreens ad are similar and I definitely make use of the Register Rewards to stockpile on personal hygiene items. I used to have a Hawaii blog on saving money, highliting the current deals at restaurants and events, but I have been lazy lately. Partially due to this muggy weather and heat! LOL I will try to work on it again. If you can think of anything else, I would be glad to participate.

[jesica646]

Hi, I'm new and looking for other hawaii people. help!! we don't have much on Kauai. Walmart, Kmart, Costco, Longs, Safeway and Foodland. that about covers it! any advice, new hawaii friends??

[charmi]

hi jesica! well its a start, not sure if the sales for Longs, Safeway and Foodland are the same. I believe the national ones are the same for our state, Walmart and Kmart. I don't have Costco so can't help you there. Are you a couponer? If not that is one way to start. Would love to share with you more tips...let me know if you are interested.

[jesica646]

Thanks for getting back to me. I am very new to all of this, but also very excited. I am going to be a great couponer! Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated. This is gonna be so fun!

[jesica646]

Hi, just wanted to tell you I'm connected, and I live in this great state of aloha too. I'm pretty new to couponing, but would love to keep in touch and share ideas, etc. thanks!

[charmi]

aloha jesica,
i can't stress coupons enough...Longs, Foodland and Safeway all accept IP coupons so print away. I have also found many coupons in the Safeway aisles in the form of blinkies and winetags. Be on the look out for "Try it Free" stickies and tags, they are worthwhile to buy and redeem. Join a coupon train so you can get more coupons or if you want to go gung ho and stockpile, ebay seems to sell a lot of coupons in bulk. Make a list of the grocery items you frequently buy and start saving those coupons in an envelope or coupon binder...the rest you won't use can be put to use on the coupon train where it may be of use to others. More soon...have a great weekend charmi

[genosgirl]

Originally Posted by charmi

aloha jesica,
i can't stress coupons enough...Longs, Foodland and Safeway all except IP coupons so print away. I have also found many coupons in the Safeway aisles in the form of blinkies and winetags. Be on the look out for "Try it Free" stickies and tags, they are worthwhile to buy and redeem. Join a coupon train so you can get more coupons or if you want to go gung ho and stockpile, ebay seems to sell a lot of coupons in bulk. Make a list of the grocery items you frequently buy and start saving those coupons in an envelope or coupon binder...the rest you won't use can be put to use on the coupon train where it may be of use to others. More soon...have a great weekend charmi

We just got back from 8 days in Kauai. I didn't want to leave. Can't wait to go back. I had a hard time using coupons there. At walmart the girl asked 4 other cashiers and no one knew how to enter the price to use the free wheat thins coupon that kraft sent in the mail. So we went to safeway and had the same problem - the manager ended up coming to help the cashier but it took like 25 minutes to process the 4 coupons we used. I was really bummed that safeway was totally out of diet dr. pepper as i took my coupons for a free 2 liters.

Have you guys also had issues redeeming coupons?

We were blown away at the prices of some things. 9.99 for a small box of fiber one bars, whoa insane. We were pleasantly surprised to see that most of the walmart and costco prices we really close to the mainland prices. Costco prices were the same for the items we checked compared to our home store in AZ.

[charmi]

genosgirl,

Glad that you had an enjoyable vacation sans the issues at the stores. Kauai is a beautiful island and serene unlike Oahu which is much more urban. Knock on wood, I haven't had notable coupon redeeming issues. You just lucked out or maybe there isn't much couponing in Kauai like in Oahu. Yes, the cost of living is way higher here since we are in the middle of the ocean and no way around paying for freight charges to receive our goods. Wow, its nice to hear that the membership store prices aren't much different than the mainland. Too bad they don't accept coupons.

[apopkin]

I'm from Hawaii too. Oahu. I am so new, and not really good. I simply don't know how to start. I use coupons, but I get savings of a couple of dollars, not those crazy 60% off total cost and more. How can I do that! Any help would be really appreciated. Thank you!

[charmi]

Aloha apopkin,

Unfortunately for us the savings aren'T as great here than it is on the mainland. There are grocers in the continental US that have double/triple coupon days and even Kmart does a double coupon promotion, but we aren't so lucky. My own method of stretching dollars is buying sale items and pairing them with coupons. This of course takes time to hit 3-4 markets/stores a week but since I enjoy shopping it isn't an issue for me. I also participate in coupon trains. If you aren't familiar, it is a group of couponers (like us) that trade coupons to one another. What you won't use, someone else could. For instance, since coupon inserts are regional, I have been fortunate to receive many SPAM coupons from participants. Recently, I paired $.40 coupons with the $1.79 sale price at Target to get cans of SPAM for $1.39/ea. I think that's a good deal. Stockpiling is another option...again with the SPAM, the mysterious canned meat we love here in Hawaii has a shelf life of I think 2-3 years therefore I as many coupons as I can receive I will purchase when I feel it is a good deal. Not only do I use coupons for groceries and goods, I use them all the time for dining out as well. There are also a lot of IP coupon sites referenced here as well. I print them out using grayscale to save on ink and recycle paper. Unfortunately, I am not astute with budgeting so I can't pinpoint how much I save/spend each month. I will be trying to start though this month. Yesterday, I spent $3 at Target. I purchased Dreyer's ice cream, 2 cans of dog food and 1 Twix bar. My total came up to $3.00 even. The Dreyer's was $2.66 - $1.00 TargetQ, dog food was $1.12 using BOGOQ and Twix bar was free using the recent Free ChocolateQ. HTH... Let me know if you have any questions.

[hotmama111]

I used to live in Hawaii too! AW! Aloha everyone!

[apopkin]

Thanks Charmi,
Do you know if the Targets and Kmart here offers double coupon days, and do they give out store coupons. I look online for target coupons.
Or do any stores here offer doubles, I don't think so, but I thought I'd ask...wishful thinking.

[vartrip]

My husband and I are coming to Hawaii in December and we are staying in Kona. Can anyone give me a breakdown of the stores Hawaii has and the coupon policy? I know it is a lot to ask but my parents just took a vacation there and they said groceries are very expensive. Thanks.

[charmi]

apopkin,
I haven't seen any offers of coupon doubling from any of the retail stores here. I too, print off coupons for Target but I have yet to see any for Kmart or Walmart.

vartrip,
I live on Oahu but have been to Kona a few years ago. I know they have a Safeway and the other two main supermarkets are Foodland and KTA which I believe are both locally owned. Both Safeway and Foodland accept IPs here on Oahu so I would think the same could be said about the Kona one. I don't know KTA's policy since they are exclusive to the outer islands. They do have a Costco and Walmart and many nice hole in the wall places to eat. A must to try is a restaurant in the town of Captain Cook called Manago Hotel Restaurant. The pork chops are winners!!!! HTH.

[apopkin]

Valtrip, another great place to visit for a bite is Punaluu Bakery. They are found in Naalehu, Hawaii. It's the US's southern most bakery, meaning their location on the map is the most southern point in the whole US. But that's not what makes them special, it's there sweet bread. It's wonderful, from the original to their special flavors like guava, mango and taro. This bakery also has a cafe, gifts, and a small botanical garden, a lovely place to have lunch. The area is quite remote, on a winding road along the southern coast, but a great pit stop on your way to Punaluu Black Sand Beach, another must see. Sorry, I know I didn't comment on savings, but I thought I would share. Food might cost a bit, but the beaches are free.

[nellenelli]

AHHH of course we didnt get ANY of the hot coupons this week!

[charmi]

hey there nellenelli...how are you doing with the savings this week??? What are your favorite stores? I am a self-admitted bargain shopoholic and cannot go a week without hitting up Walgreens, Target and Longs Drugs. This week 20# of rice is on sale for $9.99at Longs and Kmart!!! Love to hear how you save in Hawaii.

[meimeichi]

Hey guys I will be moving to the Oahu in about a month in a half and would love to know how you guys are doing with couponing and saving. I'm so used to being able to get great deals with couponing on the mainland. Do you know of any of the grocery stores there that triple or double???

[charmi]

Aloha meimeichi! It can be tough to save here in the islands but possible. I don't know of any double/triple coupon grocers in Oahu and Kmart doesn't double here either. Prices are a few sheckles higher (okay sometimes 10-30 cents higher) on sale items so savings aren't as great as the mainland. I can't see myself not using coupons and I have lived here all my life. Keep in touch and I can give you more info and shopping in hawaii. I used to have a blog but I ran out of gas, hoping to start it up again with all the inspiration I get here at AFC. The only national grocer we have is Safeway.