Livin' on samples!

[roxybabe39]

As most of you already know my stockpile is gone. Yep, gone. Donated/gave away it ALL. Hubby took a job out of town and had to move away. I'll be moving to a very remote town with him in the new year but decided this would be the perfect time to de clutter the house - use items, donate or sell items I have tucked away.

First project, the bathroom! This is where I "squirrel" all my samples (items free/overage with coupons) and freebies sent to me by companies. Well I decided now is the best time to use them. Hubby wasn't too impressed with me using samples all the time (he's a huge party pooper) so while he's away it's the perfect time!

He's been gone for two and a half months already and since he's been gone I've used:

78 travel size Charmin (this was from a long time ago when I got overage on them)
31 samples of Dawn dish soap
7 mini St Ives lotion
21 Tide pods (singles all from company or trades)
5 Finish tabs (singles all from company)
8 individual shaving cream (some sample sizes, some were envelope sizes)
32 assorted body wash (some was sample size, some was envelope size)
2 Q-tips (packs of 10)
2 bathroom sprays (I believe they were each 50mL - from brandsampler)
12 individual assorted kitty treats (from various companies)
60 assorted shampoos (one time envelope size ones)
60 assorted conditioners (one time envelope size ones)
18 bounty (from brandsaver)
30 crest white strips (all samples from company/trades)
46 floss (individual strings from dentist/companies)
12 tubes of toothpaste (sample ones from dentist office)
112 assorted femine products (all freebies/individual from companies)
.... think that's it!

I didn't think I had so many samples! It was crazy how fast they add up and how nice it was to use all of them up!

For the next few months until I move I'll only be using open products. I have such a bad habit of opening something up and tucking it away or forgetting about it and opening another one! While I don't have a stockpile this will get me through until I can get one built up just in time for me to move!

.. how long could you use samples for?


************************************************** *****

UPDATE - May 10th

So, it's been approx. 1 year since I started this fun! I moved to a super small remote town and to coupon I travel 1 hour once a month. I will build my stash up again, it'll just take longer this time.

Good news - After writing this post I immediately began packing. I put all my travel sized items in different boxes. I squirrel stuff away like nobodies business so I was amazed at how much I had. 18 boxes worth of samples - yikes! This was all over the span of 3 years since I started couponing.

Best news - When hubby worked out of town he rented a room in a house and lived with six other guys. They all shared one bathroom (poor housekeeper!) but while he was there he did make friends. They all used the same shampoo/body wash as the owner of the house went to Costco and bought a ton of bottles (the kinds with pumps). Long story short, when hubby was moving out the guy who owned the house told him to take any bottles of shampoo and body wash under the sink he could use. They were all between 1/8 - 3/4 full. It was from the last 2 years when people moved in and out. Hubby walked out with over 300 bottles of body wash and shampoo (!!) It was all good stuff to. Hubby can only use Head & Shoulders and he got almost 140 bottles of it! He's set for the next year or two!

Anyways, he finally quit being such a party pooper and we used samples together! We have made a huge dent in a lot of things and 90% are gone! I kept track of things the best I could - it seems my numbers were a little off above as I packed away one of the sheets of paper without realizing it.

After one year-ish, here is my total:

245 travel size Charmin - before anyone says anything this was all
a preorder! The coupon was $4 wub 3 which gave me a few cents in overage! - I am out now.
86 samples of Dawn dish soap - out of soap now!
11 mini St Ives lotion - approx. 15 left!
46 Tide pods (singles all from company or trades) - out of these now
9 other single use laundry detergent samples - out now
72 single use fabric softeners - out now
17 Finish tabs + filled my moms tub with 51 more = 68 total (singles all from company) - out now
11 individual shaving cream (some sample sizes, some were envelope sizes) - got approx. 18 more!
53 assorted body wash (some was sample size, some was envelope size) - out now
2 Q-tips (packs of 10) - out now
4 bathroom sprays (I believe they were each 50mL - from brandsampler) - got one more!
12 individual assorted kitty treats (from various companies) - out now
60 assorted shampoos (one time envelope size ones) - out of envelope sizes
60 assorted conditioners (one time envelope size ones) - out of envelope sizes
23 bounty (from brandsaver) - out now
40 crest white strips (all samples from company/trades) - one more pack but I can't use it (it's recommended you use a certain amount / year and I've reached my limit)
63 floss (individual strings from dentist/companies) - approx. 20 more!
52 tubes of toothpaste (sample ones from dentist office) - out now
370 assorted femine products (all freebies/individual from companies) - out now
14 travel size Nexxus - still have about 70 of these - again this was a preorder. It was with the $3 coupon
106 assorted travel size shampoo - out now
102 assorted travel size conditioner - out now - not sure how I ended up with different numbers! I use more conditioner than shampoo (??)
14 assorted food products (tea, cereal, etc) - out now
3 dog treats - out now
11 vitamins (not sure how I got these) - out now
82 packs coffee (from hotels, and gift baskets) - all single pot - out now
3 mr clean magic erasers - single packs from brandsampler - got 3 more
14 seasoning packs (teriyaki, maui, etc) got from a job I worked at - out now
500+ packs of sugar - individual. I had bought these for my wedding and not used up. So I opened them all and dumped them in my sugar container!
400+ individual ketchup. This is from hubby eating out and somehow accumulating them all! I dumped them in a big container and ended up with a free jug of ketchup. (approx. 1L)
100+ salt and pepper - individual - same as above - I have no idea how we got this many as he doesn't go in the restaurant and take them! It's all stuff in the bags (??)

... and that is my one year of samples! I got rid of a TON and made a bunch of room! So happy I did this, I never realized how many I had or how far it could go!

[coupon girl]

wow awesome -I don't have a lot of samples -but did take some on a 7 daytrip in this summmer and used a few up

[amira84]

Isn't it amazing? I have a few samples too but i just hoard them. Lol. But you had A LOT of samples and when you add up all these freebies and think about it, it really saves us a lot of money. Good job on your first project and keep us posted about your second project!

[Ciel]

I hope you are taking notes of which brands impressed you (and DH-I'm sure he likes some of the stuff!), so you can decide which ones to buy in your current town so you have a supply for winter. If DH has not already told you which stores exist in the new place, get him to tell you so you can look at flyers and figure out what basics you can get there. And which things will have to wait until you can go the "city" to stock up or maybe ask friends to send care packages to you.

Impressive idea to put to use while you sort out the house!

[canirishmum]

I did same the other day, gathered all the samples and moved to the bathroom. I reckon roughly 3 months worth

[torontogal12]

I love your brag!! That's an excellent way to save green and be green at the same time.

[wamme]

I order samples to my moms house she's on a plain government pension so samples surely add up

[ticul]

Wow, I love your brag. I dont have much samples but I really like having them for a trip. Too me, some samples are a most have. It is good that you can use them and wen you will moving to your new place it will be the time again to get more samples.

Again great brag and thank you for sharing.....................

[TooCouponCrazy]

I don't have many samples. But I love your brag.

[$avvy$hopper]

Loved reading your brag! No stockpile here either...used it up when I was transitioning between jobs and things got tight. Gave away a lot as well...now enjoying samplesource stuff! Looking forward to your next update!

[princess_m]

At the end of January I went through my samples and was stunned how many I had. I decided to use them. Well....I have been using shampoo and conditioners samples since then!!! That is almost 10 mths!! I still have some that should last me til the end of the year. My favs have been John Frieda and Shu eumra.

I did the same with day and night creams and face wash. I went about 4 mths before running out of night cream and another month or two with the day creams. I just kept lining them up on the bathroom counter. I have saved so much money!!!

I will probably never have to buy razors again!!! I have soooo many.

Most samples come from Facebook promos, sample source, beauty box from shopping channel, gift with purchase from clinique or shiseido.

Don't even get me started on how many cosmetic bags I have!!! Gift with purchase and the Tampax Tuesday is where they all came from.

[avoncallingu]

Great idea Ciel! You're really thinking!

I hope you are taking notes of which brands impressed you (and DH-I'm sure he likes some of the stuff!), so you can decide which ones to buy in your current town so you have a supply for winter. If DH has not already told you which stores exist in the new place, get him to tell you so you can look at flyers and figure out what basics you can get there. And which things will have to wait until you can go the "city" to stock up or maybe ask friends to send care packages to you.

Impressive idea to put to use while you sort out the house!

[tobiwobi]

I'm currently going through my samples too. mostly little soaps, lotions, shampoo and conditioners I have accumulated from couponing/ordering samples and also from hotels. The little bottles take up space and hard to stack neatly, so I want to use them up first. I'm finding that I actually like using different products all the time instead of being stuck with a regular bottle size for some time.

Now, if anyone remembers those lacoupe 2.00 styling coupon printables and little hairspray or moose bottles, good luck to me using those up. Will take a decade.

[roxybabe39]

I'm currently going through my samples too. mostly little soaps, lotions, shampoo and conditioners I have accumulated from couponing/ordering samples and also from hotels. The little bottles take up space and hard to stack neatly, so I want to use them up first. I'm finding that I actually like using different products all the time instead of being stuck with a regular bottle size for some time.

Now, if anyone remembers those lacoupe 2.00 styling coupon printables and little hairspray or moose bottles, good luck to me using those up. Will take a decade.

I actually used mine all up! I only had the hairspray... After all the families had taken the majority of it I used about 2-3 cans of the hairspray.I recently got married and had “bathroom baskets” in the bathroom.. two in the girls stuffed with items all free (samples from companies, and just generally free from coupons).I put about 14 bottles of hair spray in there.All of them disappeared (people probably took them home!) but thats what I wanted!

[coupon girl]

-thanks to your add I -just took all my lotion and dumped them into my curel bottle so I can pump it out for the winter -got rid of 20 little bottles -plus I don't know how long I have had them so I would rather use them up