Coupon Hacking

Here's what I've learned about coupons. :) The last time I bought groceries my bill was $64.76. Before coupons, that total would have been $164.89.

I make it a point to buy the AJC on Sundays. I also save coupons from boxes. Mainly I am interested in coupons that are .50 or LESS - those can be doubled at Kroger.

On Saturdays, I take all my coupons that I am going to use to the Rome Piggly Wiggly. Meats are on sale early on Saturday morning. I buy enough so that I can cook all day and freeze the leftovers. This keeps us going all month on steaks, hamburgers, pork loins, ect. I get an extra 7.5% off because I use a local high school coupon card (5% OFF, good on Saturdays) AND my Paypal card. (2.5% off.)

Coupons OVER .50 cents I take to Kroger early on Sunday morning. The store is always well stocked and its not that crowded, so I can take my time.

Now, the following, just for your information (I'm not advocating doing these things.) ;)

If the first 5 numbers on the bar code are the same as the first 5 on the item you are purchasing bar code, then it doesn't matter what the last numbers are, your item WILL SCAN.

IE: Land of Lakes Butter and spread coupons both start with the numbers 34500, so you can use either coupon though they have different numbers after that.

If the SMALL proceeding number on the barcode is a 5 (the first number of the UPC) then scanning software will automatically allow it to double. IF it starts with a 9 it WILL NOT allow it to double.

If the coupon has a choice of 2 boxes or one bag - and you use it FOR BOXES, then it will still scan if you only buy one box. You can effectively get a free box of Friskies every time. :)

If you store has a self check out lane, and you feel like being dishonest, you can use expired coupons. This works better at some stores than others - note the way each store handles this. Some never check, others will make you present the coupon to the cashier personally.

K-Mart never checked any of my coupons. I'm told they will be reinstalling the self check out lanes at a later date. They are temporarily down.

Pilsbury coupons give me the most grief. Be careful with these. They can be hard to get through a scan.

Coupons can be bought on eBay, Half.com, and if you know someone with a paper route, they can net you a ton of them.

Get a UPROMISE card. If you have a Paypal business card, and you buy something that is a UPROMISE merchant, then you can often save 7.5% or more total on your purchase.

I saved 42.5% on a new release movie that I wanted using a combination of coupons, Paypal, and a UPromise merchant.

Circuit City - if you want to purchase something from CIRCUIT CITY - instead of going to the store and buying it, look online. Often you can save 15.00 or more by buying on line -when you get to check out - just say you will pick it up at the store if you want it immediately and go get it. This way you avoid shipping and STILL get the reduced web rates.


Upromise While they say save for a child....if you want, just sign yourself up. In the TOS - it says you can get a check WHENEVER YOU WANT IT. No one has to go to college! Just request a check and they will send it.


Paypal

Here's a list of countries US Citizens cannot do business with.

I thought I better find out seeing as they arrested a liberal under some obscure law that gives Bush authority to decide (alone) who we can and can't do business with. Bush needs to go, and these 'emergency powers of the president' need to be looked at twice.

Dictators happen.

This is a great link for hardening Windows Servers. I think its a little too restrictive for some environments, but its a great learning tool. I certainly learned a lot from it.

I've known people that instead of deleting command line utilities they would just move and rename them. Then if they needed them they could move them back. IE cmd.exe HACKcmd.exe in a "systemMOVED" folder.



Hardening Windows Servers from Blackhat's Windows Security 2004 conference.