From now through Nov. 19, Harris Teeter pharmacy stores will be offering flu shot clinics to VIC card customers. Registered nurses will be on hand to administer the shots, which will cost $25 each with your VIC card, or free if you are a Medicare Part B, non-HMO recipient (just present your card before receiving your shot)

The FluMist vaccine is also available for $30 and pneumonia shots are available for $45. You must be a minimum of 8 years old to receive the flu shot and a minimum of 2 years old to receive the FluMist vaccine. More information on the clinics is available here.

There are clinics at certain stores on certain days. Please check the clinic schedule here.

I'll bet most of you have never heard of Gary Cino. But I'll bet most of you have heard of Dollar Tree.

Cino founded The 98 Cent Clearance Center 23 years ago, eventually selling it to Dollar Tree. Well, the Sacramento Bee reports that Cino is back with a new discount retail store. This time everything is $9.98 or less. I certainly hope the added digit and decimal place weren't solely the result of inflation...

Reader Michelle e-mailed me this week to report finding a deal on Starbucks gift cards at the Winston-Salem Coscto. Five $20 cards were $79.99. That's a $4 savings (roughly) per card, and it's something you might want to consider if you need to buy a bunch of smaller gifts for say teachers or other folks... What I do not know is whether this deal has appeared yet in our Raleigh and Durham Costco stores. Anyone??

I heard yesterday from reader Beverly, who asked me about the best case discounts for wine in our area. I told her that most grocery stores are offering 10 percent, or 15 percent on a sale sometimes. I also said I like to wait for the Whole Foods big sale (which is usually between Christmas and New Year's) and the Southern Season annual sale. I think that in some cases the discounts go higher during those sales. But I thought I'd throw the question out there for all of you, since I am certainly no expert. Where do you find the best case discounts on wine?

This afternoon, the Chatham Hill Winery is hosting a harvest celebration. The party begins at 12:30 p.m. at the winery (3800 Gateway Centre Blvd. Suite #310, Morrisville) and will include blue grass music and vendors who will offer samples and sales of various items such as locally-made artisan cheeses, chocolate truffles made by a Raleigh independent chocolatier, unique cupcakes made in Cary, locally made Mead (honey wine) and pottery. There will also be wine tours and a grape stomping contest beginning at 4:15 p.m. If anyone goes, send me pictures!

It's Friday, and here's a list of freebies!! There are lots of good ones this week!!

[EDIT: OK, some of these links seem to be not working for whatever reason, so I put in the actual URLs under each listing. Some of them are not pretty, but if you copy and paste them into your browser, they should work. Sorry for the extra step! Since the list is so long now, click Read More to see it...]

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There were a couple of interesting items in my inbox this morning...

*Right At Home, the e-newsletter of SC Johnson, has issued a new batch of printable coupons worth up to $30 on its products, which include Pledge, Shout and Scrubbing Bubbles. Click here... 

*Walgreens is offering 50 4x6 prints for $5 when you use the coupon code FALL4ALL in the online checkout process. That's good through Oct. 12.

*And Pillsbury/General Mills issued a new batch of printable coupons, too. Click here...

If you are starting a business and looking for resources, you might want to check out the new FREE podcast series from SCORE. Each month, two new podcasts will be added, one on www.score.org and one on www.score.org/women. The first two podcasts are up now, one featuring Julie Brander, marketing expert with New Haven SCORE, sharing ideas on "Marketing Your Biz in a Weak Economy," and one featuring Peggy Duncan, SCORE blogger and productivity expert with Atlanta SCORE, talking about how to "Get More Done in Less Time." Check it out.

Well, a kind of free haircut.

Herbal Essences is running a promotion where you can get a free haircut when you buy two specially marked bottles of Herbal Essences shampoo or conditioner. A scan of the fine print of the offer reveals that you actually get a voucher redeemable for a haircut. Once you buy your two qualifying products, you have to go to a Web site, enter the UPC codes, print a form and mail it in. Then you will get your voucher by mail. When you get your voucher, it will include a list of participating businesses where you can redeem it.

So... a bit of work for this one, and you have to go to a place that is participating in the program. But if you buy Herbal Essences anyway and aren't too picky about where you get your hair cut, I say free is free... Here's the Web site.

Maybe most of you know about this already, but today I found out about a plastic bag collection program for schools from Harris Teeter. The grocer is challenging schools to collect plastic bags. Those that collect the most get prizes. If you have kids, you might find out if their school is particiapting. Or, if you don't, you could find out if your local school is collecting... just a thought. The contest runs through Halloween. 

There's a printable coupon here... you need to put in your ZIP code and e-mail address to get to the coupon. It expires on Dec. 7.

I truly believe that teachers are some of the most overworked and underthanked individuals out there. So I always try to mention teacher appreciation events when I find them. The Barnes & Noble store at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh will be honoring pre-K through 12th grade teachers during the week of Oct. 11 through Oct. 19.

The store will host a reception on Thursday, Oct. 16 from 5 to 7 p.m. The event will feature the chance for educators to win a $500 Barnes & Noble gift card, prizes and giveaways, a 25 percent discount on classroom and personal purchases and a 10 percent discount on CDs and DVDs. In addition, all pre-K through 12th grade teachers and administrators will receive that 25 percent discount off their book purchases and 10 percent off DVDs and music during the whole week when they present their valid Barnes & Noble Educators Discount Card. (If you don't have one, bring your school ID and a paystub to the store and you can get one.)

If you are interested in attending my next coupon class but have not yet signed up, there are only 40 seats left! So don't delay! You can sign up at www.newsobserver.com/zone. (You have to scroll down a bit to get to the item about my class...) UPDATE: Class is officially "sold out." But we have started a waiting list, so please add your name if you are interested in attending. Use the same link above...

I got a release today from a New York company called Brand Keys, which tracks branding efforts by companies. According to a Brand Keys survey of corporate executives, the Snickers bar is the most craveable chocolate food in times of high stress. Runners up were Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kat bars, Milky Ways and Butterfinger.

I couldn't help but think that the Snickers folks should make one of their "Not Going Anywhere For Awhile" TV commercials in a corporate board room. It's like a golden branding opportunity...

Well yay for triple coupons! But even if you’re not headed to Lowes Foods for those deals, there are plenty of deals to be had this week. Halloween candy continues to be on sale everywhere. That’s not surprising. There are also a couple of good free after rebate items this week at the pharmacies. There are also a lot of deals this week where you get an extra discount or a discount off your next purchase when you buy a certain number of qualifying products, so watch out for those.

As is my habit on triples weeks, this list of deals does not reflect any triple coupon deals. It’s just regular doubles. To view my separate list of triples deals for Lowes Foods, click here.
 
DEAL OF THE WEEK: You guys know I like to pick those deals where a sale, a rebate and a coupon combine to get you a great deal. Here’s an example of just that. At Walgreens this week, Glade air fresheners (plugins, glass scents, scented oil candle refill, carpet & room deodorizer, candle and gel holder) are $1.99. But there’s also a $1 Easy Saver rebate. Then you can use any of a number of Glade coupons from the past few weeks to save even more. The $1 candle coupon from Sept. 14, for instance, would make that FREE, and the $1 Carpet & Room deodorizer coupon from the same day would make that item FREE.

Click “Read more” to see the list! And remember, if the store has a loyalty card, you’ll need it to get the sale price.

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