I have gotten on the couponing bandwagon. I get super excited to get the paper from outside on Sunday morning to start the clipping :) Just like getting the mail I actually enjoy doing it everyday but on the other 6 days of the week, I just like the paper for the sudoku; I need something to keep my brain from rotting!
I check a handful of coupon websites a handful of times each day trying to decide what store has the best place to use each coupon to get the best deal! Haven't gone on too many major coupon shopping trips, but this week was really good.
Wednesday I took Hannah with me to Albertson's for the AMAZING fruit snack deal. I'm so glad I did since it was my first experience at feeling like a full-fledged couponer. We came home with 20 boxes of fruit snacks, 10 boxes of mac & cheese, 8 frozen juice concentrates and 2 frozen pizzas. Should have cost $98.99 but I saved 91.4% of that price! I wish I would have taken a picture of that shopping trip but it didn't cross my mind.
Thursday, I went for more juice and fruit snacks ALL ALONE! I managed to do just fine except they were out of the juice and I have yet to remember to get a rain check. This is what I did manage to get:
after I displayed the purchase, my real camera battery died, so I used my phone
15 boxes of fruit snacks (Scooby Doo & Fruit Gushers)
1 tub of frosting (to go along with the cake mix I got for $0.25 for the next time Marcel has to bring treats to school)
1 Olay lotion (to complete the $15 mail in rebate)
1 Snuggle dryer sheets (because we NEEDED them--learning that you should never need anything!)
2 sour creams
2 Vitamin Waters
2 bags of Rhodes warm-n-serve rolls.
The percentage of savings wasn't nearly as big this time, only 81.4% from original price of about $74 (I don't have the receipts right in front of me). I do know that my savings were $60.60! Plus I still have $7 in catalinas to spend on my next shopping trip!
I've been telling Hannah this week, that of course Marcel and I could definitely use to save money on groceries. The money I get for food stamps (recall from a facebook status that Marcel doesn't qualify since when I applied he was not working 20 hours/week which is required for college students to be eligible) isn't quite enough each month so it is nice to stretch it even further. But it has been really fun to see how cheap I can get laundry detergent and dish soap (have enough to get to Christmas I guarantee it, plus that supply cost less than I would have paid for 1 bottle of detergent before!) and other non-food household items. On top of stretching a buck or two, though, it is really nice that it does give me a few more websites to add to my list of ones I check regularly. I can only blog-stalk and be on facebook so much in 1 day :)
Hope this was interesting to someone else. While blog-stalking I always feel myself getting upset at people who haven't blogged in a really long time and then just tonight I looked at my own blog and it had been way too long for me and couponing is about the only thing going on lately in our life that I haven't blogged about :)
In case you are new to couponing, I LOVE:
thekrazycouponlady.com
athrifymom.com
fabulesslyfrugal.com
idahodealdivas.com
hip2save.com
I read plenty of other sites occasionally but these are the ones I check a few times each day!
I check a handful of coupon websites a handful of times each day trying to decide what store has the best place to use each coupon to get the best deal! Haven't gone on too many major coupon shopping trips, but this week was really good.
Wednesday I took Hannah with me to Albertson's for the AMAZING fruit snack deal. I'm so glad I did since it was my first experience at feeling like a full-fledged couponer. We came home with 20 boxes of fruit snacks, 10 boxes of mac & cheese, 8 frozen juice concentrates and 2 frozen pizzas. Should have cost $98.99 but I saved 91.4% of that price! I wish I would have taken a picture of that shopping trip but it didn't cross my mind.
Thursday, I went for more juice and fruit snacks ALL ALONE! I managed to do just fine except they were out of the juice and I have yet to remember to get a rain check. This is what I did manage to get:
after I displayed the purchase, my real camera battery died, so I used my phone
15 boxes of fruit snacks (Scooby Doo & Fruit Gushers)
1 tub of frosting (to go along with the cake mix I got for $0.25 for the next time Marcel has to bring treats to school)
1 Olay lotion (to complete the $15 mail in rebate)
1 Snuggle dryer sheets (because we NEEDED them--learning that you should never need anything!)
2 sour creams
2 Vitamin Waters
2 bags of Rhodes warm-n-serve rolls.
The percentage of savings wasn't nearly as big this time, only 81.4% from original price of about $74 (I don't have the receipts right in front of me). I do know that my savings were $60.60! Plus I still have $7 in catalinas to spend on my next shopping trip!
I've been telling Hannah this week, that of course Marcel and I could definitely use to save money on groceries. The money I get for food stamps (recall from a facebook status that Marcel doesn't qualify since when I applied he was not working 20 hours/week which is required for college students to be eligible) isn't quite enough each month so it is nice to stretch it even further. But it has been really fun to see how cheap I can get laundry detergent and dish soap (have enough to get to Christmas I guarantee it, plus that supply cost less than I would have paid for 1 bottle of detergent before!) and other non-food household items. On top of stretching a buck or two, though, it is really nice that it does give me a few more websites to add to my list of ones I check regularly. I can only blog-stalk and be on facebook so much in 1 day :)
Hope this was interesting to someone else. While blog-stalking I always feel myself getting upset at people who haven't blogged in a really long time and then just tonight I looked at my own blog and it had been way too long for me and couponing is about the only thing going on lately in our life that I haven't blogged about :)
In case you are new to couponing, I LOVE:
thekrazycouponlady.com
athrifymom.com
fabulesslyfrugal.com
idahodealdivas.com
hip2save.com
I read plenty of other sites occasionally but these are the ones I check a few times each day!
I just got excited! Um....any other tips for me? I am so starting to stalk the web for coupons....I HAD NO IDEA
ReplyDeleteI had no idea either!
ReplyDeleteI've started a binder with baseball card holders to store all my coupons. It took me a few times of shopping with coupons before I got over feeling weird bringing in a book full of them, but now when I see how much I save, I'm all for it! Plus, now that I've started doing it, I see people with binders everytime I shop.
I also get a few copies of the Sunday newspaper. All the sites will tell you to do that. $12 a month in a newspaper subscription is saving me 100s of dollars. Then just gotta wait for a sale and use a coupon on top of that. Since you'll have a few copies of the paper, you'll have multiple coupons to use when the stuff is dirt cheap. You buy it then even if you don't need it to avoid having to pay full price for it when you do need it.
I read this when I just started:
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/category/10-days-to-become-a-kcl
thekrazycouponlady.com is done by 2 ladies, one in Idaho and one in California, so they should do match-ups (listing the deals from the ads with all the coupons out there to match the sale) for stores you use.
One more tip: don't be afraid of an "expensive" store. Like I used to hate shopping at Albertson's because it is so much more expensive than even Fred Meyer (definitely more than Winco/Walmart) but they are by far where I save the most and I have found them to be the most coupon friendly. Sorry it got so long. I could go on and on. Is your email still the same? Mine is still marybeth@pacificu.edu if you have anymore questions!! I'm just learning but feel like I have some insight now that I could pass on :)