Anywhoo
With eating better inevitably comes higher grocery bills so for coupons I am thankful!!
Call it a coincidence but right about the time we decided to change our eating habits I jumped on the coupon-ing bandwagon full force! I don't even know what got me thinking to do it. I had always used coupons but never paired them with ads and certainly never thought about driving all over tar-nation to get the best deal.
I remember my first trip to the grocery store to buy "good for you" food, my bill was $60 more than my usual budget, yikes! But I am happy to report with coupons and ad matches my bill this week was lower than my usual budget, with buying lots of fresh fruits and veggies and healthy snacks and drinks! What a proud moment!
Ok here's what I do....
I do not claim to know it all about this coupon-ing business, I still have a LOT to learn and I find myself making mistakes from not paying attention all the time but I will share what I know, I feel it's only right.
First I subscribed to our town newspaper with the $20 a year, yes a year, you get every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday paper! The two important papers for couponers is Sunday for coupons and Wednesday for food ads, so you get both of those for a great price and it comes to your door step- awesome!
On Sunday mornings I clip all the coupons my family uses then I check the Walgreens (we'll go with Wags for short), Wags is always first, and see what they have on sale. A lot of times they have stuff on sale that the coupon company's put out coupons for. And Wags has things called "Register Rewards" which is basically like cash you can spend in their store on anything! After I check Walgs I will check Target to see if they have anything worth ad matching, sometimes they do sometimes they don't. Target also has coupons on their website to print out and you can combine them with manufactures coupons pair those with your redcard for 5% off and you can have yourself a steal of a deal, I for one haven't got to do that but I hope to soon! ha!
I refuse to run all over town to get better deals, call this a downfall or not doing it "right" but working full time and a 2 year old I just don't have the time or energy so if I can't get it at Wags or WalMart I usually ask myself is it really that good of a deal. I will occasionally run to Target, doesn't take much for me to talk myself into a quick trip there I love that store but I don't want to have to make it an every week thing and this week I am going to Toy's R Us for a good deal but I don't want to have to run around if I just don't have time.
Ok so I have been going to Wags on Sunday afternoon with my ad and coupons and any register rewards I have occurred from last week. An example of what I scored this week:
Two packs 28 count Previcad heart burn meds
Two packs 3 count Shick Quatro razors for me
Colgate Sensitive toothpaste
Two medium bags of pretzel m&ms
All of this would have cost me $80.68
But after sale prices, coupons, register rewards, and rebates I got it for $11.12!
And I got back $5 in register rewards for my next purchase and $6 in Previcad coupons.
Pretty cool if you ask me! That is all stuff we use every single day, well maybe not the m&ms but I was planning on getting some for 100 calorie packs anyway.
Another easier example would be:
Two 32 load bottles of Purex laundry soap
Two jars Ragu spaghetti sauce
Two boxes of Nature Valley granola bars
One bottle Dawn soap
All this came to $10.01
Using sales and coupons only no rebates!
See it's easy, and fun!
It has been a complete learning experience and I am learning to buy all kinds of stuff with coupons!
Example:
Cute pair of boots from Kohl's
Brent bought a pair of tennis shoes and got $10 Kohls Cash and I remembered they had sent a flyer advertising the new "Grand Opening" in which they included $10 gift cards. So I have $20 in "coupons" to use, being the smart cookie I am ;) I checked the dates and for 2 days the coupons overlap- score!!
So a pair of boots that would cost me $55 I will (hopefully) get for $35 on Friday if they have my size!
I use MoneySavingQueen.com for weekly match-ups to make sure I don't miss anything.
And the most valuable tool in all of this has been having other ladies you can chat with that do the coupon thing too. They may see something I miss or vise versa.
Example:
Toys R Us had an $8 off coupon for diapers or wipes and Elizabeth let me know about it, I would have completely missed this good deal if it hadn't been for her!
I also go grocery shopping once a week and get what we need and like I'm not eating/cooking pertaining to what's on sale, yet. But I keep my coupon pouch with me and if I have a coupon for certain things than great and last week I did! I saved $10 in coupons with stuff I would have bought weather I had a coupon or not!
It really isn't hard I watch the extreme couponers show and think wow wish I could do that, and while I'm no where near that, or will ever be. I am so grateful I can save my family money for things we need.
Any questions ask.
Any tips do tell!
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