Extreme Couponer For A Day

When I shop with coupons, I save an average of $25 to $30 each trip.  My savings run about 50-60%.  Sometimes, I only save $10 off $70, but hey, every little bit helps.

Once in awhile, I save big and it makes me feel like I'm one of those crazy coupon ladies that walk out of the store with $300 worth of groceries and only paying $5.

I had one of those days recently! I have to share:

 Martin's food stores was running a special-- Buy 5 Quaker Oatmeal bars at $2 each, and recieve a $5 catalina to use on your next shopping trip. (A catalina is a coupon that prints out with your reciept, to be used later) They happened to have coupons on the display for 75 cents off 1 box. I grabbed 15 coupons and made 3 trips. Here's what I did:

1st trip: Bought 5 boxes = $10  Used 5- $.75/1 coupons (the first gets doubled to $1) for a total of $4 off. Pay $6 and get a $5 catalina.

2nd trip: Bought 5 boxes = $10  Used 5- $.75/1 coupons for a total of $4 off AND the $5 catalina.
Pay $1 and get a $5 catalina.

3rd trip: Repeat #2, pay $1 and get a $5 catalina.

That makes $30 worth of Quaker Oat bars for only $3 after subtracting the catalina! That equals to .20 cents a box!!   Nice!  A round of applause please!  Thank you, thank you! 

Next, I went to Target.  They will price match any store's current ad, so I took a Food Lion ad which had a sale on 12 oz boxes of Rice Krispies for $1.50.  That alone is cheap, but there was also a manufacturer's coupon for $1 off 2 kellogg's cereal AND a Target coupon for $1 off 2 Kellogg's cereal-- nice! Instead of paying $2.94 a box, I price-match and save $1.44 per box. After price-match, buy 2 boxes for $3, use both Target AND manufacturer's coupon and pay $1 for BOTH boxes! I got lucky today, though, because the clerk made an error and entered $1.25 eight separate times for eight separate boxes! So I ended up getting 8 boxes for 50 cents each after coupons! Sweet!

I also had my eye on a large picture frame that suddenly went on clearance and with a birthday gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, it was the perfect time to pick it up. It was marked down 50% off, $24.99 down to $12.48. A twin-size sheet set in a boy theme I had my eye on was also on clearance, and I was waiting for it to come down lower, but since there were only 2 left, I had to grab it-- marked down 50% off, $17.99 down to $8.98.

Picked up the new Velveeta Cheesy dinner kit, too, for $2.04 and 2 toy cars, priced at $3.29 each. Lucky for me, there was a coupon on the Rice Krispies box that stated: Free car with purchase of 3 boxes of cereal! With 8 boxes of cereal, I had more than enough, and I found 2 coupons, which means 2 free cars! The cars will be put away for Christmas.

Here's the breakdown:
8 boxes Rice Krispies- $1.25 each
2 toy cars- $3.29 each
1 Velveeta Cheesy dinner $2.04
1 Frame $12.48
1 sheet set $8.98
Grand total: $40.08 (Total value is $75.12)
Used 4- $1/2 Kellogg's cereal Target coupons
         2- $1/2 Kellogg's cereal manu. coupons
         1- $1/1 Velveeta coupon
         1- $.50/1 Velveeta Target coupon
         2- FREE car wyb 3 boxes Rice Krispies coupons

Paid: $27.28!!  Had I not bought the frame and the sheets, my total would have been only $5.82 for 8 boxes of cereal, 2 cars, and the velveeta dinner!!  Pretty good to me!!

Any good couponing trip for you lately??  Do tell! :o)

Frugal Friday : Frugal Finds

I had a great trip to the stores today. I made a trip to Best Buy and CVS for a grand total of $128.19 in merchandise and only paid $11.29 out of pocket!

If you aren't aware already, Best Buy has an awards program in which you earn points from every purchase you make. Just apply for the free store card, then every time you shop, scan the card before you pay. They'll track your purchases and when you accumulate so many points, they'll notify you by email, then you print out the awards certificate and take it to the store for money off your next purchase.

A couple months ago, my mom and I both got new laptops from Best Buy. I put both purchases on my Best Buy store card, even though she paid for her own laptop. It made my points jump quick and they sent me a notice that I earned a $30 rewards certificate. Great! We've been wanting one of those disc repair/cleaner thingys to clean up the dvd movies the kids scratched up. Now would be the perfect time to get one!

Did I mention how awesome Best Buy is?? The disc repair thingy was $29.99 or at least I thought it was. I also picked up something else, which isn't pictured because it's a surprise for the husband for Father's Day, but anyway, the total came to $64.98. Huh?? That isn't right. Turns out the disc repair thingy was actually $44.99 and when I asked the clerk about it, she asked me to show her where I got it, and though *I* was wrong-- I looked at the wrong price ticket (but in my defense, there was no price ticket to be found for it), she gave me the $29.99 price anyway! So she knocked off $15!! Sweet!

So my total for Best Buy went from $64.98 to $44.68 minus the $30 awards certificate to a final total of $14.68. Nice!! And my purchases today will go to future points later!


My next stop was at CVS. Here, I purchased $77.89 worth of goods and they paid me to shop!!
I bought:

• 2) Whitman's Sampler candy boxes- $19.99 on clearance for $4.99 each



• 6) Hershey's candy bars- buy 2 for $1.19 get 3rd for $.01 (3 got eaten by the kids before I could get a picture of all 6!)



• 2) Zyrtec allergy medicine- 5.99 each



• 1) Motrin PM- $4.oo



• 2) Hershey's Drops candy bags- buy 1 for $4.59 get 2nd for $.01
  

My grand total was $77.89, minus coupons and CVS extra care bucks, I paid $11.59 out of pocket and then they gave me $14.98 extra care bucks to make my final total $3.39 profit!

So minus the +$3.39 from the Best Buy total of $14.68, I paid $11.29 for everything today! Not bad at all! I got a nice surprise gift for Andrew plus an unexpected bonus box of Whitman's chocolate for Father's Day. I have an extra box for a quickie gift if I need one, too!

This makes couponing totally worth it!! :o)

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Bragging Rights: Couponing Edition

I had an extremely good shopping trip at the food and drug stores recently and I just have to share! But first, I wanted to explain something for those of you not familiar with couponing and the area where I live:

We live in the mountains and the closest 'big' food store is Food Lion 18 miles away. That's also where CVS and Rite Aid are located. Other big food stores are in a larger town 45 minutes away and if I go there, I try to consolidate errands so we are not running down there for just one store or one thing. Many couponers like to frequent stores that double coupons, price match competitors ads and/or accept other stores' coupons. The stores down south must be really nice because the coupon website I go to, people are consistently saving 80 - 90% of their totals while shopping.

The Food Lion where I shop at is just a plain, old, regular grocery store. They don't double coupons or price match because they don't have any competition from any other stores. They know that a lot of people in town go there because they have no other place to go. But still, there are deals to be found if you know what to look for and the coupon website I frequent says that if you learn when your store has their sales, anyone can turn any store into a good store. This such trip was one of those sales.

Because of the Super Bowl, a lot of the 'party foods' and snack foods are on sale. There were several special deals and lots of coupons and I was able to pick up all of the above for a good price. It's my best shopping trip at Food Lion and I'm really pleased with that. There are some items here that I don't ever buy, like the Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough, the pasta mixes and TGIFriday's appetizer, but by combining coupons, sales, and deals, made it too good to pass up and will come in handy for those occasional meals I don't have time to cook from scratch.

• 2- Red Baron pizzas
• 3- Stouffer's French Bread pizzas
• 1- Gallon Milk
• 6- Ragu sauce
• 4- Minute Maid O.J.
• 6- Knorr Pastas
• 1- TGIFridays appetizer
• 2- NY Texas Toast
• 1- Farm Rich Mozzarella Sticks
• 1- Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie Dough
• 2- Jose Ole Taquitos

Before sales and coupons: $87.52 Final Cost: $31.80! That's a savings of over $55.00!!

This next set of food was from CVS and Rite Aid-- drugstores. Before coupons, you'd never see me grocery shopping at drugstores. They're overpriced to begin with and why go there when I can usually get what I need with more choices at the food stores? But since learning how to extreme coupon, I just love drugstores! With the exception of the Vitaminwater, this is stuff we usually always have in the pantry.

• 2- V-8 Juice
• 4- Lipton 100 count Tea bags
• 4- Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice
• 3- Ragu Sauce
• 4- Planters Cashews
• 2- Vitamin waters

Total retail (drugstore) value: $78.86 After sales and coupons: FREE! Yes, free. Actually, I made a profit of $4.96. They paid me! Sweet!

If you total up the two: $166.38 before sales and coupons; Actual out of pocket costs: $26.84!

That's money that stays in the bank account! I have to work a little bit:: cut out coupons and match them up with the sales, maybe save receipts and UPCs to submit for a rebate, but in the long run, I am saving us money and we are eating well. If it was not for coupons, I honestly think we'd be on food stamps by now, because we actually do qualify for food stamps. I see a lot of people here in our town on food stamps and I wish I could teach them to make their money go farther by using coupons and sales. I take it as a challenge sometimes to see how much I can get for the least amount of money possible.

Ok, I'm done with the bragging. I'm just so pleased and it's good to look in my pantry and my freezer and know that my family won't go hungry.

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Eating and Shopping

Hello!! Are you are still in turkey-induced resting mode, or are you coming down from a Black Friday shopping high? Or perhaps a little of both? :o)

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. My Aunt and Uncle didn't come down because Aunt got sick and didn't want to make the rest of us sick. We missed them but the huge turkey she gave us was already thawing and it needed to be cooked! 22 pounds of lovely turkey went in the oven and between the seven of us, we didn't even finish half of a breast. Talk about leftovers!! the other breast went into the freezer for future meals, and then I picked over the rest of the turkey for pot pies this week.

Andrew and I make such a great team in the kitchen-- he helped me peel potatoes from our garden and we made sure to cook extra potatoes for breakfast later this week, and also made sure there would be leftover mashed potatoes for a shepard's pie as well. When we chopped carrots; he peeled, I chopped; we cooked extra for the pot pies. Then we danced around the turkey as he made gravy from the drippings and I sliced up the meat for our meal. We couldn't have planned it better, there were hardly any leftovers except for what we wanted and we also didn't over stuff ourselves and become miserable for the rest of the night.

I confess, I love Black Friday. I grew up going through the sales papers on Thanksgiving with my mom and sister, hunting for the best bargains and waking early on Friday to hit the stores. I dragged Andrew with me the first year we lived together and it was his first time shopping on Black Friday-- his mom never participated in that event. Andrew went with me a couple times after that, then quit when one year, we waited in line for hours and people were rude and loud and he told me that he had better things to do with his time than to deal with crazy people! I stopped for awhile, too, since we had everything we needed at the time, and then we had no money to shop either.

Ironically, that first time I took Andrew with me to shop on Black Friday, it was for a sewing machine. It was the only thing I wanted that day, so we got up at 4:30 am and made it to the store by 5 am when the doors opened. I got my sewing machine and all was good. This year, that sewing machine finally called it quits on me, and I need a new sewing machine. Lo and behold, Walmart has a sewing machine for $50 and the sale starts at midnight.

I like the midnight start time. That means I don't have to wake up the kids and drag 'em with me and then worry about them the whole time I'm there, making sure they're safe with me and they don't get lost in the crowds. We did this last year, because Andrew had to work, and it was a nightmare making sure the kids were safe, dealing with the pushy people, long lines, and hungry/tired/cranky kids who just want to go back to bed. Midnight shopping means I can leave the kids asleep in their beds, leave the husband to keep our bed warm, and Mom and I are free to shop.

I got my sewing machine! We got there around 11 pm and I'm glad we did, they did something different this year and let people shop for those sale items, but not pay until after 12:01 am for the sale prices. I made a beeline for the sewing machine and already the pallet was half-gone by then. We picked up a few more things and we were done by 12:15 am. Lucky us, someone directed us to the jewelry counter to pay so we bypassed the long lines and we were out the door by 12:30 am. It was a good night and I'm glad the crowds weren't so bad. Maybe they were all still in a good mood from good eatin'.

Now I can finish my advent calendar and sew the tree and pockets on the backing . We are in the middle of putting up the tree and decorations, and then after the kids go to bed, I'll start sewing with my new machine! It's not a fancy machine, but then, that first sewing machine I bought on Black Friday 13 years ago wasn't either and it lasted me this long. Here's to another 13 years or more with this one.

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We went to Ikea last week. When we lived closer to the store, we were there pretty much every month. We decorated and furnished our apartment with Ikea things. When we moved to our first house, we bought more Ikea things. I like their clean lines and designs. I like the store itself. I like how they have "rooms" to draw inspiration from and how things are arranged. I could spend a whole day in there without once giving thought to the time.

Since moving here, it's a major drive to visit Ikea now. I think the last time we were there was when Peter was a baby.. over a year ago, maybe. Something like that. I had been talking about going for some time now, and when Mom was talking about getting a headboard/footboard for her bed, I pulled up the Ikea website and she found a bed she liked. Hooray! An excuse to go to Ikea!!

We were there for 4 hours and our time was up when the kids' fuses were just about spent. If it weren't for the kids, I could have stayed longer, waited until after rush hour was over, but as it was, we got out of there just before rush hour started.

The kids had fun looking at everything. Thank goodness Ikea is kid-friendly and there are lots of things for the kids to look at and touch. The plopped on couches and bounced on chairs, fiddled with drawers and opened cabinets. Played with toys and tried every kitchen utensil they had available.

They tried out beds and were especially smitten with these little ones all in a row. They begged for us to get these beds for them, and I was really tempted to. I still need to get 2 more beds for the kids. Peter will be outgrowing the crib soon, so maybe we'll be back in the Fall. See how it goes.

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The visit to Ikea was not the best this time. I think they were understaffed and the store was not as spotless as it usually is. We made it to the cafe just ahead of the crowd and when we sat down with our food, the line snaked out of the roped-in section and into the store. The server ladies were not happy and looked like they wanted to be elsewhere and the utensils and cups were gone, so the kids had to eat their yogurt with extra large spoons and both Andrew and I nearly slipped on a puddle of water by the soda dispensers. Some of the items we wanted to buy were sold out, so that was a disappointment and there were too few cashiers to deal with the large amount of people ready to check out. We waited over 30 minutes in line to pay and with 4 kids, especially Peter who wants to get down and run, that was 30 minutes too long.

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When we finally paid, I found out they no longer provide bags! You could buy one of those Ikea bags, but I have no use for one of those big bags.. they are really big! Would have been nice to have a heads up on their new no-bag policy and I would have brought my own bags. Good thing you're allowed to bring the cart to the parking lot because that would have been irritating having to tote the many little items we bought in our arms. I can appreciate them wanting to eliminate plastic bags, but they should post a sign on the entrances stating they do not use plastic bags and to either bring your own or purchase an Ikea re-usable bag.

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Despite the long lines and the bag issue, I still look forward to the next trip there. If I could, I'd try to visit every 3 months, with lots of money to shop and the kids would be with the grandparents so I could be free to look about and bounce on chairs and couches and beds, finger the lovely fabrics and turn on and off every lamp. Did I mention that Andrew turned on all the timers in the display bin and walked away?? I wonder what people thought when all of a sudden, a bunch of timers went off!