Couponing Summer Review

It's been awhile since I've written about couponing, so I thought I would share an update today and some advice that I've found to be true.

The month of June was when I really began couponing again. That month since I was just starting out, I was using coupons like crazy, and stocked up on just about anything you could imagine. And since it was such a big month for stocking up on things, we landed right on our budget for that month.

In July, I decided to take another approach: since I had already stocked up so much in June, it was my goal to try to only buy things from the meat, produce, bread, and dairy aisles. Just perishable things that I couldn't buy with a coupon. And this was the best idea I could have ever had. Because when you use coupons, it becomes a little addicting, and there is the temptation there to buy tons of stuff that you don't really need simply because you get a little thrill out of the bargain you receive. In July I pretty much stuck to my goal. I didn't even have to think about buying things like shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, body wash, feminine products, most non-perishable food items, or even a single cleaning product. And that month we came in under budget by $222!!

This month I've gone back to couponing again. However, I haven't gone quite as crazy stocking up on things as I did in June. I'm getting better at knowing which coupons I'll actually use. And also at not buying things JUST because I have a coupon for it. So this month I've continued to build my stockpile, and I'm still $200 under budget with just a week-and-a-half left in the month.

And honestly? It really doesn't take that much time. I'd say all that extra time spent clipping and organizing coupons, and reading the sale ads has been well worth it for the extra hundreds of dollars we've saved in just a few months!

So here's a breakdown of what has worked for us:

~Alternate between using coupons/stocking up one month, and taking a couponing break and using your stockpile the next month. This is how I've saved the most money

~Don't get sucked in by the thrill of finding a good deal. Only use coupons for things you would have bought anyway.

~Try to find your thrill by being way under budget. Not by looking at how much you saved at each individual shopping trip. Because it sounds weird, but you almost get the tendency to buy more, so your savings look bigger when you're at the grocery store.

~Some of your more expensive grocery stores will double coupons up to a certain amount (like Giant Eagle in my area). Because of this and their great sales, I save a lot more money there than I would at someplace like Walmart.

~Shop at a wide variety of places. My main grocery store is Giant Eagle, but I like to shop at Aldi's, Marcs, and even Family Dollar too. I really watch the sale ads, and just shop wherever I can get things the cheapest! And I usually hit up Walgreens because they have amazing sales, coupons, and register rewards (free money for shopping there, basically). A couple of weeks ago I bought $28 worth of stuff at Walgreens for $7! That's probably a personal best for me :-) I really love Walgreens. (Shout out to JC!!)

~Put the word out that you're a couponer. You probably have lots of friends and family who get the newspaper, but just end up throwing the coupons away. They would be happy to give them to you instead!

~Stock up on seasonal items. I've been really focusing on buying a lot of things like barbecue sauce, steak sauce, salad dressings, iced tea bags, etc. There are usually great deals for those types of things during the summer, but you'd probably have to pay full price in the winter. I am pretty confident that my stockpile for these things will last me all winter! And most of them were bought at $1 or less. I'm sure pretty soon things like soups and hot cocoa will start going on sale since the season's about to change. Keep your eye out for those types of things, because they'll only be on sale at certain times of the year.

I think that's enough for one day. What couponing advice do you have to share??

How to Stretch Your Dollar: Find a Couponing Buddy

One of the things that has really helped me since I began couponing is having a friend who is doing it too.
My sister-in-law Maria and I started couponing around the same time. It has been great to have someone to talk to about certain deals and bounce ideas and questions off of. And the best part about having a coupon buddy? We share coupons! I save the coupons I don't want, and she does the same, and then we exchange them. It works out great!

So if you are new to couponing like we are, find a friend or relative who coupons too. It's great to have a little "support system."

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Here are my savings for the week of 6/5/2011:

Walgreens: Saved $20.43
Giant Eagle: Saved $32.46
Olive Garden coupon: Saved $4

Total Saved this week: $56.99
(About 40% savings)

Total saved since May 22: $117.72

How to Stretch Your Dollar: Groupon

Last Saturday I wrote about keeping track of and using what you have to save money. Today I'm going to highlight one of my new favorite ways to save money, and that is by joining Groupon!

For the past year, I've seen ads for Groupon all over the place. I've been curious about it, and finally decided to check it out. I saw on one of my favorite coupon blogs that someone got free tickets to the zoo by using it, so I had to join!

If you don't know, Groupon is a website where you can find deals on local attractions, restaurants, stores, hotels, and anything else you can think of. A minimum amount of people have to sign up in order to get the deal. The way it works is that Groupon promises businesses a minimum number of customers, so the businesses give great deals! It's great for everyone. I know I was asking myself, "what's the catch?" But there doesn't seem to be one.

In the past week, here are some of the best deals I've seen on Groupon:

• $20 Old Navy voucher for $10
• A 1-night stay at South Beach Resort Hotel in Marblehead, Ohio, right on Lake Erie for $99. Normal price is $219!
• a $20 Indians ticket for $10
• 2 Fandango movie tickets for $5!! $5 for BOTH of them! I thought that was great!
• $20 tickets to a Brad Paisley concert at Progressive Field...normal price is $41
• $15 for $50 worth of photobooks/cards/etc from Mixbook

And that was all just from 1 week! If you want to join, just go to Groupon's website, fill in your email address and your city, and then you're in! They will send you an email a day of a great deal! And sometimes you'll even get 2 or 3 in one day. You can also check their website daily for deals in other cities.

(I was not compensated at all for this post, and all opinions are my own. I just really like Groupon!)

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And now for an update on my savings the week of May 29:

Walgreens: Saved $13.29 in sales and coupons
Giant Eagle: Saved $20.70

Total saved this week: $33.99
(34% savings based on everything I bought)

Total saved since May 22:
$60.83

How to Stretch Your Dollar

Couponing is addicting, and I can easily see how people can become obsessed. When your receipt prints out at the grocery store or drug store, and you see how much money you saved, you definitely get a little rush.

When I began couponing, I noticed the savings were spilling into other areas. I got so excited about saving money with coupons, I wanted to save money other ways too! So I decided I'd try to post some updates on how I'm doing with my couponing and saving, and also share the tips I find along the way!

Today I want to share something really simple, but it's something I struggled with for a very long time after we got married, and that is using what you have, and not letting things go to waste.

Since Luke and I don't have kids yet, I just have to cook for the two of us. For the first couple years of our marriage, I threw away WAY too much food, because we simply couldn't eat it fast enough. I feel like in the past few months, I've gotten much better at using what we have. Here are a few tips I've picked up along the way:

1. Freeze what you know you can't eat now. When I make lasagna or a big casserole that the two of us will never be able to eat quickly, I try to freeze as much as I can. Not only does this prevent food from going bad, but it also helps me later on down the road when I've had a long week and don't feel like preparing a whole meal.

2. Don't buy too much of one item (if it's a perishable product) just because it's on sale. I was really guilty of this before. If something was on sale, I would buy a lot of it, not taking into consideration the fact that we may not be able to eat/use it all before it expired. This one has become easier as time has gone on, because I have a much better idea of how much of a certain product Luke and I can use/eat in a certain amount of time now.

3. Keep a list of possible meals you could make with the items you have on hand. This has been so helpful for me! I keep a "note" on my iPhone of all the meals I can make with the food/products I have on hand, and the ones that I plan to buy the following week. That way, I don't forget about something I have in the fridge or cupboard. I plan on spending between $55 and $60 next week on groceries. Out of those groceries, plus whatever I have left at my house, I can make 9 meals! I thought that was pretty good! This helps me use up what I have, and also makes meal-planning so much less of a hassle.

4. Make meals that have similar ingredients during the same week. For example, I ordered some meatballs from a fundraiser that one of the kids at my school was doing. Later, I looked in the Giant Eagle add this week, and Italian Sausage is on sale. So I will plan on making meatball subs one day this week, and Italian Sausage sandwiches another day. That way, I will probably be able to use up all the sub buns I buy this week, instead of leaving a few of them to sit in my cupboard and go bad.

5. Eat your leftovers, and keep your refigerator clean and organized. I was really, really not good at this when we first got married. I would put leftovers in the fridge, and completely forget about them. Honestly, there were times when I would throw away a whole tupperware container because it was too gross to try to clean out! But luckily, I've gotten much better at this, too. I try to clean out my refrigerator weekly, and keep all of our leftovers at the very front of the shelves so we don't forget about them.

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And just for my own records, I'm going to keep track of how I'm doing with saving money, and I'm going to try to post the amount of money I saved weekly. So for the week of May 22, 2011, here's how much money I saved:

Walgreens: Saved $4.25 in coupons and store sales

Giant Eagle: Saved $22.59 in coupons and store sales

Total Saved This Week: $26.84

Not bad for my first week back in the game! And for the first time in MONTHS, we are staying under budget for groceries for the month of May. (Okay, it was only $.18 cents under budget, but hey, it's better than being $30 over!!)

Back to Couponing

Have you seen the show "Extreme Couponing" on TLC? Oh my goodness, craziest show ever! People will literally buy of $1,000 of stuff and pay less than $10 for it!

I think it's borderline crazy to cut out 97 coupons for something like barbecue sauce, and proceed to buy 97 bottles of barbecue sauce. I don't care if you CAN get it for free...do you really need 97 bottles?! Seriously, leave some for the rest of us!

Anyway, rant: over. As crazy as I think these people are, they HAVE inspired me to get back into couponing.

My plan for couponing this time around is to only buy things with coupons that can be matched with a sale or another coupon. I will try to start a stockpile, but just a small one, big enough to fill the cabinet in my bathroom. Anything I can get beyond that for pennies or for free, I will donate. Anyway, in a nutshell, my goal is to not pay full price for anything, to start a small stockpile, and get as many items or free or less than $1 as possible. I know I'll never be like those extreme couponers, and I'm absolutely fine with that!

I spent a big portion of my free time this weekend making my game plan for shopping this week. I picked up two newspapers with coupon inserts, and clipped all the coupons for products that I use. Then I went through the weekly ads for Walmart, Giant Eagle, and Walgreens to see which coupons match up with sales, and which items had store coupons. Sometimes a manufacturers coupon will match with a store coupon for even more savings. Also, Giant Eagle has e-offers which are coupons you find online and virtually "clip." The savings go directly to your store card when you buy that product. So next, I found which manufacturers coupons matched with the e-offers (there were a lot!) After that I made detailed shopping lists for all the stores I planned to shop at, on my iPhone (Luke and I love the "Our Groceries" app). I had noted which ones were on sale, and which ones I had a coupon for. Then I sorted them in the order in which I would find them in the grocery store (OCD much?) Finally, I put the coupons I knew I would be using this week in envelopes, a different envelope for each store.

My goal is to get every detail figured out BEFORE my shopping trip. That way it's quicker and easier, and I don't miss anything.

So did all my hard work pay off? I Shopped at Giant Eagle tonight, and here is a breakdown:

Bought: 37 items
Cost before discount: $80.00
Cost after coupons and store discount: $57. 41

TOTAL SAVINGS: $22.59
(28% savings)
(plus $4 in coupons printed out for my next shopping trip!)

Now, I'm sure coupon veterans look at that and think it's nothing. But I'm just getting back into the swing of things, and I was pretty proud of myself!

I didn't score anything for free today, but here are some notable deals I found for $1 or less:

Knorr Pasta or Rice Sides:
$1.39
$.50 off when you by 2, doubled (Giant Eagle doubles coupons up to $1!)
Final price: $.89 apiece


Bounty Paper towels:
$1.39
$.25 off coupon, doubled
Final price: $.89

Suave Professionals Shampoo:
$2.50
on sale for $1.50 apiece w/ store card
$.50 off coupon when you buy 2, doubled
Total price: $1 apiece


(Okay, this last one's not less than $1, but I thought it was a great deal. There are certain brands that I don't like to compromise on, and I love Dawn Plus dish soap because it keeps my hands so soft! I don't have a dishwasher, so I need to be careful what dish soap I use! Anyway, this brand Is usually very expensive, and I normally pay over $3 for it)
Dawn Plus Hand Renewal dish soap:
$3.19
$.50 off Giant Eagle e-offer, + $.50 coupon, doubled (total savings: $1.50 off)
Final Price: $1.69

I'm feeling pretty good about my savings! I know I'll get better as time goes on, and as my stockpile grows, too. Speaking of my stockpile, here are its meager beginnings:

I have trips planned to Walgreens and Walmart later this week, and I can't wait to see how much I can save! The good thing about couponing (besides saving money, obviously) is that it makes shopping like a game or a challenge. It makes me dread it just a little bit less :-)

A Luxury

I'm so glad it's Wednesday evening. To me, that means the week is just about over. Tomorrow we have the 4-6 grade musical to keep us busy all day (i.e. I don't really have to teach. Instead I will be more like babysitting the kids at the auditorium). Not only is it going to be an easy day, it is also supposed to be warm and sunny. A nice change, because it's been freezing and dreary for a few days.

The "cherry on top" of all of this, is....

Starbucks ice cream! You have NO IDEA how happy this makes me. We NEVER buy anything besides vanilla ice cream. Luke eats it like it's going out of style, and likes vanilla because he loves to use it to make Root Beer floats. I am not a huge vanilla ice cream fan, so I usually just don't eat ice cream at home. There are way too many amazing flavors out there to just eat vanilla all the time!

Anyway, the stars have aligned for me tonight, and I have been able to purchase not one, but two pints of Starbucks ice crea! A pint of this stuff is usually between $4 and $5. Which, if you ask me, is just plain highway robbery. This week, however, Walgreens is having a buy one, get one FREE sale on Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's ice cream! I also had a coupon for $1 off when you buy 2. So I was able to purchase both pints for $3.79. That is a little more manageable!

I don't know if you understand how excited I am about this. It is the highlight of my day, hands down. I can't wait to lie down in bed, turn something girly on TV, and eat some of my Java Chip Frappuccino ice cream. And yes, you read that right. I'm TOTALLY eating it IN BED. This is the first time I've specifically bought a flavor of ice cream just for me since we got married! That's almost two years! So I'm going to pull out all the stops and really enjoy this ice cream! Ha! I'm going to eat just a little bit each night and see how long I can make it last. I probably won't splurge like this for another long time!

I bet you can't believe I just wrote an entire three paragraphs about this ice cream. Well, believe it. This girl LOVES ice cream, and it's been a looong time since I've gotten to choose a flavor just for me ;-) (I may be slightly exaggerating about my excitement level! ha!)

I hope you are all having a lovely Wednesday as well. Coming up later this week: Luke's 26th birthday festivities! HOLY COW we are getting old!! (At least I will always be 6 months and 4 days younger than him! ;-))

A Second Job

I recently have acquired a second job. And that second job is couponing, doing research, crunching numbers, and ultimately saving money. I have written before about how I started couponing less than two weeks ago. And I even started another blog to track all of my savings and share ideas. Even though I'm blogging over there, I'm so excited about this "second job," that I thought I'd share some tips over on this blog as well :-) In the long run, I hope to save enough money that it will actually be like the earnings from a second job! Did I say "second job" enough times in that paragraph for you? :-P

So here is what I have learned in the past almost-two-weeks:

1. You gotta learn how to work Walgreens sales/coupons/Register Rewards! I have gotten a significant amount of my stockpile (see #2) for pennies or for free. It is seriously my new favorite store. I used to think that Walgreens was incredibly overpriced, and I didn't understand why anyone would shop there. I understand, now! I can get name brand, top-of-the-line stuff for cheaper than the off brands! And when my Register Rewards print out, I feel a little rush every time (Register Rewards are coupons that are as good as cash...for anything at Walgreens, that is. They print off for certain items which are posted in the weekly newspaper ad).
2. Stockpile! I have bought a lot of toothpaste in the past week because it is cheap and I got Register Rewards for buying it. I basically paid $.99 for each tube this week. And now, for the next few months, I won't have to buy any. When our current tube of toothpaste is running low, and toothpaste is selling for over $3 at Giant Eagle or even my beloved Walgreens, I can laugh because I have a ton of it stocked up in my bathroom that I paid much less for! That is the beauty of a stockpile. Buy when it's cheap/free and save it for later. Here is the measly little stockpile I have started. Remember, I began less than two weeks ago:3. Do your research! I've had so much fun the past two Saturday mornings searching through the coupons and ads (Ummm, that makes me a really huge nerd, doesn't it? :-P). I cut out all the coupons I think I'll use for the week, then circle any sale items in the ads that match with the coupons, or any that are just too good to pass up. Then EVERY DAY, and I mean multiple times a day, I check the blogs. There are a few that I check pretty much every time I sit down at my computer: Money Saving Mom, Sisters Shopping on a Shoestring (which is a local one, if you know me in "real life" and live around me), The Krazy Coupon Lady, and Meg's money-saving blog, Saving on the Essentials. Those blogs have been such valuable resources, and have helped me find deals and freebies that I wouldn't have found on my own.

4. Sign up for free samples. 'Nuff said. (The blogs above will often post about these).

5. Swagbucks is like free money. If you're not familiar with the site, it's basically a search engine, online shopping center, and so much more rolled into one. You earn "Swagbucks" for searching, shopping, and doing other random things on their website, and you can redeem them in the "Swag Store" for all kinds of cool stuff. I am saving up my Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards to use at Christmastime! In less than ten days, I have already racked up 182 Swagbucks, just for using their search engine. I think I will make an average of 100 Swagbucks a week, just from searching. There are 36 weeks until Christmas, so that's about 3,600 Swagbucks. Plus I get them everytime I buy anything to any of the stores linked to their site. So I'm guessing it will be a lot more than that, even. A $5 Amazon gift card is about 450 points. If I did my math write, that's $40 in gift cards just for using their search engine by Christmastime. I'm thinking the total will be at least doubled. so I'm predicting having $80 in gift cards by Christmastime. That's enough to buy two or three people their gifts. Not too shabby....free money, like I said :-) I have rambled on about this way more than I meant to!

Okay, so that's all for today. And just to give you an idea of the power of coupons and deals, I have saved $197.47 since April 7! Again, that's less than two weeks, people!! (admittedly, a large chunk of that was from the free stuff I got from hosting a Mary Kay party. It is, however, not including the freebies I have scored - a free movie ticket and a plethora of free hair products :-))

Happy Saving!!

Getting Started

Today was a big day for me: the day I embarked on my couponing adventure! Luke bought a paper today when he got the mail, and I was off and running :-) (Our local paper carries coupons on Saturday instead of Sunday).

I spent about an hour or so this morning reading through the material we received on Wednesday at our coupon class, browsing through moneysavingmom.com, cutting out coupons from the paper, and printing off more from the internet.
Later this afternoon, I went out to Walgreens for my first experience using a coupon! That I can remember, anyway. My cousins and I set off together, because they had been at the class Wednesday evening too. We put our heads together to find the best deals we could, and I think we made out pretty well! And the funniest thing happened right when we were checking out...a girl who had been in our class with us walked in with her giant binder full of coupons! We had a good laugh over that.

Anyway, in case you are curious to see what I purchased today, here it is: Two large boxes of cheerios (I probably wouldn't survive without my Cheerios), an 18 pack of tampons (I feel like my mom is going to be embarrassed by my brazen act of posting a picture of tampons on my blog. Sorry, Mom :-P) and a tube of toothpaste. Now, I normally pay somewhere between $4 and $5 on one box of Cheerios at Giant Eagle once every two weeks or so. So that fact that TWO boxes of Cheerios, plus everything else here only cost me $8.56 was pretty shocking to me! Here's how I spent under $9 on all of this:

Colgate toothpaste: Original price was $2.79. I had a coupon for $.75 off 1. So the final price of the toothpaste was $2.04.

The Cheerios were originally $ 4.59 per box. So that's $9.18. Today, Cheerios were buy one, get one free, plus I had a $1.00 off coupon! So both boxes ended up costing me $3.59 in all!

The tampons were originally $3.49, plus I had a $1.00 coupon from my cousin. So that's 2.49 in all.

Altogether with tax, that is $8.59...I SAVED $8.84!! So I saved more than I spent!

And that's not all. I got a $2.50 register reward that printed out. That's $2.50 I can spend next time on just about anything at Walgreens! I'm so pumped :-)

I also made my own little coupon binder. More on that later...I am leaving for a double date right now! And I didn't have time to proof-read this (I always proof-read my posts!) So I apologize if there were a lot of errors, or if anything didn't make sense!

Have a great Saturday! And if you don't use coupons, you should start!

The Coupon Cult

I mentioned yesterday that I went to a coupon class last night. I felt more like I had attended some kind of coupon cult meeting. I think I was completely brainwashed. I had no idea people could save so much money using coupons! It was unbelievable. Two of my friends from church led the class, and they practically get paid to shop at places like Walgreens and Giant Eagle! It inspired me, but was very overwhelming at the same time.

I learned a lot, but decided to take it one baby step at a time. My first baby step is going to be to check Walgreens' or Giant Eagle's coupons this week (or next week), and just cut out a few. I want to start a file system and see if I can save at least a few dollars this/next week. I am definitely not quite ready to do all of the strategizing and create the intense game plans that my friends who led the class do. Still, I figure if I start somewhere, maybe I'll be up to that level in a couple of years if I keep at it!

They recommend beginning with a little miniature expanding file folder like this:
And then working your way up to something like this (they both have giant coupon binders like this filled with baseball card inserts. I'm telling you, they are hardcore! :-P)
I learned so much new information! It felt like I was about to have a brain-overload. For example, I had no idea that those little coupons that print out with a purchase at the grocery store are called "catalinas." I had no idea that you could use both a store coupon AND a manufacturer's coupon on the same item. I didn't know that my favorite grocery store, Giant Eagle, doubles coupons. And I definitely didn't know that you could basically get paid to shop at stores like Walgreens if you work the system right. If you have not looked into this, as I had not, there is really a whole new world out there! It takes a lot of planning and thought, but you can really save probably hundreds of dollars every month. Or at least every couple of months. It is like a game, and you have to have a strategy, which is why I think some people find it so utterly addicting!

My only concern about this whole thing is that I'm afraid I'll be tempted to buy lots of things that I don't really need because of the fact that I LOVE finding deals. I am going to try to only use coupons on things that I need, and would have bought anyway. Unless it is completely free, or I get paid to buy it!

If you are like me, and have never used a coupon in your life, here are a couple of great blogs that the girls mentioned over and over last night: Money Saving Mom and Sisters Shopping on a Shoestring. There is a lot of information on coupon collecting there, and they also list lots of sales that are paired up with coupons for some unbelievable deals. Be careful, though. I can already feel myself getting sucked in. I think it's going to be addicting once I get going and hit my first great deal and feel that high!

I will try to keep updating about my couponing adventures. I can't wait until Saturday to get the paper with all the coupons!