Mom On A Mission!

This past Friday we received some news that affected our household finances greatly.  This meant that my husband and I had to some major reworking/cutting of our budget.  When super-couponing first started to catch my eye last year, all I can tell you is that it kept nudging at me that this was something that I needed to learn and I have to say the news we received on Friday made me so thankful/greatful that I had taken the steps forward to pursue it.  On Friday I became determined that with my knowledge of couponing, that my goal for the week was to see what and how much I could add to my household stock of groceries for as cheap as possible and even free. 

Everything that you see in the picture above cost me 42 cents.  The 42 cents I spent was the tax on the items while my coupons and double coupons covered the full price of these items – basically they were free!  This is only one snapshot though.  If I took a picture of everything I purchased yesterday, I spent $1.18 (tax) and saved $77.98.  Let me lay out everything else I got this week:

Starkist tuna pouches (free)

Chips Ahoy cookies (free)

Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Dough (free)

Jiffy Pop Microwave Popcorn (free)

Halls Cough Drops (free)

Planters Nuts (free)

Quaker Rice Cakes (free)

Tree Top juice boxes (free)

Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes (59 cents/box)

Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Cereal (74 cents/box)

Tillamook 2lb blocks of cheese ($1.99)

Danimal Crush Cups yogurt (49 cents/4pack)

Bar-S hot dogs (39 cents)

La Victoria Salsa (12 cents a jar)

Campbells Healthy Choice soup (28 cents/can)

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (44 cents/box)

I have probably forgotton something on here, but you get the idea.  You should have seen my husband’s face when he saw all my purchases and told him what I spent.  I guess you could say I am a little determined to make the most of the situation and regardless of the economy I am going to keep a positive attitude!  Some of you may already have life situations facing you know, while others may not know what situations may present to you in the future.  However, you can arm yourself with knowledge and skills that can help you make the most of those times.

An Amazing Offer!

I just wanted to let any of the readers that are interested in learning how to get into couponing and saving some serious money (60-80%), that Nicole from Cassia Coupon Gals has made an incredible offer.  She posted on her blog yesterday, that she is willing to do free coupon classes for people in the months of January and February.  She came to my house in November and did an amazing class/presentation.  If your are interested, you can e-mail her at coupongals@live.com  Because she has to travel from Burley to do this, she is requesting that you try to get a group of at least 10 people together for a class.  She is also responsible for getting us couponers a really good deal with the Times News called the “Coupon Clipper Deal”.  This includes a daily subscription to the paper and 5 Sunday copies of the paper (where you will get alot of your coupons), for as low as $18.00 a month if you pay monthly.  I am now doing this and because of the money I am saving, I am able to take this amount out of my weekly budget easily once a month to cover the subscription.

Changing The Way You Think

So as I share my journey with you on learning how to save maximum dollars on couponing, I have to start out by saying that none of these are my own original concepts.  The information I share with you, I have learned from a variety of blogs (to which I try to add their links on the side of this blog), a couple of wonderful women: Connie  and Nicole, and from a book “Pick Another Check Out Lane Honey”.

I used to shop mainly at Winco and Costco.  It is true that Winco’s prices are lower if you are shopping without coupons, but as you get into serious couponing the stores that I used to think were too expensive to go to are becoming my favorites for the best deals in savings.  I am now shopping at Albertson’s, Walgreens, and Smith’s.  Serious couponing involves combining your coupons with a stores’ sale, their coupons, and manufacturers coupons.  If you are buying things that are already on sale and using coupons, possibly doubling your coupons, and earning catalina’s and register rewards it is amazing how cheap you can get things.  Winco does not run the sales that these other stores do and Costco only takes Costco coupons.  Did you know you can “stack” coupons?  This involves using a manufacturer’s coupon and store coupon together.  You can use more than one coupon on an item!  You can also take advantage of sales that have buy 1 get 1 free (B1G1) and use 2 coupons.  This means you can use a coupon on the item you are getting for free.  Example: Fred Meyer’s had a toy sale on Potato Heads a month ago where I got Mr & Mrs Potato Head and 2 sets of Spud Buds on a B1G1 sale and used 4 coupons.  My final price on all 4 items was $5.06.  My 17 month old son received these for Christmas and I have an extra set of Spud Buds to use as a birthday present for one of his friends.

Now if you are like me, you are asking what a catalina or register reward is.  When I first heard catalina, I had to google the word to learn what it meant.  A catalina or register reward is a coupon that is dispensed from a machine at the register that may be in the form of a coupon for a product, but quite often are in dollar amounts towards you next purchase.  That means they are like cash the next time you go through the store.  So for my next transaction, the cashier would ring up my transaction, then I would hand them my coupons to deduct and then hand them my catalina/register reward to take of the total further reducing the amount of my transaction.  This really adds up for some big savings!

You also have to change the way you think about shopping.  You don’t make your shopping list based on what you need to make meals for a week or stop at the store to just pick up what you need for dinner.  You are going to shop sales and start stockpiling so that you will do meal planning of you shelves at home.  It can take a month or two to build your stock as the sale items rotate, but just be patient and trust that it will work.  This means you will buy your sale items to stock with and add in your fresh produce each week to supplement the items you are stocking on.  My first major coupon shopping trip was made only 5-6 weeks ago and I am shocked at the stock I have built up.  My husband is excited too and has been very helpful in getting my shelves arranged in the basement and in organizing our freezer.  The kids are enjoying items that I wouldn’t buy before because they seemed frivolous and too expensive.  I am buying brand name and am getting things cheaper than before.  I am saving a minimum of 60% on my purchases and as I get better I am saving over 80% on transactions.  A week ago, I even managed to get some of my items for free (with the exception of sales tax), after buying sales items and doubling my coupons!  Each week I am doing this it is getting easier and quicker.  While there is a little time involved I am finding that the amount I am saving is more than worth it.