Last Week's Couponing Adventure

Ok, so with a large family, I'm always looking for ways to save money. I have a really good friend, Lana, who has been couponing for a while and when she told me that she spends about $200/month on groceries(for a family of 8!) using coupons, I thought I had to give it a try.

She taught me the basics and turned me on to a great web-site www.athriftymom.com. I started in January. In December, I spent $800 on groceries, which I would say has been a pretty average amount (by "groceries" I mean anything purchased at the grocery store; this includes: food, paper goods, shampoo, medicine, etc...). In January, I spent $600- so that's already about a 25% reduction of my grocery budget.

I was talking to one of my sisters about this, and she said I should start keeping track of my savings. I thought that it would be fun to have a record of my savings and see if I'm making progress.

Someday, I'd like to be able to show you exactly how I did every transaction, but for now, I might just have to keep it simple.

**DISCLAIMER**

I am new at this. I hope eventually I'll be as good as Lana and "The Thrifty Mom". I'm getting better all the time... Here are some tricks I've learned so far:

• I've learned that the trick to getting great deals at Walgreens is to utilize their "Register Rewards" and to shop using several transactions in order to "roll " the Register Rewards. Again, I'll defer to www.athriftymom.com. She has great instructions on her website about how to do this.
  
• The trick at other stores (Albertson's, Smith's, etc.) is to "stack", meaning, find the store sales for the week and then "stack" them with a manufacturer's coupon to get extra savings.
  
• The third trick is to buy multiple Sunday papers (at least 5) so that you have several of the same coupon. That way, when there is a really good deal, you can stock up on that item.
  

So, last week I shopped at Walgreens and Alberetson's. Here are the deals I got... I want to give proper credit: I learned about all of these deals on www.athriftymom.com.

WALGREEN'S

Transaction #1

Hershey's Pieces 4@ 2/ $5.00- buy 4 get a $5.00 RR

• $1.00 from a Utah Smart Source (used 2)

Total Out of Pocket (OOP): $8.60

Transaction #2

Tomato Sauce 3@ $.39 with in ad coupon

• Used $1.00 off 3 from delmonte.com
  

Total: $.06 ea.

Triaminic 2/$10 (W sale price) $5.00 RR when you buy 2

• Used $1.00 off 1 (used 2)
  

Total: $8.00

Excedrin $2.50

• $2.00 off 1

Total: $.50

Paid with $5.oo RR from #1

Total OOP: $4.49

Transaction #3

Cover Girl cosmetics Buy one get one 50% off ( one eyeshadow was $7.49 the other $8.99)

• use the B1G1 free from 2/7 PG
• $1 from 2/14 Red Plum

Total: $3.99 for both items

Right Guard Deoderant $2.99-$3.99 ea. B1G1 free.

• Use $2 off2 (use 2)

Total: about $1 each

Tylenol Sinus $4.99 ea $3.oo RR when you buy 2

• Use $3.00 off 2 coupon
  

Total: $6.98

Lemonheads $.49 each

Paid with $5 RR from #2

Total OOP: $12.32





Transaction #4:

Tomato Sauce 3@ $.39 with in ad coupon

• Used $1.00 off 3 from delmonte.com
  

Total: $.06 ea.

Excedrin $2.50

• $2.00 off 1

Total: $.50

Seeds 5/$1.00 with in ad coupon
Total: $.20 each

Paid with $3.00 RR from #3

Total OOP: $1.95

Later I returned the Excedrin for $5.60

So on this trip, my total OOP was $21.76. Without couponing, this would have cost me $90.31.

Albertson's

This week at Albertson's they had a deal where you buy $20 in participating items and get back a $7 Catalina coupon to use on your next purchase (basically like getting $7 back).

So, first I purchased these items that totlaed something like $21.00. I had $1.00 coupons for everything but the bisquick. I had a $.60 coupon for that. So my total OOP was about $15.00 and I got a $7.00 Catalina.

Then, I got a few things that we just needed. Everything was on sale. I also got a box of Kashi cereal that I has a $1.50 off coupon for. Total for this was $11.60


I also spent about $40 at Costco (fruit, fruit leather, soy milk, etc.)

Total OOP: $27.60

This week I spent about $87 on groceries. I used to try to keep my grocery budget to $200/week. Now I'm shooting for $100/week, so last week I was under. Yay!