An Adventure in Shopping with Coupons

Since I’ve been home I’ve been working on honing in my coupon skills during the last few months. Before when I worked I would use coupons and I thought I was doing quite well. Once I stopped working and started reading blogs and looking at sites like moneysavingmom.com I realized I was just in the baby stages of couponing. These ladies take couponing beyond anything I ever thought possible. Now with following there techniques for several months I’m starting to feel more knowledgeable and organized about my coupon use. The most challenging thing I find is that I do not live close to a large city where there are stores that have huge double couponing policies. The most I can get is four doubles up to .50 cents from Safeway and the occasional doubles for Albertsons. So I’ve been working on learning the Walgreens and Rite Aid games with the single check rebates and the Up Rewards. With that I now feel confident enough to share my recent shopping trip to Safeway, Walgreens and Rite Aid.

On this trip I spent $15.44 saving a total of $47.08 or 75% on this shopping trip. I used various store and manufacture coupons combined with double coupons, single rebate checks and UP rewards to come up with this savings. My trip is listed as follows:

Rite Aid

I purchased three packages of pull-ups and one bottle of crest toothpaste.

On this purchase I used manufactured coupons and received $8.00 in UP rewards and a $10.00 gift card for purchasing $25.00 worth of Huggies products. (This deal is also good on diapers and St. James products.)

After all these saving my total cost was .71 ¢, saving a total of $29.25.

Safeway Trip

At Safeway I bought three Miracle Whips, two Kraft Dressings, and two Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergents.

With doubles, manufactured coupons and store coupons I spent a total of $11.23, saving a total of $18.40.

I then split my shopping order into a second group in order to take advantage of another group of double coupons. I bought two packages of Bumblebee Tuna and one package of the Sweet Sensations Brownies. Yummy!

I used coupons loaded through CellFire onto my Safeway card, as well as the double and manufactured coupons.

On this order I walked away with Safeway PAYING me .12 ¢ to take these items. Saving a total of $6.59. I LOVE BEING PAID TO SHOP.

Walgreens

At Walgreens I purchased three boxes of Kleenex. This sale was so, so, but I was out of Kleenex at my house and with cold season upon us I could not be without. I also bought two bottles of Gain dishwashing soap. This was on sale for .89 cents and I had two $1.00 off manufactured coupons, so Walgreens paid me .22 ¢ to take these items. Love it!! Then last but not least I purchased three packages of Tridents gum using manufactured and store coupons.

My total spent at Walgreens was $3.62 saving a total of $8.00

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope my trip has inspired you to learn more about coupon shopping.

Organization

Organization plays a major role in being frugal. When it comes to grocery shopping, I look at it as a game of where can I get the best deal and save the most money. Stocking up when items are on sale will save you money in the long run. If you can set aside $25-$50 from your grocery budget for loss leader sales, you can easily stock your pantry. But before you go out and buy those 10 cans of spaghetti sauce you need to know what you already have in your pantry. By organizing your pantry and keeping an inventory of your supply will help keep you from over purchasing a particular item. I have an outside pantry that I store all my can goods in. I keep track of what I have in stock on a dry erase white board hanging on the inside of the pantry door. I know not everyone has this kind of room, but try to think outside the box. You don’t have to store food in just the pantry or kitchen. Think about the top of a closet with unused space or in Rubbermaid containers under your bed. There are lots of nooks and crannies that you can store food. If using a dry erase board takes up to much room you can also keep track of inventory on a spreadsheet and tape it to the inside of you cupboard door. As for the inside of my house I like to keep everything in my cupboard in Tupperware modular mates. These can be a bit pricey to outfit your kitchen in, but usually every 2 years or so Tupperware has a half off sale on there modular mates. So if you know of a good Tupperware rep in your area, have her add your name to her list for when Tupperware has there sale or check out EBay. If Tupperware is out of your price range check out Rubbermaid containers. They don’t stack as well, but they will still get the job done.

I have attached some pics of my pantry and cupboards to give you some ideas. Please feel free to share my blog with your friends.

Introduction

I am just starting out in the blogging world.  My friends have been encouraging me for months now to start blogging about my knowledge of frugal living.  I have recently quit my job to become a stay-at-home mom and am trying to get into the swing of things at home.  I have lived a frugal lifestyle all my life and have recently become debt free following the Larry Burkett / Dave Ramsey plan.  In conjunction of these two lifestyles has allowed me to be at home.  I am hoping to teach people about living frugally / debt free through my blog and to show how the average person can make these positive changes in there lives.