Pantry: Week 4

How to Coupon Effectively: An Overview

My friend Renea says i should put this on my blog, and she's pretty wise, so here it is :)

Get your papers for $1 at Dollar Tree and at Deal$. I've learned everything from my friends and from www.couponmom.com. Here are the major tips:

First of all: go to couponmom and read the "getting started" (or something similar) section. it's got all the basics.
go to www.taylortownpreview.com and sign up for their newsletter. you'll get an e-mail (usually on thursday) with the upcoming coupons, so you can decide ahead of time how many papers you'll want and whether you'll want to purchase extra q's.
when you buy papers, always buy in multiples of 2, so you're set for the BOGO sales.
if there are only a few stock-up items for you in the paper, sometimes it's better to just buy 2 or 4 papers, then get larger amounts of your specific item q's from clippers on taylortown preview (although i don't understand how to pay them yet), ebay (the good ones sell out QUICKLY), or www.thecouponclippers.com. if you're checking on ebay, look at the expiration dates and the values. often different areas get different values. ex: we got .40/2 q's for pizza rolls in this week's paper, but i was able to purchase .35/1 q's from ebay. those will double to .70/1, making each box only cost .30 when they go on sale for $1!!
Meijer lets you "stack" manufacturer q's with their store ("Mealbox") q's. that's how i got select harvest soups for .25 this week: they were on sale for $1.25; the paper had .50/2 q's that doubled to $1/2, and there was a mealbox printable for $1/2. my daughter's favorite food in the WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD is chicken noodle soup!!! she was one happy girl :)
If you have a super target near you, i hear they always have great deals with store printables, particularly on produce (often free, which nobody else ever has!), but i don't have one so don't really know.

My favorite resource sites, besides the ones above, are

www.hotcouponworld.com (awfully busy screen for me, but my whiz friend swears by it, plus it has a mealbox coupon generator)

and www.bargainbriana.com (she only hits the highlights of the sales, but lives in indiana so usually matches what we've got; plus she covers meijer whereas couponmom doesn't have indiana's meijer listed and the other states get different sales than we do.)

The art of matching sale prices with coupons is just "beginner level"; there's a whole next layer of printables, CVS/Walgreens (free toothbrushes, razors, etc. but requires diligent effort), Catalinas (i guess that's the brand name for those q's that print at the register based on what you buy), and k-mart's monthly double-coupons-up-to-$2 (killer deals but lots of fine print which changes monthly). I don't usually mess with those on purpose (although sometimes i luck into the Cats) because they're just too complex for this phase of my life, but i really should because people end up with tons of free stuff that way!!

You will definitely want to find an organization system that works easily. i made a coupon binder; there are lots of (believe it or not!) videos on youtube about making them!! mine is organized alphabetically by category (baking, bars, bread, cereal, etc.) and probably still have the list of categories that i got from someone else & adapted; e-mail me if you want me to look for it for ya. Other people file alphabetically by brand name, or if they only shop at one store will correspond their categories in order with the aisles in the store (if i were a one-store gal, that's what i'd do!)

SAVINGS RECORD

January

Week 1
SPENT $120.20
SAVED $89.98

Week 2
SPENT $120.63
SAVED $239.55

Week 3
SPENT $68.80
SAVED $216.43

Week 4
SPENT $61.20
SAVED $209.25

Week 5
SPENT $78.48
SAVED $135.02

Week 6
SPENT $ 58.55
SAVED $ 38.00

Week 7
SPENT $ 21.12
SAVED $ 65.90

Week 8
SPENT $111.99
SAVED $ 140.64

Week 9
SPENT $ 30.80
SAVED $ 115.29

Week 10
SPENT $73.50
SAVED $85.40

Week 11
SPENT $31.56
SAVED $17.29

Week 12
SPENT $142.10
SAVED $85.26

Week 13
SPENT $124.14
SAVED $194.14

Week 14
SPENT $6.64
SAVED $18
(i actually spent WAY more than this, throwing good money after bad, trying to get rid of an incorrigible UTI. it's finally gone!!)

Week 15

SPENT $247.11

SAVED $488.90

whoa that's a lot!! couldn't pass up the opp to get several months' worth of cheese & whole grain crackers though.. $5 in cheese and triscuits were substantial snacks for 5 hungry kids and an adult tonight!! so much so that a very lite dinner sufficed!

Week 16
SPENT 101.96
SAVED 88.07

running total:
$1398.78 spent
$87.42 /wk avg spent.
$2227.12 saved
139.20/wk avg saved.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Week 4

Wow! For a sale i wasn't too excited about, i really cleaned up this wknd! prices shown are after sales, q's and mega event discounts.

Kroger Trip #1
Order #1

2 kleenex w/ lotion .19
2 ro-tel ** i thought i was paying .19 for 2 cans, but shelley showed me that i actually EARNED .23 per can!!
6 rf triscuit .89
2 4-pk cottonelle FREE :)
4 Select Harvest CNS .75
4 Armour Beef Meatballs .90
4 hormel trkey chili .45/2
1 miracle whip 2.49 -- i hated paying this but it's better than the regular 4.49 and the $6.49 my husband will pay at the truck stop... time for some q's!!
1 kraft 2% cheddar 1.49

Out of Pocket: $20.15 on gift card
saved w/ q's $20.55
bonus q's $2.89
saved w/ plus card $20.00
Total Savings: $45.09 (66%)

Order #2

2 cottonelle FREE :)
6 hormel turkey chili .45/2
4 select harvest cns .75
2 rotel EARNED .23 per can!!
2 kleenex lotion .19

Out of Pocket $3.59
saved w/ q's $10.95
bonus q's $3.38
saved w/ plus card $9.62
Total Savings $23.95 (87%)

Meijer

2 frank's redhot sauce FREE :)
1 bag doritos 1.99
12 chex mix FREE :)
8 south beach bars FREE :)
1 whole wheat sub buns $2
4 healthy request chunky soups .75

Out of Pocket $9.58
saved w/ q's $29.98
saved by buying on sale $28.06
Total Savings $58.04

Marsh

4 vanity fair plates $1
8 vanity fair bowls $1

Paid $13.26
saved 6 w/ q's
saved 6 w/ double q's
saved 17.88 w/ fresh idea card
Total Savings $29.88 (71%)

That makes today's totals
$46.58 spent
$156.96 saved

AND at kroger, the armour q's wouldn't all go thru. the cashier at the self-check said it was because they said "limit one coupon per purchase." Well of course i explained that since i was purchasing 4 bags, i could use 4 q's, but he wasn't buying it. nice man though! so i just kept my cool, told him to go ahead w/ the order, then went to the office and got the 1.65 put back onto my gift card. easy as pie, and i'm so proud of myself that i didn't get all worked up about it!!

My binder is a complete wreck! i'm going to get organized, print cattleman's q's and hit kroger again and marsh, probably in the AM but they had everything in stock late afternoon, i was impressed. nice day of savings. my non-food pantry is getting full! (the food one already was -- now it's popping at the seams!)
***************************************

Mon Kroger Order #1

6 triscuits .89
2 rotel EARNED .23/can!!
1 cattlemen bbq sauce .64
1 kraft cheese 1.49
spent 7.01, saved 17.97

order #2

2 rotel EARNED .23/can!!
4 hormel turkey chili 2/.45
4 armour meatballs .90
2 cottonelle 4-pk FREE
2 quaker rice cakes FREE
spent 6.27, saved 23.20

order #3
2 rotel EARNED .23/can!!
8 turkey chili 2/.45
spent 1.34, saved 11.12

total for today
spent 14.62
saved 52.29

total for the week
61.20 spent
209.25 saved
and 1 kraft singles raincheck scored ;)

Pantry

How to Coupon Effectively: An Overview

Free Soles Integrative Therapies's Fan Box

Young Living World

SAVINGS RECORD

Hand reflexology

Followers

The Most Interesting Link from (Almost) Every Folder in My Bookmarks

Frugal Living Links

Thinking About Homeschooling?

Healthy Weight Resources

Blog Archive

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Week 4