Okay, here's the story. I went to Costco TWICE last month and bought only the things on my list, in other words not a bunch of extra junk we didn't need. I bought things such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, paper towels, dish washer detergent, laundry detergent, TP, deodorant, paper plates, plastic cups, sugar, flour, formula, diapers...i don't know what all else. I spent just over $100 each time I went! Well, I was feeling a little depressed from saying goodbye to two of my dear Ben Franklins and I came home and watched Extreme Couponing on TLC. Now those women and the man truly were EXTREME. I actually now follow one of their blogs and they're not as extreme in real life as they were portrayed to be on the show...TLC hyped it up a bit. Anyway, some had like over 300 packages of TP that they literally paid pennies for...buckets full of deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss...shelves of detergent and canned goods. As I watched them ring up their goods, for 90% or less from the retail value, I thought, I'm doing something wrong here! Now, I don't want 300 packages of toilet paper. . .but ten free ones would be nice! So, I started couponing.
I've only been doing it a week, but once I get an idea in my mind, I can't rest until I've got it good and under way. I now have a binder that keeps all of my coupons categorized and organized. I absolutely love it! It's like one big giant Sudoku puzzle and my mission is to align all of the pieces together and figure out how I can get the best deal possible. Here is my last week's purchases. Just because I love to share my sweet savings and deals, I will occasionally post what I got on the blog and how much I paid for it! Just for reference here is one of the ladies from the show Extreme Couponing's website. She was the one with the little boy that was dumpster diving for Sunday papers (which I must say, I have not done.) Her site is very useful when beginning to coupon. Another site I use is from a lady in my Ward who is great to follow because she gives a lot of the national deals like CVS and Kroger, but she also mentions a lot of local deals as well. Her husband works in the Young Mens with Wes and they're a super nice (and big) family!
thekrazycouponlady.com This is the TLC lady's site.
mylitter.com This is the lady from my ward's site.
Here's a picture of my own krazy couponing:
All of this was $18.51 out of pocket including tax. For the record, the Milky Way bars were completely free with the coupon and sale, normally Wes and I would not buy 4 candy bars just for kicks!
Here's a picture of my enormous binder. I feel a little ridiculous hauling this through stores, but it makes couponing SO much easier! Wes has had all sorts of cheeky little comments to make at me because of it.
6 comments:
Oh, Jennifer! I have done this already and I had a huge binder with all the baseball card holders, tabs and everything! How fun to be able to speak the couponing language together. Looks like you are off to a good start.
How do you get your coupons? We used to have five papers delivered every week so we had 5 of everything.
It was so empowering to be able to come home with so much for so little.
Happy couponing, girl!
Nancy, we just signed up today with the Houston Chronicle for 5 Sunday-only subscriptions of the paper as well. They were $.50 cents per subscription per week. Most of the savings I got this last week was from printing off coupons on line. I love taking home so much for so little. It's exhilarating! I've found that the value of a $1 means more to me now as well. Why would I go spend time worrying about doubling a 50 cent off coupon for my butter and then go blow $20 on something we don't need? We also have gotten more variety in our food, which Wes likes. He actually has snacks and juice to take to work now. Sorry, for the long comment! This was almost another blog entry!
The advantage of the city, I suppose. We don't even have Sunday papers. We get 1 on Wednesday or Thursday in this town! My coupon I took to the store today said I had to buy 10 boxes of cereal to get the deal. I needed to read the fine print. Now what would I do with 10 boxes of cereal? I didn't even buy one! Good Luck, I watched Nancy do this. I'm glad my family is raised so groceries don't cost me so much anymore. You can put all the savings in an account for your trips to visit parents. Smile!
I've been doing this too! good stash! =)
Jeralynn wanted to do this at one point, but we couldn't find the time to search out the good coupons. That was a deal breaker for us. Maybe with your help we can try it again. How much time per week do you spend clipping coupons?
Jennifer, Once again I stand in awe of your wifely prowess. I tried clipping coupons but not having the binder, I just put them in an envelope and would head out to the store and leave the envelope at home. I was pretty hopeless in the coupon venue. I'm very proud of your determination and even prouder that Wes has food and drinks on his long commute. Way to go my wonderful daughter.
Mom
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