Did I Mention I Coupon?

Total 24.33.  It would of only been 14.33 but Keynan swindled a Mr. Potato head. I'm sure I got Extra Care Bucks back but I don't remember how much(click picture to enlarge its hard to see it all here) The savings printed on the receipt for that day was 84.55. I also received a $10.00 gas card from this transaction.(A promotion CVS is having  when you buy 30.00 in certain products) Paying with coupons is just like  paying with Federal Reserve notes! So even though I only paid 24.33 I still got the gas card deal.

Total: 25.76 Total Savings 61.83 I also got 10 ECB back which would make my total 15.76

 I also received a $10.00 gas card

I also will be submitting my Raisin Bran UPC for a $10.00 gas card(a promotion Kellogg cereal has going on right now)

Total: $3.27 After coupons and ECB's.

Total: 52 cents after coupons and ECB's and another $10.00 gas card!

For the last year I have been learning how to coupon. I used to coupon with my Mom when it was just her and I. My Mom being a single Mom  and my Dad never paying a dime of child support.. Sorry I had to throw that one in(but it still burns my butt, but it has made me who I am today I suppose)! So my Mom and I would cut coupons to make our grocery budget stretch.  When I stopped working we lost a good $30,000 a year, ouch!!!  I have been trying to figure out ways to make our budget stretch!
    A new concept I have learned in this couponing journey is called stock piling.  You stock up on items like toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, soap, razors, maxi pads. So you never have to run into town and pay full price. I also love this concept because I'm out in the Country. When we run out it is not a hop skip and a jump to town! This is also great for any emergency's or natural disaster.. Say we could not get to the stores for 3 weeks. I would have stuff for my family and possibly my neighbors.
   I wanted to start sharing my incredible savings. So within the last few months I have photographed a few of my latest trips.  I started a coupon blog but for some reason it will not let me post pics on there. I will work out the kinks but for now I am posting here.  I can tell you that couponing is a pain in the butt for me. I do not get into town a lot so I miss a lot of the deals. I'm learning to coordinate a bit better.  I am coming closer of reaching a better organization method with my coupons.  I use both Sunday paper coupons and also online coupons.

 My first steps were finding out how much items cost. For instance they have at the store a can of Campbell soup on sale for 99cents. Well I know I can get Campbell soup for 40 cents each with coupons and sales. So knowing how much you pay per square ft of toilet paper helps knowing what a good deal is and what is advertised to be a good deal and isn't. In my journey I have found the stores I prefer. Which the first one is CVS. I never shopped here before because the prices are higher then most but with coupons the price is near to nothing. I also shop Target and sometimes occasionally Walmart. My favorite store to shop at is Costco and I only make it in there every 3-4 months. I would buy all my groceries there back home and I would buy them here every month if I could. The Costco is in Houston and a little farther then our beet up cars would like to go right now. I do get a free membership because my Mom works there so that is a bonus. I shop at a grocery store here called HEB and that suits me good when I can't get into Costco. It all depends on the sale and the store and the coupons I have. I have also discovered Amazon. I buy all my books on there. I also buy groceries and toilet paper. You can pay a pretty penny on there so you have to be careful and know what a good deal is. I also have Amazon's prime member ship which makes mostly everything ship for free. I think you can check out amazon mom and get the prime membership for 3 months free. I also by things from Amazon that I would normally get in the Health food store. Just recently I got flax seed oil and oil of Oregonal for half the price! There also is their subscribe and save feature that I use and there is even coupons that amazon offers with their sales.

CVS offers 2% back on everything you spend at the end of each quarter(and so does Costco with a certain membership)They also offer Extra Care Bucks which are printed out cvs dollars.

I have been told about a new show on tv called extreme couponing. I hope I never get to extreme because I can see how you can get addicted to just about anything these days.. Everything in moderation even couponing, ha,ha.  I can mostly thank all the coupon blogs out there that have helped me through this journey. Most of these women must spend countless hours hunting down the deals! They have saved me a lot of time and money!

On my CVS Receipt this is what it reads:
Year to date Savings  738.09
Summer 2011 Spending 154.09

There are also deals that CVS offers. Like for every $50.00 you spend on beauty products(Shampoo, makeup, etc) you get $ 5.00 and you got to love the magic coupon machine inside that spits out $10.00 off!

Check out my coupon blog if you haven't yet and if you have any questions on couponing hit me up!

http://delightmedeals.blogspot.com/

Happy Shopping in this recession or do I mean depression.. Oh wait the Bankers fixed all that with the printing presses.... ha,ha  Yeah Right!