Cutest little couponer

One of the reason's finding time to coupon can be challenging!

How to spend eighteen cents!

I was excited to get some more couponing in this week. Sticking to the budget has been really freeing but I loose a lot of the fun at the end of the month when different categories are out of money so I was finally able to get in a few great couponing trips yesterday. First off I went to Rite Aid and got this...

For $.09! Then I got this...

                                     

for another $.09!

And I left with more +UP rewards than I went in with! And as a special treat I ran into Callie while there so we finished up our transactions and went next door to Albertsons to pick up our Crispix that finally came in from last month. So my 22 boxes have been added to our cereal stockpile! She also shared some of her coupons with me so I could make the most of my trip to Safeway and that is where I got this...

and saved 100%, that's right my total for all 4 juices and two jellies was $0.00! It's safe to say I was giddy when I got home and played the ever famous 'guess how much I got all this for' game with Jer. I'm lucky that he loves coupons as much, scratch that, MORE than I do.

Have Some Cereal

Here is the scoop...be prepared, there are many layers which is what makes this such a great deal.

Last week I pre-ordered 50 boxes of cereal from Albertsons...yep I said 50! 22 Boxes of Crispix, 20 boxes of Corn Flakes, and 8 boxes of Rice Krispies. Yesterday I went in and got the part of the order that came in which was this...

And then today I went in and finished up purchasing my Crispix even though they hadn't received them from the warehouse yet, but the grocery manager was amazing and let me use all my coupons and everything and when the order comes in I'll just walk in grab my cereal and walk out...okay I'll load up my cart, I can't just grab 22 boxes of cereal!

Here's how it broke down...
I paid $36.58
and received:
50 boxes of cereal
15 gallons of milk (I can get those over the next two weeks)
4 bags of peanut mnm's
2 Healthy Choice Soups
1 16oz sour cream
3lb bunch of banana's
and $50 in gas cards! (those are rebates that I don't actually have yet)
So in the end I will have made $13.42 and got all this food!

Yay!

A big one

My adrenaline is going. I'm getting ready to do the biggest couponing trip yet! I'm excited! This is so silly. Most of yesterday was spent thinking about how this is going to go. Kids are being watched, coupons have been printed for over a week, Jer ambushed coffee shops and McDonalds on our way to church yesterday to gather abandoned Sunday papers, I still had to buy a few, finished organizing them last night, my order should be in at Albertsons today, Callie and I are tag teaming as we get our goods...I'll be back later to post how it goes...this is so fun! Yes I know I'm thrilled about coupons and I'm okay with it!

What to get with seven cents?

I was a little frustrated with how I had to spend my UP rewards at Rite Aid because the deals weren't fantastic, but it sounds imprssive when you hear what I paid for out of pocket...I just know what I could have done with the rewards if they just didn't have to go and expire!

So for $.07 I got all of this...

Oh and this morning Hailey went through about a pack and a half of Trident gum! Don't worry she didn't swallow it, it's kind of  a weird flavor Ginseng and White Tea, I just had to wipe it all up off the floor. I think she thought she found the jackpot at first and then was quickly faced with a huge let-down!

Target Trip

So this couponing trip wasn't as dramatic as some of my others but I was excited about it because there were some things that were necessities and I was getting close to paying full price for so it was a pretty sweet deal!

I was able to get everything in this picture for $3.84. We were out of detangler spray and the girls were never happy when the time came to brush out their hair so I was excited about that, same thing with the baby wash, Ibuprofen, and kids toothpaste...the socks and deodorant were a bonus :)

Black Friday?

I've crossed over into some sort of official couponer realm...I've been dumpster diving, I've called an order in a week ahead of a sale, I've bragged about multiple trips and savings, Jer teased me at the Children's Museum and said that Hailey was being just like me lining up her purchases from the play grocery store and taking pictures of her finds, and this morning on the day we already loose an hour of sleep, I was at Rite Aid when it opened at 7 (really felt like 6) just to score this deal! Was it Black Friday? No. Was I the only person in the store? Nope...there were plenty other lovely couponing companions. One very kind gal pointed out the Body Heat packages that were on sale for a dollar with a .50 off coupon attached to the box! The cashiers were cheerful and it was so much less anxiety inducing than going in the middle of the afternoon. I got all of the things in this picture for a grand total of $2.19! If you want to see the nitty gritty of it all scroll on down, if you don't care just know that I'm 'one of those' now, not that I'll show up on any extreme couponing show or anything, I'm just pretty serious about my coupons. Next thing you know you'll see me hitting the yard sales this summer!

I did two transactions the first was:

(2) Pine-Sol 28oz $4

(2) Clorox toilet bowl cleaner 24 oz $4

(1) Tilex Mold & Mildew $2

(3) Dixie Plate Products $5.91

(1) ThermaCare $6.99

(4) Little Fevers $15.96

(1) Clean & Clear Face Wash $5.99

Subtotal: $44.85 Now for the fun part

- (2) $1/1 Pine-Sol

- (2) .75/1 Clorox

- $1/1 Tilex

- $5/3 Dixie Plates Rite Aid Video Value Coupon

- $3/1 Thermacare

stacked with $1/1 Thermacare Rite Aid in add coupon

- (4) $1/1 Little Remedies

- $2/1 Clean & Clear

stacked with $2/1 Clean & Clear Rite Aid in add coupon

- $20 in UP rewards

So I paid $3.35 out of pocket and got $18 in UP rewards back!

Transaction #2

(2)Nivea Chapstick Lipcare $2

(2)Halls Cough Drops $2

(1) Gain Dish Soap $.88

(2) Neosporin $7.98

(2) Band-aid $3.98

(6)Bodi Heat 4pack $6

Subtotal $22.84

- $3 off $15 coupon from a previous receipt

- $2/2 Nivea

- (2) .50/1 Halls

stacked with (2) .50/1 Halls Rite Aid Video Values

- 1/1 Gain

- (2) 1.50/2 Neosporin AND Band-aid product

stacked with .50/1 Neosporin or Band-aid Rite Aid Video Value

and $1.50/2 Neosporin AND Band-aid Rite Aid Video Value

- (6) .50/1 Bodi Heat pealies on the box!

- $6 in UP rewards

This one ended up being .84 out of pocket and I got $3 more UP rewards!

And I'm getting $2 back in a rebate!

Sorry if that was really boring or really confusing, I got really excited about laying it all out! The thing that inspired the early morning trip was really that the cold medicine for the kids was on sale and I had to spend the $20UP rewards before they expired next week. Last time there was an item that ended up being free with coupons and rewards they were already sold out when we stopped by on our way to church and since we were out of medicine I knew I would be getting some anyway, free would just be the best price. Same goes for the Band-aids, we were out and those things are like strips of magic for our sweet little clumsy accident prone children. The rest was just bonus. I sure do love couponing!

Adrenaline!

I get such a rush using coupons! You're probably thinking...not another coupon post! Well I was just too excited to not post it!  I know there are so many people who are quicker/more adaptable/all around better at this than I am but here we go, these are my goods from Rite Aid yesterday...

Over the course of multiple transactions and using a 10 gift card I received from this last fall for getting other good deals only spent $6.49 of our own money and I still have 4 dollars in rewards to spend. The only thing that saved that little Cadbury Egg (a filler item) from getting eaten in the car on the way home was the fact that I wanted to take a picture of all of my goods together! I am such a dork. Oh and also not pictured is a thing of Afrin Nasal spray that I gave to my mom who was watching the kids so I could run to the store, and carton of Dreyer's peanut butter cup ice cream that I forgot was in the freezer! But hey, the Cadbury Egg made the picture! By the way have you noticed the size of those delicious little eggs shrinking? Ice cream too, the containers are getting smaller and smaller. Not that it's a bad thing, just seeing if anyone else noticed.

My $6.27 shopping trip!

Really?

I have gotten really into the whole couponing thing as I have mentioned before, but with the holidays and everything I really was slacking on my commitment. Well this week I bought a bunch of papers because we were promised lots of coupons and I got them all clipped and organized before dinner Sunday night, I must say it's a new record for me. When I clip coupons I'm not a 'clip everything just in case' kind of girl, or even 'save the whole insert just in case' kind of girl...which means that I miss some deals because the things I throw away end up being pretty worthwhile. Which brings me to this post and why I felt the need to preface it with that little explanation.

I get online this morning to check and see if there are any creative ways to use my coupons and sure enough there is a fantastic deal on dishwasher detergent and even more perfect I threw those 6 coupons I had for it in the recycling last night...naturally. Sigh, I'm such a dork. And wouldn't you know it Jer was on top of being wonderful and remembered to take the garbage and recycling out because today happens to be our garbage day. Oh the dilemma...do I dig through my own recycling (at least it's not the garbage right? right!) to save a buck (more like 11.25, but who's counting?), or let it go because we don't NEED dishwasher detergent right now. I debated with myself for probably over an hour assuming that the recycling guy came already and not wanting to be seen by the neighbors rifling through my own trash.

Callie came by to pick up her pack 'n play and said she wouldn't judge me...yet still I resisted. After she left I figured, I might as well just check and see if he came or not. So I bundle up because it is literally freezing outside and lift the lid. Jackpot, still there all my couponing remains scattered nicely on top of flattened cardboard...too bad my stumpy legs wont allow my equally short arms to reach in swiftly and rescue my precious savings. Internal debate...do I bring my step stool out to the curb? What if they come while I'm out here...that would be just too embarrassing. So I wheel the massive container into the garage and grab my handy stepladder and look through the pages 6 at a time. A minute or two in I hear it...the rumbling of the trucks...but how far away are they? There's no way to tell....faster Heather, faster! Am I seriously doing this? What is wrong with me? Well I'm committed now! And around the corner it comes...are you kidding me?! At least I had the forethought to face the back of the bin to the street and prop the lid up so it blocks what I'm doing but sure enough right when I find my treasure I peek up through the crease of the lid and see he's already past us...drats! I run inside to call and recount my story to Callie (hands still fuh-reezing cold) when I realize it in fact was not the recycling man but the garbage...fantastic, I can't describe the weird sense of relief I felt. I hang up the phone and calmly, the couponing freak I now realize I am, walk my recycling back outside and then bring in my empty garbage can like a totally normal person.

I went on to get the deal .75 per container! And I was 'that person' who cleaned out the store's stock. So after I get the two coupons that should be coming my way I wont have to buy dishwasher detergent for over a year!

Groceries to your door?

All this without leaving the house for $8.24! I can't believe it!

Rite Aid savings 2

After rebates and coupons and everything this cost me $1.98!

Extreme Couponing

I've decided to get into couponing. Not just clip them out and use them here and there; but clipping them, stacking them, doubling them, twice the valuing them, printing them, strategizing with them. Now I have only been at this a handful of times and the result is huge savings and an adrenaline rush I never knew I could get from shopping. I'm not a shopper, in fact I'm an anti shopper, nothing about it excites me...until now. My hands were trembling and my breaths were short during checkout, inevitably I dropped one transactions worth of coupons, and I felt like I was doing something wrong even though everything about saving money while using coupons is legal. When I got home I laid out my bounty and began to play the guessing game with Jer. 'Guess how much all of this cost us'? And my voice was shaking as I got to keep saying 'less', 'less', 'less'.

The problem I find now is that I don't want to go shopping for things we need unless I can get them for super cheap. So now the dilemma I'm facing now is, we are on our last package of wipes and I don't have cheap wipe options with coupons so I may just end up at Costco until a good deal presents itself. All in all, I'm loving it, couponing has become a hobby now and I'm enjoying saving our family money!

Rite Aid Savings

All this...diapers and everything after coupons and rebates...$6.11! I am loving this couponing thing!