As you know if you read this blog often, I having been couponing for months now. And I have to be honest, at times it seems to get the best of me. I spend hours on the living room floor, coupons all around, store circulars all around, back hurting from sitting and clipping and searching for the best deal. And most often, I go to the store, and my final total is more than I hoped for. It can be a discouraging process. Though it has saved us tons and tons of money, so there are no plans to stop couponing. Instead, there are plans to get better at couponing.
My first attempt at "getting better at this," is to use my grocery game membership. I signed up for a free trial weeks ago, but I haven't really been using it, and with plans to cancel my membership, I decided to give it one more try. So last night, I sat in front of the computer with "Terri's List" for Kroger, and I matched my coupons to what she said to buy in hopes of saving tons and tons of money. I woke up this morning, fed Ada some breakfast ,woke Scott up to watch Ada, and I headed out the door with list and coupons in hand. I went to three different stores--CVS, Target, and Kroger--in that order because CVS is farthest from my house and Kroger is closest, and here is how I did.
My total for all three stores was 113.00, rounding up a bit. I was hoping to keep it under 75.00, but I am still trying to get the hang of when to buy to stock up and when to not buy, so maybe next week I can keep it below 75.00. But ya'll, listen to what 113 got me. It's CRAZY.
CVS
3 boxes of playtex tampons
2 things of Speedstick Deodorant for Men
4 bags of candy (2 kit kat, 2 reeses)
1 schick quatro razor for Scott
1 bic soleil razor for me
total=19.13
total saved with coupons and extra bucks=41.38
extra bucks to use on next shopping trip=9.00
coupons printed off with receipt=10.00 total in savings
If you are not playing the CVS game, please do. It is so much fun, and the amount of money you can save is CRAZY.
Target
12 pack of Quilted Northern Toilet Paper
1 card
total=7.48
no coupons, toilet paper on sale
Kroger
I am not going to list all of this out, but I will just give you a summary
enough for meals for the week--breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks
Two 24 packs of Deer Park water
12 containers of Yoplait Yogurt
2 things of Maalox chewable tablets
Febreeze Starter Kit (free with coupons, normally like 9.00)
6 cans of Hunts tomatoes
3 bottles of adult suave shampoo
3 bottles of child suave shampoo
Loreal Mascara
basics like milk, juice, chicken broth (4 cans), frozen veggies, etc.
Total=83.25
Total saved with coupons and kroger plus card= 50.92
so all together, using coupons and store loyalty cards, I saved 90.00 today!! I say it was a successful trip. And my stockpiles of shampoo, Ada's soap, feminine products, and toothpaste are complete for a while. Hopefully, the grocery bill will continue to drop.
I will back tomorrow with the week's menu to show what all I am able to make with the groceries that I bought.
5 comments:
Have you ever heard of Angel Food Ministries? They sell good food at a discount and anyone can buy it. It doesn't hurt them if someone who isn't really 'needy' buys the food- I know someone who works for them and she shared this with me. (they buy in big discounts in bulk from suppliers and thats how they are able to do it) I keep meaning to do it but keep forgetting.
Have you ever heard of Angel Food Ministries? They sell good food at a discount and anyone can buy it. It doesn't hurt them if someone who isn't really 'needy' buys the food- I know someone who works for them and she shared this with me. (they buy in big discounts in bulk from suppliers and thats how they are able to do it) I keep meaning to do it but keep forgetting.
I will say this, we did Angel Food Ministries, and while they do give you a lot of food for a low cost, we didn't really care for the food too much and ended up wasting quite a bit of it. I think it's a great ministry for people that can't get out or are on a fixed income, but it just didn't work for our family.
Way to go! Those are my kind of savings! It is very frustrating to spend hours clipping and organizing coupons, but it really pays off! I have thought about actually doing the Grocery Game, but I have just found so many websites for free to look at Publix and CVS deals that I haven't tried it, would you say it is worth it? I love seeing how much you can save at CVS, it is ridiculous, isn't it?
Lindsey,
the only reason I say it's worth it for me (at this point--I may change my mind) is it saves me some time and stress. I don't know that I will save more money, though. We'll see. I think it might help me know when to buy and when not to, but the main reason I decided to do it is to cut out some of the work for me.
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