Category Archives: Coupons

It’s Official

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I have now completed all the activities need to be considered an “Extreme Couponer.”

One of the students at work asked me if I was one and I said “I don’t think so.” So then she proceed to ask me question to clarify my answer, “Do you have a stockpile?” ” Do you specifically go to a store just to buy something with a coupon?”  After answer yes to these and several other questions, I came up with the one reason I could not be considered an extreme couponer. I have NEVER pre-ordered an item because it was such a great deal and the store would not normally stock this quantity of an item. Today, I crossed over and pre-ordered. In January, CVS had an awesome deal on 12 pack cans, after ECB less than $2 each. I was able to stock up on 20-something of these 12 packs and also got a rain check for an additional 24 packs.  I knew at the time that it would be near impossible to just walk in the store and purchase all 24 of these 12 packs.  So today, I spoke to the cashier and assistant manager, who will order the 24 12 packs of Diet Coke from the Coke man when he comes back to the store.

In addition to pre-ordering the soda, I was able to use the 20% coupon on the front of the circular to stock up on toilet paper, and supply my husband with both coffee and body wash.  After I actually purchase the Diet Cokes I will  up date the numbers but at this point, I have spent $30.07 and saved 23.69 or 56%.

So now you understand how I officially became an Extreme Couponer”

Awesome Food Lion Deal

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I know those words usually don’t appear together! But Free or pennies per item  is always Awesome especially at my house.  Check this out

yogurt

I purchased all 30 of these yogurt for $1.18!  For a 96% saving! Currently Food Lion is running a sale on Yoplait for $0.60 each, combine with their Big Deal Promotion which gives  you $5 in instant saving for each 10 items you buy.  It is possible to purchase these for $.10 with no coupon involved, however in the SS 2/24 insert you will find 2 different coupons and you can also print (2)$1 off 10 cups from Target.com.  I used both printable and the newspaper coupons.  The normal cost of one is $0.76, with my ending cost being$0.03 each.  This sale actually runs until Tuesday of this week so if you are near a Food Lion grab some to share!

 

Things that Work

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I wanted to share with you things that we are finding that work for us as we continue to reduce debt and live crazy busy lives.

  1. Weekly menu lists:  a very simple list of 5-7 meal that we have all the ingredients for. Each day Matt or I or both can decide what sounds good for dinner. We usually make the list on weekends and it most likely follows a trip to the building to grab items from the freezers. Currently we are focusing on using up what we have an only adding items that are awesome deals. In the future we are considering purchasing a half cow but don’t have enough space for it right now so cleaning out is serving multiple purposes as well as keeping us to the $600 grocery budget.
  2. Zaycon foods: My plan is to order another 80 pounds of chicken breast this month for pick up in April. This will be the 3rd time we have ordered the chicken breast. 80# last almost 6 months for us. I have also been pleasantly surprised that each time we order the price per pound has dropped!  Another item that has been great is the uncooked chicken tenders. I will be purchasing more if they are offered in our area again. We have considered the bacon and hamburger but the price per pound seems a little bit much for us currently but I will keep options open!
  3. Coupons especially when playing the drug store game at CVS. I have reduced my spending greatly as CVS recently but it is still the best way for  me to save money and by lots of items. .
  4. Costco- this may seem out-of-place but I hate to grocery shop! Costco makes it fun and easy. I watch my prices and do try to purchase as much as possible with coupons but if we run out of an item than Costco is definitely cheaper for us that paying full price at the local super market!
  5. Coke Rewards- I am actually more impressed and pleased with this reward program than either diaper brands! I simply enter points and redeem for free product. The great thing is that they always offer free coke products and unlike the diaper reward programs the prices have not changed greatly!

Saved 95% at CVS

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I mentioned yesterday that we were currently $0.30 over our grocery budget for the month. I have done most of the grocery shopping this month at Costco but I continue to shop CVS for free stuff and good deals on everyday items like Diet Coke. I did make a trip on Sunday where I purchased 15 2 liters and some other items. I left the store with 5 ECBs. One of the debates was if I was to go back to the store and stock pile more drinks rolling my ECBs. The decision to try to stick within our grocery budget this month made that a no go but of course on the same day, I ran out of hair spray. I attempted one day without using anything and that was not a good choice so off to CVS to use my ECB to purchase hair spray.  I had read on Southern Savers that using a store coupon and one from Sunday’s paper you could get a tube of toothpaste free so I decide free is always good and grab that coupon as well. I was able to purchase a can of hairspray, tube of toothpaste and 2 Diet Coke for $0.54, which is strictly the tax. I saved $10.72 or 95%!!

Budget vs Reality

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I don’t know that I have clearly explained on the blog why budgeting has become such a priority in our lives for the past year. Today, I am going to clarify that as well as discuss some changes that I have thinking about making.

First why is budgeting so important for us right now. We are in what we think of as “our lean years.” For the next 3 years, Matt will be home full-time with the kids, which results in no steady income. He is working on establishing his web design business and God continue to supply us with just what we need but we both know we need to be on a budget during this time. We have been working on reducing our debt to therefore reduce the monthly expenses but we also want to be realistic with what we have coming in.

One thing that has really been useful is our “Freedom Account.” This is actually a second free checking account that we are making monthly deposits into. This account has our car insurance and AAA membership money, our gift fund, clothing fund and auto fund. Car insurance and AAA membership amounts are easy to determine I divided the bill into 12 months and that much is deposit into this account each month. The other areas have been tricky and I am continuing to change. The gift fund was originally at $50 a month but when I looked and this was supposed to include birthday and Christmas present, I up the amount to $100 a month. I also used this fund for buying gift for parties the kids are invited to as well. I still am not sure this is the right amount and will consider raising it to $150 at the point we are out of debt and have enough coming in to cover that amount.  Moving on to the auto fund, this is designed to cover maintenance cost such as batteries and tires, in the future it can also be expanded to include saving to purchase a new to use car as well. I currently place $50 a month into this area. The final amount in this fund is clothing. I originally planned to place $50 a month into the account but at two months in I currently have a negative $80 balance. When looking that I have not even purchased a new season of clothing I really feel this amount needs to be raised to $100 a month or $200 a person for the year. However that in reality will mean that I will have to reduce the amount somewhere else because we simply don’t have the steady income for it. II do keep a fund for hair appointment and such but I am currently keeping these in cash. In the future, I also plan to add a travel fund but this year it was funded by our tax returns.  I think I should also add that our Emergency Fund is different from this account as well.

The other major items beside standard bills that I budget for each month are Gas and Groceries. Gas is the only area that I am consistently under budget it. However we have decided to not reduce this amount because of the unknown with gas prices at this time. I have noticed a 7 cent increase in a week here. The excess gas money will be used for extra things and/or added to the “Freedom Account” for clothing.

Groceries, the one area that I can’t seem to get a good  handle on. Last year the budget was $800 a month. I ended up spending $773 on average a month. In order to reduce our spending, I set the goal for $600 this year. In January, I was $120 over which I deducted from February’s budget. As of today, the grocery money is over spent by 20 cent. So I am trying to take a good hard look at this to determine is this amount realistic or not. A picture by numbers-$600 a month means $100 a person per month of our items including personal hygiene and cleaning products. Broken down even further that is $1.11 per meal per person or $150 a week for 6 people. .Currently both Lily and Haley eat lunch at school most days so that leaves close to $10 a week for the cleaning and hygiene items.  I am going to attempt to stick to this budget for the rest of February and March. By then I will be able to tell if it is realistic or needs to be increased by $100. I have a great stock pile at this point so I am hoping to keep it down to $600. What do you do?

Saved 88%

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I think that the TV show “Extreme Couponing” has really done massive damage to the couponing in general.  I want to debunk  some of the myths that it has implied with my real world experience. Today I knew I needed to make a stop at CVS to pick up Diet Cokes with a rain check I have been holding, so this is my real life example of how anyone can save money.

On  “Extreme Couponing” the folks spend between 30-80 hours a week couponing. Come on who has that much time to waste? Total time I spent planning, clipping and shopping for this trip was 1 hour.  The next myth is that you need “at least one newspaper subscription per person in your family” or that dumpster diving, begging neighbors coupon inserts or even stealing inserts from empty houses are necessary to get great results. I have ONE newspaper subscription! I gladly will accept any insert you don’t want but other than my own, I usually end up with my parents” inserts as well. However most weeks like this one, I receive the inserts at least a week late or the paper person even forgot a couple. Finally, in order to stay in the rules and have the least out-of-pocket a minimum of 10 transactions are require. I completed 2 transactions today!

Today at CVS, I spent a total of $6.83 and saved $48.35 or 88%. I did start with a $10 Cash card from buying drinks last week. Before work this morning I spent less than 10 minutes on Southern Savers clicking on any items from the CVS list I thought I might wanted, printed out the list and clip coupons while sitting at the store. I also did discover an awesome 75% deal on deodorant so pulled up the coupon database and head back to my car to grab 2 $1 off coupons.

First Transaction
2 Suave Kids Shampoos   $2.00 each    $0.50/2 coupon
4 Suave Body Washes      $2.00 each     B2G1 free coupon
2 Tubes of Colgate toothpaste @2.99 each    2–$.50/1 coupon
$10 CVS cash card
Total out-of-pocket $5.69
received 4 ECB for purchasing $12 in Suave, 2 ECB from Toothpaste and 1 ECB for using Green bag 4 times

Second Transaction
5 2L Diet Cokes    raincheck for $0.88 each
1 bottle each of Tresseme Shampoo and Conditioner     $4.49 each  B1G1 coupon, CVS Coupon for $2/2 bottles of Tresseme
2 Sticks of Advance Control Mitchum deodorant $1.99 each   2-$1 off coupons and CVS coupon for $1 off $4 deodorant
1 Caramel candy 0.33 cent
Used ECB from above
Total spent $1.14.

 

 

The Best Laid Plans

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As most of you know, I am a planner. I like to plan it gives me a sense of control and peace with  my life. This month just seems that every time I make a plan it needs to change. I am proud to say that I am just rolling with the changes or at least I hope I am rolling with them. So here in random order are my best laid plans and how they have changed.

  1. In September, I began working “full-time” which for me is 30 hours a week. My plan work 7.5 hours a day and then have the extra time at home. Of course this is not working. Part of the problem is that our patient load is really low. So since the first of December I have been taking anywhere from 6 to 16 hours of PTO every 2 weeks to keep my hours at full-time. I am thankful that I have the option to do this but I really would like a schedule that is not so flexible!
  2. For the past two weeks on Friday we have had icy/snow and just generally cold weather. Our plan was to head to Vision Works on Saturday, order new glasses and then Costco to have a tire on my car fixed. Instead, after arriving home at 2pm Friday afternoon, I was not going anywhere. So I spent most of Saturday, cooking. I was able to make several dishes up for this week so again it turned out okay. I also worked hard on catching up and even getting ahead on laundry.
  3. After cooking on Saturday, in my head I decided that I was going to have a day off on Sunday. WRONG!  We ended up picking up pizza for lunch that I ate while preparing Taco Soup and Plum Crumb desert for our church annual meeting. We left early around 330 to deliver food to a family. Next was the annual meeting. After arriving home at 8pm I was done for the day with no rest.
  4. I was excited to get a menu plan together for the next 2 weeks on Saturday but I changed the plan tonight. It was 65 outside and I really wanted a steak for dinner. I needed to stop by the store for milk and ended up purchasing steaks, salad ingredients and desert for tonight. I was happy to only spend $20 on the splurge but it definitely was not what was on the menu plan.
  5. I was planning to complete our 2012 taxes this past weekend. We ended up cleaning our some cabinets and shredding a lot of documents. Friday night, Matt and I organized all the tax paperwork and I made out all the spreadsheet so that I could easily imput data on Saturday. I actually did sit down on Saturday to complete the task to discover that I saved the wrong pay stub. I saved the first one of this year instead of the last one of 2012. I was able to complete our taxes on Monday and am thankful for a refund!
  6. This last item is a plan that I hope will not be changed. I have really been trying to get a work out in 3 nights a week with at least one of those at the YMCA. On Monday, I realized that if I take Zach and Kendall to the YMCA while Matt takes Lily to tumbling, childcare is provided!!! I was so happy to go last night and the kids enjoyed it. My plan is to make this a Monday night routine!

As you can see this past week has all been about my changing plans!

Free At CVS

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I actually have made 2 trips to CVS this week.

The first one was the best. I was able to bring home 3-12packs of Diet Coke and 4-2L of Diet Coke for FREE!!!  I used a combination of 4 different things all of which I received for things I normally buy. First was the free 12 pack from Coke Rewards. I try to submit Coke points from lids and boxes at least once a week. You can always get a free 12 pack with 250 points. At Christmas, I was able to get this free 12 pack for 30 points! Next I used 1 ECB, received for 4 scans of my green bag tag and 5ECB that printed for spending 50 in Beauty Care. Haley purchased some make up right after Christmas and this was a pre-coupon total, so again FREE! Finally, I used a cash card to pay the difference from last week. Remaining on my cash card is $6.02!

The second trip was to purchase body wash for Matt. He was currently out so this was a change to grab a couple of months supply. I purchased 4 Right Guard Body Washes, used the peelies located on them for $1 off each (there is a printable coupon as well). I ended up using the remainder of my cash card for these. Total out-of-pocket $2.77 or $0.69 each. I also got back 3 ECB that I will be using next week to stock up on soda for the summer!

Remaining in my grocery budget for the month $15.22

Day In the Life- Eating Like You Are Rich While Shopping Like You Are Poor

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Today is the first Thursday of the month, this was good news for us in several areas. First it was my first paycheck of the year, which I was really unsure about because of taxes and some major changes I made this year during open benefit enrollment. I was pleasantly surprised today. Next the news keeps getting better, I will be receiving one of my “extra” paychecks this month as well. Because I am paid every 2 weeks, 2 months during the year we receive this “extra” check. Our budget is based on the 2 checks a month so it makes this an extra” check. Matt and I sat and looked at our budget this morning and currently the plan is to pay off 4 of our outstanding debts with this check. I will definitely let you know when this happens. After paying bills and getting excited that we actually are ahead this month, it was off to the grocery store. Thank you, Matt for the second part of the title.

I have mentioned before that currently we have quite a bit stockpiled but that I felt our stockpile lacked meat. One of the stops that I have been wanting to explore was our local meat processing plant. We decided to head there first today. I am so glad we did. We were able to purchase 18 “meals” of meat for $115.00. WOW! Last stop of the morning, Food Lion. They are currently having their house brand sale for each “house brand” item you buy you earn 0.25 toward your next order. I have spent probably an hour collecting coupons and working out the 2 transaction. We ended up spending  $43 and saving $49 or 54%. I used most of the Catalina that I collect over the past week. I also added 4 additional meals of frozen shrimp to the list. So all together today, we have spent around $165 of our grocery budget but really have enough meat for an entire month!!!

I do have to add a final shopping trip in it was on Wednesday to CVS. I needed make up removal wipes. I expected to receive 5ECB due to the beauty club purchases I made on Sunday. I was not expecting to receive 8.50 in quarterly ECB or a $4 of 20 facial care purchase. I was able to grab enough wipes for probably 3 months and spent $1.35, 94% savings!!!

Saving at Food Lion

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Last Thursday, a friend let me know that Food Lion (our only grocery store in town) had put out a gift. A coupon $5 off $5 purchase, this coupon was available from their website in a pdf file. So I took advantage of this and print some to use. The expiration date on the coupon was 12/29/2013, I realized that this was probably a mistake. After a day the company corrected the date to read 1/1/2013.  I knew that it would take a few days for the company to stop excepting these. But also thought I will use as long as they let me, the gravy train stopped tonight.  I am sad but not surprised. I have been able to treat the family with items like potato chips, cookies and ice cream over the past week.

I/We stopped a total of 10 times to use this coupon, spending a total of $9.23, saving 67.99 or 88%. I could qualify for extreme couponing with this one!  Most of the transactions ended up costing less than $1 except for the one I completed on Sunday afternoon. In the process of using these coupons, Catalina have been printing at the end of each trip. I wanted to know if they would limit the number of these I could use so I tried. I purchased a roast $6.54(using a $1.50 off $6 meat purchase), a bag of shredded lettuce $1.99 and 3 tomatoes $1.48(using a $1 off $3 of produce), 4 2L drinks of store brand $0.83 each(coupons for $0.75 off three, the fourth was to raise my total), 2L Diet Coke$1.66 (Free with minimum $10 purchase). I had a $1.50 off $15 and the $5 off 5. My total came to $3.83. The current plan is to go for one more trip to Food Lion on Thursday, they are having their brand sale that basically gives you $0.25 off each of their brand items you buy. I will be stocking up on mustard and ketchup as well as using the rest of my Catalinas.

On a very personal note, I have been able to do something with everyone of my 2013 goals today!