Pickled Pennies

Buy
(2) Nivea Mens body wash $2.49*
(6) Reach Advanced toothbrushes $0.50*
(2) Reach floss $0.95
(4) Boulder Canyon potato chips $0.99*
(2) Haribo gummy bears $1.00
(2) Land O'Lakes spreadable butter $1.29*
(1) dozen eggs $2.79
(3) Mahatma rice 1 lb $1.00
(36) Ronzoni pasta $0.49*
* price after Mega Deal promotion

Purchase Total: $41.85

Use
(2) M- $3 Nivea Mens body wash
(2) M- $2/2 Any Reach toothbrush
(2) M- $2 Any Reach toothbrush
(2) M- $1 Reach floss
(4) M- $1 Boulder Canyon potato chips
(2) M- $0.30 Haribo gummy bears
(2) S- $0.30 Kroger doubles coupons under $0.50
(3) M- $0.5 Mahatma rice 1 lb
(3) S- $0.50 Kroger doubles coupons under $0.50
(18) M- $1/2 Ronzoni pasta

Coupon Total: $42.20

Sub-Total: -$0.35
Tax: $3.18
Total: $2.83

Some of you have asked me how I coupon. Hopefully, this note will address those questions. It is by no means comprehensive, but I've included a few websites that offer more information. I am a devotee of southernsavers.com and have learned most of what I know from that website. It can be really overwhelming at first, I screamed bloody murder for the first few months because no one told me what I've written down here. So hopefully, this will spare you some screaming. It also helps that Hue, 1) gave me a pep talk every week during those first few months, 2) weeds out the expired and expiring soon coupons, 3) helps cut out the coupons, 4) accompanies me and watches Pickle when I "make my rounds" on Sunday (we hit up about 7 stores), and 5) is soooo grateful for the savings and appreciates my efforts.

The Rules (I have set for myself)

1. If I need something, I buy it. Sale or no sale. Coupon or no coupon.

2. If I'm stockpiling, I wait until there is a sale and stack my coupons on top of that.

3. If I won't use something or normally wouldn't buy it, I won't buy it just because it is cheap. Exception: it's free or generates a profit. Freebies make for great donation items.

4. From now on, I refuse to pay for toothbrushes or toothpaste again unless this would violate rule number 1.

Where to get big savings

-Get the loyalty cards. I used to have 3 on my keychain, now I have 8.

-Wait for a sale and use coupons on top of that.

-Know which stores double your coupons. Here, Kroger and Publix double manufacturer coupons $0.50 or less.

-Store and manufacturer coupons can usually be stacked (both can be used on the same item)

-Upromise ecoupons can usually be stacked on top of store and manufacturer coupons.

-Some stores accept competitor coupons. Here, Publix is good about that. Kroger and Target don't.

-Drug stores are gold mines.

How things become FREE

Sometimes a sale is so good that a coupon on top of it makes it free. A recent example would be canned soup. It was on sale at Kroger for $0.99. I used a $0.50 off 1 can coupon. Kroger doubled the coupon to $1.00. Voila! Free soup.

The drug stores will sometimes give you reward dollars for the full price value. For example, buy a toothbrush for $1.99 and get a $2 reward back. Sometimes you can use those reward dollars at other stores, sometimes you can't.

How to make a profit

Let's reexamine the above drug store toothbrush free deal. Add a coupon for $1.00 off, and now you've spent $0.99 to get a $2 reward and a toothbrush ($1.00 profit). Sometimes these profits can be pretty substantial, like $10!

Where it gets crazy: Rolling reward dollars

Now take that $2 reward and go back to buy another toothbrush and get another $2 reward. Some places keep letting you do this until you turn blue in the face. Rolling rewards is an art and science. For specific policies, I recommend reading up on them at southersavers.com. In the upper right, click the name of the drug store you are interested in. Under that will appear links. You can read more about how to roll rewards from those links.

Southersavers.com

I love this site. She goes through the sales ads for the stores and posts what she considers to be the good deals. Under the name of the item and its price, she lists where to find the coupons (which coupon insert and week it arrived with the paper) and if it is printable she gives you the link. She also gives you "transaction ideas" for how to really maximize your savings. This is useful for drug store deals. I stalk this site. It is integral in how I put together my shopping list.

Where I used to (and sometimes still do) get really frustrated

1. In the beginning, I didn't save very much because I wasn't combining coupons with sales. I also refused to shop Kroger, Publix, and the drug stores because their non-sale prices were higher than Costco and Target's. Once I realized the whole sale + coupon thing, I got over it. If buy something without a sale or coupon, I prefer Target.

2. Printing those d@m% coupons. Unsupported browser. You need this plug in. Download this coupon printer. There are no more coupons to print (i.e. early bird gets the worm). You've printed your allowed number (when I haven't even printed one). Out of ink. Out of paper. That is a small sampling of the error messages I got. Eventually, I just sucked it up and worked through the kinks.

3. Southernsavers just posted an AMAZING deal on something I use all the time and I don't have the coupons for it. That really sucks. I mean sucks in a heartbreaking, frustrating, why-is-the-universe-taunting-me kind of way. It still bugs me, but I just tell myself that I'll get it next time. It also helped that a totally awesome friend gave me her coupon stash before she went out of town.

4. All this stacking, rolling, doubling was confusing. I didn't understand how each stores policies worked. Take it one store at a time. Ask for help. My other friend Sarah B. is what you would call an extreme couponer. She's generous with her knowledge and has offered to go shopping with me. If you know someone who extreme coupons, ask them for help.

Where I shop ($=save 0-25% saved, $$= 25-50% saved, $$$= 50-75% saved, $$$$= >75% saved):

-Costco ($) I <3 free samples. Once a grad student, always a grad student.

-Target ($ to $$)

-Earth Fare ($$-$$$)

-Kroger ($$$)

-Publix ($$$)

-CVS ($$$$)

-Rite Aid ($$$$)

-Walgreens ($$$$)

Where I get coupons:

coupons.com

Smart Source

Red Plum

southersavers.com

SUNDAY PAPER! I usually buy 2 (you need 2 to make the B1G1 deals REALLY good).

How I organize my coupons--> I have 4 coupon organizers.

1. Accordian style check file (half sheet) with 10 pockets for loose coupons divided into the following categories:

-food

-health and beauty (toiletries, OTC medicines, makeup, razors, and such)

-household (TP, tissues, cleaners, batteries, light bulbs, and such)

-Target web coupons for national brands

-Target web coupons for Target brands

-restaurants

-coupons I think others would like to have, such as formula coupons (I hoard those for my friends)

2. Accordian style letter file (full sheet) with 13 pockets for Sunday coupon inserts. I date the cover of each insert pamphlet. It makes finding a coupon easier for me when I go through southersavers.com. Each week gets its own pocket.

3. Plastic portfolio for in store coupon flyers.

4. Notebook with pockets. It's basically my planner and address book. Yes, I am SOOOO low tech. I use it to hold my grocery list envelopes. Since I have a stash of envelopes that I save from all my junk mail (yeah, I save those), I use them as my grocery list/ coupon holder. Each store gets its own envelope. I put the coupons inside. On the outside, I write what I'm buying, how much it costs before coupons, and what coupons I have for each item. That way I have a record of what the discounted price should be and what coupons I handed the cashier (some can be sloppy and miss scanning a coupon). Alternatively, you could print out your shopping list at souther savers and it will contain that info.

I hope y'all find these ramblings helpful. There are lots of extreme couponing sites out there. Good luck! Have fun!

Pickled Pennies

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Kroger 05/03/11

Sunday, April 3, 2011

CVS 04/03/11

Monday, March 28, 2011

CVS 03/27/11

CVS 03/28/11

Wags 03/27/11

Hey there!