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Extreme Couponing Half Way There

How many of you have seen the show Extreme Couponing on TLC?  I love that show.  Oh' I know it's not something they do every week but it's still fun to see what their extreme savings are.  What I don't like about the show are some of the hoarders.  The ones that can't leave a single item on the shelf.  


About 10 years ago I used to be a major coupon shopper.  Lot's for free but never the deals these guys get.  But when I did do price matching and couponing I sort of lived by a code of ethics.  You never clean the shelves.  There's others out there wanting to get these same deals and why would I not want them too.  Besides who wants to tee off the store manager completely.  I mean, it's frustrating enough holding up the line especially when you don't get the most delightful cashier.  I'll be returning and I'll appreciate them not running to lock the door as they see me drive up.


I don't have the huge binder anymore, which I never left home without it because you never knew when you were going to find a killer deal.  I can  remember going to Eckerds, when we had them and having to buy more just so my total wasn't in the negative and they didn't owe me money.  They had makeup on clearance and with the coupons I was getting it all free and then some.  And when I got big loots like that I always made up supply boxes for family members and my best friend.  I think now is a great time to buy extra if you can get it for pennies or free because so many people need groceries and beauty and health items, that just can't afford it in this recession, borderline depression.  Get the extra and share with your church, homeless shelters and food banks.


I got frustrated trying to do the whole coupon matching at home thing, I finally gave up.  So with coupons in hand and a little idea of what I wanted to get, I headed to the store. Remember, it's been a while for me, and the longer you do it the much easier it becomes.  Well, I was actually surprised at how good I did.  Here's the picture of my Winn Dixie shopping list hanging from the top of a floor lamp.  It was actually taller then me.

 

  The cashier rang and rang and rang up the items

And yes, I was starting to feel a little light headed.  When I saw the total my heart skipped a beat.  Oh' no, what have I done?  I had no intention of spending anywhere close to $253.60. Could I possibly get it closer to maybe a hundred and sixty?  Okay, here goes nothing.

I handed the cashier my coupons and the beeping starts like music to my ears but I'm still holding my breath as if that's going to help. LOL. 

$214.28 after coupons.  So far that's a savings of $49.31 with manufactures coupons.  Great but looking at that total, I'm not feeling that much better.  Oh' man, how do I explain this when I get home?  Oh' well, lets hope it gets a little better with my store rewards card.  Oops I forgot to take a picture of the total after the rewards card was used.  Peeking through the cracks in my fingers I see a total of $119.82!  Yippee!!!  That's a $84.06 savings with my rewards card!  Thank you Winn Dixie.

 A grand total savings of $133.37 with manufacture coupons and my store rewards card.  I held back the happy dance shuffle that my feet were twitching to do.  The cashier was happy for me and even the front end manager was happy for me, even offering help to take it out.  That basket was loaded baby.  I left the store grinning with pride in my not so well planned shopping trip.  Oh' yeah, besides that when you shop at Winn-Dixie, you earn gas rewards with your Winn-Dixie rewards card.  So I earned 40 cents off a gallon up to 20 gallons.  YIPPEE, more savings!!!


So okay, I'm not an extreme couponer but I'm pretty happy with what I saved.  I had a 53% savings.  Pretty good don't you think.  Especially since I didn't buy a bunch of any one thing.  This was regular shopping, NOT 53 antacids, 10 bottles of shampoo, 20 bags of candy kind of trip.  The most I bought of any one thing was 2, I take that back I did by 3 Pepsi's and 3 packages of frozen Steam Broccoli cuts.   The only things not edible were:

• 1 cube of Puffs Tissue
• 2 Purex laundry detergents
• 1 Downy liquid fabric softner
• 1Purex fabric softener
• 1  skintimate dry gel shave

 

Not bad for 85 items, which by the way breaks down to average $1.41 for each item (sorry I just couldn't resist).  Have any of you tried to save on your grocery or other shopping trips lately.  Or maybe you save in other ways, like gardening.  Let me know so I can share it with others.  There's nothing that gets me more inspired than hearing about someone else getting a great deal.

I love reading everyone's comments so please don't be shy.  I'll like to know if you stop by so I can visit you too.

Hugs Y'all....Tracy :)

See How Much I Saved

I've decide to go back to couponing  a lot more.  Frankly we need the savings.  I used to shop with coupons and  combine them with rebates years ago.  After awhile I had so much going on, lots of gardening, we were eatting out a lot.   The economy was thriving and while it would have been nice to save it just wasn't a necessity.  


WELL NOW IT IS NECESSARY!  Most people I know are having a harder time.  Even if they're not broke, they are being a lot more cautious with their spending.  I'm sure there has to be some business' that are thriving such as the Repo guys but since we have commercial rentals we are feeling it.  It's finally trickled down to us.


The top picture is of a shopping trip to 2 stores with 3 separate receipts. 


So I gathered my sale ads, I gathered my coupons and I found several blogs that broke down the best deals.  Did you know you can even print coupons on your printer?  Yep, you can!  I spent way to long doing this.  I felt like my head was going to bust.....but I've done this before so I know it takes time to figure it all out and to get organized.  I know that it does get easier - a lot easier.  I also know that as your cabinets fill up with supplies while they are on sale your weekly or monthly grocery bills start looking smaller and smaller.  So I persevered.

The picture below was my first stop.  I went to Dollar General to get these 4 items.  I paid a total of $1.28.   I saved 5.00 in coupons alone.  The products were on sale.  The Gillette body wash was on sale for $2.00 each and I had a $4.00 coupon off of 2.  The French's mustard was on sale for $1.00 and I had a coupon for .50 cents.  And finally the Band-Aids were on sale for $1.00 and I had a coupon for .50 cents.  Cha-Ching!!!

My next stop was CVS Drug Store.  This is a photo of the 2nd purchase at CVS after I received the Extra Cash Bucks from the 1st CVS purchase.  These were done back to back.  Here's the brake down:

Total paid after sale prices and coupons = $2.40.

Cokes were on sale 88 cents x 5 = $4.40. Purex were B1G1F $6.49, peaches were $1.00 x 2 = $2.00, CVS Baby Powder $3.49. Total after coupons and CVS extra bucks = $2.40.

I didn't take a picture of the first purchase at CVS but the next picture includes both CVS purchases and Dollar General together.  Total of  CVS's 1st receipt after sales and coupons $29.53.  A savings of  $33.67 plus I received 8 separate extra bucks back for the 2nd order.  That is why the 2nd above was so cheap.

The total of the days shopping for the picture below breaks down like this:

$98.41 minus savings of $65.20 = FINAL GRAND TOTAL of $33.21.

Total of 3 receipts and 23 items for same day shop at CVS and Dollar General. 3 Boost 6 pks x $7.99 = $23.97, B1G1F - 2 purex x $6.49 = $12.98, 5 cokes x .88 cents = $4.40, Kotex U Tampons $4.99, Kotex U pads $4.99, Hydro 3 razor $8.99, Right Guard $2.99, Carefree panty liners $1.00, 2 Lindor Truffles (my favorite chcolate by the way) x $2.00 = $4.00, 2 Mentos Gum x .99 cents = $1.98, 2 jars of peaches x 1.00 = $2.00, Band Aids $1.00, French's Mustard $1.00, 2 Gillette Body Wash Hydrator x $2.00 = $4.00 3 receipt total = $98.41 minus savings of $65.20 = FINAL GRAND TOTAL of $33.21.

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