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Monday, January 9, 2012

Do you coupon?

I just wanted to share what I've been up to around my house the past little bit. I think the subject of finances is or can be a sensitive subject to talk about. The truth is I think a lot of people are in hard times financially. I know for our own family we've been dealing with financial struggles for the past four years. We've gone through 3 job losses in two and half years and what savings we did have was quickly used up. We've added children along the way which as you know adds to the list of expenses you need to plan for. With our situation is isn't possible and doesn't make sense for me to work outside of our home. I've been on the look out for a stay at home job that I could do on the computer, while still being able to care for our children, but lets be honest those jobs are hard to come by. We've long ago cut out all those little extra things like cable, eating out whenever we want, picking up that cute shirt because it's on sale and all the many other various activities that sometimes you just don't think about...you go do it because you want to. We've really had to buckle down and say, "Is this something that we want or need? Can we really afford it?" Now I don't want this to be a downer post. I have so much that I'm grateful for and know that I've learned a lot through these trials. I also know that my family has been blessed with help along the way to get us where we are today and to help us make it each day, week and month with the things that we need. Now you know I'm a thrifty girl especially when it comes to furniture, decorating or any kind of craft project. I love make things myself and saving money in the process and I'm always looking for new ways to save our family money. I've never been big into couponing as far as groceries or personal needs items or everyday household items go. I had no idea what you can really do to save yourself a big chunk of money. I've clipped coupons that have come in the mail and I check my weekly adds and do price matching at my local Wal-mart, but there is so much more that I could have been doing! And I've only just begun and need a lot of tips and tricks! I recently came across the site Freebies 2 Deals and started reading up on the different deals that were posted and what you have to do to get those deals or free items. Um...it's AMAZING what you can get!

Check out my shopping trip to Smith's today.
Total cost after tax $12.14. This was in 2 separate transactions using my fresh values card and then my husbands fresh values card using store sale price, ecoupons and a P&G promotional event. Now do you want to know how much I saved? Of course you do! The total would have been $44.30 before tax! Seriously did you know you could do this? It's amazing!

Another great deal I found a couple months ago was on Crest toothpaste 6.4 oz tubes on sale for $.99. Great deal so when I was at Wal-mart...I'm swear I'm there at least once a week I decided to price match it and found these:
Bonus packages each with a free travel size toothpaste. I was feeling really about this deal and grabbed a bunch to stock up. Then when I got home and opened the box I found a $.75 off coupon. Now you're guessing what comes next...use the $.75 off coupon on top of the sale price of $.99 and you get a total of $.24 for a Crest 6.4 oz tube and a travel size tube of toothpaste. Now that's a steal!!!! Can you tell I was really proud of myself? I think this little experience has been my driving factor to learn to coupon!

So my questions for you: Do you coupon? What have you found the best deals on and how? Any helpful tricks or tips that you've learned? I'd love to hear anything you got to get me on my way! 

By the way if you don't coupon and want to learn more, Melea at Freebies 2 Deals has started a fresh start series to introduce what she does and how to do. I'm not in any way getting compensated for promoting Freebies 2 Deals, but really you need to check it out! Enjoy!

7 comments:

Christy said...

I love it when there are new couponers. :) I have couponed for years, and my favorite site to use for Drug Stores (Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS) is Hip2Save.com Collin is amazing!! For Grocery Stores, I use SouthernSavers.com She lives in TN, so her sales are the same as mine. I have also done a few posts on my blog about coupons...when I first started the blog. Good Luck!!

Design_Fluff said...

We definitely coupon. The problem for us is that we tend to use a lot of natural products, so there isn't a lot of coupons available for those things. At least not that I've come across. We occasionally use other products that are not natural, and when we do we are always looking for the bargain.

What I like to do is use Michael's, JoAnn's fabric, and Hobby Lobby coupons. I never go to those stores without a coupon!
http://designfluff.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

OH ME TOO ME TOOI WANT TO LEARN...I went to the store couple days ago and while me and my hubby browse the old spice shower gels a lady asked if hubby likes the bodywash, he said yes and handed us four coupons so on top of the sale we got 4 of it for free....I would love to learn couponing...im reading crazycouponlady (which i saw on kardashian sister's TV show when kourtney is doin couponing) but i still get confused.....

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

I coupon but only when it fits with what we normally buy and use. I cook from scratch, and when those items go on sale and hopefully with a coupon, that's when I stock up. I also shop at Aldi and for many of our basic items, like milk, etc. I can't beat Aldi's prices even with the best sale and coupon!

Unknown said...

I absolutely coupon! First, Michael's and Joann's will accept each others coupons. :-D
Next, other than coupons each week many stores will have "loss leaders" items that they hope to woo you in and then spend lots of money. Pick up the loss leaders - Freeze them. I also think menu planning saves a ton of money. You can use the grocery store coupons to identify what is on super sale, plan your menu & shop with a list. Your shopping is faster and cheaper than ever. Sorry about the rambling...maybe I need to post an entry on this. Great topic!

Laura @ Laura's Crafty Life said...

Some other good websites to check out: moneysavingmom.com, krazycouponlady.com, grocerysmarts.com, savingcentswithsense.com. These all offer different saving strategies. Some match up the weekly ads with the coupons you get in the papers and your weekly sale ads from the stores to get the most savings. Hope that helps!

C said...

I love to coupon so much, I've just started a Blog about it. It's more about saving money in general - but a big way I do that is through coupons! http://otownsaving.blogspot.com/

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