Don't be intimidated by coupons.....

So many stores, CVS, Walgreens, Winn Dixie have really great couponing policies so always ask about any coupons you have concerns about before you get to the checkout.  I had a coupon for Tide that was not the sale item at CVS, my husband asked the cashier about it while I gathered all of my other items and was told if it was for a similar/like product they would accept it!  There seems to be a lot of confusion over store scenarios...................  I started out using the ones on Southern Savers but always had problems, never had the ecb's (extra care bucks from CVS)or all of the coupons!  It was very frustrating so we, Tammy and me, decided to come up with our own each week and it was much easier!  Here's what we do, make a pot of coffee, assemble all the items needed, coupon's, paper, sales advertisements, scissor's, envelopes(one for each lists coupons), more coffee(we really drink heavy when we are couponing!) We make our lists from the sales inserts in Wednesday's paper, we make three list, one for each of our families and the one joint(bogo items  or items that we are going to split).  After we have compiled the list we start going through the coupons and try to match coupons to each item on the list, yes it is time consuming, yes it is tedious, but it is so worth it!  We are keeping our receipts and I am keeping a spread sheet with our % of savings and as of date we are saving 67% on our grocery bills.  I am just guessing that we have spent about six hours total in clipping, compiling list and shopping and have saved a total of $822.75 which is like being paid $137.12 dollars an hour to coupon, totally worth it!!  Going to try and post some of of purchases with coupons needed this weekend.  Have a Blessed Easter!

Working on CVS...

I am still compiling the CVS receipts they will be posted soon.  Last Wednesday we went to Winn Dixie because they had a great deal on alot of buy this item and get several free.  Since they had such good bogo meat deal that we decided to do seperate orders.  My total before coupons and store rewards card was $329.94 and the amount I paid was $159.40!  My Sister's was $303.83 and she paid $152.87.

What we purchased and things we learned......

Ok people I am going to try and post what we purchased this past weekend, it gives me something to do while we wait for the store's weekly ads to come out Wednesday!  First off the most important thing that we learned was at Winn Dixie, they had a promotion that if you purchased a tide detergent(100oz)@$14.99 you received for free: 1 Shout stain remover(22oz), 1 Downey liquid fabric softener(64oz), 1 box (40ct) downey dryer sheets, 1 Winn Dixie concentrated bleach, 1 (2pk) Purex 3in1 sheets.  We had coupons for all of the free items except for the bleach and purex 3 in 1 sheets, as we were picking up our free items a sweet, friendly store clerk saw my buggy with the huge coupon binder in it and asked " Are you going to use coupons on the free items?"  I hesitated, not knowing how to answer and finally decided honesty was the best policy, "Yes." I stammered out to which she replied, just be sure to let them scan your customer rewards card last!  She went on to explain that if they scan your card first the cash register will not let you take the coupons off of the free items!  I was very thankful for this bit of information.  Now onto the items we purchased, I will start at Winn Dixie; (2)Armor Sizzle and Serve Link Sausages, (3) Ballpark Angus Franks, Merita Hotdog buns,(2) Pompeian Olive Oil, (2) pkg Chicken thighs, (2) pkg Chicken breast, (4) pkg Pork ribs, (2) pkg pork chops, (2) London Broil, (4) Dukes mayos,(4) bx Gallon Ziplock bags, (6) box Quart Ziplock bags, (4)Gallons Winn Dixie milk,(6) Rice a roni, (2) Pasta roni, (2) Lays chips, (2) Winn Dixie Chips, (2) Natures Own Bread, (2) Natures Own English Muffins, (2) Doritos Chips, (2) Rotel, (2) Martha White Muffin Mix, (1) Winn Dixie Pimentos, (4) Progresso Chicken and Rice Soups, (2) Frenchs Mustard, (6) Kellogg's cereals, (2) Frenches Honey mustard dip, (2) Winn Dixie Cranberry Juices, (2) Doz. Large Eggs, (2) Kraft 8oz Shredded Cheese, (1) Bestlife Butter, (2) lbs Hickory Sweet Bacon, (1) Birdseye frozen pea, (5) Birdseye frozen green beans, (2) Shout, (2) Downey Dryer Sheets, ( 2) Purex 3 in 1 Sheets, (2) Winn Dixie Bleach, (2) Downey Liquid, (1) 200 ct coffee filter, (1) Shedds spread butter,
(1) lb pinto bean, (1) lb navy bean, (1) 6pk Lenders bagels, (1) Pam, (2) Sprite zero, (3) Betty Crocker Hamburger helpers, (1) Coffee Creamer, (2) 100oz tide detergents, (2) heads of lettuce, (1) 8 roll pk Brawny paper towels, (1) 20lb Purina dog chow. As you can see very few store brands, store brands purchased was free with something else.  I will do the CVS tomorrow, just wanted people to be able to see what regular working women can do with coupons,  you don't have to go to the extremes of dumpster diving or have a day a week to devote to clipping to save money.  Right now in my laundry room I have enough laundry detergent to last us about six months and I am out of pocket about $20.00 for all of it, checked at Wal-Mart today and the tide there was $16.97!  I am hoping that we can post the deals we find and coupons you will need here eventually as we get better, please post any questions or tips would love to here from other real couponers!  By the way a great resource is www.southernsavers.com.

Our first outing with coupons

Well, I am new to this but feel like it is important to put this past weekends adventure on the worldwide web!  My sister Tammy and I were both inspired by the t.v. show "Extreme Couponing".  We decided that we would give it a shot and quickly got to work grabbing up coupon inserts from several local papers......we also went online and printed some coupons for items we wanted to purchase.  We studied the Winn Dixie ad like we were studying for a college final!  After making three list, yes three, one for each of our families and one with the items we would purchase jointly we headed out with our coupons lined up in envelopes like little paper soldiers. We spent an hour in our local Winn-Dixie(who double coupons up to .50 cents every day) and about 15 minutes in the check out.  Clerks were super, giving us tips on how to save the most with our customer rewards cards.  The total for our three orders was $435.14 and after our coupons we paid $218.16, we were elated and with the coupons they printed us at check out we were able to purchase 2 gallons of milk for .28 cents each!  Tammy has a sharper mind than me and grabbed up that deal for us!  We loaded the trailblazer and headed home with our loot!  We unloaded all of the items and just giggled over how well we did.  Saturday morning we headed out to CVS armed with coupons, customer reward cards, sales papers and husbands!  Remember this is our first time trying this together, at CVS we purchased $123.40 in cleaning, health and beauty products and spent $49.09 after coupons, customer rewards and ecb's(extra care bucks), we were thrilled.  This morning we jumped up armed with a pocket full of change and went out to purchase Sunday Papers, coming home we started clipping and organizing our "new" coupons.  Tammy ever the brains of this duo noticed a great deal at CVS starting today so we headed back to our local store, the clerks at CVS were super nice too, our trip today was just as amazing, $135.23 in products (name brands that we usually wouldn't buy because store brands are cheaper) for $44.21! Cheaper than store brands!  We may never rank as extreme couponer's but we are reality couponer's!  It is not hard to save money and it does not take days, come back and read more of the deals and savings we find!