Couponing

I mentioned before I liked the show "Extreme Couponing" and I have been doing a lot better at saving money at the grocery using coupons.  Well, this past week my mom brought me some great coupons and after doing a little research at my local CVS/Pharmacy there were several items on sale that I had coupons for and I also had $5.00 extra care bucks to spend.  So....I decided to see just how much I could save on items I was actually going to use! I'm not into buying things just because it's a good deal, that's a waste.  I only purchase things I will use and only clip coupons for said items.




Here's what I got:

1 can Febreze air effects
1 bottle Dawn dish soap
1 can Gillette shaving cream
1 stick Gillette deodorant
1 bottle Gillette body wash
1 stick Old Spice deodorant
1 bottle Old Spice body wash
1 Crest toothpaste
1 Colgate toothpaste


When I said these are items I use, what I meant was, these are items Steve will use, well most of them anyway :)


Total Retail Value: $39.00 (including tax)
After manufacture coupons and store coupons I paid...........

$3.73!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I'm not really trying to be an extreme couponer and may never have this amount of savings again but it was VERY exciting to save that much money and I totally understand the adrenaline rush the extreme couponers get!  I would like to give a special thanks to my cashier and co-worker, Nathan (I should probably make him and his wife some baked goods).  If not for him, this savings would not have been possible!  It's tricky when using multiple coupons because if you don't ring them in the correct order you don't get as much savings.  For example I had a coupon for a free deodorant if you bought the body wash and I also had a $1.00 off coupon for the body wash.  If you rang the $1.00 off coupon before the buy one get one coupon it would not allow you to use both.  I now understand why the couponing people have to watch the cashier and register so closely-not because the cashier will knowingly make a mistake but because if not done in the correct sequence you cannot use all your coupons!  

Grocery Budget Update

I just have a short post today to let you know how my first month of the $200.00 a month grocery budget went.  I made my last trip to the grocery (of the month) today and I only needed a few items: milk, bread, flour, & eggs.  My budgeting went much easier than I had initially expected.  I figured it would be really hard to just spend $50.00 a week but it wasn't too bad.  Going to the grocery, I had $22.00 to spend.  I kinda freaked out last week when I left the store and only had $22.00 for this week's food but once I realized I only needed 4 items, I knew that was more than enough money.  My bill today was $21.65! I know that's not much left over but you must consider I bought an extra bag of flour (it was on manager special), pack of tortillas (on sale and I had a coupon) and I also got a Spider Skimmer, which wasn't on my original list.  It was really exciting (probably too exciting) that after getting the 4 items I had to have, I still had money to spend and since I had been wanting a skimmer and I wanted to make tacos tonight, I could get a few extras :)

Needless to say, I'm really excited about next month and can't wait to keep you posted :) Although I'm not one of those extreme couponers I have really been trying to use as many coupons (or items I already buy) as possible.  So far, my biggest savings on one trip has only been $10.00 but that's a huge improvement from 6 months ago when I had NEVER used a coupon!