First, I get coupons lots of coupons. I actually get 5 copies of the paper (occasionally I end up with 6 or 7 if I can get someone to give me the coupons from their paper while I’m working at Cracker Barrel). Some people have a hook-up with a coupon lady, (they buy in bundles and sell coupons only, No I can’t get you that hook-up), some people go to stores and ask for them (apparently the stores get money back for turning in unbought papers, but it doesn’t matter if they have coupon inserts or not. So some people can weasel coupons that way), other people just buy the paper. I will say TULLAHOMA paper has coupons! That means stop buying the Nashville paper for $2.50 and buy the T-town one for $1.25!
Couponing takes weeks! You can’t just buy one copy of the paper one time and expect to come home with lots of great deals! Sure start somewhere get one, and use what you have, but to coupon and stockpile you have to have multiple copies. The goal is to buy when it’s on sale. ONLY when it’s on sale, so you have to have enough to get you through til the next sale. I clip everything. (except fixodent and adult diapers). My point is you never know when it’s going to be free. I usually only use a certain makeup or certain whatever but hey if it’s free why not try something new. You also keep your coupons until they expire! Just bc it’s not on sale at all this week, doesn’t mean that next week it won’t end up being free. That’s why it’s important to have some sort of way to organize them.
So I spend about 3 hours on Mondays clipping and sorting coupons… I know my life.
I go to krogerkrazy.com and make my list. Keep clicking “click here for more awesomeness” to keep seeing deals. It looks like this. (“my list” is really small at the bottom click it and you can print your list.)
Then I go to krazycouponlady.com and click stores like this
I go to the stores around here.. Dollar General, Walmart, Food Lion, Walgreens… Mostly Kroger tho. The others have a few good deals here and there Kroger has sales weekly….
You can print your list from both sites. They tell you what to buy, how much it is after coupons…. Double check at the stores you go to, prices vary depending on regions.. Most of the time its right, but occasionally something is a little off. Our Kroger doubles everything .50 and under so a coupon for .50 takes 1.00 off… The Kroger listing on both websites do not include that doubling.
Then I pull my coupons before I go. I write out on my list how many I’m getting… I also write down how much it’s going to be. If I’m wanting to spend under a certain amount then I may use 3 coupons instead of 6, or if the coupon is limited to 4 per trip, the next trip I may have two coupons that were left over. I have extra baseball card holders that I’ve numbered I also number my list. The coupons go in the slot for that number on the list. It looks like this……
I also may write “print” to remind myself to print out the ones I need. The “printables” ones come from coupons.com, SS= smartsource, RP= redplum, PG=proctor and gamble….. everything except “printables” or ones from direct websites come from the paper.
This is this weeks results: Iams cat food. 2-3 bar Ivory soap, 60ct bayer, 4-40 ct. advil, 2-4 pk sharpie, 4 oceanspray juice, 2-2pk lysol toilet bowl cleaner, 8 gatorade, 2-10ct. fruitables juice box, box of del monte fruitable squeezes, 6 garnier fruitis shampoo and conditioner, 12 Pantene Pro-V shampoo and cond. 2 pure silk shave cream, 4- 20ct. cascade dish wash packs, 3 packs of dental picks, 2 dental floss, 4 crest toothpastes, 2 crest mouthwash, 2 old spice body wash, 5 gear deodorants, 7 garnier gruitis hair products, 2 boxes of triscuit crackers, 2 boxes nature valley bars, 8 cans of ravolis, 6 cans chunky Campbell’s, 2 chex mix, 2 combos, 4 bags of M&Ms, 10 boxes of general mills cereals, 2 boxes of gummies, 3- 4pk delmonte fruit cups, 5- 16ct. pods, 4 unstoppables, 1 sure deodorant, 1 brut deodorant, 1 EAS bar, 1 bag pepperidge farm cookies.
I bought 131 items (They were out of like 12 items I was going for ugh..). My total would have been $445.15… I ended up spending $184.73. I SAVED $260.42… 61% savings. 🙂
Part 2: 2 IAMS cat food, 6 nature valley soft baked oatmeal bars, 2 scooby snacks, 4 m&ms, 4 oral-B dent picks, 2 toothpaste, 6 pantene hair stylers, 10 pantene prov shampoo and cond. 2-6 bar old spice, 10 covergirl eye shadow, 2 crest mouth wash, 4 lysol toilet bowl cleaners, 2 cascade dishwasher taps, 1 unstoppables, 4 dawn dish soaps.
I bought 57 items (they were still out the truck didn’t come 😦 ) My total would have been $232.20…. I ended up spending $89.16 I saved $143.04… 64% savings. 🙂
Amber's Tips :) 