Couponing June 2010

My friend Jill and I went shopping last night and here's what I got.

3 boxes of Kellog's frosted flakes-normally $3.49

Old spice body wash--$3.49

Old spice deodorant--$? close to $4?

Crest toothpaste--on sale for $1.99

Rolaids--on sale for $1.50

Activia Yogurt--on sale for $2.00

MY total?

$1.00

and a big smile :)

here's the breakdown of what I actually paid:

3 boxes of Kellog's frosted flakes-.65 cents each

Old spice body wash--$.25 cents

Old spice deodorant--$.25 cents

Crest toothpaste--FREE

Rolaids--on sale for $Free PLUS I made $2 (coupon value was more than the sale price)

Activia Yogurt--$.50

because of the coupon overage of $2.01, it paid for most of the groceries-it's like making money!

Couponing myths:

1. it takes too much time

-like anything at first, it will take time to learn the game, but once you know what you're doing, it takes maybe 15-30min. of planning before you head out. Really, you should be planning before you go out shopping anyway, unless you make a lot of money and don't have a need for savings or a budget.

2. it's stuff I won't use

really?

with couponing, one can buy hygiene products such as T.P., toothpastes, sanitary products, deodorants, razors, etc. sometimes, you can get fruits and vegetables too-now, don't tell me you don't have need for them.

The neat thing with this, is that you're always going to be buying new things-sales are different each week, hence the different products. You get to try new things each week! Sure, I wouldn't buy most of the things that I do now, if it weren't for coupons-for example, last week, Snyder's pretzels were on sale (a big bag) for $.50 cents each. My family doesn't normally eat pretzels-but because they were .50cents, this week's snack will be PRETZELS. :) The week before that, yogurt was on sale. What did we have for snack time? Yogurt and frozen yogurt :) See? You learn to USE WHAT YOU HAVE. Trust me, my grocery bill has come down quite a bit. We are always eating new things, and my budget runs about $20-30 a week for my family of four.

The key is to find the balance between TIME AND MONEY, obviously! There's always the extremist in anything. Don't become one. It really just depends on how much time you're willing to spend to save money, I suppose. You can't win both, that's for sure.

If for anything, I personally do this NOT BECAUSE WE'RE POOR, but because

1. I like to use my money "wisely" (get the most for my money)

2. For food storage. you'd be amazed at how fast you can build up a food storage with LITTLE MONEY. I don't print coupons off, nor do I spend more than 20-30min. each week to look around for sales-

Knowing how coupons work and how they can work for you is the key though! :)

OH couponing, I could go on and on about you!