The Not-So-Secret World of Couponing

My fun sorority sis, Kristy, made a comment about coupon savings on a recent post. I thought I'd share my small amount of couponing knowledge to those who frequent my page, and aren't already couponing goddesses. Again, with the goobiness, I know, but that's just me! haha!

First, I have to say this. If you live in an area where there isn't major chain grocery stores, it will be difficult to save tons of money, simply because you don't have the options (ie. Flo-town, my hometown). It is also somewhat difficult if you don't have access to major newspapers like the Atlanta Journal Constitution or Birmingham News (?), but there are ways around it. You just need a computer and a printer. Newspapers are my main source of coupons, and I always buy at least four at a time. You need multiple coupons to save more money since you buy whatever is on sale, using your coupons matched to lower your price even more. The goal is to buy groceries only when on sale, so you kinda need room to stockpile. Another key to "successful" couponing is organization so you can actually find the coupons when you need them--see my pics below.

To some of you I may sound crazy at this point, but it's a whole other culture to this couponing. Check out this blog for some amazing samples in how in depth people get--and how much FLIPPIN' money the SAVE!!!

I just added a blog roll to the right hand side of my blog with the blogs I check on a daily basis for the most part. Dave Ramsey is just our starting point of reducing debt, which in turn got me into couponing. SmartSource is just one of many sources to printable coupons, though most times, you can only print two per computer. Quantity needed for stockpiling. The Coupon Clippers are a source when you need tons of just a few coupons. There is a very small minimum order, but you more than make it up buying on sale with coupons.

The other sites listed are where I make my grocery list from, though you have to wiggle it to fit your area. I typically use Southern Savers to create my shopping list each week. What's great is that they list where you can find the coupons--either the SmartSource or Red Plum inserts from the paper, or printable, or some other random site. (I set up an email specifically to use when signing up for the random coupons, so they don't junk up my normal email.) I know it helps to create meal plans each week to use the groceries that you have, but I "wing" it and throw stuff together. This is one area I want to work on. I also want to have a cooking day, where I get several meals made and frozen for an anytime meal--plus I LOVE using my vacuum sealer. Sad, I know. Oh and one more thing about coupon/sale matches, Southern Savers lists several Target coupons you can supposedly use on top of manufacturer coupons and Publix coupons, but the Publix I shop at won't accept them--this is where there has to be wiggle room.

For personal items like razors, toilet paper, shampoo, etc, I tend to get these items at CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid. Money Saving Mom has a great section teaching you how to "work" the CVS and Walgreens--it may be intimidating so just try baby steps, but she explains really well. Look on her page, scroll down a bit and the links are on the right hand side under Start Here.

So in a nutshell, for successful couponing (and by that I mean cutting your grocery bill in half--or more!), I think these are key items:

• Coupon resources/multiples

• List of sales marked with coupon matches

• Place to store stockpiled items

• Knowledge of how to stack coupons at grocery stores, and "work" CVS, Walgreens & Rite-Aid.

My first means of keeping coupons, before being well "versed."

My next attempt at keeping organization. Don't freak--half is sales papers, receipts, etc.

My latest method, that I love oh-so-much! A little more work up front, but totally worth the time it saves in the end.

I know that's a ton to absorb, but please feel free to contact me with any questions! If I can't answer your question, I'm sure I have a resource that can! Happy Couponing! :P

Hold on to your hats!

Well, not really. But it got you here! Haha! Just thought I'd share my Tuesday night "excitement." In conjunction with my efforts to save money with groceries, I spent part of tonight making chicken stock. Yay. Right? Yay is right, if you use the stuff in rice, pastas like orzo and soups. It adds tons of flavor with not as much fat as butter.

After being cooked--should have taken a before pic of everything I put in.

I've been buying chicken on the bone, since it's so much cheaper than boneless, skinless breast (and much more flavorful), I've been keeping the bones in a zip lock in the freezer. Tonight I had enough to make stock, after cooking three more breast for yummy chicken hash (idaho & sweet potatoes with onions, bell peppers, poblano peppers and garlic)--and about one breast leftover for another meal this week.

It's SOO easy! The only hard part is straining it. I strain mine through coffee filters too, to get as much fat out as possible. I threw all the bones in a large pot of water, with a cut onion WITH skins still on (gives stock great color!), a few carrots, a few stalks of celery, two cracked garlic cloves and 45 minutes later on simmer you have a beautiful liquid gold! ;) It probably only cost me $1 to make 16 or more cups of chicken stock. How's that for excitement?!

For those of you who weren't as entertained by that wild action, and have made it this far into the post, here's Knox and one of his other new favorite things to do:

Good Things in Small Packages

Just a few things I wanted to share. One is understandably fab, and the other two are somewhat menial but fab in my little world.

First, and most importantly, I am now an AUNTIE to a beautiful...cocker spaniel!!! My brother and his girlfriend, Lindsey, got a puppy over the weekend. Griffin is absolutely adorable, and I hope we get to meet him SOON! Lula and Chloe now have a dog cousin to play with when we're all at Big Daddy & Ma Jack's house! I know Knox will love him just as much as he does his sisters. :)

Secondly, and not quite as important, are my savings from yesterday and today! I haven't mentioned my couponing in awhile, because I have been quite slack in that department. I'm slowly but surely getting them all organized in a manner that I think will be the most accessible, therefore allowing maximum savings. Gosh, I sound goober-ish, but saving money is a serious matter in this household. We're doing the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace, and loving it, as I have mentioned previously. We have paid off 2 lines of credit card debit and my student loan in 6 months.

Yesterday, I hit Staples and CVS. Staples had several school supplies on sale, as well as copy paper. I know no one in our household attends school yet, but my BFF, Jill, is graciously asking for school supplies to be donated to her church as gifts for her 30th birthday! How fantastic is that?! Anywho, I had an $18 Staples rebate check for recycling ink cartridges (you can recycle up to 10 per month and receive $3 for each--up to $30 per month!) I also had a $5 off any $20 purchase from the store circular. I purchased two reams of paper, two packs of #2 pencils, two packs of scissors (two in each pack), two pencil boxes AND an ink cartridge for my printer for $1.49!!! Plus the packs of paper have rebates on them for a total of $7 AND I recycled 7 used ink cartridges. So, in theory and not counting the recycled ink cartridges, I "made" $5.50--and at Staples of all places!

CVS was even better! They had tons of school supplies FREE after ECB (Extra Care Bucks), FREE razor, FREE glucose monitoring systems that produced overage (to be donated!), and almost free Tylenol. Including my coupons, and the 9 ECBs I received from Spring quarter (I slacked the past few months) I MADE $25 in ECBs and only paid $6 OOP (out of pocket)! I know some peeps do much better than that on a weekly basis, but that is the first time I've "made" overages pay like that!

Today wasn't as phenomenal with savings, but I still did well. Went to Kroger and bought tons of meat and snacky stuff--I spent $55 but saved $77!!! YAY! Probably good, since this current week of sales at Publix isn't the goldmine it normally is, or at least that's what I think.

All in all, it's been a fab few days. Hope your week is off to a great start too!

UPDATE: We just received Knox's very first brand-new Veggie Tales in the mail, for which was FREE and I only paid $2.99 for shipping! :)

I'm on a Publix/Couponing HIGH!

I know I haven't spoken of my couponing and sale seeking adventures, but I have been at it full force.  I recently have been visiting a site called Southern Savers.  It's similar to Coupon Mom, but Southern Saver included links to printable coupons that aren't in the weekly paper.  I have only used this site for my Publix shopping trips the past two weeks, but I'm quite impressed with myself.

Last week I spent about $52 and saved a little over $80--$130 dollars worth of groceries for $52!!!  Today, we (Keith, Knox and I) ventured out to Publix together.  I had a Rite Aid coupon for $5 a total purchase of $20, which Southern Savers said that Publix would honor (Publix honors "all" competitors coupons).  Thanks to Southern Savers and my collection of coupons, I had a hefty stack o' coupons in tow.  Plus Publix had fabulous deals for the current week, so I knew that I would have a great saving day.  So, today's grand total spent was $43.10 and, drum roll please, total amount saved was $102.62!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Can you believe it???  $145 worth of groceries for $43!!!  I did have to haggle the manager to accept my Rite Aid coupon.  I had a similar coupon for CVS--$5 of $30 purchase, but he said that it was for a pharmacy purchase, which is not the case.  I had to read the fine print to him.  I didn't push my luck with the CVS one, but I did with the Rite Aid.  He also said that they weren't competitors, but I asked if he accepted Walgreens coupons for things like aluminum foil.  He said yes, if they are local.  Guess he doesn't drive to work or venture out of the store, since there is a Walgreens across the street and a Rite Aid in the Publix parking lot.  Don't know how much more local you can get than that.  Oh well.

I just can't quit looking at my sales receipt!!!  I was so giddy when I came out of the store and couldn't wait to report my savings to Keith and Knox.  (No surprise that Knox got fussy, so he and Daddy headed out to the truck to wait on me.)  I know there are people out there who put me to shame with their grocery savings, but I am just so proud of myself and I know that I will continue to save more the longer I'm in this "grocery game."

Random Happenings

Before I let you in on all the good stuff that will be happening this weekend, let me inform you of a few things that have taken place the past few days.

I found out that my "magic" machine, is in fact, NOT magic.  I guess I jinxed myself with the last post, and Knox has NOT slept well at all the past two days.  BOO!  Up at 5:30 the past two days and only an hour long nap today!  I'm grasping for straws here, but I guess it's still his poor little teeth.  About the only thing making him feel better, besides the frequent doses of Motrin, is watching WIggles DVDs over and over again.  I know I'm a horrible mother for letting him watch so much TV, but isn't it better that I keep what sanity I have left?

Speaking of sanity, baby number two is not in the plans for the immediate future, but hopefully in the next year or so.  With this in mind, I have already planned to collect ovulation and pregnancy tests with coupons and sales, since last time we tried to get pregnant we probably spent a pretty penny on those things.  So today I got a notification that I can get $5 a $20 total sale at Rite Aid.  Rite Aid is normally my last go-to store in regards to couponing and sales.  I got on www.couponmom.com to check out the deals for this week, since they are almost up.  I saw they had EPT test on sale and there was a current coupon.  Rite Aid also had some cereal, which we have none of.  I also remembered at the last minute that I had a gift card for $10 for spending $50 there during the month of December in qualifying products.  Once there, I knew my total before taxes would be a penny short so I grabbed two individual rolls of paper towels on sale.  I had coupons for them but not with me--boo.  Anywho,  I saved $20.50 in coupons/gift card alone--and only spent $1.39--YEP!  ONE DOLLAR and THIRTY NINE CENTS!  That was for a pack of two pregnancy tests that retail at $17.99 (they don't expire until December of 2010), two boxes of Smart Start Cereal and two rolls of Bounty!!!  Yay me!

Back to Knox for a second.  I bought a pair of official hair cutting scissors from Sally's Beauty Supply so I can start cutting Knox's hair at home.  His hair has already grown a baby mullet since mid-December.  I did pretty decent for my first time cutting a toddler's hair.  Keith kept him distracted in his high chair, but he still kept turning his head to see what the heck I was doing to him.  I cut his hair at all one length from his scalp, which isn't the best option for those of you tempting the thought of the same.  Because I didn't keep his hair longer on the top, his sweet blonde-white hair sticks straight out from the crown on his head!  At least the cotton ball look is cute on one-year-olds! :)

Looking at the upcoming weekend, I'm super excited and the tiniest nervous, but for a good reason.  Tomorrow will be my first paid photography session, with me behind the lense!  I'm so excited that Mandy Hyde has decided to let me document this time in her, and her husband's life.  Mandy is about 8 months pregnant with their first baby, and I'm doing a maternity photo shoot with her.  I have so many great ideas, I just hope they transfer through the lense.  I'm heading over to her house Saturday afternoon, with a reprise visit on Sunday afternoon so her hubs can get his mug captured too!  After the photo session with Mandy, she's following me to our house for a mini-potluck with Natalie and Kaylie (and Knox).  Us girls and kids are kicking Daddy out of the house for the night, but he's not complaining.  He's going to see a silly movie I'd prefer not to see--everybody wins!  The great thing is that I get to see where Mandy lives, since it's only about 5 minutes away--a friend that lives close!  AND Knox gets to love on his girlfriend, Kaylie.  He has ALWAYS loved that girl, and think she reciprocates!  Anywho, Sunday I think we're going to get back to church after a two week hiatus with 2/3 of us having colds.

Wish me luck tomorrow!  Hopefully this can blossom into something a little more!!!

Weekend Recap

Thought I should fill you in on a few good things that happened over the weekend.

First and foremost, Knox is walking multiple steps at a time.  Not just two and three steps, but six to eight steps.  And he is so cute doing so!  The first time Keith and I noticed, Knox was only in his diaper and had his little hands raised up by his ears, toddling from the ottoman to his toy box.  Oh and how he has started loving his toy box and pulling things out of it (and the diaper box).  He has started doing some of the mama, dada, and baba sounds.

  

I was really worried about this one, especially when his pediatrician said she would be worried if he wasn't saying two to three words in the next three months.  Now that I have talked to my mom and other newer moms, I'm a little more at ease that he's not babbling my ear off just yet.  She did say that I can let him watch more Baby Einstein (I was only letting him watch about an hour total per day since I read too much TV can delay speech development--so much for that theory).  This means I can get more work done because every time one starts up, he's instantly in trance.

Other pediatrician stats for Knox:  height 56%, weight 79% and noggin 94% (that is to account for all that genius brain activity going on up there!)  She said that he is way above normal as 

far as the walking goes, but wants us to work with him on clapping--more pat-a-cake for us.  I don't think he understands the concept of clapping his own hands together because when we play I clap his hands together for him.  Last week, he started putting his hands on my wrists making me clap as soon as we finish with him.  TOO CUTE!

My couponing/sale shopping went extremely well this weekend.  I didn't get my newspapers until Sunday AM, but I found that if I go to Food Depot they have two Sunday papers bound together for only $2.50 (regular Sunday paper is $2!) and I get like an 8¢ discount because Food Depot is a "discount" grocery store.  This weekend's paper was JAM PACKED with GREAT coupons.  So I got all my sale papers out, new coupons torn out and spread sheet out, I scanned over everything and got my list ready for my stores.  I hit CVS first and managed to save $41 and only paid $31!!!  I had a personal coupon from when you scan your card in the store for $4 off a $20 purchase.  On top of all that I made $5 in CVS bucks to add to the $3 I forgot to use!  In Kroger I only spent about $20, and in Aldi I only spent $15!!!  I went to the Aldi here in Stockbridge and it's just as "nice" as the one in Conyers, so I may save a bit of gas and start going there.

Over the weekend I was also able to finish some craft projects.  One I can't mention since it's a surprise for someone, and the other is too but I don't think she'll check this blog so I'll spill the beans.  And Anna, if you happen to find this, SURPRISE!  You'll get these in a few days!  As you read previously, Anna is my BFF Jayma's little sister who just pledged AOPi at Birmingham Southern.  It's a big deal in the sorority world to get fun and fabulous gifts as a new member.  Normally these gifts can chalk up a pretty price tag, but I did inventory of things I already had, and made Anna a few gifts to welcome her to the sisterhood (I have a bad habit of buying craft things just because they are on sale, which we are remedy-ing!)  Here's pictures of what I made her!

Thought I was clever with the saying on the cup

A shirt I appliqued

A bag that's appliqued

A door/wall hanger with fun wire & bead hanger--see, it says AOII down the side?!

Coupons, coupons, coupons!

So I am currently infatuated with coupons and weekly sale papers.  In an effort to help along our Dave Ramsey program, I have taken inventory of the pantry, fridge and freezer so that I by only what I need to make complete meals.  The things necessary to complete the meals almost always come from the sale paper and most other items not on sale come from Aldi--and I have to say, I HEART ALDI!  I know I've said it before, but I had to say it again.  I managed to buy only $56 of groceries to make two meals (plenty of leftovers for two other nights), a loaf of bread (wheat, but Keith will only eat small amounts of because it's not full of preservatives), a dessert that will last several days and TWO bottles of wine (my mommy juice! ha!)

We did so well this week, that we a just skimming back a little next week and we will be paying for our nice hotel room in Chattanooga next weekend in CASH!  Still in our budget, YAY!!!  (The hotel room is for my sweet Jilly's wedding!  YAY AGAIN!!!)  And we managed to get through our weekly budget "meeting" with one small duel.  Hehe.  Love you, honey! :)

So I digress.  I am so infatuated with coupons that I have even started a spread sheet of all the coupons I have so that when I get all the weekly circulars, I can just glance down my list and easily see if I have any coupons to match the sales.  I'm also trying to keep all of my weekly sales papers because, apparently, there are cycles in when certain items go on sale.  That way you only buy the items you want when they are on sale.  I honestly believe that there should be a class on all these tricks at the local colleges!  Oooh, and a new coupon tip I learned from Ingrid (my freshman year roomie, BFF and now mommy of 3!) is that expired coupons are STILL useable!!!  She said that only Walmart,that she knows of, will NOT accept expired coupons--that leaves four other stores I shop at!!!  Whoo-hoo!

My inventory of what I have in food supplies will also be put into spread sheet form, but that might not happen until Knox is with Grammy and Grandaddy.  By having my inventory I can plan meals around what I have--I have run across a website where you can type in ingredients and it will spit out possible recipes.  Now that I have said that, I'll actually have to find that web address.  I'll get back to you on that one.  If anyone is wondering why I am so obsessive-compulsive like this, I might have to chalk it up to my father's keen organization skills engraved into my head, which I fought fiercely in my adolescent years.  Love you, Big Daddy!

My other attempt at saving money is making Knox's food.  I can get a bag of frozen peas for about $1.50, which would make the equivalent of 8 servings (which I buy prepackaged for $1 for 2 servings).  I mean, no real math needed there!  I also had to use frozen strawberries for the dessert I made this week (which I got a large bag at Aldi for about $1.60).  I used what I needed for the dessert and pureed and froze the rest.  So when Knox needs a fruit, I can just pop a few cubes out to defrost and there you go!  I bought a $10 food mill at Target, in hopes that it would process the food a little finer than what the food processor could do.  Not so much.  It will be good for some things though, like rice and possibly meats.  Don't know if I want to take on the last one--yucky!

I was worried at first about the texture.  Knox has gagged a few times if something is fairly thick or has chunks--he is his mother (and grandmother's) child!  I was pureeing canned peaches I got on sale and let Knox be the taste tester.  He gagged a bit, so I gave him a bit more just because I thought he would get used to it.  NOPE!  It all came back up.  I tried with the peas, and it didn't go well at first, but when hidden with tomato beef macaroni, he scarfed it down.  Score one for Mommy!

So that's my frugality for the time being.  I'm sure there will be more in the near future!