Dedicated to my couponing friends

Yesterday, I started ironing the massive pile of shirts that have been stacking up in my laundry room for weeks. I told Brendan that I was tempted to take them all to the dry cleaners but that I felt the $25-$30 could be better spent elsewhere. His response made my day! "Ya, for $25 you could probably get $100 worth of groceries!"

So happy that he sees and appreciates my efforts in my new coupon mad hobby! I'm even more happy that he volunteered to iron over half of the shirts himself! Woo Hoo! Not sure if he wanted to score some hubby brownie points or if he was frustrated at how slow I iron. Either way...pile to iron is Gone-zo!

Now back to my story....

Well the last several months I have been trying to keep up with the Joneses so to speak. Many of my friends have been telling me for over a year how much they save by couponing. I figured they weren't lying, but I just wasn't seeing how a 25 cent coupon here and there could save any money. Besides, it seemed that most of the coupons were for junk food or for the expensive brands. I felt I did my duty by planning our meals, sticking to the grocery list and buying generics as much as possible.

Then I went to a couponing class with my sister in law Debbie. Wow! I finally got it. I got suckered into subscribing to 3 copies of the sunday paper that night to get the most bang for my buck and figured there was no turning back.

It has changed our life! With having a missionary to support, two active and busy teenagers at home, a house that has all 11 year old appliances that are sure to kick the bucket any day, college tuition x 3 knocking at our door, and a paycut for Brendan due to the economy, it couldn't have come at a better time.

Those reading this that already know the tricks, skip down to the blue journaling. You don't want to miss that. Those that want to learn a little on a very basic level read on. The trick is to get multiple copies of the sunday paper for the coupons. I get 3. I think you can get up to 5 at a discounted rate. Then you cut out what you would buy if free or extremely cheap and organize in a binder in baseball card holders by category. This seriously only takes me about 1/2 hour on Sunday afternoon. Then hold on to them and watch for sales. Last week I bought 15 boxes of cereal, 1 Sunny D, 3 Keebler cookies, 3 Reeses candy bars, and 2 Tresemme shampoos for $13.07 for a savings of $73.08 at Smiths!! Smith's had Quaker cereals (Life/CapnCrunch) 5 for $5. I had 3 coupons for $3 off when you buy 5... = 15 boxes/$6.00. Shampoo was on sale for $2.88. $2.00 coupon = .88 ea. etc. There is a great tutorial on savvyshopperdeals.com. That's also the site I use to find the sales and how to match up my coupons. My favorite deal was the Reeses Peanut Butter cups. They were on sale for .50. I had 3 coupons for .55 of each so I got paid .15 to take them home. I'm saving those for my missionary's Orange package. But you'll have to wait for a later post when I describe that whole thing.

Above is what I bought yesterday. The savings weren't as significant as my Smith's shopping spree but it was still good. I spent $22.70. The regular price for the 3 laundry detergents alone was $20.91 so I was pretty happy. I got them for $2.29 each instead of $6.97. It's like the shopper's high everyone talks about but without the guilt and without having to hide the stuff from your husband. Come on...admit you've done that!

Ok. well, that is MY story.

Once in a while I look at a blog called "Seriously so blessed." It's hilarious. The girl that writes it exaggerates all the "Utah Mormon Stay At Home Mom trends" and turns them into an obnoxious tale. Don't anyone get confused. The following IS NOT MY writing. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. I dedicate it to all my couponing friends:

the best.
couponing.
of.
my.
life.

"I'm so addicted! I don't know if I told you this but I get 20-30 copies of the Sunday paper JUST for the inserts bc I'm a hardcore couponer!!!

Let me clairify: its definately NOT bc we're poor {we're so not}, just for a fun way to save $ AND look thrifty AND compete w/ freinds.

So since its Glamma and Queenie's last day here, at 6 AM this morning, I went to Smith's/Albertson's/Walgreens & elbowed like forty other coupon chicks outta my way so I could rock the double coupon day and double up on my catalinas and manufacturers and $1 offs and check out everything I halled home!

60 boxes of cereal
36 diet pringles
100 crystal light mixes
lifetime supply of kotex {not shown, gross!}
more toilet paper than the whole state will ever use
Lysol wipes galore
mini rice cakes
tons of eggs for JJWTs protein shakes
bumload of juice boxes
cookies {for ruth}
mandarin oranges
...name something else....
...I'll wait while you think of it...
yes! I also got 100 of those, too!

{this is only half of it}

Ok so it took me 43 transactions and three different checkers. Firstly I went to some grumpy old lady who kepp reading fine print {whatever!} so I finally switched lanes to this zitty teen who was way busy checking out my hot self so just scanned whatever I gave him, lol. THEN I finished up at the self check out.

Price before coupons...$530.56.
Price AFTER coupons? $4.47!

i saved $526.09, or something. And when my $10 rebate comes in the mail I will of MADE $5! Yay! "