Coupons & Simpler Times

This weekend at the hotel we received free newspapers. Even on Sunday we received the edition with the coupons, ads, etc. I love Sunday papers, and especially love them when they are free. I decided a couple things. 1. People who live up by the Twin Cities get far more and better coupons than I do. 2. I’m paying far too much for the crummy small city paper I get with hardly any coupons in it.

Currently our newspaper typically has one little section of coupons on Sundays (the Smart Source section) and usually that is more of the product order forms than it is even coupons. As we drove home Sunday I clipped coupons. By the time we reached our house & took a little nap I was energized to go on a shopping expedition. And it was much needed since I didn’t get any groceries for more than a week before we left. : )

Here is a summary of my shopping trip:

Total spent before coupons: $59.85
Coupon total: $11.64
After coupons: $48.21

Admittedly I bought Easter Lilies for $8.98 (plus tax) that I didn’t need. But I really wanted this. I love the smell of Easter Lilies. They remind me of my Grandma Donna. She had perfume in her bathroom called Lily of the Valley. It was one of the things that I somehow got after she died of cancer about 14 years ago. I kept it in my bathroom. When we moved into our house about 10 years ago I would go upstairs when I was missing her and give a spray of the perfume. It was a comfort thing and made me feel close to her.

Isn’t it funny how certain smells take us to another place in time. Easter was always a huge thing for our family. My grandparents would come back from their winter home in Texas in time for Easter. It was usually the first big family get together (with many to follow) for the year. Grandpa & Grandma would hide tons of plastic eggs with money around their home & yard for all of us grandkids. There would usually be 1 special egg per child that held a $5 or $10 bill and then the rest was us for grabs. We could each get a certain number. The younger kids got to look for theirs first. It was great. There was tons of food and tons of laughs. We’d be at their home from the time church got out till it was dark outside. (sigh)

What I wouldn’t give to relive that for just a few minutes. Back then life wasn’t complicated. Kids could run around outside – and even chose to. Life didn’t revolve around the TV, computer, or video games. Families talked and enjoyed being together.

Makes me wonder, where did the world to wrong???

Grocery Shopping Trip

Tonight I had to go to the grocery store to pick up some chicken broth and half & half for potato soup that I am taking to work tomorrow. I tried taking a picture but my camera was dead and the cell phone picture was completely worthless. So I am sorry....

Here is what I got:

1 quart of half & half
2 Bistro Linguine Meals (coupon buy 1, get 1 free)
2 boxes of Cinnamon toast crunch (coupon for $1 off 2)
1 Helper meal
1 box Hy-vee honey oatmeal crunch
2 cans chicken broth
4 pkgs. ramen noodles
Western French salad dressing (coupon for $0.75 off)
1 red bull (I always wanted to try it to see if it really gives me energy...)
2 - 1 lb rolls of Farmland Sausage (2 - $0.75 off coupons)
Cascade Crystal Clear (FREE w/ coupon!!)
Hy-vee softener sheets
Joy lemon-lime dish soap (coupon for $0.30 off)

My total was $31.46 before coupons.

After coupons my total was $22.88!! Yay for me!!

Coupons

I caught a segment on NBC last week about people going shopping and leaving with a whole cart of stuff and only paying like $1.50. I want to know where these people live...... Seriously, I do. I can tell you where they don't live........... : ) Really I do wonder though. I admit I am very jealous about this and would love the chance to go shopping somewhere that doubles coupons weekly, where I could go buy a cart of stuff for $1.50. Someone please give me that chance!!

My husband thinks coupons are usually pretty stupid - well sometimes. He laughs and jokes when he sees me pouring over the ads and my coupons. I usually do okay, but rarely save more than $10 per trip. Sometimes I get really lucky and do save more than that, but that is very rare.

One thing about coupons is that they do you no good if you don't have them with you. I try to remember to take them with me anytime I walk out the door cause you never know when you'll end up stopping by a store. I used to just take them when I knew for sure I'd be going to the store, I've come to learn that if you don't have them you will typically end up stopping by some store where you have this great coupon for....sitting at home. So now I take them almost everywhere - yes there are times I still forget, I just put off my purchase if possible till I have the coupon with.

Another thing about coupons, it's crazy to use one just because you have one. I used to do that a lot. On occasion I still do - if it's a great coupon for a product I've always wanted to try. I do clip most all of the coupons out of the paper and save them - just in the hopes that the local Kmart will decide to have another Double Coupon week.

To really save use coupons on items that are already on sale. For example, if you have coupons for $0.35 off of pizza rolls wait to use them till the item is on sale for $1 before you use them. Then you can get the pizza rolls for $0.65 and really save. Most items come on sale at some point, and grocery stores tend to have the same products on sale every so-many weeks.

A great way to get coupons is by writing or emailing a company that has a product you really like and/or use frequently. I've emailed several companies and have had them send me coupons just for me providing them feedback. I emailed Campbells about how much my daughter loves their soups (she really does!) and they sent me several coupons for free product. I also emailed Farmland and told them how much our family likes their lower sodium bacon, they sent me a bunch of $1 off coupons. I saved those coupons till our local Hy-vee had Farmland bacon on sale for $2 and stocked up using my coupons. I bought 6 packages of bacon for $1 each!

If you contact a company about a complaint on a product it's important that you have the packaging from the product still available. About 6 years ago (when my daughter was in diapers) I bought a package of Huggies. A couple of the diapers were defective. I called the company and was able to provide them the information stamped on the package (that gave them info about where they were manufactured, the date, and the time). They sent me coupons for $11 off a package of diapers! They also sent several coupons for $1 off any Kimberly-Clark product. Which I believe I used to get some paper towels for free. : )

Do you have any good couponing strategies that you'd like to share?

Eureka!!

Today I was reading the Sunday newspaper and saw that Kmart is doubling coupons this week!!! Yahoo!! I've never shopped anywhere that honored double coupons. So you can imagine my excitement by this. (Actually you probably can't!)

After we got home from church and put the Christmas Tree up I started sorting through the coupons in my new nifty coupon binder. I realized that I had quite a few really good coupons that were going to expire today, and that they were for items I desperately needed. So at about 4:15 I hightailed it out of here with dollar signs in my eyes and a dream in my heart (okay, that is a bit cheezy I admit.)

While I was out browsing the aisles looking for good deals I ran across another gal going through her coupons (which were not organized nearly as good as mine) and asked her them doubling coupons. The add said they would honor coupons up $2 off - my question was would they honor coupons for a total of $2 off, or would they honor $2 off coupons for up to $4 off items. The latter was true!!! Holy cow, I've died and gone to bargain shopper heaven!! Below is an itemization of how I did. The purchase price before coupon is listed behind the item. The coupons only rang up with a total so I don't have a list of exactly the purchase price per item, but I will post the grand total spent and saved at the bottom. First though, here is a picture of my purchase:



Jergens lotion $3.00
4 bars of Oil of Olay $4.00
Colgate Toothpaste - quantity 3 @ $3.29 each = $9.87
Dove Shampoo $3.79
Dove Conditioner $3.79
Tylenol Rapid Release $0.99
StayFree Maxi Pads $3.49
Aussie Sprunch Spray $2.89
Pert 2 in 1 Shampoo $4.99
Reynolds Handi-Vaccum Starter Kit $8.99
Dog Treats $2.99
Ziplock Vaccum Bags $2.79
Cascade Dishwasher Gel Tabs - qty 2 @ $4.79 each = 9.58
Febreze Pet $3.99
2000 Flushes with bleach $2.99
Oust Deodorizer and Disinfectant $3.50
Betty Crocker Cookie Mix - qty 2 @ $1.00 each
Betty Crocker frosting $1.50
Hershey Nugget Chocolate Bar Assortment $4.99
Peter Pan peanut butter $2.49
V-8 Splash $3.49

Total Savings after doubled coupons: $33.80
Total Spent: $32.38

Did I rock it or what????? I was so excited - the first thing I did was call my husband, who I would have thought would have shared in my enthusiasm, but no. All he said was "Couldn't this wait till you got home?" What a fun-hater. I was bummed that you can't use internet coupons cause I could have scored a lot more free stuff. Bummer.

Now I just want to find more coupons and go shopping there again to see if I can do better!! (Is there a support group for this?!?!?!)