Sorry I've been so quiet here and I'm honestly still working on those savings but due to a printer death I've been out of the game for a while here. Back on board and goign to check out the new "Extreme Couponing" show to see if its going to provide anything new.
Current great deal is for cat owners and is at K-Mart:
Purina One Beyond Dry Cat Food 16 oz (cpn is for 1 FREE up to $3.00 expiring 4/12)
Smart Source on 3/13 (gotta keep those kitties fed)
Happy savings!
Showing posts with label saving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saving. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Friday, January 8, 2010
Snow time Shopping and Saving
I saved $80.59 at Giant Eagle yesterday!
My best “score” was the Dannon yogurt at.20 cents each final price.
Now for the journey to savings and what I learned on that trip.
I had checked out the Giant Eagle ad when it arrived in the mail on Tuesday and saw that there were a number of Buy One Get One (BOGO) Free items as well as other items that I’d like to have on hand going on sale – usually there are things going on sale that I’d like to have but I usually only buy what I need. But I want to start to stock up on things so I wanted to strategically shop for what I want at low prices. This week there are a lot of meat items BOGO – so I knew I’d still be spending a decent amount of money – because 6 pork chops still costs about $7 and a shoulder roast is going to cost me $14 or thereabouts even if I am getting the second ones free.
I went to couponmom.com and check marked the items that were on sale and that I thought were at a low enough price to consider buying – especially if I knew I had a coupon for the item. A flaw I see at couponmom is that I knew I had coupons for some items that were not showing as having a current unexpired coupon associated with them. The ones I had were either from the online sites or from the manufacturer (example – Dole Fruit Jars – sale of $2.00 / no coupon available but I had a .75 cent coupon from a 4 pack of fruit bowls – and since GE doubles coupons under $1.00 I was going to pay only .50 for that jar of peaches the kids love so much. So even though coupon mom has a lot of good information on the sales and coupons it is still very important to rely on your own knowledge of what coupons you have available to you – and still check the online coupon sites for more.
So I made my list and printed it out – I then hit my coupon stash, I marked the list with the number of each item I wanted to buy based on the coupons I had and marked the list with the coupons that I had available on the items - I also added items to the list that were not on sale but that we needed – especially if I had a coupon. The coupon stash will need to become better organized but as its still pretty small it was reasonably easy to go through and cut out the ones that I needed. I used a cheap envelope (left over from a bill that I pay online) and put all of my coupons into it and got ready to go – in the snow!
Another lesson learned shortly after walking into the store. I need to re-write my list and organize my coupons based on the layout of the store that I am going to. The list printed from couponmom is sorted by coupon date not by any other sort of easy to follow system. I spent more time reminding myself what I had and where the items were than I would have liked to. Next time I will re-write the list according to my knowledge of where items are in the store – and I will sort the coupons in that order too.
The shopping itself went well – there were some items I decided not to buy at the store but I really don’t think I had any “impulse purchases” as I was on a mission to get my list shopped for and save the money.
I bought lots of stuff – as a matter of a fact I bought 84 items according to my receipt. I had a full cart which I almost never do because I’m “usually watching how much I spend”. As I was setting out to buy a number of meat items as well as “stock up” items I “allotted” myself about $120 to spend at the store (after coupons). Like I said earlier – BOGO meat still means buying one of each at full price.
Before store sales, BOGO items, coupons, discounts and doubled coupons (when available) my grocery bill was $193.12 (still lower than the woman in front of me – who bought a bunch of BOGO stuff but had no coupons) – after all of those discounts my out of pocket cost was $112.53 – saving $80.59 (42%). I was hoping to save 50% but I did not – but I’m still very happy with my shopping experience and savings. I think I told everyone at work that I managed to save $80 at the grocery store last night.
So what all did I buy? Pork Chops, Beef, Bacon, hot dogs, apples, frozen vegetables, frozen side dishes, betty crocker items, milk, engligh muffins, sea food, pop tarts, cereal, grilled meats, yogurt, and lots lots more J
AND I could have done better if I had had more coupons – if my stash went back further and if I had more copies of various ads.
So for next time:
Organize better before going to the store – could have saved at least half an hour in the store if I had been more organized
There is no such thing as too many copies of a coupon insert. Take ‘em from the trash at the coffee shop on Sundays if you need to.
Stay tuned and see how I do at Target and Wal Mart next...
My best “score” was the Dannon yogurt at.20 cents each final price.
Now for the journey to savings and what I learned on that trip.
I had checked out the Giant Eagle ad when it arrived in the mail on Tuesday and saw that there were a number of Buy One Get One (BOGO) Free items as well as other items that I’d like to have on hand going on sale – usually there are things going on sale that I’d like to have but I usually only buy what I need. But I want to start to stock up on things so I wanted to strategically shop for what I want at low prices. This week there are a lot of meat items BOGO – so I knew I’d still be spending a decent amount of money – because 6 pork chops still costs about $7 and a shoulder roast is going to cost me $14 or thereabouts even if I am getting the second ones free.
I went to couponmom.com and check marked the items that were on sale and that I thought were at a low enough price to consider buying – especially if I knew I had a coupon for the item. A flaw I see at couponmom is that I knew I had coupons for some items that were not showing as having a current unexpired coupon associated with them. The ones I had were either from the online sites or from the manufacturer (example – Dole Fruit Jars – sale of $2.00 / no coupon available but I had a .75 cent coupon from a 4 pack of fruit bowls – and since GE doubles coupons under $1.00 I was going to pay only .50 for that jar of peaches the kids love so much. So even though coupon mom has a lot of good information on the sales and coupons it is still very important to rely on your own knowledge of what coupons you have available to you – and still check the online coupon sites for more.
So I made my list and printed it out – I then hit my coupon stash, I marked the list with the number of each item I wanted to buy based on the coupons I had and marked the list with the coupons that I had available on the items - I also added items to the list that were not on sale but that we needed – especially if I had a coupon. The coupon stash will need to become better organized but as its still pretty small it was reasonably easy to go through and cut out the ones that I needed. I used a cheap envelope (left over from a bill that I pay online) and put all of my coupons into it and got ready to go – in the snow!
Another lesson learned shortly after walking into the store. I need to re-write my list and organize my coupons based on the layout of the store that I am going to. The list printed from couponmom is sorted by coupon date not by any other sort of easy to follow system. I spent more time reminding myself what I had and where the items were than I would have liked to. Next time I will re-write the list according to my knowledge of where items are in the store – and I will sort the coupons in that order too.
The shopping itself went well – there were some items I decided not to buy at the store but I really don’t think I had any “impulse purchases” as I was on a mission to get my list shopped for and save the money.
I bought lots of stuff – as a matter of a fact I bought 84 items according to my receipt. I had a full cart which I almost never do because I’m “usually watching how much I spend”. As I was setting out to buy a number of meat items as well as “stock up” items I “allotted” myself about $120 to spend at the store (after coupons). Like I said earlier – BOGO meat still means buying one of each at full price.
Before store sales, BOGO items, coupons, discounts and doubled coupons (when available) my grocery bill was $193.12 (still lower than the woman in front of me – who bought a bunch of BOGO stuff but had no coupons) – after all of those discounts my out of pocket cost was $112.53 – saving $80.59 (42%). I was hoping to save 50% but I did not – but I’m still very happy with my shopping experience and savings. I think I told everyone at work that I managed to save $80 at the grocery store last night.
So what all did I buy? Pork Chops, Beef, Bacon, hot dogs, apples, frozen vegetables, frozen side dishes, betty crocker items, milk, engligh muffins, sea food, pop tarts, cereal, grilled meats, yogurt, and lots lots more J
AND I could have done better if I had had more coupons – if my stash went back further and if I had more copies of various ads.
So for next time:
Organize better before going to the store – could have saved at least half an hour in the store if I had been more organized
There is no such thing as too many copies of a coupon insert. Take ‘em from the trash at the coffee shop on Sundays if you need to.
Stay tuned and see how I do at Target and Wal Mart next...
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Happy New Year - 2010 here I come
January 2, 2010
Okay - this is my new way of keeping track of my resolution to become a better shopper. By that I mean get more and spend less. Learning to use the sales and the coupons out there (and the internet) to save money for my family.
And I'm going to log how it is going and what I learn and hopefully you'll follow along and save some money too.
The amount of money our family spends on groceries, paper products, cleaning supplies, kids supplies, and just general "stuff" is amazing to me. Sure it's a lot less that we were paying in Hawaii (and coupons themselves were rare in Hawaii - never fear HI friends - I have hope for you as well) but it's still more than we have to spend - the deals are out there, I just have to find them.
We have all seen the "coupons queens" in line at the store. You know the ones, they have a whole cart worth of stuff and end up paying $22 for it when all is said and done. We hate them - and not because they're saving the money - but because we're jealous that they are so organized and they know how to keep all of those coupons in line and follow the sales and they save all of that money. We either don't have the time, the patience or discipline to do the same thing. Heck - they're so organized they get through the line with all of their stuff and coupons faster than some people can get their ID out when writing a check.
______________
Off and on for years I have used coupons and tried to buy things on sale. I've saved a few bucks here and there and feel good about doing so but I keep finding myself in a place where I end up running out of something and needed to go buy it and I end up paying full price. I want to learn to stock up on things I use regularly and not pay full price on them!
I figured there was some sort of system for keeping an eye on the ads and keeping track of the coupons but the amount of work involved seemed daunting. I'd just clip about every coupon that I thought I might need and then when I was shopping and found something that I needed or was on my list (or something on sale that I would soon need) I'd flip through my coupons and if I had one I'd use it and save some money. It works but it's not all that efficient. Sometimes on one trip I'd be flipping through tons of coupons multiple times (pulling my cart off to the side etc.) NO MORE!
Thanks to Facebook and reconnecting with a friend from High School I've learned some tips to learn and to share. Every once in a while this friend would post about huge savings on grocery trips and I would think "I have got to ask her how she does that". I finally asked her this past week and the amount of knowledge I have gained is amazing! That's why I'm going to write is all down, track it, link to it and share it as best I can.
Even using just a few of the tips and websites out there the savings are easy! In the past few days I've already saved noticeable amounts on items I was going to buy this week regardless of their cost. But with a little bit of time online and with the coupons before I left the house I've saved money - over 50% off the regular price of what I was shopping for.
The first things I've learned and will share are:
1. Save all of the coupons ads - intact - and keep them in order (date the cover page) - only clip the coupons when you are getting ready to do the shopping.
2. Get multiple copies of the coupon ads since often you have to buy more than one item to get the sale price at a store - may as well have a coupon for each item.
3. Internet Coupons
www.redplum.com and more
4. Visit the websites and blogs:
www.couponmom.com
http://bargainbriana.com
http://thecouponhigh.blogspot.com/
5. Get organized! (more on that to come)
That seems to be enough for day one of this blog.
I hope you come back and check on my progress - I plan on updating my savings, information and what I learn on a regular basis.
Aloha - Ellie
Okay - this is my new way of keeping track of my resolution to become a better shopper. By that I mean get more and spend less. Learning to use the sales and the coupons out there (and the internet) to save money for my family.
And I'm going to log how it is going and what I learn and hopefully you'll follow along and save some money too.
The amount of money our family spends on groceries, paper products, cleaning supplies, kids supplies, and just general "stuff" is amazing to me. Sure it's a lot less that we were paying in Hawaii (and coupons themselves were rare in Hawaii - never fear HI friends - I have hope for you as well) but it's still more than we have to spend - the deals are out there, I just have to find them.
We have all seen the "coupons queens" in line at the store. You know the ones, they have a whole cart worth of stuff and end up paying $22 for it when all is said and done. We hate them - and not because they're saving the money - but because we're jealous that they are so organized and they know how to keep all of those coupons in line and follow the sales and they save all of that money. We either don't have the time, the patience or discipline to do the same thing. Heck - they're so organized they get through the line with all of their stuff and coupons faster than some people can get their ID out when writing a check.
______________
Off and on for years I have used coupons and tried to buy things on sale. I've saved a few bucks here and there and feel good about doing so but I keep finding myself in a place where I end up running out of something and needed to go buy it and I end up paying full price. I want to learn to stock up on things I use regularly and not pay full price on them!
I figured there was some sort of system for keeping an eye on the ads and keeping track of the coupons but the amount of work involved seemed daunting. I'd just clip about every coupon that I thought I might need and then when I was shopping and found something that I needed or was on my list (or something on sale that I would soon need) I'd flip through my coupons and if I had one I'd use it and save some money. It works but it's not all that efficient. Sometimes on one trip I'd be flipping through tons of coupons multiple times (pulling my cart off to the side etc.) NO MORE!
Thanks to Facebook and reconnecting with a friend from High School I've learned some tips to learn and to share. Every once in a while this friend would post about huge savings on grocery trips and I would think "I have got to ask her how she does that". I finally asked her this past week and the amount of knowledge I have gained is amazing! That's why I'm going to write is all down, track it, link to it and share it as best I can.
Even using just a few of the tips and websites out there the savings are easy! In the past few days I've already saved noticeable amounts on items I was going to buy this week regardless of their cost. But with a little bit of time online and with the coupons before I left the house I've saved money - over 50% off the regular price of what I was shopping for.
The first things I've learned and will share are:
1. Save all of the coupons ads - intact - and keep them in order (date the cover page) - only clip the coupons when you are getting ready to do the shopping.
2. Get multiple copies of the coupon ads since often you have to buy more than one item to get the sale price at a store - may as well have a coupon for each item.
3. Internet Coupons
www.redplum.com and more
4. Visit the websites and blogs:
www.couponmom.com
http://bargainbriana.com
http://thecouponhigh.blogspot.com/
5. Get organized! (more on that to come)
That seems to be enough for day one of this blog.
I hope you come back and check on my progress - I plan on updating my savings, information and what I learn on a regular basis.
Aloha - Ellie
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