Followed a link on Money Saving Mom to this article: which says that highly educated people making over $100,000 use coupons more often than lower income people. Why would that be? Could it be that they have more time or better resources to handle other responsibilities so that they have more time to clip coupons? I was a religious user of coupons until starting my job. Now I find other ways to save.
I found a couple of good deals currently at my Walgreens. They have Turtles candy on sale this week for 99 cents after instant coupon. There are coupons from the 9/16 Smartsource flier for $1 off 1. So they are free with the coupon. Also Bayer Aspirin, 24 count, is on sale for 99 cent this week, and there are 55 cents off coupons from the 10/7 Valassis flier so the aspirin would be 44 cents. Good deal.
This past week I shopped 4 different stores: Krogers, Ingles, CVS and Walgreens.
The Dukes mayo in the picture below came from Ingles. It was on sale for $1.50 and I had .90/1 coupons so it was .60 each. I can't find the ticket but around $4.54 after tax. Everything else in the picture came from Kroger and along with a rotisserie chicken came to $71.06 , down from $134.98 before coupons, for a savings of $63.92.
At Walgreens I got John Freida Hair Gloss and Dove conditioner on clearance and with coupons for about 20 cents each. The apricots were.99 cents each and the witch hazel came to $1.69 I think. The caramels were .50. All of it was around $6. I really need to get my receipts before I start posting.
More mayo from Ingles. I got 12 total. Enough to last until the next sale and enough to donate. The Cascadian Farms cereal was on clearance and with a coupon was $1.25. The Post Trail Mix Crunch was on clearance for $1.01 with a $1/1 it was .01. So an additional $6 something at Ingles. All in all a very good shopping week.
Since my last Saturday Savings post I've got quite a few free items. In the picture below I only put one of each just to show the items. At Walgreens I got 5 free Purell Gentle Foam. They were on sale for .99 and I used the $1/1 coupons. At Kroger I got 9 free Tennessee Pride Sausage gravy. They were on 10/$10 and I had .50/1 that they doubled to $1. The Nesquik was also 10/$10 and I had .50/1, so I got 10 of those free. Free Krispy Kreme donuts with coupon.
There were almost free items at CVS starting with the Soy Joy which I rolled over into the Crest Night Effects which I bought with a BYGO. I rolled those ECBs into the Mylanta deal where I used a $4/$20, 3- $3 off and ended up $2.26 after tax out of pocket with $10 ECBs back.
My question...if you eat Sausage gravy, chocolate milk, Krispy cremes and then try adding something healthy like Soy Joys will your head spin around like Linda Blair in the Exorcist? Good thing I got the Mylanta!
At Ingles I got 14 packs of the Dannon Natural (and healthy) yogurt (56 individual) on sale 2/$3. I used $1/1 coupons. I also got 3 packs (18 individual) Swiss Miss pudding (OK, not as healthy but it does have milk in it...I think.) used .45/1 coupons that they doubled to .90. All of this was $12.35.
There were other deals but these were the best this week.
Several things I noted and wanted to share. At the pharmacy in CVS I looked for the booklet with the coupon for the Glucose monitor on sale and couldn't find it. I did notice though that they have many brochures that have $2/10 coupons that are good through the end of the year. Each brochure noted "Coupon Inside" on the cover.
I also had a Catalina print out at Kroger advertising the upcoming Post cereal deal. Nov 9-Dec2 they are having the deal where you buy Post cereal and get $ off your next order.
Buy 2 get$1
Buy 3 get $2
Buy 4 or more and get $3
All must be purchased at one time.
Time to stock up again, I'm almost out of the cereal I bought last time they ran the deal.
You have to love the coupon thing!
I tried out a couple of new places this week. I did my first CVS purchase. A small one which netted me $1 ECB. So with my one and only ECB I bought the Irish Spring ($.60 after my ECB and my coupon plus $1 ECB back.) and 1 bottle of Bam cleaner (on clearance for $2, so $1 after my coupon) So tax and all was $1.76 out of pocket and net of 1 ECB at CVS.
At Walgreens I had four $1 coupons for Taster's Choice and they had more of the stick packs for $1. So those were free. I had 2 Catalinas for $10 off Walgreens Glucosamine that someone had given me. They had it on sale BYGO. I found a bottle that had 90 tablets for $11.99 so I got 4 bottles for $3.98 (savings of $43.98 before sale or $20.00 from sales price). The Aleve was on sale for $2.99 and I had a $1 coupon. The Gillette was on clearance for $ 1.04 and I had $1 off 2 so I got 1 free. Total at Walgreens was $7.56 after tax.
I learned a few weeks ago that Fred's Pharmacy doubles coupons up to 70 cents on Saturday's only. Today was my first time trying it out. I learned that they will only double the first manufacturer's coupon for an item. So if you have multiples you must make separate transactions. The manager told me they have no problem with that.
They do NOT take Internet coupons. If you look at their online ad you will have to scroll to the back of the ad to find the cleaners, toiletries, etc. While in the store I found they had many items on clearance and regular prices on many items seemed much better than the other stores. For example the Mr. Clean Apple scented cleaner was regular priced at $2, so with my coupon it was $1, the Lysol cleaners were on sale for $1.79 after coupons they were .79. The Lipton Tea was priced at $1, with a coupon it was free. The Band Aids were also free. The Luzianne tea was only 77 cents after my coupon and the Excedrin came to .79 each after coupons. The only thing I didn't have a coupon for was the trash bags. I will definitely be shopping there again.
I'm not going to list everything by price but what you see below after coupons came to $18.72. $13.24 not counting the trash bags. Not bad. Before coupons everything added up to about $41.
I also made a Kroger run that before coupons came out to $42.06. After coupons the total was $20.51. I didn't bother to take pictures of that. I got several great deals though, including 7 boxes of breakfast Hot Pockets for $.66 per package of 4.
If I added right before coupons I spent $164.77. After coupons, and my one little ECB, I paid $48.55 out of pocket. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Pics: Top: CVS
Middle: Walgreens
Bottom: Freds
My friend Angie has been telling me about her luck with coupon shopping and I have been reading about the deals Crystal gets.
Honestly, I didn't think I could save as much. It just seemed like so much work. When Crystal put her program on sale earlier this week I decided purchase it because she always seemed to have such great tips on her site. It is a well put together program and I would recommend it especially to those just learning to live frugally or just setting up housekeeping. Even an old dog like me learned a few tricks.
It is no secret that I am a die hard tightwad from way back, but coupons are something I just haven't taken the time to use. This week I decided to take the time to clip coupons, check the sales and make a list. I even organized my coupons... kind of.
Well tonight I took the plunge at my local Krogers. And I think I did really well. Everything you see in the picture above was $74.00 and some change. By purchasing items on sale and after my coupons (Kroger doubles 50 cent and lower) I only paid $36.33 tax included!
I got the mustard, 2 bottles of Worchestershire, and 2 cans dog food for free! I was very excited. The bag boy was impressed and the guy behind me said "That's what I'm talking about!" LOL.
Truthfully it wasn't that hard. I'm sure it will get easier as I get more organized and get used to the process. A big thanks to Angie and Crystal both for inspiring me to give it a try!
Come back soon.
