Good deals!

I realized it's been a long time since I last talked about couponing and great deals!  Honestly, that's mostly because I haven't gotten that many great deals lately.  I don't know if it's the lack of coupons (a few weeks ago there were no coupon fliers in the paper!) or the lack of good sales.  Due to both, I haven't done much stockpiling and we've just been buying what we need for the week, mostly fruits, vegetables, lunch items, and milk.  But this week was finally a good coupon week!  I went to Meijer last night and got all this:

$100.74 worth of groceries for $57.65!!!  I saved 43%...not bad, but not by best trip either.

Some of the "highlights" of this shopping trip:

-Kraft Pasta Salad: 67 cents/box

-Super Pretzels: 81 cents/box

-24 pack Mountain Dew: $4 (plus deposit, so $12.80 of my cost was for pop!)

-Oscar Mayer lunch combos: 48 cents

Have you gotten any good deals lately?

My Stockpile

So continuing along with my theme of food and savings, I thought I would talk about my stockpile.  When we moved into our house, one of my favorite features was the shelves in the basement, I knew they would be perfect for my pantry!

Part of what you learn from couponing (especially with Saving Addiction) is how to stockpile.  One thing they teach is to buy multiple copies of the newspaper (1 for each person in your family) in order to get as many coupons as possible in order to stockpile.  Since it's just Mike and I, I find that to be a bit excessive; however, when we have kids and go through more food it might be worthwhile.  For now, I just buy 1 newspaper but my mom also gives me her extra coupons.

The point of stockpiling is to have enough in your pantry to be able to give to those in need (for a fraction of the cost) and also to have enough food on hand in case of a loss of job (or something similar). 

Everything I have in my pantry was on sale, plus I probably had a coupon for it.  I didn't pay full price for a single thing.  Some things you might see include:  free sugar, 67 cent boxes of Hamburger Helper, 33 cent boxes of pasta, 50 cents (or less) cans of Progresso soup, free pancake mix, free Gatorade,  and so much more!

I love having a stockpile in my basement!  It enables me to give when I hear of a need.  I am also able to skip getting groceries quite often. For example, this week we don't need to buy any groceries.  I will go to Meijer to get cheap milk and to Aldi for fruit and that's it.  We have meat and other staples we need to last a week (and then some of course!)  Another advantage of my stockpile is that I don't run out of items.  I know a lot of people who will be in the middle of baking or cooking and have to stop making a recipe and run to the store because they ran out of an item.  Then they end up paying full retail price because that item isn't on sale.  Honestly, I've never had that problem.  I finished a bottle of vanilla the other day while baking and just ran downstairs to grab another bottle.  My stockpile definitely saves me time and money!

$aving$

Do you use coupons when you shop?  I do!  In fact, I rarely buy an item that isn't on sale or I don't have a coupon for.  There are exceptions of course, but I am very careful about what I buy.  It's become somewhat of a game for me.  We have a budget set for each week for groceries (this includes food, cleaning products, toilet paper etc).  My goal is to be under our budget each week.  I've done pretty well; some weeks I am a little over because I stock up on more expensive items like beef and chicken when they're on sale, but I make up for it the following weeks when I don't have to buy meat!

I was raised using coupons, though not to the extent that I use them now.  (As a note, grocery stores around my area do not double coupons, and I am by no means an "extreme" couponer.)  My mom was always very careful with our money so I grew up doing the same.  Shortly before I got married, I had the chance to attend a coupon class put on by 2 women who started Saving Addiction. Using the techniques I learned from them is the reason I am able to stay with-in our grocery budget and keep it so low (I aim for under $50 a week).

If you haven't done couponing before, I challenge you to give it a try.  Yes, it does take some work and organization, but it really is worth it!  Don't give up after your first week or two, it will get easier and you'll soon reap the benefits!  I figure that if I spend 1 hour a week cutting and organizing coupons, and making a grocery list and say I save $20 that week from coupons I cut, then I'm basically getting paid $20 an hour to save our family money.  Sounds pretty nice doesn't it? 

This was my purchase at Meijer on Thursday.  I bought slightly fewer items this week because last week had better deals and so I stocked up (more on that in a later post).  The detergent was the most expensive thing I bought, and I know I could probably have gotten another brand cheaper, but there was a deal going if you purchased 2 GAIN products.  The picture above is $63.30 (retail price) worth of products, but I only spent $29.62.  That's 53.2% savings (which is actually a little lower than my average).

This is a purchase from Walgreens in December.  The percentage of savings I hit on this trip was more in line with my average savings.  The items above would have cost $34.37 but I only paid $10.95.  This time my savings was 68.14%!

I got these on Friday for a great price!  Normally each box costs $3.49 so normal retail would be $10.47.  However I had 2 coupons from coupons.com to use ($7 off 2 and $3 off 1), so I got all 3 boxes for just 49 cents!  I saved 95%!!!

If you already are a couponer, I'd love to know any tips and tricks you might have.  If not, are you ready to start clipping coupons and seeing how much you can save your family?  If so, let me know if there are any questions I can answer for you.  You might also want to check out the following websites and blogs that I use to find great deals:

Saving Addiction

Hip2Save

The Frugal Girls

Savvy Chic Savings

Loving deals!

I love scoring great deals! It's become a game of sorts for me~ searching for deals, finding and sorting coupons, and then actually going to the stores! Mike likes it too, he says he loves having a wife who loves to save money! And, I love having a husband who supports my obsession!

I got all this at Walgreens on Wednesday (minus a Nerds Rope I ate at work!):

If I purchased everything at retail price at the store, it would have cost me $34.37.

Instead, I paid only $10.95. That's a savings on 69%. I can get used to this!!!

Whoo Hoo!

On Monday, I went to a Saving Addiction coupon class...It was 2 hours well spent! I was so excited to go grocery shopping this week after hearing about the deals I could get! I don't really buy many groceries, but I thought there are some things I could pick up for Mike and I (since we'll be needing them pretty soon!) So tonight, armed with a few coupons, I headed to Meijer and got this:

If I had paid the normal store prices for all this, it would have cost me a whopping $44.79!!!

But after the sale prices, my coupons, and CATS, my grand total was just $15.15!!!

So, here is a run-down of some of the deals I got today!

Best Life Margarine= FREE!

Smart Ones= 30 cents each!

Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaners= ($3.62+$3.85=$7.47 sale price)-($3.82 from BOGO coupon)- ($1.00 store coupon)/2 items=$1.33 each!!! BUT WAIT! Then, I got a $2 CAT back for buying 2 Scrubbing Bubbles items, so I basically paid 33 cents each!

I am so excited about these deals and can't wait to build my pantry!