"Couponing"

So, my new obsession is coupons! Obviously, coupons are for saving money and I certainly have used them before. However, I've never used them like this. Now, I'm serious totally serious about couponing!

Just before Eli was born I stumbled upon a Nightline story about people who use coupons and sometimes literally pay nothing on their bill. I couldn't believe it when I saw the intro, but it's true. There are people out there who barely spend a dime on the products they buy. You have to have three things though: 1. The first is obvious--you need to be armed with a lot of coupons; 2. Know all the little tricks about using coupons; and 3. Be organized (& able to do some math on the fly).

Until doing some research, I had no idea about all the little nuances to using coupons. Like, did you know you can "stack" a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon for the same item? Or, that you can load coupons to your shopper card? Or that there are about a ba-gillion places that you can print coupons from on-line? I certainly didn't.

So, armed with this new-found knowledge (and a bunch of really cool websites that give tips and list deals), I have been playing the "coupon-game" for the past few weeks. And, I LOVE it!  Each week, I look forward to the Sunday paper for the coupon inserts and carefully cut them out and sort them.

I've learned to cut things that I didn't think I would buy as sometimes you can get things FREE (more on that in a minute).  To keep things organized, I have created my own, large coupon binder modeled after some of these "couponing" pros.
In that time, I have already saved over $100 on products just on coupons alone (not counting the store deals). It does take time to cut and organize the coupons (but is easier now with my binder). And, I find, that it takes me longer to shop (to make sure I'm doing the math, finding the right coupon, etc.). But, the savings is well worth the time! 

While I'm nowhere close to the people who are managing to save 90%+ of their bill price,  I immediately started averaging at least a 30%+ savings.  And, now, my last 3 trips have all been 50% or higher.  In fact, my bill tonight at Fry's yielded a 65% savings.
Here's a glimpse of my best shopping outings yet:

Guess what I paid for all this at Safeway!?!...

$16!  Seriously, only SIXTEEN dollars!!  What's even crazier is that the most money I spent on any one item in that picture was $2.50 and it was for the Bagelfuls (Andrew's favorite little thing for breakfast--a carry over from the on the run to daycare days).  The Extend-A-Clean Scrubbing Bubbles was regularly priced at $8.99, but I got it, along with organic raspberries & all those other things for $16!  Crazy!
Now, how about this shopping trip to Fry's?  Guesses??...

$22!  What's crazy about this is that my total would have been more than $25 on just the items on the right (the lotions, body washes, and soaps) had I not had coupons.  This was my 65% savings trip!  Numerous items were FREE!

FREE?!  Isn't that crazy?!  I think so.  It's truly unbelievable the things I've gotten for free with my coupons--even some expensive items too, like Nivea bodywash and BIG packs of Huggies wipes.  Here's a glimpse at just some of the free items I've "purchased" in the past few weeks...

What's even better is that there are quite a few more things, I just didn't have them handy for a picture! Crazy huh?!  I'm amazed and now totally addicted to coupons! Yet, another great way for us to save some money (and still have fun products and good food in the house).