Bargainz!

Recently I've had several people say they'd "love to know how I do it!" Save so much money on our grocery bill, that is. I've been couponing since the spring thanks to my cousin's wife Daisy, who gave me the tutorial I needed to wrap my head around how it all works. With working full-time, organizing the meetup group, having a two-year-old and organizing all my deals every week (practically a part-time job on its own) I just don't have the time I'd like to pull something together. I also think it helps to see some concrete examples, so I'm going to start chronicling my bargain finds here so that anyone who wants to can follow along.

There are two keys to doing this successfully: First, you must not be a loyal brand snob. Preferring a brand over generic isn't problem - I get brand-name items for significantly less than the generic all the time - but if you want to use one specific brand you'll have to plan ahead very carefully and keep your eye out for a sale on that item. Secondly, you must get your hot little hands on every coupon imaginable. It might not be a product you'll even use, but if it's free why not "buy" it? This means buying a lot of newspapers every week (and for you locals, skip the RRStar, their coupons are basically worthless. Buy the Tribune - it's more expensive but I've gotten it at Walgreens for $2.00 lately.) and saving the entire coupon inserts. It also means keeping your eye out for coupons you can print off the internet, special offers to sign up for to get coupons mailed to you, and watching out for coupon brochures, blinkie machines and tearpads in every store you go in, even the gas station. You can also buy coupons (which seems counterintuitive but it's not always - I'll get into this later) from coupon websites or ebay.

Today I hit CVS after work. CVS has an Extra Care cards that's essential if you're going to do any bargains there - one of those tags that goes on your keychain. Have the cashier scan your EC card no matter how little you're spending because it can add up - you'll earn $1 back for every 2 prescriptions you fill, as well as 2% back on your quarterly purchases. For me I've never gotten more than $1 back because my out-of-pocket (OOP) is so low, but every little bit counts as you'll see.

With the EC card, you can also earn Extra Care Bucks (ECBs) back on certain items every week, as advertised in the flier in your Sunday paper. The ECBs print out on your receipt and you can use them on your next transaction. I took advantage of several of these deals today:

My total OOP for this transaction was $1.22. Here's how I did it:

Bic razors 2x3.99 = 4.98

SoyJoy bars 4x1.00 = 4.00

Robitussin 2x8.00 = 16.00

Halls 2x1.50 = 3.00

Hand sanitizing spray 1x1.00 = 1.00

Total before coupons: 28.98+tax (came to 32.xx)

Coupons:

Bic 2x2.00 = 4.00

SoyJoy 2x1.00 = 2.00

Robitussin 2x3.00 = 6.00
Halls 2x.50 = 1.00

CVS $5/30 purchase 1x5.00 = 5.00

Total coupons = 18.00

32.xx - 18.00 = 14.xx

I paid with $13 in ECBs that I had from previous transactions, and after that my subtotal was .98 + .24 tax = 1.22. I also got $10 ECB back from the Robitussin/Halls/hand spray, and $4 back from the SoyJoy. Had I been paying a bit more attention, I would have noticed the razors I picked up were slightly different than the ones in the ad that were giving $4 ECBs per purchase, so I should have had $8 more in ECBs, but when I was getting all that for $1.22 I didn't feel that justified in complaining - it was my mistake, after all.

Earlier in the week I had gone to CVS to use some $1/1 Quaker oatmeal coupons I'd printed off the internet from bricks.coupons.com. Sometimes you can print more than one coupon from this site by hitting "back" then refreshing the page, depending on what the site has set the limit at. As it turned out, the limit for this one was 10, so I had more than enough coupons for what I wanted to do.

Quaker oatmeal was on sale for 2.50 a box, buy $20 worth and get $5 ECBs. I grabbed 8 boxes with Amelia's help, took them up to the register and walked out paying $2.10 OOP for all 8 boxes.

I also stopped at Hilander (our version of Kroger) on my way home tonight - I had some .50/1 Purex coupons expiring tomorrow and it was on sale for $1.99. When I walked in the first thing I noticed was 4 or 5 tables with a "Markdown Mania" sign in front of them. Couponer's heaven! I checked out what was there and ended up getting a bag of dog food (marked 2.99) and a Durex 2-pack (0.79), both of which I had $2.00/1 coupons for. Hilander also has a member card, so make sure you sign up for one of those too. They also double coupons up to .55. Here's my complete transaction:

Goodlife Puppy Food 1x2.99 = 2.99
Durex 1x0.79 = .79
Purex 3x1.99 = 5.97
Franks RedHot Sauce 1x1.25 = 1.25
Nailsaver sponges 2X1.00 = 2.00
Total = 13.00+tax

Coupons
Goodlife 1x2.00 = 2.00
Durex 1x2.00 = 2.00 (I got overage here)
Purex 3x(2x.50) = 3.00
Franks 1x(2x.55) = 1.10
Sponges 2x(2x.50) = 2.00
Total coupons = 10.10

Total OOP was 2.62, a great total for all these items!

I'll post in the next couple days with some of my favorite websites that I use as resources to help me out. I've gotten good at coming up with my own scenarios, but why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?