Coupon'in

A few weeks ago one of my friends invited me to a women's evening at her church! I was especially interested because it was partly a crash course on how to save money at the grocery store. My mom has always been a bargain shopper and a coupon user. I have barely gotten my feet wet. I will use the occasional coupon if it applies but I confess I have never worked too hard at it. Well, that was until now! I have become mildly addicted to this whole coupon saving concept.

I began studying. I went to the recommended website http://www.moneysavingqueen.com/ and researched. I learned what 'match-ups' meant and began printing coupons like a mad-woman. Kyleigh pulled out a no longer used  handy-dandy 3 ring binder. I bought baseball card plastic holders and page tabs. I assembled my soon to be filled coupon binder. I filled it by catagory so I can easily flip through the coupons to see what ones apply. It take coupon geek to a whole new level.

It's bad enough I already take a clipboard with my typed out grocery list to the grocery store but now this...it's just too much.

Here is basically the key. You search the ads. See what is on sale. If you have a coupon for it then you are getting the most bang for your buck. Wal-mart is not the store of choice for these die-hard coupon queens. Instead they basically shop 3 places and fill in the gaps at Wal-mart. For the past several weeks I have been able to go to Wal-mart for a few items that I can pretty much fit in the seat part of the shopping cart! SCORE!

1. Homeland - they double coupons up to $1.00 every day. Coupled with the sales you can save BIG here.

2. Aldi - yep, you have to put a quarter in the card holder but you get it back. You have to bag your own groceries but the upside, it's bagged the way YOU want it : )

3. Walgreens. Again, great savings to be had at this store! They have great sales and you can use the store coupons and manufacturers coupons at Walgreesn to give you huge savings.

So, how'd it go for me? Well, I'm still in the learning curve but the 1st week I spent BEFORE coupons and sales $203.00. After coupons and sales my final cost was $138.00! Seriously. That's a $63.00 savings. A tank of gas for my way too big SUV! ; )

Just this last week I went to Homeland to buy some stuff that was on sale and that I had a coupon for as well. My bill was $29.00 less coupons and store sales and I paid $11.00 which saved me $18.00! I also went to K-mart and got a box of Tide with 40 washes for $2.99. It was on sale and I had a $3.00 coupon. How great is that! I look at it like a part time job - I don't make money, I save it~

 The eating out section of my 3 ring binder coupon book!

 More coupons!

One of my first attempts at coupon'in! I got all name brand items and saved buckets of money! LOVE IT!

Disclaimer: There is one down side. I really really really like to meal plan, make my grocery list and execute. Now I have to do it a bit backwards. I buy what's on sale then meal plan with what I've purchased. It's taking some getting used to but it's worth it.