Coupon Trip 2/23/11

This was a pretty good coupon trip. My total before tax was $31. My total savings were $102! I was pretty pumped. My total would have been under $20 had I not bought a few items that were not on sale. Overall I got: 6 bags of Green Giant steamers, 2 bottles of Juicy Juice Apple Juice, 4 cans of beans, 4 cans of corn, 4 cans of tomatoes, 5 jars of spaghetti sauce, 2 Marie Callendar lasagnas, 4 cans of Skintimate shave gel (which actually had free disposable razors attached to them), 4 tubes of Colgate toothpaste, Glass Plus cleaner, Vitamins, nail files, DayQuil/NyQuil and the items that were not on sale: bath pouf, bread, Finish dish washing detergent, Ajax dish liquid, Neutrogena bodywash gel, and McCormick garlic salt. The Penny Item for this week was the Publix brand "oreo" cookies. Overall, I am quite proud. We are pretty stocked up on some items now. I'll tell ya what, though, it certainly is a process to coupon! I was in the store for almost 3 hours yesterday wheeling and dealing. I think in the end it is worth it. I mean, hey, I saved $102! Happy Couponing!

Little Project

My sister, Cierra, is expecting her little bundle of joy, Charlie, on March 9th (if not sooner). I decided to try my luck at making a diaper cake. As it turns out, it wasn't that hard. I actually had a lot of fun making this and I'm thinking about doing it on the side as a hobby. If you'd like me to make you one, let me know :)

January 31st Coupon Trip

I held off a while on this trip because I knew my total would not be NEAR what it was last week. I won't even post this pic this week! I just didn't have any good coupons for overage. Bummer. BUT I still did OK. I spent $31 and saved $65. I got: 2 packs of diapers (for a diaper cake I am making for my sister), 4 packs of 8 Juicy Juice, 4 V8 Splash, 4 cans of Campbells Chunky Soup, 2 14lb jugs of cat litter (I may go back for more today!), 2 Marie Callendar's meals, 2 tubes of toothpaste, and 2 bags of coffee. Not bad...but the total was not like last week! Better luck this week! It's all part of the learning process! Be sure to check iHeartPublix and AddictedToSavings for the new Publix ad this week! There are also new Adv. Buy Flyers with matchups on iHeartPublix. Don't forget to get your flyers!

My First Solo Coupon Trip!

I am so proud of my first solo couponing trip! All the hard work paid off! My total before tax was $7. 92 and after tax was $12.36! My total savings were $84.71 ! Mostly everything on here was B1G1. Iheartpublix.com is an awesome site that breaks the sales down every week and matches your coupons with the in-store sales. My moneymakers on this trip were the vitamins and the DayQuil packets. The trick to lowering your total is using high value coupons with existing sales to get overage that goes towards your total. AddictedToSaving.com is a good site that breaks the sales down and talks about overage. I am just so pumped about these savings and can't wait to beat them! :)

Coupons, Coupons, Coupons

My new hobby! For a while I was pretty skeptical about couponing. I guess it comes about with a negative connotation for some reason. I used to think it was something desperate people did or those without a life. Haha! Boy, was I wrong! It started off with me Facebook snooping on one of my friends' photo albums entitled "Spending Frugally to Live Freely". I saw she was getting stuff that should be $120 for only about $8. This definitely sparked my interest! I began to ask her questions about it all. It still seemed so far fetched to me. A few weekends ago, I was spending the night with my best friend Angela in Birmingham. We landed our channel surfing on TLC (my favorite) and an Extreme Couponing show was on! We stayed up late watching these ladies (and one gentleman) score the biggest deals we've ever seen! These people were buying $2,000 worth of stuff and only paying around $100 OR LESS! It was insane! Now, granted, some of these people have probably taken it a little to far, BUT it really struck a cord in me! I got up with the friend on Facebook and she actually took me shopping with her. I observed her moves as one might observe a sensei. She is a genius at these deals! She taught me all kinds of stuff about combining manufacturer coupons with store coupons and sales. She ended up walking out with $75 worth of stuff and only paying $4! I was inspired! I ended up walking out with about $32 worth of stuff and paying $13. Not bad for my first trip--I don't have any items stocked up yet so I was in dire need of some essentials. This is not worthy of a Facebook album yet, but I thought I'd include a pic of my first trip at least on here:I can't wait for my next shopping deal! I'm sick right now, so I am waiting until I'm well enough to go again. Here are a few tips if you want to get on this coupon wagon: 1. Buy at least 2 papers every Sunday--the ones with the best coupons...in my area this is the Birmingham paper...it has better deals than Montgomery usually. Also, keep your eyes out for "blinkies", "tearpads", "hangtags", and other coupons hiding about. 2. Stash your coupons in a way that is best for you...I said I would not have a coupon binder but that ended up to be the best organizational way for my perfectionist mind. 3.Pick up on the coupon lingo! Look up sites to introduce you into this crazy world of couponing! Couponing101, KrazyCouponLady, or any other good intro to couponing sites you find in Google. 4. Pick a store! Don't overwhelm yourself with a million stores and a million deals! My Facebook friend said choose Publix. They double coupons and allow overage. 5. Follow blogs and sites that match sales with your coupons! They do it for you! IheartPublix.com is an awesome one for Publix! The tab at the top titled "Weekly Ads" is what matches coupons with store ads for the week. The tab that is titled "Adv. Buy Flyers" matches store sales, manufacturer coupons, and Publix coupons. Most Publix's give out these flyers every month. There is no limit on how many you can get although some stores are stingy and you have to keep going back. My Publix calls these the "green and yellow flyer" and they are kept behind the customer service counter... some Publix's stack them out in the front of the store free for the taking. 6. Brush up on your math skills! :) Figure out how the coupons and store sales work. For example if Chicken Viola is BOGO (buy one get one free) and is regularly $6, then technically you are getting them each for $3. If you have two $3 coupons for Viola then you get the 2 for free! Do the math! Many of the blogs break these things down for you and many stores have coupon polices that can explain things for you. AddictedtoSaving.com is also a good blog. (Scroll down and to the right there are Categories of different stores. Click on a store for their breakdown.) That is mostly all I have learned so far. I will keep you updated on my journey! Let me know if you have any questions! I can at least try to direct you to the right path! :)

Goodbye Precious

My best friend and best cat, Precious, was hit by a car this morning. Apparently, the uncaring person who hit him kept going. My sweet neighbors saw him and brought him to us. I had to bury my sweet cat of only 4 years today. He was with me through thick and thin and was at times my only true friend. We were inseparable ever since his mother birthed him in my bed (yeh, it was a little gross). He will be greatly missed. I would like to think he is now in heaven where he should be. He was my sweet angel sent from heaven. Some people may think its silly to love a cat that much, but I believe God sends angels in the form of animals sometimes and Precious was my angel.

Precious
9/3/2006-1/8/2011

CRUISE WAS AWESOME!

Pics are on Facebook. The cruise was great! So relaxing! We met some neat people who became new friends, relaxed, saw Mayan ruins, snorkeled in Cozumel, and got a glimpse of life in Mexico. I would DEFINITELY do a cruise again! Can't wait for our next one! ;)