Why I Coupon

I believe some people are confused by why myself and people in general coupon.  So I wanted to shed light on the subject. 

First of all, "coupon" is a verb to those of us in the Couponing World.  So is "couponing."  I tell my husband all the time: "I need to coupon," or "I'm going couponing!"  I just wanted to clear that up.

Second, it seems like people think I coupon because of lack of money.  While I'm sure we could all use more money, this was not my motivation.  My family lives a normal existence, my kid takes music lessons and I have a year old car.  Nothing fancy happening over here, but we're fine.  No, my motivation came from keeping my hard earned money.  Why spend it if I didn't need to?

What I have found is that if I put a little effort into my shopping, I can get ANYTHING from a drug store for close to $1.00, or better yet, FREE or sometimes I even get paid to take it from the store.  You read correctly.  We used to go to Wal-Mart or Target at LEAST once a month and spend $100 on all of the toiletries everyone uses.  Soap, shampoo, conditioner, razors, make-up, 
vitamins, medicines, etc...  Never again!  Now I shop with the knowledge that I control what I will pay for the item.  Not the store and certainly not the manufacturer.  My biggest recent score was a 4 year supply of Tide laundry detergent for $30.00.  It worked out to .03 cents per load or $7.50 a year.  Can't top that!

Don't think I don't do this at the grocery store!  I usually aim for a 50% savings at the grocery store.  Which in California is very good.  Don't be fooled by what you see on TV.

Couponing is also a high.  I'm serious.  I am a hunter and free dish soap is my prey!  Don't get in my way, or worse, behind me in line when I'm out on a hunt.  Believe me, I mean business.  It's not unusual for me to get the shakes during or especially after a good hunt.  I may have a small issue.

I hear all the time, "But are you really going to use all of that?"  YES!!!  I hardly couponed at all in 2013.  My family didn't need to shop for any of the necessities, I had them in my stockpile.  Only when I got down to 4 bottles of laundry detergent did I start to panic.

Now I'm back at it and can't wait to build up my stockpile again.  Anyone can do this, but it does take work and know how.  I easily spent 20 - 30 hours researching and learning at first.  Now I spend a few hours a week on couponing, but the savings works out to an amazing hourly wage.  I encourage everyone, especially stay at home moms to try this.  It's like adding an income to your household.

If you would like to see photos and details on my shopping trips, you can look here.  They are mostly pictures from 2011 and 2012. 

Did you like this post?  Want to hear more about my coupon trips?  Comment and let me know.  ;-)

Weekly Couponing Trip(s)

For those of you that live under a rock, I coupon.  Yeah.  Not like that little save $10 a week stuff either.  My totals for January and February 2012 were as follows:
Total Retail Value:  $3,261.11  For which I spent a grand total of:  $354.14!!!  I got skills baby!  Skills!

I used to post my shopping trips regularly on facebook, but haven't been doing so recently. You can see some of my shopping trips here.  Now that I have my newly formed personal blog, I can give you a little bit more detail about how I do this "strategic" shopping.  (As I am not crazy)  ;-)

Sunday I did my usual gathering of my coupons from the community.  No, I don't pay for papers, I have a hook up.  You know I have a hook up for everything.  ;-)  Then I went to Rite Aid and CVS and picked up just a few things.  Here is what I got.

At Rite Aid I purchased:
2 Samy Fat Hair Sprays with free travel size attached.
(**couponer's tip - always look for the free extra item or items with coupons on them.)
6 pack of Top Ramen,
4 Veet Hair Removal Strips,
and 2 purse packs of tissue that I needed for overage.

At CVS I purchased:
1 Blink Eye Drops and
1 Dream Water (sleep aid)

Total retail for both stores would have been $68.09.  I paid only $3.30.  But it gets better.  I also came home with $16.00 in Extra Bucks/Up Rewards.  ($$ that can be spent at each specific store.)  Not too great, but it's been really slow the past 6 weeks, so I was happy with this.

Monday I decided to hit Wal-Mart.  Most couponers hate WM.  Too many reasons to list.  But I had some good Qs that I wanted to use, so off I went.  I was pretty disappointed.  One of the main things on my list, 6 free boxes of whole grain pasta, was totally out of stock.  Damn couponers.  ;-)  Here is what I managed to buy.

6 cans of wet dog food
5 cans of wet cat food, (for my mom)
6 boxes of fly paper and a fly swatter
Honey
Bird's Eye Skillet meal.

Full retail would have been $30.04.  I paid only $5.16!!

Since I was right there I decided to go to CVS again and get some more deals, and spend my Extra Bucks I earned the day before.  (I needed some Qs that my mom and sisters printed for me or I would have done these deals on Sunday.)


Here is what I got at CVS.

1 dz eggs
2 cans of Progresso soup
2 Physicians Formula mascara
2 Zingers (for Jason - I promise!)
beef jerky and pop corn -
okay that's for me
Blink eye drops
6 greeting cards
Velveeta Cheesy Skillets
2 Carmax lip balm
and a Revlon nail clipper.









Full retail would have been $56.37.  I used the Extra Bucks I earned from Sunday and paid only $7.66.  I also came home with another $3.00 in Extra Bucks.  ;-)

Overall retail total for both days is $154.50.  I paid only $16.12, with $8.00 in Extra Bucks/Up Rewards remaining.  Better yet, Gabriel and I are taking our recycling in tomorrow, and I know we have at least $6.00 worth of recycling.  With the recycling and the Extra Bucks I have left, it will be like paying $2.00 for over $150.00 worth of product!!  And if I have $8.00 worth of recycling, it will all be FREE.  FREE is always good.  ;-)