Couponing

Okay- I am that person I am the one (of many in this town) that you get in line behind at Giant and think "Crap, she has 4000 coupons". But - How much is in your cart? How much are you paying for what is in your cart? I can assure you  that it is a heck of a lot more than what I am paying. Plus if it is close to Thanksgiving or Easter- I got that Ham or Turkey Free.

I use coupons like money- because in reality they are, free money. Every Sunday I send B (i call Brian "B" so from now on - B= Brian) to the Unimart store and he knows what to get- The Harrisburg, Philly and usually the CDT paper. I don't like the CDT the coupons are usually crap- but B has this thing about reading it- which in it self is very OCD like since noone else can touch the paper until he has, but what ever he goes to get them for me - so I don't mind  adhering to the  "I read the CDT first and until I do noone else can touch it" rule.

In each corner of the papers it will tell you how much money you will save in coupons by purchasing it, this is what B looks for.. He knows over 200 bucks is pretty good bless his heart.

Normally I will spend Sunday afternoon, Sunday night at the latest, clipping and organizing the money into "by Isle" order for my Giant grocery store. I like Giant - they double up to 1 dollar, so if a coupon is 1 dollar - Bam it is 2 Dollars. I have literally not paid for Toothpaste or Deodorant in probably 3 years. 

Newspapers are not the only way to get coupons, you can find them at most Retailers websites too, go to your fav retailers website- click on the little "contact us" link and shoot them off a compliment comment, in a few days you will normally get a nice letter with coupons in it for their product. I keep track of which retailers i do this to, and resend a comment in about a year again. These coupons are normally for Free products. Think about it Companies hear all the time about something they did wrong or a complaint- when they get a compliment, they love it and normally they reward you!

In my mind couponing and frugalness go hand in hand with organization. You can not be a scatterbrain to coupon. You have to have your act together to accomplish a real difference in your bill. Here is a example - my Giant trip on 3/10/2008:

 Let me preface this by saying - Last night I had the urge to just Shop.. LOL but being the insane person i am couldn't bring me self to spend money on clothes or the like- so i took the 4yr old to the grocery store with my coupons

Emerald Pecan Pie Pecans
Heavy duty Reynolds wrap
Purina Naturals dog food 2lb canister (two of them)
Lysol Cleaner
Goodlife Dog bag 4lb bag (3 of them)
Quaker Oatmeal 18 oz
Quaker Simple Granola bars
Fruit Chews(for the 4 yr old)
Cottenlle wipes
2 Bounty Paper towels
Busy Bone dog treat
Dole fruit cream jello thingines
Kens Dressing
Frenches spicy mustard
Frenches Dijon Mustard
Frenchs-French Fried Onions
Kellogg Snacks
Welches Dried Cranberries
Nabisco Candy Bites (3 boxes)
2 Hellman's 30 oz Mayos
Campbell's Cream Chicken
Campbell's Soup
Campbell's Gold Label Soup
2 McCormick Seasoning packs
Purina treats
Carvers Treats (dog)
Snausages
Duncans Hines Cake Mix
Duncan Hines Frosting
2 rolls TP
3 Lemons
1 9lb Ham
2 Bags BirdsEye veggies
4 bags Hanover frozen Veggies
Kraft Deli select Cheese
2 Quarts Vanilla Creamer
6 Breyers Yogurts
2 Pints Sour cream
Bottle Old Spice
170 count Qtips
Crest Toothpaste
Advil Pm
Tums 60 count
one other thing I can not figure out what it is LOL

Total: 150.02
Total Bonus Card savings: 24.10
Total Manfac. Coupons: 49.75
Total doubled Coupons: 26.04
Total Savings: 99.89

Total Paid: 43.03

I had a 8 off 80 coupon from the flyer
and a free ham coupon
also I used some freebie coupons I got for emailing companies about how much I loved their product