I never understood the whole couponing thing. .25 cents off here or .50 cents of there seemed to be to much hassle for all the time it takes to clip them but then my sister showed me how to optimize those savings; matching coupons with sales, rebates, rewards and so on(I like to call them combos). That got me thinking maybe there is something to all this coupon mania, maybe it is worth all the clipping. So, I told my sister I would like to give it a try. I gave her a couple bucks to pick me up some newspapers, I went and got a big honkin' binder and some baseball card sleeves, she gave me some dividers and told me you have to stay organized. I spent 4 hours my first day clipping coupons and organizing my binder or what i like to call My Big Book O' Savings (bbos). I started wondering how long it would take just to recoup what i have spent just to start this endevour. I was hoping to at least get back what I spent on the newspapers in my first week. Then on my second day I started cross referencing store ads and sales with all my coupons. I saw how one store had something I buy all the time on sale for $2.00 then I realized I had a coupon for the same item for $2.00 off. I thought, could this be true? Can I really go in to the store and get something for free? Not just buy 1 get 1 but really 100% free. So, I got out my notebook and started to chart out my game plan, I went to the store with my bbos and started shopping.
Now, I had to resist buying stuff that i normally would never purchase. I found all the stuff that i would normally buy, got my coupons ready and headed to the checkout. I got 6 bottles of dish soap and 4 feminine hygiene products for a grand total of $2.52!!! It was such a rush, I had to go across the street where they were having sales on other things and I got soaps, deodorants, razors...etc and saved 54%!!! Now I know why people coupon! I'm a believer. This is only the beginning and I can't wait to learn how to save even more.
The run down...
supplies savings
binder $14.00 walgreens $41.33
sleeves(100) $14.95 cvs $17.57
6 newspapers $4.50 kroger $16.26
dividers(from sister) free walmart $7.97
total: $33.45 total: $83.13
for a difference of: $49.68 saved!!!!
This was all on things I needed to buy and use on a regular basis. I can't believe how much I had been spending on these products. Thank you, sister for teaching me the ropes! Till next week
