So with the new baby only 4 weeks away, the economy being in the pits and me not getting paid through my 3 month maternity leave my latest thing has been.....COUPONS! One of my friends from work was telling me that she gets upset if she goes to Publix and doesn't save at leave $40. I was like WHAT?!? How the heckoo do you save $40 at Publix? And then I was introduced into the world of coupons...now I'm obsessed. Here are some of the things I've learned:
1. Did you know that you can print off a coupon for pretty much anything just by searching the Internet? These great websites like coupons.com, coolsavings.com or the manufacturers websites all have tons of them...for Free!!
2. Publix and CVS are two of the best places to use your coupons. First, Publix will accept ANYTHING coupon wise...whether they're from Rite Aid, Wal-Mart the manufacturer or whoever, it doesn't matter. Also, they double all coupons up to $1.00. So if you have one for 50 cents...then they make it a dollar. AND my favorite thing to do there is cut out the 1 cent surprise coupon, (in their circular from the Sunday paper) take it up there Sunday or Monday, hand it to the cashier and they give you the 1 cent product of the week for only a penny! It's always Publix brand stuff but it's pretty good...so far I've gotten - a box of hot chocolate mix, a huge can of chopped pineapples and blue cheese dressing. HA! Isn't that great? We don't really eat blue cheese dressing...but it was only 1 cent and it's fun to see what the surprise is. Love it.
Next...CVS is super great. All you have to do is sign up (for free) for their CVS Extra Bucks Reward card, look through the circular every week and see what you need that will get you Extra Care bucks and buy it from there. I was a little confused about this at first and it can get pretty tricky..but for example, if they have Dove shampoo for sale for $4.00 and you get $2.00 extra care bucks for buying it, then it's like you only paid $2.00 for the shampoo AND if you come prepared with your $2.00 off Dove coupon...then you got it for FREE!! They give you a receipt for your $2.00 extra care bucks and you can bring it in next time to use for anything in the store!! (except alcohol) Pretty cool huh!?!
3. Get the Sunday paper. It has tons of great coupons in it. I get it at work on Monday for free because our receptionist said nobody ever wants the coupons and she usually throws them AWAY! That sounds really cheap of me I know...but it works and I hate to think of them being wasted like that. It usually takes me about 30 minutes with my scissors, recycle box and little baggies with "Snacks" "Dinner" or "Bathroom Products" labeled on there to go through and figure out what we like to eat/buy that there are coupons for and organize them. This is also when you would look through the circulars and find out what the Buy One Get One Free deals are at Publix and how to get Extra Care bucks. Then I make my grocery list. It makes me feel so organized...I'm sure this practice will suffer when Baby girl gets here, but hopefully not.
4. Check out the Coupon blogs!! There are all these great blogs that tell you where the good deals are, how to get them and how much you can save!! These ladies go to a lot of trouble to share this info. My favorite so far is Fiddledeedee. I love her organic Fridays where she posts printable coupons for organic products and lists places to get them on sale. Yesterday she had a great post about baby products with tons of great coupons for Huggies, Johnson and Johnson and other good stuff. Here are some links:
http://fiddledeedeeblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.couponcravings.com/
http://thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.com/
http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/
http://www.becentsable.net/
http://iheartcvs.com/
5. Sign up for coupon booklets and free clubs. While looking through the blogs listed above they'll have links to sign up for a coupon booklet or email newsletter with promotions and coupons for some of my favorite products. I have a second email address that I use for junk stuff so I just give that email and then it doesn't flood my main one. A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for one with P&G and got a booklet in the mail with $30 worth of savings in it. Racked up on the coupons! And most of them don't expire until March! Woohoo! I also joined the Publix Baby Club, which was free, and received a great book about babies, a booklet of baby product coupons and coupons for FREE products from Publix like baby wash, diapers, lotions and hand sanitizer just for joining. They are going to send baby coupons to me in the mail every month! So these are really great, but you do have to be careful that you're not signing up for "special promotions" that end up sending you one million junk mail.
Don't worry...I will not turn my crafting blog into a blog about coupons and great deals. But I just had to share this info. I'm so obsessed with it that I get super annoyed if I have to run to the store to get something and don't have a coupon for it. HA! And Tweedy is so proud of me and has gotten into it too. Before I was a clipper, I would go to the store and spend over $100 every time for all of our food for the week but now I haven't spent over $70 a single time and I'm still getting the same stuff!! The most I've saved is $30 at Publix, and I was just a grinning when I pushed my cart out into the parking lot. It's very rewarding. I just feel sorry for the person in line behind me who has to wait for the cashier to scan my 50 coupons that I hand over proudly when I check out. And for some reason I am always scared the cashier will press the total button before she remembers that I have coupons...so I annoyingly tell her a couple of times "I have coupons! Don't forget...I have coupons!" while she's scanning.
Ok I'm done...The next post will be about knitting or sewing I swear.
