I love coupons!

Shopping with coupons is so much fun! No, really - it is! I got a coupon high after grocery shopping today, so I figured I'd share!

I used to do the Grocery Game, but then I figured it was silly to spend money on a program that's supposed to save money, so now I do it all myself. On Wednesday when the new grocery ads come out I sit down with them and my coupon binder and make my shopping list. I have a pretty good idea of what's a great sale price for most items, so that helps a bunch.

This week I spent the bulk of my shopping money at Fry's. They are doing quadruple coupons (up to $0.25, so that coupon for $0.25 off is now worth $1.00) and they are accepting store coupons from other stores. That's a great thing! Today, I got a cart full of groceries and my total before sale prices and coupons was $121.40. What I actually paid was $43.26, so I had a savings of $78.14 after sales and coupons. That's 65%! For our family of four, I usually spend about $150 every two weeks. That includes everything - food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, cleaning stuff and health and beauty stuff.

When something is cheap, I buy a bunch of it so it will last us until it goes on sale for super cheap again. This obviously requires lots of storage space. I'm pretty lucky in that I've got a really big pantry, a big laundry room where I've got an extra fridge and a freezer in the garage!

Here's what my pantry looks like:

It's big and I love it! I've got everything in here from food, extra health and beauty stuff (in the baskets) and big kitchen gadgets. It's pretty well organized (most of the time anyway!). I make sure to rotate my stuff when I go shopping, so I've never got old stuff hanging out in my pantry. FIFO - first in, first out.

I have a love/hate relationship with my coupon binder. I love it when I'm shopping and see my total going down on the register, but when it's time to clip the coupons and file it away, I hate it.
My binder is pretty well trashed, so it's time for a new one. I'm thinking this time around I'll make it pretty with my scrapbook supplies.

The inside is filled with trading card and photo pages that came from Wal-Mart. The trading card pages are for the small coupons, the photo pages are for the enormous ones!

Want to learn more about shopping with coupons (and not have to subscribe to a paid service)? Check out Hot Coupon World. Tons of info there!

I love coupons!

When I was younger, I thought coupons were silly. Embarrassing, too. Because if you had to use them, then you must be poor. How wrong I was!

I started clipping coupons a couple of years ago and was intimidated at first. You see, you can clip and use and save a little bit, or you can learn the system and save a lot. There is a bit of a learning curve to learning how the sales/coupon/double coupon system works, but fortunately, it's not a difficult thing to learn.

I started using The Grocery Game but soon realized I didn't need to pay to get the information, that it's at quite a few places for free. My favorite coupon place is Hot Coupon World.

Back to the reason for this post - I had such a shopping high last week. I went to a couple of stores armed with my coupons and sale circulars and got a ton of food for very little money. The best store of the day was Albertson's. I don't go there often because they don't double coupons, but it didn't matter too much this time. I got 20 name brand items for $20.97 after the sale and the coupons! The best part is that it's all stuff we'll use. Here are some of the things I got:
2 frozen pizzas (I keep these on hand for those "emergency" dinners)
5 boxes of Capri Sun/Kool Aid Jammers
Country Crock butter
Velveeta Shells and Cheese
Popsicles
2 bottles of Kraft Salad Dressing
Kraft BBQ Sauce
Ritz Crackers
Cheerios Snack Mix
Kraft Shredded Cheddar Cheese
2 Boxes of Betty Crocker Brownie Mix

Obviously, they had lots of Kraft stuff on sale. If they offered double coupons at Albertsons, my total would have been in the $12 range. But still, I'm pretty happy with the result. So, if you aren't a coupon convert yet, head on over to Hot Coupon World and spend some time on the message boards. Those coupon pros might just convince you!