The Coupon Bug

So maybe you've heard of the show "Extreme Couponers." If not, here's an easy way to check it out: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/extreme-couponing.  In a nutshell, extreme couponing is using sales, coupons, bulk buying and rebates to garner 50-90% savings on items and even scoring freebies and making money. Andre and I began watching the show when we were married and since I am currently unemployed, we thought it would be a fun and economical idea for us to try. Now, I'm not as extreme as the woman who bought 72 jars of mustard (her husband begged her to stop after 27, saying "I don't even like mustard!"). So far, I have been able to build a pretty decent stockpile of bathroom necessities. Learning the ropes has included a few mistakes but in the end, I've grown to be much better at reading the fine print. And honestly, it just feels good to "beat the system." Well, I'm not sure if it really is beating the system or just using it in creative and fiscally responsible ways, but it sure feels like it when you get items for free or score deals like the ones below:

My First Big Success: I like shopping at Publix for a few reasons.  1) They accept competitors coupons as if they were their own (Target, Krogers, etc).  2) They triple manufacturers coupons 35₵ and under and double coupons 50₵ and under, making them worth around a dollar.  3) They tend to have pretty good sales (buy one get one free sort of thing) and the cashiers are really helpful. 

So my first awesome deal was this:

So if you calculate the savings on this deal, I saved around 80%! That feels pretty awesome, in my book. Even like an adrenaline high. Everything except the Tylenol precise patches was buy one get one free (B1G1) that I stacked with coupons and the Tylenol patches made me 1₵ each. Love it!

Yesterday, to celebrate the 4th, I took Andre with me to see how my shopping trips work. Turns out, he's particular about the type of toothbrush that he likes and that's what we were mainly getting on our trip so it worked out beautifully. This time we hit up CVS. Drugstores are a different type of animal as they often offer rewards in the form of cash off your next transaction. So here is what we did:

1) Bought 2 Oral-B pulsar toothbrushes for $5.99 each, used (2) $2 off coupons, bringing it down to $8. I had a previous rewards receipt for about $6, so using that brought our first purchase to about $2. On the receipt from this transaction printed $6 worth of rewards for our next purchase!

2) Bought 2 more toothbrushes for $3 each and used (2) $2 off coupons. Bought Always pads on sale for $4 and used (1) $1 off coupon. As well, we bought (5) 2L Coke products for 69₵ each and a 33₵ caramel (needed to buy the caramel to use the extra reward receipt)  Good sale! On this transaction, we used the $6 rewards from the first purchase as well as another $2.50 rewards receipt I earned from my spring spending to bring the total to 90₵! Believe me, we walked out of there feeling pretty good! As an extra bonus, that last purchase earned us $4 in rewards to use next week! It really is paying off, in my mind, to coupon. 

A Total Savings Of 93%. 

Honestly, even more when you count the $4 off our next purchase, but I think I'll calculate that with next week's. :) So to all you who want to try it, it works! We just buy 2 copies of the Sunday paper (which you can get at gas stations on Saturday night and only cost $2 each), cut coupons, check out a few of my favorite websites to get a heads up on deals (http://www.southernsavers.com/ and http://thekrazycouponlady.com/) and get to shopping!