CrAzY COOL Coupon Deals!!!

Ok!  It's official!  I'm hooked on coupons!  I LOVE it!  I feel like all this time I've been wasting money.  It just makes sense to me to help my family in any way I can.  Let's face it, a penny saved is a penny earned, and this stay-at-home momma just got a SERIOUS pay raise thanks to coupons!!!  I promised myself I wouldn't got "extreme" in the sense that I wouldn't buy anything we couldn't or wouldn't  use or donate, no matter how cheap it is or even if they "pay me" to take it out of the store.  That seems to me to be taking advantage of the situation, and honestly we don't have some gianormous closet to "stockpile" anything and I'm not willing to fill my house with anything else.  Trust me, with 3 kids, they do a fantastic job of accumulating enough junk as it is.

I must say this, I KNOW couponing isn't for everyone.  It does take a little time and organization, but in a very short amount of time I've managed to stream-line it with a few helpful resources.  If you choose to use coupons, I'll warn you of something I've learned quickly and painfully.  Only discuss coupons & deals to those that express interest to you.  I recenty had an acquaintance crush my spirit when I was told, "I don't remember anyone here asking about your coupon stories."  Yikes!  Akward. 

I confess, I am excited!!! Coupons are literally saving our family HUNDREDS of dollars!  In just a few weeks, I've saved almost $500!!!  Our family has been tremendously blessed and my husband works very hard to afford the lifestlye we live.  I don't have to use coupons.... I CHOOSE to!  It's just being fiscally responsible.  I mistakenly assumed that in the expensive day and age we find ourselves in that trying to help people save money would be a welcome thing...I mean come on, we ALL have to eat, and hopefully bathe, etc.  So.... as a result, I will limit my coupon obessive discussions to my blog and those that initiate conversations with me about it.  I'd like to think of it as a "don't ask/don't tell" philosophy.  And I am thankful she put me in my place...I think I had gone a little over to the "crazy" side!  LOL!

So, here are my deals of the week!  You still have a few days to cash in on these deals if any of them are things that are on your grocery list!

I paid a whopping $19.50 (tax included) for EVERYTHING in the picture above.  It's actually a combonation of 2 shopping trips.  One to Walgreens & one to CVS.   Here's how it breaks down:

Walgreens:

Purchase 1 bottle of Complete Contact Solution  PAY $8.

A $8 "store cash" coupon will print out with your receipt.

You can use this for ANYTHING in the store (except alcohol & tabacco products)!!!! 

This is how I spent it:

Charmin 6 pk (double roll) toilet paper - coupon in store circular $2.99

I also had a 25 cent coupon from the paper a few weeks ago.  = $2.74

Honey nut cherrios are on sale for $1.99 (no coupon needed)

I printed out a 55cent coupon off the internet

(coupon print limit reached & no longer available) = $1.44

Aluminum foil

coupon in store circular = 69 cents

The Woolite detergent is on sale for $5.99

I had a $3 coupon from the sunday paper a few weeks ago = $2.99

Add in tax and it was FREE!!!! 

YES! I paid $8 for contact solution, foil, detergent, cheerios, and toilet paper!!!

And YES, all these items were on my real list!  I like to use my "free" money to purchase stuff we actually need, not just hoard massive quantities of stuff we'll never use because it's free.

The rest of the stuff came from a trip to CVS

 (conviently located just down the street from Wal-greens)

My kids were out of body wash/shampoo, so when I saw this deal I couldn't pass it up.  I also got $3 store credit just for it being my birthday week.  I guess when I signed up for my CVS Careplus card they asked for it.  Totally worth it in my opinion!!! 

So, here's how I got the rest of the items you see.

Suave items were on sale, and if you spent $10 you got $3 in store credit.

The kid's shampoo was on sale 3 for $5.  Originally I wanted to get 6/$10, but they only had 4 so I "cleared the shelf"...that's "coupon crazy lingo" for bought all they had! LOL!  And then I got a bottle of shampoo & conditioner (also on sale for 3/$5).  I happended to have a 50 cent coupon for the deodorant so it looked like this:

6 items at $1.67 each = $10

The deodorant was on sale for $1 - 50 cent coupon = 50 cents

Total due was $10.50 and I got $3 store cash

This is how I spent my $3 birthday money and my $3 I earned from the suave products.  I also had $3 dollars from a previous week.  So I had a total of $9 store "cash"

Purex detergent is on sale for $1.98 (no coupon needed)

Puffs tissues are also on sale for 98 cents (no coupon needed)

Trident gum is on sale for 99 cents, but then they print out a 99 cent voucher = FREE!

I bought:

 2 packs of gum = $2

3 box of tissues = $3

and 2 bottles of detergent = $4

That printed out another $2 in vouchers from the gum, so I turned around and grabbed another bottle of detergent.  I didn't want to bother with coming back to the store again.  It was an easy fix.  LOL!

So, YES, here I paid $10.50 for 4 bottles of kids soap/shampoo, a bottle of shampoo & conditioner, 3 bottles of laundry detergent, 2 packs of gum & 3 boxes of kleenex.  Whoop!

When I came home and showed my husband my "loot" he encouraged me to buy another bottle of solution as he was completely out.  Might as well have an extra one on hand while it's on sale & buys my groceries for me! Yea!!! 

So here was another trip to Walgreens.  I told the cashier I wanted to pay for the contact solution & pony tail ties seperately.  The pony tail ties are on sale this week for $2 and you also get a $2 store cash voucher.  She was happy to oblige and I paid my $10.  I had the remaining items in my cart to spend my money on!

Gain & Cheer are both on sale for $4.99 each with a coupon from the store circular.  I had a $1 coupon off of each from the Sunday paper a few weeks ago.

1bottle cheer = 4.99 - 1 = 3.99

1bottle gain = 4.99 - 1 = 3.99

the marshmellows were 1.99

 (ridiculous impulse buy, but we were out and I was getting tired and "off my game". You can buy marshmellows at any grocery store for 99 cents or less!)

and the mac & cheese was on sale for 69 cents with a coupon from the circular.  You can't have your sub-total be below your store voucher value so I needed something cheap since I had a 3 cent credit.  Chloe insisted on the mac n cheese, it's her FAVORITE. 

So the second time I checked out my total due was 66 cents!!!  The lady behind me started clapping and whoo-hooing.  And before I knew it the cashier was too as well as the rest of the people in that part of the store!!!  I was embarassed, but not Chloe!!!  She just stood up and smiled and did her best princess wave to all her "fans".  LOL!!!  I'm still laughing at that memory!!!  SO Fun!  That experience left quite a memory in her head as well, because now she wants to "shop with coupons" every day!  LOL!

The next day it was time to do "real" grocery shopping.  I scored these deals at HEB.

I had a $1 off coupon for oscar meyer hot dogs (you can find it at http://www.coupons.com/ or even your local grocery store website should have a link to "coupons" and it will come up)

The all-beef hot dogs were on sale for $2.88, but for every package of hot dogs you bought, you got a FREE lunchable. 

So I paid $2.88 * 2 = $5.76 - $1 coupon = $4.76/2 packages = 2.38 per package of 10 all-beef hot dogs

AND I got 2 lunchables for FREE!!!!

So everything in this picture cost $4.76!!!

I also had a coupon for $1 off "lunchables with fruit".  These lunchables do not have a juice box.

They were on sale for $1.50 each.  I had 2 $1 off coupons so....

$1.50 - $1 = 50 CENTS per luncable.  ON TOP of that.... HEB had a coupon for free corn nuts chips for each "lunchable with fruit" purchased.  So I got all 4 items in this picture for ONE stinkin' DOLLAR!!!  Whoo Hoo!!! 

And I must side note, those corn nut chips are VERY tasty!!!  It's basically like a cool-ranch dorito with LOTS of seasoning on it!  We've already eaten one whole bag! LOL!

Since I was having to go out shopping again, before I left I checked the circular to CVS one more time to see if I could score any more deals there for things on my grocery list.  And what do you know, I DID!  Spaghetti sauce, mayo, pb, and tea bags were all ON my list.  If you bought $10 worth of certain products pictured you got $3 store credit.  All of these items were on there so I paid $10 on the nose for this stuff AND now I have a $3 store credit to go buy whatever.  I'm going to hold on to this credit this time.  It doesn't expire until the end of June.  And honestly I'm pretty stocked on laundry detergent! LOL!  

This is how it breaks down:

The spaghetti sauce is 3/$5

The peanut butter was on sale for 3/$5

The tea bags (100 count) on sale for $2  (compared to $5 at a grocery store!  I checked today!) 

and mayo  (and that's a BIG jar! LOL!) was on sale for $3

The total was $11.67, but I had coupons from this past Sunday's paper to bring it to an even $10 and there is NO tax on groceries.  Go me!!!

If your interested in coupons, I hope this gives you a better picture of how you can save and how EASY it really is!!! If you have any questions, please feel free to post a reply and I'll tell you all I can.  OR if you have a certain item(s) you want me to watch for deals for just let me know.  It's kind of like a treasure hunt, and right now I'm really enjoying it!

Happy Saving!