Coupon High!

Today  I racked up on cleaning supplies at Giant Eagle.

Here's how it went down:

1st Transaction

Charmin Sales Price: 2 for $13
- .25 ecoupon
-$1 mfg coupon
= 11.75 + (-3 OYNO)

2nd Transaction

Cascade Action Packs Sale Price: 2 for $8
Mr Clean Sale Price: 2 for $5
-.25 cascade ecoupon
-.75 -.75  mr. clean coupon doubled
-.75 -.75 mr. clean coupon doubled
-.50 -.50 cascade coupon doubled
-.50-.50 cascade coupon doubled
-$3 OYNO Coupon
=5.23 + (-5 OYNO)

Third Transaction

20 GE Yogurts Sale Price: 20 for $10
2 Yopliat Yogurts reg price: .70 each
- 10% worker discount on GE yougurt
-$5 OYNO Coupon
=$4.95

Grand Total Spent: 21.93
Grand Total Saved: 16.09

I saved 42%!Thats not too bad considering my goal is 60%

I'm telling you this stuff is addicting. But one of the biggest things I've learned right now is pay attention- and save up. Don't use your coupons the Monday after you clip them and pay attention to store sales, clearances and randomly placed coupons.

One more tip: Don't leave your car keys by the Cascade.

Coupons

Mike and I watch the Extreme Couponing show. It excites me and encourages me to try to match deals with my coupons and not just using the coupons alone.

My husband doesn't see the point in couponing unless you do it on an extreme scale. He doesn't get that if I save $10 a month that equals $100 a year and $500 in five years- just by cutting up the Sunday paper! He doesn't seem to see any value in that saved money because we're not directly applying that money to say our student loans or hotel reservations. I see it though. I know that I would love to have an extra $100 at the end of the year that I can use towards a goal- or even just an extra $100 to spend on higher priced items like fruit. And I definitely save more than $10 a month

 Then he says "you're not saving money that way". Which is true in a sense but I am putting the saved money towards the fruit which we would otherwise go without- basically we're getting more for our money. I don't know what about that concept is hard to grasp. MEN!

Anyway, I scored a good deal at Giant Eagle today. They were havign a BOGO sale on razors and I had two coupons. One for three dollars off and one for two dollars off.


Original Price: 2 for 13.96
Sale Price: 2 for 6.98
After coupons: 2 for 1.98!

Thats around 85% savings! Which is really good considering a lot of my research has lead me to believe that couponing on the scale I currently do should save me an average of 60%. I think thats a good goal to shoot for.

I'm hoping to return to Giant Eagle tomorrow or Wednesday and score some good deals (OYNO coupons) on Charmin and Cascade and maybe yogurt! I'm going to also look into getting decent deals on much needed batteries (my voice recorder is dead!) and maybe free toothpaste.

What deals have you scored lately? What couponing  tips do you have to share?

Gotta Love Bend and Dents

We try to stop at Little Barn, a bed and dent store, everytime we drive over to visit Mike's family. This shopping trip we spent around $30 and got:

• antibotic bandaids
• 4-5 cans of Campbells soup
• hot chocolate
• popcorn
• 2 bags of chips
• dried black beans
• 2 boxes of ceral bars
• granola bars
• granulated sugar
• chocolate chips
• pb chips
• sweetned coconut
• 2 rice mixes
• a bag of seasoning for wings
• salsa
• enchilda sauce
• cream of chicken
• beef consome
• marshmallows
• peanut butter
• apple butter
• grape water
• ferror rocher candy

I love going to this store because I can get my baking supplies on the cheap, as well as extras like popcorn, hot chocolate, chips, chocolate candy and apple butter that I wouldn't normally buy because of the price. If you total it out we spent on average, $1 an item.

Yard Sale Score

My church had a yard sale today as part of their efforts to raise money for the renovations. They rasied $3300 today! I went the last hour of the sale and they were running a deal where you could get everything you could put into a carboard box for $1. I paid and headed to my car, fully intending to go back inside, and stick a small crock pot and cupcake pan in a box for $1. But after settling everything into the car I forgot and drove away. I'm still kicking myself for forgetting the crockpot. It was the perfect size to feed just the two of us. But here is what I did get:

3 cookbooks and 2 novels

3 vases (I may use the round one in a centerpiece at my wedding reception)

2 basket (The red one now holds my pb packets, salt and pepper, toothpicks and coasters on top of the microwave

Giraffe, cow, llama and church cookie cutters

A decorative apple for my teacher-in-training roomate.

It moos and mixes up chocolate milk but I'm thinking it'll mix juice and rum just fine

2 photobooks to hold the photos I'm wating to scrapbook!

All for a grand total of $1 or  six cents per item!

What is the best thing you've ever bought at a yard sale? Do you go often? Any tips?



DARN CROCKPOT! Sigh... I guess everything happens for a reason....but it was so cute....

An {etsy} Deal Just For You!

The Etsy seller who offers the following two products (they were featured here) has offered my readers a 10% discount on the two items. Follow the links below to get to the product. Please leave a message for the seller letting her know you found the dicount here. She recommends putting RLB88 in the message to the seller box.

Lovely and Feminine

Warm and Colorful