Monday, January 26, 2009

Adventures in Couponing

One of my "goals" for the new year was to become more of a coupon/sale shopper. There are people, GOD LOVE THEM, who put A LOT of time into crafting this art. I've seen pictures of a big haul that they have gotten from Walgreen's or CVS for $7 and have been amazed. Now, I'm not looking to having an overflowing stock pile of toothpaste necessarily. Partly because I don't have the space and partly I don't have the time. BUT, I do want to be more conscientious on what and how I spend for our family on groceries and other everyday items. Maybe as time goes on, I'll get better at the fine art of "couponing". BABY" STEPS!!!!

I actually found myself giddy over my Walgreen's trip today!!!! My haul and out of pocket wasn't quit worthy of a photo because I was hoping to spend a little less out of pocket than I did. I DID however have about a 6% savings on my purchase with the over $23 I saved in coupons. (When I add up my savings, I don't add in the "advertised savings") Which, I thought for a rookie, wasn't too shabby.

I sat down yesterday with the add, clipped the coupons I would use and found a couple of manufacture coupons to add to the Walgreen's coupons. Walgreen's has what they call Register Rewards. I purchased 2 2-liters of Hawaiian Punch and 1 2-liter of Sunkist soda for a sale price of 3 for $4. THIS gave me $2 back in Register Rewards. I did my first transaction with the sale items that would earn me Register Rewards. My total in Register Rewards today was $6. Then I did a second transaction with the items that I had bought with Walgreen's coupons, Manufacture Coupons then added my $6 RR to the $10 RR from a previous trip to get to my final price.

Although I thought it seemed like it was all well planned and mapped out, I made a couple of mistakes...TWICE I had to go back and get the item that the coupon was actually for because I didn't read the sizes of products very carefully. Then I forgot to give them one of the coupons so I needed to wait for the manager to come and reimburse me. Thankfully they were patient with me!!!

Overall, as dorky as it may sound, I'm happy with the outcome of my trip. Maybe someday I'll have a trip which I think is worthy of a photo to post!

1 comment:

Chervenka5 said...

My roommate from college takes some of those infamous photos of the stockpile they just bought for $0.50 at Walgreens. Her blog is "The Bartletts" from our page. It's been awhile since she did a coupon post, but she has links to some sites that might help you! :)