11.11.08 - COUPON-ING

Because I use this blog as my journal I have to include this entry about the coupon-ing I have been doing lately... maybe it will inspire someone to think, "If Camille can do it, I can do it!"

I have actually spent hours and hours the last few days clipping coupons, organizing them into 18 different categories, putting them in a binder, and creating a grocery list (with the help of http://www.savvyshopperdeals.com/ which is a website that tells me what all the great deals are on groceries on a week by week basis... I'll explain more later).

Albertson's was having a great sale on many items that I had coupons for and in addition to the sale and coupons (which is a great deal) they were having a promotion where if you bought $30 worth of select items - the ones that were on sale - you got $15 off your next order (an additional 50% off... not a bad deal). So I organized my grocery list into 9 groups where the total would equal about $30. That means I had 9 transactions and 9 sets of coupons.... wheew.

So, after spending more than 3 hours at the grocery store, and filling up my cart and going through the check out 3 times (on two different days) these are the benefits:

I spent $104.03 on $427.58 worth of groceries!

I saved $323.55!!! Not too bad... =)



I am definitely learning the "coupon-ing" trade and although it is taking me a lot of time to figure it out and get organized it is really paying off. I find it challenging and exciting... and saving that much money is really rewarding too!

The only way I can even attempt to do this is because of this really great and free information I get by email every week. It tells me what Weekly Deals each store is having and it ranks the deal so I know if it is an okay deal, good deal, or great deal.

I would recommend it to anyone who wants to save money grocery shopping, with or without coupons. The website is http://www.savvyshopperdeals.com/ and it is super easy and totally free of charge.



The way to get the coupons is by getting the Sunday Paper. I actually just signed up to get 4 copies of the Sunday paper (I know, I know, it sounds crazy) so that I get 4 copies of all of the coupons. That way next time a great sale happens I'll have enough coupons to get a lot of great stuff for super cheap or free!

I wish that I would have heard about how to do this earlier so if anyone reading this is interested I can tell you even more about it. I can also tell you how to get free stuff without ever clipping any coupons... anyway, hopefully shopping trips like this Albertson's one will be more regular for me and my family and I can start really building up my food storage and saving more money.

I truly feel so blessed in my life and I want to give back. It is important to me to be generous toward others and have found that this is a really great way to do that. Around the holidays there are so many opportunities to give and I really want to help out, so whenever I get free toothpaste, or free food, or whatever, I am going to try to always donate to those in need.