Couponing 101
Me giving Stella her first coupon lesson. It’s all about the Alberston’s ‘Twice the Value’ coupons! Stella agrees.
Couponing
Coupons a callin’
Started calling around to some of my favorite brands to get coupons from them. Seems like the stuff I prefer to buy never has them. Called up WestSoy and within 30 seconds, I had their coupons coming my way! I love their unsweeted vanilla soy milk – use it every day in my Earl Grey tea. Speaking of tea, signed up for the Bigelow Tea email group and will be getting coupons through them as well.
Figure $3 for tea and $3 for soy milk (even less with those coupons!) works out to .30 per cup! Suck on that Starbucks.
http://www.westsoy.biz/company/specials.php
Also, just bought a 6 month subscription to The Seattle Times using this deal:
http://couponconnectionsnw.com/seattle-times-newspaper-deal/
Forgot to buy the paper last Sunday and missed out on the Albertson’s double coupons. Doh. That’s not going to happen again! Works out to $1.58 an issue, which def works for me!
Deals of the Week!
Still trying to get a grasp on this coupon business…..it’s far more time consuming than I had ever imagined! I’m not getting those $3 grocery bills like the experts do, but I am saving anywhere from $5-$15 off each of my bills. Every little bit helps. I seem to have had the best luck at RiteAid – a place I had never really shopped at before – go figure. Got hair gel there the other week for free!
Here are a few of my deals of the week that I’ll be heading out for:
*Buy 10 selected items and get $5 off your bill – when I calculated this out for the items I chose, it worked out to be $1.06 for each item – nice!
*They also had a few buy 1, get 1 free meat items (chicken and chuck roast) which I always love since we seem to blow through meat pretty quickly. Albertson’s has this deal too on a ton of meat.
*Classico Pasta Sauce – buy 1, get 1 free plus I’ve got a manufacturer’s coupon for $1 off 2 products so you’re looking at $2.39 for both or $1.19 each! Love it.
I’m also loving the online shopping list for these grocery stores. You can browse through the weekly ads and compile a printable list. Add a few of your notes ie. manufacturer’s coupons and you’re good to go!
Coupon clippin’
I’ve decided to start clipping coupons. Like really clip coupons. Like do the research and spend the time hunting down the real deals. I’m sick of spending $75 for two people’s groceries for the week – so ridiculous – but we eat so well š So now it’s time to get serious about our spending habit, especially with the BF’s job situation. And hey, I wouldn’t mind a few extra dollars in my pocket at the end of the week.
I began by doing a bit of online research; I really found this site to be helpful and it was from a local gal from Tacoma (always a plus to support local peeps!). I think the most vaulable thing I learned so far is about the difference between manufacturers and store coupons and how you can usually use them at the same time. Pair that with a deal already in the store and you got yourself a nice little discount! I also learned that you need to plan ahead – it might sound ridiculous to buy 5 boxes of cereal at once, but you save in the long run. We’ll have to do a bit of re-organizing to make space for the extra items purchased.
Here’s to the day when I pay $25 for a $50 grocery store bill! Well, that’s my goal at least……
