Pay it Forward!

I've been blog stalking a great new blog recently. Isn't it amazing how you can stalk a friend's blog and click on a link to one of the blogs they stalk and all of a sudden you come across an amazing blog! Then you start stalking that blog and it's like you're BFF with this person that you don't know!

So anywho, this is like a feel-good, feel-God blog. There's a lot of junk on the internet, but this is a wholesome, down-to-earth blog. No phony bologna! She shares a lot of personal life experiences. It's nice to know that other people go through some of the same things! Plus she's a new Mom and she adds a quote from the Bible in almost all her posts.

One of the more recent post was called "Thoughtful Thursday." She challenges herself to do something thoughtful for someone each week, and last week, it was to pay it forward!

I decided to take the challenge. A few months ago, the Enfamil coupon fairy left me some amazing coupons at Kroger. I was SOOOO grateful! Baby formula and baby food are so expensive compared to real people food. Recently, I started getting some Enfamil catalina coupons at Kroger, but for the wrong type of formula. Ryne uses the regular Enfamil and the coupons I get are for babies with a milk protein allergy. Nutramigen (the Enfamil for protein allergies) is a lot more expensive than any other type of formula - it cost twice as much! So Sunday, I left my Nutramigen coupons on top of one of the cans at Kroger. I went back today and they were gone. So hopefully someone else got a wonderful surprise and hopefully they will pay it forward.

Check out Say Grace and Pay it Forward!

Wipe Out...

...for CVS that is! As you all have probably figured out by now, I love a good deal! I especially love good deals on baby items! Let's face it - babies are expensive!

I heard through the couponing grapevine that CVS had a hidden deal on Huggies 184 count baby wipes. Normally they retail for $7.99. Right now CVS has the Huggies 72 count tubs of wipes on sale for 2 for $5. Apparently, someone at CVS (assuming CVS corporate) made a boo boo and the 184 count refill bags are ringing up 2 for $5 as well! Woohoo! I drove to 3 stores before I finally found a store that had any left in stock, and they only had 2 left. So I bought those two. Then I drove to another CVS and bought 4 more.

You may think I'm crazy for driving to 5 CVS stores to get 6 packs of wipes, but lets compare: for $2.50 I could have bought 72 wipes, but got 184 instead. I can also justify my driving time and gas because I have a few friends having babies soon, so a nice bag of wipes will be perfect to throw in with their gift!

Now here's the even crazier part. There was a lady that reported buying 24 packs of the 184 count wipes. She had manufacturer coupons and CVS store coupons for Huggies wipes, ECBs (which are like CVS money), some other CVS coupons and a CVS gift card. She spent $0.30 out of pocket for 24 packs of wipes. That's basically getting $191.76 (retail value) worth of wipes for 30 cents! She must really need some wipes!

Check out Southern Savers for more great deals!

Cracking the Catalina Couponing Code at Kroger!

Say that ten times fast! Anyway, I started couponing a while back, but ever since the baby came, I haven't been able to dedicate much time to it. I still cut coupons out of the Sunday paper, and will hunt down baby coupons when I have time, but I don't have the time to hunt down and print a coupon for almost every item we use! I was fortunate enough to get a visit from the Enfamil Coupon Fairy at Kroger back in December, but my luck started to run dry shortly after. As some of you may know, I made a late night run to Kroger to get some Enfamil formula (as a supplement) for Ryne. Adam's mom had given me a catalina coupon (the ones that print at the register) for $5 off Enfamil powder to use at Kroger, hence my late night run to Kroger and not Walmart. While at Kroger I noticed that a very nice person left a handful of Enfamil catalina coupons stuck between two cans of ready to feed formula. I couldn't resist, and was very grateful! So I bought a can of powder with Jo Ann's coupon and two cans of Ready to Feed (per coupon restrictions) with one of the new-found coupons! Then at check out, another powder formula coupon printed! So I went in with one coupon and walked out with 6 new ones (Yatzee!)! Then the next day I got 2 Enfamil coupons from the company in the mail! Like I said, the Enfamil Coupon Fairy visited!

So, obviously I've been buying formula at Kroger for the past month, and not receiving any new coupons. It just didn't make sense. I had decided that I was going to use all the coupons and then start going back to Walmart until Kroger got their act together! I figure since we live so close to both, I can play them off each other! A few days ago, Jo Ann brought us 2 more Enfamil powder catalina coupons for Kroger and I still wondered why I wasn't getting any. Jo Ann said she hadn't been buying formula there, so that struck me as odd. When I used the last of my Kroger catalina coupons, a Gerber 1st foods catalina coupon printed, which I was glad to have because the baby is now eating veggies. I used the first Gerber coupon and did not receive another one. So the next time I went to Kroger I bought a different brand of baby food, and lo and behold, a Gerber coupon printed!

So today I went back to Kroger because I needed more baby food and wipes. We typically use Gerber brand food products and we use Pampers wipes because they work better in the wipes warmer than Huggies. I took the Gerber coupon and a Huggies coupon because I didn't have a Pampers coupons and put my theory to the test! I bought 3 Gerber foods (per coupon restrictions), 1 jar of the competitor's brand (we are testing out bananas in the morning!), and I bought a pack of Huggies wipes. So guess what printed out at the register - 2 Gerber food coupons printed and 1 pampers wipes coupon printed! From what I can deduce, if you buy the most expensive/popular brand (i.e. Gerber, Pampers, Enfamil) they will occasionally give you a coupon for that brand. If you buy the competitor's/less expensive brand, they will print you a coupon for the most expensive/popular brand! I bet if I had bought Similac formula, an Enfamil coupon would have printed! So now I know how to get what I want at Kroger, even if it takes sacrificing my favorite brand from time to time!

As you can see, I enjoy celebrating the small victories, and one day, when Ryne is through with formula and baby food I will pay it forward and leave my coupons for another parent!

Old Navy Weekly

Never pay full price at Old Navy again! Okay, so I know Old Navy has fairly inexpensive clothing overall, but why not get it for a little less? I have recently taken up couponing! It's easy to become addicted to getting an awesome deal on the household and personal items that we already use! Today Adam mentioned wanting some long-sleeved shirts since the weather is starting to change, so I suggested Old Navy. Each week, Old Navy updates a website where you can "hunt" for in-store coupons. The coupons vary in value from $75 off a $100 purchase to 10% off your purchase. The highest discount I could find today was 20% off your entire purchase, so we went into the store just to see what we could find. There were a few other sales going on in the store that we took advantage of so the savings exceeded our expectations.

So here's the break down:

Total Before Sales and Coupons (less tax): $82

Total Spent (less tax): 38.79

Total Savings: 52.7%

More Couponing Success!

Okay so I was so excited about my success with couponing yesterday, but I'm still no coupon champ like the women who post the other blogs. So I started looking into it more - seeing what they buy and coupons they use, etc.
Yesterday I bought some Nabisco 100 calorie snacks at Target for a pretty good deal - $0.79 when the original price is $2.79. I was so excited to get one of my favorite snacks at such a deal, especially since there are only 6 packs in the box for that price. I bought the snacks for our beach trip, but got a little hungry last night, so I ate a few packs.
Today, I decided to go back to Target, the Super Target this time since we were meeting some friends for dinner close by. I printed off another Target coupon and another manufacturer coupons and expected to pay the same $0.79 as yesterday. Adam was with me, so he got to see why I was so excited yesterday. This Target had the same snacks on sale for $2.04, down from $2.79! I got so excited and started laughing. Adam asked what was so funny and I told him that I would be getting my box of snacks for $0.04! 4 cents! He couldn't believe it.
Then we went to the travel/trial size toiletries section so he could get some toothpaste for the trip and they had travel sized Right Guard deodorant for $0.97 each. I pulled out a Right Guard coupon that I knew was going to expire tomorrow and read the details. It was for $1 off 2 deodorants - any size! So we got one free and a few cents knocked off the other!
Getting excited over buying a box of cookies for 4 cents and a travel sized deodorant for 94 cents may seem a little silly to most people, but it dawned on me how these women go into Kroger or Target and get $100 worth of groceries/toiletries for $15 to $20. Most of these coupon women only allow themselves to spend a certain amount of money a week on groceries/toiletries and/or only a certain amount of money at a particular store each week. So, these coupon women would have stocked up on the cookies and the travel sized deodorants! They would have gone to Target with 25 Target coupons and 25 manufacturer coupons for the cookies and bought 25 boxes and would have spent only $1 on all 25 boxes! Sounds like a good deal to me, especially since I love those cookies. They would do the same with the deodorant. I had two other coupons for the same deodorant so they would have bought several and used all three coupons.
I've also learned that these women stockpile non-perishable items. Some have only a 3-6 months supply, while others keep a 1 -2 year supply. One woman posted a picture of her stockpile. Basically she turned her garage into a pantry - the whole garage. She said the reason behind this, especially now with economic uncertainty, is that if her husband lost his job, she could still feed her family without spending money, except for perishable items, for years if she had to!
Also, some women will buy items that they get for free or next to nothing (like my cookies)in bulk and donate them to their church's food pantry or local shelters. That would be especially nice in Knoxville, because there is never a shortage of homeless in Knoxville and travel sized deodorants could come in handy with the rising temperatures!
So I am hoping to get better at couponing to benefit those less fortunate than myself and to benefit my cookie cravings!

Couponing

I have used coupons in the past at the grocery store, but was never very serious about it. I figured, why not save a few cents on products that I use! Recently, a classmate of Adam's posted on her blog about all her coupon usage and savings. I was amazed! While reading her blog, I checked out some other coupon bloggers that she referenced. I was completely blown away by the amount of money these women save and how much stuff they get free!
I know a lot of people say that it takes too much time to clip coupons or hunt them down on the internet from the manufacturer; however, these women do all the work for you - everything except cutting out the coupons! They even match up the weekly sales at the grocery store with coupons that are available.
I decided to give couponing a try in preparation for our beach trip on Saturday, so we got mostly drinks and snacks!
To follow suit with rest of the Coupon Clippers, I will give a break down of the deals I got and post a lovely picture!
If you receive Atlanta-based coupons and grocery flyers then check out savingyourcents.blogspot.com and www.couponmommie.com.

Target Shopping Trip:
1 - Sunny Cranberry Trail Mix @ $2.79 with $0.50 Target web coupon

1- Monster Trail Mix @ $3.99 with $0.50 Target web coupon

2 - Pringles @ $0.54 each with $1 manufacturer coupon and 2 $0.50 Target web coupons

1 - 100 cal snack packs @ $0.70 with $1 manufacturer coupon and $1 Target web coupn

2 - Kashi snack bars @ $2.54 each with manufacturer coupon

1 - Skintimate Shave Gel @ $1.49 with manufacturer coupon ( it should have been $0.49 because I had a $1 Target web coupon, but the cashier must have missed it - darn him!)

1 - Colgate Wisps 4 pack @ $1.49 with $0.50 Target web coupon

Total Spent (less tax): $16.67
Total Savings: $6.25*

* some items were marked down this week at Target, but the sales ticket does not reflect the in-store discount.


Kroger Shopping Trip:

1 - Glamour Magazine @ $2.49 with $1 Ecoupon and $0.50 manufacturer coupon (Kroger may have doubled one of these coupons as well, so it was probably less than $2.49)

3 - Sobe Energy drinks @ $1 each (Kroger's 10 for $10 deal which saves $0.49 on each)

1 - Powerade @ $1 (10 for $10)

2 - Sobe Lifewater @ $0.50 each after Kroger 10 for $10 which saves $0.49 each plus Buy One get One FREE manf. coupon

6 - Smartwaters @ $1 each (10 for $10, which saves $0.89 each)

5 - Gatorades @ $1 each (10 for $10, which saves $0.08 each)

2 - Oscar Mayer Bacon @ $3 each with Kroger special 2 for $7, which saves $1.49 each and $1 manf coupon

1 - Dial Hand Soap @ $0.45 with Kroger 10 for $10, which saves $0.63 and $0.55 manf coupon

1 - Electrasol Dishwasher Detergent @ $2.99 with Kroger card, which saves $0.39

3 - Suave Shampoos @ $1.08 each with Kroger 3 for $5 which saves a total of $0.50

Total Spent (less tax): $31.18 (again, this is probably a few cents high since Kroger doubled some of my coupons but didn't specify which ones because total with tax was $32.10.)

Total Savings: $20.54 with Kroger Plus Card and Coupons according to my receipt.

So all in all, I think I was successful for my first time!
Most Target stores will accept a Target web coupon and a manufacturer's coupon for a single item. My Target cashier was quite impressed with my couponing and said he would try it himself!
Kroger will let you 'stack' coupons, which is where you can have multiple manufacturer's coupons for a single item, but it depends on which cashier you have. My Kroger cashier today kinda snaked me on the Suave Shampoos - I would have been able to get all 3 for free with all the Suave coupons I had. Kroger does double some manufacturer coupons though.

Check out the other blogs I mentioned, these women are coupon pros!