Many avid couponers seem to spend hours clipping coupons, running all over town, and doing whatever it takes to save the most money. I will be the first to admit that I am a nerd and enjoy looking at various couponing websites. Every Friday the two coupon websites that I most frequently utilize have a post titled "Friday Finals." Bloggers then can post a link to a picture of what they bought for the week and how much they spent and saved (similar to what I am doing). Sometimes the pictures of what they bought are hilarious. Who needs ten frozen pizzas and fifty bottles of shampoo? My other question is how they got fifty coupons for the same product. I know you can buy coupons in bulk online, but the whole premise behind coupons is that they are free.
Some of you may be asking "what about the money you spend on ink to print coupons and to purchase the Sunday paper." J.T. buys the Sunday paper for us each week. We normally buy this with spare change that is collected throughout the week. He gets to read the paper and I get the coupon inserts, so it works out great on both ends. Many coupon websites recommend that you buy two papers each week; however, I believe one is enough. Honestly, 90% of my coupons are internet printables. Which leads us to the ink/printing issue - I have a laser ink jet printer which my father graciously gave to me while I was in college. I have to pay to replace the ink cartridge maybe twice a year, closer to once. I also print on both sides of a sheet of paper to cut down on my paper costs. Plus, the last time I bought paper Office Depot practically paid me to take the paper out of the store, because I had a coupon. You must take advantage of coupons in all areas of life!
The second point I would like to discuss is the amount of time I spend couponing. I use southernsavers.com and iheartpublix.com to print coupons and receive weekly ad match-ups. These two websites have done the majority of the work for you. When they post the ad, I go in and print the coupon or pull the coupon from my "stash." I spend more time crunching numbers to make sure we are within our budget than clipping coupons. My family refers to me as the budget Nazi. I am a stickler about keeping things on track financially. "Wants" and "needs" are something that too many people tend to confuse, but that topic is for another post. We spent $45.27 on groceries this week at Publix and $3.05 on hygiene items – right on budget!
- Dairy
- Publix Greenwise Organic Milk @ $5.99
- Silk Almond Milk @ $3.49
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon - $2.49
- Grocery
- (1) Publix Greenwise Organic Oats @ $1.99
- (2) Lance Snack Crackers (BOGO) @ $2.95
- (2) $0.55/1 manufacturer coupons – $1.85 or $0.93 each
- (2) Blue Diamond Natural almonds (BOGO) @ $4.19
- $1.50/1 manufacturer coupon - $2.69 or $1.35 each
- (2) Mott's (6-pack) applesauce @ $3.33
- $1.10/2 manufacturer coupon – $2.23 or $1.12 each
- (1) Mott's Snack & Go @ $2.79
- FREE w/ purchase of 2 Mott's (6-pack) applesauce
- (1) bag Alabama King Cornmeal @ $1.75
- 1 lb. Pinto beans @ $1.79
- 2 lbs. Publix brown rice @ $1.89
- Meat
- 3 lbs. Publix Greenwise Organic chicken thighs @ $2.29/lb. - $6.82
- Frozen
- (4) Bird's eye frozen vegetables @ $3.98 or roughly $1 each
- Publix Greenwise Organic ice cream @ $3.50
- Produce
- 2 lbs. Organic Bananas @ $0.99/lb. - $2.21
- 1.17 lbs. yellow onions @ $1.19/lb. - $1.39
- 1 garlic bulb @ $0.30
- 3 Mangoes @ $1 each - $3.00
- Other
- (1) Mitchum Women's deodorant @ $1.79
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon - $0.79
- (1) Listerine mouthwash (500mL) @ $3.00
- $0.55/1 manufacturer coupon & $1/1 Publix coupon - $1.45
- (2) Ziploc galloon slider freezer bags @ $4.00
- $1/2 manufacturer coupon & $1/2 Publix coupon - $2.00 or $1.00 each
- (2) Papermate (10 count) black pens @ 2/$1.00
- (2) $1/1 Target coupons - FREE + $1.00 overage
- (2) Kiss My Face Olive Oil Bar soap @ $5.98
- (2) $3/1 manufacturer coupons – FREE + $0.02 overage
$5.00 off $25.00 purchase Save-A-Lot competitor coupon
Total before coupons $72.36
Less: coupons used (24.04)
Total with Tax $48.32
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