Coupon Follow-up

We're back online! Woo Hoo! Our internet was fixed last night, which meant I spent way too much time on my email trying to catch up. I'm so glad to be back in the loop.

A few people commented after my coupon game post and asked what websites I use. I really don’t use a lot. I read a book called “The Coupon Mom’s Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half” (which can be found here) and I visit the authors website (couponmom.com) to get the best local deals. I also check thefrugalfind.com daily to see if there are any new deals that I need to snatch up.

Last week I got several hot deals. Of course, the amounts mentioned don’t include tax, but that was usually less than 50 cents, so it doesn’t really count.

2 tubes Colgate toothpaste – $0

2 Colgate toothbrushes – $0

2 bottles Purex fabric softener crystals – $0

1 bottle Earth Friendly bathroom cleaner – $0

3 packages of Danonino yogurt - $1

2 packages of Activia drinkable yogurt – $0

3 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats Raisin cereal – $0

Needless to say, it has been a productive shopping week for me, which is good considering this was the 5^th week of the month which means an especially tight grocery budget.

The best was when I went to Harris Teeter to buy the toothpaste. That was my only purchase, so when I checked out the woman scanned the 2 tubes, then scanned my 2 coupons. She looked at the price total, then at the coupons, then back at the price…then she burst into laughter. As she was laughing she said, “Your total is 15 cents.” (That was the total for my tax). I told her the only thing I could think of, “It’s all in a days work.” She replied, “You win the prize for today!” And she continued to laugh as she told me that I had saved $7.98.

I will say that I am convinced I don’t get as good of deals here in DC as I would in other parts of the country. Safeway, for example, has great deals if I could combine coupons with sales, but the Safeway’s in NOVA (Northern Virginia) won’t accept both, thus, I don’t shop there anymore. Also, sometimes my websites will have a sale that uses a 55 cent coupon for 1 product, but the coupon in my paper is $1 off of 2 products. That’s a big difference when a 55 cent coupon gets doubled and a $1 coupon doesn’t.

I am always open to new and exciting ways to use coupons and save more money, so if you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments. Happy couponing!