It was only a matter of time. This seems to be my path....I think I've hit a coupon brick wall :) I do this all the time..find a "hobby" and go crazy with it, but before you know it, I've gotten bored with it and the paraphernalia is lying somewhere in a corner. You name it...knitting, scrap booking, painting, writing, the list goes on and on....my latest venture, coupons, seems to be running its course and I'm sure I'll be wasting money on full priced groceries before you know it. Sad.
So I attempted my very first "prepared" triples at Harris Teeter a couple of weeks ago and I think it went rather well. I spent $27.40 on $382.31 worth of groceries!! I started clipping coupons the last week in July and I just calculated my total savings..you ready for this...$1,106.82! Yeah, baby!! What's up now, biatch!! So I figured I would pass on the knowledge before it became just one of the next casualties in my quest to find my real purpose in life ;) So first things first...it might sound obvious, but start buying the newspaper. I started getting the Sunday newspaper and figuring out if there was some good crap in there..then I would go..aka send Richard...to buy several more if there were lots of coupons I knew I would use. Here is a rookie mistake...don't just clip the things you "use". I did that at first and then found that when I went through the sales list..I had thrown out coupons that I could have used for free stuff or for things they would have to pay me for. So just clip, clip, clip away. You can also buy coupons..yes I know it sounds counterproductive...but you can buy coupons on http://www.thecouponclippers.com/, ebay, or http://www.couponsandforms.com/ there are several others, but these are the ones I visit. Think of it this way...if you were going to buy Colgate and it was 2 for $3, but you had a .75 coupon that tripled to $2.25...wouldn't you pay 5 cents a coupon to purchase 20 of them...Yeah, I would (and did). Next, organize....picture this...sweet Alissa just skipping along through your local grocery store with sweet Corbin strapped to her chest....cute purple accordion organizer in hand. What happens when you see that beautiful box of Hamburger Helper on sale that you must have (because you are too lazy to make that crap from scratch)....you pull out your purple organizer and SLAM...sweet Corbin throws it to the ground..coupons fly everywhere, no organization...OH THE MADNESS! Yes, it only took 2-3 trips of this for me to shape up and get real about my coupon organization ;) (I'm laughing at myself now)...its all about binders and baseball card holders, people. Get through that Mr. Sweet Corbin..yeah, I didn't think so :)
Now comes the good stuff...finding out what you can get free or super cheap. Thanks to the Domestic Goddesses on http://www.charlottemommies.com/ I have found the perfect website for ya..no I didn't name it, but am considering changing the name of my blog now that I have found it.. haha..ok seriously... http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ ....you can actually go on this website, click on Grocery Stores, find your store, and find posts of sales near you. I showed my friend, Alison, this weekend the sales for Kroger and there was even a post of free or almost free stuff you can get there this week. Yes, those women are pure genius. Who knew that all of us were so brilliantly frugal!
So this is what I did for my first triples...not only did I find the sales, but made an excel spreadsheet that told me to the penny how much I would spend, save, and buy (including tax)!! Trip for trip! (You can only triple 20 coupons at a time) So this only called for 8 trips in 2 days before the coupon burnout truly started setting in. It was like pure crack until then. So I've come to a conclusion on this hobby...meeting myself somewhere in the middle will probably be key. I still had to grocery shop for other stuff..like produce, meat, etc. So I'm going to use my overages for those instead of 20 packs of Starkist tuna..ha ha! This hobby actually makes sense as long as I curb my enthusiasm!! Happy shopping!!
2 comments:
this is so freakin funny, Alissa. The pic of Corbin just adds to the whole story..it's like he's just having a blast (maybe as much fun as you) as you lug him back and forth 8 times to the grocery store in 2 days. Man, now that I think about it, that's got to be a pain to lug a child in and out that many times!! kudos to you..as a side note, I had a dream about harris teeters last night. weird!
Is that sour cream next to the Nesquick on the right side? Cause that's a LOT of sour cream!! :)
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