My Adventures In Couponing

I have moved to HERE (www.myadventuresincouponing.blogspot.com)

It’s under major construction right now so I’m not sure when I’ll be back to posting! Thanks for being patient and I can’t wait to share more deals with you!

The weather is horrible here so I’m only online for a few minutes.  I wanted to let my readers know that I am working on finding a new home for my blog. I don’t have the freedom to post all of the links to help you save more money due to regulations and I’m frustrated.

I’ll keep you updated when I have a new home!

Coupons:
Today is April 1st and that means more coupons! If you a seasoned couponer or new to the game this Sunday will be a great day for coupons! There are 3-5 inserts (depending on your area) scheduled so don’t miss out!! But remember the following Sunday is Easter so there won’t be any inserts.

There are great coupons on Coupons.com this month including .50 Cottonelle and .55 Honey Nut Cheerios! You can print those from the bar on the left.

Smartsource.com also has some great coupons this month.

Want more? Don’t forget about:

EatBetterAmerica.com

Pillsbury.com

BettyCrocker.com

BoxTops4Education.com

Redplum.com

All of these have great coupons that reset each month!

RedBox free movie code for Wednesday: MMM401

Publix has a lot of great sales this week and the ad is running a little longer due to Easter. Sale are good through 4/11. Remember most stores accept competitor’s coupons and there is a $5/$25 purchase from Rite Aid HERE .  You can find some great Easter dinner deals this week!

Some people are probably wondering how exactly I calculate my savings so I’d like to share. Lots of people calculate things differently and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’d just like you to know how I come up with my number.

1. The difference in regular price and sale price? Yes, I consider this a savings. Why? I used to purchase things and not use coupons…I was young and naive. Also there is the rare occasion we run out of something and can’t do without it so I have to pay full price. Therefor yes, sale price is calculated into my savings.

2. Coupons? I always calculate in coupons! That’s my main source of savings!

3. Giftcards? Yes these are savings if I did not purchase the giftcard. Why? It is no money out of my pocket, so I have saved!

4. Store savings, like Register Rewards or Extra Care Bucks? Yes and No. These definitely count towards my savings, but only the 2nd time around! Here’s the catch: These rewards are given when you purchase something. They are actual coupons that print out for you. I do not count these in my savings unless I actually use them.
IE - I buy $10 worth of items for $7 and get $5 ECB back. I do not consider the $5 a savings until I redeem them. So my savings would only be $3 instead of $8. The way I figure it, I spent $7 OOP instead of $2 so I didn’t save anything yet. Plus if I counted the $5 now, I wouldn’t be able to count them again when I did actually use them.
The stores put these in their ad as if you were saving immediately, but that’s not the case. They say “It’s like paying…” when you’re still paying full price, but you get $ back to spend later.

5. Rebates? No. I do not count this in my savings since I still had to spend the $ OOP. However I am saving all of my rebates to see what I can stash in a year. I just haven’t decided what I’m going to do with that chunk of change yet…Christmas, a WII? So many options…Right now I only have $29.98, but that was just for January - March. (And I don’t count my rebate until I have the check in hand.) Oh I do not count the Walgreens rebates either since I get those back on a Wags GC (not a rebate check). They only count when I buy things with that GC.

One other thing: The YTD savings you see to the right is only for grocery, department and drugstores. I have not calculated in my other savings such as gifts, dining out, etc. I do keep track of these and near the end of the year I will do a post on all of those bonus savings.

I hope this gives everyone a little better understanding of how I calculate things. Hopefully it will help someone to keep track of their savings a little better as well!

Here’s just a quick post today. It’s going to be a busy week so planning. KMart is offering their double coupons again up to $2! There’s some dispute whether the store will accept 25 or 75 coupons per person this time so each store may be different. They are also accepting IPs now!! (Always call your store to verify before planning your trip.) But with IPs the savings is ever better! Don’t forget to sign up for their emails to receive a $5/$50 purchase and hand that q over first!

Rumor has it Harris Teeter is offering triple coupons up to .99 for an entire week starting 3/25! There are lots of free or nearly free deals to be had. I can’t wait for the ad to come out and match up some deals!

I’m already anxious to share my 1st grocery shopping trip of the week. I got nearly everything free at Bi-Lo by using my free product coupons! You can acquire these by signing up for email newsletters and writing companies.  I saved $57.86 today! I will share a photo and the details on “My Savings Saturday”.

Today was also a disappointing day for coupon inserts. If you’re just starting out in couponing, don’t get your hopes up or rush out to get the paper today. There is only 1 insert and it’s skimpy on the q’s.

Here’s what to look forward to this week:

Misc Monday - Spinach Stuffed Chicken Recipe
Teaching You Tuesday - Being Charitable Without Breaking the Bank
Weekly Deals Wednesdays - Hopefully I will have some KMart Doubles or HT Triples
Match-Ups for you
Online Thursdays - Hopefully I will find some great online deals for you!
Frees on Friday - Some freebies and photos of my freebies this week
My Savings Saturday - My shopping trips for this week

One thing you can do to help save money is to write out a menu according to the food you already have in your house. This will help you only eat what is in your house and it will be less temping to go out. Also you will already have the ingredients or can at least substitute, saving you even more since you won’t be running to the store to buy last minute items. (Believe it or not these small trips add up.) People rarely go into a store and only purchase the 1 or 2 ingredients they need for that night. Plus you are probably going to pay full price if the items aren’t on sale. Not to mention the gas you’ll use.

Your menu can be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly depending on your shopping habits. I like to do mine bi-weekly. I have enough stockpiled to stretch this far and a little further if I need to. Plus I have 2 weeks to pick up great sales for the following 2 weeks.

We had also  changed our eating habits. We now rarely eat beef. I’ve replaced it with ground turkey. It’s cheaper and healthier.  Surprisingly there’s not much of a difference in taste, just a lot less grease! However we usually take one night a week off and indulge ourselves either in dining out mexican or having pizza. Even though they aren’t the best option we still go for the healthier end of the choices. (IE - Cheese vs All Meat pizza…go for just cheese.)

Here’s our menu for the next 2 weeks:

Week 1 -
Monday: Rigatoni (made with ground turkey), Garlic Bread
Tuesday: Spinach Stuffed Chicken Parmesan, Broccoli & Salad (This is a new recipe I
came across…I’ll let you know how it turns out!)
Wednesday: Grilled Turkey Burgers, Baked Fries (A day off from the kitchen for me!)
Thursday: Crockpot Chicken, Cornbread, Corn
Friday: Homemade or Frozen Pizza (I will have to see how much time I have and if I will
be able to make dough in my new bread machine!)
Saturday: Homemade Chicken Nuggets, Macaroni & Cheese w/Tuna (I will post this
recipe soon…it’s yummy!)
Sunday: Grilled Pork Chops, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and/or Corn

Week 2 -
Monday: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, Baked Potatoes
Tuesday: Date Night (Probably go to Ruby Tuesday’s and take
over the salad bar!)
Wednesday: Leftovers from the restaurant. (We have another B1G1 Free entree so I
know we’ll have plenty of leftovers!)
Thursday: Baked Chicken, Carrots, Red Potatoes
Friday: Stuffed Shells, Garlic Bread (These aren’t with ground
turkey…it’s ones I already made and froze.)
Saturday: Tacos (made with ground turkey)
Sunday: Breakfast for dinner - Pancakes and Bacon

Hopefully this will help you start to plan your meals better according to what you already have. Take a few minutes to evaluate your freezer and cabinets. Try starting out with only 1 week to see how it goes. Then plan to what suits your lifestyle.

New Budget - I have allotted myself a budget to try and save more. (You spend less, you save more.) This will help me manage my growing stockpile! (There’s only so much room in the fridge, freezer and pantry! And there’s only so many shelves you can build in your laundry room!) I have decided not to buy things that I don’t absolutely need or we aren’t running low on unless it is completely free. (I might get it if it’s .10, but basically it’s to try and keep my costs down even more.)

Budget:
Groceries - $50/week
Drugstores - $15/week
*Anything that I don’t spend I will probably roll into the next week in-case we need to stock up on meat or something like that. If I happen to go over my budget I will subtract is from the following week.
This puts me at a $200/mo grocery budget and I’d like to get that down even further. The problem is fresh produce and meats get costly!
I haven’t decided if I will include pet food in this or not…I’ll just have to play that by ear!

New Post Update:
A couple of days ago I wrote out a list of categories for each day on what I’d be posting. I am still going to try and stick to that, however I noticed some of the categories really overlapped. I will probably tweak these a bit, but I will also probably eliminate a day. I may take off 1 day a week to give myself more time for other things. (Believe it or not, it’s time consuming to shop for great deals!) Again I will play this by ear and try to bring you savings 7 days a week.

Things to look forward to this week:
Miscellaneous Monday: My Menu (I plan out meals 2 weeks in advance.)
Teaching you Tuesday: Produce on a Budget (Gardening!)
Weekly Deals Wednesday: TBD
Online Thursdays: TBD
Frees on Friday: TBD
My Savings Saturday: My Deals for the week. I stuck to my $50 and $15 budget for the week and got some great savings! I can’t wait to share!

Today I would normally bring you freebies, however I have online deals that just can’t wait until next Thursday!

Old Navy - Visit OldNavyWeekly.com and search for your coupon! They are giving away the following coupons: $75/$100, $50/$100,  $5/$25, 10% off. You have to search the website and click on different areas to find the coupon. The website resets each Thursday (usually at night).  The $75 and $50 go quickly. (They are gone now.) However there are still $5/$25 and 10% off left! These coupons are only good for 1 week so you have to use them fast!

JCPenny -  JCPenny is giving $10 off a $10 purchase using the coupon code BUDDING. Hurry! This code expires soon! You can also sign up for JCPenny Rewards and receive a $5 coupon when you enter your credit card #. I LOVE this website! I have received $15 in rewards so far. The way it works: register your credit card(s) on the website (only so they can track your spending to accrue points.) Your card is not charged. They have lots on sale and clearance right now. (You cannot use the codes for shipping charges.) It is a little cheaper to ship to store rather than your house, but you have to spend gas to get there!

Want to sweeten the deal? Sign up for EBates and receive 4% back plus $5 for signing up! (Right now I’ve gotten over $30 back from online purchases through EBates. I love that sight!)

6pm.com - They are having a huge sale on Poetic License, Two Lips and Dr. Martens. You can find some really cute spring shoes for a fraction of the price! (This is where I purchased my $40 Skechers sandals for $11 and my $60 Skecher sneakers for $17!)

Poetic License:

Two Lips:

Dr. Martens:

I am starting to bring my blog together by designating a certain post for each day. So far this is what I’ve come up with and it will probably change as I tweak things a bit.

Sunday: “How to Save Sundays” - I will bring you great online or in-store deals that I find.

Monday: “Miscellaneous Mondays” - Every Monday will have a different topic from recipes to new coupons to print. Sometimes I may have store match-ups or deals I have gotten. It depends on what I find.

Tuesday: “Teaching You Tuesdays” - I will bring you a tip each week on how to save money or just be more frugal. These topics can range from shopping to personal beauty tips that won’t hurt your wallet.

Wednesday: “Weekly Deals Wednesdays”-This will include grocery store match-ups for 1 or more stores depending on my time restraints. Or I will include a sneak peek at what coupons to expect in the upcoming Sunday paper.

Thursday: “Time for Online Thursdays” - This will be full of online shopping deals. You can really find some great bargains!

Friday: “Frees on Fridays” - I will list freebies for the week and also try to post a photo of what I’ve gotten free in the past week when shopping.

Saturday: “My Savings Saturdays” - This will be my savings for the week after all my shopping is done.

Like I said this is just a rough draft. I may have to change things depending on how my shopping goes and time restrains. (And also what type of deals are out there floating around.) However I want to provide a source for reliable and timely information so you can cash in on the savings as well! Any suggestions?  Just leave a comment!

Today I’m keeping my post simple. No match ups or great deal posts (sorry).

Here’s why:

1.  I’m cutting back on my shopping this week. I will not be doing any grocery shopping until next week. It’s not always how much you save…it’s how much you spend. Yes, there are great deals, but you will never save more than not spending anything! We have enough stockpiled necessities to get us through the week (probably longer).

2. I am working on really personalizing my blog and trying to come up with a method for each day’s post. Over the next few days I will be changing things a bit.  I not only want to bring you great deals from stores, but I also want to share online bargains, inexpensive & delicious recipies and other things.  Ideally, I’d like to have a day designated to each topic. Once I lay out my plan I’ll let you know!

Here are some topics to look forward to: Recipes, Inexpensive Decorating Tips, How to acquire more (and sometimes better) coupons, How to save more at the grocery store, more free things to do, how to save at restaurants, and much more!