First Time with Triples

Just got back from my first trip to Harris Teeter for triple coupon week. Decided to go super early so that E Belle would be in a good mood.

Here's how I did:

Total before coupons and discounts: $226.94
Paid out of pocket: $159.51

I ended up with $41.01 in coupon savings, in addition to the $26.42 in loyalty card savings.

Not too bad! I was hoping to keep it under $150, but I definitely feel like I did a good job and good some great deals. It definitely helped that I did at least an hour of homework the night before pouring over websites to match coupons with good deals. I was totally ready this morning. The savings was worth the time.

I just saw a stat that said that people who use coupons spend well more than people who don't. I don't want to be that person! I'm trying to stay within my budget, and I only went over this week by less than $10. I will accomodate for that later in the month.

Target Deal

Ladies, have you seen the new Always Infinity pads? Evidently, they are made of gold (just kidding!). They are crazy expensive, and my first reaction was like, hey, do they know what those are for? But since they were new, I knew that the deals would not be too bad.

I ended up with two $3 off coupons for Infinity, and I honestly didn't plan on using them. But Target has a deal this week where if you buy two packages of either Infinity or Tampax Pearls, you get a $5 gift card. Target gift cards NEVER go to waste around here!

I bought two boxes of 36 count Infinity at $8.99 each (actually, the boxes I picked up had one of those "extra bonus free" in them, so they're more than a 36 count). With my coupons, that made them $5.99 each, for a total of $11.98 plus the $5 gift card. Not too bad for us frequent Target shoppers!

Couponing at Walgreens

I've always stayed away from going to drug stores because traditional wisdom is that they are more expensive than someplace like Target. Yes, in general, they are. But then again, I can't walk into Target and NOT spend at least $40, so perhaps it's better for me to hit the drug stores.

Walgreens opened up a few months ago just up the road, and I love having it so close! So, I clipped some coupons, did my homework and headed up there yesterday. Here's my bounty:

1 box Dora bandaids - $3.49
1 .5 oz Neosporin - $4 on sale
1 Neosporin To Go - $4 on sale
2 Huggies Size 5 (30 in pack) - 2/$19.98 on sale
1 Replinish Contact Solution - $7.99 sale
1 Schick Quattro razor with blades - $8.99 sale
1 breath mint package - .79 cents

Total before coupons: $55.82 w/o tax
Total after coupons: $41.56 w/ tax (so, $11 in coupon savings)
Total Register Rewards: $9.00

Actually, out of pocket I only spent $37.17 because I had a balance on my gift card from the March Easy Saver. Of course, my latest Easy Saver money was uploaded later yesterday afternoon! Unfortunately, Walgreens is discontinuing the Easy Saver program as of May 1, but supposedly, the in-store deals and Register Rewards are supposed to be better.

The important part here was that I had a coupon for everything but the mints. The Walgreens register is set up so that you have to have an item for each coupon. Now, you can have a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon for the same item, but you would have to pick up a second item as well, or the register just won't put it through. Weird, but that's how it is. My lowest value coupon was $1.00, and my best coupon was $4 for the razor.

I now have $9 in Register Rewards for a return trip. So, I'll just wait for next week's deals to come out and see what I can do between the coupons and RRs!

I'm finding it expensive to get started couponing, but evidently, I'm not alone. Funny thing was that as I was looking for the razor, another woman showed it to me without me asking. She was also a couponer, and on top of that, her husband was a manager at the same Walgreens. We started talking, and she said it definitely gets much easier and cheaper once you get that stockpile going. We agreed that you should never have to pay for razors, shaving cream, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes and shampoo (except I don't use drug store shampoo) because of coupons and deals. We'll see how fast it takes me to get there!

Couponing

I'm really new to all this couponing stuff. I mean, I've used coupons for years. But to actually attempt at trying to buy like $100 worth of stuff for 50 cents or something crazy like that, it's all new to me.

So, I've been checking out other mama blogs who are much better at this than I, and I've picked up both pointers and coupons.

I went to CVS just now, and this is how it broke down:

Dove Skin Revitalizer Machine – on sale for $4 (was $12)
Dove Replacement pads – on sale for $3.49 (was $4.99)
Two Hot Wheels toothbrushes - $3.29 each

So, my total should have been $14.07

I had $4.50 in ExtraBucks
A $3.75 off the Revitalizer Machine (making it only a quarter)
A BOGO coupon for the toothbrushes

My total: $3.18

I'm pretty excited, even though this is so small. Dear Hubby is all about me doing this, of course. I think I'm excited not only about the saving money part, but also because it really does work your mind trying to figure out the coupon game.

Some of my favorites thrifty sites

I've found some great thrifty mom sites in the past week. I started off at moneysavingmom.com, and I've just gone from there.

My new thing is trying to shop at the drugstores for next to nothing. I've couponed before, but not at CVS or Walgreens. I'm really a Target girl, but I always spend too much money.

Here's a link to deals at CVS this week:

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2009/02/cvs-deals-for-the-week-of-march-17-2009.html

A lot of the sites also give away freebies. Here are a few of my favorite giveaways going on right now on these sites, too!

Yummie Tummie Giveaway - win a shape slimmer for your post-baby tummy from Thrify & Chic Mom. Check out yummietummie.com, find your favorite style, then leave a comment on T&C:
http://www.thriftyandchicmom.com/2009/03/yummie-tummie-giveaway.html

One of my weaknesses is hairbows. Win a St. Patrick's bow from the Soft Valeria Collection. Oh, and by the way, I'd totally support this mama anyway! Love the etsy sites!

http://www.thriftyandchicmom.com/2009/03/sofia-valeria-collection-giveaway.html

First month on the budget!

We did it! We have officially finished Month 1 of the Dave Ramsey financial plan. We're on Baby Step 2 - the debt snowball. And we're doing the envelope system, which means that we pull out the money we need for food and toiletries at the first/middle of the month, put it in an envelope, and that's ALL that we can spend on those items for the month.

I managed to only go over $12 on the food budget! Not bad for a first try. And I also go to the two most expensive stores in town - Harris Teeter and Whole Foods. For eating out and toiletries, we'll have to work on our budgeting a bit better. One other thing was that we forgot certain categories in the budget, like Little Man's school lunches.

But I'm starting up on couponing again, and I've netted nearly $70 on eBay alone from selling E Belle's clothes from last summer. That's my spring clothing budget for the kiddos! It's consignment sale season, and after going to a ton in the fall, I know there's only two that I really like.

Cutting up credit cards

Dear Hubby and I had a little credit card cutting up party on Wednesday night. It was rather liberating, actually! We haven't cut up all of them, but we've cut up most. Here's where we stand:

*Today starts Day 1 of the envelope system. Paying cash for most of my purchases - eating out, groceries, toiletries;

*We also have a zero based budget, but we're already realizing we've forgotten a few items. Like Valentine's Day and the last utility bills for the old house;

*I cut up the card and closed the account for a gas card. I didn't even use the card. It was just a throwback to my pre-marriage days when I didn't have a debit card;

*We both cut up our credit card for a regional department store, and that's going to be the first credit card that will be paid off. We had what amounted to a 90 days same as cash plan, and we never paid interest. But I always ended up shopping there because of the card even though other stores had better clothes for me. But now I'm not going to be beholden to them!

*I no longer carry credit cards.

*I'm unsubscribing to as many email subscriptions as I can. I get too many emails from companies advertising their sales. I usually just delete them anyway, but why be tempted?

And just one last thought: Proverbs 22:7 (New International Version) "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." Oh so true! I'm not going to be a slave to debt anymore!