~*Couponing*~

I recently started back with couponing after stopping because I was 23 w pregnant with Cora and had emergency surgery. The healing process was long and cumbersome and I didn't have the energy to do so. The plus side to it was I had enough items stocked up I didn't need to go out to grab the things we used on a daily basis like hygiene items, cleaning products and so forth. So now that I am trying to get back to normal I have started back couponing. I have been asked a few times about it so I thought I would TRY and update my expeditions here on my blog and share my stories to help others getting started. I am by no means an expert at this but I can share and answer any questions you might have. If not I will try my best to find someone who can. I follow mainly 3 blogs which I have listed on the right side bar.

For those who are interested in getting started the first thing I would recommend is to start collecting coupons out of the sunday paper. I usually try to get about 4 copies of coupons. I get them from friends, neighbors and family who don't collect them so that it does not become to much of an expense for me. I also would recommend a 3" 3 ring binder and some cheap baseball card holders. ( walmart use to have a package for about $5) I organize my coupons by date. The reason I do this is so that I can find them faster when I am looking up things on line to match them up with up with the sales. But you can organize anyway that works best for you. I have a friend who organizes by category. Here is a pic of mine.


I mainly coupon shop at CVS,Walgreens, Target, Kroger, Rite-aid and Walmart. I can sometimes find some good deals to stack with coupons to at Foodlion but they are fewer and far between.

Walgreens has what is called RR (register rewards), CVS has ECB(extra care bucks), rite-aid does SCR (single check rebate), target does gift cards and Kroger has catilina's as insentives and can be used as cash in their stores. There are some tricks to using each of these that vary from store to store. CVS you can use as many ECB as you want per transaction as long as you don't go over the total due. Walgreens RR are used like manufacturer which means you can not have more coupons than items. For an example, if I have 2 toothpaste and 2 manufacture coupons i am using and also want to use a RR I need to add a filler item. A filler item is anything you were planning on buying and don't have a coupon for or something really really cheap ( like candy or such) that you can use to raise the total number of items to match the number of coupons. Also you can not use a RR you received from a certain item on the same item again because it will cancel out the new RR. This is because the flyer's say you are limited to 1 item per household. They usually will let you buy as much as you want as long as you separate the transactions. After my items are rung up I always give RR first, then manufacture, then store coupons. Another hint is to always check out at the beauty counter so that you can break down your transactions and not feel as if you are holding up the line. Most of these stores have store coupons which you can stack with manufacture to get better deals. Target and Walgreens are really notorious for this. You can usually get these items really cheap, free or make a profit off of them. Recently Target had a store coupon for $4 off Quatro razors & their was a manufacture coupon out there for $4 also. They had them on sale for $6.94 which after purchasing them I had a profit of $1.06 for each one I bought to subsidize other items I purchased. I realize this is the short version and there is so much more to learn. I will try and add more each post as you ask or inquire on what is what and how.

I had a few RR & ECB that were going to expire and needed to spend them before doing so, so I have added these transactions for examples.

First I have Walgreens which I did in 2 transaction
First Transaction was:

2 Theraflu
1 Herbal essence shampoo
1 pkg of seeds (filler item)
---------
$ 11.07 before taxes

I used a $1.50 RR
1-$1 manufacture coupon on Herbal essence
2-$2 manufacture coupons on Theraflu
2-$2 walgreens store coupon

$0.57 total due plus tax came to $0.72

transaction 2

1- Robitussin 2-pk
1- halls cough drop
1- herbal essence conditioner
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$6.48 before tax

I used a $4 RR
1- $1 manufacture coupon H/E
$0.75 manufacture coupon Halls

$$0.73 subtotal plus tax a whopping %0.88

I ended up using a total of $5.50 in RR and $1.60 cash and got back $11.50 in RR with a profit of $4.40






CVS
CVS doesn't have as many restrictions on using ECB so it canbe easier for beginners. They have a special this week if you spend $25 on p & G items you get back $10 in ECB.

4- bottles of tide HE
1- dawn dish soap
------------------
$25 subtotal before tax

I used $12 ECB
4- $1 manuf. for tide
1- $0.25 for the dawn
1-$5 CVS coupon for $5 off any order over $20 ( available on their website)

$4.75 due including tax

I spent $12 ECB & $4.75 cash and got back $10 the tide cost me $6.75, but in reality it didn't because I had nothing invested in the ECB I used.