Another Shopping Trip to Wgs

Last night I was looking at the Walgreens deals for next week and I decided I was not very excited. But I had $16 RR that were expiring Sunday and I would much rather roll them than to purchase things just to use the money and then have to start the "rolling" process all over again. Especially since my goal is to spend as little as possible oop each week.

So, I made a stop today. I knew they had the calcium for $8.99 and yielding a $9 RR. I had $9.50 RR I was going to use so I knew I would need some fillers. As I was flipping through the flyer to remember what was on special I ran across the .59 Butterball Chicken Broth! Perfect! 2 weeks ago when I was shopping I received 2 $1/2 for Butterball broth at Wgs. Niiice! Just needed one more thing at about .16 to get to my $9.50 RR (and I wanted to stay as close to this as possible while still buying something of some use. I found hair bands on clearance for .20. Again, perfect!



So here is what I got:

1 Posture D Calcium Vitamins @ $8.99
4 Butterball Chicken Broth @.59 each
1 2-pack hairbands @.20

I used 2 $1/2 Q for the broth
I used 2 RR for a total of $9.50

I paid $.57 out of pocket
I have a $9 RR for another trip
Total Savings: $15.23

Nice random trip to Wgs for me! How did you do?

Wendy's Frosty Coupon

Craving something cold?

Craving something sweet?

Craving some caffeine?

Get all three in the new Coffee Toffee Twisted Frosty.

And get your coupon for it here.

How to Get Started-Part 4

Wanna save money but not sure what to do to get started? This is the place for you.

If you need to catch up on this series, you can find the previous posts here:
Start Reading
Start Researching
Start Finding Coupons

On to Part 4: Start Small

When I start something I tend to go all in right away. I decided I wanted to give this whole saving money/clipping coupons/blogging thing a try and I jumped in head first to the deep end. It worked out OK for me, at least because I have a husband who was very understanding and gracious during this learning period. But I don't recommend doing it this way.

Don’t try to go out the first week and get every deal that is mentioned. The people who write about all the deals don't even go out and get them all, they are just trying to inform their readers of all the possibilities.

Start with one or two things that you know your family will use and you know (because you have a fairly good idea of normal prices from regular shopping trips) is a good deal. In my area, CVS and Walgreens often have very good deals where I can work "the system" to get things for very cheap to almost free. It's a little tricky at first, but again, this is why you want to start small. Find out more about how drugstore deals work from Deal Seeking Mom here or Surviving the Stores here and here.

Don’t worry if you can’t find a coupon for everything. Eventually, you probably will be able to find a coupon for almost anything you want to buy, but don't overwhelm yourself in the beginning, just find what you can.

Don’t worry if you throw away an expired coupon. I am not the most experienced ever, but I have noticed that I usually throw out expired coupons a day or two before I get the exact same one in a paper or on line. It'll come around again.

Don’t worry if you only save $1 on your first try. That's $1 saved! Every dollar counts, and eventually you may be able to save more in coupons than you spend. This is a good goal, but eventually, not right away.

Don't be afraid to take some time to learn the systems, find all the coupons, find the best deals... and eventually you'll be a pro!

Free Friday Night Fun

What a great Friday night I just had! And I know I enjoyed it SO much more because it was free, or very close to it!
I printed two of the Buffalo Wild Wings coupons and my husband and I made separate take out orders for our 6 free wings each. Go get yours now! It worked great, at least at my store.
Then my husband went to Wal Mart to rent a free movie with one of the red box codes. Unfortunately, he got frustrated with the slow people in front of him, and then was so focused on remembering what movies he night want to watch, that he forgot about the code and paid the dollar. Oh well, still a frugal purchase for a nice family Friday night! We watched Slumdog Millionaire, and, I'd have to say, worth the dollar, and worth all the awards it received!
What family fun did you have tonight?

Tuesday's Tip

I am new to couponing and fairly new to blogging, but I feel as though I am picking up on things quickly. One tip I could give from what I have been learning is that just because a store has a product on sale does not mean that it is the best deal you can get on that product. In the same way, just because you have a coupon for a product does not mean that it is worth using the coupon on that product.
As you start trying to live a more frugal life, hopefully you will start shopping around more, learning to find the very best deal. As you do this, you will soon begin to have a pretty good idea of the average price of things at various stores in your area. Once you become familiar with these prices, you will know what stores offer the best price, and you will know whether or not a sale on an item at a store really makes it the very best deal.
For instance, if you find out that Walgreens is having a sale on you favorite shampoo this week, you may decide it is best to stock up while you can. But if you have done some research and you know that this brand of shampoo is always cheaper at Wal-Mart than the sale price at Walgreens, you will know it is not as good a deal as it might seem at first glance. In the same way, if this shampoo goes on sale at Walgreens, and there is a store coupon, and there is a manufacturer's coupon, and you can get the shampoo pracitcally for free, you should be ok with stocking up on something you know you can always use. But again, only if it is an amazing deal and only if you can get it cheaper with all the sales and deals than you could at the other store with a regularly lower price plus the man. coupon.
In the same way, just because you have a coupon does NOT mean that you should definitely use that coupon. When it gets to the end of a month and I have coupons expiring, I don't want to feel like I have to use all the coupons, no matter what, just because I have them. This does not necessarily mean I am saving money, but instead means I am spending money I would not otherwise spend, I am just spending less because I have a coupon. Sometimes you can get s store brand that is just as good, but for a much lower price than a name brand product with a coupon.
Do your research, know your favorite products, know when to use a coupon and when to store a coupon, and know when it is best to just throw the coupon away.
Do you have a tip that you'd like to share with us?

Trial Week 2

This was my second week trying out the whole coupon thing...getting the Sunday paper, clipping internet coupons, reading blogs and other web sites, etc. and I think I have done much better! I left Sunday almost immediately after church to go to PA to visit family with my husband and 3 month old. I took all my lists and coupons, etc, especially for the wgs diaper sale and was so excited, only to find very few (and none near where I was) wgs!
We got back in town Wed afternoon and after my husband fixed a flat we had on one car before we left, i proceeded to go to a couple of stores...got one set of diapers and a few other cheapies/freebies at wgs, and I was satisfied (especially since I thought all the diapers would be gone!)
I left work on Thursday with my 3 month old in tow and hit 3 stores, and when my husband got home later I went to 2 others. These pics only show what I got on Wed and the first 3 stores on Thurs, but I am a proud shopper.
I know my spending is still more and saving still less than many I see in the bloggosphere, but I saved more than I spent (a first ever) and have $40 to use at wgs and cvs next week!

Huggies

I did my first great buy yesterday at Wgs by getting 2 packs of diapers and 1 pack of wipes @ $26, then turned in my $15 in coupons everyone has been printing and then had $10 in RR from dove products last week, so I spent $1 and tax out of pocket...starting to get the hang of it...looking to make another trip to get more stuff today...

My experience crushed my excitement.

I was so excited.
I had it all together.
I did all my research.
I had my lists,
my coupons,
my notes,
my wallet,
my determination....
But none of these were enough to make my experience tonight a success...
I looked up the stores on The Grocery Game but I wasn't totally sold on just using that, so I also spent much of yesterday and today researching the blogs to the right and the sites below, looking for coupons and ideas and the very best deals around so I could make sure I was well armed.
But to no avail.
At least that's how it seems to me right now after having spent valuable time out trying to begin my new bargain world experience.
I don't know if I waited too long (since it's already Tuesday and most people seem to go out on Sunday right when all the deals start) or I am just new or we live in a smaller area and so the stores are smaller and did not even have the things I intended to buy, or a combination of all of the above. Whatever it was, though, my first experience is not what makes me want to try again. The blogging world is what makes me want to try again. People are so good at it and they have so many ideas, so I think I need to give it at least a month or two to make sure I am getting the hang of it, saving both money and time in the long run...

Some of my new favorite sites...

Coupon Mom
Common Sense With Money
Hot Coupon World
Coupon Geek
Saving With Shellie

just a few as I am finding them...I will keep adding...

My New World

SO....
in trying to be a part of this new world, I have discovered how many other people there are who get really excited about good deals. People who take pictures of all that they get at the store to give a visual of how much they got and how little they spent!! But I have to admit that it is these types of things that inspire me to become more involved in this world...
So I spent the better part of my day yesterday learning all that I need to know to live more frugally. I looked up websites, became a follower of a few blogs, cut and organized coupons, compared prices at local stores based on weekly specials, and created my list for this week based on all this info. We'll see how it all goes...do I save money right off? do I spend more because I am buying more since I have the coupons? do I initially spend more but then start getting rebates and gift cards, etc? do I spend so much time getting ready to go shopping and then driving around to the different stores that in the end it isn't worth my time? or does this become a part-time job because I save enough that if I were working it would be a similar amount of money?
So many questions...hopefully I will soon have answers...