Couponing: Getting Better at it!

I blogged about cutting coupons recently because I was not sure what to write about that day, so I wrote about my trip to the store with coupons. It remains one of my most popular posts and I have actually had people request to see more examples of my trips to the store.

I am still far from being a pro but I really need to cut back on my spending somewhere so I am going to keep couponing. I figure I will only get better and maybe one day I will walk out of the store with a free item or a CRAZY amount of food (like $500 worth) for under $10 bucks. Wouldn’t that be awesome, wish me luck.

Here is what I got a Raley’s this weekend:

When Chris asked for Fruit Loops, I quickly remembered that Raley’s had the boxes for $1.99 and that I had a coupon. How did I know? I was looking through my ads saturday night. I know how sad.

Note: The boys are only allowed to eat cereal on the weekends and we were out so I was going to have to purchase cereal anyways.

I only paid $6.96 for three boxes of cereal and one box of pop tarts. This was a 59% savings. This is higher than the last time i took a trip to the store with coupons.

The mail cashier said, “This is an awesome deal.” I then handed over the manufactures coupon I got online and he said, “And with a coupon even better!” I was impressed with myself too.

At Safeway:

I got all this for $21.79. In case you can't tell there are 5 boxes of toaster strudel, 3 boxes of trix yogart 2 sunny d's, 2 boxes of eggs and one 3 lb bag of apples.

I was a little disappointed when I looked at my savings it was only 45%. However, I saved $18.06 with my club card, paper coupons and just for you e-coupons. So this is still pretty good.

I think my savings percentage was not as high because I kind of messed up. I planned to only buy three boxes of toaster strudel. I added on two more at the last minute because I figured that if I did, they would last me about 2-3 months. I should have stuck with my original plan to buy three.  Then come back when I printed another manufactures coupon that could be added to the in store discount. Nevertheless, I still did pretty well.

I did a separate purchase at Safeway because I forgot to put this cereal pictured below on the conveyor belt with the rest of my stuff. It worked out because I was able to see how much I saved on this cereal. I did not have a coupon for this purchase but $1.88 is a great price for cereal so I bought four. I am starting a stockpile.

Much to my surprise, this $9.64 purchase resulted in a Catalina coupon for $3.00 toward my next vist. When I pass by Safeway again, I will pick up a few more boxes. That future purchase should be one that results in a high discount percentage since I plan to go back while the cereal is still $1.88.

I am still not an extreme couponer yet but I am saving money and that’s a pretty good deal!