Well May is proving to be a VERY busy month for me and yes my lack of posts and seemingly way behind in everything is a huge reflection of that! I started a virtual online classroom for the kids at http://stepaboveacademy.blogspot.com/ which has proved to be a huge hit with my kids. Then of course my other blogs, garden planting season , baby chicks and holding garage sales to boost income!
On another note that has proved time consuming is the fact while we do not have a store in our area that doubles coupons, hubby reminded me that Walmarts price matches. While most followers know I don't really do coupons and typically feel that I do better without coupons, I thought it was time again for a little experimentation! There was a few things that got me focusing on couponing for May as an experiment.
1.) The news hubby delivered reminding me Walmarts matched prices from other stores. I really never knew this or paid much attention to it.
2.) Swag bucks gives you 10 points for every redeemed coupon for May this is doubled to 20 points. For every 450 points I can cash it out for a $5 Amazon gift card which I am collecting to pay for Christmas this year. This month alone I have already received $20 in Amazon gift certificates from coupons, daily polls and using their search engine.
3.) Right after hubby told me about Walmarts price matching I had gone to Walmarts with a small stack of coupons and a lady in front of me combined her coupons with local store sales for Walmarts to price match, I did not price match that day but watching the lady in front of me really excited me!
4.) I went home and got all the sales of local stores online and matched my coupons with those sales along with a few sale items with no coupons. For example Save a lot had 3# bags of apples for $1.97 where they are over $5 a bag at Walmarts! That trip shaved off $60 between price matching and coupons where my start of the month shopping cost me $225 after the $60 was taken off.
5.) Lastly now having a printer I can choose which coupons I truly want and it has us trying new foods I would not normally purchase such as Sweet Potato fries!
So yeah again I am experimenting, challenging myself to cut our costs monthly, getting a good stock piling of food going and we are actually having fun doing this however I will admit it does take some time between clipping coupons, printing off coupons, getting Sunday papers and searching through and clipping coupons and then pulling up each local stores weekly ads such as Save A lot, Kroger's, Meijers and IGA and matching coupons.
My best deals for this month so far was Price matching Brats for a dollar savings per package and using coupons to get each package (6 packages in total) of Brats for $2 a package. Then my kids favorite soda of Sierra Mist ( I don't usually buy pop so this will go nice with hot summer day cook outs) of 5 2 liter bottles I got for 33 cents a bottle after price match and coupons!
It is really exciting watching the whole total added up and then all the money coming off, I can see how this can get addictive to keep trying to get more and more taken off that bill as you gain experience.
For now, it is merely an experiment, I will remain on the fence for now as the experiment continues!
On another note that has proved time consuming is the fact while we do not have a store in our area that doubles coupons, hubby reminded me that Walmarts price matches. While most followers know I don't really do coupons and typically feel that I do better without coupons, I thought it was time again for a little experimentation! There was a few things that got me focusing on couponing for May as an experiment.
1.) The news hubby delivered reminding me Walmarts matched prices from other stores. I really never knew this or paid much attention to it.
2.) Swag bucks gives you 10 points for every redeemed coupon for May this is doubled to 20 points. For every 450 points I can cash it out for a $5 Amazon gift card which I am collecting to pay for Christmas this year. This month alone I have already received $20 in Amazon gift certificates from coupons, daily polls and using their search engine.
3.) Right after hubby told me about Walmarts price matching I had gone to Walmarts with a small stack of coupons and a lady in front of me combined her coupons with local store sales for Walmarts to price match, I did not price match that day but watching the lady in front of me really excited me!
4.) I went home and got all the sales of local stores online and matched my coupons with those sales along with a few sale items with no coupons. For example Save a lot had 3# bags of apples for $1.97 where they are over $5 a bag at Walmarts! That trip shaved off $60 between price matching and coupons where my start of the month shopping cost me $225 after the $60 was taken off.
5.) Lastly now having a printer I can choose which coupons I truly want and it has us trying new foods I would not normally purchase such as Sweet Potato fries!
So yeah again I am experimenting, challenging myself to cut our costs monthly, getting a good stock piling of food going and we are actually having fun doing this however I will admit it does take some time between clipping coupons, printing off coupons, getting Sunday papers and searching through and clipping coupons and then pulling up each local stores weekly ads such as Save A lot, Kroger's, Meijers and IGA and matching coupons.
My best deals for this month so far was Price matching Brats for a dollar savings per package and using coupons to get each package (6 packages in total) of Brats for $2 a package. Then my kids favorite soda of Sierra Mist ( I don't usually buy pop so this will go nice with hot summer day cook outs) of 5 2 liter bottles I got for 33 cents a bottle after price match and coupons!
It is really exciting watching the whole total added up and then all the money coming off, I can see how this can get addictive to keep trying to get more and more taken off that bill as you gain experience.
For now, it is merely an experiment, I will remain on the fence for now as the experiment continues!
If you have the space to store the extra's from the grocery you really can save a bundle combining sales and coupons. I takes awhile to build it up but so worth it!! I buy some things we don't use for free or just for a few cents to give to our local soup kitchen. I have so much on hand right now that I only buy milk, eggs and some fruit. Good luck on your experiment
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you read Get Rich Slowly on a regular basis, but I think you could be a very nice guest contributer on his site. Your story is unique and not many of the GRS readers have been exposed to it. I encourage you to go over there and see what the reader response has been to his question about what they want to see on the site today. Many want to hear all sorts of stories from different types of people in different situations.
ReplyDeleteI think you fit the criteria.
Kris
PS Love the blog
Thanks Kris and yes I do read GRS when the headlines grab me from their link here! I took your suggestions and checked out the post and comments and glad you think of my story as unique. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
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