Who actually likes spending money on essentials?? I sure don't... When you start saving 80% on your essential items it's like giving yourself a raise. You now have more spending money, and saving money. You're now able to just reach and pull something random out of your closets whenever you may need it, without having to make a special trip to the store.
Alot of times after a shopping trip I'll text a picture of my goods to some fellow couponing friends, and they'll do the same when they shop. You may think it's dorky... but you have to show someone what you accomplished! I realized I still had several of these pictures stored on my phone. This is probably only 20% of my shopping trips in the last few weeks, but I don't always have a chance to set out the food and take a picture! :)
When I first started couponing I thought I was getting good deals, but it took a little while to really get coupons saved up and get the hang of finding the deals. At first my shopping looked sort of random like this trip where I picked up a few random goods with the quarters I found in the bottom of my purse...
Or this random mini-trip that ran me about $6...
Then I started getting more and more coupons saved up and my shopping trips now include everything we need to make all of our meals. I find that even though it's hard to find many coupons on fresh produce or meat, I still save by buying what's on sale and buying "money maker" items with coupons on each trip so that it deducts from my non-coupon item balance. The first time I seemed to feel like I was getting the hang of couponing was when I bought $110 worth of groceries for $1.14. That's a 99% savings! You can't quite see all the stuff I got in this picture, but I think it enlarges if you click on it. In that $1.14 I got ground beef, deli ham, produce, whole milk, 4 pks of wonton wrappers, 5 bottles of V8 100% juice, 7 bottles of stain spray (lol, what?? Jace has alot of spills!!), squeez baby applesauce, Land O Lakes butter, and several other items.
This past week was a little abnormal because I didn't need any meat or produce (I stocked up on chicken and beef last week when it was on sale, and still had some fresh produce left over). But there were good deals out there that I didn't want to miss out on by not shopping this week. I spent a little more than my average $20, even without much meat or produce. I went shopping at three different stores (as opposed to most weeks when I will only shop at one)... which might seem like alot, but really it didn't take long to stop by each one since I knew exactly what I was stopping in for. Also, two of the three are within a mile of my house and now I'm stocked up on several items I won't need to shop for again anytime soon. My first trip was to Bi-Lo where I spent $6.25 on over $60 worth of food...
My next stop was Publix where I spent $27 on $138 worth of groceries...
Zoomed in for a better view... included Overnight diaper and wipes, three cartons of milk, two laundry detergents, six V8 juices, four pastas, six different varieties of rice, 4 chicken, tuna or hamburger helper, several condiments, chobani greek yogurts, ham, vitamins, pulled pork, sugar cookie dough for an upcoming activity with Jace and his friends... and more!
Then my last stop of the week was at Walmart for some freebies... I tend to do a "freebie" run once a month and it's usually at Target or Walmart. This time I got $27 worth of stuff from Walmart for FREE. I had some other coupons for freebies but there weren't any more items on the shelves due to some other couponers who probably bought way more than they needed, but I won't complain. Free is free! The free items I got were 2 bottles of Simply Orange juice, 2 bottles of Simply Limeade (yum!), 2 cascade action packs, 3 febreze air fresheners, 3 renuzit air fresheners, jalepeno, bananas, swiss deli cheese ($7.98/lb), white american deli cheese ($6.98/lb)...
So the last 5 pictures show what I bought this week... spending $33.25 total for the week on $225 worth of stuff, which is a savings of 85%. I know I get asked alot what it is that I'm buying that's so cheap... so I thought showing it would be helpful. Anyone can save money couponing, even if you only buy organic or are a "brand snob". I still buy the same things I always bought, but now I do find myself trying things I never thought I would... like Betty Crocker scalloped potatos (which I have to admit I actually liked!) or Hamburger Helper (perfect way to use leftover meats for lunch)... or Chips Ahoy (used for a playdate snack). Whenever I see something go really discounted I think ahead to any outdoor parties we may host... for example, even though we don't eat hotdogs or use paper plates very often I bought a few packs of each to store and freeze for a future BBQ.
So I saved about $190 this week thanks to couponing. I probably spent about three hours "working" on preparing my coupons and clipping them. I wouldn't really call it working though because I'm always doing it while hanging out and chatting with friends, or in front of the TV late at night... so it's what I would be doing anyways. Either way... I spent about 3 hours saving $190. That's like working a part time job that pays $63 an hour! This doesn't even come close to showing all the ways couponing has worked for me, or all the items that couponing works on. But, these are unfortunately the only pictures I've taken. Hope that some of you who've asked me about couponing, have some questions answered by seeing pictures. :)
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