I'm turning into a coupon nerd...

...who neatly assembles her purchases and snaps pictures because she is just so excited about what she saved.

Yes, I've always been a bit of a deal finder and clearance shopper. And my mom used coupons quite a bit growing up. But I am personally just barely starting to immerse myself into it...and it's so fun. I was actually at Target this morning and the two people in front of me in line where chatting about couponing. The first lady, who was checking out and had handed over her stack of coupons was responding to the second lady who, as she watched the total owed get smaller, said something like, man, I should really be doing that. Lady one said she was just getting into it because her daughter did it and said it was actually just a lot of fun.

I actually have to agree. I have a lot of fun. It's really kinda lame, but I love coming home with all my bags and being able to say I only paid .25 for each item, or that I got paid $2 to take it all home with me. So it's fun reading the blogs, looking through the coupon ads, matching up the weekly ads, and venturing out with a specific list. It's actually made shopping so much easier for me.

Sooo, I'm sharing some of my purchases from the past couple days.

Smiths: Starting today they have a 5 for $5 promotion of select Quacker cereal and oatmeal. That makes them $1 each already, which is great. But add in a $3 of 5 coupon (found in Albertson's or associated food store ads) and you get each for 40 cents. My store didn't include the True Delight oatmeal, otherwise with coupons I would have got 5 of those FREE.

Target: Right now, buy 5 Special K get a $5 gift card. Priced at 2.39, add in a $1 off coupon, plus the gift card—the cereal is 40 cent each. I got these Shout To-go for .99 each (I had one .55 off coupon) and will submit the 3 for a rebate that gives me $5 back. So I make about $2.50 on that.)
Rite Aid: The best thing is that they already had contact solution for free after a 7.99 rebate. But my store also was selling that solution with a get one free one attached. So I got TWO for free. I had coupons that made the Post cereal and Puffs Free. A Buy 1 Get 1 Free coupon for Tampax, plus a $2 off coupon, plus a $2 rebate. Then The Mini Wheats were on clearance for 1.12 and I had $1 coupons, getting them for .12 each. I also used the store $5/25 purchase coupon. So I paid about $8 total and will be getting $10 back in rebates. Nicely done huh?


Walgreens: This was only my second purchase at Walgreens. I had Register Rewards to use and needed some detergent so I thought I'd get it there. I also found Pantene Pro-V on clearance for 2.29 each, used a $3 of 2 coupon, getting each for about 70 cents. I got the shavers for .99 and the detergent for $3 and the Twizzlers (for my party tonight—oh yea it's my birthday :)) for $1 each. These are all not fantastic deals but because I needed them right then, it was good. I used 7.50 of rewards and paid $3 and got an additional $1 reward back.

Well that's it from me today. I am officially 24 and will be celebrating with friends tonight. Hope you've enjoyed.

-KK