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

Sites for Saving!

My baby is 2 weeks old today! It's been so much fun getting to know him. He's definitely demanding of time, but oh so cute so I don't mind. So my crafting time has been ultra-limited but I was introduced to two AWESOME sites this week that I want to share.

Every time I start typing this, he needs something, and then I get distracted, so this is going to have to be brief! Like right now, he started crying. Hmm, I'll try to type one handed...I'm getting pretty good at that.

I talked before about the world of couponing, and although I haven't tried much lately, some things add up (diapers for one...) and I needed a way to cut down on those things. So, my friend introduced me to the Krazy Coupon Lady! It is seriously so helpful!



You can search by store and she has scenarios of what to buy to get the best deal and links to what coupons to use (some being printable). She also provides info on how to be succesful, and provides each stores policy

Probably my favorite thing about it is the Coupon Database she provides:

You can go here and look up any product and see where online you can print off a coupon for it! I admit I've spent lots of time searching a bunch of different sites trying to find a coupon.

She also linked to this site: Totally Target
I love Target because they have so many ways to save. In addition to their awesome clearance schedule, they always have Gift Card deals plus printable Target coupons that you can use in addition to manufacturers coupons.


This lady know her Target stuff!  She shares some deals that aren't advertised too, so check that one out!

Alright, that's all the time I can steal away from my squirming baby.  Hope this helps!

Getting creative with coupons

Alright, so I kinda feel bad that I've been doing a bunch of generic posts so far. I have so many fun things on my to-do list that would be fun, and I could include tutorials and how-to pictures....but I just haven't gotten there yet.

Things keep changing-- we're no longer moving to Richmond, but still need to find a different place before a baby comes into the picture. Plus we're worried about possibly needing to find new job for Jeremy so I've been trying to find options just in case... (And, gotta mention, I'm in charge of the Primary program and the time finally came that I had to actually write it. Now just gotta get the actual presentation out of the way...)

So, the moral of the story is, instead of being able to focus on making new fun projects and getting baby-ready, I've been trying to do some ahead-of-time packing and preparing, etc. Not as fun...

But something that I'm loving lately and that I mentioned previously here is the thrill of finding great deals and using coupons! I can't believe how exciting it can be sometimes, and seriously, I feel so creative when I find ways to get stuff for super cheap. It's an art really. :) Despite my currently limited space (that takes creativity too), I've been able to stock up on a lot of essentials.

So for those of you who haven't dipped your feet into the world of coupons, I thought I'd leave a few windows to explore. You can read about my personal methods at the link above, but there's also a lot of resources that find great deals for you.

A great one is Pinching Your Pennies.
They have great info, and their homepage is frequently updated with great deals. You can also look up deals by store with ratings of how great the sales are. The site has extra advantages for Utah shoppers, so check those out. Also, find them on Facebook and great deals show up in your News Feed.

Some great tips for shopping with coupons listed on their site:

• Pick one or two stores to focus on. Don't try to get every deal at every store. You'll get burnt out before you see significant savings.

• If a store ad says, "Spend $25, get $5 back," you can use coupons and have it total less than $25 after coupons.

• Stockpile - buy extra when the price is right so you don't have to pay full price later.
  
  
• Don't buy more than you can use before it expires.
  
  
• Get extra newspapers in order to take advantage of the sale.
  
  
• Be familiar with the coupon policies at various stores.
  
  
• Keep coupons in a binder and always take the binder to the store with you. You never know when you will run into something marked down that you have a coupon for.
  
  
• You can save money even without clipping coupons. Use PYP's shopping lists to find out which sale prices are good and how to use the deals like catalina offers and buy $20 get $5 back, etc.
  
  
• Plan your meals around what is on sale this week and what you've stocked up on from previous weeks.

Just with these, you're pretty much set! But if you want more:

A friend of mine from high school started a blog, I Love A Good Deal, that has a lot of kid-related deals and more that's worth checking out.

Also, search for places to print coupons online. Some stores had issues accepting them at first, but I never have problems anymore.

My go-to is
Coupons.com





Also check out:
Shortcuts.com - automatically loads coupons to your store card at these participating stores
Couponmom.com - another way to stay in touch with great deals
Coupontom.com - here you can search for any item and it will tell you where it's located. Helps eliminate hundreds of cut, unorganized coupons.

Anyway, hope these help. It really is fun and once you get started, doesn't take much time at all. With a little creativity, you'll have all your favorite foods stock piled in no time!

And just for fun, I'm planning on making these treats this weekend cuz J's family's gonna be in town. Don't they look delicious :)