Couponing Take Two

Tonight I'm revisiting couponing. So far, I've been doing pretty good. I've got toiletries and other non-food items on lockdown. I'm still trying to get into a good grove for actual groceries. 

A few days after my first couponing post, both of my sisters (in separate conversations) made the same comment, "I made my grocery list, but I didn't have coupons for any of my items." I'll tell you all, what I told them; to get the really good savings, you have to plan your list around your coupons. It's hard, especially when you're starting and you don't have a lot of coupons saved up and/or you've depleted most of your essential on hand items, and need to do a BIG shopping trip (this is usually my issue).

If you're committed and persistent you can really save a lot of money! I wish I had some of my receipts, so I could give you all exact numbers, but alas I didn't think ahead. But I can share some numbers that are in the ballpark

On one trip to Walgreens I purchased, 3 bottle of Softsoap Hand Soap, 2 cans of shaving cream and 2 baby wipe refills. My total came to around $23. After coupons I ended up paying $10 and some change. That means I save about $13 and saved more than I spent!

I sent Tim to CVS with list and coupons in hand. I can't remember what was on the list, but I remember he paid $13 and saved over $20 and got a $10 cash card for our next CVS trip, so essentially we got everything for $3!

Saturday at Target, in the course of three transaction we saved a total of about $40. In the first transaction I purchased to value boxes of Pampers Diapers and a small pack of wipe refills for $54 (they were on sale and I had a $2 off coupon) on that transaction I got a $15 gift card back. I applied that to my next transaction which was 2 value boxes of baby wipe refills that were already on sale for $12 each, so I essentially got one of those for free, and I also got a $5 gift card. I used that gift card on the final purchase, a fleece Harajuku Mini jacket that I had been longing to buy for Love Bean. The jacket was originally $25, but was on sale for $7.50. So after my using the gift card, I got the jacket for $2.50 +tax!

I know taking the time to clip coupons, study sale ad and plan your shopping trips is time consuming and somewhat overwhelming. So, I hope these savings stories have been encouraging! If you have a super savings story, share 'em with us either here in the comments or on our Facebook page! And if you haven't already, go ahead a "like" us on Facebook :)