About 2 years ago a coworker (hi Beth!) came to my desk and showed me all the things she had just gotten for free on her lunch hour with coupons. FREE? I had used coupons in the past here and there, but I had never gotten anything for free before. She also showed me a couple blogs where they would show you which items to buy at what stores and give you a link to print out the coupon over the internet. I got started with CVS, since there was one close by work, and I could zip in there on my lunch hour. I got all kinds of things for free: toothpaste, razors, deodorant. Then I started working it for my favorite grocery store, Harris Teeter. I've gotten free milk, butter, rice, potato chips, carpet cleaner, and more. The trick is to match up weekly sales with the coupons. I usually don't buy an item unless it's on sale and I have a coupon for it. It's really easy, and all it takes is time, a computer, a printer, and a Sunday newspaper.
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| 22 items for $20.46 a few weeks ago during triple coupons at Harris Teeter |
My favorite coupon sites are Southernsavers.com and Moolasavingmom.com. I also like Moneysavingmom.com and Dealseekingmom.com. Iheartcvs.com is also cool because she posts pictures of what she bought and how much she spent and saved. I actually used to have my own blog, http://drugstoremom.blogspot.com/ but I stopped writting it in 2009 when work got too busy. But the blog is still there, you can go check it out. I was very focused on getting cheap diapers back then! I'm glad I don't need those anymore!
Just for the record, let me state that I am NOT one of those "extreme coupon-ers" like on that TLC show. Those people are buying coupons from services and their stores don't have limits on the number of coupons that you can use. I also do not have a "stockpile" of stuff that I got for free. Well, not anymore, anyway :) There was a time when I had 4 bottles of Texas Pete Hot Sauce in the pantry. Hey, it was free! It's easy to get carried away. Now I really try to get things that my family will use. I also try to donate stuff to charity if we have more than we need. Since I lost my job, I have gotten more creative and been able to spend more time on couponing. I went from spending $150 per week on groceries to around $50 per week. I just print out the coupons I need before I go shopping. I also have a pink binder with plastic baseball card dividers that I use to organize my coupons. I'll post pictures of my weekly trips so you can check it out, if you're interested.
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