Couponing for the "normal" person

Round 2...my iPad ate my blog entry! Wrote it all up and went to hit Publish, then nothing! It disappeared! Guess i have to stick with posting from my good old Macbook Air, at least the web layout autosaves so I don't lose everything!

I coupon for the everyday person, not the person with the extreme stockpiles that cost nothing except for hours upon hours of time and energy.  I coupon within reason, spending a short time each week on my couponing, not letting it take over my life.

My husband and I are a bit tight on funds right now, we are working on paying off our debt so we can buy a house in the next couple of years. As I only work part time, I use couponing as a way to help pay the bills.

To get my coupons, I visit Coupons.com and Target store coupons weekly. I also occasionally go to Smartsource and Save.com (Redplum), however I often have difficulty printing from these sites as I use a Mac (my only complaint about Apple). I also get hand-me-down coupon fliers from the paper from my parents (my mom cuts out the coupons she wants, I get the leftovers), as well as the occaisional flier from work. I subscribe to The Krazy Coupon Lady and The Extreme Coupon Professors as guides to seeing some of the best deals. Some of the stores are not relevant as we do not have them in NH, but it helps to see what prices are possible.

I organize my coupons in a binder with baseball card sleeves and tabbed dividers that separate them into categories (frozen, fridge, grocery, snacks, household, personal, medicine, and pet). I leave the coupons in the sleeve until I actually place the item into the cart, then I move the coupon to the little flap at the front of the binder.

To find deals, I take our weekly grocery list and the sales fliers for the local supermarkets (Shaws, Hannaford, Market Basket) and Target. I match up the coupons to the items on the list, then I make another list separated by which store I want to buy which item at depending on the sales. The default store is Walmart because they normally have the lowest prices, with the exception of fresh foods like veggies, fruit, seafood, meat and deli (a quality thing, not a price thing).

This week was particularly successful for me. I saved 47% ($13.21) at Target, 37% ($20.05) at Shaws, and 23% ($6.00) at Market Basket. These numbers aren't astonishing, but they also don't include how much I saved regarding sale versus regular price items. It still comes close to $40....which is a nice chunk of change, especially these days when every little bit helps!

My best deals this week were:
 -Kotex Pads $2.19 for 40-48ct package (Shaws on sale for 4.29 for a 40-48ct box and buy 2 get 1 free, coupon for $2 off 2)
- Glade Scented Oil Warmer $0.57 (Target, coupon $1 off 1)
- Glade Scented Oil Warmer refills $2.50 for 2 (Target, on sale for $4.50, manufacturer coupon $1 off 2, store coupon $1 off 2)
- Prince Pasta Portions $0.38 box (Market Basket, on sale for $0.88, coupon $1 off 2)

It was very enjoyable having the time and motivation to do couponing. Hopefully, I can continue!