Coupon Fun

I firmly believe that there is a very fine line between Extreme Couponing and Hoarders.  Over the past couple of years, I have really channeled my competitive juices towards maximizing our budget…particularly in the area of groceries.  I know that many people say that they don’t have time for couponing…I don’t either…the way that most people do it.  I spend, at the most, 15 minutes a week couponing.  And, I don’t coupon every week.  If I get busy, I let it go…no guilt at all.

We usually pick up a double Sunday paper on the way home from church.  While I am cooking lunch, I flip through the paper and pull out all the coupons.  I cut them out and file them right them.  I am usually done with all of this before we sit down to lunch.  Keep in mind that lots of Sundays we have chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese…15-20 minutes prep tops.  I also use the website SouthernSavers.com.  I really like this website because the lady that puts it together cross-references all of the coupons with the sales that are currently going on.  I usually shop at Publix simply because of their awesome Buy 1 Get 1 deals.  For example…if you buy two jars of spaghetti sauce that are on sale B1G1, you can also use 2 store coupons and 2 manufacturer coupons on that transaction.  That makes a lot of B1G1 items free or just pennies.

Tonight I headed to the store with a few really great coupons and enjoyed getting some great stuff for a really cheap price.  In the picture above, you can see everything that I got at Publix this evening…

2 Boxes of Betty Crocker blueberry muffin mix
2 Boxes of Ronzoni pasta
4 jars of Ragu pasta sauce
1 Box of Betty Crocker cake mix
1 tub of Betty Crocker chocolate icing
2 packages of Sargento shredded cheese
1 package of tollhouse break and bake cookies
1 box of Texas Toast
2 McCormick grinders (sea salt and black peppercorn)
1 Disney color pad
1 Crayola color explosions
1 Crayola sandwich keeper
1 package of Crayola paint brushes
1 package of Crayola washable paints
1 package of Crayola dry erase crayons
1 package of Crayola washable markers
1 Southern Living Magazine
Total before coupons and sales: $64.67

Total after coupons and sales: $6.47 (Meaning I paid exactly 10% of the original cost)

I always feel pretty successful when even the cashier says, “Great use of coupons!”  I have such a great time cooking with Clint and Emma and we love entertaining people at our house.  By maximizing coupons and sales, we are able to stretch our dollars and give towards the things that really matter to our family.  The Disney and Crayola items are some things for Emma for Christmas since she loves doing art projects.  I can feel pretty good about giving her $45 dollars worth of this stuff when I really only paid about $1.50 for all her art supplies.  From a stewardship perspective…couponing just makes sense.  Start small…and have fun!

One comment to “Coupon Fun”
  1. That is purely amazing, and I am totally impressed. I need to coupon! But… right now I don’t, and we get the Atl Journal AND the Marietta Daily Journal. So… if you want our coupons, I can save you the price of the Sunday papers…

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