Libby vegetables

Dollar General has Libby's canned vegetables on sale 2/1.00 I have coupons for 1.00 off 4 cans so I can get them for .25 a can. yippie. I have about 20 coupons so I can get 80 cans of vegetables for $20.00. I have not been able to get canned vegetables this cheap for a long time so I will stock up.

Grape jelly

I was able to buy 4 ~ 32 oz. jars of Welch's grape jelly for only $3.00 total. They are on sale this week at Walgreens for $1.50 a jar with the ad coupon. I had 4 ~ .75 coupons I printed from the internet so the total was only .75 a jar. My family loves grape jelly so I was happy to be able to get this good deal.

10 Commandments of Couponing

For larger view click on picture.
To make things on your computer screen larger when clicking the picutre doesnt work, hold your alt key down while you tap the + key until you can read. Then hold the alt key down and tap the - key to go back to normal. This works on most any page you want to see in a larger view.

Free bananas for 6 months

I entered a contest on face book and I won. I received 26 coupons for Dole bananas each worth up to $2.00. I didn't even remember entering the contest. I am very thankful and excited. The best part is that the coupons don't expire until 6/30/2012.

Coupon organization ~♥~ again

Once again I reorganized my coupon filing system. I am always trying to make it as simple as I can. I think, like I always do that this is it.

This is how I now organize my coupons.

First I lay out all the inserts and pull like pages and staple the coupons of the whole stack. Be sure not to staple through the expiration date or the bar code. I staple each coupon on the page. Then I file the whole stacks of inserts in the box file I have with the date of the insert on the tab. When I am making my shoping list I pull out the inserts, cut only the coupons I want and then put the inserts back.

At the back of the picture you can see a clip board. I print out what coupons each week has. I dont always have every coupon but this is better than sitting down and typing up each coupon I do have. The clip board fits nicely on the top of the file folders and the lid will close on top.

At the front of the file folder I have a file named EXTRAS, its for internet prnted coupons or other coupons I get from other souces etc.
I would never coupon if I had to keep a binder organized. I dont want to spend too much time organizing my coupons. I would rather spend my time figuring out deals to spend them on.
How do you organize your coupons?

Right now our local Brookshire Brothers grocery store has a sale going on where you get an instant $4.00 off when you purchase 8 participating General Mills products. As a bonus this month they are doubling and tripling coupons that are less than one dollar. I have about 6 transactions planned with a total of less than $60.00

I will be getting these items:
7~ KC Masterpiece bar b q sauce
10~Wacky Mac macaroni
2~Gold Peak Tea
2~Jolly Time Popcorn
2~Fiber One granola bars
16~Pillsbury cinnamon roll tubes
12~Totinos Pizza rolls 15 ct.
10~Pillsbury Toaster Strudel
8~Pillsbury grand biscuits
8~Pillsbury crescent rolls
My total should be $59.40

I realize these are almost all items I can make at home and I may end up changing my mind about buying them but these are the scenarios I have planned out. In fact I am pretty sure I will not buy that many cinnamon rolls or the toaster strudel. I will have to think about it.

Shopping yesterday and today

Wal Mart price match trip.
Before price match about 250.00 after price match $133.86
after coupons $76.11.
Total saved about $157.75 or thereabouts.
Add that to yesterday's shopping........

I just love going into Wal Mart and telling them what things cost. Today I did a little shopping and got $116.71 before price matching,
after price matching $75.31

and then after coupons $33.76
Total savings was $72.95.

Total both days before price matching $366.71
Total after price matching $209.17
total both days after coupons.........$109.87

total savings from both days $256.84

I think I have enough shampoo, conditioner, razors, dish soap, salad dressings, toothbrushes, toothpaste, pain reliever, ramen noodles, peanut butter, jelly, toilet paper, paper towels and such to last several weeks. I am not going to buy any more of these items unless they are free or almost free.

We don't buy air fresheners because of all the chemicals in them. I use essential oils and make my own. I did however buy some febreeze plug in things because I made .53 on each one. I will give those away and I used the money I made to buy some of the other things on my list.

Better coupon organization

I accidentally loaded the pictures backwards so I will start last to first.

Currently I have a list of all the coupons from each Sundays coupon inserts. I then have a zip lock bag with the corresponding cut coupons.

The coupons in zip lock bags fit better into my container and are not always threatening to fall out.


This is the way my coupons were organized. The envelopes were open at the top and I was always a bit worried about them tipping over and falling out. They were crammed in this way. For the picture I had taken almost half of them out so you can imagine how they looked before. The picture above this one has all of my coupons not just half. Putting them in zip lock bags and turning the container allowed for a lot more coupons.

Todays shopping trip

Shopping trip August 12, 2011~WalMart
4~Bar S franks
7~50 oz. Purex laundry soap
5~Spenda essentials 80 ct.
8~hanburger helper
14~Keebler cookies
4~Expo markers 2pk.
6~Skippy peanut butter
9~TreSemme stylers
7~Herbal essence shampoo/conditioner
24~Progressive soup
4~Kraft Shredded cheese
9~Lance cracker creations
2~Lance cracker mini sandwich cookies
14~Degree deodorant
4~Huggies wipes refill 176 ct.
12~Activia yogurt selects
5~French’s mustard
7~Ban deodorant
10~Pillsbury brownie mix
1~gallon milk
2~lunch meat
1~large box pop ice
Total price 350.20
Total after price matching 279.00
Total after coupons 126.15
Travis and Rosie at the Victoria Texas Wal-Mart are the BEST

Couponing and price matching

Over the last year or so I have been learning to use coupons to save money for my family. I feel like I have done a good job with that. Now on to the next level.

Price matching. Wal Mart has an ad campaign going about how easy it is to price match at their store. On face book I have a small coupon group and one of the ladies is very knowledgeable about not only couponing but price matching as well.

What you do is this. When you get the Sunday paper save the coupons and sort those and also save a set of the sales ads. Go through the sales ads and using a spread sheet write down prices of items you want to buy and have coupons for, the place they are on sale at, size, etc. Then when you go to WalMart you just tell them the price such and such a store has that item for and they override their price with the other stores sale price. Then you use coupons and save even more.

I went to WalMart the other day and here is what I did.
I got 4 packages of Expo markers. WalMart price was 3.97, HEB had them on sale for 2.00 each so I got 4 packages of Expo markers for 8.00, I then had 2 coupons that were 2.00 on 2 so I ended up paying 4.00 for 4 packages.

You don't even have to bring the sales ad with you, just know, what store, price, size, etc. It was very easy.

Walgreens shopping

Another successful wags run.
$180.00 for $18.00 oop. Cha ching.
4 pkg. diapers 2 size 1 and 2 size 2
4 soft scrub
10 Schick shave cream
2 wal fex allergy medicine...
6 2pk. Irish Spring .25 used for fillers
4 blistex RPM
2 Schick Hydro Razors
4 Natural Instinct Hair color (just a few more box's and I will be set for a year)
2 fruit teething feeders (these just looked so cool, you put frozen fruit in this little mesh bag and the baby can chew, teethe safely and get to eat real fruit safely
I used lots of coupons and some RR and got some RR back. Not a bad haul.

Reader question answered

Most of the time that I get questions I answer them in the comments. Today I received a question that I thought some other ladies might have so I will answer it here.


Question:I do have a question. Is it worth couponing if I don't buy processed foods? I mean, I generally go to the store and just get basic things like onions and bananas... I don't buy any breakfast cereals or pancake mixes or anything. Can I coupon effectively for just plain food?

Answer: Generally for food basics its not realistic or sometimes even possible to buy staples with coupons. They rarely go on sale and even more rarely have coupons that can be used to save on them. I also do not buy lots of processed foods so my main coupon usage is for non- food items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo, vitamins and the like. So if you only buy plain food then, NO, its not worth it.

If you do buy lots of processed food then yes you can save loads with coupons.

How I organize my coupons

The first thing I do is buy 10 Sunday papers at the Dollar Tree, making sure they all have coupon inserts. Its cheaper to buy the Sunday paper at the Dollar Tree because its only a dollar. Also a tip~~on weeks there is a holiday there will be NO coupon inserts
OK~ After I buy my papers and take the coupons out and try to give the rest of the papers away I bring them home and stack all like inserts together. First by sorting all the Red Plums together, etc. then I sort each like coupon.


See the stack to the right on the TV tray? Those are all pages from the inserts that don't have coupons on them. Get rid of them, that's just wasted weight in your folders.

This is the trash from just one kind of insert, IE Red Plum.

Then I pick up a stack of coupons and line them up and staple them together to make cutting them easier.

This blurry picture shows how I stapled front and back.

OK, now each set of like coupons are stapled together.

You can now file the pages of inserts into a file folder or you can go a step further.

This is how I organize the inserts. As you can see I was just sliding the whole sheets into the folders and this was still somewhat disorganized for me, even though I labeled the folder with the date I bought the papers. This is important because when I read the blogs about what sales are at which stores and coupon match ups they always say use the $2.00 Q from the RP from 6-5-11 and I need to know where my coupons from 6-5-11 are.

I decided to go one step further and staple and cut like coupons and save even more space and get rid of more paper. Now when I want a coupon from the RP insert from6-5-11 I can pull out all 10 of my coupons for that product because they are stapled together. If there is a whole row of toothbrush coupons for example I may just leave the row together but cut it from the rest of the page.

After the coupons are sorted, stapled and cut, I then file them in the folder marked for that week.

This is my shopping coupon folder, the one I take to the store with me. Its about 5X7 inches or so.

It is a smaller accordion type file.
I got that huge blister from weeding the garden with no gloves.

I always carry a copy of the stores coupon policies. Don't ever think that even the managers know their own store policies. Most do not. If you have your copy with you, you can show it to the checker who may still call over a manager but I have never had one argue with me after I showed them their own store coupon policy.

I also make a list on the computer of what I will be buying and any coupons I will be using. I have different stores on one list.

I then paper clip the coupons I will be using at each store. I have a paper clipped bunch for each store I will be shopping at. I then use a sticky note on the front of each bunch of coupons so I know which ones to grab out of my small file folder and hand to the cashier.

I love finding sales and matching up coupons. I love being a good steward of the money my husband works so hard for. I also love being able to give good things to those in need. Before I started using coupons it was hard for me to give quality products to those who needed them because I always had generic in my home. Now we have the opportunity to use more name brand items but spend less than we did when I only bought the cheapest, generic or otherwise.

I will try to post more about using your coupons as the days go by or if you have questions, please leave them in the comments so I can answer them as I am able.

Savings at the stores

Last week I decided I needed to get back into shopping at Walgreens and learn some new stores since I now have more variety of stores to shop. I got some sunday papers and began searching the ads and putting together coupon match ups and reading blogs about coupon match ups.
I gathered all my coupons, circulars and such and headed to wags (Walgreens). This is the end result.
saved $205.47
spent $124.44
RR $113.00
So after RR my total spent was $11.44

Then I went to HEB and bought some groceries and got $78.00 worth of groceries for $29.00

As you can see I had lots of RR from wags. I have a few things I want to use them for next week but I also need some solar lights for a project I am doing. So I went to wags last evening because Jeff and Hannah needed to pick up their new glasses in that town and I bought 24 solar lights at $1.99 each a sympathy card for $1.99 and a set of wire strainers for the kitchen for $3.99. Total was $53.59 with tax and I used $52.99 RR and paid .60 cash oop.
I am not sure why but it said my tax was .05. They tax things very different here in Texas so I dont know what all was taxed or if it taxed my after RR total or what.

Jeff has to go back today after work so I am going to try my hand at a small transaction at CVS. That is one store I was never able to learn because there were none close to me before now.

Great coupon weekend

This weekend I got a chance to view the show Extreme Couponing and it was very interesting. I picked up a few tips on how to keep track of my coupons and such. I would never want to go to the extreme that these people do but I do want to save my family money and never pay full price for items I regularly buy.

I love shopping at Walgreens when they have good register reward deals. When I buy something that has a register reward and then turn around and use the register reward its like spending the same money twice. I love that.

This weekend I was able to buy some calcium supplements, icy hot cream, iced coffee, and Listerine to go packs and get register rewards for all but .99 of the Listerine to go packs and I had a coupon for the calcium to cover the .99 I spent on the Listerine making them all essentially free except for the tax.

I then turned around and bought paper towels, Kleenex and toilet paper with the register rewards. It was like all the first products were a bonus because I always buy the paper products. Plus they were on sale and I had coupons for some of them.

Free bandaids

I printed out $1.00 off Nexcare band aids and went to Wal Mart. They had them marked down for $1.00 each. Apparently in Texas you don't have to pay tax on some medical supplies and band aids is one of them so can you believe I got out of the store paying 000000? I was so excited, I have never not at least had to pay tax. Whoo Hoo.

Free post it notes

When I visited Money Saving Mom's blog today I saw where coupons can be printed for post it notes. $1.00 off the new super sticky ones. Its PDF so you can print as many as you want. I printed 8. When I got to Wal Mart I found them on sale for $1.00 in the school supplies. Yeah. I only had to pay tax for 8 packages of sticky notes. Maybe you will want to print some coupons out and get some for yourself.

This and that

Today I made two transactions at United. Each time I bought 5 cans of Bumblebee tuna at 59 cents each. I had a coupon for 1.00 off five cans and it doubled. I ended up paying $1.14 for 5 cans of tuna. I did that twice so I ended up with 10 cans of tuna for $2.28.
I figure if I can add just a bit each time I shop, for really good prices, I can stock my pantry.

Next topic.
This spot on my neck.
When I went to get the stitches out the doctor said he was so surprised that it was cancer because it sure didn't look like any cancer he had ever seen.
He said he was sure glad he sent it in to be tested. He showed me the report that said he got it all. He had originally said he was going to do a needle biopsy and he was glad he just decided to take it all off and saved me having to have it done later.

Ok, all that to say, get any spots checked out. Even if they don't look like what they say cancer looks like. If I had not been persistent and if the doctor had snuffed me off like my last doctor did, who knows what might have happened.

I know this kind of cancer isn't the killer kind, but it sure can cause pain and itching. Doc said he has a patient who he tried to persuade to let him remove this same type of thing from her nose 10 years ago and she refused. He said its really big now and she wears a band aid over it all the time. He said it looks like a big scar. He sure wished she had let him take care of it years ago.

Shopping at United-Guymon

2 Viva big rolls 2.69 each
6- 24 ct. family size Lipton tea bags @ 1.49 each
2- Pilsbury buttermilk 17 ct. frozen biscuits @ 3.14 each
2- pkg oreo @ 2.99 each
8-pkgs Ronzoni pasta @ 1.25 each
2- Betty Crocker brownie mix @ 1.39 each
total before coupons and tax $118.56
I paid 86.60 of which 67.68 was for a years supply of butter
tax not included

Shopping at United-Guymon

Yesterday when we went to Guymon I did some shopping at United. They have been having double coupons up to 1.00 on weekends.
6-6packs of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice @ 1.99 each
10-Campbells Cream of mushroom soup @ 1.00 each
8-boxes of Jell-o @ .65 each
4-boxes of Wheat Thins @ 3.35 each
4-pkgs. Trident Layers Gum @ 1.49 each
4-boxes Lipton tea 24ct. @ 1.99 each
2-bags Sunkist tuna @ 1.39 each
4-boxes Betty Crocker brownie mix @ 1.39 each
total before coupons $62.80
I spent $18.56
I also got a free holiday jello mold for buying 6 boxes of jell-o

Yankee Candle coupon

Yankee Candle coupon.

Go here for a buy one get one free Yankee candle coupon good until 10-4-09

http://www.yankeecandle.com/yc/html/retail/Email_HTML/webCoupon_XF910A7.html