How to Save Money Using Coupons!

So I'm sure you all have seen or at least heard of the show Extreme Couponing (I don't think they have new episodes airing anymore, but I see re-runs on my guide often). If you've been living under a rock and haven't seen it, it's a reality show where people use coupons and store sales to save tons of money on groceries, some about 99% of their total bill! While some of these people walk into a store, buy 300 packs of tic-tacs and walk out having only paid $.50, others seem to buy more practical items like commonly used cooking items or cleaning products. Not to knock buying 300 packs of tic-tacs, but someone must have really bad breath...just sayin'! The concept of the show is very interesting to me, however it is somewhat frustrating to those of us who actually coupon by the rules because what is depicted on most of these episodes would not happen in most stores by most people. All stores that I know of have a limit of how many 'like' coupons they accept, some how many you can use total in one day, and some how many coupons the store will double per day or transaction. Those limits are usually WAY less than 300. That being said, the concept that is always explained on the show is legit and can save a person a lot of money. The basic concept of couponing is simple; Using a coupon will save you some money. Getting an item on sale will do the same. However when you combine those store sales with a coupon (especially one that the store will double), results in a much larger savings! Then, once you get an item you use frequently at it lowest price, you don't just buy 1, you buy as many as you 1) have a coupon for and 2) that your family will use before it expires, or before there is another great sale on the item. 


The grocery store that I go to will double manufacturer coupons any day you go in, as long as the face value of the coupon is $.99 or less (so a $.75 coupon from the newspaper will actually deduct $1.50 from your total). However, this store also has coupon events where they will triple a coupons face value, or double coupons with a face value of $2 or under. The latter was the case just a few weeks ago and I wanted to share with you some of the best deals I got! Again, pay attention to the concept (and not just the items) so you can apply it to your next grocery trip and start saving!!

Cat Food

A bag of Purina Cat Food at my grocery store normally costs $5.89. However, this week, they had it on sale, buy one get one free (each item rings at half price), making each bag only $2.95! That in itself is a great deal! But wait, there's more! There is currently a coupon out for $1.05 off of the bag of cat food, making it only $1.90! Hold on, the best is yet to come! This week, my store is running a 'super doubles' promotion, where every coupon $2 or under will be doubled once scanned! So, my $1.05 off coupon becomes a $2.10 off coupon and I only pay $.85 per bag of cat food!!  That is a savings of $5.04 PER BAG (or 86%)!!! Unbeatable!! So do I only buy 1 bag? No way!! I stock up and buy as many as I can at that price (while sticking to the store and coupon rules by doing so in multiple trips and transactions). With this sale I purchased about 20 bags, 3 per transaction (I've made a lot of trips to the store!). Yes, 20 bags of cat food may sound like a lot all at once, but when you have 4 pretty fat cats to feed, it goes quickly!! Here is an easier to read breakdown of the sale.

$5.89 Regular price
     $2.95 Sales Price ( Buy one get one free)
    -$1.05 Coupon
      $1.90
   - $1.05 Doubled coupon
       $.85 TOTAL Price (plus tax) 

Dish Soap
Another deal I got this week was on Seventh Generation Dish Soap. This soap is normally $3.39 per 25 fl oz bottle, pretty expensive for soap if you ask me! But the store had it on sale for $2.50 per bottle and I had a coupon for $1.00 off per bottle, which doubled, making each bottle only $.50! This again, was a stock up price for me, so I purchased 6 bottles-which is still less than the regular price of 1 bottle! I saved $2.89 per bottle or an 85% savings! What's great about cleaning products is that they usually don't expire and I know we will use them sooner or later (usually sooner), so I stock up when I find a product I like at such a cheap price. The coupon used here was a printed coupon from www.coupons.com and the site only allows each computer or smartphone to print a coupon twice, so between my 2 laptops and iPhone, I was able to print 6. Had I been able to legally print more, I certainly would have purchased more of these!

$3.39 Regular price
   $2.50 Sale Price
  -$1.00 Coupon
    $1.50
  - $1.00 Doubled Coupon
      $.50 TOTAL price (plus tax)

Bread
The last deal I will share with you was on Arnold bread. This is something we use often between lunches for my husband and son and occasional grilled panini sandwiches, I definitely took advantage of this deal and got 4 loaves! (Bread freezes wonderfully in case you didn't know-as does shredded cheese!) I had a coupon for $1.00 each loaf of bread and with the sale price and doubled coupon, these 4 loaves of bread were totally free!! This coupon was also a printable and I could have printed and used 6, however we don't eat it super quickly and I only have so much room in my freezer (if anyone wants to buy me a deep freeze, I might just be your new best friend!)  I was super psyched!! Who doesn't love free bread!!

$3.99 Regular Price
     $1.99 Sale Price (BOGO)
   -$1.00 Coupon
      $.99
    -$.99 Doubled Coupon*
     $0 TOTAL Price (I only had to pay tax on this item)

*My store does not give overage for doubled coupons, so if the doubled amount is more than the total price remaining, they give you the item free, but do not give overage-in this case it would have been a $.01 money maker, but the store will not allow this.

These are just a few of the deals I got during the super doubles coupon event a couple weeks ago, there were more, but these were my best deals of the week. I also get great deals when there aren't special coupon events by using the same coupon and sale matching technique. Let me know in the comments below if you'd like to see more posts on couponing, I have learned a lot over the past few years and have saved a lot of money and I'd love to pass that info along to whoever wants to read it! 

-A