Successful Shopping - Saving 87%

I've been clipping and using coupons religiously now for a little over 2 months. I started back in the middle of May.

I debated whether or not to share my success for a couple of reasons. One, I don't want people thinking about saving money when I want them SPEND money on my jewelry. *grin* And two, if more people start couponing then it could decrease the number of deals out there. Granted, this second one is probably just psychological since there are so many people who will just never coupon. No matter how much they could save.

So because I'm having so much fun saving and getting free stuff I decided that I had to share. It's taken over the last couple of months - clipping coupons, finding coupons, trading coupons, and learning about corporate policies and where the deals can be found.

Yesterday, Walgreens had a Buy $20 get $5 off coupon that was only good for that day. These are a big deal because if you do it right you can end up with quite a bit of free stuff. I wasn't too interested in some of their rebate items so I ended up paying a little bit - but not $20. Not even $15.

I estimate (conservatively) that the products above are worth around $70 retail. I paid less than $9.

Well, actually, I plunked down $28 but after rebates and a register reward coupon worth $7 my total becomes $8.98. Using a raincheck, coupons, sales, and rebates I saved more than 87% of my bill.

[Caveat...I'm still unsure how to count that $7. It is off of a future purchase so I technically am not saving that $7 on this order. But it is like money and can be used on future items that I'll get for free or cheap. Most people double count the savings but I don't like doing that. My total before the RR then becomes $15.98 making my savings 77%. The RR will count as savings off my next order.]

Will I use 6 bottles of Herbal Essence shampoo/conditioner? Not today. Not tomorrow. But we will use it. I'm probably going to give away the Bio Infusion shampoo/conditioner - it was free and I'll earn about $1.20 on it. The chocolate is now at work and will get eaten very quickly. Who doesn't love expensive chocolate? It's even better when it's so cheap (regular price is more than $4 a bag). The Kleenexes we go through like water and I'll be buying more of those as they go on sale this month. I have about 30 coupons for them. :) The cat litter is for my mother in law and I paid $2.99 for 14 pounds (regular price is $7.99).

If you are looking to squeak more out of your budget I highly recommend joining Hot Coupon World. It can be intimidating at first and takes some getting used to (it almost feels like learning a new language - MIR, FAR, IVC, etc.) but is well worth it. I'm well on my way to building a significant stock of items that we will use - some of them bought for $0 and some of them I even got PAID to buy!!!

I am officially a coupon addict. And I've brought my little cousin and my aunt over to the dark side as well...and I'm working on a coworker. It's so much fun! =)

Yes...I have issues.