Stupid Extreme Couponing

I am not sure whether you know this or not but I am really into couponing. When I say me, I mean our whole family. My children are trained to look for coupons everywhere: in their cereal boxes, on a wrapper, and especially at the store where they will bowl old ladies over to pull the coupons from the Blinkies. And my husband is surpassing me on deal finding and coupon combining. 


A friend and I are even writing a book about couponing secrets. Of course the book is on hold because, like anything else, we got all pumped about it last year and then other things came up like school, munchkins, college classes, a new business venture, a new baby...basically...LIFE. 


Anyway, when I saw the new show on TLC called Extreme Couponing, I was excited. I could not wait to see how other people did it and learn from "the pros" how to capitalize on my savings. However, after watching the first episode where that woman bought 75 mustards I had a strong sense of dark foreboding. Not only was the show letting everyone in on the secrets (a good thing) it was also showing stores how much money they could be potentially losing (not a good thing). I mean that lady had a total of around $675 and after coupons only paid around $6.





What has now resulted is a total "revamp" of most stores coupon policies...BLAST YOU EXTREME COUPONING.


Let me give you an example. At Publix a box of Cheerios is $4.00. If there is a Buy One Get One deal (a.k.a. BOGO) deal, you can get 2 boxes of Cheerios at $2 each. Then lets say you have a coupon for $1 off of 2. That takes the total for each box down to $1.50. Then you have a Target, Harveys, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Walgreens, Food Lion, Rite Aid or CVS (all of these competitors' coupons were accepted at our Publix) coupon for $1 off one box of Cheerios. You can use 2 of those coupons because the BOGO is considered 2 items. So that brings the total down to $.50 a box. Wow!


However, now with this atrocity which is EXTREME COUPONING, our Publix only accepts Harveys coupons. They do not consider any of the other stores competitors even though they sell the same items. Now I know that looks like only a $2 loss, but if you by 18 boxes of cereal, like I did yesterday, the new policy costs you a savings of $36. That is a huge chunk! 


I mean really Publix! You netted 1.3 billion dollars last year (according to Jamie my Publix bag boy yesterday;) and that was my best year couponing. So I really don't think your company is hurting all that much. I mean in the great metropolis of Tallahassee there is a dad gum Publix on every corner. I don't think these uncertain economic times are really affecting you all that much.


Anyway, even with the new coupon policy I didn't do to shabby yesterday on my first Publix trip since giving birth a month a go. That being said I did make some rookie mistakes that cost me some savings: 1. I did not print the circular before going, 2. I did not make my list until I got there, 3. I was unable to look for coupons on the items I was purchasing and print them before I left the house, 4. I did not have my coupons organized before getting to the store. As a result of all of these mistakes, I did not save as much as I could have, it took me forever, and there were different points in the store where I broke into a sweat and almost had an anxiety attack because I was having to force my ADHD self to focus. 


So how did I do? Well with all that I spent $118 and saved $129. It is always good when your savings are higher than what you spent. That is your goal. What did I buy? Well...
18 boxes of assorted varieties of Cheerios and Fruit Loops (I am not wasteful we will eat that before summer is up)
12 boxes of Betty Crocker Fruit Chews
2 Kid Shampoos
2 Body Washes
2 cans of biscuits
2 blocks of Cream Cheese
2 packages of Buitonni Ravioli
3 cans of Chef Boyardee Ravioli
2 Dijorno Pizzas w/cookies
4 cans of Campbells soup
1 Bicardi Mixer
1 Whisk Detergent
6 cans of Hormel Chicken
2 packs of Oscar Meyer Deli Ham
2 bottles of Coffee Mate
4 bags of Doritos
Bananas
Blueberries
Vidalia Onions
Granny Smith Apples
Corn on the Cobb


Not half bad! But it could have been sooooooo muuuuuccccchhhh better if it wasn't for that stupid, spawn of Satan Extreme Couponing show!

Our Awesome Trip to the Publix

Our Awesome Trip to the Publix

Before I begin to reveal the secrets of one of our most successful shopping trips ever, I must be honest. I did not do any couponing for it. My hubby did it all. He slaved and cut and printed and organized. I just split up the list. Hey, it was totally worth it! We spent a total of $110 and saved $145!!! Go ahead stand up and start the slow clap. It deserves it. However, you might want to wait, because when I tell you what all we bought you might want to start an encore.

First so that you can truly appreciate I will bestow upon you our list of items:

2 Stouffer's Family Style Entrees
1 box of Pampers Swaddlers

4 boxes of Nutrigrain Bar 

Pampers wipes

1 package of Pull-Ups

2 Pam Sprays

4 Marie Callendar Meals

3 gallons of milk

4 Juicy Juice bottles

4 Zephyrhills Water (12pk)

Bananas

Grapes

Blueberries

Pepsi Max

1 box of Huggies Supreme diapers

2 Gorton's Popcorn shrimp

Crab Meat

2 Planters Honey Roasted Peanuts

2 jars of Classico Alfredo sauce

1 32 oz Kraft Velveeta Cheese

1 box of Cosmic Brownies

2 boxes of Pepper and Oil Triscuits

2 Skintimate shave gel

2 bags of Doritos

2 pounds of Ground Beef

Squash 

Zucchini

Asparagus

2 packages Strawberries

2 dozen eggs

Rotisserie Chicken

All for $110!!!!

So here is what we do (or in this case what Brian did).

1. Visit Publix site or use Publix circular to make a list of what you need that is on sale. Focus on Buy One Get Ones (BOGO).

2. Look in coupon box for any coupons for items

3. Visit Southern Savers.com and look at their Publix list where they have all of the coupons there are for all of the items on sale. 

4. Print as many coupons as you can. Again, epecially for the BOGO's.

5. Make sure you visit the other store sites, like Food Lion, Harveys, Target, and Rite Aid for any of their coupons.

Helpful hints:

•  If you have BOGO's and then you have a coupon for 1 item then print 2 coupons because you can use two. 
• If you have a manufacturer coupon, you can also use competitor coupons for the same item.
• Sometimes they only take a limited amount of competitor coupons, which is why we split up our list and shop in two different carts.

Here are some of our monumental savings for this week:

1. Zephryhill water- We bought 4-12 packs for absolutely free. How? They were BOGO at 2 for $3.79 which made them $1.90 each. Then we had a coupon for each for $1 off each 12 pack and then a Harvey's coupon for $ 2 off. 

2. The Huggies Box of diapers was originally $19.99. We had a $3 off Publix coupon, a $3 off Food Lion coupon, a $2.50 off Target coupon, and a $2.00 off Manufacturer coupon. So that was $19.99-$10.50=$9.49! (Important: They will sometimes only except one competitor coupon for an item, but sometimes, if you split them up, it will work).

3. Gorton's Popcorn shrimp were BOGO at $2.74 each. We had $1 off each and then $1 off 2. Plus we had another competitor coupon for $1 off each. So we got those for $.25 each. 

4. Pampers box was $19.99- $7 off Target-$2 off manufacturer

Plus, we got really lucky. A woman who was leaving handed us a $5 off $30 Publix coupon as she was leaving and we had $2 off Harveys coupon for fruit and vegetables. 

All in all our trip to the Publix was pretty AWESOME

Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave

Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave

Let me start by saying this, "Lying is wrong!" We all know this. We are taught it at a very young age the first time we say, "I didn't do it" when clearly there was no one else who could have or would have colored on the wall. That being said I think we can all agree that there comes a time when one must fib a little. And most of the time I do it with out feeling guilty, but when I had to recently lie to Mary, the sweet, old cashier at Publix, and her elderly gentleman bagger I must admit I felt soooo guilty that I immediately prayed to God for forgiveness. 

So what had happened was (spoke with a ghetto infliction) this:


On Sunday, after attending early church, my family and I went to Publix for our weekly couponing extravaganza (more blogs to follow on couponing). Now just in case you did not know, my husband and I consider ourselves coupon gurus, and whereas we do nothing illegal we do stretch the limits of what may or may not be acceptable couponing etiquette. Do we feel guilty? No. Do you realize how much money they are making? Plus, they get paid back for the manufacture coupons and as far as the competitors coupons, well if they did not accept them we would not be shopping there. Anyways....


When we shop we split up our list and our family, so that we are able to go through two different check out lines and, therefore, use more coupons (some Publix stores have policies about only one competitor coupon or one deal per customer). So we enter Publix and give our children the strictest of instructions that if they see the other part of our family they must completely ignore them and not scream across the store "That's my daaaadddddyyyy", as my 3 year old recently did. 


However, on this occasion I actually ended up at the same cashier line that my husband had just moments ago vacated unbeknown to me. I had a raincheck for some items, and the cashier commented that she just had a man with the same raincheck. I thought to myself, "Hmmmmm". Then she saw my Johnsons and Johnsons coupons (which by the way made the product free) and commented that he guy before me had a lot of these too. I thought to myself, "Oh no!" Then she noticed that I was pregnant and she commented that the guy before me was also expecting another baby, but that he has two girls (I had one of the girls with me) and was expecting a third girl. I though to myself, "Oh S@#*!". 


Then she and her elderly bag boy began discussing that I was actually purchasing many of the same items as he did and had many of the same coupons. I thought to myself, "We are totally busted!" The final straw was when she asked me if I knew what the sex of the baby was. I thought to myself, "Lie, lie, lie!!!" And with a face that I am sure was as red as a tomato I said, "They weren't sure. The baby would not cooperate. I guess we will have to find out next time!" (Insert prayer of forgiveness here!)



Finally, I was finished checking out and was about to escape without being bombarded with Publix employees accusing me of some wrong, which is really not wrong at all according to "current" store policy (current because they would probably change it if we were discovered). She printed out my receipt and made a proclamation of my savings "Spent $84 and saved $73", and then added, "That other guy did the exact opposite. He spent $73 and saved $84. Maybe he's still in the parking lot and you can talk to him about how he did it." I though to myself, "Well, no duh. He better still be in the parking lot or I am walking my fat tail home!" And just as I am readying to leave, I have to wrestle my buggy away from elderly bag boy Bob who wants to help unload the bags for me and my pregnant self. That could have definitely proven awkward when my hubby, also known as that couponing guy who was in front of me, jumped out of the car to also help me! Oh what a tangled web we weave;)