If you are TERRIBLE at math, as am I, it helps to have a spreadsheet to calculate your OOP (out of pocket) expenses before you shop so you don't have to fumble with your coupons at the store so much...with many coupons, it gets tedious to have to read the coupon, make sure you buy enough product and then realize at the check out a coupon was $1 off (two) products and then have to run back the isles to make sure you get enough to get the deal...it's a pain, anyway, this helps eleviate that mess. JUST MAKE SURE YOU READ YOUR COUPONS VERY CARFULLY!!! I can't find a link to attach a file directly to the blog, so I will explain the equasion for excel, and you can always email me at: mullen.coupons@yahoo.com and I can send you a copy. I'm no excel master, I actually had a friend of mine, Bobbi Chinnick make the spreadsheet for me and I vamped it to fit my needs. (Thanks Mama Chinnick!!!) I can make a spreadsheet for each store, print it, and calculate all of my OOP expenses, pre tax (you could add this funtion if you were excel savvy) so I have some sort of idea how much I will spend at every store, this also keeps me pretty organized.
For excel: create a table with 20 rows and 6 columns labeled: Product Description, Amount Product Purchased, (Sale)Price for 1, Amount Before Coupon, Total Coupon Amount, OOP Expense.
Click on cell D2 and enter this equastion: =B2*C2 and hit enter
Click on cell G2 and enter this equastion: =E2-F2 and hit enter
put your curser over the bottom right hand corner of each of these cells until you see a bold + simbol, hold your mouse button and carry that + down to about line 20 and let go. The equasion will work down to that row. Do the same for the other equastion cell and the chart is complete. If this seems too complicated, just email me and I'll send you my copy.
Good luck! There are some great deals for coupon match-ups this week. If you have a certain store that is not on the website I gave in my first blog, or you live in another state...for example, Mass would be Stop and Shop, all you have to do is google 'Stop and Shop coupon matchups 5/1' and you should be able to find a website where someone already did all the hard work for you. Find the coupon circular, clip the coupon, put it in your chart, and go shopping!!!
Happy Couponing!!!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
What I've learned...
Happy Easter everyone....
They do not print coupon circulars on easter....booo! No biggie, I have coups from last week's circular, and the store sales change every week, so, not a total loss.
Also wanted to let the central penn gal's know that the washington post probably isn't the best paper to get, that now i'm going to get the York paper because it has all the sales flyers for the stores that are in central penn. (i.e. giant) Also wanted to recommend to get one paper for each person in your family. (I get 4)
Couponing Abbreviations
Sunday Newspaper Inserts
SS – Smart Source
RP -Red Plum
PG -Procter and Gamble
GM -General Mills
SS – Smart Source
RP -Red Plum
PG -Procter and Gamble
GM -General Mills
Drug Store lingo
ECB – Extra Care Bucks – Print at the bottom of your receipt and you can spend them like money on most items at CVS.
ECB – Extra Care Bucks – Print at the bottom of your receipt and you can spend them like money on most items at CVS.
RR -Register Reward – Print from as a CAT at the register and you can spend them like money on most items at Walgreens.
+UP -+Up Rewards – Print at the bottom of your receipt and you can use them like money on most items at Rite Aid
Additional Coupon Lingo/Abbreviations
B1G1 or BOGO- Buy One, Get One Free
B2G1- Buy Two, Get One Free
DND- Do Not Double
EX or X- Expires On
FAR- Free After Rebate
FILLER- Item Purchased to Reach a Minimum Total in Order to Get a “Deal”
GC- Gift Card
MC- Manufacturer’s coupon
MIR- Mail In Rebate
OOP- Out of Pocket
STACKING- Using Both a Store Coupon and a Manufacturer’s Coupon on One Item
UPC- Universal Product Code the black straight lines with numbers under
them
WYD- Worth Your Drive – Deal may work for someone else, but it may
not work for you if you have to drive for it.
B2G1- Buy Two, Get One Free
DND- Do Not Double
EX or X- Expires On
FAR- Free After Rebate
FILLER- Item Purchased to Reach a Minimum Total in Order to Get a “Deal”
GC- Gift Card
MC- Manufacturer’s coupon
MIR- Mail In Rebate
OOP- Out of Pocket
STACKING- Using Both a Store Coupon and a Manufacturer’s Coupon on One Item
UPC- Universal Product Code the black straight lines with numbers under
them
WYD- Worth Your Drive – Deal may work for someone else, but it may
not work for you if you have to drive for it.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Couponing...Maybe I could do this?!?
Well, since so many of you have seemed interested in learning my techniques to couponing, i decided to create a blog instead of answering questions individually. First let me say, I'm really REALLY new to this, however, seem to get the jist of it so that I can be saving over 50% on my groceries in a few weeks from now. At the beginning of this week, I saved 44% and that was on a semi-organized shopping trip. Once I get my system down flawlessly, I will know, before I even go shopping, how much i'm going to spend OOP (out of pocket) for my shopping trips, getting most items for pennies, or, FREE! i'm not joking. I took Darrell with me today to experience the couponing excitment, and was so surprised that we got 4 large bottles of Nivea body wash for FREE!!! (I had to call 4 rite-aid's to find it because there are some other serious couponers in the area...I also learned not to wait until Friday to do any extreme savings shopping.)
Once i learn how to use this blog site, i'll start posting pics of my receipts...
So here's my advice if you want to start couponing...Find a space in your home that you can make into a "mom cave" where you can organize, clip, print, and organize your coupons. I am going to use some old apple crates to create a shelving system to organize my circulars. Every sunday, I purchase 4 washington post news papers. I take the circulars out, separate the Smart Source from the Red Plum, then put them in an apple crate with the date on top.
On Sunday evening, I go to this website:
http://lancasteronline.com/blogs/clippin/2011/04/18/weis-markets-coupon-match-ups-417-423/
This is set for Weis, but you will see on the right hand side that every local (for the most part) store is listed. As you scroll down the page, you will see a list of products that the store has on sale that week (which you can also find in a paper sales circular) and the corresponding coupons that will make that product at it's lowest price. Each product will tell you the retail price, how much the coupon is for, what circular you can find it in, OR if it's a printable coupon.
*for printable coupons you have to download a coupon printing program, you only have to do it once, and it's super easy.
*first things first, the first week you collect coupon circulars, you will not see many items for that week, because you have to collect for about 4 weeks to see any DRASTIC savings.
Scroll down the list, click which items seem like a good bargain, or what you need for the week, print, then go to your circular stock pile, find the corresponding circular, clip the coupons, organize them in a coupon accordion or binder.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is an example of an item that I purchased for free this week:
Scotties tissue cubes were on sale for $0.89 each. I had a $1.00 off coupon for any sized scottie tissue product. This actually gave me a $0.14 back in my pocket (which actually went towards other purchases) But hey!!! They paid me to take the tissues out of the store!!!! It's not tipical to be able to do this on EVERY item you shop for, but when you find these deals, these are the ones you want to stock pile on, and get as MANY coupons as you possibly can. Paper products, diapers, anything that you can get this freeby, go for it!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The key is to carefully read the coupon. make sure you know how many of a product you must buy. Make sure you check the size of the product you must buy. If a coupon says "on any size" and that item is on sale that week at your store, that's probably the best time to stockpile the smallest size of that item, because in most cases you will get it for free.
Ok, I have to stop typing or Sydney will go bonkers!!! If you have any questions, let me know!!!
Until nest time,
Happy Couponing!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once i learn how to use this blog site, i'll start posting pics of my receipts...
So here's my advice if you want to start couponing...Find a space in your home that you can make into a "mom cave" where you can organize, clip, print, and organize your coupons. I am going to use some old apple crates to create a shelving system to organize my circulars. Every sunday, I purchase 4 washington post news papers. I take the circulars out, separate the Smart Source from the Red Plum, then put them in an apple crate with the date on top.
On Sunday evening, I go to this website:
http://lancasteronline.com/blogs/clippin/2011/04/18/weis-markets-coupon-match-ups-417-423/
This is set for Weis, but you will see on the right hand side that every local (for the most part) store is listed. As you scroll down the page, you will see a list of products that the store has on sale that week (which you can also find in a paper sales circular) and the corresponding coupons that will make that product at it's lowest price. Each product will tell you the retail price, how much the coupon is for, what circular you can find it in, OR if it's a printable coupon.
*for printable coupons you have to download a coupon printing program, you only have to do it once, and it's super easy.
*first things first, the first week you collect coupon circulars, you will not see many items for that week, because you have to collect for about 4 weeks to see any DRASTIC savings.
Scroll down the list, click which items seem like a good bargain, or what you need for the week, print, then go to your circular stock pile, find the corresponding circular, clip the coupons, organize them in a coupon accordion or binder.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is an example of an item that I purchased for free this week:
Scotties tissue cubes were on sale for $0.89 each. I had a $1.00 off coupon for any sized scottie tissue product. This actually gave me a $0.14 back in my pocket (which actually went towards other purchases) But hey!!! They paid me to take the tissues out of the store!!!! It's not tipical to be able to do this on EVERY item you shop for, but when you find these deals, these are the ones you want to stock pile on, and get as MANY coupons as you possibly can. Paper products, diapers, anything that you can get this freeby, go for it!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The key is to carefully read the coupon. make sure you know how many of a product you must buy. Make sure you check the size of the product you must buy. If a coupon says "on any size" and that item is on sale that week at your store, that's probably the best time to stockpile the smallest size of that item, because in most cases you will get it for free.
Ok, I have to stop typing or Sydney will go bonkers!!! If you have any questions, let me know!!!
Until nest time,
Happy Couponing!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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