Give It A Month

I hope you try it. Even for a month and just see if it is for you. Store brands can be cheaper, but not always.  Before I started to coupon and become intentional about what I threw in my cart, I really did not like to go to the grocery store. I sort of wandered about and then paid a lot of money for stuff that would likely be gone in a week. Aimlessly doing anything is not very satisfying. Having a plan and executing it is very satisfying.

Here is what I got this week at Kroger for $23.77. And don’t forget that the register spit out $1.00 coupon toward my next visit to Kroger, so in some ways it was a $22.77 kind of day. My receipt says I bought 21 items, so that averages out to $1.08 per item.

I just go to my favorite coupon match up site, Southern Savers, and they tell me what is on sale and where to get a coupon for that item. I even click a little box next to the item that I want and when I am finished clicking, it prints a grocery list for me.

What could be better than that? Lasagna for 2= $3.00. Four boxes of pasta=$.25 a piece.

Toothpaste=Free. Italian Sausage=$.99. Pineapple=$.50 a piece.

Try it. One month. See what you think. Tell me about it.

CVS and more on why it's worth considering

I had a $10.00 gift card to spend.

Purchase #1: A greeting card. Nothing exciting there.

Purchase #2: One of those heating packs that you wear for about 8 hours. It cost $3.79, but when you purchase it, you get $3.79 in extra care bucks. So, now I just have the remaining gift card balance of $4.19 and a receipt for $3.79 in extra care bucks which equals $7.98 to "spend "at CVS

So far I have a card and a heating pad and have "spent" about $2.00 but not really because because I used a  gift card!

Purchase #3: Five 12 pack cases of diet coke. Each cost $3.00. I had $2.00 in manufacturers coupons for the cokes and $7.98 to put toward my purchase. I ended up paying $5.02 + tax or $5.39 out of pocket for those 5 cases of diet cokes.

BUT because the CVS deal was that if you buy $15.00 in coke products, you get $5.00 in extra care bucks back, I got $5.00 back!!  Not to mention $1.00 more for using my bag tag. 

So, now I have $6.00 to spend.  All that and $6.00 more to spend. Yep.

Will let you know how much I can buy with the $6.00.

In sum:  a card, a heating pad, 5 12-packs of diet coke for $5.39. But they gave me $6.00 for doing all of that. Awesome.