Not So Extreme Couponing

Day 1: My Birthday

Today is my birthday. This morning I sorted the coupons mentioned in the previous post. I filed them into my little red coupon file and headed to the pharmacy. This took roughly 20-30 minutes.

My daughter getting in on the fun! And there's my feet, too!

 

I decided to go to the pharmacy because I needed to get some iron drops for my daughter (she’s anemic like me). Also, the pharmacy is close to where I was meeting up with a friend for lunch.

Once there, I purchased some canned kids ravioli’s (on sale for $1 each + I had a coupon for .50 off of 2), Laundry detergent (on sale for $1.99 and I had a coupon for $1 off), a razor (6.99 + I had a coupon for $3 off and the store had a coupon for $2 off).  I also picked up some canned soup that was on sale for .69 each. All in all, in the first transaction I paid $8.49 and saved $11.64. That transaction printed out a coupon for $2, which I used in my second transaction, the purchase of the iron drops (retail $11.99 and I paid $9.99). Photos of the receipts from this pharmacy trip are below.

Transaction 1

Transaction 2

 

So I feel like I got my feet wet: I bought items I needed using coupons. I saved $13.64 off the retail price of the items I wanted. My stockpile has a few cans in it.

Pharmacy Haul

 

But the shopping took forever.  

Partly because I had to read every little sign next to each product explaining the price and partly because I had to go through my little file and hunt for the coupons (yes, I did set them aside, but there was still some time lost to hunting). I think another part of the reason I took so long was because my anemic child was trying very hard to crawl out of the child seat on my shopping cart.

This shopping trip made me realize that I really need to document time spent as well as money saved. So at the bottom of each post where I put “SAVINGS TO DATE” I will also include “TIME SPENT TODAY”. I suppose someone deciding whether or not to replicate my very un-scientific experiment should have some sort of idea as to how much time goes into it.

I made it to lunch with my friend, where I brought up the fact that I had watched Extreme Couponing over the weekend. She had never heard of it either- I no longer felt so “out of it.”

Before heading out to pick up my daughter at school, I stopped in at 2 stores that were in the mall where we ate lunch. At the dollar store I used 2 manufacturers’ coupons: one on toothpaste and the other on toothbrushes. This allowed me to purchase 6 items (regularly $6), for only $5 plus tax. Then I went to the fabric store and bought some clips and ribbon to make my daughter some school spirit themed hairclips. I used a coupon that saved me 40% off of the clips, and I used my city employee discount for an additional 15% off my purchase, ringing my purchase in at $2.83 (a savings of $1.35). Receipts for these transactions are below.

Dollar Store Receipt

Dollar Store Haul

Fabric Store Receipt

Fabric Store Haul

 

SAVINGS TO DATE:  $ 12.85   $15.99 saved today - $3.14 spent on this crazy idea.

TIME SPENT TODAY:  30 minutes organizing coupons prior to my shopping trip. The shopping trip took longer than my usual “in and out” trips, but by how long, I do not know.