Walgreens Part 3: A Tale of Two Transactions

Day 15

I had 2 coupons good for $2 off of a purchase of $10. So even though this blog entry is going to be about yet another trip to Walgreens, I am sure you understand that I absolutely HAD to go. $2 off of any purchase is just TOO GOOD to pass up.

Which brings me at an interesting juncture in this couponing experiment: I need to think about spending money in order to save money.

After all, no one in their right mind would go to Walgreens three days in a row. You just go to the pharmacy when you need something. It’s a sort of stop you do in between shopping trips to the grocery store. I have never heard of anyone making it their hang out.

But when you are couponing, you have to grab the sales while you can. And stock up on items when you can. Which make these past three days spending days in which I am saving time and money “in the future”, but definitely spending more than I would in the “present moment.”

Transaction #1: Diapers, Hair Color, Toothpaste

Diapers- 6.49 with sale price (9.99-$1.50 coupon-$2.00 Walgreens Coupon)

Hair Color- $0.49 (2.49- $2.00 coupon)

Toothpaste- $0.49 (1.49- $1.00 coupon)

 

I saved $13.00 off retail according to the receipt, a savings of 65%.



Total Spent: $7.76

Here is the Haul!

 

 

Same Haul- Now looking BETTER!

 

Transaction #2: @ packs of Diapers, Hair Color

Diaper 1- $6.79 ($8.79- $2.00 Walgreens Coupon)

Diaper 2- 4.80 (BOGO ½ OFF)

Hair Color- 2.49 (4.49-$2.00 Coupon)

I save $8.80 off retail according to the receipt, a savings of39%

Total Spent: $14.77

Obviously, Transaction #1 was the Golden One. But both were unnecessary at the moment- I don’t need diapers and hair color. But I will. Esentially, I do not need to buy Hair Color for the next year and a half. And I won’t be shopping for diapers until July or August. This is immensely valuable. But if I was to quantify this in terms of my weekly budget, in three days I have spent approximately $46 at Walgreens. I have had to spend more than I usually would this week in order to save over the next few months.

And it has taken me 2 weeks to learn how to clip, save, wait, and strategize. Two weeks to average 40-60% savings. Two weeks to get a few things free.

So couponing would be a hard thing to sell to someone who is truly broke. Or to someone who has no time. Basically, I don’t think couponing is something you can do as a last recourse. It is more like a hobby that you have to hone and refine and put time and money into. Simply said, it is not for everyone. And practically speaking, I think it would be immensely difficult to “coupon” one’s way out of poverty.

SAVINGS TO DATE: - $ 255.50   (previous total + $13.00 & $8.80 saved off retail)

 TIME SPENT TODAY: - 1.5 Hours (One hour shopping and 30 minutes planning for the trip and setting aside the coupons according to advertised sales in the circular).

Walgreens Part 2

Day 14

I went back to Walgreens today because I thought my $2 coupon was good today. I was mistaken. It is good tomorrow. But I was there, so I shopped anyway.

I spent $10.18. When you consider that shopping is also a form of entertainment for a stay at home mom, and you also consider that my daughter seems to nap ONLY in her stroller, $10.18 seems to be a good price for entertainment, peace, and a few items.

And I got some FREE items. I’m telling you. It is like an addiction. I love the free stuff. Especially when it is free stuff that I use.

I bought diapers on sale for $9.99 and used a $1.50 coupon ($7.99 final cost) and some shampoo on sale for $1.99 and used a $1.00 coupon ($0.99 final cost).

I know, I know, so far BORING!

Then I saw hair color on clearance for $2.50. And I had a coupon for that exact same brand. The coupon was for $5 off 2. So I got 2 hair colors for FREE.

This feels VERY good!

 

And I guess the secret is out now. I DO color my hair.

I know this looks a little blurry- I promise I'll take a better photo next time!

 

And that Walgreens register printed ANOTHER coupon for $2. So now I have 2. And they are only good to use tomorrow.

SAVINGS TO DATE: - $ 233.70   (previous total + $13.49 saved off retail)

 TIME SPENT TODAY: - 30 minutes (15 minutes shopping, 15 planning)

Walgreens Part 1

Day 13

I should mention that my coupons this week come courtesy of our neighborhood recycle bin, where I found TWO Sunday papers virtually intact.

Today I went to Walgreens. I purchased some toilet paper that was on sale (and also used a coupon), then I purchased 3 shampoos (also each one on sale and with a coupon) and finally 2 Cover Girl Powders (BOGO + Coupon).  It was a pretty impressive haul for $15.19. Six items for $15.19.

 

And the register printed out a $2 coupon at checkout. It is only good tomorrow. So I guess I’ll be back.

SAVINGS TO DATE: - $ 220.21   (previous total + $17.13 saved off retail)

 TIME SPENT TODAY: - 30 minutes (15 minutes shopping, 15 planning)

 

A Taste of Free

Day 12

Today I scored a truly free item, and it felt so good. I went to the Dollar Tree and got a Maybelline Lipstick ($1) with a $1 coupon. Then, I went to the frozen food section, and got a frozen burrito ($1) with a $ coupon, then I purchased 2 Palmolive dish soap containers for $1 each with a $0.25 coupon.

But the Palmolive soap for $0.75 was boring.

I was excited about the lipstick and the burrito. They were totally free. And it made me hunger for more free items.

 

I learned an important lesson also. A good couponer has to wait in order to pounce on the best deal. I could have easily used that $1 coupon for the lipstick at a regular retailer. I would have saved money off of the regular retail price. But I wouldn’t have gotten it free. So today I learned to WAIT.

SAVINGS TO DATE: - $ 203.08   (previous total + $2.50 saved off retail at Dollar Tree)

 TIME SPENT TODAY: - 0 (This was a regular trip out)

The Coupon That Burns a Hole in my Pocket

Day 11

Today Facebook prompted me to try an App called “Wrapped.” Wrapped is an app that allows you to send gift cards to your friends. And it also has deals for free gift cards if you first send them to a pre-determined number of friends.

Today, I was offered $6 at H&M if I simply downloaded the app. So I did. And I got the gift card. It was good until the end of the month.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about my $6 gift card. It was “burning a hole in my pocket,” as my dad used to say.

So I headed to the mall.

At H&M there was a clearance rack that boasted 50% off already reduced prices. And it was full of long sleeved T’s. This immediately caught my eye because I need long sleeve T’s. The spring here has been so cold and I am out of long sleeve shirts since mine got worn out over the winter. I picked up 2 tops at $7 each+50% off. The total for the two shirts was $7 and I paid with my $6 gift card.

WOW!

 

I got two shirts and I paid $1.08. This was a BIG WIN.

SAVINGS TO DATE: - $ 200.58   (previous total + $18.92 saved off regular price of shirts)

 TIME SPENT TODAY: - 1 (I spent 1 hour shopping and driving to and from the mall)

You Win Some...You Loose Some

Day 11

I had a negative couponing experience today. I went to a large retailer and grabbed some paper towels and razors for shaving. I had coupons for all 3 items. When I got to the register, the paper towels, which I thought were on sale, did not ring in at the sale price. The cashier explained that the smaller sized package was the one on sale. When I saw how much smaller the smaller size was, I realized that the sale, with or without the coupons, did not provide a deep enough discount to make the purchase worth it. So I left the paper towels. The discount did ring through for the razors, and I used my coupons. Then, later that day, I popped into my local gas station. To my surprise, the exact razors I had purchased at the large retailer, were on sale at the gas station mini-mart for less money. Basically, the price I paid at the retailer with the coupon, was the same as the price at the gas station, without the coupon. So I realized that I really saved nothing.

Needless to say, this retailer has been taken off my list of places to shop.

I think that the most valuable lesson I learned today is that just because something is being proclaimed as a great price, doesn’t mean that it actually is a good price. And a store that I might have considered a favorite prior to this project- it turns out- is really doing me no favors at all.

SAVINGS TO DATE: - $ 181.66   (previous total I saved nothing today)

 TIME SPENT TODAY: - 1 (I spent 1 hour shopping and didn’t save a dime!)

Smile! It's Picture Day!

Day 10

I just love taking my girls to get their pictures taken. And since my firstborn is 6 years old, I have had plenty of time to try a lot of photo studios. The one that I find to be the best deal, is JC Penny.

JC Penny has a portrait club that costs around $40 (check your area- I hear that this varies from store to store but the 2 stores I called both quoted this price) but often they have coupons that bring this initial membership cost down to $30. You do not need to be a member to get you pictures taken there, but the membership entitles you to free sitting fee’s for your family for 2 years. I mean your whole family. Since the sitting fees are typically 9.99 per person, just coming in with multiple people in one appointment makes this membership quite valuable. Membership also gives you other promotional goods such as a free sheet of images and a free enhanced image. And if you chose to be on their e-mail list, they send you even more discounts on packages and prints. Some coupons can even be combined with portrait club perks so be sure to read the fine print and enjoy!

In the past, I have taken my daughter to JC Penny in her school uniform and done alternative “school photos” there. It is much cheaper than the pictures offered through the local schools and it gives me a chance to be there and comb her hair. This option also allows me to have several poses to choose from. Since I do get a copy of her actual school picture in the yearbook, I don’t mind not purchasing the actual school photos from the school photographer and going to JC Penny instead.

But today I took my girls in for a nice spring photo. I used my portrait club membership and a coupon that I printed from my e-mail and saved $67.00 total. For $11 I had a photo sitting for my 2 girls and I purchased 6 sheets of varying sized photographs. Amazing.

$11 Got me a lot of great shots! Now to buy Frames!

 

 

SAVINGS TO DATE: - $ 181.66   (previous total =+ $67 saved off price of photos and session today)

 TIME SPENT TODAY: - 0 (I went to a regular photo appointment)

Where Shopping is a Pleasure

Day 9

Today I went on a big shop. Once again, I really had no plan. Just a file with my coupons, and I decided to try out a new grocery store. But there was a game changer today: I was only purchasing items for which I had a coupon.

With that in mind, I drove to Publix.

Now Publix is an easy store to shop in: nice wide aisles, helpful color coded price tags, frequent BOGO offers, and a great Baby Club that mails me coupons every so often.

My baby even seems more relaxed when I go to Publix. Maybe it’s the quiet instrumental only music humming ever so quietly in the background.

The store was very quiet in the midafternoon which was perfect for me because I could take my time reading the tags and sale circular and rifling through my coupon file (which I must say, I am getting quicker at doing).

And since there were few other shoppers, I didn’t have to be so self-conscious.

The entire shop took me 1 hour- NOT BAD!!

I spent $59.05 out of pocket and saved $39.83. The savings were a combination of in store sales and 13 coupons used. So I saved about 40.3%.

 

Here are some highlights from today’s haul:

-Shampoo on sale for $0.75 a bottle and I had a coupon for $1 off of 4. So for $2 I got 4 regular sized bottles of shampoo or $0.50 each! This is probably the best deal I have ever scored on shampoo.

-Chips on sale 2 for $5 and I had a $1 off coupon, so each bag was only $2.

-Soup on sale for $1 a can and I had a 2 coupons for $1 off of 4. I got 8 cans of soup for $6.

-Diapers were on sale and then I had a $1.50 off manufacturer’s coupon and a $2 store coupon. I got the bag of diapers for $6.50

-Disinfectant wipes were BOGO and I had a coupon for $1 off brining the wipes down to $2.50 for both.

-Conditioner was on sale for $3 and I had a $1 off coupon.

There was only one glitch in the trip. I bought almond milk which was on sale for 2.50 and used a 0.50 off coupon, but later realized that I had a $1 off e-coupon for it. I could have save $1 more. This really shouldn’t bother me, but for some reason it does. Again I have to say it- this is why the people on the show plan so diligently: the deals are out there, but getting them is NOT easy!

I also learned to read the fine print and not pay too much attention to the photos on coupons. I handed over the “$1 off of 4 soup cans” coupons thinking that they would not apply because the actual soups that I chose were not the same as the ones pictured. In fact, the ones pictured were the more expensive “chunky” soup versions that were not on sale. But the coupons did apply to my purchase- they were brand specific but did not indicate that they could be used only on “chunky” soups. The cashier very patiently explained this when I guiltily handed them over saying that they probably “wouldn’t work.”

Which brings me to my next point: the cashier was lovely. She didn’t seem put out by my 13 coupons at all. And since they were sticking to each other I handed them over one at a time and this didn’t faze her either. She was a total professional.

The whole thing really boosted my confidence. I really think I can do this.

 

SAVINGS TO DATE:  $ 114.66   ($74.83 last count + $39.83 saved off retail today)

 TIME SPENT TODAY:  1 (I went on a big shop that I probably wouldn’t have done if it weren’t for this project.)

Weighing in on the Two Newspapers

Day 8

I spent yesterday and today with my friend and forgot to buy my local paper- So much for a side to side comparison of the two newspapers.

I am only getting to preview the newspaper now. The newspaper is HUGE compared to the newspapers I am used to seeing around here. But the stack of inserts and coupons is about the same as my pile from last week’s local paper at the end of it all.

I am going to stop by the library tomorrow and learn about possible getting recycles Sunday Papers there in the future. I’ll let you know how that goes.

City Mouse Visits Country Mouse

Day 7

Today is Sunday again. And lucky me- a friend is coming to visit! I am super excited to see my friend. And as an added bonus, she has volunteered to bring me a newspaper from Miami. Free paper!! I am really excited to see the difference between my areas newspaper and that of a big city like Miami.

Goodwill Hunting

Day 6

Some of my coupons, clipped just last Sunday, are expiring.

I went through my little red organizer and threw out the expired coupons. I am going to look into donating expired coupons to a military family because I know that they can use them for 6 months after the expiration date. But for now, I organized my coupon file by throwing them out.

I wanted to go shopping. For jeans. And I had no coupons for jeans or any clothing for that matter. So I remembered an aunt of mine who had once told me that you could find some pretty nice jeans at the Goodwill store. Figuring that this experiment in savings had to go on, and that being a savvy shopper encompasses more than just the use of coupons, I packed up the girls and went to the Goodwill Store. And I resolved to include my experience there in this savings journal.

I must start out by saying that at first, I was feeling pretty negative about the idea. The store was rather hot and my little one decided to melt down in her stroller. My older daughter kept asking me why we were there at all. Between the questions and the crying, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get a grip on this shopping trip.

I noticed that two rows of racks were dedicated to jeans. One for women’s jeans and one for men’s jeans. There was no order to the jeans on the racks. It was just two long rows with hangers jammed close together and holding jeans of all shapes and sizes. I took a deep breath and began going one by one through the women’s rack. Generally speaking, most of the jeans were too large for me. But I began noticing that the brands on the rack were pretty good. Some were brands that I would have purchased in a retail store. And some brands were above my typical jean price point.

All the jeans were $5. There were 4 that caught my eye and were my size. At $5 each, I decided to purchase all 4 and not risk the anxiety of entering a dressing room with my two kids. So I brought my finds home.

My aunt was right! What a great haul!

And here is the awesome happy ending: They all fit beautifully.

What a great experience. Thank you Goodwill.

I probably saved a ton of money with the 4 jeans. They cost a lot less than I would usually spend on one pair. But I feel funny adding them to my “Money Saved” total since I really don’t know how much I would have spent if I had gone to a retail store instead. So I won’t add it in, but I do want my readers to know about how great my Goodwill hunt went!

Couponing for the Easily Embarrassed

Day 5

Today I had some time to waste as I waited for my daughters Girl Scout meeting to wrap up. I used this time to drop into a nearby Walgreens. I had noticed a sale on peanut butter in a circular and it matched up with a coupon that I had been carrying around, so it seemed like the time to swoop in on a deal.

I grabbed the peanut butter first: 2 jars on sale for $1.99 a jar + a coupon for $1 off of 2 jars.

Feeling pretty good about closing in on that deal, I decided to wander around the store a bit and try to find more.

My lack of strategy made me realize why people map out their trips to the store first: looking for the sale tags, and then leafing through my coupon organizer was cumbersome. And I felt like everyone at the store was looking at me. Bottom line is, I was embarrassed to be using coupons. And taking the time to read the tags and try to find a matching coupon made me feel like all eyes were on me.

In reality, probably nobody noticed, and if they did, they might have pitied me or, at best, thought I was a discerning shopper. But it really doesn’t matter. At least that’s what I think now that I am no longer at the store. But in that shopping moment, I was shrinking inside.

And I left with only the peanut butter. Regular price: $4.49 each.

Which, after coupons, I paid only $1.49 per jar: A savings of 67%.

Receipt for 2 Jars of Peanut Butter

67% is Not Bad

 

And I walked out of the store feeling so dissatisfied. Why?

I looked to my inspirational show for answers. After watching yet another episode of Extreme Couponing, I felt re-inspired, and I think I figured out why I am not feeling the rush of savings bliss.

The people on the show are getting some pretty sweet deals. They are not only saving money, but they are getting things for free. Naturally, this is because they are couponing experts, especially in comparison to a novice like me. These people know the coupon policies of their favorite stores and have no qualms about handing over a stack of coupons during a transaction. It’s quite admirable.

I still don’t have a favorite store, largely because I have not tried couponing in a variety of places. And I do not know any stores coupon policy. And I have only purchased one newspaper and clipped a relatively small handful of coupons.

But you have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run, so if 65% savings is all I can muster at the moment, then it is going to have to be Ok with me.

Be gone melancholy!

SAVINGS TO DATE:  $ 74.83   ($68.83 last count + $6 saved on peanut butter)

 TIME SPENT TODAY:  0  (I went shopping, but I was already there waiting for my daughter to finish up an activity, so no additional time was spent due to this shopping run.)

Because of Winn Dixie

Day 4

Today I went on my first semi planned big shop.  I started out with circulars and lists of several things I needed from 3 major retailers. See the pictures below for my various lists.

 

 

 

I started out making one list.

 

Then another list...

 

 

Then after about 30 minutes of trying to sort out where I could score the best deals on the most items, I decided to STOP.

I am shopping with an infant. I can’t go to 3 stores. So my best bet (I decided) was to go to the store that had the best sales on the items I need right now. Regardless of what coupons I had clipped.

So I headed out to Winn Dixie with my little red coupon file. I chose Winn Dixie because they had several Buy One Get One (BOGO) offers and 10 for 10 offers on meats, dairy, and pasta, and right now, those were the things I need most. My strategy was simple: get things I need and use the coupons I had only when they would result in better savings than the other options present.

I spent an hour and a half (which is only about 30 minutes longer than I usually take in a shop this big) and used 4 coupons for the following items:

1 box pasta

1 jar jam

2 V8 Bottles

1 bag frozen chicken nuggets

The items I bought with coupons

 

I bought several BOGO items, including:

Pork Ribs- with all of the meats/chicken/fish, I made sure to get packages of equal or near equal weight, this way I really got as much as possible with the BOGO deal.

Chicken Thighs

Cod Fillets

Shrimp

Steaks

Bread Crumbs

Orange Juice

Toddler Juice

And Several 10 for $10 Items

Pasta Boxes

Pasta Sauce (I have never purchased pasta sauce in a can before, but I figured, why not try it?)

Some Items that were on sale were:

Peanut Butter

Jelly (and I had a coupon)

V8 (and I had a coupon)

Toilet paper

Eggs

------------------------------------------

All together I purchased 37 items and spent $92.88.

I saved $51.93 with my rewards card and $3.05 more with coupons for a total of $54.98 saved. In addition, I earned .10 in fuel perks that I can use to get .10 off per gallon of fuel (for my 10 gallon car= savings of $1).

The items purchased today.

 

-------------------------------------------

I was not impressed with this haul. Mostly because I wanted to use more coupons. The problem I kept running into with the coupons were as follows:

1- The coupon did not bring the price down as low as the store brand option

2- The coupon was valid for a certain size that the store did not carry

3- The coupon did not work with sale items. For example, there was a great sale on Post cereals, but I only had coupons for Kellogg’s cereals. So either way, I was saving money, but I could not seem to get that perfect alignment where the sale matched up with my coupon. I suppose this is why avid couponers have binders and binders of coupons.

4- The coupon could have been maximized if the smaller size was available but then the savings were not deep enough on the larger available sizes.

5- The coupon was from another store.

 

But when I stopped to reflect on my trip, I realized that it was not a waste of time. I purchased many high priced items on this trip- Enough for many meals. If you take $93 I spent and divide by the number of items I purchased, I spent about $2.51 per item, and I would venture to say that most if not all of my items retail for more than that.

So I may be inching my way towards deep savings, but I am saving. And I have a little stockpile going.

I will remain cautiously optimistic.

SAVINGS TO DATE:  $ 68.83   ($12.85 last count + 54.98 saved in sales and coupons + $1 for fuel perks)

 TIME SPENT TODAY:  1 hour  (30 minutes preparing (and then not using the prep sheets) and 30 extra minutes spent at the store)

Coupons Curbing My Behavior

Day 3

In the past, I haven’t really been an avid couponer, so today, when I was pondering my history with coupons and advertising, I had a hard time coming up with a personal anecdote:  Mostly because I was focusing on my grocery store experiences. But there is one area where coupons have had an effect on my behavior: In my consumption of coffee.

I used to go to one coffee house each day on my way to work. This may seem extravagant to some, but really I was only spending about $2 a day on this luxury because all I would ever get was a small iced coffee.

Then one day I was in a hurry, and the kids were all strapped into their car seats, and my usual place didn’t have a drive through window, so I went to Dunkin Donuts. I ordered the same thing that I always ordered, a small iced coffee. And it cost about the same as I was used to paying at the other place. But this time, the small was much larger than I was used to. And I didn’t have to get myself and the kids out of the car. In addition, the receipt included a survey code that would give me a free donut, if I completed the survey, the next time I ordered coffee. And the woman at the register gave me a rewards card that entitled me to a free coffee after I purchased 8 coffees.

 I did do the survey, and when I returned to Dunkin Donuts, I got my usual coffee and a free donut. And I got my rewards card stamped. Since then, I still visit my regular coffee house. But more often than not, I go to Dunkin Donuts. It is nice to get the free donut each time I go (which I share with my kids) and it is nice to get a free coffee on my eighth visit.

And today, was one of those great 8^th visits, so I got coffee, and spent  nothing. You got to love moments like that!

 

 

 

Dunkin Donuts receipt has survey directions:
Complete survey for a free donut with next
medium or larger drink purchase!

 

 

 

SAVINGS TO DATE:  $ 15.20 ( previous amount +2.35 saved on coffee today using my rewards program card)

 TIME SPENT TODAY:  0 

It’s My Party

Day 2

Apparently yesterday was the Holy Grail of couponing for me. Birthdays are a time when customer loyalty programs and stores send you special coupons and even free items. But since I am not on every mailing list in town, I apparently missed the boat on this one. So I can add another mission to this experiment: To join the customer loyalty programs at the places where I shop and eat so that next year I will be prepared to take full advantage of my special day.

SAVINGS TO DATE:  $ 12.85

 TIME SPENT TODAY: 0  (no spending or preparing)

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.