Free French's mustard this week at Albertson's

Yes, I did intend to go in just for free mustard and nothing else but the french bread smelled so good... And the Chex Mix was .25 for a large bag and had to try the new Keebler Wheatable crackers at $1.99 less $1.50 IP coupons. My receipt was a mile long and the cashier said "well you saved more than you spent" which I choose to take as a compliment. So now we have a nice assortment of mustard. Picked up some free BBQ sauce too. Last month my husband bought several quarts of it from Sam's and I was so upset. Couldn't he wait until free BBQ sauce season started, it was only weeks away. Surely he could have used another condiment rather than paying for what I could have got free if he had just been patient. And this is the point where I am reminded that I am lucky to have a husband who will go to the store even if we are now committed to use those Sam's Club sized drums for the next 12 grilling seasons. He bought ketchup too.

My coupon holder

As you can see it is probably about time to move to the more sophisticated binder method. My little holder is overflowing and I am missing a lot of good deals because I just can't find that coupon! I did try to make a change about 6 months ago but my label maker ran out of tape which I took to be a bad omen. Since this beast won't fit in any purse I own, it now rides around in a torn, reusable shopping bag, usually filled with crumpled up coupons I printed but just haven't taken the time to cut out and organize. Professional couponistas would be horrified but it works for me...most of the time.

Baby formula

My son is 18 months so we are well past the days of having to buy formula but are now using the "follow up" formulas because I am getting them so inexpensively. I have some extended family that are young, newly married, newly homeowners and new parents. The father just recently lost his job and the mother is terribly, terribly stressed because breastfeeding is not working for her. The birth was early due to complications and was completed by c section after induction and many, many hours in hard labor. She has since suffered another surgery (gallbladder) and many physical complications in addition to her emotional turmoil over having a new baby, lost jobs and having their home, cars, credit and health insurance in jeopardy. I think most of us can relate in some ways to this story as sometimes life's best blessings come when everything else is in turmoil. The husband is feeling a lot of pressure and has said that the breastfeeding has to work because they simply cannot afford formula. And at about $80 a month I certainly understand. So I suggested my approach to couponing in an effort to assist. Hopefully it will work for them.... So formula, with my first child breastfeeding didn't work for similar reasons to the story I just mentioned. I remember digging through the couch cushions and cashing in change to afford it. I actually used a "free trial" coupon for a daycare center so I could get to a job interview. My daughter got ringworm from that "free trial" but I did get the job and was able to work partially from home and still care for her. So I certainly feel for anyone going through this but the point I want to make is that it doesn't have to be that hard! With my second child he didn't take to breastfeeding well so I exclusively pumped for six months. At six months I could no longer delay starting a medication that I desperately needed and started using formula. Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe that breastfeeding is best but for some this simply isn't the best option or try as they may, it doesn't come naturally. I think I pumped about 12 hours a day, during TV shows, after every meal, before bed, in the middle of the night several times and still only got about 12 ounces a day with the most expensive rental pump. Sorry, too much information! Anyways, at $80 a month, formula is cost prohibitive for some. I talked to another mom recently that said her hospital samples were running out and asked what I though about store brand formulas. My initial reaction was way too much money! I signed up for the various formula clubs while I was still pregnant and was raking in the formula savings. They advertise $250 in free "gifts" aka formula checks. If you sign up for all three major brands you might just have enough to cover your first year or formula. I have combined these "checks" with manufacturer coupons for free formula many times over. Right now we are using Enfamil Enfagrow which is $16.99 on sale at Safeway. I use a $5 printable manufacturer coupon plus about $10 in formula checks each month that are still coming. I think Safeway also has an ecoupon. so $1.99 for a large can which lasts us about two weeks now that he also drinks regular milk and juice. This is a good fill in for the days when he doesn't eat much or isn't feeling well. And at $1.99 it is certainly cheaper than milk and is readily available in the pantry if I need it.

So back to diapers ....

Sorry but I really have a charge on this. Like I said, in the before days, I thought nothing of paying $10 a pack for diapers. Then I realized I had been paying $10, twice a week for something I THREW AWAY and would pay $10, twice a week for the next 102 weeks. Yikes, it really adds up fast! I have made it my mission to reduce that as much as humanly possible. For starters, I started combining the coupons I got in the paper with sales and found that I could get a jumbo pack for about $5-6. Then I started paying attention to drugstore ads, rebates and ecoupons. I hadn't been to a drugstore in years, since I discovered Target and thought it would be too time consuming. But if I look at saving $20 for 20 minutes of my time it starts to make a lot of sense. Originally our plan to "save money" on diapers was to buy at Sam's Club. Once I was enlightened I realized that the price per diaper was much, much higher there. Still better in a pinch than the grocery store, in order to really save I had to venture into the drugstores. For example, earlier this year Rite Aid did a P & G promotion. I think it was a $35 Visa card rebate for every $100 spent on P&G products. So I bought a big box of Pampers for $19.99 and something else P G to get to $25 (Pantene or wipes?) and used the $5/$25 readily available on the Internet, and used the manufacturer coupons I requested from the websites (more on that later), bringing my total to $13 a box. Did this several times. Then I got a $35 rebate and various incentives and "single check rebates" from Rite Aid. I also used those receipts for P&G's promotion for a coupon book (x2) which netted me several free rolls of paper towels, free Olay cleaners (which I sent in for another rebate) and various other discounts. In the end, very little out of pocket 300 diapers, 8 bottles of Olay, may free paper towels. Albertsons' recently did a promotion for P & G where you got $10 back for every $25 spent. So again, I used my coupons, sent in for rebates and got a very good deal. Last month I bought Pampers packs at Safeway for $2.99 a pack. Signed up online for P & G ecoupons (ecoupons are our friends!), used store sale coupon for $7.99, had $2 ecoupon and $3 manufacturer coupon. You can get Huggies at Walgreens during a promotion for about $3.99 a pack and Rite Aid does a promotion where you get a free pack for every certain number you buy ( I think it's 5 or 6). Coupons. com had had a $3 off printable lately (send me your name and email if you want to turn printing grocery coupons into a money maker) so as long as you are not running low you can usually buy these a few packs at a time and still qualify for the free pack. Pampers and Huggies both have rewards programs. I saved up my Pampers rewards for a free Diego potty seat (retails value about $10) and have won many times on Huggies when I play late at night when the site is less busy. They both offer rewards like gift cards for Starbucks, Kohl's, Visa or free products. I won on Huggies twice in about 5 minutes when I was playing late at night. I used those 2 free product coupons at Rite Aid to get closer to my free pack, meaning I only spent about $12 for 6 packs. Hopefully I will be able to upload pictures soon but this week Rite Aid was having a 50% off sale on Mega packs. These are not as big as box but larger than Jumbo's. So I signed up for the rewards card, printed 4 John Frieda hair care coupons (I had already used the ones that came in the paper) & printed a $5 off $25. The hair products were 4/$20 with a $10 "reward". So I used the $10 in manufacturer coupons, bought some fillers (got some free Splenda and Stayfree) to get to $25. My out of pocket was about $6. Then I used the $10 reward to buy a mega pack of Huggies ($8.99 and $3 off) and a pack of Pampers training pants (6.99 and $2 off) for a total of $1.01. So basically $7 for two large packs of diapers, Splenda, 4 packs of Stayfree and four hair products. Much less than I used to spend and I will save the receipts in case any rebates come up.

Couponing 101

In the before times (two jobs, two incomes, health insurance :)) I thought nothing of paying $10 for a jumbo pack of diapers. If I used a $1.50 off coupon I walked away with my head held high, thought I was so smart. Only $8.50 pre tax for 31 diapers. Then my eyes were opened by a wonderful website I will post about (once I get the owners permission). I was so excited. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The hubby and I had just had a discussion about "the budget" and how I had to stop spending so much. I was crushed. Shopping is recreation for me and spending money had never been an issue so I thought the world was coming to an end. Our family had thought nothing of spending $200 a week for groceries and I could easily spend $80 every time I entered Target. So the first time I tried the directions from this site I printed several copies to make sure I did it right ( I thought it was complicated at first). I think I saved about 50% off my total on Eggo waffles. I gave out my printed copies in line while the people in line behind me oohed about what a great deal I had found. Then, I submitted the receipt for the rebate and guess what? It actually came. Bringing my price down to just cents per box of waffles. Well, I had to stuff those Eggo's into every nook and cranny of my freezer, out of the original boxes, so for month's we ate waffles without knowing what flavor we were getting. Then I staged a sleepover for ALL the girl's in my 8 year old's class and boy was I happy to serve those cheap waffles! In the meantime, I have learned to buy just what I have room for and just what we will use. It is easy to initially get carried away and buy way too much when you are finding things so cheap but eventually it evens out. In my early couponing days I was sending my in laws home with bags and bags of free deodorant and mouthwash because I was running out of room. Thankfully they didn't take it personally.

So I started couponing a little over a year ago after becoming a full time mom. It has certainly helped the budget a lot and helps us to afford the little luxuries that might be neglected otherwise. And by luxuries I mean the name brand toothpaste, the better toilet paper and lots of snack foods. I agree with the opinion that couponing can be a waste of time for people who don't buy "junk foods" or prepackaged items but if you are going to buy this stuff, better that you get it for free and spend your money on the quality items like produce and meat. And there is a lot to be said for creating a "stockpile" when prices are low. Now I do not go out and spent $4 a box for cereal and it is such a pleasure to go into the pantry and realize that yes, I do have another jar of peanut butter and don't have to make an emergency trip to the store. I was getting so frustrated when I would check my favorite coupon websites, diligently print order and organize my coupons only to get to the store and find my local store didn't have the same deals. Finally I did find some good sites that are in my area but still some deals don't work out or prices vary or coupon policies are different from store to store. So hopefully you can use my experiences to help save a little money and time. I will post the deals that have actually worked for me and maybe a few extras. Enjoy!