Okay, I am a coupon LOVER! I cannot even express to you the joy that it gives me to get something for nothing, or even better to make a profit to take a product out of a store. The 2 best places to do this are CVS and Walgreens. Around the end of October, I suffered a little bit of coupon burn-out and my coupon box disintegrated into utter disarray.
Last night, my sweet husband helped me get motivated and pitched in to clip and organize what seemed like a million coupons.
The thing to remember about getting started as a mega-couponer (or getting restarted, as the case may be) is that it costs a bit more out of pocket to begin with and then, once you have your stash of rebate cash, Register Reward and Extra Care Bucks, you are no longer using your out of pocket money. In the coupon world, this is called rolling it over. For instance, you buy a product for $4. You pay for this product with your own money. You then recieve $4 worth of Extra Care Bucks printed from the register. Now you not only have the product you purchased, but you have $4 to spend on the next great deal that gives you Extra Care Bucks. I say all this to say, "Don't get too discouraged at first. Start small. Start one drug store at a time."
I made my first CVS trip this afternoon. It was not as exciting as I had planned because our CVS is about to relocate into a nice, new, freestanding building and they are not re-stocking their shelves.
Today's first CVS trip looked something like this:
1 box Hershey's Chocolate Popcorn-90% Christmas Clearance .49
1 package of Christmas Tree Tinsel-90% Christmas Clearance .29
2 packages of Christmas Stickers-90% Christmas Clearance .30
1 St Ives Lotion 2.99 - $2 printable coupon= 2.00
1 St Ives Apricot Scrub ( I LOVE this stuff!) 2.99 - $2 printable coupon= 2.00
3 Valentine's Cards 2.97
1 Nasogel 7.99- $2 printable coupon= 5.99
Total Before Coupons $18.02
Total After Coupons $12.02
Total OOP after Taxes $13.28
Total Extra Care Bucks Earned $10.99
Total Spent $ 2.29
Pretty Good! The register also printed me of a $5 off of any $15 purchase. That will be a little extra cash in my pocket, as well.
If you are interested in learning more, head over here. She gives great listings of deals and good information for beginners.
Hey Canann,
Do you ever check out consumerist.com? They have some good consumer info and post deals and coupons every morning. They were recently purchased by Consumer Reports. I've found some good deals, but the consumer stories are a fun read too.
Your coupon posts have been a timely read for me. We've been running a "COUPON MADNESS" contest the last couple of months here at the Daily Press. We are asking folks to submit receipts showing how much they are saving with coupons from the paper. Our winner gets the amount they saved in cash from us. It's pretty incredible. There are people barely paying for stuff! Good Luck in your quest for the bargains.
-Angie
Posted by: Angie | January 19, 2009 at 11:29 AM