Coupons!

I am FINALLY back to couponing!  I started couponing last year after my friend, Brittney, shared some advice on being organized and searching the ads for great deals.  She also introduced me to Money Saving Mom.  It is a great site where you can find amazing deals.  The hard part of couponing is already done for you.  By hard part, I mean matching up store deals with current coupons to yield the lowest price possible.  I was amazed to see how many items you can actually get for FREE on a regular basis.  If you get really good, sometimes a store will owe you, which means that they are basically paying you to walk out of the store with their products.  Sounds crazy, I know, but it's true. 

Yesterday, Carter and I had to run to Kroger to get a couple of things.  Of course, while there, I heard the typical, "Oh, Mom!  Can I get this?  How about these?  Just one little thing?"  Luckily, I had scanned the CVS ad and knew that there was a great deal this week:  FREE CANDY.  I told Carter that if we hurried with our shopping, we would have just enough time to stop at CVS and get the candy.  So we quickly grabbed our items, went through the express lane and headed to CVS. 

The ad stated that you could buy a king size Reese's cup minis or Hershey's drops for $1.59.  If you used your CVS card at the checkout, you would get $1.59 in extra bucks, which then makes the item free.  Also in the ad was a peanut butter or regular Snickers candy bar for $0.89.  At checkout, you would get $0.89 in extra bucks, also making that item free.  To top that, I scanned my CVS card in the coupon machine when I entered the front door, and it issued me a $2.00 extra buck coupon. 

We bought these two items.

After my $2.00 coupon, I owed $0.51.  The register issued me two extra buck coupons worth a total of  $2.48 that can be used toward a future purchase.  So, in essence, I made $1.97 by taking candy out of the store.  That's one sweet deal!  Carter sure enjoyed it!  If you continue to use extra bucks to purchase items that issue extra bucks, you will be amazed at how much you can get for so little money!