My Coupon Diary: Day 5: 07-15-10

Day 5: 07-15-10

I started today relaxing with my kids. The girls and I made bead necklaces for all their webkinz and Judah played with his toys. We didn't do a whole lot until Aunt Shannan came just after lunch. Then it was pack up the kids (and we do get a lot of looks being two young moms with 5 kids total. I think most people are just trying to figure out which kids belong to who. Makes me laugh!) and off the Fred Meyer we went.

When we got there, we were in and out in no time. We found the Old El Paso isle (isle 8) and got right to business. The peelies Shannan had collected on a previous trip gave us these coupons: 2 buy 2 Old El Paso products and receive $1 off a can of refried beans and 2 buy 2 Old El Paso refried beans and receive 1 package of Old El Paso taco seasoning. Surprise, surprise! We found one more peelie for the taco seasoning in the isle! Yay! The catalinas we were going for were buy 6 Old El Paso items and receive $3 catalina and buy 3 Old El Paso products and receive $1 catalina.

I personally took 2 buy 2 products and get $1 off refried beans (I chose to buy refried beans for my 2 products) and 1 buy 2 refried beans and get 1 taco seasoning (which in the end I traded Shannan the seasoning for another can of refried beans). My personal purchases went like this:

FRED MEYER

T1:
6 cans of Old El Paso refried beans ($1.33 ea)
used 2 $1 off peelies OOP: $5.98
RECEIVED: $3 catalina

T2:
2 Old El Paso refried beans ($1.33 ea)
1 package of Old El Paso taco seasoning ($.99)
used free seasoning coupon with the purchase of two Old El Paso items OOP: $2.66
RECEIVED: $1 catalina

T3:
2 Green Bell Peppers ($.69 ea)
5 Roma Tomatoes ($.98 lb for $1.34)
Bananas ($.49 lb. for $1.59) Original Total: $4.31
USED BOTH MY $3 CAT AND $1 CAT
OOP: $.31

Totals Original Total: $15.94

My Total: $8.95 A Total savings of 44% (for free produce it was worth it!)

As far as percentage goes, it wasn't the best deal, but when you take into consideration that I was able to purchase produce.....This is a huge savings!

When we got home, it was time to make dinner (remember I had tacos on the menu for this exact reason). Tacos it was, and we used some of what we picked up today. The only things I had to get out from what I already had was rice, cheese, and tortillas (all of which I scored on past deals). Nothing we ate tonight was something I had paid full price for. I'm not sure what tasted more delicious, the dinner or the savings!

My time today on actual couponing is as follows: I posted on a few sites about our deal and how it went (maybe 10 min.s worth), organized misc. coupons given to us by friends and family (with the help of my slave, Shannan), and then put them in their own file folder (yes, friends and family, we organized them just for you; to make finding spare coupons you need a little easier). Now I am ending my night with this diary. I will probably cruise a few sites and blogs tonight since my hubby is gone, but we'll see. I may just watch some Tori and Dean on hulu.com instead!

P.S. Please keep in mind, when you're figuring out how much time to put into this, it is completely up to you. To get really good, you will have to take more time in the beginning. Once you've done it a while, you get faster and know off hand what you already have. It is then you start putting your own deals together and don't have to spend a lot of time searching.

Also, don't take so big of a leap that you feel lost. If you don't have a stockpile of the things you use the most, work on that first. All it takes is a few times of getting those things on sale before you get a good stock. Then you use what you have stocked while you wait for the next sale (and collecting coupons for those items in the mean time).

To get a stockpile, I recommend getting them on sale w/coupons and just purchase enough to equal the original price. For example: if I buy a box of cereal that is normally priced at $4 and they happen to go on sale for $3.... I would take that sale price and add a coupon of maybe another $1. That one box of cereal just became $2 cereal. Now if I had another coupon for $1, I could buy 2 boxes of cereal for the cost of one box at original price. I just got one box for my stockpile! If you work in a tight budget, this is the way to do it. If you can spare about $10 extra in your budget per trip, then use that to stock up with.

Deep breath.... awww. We are blessed. Goodnight.

Total Spending Left For This Week: $1.87