Sixteen Cents

Hello blog readers! I recently got on a kick to coupon. Yes, I jumped on that bandwagon. It seems to be quite the craze lately and I feel like I read about it in blog world all the time....not to mention there's that show "Extreme Couponing", which showcases some of the most talented (and crazy/obsessive) shoppers I've ever seen. I've done one shopping trip with coupons in the past, but that was before I really did my research and understood the best way to go about things (I'm still learning, it's extremely confusing). I still did pretty good though--I ended up saving about $20 just off of the items that I normally get.

I decided this go around that if I'm gonna try it, I'm gonna do it right, so I googled it (of course) and came across Coupon Divas and Lubbock Coupon Gal. Yes, this shows how much of a nerd I am. Which, if you've been reading this blog for any extended period of time, I'm sure you already knew that. Anyway, both of these sites are great and have really helped me figure things out.

I'm not due for another grocery shopping trip until this weekend (I go every 2 weeks), but I did see an amazing deal a couple of days ago that I just had to take advantage of.

We're big pasta eaters....like big. So, I was really happy to finally figure out the "coupon stacking" thing and put it to good use. I was able to use these:

And get these:

For $.16 TOTAL. Sixteen cents total. Yes, $.04 a box! I have more than sixteen pennies in my purse, people! I've learned (and this is big for me, so all of you coupon extraordinaires dont' roll your eyes) that the most effective way to coupon is to wait until something is on sale, and then find a manufacturer's coupon AND a store coupon and use them all together (a.k.a coupon stacking). You're supposed to stockpile when this happens, so that you eventually get everything you need for super cheap. (And that's key; just buy things that you would normally need, not just because they're on sale or you have a coupon...duh.)

Here's my breakdown:

Healthy Harvest Pasta (per box)

On Sale: $1.29
United Supermarkets coupon: $.75 off
Manufactuer's coupon: $1.00 of of 2 boxes (or $.50 off each)
Which equals... $.04

In short, this 16 cent purchase has opened my eyes to a new way to save money, and I could totally see how this gets addicting. So....I'm going to keep trying this out and see how it goes! I still don't really understand it all, but it's fun to try and learn!