Monday, May 23, 2011

Savin' Maven Monday: Rich Folks Do Not Want Me Around...

Good Monday to all. I hope all of you enjoyed yet another great weekend. Mine was busy-full of work and packing, moving, and studying. However, with all that chaos being thrown in the mix, last week still proved to be an awesome couponing week for me.

For those of you who are new to visiting or following my blog, each Monday is
Savin' Maven Monday

I'm still fairly new-I've been actively couponing now for about 2 months-and I thought it would be neat to share my weekly savings with you all. So on Monday, I round up all of my purchases from the previous week and give totals and share how I saved on the listed items.

Since alot of my readers have been asking me exactly how I do this, I will start listing a specific 'couponing' tip each week. I will admit that I am no expert at this (yet) but I have gotten a helluva lot better since beginning in March. Couponing can sometimes be tedious so you have to stay tuned so as not to miss anything.

This week I shopped at 4 stores:

Savin' Maven (Walgreens)
 If you have been keeping up with me, you know that I despise Walgreens but there's something that just pulls me back each and every week. Their customer service sucks, the associates are rude, and they hardly ever have advertised items in stock. I lucked up on this trip though because I went in on a Sunday evening while no one was shopping. I spent a total of $12.90 here. The blood glucose monitor was the highest priced item but I received $10 worth of Register Rewards for purchasing it so split my transactions up and I used that  $10 reward to purchase the remainder of the items pictured. The Old Spice body washes were B1G1 50% and the candies were B1G1 FREE-all of which I had coupons for. The Pepsi was FREE with the purchase of chips and salsa and the Dole fruit crisp was also FREE after I used my coupon.

Next...CVS
Savin' Maven (CVS)
 I had $10 worth of Extra Care Bucks that I needed to use by 5/17 so the rainchecks came in handy for these items that were out of stock on the previous week. Combined with the coupons that I had and the already looowww prices of these in-ad items, I spent a total of $.52-ALL TAX- for the stuff pictured above. What a steal!!

On to...Rite Aid
Savin' Maven (Rite Aid)
My next step was Rite Aid. I always have great shopping trips at the 'Aid'. Annnnddd they always have killer sales! This past week I went in with $10 UP+ Rewards that I had earned from a previous purchase and a shit ton of coupons. The Sally Hansen and Rimmel cosmetics items were all B1G1 50% off. The detergent was $1.97 and the toothpaste was marked down to $1.09 for which I had 2 ($1 off 1) coupons so that made the toothpaste a whopping $.09. After coupons and discounts, I spent $1.59 here-ALL TAX!!

Lastly...Harris Teeter
Savin' Maven (Harris Teeter-Triple Coupon Day)
                        I don't normally do HT because their prices are SKY HIGH! Even if I were wealthy, I wouldn't shop here because it's just ridiculous! (I swear the rich people seethe with anger when they see my frugalicious self walk in the door). The only time that I do shop HT is when they are doing a double, or in this case, a triple coupon event. Usually they do these types of events once a month and since I am a family of 1 (I do sometimes feed the BF though) I am usually able to stock up on groceries and make this one trip last until the next 'grocery run'. During this coupon event at HT, they tripled all coupons up to $.98. You can only use 20 coupons per shopping trip per eVIC card. I spent $33.17 on this trip-the 5 12packs of soda that I purchased are not pictured because I didn't feel like taking them out of the car and hauling them up stairs but they were on an awesome special-B2G3 FREE.

Overall this week, my totals were $214.56       
My total out of pocket was $48.18
For a total savings of $166.38 (78% savings)

What do you think?
Did you find any great deals this past week?

Wait...wait...wait...before you leave, let me give you

 Couponing Tip #1:

Sign up for Company Reward or Loyalty Cards for each store that you frequent.

 These cards are usually free and most times stores only offer sale prices to cardholders. You may sign up for these cards in store or on the specific company's website.  Some of these cards work on the point system-for instance for every dollar you spend,  you will earn a point-once you reach a certain number of points, they will send  you a store coupon. Also, most of the loyalty cards (for pharmacy chains such as Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS) offer rewards that can be used just like money. All you have to do is purchase the advertised item and your receipt will print out with the stated reward amount that is good for you to use on your next purchase. 

       

I know you're thinking damn it's already alot to tote around a bunch of coupons so where am I gonna put all of these loyalty cards. I assure you that they are easy to store-most of them can be attached to your key ring and along with advanced technology comes the KeyRing app where you can store all of your cards on  your Smartphone for easy access.

Source

Source

Each Monday I will post a new tip. I will try to cover all that I can but please remember that I am no expert. If you have a specific question or topic that you want covered please leave it in the comments or shoot me a personal email. Thanks for reading!



Post Title from How We Do by 50 Cent feat The Game

13 comments:

  1. It is sooo much fun isn't it! Such an adrenaline rush to see how much I saved each week!!!

    Rockwell

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shucks I wish I could too but it really is an art. It takes alot of time,patience,dedication, and discipline!

    Rockwell

    ReplyDelete
  3. Couponing is the greatest thing ever. It saves me so much money!

    Rockwell

    ReplyDelete
  4. Couponing has slowly....no quickly....taken over my life!!!

    Im in loove with your site btw...I've been a follower for quite some time now.

    Can't wait 'til 'I'm a Thriftaholic' is in full swing!!

    Rockwell

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wish I could automatically become an expert couponer ! awesome savings!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi! Following you from the Meet Me Monday blog hop! I Hope
    you visit my Cajun blog and return the follow!


    - Jessica @ http://cajunlicious.com
     

    ReplyDelete
  7. EverydayproductsandmoreJanuary 9, 2012 at 1:00 PM

    awesome I'am just getting into this coupon thing great fun and lots of savings too Hi Following you From the hop look forward to Reading your posts
    http://everydayproductsandmore.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a lovely comment.
    I am so bad about using coupons- I seldom use them save for cat food and litter. That said, I do save money by cooking from scratch and buying local produce from farmer's market. Well, at least I try. Your post reminds me that I could give a sterner eye on my spending because I definitely need to be doing more saving! -Bella Q

















    the
    Citizen Rosebud

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yes you should definitely start saving more coupons. From what I've seen the items that have coupons are usually the items that are on sale, hence the reason im able to get stuff dirt cheap. Hey if I can do it, so can you!!

    Rockwell

    ReplyDelete
  10. That's DEDICATION, lady! Can't wait to read more tips!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I can't wait to post more tips either. I've learned so much that I absolutely don't know what tip to go with next!

    Rockwell

    ReplyDelete
  12. I envy you! I so wish I could do this. Not sure I am organized enough or have the patience. But, I'm thinking I need to tune in more often! Crazy deals!

    ReplyDelete

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