Couponing!

Back in January I got back in to the habit of using coupons when grocery shopping and cherry picking sales at a few different stores (Giant and Harris Teeter for groceries and CVS for toiletries).  I had been shopping at Walmart for several years and was just spending SO MUCH MONEY and only getting enough food for the week.  So, I decided it was time to go back to coupons AND the regular grocery store.

Over a few months I got my stockpile built up nicely.  I haven't run out of laundry soap once this whole year and I probably have enough for the rest of 2014 in my basement.  The boys always have a nice stockpile of their favorite cereals, snacks and juice (although they don't drink a lot of juice and when they do get it it's cut so much with water .. that probably helps make it last a long time too).

I took a few pictures of some of my "hauls" just to show what is possible with the help of sales and coupons.  First is this package of Arnold Sandwich Thins.  I got four of these from Harris Teeter several months ago for free.  How, you ask?  They were on sale BOGO (buy one, get one) and I had two coupons that were also BOGO making them FREE.  I froze all but the one pack I was going to use right away and am just now (in AUGUST) using up the last package.  So, definitely a good score!

Then I got these deodorants from Harris Teeter for $.50/each.  I forget the sale price and the value of the coupons I used, but I know this was possible because of the Super Double Coupons Harris Teeter had going on at the time.  Usually once a month Harris Teeter has one week where they double all coupon up to $2 in value.  This is HUGE because normally most stores (HT included) will only double coupons up to $.99 in value.  So with any $2 off coupon the week they run this deal, you can get $4 off of ONE item.  Pretty sweet, huh?!

And, finally ... this was one of my most exciting times couponing thus far.  I had done two trips that day.  The first (on the left if you're looking at the picture) was at Kmart.  Kmart has a rewards card that you can earn $$ off amounts just for shopping there, but that particular day they were giving me a hard time with mine, so I got frustrated and quit pushing the point.  Had I been able to use points that I know I had, my total would have only been approx. $5 but instead I ended up paying $10.

Then on the right hand side I went to CVS for this wonderful stuff.  Again, it was so long ago, I forget what the sales were and what the coupons were for, but I do know that with the coupons and sales I was able to get all that for $9!  NINE DOLLARS!  Pretty awesome, huh?!

I've gotten out of the swing of things over the summer because we've been so busy, but I plan to get back to it just as soon as school is back in full force.  Don't want my stockpile to dwindle too much!