Here you can see my work area on Sundays. Yes, I clip, sort, and file my coupons in bed. I'm not actually in bed, per se, just sitting on it with my circulars, stacks, envelopes, coupon file, and other weird sorting devices surrounding me in a fashion that only makes sense to me and would probably stupefy anyone else who might come across it.
I've mentioned before that I have a little accordion coupon file. This has expanded slightly; the file contains the bulk of my coupons, but now all coupons that are being used on my next shopping trip go in a re-used envelope. The coupons for the shopping trip after that go in one section of my file, and all other useful coupons are filed in their sections. I have another envelope for products we don't regularly use but that I'll get if they're free or nearly free. I have another envelope for all baby coupons to give to my sister. I used to have an envelope for coupons to trade with others, but that overfilled quickly so I've moved on to a nifty cardboard box that used to house Wheat Thins snack stick thingies. The "baby" envelope and the "only if it's free" envelope fit inside the box neatly and the box sits out of the way on a corner of my desk. My ever-growing file and current-coupons envelope stay in my purse at all times. Needless to say, I carry a large purse with many pockets.
So, last week. Adding up the two trips, my no-sale, no-coupon shelf price total came to $317.43. Our out of pocket cost was $42.47. This amounts to a savings of $274.96, or 87%!
Oh, and a note: when I was looking over the receipts for my first trip, I realized that the deductions are calculated weird on said receipts. I went through line items to determine the true shelf price and I did edit the 9/30 post to reflect my accurate 89% savings.
I have one more trip to make tomorrow to take advantage of a couple more OYNO Catalina deals and a bunch of freebies. This is where we'll pick up some chicken, granola bars, a little produce and maybe some beef or pork with the remaining OYNOs I have. After that, no more shopping until Friday or Saturday when I start in on next week's sales.
Next week isn't as great as this current one, sale-wise. The standout for me is dirt cheap frozen veggies - 8 for $8, and you get a $3 OYNO which translates to 8 packages of frozen veg for $5. That's a good price for non-coupon use, but I also have some $1/2 and $1/3 coupons which, if my math is correct, will net me 16 packs of frozen veg for a grand total of $5, or $.31ea. Vegetable soup, anyone??
It also looks like there might be some free pasta and yogurt for $.125ea along with Energizer batteries and sinus medicine for a buck. I'm eying dollar deodorant and $.50 toothpaste with interest.
I did a little trading last week and hope to have a few stacks of coupons in hand before Friday. There should be at least a few I can use on this week's sales; maybe I'll find another fantastic deal or two. Yes, people trade coupons. I have no use for shaving cream (Andy's the bearded type), but someone else might be willing to send me canned tomato coupons in exchange for shaving cream coupons, or whatever products we don't use; rather than letting the savings go to waste, crazy coupon ladies trade amongst themselves. Andy gives me funny looks and often outright laughs at me when I get all coupon-weird like this, but he does acknowledge that the amount of money we're saving is no laughing matter.
Now if only I could find some good trash bag deals!
No comments:
Post a Comment