I’ve been putting up pictures and deals I’ve gotten couponing, and I’ve started having a lot of people asking me questions about it, so I figured I’d give yall another coupon post!
Before I start giving yall any advice about coupons, let me brag for just a second about the deal I just scored. 120 Yoplait yogurts for a grand total of………………$1.45. AND on top of that, the store gave me a $2 catalina. So, basically, I was paid 55 cents for taking 120 yogurts!! I know what you’re probably thinking: What the heck will she do with 120 yogurts?? They’ll all go bad! But not so! Did you know that you can freeze yogurt?? I just found out recently, so when I found this deal, I stocked up since little man eats yogurt for breakfast every morning. Now I’m set for all his breakfasts for the next 4 months!!
So, now you’re probably wondering how I did it. Well, you’re in luck, because here’s the part where I stop bragging and get down to business. It’s a pretty simple concept though. You’ve seen before where I talked about getting my coupons organized. That part is tedious and takes HOURS, but that’s really just the first step. After that, what you need to do is HOLD YOUR COUPONS. I know -- it’s tempting when you see that you need vegetables for dinner tonight, and you have a $1 off coupon. But just say no!! Don’t use that coupon yet!! Hold onto it until the vegetables you use often go on sale. Then, when the prices are even lower than usual, you can stock up.
That’s the big secret! That’s all there is to it! You just have to decide to change the way you shop. Rather than buying one or two things when they go on sale, or when you have coupons, you wait until you have both, and then you buy a TON and store it. That way, you’re catching the deals, and you’re set until it goes on sale again. I’ll use my yogurt example above because it’s such an awesome one. Here’s how I worked it:
I bought my usual 4 newspapers, clipped my coupons, and filed them away. Among those coupons were coupons for Yoplait yogurt. So I had 4 coupons for 50 cents off 8 yogurts, and 4 coupons for 40 cents off 6 yogurts. Rather than using them right away (which I could have done because I just told you how often we eat yogurt), I held onto them. This past week, Food Lion had The Big Deal, where a lot of different items were on sale. Yoplait yogurt included. Through that sale, if I bought 30 items, I got $15 off my purchase. With yogurt on sale for 60 cents apiece, when I bought 30 of them, it took me from a cost of $18 (before tax) to $3. Then I used my coupons, and that took me down to negative numbers. That means that after tax, my cost was -$0.10. Food Lion’s policy is to not give you any money if your coupons are worth more than the item, but my cashier thought I was awesome and gave me the dime anyway (I knew I shouldn’t get it, so I put it in the donation jar on the counter). On top of that, the coupon machine in the store printed out a $2 catalina, which means I now had an additional $2 to spend at Food Lion on my next purchase. So, I turned around and did the same thing the next day. I printed off all the Yoplait coupons offline I could find, and ended the week having done the deal 4 times. Because I eventually ran out of coupons, I had to pay $1.45 yesterday, but I still got a $2 catalina back, so it’s like I was paid 55 cents for those 120 yogurts!!!
That’s how easy it is! It takes a long time to comb through the circulars every week and even longer to clip and file all those coupons. And then I still have to do the math to figure out which deals and coupons are worth it. I probably spend as much if not more time each week couponing than at my actual job. It’s a lot of work. But it’s not really hard work once you get the hang of it. I’m certainly no math whiz, but I figured it out. If I can do it, you can do it too! And if you need help, as I've mentioned before, The Krazy Coupon Lady is a great resource. Buy the book. It's WELL worth the $20 you'll spend, and when you walk out the grcoery store door with a haul like mine pictured below, you'll feel AWESOME. Happy couponing!
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| This haul was worth over $200. I only paid $80 of that!! (You can see my first 30 yogurts in there with everything else) |
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