Better but not great

I did a little better today using coupons at BJ's.  I could have sworn I printed out some coupons for coffee creamer but then couldn't find them in my old coupon book at the store.  Rats.  I did manage to save $10 at BJ's using mostly their coupons and then one manufacturer coupon for coffee that I had printed out.

I tried an experiment I heard about online.  Contact a company by email and tell them you like their products and would love to have some coupons.  I did this with Dole and they sent me a bunch of small coupons for their products.  None of which I use but it was still nice to get the coupons just in case.

So the bottom line is I saved $10 today and I didn't buy anything out of the ordinary.  Yay me :)

Is my interest waning ?

Oh No, I hope my interest in this project is not waning.  Maybe it is the holidays.  I feel so overwhelmed with the holidays approaching that I have not been interested in clipping coupons.  I am hoping that once Christmas is over I will continue to get organized.  Mallory has been sending me coupon websites to learn from that I really appreciate.  My interest in Weight Watchers is down too.  Hoping to make a new years resolution to be better about everything.

Good night all.

Learning the method to savings

I have discovered that it is going to take some time to get organized and get into the swing of things.  I bought a new coupon file book at Walmart for $4.88 that is much bigger than my dollar store find. I did some shopping today and saved some money.

Harbour Freight Tools (20% off coupon) $6.00
Harbour Freight Tools (Free screwdriver set with purchase) $5.49
Lowes (20% off coupon) $2.55
Lowes (20% off coupon) $20.73 (actually did this on 12/17/10 but I want to include it)
ABC Liquors (mail in rebate) $3.00
Found a dollar in the Walmart parking lot and donated it to the Salvation Army :)

Grand Total Savings for this blog.....$ 37.77

Not bad for a newbie.  Can't decide if I should deduct the cost of my coupon file book as "supplies needed".  Let me know what you think.

This is the set of screwdrivers I got for free  with a coupon at Harbour Freight :)

Did you know?

Did you know that if you take a reusable bag to Target they will give you a 5 cent credit on each bag used.

The Coupon Mom

I am a HUGE YouTube fan. I use YouTube to educate myself about how to fix things and learn about how stuff works. I have just discovered that The Coupon Mom has a YouTube account. She has a series of videos on how to save in different categories. I haven't watched them all yet, but I am sure they are useful.
http://www.youtube.com/user/CouponMom

My Project

With the New Year approaching, I have decided to try a personal experiment. My daughter Mallory has become interested in couponing and now I am also interested in the idea of saving money while shopping for everyday things. Back when I was young, you could only clip coupons from magazines and newspapers. Now you can print them online and look them up on the internet. Quite a difference. I have seen stories about women purchasing baskets of groceries and products and spending only a couple dollars. They must spend all their time planning out their shopping. I don't have that kind of time or desire (well maybe the desire) but I would like to start off the new year with a little experiment. Everytime I use a coupon or save money at the register, I want to post it on this blog. At the end of each week or month, I will tally up the savings to see how I did. I will also document the amount of effort it took to save the money. I purchased a coupon wallet from the dollar store a while back that I will organize my coupons. I will also post helpful hints to others interested in saving a buck.

Here is my first helpful hint that was passed on to me by a Lowe's worker. If you go to the post office and request a couple moving packets or change of address kits, they are filled with coupons from different places. 10% off at Lowe's (which is my favorite) Best Buy, Budget, DirectTV, Geico, StateFarm, etc. I go to different post offices and ask for the packets since they don't leave them out where people can just pick them up. Always ask for a couple or a few. Don't settle for just the change of address card, ask for the whole packet. Also, check the expiration date on the front of the packet. They will try to slip you out of date packets every now and then.

I have found some videos about how to save using coupons that are interesting. This site gives a list of different videos you can watch: http://www.couponmom.com/news-videos-35




More to come...............