Flee be gone and rush over to Money Saving Mom!

She is holding a 24 hour give away for 3 Progresso soup baskets. I want I want I want!

My kitchen is compiled of old 10+ year old kitchen utensils. Sure maybe 1 or 2 things I’ve purchased new but dang I could sure use a basket like that!

Maybe you could too? Go register now!

Recently I got interested in coupons. Yes, coupons. It’s a job all itself really. I’ve signed up with every possible online printable coupon supplier I could. I’ve also signed up with every manufacturer website that I can think of. Your probably thinking, “big deal she’s using coupons”. I thought the same thing until I did some reading on “HOW” to use coupons.

I found this website and she is a pro at saving money and using coupons at many stores. I focused on Walgreens because I’ve read so many blogs on folks walking out of Walgreens with the store paying them. Now how cool would it be to go shopping and actually get paid to do it?

So I tried it.

First shopping adventure racked up a $102 worth of sales. After manufacturer coupons then the store coupons from either the weekly ad or Walgreens Easy Saver Catalog my subtotal was down to $49. That right there is amazing. I came home then went through the Easy Saver Catalog again and figured out what products had rebates on them. Claimed my rebates for the first time on Walgreens website. I chose to get my rebates back in the form of a Walgreens gift card. This makes it easy for future shopping adventures plus I get an additional 10% of my total rebates added to my card.

By the time I was done my grand total out of pocket was $29. Now who could resist that?

My second adventure, subtotaled up to $141 after manufacturer coupons & store coupons my total was down to $64. Came home submitted my rebates and I got an additional $22 in rebates on my walgreens gift card. Grand total out of pocket was $42.

If your careful to watch when ads run you can get overlapping days where you can use two ESC coupons from each month. Like 7/26/08 I went to walgreens was able to use the easy saver catalog ad for diapers from July and the August. Each one had a $5.00 off for two bags of diapers.

An example of my savings would be:
Walgreens Diapers - on sale $5.99 x 4 = $23.96
Instore Coupon (July) - Save $5.00 on 2 = ($10.00) I had 4 bags so I saved $10
Instore Coupon (August) - Save $5.00 on 2 = ($10.00) I had 4 bags so I saved $10
Subtotal - $3.96
Then July ran a special in the ESC if you purchased 3 baby items on the list you got a Register Reward for $5.00. Since I bought 4 bags I qualified. If you aren’t sure what Register Rewards is it’s a feature at walgreens when you purchase so many items of the selected ad or special they give you a coupon printed from the register upon purchase which is like cash good to use at your next purchase. So in the ultimate end my subtotal was $3.96 owed and with a $5.00 register reward I got a credit on the rest of my bill for my other items of $1.04. The diapers came out free after all my coupons and register rewards.

So in the end, get yourself a coupon organizer start clipping coupons and work the system to your benefit. There are ways to save big time if you just put some effort into it! Once my Walgreens gift card arrives I will eventually be able to shop monthly at Walgreens right from my gift card, there should be no out of pocket cash expense.

With 9 people living in my home it’s really time I find some way to save some money. My boss went shopping the other day and spent $45 bucks and ended up coming out of the store paying only a mere $11. That’s awesome and only a dream in my world. The part that really sucks is we live in a very small community. To be able to get big savings and compare prices I’d have to travel to Green Bay. Now with gas prices this really isn’t an option. We have a Wal-mart, Target & Walgreens for general items. For grocery we have Econo Foods and Pick-n-save. So my options are limited. But I’ve decided to really try to start saving money. Starting today I’m going to sign up at all my favorite sites. Like Pillsbury, Kraft, anything and everything that may give coupons. Wish me luck!