Tag Archive | savings

Couponing Tip- Make Educated Decisions!

Jan23

Take a Moment and Consider the Worth

Excited Student With A Composition Book

 

This Sunday there should be multiple coupon inserts in your Sunday paper.  These coupons provide great money saving opportunities for the wise couponer.  Here’s the shocker…I won’t be purchasing extra papers!  Have you passed out?  Has your mouth dropped open and hit the floor?

I will receive my home delivered newspaper and will gladly use whatever coupons match with great sales for items I currently need or will need in the near future.

Confused?  Perhaps you are scratching your head and asking why I wouldn’t purchase extra papers since there are so many inserts?  The answer is easy… I really am not in need of any of the items the coupons are for.  Although they are great products, I already have them in my stockpile.  As I look at my calendar, I recognize I have just a few limited days before traveling for a week.  How do I desire to spend my time?  Since I am well stocked in the items, I’ve decided to not spend the limited time purchasing, clipping and organizing coupons.  I’ve also decided I will only head to the store for the minimal items, if any, I need prior to my trip.  Actually, my goal is to only stock pile additional items I am low in or need to add.  This is one more benefit of a stock pile!  No grocery store for me this week or next…and no, my family will not starve.  Instead, they will be well fed from our freezer and pantry.  Their daily needs will be provided for from the stock pile.

This is one more way I’ve proven you do not need to become a prisoner of your coupons or shopping.  Freedom is to be had, just like the great deals are.  

Have you checked http://www.moneysavingmom.com or http://www.forthemommas.com to see the sneak preview of this Sunday’s coupons?  You can also peak into the upcoming sales. Gather your information and make educated choices as you plan your shopping trip and stock pile needs.  Your time and money are valuable and worthy of taking a few minutes to educate yourself with these money saving resources!

Happy Couponing!

Coupon Tip- How Much Time Do I Have To Spend To Save Big Money?

Jan17

Another common question, usually followed with, “I don’t have a lot of time to invest in this, can I still save?”

My answer is a resounding, “YES! You can save BIG and spend less time preparing and shopping!”

MP900341439

 

For the past two weeks I have proven this to be true.

The first week I reviewed my Sunday paper coupons at home from the paper we have delivered daily.  I also reviewed the current Weis ad.  I found them both to be worthy of purchasing additional papers so I had more coupons so we purchased our newspapers Sunday morning on the way to church.  After church we went to the local Weis store and clipped and shopped at the exact same time.  I would call this ‘flying by the seat of our pants’ couponing.  If you were there you would have found both Bob and me removing the coupons from the multiple papers, and then finding the coupons we were interested in and clipping them by hand which meant we neatly tore them since I didn’t have my binder or scissors with me (lesson learned).  We didn’t spend much time at the store and still made quite a few bargains and gas points.  I wish I still had my receipt to show you the details.

This past week I once again reviewed my paper at home as well as the ad.  We did our Sunday trek of Bob dropping me off at the Dollar Store to purchase my papers while he made a Wawa run for his coffee.  Remember, always verify they have the correct number of inserts.  I could have walked down the sidewalk to Weis if the Dollar Store didn’t have them all.  After church we grabbed a quick bite to eat, cut some coupons at the pizza shop and then went to Weis.  Great deals were had!!!  Keep in mind the week before I put my coupon binder back together again and I had it with me for this trip.  Again, I didn’t plan the trip ahead of time.  I do have the details for this trip.  Although we purchased many items not listed below, here are a few of the great deals I received:

Ragu Pasta Sauce is on sale- buy 2 get 2 free (limit of one deal).  I didn’t have coupons for this however, who could refuse half price pasta sauce?

Birds Eye Steamfresh Veggies are 5 for $5- I had a coupon for $1 off

Yoplait Yogurt is on sale for 10 for $5 and I had lots of coupons for $1 off 8 and since this is a popular item in our home we purchased quite a bit

Ortego Taco Sauce was on clearance for just .99 and I had multiple coupons for $1 of two so I stocked up.  We’ll be enjoying this in many forms. Always check the dates on clearance items.  This sauce has another year left to it yet.

General Mills Cereal (GM) was on an incredible deal from Weis and then GM made it even better.  Weis gave free milk coupons when you purchase any 8 boxes of this cereal.  Specially marked boxes provided a special deal for free movie tickets- when you buy two you get a free ticket on line.  In addition to this I had coupons $1 off two boxes.  I purchased quite a bit of cereal of our favorite kinds and Bob and I will have free dates to the movies!  Do the math and you will be impressed!  This deal is good for 12 weeks and you do not need to purchase all the cereal in one trip.  Also, there is no limit to the number of times you do this deal.  We purchased two deals worth this past Sunday.

Weis is also running another great deal this week on multiple items (Scott TP, Viva paper towels, Cottonelle TP, Huggies diapers and wipes, Kotex, Colgate, Irish Spring, Soft Soap body wash, wipes, Kleenex, Depends and Poise, Palmolive, and Speed Stick/Irish Spring deodorant .  When you purchase $30 worth (shelf price) you get $10 off toward your next order.  If you do not need $30 worth of these items you can purchase $20 shelf price and receive $5 off your next order. I chose Scott paper towels and Kleenex tissues.   I had coupons for these items, however even without coupons I would have found this deal worthy since we were getting extremely low in tissues and kind of low in paper towels.  By the time you get the $10 toward your next order you save quite a bit!  Remember, at Weis it’s the shelf price they count toward the $30 or $20, not the sale price.  Unlike Giant who doesn’t count it until after all savings- sales and coupons.  This is one more reason why Weis is my store of choice!  

Overall, here are the numbers for this past Sunday’s trip:

  • Out of Pocket (OOP) $125.73
  • Total Savings* $75.83 (includes 2 gallons of free milk which are now in my freezer)
  • Total Movie Ticket Value* $96! (in addition to the total savings listed above)
  • Total Gas Points* .30 per gallon which could save us $8 at the pump!
  • Total Savings including all * above: $179.83
  • Percentage of savings was 70%

NOT BAD FOR NO PLANNING!  All it took was to look at my one delivered paper quickly on Sunday morning, look at the Weis ad, purchase multiple papers (because I found it worthy to) and do a 45 minute shopping trip.  All it takes is a few moments, an organized binder from past coupons (which doesn’t take very long) and a trip to the store knowing what the sales are and then having your eyes trained for clearance items- such as the taco sauce.

As you can see, I really haven’t spent much time on this.  I hope you’ve found this encouraging.  By the way, the sales I spoke of above are still available until this Saturday, January 19th.  

How much time do you spend preparing for your trip?  I’d love to hear your responses!  So would others.

Couponing Tip- What’s the Deal with Newspapers?

Jan11

Where should you purchase your newspapers and how many should you purchase?

Woman with Newspaper

These are two very popular questions I’m asked.  Let’s look at them individually…

Where Should I Purchase My Paper?

Up until recently I have recommended purchasing Sunday newspapers at Dollar Tree since they only charge $1.00 per paper as compared to full price elsewhere.  Depending where the store is located will depend which paper they carry.  In the past I’ve found this to be very beneficial until they began limiting the number of papers each person could purchase.  I found this limiting for myself since I often purchase multiple copies when the coupons are good.  Another problem- they just seem to run out all the time, quite early.  I’m not sure if they are limited by the amount of papers they are permitted to sell?

Another reason to rethink where I purchase my papers happened this month.  I heard, through good sources, there were to be five inserts on a particular Sunday.  I investigated what coupons would be found in them.  I realized I wanted multiple papers since there were quite a few valuable coupons for items I needed to restock.  When I went to Dollar Tree at 10:30am they told me they were already sold out.  After a short conversation they mentioned their papers only had four inserts.  I then went down the sidewalk to our local Weis store (Gap) and checked the same paper and guess what?  It had all five inserts!  Mmmmm… I’m wondering if Dollar Tree doesn’t receive all the inserts in their discounted papers?  I was happy to purchase four papers that Sunday- and they all had five inserts!  Thank you Weis!!

Lesson learned- make sure the papers you purchase have all the inserts in them.  You can verify which inserts you should see at www.moneysavingmom.com or www.forthemommas.com.  I find both of these sites are extremely helpful in my coupon shopping.  In fact, I’ve learned to teethe on coupons with their help.

 

How Many Papers Should I Purchase?

Personally, it varies from week to week.  The Sunday newspapers are my number one source for coupons.  By verifying which coupons should be included in the paper and what deals are on the way I can make an informed choice.  I’ve been known to purchase anywhere from two to eight papers Sunday mornings.  Keep in mind I am an extreme coupon shopper which means I have a large stockpile on hand at all times. For instance, this time of the year we will see many coupons for cleaning items so I know it’s time to begin seeking deals to stock up on spring cleaning products as well as cleaning products for the remainder of the year until next January.  Seem a bit extreme?  Perhaps to the untrained coupon shopper.  However, when I get name brand cleaning supplies for $1 or less at this time of the year then I’d say it’s worth my while.  I won’t need to purchase my cleaning items for an entire year.  For the most part I save a minimum of 75% of the cost.  Although cleaning is not one of my favorite things to do, I do smile when I get to use quality products and saved money for my family at the same time!

How many papers will I purchase this week?  I’m not sure yet- I better go check out my sources to see what coupons will be in them and get planning!  To help make this easier- I have a Sunday paper delivered to my home so I can check before heading out the door for church.  It’s common for me to read through the coupon inserts in the car while my husband gets us to our church in Gap.  Happy shopping everyone! 

 

COUPON SAVING TIPS HELP YOU KEEP YOUR MONEY IN YOUR POCKET!

Dec31

Should I Stockpile?

woman with 2 grocery bags

Now that we are settled into our new home and new community it’s time to get back to extreme couponing in excellence!  I recommend you sign up to receive the updates to my Sharing From the Heart blog because you won’t want to miss my coupon savings tips I will be sharing with you throughout this new year.

First Tip: To stockpile or not?  That seems to be a BIG question I’m asked quite often.  There are pros and cons to stockpiling.

Do you have space?  If so, what size stockpile do you have room for?  What type of products do you think would be worthy to stockpile?

My first question to you-

Are you new to couponing?  If so, why not start out slow and start small.  This is my recommendation since new couponers can get overwhelmed if they take it on all at once.  Just begin watching the ads, getting coupons from the Sunday paper, perhaps printing coupons from the internet, and connect to a few of my favorite coupon saving websites that do most of the work for you.

Have you been couponing for a little while and are comfortable with it?  If so, I recommend you buy multiple papers when the coupons are useful for what you will want to purchase prior to the expiration date of the coupon.  Most likely the items on the coupons WILL go on sale prior to the coupon expiration so do not rush out to purchase items just because you have a coupon.  At this level you can begin purchasing a few of the same items (BOTH with coupons and on sale) to start a small stockpile.

Already an extreme couponer with a stockpile?  It’s time for me  to get on my soapbox… there is a fine line between stocking with a purpose with an intent to use prior to spoilage AND hoarding.  I admit it…you get almost a ‘high’ when you get to this level.  When you begin saving 70-90+% and begin bringing home free items consistently, you want to score the next deal and can, get ready for it…yes, you can become addicted for the next score.  Sounds funny…or does this sound familiar? Who doesn’t want to pay just $100 for $1,000 in merchandise?  ALL things in moderation please.  Score the great deals but also be reasonable.  The coupons will come around again and so will the sale prices.  Figure out what you have room to stockpile AND can use before the next cycle of sales.  Then donate the rest!  Use your extreme couponing skills to the benefit of local food pantries, missions and such- you can even get a tax receipt for your donation.  Think of those you know from church or your neighborhood or community that are hungry, out of work or down on their luck- donate some of your stock and make their day!

Now, my caution regarding hoarding.  What is hoarding?  It’s stocking in any quantity- large or small- of items you will not or could not possibly use up prior to expiration of the product.  Just about all items have an expiration date so it’s important you know when your stock will expire.  DO NOT WAIT to donate untill the expiration date.  In my book, that’s just throwing away trash to a local person or organization.  Trash belongs in the trashcan.  All things in excellence please!  Hoarding is also treasuring your stockpile more than relationships within your family or community.  Hoarding is allowing your stockpile to take over your home.   We’ve all seen it on tv and perhaps some of you have this already occurring in your homes- everywhere you turn you have part of your stockpile; you lose valuable space needed for life because you ‘need’ to put more stock there, you won’t share your abundance with others in need, and you look at your stockpile with extremely proud thoughts/emotions.  When we’ve put our couponing and stocking above our family life and community life, then we’ve gone too far.  Get some boxes and begin filling them with items to donate and share.  It won’t hurt, it won’t make you bleed.  It will give you an amazing feeling of a job well done!  Last year, Bob and I donated over $1,000 in products to a team from our church that provides mission work in Haiti.  This donation cost us approx $150!  It all came from my stockpile, so the $150 was spent a little here and a little there.  This was amazing and very exciting at the same time!  We provided health and beauty aids, cleaning products and food for people that have nothing in a land that is devastated.  Children ate cereal for the first time in their lives.  Something as basic as cereal that we take for granted every day.  I am still humbled by it!  In fact, it motivates us to do more- there are many opportunities for this!

We do stockpile and we’ve appreciated our stockpile for the past nine months especially!  Over the past 7+ months our family experienced the following: I had a heart procedure last May (2012), we placed our home on the market shortly after that, sold our home, lived in transition housing (hotel) while we waited for our next home, moved everything we owned into storage, moved to our new home, unpacked countless boxes, prepared and celebrated Thanksgiving for the family at our home and then celebrated Christmas.  It’s amazing how quickly the past 7+ months have gone by.  During that time we didn’t need to purchase any cleaning items or health and beauty aids.  We only purchased minimal amounts of food.  How is this possible? Because we had a healthy stockpile full of things we use and would need.  The best part- we didn’t know we were going to move when we stocked up on these items.  We hardly went to the grocery store!  Yes, this stockpile has been a blessing and we are looking forward to filling the gaping holes we’ve created by using so much over this past year.  We’ve also continued to donate to different causes at the same time.

Another benefit to stockpiling is learning to shop to the sales, not the typical grocery list way.  When cleaning items are on sale, we stock up.  We can do this because we are already stocked up on other items you typically find on a grocery list such as juice or milk… more on this in a future blog.

To stockpile or not?  The choice is yours.  You can still extreme coupon without stockpiling!  You just do it on a smaller level and it still is amazing when you save 70+% at the grocery store!

Please share your comments and questions.  This will help everyone!!

Extreme Couponing in Excellence Workshop April 14th!!! Registration is a MUST!!

Mar30

REGISTRATION OPEN TO PUBLIC!

Extreme Couponing in Excellence Workshop

is being offered on Saturday, April 14th, 9-4

Taught by Karen Pennell of Sharing From the Heart Ministry

Hosted at Living Rock Bible Church, Elverson PA.

$20 per ticket

PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED!

http://couponworkshop0414.eventbrite.com/

Isn’t it time you started saving money on your groceries?

Savings Abound at Weis This Week!

Mar20

It was a blast working with the women in our Extreme Couponing in Excellence workshop this past Saturday!  

After teaching the basics we went to work putting together an extreme savings deal at Weis.  Thanks to the management at our local Weis store (Gap) we were able to get the ad for the upcoming week so the ladies could put an actual deal together, have time to get coupons in Sunday’s paper as well as print them from the internet, and then grab the deal for themselves when they shop this week.  In this week’s ad Kraft and Weis offered an amazing deal of WYB (When You Buy) $40 (Shelf Price, Not Sale Price) YG (You Get) $10 off instantly.  Now, at first glance it might seem quite expensive to purchase $40 worth of the selected Kraft items however, in actuality it is not.   At Weis you purchase $40 in SHELF price (meaning regular price) but only pay SALE price to get the deal.  Here’s an example if you use the following SHELF prices:

  • 11 Philly Indulgence Chocolate Cream Cheese Spreads (which are amazing!) at $2.99 each
  • 2 Chips Ahoy Cookies (really good dipped in the Indulgence) at $3.79 each
  • You reach a total SHELF price of $40.47

However, you do NOT pay SHELF price, you pay sale price which is the following:

  • 11 Philly Indulgence Chocolate Cream Cheese Spreads at $2.50 each
  • 2 Chips Ahoy Cookies at $2.50 each
  • You reach a total SALE price of just $32.50

The register will automatically deduct $10 AFTER the above purchase which brings your total to a low $22.50, however, as good as that sounds…you aren’t done saving yet!

Let’s remember to use coupons that are available on the internet and in past Sunday newspapers.  In the above mentioned shopping trip I had a $1 off each (1/1) Kraft Indulgence and a .55 off 2 (.55/2) coupon for the cookies that actually doubled to $1.  What’s our new total?  Just a low, low price of $10.50!!!  This gives you a total out of pocket (OOP) expense of $10.50, total savings of $29.97 which is 74%!!!!

I do like saving 74% off this transaction but if you shopped on Sunday, like I did…you had what we call a double dip catalina.

Not only did I get the $10 off as mentioned above, but I also received a $4 coupon toward my next transaction of anything in the store.  That would gave me a total savings of 84%! Just think of all the times you purchased one bag of cookies that weren’t on sale and you didn’t have a coupon.  This one transaction cost just a few pennies more than ONE bag of cookies!   That’s what I call extreme couponing!!  Here is a picture of this transaction-

Check out these pictures and deals from Sunday and Monday…

This transaction was fun.  Jiffy Healthy Pop Popcorn has a SHELF price of $2.59 but is on sale Buy One, Get One Free (BOGO).  In Weis’ in store FREE magazine there is a $1/2 coupon and you can print a $1/2 coupon from the internet.  Let’s do the math on how much the popcorn cost OOP- .59 for both!  Then I also purchased four Mentos Gum that was on sale for just $1 each.  I had (4) .55 manufacturer coupons (from past Sunday papers) that doubled to $1…now, this math is easy… all four gums were totally FREE!  In addition to this my husband added a Cabot Sharp Cheese to our transaction which I’m horrified to say…I didn’t have a coupon but at least Weis at it on sale!  It made amazing baked mac and cheese for dinner last night:)  Total OOP for this transaction was just $2.09 which was a savings of $12.24 (85%).  Making it even better is if you notice there is a special deal on the popcorn boxes for Weight Watchers magazine.  Here’s what paying $2.10 looks like:

Now, on Sunday I had a third transaction and the largest for the day.  More popcorn, and gum with the same deals as the above transaction.  In addition, my husband put a few more items into the cart that I didn’t have coupons for: Cocoa Puffs (no coupons and not even on sale!), bread (no coupon but on BOGO sale) and Lenders Bagels (on sale, but no coupon).  Other deals I purchased in this transaction are:

Dial liquid hand soap on sale for $1 each less $1/3 MC (manufacturer coupon)

Pickles on BOGO sale less .55 MC which doubled to $1

Arm and Hammer Detergent on BOGO sale less $1/2 MC

Total OOP for this transaction was just $24.90 (I used the $4 catalina coupon from the previous transaction).  This is a total savings of $44.10 (64%)!  Love it:)  Here’s what the transaction looked like:

The deals were rolling so I decided I would head back to Weis on Monday (without extra purchases from my husband).  I purchased two transactions.  On the first transaction I did the Kraft deal (Kraft Fresh Take Cheese/Breadcrumbs, Kraft Milk Bars, Philly Indulgence), Popcorn and Snuggles Fabric Softener (on sale for $2.99 less $1/1 MC).  I also saved an additional $3 by using the $3 off $30 on the front of the Weis ad (only on ads when you purchased a newspaper).  Total OOP $11.31 which means a total savings of $43.96 (79%).   Here’s what it looks like:

One more transaction to go… This time I did the Kraft deal again (Kraft Fresh Taste and Cookies), Popcorn, Treasure Cove Parm Cheese (on sale for $2 less $1/1 MC) and Dial soap (same deal as above).  I used another $3/$30 which I had since I purchased multiple papers on Sunday.  Total OOP $13.  Total Savings $45.14 (77%)!  Pretty awesome if you ask me!  Here’s what this transaction looked like:

All five transactions total $62.08 OOP which means a grand total savings of  $175.43!!  If you average all the transactions together you get an average savings of 65%.  This is what I call Extreme Couponing in Excellence!

Now you might be wondering what we will do with the multiple quantities of items?  The Fresh Tastes are in our freezer for future use, the cookies, Milk Bites, popcorn and Indulgences have long shelf dates and will be enjoyed in the months to come.  The Dial soap, detergent and fabric softeners will be added to my stockpile for future use.  They won’t be wasted, but instead provide for our family at amazing savings!

I’d love to hear back from workshop attendees on their shopping trips and savings.  Here’s what Carol said:

“I was there (Weis) this morning. $153.43 before sales/club card/coupons, I paid $90.60!”

Did you miss the workshop?  We have another on on Saturday, April 14th, at Living Rock Bible Church in Elverson.  Invest your time in this workshop and you’ll be off to a great start saving money for your family.

Here are comments from past attendees:

“ Thank You, Karen!!! Had a lot of fun and learned stuff!!!”

“Well worth every penny! Thank you for sharing your knowledge……look out savings, here I come!”

“Great class today. I thought I was a good couponer before but I learned a lot today. Thanks Karen.”

REGISTER HERE for the April 14th workshop!