Last week I was sick, so I stayed home for a couple of days from work. Since there is absolutely nothing on tv during the day, I thought why not watch a marathon of extreme couponing because let’s face it, crazy people are entertaining! After a couple of episodes, the crazy bug must’ve bitten me because I talked myself into trying my hand at couponing. Now, I’m not going to go to the extremes that the people on tv go to by turning my garage into a pantry and making a stockpile to last 2 years, but I am going to work harder to find coupons for things I buy regularly.

I came across a wonderful blog, The Krazy Coupon Lady, and I’m hooked. She matches up coupons with the best deals of the week at various stores such as Walgreen’s, CVS, Target, Wal-Mart, H-E-B, etc. The secret is to use a manufacturer’s coupon with a store coupon for items on sale. This way you’re saving the maximum amount possible, and yes it is actually possible to make money on some of the items! It’s a bit time consuming to match up the sales with your coupons, but I encourage anyone interested in couponing to check out her site because she pretty much does it for you.

Now, here’s what I got on my first trips with coupons.

CVS:
Crest Pro Health Whitening toothpaste was on sale for $2.99, down from close to $4.00, I used a $1.00 manufacturer’s coupon from Sunday’s paper (10/30) and received $1.00 back in Extra Bucks with my CVS store card. That’s like paying $0.99! I also scored big on a deal for Aveeno lotion. When you buy two of any size, you get $7.00 back in extra bucks. I bought the smallest size, 1 fl oz at $1.49 each, and I redeemed $1.50 in extra bucks from a previous trip to pay a total of $1.48 for two lotions. With the $7.00 extra bucks I got back, I actually banked $5.52. Finally, I took advantage of a deal on greetings cards. When you buy three American Greetings cards, you receive $3.00 in extra bucks, so I bought three $0.99 ones for a total of $2.97, and with the extra bucks, that’s like getting them for free!
Total paid: $6.79
Extra bucks received: $11.00
And the best part about this deal is that Derrick has his own CVS card that he registered separately from me, so I can go back with his card and get this entire deal again…. I just have to find his card first!

Target:

I didn’t do so well at Target, but I did save money. I printed three coupons from Target’s website for apparel, and hit the clearance rack! The purple button-down cardigan was $4.98, and I used a $4.00 off women’s sweater coupon for a final price of $0.98. The navy sleeper t-shirt was marked down to $6.98, and I used a $3.00 off women’s sleepwear coupon for a final price of $3.98. The black sweater cardigan was the most expensive at $9.98, and I used another $4.00 off women’s sweater coupon. I paid a total of $11.94 with a savings of $11.00 with my coupons.
Note: I had to do two separate transactions to be able to use the two sweater coupons, so be sure to always check store rules before you make your purchases.

I have much more shopping to do. I’ve got my grocery list planned out, and I’ll be shopping at Target, H-E-B and Walgreen’s this weekend because most of the sales end Saturday that I want to use coupons for. I’ll post my grocery list tomorrow, so you can score too! Happy bargain shopping everyone!