....And To HAUL A Good Night!

See this picture? Let's play a quick game of The Price Is Right. If you were in front of Bob Barker (or Drew Carey, which I personally think is blasphemy, but that's for another post) and he asked you for the "actual retail price of these items" what would you say? Let me give you some hints. The Pert shampoos go for $3.99 on sale at Walgreens....those Dove shampoos are somewhere around $4-5. The Osteo Bi-flex retails for $19.99, the Krill/Fish oil tablets $27.99 a box.

Now...as Bob Barker would say, "The actual retail price IS......"



Let's break it down.

1) First things first, two Dove conditioning treatments and two Dove shampoos. Walgreens is having a sale where they are 4/$15. When you buy them, you get $5.00 in register rewards. I had two buy one get one free coupons. This made the total $6.02 plus you get your $5.00 register rewards. I also got one bottle of Pert, which was on sale for $3.99, I had a dollar off coupon making it $2.99, and then I got a $3.00 register reward for buying it. I had to get a couple "filler" items to bring the purchase over the ten dollars to get my full value (got some Carmex!)
TOTAL: $8.02 (Used the $10.00 register rewards from my previous transaction) plus I got back $8.00 in register rewards

2) Next, I got the Krill oil. On sale for $10, I had a $2 off coupon making it $8.00. When you buy this item this week, Walgreens gives you $10 in register rewards (a printed coupon off your next purchase of any items...like a free store credit) . So I made two dollars on this item.
TOTAL: $8.73 but I used the $8.00 in register rewards from my first transaction, plus I got back $10.00 in register rewards.

3) Went to a different Walgreens later, and got two Dove conditioning treatments and two Dove shampoos. They are having a sale where they are 4/$15. When you buy them, you get $5.00 in register rewards. I had two buy one get one free coupons. This made the total $6.02 plus you get your $5.00 register rewards. I also got one bottle of Pert, which was on sale for $3.99, I had a dollar off coupon making it $2.99, and then I got a $3.00 register reward for buying it. I had to get a couple "filler" items to bring the purchase over the ten dollars to get my full value (got some Carmex!)
TOTAL: $8.02 (Used the $10.00 register rewards from my previous transaction) plus I got back $8.00 in register rewards

I repeated these two transactions twice more, once substituting the two boxes of Crest toothpaste instead of the Pert, also getting a register reward of $2.00 for that.

3) The final transaction, I started with a $10.00 register reward for one of the Krill Oils, a $2.00 register reward from the toothpaste and a $3.00 register reward from the last bottle of Pert (total of basically a $15.00 credit). I then purchased two Dove conditioning treatments, two Dove shampoos (again using the buy one get one free scenario above) , a third bottle of Pert (same), two boxes of Osteo Bi-Flex ($19.99 on sale buy one get one free, used two $7.00 off coupons) the Colgate sensitive toothpaste (used $1.50 off coupon) and a jug of Margarita mix (no coupon but on clearance for $1.99...and because after all this I need a friggen drink!) Total paid in cash out of pocket for this transaction was $8.82. HOWEVER...I walked out of the store with another $8.00 in register rewards from my purchases. So essentially I spent .82 cents on the last transaction. (My receipt says I saved $76.43! Just on this ONE transaction!)


So in cash, out of pocket I spent about $10.00 FOR ALL THESE ITEMS


Is this a little crazy? Perhaps. I now have over a dozen bottles of shampoo. Most of this is going to be donated to a local battered women's shelter, for women who are escaping abusive relationships. Some will be added to my stockpile, but the majority of it will go to the shelter.

I have only been doing this for about a month, and I'm still learning all the ins and outs of the fine details, but the basics can be done by ANYONE. Sure it takes time, but time is money baby. Our grocery/toiletries bill is the ONE bill that I really have complete control over. Our rent is always a set amount, sure gas/electric can be whittled down, but only to a certain point.

If I can do this (I AM HORRENDOUSLY INEPT AT MATH!) you can do it to. If you say you don't have the time...I say this to you: If you want to bad enough, you will make the time. A fellow couponer once said "Honey, if you say you don't have time, then you ain't been broke enough." If you are familiar with the sting of opening your wallet at the checkout, or opening your cabinet to find nothing but cat hair, or scrounging for change to fill your gas tank with enough fumes to last till pay day....then you need to try clipping a coupon. You don't have to be fanatical like me. (haha)  Just clip one. See how it feels. See how the savings can really add up. Coupons are trendy now, therefore you can find help online at nearly every turn. Websites like www.krazycouponlady.com and www.iamthatlady.com, www.afullcup.com or www.pockeyourdollars.com are GREAT places to start. They spell out all the best deals for you, all you gotta do is get out your scissors.

Let's put it this way. The last two nights alone, I saved $193.87. It's a savings of something like 95%. I basically just paid the tax on all the above items.  Do YOU have that kind of money to throw away? I didn't think so, or you would be doing things much cooler than reading my blog. So go ahead give it a try. Whaddaya got to lose? You're in good company!