Saving with Coupons, TLC (part 2 )

There is a pleasure feeling when you walk out of a store and find that you paid hardly anything for your all the purchases !!

This past Thursday night, I sat and figured out what my next purchase was going to be using coupons and reward bucks from Walgreen's. Took me awhile to figure out that if I paid for my first item, I would get so many reward bucks back and be able to apply this to my next transaction. Yes, there is a master plan to being able to do this... I had to buy my most expensive item first, giving me back the most reward bucks, that was the first transaction. Next transaction was a much smaller transaction, using part of my reward bucks and again, receiving more reward bucks back to apply to my third transaction.

5 transactions later, and many reward bucks spent along with huge amount of coupons and I walked out of Walgreen's doing a hop skip and jump all the way to my car... In total, my retail cost with no reward bucks and or coupons would of cost me over $49.00, but because of reward bucks and coupons, I only paid $15.00. plus I was able to purchase more then 15 items that cost more then a dollar at a normal grocery store for only a buck each. One product I purchased a very expensive shampoo, that purchase alone with no coupons or reward bucks would of cost me way over $9.99.

Is there a certain way one must turn in the coupons, reward bucks and anything else upon check out.? YES.. believe it or not, you have to use this method when checking out at Walgreen's or CVS. Here it is:

Walgreen's:
First, hand in the Walgreen's dollar off transaction coupons, then the manufacture coupons, then Walgreen's store coupons and finally your register rewards.

CVS:
First, hand in the dollar off transaction coupons, then manufacture coupons, then CVS store coupons and finally your Extra Care Bucks. You can use as many Extra Care Bucks as you have on hand, as long as your total at the register does not fall below $0.00

If you don't use the method above, it could end up costing you more money.. Doing different transactions will allow you to buy more products, use the reward bucks on your register receipt towards that next purchase and come out spending less money.

To date the retail value of the products I have purchased from CVS, Walgreen's, Marsh Grocery Store and Kroger grocery store totaled over $653.79, but with proper planning, in store coupons, manufacture coupons and as well reward bucks from Walgreen's and CVS, I was able to buy all the items I did receive for only $65.00 bucks. Now, to me that is a HUGE SAVINGS.

When something comes along that almost seem's too good to be true, usually it is.. but so far on the TLC program; "Extreme Couponing " I am finding that there are tricks to saving more money. For instance, lets just say you find a product and it's on sale, 2 for $3.50 at Kroger. You have 2 products for $3.50, but there is money to be made here. Kroger will allow you to go online and place any in- store savings right to your Kroger card, so you just saved .80 cents from your Kroger card, bringing down the total from $3.50 now down to $2.70.  What you would want to do, is check your local coupons in your Thursday or Sunday paper to see if that item has a coupon. If not, jump online and find a coupon for the item. YES, there is another trick here.. no coupons in your local area, try using a different zip code. I found a coupon for the same item above for .50 cents, so I printed off 2 coupons. This is legal by the way and since I am buying 2 items, I can use both coupons. Kroger will double any coupon as long at it's not over .50 cents, so I took my coupons and applied these coupons to the $2.70, that is $1.00 off one .50 cent coupon, and $1.00 off for the second coupon, bringing my total down to only .70 cents for the 2 for $3.50 items. bringing down my cost to only .35 cents for each item. SUPER SAVINGS !!

Just think if you did this with everything you purchased.. This is what I did to buy so many things retail. Yes, you do get the looks in the line.. so to help this, I went shopping after 11pm. Shorter lines and not so crowded. No dirty looks from those waiting behind you at the check out counter..

You do have to pre-plan your grocery store shopping, this does take some time. To save the amount of money I did last week, it took me close to 12 hours, but the savings back in my pocket were HUGE..

Some stores do not allow you to use coupons: Such as; the Dollar Tree (where everything is a buck) and Aldie's) they do not accept coupons, but for the most part, even Family Dollar will accept coupons. So watch those coupons and if all else fails, look around the grocery store for coupons.. I do this all the time and find the coupon fairy leaves coupons everywhere.. ever noticed this.. I do believe there is a coupon fairy out there somewhere inside every grocery store, just leaving coupons on the shelves, floor, front of store..

Enjoy your Saturday :)