We’ll Call That Couponing Success

For those who don’t know me, I’m not Micki. I’m her friend, Heather, aka the web designer in these parts. Thanks to the constant encouragement from Micki, I’ve decided to giving couponing a shot. Again. I never used them on a regular enough basis to feel confident and haven’t used them at all in over six months…

So, yesterday was the big day. I spent two hours Friday night getting ready to tackle one store on Saturday. I can’t say my anxiety eased at all while I was getting ready to leave. In fact, in hindsight, I wish I had done everything on Friday night because when you’re trying to cut coupons and sort them with two bored kids running around, there may or may not be a 100% chance that you’re going to leave a Halls coupon uncut on the dining room table. And you may or may not realize it until you’re into the fourth transaction and you’re getting your coupons ready to hand over to the cashier… oh well, lesson learned.

I felt even more pressure because I had been rambling incessantly to my roommate about how amazing this shopping trip was going to be. He offered to go with to help me keep an eye on the kids while seeing what I was doing and how. We are very much a family in this house and there is no “his food” or “our food,” it’s all “the family’s food” and that includes him. It’s nice having someone who’s interested in learning how to use coupons, even if it is from me with my limited knowledge, so I was glad to have the company.

When we got home, my husband made a comment about how the stores put the amount you saved on your receipt to make you feel better for their high prices. Well, not in those words, but this is a family friendly blog, so I’ll let your imagination fill in the blanks. Our roommate corrected him and told him that while that may be the case sometimes, we were NOT on the losing end of this transaction.

Three things this trip taught me

1. Things are going to not go according to plan. Our store didn’t carry the Sara Lee lunch meats I was going to get and they were out of the Totinos pizzas. This meant I had to reconfigure transactions on the fly.
2. Don’t shop with the kids. Yes, I know this won’t always be possible, but as often as possible, I think I’ll be leaving them home. I wound up getting distracted too much and they kept asking for things.
3. Keep your eyes peeled for coupons in the store. We wound up getting an amazing price on our Silk Coconut Milk because there was a blinkie on the shelf. With the 3 coupons we couldn’t use because of out of stock products, we were able to get those coupons doubled and paid under $2 per half gallon.

I’m not sure what next week will hold for me, but we’re going to make it a habit to hit the stores for every sale day so we can make this a lifestyle change, not just something we do when we remember.