Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Couponing Night!!
I will be having another "Couponing Night"
at my house
Thursday, June 30 - 8:00pm
at my house
Thursday, June 30 - 8:00pm
This is for those of you who love couponing, or who are new to couponing,
to get together & chat about the deals, policy's & "politics" of it all.
Learn how to get the best deals at the lowest prices!
Reduce your grocery spending by up to 50% or More!!
***** There have been some very exciting new developments in our town of Golden!!! Can't wait to fill you in on the details!!!!! *****
***** There have been some very exciting new developments in our town of Golden!!! Can't wait to fill you in on the details!!!!! *****
If you are interested, PLEASE RSVP, send me a message and I can give you further details!!
PS: Bring coupons you would like to exchange!!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Coupon Match-ups for Golden Sobeys & Overwaitea June 17-25
Sobeys Flyer - June 17-23
There are LOTS of great sales at Sobeys this week. Its their BOGO event. So here are just a few of the awesome deals that I liked:
- 1 lb strawberries = $0.99 (I price matched at overwaitea, I tend to like the produce there better)
- Cascade action pacs = $5.99, use your $1.50 off coupon from P&G inserts to make it $4.50
- Bicks & McLarens pickles = $2.99, use $0.75 tearpad found in store to get them for $2.25 each!
- Compliments Tuna is on sale for $0.99 each
- Bicks green rellish = $1.99, use $0.75 Bicks pickles coupon and get them for $1.25
- Buy 2 palmolive dish detergents & get a 3rd free! use your $1.00 off coupon wub2, and get 3 products for $4.00!
Overwaitea Foods - June 19-25
Well! I found a wicked awesome deal here today!!!Campbells canned soups are on sale for $0.59 each! They also have tear pads "Save $1 when you buy any 4 campbells products! Buy 4 for $0.34 each!!!! I've never bought this for that cheap before! I bought 48 cans for $16.32! Gonna go back and get my year supply once I look back and see how much I need. Won't get this cheep again for a long time!Stock up!! Coupons are good till July 31.
- Prawns 454g, are BOGO! Limit 6 free
- Pork Ribs are BOGO!
- Kraft single slices are $4.99 each, use $1.00 off coupon from save.ca to get it for $3.99!
- Tampax = $3.99
DON'T FORGET TO USE YOUR COUPONS FOR
FREE CHOCOLATE CHEERIOS, or Fiber 1 Brown Sugar Shredded Wheat
on TUESDAY June 21st!!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Golden Sobeys & Overwaitea Flyer Deals & Coupon Match-ups June 11-16
Sobeys Flyer
Friday June 10-Thursday June 16
- Cheese Wiz - $4.99 each! 3 days only sale, Ends Sunday
- Raspberries "Driscoll" - $1.77 each, Use your $0.50 printed coupon & price match it at Overwaitea
- Dove Beauty Bar 8x90g - Use $2 off when you buy two different Dove products (you need to buy another product from Dove Tho)
- Kraft Shredded Cheese $6.99 - Use $1 off Kraft Shredded Cheese Coupon & make it $5.99!
- Crest Pro Health Toothpaste is on for 2/$4 - Use 2/$1 off any crest product coupons to make them $1 each!
- Dial Nutriskin Lotion $3.99 - Use $1.50 off coupon from websaver to make it $2.49!
- Aveeno Hair Care $6.99 each - Buy 2 and use your $3.00 off (tearpad) coupon & get two bottles for $10.99!
Overwaitea Flyer
Sunday June 12 - Saturday June 18
- Pork Tenderloin! BOGO! Limit 8 free
- Folgers Classic coffee 920g - $6.99 each (no coupon, but great price!)
- Bick's Pickles $3.49 - Use $0.75 coupon to make each bottle $2.75!
- Coke! Case of 24 is on for $6.99! great price!
- Heinz Beans & Alpha-getti pasta are $0.69 each!!!
- Skippy Peanut butter is $3.99 each!!!!
- Oasis Health Break Juice (1.75 lt) is on for 2/$6, Use 2/$0.75 coupons to get two juices for $4.50!
- Iams cat food is on for $16.99, Use $2 off coupons from P&G & buy it for $14.99!
- Tums $3.99 each - Use your $2 off coupon wub2 & get two bottles for $6.00!
- Dove Hair care is on for $3.99....price match the $1 Dove soap from Sobeys, get one Dove hair product....use $2 off coupons from Redplum inserts and get both of them for $3.00!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Couponing Info Night
I will be having another "Couponing Night"
at my house
Tuesday, June 14 - 8:00pm
at my house
Tuesday, June 14 - 8:00pm
This is for those of you who love couponing, or who are new to couponing,
to get together & chat about the deals, policy's & "politics" of it all.
Learn how to get the best deals at the lowest prices!
Reduce your grocery spending by up to 50% or More!!
If you are interested,
please send me a message and I can give you further details!!
PS: Bring coupons you would like to exchange or trade!
PS: Bring coupons you would like to exchange or trade!
Monday, June 6, 2011
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of Couponing
The Good!
Well, the "Good" about couponing is that it gives everyone the opportunity to save money. You can choose if you want to save a little or a lot just by how diligent you are about collecting & using coupons.
It has allowed me to see another avenue of consumerism. One that I never thought ever existed. I can buy more groceries, and be more financially stable than ever before WITH a growing family. Strange...but true! I always thought the bigger your kids got, the more money you would be spending on food. With coupons, kids can be affordable and not break my bank!! Its great!
The manufacturers are also benefiting huge from all the couponing Buzz. Their volume of sales are increasing, thus making them great competitors. Consumers are getting the opportunity to try their product, hereby generating more feedback, word of mouth advertising, and a greater percentage of customers who will buy their products again, and again. Its a win, win.
The Bad
In the past few months, Couponing has increasingly become more popular due to the TLC series "Extreme Couponing". And so it should! What great awareness it has brought to everyone in Canada & the USA that we can all have the opportunity to save so much money!
The problem with all of this is the undefined "Coupon Etiquette". Its all just kinda left up to each individual to decide what is or isn't OK. People are now clearing shelves, printing mass amounts of coupons, and being "demanding" towards store employees thinking "The customer is always right". Well, sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but the customer can be wrong. The "couponers" who are purchasing items in this manner are making a bad name for the rest of us. There needs to be respect for both sides of this equation for things to work smoothly. The retailer & its employees need to be 100% up to speed on their couponing policy's & practices. Same goes for the consumer.
Consumers & Retailers are both getting increasingly irritated with each other. Yet, there are no clear defined RULES to this game that everyone has now jumped on the bandwagon for.
There are the demanding & sometimes quite ignorant customers trying to use hundreds of coupons in a single transaction during peak hours. This irritates other customers waiting in line, & creates anxiety for the employees. This is the primary reason retailers are quickly changing couponing policy's to restrict this type of behaviour.
This is seriously harming the abilities for the rest of us to save as much money, who now are depending on coupons to maintain their household budgets. The policy's are being changed to "limit" the use of coupons, not promote it. If we all had enough common sense to have a little bit of coupon etiquette, retailers would be working in our favor, not against it.
I have heard of all sorts of arguments occurring between customers & retailers, everything short of an actual fist fight....its ridiculous, and unnecessary. This is usually over how policy's are read & understood. Since most policy's are vague & poorly written, it is just inviting conflict. Retailers need to have a serious look at this and make policy's that communicate clearly ,with out question, what is, and is not acceptable for their stores.
Couponers in general, shop on a regular basis. We are a group of individuals who seek out the best deals between an assortment of stores......and we talk about it. Our little chit chat on facebook, forums & blogs can quickly snowball to involve many (sometimes hundreds) of people. If someone has a justifiably negative experience with a particular store, franchise, or chain....people are gonna hear about it. This can & will affect that retailer in some sort of way. Retailers need to be just as invested in developing & learning their own coupon policy's. Coupon training is the key. They can have the best policy in the world, but if the staff don't know it, understand it, & cannot process it....it will cause havoc at the tills.
& The Ugly
In general, serious "Couponers" will look out for the best deals and combine them with their coupons to potentially & frequently get items for free. A lot of people will begin to create stockpiles full of household items that will last them for 6 months up to a year. This will include everything nonperishable from canned peaches to laundry soap. Purchasing large amounts of product is great..as long as you use it.
The Ugly, is the potential devastating addiction of couponing and shopping, that turns into hoarding. Hoarding happens when items are purchased, get stored but never used or donated. They just collect dust.
There is a certain "high" that a person gets when they score the best possible deal and get a lot of product for nothing. The problem is, people are purchasing products just because it very cheap or free...not because they need or use it. They also have a very hard time giving it away to those who may benefit from it. Homes turn into storage units. Even though these people never before had been hoarders, the simple ability to go shopping when they never could afford to before, is surreal. To some it feels like winning the lottery. Another potential danger is simply spending a dollar on something that you don't use or need just because it is cheap. Each time is another dollar. Those dollars can add up very quickly into hundreds.... Hundreds that they don't have. If you have a friend struggling with this, help them. Don't ignore it. Lists are great. Make a list of items that you will use, that you can store for long periods of time. Stick to your list, & donate the rest.
So, here are a few etiquette guidelines to couponing
Keep clipping! & Happy Couponing!
Well, the "Good" about couponing is that it gives everyone the opportunity to save money. You can choose if you want to save a little or a lot just by how diligent you are about collecting & using coupons.
It has allowed me to see another avenue of consumerism. One that I never thought ever existed. I can buy more groceries, and be more financially stable than ever before WITH a growing family. Strange...but true! I always thought the bigger your kids got, the more money you would be spending on food. With coupons, kids can be affordable and not break my bank!! Its great!
The manufacturers are also benefiting huge from all the couponing Buzz. Their volume of sales are increasing, thus making them great competitors. Consumers are getting the opportunity to try their product, hereby generating more feedback, word of mouth advertising, and a greater percentage of customers who will buy their products again, and again. Its a win, win.
The Bad
In the past few months, Couponing has increasingly become more popular due to the TLC series "Extreme Couponing". And so it should! What great awareness it has brought to everyone in Canada & the USA that we can all have the opportunity to save so much money!
The problem with all of this is the undefined "Coupon Etiquette". Its all just kinda left up to each individual to decide what is or isn't OK. People are now clearing shelves, printing mass amounts of coupons, and being "demanding" towards store employees thinking "The customer is always right". Well, sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but the customer can be wrong. The "couponers" who are purchasing items in this manner are making a bad name for the rest of us. There needs to be respect for both sides of this equation for things to work smoothly. The retailer & its employees need to be 100% up to speed on their couponing policy's & practices. Same goes for the consumer.
Consumers & Retailers are both getting increasingly irritated with each other. Yet, there are no clear defined RULES to this game that everyone has now jumped on the bandwagon for.
There are the demanding & sometimes quite ignorant customers trying to use hundreds of coupons in a single transaction during peak hours. This irritates other customers waiting in line, & creates anxiety for the employees. This is the primary reason retailers are quickly changing couponing policy's to restrict this type of behaviour.
This is seriously harming the abilities for the rest of us to save as much money, who now are depending on coupons to maintain their household budgets. The policy's are being changed to "limit" the use of coupons, not promote it. If we all had enough common sense to have a little bit of coupon etiquette, retailers would be working in our favor, not against it.
I have heard of all sorts of arguments occurring between customers & retailers, everything short of an actual fist fight....its ridiculous, and unnecessary. This is usually over how policy's are read & understood. Since most policy's are vague & poorly written, it is just inviting conflict. Retailers need to have a serious look at this and make policy's that communicate clearly ,with out question, what is, and is not acceptable for their stores.
Couponers in general, shop on a regular basis. We are a group of individuals who seek out the best deals between an assortment of stores......and we talk about it. Our little chit chat on facebook, forums & blogs can quickly snowball to involve many (sometimes hundreds) of people. If someone has a justifiably negative experience with a particular store, franchise, or chain....people are gonna hear about it. This can & will affect that retailer in some sort of way. Retailers need to be just as invested in developing & learning their own coupon policy's. Coupon training is the key. They can have the best policy in the world, but if the staff don't know it, understand it, & cannot process it....it will cause havoc at the tills.
& The Ugly
In general, serious "Couponers" will look out for the best deals and combine them with their coupons to potentially & frequently get items for free. A lot of people will begin to create stockpiles full of household items that will last them for 6 months up to a year. This will include everything nonperishable from canned peaches to laundry soap. Purchasing large amounts of product is great..as long as you use it.
The Ugly, is the potential devastating addiction of couponing and shopping, that turns into hoarding. Hoarding happens when items are purchased, get stored but never used or donated. They just collect dust.
There is a certain "high" that a person gets when they score the best possible deal and get a lot of product for nothing. The problem is, people are purchasing products just because it very cheap or free...not because they need or use it. They also have a very hard time giving it away to those who may benefit from it. Homes turn into storage units. Even though these people never before had been hoarders, the simple ability to go shopping when they never could afford to before, is surreal. To some it feels like winning the lottery. Another potential danger is simply spending a dollar on something that you don't use or need just because it is cheap. Each time is another dollar. Those dollars can add up very quickly into hundreds.... Hundreds that they don't have. If you have a friend struggling with this, help them. Don't ignore it. Lists are great. Make a list of items that you will use, that you can store for long periods of time. Stick to your list, & donate the rest.
So, here are a few etiquette guidelines to couponing
- Never clear the shelves! If you intend of purchasing a large amount, call the store ahead of time. They will be more than happy to have a few boxes in the back just for you. This will save them valuable time re-stocking the shelves, and other customers will be able to purchase product as well.
- Go to cashiers who know how to deal with coupons
- If you are unsure about what exactly the policy is...ASK! Don't argue. Call ahead and get the answers to your questions before you shop. Policy's change frequently. Ask if there have been any recent changes.
- When you have intentions of doing a large "couponing" shop, inform the store before you go. They will be more likely to make your trip enjoyable and positive for everyone
- Be respectful of peak hours in stores. Do not unload your binder full of coupons on a cashier who has a line-up. It is stressful, annoying, and flustrating for everyone waiting on you. People generally DON'T have all the time in the world to wait for you to cash out. Shop & check out when they have time for you if it is a large order.
- The cashiers are your best friends, not the enemy. Find a great cashier
- Know your coupons! & don't Cheat! Use the proper valid coupons on each product. Don't photocopy internet coupons that only allow a certain amount of prints per computer. Eventually the store will get dinged for it, and the retailer will usually stop or restrict the use of internet printed coupons. Don't ruin it for the rest of us.
Keep clipping! & Happy Couponing!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Grocery Store Coupon Policy's
By request, here is Steven Zussino's Free e-book for store policys in Canada for Couponing. Steven Zussino has created the site www.groceryalerts.ca. It is a wonderful site, with tonnes of great information. Grocery Alerts also has a section on facebook designed for logging the coupons that you have available to trade! It's great! Take a look!
Grocery Alerts E-Book
Grocery Alerts E-Book
Overwaitea Foods Flyer Deals June 5-11
Here are a few great deals that I noticed for our
Overwaitea Foods grocery store:
- Chef Boyardee pasta in cans - 5/$5, and you can find $0.50 off coupons in Pogo boxes to make them $0.50 each. This would make it 5/$2.50!!
- Kraft cream cheese - 2/$5, and you can find a $1 off coupon through facebook fan page. Would make it $1.50 each!
- Frenches Yellow mustard 250g - $1.49 each, there are tear pads out there for B2G $1 off, also $0.50 coupons making each bottle $1.00 each! (these tear pads are found on the Sobeys shelf too)
- Old Spice deodorant - 2/$4, if you have any P&G coupons left there are B2G $3 off, making these $0.50 each!!!
- Asprin is on for $6.99 - Use the $3 printable coupon found on my blog to make each box $3.99!! great deal!
- Abreva $16.99 - use $3.00 tear pad to make it $13.99 (sorry, got the tear pad in Calgary and cant remember which store :(
- Windex Glass Cleaner $2.99 each - Use B1G1 Free coupon in smartsource and get them for $1.50 each wub2!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
My Extreme Couponing Trip to LD - Part 3 !! The Cash Out!
My spreadsheet shopping list was compiled with about 249 individual items, with a retail value of just over $1080 not including taxes. I estimated my savings to be around 82% based on the total value of my coupons that I was going to use and some price matching. ....this was at least the plan.
The items that I was purchasing were:
Majority of these items I will keep for myself, & some will be given away or donated. Other items such as diapers I purchased for friends as gifts. The entire list has a home & will get used.
Our shopping was completed at around 6:00pm. I checked with the cashier at the Customer Service desk to see if they were ready for me. They just needed to call up another employee & sort some things out and they would be ready to go!
My heart was pounding...I knew by the spreadsheet I made, the value of this purchase was over $1000. I did not have that kind of money to spend...I made one last prayer hoping that this was all going to work as planned. I took a deep breath...and started with the check-out.
I started with the cart that had hair products, toothpaste, makeup, diapers, lotions etc. I placed each set of like items on the counter. Counted them, and matched up the correct coupons. This was done with every item. Some of the items needed price matching where I had to take the competitors flyer
While we were price matching, some of the items were coming in much lower than I anticipated...much much lower! I am so glad that I had my friend there to help! She practically ran a marathon grabbing me extra products that we could purchase. One example was the Olay products. I estimated that I could purchase four bottles...I ended up with TEN! this happened a lot! She ran back to the shelves twice for that one! Laundry soap was another as well as other cleaning products. Thank-you sooooo much to my special friend!! I could not have done this with out you!!!!
As the second cart was getting rung through I was getting more and more excited..it was working!! my total had not yet reached $200. It was awesome!!!! but we weren't done! Just a few more items....then it happened.......
OH CRAP!!!! what the hell is going on...what is happening!!??!!??...the computer froze. It would not allow any more scans, voids or entries. All it was saying was "Must Tender Sale"!!! Holy Cow!! ....its doing what I've been seeing on the TLC Extreme Couponing show!!! lol awesome. The cashiers, managers and us had no idea what to do! lol. We stood there stunned, just shaking our heads, praying that we would not have to ring all of this in all over again. I was happy that the staff were not stressed or upset...we were all kinda laughing at it. We had to cash out....that was all we could do. We did this and corrected the last entries made on the next transaction...it all worked out. THANK GOD!!!!
I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I accomplished my mission. I now just proved to myself, friends and family that this CAN be done at this level in CANADA!!
Total Paid: $169.15....Saved $774.36....Total Bill Was:$943.51 (including price matching! so bill should have been about 10% more if I used only LD prices) Saved 82% ++ More than $45 of my final total was just in taxes!!
What a rush! Now that I have done it, there is no stopping me from doing it again. I will always use coupons. It would be silly for me not to.
My home is now stocked with the items that I purchased at London Drugs for the next year! My next shopping trip will be much different. I will not be purchasing the same items again. Instead I will be stocking up on the other things such as food items that I can store for 6 months to a year. My inventory is almost complete! I am estimating that by September, I will be at the point where I will need to only shop for fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. Everything else I will have in my stockpile. I will only begin to re-stock when my inventories get down to about 50%.
I am delighted that I saved so much, that I proved it to my friends & family. My own family is a lot more relaxed knowing that we don't need to worry about purchasing such high priced items for a long time. Its a great feeling.
Even though I have completed this massive shop, I have not stopped. I am now in full swing prepping for the next trip. I love it, and will keep you all in the loop on my shopping journey!!
Keep Clipping!!, Happy Couponing!!
The items that I was purchasing were:
| Toothpaste/floss/toothbrushes/rinse | quantity |
| Listerine 1 lt | 1 |
| Crest pro health for me | 1 |
| Crest pro health for me | 1 |
| Crest pro health for me | 5 |
| colgate total | 2 |
| Colgate sensitive toothpaste(2/4/1) | 2 |
| Colgate 360 toothbrush | 3 |
| sensodine pronamel TP | 1 |
| Crest reg toothpaste (130+ml) | 18 |
| Arm & hammer spin brush | 2 |
| TOTAL | 36 |
| Shampoo/Conditioners | quantity |
| head and shoulders conditioner | 4 |
| l'oreal shampoo | 1 |
| Herbal essences | 1 |
| St Ives facial product | 1 |
| TOTAL | 7 |
| Deodorants/Razors | quantity |
| Dove products | 4 |
| Olay – body ribbons | 8 |
| Gillette Deodorant | 2 |
| Stayfree (4/$8) | 12 |
| noxema | 4 |
| venus razor disposable | 3 |
| TOTAL | 33 |
| Pet Items | quantity |
| Iams cat food – wet can | 2 |
| Iams kitten food dry | 2 |
| TOTAL | 4 |
| Laundry/Cleaners | quantity |
| Royal tissues | 12 |
| sunlight | 4 |
| sunlight dish (1) + (2) Dawn | 3 |
| Purex Laundry | 5 |
| scrubbing bubbles power sprayer | 2 |
| scrubbing bubbles toilet gel | 4 |
| scrubbing bubbles areosol | 4 |
| RAID | 4 |
| Glade automatic room spray holder | 2 |
| glade automatic room spray refill (B1G1) | 3 |
| Glade sense and spray holder | 1 |
| glade sense and spray refill (BOGO | 3 |
| Febreze 800 ml | 2 |
| bounce dryer Bar | 2 |
| Mr Clean liquid | 5 |
| Fantastic trigger (BOGO) | 6 |
| lysol trigger sprayers | 4 |
| Finish Jet Dry | 10 |
| Finish dishwasher cleaner | 1 |
| Finish dishwasher tabs | 17 |
| OFF | 2 |
| tide | 5 |
| Vileda scrubber | 2 |
| Arm & hammer laundry det. | 1 |
| fleecy | 4 |
| fleecy sheets | 1 |
| Duracell Ultra Batteries 4 packs | 2 |
| TOTAL | 111 |
| Hair Dyes & Make-up etc | quantity |
| l'oreal sublime mousse | 1 |
| covergirl makeup – any | 2 |
| Nice n easy hair color | 2 |
| TOTAL | 5 |
| Baby | quantity |
| Pampers & Wipes | 3 |
| Similac | 1 |
| TOTAL | 4 |
| Meds/Vitamins | quantity |
| Motrin Liquid gels 72's | 6 |
| Robax | 1 |
| Tums | 2 |
| Tylenol – childrens | 2 |
| Tylenol – Rapid release (40's) | 3 |
| Day/night Quil | 2 |
| Breath Right (10`s) | 2 |
| Zantac | 3 |
| Advil nighttime (10's) | 6 |
| TOTAL | 27 |
| FOOD | quantity |
| Dr.pepper 2lt | 16 |
| Aquafina Plus Vitamins water | 6 |
| TOTAL | 22 |
| TOTAL of all Totals | 249 |
Majority of these items I will keep for myself, & some will be given away or donated. Other items such as diapers I purchased for friends as gifts. The entire list has a home & will get used.
Our shopping was completed at around 6:00pm. I checked with the cashier at the Customer Service desk to see if they were ready for me. They just needed to call up another employee & sort some things out and they would be ready to go!
My heart was pounding...I knew by the spreadsheet I made, the value of this purchase was over $1000. I did not have that kind of money to spend...I made one last prayer hoping that this was all going to work as planned. I took a deep breath...and started with the check-out.
I started with the cart that had hair products, toothpaste, makeup, diapers, lotions etc. I placed each set of like items on the counter. Counted them, and matched up the correct coupons. This was done with every item. Some of the items needed price matching where I had to take the competitors flyer
While we were price matching, some of the items were coming in much lower than I anticipated...much much lower! I am so glad that I had my friend there to help! She practically ran a marathon grabbing me extra products that we could purchase. One example was the Olay products. I estimated that I could purchase four bottles...I ended up with TEN! this happened a lot! She ran back to the shelves twice for that one! Laundry soap was another as well as other cleaning products. Thank-you sooooo much to my special friend!! I could not have done this with out you!!!!
As the second cart was getting rung through I was getting more and more excited..it was working!! my total had not yet reached $200. It was awesome!!!! but we weren't done! Just a few more items....then it happened.......
OH CRAP!!!! what the hell is going on...what is happening!!??!!??...the computer froze. It would not allow any more scans, voids or entries. All it was saying was "Must Tender Sale"!!! Holy Cow!! ....its doing what I've been seeing on the TLC Extreme Couponing show!!! lol awesome. The cashiers, managers and us had no idea what to do! lol. We stood there stunned, just shaking our heads, praying that we would not have to ring all of this in all over again. I was happy that the staff were not stressed or upset...we were all kinda laughing at it. We had to cash out....that was all we could do. We did this and corrected the last entries made on the next transaction...it all worked out. THANK GOD!!!!
I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I accomplished my mission. I now just proved to myself, friends and family that this CAN be done at this level in CANADA!!
Total Paid: $169.15....Saved $774.36....Total Bill Was:$943.51 (including price matching! so bill should have been about 10% more if I used only LD prices) Saved 82% ++ More than $45 of my final total was just in taxes!!
What a rush! Now that I have done it, there is no stopping me from doing it again. I will always use coupons. It would be silly for me not to.
My home is now stocked with the items that I purchased at London Drugs for the next year! My next shopping trip will be much different. I will not be purchasing the same items again. Instead I will be stocking up on the other things such as food items that I can store for 6 months to a year. My inventory is almost complete! I am estimating that by September, I will be at the point where I will need to only shop for fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. Everything else I will have in my stockpile. I will only begin to re-stock when my inventories get down to about 50%.
I am delighted that I saved so much, that I proved it to my friends & family. My own family is a lot more relaxed knowing that we don't need to worry about purchasing such high priced items for a long time. Its a great feeling.
Even though I have completed this massive shop, I have not stopped. I am now in full swing prepping for the next trip. I love it, and will keep you all in the loop on my shopping journey!!
Keep Clipping!!, Happy Couponing!!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Couponing Night!
I will be having another "Couponing Night" at my house this Friday , June 3,
if anyone is interested.
if anyone is interested.
This is for those of you who love couponing, or who are new to couponing,
to get together & chat about the deals, policy's & "politics" of it all.
Learn how to get the best deals at the lowest prices!
Reduce your grocery spending by up to 50% or More!!
If you are interested,
please send me a message and I can give you further details!!
PS. If you like, bring coupons you would like to trade.
I will also have a lot that I got from the city that I don't need :)
PS. If you like, bring coupons you would like to trade.
I will also have a lot that I got from the city that I don't need :)
(PS: I really want that shirt, lol)
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
My Extreme Couponing trip to LD - Part 2
So! I stacked as many coupons as I possibly could. I went over my shopping list endlessly making sure that all my calculations were right...the last thing I wanted was for my predictions to be totally off and have to pay hundreds of dollars more than planned. If I had any questions about what I was stacking, I called the LD store frequently...just to make sure all my ducks were in a row so there would be no complications with the order.
The staff at LD are wonderful!!! They were very helpful answering all of my questions, and gave me more insight on how to stack coupons even more. They were not bitter that I was coming, quite the opposite. They were seemingly just as excited to be on this journey with me. I was relieved. The most stressful part about all of this was to make sure that I didn't upset any staff or have any disagreements about policy's. Making sure that I was up to speed on each stores policy's and processes was most important, and made everything that much easier.
It was finally the day I had been anxiously awaiting for so long. Friday afternoon, after I picked the kids up from school my friend and I left for Calgary. I was excited, nervous, anxious and worried all at the same time. I had never left my kids for so long. I almost felt lonely...never had so much peace and quiet before, lol. I was nervous too. All this time I had been telling people what I was intending on doing, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to pull it off. I was worried that my numbers were false, and I would end up putting everything back and leaving the store...praying the whole drive to Calgary that I would not fail and look like a fool.
We arrived in Calgary just after 6pm. First we checked into the hotel, then we hit up every store that we could for more coupons and their newest flyer's. Each one of us took an isle, going relatively quickly scanning for more coupons up and down each one. We had to move fast. It was getting late and wanted to go to as many stores as possible. We found the most coupons in Shoppers Drug Mart & at Safeway. There were next to none in Superstore & Wallmart. It took us roughly 3 hours in all.
When we got back to the hotel, we scanned every flyer trying to find the cheapest price on anything we were buying. The medications & laundry supplies were the most costly, so any price cheaper was great. When a cheaper price was found, I logged it into the spreadsheet. Upon check-out, I would refer to the spreadsheet to let the cashier know the cheapest price I had found and which flyer it was found in.
After "some" sleep, we got up the next morning grabbed some breakfast, and started hitting the stores right away. With all the communicating with the staff at London Drugs, we figured that the best time of day for me to start a check out would be after 6pm when the store wasn't so busy. I figured we would arrive at the store around 4pm to start the shopping. There were a few items at other stores that we wanted to shop for, so this is what we did first. Zellers, I found a few items for free with my coupons, we browsed the malls, ate lunch, and hit up Wallmart for a few more deals on BBQ sauce and to purchase a few household items.
It's now 3:30pm...my stomach is in knots. Thinking of what I now need to accomplish at London Drugs is almost making me sick. I had never before purchased this sheer volume of cleaners, hair products, personal products and medications. I was soooooo nervous. We grabbed some coffee at Starbucks, and just tried to relax a bit before arriving at the store.
We pull up to London Drugs. It was time to prove myself. I picked up my 30 lb red coupon bag that holds two very full binders of coupons, policys, and spreadsheets, and headed into the store. I was ready. Game on! I can do this.....
Each of us grabbed a cart, and started at the top of the list picking large quantities of each item off the shelf as listed in the spreadsheets.
It was going very smooth and faster than I anticipated. Gradually we moved through each isle and completed shopping for everything in about 2 hours.
To be continued...still to come 'Part 3 - The Check Out!"
The staff at LD are wonderful!!! They were very helpful answering all of my questions, and gave me more insight on how to stack coupons even more. They were not bitter that I was coming, quite the opposite. They were seemingly just as excited to be on this journey with me. I was relieved. The most stressful part about all of this was to make sure that I didn't upset any staff or have any disagreements about policy's. Making sure that I was up to speed on each stores policy's and processes was most important, and made everything that much easier.
It was finally the day I had been anxiously awaiting for so long. Friday afternoon, after I picked the kids up from school my friend and I left for Calgary. I was excited, nervous, anxious and worried all at the same time. I had never left my kids for so long. I almost felt lonely...never had so much peace and quiet before, lol. I was nervous too. All this time I had been telling people what I was intending on doing, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to pull it off. I was worried that my numbers were false, and I would end up putting everything back and leaving the store...praying the whole drive to Calgary that I would not fail and look like a fool.
We arrived in Calgary just after 6pm. First we checked into the hotel, then we hit up every store that we could for more coupons and their newest flyer's. Each one of us took an isle, going relatively quickly scanning for more coupons up and down each one. We had to move fast. It was getting late and wanted to go to as many stores as possible. We found the most coupons in Shoppers Drug Mart & at Safeway. There were next to none in Superstore & Wallmart. It took us roughly 3 hours in all.
When we got back to the hotel, we scanned every flyer trying to find the cheapest price on anything we were buying. The medications & laundry supplies were the most costly, so any price cheaper was great. When a cheaper price was found, I logged it into the spreadsheet. Upon check-out, I would refer to the spreadsheet to let the cashier know the cheapest price I had found and which flyer it was found in.
After "some" sleep, we got up the next morning grabbed some breakfast, and started hitting the stores right away. With all the communicating with the staff at London Drugs, we figured that the best time of day for me to start a check out would be after 6pm when the store wasn't so busy. I figured we would arrive at the store around 4pm to start the shopping. There were a few items at other stores that we wanted to shop for, so this is what we did first. Zellers, I found a few items for free with my coupons, we browsed the malls, ate lunch, and hit up Wallmart for a few more deals on BBQ sauce and to purchase a few household items.
It's now 3:30pm...my stomach is in knots. Thinking of what I now need to accomplish at London Drugs is almost making me sick. I had never before purchased this sheer volume of cleaners, hair products, personal products and medications. I was soooooo nervous. We grabbed some coffee at Starbucks, and just tried to relax a bit before arriving at the store.
We pull up to London Drugs. It was time to prove myself. I picked up my 30 lb red coupon bag that holds two very full binders of coupons, policys, and spreadsheets, and headed into the store. I was ready. Game on! I can do this.....
Each of us grabbed a cart, and started at the top of the list picking large quantities of each item off the shelf as listed in the spreadsheets.
It was going very smooth and faster than I anticipated. Gradually we moved through each isle and completed shopping for everything in about 2 hours.
To be continued...still to come 'Part 3 - The Check Out!"
My Extreme Couponing Trip to LD - Part One
I had a mission, and I was determined to accomplish it. On my last visit to Calgary on April 11, I tested what everyone had told me about stacking at London Drugs, & price matching at Wallmart. It was wonderful! I saved a lot of money. I ended up purchasing about $300 and paid around $100 for things such as shampoo, Tylenol and house hold cleaners. I just knew I could do it better. I made a decision that I must do it again, but bigger and better to the best of my abilities. I just had to prove it to myself that I could do it...and I did. I couponed till I could coupon no more.
Here is my extreme couponing story and how I did it....
I started by collecting as many coupons as I could possibly find. In my little town of Golden, coupons are very hard to come by. We rely on one stores commonly found tear pads & Canada Post for all the ones we order through the internet. Only one coupon flyer called "Red plum" comes to our town in a free paper called "The Advertiser". I found tear pads in stores and checked the shelves weekly to see if any new ones came out. I asked friends, family, and complete strangers to mail me coupons to add to my collection. Within a month, my binder was the finest collection of coupons that I have ever seen, I was very proud. It ended up weighing about the same as my 4 yr old daughter, about 30 pounds.
My binder is made up of photo album pages & trading card pages. I love the photo album pages simply so that I don't have to fold anything. I can see the whole tear pad with the item name & expiry date. There is a section for absolutely everything:
- Store Policy's
- Toilet Paper, Paper Towel, & Tissues
- Laundry Products
- Cleaners
- Hair and Body products
- Oral care (ie: toothpaste etc)
- Deodorants & shaving
- Tampons & Pads
- Lotions & Creams
- Vitamins & Meds
- Snack Foods
- Beverages
- Breakfast Foods
- Dairy
- Canned Food & Condiments
- Frozen Food
- Baby Products
- Pet Products
- Make up & hair Dyes
- Other (restaurant, retail, hotel, attractions, etc)
It was pretty easy actually to begin my planning so far in advance for this very large shopping trip. Here were my steps:
- I began by going through each section of my coupon binder and pulling out ONLY stackable sets of coupons.
- I would count how many items I could possibly get with those stacks and the dollar values of each. This would be recorded on a spread sheet. This was constantly changing as I received and found more coupons to add.
- The stackable coupons that I pulled out of my binder got put into a "new" binder that was specifically for this shopping trip. When doing this I had to be very careful not to have coupons in there that would expire before my shopping trip. The order in which the Coupon was logged into the spreadsheet, is the exact order that I would find it in my binder. It had to be this organized. The sheer amount of coupons and products that I was potentially shopping for was outrageous to say the least. I had to have some sort of control and order to it all.
- To estimate how much everything was going to cost I went on the London Drugs web site. There I would type into the search bar each item that I was looking to purchase. I found the item, and its price and added that information to the spread sheet.
- In order to price match, I had to wait till just a day or two before my trip. The flyers started to appear on Wednesdays on line. I went to www.flyerland.ca to search for the stores that carry the products I was looking for.
- The stores that I price matched with were: Superstore, Safeway, Wallmart, Shoppers Drug Mart, Pet Smart, & Zellers.
- Just as my coupon binder is in sections, so was my spread sheet. This made the whole process of prep & shopping much easier. If I had to change anything at all about the way I organized my list. It may have been better to organize the item list by isle. But of course, I am not from Calgary, and have not shopped at their store that often. So remembering where everything was in the store would have been quite difficult.
- In the "Savings %" column, if my savings were not at least 70% or higher, the item got moved to the "extras" list. This list was for stacked coupons where the deal just wasn't good enough yet. If I received more coupons during the prep time to increase the savings percentage, the item would get moved back up on to the actual order.
- Since I really had no idea of what prices I was actually going to pay, or any real idea of how well I was going to be able to price match..I priced items to their potential worst prices. My savings would only increase from there with price matching.
- Here is an example of a section of my spreadsheet: ...... Stay tuned for part two soon to come!!
| Meds/Vitamins | Wallmart | Shoppers DM | Superstore | LD price | quantity | Total $$ | Less Coupons | Cost | Savings % | |||
| Motrin Liquid gels 72's | $7.26 | 6.99 | 3 | 20.97 | 21 | -$0.03 | 100.14% | FREE | ||||
| Tylenol – children's | $8.99 | 1 | $8.99 | 7 | $1.99 | 77.86% | ||||||
| Tylenol – children's | $8.99 | 1 | $8.99 | 6 | $2.99 | 66.74% | ||||||
| Tylenol – Rapid release (40's) | $9.99 | 2 | $19.98 | 18 | $1.98 | 90.09% | ||||||
| Tylenol – Rapid release (40's) | $9.99 | 1 | $9.99 | 7 | $2.99 | 70.07% | ||||||
| Advil nighttime (10's) | 5.99 | 2 | $11.98 | 12 | -$0.02 | 100.17% | FREE | |||||
| TOTAL | 10 | $80.90 | $71.00 | $9.90 | 87.76% |
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Calgary Here I Come!!!
Well, unless I get anymore coupons in the mail tomorrow (crossing my fingers!), I am finished preparing for this couponing trip. With about $750 in "stacked" coupons, I'd say I think I will do pretty well :) My estimated savings is more than 80%....hopefully it will lean closer to 90% after price matching. We will take lots of pictures, and hopefully some video of it all!
All that is left now is to throw my bag in the van tomorrow afternoon and we are off!
Wish me luck! Will update my blog when I can!
All that is left now is to throw my bag in the van tomorrow afternoon and we are off!
Wish me luck! Will update my blog when I can!
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