Coupon Mama

So I kind of have fetish or an obsession with saving money! I love to get our everyday items and groceries cheaper than the retail value... a lot cheaper! I did some coupon-ing in Marietta because it was easy. My favorite stores, Kroger & Publix were less than a mile from our house and we had the awesome coupon-packed ajc available every Sunday, as well as 2 separate newspapers thrown in our yard each week.

I thought those days were over when I moved to Troy. Not many good coupons and not as easy to get them, but I wasn't looking in the right places. Thanks to some coupon-fanatics online, I have found lots of good deals lately.

Yesterday, I went to CVS, coupons and their weekly ad in hand. I signed up for a CVS card and took it to their little coupon center in the store to scan it and out pops a $5 off $15 purchase. That sure came in handy. The trick is to buy ONLY the things on sale and ONLY when you have a coupon and STOCK UP! You won't be able to do this all the time, but most of the time you can. I have decided to set a budget for each week and hit the stores for the deals. Back to CVS, I ended up with:

4 boxes of cereal (2 lg. cherrios & 2 cinnamon toast crunch)
2 boxes of puffs tissues
1 tube of colgate toothpaste
1 olay body wash
2 olay facial cleansers

for free, yes FREE!
My total was $17 (I have a $15 rebate for the olay & $2 ECbucks to use at CVS next time)
I had a coupon on every item, the $15 rebate from olay, my coupon from CVS and the ECbucks.

This was my best trip yet. I've had some good days at the grocery store, but none like this. I think my total should have been somewhere around $40.

This does take a lot of time, but there are blogs out there that can save a lot of that for you. They do all the work. Here are some of my favorites:

http://www.southernsavers.com/
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/
http://www.coupontom.com/
http://www.afullcup.com/

Happy coupon-ing!

Lauren