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Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Wanna save some $$$

No, I'm not going to try to sell you anything and I'm not getting paid to tell you anything....buuuut when a girl finds a good deal she has to share right?

A few weeks ago a coworker of Matt's introduced us to a shopping program. As Matt was telling me about it, I was like "hmmm, okay, sure." I'm not kidding you people, this new way of shopping has saved us hundreds of dollars in the 3 weeks we have used it!

Check out the website Pocket You Dollars and see for yourself. It's actually very basic and works mainly on matching sale items with coupons. You're like, "well, duh, I already do that." I thought we did too. Carrie the magic worker behind it all is amazing and wants to help people keep their money while getting what they need. I have been talking lots to Tina this week as she prepared to try this out for the first time and she was impressed!

Reading through the website will give you a better understanding about everything so I'm just going to break down the basics of what we have found. We are still learning all about it, so there is probably lots more to it too so if you have been using Carrie's site or plan on trying it out let me know what you find or any other little secrets. Also, the main money saver we are experiencing is shopping at Rainbow on Wednesday, when they have double coupon days. There are lots of other places but that has by far saved us the most. Some of the other stores she uses are: Target, CUB, Walgreens and CVS.

Seriously, the whole idea behind this is matching coupons with ads. Carrie finds coupons and deals all over the Internet and tells you where to go to get each one to print. Also, each week we buy 4 Sunday papers and cut out all the coupons. Yes, you start accumulating a lot! We bought a big accordion file and separated each slot into a different category to help keep everything as organized as possible.


I'm not going to lie, it does take some extra time and organizing but even after just a few weeks I am starting to get into my own groove and finding what works for me. So here's the Rainbow deal (and where some of the extra time comes in.) Wednesday nights you can double your best 5 coupons with a purchase of $25 or more. I make 4 lists, making sure each one is at least $25 and has at least 5 coupons. Then we meet Matt and we both take one list and go through, take our stuff out to the car and then grab the other two lists and do it again = 4 trips through the store. (You don't have to go four times, you can go as many as you want but we go four times to maximize the doubling coupon thing - 4 trips = 20 doubled coupons.) Is any of this making sense? Try it, it works! The second week after we went through I looked at Matt and was like, "This is an adrenaline rush!" I know, I'm a dork but who would have known you could be happy about spending money at the grocery store? Okay, blah blah blah I could talk forever...can you tell? :)

Here's what we got today at Rainbow...

All of that food, 4 boxes of toothpaste, body wash and even diapers for just over $45. Our savings? $92.63. This weeks was actually not as good as last weeks since there was already several of the major things on our list gone. The nice thing is you really don't have to change how you eat, at least we didn't. Most of the stuff we get now is what we would have gotten before. Except maybe the chicken nuggets and it was certainly not me who threw those Ramen noodles in our cart! (Ahem...Matt.) I do have to say though, if you only eat organic this definitely won't work as well. But like I said there are lots of other non-food offers at Target, Walgreen etc. We are getting things better than free (yes, they PAY you to buy it!) at some places! Crazy!?

Here's our receipts from last week...Rainbow and CUB. And this week I also went to Target and spent $40 and saved $20. Pretty cool huh? Our freezer and pantries have never been so full and we are saving literally hundreds of dollars a month. Also, I have been buying some of the stuff we wouldn't eat or don't need (because it's literally free or close to it) and plan on donating it to our food shelter.

Sick of me talking yet? Cause I could go on. Just kidding, I'm done. :) Check it out. And if you have already been following Carrie at Pocket Your Dollars (first, shame on you for not telling me all about it :)) what are things you have noticed or done or changed or tricks you have found?

Happy shopping! :)

21 comments:

Amanda said...

Great job!! I didnt know about Rainbow... I wonder how I could do that with my kids...

Awesome job though!

Unknown said...

Oh man! Even though I saved a ton I see that I made a mistake. I didn't realize it was only the top five coupons! I just checked my receipt...that's right. I'll have to make sure I do this a little better next week!

I also like the tip of giving the things you might not need/want to the food shelf. I am going to do that too! I can see that some things we will get way stocked up on...so yes, I'll donate!

Even better!

YOU ROCK!

Holly said...

If I remember reading correctly on Carrie's site - it is the first 5 coupons that the cashier scans - so you want them to be the highest valued ones.

We do eat a lot of organic, but I followed a bunch of Carrie's links yesterday and printed out a ton of coupons we would use anyways.

I just shopped at my local cashwise with the coupons I had today and saved a bit there and hit up Target and saved a bunch.

I love the idea of donating. I will definetly think of that in the future. We don't normally eat a lot of cereal or prepacked stuff, but if it's free why not pick it up for someone else.

Way to go this week! God bless - Holly

Helga said...

Thanks for sharing this with us. I have been wanting to get into the coupon thing but I don't know where to begin and now I have a place. I am going to look over Pocket Your Dollars tomorrow and get started. Good thing I haven't done my grocery shopping yet :o) Again thanks for sharing :o)

Jen said...

Laura, this is an awesome post. I will be checkout that sight. I don't have some of stores listed on your blog, used to have a CUB and I miss that, but I do have a target. Way to go and way to get your hubby involved. Great suggestions on the 4 papers and for saving so much money! What an inspiration to me!

MP said...

Thanks so much for sharing that site! I can't wait to check it out. I buy two Sunday papers a week (and our Rainbow you can buy them through Wed. and then they're only a buck!) and shop on Wed. In theory I try to go once during the day with Ro and then if I have time again after she's in bed. Some bills I save over 50%! Love, it. And you're not a dork...I think it's fun and kind of a rush too!

And GREAT idea about the donating, I hadn't thought of that and I think I'll start doing that too. :)

Mrs. B said...

i am so super confused! (what's new, though, right?) i'll have to check out this site tomorrow...we'll blame my lack of comprehension on it being 1am. ;) but holy crap, how awesome that you are saving loads of money! i'm in! once i can figure it out, that is...

Lois Christensen said...

I am going NOW to check out the site!! Great job!

TheFitHousewife said...

sounds like a great idea...i wonder if there is something similar up here!

Sarah said...

Love coupons!!!! If you are not buying your paper at the dollar store & have one near you be sure to check if they have the paper! I used to buy two papers at Cub for $3.50....now I buy four for $4! :)
I cut all the coupons too, but I have mine in a zippered three ring binder and I place them in baseball card pages. I think I blogged once with a picture....I'll go back and see and then post a link for you.
I'm also a CVS addict....I think we have like 10 tubes of toothpaste and I have been paid to take each and everyone of them home with me!!! (time to donate some....)

Sarah said...

Okay I didn't blog the picture....thought I did. But here is a link to it in my photobucket account.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v724/sarah7780/couponbook003.jpg
(hopefully that works!)

Andrea said...

Thanks for telling me about! I will definately check this out!!

He & Me + 3 said...

Girl that is awesome. I totally have to try this. I love to save and shop so this is totally an adrenaline rush for me too.

Bethany said...

Sounds like a great idea. I need to see if there are any stores around here that are on that list. Thanks for the tip!

Jenni said...

WOWZA - Man I thought I was on top of our budgeting looks like I need to relook that.. Thats awesome how much you have saved.. Definitely going to go check this out.. Thanks. :0)

Liz Mays said...

I never heard of that site before! I'm going to look into this and the donation idea is fabulous!

Tyler said...

AWESOME!! I didnt read all the other comments so if someone has already asked you forgive me... but what is Rainbow? A grocery store chain there or something? I will be sure and check out her blog and stuff tomorrow. That would be great to save money like that on groceries... they are my biggest expense most of the time.. and I am terrible at cutting back.. maybe this would help?! Really want to be SAHM mom soon!!

Pineapple Princess said...

You are inspiring me to try this! :)

Pennie said...

Wow! I didn't realize...I'm new to your site, and now I'm going to be new to this other site. Thanks!

Carma Sez said...

I feel like if I start the coupon thing I will become completely obsessed - because that's kinda my personality unfortunately!

Katrina said...

I have no idea how I missed this post but sometimes I think we're riding the same wavelength haha. I just made a coupon holder in the hopes to start using coupons and saving loads of money. My first trip out I failed terribly. Thanks for sharing this site so I can study up. :)