Tracking My Spending

I'm intrigued by the idea of extreme couponing.  I live in an area where the stores do not double the face value of the coupons, so it's a little harder to be an uber couponer.  I've decided to keep track of my spending this month using my coupons to see if I save a significant amount of money.  I've already gone shopping at Walgreens and Publix.  When I came home, I set up a spread sheet.  I'm not sure this is really necessary because my receipts show all my savings, but I want to break it down by item.  I have my coupon binder set up and it really helps me to keep track of my coupons and the expiration dates.  I usually just spend a couple of hours a week cutting and sorting coupons and coming up with my shopping list for the week.  Another advantage is that most of the stores where I shop are clustered together, so I won't spend a lot of time or gas going from store to store.  You probably won't ever see me on an episode of "Extreme Couponing", but, who knows, maybe I'll make the local paper.

My Experience as an Uber Couponer

Today, after work, with coupon binder, shopping list, and sale ads in hand, I set out to try my hand as an uber couponer.  My first stop was Walgreen's.  I was pretty excited.

Walgreen's purchases -

dawn dish washing liquid - retail price is $1.99
sale price - $0.99
manufacturer's coupon - $0.25
final price - $0.74

scotch magic tape - $1.99
sale price - buy 1, get two free
manufacturer's coupon - $1.00
final price - $0.33 each for 3 rolls

Campbell's cream of chicken soup- 2 cans for $3.00
sale price - $0.79 each
manufacturer's coupon - $0.40 off 4 cans
final price - $.069 each for 4 cans

gold medal flour - $3.49
sale price - 2/$3.00
I did not have a coupon & I purchased two - $3.00

domino's brown sugar - $1.29
sale price - $0.89
manufacturer's coupon - $0.75 off 2
final price - $1.03 for 2 boxes

Celebrity canned ham - $3.99
sale price - $1.99
I did not have a coupon & I purchased 3 - $5.97

domino sugar, 4 lb. bag - $2.99
sale price - $2.49
manufacturer's coupon - $0.50
final price - I purchased 2 @ $1.99 - $3.98

Reynold's wrap - $1.69
sale price - $0.89
I did not have a coupon & I purchased 1 - $0.89

puff's facial tissue - $2.49
sale price - 2/$3.00
manufacturer's coupon - $0.50
final price - $1.25 per box

Ajax cleanser - $0.99
sale price - 2/$1.00
manufacturer's coupon - $1.00
final price - should be free, but the store would not honor my coupon, so $1.00
 
Total Cost

1) If I had purchased everything at retail price, I would have spent $50.12
2) If I had purchased everything at the sale price, no coupons, I would have spent $26.76
3) My final purchase price, including coupons, wagc (Walgreen's coupons) & tax was $23.84

I don't feel like an extreme couponer.  Maybe if I had only purchased items for which I had coupons, it would have been different.  Moving on to CVS !!

At CVS, I only purchased three things:

1 gallon of milk - $3.19, get $1.00 ECB (extra care bucks), final cost - $2.19
1 96 oz. chlorox bleach - $1.69, $0.25 manufacturer's coupon, final cost - $1.49
1 green bag tag - $0.99, get $0.99 ECB, final cost - free

Maybe I did better at CVS, but I'm not sure.  I do know that I saved money today, but I'm not ready to claim the title of UBER Couponer yet.

The Bottom Line

Uber Couponing

I haven't watched the new TLC show, "Extreme Couponing" but I am fascinated by extreme savers.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to see how much I could save by couponing.  The first thing that I did was to make my own coupon binder.  If you want a good example of how to set up your own binder, go to www.homeof5.com.

The hardest part of this whole thing is matching up the weekly store ads with coupons.  I don't subscribe to my local paper so I have to depend on my friends for the sales inserts and coupons.  There are also several websites where you can download and print coupons.  I need to determine how cost effective this is based on the cost of ink for my printer.

This week, I plan on going to Walgreens and CVS to take my first steps into the world of extreme couponing.  I'll let you know how it goes.