Watch Nena Save: First Things First

Common Coupon Abbreviations

Wags- Walgreens
WM- Walmart
SWM-Super Walmart
FAR- Walgreens Free After Rebate
IVC- Coupon in Walgreens monthly Easy Saver book (instand value coupon)
7-day coupon- Coupon in Walgreens weekly ad
ECB- Extra Care Bucks at CVS
RR- Register Reward from Walgreens (coupons or money on your next order)
OOP- Out Of Pocket cost
Q or Qs- Coupon
OOP- Out of pocket - The amount of money you spend
Q or Qs - Coupon(s)
CRT- cash register tape aka receipt (or coupon that prints on the CRT) CVS prints alot of these coupons
ES - The monthly coupon book found at Walgreens called Easy Saver
Cat or Catalina- the coupon that spits out with your receipt (also refers to the machine that prints them)
Rain Check- when a store is out of a sale item get a rain check so you can still take advantage of the sale price when the item comes in
Peelies- the coupon found on the package
IP- Internet Printed coupon
BOGO- buy one get one free
B2GO- Buy two get one free
BOGO 50%off - Buy one get one 50% off
WT - wine tag, coupon found around the neck of a wine bottle
# Stockpile- multiples of the same item
OYNO - On Your Next Order - catalinas off of future purchases

Any other ones you don't know? Ask! I will post them!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why do you break up your purchases into seperate transactions?

A: Well, it depends on the item and the store. At CVS there are limits of things you can buy per card, so I may have to break them up to maximize on the deal. Also, if I have a small amount of ECBs and don't have enough to buy all of the items I may buy one or two to get more ECBs to "roll" them. Also, some stores, like Kroger, limit the amount of identical coupons you can use per transaction.

Q: What is "rolling"?

A: Taking ECBs (CVS) or Register Rewards (Walgreens) and getting more items that yeild ECBs/RRs to make the amount roll. Example: I have $3 RR from a toothbrush a few weeks back, I buy a $4 shampoo that gives me $4 RR. I pay with the $3 get the shampoo and get $4 more. Same at CVS.

Q:Where do you get so many coupons?

A: I buy several newspapers every week. My mother in law is also sweet enough to keep her coupons for me. I also echmmm make trips to the local recycling bins (at all the local schools) and raid them for coupons...this is where I get most of them. My DH is kind enough to do this for me :)

Q: Where do you put all of this stuff?

A: Well, my house definatly lacks storage...something we didn't notice until we moved in. My DH is very handy and spent lots of time building shelving in our laundry room, closets, garage ect. I love how supportive he is of my habit :)

Got more questions?? Send them my way!!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

First Things First

I wanted to start a blog to start tracking my savings. I want to know about what budget I can realistically set for myself, both for food/hba products and for clothing ect. While I am going to list some deals that I got before this month, my tracking is going to start as of September 1st, 2008.

So far this month, I have made 3 shopping trips. One each at CVS, Kroger, and Target.

Last week, Target had a special, purchase 4 Kellogs products, receive a $5 gift card. My transaction was as follows.

12 boxes of Poptarts
-6 $1/2 coupons (q)
-12 .50 off target qs
Total $15 receive $15 gift card.

I did this transaction twice totaling 24 boxes, the second time using the $15 in gift cards. I could have done less out of pocket to start, but I want to use a $10 mail in rebate. Therefore, in the end, I spent $5 out of pocket and received $15 in gift cards, making this a $10 profit.

Why so many poptarts? First of all, if you are being paid to take stuff out of the store, why wouldn’t you take it? Secondly, my husband and daughter love poptarts J There is no way we will eat all of these before they expire, so we have shared some with neighbors and plan to use some as trades for other products and coupons.

CVS this week was very eventful! CVS has an extra care bucks program (ECB). Certain items every week and month have ECBs offered on them. I have two cards, one each for Dave and I. Here was my transaction this week.

Nena’s Card
Start with 9.99 in ECBs

Transaction 1
2 Chex Mix @ $1 ea
Loreal Product $5.99
2 Right Guard Deoderant @ 2.99 ea
Bubble Toy .75 (75% clearance filler)

subtotal: 14.72
2 $1 off chex coupon
2 $1 off Rightguard
$1 off Loreal
5.99 ECB
4.00 ECB

Total OOP: $0
ECB earned: $4 (rightguard) $5.99 (Loreal) $9.99

Trans 2
3 Revlon Nail Polish @ $3.99 ea
3 Right Guard Deodorant @ 2.99
1.75 Tennis game (75% clearance filler)

subtotal: 22.69
3 $2 off Revlon coupon
$2 Revlon CRT (store printed coupon)
3 $1 Righguard coupon
$2/10 CVS coupon (sometimes emailed)
$9.99 in ECBs from previous order

Total OOP” $0
ECBs earned $9 (Revlon) $6 (Rightguard)

End with $15 in ECBs no OOP (out of pocket)

Dave’s Card
Start with 12.99 in ECBs

Trans 1
1 Rightguard Deodorant
1 soft and dri Deodorant (same as rightguard deal)
3 Revlon Nail Polish
1 Loreal Product

- $1 Loreal
- $1 Rightguard
- $.75 soft and dri
- $6 Revlon (3 @ $2)
- $2/10 CVS coupon
- 12.99 ECBs
Total $.20 Paid with CVS gift card (I received a gift card after calling CVS customer service after being wrongly treated, the problem was corrected and I got a gift card J )

ECBs Earned- 5.99 Loreal $2 Rightguard $9 Revlon

Trans 2
3 Soft and Dri Deodorant

- 3 .75 coupons
- $5.99 ECB

Total: $.73 on the gift card

ECBs Earned $9 Soft and Dri

End with $18 in ECBs no OOP (out of pocket)

They were out of the Excederine that was on sale for $1.99 (I have $2 off coupons) so I got a raincheck.

Total Spent at CVS $0, Amount saved (based on prices of items while on sale): $84.09

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Kroger

This trip wasn’t as good as most. Dave picked out two recipies in which the ingredients ended up being very expensive having to buy oils and seasonings that we didn’t have. However, the trip turned out pretty good.

Total before coupons: 85.07 (this is after all of the Kroger sales)
Amount of coupons $36.95
Total paid $48.12

I got a great deal with coupons for the All You magazine, this is the first time I have got these and I need to get more!!

Several buy 3 Kraft products receive ____ Kraft product free. Koolaid is Kraft. So here are the items I got for free buy using these coupons and purchasing $6 in koolaid J

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Some other recent frees (all within the last 2 weeks or so):

$10 Covergirl Outlast Lipstick BOGO at CVS use BOGO q is FREE (got 30 of these)
$2 Just Bunches honey bunches of oats using $2 q is FREE
$1 Malt O Meal with $1 off MOM is FREE
$1 Frenches Mustard $.50 q doubled FREE
$1 Lawrys Marinade $.50 w doubled FREE
$1 Kotex Pantyliners using $1 off Kotex FREE
$3.72 Glade Plug using $4 off .28 CENT MONEY MAKER

Just matching sales and coupons… oh and not to mention ALL of the help I get from http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ :)

Here are some pics of my "stockpile" I have been doing this for about 2 1/2 months with the first few weeks of trying to learn the ropes. Everything pictured was either rediciously cheap or free, or better yet... I made money by buying it :)