Saving like Krazy!! Or A Penny a Pen

Okay, I think I found a new hobby! Good thing this one saves me money instead of, well, the other thing.

Earlier in the week I was browsing amazon.com looking for books on things that will help us manage our finances better. As our family grows, things get tighter so it was important to me to figure things out and find better ways of doing it.

Well, I saw this book

Of all the books on couponing I saw on Amazon, this one looked to be the best and a reviewer said it had kind of a sassy way of explaining it which was right up my alley.

When I got it, I devoured it! And then I went crazy gathering up all the coupons I possibly could! I bought some on ebay for dirt cheap, looked through our old newspapers and an old stash and through my purse. Thankfully I had some that weren’t expired yet. Plus I bought 4 additional subscriptions to the Sunday paper. Just in time too. I got them today! All these things are recommended by this book as ways to build up your coupon stash.

Anyway, the book outlines how to look for bargains, how to organize your coupons, how stack them with store coupons and sales, rules and the anatomy of coupons and lots of good advice. I couldn’t wait to get started.

Today I shopped at Shoprite, Acme and Target.

At Shoprite I saved a whopping $85. 72!! Wow!

Then at Acme, get this, this is great, drumroll please!

badabadabadabada……

I spent $48. 92 and SAVED $62.07! My savings was greater than my spending!

This is what I got for under $50 at Acme:

The cereal was on sale for $1.75 per box with no coupon. If I’d already been saving coupons for a few weeks I probably would have had some to use and would have saved even more on the cereal. But, cereal under $2.00 a box is an awesome price anyway so I always stock up.

The cat food was on sale plus I had a coupon so I got it for like 30 cents a piece.

The deodorant was on sale for $1.50 plus I had a coupon for .75 cents off and it doubled at the register so I got it for FREE! :) If I’d had more coupons I could have walked out with several.

At Target I didn’t have a lot in savings if you don’t count the t-shirts I bought for the girls on clearance. I should though but the register didn’t count that savings. I got a couple shirts for under $2.00 each and a couple for under $5.00.

I also bought bic pens that were on sale. With a coupon their final price came out to 10 cents for a pack of ten. A penny a pen. :)

Anyway, I think that was a lot of fun. I can’t wait to have more coupons and get them better organized. I bought my 3” binder and trading card protector sheets today so I can organize them the Krazy Coupon Lady way.

I also can’t wait to try saving at the local pharmacies. CVS has some good deals this week. I might be able to get Pampers diapers for close to nothing! (!)

If anyone wants to look into this for yourselves I highly recommend reading the book, checking out the Krazy Coupon Lady’s website and the other websites I have buttons for on the side of my browser. Plus there are more to find. Also take a look at CouponMom.com. Her information is really helpful too and she has the store ads and coupons already matched up for our convenience. You have to have a membership but it’s free. Pretty cool.

My goal is to use this system to build up our family’s 1-year storage much faster than we would ever be able to otherwise. I think it’s time for Alan to go build some shelves in the basement. We already need them!