FREE!

That's right, I got the above items for FREE!  I know it doesn't look like much, but it was such a victory for me.  I've started couponing.  I'm not an extreme couponer like the show on TLC, but I have learned a few tricks from watching the show.

Here's the break down on the above items:
Crest - on sale 10 for $10. - coupon for $.50 off 1 (which doubles to a $1 at Kroger) = FREE
Cascade - on sale for $.98 - coupon for $1 off 1 = $.02 PROFIT
Glade - on sale for $.97 - coupon for $1 off 1 = $.03 PROFIT

It just takes a little effort to save a lot of money, and it's kinda fun too.  There's definitely a learning curve... on my first trip attempting to coupon I only saved 27% on my bill and I was at Kroger for over 3 hours.  However, the more I do it the better I get.  On my best normal trip buying actual things we use and need I saved 53%.  I actually saved more than I spent!  I went once specifically to get an item that was on sale I knew I had coupons for... I ended up getting 4 boxes of cereal for $2.03 including tax (the regular price of ONE box is $2.32).

Sometimes couponing means that my living room looks like this:

If you look closely you can see AnnaBelle's bone to the right in the middle of several stacks of coupons... she kept wanting to play and walking through them for some reason.  The living room didn't look like this for long and it did result in my first free finds, which was an exciting goal to meet.

I use a few websites to assist in deal finding that I think are very helpful:

www.couponing101.com

www.southernsavers.com

www.couponmom.com

www.coupons.com (I print coupons from here.)


I've gotten some of my family and friends started on couponing.  It's fun to hear what others find and to see their excitement... who doesn't love saving money?!

Do you have any fun couponing experiences?