Whoot Whoot!!

This coming week Albertsons' has Campbells' Great for Cooking soups (Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom) on sale for 59cents a can! That's a great price to begin with, but on I found coupons on http://www.ebay.com/ for Save $1/4. Now that makes a GREAT price of 34cents a can. Albertsons' hasn't had a double coupon fest in a couple of weeks and I might be reaching by thinking that we are about due for one. So, although I ordered my coupons tonight and they should be getting here on Friday or Saturday, I'm going to hold on to them to see if there are the doublers. If I were to buy 12 cans per transaction, with coupons and store doublers, each can would only be 9cents!! I think that is something to Whoot about!!

There's also a Kraft cheese sale going on this next week at the big A. Philadelphia cream cheese is 99cents an 8oz block and the Kraft shredded cheeses are $2. Not a stellar deal, but I got coupons for Save $1 when you buy 1 cream cheese and 1 package of Kraft shredded cheese. And hoping for the doublers the first of next week, that would make both cheese products $1 with coupon. That would make them stock-up worthy, in my book.

Here's a tip for Holiday shopping: many of the stores discontinue their Christmas packaged products immediately with 50% or more off deals starting right before Christmas or at latest, the day after. I'm talking about things like Hershey Kisses and novelty foods. Many of these products have coupons available for them, like the Save $1/2 Hershey products. A lot of those coupons are available for free at sites like http://www.coupons.com/, as well. Typical expiration dates are 12/31/10. If you were to set some of those coupons aside for when the products are clearanced, you would have a tremendous deal on your hands with some products. And things like the candy, stuffing, packaged sets, etc...are good for months and months after Christmas. So don't let the Christmas packaging fool you. A Hershey's Kiss in red and green wrappers is still a Hershey's Kiss without it's wrapper on ;)

Extreme Couponing Coming to TLC in December

Set the DVRs for 12/29 at 8pm on TLC for Extreme Couponing.

I'm not surprised that this kind of program is coming to TV...since ever morbid and perverse aspect of life has a reality show to its' name. But this is a show with BENEFITS!! Not only do you see the crazy state of the extreme coupon shopper in their frenzy, but you get to glean techniques and skills that you can use to benefit yourself and family.


http://press.discovery.com/us/tlc/programs/extreme-couponing/

I think what impresses me most is that most of these shoppers are fairly new to couponing...like 3-4 years new. Economic times have caused the vast majority of people to review their expenses and see where they can cut corners to reduce costs. Food is the second highest expense in the budget, following the mortgage/rent. And generally, it's one of the only expenses that is "discretionary"--whatever we choose it to be. That means that it fluctuates on our mood, the cost of foods we are drawn to, or if we have less money to work with. For the credit-saturated culture that we live in, most of the residual expenses on groceries get diverted to a credit card when liquid funds are not available in the bank.



I've been "bargain shopping" for over 16 years, "coupon shopping" for the last 10 years, and "extreme couponing" for the last 6 years. I used to be the novelty customer at the stores I shopped locally. Now I'm just one of masses that are trying to get the most for my buck. I see women who are far more organized and methodical than I am with 6" binders full of coupons and lists of game plan options for the products on sale. I see some who shop using coupons for single quantities and those who shop for case lots. Everyone plans their strategy according to what they can store, expiration dates, and what they use. But the bottom line for all the couponers is: they do it to save money. Because coupons are the only time that you will see a cost realization that is reduced and paid for with money you did not have to make yourself! The coupons are acting as "cash" to pay for products that you would normally have to pay for yourself. That means the money you could have spent stays in the bank rather than going into the grocers' tills. Think about that. How much money do you spend on food? How much money could you save? If you put the numbers on paper...it's surprising how much you will pay yourself if you create a game plan for you and your family. Good luck and happy shopping.