A few weeks ago I found a blog site that has me HOOKED... I am in love with this site and check my dashboard DAILY to see if she's posted. Her name is Mel, she's The Coupon Goddess... more on her in a moment, but BECAUSE OF HER... TODAY...
I had my first "lesson" in couponing today... I met with a friend (let's just call her R until I can ask permission about using her name on here) to show me her system. She even "dumpster dived" for me before meeting with me and gave me half her treasures. I am floored at her savings. She pulled out two receipts from her purse then and there to show me what she'd already done TODAY in savings. And true to my new LOVE-finding blog, just as The Coupon Goddess says in her postings, sometimes you do really well, sometimes you just aren't satisfied... Case and point: at one store R did really well. Over 50 dollars "purchased" but she paid 12. The other store she didn't do as well. I'm still FLOORED over it all.
Side note: There is a lot of math... I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooo not a math person. This will become an interesting endeavour.
R showed me her "filing" system of folders by dates in a tub that she says she actually does take into the stores. I'm sitting at her kitchen table, holding Mark on my lap, my eyes wide as saucers trying to soak all this in... we sat at the table, her talking me through a ton of stuff while she separated papers into piles from her earlier "diving".
We talked about "freebies" and "nearly free" and how she doesn't pay for toothpaste unless it's under $0.30 . Again with my eyes wide. I was like "huh?!" She said... "really." We talked about $0.25 bags of candy. Free razors, free pounds of rice, $0.49 cleaning supplies... things I so pay full price on... (I bought a BULK box of toothpaste at Sams thinking I'd saved so much because if you do the math, it's way cheaper to buy them in bulk and will last me so much longer, and she buys them for less than 30 cents!) ... and we talked Extra Care Bucks from CVS and "fliping them" and "money makers" for things you might not even use but end up with the store PAYING YOU to buy them. WHAT?!?! (anyone else think I'm trippin' here?!)
She asked me where I shopped and we talked locations for a bit, what's good, what's bad, where she wont go and why... A LOT to soak into one day... We talked about this grocery game site and how it works and we moved from her table to her desk and browsed websites for a bit showing me what's what. I think at that point, I was getting a little overwhelmed, Mark was getting fussy, Matthew was beyond beyond beyond tired (with a full day of VBS prior to heading to R's house), so I did quick diaper changes for the boys and left with my stack of coupons, two printed off sheets of information, a legal pad page of notes on dos, don'ts, and hows... and my poor brain trying to grasp it all... and my eagerness to get going pounding!!
I will say this...
I'm READY to save money!
IF I can figure this out, ANYONE can... so let's see.
AND THANK YOU R for your time today! Let's hope I don't waste it!
.... You can count on there being more to come about all this....
Where the voices get to come out of my head and ramble elsewhere...
2 comments:
Wow, wow,wow! Good for you!! Don't get overwhelmed. Start with one store at a time and master that before you move on to the next. I'd start with your local grocery store. Get your coupons organized because that's half the battle. That way when you go into any store, you have everything you need at your finger tips. Keep in mind that it takes a few months to get into the swing of things, so don't get discouraged. You are going to do great!
Thank you Mel! I'm anxious to get going!
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