Couponing

I'm now a fan of couponing! I've always been one to buy sales and use coupons, but never to the extent of "true couponing." I guess it was because I was intimidated and overwhelmed. There are so many websites out there like the Grocery Game, coupons.com, tons of blogs, etc, etc - I never knew where to begin! There's also all the couponing lingo that makes no sense to me (some that I've figured out so far: "M&M" = mix and match; "catalina" = the coupon for x-dollars off your next shopping trip that prints out after your purchase and I'm guessing is named after the company that prints them, Catalina Marketing). And then there's the time factor, the biggy for me - I thought it would waste tons of time and end up not being worth it.

But thanks to my friend Andrea I've found a way to do it. She just started a new blog here and through it I've found some other helpful links, specifically bloggers here in the NW that can help me find local deals. At her suggestion, I'm going to follow a couple blogs and just stick with going after a few deals here and there of items I know I need. The cool part is that these bloggers do all the work for me. I don't have to hunt for the deals - they provide links to the coupons, they scour the ads looking for the specials, and they even provide scenarios to help me figure out how to take the most advantage of each deal.

Here's my first deal:

No, Abby was not included in the deal, but she wanted to be in the picture. =)

I got all this (12 double-rolls of toilet paper, 3 rolls of paper towels, 4 12-packs of Dr. Pepper and one package of Keebler cookies) for only $4.00 plus tax!! Not too shabby, eh? This is actually the combination of two deals: the paper towel/toilet paper deal for $1.50 and the Dr. Pepper deal which was essentially free because I only paid for the cookies ($2.50) if you factor in the $10 Catalina I got for my next shopping trip. If you live near an Albertson's and want to learn how to take advantage of the deals too, you can click on the links above. These are the blogs I'm following right now: Super Mom in Training, MaybeFrugal, and Thrifty NW Mom.

All in all, it's pretty fun and I'm excited to see how much I can knock of my $250/month food budget! =)

UPDATE: The Dr. Pepper deal is dead in Olympia. They posted signs by the Dr. Pepper stating they were no longer buy 2 get 2 free. The store will give you a $10 catalina, not 2 free as well. That would bring your net total to about $10 for 4 12-packs... (Thanks, Andrea)