Kohl's Trip + Ebay

About a week ago, I received a promotional $10 gift card to Kohl's for the "grand opening" of the store in my city. I was a little bit confused because I've been living here for about eight months and the store has been around since before my change in residency. But hey, I'm not going to complain about ten free bucks. I also had a 15% off my total purchase coupon. I was a bit unsure if I could use both of them together since there did seem to be some restrictions. Luckily, stacking them was totally fine. I bought two scented candles (pumpkin and Asian apple/ginger). The total cost would have been close to thirty dollars on regular price, but it was half off today, which doesn't surprise me because they're always having "sales". I only ended up paying $2.74 out of pocket, but after I left the store I thought that perhaps I could have paid even less for it. I gave the cashier the gift card first and then I gave her the coupon. I probably should have given her the coupon first now that I think about it. I guess that's all part of the learning process. I was happy about my 25 dollar savings regardless.

I had heard about people actually buying coupons online. At first, I thought it was absolutely crazy...until I saw some pretty great deals. I was tempted to purchase a couple of things yesterday, but funding is kind of low at the moment. I had so many coupons left over from the Sunday paper that I had an idea that I could also sell coupons online. I started the process by clipping everything I had left (which took several hours), organized clipped coupons, put them into envelopes, and set up an Ebay account. The closer I was getting to putting up a listing, the more I started to wonder if it was worth it all. Most people seemed to only buy coupons where you would get items for completely free or with multiples of the same product. I didn't have either one of those. I put about 25 coupons in each envelope and grouped them into categories, so one envelope was kitchen supplies, toiletries, another was beverages and snacks, etc. etc. I was going to list it for 99 cents per envelope at auction. I realized because the coupons were not multiples that I probably wasn't going to have many takers, nor would anyone want to pay more than a couple of bucks for a variety. I wasn't expecting to make actual money off of it, but if I could make a few bucks here and there, it seemed like the thing to do. I was at the very last page to set up the listing on Ebay...and chickened out. I became a bit intimidated and scared when I kept seeing the word "fees" on every page. I'm computer savvy, but not Ebay savvy. I might still go through with it if I'm satisfied with the way Ebay works with sellers, but for now, I'm just not sure spending five hours on something as mind-numbing as clipping coupons. What about you? Would you do it?

Are You a Clueponer?

Part of the reason why I set this blog up in the first place was for a challenge. I wanted to be able to put my experiment out there for all to see. And who knows, maybe it'll encourage someone out there that they can do it too. I've been relentlessly devouring as much information as I can and as a newbie it is a little overwhelming. As stupid as this may sound, I never thought that stores would have different coupon policies. I figured they were all the same, but I was wrong, of course. That's why I'm a clueless couponer, or Clueponer for short. So for you other newbies like me, here are a few things I've learned that you might just want to know:

- Manufacturer coupons that are under a dollar can be doubled at certain places (check your store's policy). For example, let's say you have a coupon for 50 cents off a can of corn. If your store doubles coupons, then that coupon turns into a dollar off instead. Here's the catch...even if they do double coupons, doesn't mean they will literally double the amount. For instance, a different coupon for corn is 75 cents, which means it's under a dollar and subjected to be doubled. The thing is, you won't get $1.50 off because the most a retailer will give you for a double coupon is a dollar. So for the 75 cent coupon, the store will add an extra 25 cents to bring your savings up to a dollar. You have have to pay attention to the coupons because even if a store will double, some manufacturer coups will say "do not double".

- When a coupon says "one per purchase", it may be a little bit confusing if you're new to this. Before, I thought it meant I could only get just one, but really what it means is one coupon per item. Not that if I were to buy five of the same things that I'd have to do five different transactions. It just means that if I'm buying five, I can use five of the same coupons in that one transaction so there's one that's applied to each item.

- Even when your coupons expire, they are still good. Send them overseas to our soldiers. They are allowed to use them six months past their expiration date.

First Shopping Trip w/Coupons!

Most of us have probably seen Extreme Couponing on TLC, but that is not what inspired me to cut coupons.

It's really shameful to admit, but my fiance and I rely on his parents to help us out with groceries for the moment since I'm unfortunately unemployed and my fiance Cam is underemployed. I hate having to burden his mom with our expenses and so I decided it was time to try to save as much money for her as humanly possible, and what way could I do that? Well, it's not just about couponing, but being mindful about which coupons we use.

Some people might think that just because they have a coupon for an item, that they should get it. If it's not an item you need or will use, despite having a super fantastic coupon, then you're not really saving anything. Before when I said it is partly about being mindful, not getting unnecessary items is part of that. However, to really get the savings, you have to keep in mind that you'll get more bang for your buck when you apply those coupons with items that are also on sale.

With that, today was the first shopping trip with the intent to save a lot. And boy, was I disappointed.
I had done a lot of research prior to the trip today, looking for all the sales, using the electronic Upromise coupons, and cutting paper coupons. My fiance and I really don't get that much each week--just enough to get by. Even then, our average grocery bill each week comes out to about $75. After having seen so many videos and reading several articles and blogs, I thought I could easily cut that number in half. When I got to the store, everything seemed so chaotic. I didn't have an organized binder with plastic slots filled with coupons. I had a couple dozen paper coupons piled into a small envelope. I often stood in an aisle, scrambling with the coupons and fighting them to go back in when I was trying to match PC's with store prices. And in the end, I only used three PC's.

The effort wasn't totally wasted though. The total came out to $98.18. Between using the store's rewards card, U coupons, and paper coupons, we saved $28.97 for a total of 30% savings. It seems kind of silly to be disappointed about cutting your bill by a third, with which I'd concur. I think I just got caught up with watching the professionals save an average of 70-85% off of their sum.

A couple of paper coupons I used for this transaction was:

Franks Buffalo sauce - $0.75 off
Dove soap - $2 off
Rinaldi pasta sauce - $0.50 off

I'm actually kind of proud of the Rinaldi purchase because it's originally $2.49 and I got it for only 25 cents! Since we have the rewards card, they offered it to us for $1.24 less than the original price, and with the manufacturer's coupon we'd get 50 cents off of that, but the store allows you to double coupons that are under a dollar, so that 50 cents turns into another dollar off.

All in all, I was not as thrilled with the total cost of this week, but still, 30% is still some great savings. It's just going to motivate me even more to save a bigger percentage on the next trip. Happy coupon clipping to you and see you on my next shopping trip.