It's a Coupon Craze!

(NOTE: this blog is from early August, I came across in my blogs to edit and never posted)

I finally checked out the Extreme Couponing T.V. Show. These coupon peeps are crazy. OK, I get that they are buying a shopping cart of groceries worth $246 for only $6 or so after paying for most with coupons...BUT! Do you REALLY NEED 46 boxes of cereal stashed under your bed? One lady on that show does! She's a coupon freak! Now some items she bought with coupons is useful like all the mens deodorant for her 3 teens and a husband in the house, fine go stock up! But the shelf lined with canned soup and under the bed stash of cereal boxes? hmmm. I think if she and other coupon peeps are hording the items and bought these only because of the coupon, they should donate most of these items to the local food pantry! Save aside about 10 boxes and give the rest away! Seriously!

So now I am joining the coupon craze, but keeping my sanity at the same time. I am inspired by these coupon clippers, but still look at the item I am buying to know if I really will use it? or will I buy it only because the coupon is in my hands? I was happy to be rung up the last shopping trip and I was just over $100 and handed over the coupons to the clerk and the final total was $92.63. Now, it is not the final total of $6 or so dollars, but I am a coupon rookie and still figuring out the game.

Here is what I learned so far. Schnucks Grocery stores has double coupons automatically that apply only to 40 cents or less...So if I have a yogurt coupon to save 35 cents, then it will ring up as 70 cents off! the yogurts are 58 cents or less to begin with?! Great deal. At our Shop-N-Save stores there are every Thursdays you get $10 off $50 or more spent on groceries. A trick to this would have to be spending the first $50 or so dollars on one bill and recieve the $10 off...then ring up the other half of the groceries for a second bill of $50 total to get another $10 off. My groceries will then save $20 off a $100 total.

The other day I had a box of Toasters Strudels in my freezer. The back of the box had a coupon for FREE Orange Juice, up to a value of $4 any brand. This was a huge coupon for me! I usually buy O.J. that is about $2-$3 never get the O.J. that is over $4. Sometimes I just don't buy O.J. because it is too expensive. So I went to Target to pick out the most expensive O.J. I could find. It was pretty fancy, the jug has a flip top lid to pour and a nice gripping handle to hold the jug as I pour...the O.J. is pulp free to be able to sip through Kara's sippy cup conviently and not get clogged, and it was a nice, family size portion of Juice! Guess, just guess how much this Orange Juice was?!!? The brand Tropicana, and it is 100% pure and natural, "Never from Concentrate" it reads on the jug. This juice was four dollors and sixty-four cents. I hand over my coupon for $4 off, paying just 64 cents for this FANCY O.J. This so far has been my favorite coupon so far. If one is able to actually have a "Favorite Coupon". HAHA