Couponing How To...

Sunday, March 14, 2010

A few of you have inquired about HOW I save so much cash on the food I buy for the family...

Here is how I saved $73 on this amount of food today:

Store Sale/Promotion:
Safeway is currently running a Mix N Match buy 5 save $5 promotion on various cereal, fruit snacks and granola bars when you use your club card. The limit is 20 items per transaction.

The cereal pictured is Kelloggs and was on sale for $1.50 a box when you buy 5.
(total before any coupons $7.50)

The Betty crocker Fruit Snacks were on sale for $1 each when you buy 5.
(total before any coupons $5)

The Nature Valley Nut Clusters are on sale for $1.50 when you buy 5.
(total before any coupons $7.50)

The Fiber One Toaster Pastries were not part of the Mix N Match promo but were on sale 2 for $4.
(total before coupons $4)

Manufacturer Coupons:

I used manufacturer coupons both from Sunday paper coupon inserts and internet printable coupons.

For the cereal I had five (5) .70 cents off 1 coupons. These were "blinkie" coupons found in those little dispensers that spit out coupons on the cereal aisle. These 5 coupons took my cereal down to .80 a box. These coupons were not eligible for doubling because the barcode began with a 9 (bar codes starting with 5 can be doubled, even if it says "no doubling")

For the BC fruit snacks I had eight (8) .50 cents off 2 coupons. I had a combo of internet printed coupons and insert coupons for these. These all doubled per Safeways coupon policy of doubling any coupons up to .50. So each of these coupons was "worth" $1 when scanned.
These took the total of each box down to .50 each.

The Nature Valley Nut Clusters have coupons available (both in inserts and internet coupons) for $1 off each. I had 4 of these, taking the total down to .50 cents each package.

The FIber One Toaster Pastries had coupons in the Sunday paper for .50 off 1, when doubled were worth $1. Making each box $1.

E-coupons:

You can go to websites Shortcuts.com and Cellfire.com and "load" coupons to your Safeway Club Card. These coupons at this time can be used in conjunction with paper coupons. They come off your total when you scan your card. Many times you can have multiple coupons for one product on your card, I did for both the fruit snacks and the nut clusters.

I used both Jon's and mine club cards for these purchases (one card per transaction)

No e-coupons for the cereal.

I had multiple (I believe it was 4) .50 off 2 BC fruit snack e-coupons. These never double. All 4 came off when card was scanned ( $2 off)

I also had 4 e-coupons for the Nut Clusters, that were $1 off each.

No e-coupons for the fiber one toaster pastries.

How the scenario worked:

(I always use self check out when doing these types of transactions. That way I am not holding up the line and I dont have to deal with ignorant checkers who are misinformed of their stores coupon policy and may enforce their own one internet coupon per transaction or something like that. It happens, and its annoying and frustrating to argue with a cashier with a line of people behind you. )

I did 4 separate transactions for these items.

1st transaction:
5 boxes Kelloggs cereal (after store promo+ coupons my total was $4 for these)
4 boxes of BC fruit snacks (after store promo+ coupons+ ecoupons total was $0)
1 bag Nut Clusters (after store promo+coupons+ecoupons total was $0)
2 Fiber One Toaster Pastries (after store promo+ coupons total was $0)

The ecoupons on my card all came off on this transaction. I was only paying .50 for the nut clusters, but I had three $1 off ecoupons on my card, so when it scanned it took another $3 off my total. The same with the fruit snacks, it took three .50 off 2 ($1.50) off my total when I was only supposed to pay $2 for the 4 boxes... so the ecoupons paid for my out of pocket cost for the fruit snacks, nut clusters and toaster pastries.

Is that confusing or what??? I paid out of pocket $4 for this transaction.

2nd, 3rd and 4th transaction:

4 boxes BC fruit snacks
1 Nut Cluster

I paid a total for all these transactions: $5.50 after coupons and e-coupons and store promos.

Here is a picture of all my receipts as proof (you can see on one coupon that I actually made .50cents. I hit finish and pay on the screen and two quarters popped out lol!

To help me find out about these promotions and how to match the coupons (and where to find the coupons on the internet) my favorite websites are thekrazycouponlady.com and printablecoupondatabase.com. You can see deals for stores like Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Rawleys and Walmart, Target, Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid on Krazy Coupon Lady.

It does take some work to cut and clip and make a list of how to match up your coupons and can be confusing and overwhelming at first but the first time you save 50% or more on your total you will be hooked!

NOTE: I live in Colorado and the Safeway's here double coupons. Many states do not have this policy so your mileage may vary on how much you save and spend when coupons are only face value.