Couponing....reality

I have begun working out on a daily basis, nothing major, just some workouts at home.  To warm up or cool down (depending on the workout of the day) I usually do some stretching/light cardio and watch 15 minutes of something totally dumb on TV.  Something that I wouldn't watch for a whole 30 minutes even if I had time to sit down and watch it but rather to keep my mind off how incredible tired I am or how sore I am from the previous days workout!  Anyway, the other day I was flipping through channels and found reruns of "Extreme Couponing" on TLC.  Why not?  I had seen several of these shows when they first aired in 2011 and although I was shocked by them then, I felt the need to watch a snippet of one during my cool down.

The major problem with this show is reality.   Coupons are amazing, I have used them for years and do consider myself a coupon pro but this show takes it to the extreme, hence the name. :) Anyway, this show has people leaving the stores with 3-4 carts full of stuff, valued somewhere between 500-2000.00 dollars and they paid only a few dollars.  Of course that is going to catch someone's attention, I mean really, who wouldn't like to go to the grocery store and buy $500.00 worth of stuff and pay $0.50?  The fact is, you cannot do it!  You can do amazing things with coupons, in fact, I have gotten tons of stuff for free or even been paid to take it out of the store but it takes time, is limited in quantity and overall, my family can't live on it! 

The episode I watched that day worked out as such....
    -Total Before Coupons and Store Discounts- $549
    - Total After Store Card - $488
    -Total Out of Pocket Spent - $1.26  (Yes, that is only ONE dollar)

Wow, amazing, totally awesome....but....

This entire order consisted of:
  10 12pks of Soda
  54 Bottles of BBQ sauce
  12 Bottle of Spices
  2 Gallons of milk
  8 12count Toilet Paper
  20 Floss
  120 Microwave Noodle meals!!!!
  3 boxes of Cat food
  2 Frozen Pizzas

I am not sure about you, but that isn't going to feed my family for 2 days let alone a week or two!  So yes, was it neat to see that you can get ALL that for basically free, of course.  Does that mean that you will never pay for groceries again or that you can feed your entire family each month for a grocery budget of $20.00??? NO WAY!!!! 

Last week I did a regular grocery shop that included a mini coupon trip and a CVS run.  You will learn that I LOVE CVS and have mastered couponing at CVS.  We even have a "CVS closet" closet in the kids bathroom that is stocked with toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo. razors, cleaning supplies and sometimes even multiple packs of diapers! Anyway, my couponing trips last week were not my best by any means, honestly I wasn't trying to get the most possible in one trip, I was getting the really good deals that I couldn't pass up and what we needed that week.

My CVS run down was as follows....

Transaction 1:
2 packs of Pampers Diapers  - 2/20.00
1 Pack of Pampers Easy Ups - 10.00

Total Before Coupons- 30.00
Used- 2x $1.50 off diapers coupons
Used- $2.00 off easy ups
Used- $3/10.00 Baby Purchase at CVS
Used- $10.00 ExtraCare Bucks (From a previous week shopping)
Total After- 12.00 cash but received 10.00 back in ECB

Transaction 2:
4 Suave Deodorants - 1.00 each
3 Suave Men Body Wash - 2.00 each
1 bag of CVS Jelly beans- 1.99
1 bag Huggies Wipes - 5.79

Total Before Coupons- 17.78
Used- 2x $0.50 off Deodorant
Used- 2x $0.25 off Deodorant
Used- 2x $0.50 off Body Wash
Used- $2.00 off Huggies big bag wipes
Used- $2.00 off Huggies Wipes (CVS Coupon)
Used- $10.00 ECB from previous transaction
Total After- 1.28 and received 4.99 in ECB

Totals for shopping trip: 
-Retail Value- $47.78
-Cash Spent OOP- $13.28 with 4.99 CVS money

I then went to do my regular grocery shopping at our local Giant Foods and made sure to use my coupons to take advantage of the Frozen Food Sales.  March is Frozen Food month and our store always puts unbeatable deals on sale.  Most of these sales I would purchase without using ANY coupons but just so happened that I could put together one nice frozen food run!

The deal was select foods for the week were spend $25.00 get $15.00 off instantly!  That's only $10 for $25 worth of goodies!  Only catch, $25 has to be AFTER coupons. Unlike most stores, this is the way Giant usually "gets" you.  This week, it didn't matter...I had a plan. 

My shopping list included the following "selected" frozen products...
-Super Pretzels (2/4.00)
-Eggo Waffles (3/$5.00)
-Stouffers Family Size Entrée (6.99)
-Viola Family Size Skillet Entrée (5.99)
-McCain Potato Products (3/5.00)
-4x Giant Frozen Veggies (4.00)
-Red Baron Individual Pizzas (2/5.00)

The way it worked out...

Total Before- $35.98
Used- $1/2 Pretzels
Used-$1.50 off Stouffers
Used- 3x $1 McCain Potato
Used- $2.00 off Viola Skillet Meal
Used- $1/2 Eggo Waffles
Used- $1.00 off Red Baron
Total After Coupons- $26.48
Store Frozen Food Deal- $15.00

Total Out of Pocket - $11.48

That is how I use my coupons to effectively save money and feed my family.  This is an example of a normal week for us.  Of course I have done better and worse and I have had my fair share of carts full of food for mere dollars at the end but NOTHING like the show portrays. 

Coupons are awesome and totally worth the effort it takes (which is a lot I might add) but the reality of coupons is what I have here, not thousands of dollars worth of product for pennies.  That is simply silly.



Note:  I have had a reader ask me to show more of my couponing scenarios in my blog so here is a start.  I will make sure to include a post (maybe once a week) with my buys.  I hope that seeing this helps everyone realize what you can do with coupons...you don't have to be a hoarder or have an unhealthy diet!!