Cheyenne's Post or anyone else who is curious about the couponing world.

Your best friends are the couponing sites

southernsavers.com
faithfulprovisions.com 

There are a lot.  You just have to find the ones that you like.  You can always ask me for Rite Aid good deals-I ALWAYS know the good ones there!

I use Southern Savers quite a bit.  She (Jenny) puts little nuts next to the really good deals.  She also tells you how many inserts should be in the paper that week.

Every week I buy 4 newspapers (at Kroger they are .99).  I know it sounds crazy.  When there is something that you really want, you always want more than one. 

After you buy your newspapers, you want to cut EVERY coupon out not just the ones you think you might want.  You always want the chance to give or donate to someone else.  Then organize them however you can remember.  I put like items together.  When I first started, I had a box with all my "like" items paper clipped together.  Now I have 2 binders(food/other stuff) with plastic baseball card sheets  ( I got a box of 100 at Great Escape in Madison for 20 bucks).  Each coupon has its own slot.  After you get weeks and weeks of coupons, you have a huge stock pile. 

Your goal is to match your coupons with sale items.  If it is on sale and you have a coupon, that almore always makes it an awesome deal.  For example...this week at Kroger

Jose Ole Appetizer are 2.99 there was a 1.00 off coupon the freezer door at the store.  If you were to buy 10 of the Mega deal events this week, you would get the appetizers for 2.49-1.00 coupon for 1.49

I always carry my food coupon binder in Kroger with me because they often have unadvertised deals or clearanced out items that I have coupons for.  Did I mention Kroger doubles coupons?  It depends on the Kroger, but I know that most will double at least up to a .50 coupon.

The drugstores all have some kind of cash back coupons.  I will of course give you the Rite Aid scenarios because that is what I know best. 

We have the Wellness + card.  Our card gives you all the sale prices and 10% off Rite Aid brand products.  It is also on a points system, so the more money you spend the more you save.  10% off shopping pass for ever 125 points you get (a point for every dollar and 25 points for every prescription).  When you get 500 points you get 10% off for an entire year and at 1000 you get 20% off for a whole year<--employee discount.

Up rewards print on the bottom of the receipt when you purchase an item that should receive one (just look at the ad).  They are just like cash.  There are a few items (beer, tobacco, prescriptions) that you can not use them on.

You want to do the same thing at drugstores.  Match sale items and coupons BUT most drugstores have coupons in their papers or separate booklets for coupons.  Ours are normally in our weekly ad.  You can stack these.  Store+Manufacturer coupon

Example Last week
Aveeno was regular price, but if you spent $25 dollars on Aveeno products you got a $10 up reward.  There was a Rite Aid coupon in the ad.  So say you purchase 5 $5 dollar Aveeno products.  There was a $1.00 off coupons in our ad, so use 5 $1.00 off coupons.  Then there was a $2.00 manufacturer coupon in the paper that week, so use 5 $2.00 coupons

"25" dollars
-5 store coupon
-10 manufacturer
"10.00+some tax"
Receive a $10 plus up for purchasing the items.  They practically begged you to buy them!  :)

This week my favorite deal is
2 Charmin (6.97)

1 Bounty (6.97)
2 Tide (5.97)

Used
2--.25 cents off both Charmin
2--1.00 off Tide
1--.25 off Bounty
and my $10 plus up from previous transaction
Total was: 22.21
Received another $10 plus up for purchasing $30 in the specified products again.

These are all items that I have to have, and I got them much cheaper than I would have had I just bought them when I absolutely needed them.  Your goal is to stock up when the items are cheap, so that you don't have to buy them when you are totally out.  That is when you are forced to pay the full price.  YUCK!

While I know that you wouldn't have any plus ups starting out, they are really quick and easy to get.  There is always a ton of items in the ad that have plus ups, and it is almost always something that you need.