Coupon Adventures

I have continued to delve into the world of couponing and am honing my money management skills. I acted on a suggestion from the pennypincher.com website about how to acquire more coupons: instead of just buying more newspapers, I have started to riffle through the newspaper recycle bin on Mondays. I haven’t brought myself down to actually dumpster diving (I won’t get in the dumpster), but I can easily get a bunch of inserts from the newspapers near the top. This has allowed me more free stuff and a ton more coupons I have or will use. I just file them away in a folder for future sales.

It’s like a puzzle or a game to match up coupons/sales/rebates and acquire stuff for nearly nothing. Now I have accumulated so much shampoo, conditioner, feminine hygiene products, razors, toothpaste, and deodorant that the only deals that would be worthwhile on such items would be those that make it completely free. I have even made money on buying some things (store-rebate makes them free and then I earn money on it by having a $1+ off coupon or a manufacturer-rebate). Then I turn around and sell them on eBay to make even more money off them, like make-up and hair dye.

The problem with this whole coupon business is that it’s time consuming and requires a lot of trips to different stores. At Homeland, if you have more of the same exact coupon, they will only double the first one. Last week they had some great deals so I went to both Homelands (less than a mile away from each other) to take advantage of the double-savings, even though that meant shopping twice and dragging Megan and Isaac with me to two stores. I make at least one trip a week to both CVS and Walgreens (since I’m still learning and often miss free things or get the wrong item). And since all the other things I need that are not on sale are cheapest at Walmart, I go there once a week too (or more if I run out of something crucial like milk). I usually avoid SuperTarget, but they had that deal on diapers so I made one trip so far and have since accumulated more coupons so I will go back for more before the end of the month. For someone who hates to shop, I sure am doing a lot of shopping. Hopefully, as I get more efficient, I won’t have to make so many stops. But it’s all in the name of making money, since “a penny saved is a penny earned.”

Anyway, I just wanted to express my excitement about saving so much money -- on name brands no less!