Coupons are worth the time!

I just saved $52.50 in hand-in coupons alone! That does not include the $47.00 I saved on Buy 1 Get 1 Free items!!! It does take some planning, but it's so worth it. 

I've been coupon clipping for a long time but never was really "into" it like I am now. I was a casual couponer. But now I'm "hard core" baby!!! :-) 

Tonight at Safeway I got 16 bottles of Ken's Salad Dressing for......Drum roll please! FREEEEEEEEEEEEE plus I actually made almost $4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been hanging on to the $2 coupons that I got in the paper and my mailbox for some time now because I knew a great deal would come along. The coupons were for $2 off of Ken's Salad Dressing and $2 off of Ken's Spray Spritzer Dressing. I had more than normal because I got 2 Sunday papers that week, my mom gave me her Sunday paper, and then I got the coupon insert in the mail that week. So all together I had 7/$2 coupons each. Not on sale, Ken's Salad dressing was $3.69. I was waiting for it to go to a 2/$5 deal so I would only have to pay .50 per bottle, but when I saw that it was Buy One Get One Free I was over the moon! :-) Because you can use 2 coupons even though one was free since they are manufactures coupons and the BOGOF deal is from Safeway. I had several other great coupons, but once again I scored on cereal. 

I got 3 boxes of cereal for $.48! 2 boxes of Kashi cereal that was on sale for$2.24 each (originally $4.69 each!) with 2/$2 coupons so I paid $.48 cents for two boxes of Kashi cereal. They were the big boxes too, not little ones. Then I got a FREE box of Live Active cereal with a                                                                                                 $3 coupon from the internet and it was on sale for $3. 

Yeah, it was a good shopping night. I'm always amazed when I walk away with such great deals. One of my things is that I don't obsess about it. I'm sure some do, but I don't want to spend so much TIME that it takes away from the frugality of it all. I always shop at Safeway so I know the store and the layout. I take advantage of their store coupons and then try to match it up with a manufactures coupon. That is an easy way to get a GREAT deal! I shop once a week, but every other week is simply little items like special store deals for that week. So I only have to do SERIOUS grocery shopping about twice a month. It has worked great for me. Another thing that has been really helpful in saving is going to a cash envelope system. I have $35 per week for groceries and $20 per week for milk, bread, fruit, water, dog food, and anything else from Sams club. When it's gone it's gone. This helps to make me use my coupons to stretch it. Remember though that we haven't had to buy any meat for months now. That is a huge help! 

Enough about my "shopping high"! :-) I just had to share and say give it a try - you might just get 16 bottles of free salad dressing. Looks like we'll be eating salad with dinner! God is good though and takes great care of us. We are trying really hard to not spend any extra money on "things" since we have 2 cars that need fixed and a bathroom that is gutted to the studs! Thanks President Bush for that tax break! Thanks Sophie for 3 puppies! :-) And mostly, thank you Lord for always providing!