I've never been really big on coupons, mainly because I have good intentions by cutting them out but then I never use them. Also, it always turns out that I end up buying something I don't really need and paying more money for it because I had a 25 cent coupon. Not really worth my time.
I LOVE Extreme Couponing on TLC but I don't have that much time and dedication as those crazy coupon ladies to go to that extreme. But I figured I would try it on a couple of items and see what the end result would be.
I collected about seven newspapers worth of the P&G coupons in the Saturday/Sunday paper. I cut out all of the Pantene, Herbal Essences, Pringles, Cover Girl Cosmetics, and Dawn Dish Soap coupons, because those were the ones I knew I would use the most of. Here is the breakdown:
Pantene- $3.00 off the purchase of 2 bottles
Herbal Essenses- $1.00 off one bottle of any product
Pringles- Buy 4 Super Stack cans get $1.00 off
Cover Girl- Buy 2 products, get $2.50 off; Buy 1 product get $1.00 off
Dawn Soap- 25 cents off
I figured out that in order to get the most product for your money and to get the most value out of your coupons, you have to look at the weekly sale ads and find out who has the products on sale and which of the retailers will get you the best deal. Walgreens and CVS both run their weekly sales according to the coupons in the weekend paper (or vice versa) and therefore these retailers will aid in getting you the most for your money. Usually CVS and Walgreens are more expensive, but not if you combine their weekly sale ads with the coupons. Also, BIG tip I realized: Only buy items you have coupons for if the deal is a "bulk buy", meaning a 3/$2, 3/$3, 3/$10 etc. This will allow you to get the absolute most value out of your cash and coupons.
Brandon and I checked out Walgreens first. They had Herbal Essences and Pantene on sale, so we stocked the carts with those items first. Then we realized that CVS had the same items on sale, but with a deal of 3 for $9.99. CVS also does a rewards program that if you buy $30 of specially marked items, you get a free $10 gift card. The shampoo was one of these items, so we unloaded the cart of shampoo and moved on to the Pringles and Dawn. (I'm sure we looked ridiculous in Walgreens at 11pm on a Sunday night loading and unloading carts full of shampoo!) He is a godsend, because he was so patient in my "mild-couponing" first try :)
Walgreens has Dawn for .99, with a .25 coupon. We bought six bottles of Dawn ($5.94) with a discount of $1.50. Grand total: $4.44 for six bottles of Dawn, or .75 cents each. Not bad for our first try!
Next were the Pringles, which both CVS and Walgreens had on sale 2/$3. The coupon was for $1.00 off of 4 cans, and we bought 16 cans ($24) with a discount of $4.00. Grand total: $20 for 16 cans of Pringles, or $1.25 per can. Pringles are regularly priced at $2.99 per can, so we technically saved $28!
Onto CVS... we decided to tackle the shampoo/conditioner at CVS becuase if we spent $30 then we would earn a $10 gift card. CVS has Pantene for 3/$9.99. We bought 12 bottles of Pantene ($39.96) with a coupon of $3.00 off every 2 bottles, or a discount of $18. Total price: $21.96, or $1.83 per bottle. Herbal Essences was also 3/$9.99, and my coupons were for $1.00 off each bottle, basically resulting in the ending price being 3 for $7, or $2.33 per bottle. We bought 6 bottles, for a total (with coupons) of $14. Not really very cheap, considering the savings we received with Pantene, but here is where our bulk-buy came in handy: We spent $35.96 altogether with our 18 bottles of shampoo & conditioner, earning us a $10 gift card. Our total was now $25.96 for 18 bottles, making each bottle $1.44! Pantene is normally $4.99 a bottle and Herbal Essences is normally $3.99 per bottle, so we saved $57.92!
We also now have enough shampoo, conditioner, Pringles and dish soap to last us for probably the next year. :)
Is it something I would do often? No, probably not. But for items we use alot of and when they are combined with a good discount, it would definitely be worth it.
Here is our pantry closet:
