My Couponing Venture

I am trying to learn the basics of the extreme couponing technique and I have been getting some success after a few weeks of trying it out.  I am not saving what the pros are by any means, but currently I am at about 50-60% savings per trip.  Many of the "pros" use coupon clipping services and buy tons of one item when it goes on sale and then stockpile it.  Plus they spend hours and hours per week planning their shopping trips.  Well, I just don't want to spend that kind of time on this and neglect other duties I have to do in my day (still trying to get my "system" organized) so I do my coupon practice on a much smaller scale, only getting 2-3 papers per week and getting only the brands and items my family will really use in the next few months (even if we aren't currently out of it).  Maybe one day when I have space to store items and am more experienced in couponing I can step it up and make bigger purchases, but for now it is working great.  Here is an example of what I got today.  I spent about $45 out of pocket but saved about $35 based on matching my coupons with store sales and promotions (store bonuses using savings cards) and making multiple transactions to get the most out of my savings.  It may not seem like a lot of items for $45, but many of these health and beauty items were items that are typically large expenses....like make up, lotion, skin care, and razors.  Here's what I did: 

Transaction #1: Bought the two jergens and one biore product on a buy $20 get $10 rewards bucks.  I used one coupon (could have saved more if I had a coupon for each of the 3 products) but with tax, paid $25 for the three items (the biggest expense...this first transaction needs to be refined a little more).

 Transaction #2:  2 boxes bic razors, 2 bags nestle candy, 2 bottles loreal vive products, visine.  Used coupons for every item plus my $10 rewards bucks from my first transaction and that brought my total down to about $6 (that includes tax....which was almost $2). 

Transaction #3:  2 m&m eggs, 2 snickers eggs, peeps, 3 almay make up products.  Using my coupons for every item (plus b2g1 free special on the make up) my total came out to about $13.  Then I will enter my receipt number on Riteaid.com and get an extra $5 rebate for the makeup purchase that I can cash or use in store for a future purchase. 

Went to Stater Bros. supermarket after that to make use of one or two deals at the end of the sales cycle and got all the food products in the picture (minus candy) for only about $7 using my coupons on top of the store promotions.  So that is 4 packs breakfast sausage links, 1 pack lunchmeat, 2 packs go gurt and one box cereal all for only $7.

On Sunday I entered my coupons from my paper into my excel spreadsheet I made to gain easy access to my available coupons, date received, expiration date, etc (takes about 30 min) then I planned out my drugstore trips for the week.  (usually at Riteaid, Walgreens or both).  I spent about 2 hours on it total, but it will get faster as I go on. 

When the supermarket ads come out tomorrow I will plan my grocery trip for the week, which takes a little more time, but I am going to set a goal at 2 hour planning time and $50 spending limit for now.  I have found some great local blogs that do the coupon match ups for you so you can decide where the best deals are.  I usually look at Stater bros, Ralph's, and Albertson's since they are all close by.  If anyone has any tips for me, let me know.   This couponing thing is kinda fun because I feel like I can get good deals (who doesn't want to save money?) and a shopping fix.....since my other shopping trips for fun stuff like clothes etc don't really fall into the budget right now!  Happy shopping!