We….well my husband really..just figured out a few cool things that allowed us to get a new Keurig coffee machine for free and a Wii with spare change.

Keurig for Free

Let’s start with the Keurig machine. I have wanted one for years and my husband just surprised me with one for our anniversary. To make the surprise sweeter, he told me he basically paid nothing for it.

He used the cash back bonus credits from our Discover card, which we have been racking up for years. To make the money go farther, instead of taking the cash outright, he bought $25 gift cards at Bed, Bath, & Beyond for $20 bucks each. Combine that with a 20 percent off coupon from the store – he paid nothing out of pocket for the machine.

BTW – We now only use the Discover card to buy gas and groceries (since you get more cash-back bonus credits for those purchases) and pay it off at the end of the month. After all, the cash back bonus really is no bonus if you are paying interest rates on a balance.

(A side note: If you buy a Keurig – be sure to read the manual. They have a deal – buy two large boxes and get two for free. Plus you get 10% off each order and free shipping if you register online.)

Wii with Spare Change

Now to the Wii. We have wanted to get one for a while, figuring it would be a great video game console the whole family could play together. Then one day I came home from work, and my husband was setting one up.

He told me he paid for it with the spare change he’s been saving up for years. Every time he comes home he throws his spare change into a big jug. We’ve been meaning to roll it up for a while now – but it’s such a pain, we always put it off.

We always knew Coin Star was convenient – but we were reluctant to use it because of the fees - UNTIL my husband realized there were no counting fees if you choose to take your money in gift card form as opposed to cash. There are several gift card options. He chose to take an Amazon gift card.  We had enough change to buy the Wii and still had some money left over on the card.

Not bad for life’s little luxuries!

For months I have wanted to go and get a manicure/pedicure – but never did because I didn’t want to spend the money. I was being fiscally responsible and not spending my money on frivolous things.

You see - as part of a financial makeover - I am much more frugal than I was even a year ago.  Back then, I would have gone to get my nails done at the first urge. I would have had to charge it because money was tight and my day of pampering would have ended in guilt.

But that was then. For months – I have been strategic shopping, saving my family hundreds of dollars. I’ve also been doing my daughter’s clothes shopping at consignment and trying to pack my lunch on most days. I have even given up my $50 haircut in exchange for a $15 do.

Saving money does feel great. But, then it hit me – what is the point of saving a bunch of money, if I don’t take the time to spoil myself every now again? Isn’t that the point of pinching pennies in some areas, so I can afford the small pleasures in life – without having to turn to my fair-weather friends, Visa and Mastercard?

So with this new revelation, over the weekend I put my daughter to nap, kissed my husband goodbye and went to the salon. I got that mani and pedi. I even sprung for an eyebrow wax. And you know what, for the first time in years, I didn’t feel guilty about it one bit.

Gap, Children's Place, Talbots shirts. Gymboree skirt.

Anyone who has a child knows clothing him or her is one of the biggest expenses you will face. Especially if you are in my position, where my daughter, 4, is my only child thus far and hand-me-downs are limited.

Two Baby Gap sweaters

For years I longed to dress by precious little girl in Baby Gap, Gymboree, LL Bean, etc. However, since I had to buy a new wardrobe for my growing child every few months, my bank account wouldn’t allow it. How could I justify a pair of $35 jean for a toddler who would outgrow them in a matter of months? (more…)

I have been saving a ton of money since we’ve adopted strategic shopping, but this is the first week I bought things just because of the deal and not necessarily because I use them all of the time – and let me tell you I am already regretting it. Don’t get me wrong – I didn’t go off the savings wagon. I bought $165.17 worth of groceries for $83.58 – a savings of $81.59 – almost 50% - Even better considering we haven’t gone shopping in 3 weeks or so. However, I need to keep myself from getting caught up in the high of getting a great deal – and to make sure I am buying only what we need and what we use. Let me explain.. (more…)

A new thing I have discovered – competition is good when it comes to grocery shopping. (more…)

I work in a TV station, but I purposely work behind the camera not in front of the camera. Being on tv is not something I aspire to. However – when our Call 12 for Action Problem Solver Susan Hogan asked me to share what I have learned about saving money at the grocery store, I couldn’t say no.  In the few months I’ve been doing this – I have already saved hundreds of dollars – and if I can help someone else do the same – or just help them realize that it really takes only an hour a week to practically cut your bill in half – it will all be worth it.

Check out the story online:

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/12_for_action/local_wpri_call12_clipping_coupons_saves_big_bucks_20090513_mds

I have been doing strategic shopping now for several weeks, and have saved a bunch of money. But now I have learned you can save even more with help from your friends. Let me explain.

According to couponmom, there were $318 bllion in coupons printed last year and only $3 billion were redeemed – that means $315 billion worth are thrown away, and I’ll bet many of your friends and family members are among those discarding coupons. Coupons that could be saving YOU lots of money.

Several of my co-workers know I am doing the strategic shopping thing, and I have asked them for their coupons. Now, when I come into work on Mondays I find 2-3 extra booklets of coupons.  We also have taken the coupons whenever we’re visting our family in NY. I have learned this week – having multiple coupons can multiply your savings.

In all, I bought $170.86 worth of groceries this week for $91.02 – a savings of $79.84 or about 47%. Here are some of my better deals:

Arm & Hammer laundry soap was on sale this week at Shaws – buy one get one free. I bought 4 bottles. Normally selling for $6.99 a bottle, that’s a good deal in it’s own right.  But, because I got extra booklets from friends, I also had two $1 off /2 coupons – so that’s another $2 saved. I also printed two $1 off/2 coupons on shaws.com – so that was another $2 off. In the end, detergent that would have cost me $27.96, ended up costing $9.98 – a savings of almost $18 or about 65%!

Yoplait yogurt – normally 75-cents a cup – was on sale 20 for $10 – so 50-cents a piece. Shaw’s had a circular coupon for $2 off with the purchase off 20. In addition, there was a newspaper coupon for a free yogurt with the purchase of 6. Since I was buying 20 anyway, and I had three of the coupons, I was able to get 3 cups of yogurt for FREE. So in the end – I got 23 yogurts. At full price, it normally would have cost me $17.25, but I paid $8 - or 35 cents a piece – a savings of $9.25 or about 55%

We have a 3-year-old and as a treat we give her ice cream on Fridays. Breyers ice cream was on sale this week, normally $5.79/container – it was on sale for $2.99. I had two coupons, one for $1 off 2 and another for 75-cents off one – which was really $1.50 off since Shaw’s doubles coupons. I bought 3 containers. What normally would have cost $17.37, ended up costing $6.47 or $2.15 a container. That’s a savings of  $10.90 or about 60%.

Remember, strategic shopping is about buying when items are at their lowest, using coupons, and buying in bulk. My earlier blog enteries talk more in depth about the premise. I welcome any questions, comments, and of course your money saving tips. If we can all learn from each other, we can all help each other save a lot of money. And, who couldn’t afford that!

Well, now I know this strategic shopping thing is not a fluke. We spent a total of $172.52 on groceries this week – and saved a whopping $139  – $129.16 on our main bill and another $9.87 on a separate milk purchase - that’s a total savings of 45% off our entire purchase!

I will tell you how we did it in a minute, but first I want to mention something that couponmom suggests and that became really apparent during our shopping trip this weekend – watch as the cashier rings up your order.  It’s the only way you can be sure you are getting the savings and deals that are available.

For instance – we were taking advantage of a special – 3 gallons of milk for FREE with the purchase of 7 boxes of Kellogg’s cereal. I was watching as the order was being rung up – and the milk price did not come off the bill. Turns out the 3 gallons were going to be coupons that we got at the end of the order for another time. Because of this – we rang up the rest of our order sans milk, got the coupons, then rang the milk separately. When possible, I like getting the savings immediately. Otherwise I risk losing the coupon or forgetting about it!

Another potential lost savings: With the purchase of two pounds of Haddock – we were going to get a 2 liter bottle of Coke for FREE. When the price of the Coke did not come off the bill – I asked the cashier. It turned out I needed a coupon, which the staff at Shaw’s were kind enough to find for me, and we got our free soda. If I wasn’t paying attention, we would have ended up paying for the soda we thought we were getting for free.

Now – on to the savings!!

Going back to the cereal. At full price – 7 boxes would have been $29.23. Shaws had a special on Kellogg’s of $2 a box – so we got those same 7 boxes for $14 – a savings of $15.43. But the savings don’t end there. We also had two $1 off coupons we found on coupons.com - bringing our cost down to $12 for 7 boxes – a savings of $17.43.  That’s not counting the $9.87 worth of free milk we got. So in total – we spent $12 for 7 boxes of cereal and 3 gallons of milk. That’s a savings of $27.30

I know it’s a lot of milk and cereal – but we have a 3 year old at home who loves her milk and cereal will keep!!

Speaking of our daughter – she loves mac & cheese – what 3-year-old doesn’t. Normally – Shaw’s sells Kraft Mac & Cheese for about $1.50 a box. This week they had it on sale for 50-cents per box. We bought 10 boxes. So, what normally would have been about $15 – we spent $5 – a savings of $10.

We also stocked up on those 100-calorie Nabisco snacks. Normally a box is $3.19. Shaws has Nabisco products on sale for 4 for $10. We bought 8 boxes of the 100-cal snacks. So – what normally would have been $25.52 – was brought down to $20. However, Shaw’s also had a coupon in its circular for $3 off when you buy 4 Nabisco products. We clipped two of those coupons bringing the total price down another $6. So when all was said and done – we got 8 boxes for $14 – a total savings of $11.52.

And get this – because we bought so many Kraft products (the snacks and the mac & cheese) we got a $10 coupon to use next week!!

As we’ve pledged to cook at home more and eat out less – we are also looking to cook more healthy meals. So, when we saw Haddock was on sale – we put it on the list. Normally – the fish sells for $8.99/lb. We bought two pounds. Normally – it would have been $17.98. However, Shaws had it on sale for $6.99/lb.  – a savings of $4. There was also an online coupon for $1 off/lb – I clipped two – for another $2 in savings. We also had a coupon for buy 2lbs of Haddock – get a 2 liter of Coke free – another $1.34 in savings. In all – the fish and the soda would have cost $19.32 – but we got it for $10.92 a savings of $8.40.

It took my husband and I less than 45 minutes to put our list together and gather the necessary coupons. I would say saving $139 was more than worth that time spent. We’ve also noticed that right now, our grocery bill hasn’t really gone down yet – however we are getting way more food for the same money. We are still in the process of tracking prices – to determine when things are at their lowest so that we can stock up. We figure overtime – the savings will just continue to increase and our grocery bill will continue to shrink even further.

To begin our transformation to becoming strategic shoppers, my husband and I went on the website couponmom.com which lays out the whole plan for you in three separate e-books. They are all free on the site.

The basic premise is buying items you use when they are at their lowest price, then combining the use of your supermarket’s weekly sales circular with store and manufacturer coupons. So, not only do you get the sale price, you get even more money off by using the coupons.

The site suggests you start tracking prices so you know when something is at its lowest point. We are still in the process of doing that – but we were able to put the other principles into practice right away.

The site makes it so easy for you. It has a database that outlines what’s in the store circular, and lists where you can find related coupons.

It took my husband and I about 30-45 minutes to make up our list of things we needed to buy and then check the database.

We lost out on some potential savings because we only had a few weeks worth of Red Plum coupon circulars, which come in the mail, and we didn’t have any SmartSource, which come in the Sunday paper. (As we’ve learned – if you are going to do this, you’ll need to subscribe and you’ll want to save all of the coupons for several weeks.)

But here’s the best part about this system -  you only clip out the coupons you need for that week.  Over time you’ll have a collection of coupons, then when something goes on sale, the database will tell you which week to find a related coupon. It even tells you how much you will save.

This is welcome news to you if you are anything like me. My past coupon clipping attempts have been efforts in futility. I would clip a bunch of coupons, and either forget I clipped them due to lack of organization; or end up spending more on a product I only bought because I had a coupon.

So – after putting together our list, and gathering up our coupons we headed to the supermarket.

Here are some of the savings we found:

Bacon was on sale buy one get one free. We also found a store coupon on Shaw’s website – for $1 off/2 packages. We printed two of those coupons and bought 4 pounds of bacon. Two of them were free, then we got $2 off the remaining price. Since bacon freezes, it was a good buy.

Same for Ken’s salad dressing.

It was also two for one – combined with two store coupons worth $1 each – we bought 4 bottles of dressing for what we’d normally pay for one bottle.

Our real steal was with cereal.

Shaw’s had a had a deal of buy 10 boxes of cereal for $25. With most boxes of cereal running $4 to $5 bucks -that’s normally a great deal in its own right.

But get this – the store also had a coupon in the circular – buy $25 worth of cereal and get $10 off. We combined that with another $2 in coupons and basically got $50 worth of Kellogg’s cereal  for $13!

When all was said and done – we saved $122 off our grocery bill and earned a $7 coupon for a future shopping trip and a coupon for up to 3 gallons milk for free – and we’re still rookies!

My first strategic shopping receipt - $122 saved!!

I never left the grocery store with such a smile on my face. I can’t wait to do it again – to see how much we save then.

I’ll keep you all posted!

I just saved $122 dollars on my weekly grocery store bill!

Now that I have your attention, let me tell you how I did it.

Like many of you, I have found our weekly food bill keeps growing and growing. I always knew I should be shopping the sales and clipping coupons; but as a working mom – who has the time?

For months my husband has been saying we needed to do something called “strategic shopping.” I always agreed, but we never did it – that is until this past weekend. Now I hope my journey to becoming a “strategic shopper” will help others save as well.

My first strategic shopping receipt - $122 saved!!