Why It Is Not Too Soon To Get Ready For "Back To School"

Last night I ran into a friend at a local store where they were showcasing their "Back To School" section.  Her question to me was: "Don't you think it is crazy they are already pushing shopping for back to school?".  I told her not at all and went on to explain why.  

Each year I inevitably hear a couple of complaints from parents in the week before school goes back.  One is how they are scrambling to get everything.  They have waited until the last minute and now are trying to get a household of anywhere from 2-6 kids ready to go back in a week. This often means finding stores out of items and also tends to be very overwhelming.   

The other big complaint I hear is how much it costs to get their kids ready to go back.  While you have the school supplies, you often hear about new clothes, shoes, and backpacks to add on as well.  I have had parents tell me that just for each child's school supplies they have spent a couple of hundred dollars.  I will be honest in telling you that this blows me away!  Before my kids started school I was totally freaked out by people telling me about their kids school supplies.  Now I know different and would love to help others. 

While I coupon and their are coupons that come out to help with school supplies, you don't have to even be a couponer to buy school supplies on a tight budget.  If all you do is get the Sunday paper, look at the weekly flyers and stop at 2 stores a week, you will be amazed at how well you can do.  Each week starting from a couple of weeks ago, store flyers start coming out with weekly deals just to get you into the store.  Office Max is one example as they come out with deals like what you see in the picture below.

Last Sunday, their flyer came out with deals where the pencil erasers, index cards, and pocket folders were 1 cent each with a minimum $5 purchase.  This meant that I bought the package of glue sticks, package of blue pens, and package of red pens (items on my oldest son's school list), as the items to give me the minimum of $5 and then was able to get 30 pocket folders, 9 packages of pencil erasers, and 9 packs of index cards for $7.78.  This week they have the scissors for 25 cents each, sharpies 25 cents each, and packs of 4 glue sticks for 25 cents each, which made my total $3.18.  I then went over to Fred Meyer's where the binders are on sale as well as buy one get one free, filler paper 79 cents each, bottles of Elmer's glue 59 cents each, Ticonderoga 24 packs of pencils $2.99 (half price), Crayola crayons 59 cents each, Crayola crayons 59 cents each, package of highlighters $1.00, and a package of 2 erasers for 49 cents.  All of the extra items that won't be needed for the boys this year, will be stored away in my plastic totes for when they run out or for next year.

Each year I stock up on these items when they are at their cheapest price point so that we are prepared.  Last year I had very few items that HAD to be bought.

If you start doing this, it can make it very easy and less stressful to be prepared as well as much easier on the pocket book.  I would tell you that with 3 boys in school, our school supplies come to maybe $60 a year if that.

What if I also told you that I have their pants and shoes for school next year?  This was done a few months ago when there was a sale on jeans on for $8.88 a pair as well as a clearance on shoes.  Believe me, with 3 boys, we wear through jeans and shoes so it would be insane to pay top dollar for these items!

Protecting Your Skin - Coppertone Deal You Won't Want To Miss

Using sunscreen to protect your skin is very important.  For every sunburn you have, your risk of developing skin cancer increases greatly.  Sun exposure can also greatly increase those wrinkles and signs of aging.

This week Target has a sale on Coppertone sunscreen where you buy one and get one for 50% off.  If you go to coupons.com , their is a coupon for $2 off any Coppertone Clearly Sheer product that you can print.  You can print 2 coupons per computer or device you are printing from.  Target has a coupon policy where you can't use more than 4 of the same coupon per day, so I printed 4.  You can also put the Target Cartwheel app on your smartphone where you can go through the offers on there and add them to where the store scans your barcode on your phone and you can increase your savings.  Right now on the Cartwheel app, there is an offer for an additional 25% off of any Coppertone Clearly Sheer product.

I went into the store and purchased 4 Coppertone Clearly Sheer items pictured below that were priced at $6.99 each with the second one being $3.49 (remember this week the second one is 50% off).  I then used the 4 coupons I printed and had them scan my Cartwheel barcode.

This brough the total for everything to $8.63 that I had to pay making each item cost $2.15 with tax.  My total savings was $20.26 or I saved 70%.  Sunscreen can get pricy and I have always found any Coppertone product I have used to be excellent quality and to be very effective in keeping my family's skin from getting sunburnt.  Remember, you are supposed to reapply sunscreen every 2-3 hours when out for extended periods of time.

This sale is running until midnight this Saturday night so if I was you, I would catch this sale before it is over.

Getting Stocked Up For Summer And Beyond

Couponing is all about stocking up when there is a good sale combined with your coupons.  Today was a good example of that.  I went in to get stocked up on Bugles, Gardettos, and Chex and discovered some other really great deals.

In the picture above, I got the 10 bags of snacks I went in for that were on sale for .98 cents each and had coupons for an additional .25 cents off each.  I then found the chicken legs (which are huge by the way) for buy 1 get 2 free.  I had a coupon for .55 cents off the A1 and an additional coupon for $1 off meat when you purchase A1.  The Tic-Tacs were on sale for $1 each and I had coupons for $1 off 2.  The butter (worth $2.50) was free when I spent $25.  My total for everything came to $38.28 and I saved $72.26, for a total savings of 67%.

While at the store, we saw that they had bottles of Hawaiian Punch marked down from $2.98 to $1.98.  It was at this point I knew I needed to go home and print some coupons.  On coupons.com there is a coupon to print for buy 1 get one free.  At home I also printed off more coupons for the Gardettos/Chex/Bugles for .50 cents off 2 and coupons for .30 cents per bag of Haribo gummies.

When I got done printing, we went back and got 10 bottles of the Hawaiian Punch, 6 more packaged of the chicken legs, and 16 more bags of the snacks, 6 bags of Haribo gummies, and another free box of butter.

In total today, I got 12 packages of chicken legs, 10 bottles of Hawaiian Punch, 2 boxes of butter, 26 bags of the Gardettos/Bugles/Chex, 20 Tic Tacs, and 6 bags of Haribo gummies.  I spent a grand total on everything of $84.37 and saved $168.11 for a total savings of 67%.

The chicken legs will freeze and be great for summer BBQ's, and the Hawaiian Punch will also be great for summer BBQ's and parties.

 

Running A Household On A Budget - Stocking Up On Laundry Detergent

In a household of 3 little boys, my husband, and myself, you can imagine that I have a little bit of laundry to do each week!  One of the things I learned about when I learned how to coupon 4 1/2 years ago, was to stock up when you find an excellent deal on something.  In my first year of couponing, I was able to build up a stockpile of laundry detergent that I am just coming to the end of.  Yes, you heard me right,  I was able to stock up on enough laundry detergent that I haven't had to buy laundry detergent for about 3 1/2 years!  A little over a month ago I noticed that I only had a couple of bottles left.  That meant it was time to start watching for the right sale to combine with the right coupons.  However, I almost broke down and spent more than I am accustomed too a couple of weeks ago, as I was afraid that the right deal wasn't showing up.  However, this week I found that deal.

This week, Walgreens put a sale on Purex where you buy 1 bottle at $5.99 and then get one free.  When it is a store sale where you get one free, you can still use a manufacturer's coupon on the free item.  This Sunday's paper came out with Purex coupons for $1.50 for one bottle, as well as coupons for $3 off of 2.  I purchase a "coupon clipper" subscription to our local paper for $20 a month.  This means that I get a daily paper and 5 copies of the Sunday paper to get all of the coupon inserts.  As well, I have a few friends that pass along their coupon inserts to me.  Usually I have 8 or 9 sets of coupons from the Sunday paper.  So guess how I spend my Sunday nights?  Clipping coupons and putting them into my coupon binder. It has become my weekly routine. Organizing them into a binder by categories was something I learned in the couponing class I attended when I started.

You can see that my binder is two sided.  On the right side I have all of my household and personal item coupons, and on the left side are all of my grocery coupons.

So with the buy one get one for free sale at Walgreens this week, I was able to get 16 bottles of Purex (33 loads per bottle approximately) using 8 coupons for $3.00 off of 2 bottles for $26.80 with sales tax.  With spending $26.80, I saved $71.92 for a total savings value of $75%!  

Beauty On A Budget!

There are very few things that I will pay regular price for.  Almost everything I buy is on sale and then I use coupons as well.  I learned very early on that you didn't have to sacrafice quality to get a good deal.  Quite often when you are couponing you can get brand name products at a better deal than generic or store brand.  The cosmetics above were on sale this week.  There was also an in store coupon for $1 off each item.  I also used a $4 manufacturer coupon off of each one. When you use a store coupon and a manufacturers coupon, this is called "stacking". I buy a coupon clipper subscription to the local newspaper, which means that I get 5 Sunday papers with coupon inserts every week. As you can see from the picture above, I spent $6.75 and saved $31.80.  This added up to a total savings of 87%!

This is how I shop for my clothes and shoes as well.  Quite often people don't realize how well you can dress and take care of yourself on a tight budget.