Honestly, I do not NEED 20 boxes of Post Cereal. But when there are deals out there where you can find coupons to only spend 35 cents on five boxes, and get back a $5 off your next purchase coupon, wouldn't you do that?
I would like to clarify that "off your next purchase" coupons are referred to as "catalinas" in the couponing world, because the company that produces them is actually named Catalina.
Catalinas print out as part of promotions. Buy "X" amount of Proctor and Gamble products, General Mills products, Post products, Johnson's products, etc, and you will get these wonderful coupons back in return. They typically are common when the products are already on sale. I THINK (and I may be wrong here) that this is one way that they clear out older products to make room for new products (new flavors, new box design, whatever...). They are not limited to just the sale items, however. I once thought I would be thrifty and buy 10 cans of Progresso soup, because there was a deal that, when you purchased 10 cans, you got $10 back. The store had some cans on sale for $1.50, and I had coupons for $1.10 off ONE can, so I thought I'd get 10 cans for $4.00 and get a $10.00 catalina back and thus make $6.00 profit. However, I did not read the fine print of the ad (lesson learned!) and I ended up buying 10 cans that were not on sale. I did receive my $10.00 catalina, however. So catalinas aren't usually limited to sale items.
I consider catalinas as "profit" in most cases. Typically, if I am shopping at a store that prints the catalinas, I am a "returning" customer and those catalinas are just view as "in store credit" to me. Catalinas are good for ANYTHING you want in the store, as long as it's within the guidelines listed on the coupon (ie: no tobacco, alcohol, or other various items, as prohibited by law). I do not consider catalinas as profit when I am shopping at a store that I rarely go into. One example of this is when Kmart was doubling coupons up to $2.00 a few weeks ago. I bought 4 boxes of General Mills cereals, not knowing that I qualified for a $3.00 catalina from General Mills (buy 4 boxes, get $3; buy 5 boxes, get $5). When I got it back with my receipt, I was a little irritated, because I hate shopping at Kmart anyway because 1) they really don't have much selection here, and 2) their prices are already inflated. However, I was lucky that I needed to buy dog food, and Kmart is surprisingly the cheapest place to get a 17.5lb bag of Kibbles & Bits in all of Bremerton (even cheaper than the Commissary!). So, fortunately, that knocked the price down from $10.98 to $7.98, and you can't beat that!
Many people argue that "if you spend money out-of-pocket, you don't have a profit, because they are not handing you money out of their cash register to shop there!" And I did think along the same lines when I first started couponing. Basically, it's a matter of playing the grocery game correct. If you continue to make small purchases that cost basically nothing to get these catalinas, you can end up with almost a hundred dollar's worth, which you can then use on your larger grocery purchase. Although you can not walk into a store and go to the customer service window and say "I'd like to cash in this coupon," you can go through the store to get whatever you want, use the coupon, and either get the item for free, or for pennies.
I think of catalinas as virtual cash. It's a good way for businesses to ensure that their customers come back, and it's a good way for couponers to use sales to their advantage. A lot of couponers will "roll" their catalinas. One week, something may be on sale that offers a catalina back, so the couponer will take advantage of that sale and hold on to their catalinas. Typically, they are good for 2 weeks from the date you get them. If you plan your transactions right, you could possibly go through three sales ads before they expire. If you don't need anything on sale one week, the next week, you might.
Catalinas are basically like paper versions of grocery store gift cards.
My arguement is simple: say you go to WalMart with a coupon for $5.00 off of any pair of jeans. You buy a $10 pair of jeans and use your $5.00 coupon. You're pressed for time, so you don't try them on before you buy them, and you get home and realize that the jeans don't fit and you lost the receipt. You take them back to WalMart and the customer service lady issues you a refund on a WalMart gift card (that's how they issue refunds for no reciepts) for the price of the jeans, which was $10.
NOW: You only paid out-of-pocket $5 for these jeans because of your $5 off coupon. The coupon you used will be paid back to WalMart from the coupon manufacturer. So that $5 coupon that you came in with, that had 1/20 of a cent's value, now gave you a $5 return.
AND: You now have a $10 WalMart gift card for anything you want in the entire store. Have you lost you initial $5 investment that you put in these jeans? No. Because you have the power to get anything in the store that you want that's under $10. You only spent $5 for those jeans. So, you technically have doubled your money.
HAD YOU HAD YOUR RECEIPT, they still would have credited you back $10, because that's how their register would process the information. They are already getting the $5 back from the coupon manufacturer, so to only give you $5 back would actually create a $5 overage in the financial accounting of WalMart. (anyone who's ever been a retail manager would understand what I am saying)
I do coupon for profit. I build my stockpile of cereal for cheap and make a lot more money back in coupons. I can use those coupons to buy other items that will return my profits with more coupons, and eventually, I can get all the groceries I need.
Clearly, couponing for profit takes time and effort and a lot of transactions. I tend to grocery shop at night, when the store is nearly empty. During the day, you can typically slip two transactions through a line without much problem, but at night, the workers at my local store are all around my age (college students, probably) and have nick-named me the Coupon Queen, so therefore usually let me slip through with up to four transactions at a time. Honestly, four transactions at once is all I can handle. I put the little baskets in a big cart, and fill those baskets per transaction.
I don't see a problem with doing so many transactions and getting so much of the "sale" item to get a return "profit" of catalinas, as long as you do it respectfully. Obviously, the shelves will be cleared, BUT, you should leave some for others! I typically do what most of the other bloggers seem to do - I go back multiple times throughout the day and throughout the week. I don't think we should go ONCE, grab all 20 boxes on the shelf, and walk away. A friendly stocker at Albertsons told me that they get shipments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I suggest finding out from your friendly grocery store workers when they get shipments, so you can figure out the best days to get items. Obviously, if a sale runs Wednesday to Tuesday, the Friday shipment will go quick. So, with Albertsons, I find that I can get the most sale items (leaving items on shelves for others, obviously) on Wednesdays and Mondays. Fridays-Sundays aren't worth going if you're couponing.
From my own experience as a grocery store cashier (MAD LOVE FOR KROGER!), I have to say that I did not pay attention to my transactions on weekends because they were so busy, and I was trying to beat the company clock (they had a certain 'time' that a cashier had to maintain while ringing up orders). As a shopper on the other side, I find that it's very hard to concentrate going out into the store during the middle of the day with the other shoppers, especially on the weekends, because people are trying to get to products, and when you're in the middle of the aisle flipping through your coupons, you're just going to get distracted trying to stay out of everyone's way, and therefore won't make as much return on your groceries.
Thursday, April 2
Albertsons Trip 02April2009
Still using the cheap Post cereal event to my favor to "earn" money, I went back for 5 more boxes of cereal...
What I got:
(2) Boxes of Post Trail Mix Crunch (vanilla almond flavor)
(3) Boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats (strawberry, peach, and chocolate flavors)
Coupons I had:
(2) $2.00 off ONE box of Post Trail Mix Crunch, any flavor.
(1) $1.50 off TWO boxes Post Honey Bunches of Oats, any flavor (Albertsons in-store coupon)
Because I bought 5 boxes, only 4 qualified to become $1.57 each, so the total overall before coupons was $8.35. (four boxes @ $1.57 PLUS one box @ $2.07)
My total out-of-pocket cost that I swiped my debit card for was $2.85. My total savings percentage is a little over 88%.
I "earned" a $5.00 coupon off my next purchase.
So, overall in the last two transactions, for 10 boxes of Post cereal, I have spent OUT OF POCKET, a total of $3.20!!! That's about the same price as ONE box!
In return, I now have $10.00 worth of coupons to spend for ANYTHING in the store that I may want, as well as a coupon for $1.50 off my next two boxes of Post Trail Mix Crunch, which I can use as a "money maker" in my next cereal transaction.
My total savings has been $46.30. Without coupons and my Albertsons grocery card, both purchases would have costed $49.50 (with these cereals priced at $2.07 on sale).
My total savings percentage thus far is 93.5%!!!!!
What I got:
(2) Boxes of Post Trail Mix Crunch (vanilla almond flavor)
(3) Boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats (strawberry, peach, and chocolate flavors)
Coupons I had:
(2) $2.00 off ONE box of Post Trail Mix Crunch, any flavor.
(1) $1.50 off TWO boxes Post Honey Bunches of Oats, any flavor (Albertsons in-store coupon)
Because I bought 5 boxes, only 4 qualified to become $1.57 each, so the total overall before coupons was $8.35. (four boxes @ $1.57 PLUS one box @ $2.07)
My total out-of-pocket cost that I swiped my debit card for was $2.85. My total savings percentage is a little over 88%.
I "earned" a $5.00 coupon off my next purchase.
So, overall in the last two transactions, for 10 boxes of Post cereal, I have spent OUT OF POCKET, a total of $3.20!!! That's about the same price as ONE box!
In return, I now have $10.00 worth of coupons to spend for ANYTHING in the store that I may want, as well as a coupon for $1.50 off my next two boxes of Post Trail Mix Crunch, which I can use as a "money maker" in my next cereal transaction.
My total savings has been $46.30. Without coupons and my Albertsons grocery card, both purchases would have costed $49.50 (with these cereals priced at $2.07 on sale).
My total savings percentage thus far is 93.5%!!!!!
Wednesday, April 1
Albertsons Trip 01April2009
Albertsons is having a fantastic sale on Post cereal this week!
Select boxes are on sale for $2.07. If you buy 2, they are discounted to $1.57 each.
If you buy 5 boxes or more, a "Save $5.00 off your next purchase" coupon will print out.
I was lucky to find a $2.00/one box Trail Mix Crunch on Post's website. We're lucky to have three computers in the house. Last night, I was able to print four off of my laptop, but today they placed a limit of 2 coupons per computer.
So off to Albertsons I went, with very little more than a prayer that the shelves weren't completely cleared off ... (and they almost were!)
What I got:
(4) Boxes of Post Trail Mix Crunch (Vanilla Almond flavor)
(1) Box Post Honey Bunches of Oats (Chocolate Clusters flavor)
Coupons I had:
(4) $2.00 off ONE box Post Trail Mix Crunch, any flavor.
My total out-of-pocket spent was (HOLD YOUR BREATH!) ......... $0.35!
TOTAL SAVINGS PERCENTAGE TODAY : 98.6%
The math basics here:
I bought 5 total boxes, so I had 2 multiples of 2, which means 4 boxes were priced at $1.57 each and 1 box was priced at $2.07.
Before coupons, that makes the total $8.35. After the (4) $2.00 off coupons, I spent $0.35.
Clearly, the coupons priced at $2.00 off ONE box created an overage in my favor that the store is actually gaining money on the deal from the manufacturer.
The best part of this whole thing is that I got a coupon for $5.00 off my next shopping purchase. That basically means that I made $4.65 off Albertsons tonight by buying 5 boxes of cereal. Since I do almost all of my shopping at Albertsons anyway, this "in store credit" is just as good as cash to me.
I also recieved a "$1.50 off TWO boxes of Post Trail Mix Crunch" coupon that's an Albertsons store coupon. Since it's a store coupon, I can combine this with my manufacturer's coupons, and thus get $5.50 off my next 2 boxes (because I still have a few more $2.00 off coupons left). Considering that these boxes will be priced at $1.57 each (because I will be buying TWO), I will thus receive a "credit" of $2.36. Obviously, I can use this to my advantage to lower the price on another item that I may purchase on my next transaction.
SCORE!!!!
Tuesday, March 31
Safeway Trip 31March09
Safeway is one of my least favorite grocery stores in the area because they seem very overpriced. When we first moved to Washington, I "price shopped" several different grocery stores one day (since it took us a week to get our belongings back, I had nothing better to do with my time).
What I got:
(4) Boxes of Rice A Roni (on sale for 75 cents each when you buy 10 qualifying items)
(1) Can of Nalley brand chili (on sale for 75 cents each when you buy 10 qualifying items)
Coupons I had:
(1) $1.00 off FIVE cans of Chef Boyardee, any flavor. 
My idea of "living frugally" back then was buying store brands rather than name brands, to save a dollar here and there.
Since I got into couponing, I've notice that there are some advantages to Safeway, because they do discount a lot of name-brand items that have coupons either in the Sunday paper or that can be found online.
What I got:
(4) Boxes of Rice A Roni (on sale for 75 cents each when you buy 10 qualifying items)
(1) Can of Nalley brand chili (on sale for 75 cents each when you buy 10 qualifying items)
(5) Cans of Chef Boyardee (on sale for 75 cents each when you buy 10 qualifying items)
Coupons I had:
(1) $1.00 off FIVE cans of Chef Boyardee, any flavor.
(1) $1.00 off FOUR boxes of Rice A Roni, any flavor.
My total spent was $5.50.
My total saved was 11.76, making this transaction with 68% savings.
It might be safe to say that Safeway is becoming one of my more favorite stores. :)
Monday, March 30
Why Am I Blogging?
When Justin was out on his first patrol and Aurora was less than a month old and screaming non-stop, an overly nosey naval hospital doctor sent Fleet and Family Support Services to my house because she thought I could use someone to help me with the baby so that I could nap - she thought I looked stressed. (Really, sometimes I forget to brush my hair and put on makeup before I leave! lol) While these ladies were in my house, we got to talking about the reasons why I am truly not stressed (it was more me trying to inform them of how laid back I really am, than anything else). We started talking about Justin and I's finances, because they said that not having a husband around to help with the baby is almost as stressful as not having your finances under control and having a new baby with all of the added costs.
When I showed them the budget break down of each individual bill, it's due date, our interest rate, and projected pay off balances/dates ... I thought they were about to suffer from a stroke. They told me that there are very few E4 and below families our age that have their finances under control. (Justin had not reenlisted at that point, so we were still an E4 family) They actually began to inquire more about my budget and were impressed that I have a budget for the rest of the year. When I budget, I do budget for a year in advance. So, right now, I have my budget from April 2009 until April 2010. In late April, I will create a budget for May 2010. Always stay one step ahead!
They pretty much offered me a job at Fleet and Family because they said they are always looking for people to sit down and help people make financial budgets. I considered it, but mostly I just wanted to stay home at that point and enjoy my new baby. Plus, who was I to tell people how to budget their money, because I was still overspending sometimes and we were still living paycheck to paycheck.
I began getting into couponing last fall, when Justin and I both had cars, were both going out and spending money, and were not communicating with each other about our financial spendings. We blew our budget for four months in a row, and at the beginning of his second patrol in October, I really paid the price...
When Justin's crew has control of his submarine (ie: refit, patrol, and the few days they're home after patrol before handing the control to the other crew), we lose our BAS. That means, we lose about $290 a month. When you're already on a strict budget with the $290, not having it really makes a difference. We lost our BAS in the fall, when our electric bill was rising (due to heat usage), and when Aurora was just beginning to eat lots and lots of baby food. When we finally got family separation pay and back pay, I had to use all of that to catch up on our budget and bills (they only pay you family sep pay after 30 days of the sailor being gone. The first check you get fam sep on is much higher, because you have the $260 pay for the prior 30 days, as well as for the upcoming 15 days).
Christmas 2008 was the last straw for me before I realized how desperately I needed to become a more frugal wife. In an effort to be a nice wife, I decided to cook for any and all the boys who were not able to go home for Christmas, since the submarine got back so close to the holiday. I spent over $400 and had a 12-course feast. It fed 10 people overall, although we were expecting 14. We had a lot of leftovers, which we happily ate, but we still ended up throwing away a lot of food.
In January 2009, I began doing research about couponing. I met a lady who had a blog and she sometimes posted about getting 10 bags of groceries for under $30. I thought it was damn near impossible. With all of the blogs I read, everyone kept saying "build your stockpile!" And the more research I did, the more I realized that the key to frugal living is truly in building a stockpile.
No one said it was going to be easy, and at times I still find it very challenging. I am inspired, however, and I plan to continue to build my stock pile. People often give me hell for having 60 cans of Progresso soup, or 20 boxes of Post cereal, but hey, you know what? You can't ever have enough canned food or boxed cereal. Just like you can't ever have enough toilet paper or diapers. If, God forbid, we ever got snowed in, or ashed in (if Mt. Rainier erupted) - at least we would have SOME food in the house.
I am no where close to living as frugally as I would like. Clearly, it will take time, patience, research, and a very large chest freezer for some overstock ... but someday, it will happen. My total inspiration is the lady who only spends $15 a week on groceries, and allows herself $100 a month for her stockpile needs. Basically, she spends $15 a week on meat, dairy, and other parishable items ... and allows herself about $25 a week to restock anything from her stockpile that may be running low.
Everyone says the same thing, over and over: restock your stockpile. Everyone says that sales repeat themselves every 6-12 weeks. I have not been paying enough attention at this point to see whether or not that is true.
Although my main purpose of doing this blog AT THIS POINT, is to keep track of my savings/spendings and "brag" about it to others, I really hope to someday have a more popular blog that others can come to and use as an example when they're starting their couponing hobby.
I still want to volunteer at Fleet&Family someday. I think it would be nice to get involved like that and help others. But several people have suggested actually using my skills and creating a "class" to teach others. Fleet&Family offers a lot of classes to Navy wives: baby basics, spouse101, compass (a "welcome to bangor/bremerton base" class) ... as well as many other informative classes. Clearly, if they are correct and there are wives out there who haven't taken control of the family finances (which, off the top of my head, I can honestly name 5 that I know of personally), then maybe this would be a beneficial class for them.
I want to help others, the way others helped me. No one should have to sit around and worry over whether or not they'll run out of food before the next pay check. No mother should worry about whether she'll have enough formula, diapers, or wipes until the next paycheck. And no husband should have to worry about making enough money, especially when he's already stressed enough from his job in the military.
Clearly, becoming involved in couponing takes an open mind. You can't be one of those people who can only see things from one angle. When you read my blog, as well as other blogs, you will find that we count coupons that we get back with our receipt (such as my $5.00 off your next purchase coupons) as "profits". Honestly, they are profits, because if we're already spending our money in that store anyway, these receipts are just as good as someone handing us an in-store gift card. But there will be a separate post about couponing for profit.
I've only been "intense couponing" for three months, but we're already experiencing the positive effects of having a stockpile. By next year, I hope to cut our grocery bill in half. By the year after that, I hope to cut our grocery bill by 75% (from where I financally stand today).
Welcome to my journey. :)
When I showed them the budget break down of each individual bill, it's due date, our interest rate, and projected pay off balances/dates ... I thought they were about to suffer from a stroke. They told me that there are very few E4 and below families our age that have their finances under control. (Justin had not reenlisted at that point, so we were still an E4 family) They actually began to inquire more about my budget and were impressed that I have a budget for the rest of the year. When I budget, I do budget for a year in advance. So, right now, I have my budget from April 2009 until April 2010. In late April, I will create a budget for May 2010. Always stay one step ahead!
They pretty much offered me a job at Fleet and Family because they said they are always looking for people to sit down and help people make financial budgets. I considered it, but mostly I just wanted to stay home at that point and enjoy my new baby. Plus, who was I to tell people how to budget their money, because I was still overspending sometimes and we were still living paycheck to paycheck.
I began getting into couponing last fall, when Justin and I both had cars, were both going out and spending money, and were not communicating with each other about our financial spendings. We blew our budget for four months in a row, and at the beginning of his second patrol in October, I really paid the price...
When Justin's crew has control of his submarine (ie: refit, patrol, and the few days they're home after patrol before handing the control to the other crew), we lose our BAS. That means, we lose about $290 a month. When you're already on a strict budget with the $290, not having it really makes a difference. We lost our BAS in the fall, when our electric bill was rising (due to heat usage), and when Aurora was just beginning to eat lots and lots of baby food. When we finally got family separation pay and back pay, I had to use all of that to catch up on our budget and bills (they only pay you family sep pay after 30 days of the sailor being gone. The first check you get fam sep on is much higher, because you have the $260 pay for the prior 30 days, as well as for the upcoming 15 days).
Christmas 2008 was the last straw for me before I realized how desperately I needed to become a more frugal wife. In an effort to be a nice wife, I decided to cook for any and all the boys who were not able to go home for Christmas, since the submarine got back so close to the holiday. I spent over $400 and had a 12-course feast. It fed 10 people overall, although we were expecting 14. We had a lot of leftovers, which we happily ate, but we still ended up throwing away a lot of food.
In January 2009, I began doing research about couponing. I met a lady who had a blog and she sometimes posted about getting 10 bags of groceries for under $30. I thought it was damn near impossible. With all of the blogs I read, everyone kept saying "build your stockpile!" And the more research I did, the more I realized that the key to frugal living is truly in building a stockpile.
No one said it was going to be easy, and at times I still find it very challenging. I am inspired, however, and I plan to continue to build my stock pile. People often give me hell for having 60 cans of Progresso soup, or 20 boxes of Post cereal, but hey, you know what? You can't ever have enough canned food or boxed cereal. Just like you can't ever have enough toilet paper or diapers. If, God forbid, we ever got snowed in, or ashed in (if Mt. Rainier erupted) - at least we would have SOME food in the house.
I am no where close to living as frugally as I would like. Clearly, it will take time, patience, research, and a very large chest freezer for some overstock ... but someday, it will happen. My total inspiration is the lady who only spends $15 a week on groceries, and allows herself $100 a month for her stockpile needs. Basically, she spends $15 a week on meat, dairy, and other parishable items ... and allows herself about $25 a week to restock anything from her stockpile that may be running low.
Everyone says the same thing, over and over: restock your stockpile. Everyone says that sales repeat themselves every 6-12 weeks. I have not been paying enough attention at this point to see whether or not that is true.
Although my main purpose of doing this blog AT THIS POINT, is to keep track of my savings/spendings and "brag" about it to others, I really hope to someday have a more popular blog that others can come to and use as an example when they're starting their couponing hobby.
I still want to volunteer at Fleet&Family someday. I think it would be nice to get involved like that and help others. But several people have suggested actually using my skills and creating a "class" to teach others. Fleet&Family offers a lot of classes to Navy wives: baby basics, spouse101, compass (a "welcome to bangor/bremerton base" class) ... as well as many other informative classes. Clearly, if they are correct and there are wives out there who haven't taken control of the family finances (which, off the top of my head, I can honestly name 5 that I know of personally), then maybe this would be a beneficial class for them.
I want to help others, the way others helped me. No one should have to sit around and worry over whether or not they'll run out of food before the next pay check. No mother should worry about whether she'll have enough formula, diapers, or wipes until the next paycheck. And no husband should have to worry about making enough money, especially when he's already stressed enough from his job in the military.
Clearly, becoming involved in couponing takes an open mind. You can't be one of those people who can only see things from one angle. When you read my blog, as well as other blogs, you will find that we count coupons that we get back with our receipt (such as my $5.00 off your next purchase coupons) as "profits". Honestly, they are profits, because if we're already spending our money in that store anyway, these receipts are just as good as someone handing us an in-store gift card. But there will be a separate post about couponing for profit.
I've only been "intense couponing" for three months, but we're already experiencing the positive effects of having a stockpile. By next year, I hope to cut our grocery bill in half. By the year after that, I hope to cut our grocery bill by 75% (from where I financally stand today).
Welcome to my journey. :)
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