Super Saturday Savings

A friend of mine named Tracey contacted me this week about all the savings she's been getting at CVS and Publix. She asked if I was interested in learning the couponing ropes. I'm all for a great deal, so of course I said yes. I've been reading blogs like fiddledeedeeblog.blogspot.com, moneysavingmom.com, and couponmom.com to learn the ropes. Yesterday, I stepped out and saved us some money! Now that we're having twins and expanding from a family of 3 to a family of five in 6 short months, this is a great time to get started on cutting the food budget! Thx Tracey. Here is what I bought at CVS.






Let me explain why I have such random items. These items cost me a total of $15.91 oop (out of pocket) (excluding the phone cards that I bought with a second transaction). However, I got extra care bucks (ECBs) totaling $14.46 plus a coupon for a free $25 giftcard with a new or transferred prescription in return! ECBs can be used on future purchases at CVS. With my "free money" I purchased the $10 phone cards which were buy 1 get one free! That means I got a total of $20 in minutes to call Keisha in South Africa for absolutely FREE! At the end of the day I still have $4 to roll over on my next purchase and the $25 gift card coupon. Now that's a great day at CVS to me! What do you think?

My trip to Publix took some planning, but it wasn't hard b/c those blogs told me exactly what to buy and where to print out the coupons. Here is what I purchased at Publix.



Publix had a coupon for $5/$35 ($5 off a $35 purchase). My total came up to $34.17 (but it would have been $49.31 if the items purchased weren't on sale) so I purchased the Snickers bar to put me over $35. After my coupons my total was $20.02! Can you believe it? I cut the bill by more than half. The key was to buy things that were on sale or buy one get one free (BOGO) and use a coupon on top of that. I'm telling you, the internet and good friends can teach you anything! I have so many ideas for what I can do with the extra money we're going to save...did I mention we are about to have twins?!!!!