Welcome to this first episode of couponing with Bethany. Bethany has never been a coupon cutter/printer, but she's decided to try it at the suggestion of several friends.
A Disclaimer: There are some drawbacks with couponing in order to save money. 1) You're pushed to buy things you don't need. 2) Most of the time the deals are something like 10% or 20% off (not worth it), and 3) it takes time every week, unlike other "once and you're done" frugal accomplishments. It's not worth it if you are spending an hour surfing, printing, and cutting to save $1 on stuff you shouldn't be buying in the first place.
However, if done right, couponing can be a great way to get non-perishable items (that you would use anyway) for free or extremely cheap. So far I have not been attempting to save any money on things like shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, etc., but I've decided to give couponing a try for the next couple months.
An Easy Intro to Couponing
Recently I've been following the Krazy Coupon Lady, who does all the deal-pairing, so all I have to do is print off the coupons, upload receipts and/or "earn" rebates on sites like Ibotta or Checkout 51. This week I didn't need any of the Coupon Lady deals, but we did have some Kroger coupons to use on free stuff, and pop cans to return.
The following items were "purchased" at Kroger's last Sunday. We used a free coupon for the toilet paper and candy bars (these came in the mail), and a $0.40 cents off coupon on the cottage cheese. I was hoping to find a $1 manager's special cottage cheese for an even better deal, but we didn't. Hubs likes cottage cheese, so I bought him one.
The five pineapples were $2 each. These I cored, cut and canned to use throughout the year on meals like Pineapple Salsa Chicken, which Hubs loves. Especially if it comes served with cheese, fresh cilantro, and a tortilla. Each pineapple yielded about a quart of fruit. That means that each pint cost me $1. It's not a great deal (except these were technically free!), but I do like the taste of home-canned pineapple better than store-canned. The fruit tastes fresher and is not so sweet. I was able to can the bits in their own juice. In addition to using the "rings", I also cut any extra fruit off of the outsides and bottom. You can re-grow the pineapple tops, and supposedly you can use the core like charcoal, to grill with. I've never tried the grilling, but have grown the tops into decent houseplants with leaves several feet long. This time I saved some core chunks to try grilling with.
A Disclaimer: There are some drawbacks with couponing in order to save money. 1) You're pushed to buy things you don't need. 2) Most of the time the deals are something like 10% or 20% off (not worth it), and 3) it takes time every week, unlike other "once and you're done" frugal accomplishments. It's not worth it if you are spending an hour surfing, printing, and cutting to save $1 on stuff you shouldn't be buying in the first place.
However, if done right, couponing can be a great way to get non-perishable items (that you would use anyway) for free or extremely cheap. So far I have not been attempting to save any money on things like shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, etc., but I've decided to give couponing a try for the next couple months.
An Easy Intro to Couponing
Recently I've been following the Krazy Coupon Lady, who does all the deal-pairing, so all I have to do is print off the coupons, upload receipts and/or "earn" rebates on sites like Ibotta or Checkout 51. This week I didn't need any of the Coupon Lady deals, but we did have some Kroger coupons to use on free stuff, and pop cans to return.
The following items were "purchased" at Kroger's last Sunday. We used a free coupon for the toilet paper and candy bars (these came in the mail), and a $0.40 cents off coupon on the cottage cheese. I was hoping to find a $1 manager's special cottage cheese for an even better deal, but we didn't. Hubs likes cottage cheese, so I bought him one.
The five pineapples were $2 each. These I cored, cut and canned to use throughout the year on meals like Pineapple Salsa Chicken, which Hubs loves. Especially if it comes served with cheese, fresh cilantro, and a tortilla. Each pineapple yielded about a quart of fruit. That means that each pint cost me $1. It's not a great deal (except these were technically free!), but I do like the taste of home-canned pineapple better than store-canned. The fruit tastes fresher and is not so sweet. I was able to can the bits in their own juice. In addition to using the "rings", I also cut any extra fruit off of the outsides and bottom. You can re-grow the pineapple tops, and supposedly you can use the core like charcoal, to grill with. I've never tried the grilling, but have grown the tops into decent houseplants with leaves several feet long. This time I saved some core chunks to try grilling with.
Canning free pineapple.
Funding for this shopping trip was provided for by the coupons and also a $13.70 bottle deposit. Thus, everything was free and we even got some money back.
Join us next time for Couponing With Bethany!
Join us next time for Couponing With Bethany!
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