Vent Session: Keep your head high

If you are a new couponer, I hope that this will help you, because sadly I can almost guarantee you will have a terrible experience at some point in your adventures.

Sometimes when us couponers go to the store, our coupon deals just don't seem to go as planned. Maybe you realized the item size is wrong for what you want, or you can't find a coupon, or your scenario that made sense at home now doesn't. That can be frusterating, but I can handle that.

What I cannot handle is ignorance, unwillingness, and flat out rude behavior by any cashier or manager just because you have coupons.

Here's a few things a keep in the back of my head when I'm shopping:

1. Coupons are cash. Just not your cash. Manufacturers pay the company the amount taken off. Very simple. I'm not really sure why cashiers give evil looks like you are ripping off the store because you have the smarts to put deals together and get a small oop expense.

2. I am a huge contributor to the store, and consider myself a top customer. {This is more towards drug stores} Sound a little arrogant? Ask yourself, how many regular customers that spend a retail of $100 every week walk through their doors? Most people run in to get a quick snack ($3) or maybe they ran out of mascara ($5), and even if they spent $20 worth of items, this usually isn't a weekly ordeal, right? You may not spend much oop, but your purchases go towards boosting their store sales, which of course leads to all sorts of other entitlements. You are a very valuable customer!!

3. I am Coupon-Crazed Woman. I always tell myself that it is likely I know way more about policies and coupons than the average cashier, and that's ok. If there is an issue, nicely explain the coupon instead of acting like they should know every in-and-out of the coupon world.

So stand strong my couponers! There is no need to feel ashamed in what you are doing.
Hello..you are saving TONS of money! That is the smartest thing an American could do!! (we seem to have a habit of getting in over our head's in debt)

If there is something that you remind yourself of everytime you go couponing, tell me through a comment, and let's spread the optimism around!

Noticing anything different?

"You cut your hair?"
"...No.."
"Uh...you got a new shirt?"
"...No.."

I'm sure you've had that conversation before..

Anyways, I have new pages up! I don't know if any of you have recognized the different options above this post, but I am trying to get all of my information up there as quickly as I can!

So far-->
You can get all the how-tos on CVS
Get to know me and why I have this blog
Get all the how-tos on Tom Thumb
My contact info if you want to send me a message
Get all the how-tos on Target and Walmart!

I plan to have the rest of the stores done by the end of the week!
Go check them out and tell me what if you learned something!

It's the end of the Month! How did you do on your Grocery Bills??!

Well it's the last day of the month and it's time to tally up the totals. I personally keep my shopping budget in an Excel file, and everytime I come home form a trip, I simply type in what I spent and what I saved (most stores have both on the end of your receipt). I have a few formulas that do the rest of the process for me, which includes adding up the total cost/value of my items, the percent I saved on the trip, and my grand totals, located at the bottom of my page.

This month I spent $214.43! I saved $1,003.10!! Total cost amounts to $1,217.53.
This makes my savings of 82% for this month!!!

I also have 4 rebates from this month I'm waiting to receive AND the P&G $100 coupon booklet!
Rebates include:

2 $5.00 Johnson and Johnson Rebates
1 $6.99 Try me Free Physician's Formula Rebate
1 $9.99 Try me Free Bioluxe Rebate

If I add this to the equation my total spent would be $187.43 + $100 of free coupons!

How did you do? And was this a good month, or not so good in savings??

Website/Name is CHANGING!

I am switching things up a little, so things may be under construction for a bit. Don't mind the mess!

*NEW WEBSITE:* DEALiciousFinds.blogspot.com

If you were subscribed to the previous FRUGALFINDING.blogspot.com, make sure to come back to the site and link to my NEW blog!!! Thanks for reading!

How many newspapers do you buy?

 

I am very curious as to where your coupons come from. Are you a printer-junkie? A blinkie-puller? A tearpad-ripper? Or a newspaper-buyer?

Leave a comment with how many Sunday papers YOU stock up on and how many people are in your household!

I buy 2 sunday papers a week & have a total of 3 for household, so a lot of printables and blinkies- and of course take store coupons/booklets anytime I see them!!

What do you use to socialize?

I have set up Twitter and Facebook accounts for Frugal Finds!
What networks do you use?

Starting off: Goals

If you are new to this couponing world, you are probably wanting to start because the idea of cutting your bill in half or more sounds like a GREAT plan. But, it takes baby steps. Start by setting your own goals so that this won't become overwhelming and it by giving up or not saving as much as you could. Here are some things I did when I started:

1. Know what you are spending currently.
For a family of 3, I used to easily spend $400-$500 on food ALONE (this does not include household items, toiletries, diapers, etc!) every month. My first goal was to cut that in half.

2. Keep tabs on what your spending.
I have an excel file that I update everytime I shop that shows what I spent, what I saved, and the total cost (spent + saved). I also have the percentage saved for each shopping trip and totals of all categories at the bottom. This may seem like a lot of work, but if you put in formulas, you should only have to type what you spent and saved (should be on the bottom of your receipt). Everything else totals on it's own.

3. Organize!! Organize!! Organize!!
Did I make my point yet? Buy a small coupon holder for starting off (you can get them at dollar stores) and makes labels. I currently have the following labels:

Store only (coupons designed for specific stores)
Snacks
beverages
chips/crackers
cereal/breakfast
cold goods
canned
frozen
baking
household
personal
out to eat

4. Last but not least, get coupons!
Where do we get these coupons? Newspapers, online, and two new features: you can load coupons onto your store card AND at some stores you can sign up for text coupons.
I buy two Sunday papers for coupons, you may need more if your family is larger.

5. Follow me and other bloggers to lead you to awesome deals!
There's nothing better than someone helping you along the way. When I started, I as only using printable coupons and going off what bloggers showed as good deals.

So start small, get a feel for it. I will go into everything mentioned in more detail at a later date.
Hope this will help you for now!

Creating my very own blog

Well let's start with the basics: My name is Jasmine and I am a young mother of a 2 year old girl. I have always been frugal with my money, and over the past few years things went downhill financially, so I made myself only buy the bare minimum so I could actually pay my bills.

A few months ago, I stumbled across a few different blogs that guided you towards awesome deals and coupons. I had never really seen the point of doing coupons, especially when I would see the amounts..."35c off of cereal? But cereal is like $4!!" Boy was I wrong!

Couponing is a learned skill, and once you catch on it's easy to do and TOTALLY worth the money! I am no pro, but I hope that we can help each other along the couponing adventure! I will be posting my shopping trips and tips and tricks to help you cut your grocery bill by 50%-95%.