Coupon Cutting Tips

It seems that saving money struck a chord within several of you guys, so I thought that I would continue from my post the other day about how I’m saving money each month and offer up some more tips/advice/things that I’ve learned over the last few months. Some of this is common sense stuff, but if you’re like me, sometimes you have to spell it all out to really “get it.”

In regards to coupons, be careful about coupons where you have to buy multiple items to get larger savings. Like buy three of this item to save $1. If it’s a perishable good, you might not be able to use all three items in time, and you spent more money than you might have to begin with. Remember that the #1 rule is to not spend money that you wouldn’t normally spend. For example, when I had a coupon for $1 off Pop Tarts, but I had to buy three boxes, that was an ok coupon for me since I eat Pop Tarts at work…and they won’t go bad over the course of time. But when I had a coupon for $2 off a frozen breakfast entrée that I thought we would like to try, I didn’t end up using it since I would have had to buy 2 of them and I didn’t know that we’d like it. I’ll wait for them to go on a normal mark-down sale and try one box…then look for the coupon again if we like them and they’ll keep.

Also, be sure to read the fine print. A lot of times, companies will put a picture of the most expensive item in their line, but the coupon is actually good for ANY item in their line. You don’t always have to buy what’s in the picture…but sometimes the coupon is ONLY good for the item shown in the picture. You have to read it to know for sure.

Try to stack your coupons. If your coupon is a manufacturer’s coupon (what comes from Red Plum, SmartSource, P&G or coupons.com typically are manufacturer’s coupons) and your local grocery store is running a sale on the item, you can usually score double! You would get the store discount AND the manufacturer’s discount. For example, that same coupon mentioned earlier for the Pop Tarts? It just happened that Wal-Mart had all Pop Tarts marked down the week that I bought them as just a regular Wal-Mart roll back…so I not only saved the $1 from the manufacturer, but I also saved an additional $.50 per box from Wal-Mart. I basically got one box free, if you think about it. Just be careful that the discount the store is offering isn’t the manufacturer’s discount…some drug stores offer the manufacturer’s discounts but cleverly disguise it as their own coupon. If that happens, your coupon won’t work because you can only use a discount/coupon code once unless otherwise stated.

Start out knowing what you pay for items. This is just good shopping sense overall, and something that my Mom taught me at an early age. I noticed that my boyfriend’s Mom would go to Sam’s Club and buy all of their groceries there, whereas my Mom would just buy certain things from Sam’s Club. When I asked her why she did that, she explained about cost/item or cost/pound (ounce) and that just because it’s sold in bulk doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s cheaper to buy in bulk. You have to know what the price of detergent is normally to know if a store is running a good sale on the item. This is also true on coupons. I had a coupon for Lysol disinfecting wipes, when we would normally buy the Clorox brand. When I got the store, I had my coupon out and ready to use when I looked/compared the two brands on the shelf before I added anything to my cart. Yes, I had a coupon for the Lysol brand, but the Clorox price (not on sale) was still cheaper to buy even without a coupon. So, I threw that coupon away and didn’t use it. You have to be a smart shopper! (Thanks MOM!)

When I know that I’m going to the grocery store for a few items, I will typically take a minute and glance through my coupons before going inside just to see if there’s something else that I might want to go ahead and pick up. You know, something that we NEED. You don’t want to drive all over town and spend the money that you’ve saved using coupons on extra gas money! Make your shopping trips count.

"Friend" your favorite stores.  These days, most stores offer an email list that you can get signed up on for extra/additional savings that in most cases are just offered to their "fans."  My favorites?  JoAnn's, Kohl's, Carter's/Osh Kosh, JC Penney (they offer GREAT incentives to their email listing!) and Babies R Us.  I also like BRU and their Rewards club...I've gotten several $5 off coupons through their points program - they add up faster that you will expect.  I have also joined a mailing list (email or snail mail) if I think that it's a store that I'll start shopping at if they have good coupons/discounts offered, and then later go back and cancel if I find that I don't like the store as much as I thought that I would...that's okay to do too!  You can usually get anywhere from $5 off your next purchase on up to 10-20% off of everything in the store...great deals!  I clip these down or fold them to also fit into my accordian coupon file so that I always have them with me when I'm out and about.

Keep up with what you’re saving. Although none of this takes that long to do, and most of it can be done while watching TV, sometimes it seems tedious and time consuming. (I do mine in small steps, because life with an infant in the house is unpredictable at best, and I’ve found that doing things in stages that can be put down and picked back up to finish later works best for me.) But when I go to the store, use 10 coupons and then look at my receipt and realize that I only saved $3.89 it can be discouraging. That’s why it’s important to keep up a tally of your total savings…not just trip to trip. In the spirit of things, I think that I’ll put up a counter on my blog so that I can share what I’ve saved for the year so far…updating the total each week. I think that would be interesting to watch it grow and help keep me motivated!

As always, the things that I'm sharing here with you are what works for ME. It might not be the best way, it's definitely not the only way, and there might be a better way out there to do it...but this is MY way.  There are some others who would argue directly against some of the tips that I think help my way work better...and that's ok.  That doesn't mean that their way is wrong, or that my way is wrong for that matter.  It just means that there are several options and methodsto achieve the same goal.  You have to find the plan that works best for YOU.  My way might not be it...I just wanted to share with you in case it was something that might work for you. 

If you clip coupons, do have some other tips to share with me? Like maybe someone could explain to me how CVS membership works…it seems SO confusing to me that I haven’t even attempted to tackle THAT one! I’d love to hear about your tips and tricks…

Another Craigslist "Find"

Check out what I managed to “score” yesterday off of Austin’s Craigslist: Do you SEE all of those bottles? I mean, do you really see them all? Here, let me zoom in a bit and show it all off: That’s FOUR bags of bottle nipples, another bag of storage lids (for breast milk), 2 sippy cups, an unopened box of Medela pump converters to the Avent bottles, more sealed storage lids, and the manual Avent breast pump – complete with adapters, bags and such. Then there are 6 used 4 oz. bottles with rings and lids, 4 NIB 4 oz bottles with the storage lids only (but they’re the same as the regular bottles, so you can interchange the lids, nipples and rings). There’s 5 extra rings, and an 11 oz. bottle. And then TEN 9 oz. bottles complete with rings and lids.

Would you like to guess what I paid for all of that? Go ahead, take a guess - you’ll never in a million years get it right!

I paid $30 cash for that whole box of Avent bottles/supplies!!! What a find! Yes, I know that they’re all used – I get that. But I remember having new, shiny bottles with my daughter and after one or two washings, they looked to be in the same condition that these bottles are in. I kid you not. I plan on tossing all of the nipples out, and at least buying new nipples, since that’s the only part that he’ll actually have in his mouth. The rest will all be washed and sterilized and ready to go. And yes, I realize that I could wash/sterilize the nipples too, but Brent’s drawing a line at using used nipples. He gets the cost savings – there was at least $150-$200 worth of Avent products in that box that I paid $30 for, but he totally doesn’t mind spending $25 on new nipples at each stage of nipples to get new ones. And I’m ok with that too, since I just saved SO much on actual bottles!

Update on the crazy play-pen lady. Brandi, my good friend, was most persistent and managed to get the missing parts from the crazy play-pen lady. They are now at our house safe and sound. Not that it didn’t nearly drive us both crazy dealing with crazy play-pen lady – but it all worked out in the end. I just wonder why some people who use Craigslist expect more for less?

Why couldn’t every transaction happen the way the bottle one went down? I contacted the seller, she still had the product, she agreed that I could have it, we arranged a meeting place/time for the next day, and we stuck to it. Even though her little boy ended up being sick, and she needed to move the time around a bit, we still worked with each other, respected the other’s time and other responsibilities, and followed through with our ends of the bargain. I paid in cash, the amount that she wanted, and she provided me with a complete product. She even took the time to go through the box with me before I left just to make sure that everything was included. And she apologized for it being just in a box and not wrapped up all pretty! Like I care what it came in for $30!!!

So I’ve just decided that Craigslist is hit and miss. Sometimes you’ll get the crazy play-pen lady, and other times you’ll get a nice, normal sane person. It’s a crap shot either way. Have you had luck at finding things on Craigslist? I’m curious to hear.

My First Craigslist Experience...

I think that I’ve mentioned a time or two that I was starting to search around on Craigslist local boards to find any of my registry items that were in a “gently used” condition. Maybe I mentioned it…or maybe I just think that I mentioned it because I’ve been thinking about mentioning it but with my pregnant brain, I forgot. It could go either way…I’m just saying.

So anyway, I was telling Maid Britney about my plan, and she thought that it was a great idea. Other blogger moms have had great success with this, so I thought that it was worth a shot. Maid Britney was even nice enough to suggest that I extend my searches to Dallas and she would be more than willing to meet up with a seller on my behalf and collect the item for me and meet up with me later. Awesome!

Well, after a few near misses on bumbo seats and changing tables, I found my play yard. I really wasn’t expecting to see my travel system, play yard or swing on Craigslist anywhere since they all seem to be newer models, but one day a few weeks ago there was an ad for the exact play yard that we’d picked out for half the price! I was ecstatic and immediately contacted the seller regarding the ad. Yet, like so many other times in the past few days, I began to get discouraged when an hour went by…and then two hours. By the time that I got home that night and was telling B all about it, I told him that I guessed the lady didn’t still have the item, since she hadn’t contacted me back yet.

And wouldn’t you know that my cell phone would ding at me at that moment, telling me that I had a new email message. It was the seller, saying that she still had the item and would be more than willing to work with my friend. GREAT! I forwarded her contact information on to Maid Britney and let them work out the details. That was on a Friday night, so I waited patiently all weekend long to hear how it went. But the weekend came and went and I didn’t hear anything…so, me being the patient person that I am, contacted Maid Britney first thing Monday morning (regardless of the hour) to see what happened.

As it turned out, they had not been able to meet up yet. Apparently, the seller was sort of “sporadic” about checking her email (on her iPhone) and getting back with people. They had gone back and forth and decided to meet on Sunday…and then the seller didn’t ever contact Maid Britney back about the time. So no meet. I told Maid Britney that she could contact her again, if she wanted, but as far as I was concerned she had done all that she could to make this happen and I would keep looking.

And don’t you know that’s when it all works out? The seller was able to meet with Maid Britney the next day, and she didn’t get stabbed, raped or taken advantage of in any way…cut me some slack – this was my first Craigslist experience and after all the headaches that we’d had getting in touch with them and getting together with them, you just never know. You know? Am I alone in this or what? I made her keep her cell phone on the whole time that she met with him to make the exchange so that I could call 9-1-1 if needed…a little overkill maybe, but possibly we were just playing it safe!

Everything went well, and Maid Britney brought the play yard with her to my Mom’s house this past weekend. After a LONG day of shopping, I decided to put the thing together and check it all out. Here’s what we got… As you can see, J was really interested in helping us put it all together… The good news? I like the play yard a lot. It was pretty easy to set up, even if a few of the steps didn’t make much sense. It was also easy to take down, so bonus points! And the mattress in it with as thick as I remembered, which is a good thing.

The bad news? The play yard that was advertised as never being used (since her baby girl didn’t like to not be held) or maybe being used once or twice was actually missing some pieces. It was supposed to come with 5 animals that hang from the “mobile” and there were only 2 in the bag. The remote was also missing. Not big things, but still.

I tried to turn on the music/light/vibration thingy and that didn’t work either. I assumed that it probably just needed new batteries, and went to check that out before I sent the seller an email asking about the missing pieces. It turns out that one of the batteries in there had busted and leaked battery acid all over the place. I removed the batteries and my step-dad thinks that B can clean up the remaining battery-acid-powder-gunk and put new batteries in and it will be fine. We’ll see.

All in all, this was a good deal, I think. I contacted the seller about the missing animals/remote and she was going to look for them. She knew where the animals were, but was going to have to hunt for the remote…so maybe I’ll get them and maybe I won’t. I tried to check online at the Chicco website to see if I can order just those parts, but I couldn’t find much information. The best that I could find was a 1-800 number to Customer Service to call and order replacement parts. So we’ll see…I’ve got some time to wait for the seller to return the parts or decide what else I’d like to do.

Have you ordered stuff off of Craigslist? How did that go for you? and more importantly, do you think that she’ll actually send me the items???