Wishing our daughter a Happy Sweet 16!

I can't believe our baby girl is 16 today. Where does the time go.  Wasn't I just 16?  :-)  We had a great day celebrating as a family.  I'm so thankful that the kids had off of school today so we could spend the day together. 

Happy Birthday Tiffi.  We love you so much. We are so proud of you and so thankful God gave you to us. 

Our first family photo. April 22, 1995

Us today. 16 years later.

Trying to tackle the Couponing Craze!

So, I have many friends who have seemed to master the Coupon Craze.  I'm in awe of their savings at the grocery store, drug stores etc.  So, I thought I would give it a try.  I never quite mastered it like my friends, but was happy with the savings I received.

Now, TLC has a new show on called Extreme Couponing.  Bill & I watched the 1st show.  He was in awe. He did not get the whole coupon craze until he watched this show. He wanted to save 90% or more on our grocery bills.  So now he's hooked.  And addicted to trying to find the best deal.

I have only 2x's saved MORE than I spent at the grocery store.  Last week I saved $20 more than I spent. I did a little happy dance at the check out lane & hollered.  They all smiled at me. Here is a photo of what I got.

Total retail price: $100.96.  Total spent: $40.64. Total Saved: $60.32

My dear friend does wonders at Walgreens.  So I thought I would try. I don't typically shop at Walgreens.  But they had some good sales.  Here is my 1st trip to Walgreens.

Total retail price: $62.65. Total spent: $17.64. Total Saved: $46.01

And now Bill is on a roll.  He's been searching and searching for the best deal.  Today we went to Target. We were armed with about 30 coupons.  I was nervous.  After some confusion with the computer not taking some of our coupons (we caught this before we left the store so I went back inside to get a manager and she fixed the problem and gave us money back), we ended up saving 90%. Our best shopping trip to date!

Total retail price: $39.45. Total spent: $4.06. Total saved: $35.39.  

Several people have asked me on Facebook how I do it.  This is an email I sent to them.

This site really explains a lot to beginners. Just click on the link at the top of her site that says beginners.

http://thekrazycouponlady.com/

It takes a lot of work. We buy 2 Sunday papers so we have 2 coupons for each item we want. You can use a manufacture coupon on each item in the BOGO's at Publix (yes, even the free item). You can also "stack" coupons by using a store coupon as well. So, you can use a manufacture coupon AND a Target coupon on 1 item (at Publix and at Target).

The Target coupons are found on their website at the bottom (it says coupons).

Today, we had 5 Degree manufacture coupons for $1 off. And we printed 5 Degree Target coupons for $1 off. So we saved $2.00 on each deodorant. They are on sale this week for $1.99. So we got them for free. :-)

We had about 30 coupons when we checked out. The key is to stick to your list. If you buy something not on sale or something without a coupon, it will mess up your percentage of savings. :-)

And always make sure you know how many coupons you are using and for how much they will total. Today at Target not all of our coupons scanned. So I went back inside and told them and they figured it out and gave us $6.50 back.

OH, and you can "like" pages on Facebook (like Lysol) and they will have coupons. If you have more than 1 computer in your house, try to print coupons from each computer. Some sites limit the amount of coupons you can print from your computer.

I hope this helps. I will compile a list of other sites we have found that are really helpful in our coupon savings adventure. So check back soon.

Good luck & Happy Couponing!