Clipping Coupons = Free & Cheap Goods

Kmart had their double coupon event this past week and I loved (almost) every minute of it! Here's how it worked. You could only double 5 coupons per day. So....that's what I did. I also got Brandon to hop on board and that way we were able to double 10 coupons per day. Kmart doubles was a way for me to stock up on the things we use every day at little to no cost.

Here's what I purchased (*denotes free after coupons):

4 Bounty napkins

4 Pampers wipes

2 Febreeze air fresheners

1 Endust dusting spray

2 Masterpiece BBQ sauce**

1 Softsoap hand soap**

4 Playtex tampons

6 Gillette disposable razors

1 Rimmell lipstick**

10 Softscrub

2 Tide laundry soap

4 Dove deodorant**

2 Suave deodorant**

3 Oxiclean stain tablets

3 Scrubbing Bubbles

1 Palmolive dish soap

2 Dawn Hand Renewal dish soap

2 Reece's Dark Chocolate candy bars**

1 Kellogg's fruit snack**

1 bag of Sunchips**

2 bags of Lays potato chips

1 Spotshot carpet stain remover**

3 Gillette men's body wash**

2 Nivea body wash

1 Herbal Essence conditioner

1 Tweezers

So my total before coupons for all my purchases this week was $291.04. Using coupons, I actually spent $71.75 and will get (2) $10 rebates back for a grand total of $51.75! That is a total savings of 82% off of the retail price. Wahoo!!

So how can you save, too? Here's a few tips to get you started using coupons.

*Buy multiple copies of the Sunday paper so you have access to multiple copies of the coupons. This is one of the major ways to get things cheap or free. Ask your non-coupon-using friends and family to save their coupon inserts for you.

*Print coupons off the Internet. Most coupon sites have a print limit of 2 coupons/item. If you have multiple computers in the house, you can print 2 coupons/computer. DO NOT photocopy coupons you printed off the Internet. They do have a unique serial number on them and every one is different. Photocopying coupons=fraud...just don't do it! If the coupon pops up as a .pdf file, be wary, those are probably put out their illegally.

*The items I find that I can get cheap or free are typically cleaning supplies, cereal and toiletries so those things I almost refuse to buy unless I can purchase them for next to nothing.

*Use multiple coupons to stock up when you find a deal.

*Follow money saving blogs. They do the hard work for you, which is finding the deals. Type "money saving blogs" or "frugal mom blogs" into your search bar and you'll be linked to a ton of blogs out there.

*Find your own system for clipping coupons. If clipping them and filing them floats your boat...do it. I don't have a lot of time to clip coupons, so I rely heavily on the blogs to tell me where to find them and in what coupon insert to locate the coupons. I guess you could call me a clip-as-you-go-kind-of-gal.

I hope this helps you get started or continue to save money by using coupons. Happy savings!