Why I Love Using Coupons

First, let me apologize for being MIA in bloggy-land for a couple of weeks. We've been super busy, and decided at the last minute to go to the beach the last week of August. Life just kind of got in the way! So I apologize! Now, on to today's post...

If you know anything about me, it's that I love to save my family money on the things we need. In fact, as a stay at home Mom, it's a big part of my job. My husband works very hard, and it's my job to stretch that money as far as possible. Using coupons allows me to do just that! Take, for example, my trip to Wal-Mart this morning. I didn't need much - just a loaf of bread for supper tonight. But I had coupons for everything else. Here's what I bought:

2 boxes of K-Y Jelly

6 travel size Tide detergents

4 trial size Cascade Action packs

2 one-pound bags of carrots

1 loaf of Italian bread

Before coupons, my sub-total (before taxes) was $18.62.

After my coupons were deducted, my sub-total was just $2.12. $2.12!! That's a savings of 89%!!

The K-Y will be donated, and everything else will be used by my family.

You may ask why I bought the K-Y if I didn't need it. At Wal-Mart, they allow for what's called "coupon overage". This means that regardless of what the price of the product is, the full value of the coupon will be deducted. For example, the K-Y was priced at $2.84. I had a coupon for $3.00 off any K-Y product. This means the product was totally free, plus I had $0.16 in coupon overage!

When I can get a product for free, I always do, even if it's something my family can't/won't use. There are lots of places that would be thrilled with the donation. We don't have a ton of extra cash to give to charity, but this allows me to do something without spending a lot of money.

Occasionally, I will highlight some of my best shopping trips here on my blog. Feel free to chime in with your best trips as well! Leave a comment with a link to a blog (if you have one), or just tell me kind of deals you scored this week! I'd love to hear from you!