I have a confession to make - I thought couponing was a waste of time! I know, I know... How can I even admit to that? Well, I am changing my tune and joining the couponing band wagon.
My hubby has a very technical mind, and he has always said that "time is money." He has taught me to look at the value of my time in a financial sense. Is what I am doing "worth" it right now? Couponing has always seemed to me to be a waste of time. Why would I spend HOURS clipping coupons and going through sale ads only to save a few dollars here and there? Thanks to couponmom.com, she has taken the work out of couponing!
Yesterday was my first day really putting this to practice... If you can't tell, after my first attempt at this I am excited! I spent only two hours looking through Coupon Mom's website and clipping out the deals she had listed. One of my preconceived notions about couponing was that you can not buy the brands you want and just have to buy what has coupons. Well, let me just say this, I did not buy anything that I would not have normally bought!
Before I give you a break down of my savings, take a look at everything I got!
Now, I have heard that you are not supposed to include your meat and produce in when calculating your coupon savings because there are generally no coupons for these items, but to be fair, I am going to include EVERYTHING I bought in my breakdown. Included with the coupon items, I got 5 packages of Purdue chicken, 2 packages of Purdue turkey burger, Alaskan cod, and a TON of produce.
Here's the breakdown:
I spent - $102.33 (This may seem like a lot, but wait until you see the savings!)
I SAVED - $68.83
Average saved - 40%
My coupons actually saved me well over 60% on the items that I purchased using them.
I thought this was a very productive shopping trip! If I am able to save an average of 40% by combining coupons and sale items, then my time is definitely "worth" it. If you do the math, the 2 hours I spent looking at adds and coupons earned me $34 per hour! Not too shabby if you ask me :)
Here are some of my highlights:
For those of you who know how stinkin' expensive these razors are, I saved 35% on the razor and refills.
Febrese was on sale for $4.99, and I had a buy on get one free coupon. This was a 64% savings! Colgate toothpaste was on sale for $1.00 and I had a .50 coupon. I could have gotten 1 for free, but I opted to get 2 for $1.00. The vitamins were buy one get one free and I had a $3.00 coupon. I ended up only spending $5.99 on both! This was a savings of 70%.
All of this is pretty exciting and well worth my time if you ask me! Happy shopping!Labels: My Life