Coupon slang

What do all these things mean?? here are a few that I know I use a lot. As I use more, I will add them.

BOGO- Buy One Get One. This means BOGO-FREE, but we leave off the F :) If it's anything like Buy 2 get one Free, it will be B2GO, etc. There are also a lot of deals where it's BOGO50%, which is buy one, get one 50% off :)

OOP- Out Of Pocket, meaning what you are going to physically pay out of your pocket

Q- Coupon

Manu- Manufacture coupon.

Store- Store coupon

WAGS- Walgreens

RR- Register Rewards from Walgreens

ECB- Extra Care Bucks from CVS

Stack- stacking is using 2 coupons for one item- 1 store, 1 manu

RC- Raincheck

WYB- When You Buy

Gonna take a break

Just to keep you hooked, hehehe, I want to show you what I did with $20 today. My first deal was in part credited to Swagbucks. If you haven't signed up, follow this link and do it!!

http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/amandasaves

Once you sign up, you instal the tool bar, which is totally awesome for searching. I am always weary of downloading things, but this is a very trustworthy site, and it's been wonderful. Once you get the toolbar, you simply do ALL your searching in this little bar, or from SB's home page. Searching earns you Swag Bucks. Signing up for things, earns you bucks. Printing coupons and redeeming them, again, earns you bucks. The then take your  bucks, and trade them in for a number of things. But the best deal I've found is 450 bucks for a $5 Amazon gift card. You will be shocked how fast these add up. I had $50 in SB credit. I used about $13 on some coupon holders, and had $36 remaining. Today only, Amazon had the Kodak Mini Video camera on sale for $39.95, regularly $99.99. Then I signed up for the one month trial of Prime (which I WILL cancel haha!) For $3.39 out of pocket, I got the camera, free shipping, and upgraded to 2-day shipping. I will have my shiny new camera Thursday!!!

So what did I do with the other $17?? I went to BiLo.....

The meal deal
2 bags of Banquet chicken @ 4.99/ea
Ore-Ida crinkle fries
Pepsi 2L
Hunts Ketchup
VanCamps baked beans
12 pack of Bi-Lo popciles

then everything else
(4) Ken's Marinade
(6) Lawry's Marinade
(2) Cans Dole Pineapple chunks
(2) Jars Vlasic dill pickle Ovals
(2) Thai Kitchen rice noodles in Lemongrass and veggie
Texas Pete hot sauce
Cottonelle Wipes tub
(2) cans Hot Shot Bug killer
Cutter bug spray travel size
Pantene thick hair, hair spray

Total before Bonus Card and Coupons $77.83
Total after Bonus Card and Coupons $17.89
Now at $.80 off gallon of gas at Spinx!!

So all in all today my totals were
BEFORE discounts $183.45
AFTER discounts $21.28 (ok, not $20, but I round :) )

This is why I coupon. I can save HUNDREDS a week on things we will use. I try very hard to only get things we use, or can donate. If things are free, or almost free, why not donate them to someone in need who will use these items? In the words of Martha, It's a good thing.

Where do I start?

To coupon, you need...well, coupons. So where do you get them? The best way to get them is in the Sunday paper.  How many you purchase is up to you. It's usually best to buy about 4, at least. Always buy in even numbers. This way, when something is BOGO, you can use one coupon for each product. More on that later. The next place you can get a number of coupons is printing them out from the internet. www.smartsource.com and www.redplum.com are the biggest places to print out coupons. They have a print limit of 2 per coupon, per computer. They reset about once a month, so usually, you can print them again the next month. Another place you can find coupons are on some website that pre-clip them for you and sell them in multiples. They don't charge for the coupons, but they charge a small handling fee and then whatever postage is to mail it. Currently, my favorite website is Coupondede.com. I spent about $10 for 100 coupons and postage. You earn points on the coupons you purchase, and that can be redeemed for coupons later. Just to give you an idea on how much that $10 saved me, just *some* of them got me 10 bottles of  barbeque sauce for free. And b/c of the sauce having coupons on the bottle for Country Time lemonade, I also got 5 canisters of that for 88 cents a piece as well. But, again, more on that later. So buying coupons in bulk for things you use a lot of is actually very much worth it :)

TEACH ME!!!

A phrase I've heard often lately. It refers to my couponing. I'm going to do a series, because it can be overwhelming, and it needs to be broken down. Lets start with your "why". What is motivating you to start couponing past just clipping a few, putting them in your wallet, and forgetting about them until you clean it out and realize they expired months ago? Whatever it is, go back to it. My why was that I left my job, 4 days after finding out I was expecting our 3rd child. Although I left willingly, it was not what I would have chosen even a week earlier. But it was what it was, and we went to 1, little income. I got a part time job at the Walgreens up the road. It was a major pay-cut, but what I learned was worth it. I saw a few women come in with their coupon books, and walk out paying very little, for a whole lot. I watched. Then my best friend's husband got into it, as they were expecting a little one as well, around the same time as me, and knew she would be out on maternity leave for 12 weeks. Before I knew it, I saw their baby's nursery closet full of diapers and wipes, and everything in between. And he paid pennies on the dollar for it all. If he can do it, and these other women can do it, so.can.I. Oh, and for whatever it's worth, he will be 2 in June, and they STILL have not purchased baby wipes. They've even given me some when I was in a pinch and out. And there is still more left. My guess is it will last through potty training haha!!

So with all of this, 1 income, new baby, and the *need* for it, I started couponing. I have weeks where I am slower and don't do as much, and then there are weeks where I am, what my husband says, "On my game". My "why" has slightly changed into wanting to save that money to use on other things, mostly bills, but things like being able to go out to eat and fellowship after church on Sunday afternoons. And going to Dillard's Ice Cream after the church softball game with my family. Using the money on the moments that matter. So what's your why? That's where you start.