As some of you may know I love to coupon! I started really using coupons back in August and after my first big shopping trip with a lot of savings I was hooked!
There is a promotion starting Wednesday and running through the following Tuesday at Harris Teeter and Lowe's Food called Super Doubles! The rules of super doubles are:
1- They will double coupons up to $1.98. If you have a coupon for $1 off a product they will take that coupon and take $2 off the product. A $1.50 coupon will allow you to have $3 off a product!
2- They will only double 20 coupons per day (you can use more then 20 coupons but they will only be taken at face value).
3- They will only double up to 3 "like" coupons from newspapers and 2 "like" printable coupons from the internet.
4- If you have an E-Vic card you can load digital coupons from the HT website onto it and use those in combination with a paper coupon. (This does not apply to Lowe's Food- they do not allow the stacking of digital coupons and paper coupons).
On a normal week I typically buy 2-3 newspapers to cut coupons from. When there's a big promotion coming up like this I buy anywhere from 5-10 papers!
This is what my coffee table looks like, and will look like for the next week!
The secret to couponing success is to let someone else do the work :-). I follow a few coupon blogs and those people typically get the sales ad before the sale starts so they can match up sale prices with coupons so you get the best value for your money! I hate to give away my favorite one but the best blog I follow is
Moola Saving Mom she lives in NC and will make spreadsheets with the sale prices and match them with coupons and show you the final price and how much you save. Here's the HT list she has done:
HT List it's a live list so she will be continuing to update it until the sale is over.
The good thing about using coupons is it allows you to create a "stock pile." For me personally I only stock up on items that I know we will use and items that won't expire before we get to them. That means a lot of bathroom products, laundry, and other things and not a lot of food products (you can really only stock up on foods that are shelf stable otherwise you run the risk of having a lot of expired food). Here's an idea of what Adam and I have stocked up on:
Laundry detergent that I only spent between $1.50-$2 for each.
Deodorant and soap- spent under $.75 on each product.
Dish soap, the bigger bottles I paid $.75 for and the small bottles were either $.25 or free!
Our toothpaste that was all free.
Our boxes of Hamburger Helper (8 total) that I paid $.25 per box.
Now, I'm not crazy like the people on the Extreme Couponing show and buy $1000 worth of product for only $5 because you technically can't do that. You have to follow the rules set by the store that way we can keep using coupons and the stores won't cut out special events like Super Doubles. Make sure you're also following all the rules that are listed on the coupons as well. If it states you have to buy a certain size of a product then you must buy that size, don't try to use it for a different size. The only crazy thing I do is get the store right when it opens at 6 a.m. that way I can get the good deals :-).
If anyone has questions I will be happy to help and answer them! I like to help people save money and it's just a fun thing to do. I will post a follow up after I shop on Wednesday and let you all know how I did!
