I'm getting better and better at it!!!!!!!!

Waaaaa Laaaaa......... Guess how much. Just guess.

$13.61 for all of it.

I have taken my introduction to couponing slowly and in doing so I have learned a few little tricks that my "I have to see it" little mind could wrap its understanding around. For instance, in the middle there are four cartons of Egg Beaters. I used online printables and the little trick there is to use the back arrow after you get a "thank you for printing" screen to make more copies of the coupon. At a certain point the site will tell you that you have reached your print limit, but you got all you can get! Also with the Egg Beaters, I learned about using one manufacturers coupon and one store coupon. Each item at my grocery store can have one of each type of coupon. The Egg Beaters were $1.66 and I had one manufacturer's coupon for a dollar and another competitor's store coupon also for a dollar. So that left .34 cents as "overage" or actual money back. They paid me to take them off their hands. Ahhh. Gotta love it. Actually the .34 cents went towards other items. So here is a breakdown of the other stuff. (I lost my receipt so this is just a round about....)

Banana Nut Cheerios (tbw....YUMMMM) . $4 four something a box. Buy one get one free (BOGO). Used $1 off competitor's coupon and .75 cents manufactures coupon. Made them about fifty cents each.

Ocean Spray Cranberry juices. Six of them, BOGO. Used $1 off coupons for each and got them each for about seventy five cents.

Toothbrush totally free with coupons!!!!! (Yeah baby)

Soda-pop....On sale for 2 for a dollar. Used competitor's coupon $1 off three made them .17 cents each.

Ritz crackers. BOGO with coupons .50 cents each. Same with the fiber one bars and Nabisco cookies..all .50 cents each....

Six dollars of the entire $13 bill total was the meals you see in the lower right hand corner. They were regular $7.99 each on sale for $4.99 and I had a two dollar off each coupon which made them three dollars each. Kinda pricey compared to some of the other things......

Anyways. I am defiantly learning the ropes and moving up in the rank. Woo Hoo! I gotta tell you it is a total rush to see this huge bill drop down dollar by dollar. I actually had a five dollar off coupon with this order that they said was not from a competitor's store. I would have had five more dollars off.....A rush a tell ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The actual savings from this bill was $66 dollars. Are you kidding me? A rush.

Anyone interested in a little help getting started let me know...I would love to help with whatever little I know so far. One thing that has really really helped, not just helped but been the lifeline to learning the ropes is a web site called www.becentsable.com On the site there is a tab called "The Grocery Gathering" go there and you will see a large list of stores. Under each store name is a mini list of blogs. These blogs are people (trained "educators") who list all the sales at that store and where to get the coupons. Easy peasy! They do all the work - you reap all the rewards!

The other major life line is from www.couponmom.com On this site you will find the coupon organising technique that everyone uses. In a nutshell (because it intimidated me at first) when you get the Sunday paper you don't cut or clip a thing. Not a thing. Usually there are two major coupon booklets. Smart Source (SS) and Red Plumb (RP). You take them out and label the front with the date. For example today is March 11, 2009. I will use a black marker in a clear spot and put 3/11 . That's it. Then when you use the blogs from www.becentsable.com they will send you to that date's Smart Source or SS 3/11 for a particular coupon and then you can cut it out. So super easy.

All this talk has made me hungry for a deal. I'm off to stalk my prey.....www.becentsable.com!!!!!!!