Couponing virgin

Welcome to my blog. This is the first time I've ever written one, so please bear with me. This blog is a play-by-play narration of my couponing escapades from the very first day I ever used a coupon to.. infinity.

First, the introductions. My name is D, and I'm a nurse at the local hospital. Love, love my job; the satisfaction we get from the job is incredible. Some days are quite tough, but we try our best to cope as we're pretty darn sure our patients are having a rougher day.

So anyway, I started watching Extreme Couponing in the States because it was the only thing interesting to watch at work on my dinner break one day. At first, I thought there was no way I'd do it because I just don't have the time to put in that many hours in a day/week, plus I was a little embarrassed for those people on that show. Add to that the fact that extreme couponing isn't really possible in Canada. Then one day, my co-worker comes up to me as we were walking up to the hospital from the staff parking lot telling me how she went grocery shopping on the weekend. Apparently, her bill came out to $400, but she only paid $95 because of her coupons! I was motivated. I knew I could do it. I just need to get over the initial nerves, and I should be set.

I didn't really know where to look for coupons. I didn't understand what P&G brandsaver, Smartsource or Redplum meant. I didn't understand the logic of it all. So for beginner's like me, here's the rundown. P&G brandsaver, Smartsource and Redplum are the names of the coupon booklets. You know how we have several free city/community newspapers around? For example in Langley, we have Langley Times and Langley Advance. They're both newspapers, but they're printed and sponsored by different companies. That's how those 3 coupon books are; they're all coupon booklets, but they just differ in content. They're free, and they usually come from your Sunday paper.

I had to do the research myself when it comes to finding coupon sources. There's a number of ways, but your best bet would be signing up on these free coupon websites: save.ca, websaver.ca, gocoupon.ca and brandsaver.ca. They give out free coupons via mail. If you go to smartcanucks.ca, they have printable coupons as well. Go to coupons, and click on Coupon Database, and when you scroll down, it lists all the coupons that they have by catergory.

I usually would go smartcanucks.ca to check out the latest flyers, or I just check them on the internet myself. Why? Coupons work best when the item you want is on sale. That's when you get the best bang for your buck. Let's say Ocean's Spray Cranberry juice is regularly priced at $3.99. Then Walmart has it on sale for $1, and I have a coupon for $1. That would mean I would get it for free. If you bought it at full price, it'll be $3.99 - your $1.00 coupon = $2.99 plus taxes.

Now, which stores accept coupons? They say bringing the store's printed coupon policy is best, but I have yet to do that as I just did my very first couponing yesterday. Walmart accepts coupons as long as:
1. it has a manufacturer's coupon stamp
2. an expiry date
3. return address for the manufacturer
4. barcode
Most printable coupons won't have a manufacturer's stamp, so just call the store ahead.

So anyway, like what I said earlier, I had my first couponing experience yesterday. First place I went to was Superstore, as the coupon I had was expiring today. This is what I got
96-load Purex laundry detergent
44-load Purex laundry detergent
My coupon was buy 1 96-load Purex laundry detergent, and get 1 Purex laundry detergent free maximum price $7
The 96-load container was sold for $9.99, so with taxes and everything, I paid $11.21 for both. I was stoked! I then decided to hit up Walmart as I wanted to see how they were with couponers. Here's what I got:
1. 2 big Windex triggers - B1G1 (buy one get one) free - $3.00 for one, next one free = $1.50 each
2. 2 Fantastik triggers - B1G1 free - $2.50 for one, next one free = $1.25 each
2. 1 Scrubbing bubbles and 1 Fantastik trigger - buy 1 Scrubbing bubbles, get 1 fantastik trigger free
Walmart has a different way of dealing with their coupons; they don't just scan it. They compute it in such a way where they take out the price and taxes instead. In total, My bill came out to a little over $36, but I only paid $20. It's not much, but it's a good start. I still have a lot of coupons with me, but I just finished putting them in the binder, so I'm a little organized now. Hahahahaha. Til next time!