Coupon Freak!

Yes, I am a coupon freak. This all started a few years ago and I have progressively became a total cheapskate, tightwad, penny pincher or whatever you want to call me. I get so excited when I save, and so mad when I forget a coupon at home. (If you forget your coupon, save your receipt and next time you are at the store, take your coupon and receipt to customer service and you will get the coupon value.)  I get some stellar deals and about to share with you my latest. Friday night I went grocery shopping, my Target receipt showed I saved $39.42. Well most of you know that isn't all composed of coupons, it is composed of items on sale at the store as well. So the impressive part... my actual clipped coupon savings was $28.74.  Not too bad. 

Tip #1: shop at Target. Go to Target's website, at the bottom you will find a link for store coupons. There are some manufacturer coupons amongst these but a lot of them are Target web coupons. Many of these coupons match up with the manufacturer's coupons from your weekly Sunday paper. Where the savings is really at is when you use a manufacturer's coupon with a Target coupon. Yes they allow this. My latest example:

I bought a box of Nature's Valley Granola Bars, on sale for $2.39. I had a $1.00 Target web coupon and a .50 cents manufacturer coupon. Total for my granola bars: .89 cents. That makes me want to do the happy dance. There are a lot of items you can get for free too, I'm not so good at catching these but my friend Katie is, if you want me to forward her emails, let me know, she is very detailed in her emails on how to get the deal. Extra tip... HyVee and a lot of other places will honor Target coupons as a competitor coupon, so keep that in mind too.

Tip #2: Never ever buy anything at the mall for full price. HELLO we are in a recession! That item most likely will go on sale next week. Best advice, watch the items online at the store's website and watch for it go on sale. Sign up for the store's mail listing, you will get some good coupons in the mail or emailed to you. I was bummed out because I was at the mall looking for pants for a special event, I found the perfect pair but they were not on sale and they were $70. Oh was I mad. I bought them anyways. 2 weeks later I got a coupon in the mail. Well the tags were still on these pants because I hadn't worn them for my event yet so this leads into Tip #3.. go in and get a price adjustment on those pants! Yes take in your receipt, your pants and your coupon, be very upfront and tell them you want to return them and re-buy them with your coupon. I saved $20.  Heck ya I did!

Tip #3: use restaurant.com and travelzoo.com and find local deals. We eat out a lot but usually not without a coupon. Restaurant.com -- these are local restaurants in the area. My latest find was at a restaurant we like, purchase a $50 gift card for $20.00. The only catch, you have to spend a minimum of $35 and leave an 18% gratuity. Do the math... if you do this right you will buy $50 worth of food and drinks and only spend $29.00.  Still not a bad deal.

Travel Zoo. This one isn't as easy. Mainly because Des Moines doesn't get many specials come across here often. One just came up in the last few weeks that I cashed in on. A $40 gift card plus 2 free drinks or desserts to one of the really nice local Mexican restaurants (Dos Rios) for the price of $20. Can I get a 'whoop whoop' for a cheap date night! I tell you I get really excited when I save.
The other night I was out with my sister, impressed her by whipping out a coupon at the bar to get us free drinks.  She cracked up.  The days have been long over for me when I relied on cute guys back in college for free drinks, I'm married now, let the coupons do the work.   Yes I used a coupon to buy my sister and I a buy one get one free beer.  You can go ahead and chuckle now.   

When I tell people I'm a coupon Nazi, they tell me they don't like coupons because a lot of them say buy 6 save .25 cents. I agree, those crappy coupons are out there and are not a deal worth wasting your time on but I'm telling you, it doesn't take much extra time and a little organization to be a big saver.

Much love to all you fellow coupon freaks!