If you’ve got kids, then you understand why that beeping at the checkout counter can start to raise your blood pressure! There have been times that once the cashier hit the ‘Total’ button I have needed immediate medical care! What the heck did I buy? I thought It was only the essentials…surely the checkout guy has mistakenly charged me for the entire cow from the farm…which would probably benefit me in the long run if this was true! What am I getting at? Well, we have decided to try our luck with couponing! No, we aren’t going to go all ‘crazy extreme’, but why not put a little more effort into our shopping and see what happens? Well, here’s what our first weeks efforts have done for us…

First of all..the butter you’ve all asked about!

Store- Food Lion
product- Best Life Butter Spread or spray
Store sale- $1 each
Coupon- $1 off each
We had five coupons, so we got 5 free!

WooHoo…Yippee!

This next one is a bonus for all you military families out there!

Store- Commissary
Product- Quaker Old Fashioned Oatmeal
Store sale- $.95
Coupon- $1 off each
We had 6 coupons, so we got 6 free!

Can you believe it…butter & oatmeal for the next few months….FREE!

Wait, it gets better…

Store- CVS
Product- Finish Powerball dishwashing detergent
Store sale- $3
Coupons- $2.25 off each
We had 5 coupons, so we got 5 for $4.50

Store- CVS
Product- Airwick oil refillables
Store price- $5
Coupon- $1 off
we had 1 coupon, so we got 1 for $4

*Here’s where this deal gets better…CVS is running a promotion ‘spend $20 (before coupons) get $10 in store cash back’!

We spent $20 before coupons so we got the $10 back….Heres the best part though…
Because of our coupons we only paid $8.50 out of pocket, but we got $10 back…Yes, you read that right…WE MADE $$!!!

Ok, I’m off the floor now..here’s the next deal…

Store- Rite Aid
Product- Quaker Instant Oatmeal
Store Price- 2/$5
Coupons- $1 off each; $2 cash back in store
We had 2 coupons so we got 2/$1
I know it seems like a lot of oatmeal, but remember, I have 3 (hungry) growing boys!

Store- Rite Aid
Product- Special K cereal
Store Sale- BOGO
Coupons- BOGO
We had 2 coupons, so we got 4 boxes
wait for it..

wait for it…

FREE! FREE! FREE!

Store- Rite Aid
Product- Clean & clear face products & Aveeno baby lotions
Store price- $5.49, $5.69 & $5.99 each
Coupon- $1 store coupons/ $2 manufacturers coupons
We bought 5 products for $15.85, but they too were running a promotion ‘spend $25 (before coupons) on these products, get $10 back! We qualified for this deal, so we got the $10 back, which brought our total spent to $5.85….just about $1.17 each!!!!!

You’re not gonna believe this, but this one gets better too….Aveeno is offering a free moisturizer (a $10.99 value) for buying 3 of their products, which we did…so, if you add it all up we are getting everything absolutely free!!!!!!!

Is your head spinning yet? I know, it takes a few minutes to wrap your head around it, but its true! We would’ve spent somewhere around $70 dollars for all this stuff and we’re getting it all free! Some of it is free $$$ to use in the store later, but it is free $$$! I must also admit that we bought 7 extra newspapers in the last 2 weeks for the coupons…we used these coupons for the above deals and for many more yet to come! With these coupons I also managed to buy 5 Wisk laundry detergents for $1 each! Cha-Ching!!

Alright, I wont fill your head with any more numbers.

I guess our little ‘coupon experiment’ went well, wouldn’t ya say? Hope this gives ya’ll a little coupon itch of your own! Isn’t it exciting to know that we CAN control how many beeps we hear at that checkout counter? It’s kinda addicting! Happy couponing!