Got Cereal?

12 boxes of cereal-Original total price: $51.80

What I paid out of pocket-$19.50 ($1.63 per box)
+ 2 vouchers for free milk up to $3.25 each
+2 vouchers for free eggs up to $1.75 each

Total minus incentives: $9.50! ($0.79 per box)
Total savings: $42.30

Not bad, huh? Especially considering the Lucky Charms and Cheerios (minus the first two, accidentally grab the medium box) are the HUGE boxes! I was pretty excited to say the least. :)

I realized I haven't said much on couponing yet so I will just give a quick sample here. After seeing multiple posts similar to this one on friends blogs, I realized I wanted in on these great deals! Starting last summer, I spent quite a bit of time researching couponing blogs, weekly ads and trying things on my own to figure out how this whole 'game' worked. I'm NO expert, I'm still learning new things everyday but I have had some great and not so great experiences that are teaching me my personal style of couponing. (Yes, there are MANY ways it can be done!) I'll share more about what I've learned about couponing so far in a later post, let me first share how you can overall maximize your savings and have coupons work for you versus you working for them. I'll use the process of this cereal shopping trip as an example.

1.) First, every weekend I scan through the weekly ads and highlight special deals/sales. In our Copps grocery ad last week, I noticed that if you bought 6 boxes of any general mills cereal, you'd get $10 off instantly, plus a voucher for a free milk and carton of eggs.

2.) Then, I wanted to find coupons I could use to make this deal even better. Since I didn't have any from my coupon box, I turned to the internet. The internet is a valuable source for finding and printing free coupons. (But don't print them unless you know you're going to use them, otherwise you'll be wasting $ in ink! Been there, done that...)

3.) I was able to find $1 off 2 general mills cereal and printed 3 of these. Finally, to maximize my savings, I waited to shop on a day when I knew my grocery store doubled coupons. That way, I could save $6 instead of just $3 by using my coupons. It was like printing $6 off my computer, now that's exciting!

So, if you're coming to visit us this spring, I sure hope you like Cheerios, Lucky Charms or Rice Chex! ;)

Stayed tuned for more couponing details next week!