Winning with Coupons - 4/9/11 Walgreens trip

I have been asked to write about my couponing on my blog - so here it is...

I am by no means an extreme couponer.  I do not have time to take it to the level you see from the people on tv.  I don't dig in dumpsters for coupons and I don't go door to door asking for other people's coupons.  I get mine from the Sunday paper and the fliers that come in the mail on Tuesdays.  I am new to couponing and am slowly learning the tricks of the pros.  My goal is not to get everything free, but simply to cut our monthly grocery and toiletry bill in half.  I am beginning to enjoy finding the deals and I won't say I don't enjoy getting items for free...it has now become a game for me, a challenge to beat my own savings week to week.  I am in competition to beat myself and to beat the store...and I have to win.

Today I had my most successful shopping trip yet.  I went to Walgreens.  I have found that if you play your coupons right, you can get quite a bit for little to nothing or for free from Walgreens.

Today's purchase included what you see here:
 

 The total of my purchase should have been $37.40.  My total was $4.37.  That's 89% savings!  Here's what I did:


The razors were on sale from $3.99 to $2.69 and I had 3 $2 off coupons for that brand, making them $0.69 each.
The Snickers and M&M eggs were $1.00 each and I had a coupon for $1.00 off any 2 Mars candy products, making them $0.50 ach.
The Snickers eggs were $0.50 each and I used another $1.00 off 2 Mars products making them FREEEEEE.
The toothpaste was $2.99 but gave me a $3 register reward so it was FREEEEEEE.
The Dawn dishsoap was on sale for $0.99 and I had a $0.25 off coupon making it $0.75.
The cereal was on sale from $3.99 a box to $1.88 a box, and I had a coupon to get $1.50 off 3 boxes, so they were $1.39 each.
The gum was $0.99 and I had to buy it because when I checked out the second time, I could only use my register rewards from the previous purchase if I had one extra item or my total would have been negative and they won't let you do that, so I grabbed gum by the counter.

I had a $4 register reward leftover from a purchase earlier this week.  I used that register reward to check out first with the toothpaste, the Dawn, and the razors.  My total was $1.44 and my savings were $16.80.

I got a $3 register reward from the first checkout from the toothpaste and used it on the second purchase which included the cereal, the candy, and the stinking gum I didn't really want.  My total was $2.93 and my savings were $17.23. 

This may sound complicated but it really isn't.  You just have to pay attention to your coupons and your register rewards. 

It is actually fun to try to beat what you have been able to do the week or month before.  And you save tons of money!

And now that I put that disclaimer paragraph at the top about how I don't solicit coupons from people...., if you don't use your coupons,give them to me!