Little coupon secret

On every coupon there is a bar code that the cashier will scan. Well, those numbers actually mean something. The one that means the most to me is the very first number. If the number starts with a "5" then that coupon will double or triple if the store is offering that promotion. If the number starts with a "9" then it will not double or triple. Many of the coupons I have found on www.coupons.com would print out and say at the top "DO NOT DOUBLE OR TRIPLE". Well, this really stinks for those great promotions that Harris Teeter offers but guess what?! If it starts with a "5" IT WILL!!! I was a little hesitant at first but I tried it last night thinking that I would take whatever it would take off and it actually did triple the value! Now, I'm not trying to get away with something naughty or be fraudulent at all. I gave the cashier the coupon, he scanned it, it tripled, I left happy. It's a win-win!

Late Night Grocery Shopping (Mis)Adventure

I love to grocery shop late at night. I got off work last night and headed to Harris Teeter. It was pouring rain so I ran from my car to the door with my beloved binder under my rain coat. I'll make the sacrifice of my hair getting wet and looking like a drowned rat but not willing to get my precious collection all soggy! I grabbed a few things in produce and down the aisles I went. I met a young mom on the condiments aisle that had a large stack of coupons in her hand and we talked for about 15 minutes about couponing strategies, places to get more coupons and how addicting this whole thing is. She had just ordered a bunch on coupon inserts off the internet and I can't for the life of me remember the name of the site. I'm going to search for it and post about it again if I find it. After my grocery shopping bonding time with my new coupon friend I went about my shopping. I reached for the worsteshire sauce that were lined up all neatly on the very top shelf and my rain coat sleeve got hooked on a bottle of something underneath it. Like a stack of dominoes those bottles fell with a crash! There I was all alone standing in a puddle of steak marinade! If I moved I tracked sauce to the clean spots on the floor so I just stood there until a VERY nice lady came to my rescue with a broom and some paper towels. I offered to mop it up and she insisted it was fine and cleaned up my great big mess. I walked away red in the face and tracking steak sauce. Someone walked by and said "man, that smell makes me want to grill out!" Geez!!! I removed my rain coat and took my time the rest of the time I was there.

My next misadventure was when I got to the check out line. There was only one guy working at this point because it was almost midnight. He called for help when he saw me coming! (Geez times a thousand). I asked him to do two check out orders because I went a little crazy and had more than 20 coupons, which is all Harris Teeter will allow. Well, i gave him my first batch of coupons before I was finished giving him the stuff and his system locked up. He had to void that order, take everything out of the bags and rescan everything! See, I had just told a friend earlier in the day that I had never had any issues at Harris Teeter so go figure!

All of that was completely worth it when I was time to pay. Here are the final figures....

Total before coupons and VIC = $234.83
Coupon and VIC savings = $178.88
Final total due = $55.95

I didn't take a picture of everything this time (my 7 year olf thinks I'm crazy for doing that anyway) but it was about 12:30am when I finally got home and I was ready to crash. Here's a little idea of what I got...
5 - 12 pack cans of coke products
6 - 2 liter Diet Rite (tyron's favorite)
3 - boxes Jello
2 - bags of Tortilla chips (for super bowl)
2 - boxes Triscuits
2 - boxes Wheat thins
4 - can evaporated milk
bananas
avocado
1 - gallon milk
Alot of yogurt
1 - 64oz. Juicy Juice
2 - frozen pizza
3 - jars Prego
1 - Ranch seasoning mix
2 - Jars Hot wing sauce
2 - Honey mustard dipping sauce
2 - Sweet Chili sauce
2 - worsteshire sauce
3 - tubes of toothpaste
1 - box pancake mix
1 - cookie dough mix
1 - Dish Liquid
2 - Snuggle Fabric Softener
2 - bags of rice (one white and one brown)
2 - 4 packs of quick rice
1 - Cocoa Puffs

Ok, I think that sums it up. I hear that they are going to be tripling again next week then they are going back to super doubles! Yay Harris Teeter!!

My beloved binder

When I first started couponing I had this accordian file thing that I would just keep my coupons intact as they came in the newspaper, sorted by date. I would just write the date on the front of the insert and file them, go on http://www.southernsavers.com/ and figure out what I would want that was an advertised deal and off to the store I would go. Well, I realized after doing that a few times that there were several unadvertised deals at Harris Teeter (and Lowes Food) that I wouldn't have a coupon for in my little stack but thought I had run across when browsing the insert. SOOOO, I decided to create a binder for my precious collection. I had a 3" binder already that was full of some old stuff. I went on http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/ and printed off her category dividers and got some baseball card holders. Now I can make my plan before I go and also have them organized beautifully in my binder as I stroll the aisles. When I see and unadvertised sale item all I have to do is flip to that section and CHA-CHING!! It's now my American Express...I never leave home without it.

Harris Teeter

Another exciting grocery week (February 2-8) at Harris Teeter in Morehead City, NC! They are tripling again on coupons up to .99! You can go on www.harristeeter.com and find their weekly deals to see if you have any match up coupons. I have decided it's easier for me to just take my great big binder full of coupons and walk the aisles. There are so many things on sale that aren't listed in the flyer or on the website. I'm looking forward to going this weekend to check out the unadvertised deals. Hope they are as good as the ones that are advertised!

My almost favorite

One of the things that I've had a hard time trying is using coupons and getting great deals in drug stores. We have the three main ones in Morehead...CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid. So I did get a pretty good deal on diapers last week at Walgreens. I also got 4 bags of Chex Mix for crazy cheap that day. The cashier gave me a little bit of lip about doing multiple transactions (I only wanted to do 2 for goodness sake!) but she did anyway. So I thought it's just not worth my trouble to go in there if they are going to be turds. Well, then I got the paper Sunday and there are some really good deals in the drug store ads so I stopped by CVS today to pick up some vitamins. Well, the vitamins were buy one, get one so that was cool but I didn't have a coupon for that brand. I walked around the store with my big coupon binder in my cart. They have this cool little machine where you can scan your store card and it'll pop out a store coupon. You get to scan your card once a day. In the past I have gotten B1G1 candy bar coupons and other little things like that but today the coupon I got was -$3 Physician's Formula which is what I use so I was super excited! I'm back to being on board with drug store deals...especially at CVS! Good deals and very nice customer service!

71% savings at Harris Teeter

Made a quick trip to Harris Teeter today to take advantage of their Triple coupon week. I had 45 short minutes to go all the way through. I didn't have a plan, just my notebook full of coupons. I started in the produce section and got some regular priced bananas and carrots. They had a little cart set up with reduced produce so I grabbed a bag of 7 bananas for .64! My other favorite steal-of-a-deal was the Yoplait yogurt for $2.50. I made my way all the way through the store in record time, used 20 coupons and spent $35.96! My original total was $122.90 which means a savings of $86.94!!! woo hoo!!!

Online Printable Coupons

People have been asking me where I get my coupons. I get tons out of the newspaper (New Bern Sun Journal) but I also print a lot from the internet. www.coupons.com is a great website that changes pretty often. Right now if you need Valentine's Day candy for your child's class or if you just love chocolate there are several good ones on coupons.com that you can print. Also, if you go to www.thekrazycouponlady.com there is a tab titled "print coupons". They are listed in alphebetical order there so you can search for what you are looking for. Some of them are store specific (she likes Target) so be careful you don't print a Target coupon if you are going to be shopping at Harris Teeter.