Not quite extreme enough for TLC....

I have to tell you, TLC's show Extreme Couponing is one of my favorite shows.  It just amazes me how much money these people save.  I'm also amazed at how much and the type of stuff they can get for practically nothing.  

(However, don't get me started on the HUGE fourty-year stockpiles some of these people have....I mean, who needs 500 bottles of body wash and 1000 tubes of toothpaste?)

Anyway, just like about 50% of the people who watch the show, I've wanted to try my hand at couponing.  I bought a binder and got some trading card sleeves and went to printing out any and every coupon I could find.  I organized and reorganized each page until I sort-of have a useable, functional coupon binder.

The biggest problem I have is I never remember to take the binder into the store with me.  It's kind-of hard to save money if you leave the coupons in the car...right?  I'm also not willing to go to 10 different stores to find the best deals.  My shopping is focused on three stores... Wal-Mart, Winn Dixie, and Target.  I tried the Publix thing....it was too much work, too far away, and in the end, just too darn expensive.  Once they build the one nearer to us, I may try again.

Well, today we were out of everything, including cereal, snacks and meat.  I like to shop at Target when I can because they have really great store coupons that can be matched with manufacture coupons, but ours doesn't sell fresh meat or produce, so it was off to Winn-Dixie today.  They were having a lot of BYGO deals and 10 for $10 deals today.

I was really unorganized today while shopping (because I left my binder in my sister-in-law's car yesterday), but I did manage to save a TON!  I was so excited with my haul, I just had to take pictures....

Some of the things I got were: 4 packs of chicken breasts, two large bags of frozen chicken tenders, two large packs of pork chops, two roasts, 4 cans Pringles, 4 boxes of cereal, 6 cans of Campbell's soup,  6 boxes of pizza rolls, two huge bottles of catchup, 2 bottles of marinade, and 6 frozen pizzas....which, with a purchase of the 6, we also got a free Redbox rental, free liter of Hawaiian Punch, free box of bagel bites, free box of fudgecicles, and a free box of candy.  I also got fresh bread, fruit, produce, chips, popcorn, flavored rice, 10 packs of seasoning mix, eggs (the Eggland's Best were $.50 cheaper than the store brand), cheese, 2 large bags of frozen spicy sweet potato fries, cupcake mix, 2 packs of frozen edemame, 2 boxes of storage bags, pickles, chicken stock, tea, popcicles, dippin' dots, peanut butter crackers, and 2 packs of cookie dough.

Before tax, I ended up spending $192 for all of this!!  According to the receipt, I saved $118!!  This is approximately a 60% savings!  This is the best I've ever done!  And the absolute best thing, we actually eat every single thing I bought.  None of that lets-just-buy-this-because-I-have-a-coupon-syndrome going on.

It's definitely not extreme enough for TLC, but I think it's a pretty good start!