Let's talk coupons shall we

Today I went on a little coupon run to Publix. Now I know what yall are thinking PUBLIX!!!!! I can't afford to shop there but I'm telling you if you're a couponer Publix is the place to be. They are very coupon friendly and believe me most stores are not. They double your coupons up to .50 cents. They let you use competitor coupons ( Target and Star market at my store) and a manufacturer coupon on the same item. They have fliers when you walk in the door with Publix coupons in them that you can also pair with a manufacturer coupon. They have BOGO (buy one get one free) sales every week and if there out of stock on an item that is in their weekly ad they will give you a rain check and you have 30 days to buy your item at the sale price. It's a couponer's dream I tell you. So now that I am done floating Publix's boat, here is a tutorial on how I do my coupon runs.

First things first get those Sunday papers and cut out those coupons. I only cut out coupons that my family will use. Now don't confuse this with name brand things you used to not be able to afford, with coupons you can get the good stuff. If you think your family will use any of the things there are coupons for cut them out the items may not be on sale this week but they may be next week. I also get a lot of my coupons from Coupons.com I just print what I want and go on my merry way.

Now you can't be a real couponer without a binder or some way to keep up with your coupons. I got mine at Walmart fairly cheap.

I'm OCD with organization I mean it's a problem so I have mine separated into categories but you can do it however you like. (But it really needs to be organized wink wink) sorry I can't help myself.

After you have all your coupon's clipped and put into your binder it's time to see what's on sale for the week. The biggest tip for a successful couponing trip is to coupon only the item's that are on sale. Publix runs their sales from Wednesday through Tuesday in the Southeast region. The first thing I do is go to the Publix website and pull up their weekly ad. I go through writing down everything I see that my family could use and the price. If it's a BOGO the price listed in the ad is for both items. If you don't want to buy both items just divide the price by 2 you do not have to buy both items to get the BOGO price. After I have my list  made out I go to my binder to see if I have matching coupons for the items on sale. I do not buy if I don't have a coupon. You can use one manufacturer coupon on each item you purchase on the BOGO deal  as long as the coupon states one purchase per item and don't forget if you have a Publix or competitor coupon you can use that too. If you have a coupon that says off any 2 just use one coupon for the BOGO deal. Always pay close attention to the wording of you coupons. Here's a little coupon lingo for you, when a coupon says you can buy one item per purchase a purchase means one item that you bought. So you could use 5 coupons on 5 items (usually 5 is the store limit). If a coupons says you can buy one item per transaction this means you can only use one coupon for one item included in everything you bought. I know, I know its kinda crazy but the more you do it the easier it will get right couponing sista's.

Ok moving on, I write down everything I want to get, how many I want to get, the sale price and the coupon price in my little notebook. I get all my coupons that I'm going to use and check the expiration dates and match them up to my list and I'm ready to go.

Now you will notice that I put all of my weekly ad items that I want to get first, that way I know I can get a rain check if they are out of stock. Then I list some things that I want to get that are unadvertised deals that I can't get rain checks for. I follow I Heart Publix on Facebook and they are great about putting unadvertised deals on their site. I figure up my total without tax because you can't coupon tax so it doesn't count towards your total, Hey my couponing my rules (Hee Hee).

Here is a picture of my haul today I paid $17.33 before tax

No extreme couponing here no 15 buggies with 300 rolls of toilet paper just buying what's on sale and what my family will use. Sorry for the long post if you have any questions feel free to ask if I can help you I surely will.