Why not try it

My one sister has been couponing for a little less than a year now and has saved thousands of dollars since she started. She has been trying to get me on the coupon wagon since mainly what she is saving on are baby items. She sent me the link to her favorite coupon blog and even found a similar one that is written by someone in Dallas. I had filed them away in my email and said once J was born and we were settled I'd look into it. So one day in January I looked at the blogs and decided to get a Sunday paper to see what the coupons were about. Then I realized that the Sunday paper in Dallas cost almost $3, where she is still paying less than $2 for her paper in Jax! Before I go spending $3 on a paper every week I wanted to make sure that is was really worth it. 

So when we were in Jacksonville last month she taught me how she does it. I accompanied her on her CVS shop for the week and then we went to Publix to get more formula for J (since she said it was going to be a good deal). I was overwhelmed with all her scanning (of the blogs and other websites), clipping (of coupons both e and in print), flipping (through ads looking at deals)  and organizing (her buy lists and then clipping the coupons to them). Just watching her get ready to shop was making me crazy! Then we got to CVS, she shopped the store with her little shopping cart and then when she got to the register she whipped out her list (broken into three different transactions) confusing me even more! I had the total deer in the headlights look on my face. It was an OVERWHELMING experience to say the least. Then she drug me to Publix to buy J formula and that is where I had the OK, maybe I can do this feeling when I saw how much I had just saved.

When we got back to Dallas I had a week left of my maternity leave and decided to take a small tackle at couponing. I researched the two blogs, printed e-coupons and ended up running across a site where I found out how I could get the Sunday coupons FREE each week without having to spend $3 on a paper. Thank you Dallas Morning news for having the Briefing, we now get it Wednesday through Saturday at the house. And when I texted my sister two Saturday's ago to tell her I had the coupons and got them FREE I think she was a little jealous :)

So I clipped, scanned, flipped and organized last week for the first time. It was overwhelming but by Friday night I was pumped for my shopping trips on Saturday and Sunday. I was even able to tell my sister about the diaper deal at CVS before she knew about it! I found myself doing just as she does, making my store/transaction lists and paper clipping the coupons to them!

Sure I had to go to four different stores to take advantage of the deals (and I was the only one in the CVS on Sunday morning at 8am) but in the end I would say it was worth the gas (even though they are all pretty close to the house) and my time. We might just have a new game between the sisters, who can save more!

Being the older sister I am used to being the teacher, but I have to say for once being the student was kind of fun.

So what all did I get? Here is the breakdown by the numbers:

• 424 diapers
• 312 diaper wipes
• 111 ounces of formula
• 29.2 ounces of conditioner
• 60 cans of Diet Coke
• 96 loads of All
• 625 Qtips
• 28 ounces of baby healing ointment (butt paste)
• 30 ounces of baby wash
• 2 packs of gum
• 1 anniversary card

Spent - $200.11
SAVED - $186.29