BJ’s Couponing Bliss!!

So, my husband got a wild hair the other day, and decided to join BJ’s®…again. Now, at first I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about this, being that we’re Sam’s Club® members, too. However, we went in the other day and started browsing around and OH MY COUPON GODDESS!!!! I was immediately drawn to the sheets of coupons just inside the front door. Coupons for BIG MONEY$$$ not the typical $.25 off 2!!! The first coupon I saw was for $8 off 4 Kraft® items!!! WHAAATTT?!?!? $8…for real!!! Hmmm, interesting! Then I saw $1.25 off grapes!!! It’s not very often you see a coupon for produce. And being a vegetarian, you can imagine how much produce I eat! So, yeah, I was UBER-EXCITED!!! OK, so there were 4 sheets of coupons ranging from food to toiletries to electronics to pet food and the least amount saved was $1.25!! AWESOME!!! So, we went to the Customer Service Desk to get our membership cards and they handed us a coupon booklet filled with EVEN MORE COUPONS!!!!! FOR REALL?!?!?! Oh and they told us that you can also use manufacturer’s coupons, too!!! I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!

So here’s the poop… the membership is $50 for a year and that get’s you 2 cards. They offer larger quantity packaging at discounts prices, similar to Sam’s Club® or Costco®. They also offer gas, travel and cars…yes…I said cars! Their coupon policy will allow BJ’s® Coupons and Manufacturers’ Coupons. AND… if it’s a bundle of items that can be sold individually, such as a three pack of toothpaste, you can use multiple manufacturers’ coupons. This is CRAZZYYY!!!! They also have printable coupons accessible through their website. I’m not fibbing here!!! THIS IS FOR REAL!!!!

My advice is to RUN to your nearest BJ’S® and enjoy the couponing BLISS!!!

 

 

Couponing Tip #1

Sunday is coupon day! One of my favorite days of the week! My advice to you…GET THE SUNDAY PAPER!!! Even if  you don’t read a single article… buy that paper! Got it? Good! OK… BUT… don’t clip the coupons. Yep, that’s right… don’t run, walk or even touch those scissors. Simply write the date on the front of each coupon booklet and put it in a folder of file box for future reference! It’s just that simply!

Are you confused? Well, think of it this way… you leisurely browse through the inserts, and clip the coupons that your think you’ll need, and toss out the rest. Then, where do you put them? Are they floating around your purse? Laying in a pile on your counter? Or do you categorize them into a coupon organizer with thousands of other coupons you hope to use one day? I know, I use to do the same thing. Then I realized that this was a colossal  waste of my time and energy. You see,  many of the coupon websites, such as couponmom.com and weusecoupons.com actually keep a database of coupons for easy reference. They list the date the coupon was released in the paper and which insert it was found in (Smart Source, Red Plum or P & G). By keeping your inserts intact you can easily find the coupons you need, in half the time! Don’t believe me? Give it a try!!! You’ll be glad you did!

 

Savings Meal Plan: March 14-20, 2011

We’ve scoured the Publix ad and cross referenced them with our ever-growing list of coupons, to come up with this week’s inexpensive dinner menus. Don’t like what you see? Get creative, by using the same sale ingredients in a recipe of your choice! Oh… and don’t forget to share those recipes with us in the comments section!

Here’s a key for our abbreviations…

• BOGO FREE – means buy one get one free. Publix FLA now requires that you get 2 to take advantage of the deal
• 2/27/11 SS – This is a coupon from the February 27, 2011 Smartsource Newspaper insert that comes in the Sunday Paper
• 1/23/11 RP – This is a coupon from the January 23, 2011 Red Plum Newspaper insert that comes in the Sunday Paper
• Printable Coupon – this is a coupon that can be printed at home by clicking on the link

Dinner

• Monday
  • Saucy Chicken, Vegetables and Pasta (Chicken Breasts Cutlets $3.99/lb)(Barilla Pasta BOGO FREE)
    
  • Broccoli (2 for $4)
• Tuesday
  • Build your own Nachos Night (Tostitos Tortilla Chips BOGO-$.55 coupon from 2/27/11 SS
    • Hamburger ($2.99/lb)
    • Refried Beans or Chili
    • Salsa
    • Cheese (Sargento 2/$4-$1.50 Printable Coupon)

• Wednesday
  • Marinated Portabella Mushroom Sandwich (Portabella Mushrooms $2.69/6oz)
  • Not a Mushroom fan? How about Hamburgers ($2.99/lb)
• St. Patrick’s Day Thursday 3/17/11
  • Slow Cooker Apple Brown Sugar Corned Beef and Vegetables (Corned Beef $2.99/lb)
  • Irish Potato Pancakes
  • Ramen Cabbage Salad ($.29/lb)

• Friday
  • Grilled Mahi with Lemon Sauce (Mahi $6.99 each, Lemon 3/$1.29, Hellman’s Mayonnaise $3.49 – $.75 coupon in Publix Yellow Ad)
    
  • Roasted Red Potatoes (3 lb bag) 2/$5
  • Steamed Broccoli (2 for $4)
• Saturday
  • Italian Style Rice and Vegetables Add Chicken for the meat lovers (Chicken Breast Cutlets $3.99/lb, V8 Juice 2/$5 – $.60/2 coupon in 2/6/11 SS, Mahatma Rice $2.39 – $.50 coupon in 1/23/11 RP or Minute Rice $1.89 – $.50 coupon in 1/23/11 RP,PictSweet Frozen Vegetables 2/$4 – $.75 coupon in 2/13/11 SS)
  • Salad (Publix Premium Salad Kits 2/$5, Marzetti Dressing BOGO FREE – $1 off coupon from 1/30/11 SS)

 

Sam’s Special Savings Alert

Sam’s is offering regular members the special eValues discounts March 9-13th only!!!! These discounts are usually only available to the Plus Members. For a list of deals go here!

Get there early…these deals won’t last long!!

 

Couponing or Hoarding… You Decide!

As I was shopping with my coupons last night… yes, on a Friday night, it’s kind of sad, huh?… I had a realization about this new hobby of mine. Drum roll please… get ready… ok, here goes… I think I enjoy the hunt more than the prize! And to make it even worse, I think the thrill of “getting the deal” is out-weighing any rational thought. This realization hit me square in the eyes yesterday in the middle of my local Super Target. I was frantically searching the aisles with my stack of coupons (that were all expiring at midnight), trying to get every last one of the items. I didn’t even care if I needed said item or not, I just wanted to hunt them down, throw it in my cart and check it off my list, as the cha-ching sound echoes in my head. So what if I don’t use Metamucil… I might someday, and when that someday comes, I may just need 20 of them!

This realization made me think differently about couponing. Is this hobby a precursor to hoarding? I know that most experienced couponers stock-up on items when they are on sale, but does one family really need 100 boxes of pasta a month? At some point, the “stocking up” turns into… dun, dun, dunnnn…  “hoarding”. Well, I guess you could just hop from one reality show “Extreme Couponing” to another “Hoarders” but that’s just not me! I want to save my family time and money, while enjoying the satisfaction of never paying retail again! There has got to be a happy medium… right?

The “slap in the face” I experienced last night reinforced why a blog, like this one, is necessary. Planning out meals and determining which prepared meals work for your family and which ones don’t, will save you time and money and because you’re only buying what you need for the week or two, you won’t be starring on “Hoarders” any time soon!

Stay tuned…I promise, our first couponing meal plan is coming soon! We are working out the kinks! We wouldn’t want to create any hoarding monsters, now would we?!?!

Kim

 

Introducing…Make A Game Of It… With Coupons

This is our newest blog all about having fun while saving $$$$! Doesn’t sound possible, I know…. but it TOTALLY IS!! Make a Game of It… With Coupons will post menus every Saturday for the upcoming week’s dinners using… you guessed it… coupons and sales. We will scour the sale fliers from the grocery stores and “stack” them with coupons to find the items with the best deals and then create a menu using those items.  Our goal is to see how cheaply we can feed our families, while not compromising on quality. Oh… and if we can help a few of you save $$$,  then that’s cool too!

In addition, we will be posting deals throughout the week that include free items and and tips and tricks we discover along the way!

Stay tuned… we  will be posting our first weekly menu, soon.

Your couponing friends!

Kim & Lisa