I’m A Thrifty Gal

I have always been a person who loved Yard Sales & Thrift Shops- which comes in handy when that is what my grandma and mom have always been into- it works out really well 🙂 I just thought that everyone was into that sort of thing! I mean what is not to love? Half of the fun is the luck of the day you know?Though those days that you don’t find even one thing – those do really suck, but then you counter them with those days where you find a ton, or at least something and it is all good!

I have always liked that in getting the majority of my things at the thrift shops and yard sales, I tend to have things that everyone else might not have, and it is always fun when someone asks you where you got it and you say “thrift shop,or yard sale you know? I mean sure, a lot of the awesome stuff I get is brand name but sometimes you end up with something that is an extra special treasure 🙂 Even my wedding dress came from the thrift shop for $17 before I even met David so there you go!

Then Coupons Came Along:

This love of saving money has evolved in many ways over the years- and one of the biggest things that I try to do now is of course going couponing with my mom-and sometimes I try to do it myself but I will generally consult my mom to make sure I get the details right, and see if I am on the right path and everything! She tends to have better luck with it than I do- her mind just tends to work that way and min doesn’t quite so much- though i’m beginning to do fairly well and catch on a little bit more than I did at one point. One thing with me is i’m honestly not that patient AT ALL and I tend to get really nervous!

I have had more experiences that were good with couponing, but I have also had bad ones- I had one in town when we were living there that the manager at the store was just so MEH about it- and my mom had done the EXACT same transaction. I ended up telling him I would just take back my coupons and let her do it/try later /forget it and he was like OH OK just this once. I mean some people are really bad about them, and act really inconvienced or like the money that you are saving is coming out of their pocket or something!  I mean every rare moon I might pick up the wrong brand or wrong size but 99% of the time things work out you know? but those bad experiences just leave a bad taste in your mouth!

One of the funnest/most nerve racking things about couponing is when the total gets really up there and you are like WHOA I do not have that much money and then they scan the store card and start taking off your coupons and it gets down to reasonable /what you can afford 🙂

Ever since my mom and I started Couponing at Publix we pretty much do like a spreadsheet by hand and list out the price and how many, how much it is before coupon and after and whatnot. It isn’t very easy for me just quite yet- we just got publix back in like March but i’m doing a bit better. My mom does a lot of deals there where we get a $50 gift card and then $50 of groceries (before tax) and we end up just paying for the gift card by the time she’s through so that is pretty cool.

Coupon Policies

One of the best things you can do is to know the coupon policies of your store. Have them pulled up on your phone/printed out and that way if something is going wrong you have the information right there with you.  For stores like Target (which I haven’t done a lot of couponing at actually) you can find their coupon policy details here.

One store that I have tried to coupon at that I don’t have a lot of luck with is Walmart. They change their policy A lot- and it has gotten pretty strict- and I just don’t have a lot of luck there– you can find out more about walmarts coupon policy and see if it is something that you want to explore. For my mom and myself, we tend to do better at Publix & CVS and sometimes Harris Teeter – but that is our preference and it just tends to be where the employees are more receptive to things for us. In the past walgreens and bilo were good for us (we don’t really have bilo around anymore though)

There are lots of apps out there that you can use as well when it comes to receipts and rebates. One of my favorites is Ibotta and last summer in a month I had saved $100- then I got out of the habit of using it but I’m trying to get back into it! Just be sure on Ibotta that the deal is still active while you are in the store- sometimes they get pulled.

Be sure to check and make sure you have the right item/variety/size and that you have the correct amount (sometimes you can redeem multiple but sometimes you have to have 2 items) Oh- and sometimes if you have used a coupon you can’t redeem the deal- you just have to be careful!

Where to get coupons & find deals

One of the questions that I hear the most of all is “where do you get your coupons” My mom gets the Sunday paper (about 4 a week) Then a few people save them for her as well. Some weeks you get more than others. You can also find a lot of coupons on coupons.com – that is where the bulk of ours comes

Then as far as finding deals- A lot of times we come up with them on our own but we also find them on various coupon blogs, youtube videos and even facebook pages and groups. I promise if you just start looking up coupon match ups, etc and you’ll start coming up with information.

Summing it up:

I just say look for sales, have your coupon policy handy and plan your trips out in advance.  If you get an employee that just isn’t helpful or complying with the coupon policy- get a manager and if you still don’t have any luck you can always contact corporate- my mom has actually had to get them to go back and pull the register tape before and go through everything individually when she was about $20 off one time- but guess what she was right and they gave her money!

Also, check out apps like Ibotta and sometimes you will save even more. Oh- and CVS is always fun if you can find those deals that not only you used coupons , saved a ton of moneys and then you get back extra buck rewards and/or a gift card back (that is kind of new that they are giving them back as gift cards, but kind of nice because they don’t expire like the extra bucks.