Less than two months since she started reading Pocket Your Dollars, Michelle is saving 80% on her groceries! Until late July she had been a typical casual coupon clipper. Clip, file and forget. But, holy cow has that changed in no time flat.
“It is so easy to save money when you put your mind to it,” Michelle said. In fact, without much effort she kept $63 in her pocket today with what she saved on everything pictured below. Listen up to learn how she paid $16 for all this, using Pocket Your Dollar’s Target shopping list as a basis.
In her first transaction Michelle bought:
5 Kashi Cereals. Used 1 $2/1 coupon included with a sample she requested here and 4 $1.50/1 from Vocalpoint mailer, plus got a $5 Target gift card back for buying 5.
2 Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice. Used $1/2 manufacturer-issued coupon and stacked it with a Target-issued $1/2 both from the 9/13 Red Plum insert.
1 Soft Soap Ensemble Pump & 1 Soft Soap Ensemble Refill. Used “$3 off refill, when you buy base” manufacturer-issued coupon from 8/20 Smart Source insert and stacked with a $3.50 off Target-issued coupon from 9/13 Smart Source #1 insert.
Transaction #1 Total: $11.88 and received a $5 gift card
She bought the following items in her second transaction:
5 Pop Tarts. She used 5 $1/1 manufacturer-issued coupons from 9/13 Red Plum #2 insert and stacked those with 5 $1/1 Target-issued coupons. (Carrie here: My Target store enforces the “limit one per transaction” wording on the Target-issued coupons.)
3 Soft Soap Ensemble Pump & 3 Soft Soap Ensemble Refill. Used 3 “$3 off refill, when you buy base” manufacturer-issued coupon from 8/20 Smart Source insert and stacked with 3 $3.50 off Target-issued coupon from 9/13 Smart Source #1 insert.
8 Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice. Used 4 $1/2 manufacturer-issued coupon and stacked it with a 4 Target-issued $1/2 both from the 9/13 Red Plum insert.
2 Market Pantry Cheese Stick. Used $1/2 Target printable cheese coupon to get both free.
Sub-total: $8.89, but paid with $5 gift card from first transaction
Transaction #2 Total: $3.89
Her words of encouragement to Pocket Your Dollars newcomers are, “It does get easier once you have stocked you cupboards and only shop for the items that coincide with a sale.”
Your turn:If you have a shopping success story to share, please email me the details and a photo to carrie @ pocketyourdollars.com and you may be featured on Pocket Your Dollars.
Just FYI, the Target q’s from inserts don’t have the one per trans restriction, and have never beeped for me. I love it when we get those in the paper!
I wish I could get TO the “stocked cupboards” phase…*sigh*
Correction: $3 off refill, when you buy base” manufacturer-issued coupon from 8/20 Smartsource insert – it is in the 8/30 Smartsource insert.
Thanks for the tip.
You’ll get to the stockpiled phase Jamie. I have been couponing since October (or Nov, I forget). It is just my hubby and me and well, he is a picky eater so we stockpiled up on him quite quickly. I eat pretty much anything. Before we knew it, we found that we just didn’t need to buy much anymore. We still seem to spend close to our budget but we have weird transactions – kinda like the one that Michelle had.
Just this week at Cub we bought 4 boxes of Rice Krispies, about $5 worth of fruit, and 2 cans of Spegghetos. Was about $8 after coupons. Used $1 off coupons for the Rice Krispies – priced at $1.88 each. Then used 2 coupons for $2 off fresh fruit when you buy 2 Kelloggs cereals. And then the Spegghetios just because they were $1 each. Not bad. Looks like we live off of cereal and fruit. But, we are well stocked in everything else so this was a good deal for us!
Another great deal I found last night at Rainbow…
T. Marzetti’s Caramel Apple Dip $3.99 is BOGO free. I picked up 2 (because my kids just love apples dipped in caramel). I noticed a pad of coupons sitting on top of the cardboard display in the produce section. The coupon said if you buy 2 – T. Marzetti’s Caramel Apple Dip you get $2 off a bag of apples. Next to the display, Rainbow has bags of Paula Red apples for $3.99/3lb bag (they taste awesome) on their BOGO free sale too. I picked up 2 caramel dips and 6 lbs of apples for $6.00. I thought that was a great deal. I love coupons for fresh fruit.
Does anyone know how to receive the Target q’s in the mail, baby or otherwise? Several of my mom-friends and I see some people here receive them in the mail, but I never do. We registered with them when we had our first baby even!
I’ve asked them at the store level, but never receive a response worth a darn!
Please advise! Thanks!
Went to target today with Target coupons and regular coupons the checkout lady said that it is only one per transaction per item, I had just read the Target coupon policy before I left so I knew she was wrong. Went to customer service after and they did give me the coupons off but knew nothing about the coupon policy. Next time I will take the advise and bring the coupon policy with me. It was a big hassle!!
I’ve called customer service on this, too – getting their coupons by mail, and they said it’s random, no way to request them at all. No Fair!!