Saturday Savings 12/12/09

No pictures or cute stories today, sorry. I just wanted to write a quick post about my newest fascination - smart shopping. I've recently come across a blog or two about smart shopping, and I've been amazed at how much money can be saved when you know how to go about it. My new favorite website is couponingtodisney.blogspot.com. The author - I call her the couponing mom - is using smart shopping as a way to pay for a future trip to Disney World. She's well on her way to paying for the trip entirely by using smart shopping to save money in her household budget. (She also does online surveys and the like to earn more cash and prizes which she uses toward her trip or other needs.)
I'm still trying to find my way with all the of the rules and whatnot, but we did have some fun this morning doing some shopping. I'll give you a summary below, then you need to log on to couponingtodisney and see what you find for free-or-cheap too.
Walmart #1 - $6 worth of products for $1.39. Among the free items: renu contact lens solution
Target - $6 worth of stuff for $2.21. Among the free items: two cans of organic green tea, Johnson and Johnson shampoo
Walmart #2 - $16 and change worth of products for $5 and change. Among the free items: Cole's stuffed breadsticks and Snuggle fabric softener sheets.
Whataburger - $13.50 worth of food for $3.39, thanks to the 12-days-of-whataburger promotion . . . we got 4 free breakfast sandwiches with the coupons we printed.
I found it quite exhilarating to get so much today and to spend so little for it. In several cases, the coupon we used was for more than the shelf price, so we got a little extra off of the rest of our purchase. For example, the Renu contact solution we bought at Walmart was $1.47. We used a $2.00 manufacturer's coupon, so we got the item for free plus $.57 saved from the rest of our bill.
I almost can't wait until the newspaper gets here tomorrow so I can work on finding more great deals.