Saved $104!

Saved $104 on Mondays shopping trip! Yay! This just helps remind myself why its worth the few hours a week I spend on this. I got my Dillons coupons in the mail last week and stacked them with ecoupons and the Sunday paper coupons for some super good deals! My free items included Pediasure toddler shakes (savings of $10! my fav deal of the week), Dove body wash and deodorant, Dole fruit parfaits, Del monte fruit cups, Razors (my 2nd fav deal) Axe showe gel and Lipton tea bags. The item I got for super cheap (most under $1) included: Red Baron pizza, Kraft Homestyle mac and cheese, Hamburger helper, muffins, Pace salsa, cream cheese, sour cream, Kraft shredded cheese, Gerber toddler meals yogart and snacks, lays potato chips, pasta, and frozen veggies. And then I got tons of items for about half off such as cat food, toddler formula, coke, Crackers, trash bags, toilet paper, pretzels, dish soap, and baby lotion... (way too much to list all!)
Dillons also had a great sale going on chicken breasts and ground turkey (no coupons though).
Of course I also had to get milk, eggs, and lots of produce without savings, but It still helps to know that I saved so much money on other stuff.
The trick for me is not to just buy a bunch of crap to save money. I only buy stuff I need or use. You can always frind great deals on freezer food or boxed meals but we usually dont eat this stuff. So I don't buy just because there is a coupon in the paper. This trip I did buy some that was a super good deal (paid about .50 per frozen pizza) because its perfect for my husband to take to work and keep there for meals if he didnt bring anything else.
Also moms: we know baby food is super expensive but there is ALWAYS coupons for this stuff! It took me 10 months to figure this out but once I did I saved a ton off our grocery bill. If youre shopping for babies or toddlers check for coupons...it is worth your time!

Grocery Game

A friend of mine was telling me about the Grocery Game: www.thegrocerygame.com
Has anyone tried this? They have a free 4 week trial after that it is $10. I signed up for the free trail today and will let you know if I think its worth the money. Basically this site maps out deals/coupons to save you time and get you the best price on groceries. If anyone has had experience with this website I would love for you to comment below on your thoughts.

Dillons Mastercard

OK so if you're like me the last thing you want is another credit card BUT the Dillons mastercard really is a great deal. I'm just sorry it took me so long to give in. First of all by having it you automatically get WAY more fuel points, and who couldn't use cheaper gas right now. But the best part is the FREE GROCERIES!!! They give you a $25.00 gift card just for signing up, plus another $25 (up to $75) for every perscription you fill. THATS $100 FREE RIGHT OFF THE BAT! Then every quarter they mail you Dillons gift cards based on how much you spent. So far we have gotten between $40-$80 each quarter. And by having that card you get tons of "extras" coupons. Most are a really good deal and are considered store coupons so you can combine with your other coupons.
Wow... I sound like an advertisement but I swear they didn't pay me!

Ecoupons

Ecoupons are coupons that are loaded onto your Dillons Plus card and automatically applied at checkout. There are several site that offer these but these are the 3 I use the most:
http://www.softcoin.com/Sites/Kroger_ECoupons/Page/HomePage/Retailer/Dillons
www.Upromise.com
www.shortcuts.com
You will have to set up an account and register your Dillons card the first time (this takes a few min), but then it is much quicker
If anyone knows of any other good sites PLEASE SHARE in comments below :)

How it works

So if you want to get free stuff you pretty much have to combine ecoupons and paper coupons. I've found that hands down Dillons is the cheapest place to do this. They will let you use a ecoupon, store coupon AND paper coupon per item AND will double coupons EVERYDAY up to a dollar!
Ecoupons you can get from various sites (more on these sites later) and load them to your Dillons plus card. When they scan your card at check-out it automatically applies the coupons for you.
Paper coupons you can get from a variety of places; websites (I like http://www.coupons.com/ the best) Sunday news paper and then you can also sign up for them through different companies websites. Procter and Gamble is a great one to register with because not only do they mail and email you coupons they also tell you when they will have coupons in your local paper AND send you free samples. They represent brands like Tide, Glade, Dawn, Crest, Olay, Gillet, Pantene and like a millon others.
And then there are store coupons, these are probably the hardest to get. You can sometimes print them from Dillons website, but usually you have to get them in the mail or when they print out with your receipt (Target offers these too).
Here is an example of my shopping trip from last week...some items were not only FREE but I also got money off something else:
Loaded Ecoupon for $4 off Vicks Sinex, had Paper coupon for $4 off Vicks Sinex (Dillons had this on sale for $6) Had Paper coupon for Free Kleenex with Vicks perchase= FREE VICKS, FREE KLEENEX PLUS $2.00 the rest of my bill!
Another example:
Loaded ecoupon for $2 off olay face wash and $1 off olay body wash. Had paper coupon for $2 off olay face wash (dillons had the large size on sale for $5.99), had paper coupon for buy Olay face product get Olay body wash free= .99 for Olay face soap and body wash
I also used similar coupons for Dove, Gillet and Old Spice. Most of which ended up being free or under $1 for 2 items
This can work for Anything, not just beauty items. I also got Free bacon, Lunch meat, Super cheap garlic bread, super cheap pasta (think I paid .20 a box/bag) and sauce and Coke for almost half off (soda is a hard one to find good deals) These were all name brands too, not store brands.
The key is to use both an ecoupon and paper coupon to maximize your discount and shop the sales! Dillons has their weekly ad online so you can make your list ahead of time.
My goal is to post the super great deals on hear every week.

Coupon Mommy

So after hearing of my new hobby many of you have contacted me wanting help couponing. I thought it may be best to create a blog with my "deal findings" that way we can all help eachother to save money! If you have found a great deal please share! I will try to keep up with this every week and post what cheap/free/awesome deals I have found.
Usually I do my grocery shopping at Dillons and use a combination of ecoupons, manufacturer coupons and store coupons to gets lots of stuff free or very cheap. I'll post more later on how to find these coupons.