"I am Kelly Oliver and I am 24 years old. My mom is a Coupon Queen, and I’m proud to say I’m a second generation couponer! I grew up only shopping with coupons, so it is the only way I know to shop. When I save money with coupons, I put that amount in a separate savings account. Then I use the money I save each year from coupons to pay for vacations for my husband and myself. I recently booked a cruise to the Bahamas and needed to replenish my coupon account. Harris Teeter was having Double $1 coupons and I figured this was the perfect opportunity to beef up my coupon savings account. So off I went to Harris Teeter for 5 trips this week! I saved $328.88, and only spent $111.50 - that’s a 75% savings! I was able to get all kinds of stuff from my coupons - everything from meat and cleaners to cereals and snacks. There are a few things not pictured – we had either eaten them or I forgot to grab them out of the freezer. It was a great couponing week and now I already have enough money in my coupon savings account to pay for one person’s cruise! That’s me in the picture with all my loot… you can even see my dog eyeing the sausage!"
Kelly Oliver

"As a teacher, I'm always watching for cheap or free school supplies to add to my classroom for those who need supplies.  This year we hit the jackpot!  I purchased all of these supplies for 16 cents!  Menards had their scissors and pencil eraser toppers on sale with a free rebate and I had coupons for the scissors giving me overage on the other supplies.  The scotch tape all came from Target which had it on sale for $1 a roll and I had $1 coupons.  The glue sticks were 40 cents a package and I used a $1 off coupon giving me overage for the tissues.  The rulers and crayons were the only things we "bought" and they were on sale for 1 cent a piece at Office Max! The total haul was 8 rulers, 11 pairs of scissors, 10 packages of 50 pencil topper erasers, 26 Scotch tapes, 30 glue sticks, 10 pencil boxes, 2 boxes of Nexcare bandages, 8 boxes crayons, 1 box of paper clips, 2 sharpies, 1 sticky backed wall hook, 4 boxes of tissues!" Karen Carlton 
 

"Went to Walgreens last Saturday for a few last minute school supplies for my 6 year old grandson. I was ecstatic when I got home and I know a lot of ya'll do far better than I did but I am really pleased at what I got. I haven’t been shopping like this in several years. The picture just shows some of the things as I bought; didn’t decide to send this in until today and some of the stuff I bought is already gone. I printed off 4 of the $3.00 off 2 expo dry erase markers; they were on sale for $3.00 per 6 pk so I got 8 pks of 6. I used the $3.00 off per pk with the Walgreens in store coupon. I got a tube of Fixodent (for hubby) for $3.99 (just $1.00 off), I also got 4 candy bars at 49 cents each (had to use as fillers). I got 1 planner for school on clearance regular on sale for $5 something but on the mark down list to a $1.00. (tried to charge me $2.49 the sticker price marked on it but was sitting in a stack of them on the $1.00 shelf. Got 4 ‘Splash’ poly folders with brads rang up $2.43 but on sale for $1.49, had to get price adjustments. Also, got 4 Penway folders rang up $1.49 but on sale for $.49, had to get a price adjustment, So all in all I had a total (had to make multiple transactions) of $110.79, used the coupons And the sale prices and ended up paying a total of $18.05. I saved $92.74 which was an 83.70% savings. I’m so proud of all that I got for the price. I not watched each transaction closely I would not have been successful getting the sale prices and the expo coupon online and in the store coupon was a tremendous help. This is my grandson as he was so proud to get 8 packs of dry erase markers and they are the washable ones too." Debbie S, TN

"The M&M/Mars company recently had a promotion on specially marked packages of M&Ms.  There were promotion codes inside the packages to be entered online.  I had a good time with this!  Walgreens had a deal on M&Ms for 49c per bag.  I did go back a few times during the week to complete my deal.  This is what I ended up with:  using $1.25 off 3 coupons, brought my out of pocket totals really low.  Here's what I did:  17 bags @ 49c each = $8.33 + .68 tax = $9.01.  Less 5, $1.25/3 coupons and 1, $0.75/2 coupon brought my out of pocket to $2.01.  Not bad in itself...here's the great part.
From the 17 bags, I entered the codes and this is what I got:  2 non wins, 14 -- $3 off movie/concession ($42) and 1 Free movie ticket ($12).  $54 worth of movies and concessions for only $2.01 investment!  We usually never buy anything at the concession stand because it's so expensive, now I can treat my kids!  The only thing left to decide, what movie should we see? Here's Celina with the stash of goodies!"
Maria Sciuto
 

"177 items for $126.00. My girls, Jordan and Kylie, on right, are still all smiles even after a long Kroger and Publix trip as they show off their big haul of snacks and stuff from Advil to shave gel and everything in between! The sign says Kroger $439.71 for $126.80, 117 items." Sherri Johnson

"We had an opportunity the other day to save money shopping at Fred Meyer on Senior Advantage Day.  The first Tuesday of every month anyone who is fifty five years or older gets ten percent off all Fred Meyer products and some others also.  I am not sure of all the items that you can save on yet but am learning.  My coupon friend, Mary, had told me about this a while back but it seems we were never at this store on that day.  My husband, George, is pictured with the items we saved money on; it wasn’t a lot of money but it was all products that we purchase regularly and some I even used manufactures coupons with also.  Now that we are retired George is always a big help at the store and looks for deals himself. This pumped me up and I was excited the rest of the day after this stop.  I love learning new ways to save money!" Kathleen Mincks

"I was at Dollar General and spotted some coupons for $3 off Kelloggs products so I grabbed ---
 30 boxes of Kelloggs cereal that was on sale for $2 a box.  30x$2=$60 used 10 ($3off 3 boxes)= $30 I used $15 gift card from Dollar Generals Rhythm and Race Promotion. $30 - $15 gift card = $15 plus $2.48 tax. Then I sent off for $30 in gas cards. I made $13.52 profit and got 30 boxes of cereal free. My cat was the only one that would pose for a picture." JoAnn L.

"Sunday, July 31st was the last day of the Cottonelle RR printing at Walgreens and it was the first day of the Walgreens August Coupon Book that had a $1.00 off Cottonelle Coupon.  Since this is the toilet paper we prefer, I had ordered coupons earlier and was ready for the sale.  I am also lucky enough to get an employees discount, so my orders looked like this $ 4.25 + $ 4.25= $ 8.50 - 2.00 Walgreen coupon = $ 6.50 - $ 0.75 mc = $ 5.75 - $ 0.75 mc = $5.00, then I received a $ 3.50 RR each time.  I did a total of 11 deals, for a total of 22 - 12 roll packs.  I did this at six different stores, not wiping out any of them.  That's my granddaughter Kaitlyn in the photo.  After we built forts and played with them awhile, I got her to sit for this photo." Ann Piotrowski, Chicago, IL
 

"I have two grown children – my daughter is 31 and my son is 27.  For this past school my son has been studying in London to get his master’s in Economics and last year my daughter was married.  Anyway he came for a two week break and one afternoon we went out shopping together.  One of our stops was to Modell’s sporting store.  A few months ago Dick’s sporting store opened around here and to combat their sales Modell’s had a give away of a twenty-five dollar gift card to the first 50 shoppers.  Of course I ran there to get it and then forgot about it.  I was lucky enough to find it before we went to the store.  Modell’s has a promotion where every time you spend a certain amount, you get a twenty dollar gift certificate and I knew I was close to that amount.  So we picked out all of our stuff at Modell’s and went to the register.  First I asked the cashier if she could tell me how close I was to receiving the twenty dollar credit if I gave her my phone number.  She said yes and told me that I was very close.  So I asked if I could pay separately and then use the credit immediately.  She said yes, I did, and all of a sudden my daughter said: “Are you strong enough to be my mother’s cashier?” and she told me there is a Sheryl Crow song entitled: ‘Are you strong enough to be my man?’ and that I reminded her of that song. Here is a picture of the two of them with a bag of sneakers that we donated after he bought the new pairs." Robin Cohen

"This is Josie surrounded by her free pet food. First, there is Spot Stew free from halopets.com Each can is usually $1.99 per can. I found it at Petco and Pet Supplies Plus. Also Purina Pro Plan Roasted Slices are usually $3.99. On sale at Petsmart for $2.50 with card. I used coupons from the Sunday paper and received 40 free packages. I paid tax only. I even got a $3 survey coupon back. Great deal. I did not buy them all at once because I did not want to clear the shelves. My rescue puppy, Josie, highly recommends both products." Lisa Covarru
 

May/June Cover Contest Winner - Front Cover

May/June Cover Contest Winner - Back Cover

"Just when our veggie cupboard was literally bare, my fiance stumbled upon an excellent deal. He ran into Food Lion one evening for a few cans of vegetables. To my surprise he returned to the car with bags full! He had just bought 80 cans of store brand vegetables at 50 cents a piece and received back a $10 catalina for his next purchase. Come to find out with every 40 Food Lion brand items you bought, you received back a $10 catalina for your next purchase. Had he known that he would have only bought 40. Oh well, we now knew! We made 7 trips to Food Lion that week, each time using the $10 catalina and then receiving a new one. The tuna fish was also 50 cents a can, so at the end of the week we had 24 cans of tuna and 296 cans of vegetables. Our out of pocket was $40 for the first trip and then $10 each trip after that for a grand total of $100 and we still had one more $10 catalina to use. Needless to say, we are set for veggies and tuna fish for quite awhile. Pictured in our "castle" is our son Ethan and our daughter Dani.” – Sherry Logsdon, PA

May/June Cover Contest Winner - Inside Front Cover

9 Transactions and a $50+ Profit at CVS!

"Here is my haul from CVS today – I did 9 transactions!  I got:

1 package of Charmin
5 boxes of Clairol
4 Bottles of Crest Mouthwash
5 bottles of Dawn Dishwashing liquid
1 Gillette Fusion Razor
2 Boxes of Kashi Granola Bars
14 Bottles of Nature Made Vitamins
4 Oral-B Crossaction Power Toothbrushes
4 Lipsticks from Physician’s Formula
2 bottles of Revitalens multi-purpose solution 4 oz
2 bottles of Softsoap body wash
4 bottles of Tide

Most of this stuff I will keep for myself, I will give some of it to family members – I help buy vitamins for my brother and my parents – and then the rest I will sell in my garage sale.  And before I put it away in my stockpile, I price everything.  That way when it is garage sale time, I simply pull it all out and set it up – no pricing necessary.
Total of Products before coupons: $282.37
Total amount of manufacturer’s coupons: $106
Total amount of CVS coupons: $146.93
Total amount of ExtraCare Bucks rec’d: $81.14
Total amount of ExtraCare Bucks used: $29.44
Total Profit - $51.70"

Jenny Dean