I have my theories about grocery shopping and coupons, but those posts are for another time. Kevin asked me to write a little about couponing in the theme of “Every Little Bit Counts.” Let me preface this by saying that I am not even close to being an extreme couponer. My philosophy is that saving money is only worthwhile if you don't have to spend the better part of your life on prep time. I spend about 20-30 minutes a week cutting and organizing my coupons. This organization allows me to spend about 10 minutes a week selecting which coupons I will use on that particular shopping trip. I also take my coupon box with me to the store just in case I notice something extra that I need or see that there is a sale that wasn't advertised. You never know but that you'll have a coupon for that item, and a rotten reality is realizing that you left that coupon at home.

I save anywhere from $2 to $20 using coupons in an average week. I generally use about 5 coupons per trip to the store. Coupons are great because some places have store coupons in addition to manufacturer coupons which can double your savings. But again, that is coupon training, and I'm just here to post about today's savings. Coupon 101 is for another day.

I generally do my weekly grocery shopping at Harris Teeter, a very nice grocery store that is locally owned and operated. Remind me to write a post about HT someday because they're fabulous. I also make a quick trip to Food Lion every now and then, and I like to shop at Target for some random items every few weeks. In fact, I plan to run by Target and Costco later today to grab a few items from each place.

I shop at Harris Teeter on Friday mornings because that is the best time for me to get the items I need. But that's another rabbit trail. This week is a great week for coupons because it is “Super Doubles” week at HT. HT regularly doubles any coupon you use that has a value of up to 99 cents. So if I am buying Windex, and I have a 75 cents off coupon for Windex, HT will double that $0.75, and I will save $1.50 on my Windex. Pretty spectacular program, if you ask me. “Super Doubles” is a special week where the store will double any coupon up to $2 in value. This is a great time to get select items for minimal cost, and most people take full advantage of Super Doubles week. It can be insane if you go at the wrong time because the extreme couponers are vicious broads & dudes.

Today was not a heavy shopping trip. I cooked a huge New Year's Day meal, and we have oodles of leftovers, so I was mostly stocking my pantry and picking up necessities. Here's what I bought and what I paid for each item:

Reynolds Parchment Paper: 3.99- coupon for $1 which doubled= $1.99
Gerber Baby Food: 2 @ .89 each- .14 off each store promotion=final cost for 2, $1.50
Rose Lime Juice: $3.79
Organic Baby Food: .99- .24 off store promotion= $0.75
Santitas Tortilla Chips:$2
Palmolive Dish Soap: 3.49- 1.49 off store promotion= $2
Pampers size 4 Diapers, 31 ct.: 11.39- 1.90 off store promotion-$2 coupon that doubled= $5.49
Domino Brown Sugar: $1.39
HT Cooking Spray: 2.89- .64 off store promotion= $2.25
HT All Purpose Cleaner with Bleach: 2.49- .62 off store promotion= $1.87
HT Pure Drinking Water, gallon: .99- .12 off store promotion= $0.87
Gillette Men's Clinical Deoderant: 8.99- $2 off store promotion= $6.99
Listerine Mouthwash, 1 Liter: 5.99- $2 off store promotion- $2 coupon that doubled= FREE
HT Latex Cleaning Gloves: $1.69
Crabcakes: $5 for 2 (on store special)
Bananas, 2.35 lbs.: $1.53
Strawberries, 1 lb.: 4.99- BOGO(buy one get one free, which at HT means you can buy 1 and get it for half-price)= $2.49
Sweet Onions, 1.52 lbs.: 2.26- store promotion= $1.96
Digiorno Pepperoni Pizza: 6.75- 1.75 store promotion- $2 coupon that doubled= $1
Frush Yogurt: 2 @ 1.50 each- .50 on 2 store promotion- $1 on 2 coupon that doubled= $0.50 for 2
International Delight Iced Mocha Mixed Coffee: 3.99- $1 coupon that doubled= $1.99

I had coupons for 2 items I was hoping to get that were out of stock (The crazy people got there at the butt-crack of dawn on Wednesday morning to use their 75 coupons each. This sometimes happens with popular items that are nearly or almost free.), so I missed out on 2 good deals there. They also had a buy-2-get-3-free (B2G3) deal on 12 pack cans of Pepsi products, but we did not need 60 cans of Pepsi this week, even though it's a great deal.

After taxes, the total on my bill, before coupons and discounts was $81.64. VIC (the HT store promotion card) discounts subtracted $15.29 from that, leaving $66.35. My coupons took $17.99 off that, so my final bill was $48.36. Not bad for less than an hour of coupon prep and less than an hour of grocery shopping.