I've soooo gotten into couponing. It's scary.

I honestly have gotten so much stuff for so little money the last ...oh, 3 weeks or so...that my dh has to put together a set of shelving for me to house it on, because I have no where to put it upstairs.

It started with the Living Like No One Else forums (for Dave Ramsey followers - go to http://www.llnoe.com/ - it's amazing!), and the suggestion to try couponing to cut back on the grocery bill. I scoffed...we live in Land of No Doubles (LOND) and all the coupons I see for food is weird stuff that we don't eat anyway. Plus, who has the time for that?

But...it's been so much FUN! I know I won't be able to keep it up quite like this after school starts up again, but I've been cutting out coupons, buying multiple papers, and even buying off ebay (next time, I'll buy off http://www.couponclippers.com/ - much cheaper). I'll cut out any coupon that I think MIGHT possibly be useful. I had to change my mindset on it. Instead of asking myself, "Would we really use this?" I'll ask "If I got this free, or close to it, would I use it?". It's been amazing.

I've even started keeping a little savings journal. I write down what the shelf price is, what the sale is, and how much I paid out of pocket (OOP). This is just for my own (prideful) ideas - I like to see how much I've saved. In the last few weeks, I've spent about $80 OOP (the good thing is, with the summer school check and all the extra stuff I've been doing, we had some money I could put aside to play with this). BUT - the shelf value of all that stuff (mostly health & beauty aids) is well over $600. Really!

A sample of what I've gotten for FREE with these deals: 2 Satin Care shave gels, 2 tubes of Crest toothpaste, 1-12 pack of men's Gillette razors, 2 large Head & Shoulders shampoos, 1 large Olay "Quench", 2 Venus 3-packs disposable razors, 1 large Pantene conditioner, 3 Old Spice bath & shower gel, 9-20 packs of Always liners, 10 super packs of Duracell batteries, 2 Gillette after-shave gels, 14 Vive Pro conditioners, 4 Vive Pro super conditioner gel, 2 Vive Pro shampoo, 6 men's Adidas deoderant, and 4 women's Adidas deoderant.

And...that's just what I got for FREE! I also got some great deals on other things - Dawn dishsoap for $.50 a bottle, Hamburger Helper for $.19 each, Suavitel fabric softener for $.89 each (and I'll be getting 8 more at $.75 each once they restock...rainchecks are cool...), Ragu spaghetti sauce for $.42 each...you get the idea.

The trick is...get multiple coupons, scour the sales and match up the coupons. And it's so much fun!

If you're interested - start small. Try the forums at LLNOE. If you're a little braver, try the forums at http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ . They are simply amazing. They'll preview the ads, match them up with coupons, and tell you just where the hottest deals are. Gotta love it.

I even tried CVS...the mother of all confusing programs, but with great rewards if you play it right. I spent $8.50 on tea bags I would have bought anyway (dh is a HUGE iced tea drinker) and $3 on something I wouldn't have, but got $3 + $3 in "Extra Care Bucks", good on any purchase, same as cash. I need to go check out the ads for next week...