GREAT Deals at K-Mart!!!

O.k......Here's the deal...

I've taken up clipping coupons......something I have done periodically over the last few years in an "Effort" to save some money. I've always clipped for about a month or so, become aggravated about how I'm not really saving anything since I had NO CLUE as to what I was doing....and then would let my coupons go to waste ~ along with the $ for the papers!!! (Mark REALLY loved that part of it all!).

So.......much to his joy, I recently decided that I would take this up once again...being a 1 paycheck family leaves a lot to be desired in the budget for groceries and such, so I figured that I would once again try to make this work!!

I decided to peruse the blogosphere to find some inspirational people who get good deals every day and try to mimic what they do to get our own good deals!!! I found several Blogs (some are listed in my side bar) who specialize in certain stores in our area and who post and list all of the "deals" pretty much every week! I started to study what they were doing, and found that I was in the Midst of a Harris Teeter Triple Coupon event!!! I discussed this with a friend of mine and together, we attacked HT! Coupons in hand and Children not in tow, we plodded through HT and eyeballed every deal we had on our Master List! (Blogs will list deals for items that are FREE or just under a dollar!) If you stick to your Freebies and stuff under a dollar then you can really clean up! The trick is to get as many things for free that you have coupons for! That way, you can stock up on staples like soap, toothpaste, shampoo, razors, ect. for FREE!! Things that you would be using anyway......but due to the deals, you won't have to pay full price for them again any time soon!!!

I didn't take pictures of my HT deals, but I got quite a few things for small change!!! (HT is doing another Super Doubles Event Starting 8/26-9/1!!!)

Just a few days after doing the HT thing, I saw where K-Mart was doing a Doubles Event up to $2.00! Our local store doesn't participate in those deals, though, unless you can bring in a flyer from a store that IS participating. I called the Boone K-Mart, found out that I could bring in a copy of the Johnson City Flyer from my computer, and proceeed to make another Master Shopping List for my next "Deal" adventure!!! Below is what I purchased! My total before taking off the coupons was $77.05. I walked out of the store only paying $5.27!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoooo Hoooooo!!!!! I was hooked!!! MARK looked at me and said "Why haven't you been doing this all along???" (I wanted to smack him!! :o) )

So......I loaded up again, and off I went a second time into the BEAUTIFUL K-Mart!!! THIS time, My total before Coupons was $102.68! I left only paying $5.40!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it????? That's what I thought before going, but I'm a real believer in coupons now!!! This is the thing.......if you want to do this, then you need to start getting the newspapers that have the coupons in them........our local paper is starting to carry the Smart Source coupons on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We have to get a Charlotte or Winston-Salem or Ashville paper on Sundays to get the other coupons. Johnson City puts theirs out on Wednesdays. Elizabethton puts theirs out on Sundays.

You've got to decide if you want to clip every coupon (I do this because I want to SEE everything in their categories) and take the time to do this when you get your coupons. If you don't do it then, then they will back up on you and you'll give up! You need to get several small (canceled check) file organizers OR....I just updated mine last night.......a binder notebook and several packs of Baseball Playing card sheet protectors! The ones with 9-12 holders in them so you can put the individual coupons in there to see easier!!

You also need to get online and find several sources to get "Master Lists" for the stores that you normally shop at. You can do this by typing in "Haris Teeter(whatever store you want to find out about), coupons, Blog" into your Google search bar.......It might even be good to list the month or date that you're looking for so you'll get current deals!

These blogs will also (very often) give links to online coupons that you can print right then and there in order to get the GREAT deals that are available currently!!!

It does take a bit of time at first to get used to everything, but once you know your way around the coupons, and the sites, and the stores and their coupon promotions, it'll get easier and take MUCH less time!!! :o)

If I know that I can get all of our non-perishables for free or for NEXT to free and that we won't have to pay full price again for a while (hopefully), then it's worth the x-tra time to get it all organized!!! :o)

I'm excited!!! K-Mart will be doing another Doubles up to $2.00 starting on 8/30 or 8/31! I'm getting ready for that one again! We'll never have to buy a lot of things again if I can keep this up! ((I'm not bragging.....I'm just really excited that I was able to figure this out!!! I'm proud of me!!!!!))

So............all you inspired people out there, go out and GET YOUR GREAT DEALS TOOO!!!!!