Crazy Coupon Lady

Now that I have a Roku, Netflix and Hulu I've found myself watching all the crazy shows everyone talks about that I've never seen. For one year in my life I had cable and that was while I was in college. Other than that I have lived without it and most people would suggest that I've lived a sheltered life. 

To get to the point of this post, the first show I watched after my Roku arrived was "Extreme Couponing" from TLC. I had to have gone through the entire first season in a matter of 2 or 3 days. I had considered getting into coupons but after watching this show I was inspired. I googled all sorts of tips and hints and started collecting. 

My main source of coupons is at my job. I work the front desk at a hotel and I work Sundays pretty regularly. We've been a little slower than usual so I'll grab as many coupon inserts as I can get my hands on at the end of my shift. Last week I walked out with 6 of each insert. While my mom was here with Lily and I she helped me clip them all, sort and organize them. 

I've done a few trips since I started couponing but I have to say I'm getting better and better at it. 

In a major city like Chicago it isn't as easy as small towns. Finding stores that double coupons is close to impossible and frankly that's how you really get stuff for free. I don't do too bad though and today I made out in the diaper department. 

Here's the breakdown. All jumbo packs of diapers (a mix between Huggies & Pampers) were on sale at the usual places. They were listed as $8.99 at Target and if you bought 2 you would get a $5 gift card to use on your next purchase. Cool. Target it is. 

Next is to line up my coupons and figure out how many to get and what my approach would be. This is where it's good to clip as many multiples as you can that way you can get the same deal over and over. "Stacking" is also where it's at. Most stores will let you use 1 of their store coupons on an item as well as 1 manufacturer coupon. 

In this case I needed to buy diapers in sets of 2 so I could get the gift cards for them. I had 3 Target coupons that were for $1.50 off if you buy any Pampers diapers as well as a thing of Pampers wipes (60 ct or more). That's my store coupon. Then I had a manufacturer coupon I printed from coupons.com for $1.50 off of a single pack of Pampers as well as one for 50 cents off a pack of Pampers wipes. 

So I was getting these $8.99 packs for $5.99. The cool thing is that then I get a $5 gift card so I could use that towards a second set of 2... I had 3 of these perfect sets of coupons though which left me "needing" to buy a 4th pack to get another gift card. I didn't have any more Target coupons but I did have 2 more manufacturers for -$1.50 and one for -$1. Sooo I did some calculations and figured I'd still save quite a bit to buy 6 total packs as 3 different transactions & using the gift card on the next transaction. 

So we headed to the store. Each coupon was for a different type, "Swaddlers," "Cruisers" or "Baby Dry." Frankly I could care less as to which kind so I just followed what the coupons said. My dad took 2 packs along with a thing of wipes and we went to check out. BOOM! 2 packs of diapers for $5.99 each and a $2.73 pack of wipes for $2.23. Grabbed my $5 gift card. 

As we wandered the isles I noticed some Pantene hair products for 3/$10. I had a Target coupon for $1 off of 2 and a manufacturer for $2 off of 2 which meant at $3.33 each I'd basically get one for free. Grabbed 2. Checked out transaction #2. Got my gift card and checked out transaction #3. 

So in total I got 6 "jumbo" packs of diapers, 3 packs of wipes and 2 bottles of Pantene for $43.25. That includes tax and a %5 discount for using a Target RedCard. I also have a $5 gift card still for the next trip. That transaction would have cost $68.47 if not for coupons. 

There's a lot of people that will say that using coupons isn't really saving money. Their theory is that you will end up buying things you normally wouldn't or that you are only buying name brands vs the cheaper store brands. Well my response is that "those" people aren't common sense couponers. The stuff I bought today was cheaper than the store brand. I used to buy Suave shampoo, it was the cheapest at $1.50ish for the "Family Size" bottle. Today I got Pantene for less than that. Last week I got the BIG BOY bottles of Tresemme for $2 each. Yes, there are coupons for store brand items but those will be store specific coupons, you can't stack them. As far as buying things you normally wouldn't? Well that's easy. Just clip coupons for things you need. If it's something new to you and you can get it cheap then why not try it. I love Greek yogurt and usually buy Chobani but when I used coupons to get the Yoplait version for 75 cents a piece I went for that instead. Ya gotta be smart with your coupons.

• So clip what you normally use. At least at first. Later on as you get better at your technique you can get "new" things for cheap or for free and if you don't use it.... donate it. 
• Watch the ads. Find the best deal on the product, compare with the various coupons you have and find the best deal. 
• Pay attention to sizes. Get the smallest size permitted. Some will allow any size but most will say "no travel or trial sizes." The smallest size you get will be the best deal for the coupon amount. 
• Find friends/family that coupon! Then you can trade. I'll take your baby coupons for my dog related coupons! 
• Get multiple ads and multiple copies of each coupon. If I would have had more than 3 of my original stacking sets I could have gotten even MORE diapers today!! 

There you have it! I'm officially a coupon queen. My mom was back in the day and she taught me all she knew. She even tricked me for a while. Got a kid asking for something at the store? Her response was "Hmmm. Well it's not on my list, it's not on sale and I don't have a coupon for it. I guess we can't get it today." That didn't work forever but it sure worked for a while. It also gave me the mindset that all things should be bought on sale and with coupons. ;-) 

Happy couponing ya'll. Feel free to share your stories and/or tips down in the comments and ask questions too! It takes some time but those coupon inserts are just like a wad of cash. :-D

Lily after a tough day of saving!!! 

Minor Upholstery/Ikea Upcycle

For my first blog I've attempted some pretty simple upholstery. I'm not going to claim this as my own project that I dreamed up in my head. My hopes for this blog is to document projects that I attempt and a chance to showcase all things "mommy." So for this particular post I originally got my inspiration (and instructions) from Pinterest which was originally posted on IKEA Hackers: 

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/02/ikea-malm-drawers-change-table-nursery.html

I wanted to do something with Lily's dresser to fancy it up as it was just plain and frankly was boring me. 

I've also wanted to dress up her side of the room since back when I was pregnant with her. It just took me a while... So this is my first step in a belated, seudo nursery. (FYI we share a room; it's half mine, half nursery.)

First thing was to wander to the fabric store and find some cheap fabric. Plain cotton was my original plan but in the SALE aisle I fell in love with a gorgeous, pink flannel print. It was $2.99, cheaper than most everything else so I nabbed it. In the above mentioned post she suggested using batting as well to add cushion. Well I'm cheap and batting isn't so I grabbed some $5/yard felt. For 4 drawers I figured I needed close to 2 yards of each.

One difference between my
 drawer and the one in the
 tutorial I read was that mine had
 handles. No biggie though,
 I just took them out.
 Boom!






Cutting the material was easier than I thought. I just put the drawer face down on it. For the felt I just drew a line around the drawer; the pencil was angled in a tad. Voila! I was even able to get all 4 drawers cut out of 1 yard. So I have 1 left over! ;-) 

The flannel was a little trickier b/c you need the extra to overlap and staple. I did the same thing, put the drawer flush on the corner of the fabric but then this time I moved it to allow 1 inch. I marked a little with a pencil and slid it another inch. Then marked the outer edge of the drawer and cut it out, it was perfect! 

Next I needed to put the fabric (right side down) on the table then the felt on top. It took a bit with the first one to get it adjusted so that it was straight and equal allowance on all sides. Then the drawer... 

It takes some maneuvering but I finally got it centered and the drawer in place. Now it's STAPLE TIME! Lily was taking a nap by this time but luckily she's a champ and I was able to finish all 4 drawers without waking her up. Best kid ever. I used some common sense supplied from my dad and stapled a few in the middle on the front, then the back and lastly the side. 

I had to remove the tracks from the drawer to get the sides done so

 that the fabric didn't block them.  

Now that it's all stapled I get to do the "best" part. Get the handle back in. I tried a couple techniques involving scissors, a seam ripper, a needle... Finally I took a skinny screw and used it to screw through the hole. I did this from both sides. That made a big enough hole to put the original screw in and push it through just enough. 

 There you have it! I got the handle back on and had a bright, vibrant drawer to add some life to our room!!

As a note: I realized the 2 on the right matched up perfectly! I didn't even intend for this, I wasn't going to put in that much effort to line up the pattern. I tried to make them similar but it worked out in my favor. The bottom left is the only one that's a bit off but ohhhh well. If you use a pattern you can of course get them lined up and such but I think with this pattern it looks fine either way. 

Look for more nursery tutorials soon; my mother is here helping with Lily while I clean, organize and decorate. This is the week of finally doing the DIY pins in my Pinterest. ;-)