Typically the first Sunday of every month (sometimes the last Sunday), Proctor and Gamble has their own insert in the newspaper featuring many of their products. This includes deodorant, shampoo, laundry detergent, dish soap, and diapers. I usually like to ask friends and neighbors if they don't mind passing the coupons they don't use on to me. I often end up with up to ten copies of that Sunday's newspaper. As I have mentioned, there are several coupon websites that will tell you exactly which coupons match up with which sales at certain grocery stores (southernsavers.com is my favorite). For example, my Kroger store recently had their Old Spice body wash on sale for $2.49. A couple of weeks earlier, there were coupons for $2.00 off this exact same body wash, which means that you can purchase it for 49 cents. With ten coupons, I was able to buy ten of these for just five dollars. That will keep my husband clean and smelling fresh for at least ten months! During that same time, Tide laundry detergent was on sale for $4.99 and there were also coupons for $2.00 off one, which means that I got it for $2.99. While I do like Tide, it is not the only brand of laundry detergent I purchase. I also like Gain and All (which also have coupons frequently). If one of these brands goes on sale for $2-$3, I usually buy 5-6 bottles just to make sure that I don't end up over paying for it when I run out. One of the keys of saving money is to buy an item before you need it. A major mistake that we used to make was to wait until we were out of something and then add it to that week's shopping list. Nothing was ever on sale when we needed it and we didn't use coupons so we ended up spending a lot more money than we needed to. Sales like this often run every 3-6 months, so just pay attention to when these items are on sale and try to buy enough to last you 3-6 months.
There are some items that seem so ridiculously expensive that I would have never thought to even cut out a coupon for them because I would never purchase that item at the price they were asking for it. One such item was the L'Oreal Collagen Micro-Pulse Vibrating Eye Treatment. I got a coupon in the mail for $3 off, and thought it might be fun to see just how much it costs. It retails for $30, which is more than my weekly food budget. I totally thought that I would never buy it, but held on to the coupon just in case. Sure enough, my grocery store ended up marking it down to just over $5 and I was still able to use my $3 coupon and get a great deal. As a pregnant mother of three, getting rid of bags under my eyes is a constant battle, and it feels fun to pamper myself a little every now and then (it feels even better when I feel like I'm doing it practically for free). One of the best ways that I've found to get deals like this is to just walk up and down the aisles looking for closeout items and manager's specials. Here are just a few of the deals that I've gotten:
Pantene products - on closeout for $1.67. I had a coupon for $3 off two, which made them 17 cents a piece. The products were for color-treated hair, but shampoo is shampoo, right?
Herbal Essences shampoo - on closeout for $0.99. I had a coupon for $1 off.
Store brand wipes - I got the nearly 500 count box for just $1.99 on closeout, but left my coupons at home that day (Kroger sends my coupons in the mail for some of their store brand products). Darn. Sometimes I go back to customer service the next time I'm in the store and ask them if they will apply a coupon to a previous purchase, and they usually do. I just didn't in this case.
Pampers - I always used to think that name brand diapers were too expensive. And they are. But not when they go on clearance and you have a coupon! The $25 boxes went on clearance for $12.50 at my Kroger and I had coupons for $2.50 off per box. I got $75 worth of diapers for just $30. The cool thing is, each box came with $5 worth of coupons, which for me is like getting $15 cash back. I usually find diapers on sale like this every 3-4 months, so I try to stock up on them when I can. If I run out before another sale like this pops up, I either use cloth diapers that I always have on hand, or buy store brand diapers if I have a coupon (you can usually get them at coupons.target.com for the up and up brand target diapers, or download them digitally onto your Kroger shopping card at Kroger.com). If you've potty trained before, cloth diapers are no big deal. Just buy yourself a nice pair of rubber gloves for rinsing them. I made my own diapers, by the way.
Suave deodorant - This wasn't a closeout deal, but an all the time deal. Suave deodorant is $1.06 at Kroger. Every now and then, we'll get suave coupons in the mail for $0.50 off. Kroger doubles this to a dollar off and I get my deodorant for 6 cents. And it works. I was leery at first that the cheap stuff wouldn't work, but it does. I'm not running marathons or anything, but I do chase after a two year old all day.
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