I'm back to tell about my "Couponing Adventure" today!
Thanks for all your encouraging comments on my first Extreme Couponing blog post. I thought Cherie's comment was really cute and appropriate, she said that extreme couponing was just another form of paper crafting - she just might be right!
I've been wanting to go to Havasu to do some coupon shopping but hadn't decided what day yet. Lake Havasu City is about 35 miles from where we live and is a larger city with a lot more shopping opportunities.
Our clothes washer's spin cycle stopped working today so that decided how I was going to spend my Saturday, doing laundry isn't as much fun anyway. I needed to go to City Maytag in Lake Havasu for washing machine parts so why not make the trip worthwhile and do my coupon shopping?
This isn't our washer and dryer, we have an old Maytag set, lol. These would be more like my "dream machines"...
I gathered my list and coupons along with the old washer parts that needed to be replaced and headed out around 10:30 AM.
My first stop was City Maytag in Lake Havasu, the parts needed were a special order and will take about three weeks to arrive at the store. They will call me when they come in and yes I needed to pay for them today - $168.00 ouch. I called my husband after I paid for the parts and he asked what I thought about replacing our washer and dryer. I'd rather not have to make that investment until we absolutely have to, our set was purchased new in 2004 - I wish they'd last 20 - 25 years! After returning home today I realized I did something really dumb while at City Maytag... I paid cash for the new washer parts and didn't get a receipt, oh I hope when I call Monday it's not a problem and they can e mail or snail mail me one.
My next stop was...
I had two $8.00 off coupons for Science Diet dog food and cat food as well as other dog food coupons and theses items were all on sale - score!
I was at the Hill's Science Diet website and found an additional rebate for a bag of their dog food up to $12.99 so I need to pick up an extra bag for that too.
My out of pocket at Petsmart today was $39.30, the total before coupons and Petsmart savings card was 84.27, my total savings was $44.97, that's a savings of 53%. I do have bad news about the rebate I bought the extra bag of Science Diet dog food for... it's the wrong one! I discovered after I'd cut the UPC code off the bag it was the wrong flavor, lol. We have to go to Havasu later this week so I'll try that again and Maxine won't mind eating that extra bag of dog food I paid full price for. There was a small problem when I checked out with my coupons and dog food sizes so I put back the correct dog food for the rebate and got the right one for my coupon, times two. It got a little confusing... so I learned to be a little more careful - maybe I should write these things down? Over all it was a good experience with excellent savings.
My next stop was...
I was out of paper to print all those wonderful online coupons...
I picked up two reams (1000 sheets) of copy paper for $5.99 each and turned in the "Easy Rebates" for them online when I got home so they will end up costing $2.99 each when the check comes in the mail (:
Have you been to Staples.com? They have a Rebate Center, instead of mailing rebates in you can turn them in online, no postage, cut out UPC codes, or paper receipts necessary. I went to Staples.com yesterday to look at the ad and learned about their rebates. I did a Staples online search for antivirus software that I needed, found it for free after the rebate, I love it when that happens! Staples also has excellent customer service, I had a problem downloading my new anti virus software, e mailed them about the problem I was having, it's all taken care of now. Thank you Staples for making my life just a little easier!
Oh, I almost forgot, I went to Walmart in Havasu too. I've been having problems at our local Walmart so I avoid going there if possible. I picked up their store brand bathroom tissue that I had $2 off coupons for along with some other bargains. My out of pocket cost was $17.00, the total before coupons was $31.00, a total savings of $14.00, for an overall savings of 45%.
I had a pretty good savings day if it hadn't been for those darn washing machine parts!
I just need to remember it's cheaper than a new clothes washer...
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