Welcome to Southern Savers, where finding deals and steals is simple and rewarding!

See I told you, this would help!

Coupon Abbreviations
  • SC = Store Coupon
  • MC = Manufacturer Coupon
  • SS = Smart Source
  • RP = Red Plum
  • PG = Proctor and Gamble
Coupon Terms
  • WYB = When You Buy
  • B1G1 = Buy One Get One Free
  • .75/1 = 75 cents off one item
  • .75/3 = 75 cents off three items
  • EXP = Expiration Date

Going Nuts? I can help you understand coupon terms and abbreviations

Friday Finals 1/8

on 1.9.2010 at 12:20am
Jenny 40 Comments

It’s week one for us for 2010 and things are already off to a fun start.  I stayed busy as we got back into workshops and you guys got back into couponing, so this week for the first time my husband went out to coupon!  I’m very proud of him.  He chose to start small and went straight off the list with only two deviations (very good for him).

Publix:
Total before sales and coupons: $77 and change (sorry he through away the receipt)
Total spent: $41.22
Total Saved: $36

This was actually with him using no coupons.  He needs to start small…  At least he printed a list of sale items first.  His two deviations: Beer for him and flowers for me.  It made up for the lack of coupons!

Update: Sorry I keep forgetting to share Swagbucks.  I did pretty good this week remembering to use it sometimes is tricky but I managed to stick with a daily average of 4 Swagbucks a day this week.  We are now up to 49 Swagbucks from searching, enough for a $5 Amazon gift card!

If you have no idea what I’m talk about go here.

How did you do this week?  Leave a comment with your savings or link to your post.

Be Sociable, Share!
    Add A Comment Post To Twitter Post To Facebook


    • http://cowanal2001@yahoo.com Amber Cowan

      Had by best Publix trip yet this week! Total before coupons was nearly $89, after coupons $39! My total saving was $94.98!!! Thanks so much for all your hard work and for making it so easy for us to save!!

    • Sarah

      I had a great week too! $409 value – $189 spent oop.

    • Shauna

      How did you do on swagbucks?

      I actually had a question about the codes. What is a good strategy for finding them? I have the widget but don’t know if I am supposed to check it all the time or what. I also got the toolbar but haven’t gotten ant codes from that either.

      For those of you who do it, about how many codes should I expect to find? Like one a day or more like one a week?

      • http://mattsgirls.blogspot.com katie t

        I used to get one a day and quit searching with it, but now I use it all day for searching and usually end up with two or three a day! :-)

      • Marge

        I’ve gotten four $5 Amazon gift cards so far in January. Too bad there’s a limit of 5 identical rewards per month! I also have some new referrals, which will help the points add up.

        There is usually one code each day, and it can be valid for 5 minutes or two hours or one day. You never know exactly when where it’s going to be posted. Sometimes it’s just posted on the swidget itself. Sometimes it’s in a message from TSG on the toolbar. Sometimes he posts it on the wall at the Facebook fan page. Sometimes it’s in a blog post or on Twitter. It might be in the monthly newsletter. Every Thursday, there is a new code posted in the Special Offers which is good for a week. The best way to find out when there’s a new code is by checking in at the Facebook fan page. If you see people starting to say “Thanks, TSG” then you know there’s a code out. So, check the swidget and check the fan page regularly. Keep in mind that TSG is on the west coast, so there will rarely be a code given before about 2:00 eastern time. From my experience, most often they are out between 4:00 and 8:00 pm eastern time, but they can be at other times. The Facebook fan page is very helpful, so be sure to join it if you really want to know what’s going on with Swag Bucks.

        • Val

          I saw a code last week, but I dont know where to type the code into
          could you tell me? thanks Val S.

          • Marge

            At the Swag Bucks website, over on the right, under your name and account info, there’s a box that says “Enter a Swag Code.” Copy and paste the code into it and click on “Gimme.” The box will turn red and tell you how made swag bucks you just received. If the code is expired, it’ll say something like “enter a valid code”. Be sure to copy the code exactly. It is case sensitive and watch that you don’t insert extra blank spaces.

    • Cindy

      I am relatively new to couponing (started Oct. ’09). I have been going at it full force though. My husband went with me for the first time last Monday. We went to Walgreen’s. I did not have any RRs, but I did have coupons. My total was $108 and some change. My husband gave me a dirty look. The cashier started taking off my coupons, and my husband turned to me and asked “How much are we going to pay for this stuff? It is at $94.00 so far. He was not looking happy at all. I told him to be patient. The cashier continued to take off coupons. When I was told the total, I thought my husband was going to faint. The total was $6.56!!! Over all, I spent $183.00 this week (Walgreen’s, Rite Aid, CVS, Ingle’s, and Publix) and saved over $700.00, not to mention I now have RRs for Walgreen’s and ECBs for CVS to start the new week. I love SOUTHERN SAVERS!!!

    • Karen Summers

      i just started my first full year of tracking & am so excited to see how our grocery budget is helped by your hardwork! hit WG’s twice & Bi-lo once – total spent $210 – saved $199 (that’s 49%) Not bad considering that is “non-coupon” items as well!

      Thanks for your hardwork & helping my family save!

    • Marge

      I made two trips so far to Harris Teeter for super doubles. Spent $42 and saved $142! I’ll be going back at least once more, after I get the new Sunday insert coupons.

      I have a question, too – how do you find out in advance about things like the Special K deal (buy 4 and get $5 off instantly). I’m so glad that Jenny includes it in the blog post, because I wouldn’t know about it otherwise. Does Harris Teeter advertise it somewhere? I didn’t see it in their weekly ad.

      • mel

        Try subscribing to their email newsletter.HTH

        • Marge

          I do get the newsletter, but I don’t recall seeing the Special K deal on there. Maybe I just need to read more closely. THanks.

        • Marge

          I looked again at the email and ad, and there’s nothing there. Maybe it was a catalina ad?

          • Marlene

            They put it in their printed ad only – it is not on their website.
            They don’t even list them on their Promotions page under In-store Rewards or anywhere else on the website.
            I almost always pick up a copy at the store just to check if I missed anything. I have written to them about it but without result – it kind of bugs me – you’d think they could include it in the emails to evic customers.

          • mel

            Thought it may be there,but guess not.Maybe someone eles could help us both find the answer to that question..LOL Anyway,have a great day and thanks Jenny for all your time and hard work!

    • Rebekah

      I went to Publix last night. I spent $8 and some change…I SAVED $15 and some change.:) I didn’t get the Ketchup because they were out but I did get a rain check:)

      3 Peter Pan Peanut Butters
      1 Fusion Shaving Gel
      1 Simply Pillsbury Cookies
      1 6pk Jell-O
      2 Solo paper plates

      • Val

        was the shaving gel on sale??

    • Laura

      I just wanted to comment that my sister (who laughed at me and my coupons) made a resolution to start doing coupons this year. So, to get her excited… I sent her to Rite Aid where she bought 2 packs of Stayfree and 2 Nivea Lip Treatments for about $14. She used her BOGO coupons and paid < $1 OOP (for tax). She is seeing the light now!

    • Sue

      I love to look at the Friday Finals. However, I do not understand how some people have so many identical coupons. Do you buy them from abroker or do you buy that many newspapers? And when figuring your savings, do you factor in the cost of newspapers, above the one that you would probably buy anyway?

      • Marge

        Occasionally I’ll buy more than one newspaper. It’s so nice to be able to preview what’s coming up so I can decide whether to buy extras! A lot of the printables are available from different sources, and usually you can print two from each one, per computer. If you have more than one computer in your house, you can print multiple times. I factor in the cost of the newspapers in my overall monthly food budget, not the individual transactions. So if I report how much I spent and how much I saved, it doesn’t include the cost of the newspapers. I suppose you could also consider the cost of the ink used for printing internet coupons, too, but I don’t bother with that! But I do refill my own ink cartridges to save money.

        • Sheri

          How do you fill your own ink cartridges? I would be interested in cutting down on ink cost.

          • Marge

            I buy refill kits from Carrot Ink (carrotink.com) but there are other websites where you can buy it. Last week I paid $29.85, including shipping, for two kits which will allow me to refill my cartridge at least four times. (I have a Lexmark Z series inkjet printer.) The kits come with everything you need and ceomplete instructions. It’s basically a syringe that you used to inject the ink into the sponge inside the cartridge, through a little hole in the cartridge. Black is easy to refill yourself, but I didn’t have much success with colored. It’s really tricky with three colors. I only refill black, but I don’t use colored ink very often. I always print my coupons in black only. They used to sell refill kits at Walmart, but I went last week to buy one and they told me they don’t carry them anymore. Another note: I wait until the ink is actually starting to fade out before refilling. The gauge on the computer is never right. But don’t ever let it run out completely because you can ruin the cartridge by printing when it’s empty. I learned that the hard way.

            • Amanda

              I TOTALLY just bought some ink because of this post! Thanks! We will see how it works for me!

    • kelli

      I had a pretty great week. I made a few CVS runs and one trip to Food Lion.

      CVS: I bought a bunch of Christmas clearance at 75% off including candy, 4 digital ornaments (originally $19.99) and 2 home brew sets (originally $29.99). I also bought a lot of Soy Joy bars, Oust, Rubbermaid containers, Bioluxe shampoo and conditioner, Nature’s Bounty

      Total before sales and coupons: $463.61
      Total spent: $5.26 (all but 28 cents was tax)
      Total Saved: $458.35 or almost 99%!

      I used up $32 ECBs that I didn’t get back but I was getting a little worried about being able to continue to roll the large amount of them that I had. And from the Christmas clearance, I got a birthday present for my fiance and a few Christmas presents that I’ll hold onto until next year.

      Also, I’ll send in 2 rebates for the Bioluxe shampoo, one to my address, one to my fiances, so that’s $19.98 back!

      Food Lion: all I bought was 4 boxes of Swiss Miss

      Total before sales and coupons: $7.60
      Total spent: $0 (after the coupon, I didn’t even have to pay tax)
      Total Saved: $7.60 or 100%!

      Weekly total:
      Total before sales and coupons: $471.21
      Total spent: $5.26
      Total Saved: $465.95 or almost 99%!

    • Jennifer Kromhout

      This was my first big coupon trip this week and I went to Harris Teeter. The total before sales & coupons was $247. The total after sales & coupons was $104; that’s a savings of $143!!! Of course this was a good week to have great savings since HT was doing double/double’s and they had some GREAT buy one get one free deals too. I am looking forward to seeing what this week brings.

    • Marlene

      Weekly total: $407.19
      Total Spent $109.48
      Savings: 73%

      Harris Teeter SuperDoubles was especially good.
      Spent $1.58 on a $29 bill — 95% – oh so cool!

      • Marlene

        just wanted to add a note to Jenny I love that hubby got you flowers since he was also getting beer. made me smile today!

    • http://www.actingourwage.wordpress.com Chrissy

      Here are some of my shopping trip results:

      Rite Aid:
      14 items / regular cost= 39.51 paid=$4.73! I think that’s an 88% savings. I has several free items. (Bandaids, Stayfree and GE light bulbs)

      Winn Dixie:
      Spent= $60.10
      Saved= $51.72

      CVS:
      Spent=$50.15
      Saved=$69.53
      Earned 26ECB!!

    • Tisha

      I sent my husband to CVS a few weeks ago with a list, a few q’s and some ECBs. He went with his mom and she told me his jaw dropped open when the cashier told him his total was 8 cents for several items. I think he finally understands what I am trying to do. :-)

    • Kris

      Hey guys….so last year I started couponing and was amazed at the savings but didn’t keep track. So this year I’m starting an experiment: my old grocery spending was average $220/2wks, so I’m taking that out in cash every paycheck and putting it in an envelope. I’m paying for all my groceries out of that cash to see what’s left. I’m curious to see how it adds up over a few months. Should be interesting…and fun!!

      • Brook

        This is what we do also. Our weekly budget is $120.00. I put that aside in cash every week. Whatever we do not spend for the week we put directly into our savings account. This is money we would have spent anyways, so to see that # in our savings account go up each week is so awesome!!

    • Jessica

      this week was as follows:

      15.72 25.58 WG
      2.13 1.02 WG
      0.41 5.82 WG
      6.85 8.62 WG
      24.82 35.50 PB
      3.61 7.00 DG
      29.01 8.63 BL
      0.64 3.29 WG
      6.01 12.04 CVS
      13.43 11.97 CVS
      8.55 25.72 CVS
      20.38 14.00 CVS
      20.26 14.11 CVS
      0.75 6.99 WG
      1.62 0.50 CVS
      0.45 3.29 WG
      154.64 184.08
      spent saved

      I met the best CVS mgr ever at a different store I tried this week and also got a free movie rental last night from redbox.
      I now have enough tp from cvs for the rest of the year! Jenny- dont know what I would do without you!

    • Jessica

      154.64 soent and 184.08 saved

    • http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/ameliasavesmoney Amelia

      Between CVS and Harris Teeter this week:

      Total OOP $36.96
      Total Value $214.04
      Total Saved $177.08
      Total Saved 80%

    • http://www.palmettostatesaver.com Lauren

      Loving that your husband did so well – especially in the “good husband who buys his wife flowers” department!!

    • Heather

      aw, that’s so sweet that he got you flowers!

    • Carrie

      CVS for this week:
      Spent 14 OOP, Saved 109!

    • Nora

      Couldn’t resist this…..This week HT had Super Doubles which enabled me to save a TON!!!! 6 trips and 120 coupons+ later (some were B1G1 or more than 1.98 so they didn’t count because I didn’t have to double them)(and for those who wonder how I got so many coupons…I had 15 people give me their coupon sections this past weekend)

      Total Spent before coupons and VIC savings = 529.91
      Total Spent AFTER coupons and VIC savings = 136.56

      My saving included 15 boxes of the Electrasol Finish Powerball/Quantum that are reg. 5.99 and I got them for .49 per box! Woohoo!!!!

    • Patti

      I spent $44 at Harris Teeter and saved $62! Thanks so much and thank you, Lauren, for telling me about southernsavers!

    • kellye burns

      ok my total spent was $204.00, Save $151.00, that’s %43. I could do better if my children didn’t need their “junk food” from Kroger. Any suggestions?