We are excited to have the Money Saving Divas, Jenny and Leslie, as our guests today. Leslie and Jenny live next door to each other and just so happen to be sister-in-laws. They love to shop but dreaded when their husbands found the bills. So they’ve learned to find creative ways to cut back on costs in certain areas so that they don’t have to give up the things that they enjoy. They have a great blog that is all about saving money and teaching others how to do what they do. Each week they will post their real shopping trips, what they got and what they paid. You will be amazed! We were!

The Money Saving Divas are also our neighbors! They live just a few miles away from the Lazy Moms. We see a field trip, or at least a lunch in our future! We are positive that we would all get along fabulously! After all, with two Leslies in the group, there is no doubt that fabulosity would be the result!

The following post is from their “Getting Started” page on their blog. It will tell you how to get started on the money saving path. There is some great information. I have started saving my coupons and trying to learn how they do what they do. If you get started with Jenny and Leslie’s information, please let us know! We would love to hear about your success.

I HATE HATE HATE cutting coupons! So I found a wonderful way to organize my coupons without spending my Sunday afternoon cutting coupons that I may never end up using. Here is the process that I found most helpful:

1. Pull coupon inserts out of paper
2. Write date on bottom front page of each insert
3. Put coupon insert in file folder by month

The Sunday paper usually contains 3 main coupon inserts. They are Redplum/RP (weekly), SmartSource/SS (weekly), and Procter & Gamble/PG (monthly). I like to buy a few papers each week. Some weeks are better than others and the better they are the more I buy. You will be able to see a list of the upcoming week’s coupons at http://www.taylortownpreview.com/.

When doing my weekly grocery shopping and looking for sales on the internet, the coupon websites will give you the date and insert the coupon is in. At that time I go to my file folder, pull out the insert, cut the coupon, and put it in my small coupon holder that fits into my purse (no need to make a scene at the grocery store with that huge box of coupons).

A great free website that we use is www.couponmom.com. This website lists sale items each week and tells you which weekly insert to find your coupons. This is a quick easy way to do your weekly grocery shopping. In our area, one of our favorite stores to use coupons is Kroger because they double and triple coupons which makes it a lot cheaper than you may think. It takes us about 30 minutes before going to the grocery store to look at the weekly deals and clip only the coupons that we need. We base our weekly meal plans on the sales to maximize our savings.

Find out your grocery store’s coupon policy. How many of the same coupon will they accept? Do they double or triple coupons? Do they accept printable coupons? This information is very useful to know before you plan your shopping trips.

You can also print coupons from our Home page banner. Just scroll through the coupons that you are interested in and print! You should be able to print each coupon twice.
These are the coupon inserts from the weekly paper:

This is the storage file that I purchased at Office Depot:

This is the small coupon holder that I purchased at WalMart. I keep it in my purse and have with me at all times:

How to shop at CVS

Did you know that I have a year supply of toothpaste, deodorant, razor blades, shampoo and pain relievers that I paid nothing for thanks to CVS, and you can too! It’s hard to believe this is legal but it is.

When shopping for deals at CVS you need to remember one word…EXTRA CARE BUCKS (A.K.A. ECB’s). These are like gold! Don’t throw them away! They print out at the bottom of your receipt. Make sure you sign up for an ExtraCare Card and have the checker scan it every time you make a purchase and ALWAYS look at the bottom of your receipt for coupons and Extra Care Bucks (AKA ECB’s/Gold). Believe it or not you can use the CVS coupon, a manufacturer coupon and ECB’s on your next purchase.

The key to CVS shopping is to only buy the items that earn ECB’s each week. The following week only buy the ECB items but use your manufacturer coupons plus your ECB’s from the previous week to get items for free or a fraction of the cost and earn more ECB’s for the next week’s purchase. It’s a wonderful vicious cycle!

I must warn you – in order for this wonderful process to work you must stay focused! Do not look at the $15.00 nail polish that isn’t on sale, do not buy 5 candy bars as you check out, do not take your kids and if you do prepare them that they get NOTHING unless it earns you an ECB!

To save even more money at CVS, ALWAYS use a coupon at the pharmacy. They accept competitor’s coupons. Anytime you see a $25 gift card for new or transferred prescription cut it out, save it, and use it at CVS when you get a new or refill a current prescription. Thanks to the flu, a stomach bug, and a bug that flew in my eye and caused an infection, I earned over $150 in gift cards last month alone to use at CVS. Once again remember to only use these gift cards on items that will earn you ECB’s.

You can see the weekly list of CVS items that will earn you ECB’s by clicking on the following link: Weekly CVS ECB deals.

We hope you found this information as informative and intersesting as we did. Be sure to click on the coupon tab at the top of our page. We have printable coupons here on Lazy Moms as well. Don’t forget to tell us your success stories that are a result of the Money Saving Diva’s tips!