Wow!! $0.25 for almost $200 in groceries

Okay, I've spent some time getting my feet wet into coupon shopping.  And this week, I dove in. I started out just printing coupons off the internet.  Before this week I had the opinion that coupons were pretty much worthless.  So, why buy a paper to save a few pennies.  Coupons give you a discount on name brand items, which are expensive.  You might as well get the generic and not hassle with the coupon, right?  Wrong!!!  I have learned that if you match coupons up with certain sales and combine coupons, you can get incredible deals!

It was a great week for coupon shoppers.  Yes, I did go to several stores.  Perhaps I'll get better as the weeks go on.  But here is what I scored this week.

12 cans of Contadina tomato sauce
6 Biore Pore Strips
6 Biore Face Scrubs
5 bottles of LA Looks Gel
5 single travel packs of Tide Detergent
4 Cover Girl Mineral Powder Foundations
4 Cover Girl Lipsticks
3 Olay Body Washes/ w free samples
3 bottles of John Frieda shampoo
2 Gillette Deoderants
2 Gillette Body Washes
1 Children's Ibuprofin

1 Bottle of Suave Detangling spray

OOP:  37.25 

Rebates & Gift Cards: $37
Target $5
Olay $15
Frieda $5
Gillette $2
Biore $5
Biore $5

Net out of pocket $0.25
Total Savings including rebates- $195.39

I did pay for these coupons from a coupon clipping service and it cost me $13.  I don't subscribe to the paper, and I wanted to test it out first.  I'm kind of surprised that coupon clippers don't take the cost of their subscriptions into account, because I sure do.  So, to offset my coupon cost, I plan on selling the Biore pore strips on Ebay.  I don't use those, but I had to get them in order to get my free face cleanser.  I should be able to net around $20 on ebay for the pore strips, making me a profit of about $7 for these items!