Recently I’ve been teaching my friend Jen (and to a lesser extent Cortney, really all I do is put together scenarios for her ’cause she already knows how, she just looooves it when I tell her what to do. Don’t ya Ney-Ney??) to COUPON. Jen is my second protege, big PROPS to my friend Elizabeth who is now a Mariah Carey-esque Butterfly and has her own wings to fly and the coupon binder to match. More props to Elizabeth because unlike Mariah, she has still managed to spread her wings and fly while wearing age-appropriate clothing that actually clothes her body. But anyhoo. What was I saying? Oh yes…

Now if you read this here mess blog often, you know I loves me some coupons, some drugstore rebate programs, and some grocery store sales! I have been thinking about it, as I’ve been Jen’s coupon Mr. Miyagi and she’s been my Daniel-san, why do I LOVE it so much? Not just the scoring free diapers, wipes, razors, etc. or “turning a profit” in CVS bucks or Rite Aid rebates – why do I love the process? I come from a family of teachers and always said I would be a terrible teacher, but I think I am pretty good at teaching coupons. And I LOVE doing it. Especially the hands-on lessons where we go to the store together!

I guess it just feels good to be good at something. There is not much in my adult life I have been really good at and also enjoyed. When I was working, I was a good employee, maybe even good at my job(s), but I didn’t enjoy it. It was stressful. Sharing couponing, well, that’s just fun. Giving away stuff that didn’t cost you anything to people who need it = fun. Helping a mom like you stretch her family’s tight budget = fun. Amazing your cashier = fun. Making friends with your cashier who you see once or twice a week = fun. Yesterday I freaking sang “Happy Birthday” to one of my cashiers at CVS (What up, Robin!!) because she’s AWESOME and it was her birthday and I bet none of her other customers was gonna do it!

So, I guess what I’m saying is: registration for Mr. Miyagi’s coupon training school of Savings and General Weirdness is open. Singing not required. But I might make you wax my car.

I haven’t written about my love of coupons and my lust for sweet deals in quite awhile, and I decided it was time to rectify that. Recently, despite some setbacks in the CVS area, (one of my fave stores no longer takes competitor coupons and the other one no longer takes internet-printed competitor coupons!) I have kind of ramped up my couponing. I am now quite proficient at Rite Aid’s single check rebates program and I’ve been working the Walgreens register rewards a wee bit as well (a lot bit this week!) And this week I got a sweeeeeeeeet deal on Venus razors and Olay body wash at Target and I now have $15 of Target gift cards burning a hole in my pocket!

And lucky for me, Walgreens had my *favorite* Glade soy candles on clearance this week! The little ones were just $1.74 each and I had several $3/2 coupons! Soy candles for 24 cents each? Yes, please!

I also got paid $1.50 (each) to buy 2 bottles of Dove Men’s body wash at Walgreens, (gotta keep the hubs smelling fresh!) and got a few packs of Huggies diapers for about $2.50 a pack, got some “feminine hygiene” products for about 75 cents a box, and still have some register rewards to spend. WHEEEE!!

At Rite Aid, I have been buying P&G products with coupons for a couple of weeks to get a Visa Gift card from P&G after rebate. Here’s what I got this week:

4 packs of Stayfree $1.99 each
Fusion razor $7.99
Gillette Satin Care $1.49
NyQuil $3.50
Total = $20.94

Coupons:
$5/$20 Rite Aid coupon
$4 off Fusion Razor q
$.55 of Gillette q
$1.50 off NyQuil q
B1G1 free Stayfree q
Three $1 off Stayfree q’s (peelie on package! score!)

Total = 4.90
With tax I paid $6.54, and I’ll get back $1 for the Gillette, $1 for the NyQuil, and because of earlier spending plus this order, a $15 Visa gift card from P&G. LOVE IT!!!

I found some more coupons hidden in my coupon binder and went back later and got 2 more packages of Stayfree, a package of Carefree liners, yet another Dove Men’s bodywash (they were out of them at the first Rite Aid) and a Nivea women’s body wash, and paid $4.23 including tax, and will get back a $4 rebate for the Dove.

Also, I now have enough feminine hygiene items to last until menopause!! It’s like Fort Kotex in my bathroom cabinet!

All of this drugstore fun combined with the Daytona Event promotion at Kroger this week, and I was truly in coupon heaven! I wish I had taken pictures of all my purchases this week so Emily could well & truly make fun of me, but you’ll have to take my word for it! It was EPIC!