Couponing Nitty Gritty

For all of you who are interested in couponing here's some nitty gritty...

• It takes A LOT of planning to get the kind of savings I got last night. I probably spent a good 3 hours figuring it all out. Of course, I'm still a newbie. I still experience confusion, frustration and delay (just being dramatic, here). ( : I predict I'm gonna get awesome at it and just start sailing through it.

• Fine Print: It's all about learning how all their little promotions work. For instance, this week most of my savings came from the Albertson's promotion where you "spend $10 on these items and get $4 off". So basically everything I bought was 40% off BEFORE I used the manufacturer's coupon. I also did their "spend $25 on these items and get a $10 voucher" promotion. And then I also did their "buy 10 of these items and get 2 free movie tickets" promotion. All of these items I had coupons for.
  
• Fine Fine print: all of their promotions have little 'rules' attached to them. For the $25 promotion you could only do one per transaction. For the 'spend $10 get $4 off' promotion you had to make sure your $10 worth of food were in their specified little groups (I know that doesn't make any sense but that's why it takes a litttle while to learn). Anyway, the movie tickets thing really worked. Yay for "X-Men Origins". ( :

• This is pretty much what I bought... Betty Crocker Cookie pouches, frosting, muffin mixes, Kraft frozen bagul-Fuls, Ritz, Wheat Thins, Triscuit, Pillsbury biscuits, Trix, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Raisin Bran, Crystal Light, Healthy Choice frozen meals, Microwave popcorn, Hunt's spaghetti sauce, Pop Tarts, Keebler Cookies, marshmallows.... ... All processed, some very high sugar, box dinner, pantry stock type items. I'm just excited to fill up my shelves. Normally I would never buy pop tarts or keebler cookies or frozen bagul-fuls but for that price... I'll take it. These foods are definitely not conducive to gourmet cooking but I'm learning more and more that when you have 2 kids (going on 3), just getting something on the table is more important. ( :
  

• I still have plans to go back and get Ketchup, Jell-O, Enchilada sauce, taco sauce, flour, frozen veggies, frozen pizzas, Pam, sloppy joe sauce.... All 40%off, most with coupons.
  

• One last thing... today I went to get Bisquick, ketchup, and the frozen veggie steamers and they were all cleared out. There were probably 4 or 5 items that were completely cleaned. Apparently the 'die hard' couponers clear them out by 8am Wednesday mornings sometimes. Luckily we have 2 Albertsons in this city, one of which is much less popular and more likely to have everything.

• Also, once your newspapers start coming it takes a few weeks to start having coupons that match the sales. For instance, last night I was using coupons that I got in my newspapers back in the beginning of March.
  

• Any other questions?