We’ve been talking a lot about trading coupons this week. I wrote an article explaining what it is and how to do it, and showed you an example of my savings after coupon trading. In my last post, I explained how I was getting Yakisoba bowls for free plus .10 cents overage – click here if you missed it – and as you’ll see in today’s recap, it was the first of many Yakisoba-filled shopping trips. I conducted two additional trades last week for the .50/1 Yakisoba coupons that were getting me this good deal; this time, I traded 8 stamps for 24 .50/1 Yakisoba and 5 $1.00/2 Yakisoba coupons. After the two stamps that it took to mail my trades out to the two people that I was trading with, my total cost for the coupons was $4.40 (the cost of 10 first-class postage stamps). So here’s the groceries that I got on Monday:

Spent nothing out of pocket, put .15 cents on my free gift card from MyBlogSpark, and came home with $11.83 worth of groceries.

Transaction #1:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .10 cents on my gift card from MyBlogSpark
Total before coupons: $7.33
View receipt

Got:

One 70 count box of Snuggle dryer sheets – on sale for $3.99, used a $3/1 coupon from the 3/28 Red Plum newspaper inserts, which doubled; I also received a .40 cent deduction because of the 10% club card discount. (More about that here and here.) Final price: .09 cents.
3 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used three .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion; Final price: Free plus .30 cents overage.
1 package of Ramen noodles – regularly .34 cents, the 10% club card deducted .03 cents, and the .30 cents overage from the Yakisoba brought the final price down to .01 cent. This is what is known as a “Filler” item – something useful that absorbs a small amount of overage.

Transaction #2:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .05 cents on my gift card from MyBlogSpark
Total before coupons: $4.50
View receipt

Got:

4 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used four .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion; Final price: Free plus .40 cents overage.
1 head of garlic – regularly .50 cents, I saved an additional .05 cents thanks to the 10% club card discount; and the .40 cents overage from the Yakisoba brought the final price down to .05 cents.

As I mentioned in my article about trading coupons, I did several coupon trades last week. I put the first batch of coupons to use over the weekend – and this was the motivation for my trades:

There were coupons in the 01/03/10 Smart Source newspaper insert for .50/1 off any Maruchan Yakisoba bowl. These are on sale for $1.00 at Safeway, which makes them free after coupons and doubles. What makes this even more interesting is the 10% discount that is loaded onto our club card. As I’ve mentioned previously, this deducts the 10% based on your pre-coupon total, which turns this Yakisoba scenario into a money-maker. Here’s the math breakdown:

1 Yakisoba bowl: $1.00
-.50 cent coupon
-.50 cent double
– 10 cents for 10% discount

Total: Negative 10 cents (AKA overage)

My first coupon trade last week was for 9 of these coupons. I paid a .05 cent handling fee per coupon, plus .44 cents postage, for a total of .89 cents spent through PayPal. This evens out to roughly 9.8 cents per coupon – and since the coupons resulted in free Yakisoba bowls plus .10 cents of overage each, the coupons essentially paid for themselves. So here’s what I got on my trips –

March 27th Safeway trip:

Spent nothing out of pocket, put $2.91 on my free gift card from MyBlogSpark, and came home with $31.34 worth of groceries. We’re also giving one of these gift cards away, so don’t forget to enter!

Transaction #1:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $1.99 on my gift card from MyBlogSpark
Total before coupons: $6.39
View receipt

Got:

4 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used four .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent deduction each because of the 10% club card discount; Final price: Free plus .40 cents overage.
1 gallon of milk – was almost out! Originally $2.39, the .40 cents overage from the Yakisoba brought the final price down to $1.99. (The 10% discount does not apply to milk, which is why it only deducted .40 cents and not .64 cents.)

Transaction #2:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put .92 cents on my gift card from MyBlogSpark
Total before coupons: $24.95
View receipt

Got:

1 Warm Delights cake – regularly $2.19, used one free product coupon sent to me by MyBlogSpark. The 10% discount deducted an additional .22 cents, making the final total: Free plus .22 cents overage.
4 Maruchan Yakisoba bowls – on sale for $1.00 each, used four .50/1 coupons, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion; Final price: Free plus .40 cents overage.
1 bottle of Holland Wine Cooking Sherry – regularly $4.79, used one free product coupon (see below) and received a 10% discount of .48 cents. Final price: Free plus .48 cents overage.
1 bottle of Nakano rice vinegar – remember last week when I got free coupons for rice vinegar and cooking wine in the mail, and was trying to figure out where they came from? Well, whatever it was, I apparently had Jai sign up for it as well, as a second envelope arrived for him with two more free coupons! This rice vinegar is regularly $3.39 – I used one free product coupon and received an additional .34 cent discount because of the 10% offer. Final price: Free plus .34 cents overage.
2 bottles of Vitaminwater – on sale for $1.25 each, plus a .10 cent bottle deposit; used two free product coupons that we got from the recent free coupon offer on Facebook. The coupons automatically deducted the full value $1.59 each, and I also received a .25 cent discount because of the 10% offer. Final price: Free plus .83 cents overage.
1 box of Popsicles – normally $3.99, used one free product coupon that I won during a Twitter contest. I also received a 10% discount of .40 cents. Final price: Free plus .40 cents overage.
1/2 gallon of half & half – I was all out! Normally $3.99, received a 10% discount of .40 cents, and the overage from the other coupons brought the final price down to .92 cents.

March 28th Safeway trip:

Total spent: Nothing out of pocket, put $2.15 on my gift card from MyBlogSpark.
Total before coupons: $3.50
View receipt

Got:

1 Maruchan Yakisoba bowl – on sale for $1.00, used one .50/1 coupon, which doubled, and received an additional .10 cent discount each because of the 10% club card promotion. Final price: Free plus .10 cents overage.
1 Sunday newspaper – regularly $2.50, received an additional .25 cent discount because of the 10% club card promotion; and the .10 cent overage from the Yakisoba brought the final price down to $2.15.