How To Work A Deal

This week's Randall's ad boasted the following special:

Basically, it's buy 2 12-packs of Diet Coke ... get 2 12-packs FREE *and* 2 boxes of Wheat Thins, also free!

I ruffled through my coupon binder (perhaps when I'm feeling a little flirty I'll share it with you) and gathered these coupons:

Just a quick digression here. I look at saving money as a treasure hunt. I'm sure there are a million ways to Get Free Stuff ... so I make it my mission to discover those ways. As I mentioned in my previous post, SwagBucks are a great resource. I also collect those little codes printed under the lids of my favorite soda. (And I promise you, one of these days I will actually have a post that doesn't reference Diet Coke. But not today ...) So, I collect the lids and periodically enter them here. I recently received two coupons for free 12-packs! I filed them away, scanning the weekly ads for deals. Sure enough, this week's special appeared and I was ready to pounce.

But not before I included this little gem:

So let's review. I received this ...

... and paid ... well, actually I *received* one dollar!

Yes, you read that correctly!

I gathered my booty, handed over the 2 free 12-pack coupons and the $1.00 off 2 boxes of crackers ... then had $1.00 in credit to spend on something else for our food storage (canned soup, also on sale and also combined with coupons).

I had never been a coupon clipper ... until I hopped aboard the Prepping Train. After learning about the importance of prepping, I realized that coupon clipping has allowed me to combine the thrill of the hunt with the security that a stocked pantry offers ... without sacrificing any of my financial goals.