Haley ♥s Coupons!: Couponing -- Thanksgiving Edition

Holy moly! This was BY FAR the biggest couponing trip I’d ever done. I bought so many items and went to 5 different stores—one Rite Aid, two CVS, and two Walgreens. I left the house around 6:20 a.m. and didn’t get home until 11:00 a.m. That’s some major shopping!

This was my first time trying to coupon with Thanksgiving sales. I originally thought sales wouldn't start until Black Friday, so when I found out they actually started on Thanksgiving, I had to plan, plan, plan. I had to shop, come home and unload my purchases, and be ready to leave for my first Thanksgiving gathering of the day by 11:30 a.m.

Regular retail with sale prices for all these items was $306.17 plus tax ($333.54 with tax included.) Even though I got TONS of items for free, I had to pay tax on every single one of them. My pre-tax out-of-pocket was $33.80. Not shabby at all! But when you factor in the $27.37 in tax I had to pay, my out-of-pocket was $61.17. My tax total was almost as much as my merchandise itself. Such a bummer! I hate our 9.75% sales tax. Even with tax included, I saved 82%.

I bought 114 items. If you divide my subtotal by 114, that comes out to $0.30 per item. I was able to get some larger items, like gift sets, hair dryers, and boxes of candy, along with many stocking stuffers. I have an enormous amount of rewards leftover--$73.41 to be exact. Hopefully I’ll be able to have a VERY low out-of-pocket expense the rest of the year.

There were simply too many items to put in a single picture. I’ll do a breakdown of each store in different posts. For now, I’ll show you my purchases in categories. Check out the 114 items I was able to score on Thanksgiving morning. Remember, these items only cost me $33.80 before tax!

I bought 33 food items.

2 boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, 4 bottles Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice, 2 boxes Hershey's Pot of Gold, 2 Planter's Holiday 3-pack nuts, 2 cans Planter's nuts, 2 cans Pringles Super Stack chips, 4 large bags Holiday M&Ms, 1 box Fiber One brownies, 1 Balance Bar energy bar, 1 Starbucks Double Shot drink, 2 king size Reese's minis, 2 king size Hershey's drops, 2 Snickers bars, 2 Twix bars, 2 Milky Way bars, and 2 3 Musketeers bars

I bought 15 cosmetics and personal care items.

2 Degree for Men deodorants, 2 Wet 'n Wild Color Express nail kits, 2 Pretty Nail Collection nail kits, 3 bottles Revlon nail polish, 2 bottles Secret body splash, 2 Carmex lip balms, 1 Softlips lip balm, and 1 pair cozy socks

I bought 12 dental care items.

1 Oral B Indicator toothbrush, 3 GUM 2-pack toothbrushes, 1 pack Dentek flossers, 1 pack CVS flossers, 2 Listerine 3ct pocket pack breath strips, 1 Crest 3D White toothpaste, and 3 Colgate Total Advanced toothpastes

I bought 9 hair care items.

2 Conair 1875 hair dryers, 1 LA Looks styling gel, and 6 packs Scunci no-damage hair elastics

I bought 24 health care items.

1 Cortaid anti-itch cream, 2 Thermacare heat wraps, 1 Preparation H totables 10ct, 1 iChill relaxation shots 2ct, 1 SAMe Mood, Liver, and Joint health supplements, 1 bottle Pepto Bismol, 2 Bayer Advanced extra strength aspirin 20ct, 1 Naproxen Sodium 20ct, 2 Breathe Right strips 12ct, 1 Theraflu packet, 1 box Theraflu warming caplets 8ct, 1 Excedrin extra strength 8ct with bonus Excedrin PM 8ct, 2 Cepacol throat lozenges 16ct, 3 boxes Tylenol PM 4ct, 1 Advil pocket pack 10ct, 1 Benefiber sticks 3ct, and 2 Sheets energy strips 10ct

I bought 11 shave care items.

2 Bic Flex 4ct razors, 4 Schick Hydro shave gels, 1 Gillette foamy shave cream, 1 Gillette Fusion ProSeries thermal face scrub, 1 Gillette Fusion ProSeries sensitive face wash, 1 Gillette Fusion ProSeries cooling lotion, and 1 Gillette Fusion ProSeries skin moisturizer