I love it when a plan comes together ~

The next time you have a friendly face off with a coupon cynic, you know who I'm talking about...the ones who naively state, "you can only buy junk food with coupons" or who ask "do you REALLY save money with coupons or do you spend more on things you don't need because it's a good deal?"...

The next time you come nose to nose with one of these unknowing critics, feel free to pass along this little story....

So my son was celebrating his 8th birthday by having three boys over for a play date and pizza night. I opted for Tombstone pizzas for two reasons: #1 Homeland had them on-sale for $2.99 which is cheaper than Little Caesar's and #2 Tombstone is offering a rebate.

Then I got a brilliant idea! Although I wouldn't be doing my grocery shopping for a few more days, since I was going to Homeland anyway, I might as well take advantage of the "transaction" to the fullest and get some of the items on my deals list.

I decided to get ONLY the FREE items and save the rest for my regular grocery shopping trip.

If I had bought ONLY the four pizzas I needed to buy, my total would have been around $12.89 tax included.

Here's what I got:

By the time all my coupons doubled, not only did I receive all the "extras" for free but by the time overage was applied to my total, I paid only $10.57 for ALL of it including the pizzas.

So basically, I would have paid MORE for just buying what I NEEDED than I did when I added in a few GREAT deals!

Now that's what I call shopping...Cha-Ching!!!