A penny saved ...

I'm not sure how it happened, but Matt and I find ourselves on a mailing list for new homeowners. In the past month we've received lots of "welcome to the neighborhood" greetings and, more importantly, coupons from Lowe's Home Improvement, Pottery Barn, Walgreen's and Bo's Foods.

The Walgreen's coupon saved me $5 on my most recent visit; the Bo's coupon expired before I used it. (I rarely shop there, despite its proximity to work, because the selection isn't very good.)

The Lowe's coupon was set to expire last Thursday so that afternoon Matt and I went ahead and bought the appliances for our new house, even though we don't need them for three or four weeks, and we saved $226! I love saving money. Most of the appliances we bought had a 10 percent discount that we didn't even know about until everything was rung up (there was an Energy Star special) and then we used our coupon to get an additional 10 percent off the total bill. And, there's a rebate for free delivery (worth about $50, I think).

Since the coupon was good for a total discount of up to $500, I was sorely tempted to buy one of those Dyson vacuum cleaners that I covet, but I did not, so that's a savings of several-hundred more dollars right there. At least that's how I like to look at it.

The Pottery Barn coupon doesn't expire for two more months, so maybe, just maybe, we'll use it to buy ourselves a Merry Christmas bed.