I have become a coupon crazy woman. Back the first of the year, I joined a website called "The Grocery Game" . The grocery game has saved my family a lot of money at the grocery store and the only thing I have to do is clip the coupon...the site does everything else for me. They find the stores in my area and they give me all of their sale prices each week...now you might say, "Well, I can look in a sales paper and do that."...and you are correct...but...stores have things on sale that they don't advertise in the paper...The stores use the sales papers to get you in the store and then they use these other sale items to get you to buy more...the thing is, if you had planned out your coupons for the items you saw in the sales paper and didn't bring any other coupons for the items you didn't know were on sale, then you would be losing money...saving a little because it is on sale, but not saving as much as you could have if you knew about it and had a coupon...
The most I have ever saved on a grocery trip was 75%...I couldn't believe it...I had $283.54 worth of groceries in my cart but I only paid $70.88 for them...I saved over $200.00 on that grocery trip alone...so it is worth a little of my time to clip those coupons...I would say on my average shopping trip I save 50-60% on groceries...
Below is a picture of my coupon book...a 3 ring binder with dividers and picture inserts that hold the coupons...Hubs laughs at me when I get my coupon inserts and I pull everything out and plan my meals around what is on sale and what I have a coupon for...he's even quit asking if he can buy something when we are at the store, because my answer to him is always, "If you can show me the coupon for it, you can get it." grin...
I'm not saying you have to be as extreme as I am, but beware...clipping coupons is almost as addicting as blogging!
So here are other ways can we be a "Cheapskate" in today's world:
- As I mentioned, plan your weekly meals by what is on sale at the grocery store...
- Freshin' up your leftovers...if you had chicken breast and mac & cheese for dinner on Monday and you have leftovers, but don't feel like the same meal two nights in a row, then chop up the chicken breast, put in bowl with the mac & cheese, pour a packet of taco seasoning over the chicken/mac & cheese and mix well...if you have a little sour cream add that to the mix as well...crumble some chips on top and bake for 30 minutes...now you have an entirely different meal and best of all...you've used up those leftovers...
- Make twice as much when you are making dinner and freeze half of it...Then with a little thawing and reheating you have dinner made for the next time...
- Check with your store to see if they take coupons that have been printed off your computer...if they do, then go to smartsource.com . At this site you can download coupons to print out and much more...
- Check with your grocery store and find out how they work their BOGO (buy one get one free) sales...some stores make each item half price, other stores the first item is regular price and the second one is free...here's why you want to do this...if you have a coupon that says, "save $1.00 if you buy two jars of pickles...your grocery store just happens to have a BOGO on this pickle...if your store scans each jar of pickles at half price (one jar usually costs $2.00, but you are getting a BOGO, so each jar when scanned comes up costing $1.00 each...you have just purchased your required 2 jars of pickles for your coupon...so now you have just paid $.50 cents for each jar of pickles...BUT if your store scans the first jar of pickles and it comes up $2.00 and the second one comes up free, then it is considered only purchasing one jar and you can't use the coupon unless you want to buy 4 jars of pickles, and that way you really haven't saved anything...so find out how your store does their coupons...some stores have certain days that they will double the coupon up to $1.00 (they won't double anything over a $.50 cent coupon which gives you $1.00 off)...Some stores let you put coupons on your MVP card (I know Krogers does this)...so you go online, you download a coupon to your MVP card for shampoo...you also have a paper coupon for the same shampoo...most store will let you have both the downloaded coupon and the paper coupon, so you have gotten two different amounts off on this one product.
- Look for "store coupons"...these are coupons that are usually in the store flyer...you have to cut them out to get the store coupon price, but you can also use a manufacturers coupon with it...so you have a cleaning product you like and you see a "store coupon" in the flyer...and you have a regular coupon also...the product stars out at $4.00...with the store coupon you can get the cleaner at $3.00 and you have a $.50 cent coupon of your own...you have now gone from $4.00 to $2.50 for a product you wanted and needed...
- Buy store brand products whenever you can...now I will admit, there is nothing like Campbell's Pork n Beans and I will NOT buy anything else if I am eating them as is, but if I'm making a casserole that calls for pork n beans, I will buy a store brand (if it is cheaper) because it is going to be mixed with other items and no one is the wiser...it tastes just fine mixed...
With just a few tricks and a little extra time, you can save lots of money for your family...Hugs...
6 comments:
Great tips. I used to use a lot of coupons and saved a lot of money. I haven't done this in a long time, but it wouldn't hurt to get back into it with the cost of things these days.
rena...I use to roll my eyes when I would get behind someone who used coupons and then one day a woman had a cart that was overflowing with groceries and she only paid like $10.00 for them...after I picked my bottom lip off the floor I asked her about and she told me about "The Grocery Game"...I have not been disappointed...
I shop at a grocery store that has the policy that if the price is wrong, you get it free (in fact, many grocery stores have this policy, they just don't advertize it, so always ask the cashier as you go through with your groceries!) Each week I shop, I end up saving about 10 buck simply on items that are mispriced and I noticed. I used to work in the pricing department of a grocery store, and so I know how often the sales stickers get left up after the sale is over simply because of computer error (new stickers are supposed to be printed to replace the sae ones, ad often are missed). I just go through my reciept aftewards, checking it carefully and voila! Instant cash in my pocket.
Thanks for the tips! We do coupons too, just not quite as organized as yours. We bring all the coupons to the store, that way if something is on sale that we don't know about, we can get it.
Wow! 75% saved?! Did they give you a standing ovation at the checkout?!
Thanks for the wonderful tips, Brenda!
angela...I've heard of stores doing that, but I've never been able to keep track of what it should be and what I'm charged at the time...that is something I need to work on...
sruble...I am so not a good grocery shopper...it use to take me hours (3 or 4) to do my grocery shopping...now I'm in and out and hubs likes that...
Post a Comment