Coupons!
Apr 27 '02
The Bottom Line It's possible to save more than you imagined with store coupons. It only takes a bit of preparation and organization. If I can do it, anyone can.
Epinions asks: “Raising a family is an expensive task! What are some tips for stretching every penny?”
I answer: “coupons!”
I have always been a pretty frugal grocery shopper. However, in the past, I never really bothered with clipping or using coupons. I am a disorganized mess, and it never seemed worth the effort. I can now emphatically say that they are worth the effort.
I lost my job in early March. Therefore, it was a combination of boredom and the need to be frugal that lured me into the world of trading coupons online. Now, I never go grocery shopping without my big binder full of coupons, and I never save less than $30 or $40 a trip. In fact, most weeks, I save $70-$100 on groceries.
To be honest, I have not yet cut down my spending on groceries. I am not one of those women who can feed her family for a week on $25. Yet. I am spending about the same as I always spent at the grocery store. The primary difference is, I am getting a LOT more for my money. In time, I plan on spending less each week. However, I need to build up my stockpile of staple items first.
This is my first tip to you: Stockpile and Save
Coupon pros can go the store and get a week’s worth of groceries for $25, not because they have a great coupon for every item that they buy, but because they have learned to buy when things are cheap and stock up. Initially, building a stockpile can actually make you spend more on your weekly groceries, because you still need to buy most of your essentials AND stock up on sale items.
In the past, when I went to the grocery store and something was on sale, I bought one or to of the item, and was happy with my savings. Then, a week or two later, when I ran out of the item I paid full price to buy it again. Now, when I have a coupon for an item, and it is on sale, I buy a LOT of the item, and store it in my basement. Then, I have enough to last me until it is on sale again. Of course, I can only do this with non-perishable items. I now have a basement full of pancake mix, toilet paper, canned tomatoes, paper towels, canned juice, and rice mixes. I am still stockpiling things like peanut butter, jelly, macaroni and cheese, hamburger helper, vegetable oil, coffee, etc. Eventually, I will have the basics that I use each week down in my basement, and will only have to buy fresh meats, vegetables, and frozen items (my freezer is tiny).
Of course, it doesn’t make much sense to stockpile things at their regular prices. The key is to save drastically on an item that you are stockpiling. The way to do this is to combine coupons and sale items. For this to work, you have to have a LOT of coupons for items that you normally buy. Having one 25 cent off coupon for pancake mix won’t get you very far.
Therefore, my second tip to you: Find Multiples of Coupons You Use
When I went shopping for pancake mix to stock my basement, I had 15 coupons for 50 cents off of Hungry Jack pancake mix in my hand. Most newspapers do not carry 15 copies of a coupon in their circular, and most coupons do not appear in the paper 15 times before they expire. How did I get 15 copies of the coupon I needed? I traded for them.
In the past, people traded coupons via magazine ads or coupon clubs. Today, most coupon trading is done on the Internet. There are message boards devoted to trading coupons, and even email groups. I belong to 4 or 5 different trading groups, and that is how I get my coupons.
Every week, I buy two newspapers. Some people are lucky enough to have neighbors or friends that will give them their coupons, but I have to buy mine. I then clip every single coupon out of both papers, whether I plan to use them or not. In addition, I watch for coupons everywhere I go. I find them in magazines, on grocery packages, and in the mail. My kids have even been known to bring me a coupon that they find.
I file all the coupons that I need in a binder, and then I trade the coupons that I do not need. Some people are expert coupon traders. They trade coupons like kids trading baseball cards. They know exactly what each coupon is worth, and what they can trade it for. In the coupon world, some coupons are “hotter” than others. I am somewhat of a novice trader, and prefer to trade collections of coupons called “potlucks”.
A potluck is an envelope full of coupons that somebody else doesn’t need. I have no guarantee of what is in the envelope, although some traders will allow you to ask that they exclude baby or pet items. Sometimes, I get a potluck of coupons as a “RAOK” (Random Act Of Kindness) from another coupon trader. They have coupons that they don’t need, and hate to throw them away; so they send them to me for the cost of mailing them. Other times, I pay a small handling fee ($1 or so) for the potluck.
When the envelope arrives, I sort out the coupons that I want, and then put the extras in my own potluck of coupons. I then send my potluck off to somebody else, who uses different products than I do.
My other primary source for coupons is coupon cutting services. Online coupon cutting services charge a small handling fee for cutting a coupon. They have catalogs of coupons that I can shop through, and select the exact ones that I need. Typically, an online cutting service charges about 10% of a coupon’s face value plus postage. I use these services when I am preparing for a big sale, and need specific coupons fast.
The reason I am willing to pay 10% of a coupon’s face value to get a coupon is that my stores double (and sometimes triple) coupons up to 50 cents. If a coupon is worth over 50 cents, my stores increase the value to $1. Coupons over $1 are redeemed at face value. Not all areas of the country have stores that double coupons. If yours does, take advantage of that fact.
My next tip : Combine Coupons and Save More
Most stores will let you use both a manufacturer coupon AND a store coupon on the same product. Eckerd is a good example of a retailer that does this. Each week, in the Eckerd circular, there are coupons that are only good at Eckerd stores. These Eckerd only coupons can be combined with normal coupons to increase the savings.
However, coupons alone don’t save enough to make a trip worthwhile.
This brings me to my next tip Watch the Sales
I never used to pay attention to store circulars. I used to make my grocery list based on what I wanted to cook. I then went to my favorite store, and bought the items on my list, and paid full price for them. I only shopped at one store, because I liked knowing where everything was, and I liked only making one stop.
Now, I have more time than money; so I shop differently. Every Sunday, I read the store sales circulars in my Sunday paper. I look for what is on sale, and then match up my coupons to the listed sales. Then, I start trading for the coupons that I need. If Dawn dish detergent is on sale for $1, and I can find a bunch of 50 cent coupons for it, then I have gotten my dish detergent for FREE. I go buy as much as I possibly can of Dawn dish detergent, and store it in my basement.
Of course, this means I can’t be picky about brands. Brand Loyalty is OUT
If Palmolive dish detergent had been on sale, that’s what I would have bought instead. I would be using Palmolive for a year, instead of Dawn. To really save money on coupons, you have to be willing to use whatever brand is on sale and has printed coupons. Otherwise, you’ll seldom find the real deals.
I also can’t be picky about stores. If my favorite store doesn’t have Dawn on sale, I go to the store that DOES. I now shop at 4 or 5 different stores instead of just one. Yes, this is a royal pain at times, but the savings are worth it.
My final tip : Get Organized
We have all been at the grocery store, and realized that we have a coupon for an item that we are buying – but the coupon is at home. Or, the coupon is in your purse, but you can’t find it. The key to saving a lot of money using coupons is to organize them, and always carry them with you when you might be shopping.
Some people buy small folders that hold their coupons in sections. I started with this method, but soon had way too many coupons. I next moved to a plastic box with dividers. It kept my coupons in categories, and all in one place, but I still couldn’t easily find the ones that I needed. I finally went to a 3 ring binder system.
I have a large 3 ring binder that zips closed. I bought about 100 baseball card sheet protectors, and use those to organize my coupons. I use tabbed dividers to separate my pages into categories (frozen, dairy, produce, etc.). This way, I can clearly see my coupons when I am shopping.
Summing it all up:
It is possible to save a lot of money with coupons. The secrets are to stockpile sale items, get multiples of coupons that you need, match coupons to sales, and get organized. The other day, I went to the grocery store and bought $300 worth of groceries. I only paid $200 for them though. In time, I hope that my savings will be even better, but $100 is nothing to sneeze at.
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Epinions.com ID:
amykhar
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Member: Amy
Location: USA
Reviews written: 320
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