Talk to me about couponing!

M

Megan Turnidge

New member
We started the Dave Ramsey plan and with our new budget I'm realizing that we spend too much on groceries and that I need to figure out a way to save some $$$ in that category. We generally spend about $300/mo on food and toiletries/other grocery non-food items. But to be honest, we need to try and get that down to $200. Thankfully, my DD is almost completely potty trained so there goes $40/mo of toiletries. I could cut out snacks and stuff, but we just can't seem to survive without them, so I need to see if I can just cut coupons and eat about the same as we do now. Any coupon savvy people here want to share their secrets and resources? I'd really rather not have to pay to join a subscription site... if at all possible, so are there FREE sites out there for learning this stuff?

Oh, and those who use coupons, how many newspapers do you get on Sundays?

My aunt does some really intense couponing. She took me with her once and she spent hours and hours every week prepping for it... but scored peanut butter for 20 cents and all kinds of insane deals.
 
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Kelleigh Ratzlaff is another inspirational one...

There are also a lot of coupon sites on-line that you can print out the coupon, however I'm finding more and more stores are not taking them because too many people are making copies.

And there are blogs like The Krazy Coupon Lady that are dedicated to giving heads up on where to find deals and tips.
 
We don't use coupons anymore because so much of what we eat and use now doesn't have a coupon to correspond to, and it's not worth buying the paper for the occasional paper towel coupon or toothpaste coupon.
 
The coupon mom has a great pdf on how to cut your grocery bill -
www.couponmom.com
Wow 200 I cant even imagine - I have 2 teen's (+assorted friends) and that is more like a weekly bill - I cook for 5 adults every night so pretty much everything I buy is double. If you are serious about saving (we do dave too) there are some things you might want to look into - Check the phone book for a real butcher and see about buying a 1/4 cow or even a 1/2 cow - we generally go in with a few friends on a whole cow - saves us a TON of money - also who ever sells the cow usually will sell a pig abd some chickens too. We have been able to get them free range as well. Freezer cooking also is a godsend - especially with kids in sports - this is a great site for that -
http://www.30daygourmet.com/
 
I like the coupon mom site as well..and I used to play the grocery game but i often find myself buying crap I DON'T need b/c i have a coupon for it lol

the diapers will help a lot!
 
I really want to do Once a Month cooking, or at least some variation of it, but we need more freezer space first. http://onceamonthmom.com/ plans her menus around what sales are going on that month, so you can save a lot of time, money, and her recipes look delicious! Right now I'm just using her site for baby food.

Coupon Mom will send you a ton of coupons, but I always find myself buying stuff I wouldn't be buying anyway, and then I spend more than I need to. The one time that we would have been able to save a lot was right before Oliver was born, and I had to send DH shopping. Before he knew it the clerk gave all of our coupons to the customer before him. That was about $20. blah.
 
Megan -

You can do a TON of freeze ahead in a small, tiny freezer :) We used to do bases for meals and freeze them in ziptop bags, then store them like albums in the back of the freezer. I could get a TON of meals in a tiny little space that way (think taco meat for any Tex-Mex meal or beef base for casseroles, or mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes, etc.) Anything that can be frozen flat and then stacked upright will get you a great head-start on a meal with minimal space in the freezer. Before our inlaws bought our chest freezer, I had a teeny freezer that I stored about 3 weeks worth of full meals in this way (granted, we didn't do frozen pizzas or ice cream that take up a ton of space).

I really feel like this is where we save the bulk of our money. If it's on sale, I buy more, stock up, make 2 meals and freeze one, and make a lot from scratch. I still buy some convenience things, but tend towards the store-brands when taste isn't an issue - some things just DEMAND the real version lol.
 
I don't use coupons because I don't want to spend the time and we don't buy a lot of the stuff anyway...

however, I think a GREAT money saver is meal planning. We plan a menu for 2 weeks and shop for that 2 weeks. It works great... eliminates going out to eat when you don't know what to do for dinner (for those that do that...) and you use what you buy. If you don't already do that, I highly recommend it.
 
I was also going to suggest meal planning. Its a little hard at first, but the best way to start is to sit down and write a list of any and all meals that you love. It might be a substantial list, but thats good! You can use that as your base, then start copying meals over. If you want to add a new recipe once in a while, go for it.

Once you have your meals planned (include a couple "leftover" nights, or eat the leftovers for lunch - otherwise your fridge will be bursting, and you'll waste a lot of it), figure out what you have in stock, and what you need for groceries. Stick to your shopping list!

I haven't been meal planning for a few months, and we can really tell the difference in our food bill. We shop in the nearest city (an hour away) because food in our small town is ridiculous ($6 for a jug of milk). When we'd go (before meal planning), we'd easily drop $150 every 2 weeks. I meal-planned & shopped accordingly, and almost fell over when I realized that I checked out 2 weeks of groceries for $45!! We'd never eaten better either.

It was a HUGE money savings.
 
I am also a 2 week at a time planner (at least most of the time) & it's a huge saver.
I usually try to include 1 night in the 2 weeks as an eat out night, but if you're going for savings, you can do an eat out meal at home for way, way less.
I also try to incorporate at least 1 new recipe each week, might not be for a new food, just a new way to prepare some of our favorite flavors. Also in the summer or fall when the freshest fruits/veggies are available we try a new one every week, & shop the farmers' market.
We don't do coupons (for groceries) for a couple of reasons...I have issues with processed foods & what gets put in them. If I make it from scratch, then I know exactly what my family is eating (to a point). & the other there really aren't that many coupon opportunities in our small town, without making it a lot of work.
 
I was reading up on couponing recently myself. The basics that I got out of it, were to find store coupons and "stack" them with manufacturer's coupons. That seems to be the biggest tip. And most manufacturer's coupons are good for a few months, so you can clip them as you go, and then wait for a store sale/coupon, and get more bang for your buck. Even better if the store is doing double or triple coupon days.

They also say that even if you don't use coupons on food, you can see substantial savings on toiletries and paper products. Most of the blogs I read said they don't pay more than $1 for pretty much anything toiletry or paper related. Most get things like toothpaste and toilet paper for FREE. So that's something to consider as well.

I don't have the time to devote to starting to look into any of this right now, but I'm hoping to start it in a few months.
 
I gave it a try for a good six months, and I've decided that for my family and our lifestyle choices, it's not a good fit. Here are my reasons:

1. Most coupons are for processed foods, and we're trying to eat more whole foods. I found myself coming home with boxes of crackers and cookies just because they were free or super cheap, and then I would realize I didn't want that food in our home, even for free.
2. Die-hard couponing encourages waste. To get items for free, you're encouraged to buy the smallest size available. This produces a lot more garbage than buying in bulk.
3. Time. It took a lot of time each week to clip, find matches on the internet, use those to make my grocery list, find the exact product at the store, go to more out-of-the-way stores with coupon matching, and then pay for everything at the checkout. It doubled (AT LEAST) the amount of time I spent buying groceries. And try doing this with a 4,3, and 1-year-old. Not fun.
4. Storage space. Couponing encourages stocking up, which is not a bad thing, as long as you're rotating through your stuff regularly. I cleaned out my linen closet, and I realized that I had approx 14 bars of soap, 10 bottles each of shampoo and conditioner, and so on. That's fine, but I wasn't using stuff nearly as quickly as I was buying them. Storing excess stuff costs mentally, and we're trying to cut back on clutter in our life.
5. It's not always cheaper. You have to buy name brands for almost every coupon, and unless you find it on sale in addition to the coupon, it's usually cheaper to buy generic.
6. Honestly, it can be addictive. I was speaking to a friend of mine who's new to couponing, and she was up until 2:00 finding coupons and deal scenarios online. That's not healthy, even if you are saving your family money.

Now, I have LOTS of friends who love couponing. It's almost a game with them. I'll also still look for coupons for specific products we buy (like Method cleaners). But we've decided to eat more whole foods, use natural cleaners, stop using many paper products, and make several of our own products (glass cleaner, baking mixes, etc). I'm okay with my grocery bill being a little higher to achieve these goals.
 
I actually think that only spending $300 is pretty impressive... especially since you're getting other non-food items with that!

There are a lot of awesome couponing sites and "ways of life" that can save hundreds of dollars a month. I tried a couple of the methods for awhile and found myself spending hours and hours every week coupon-hunting. While I did save quite a bit of money, saving $50 wasn't worth the 10 hours that I put into it.

I have found that meal planning saves me a lot of money, and I do freeze meals for later. I love the Once a Month Mom website. Even doing this, our grocery bill isn't anywhere close to $300/month - I normally average $110/week.
 
nonnie said:
The coupon mom has a great pdf on how to cut your grocery bill -
www.couponmom.com
Wow 200 I cant even imagine - I have 2 teen's (+assorted friends) and that is more like a weekly bill - I cook for 5 adults every night so pretty much everything I buy is double.
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Yeah, I'm sure teens can eat A LOT! We're just a family of 3 - one of which is only 2 years old. :)
 
cheltzey said:
1. Most coupons are for processed foods, and we're trying to eat more whole foods. I found myself coming home with boxes of crackers and cookies just because they were free or super cheap, and then I would realize I didn't want that food in our home, even for free.
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We tend to buy a lot of snack foods anyway (especially for my husband) so I really know I could save money in that category. lol
 
lol, Darcy, our freezer is packed to the brim with MEAT. I bought ice cream last week and it just kept falling out because there wasn't really room for it. We pay attention to meat prices and buy a lot when it's on sale. We usually go over our grocery budget 2-3 times a year because we stock up on meat, but we easily go under budget the other months and it all evens out. In fact, we have about a $100 surplus on our grocery budget right now.

I think it was the coupon mom who said to track what you buy, pay attention to prices, and then you know when things are actually on a good sale. Some stores try to make you think that things are a "great deal" when it's $0.10 off of the regular price, and an actual sale will get you $0.50 off. Pay a lot of attention to what you are buying, always look for a generic option (we often liked Kroger way better than name brand. I miss Kroger!), and stock up when it really is a good deal. And like a lot of other ladies have said, don't buy something you wouldn't normally buy just because it is a "good deal". It's not a good deal if it is adding $2 to your bill even though it was originally $7. Don't let coupons and ads add to what you would normally buy (i.e. cookies, crackers, chips, soda ALWAYS go on sale, but we just keep an eye on what we eat, and what we should be eating to know when to buy.)

Beans can be a good way to save money. I wasn't a huge bean eater, but DH loves them, and we've found some recipes that I like for a meal or two, but he'll eat for a week and we can save a lot of money that way. Also, we use green chilis a lot, so we would buy #10 cans of them, repackage them for the freezer, and we saved a LOT of money that way. When repackaging foods and meats for the freezer, we first wrap in plastic wrap (or baggies), then wrap in foil, and then we put the food in a big ziploc that is labeled and dated.
 
If your husband likes a lot of the snack type foods does that mean chips & such? If so, do you have an Aldi nearby? We have found that the potato chips, pretzel sticks, etc. don't taste "generic" (no offense to anyone) and the prices are ridiculously cheap. It's the Clancy brand.

I've even passed them off on my father and he would complain from here to Tuesday if they didn't taste good to him. Now I pick up the pretzel sticks for him because he won't stop at another store but the savings is so great and since he likes them I include it as part of my shopping. Just a thought.
 
scrap2day said:
If your husband likes a lot of the snack type foods does that mean chips & such? If so, do you have an Aldi nearby? We have found that the potato chips, pretzel sticks, etc. don't taste "generic" (no offense to anyone) and the prices are ridiculously cheap. It's the Clancy brand.

I've even passed them off on my father and he would complain from here to Tuesday if they didn't taste good to him. Now I pick up the pretzel sticks for him because he won't stop at another store but the savings is so great and since he likes them I include it as part of my shopping. Just a thought.
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We've got a Walmart, Safeway, and Basha's... and that is IT! lol
 
I did the grocery game for awhile but in my area it was only available for the most expensive grocery store. Nearly every grocery store has it's sale fliers available online. You can print out many of the coupons you find in the sunday paper from http://coupons2.smartsource.com/smartsource/index.jsp?Link=5S2ZUA6PWPEPO. You can just print what you need. Mostly we use the cereal ones & snack foods, sometimes some dairy ones and then toiletries & paper goods. But we don't buy about 2/3 of the food stuff there is coupons for. Either we don't eat that type of food (frozen dinners) or we don't like that brand (Ragu vs Prego) But they are handy when it's stuff you like. Especially if the store doubles the coupon, like one of ours does.

It took a few months, a couple years back but I now have a spreadsheet of how much things I regularly buy cost at the stores I shop at broken down by unit price since one of those stores is Wal Mart and WM sells some stuff in different sized packages than everyone else (it looks like the diapers are cheaper there but actually there are fewer diapers in the box, so the cost per diaper is the same). Ididn't buy the stuff, I just used my cell phone to take pictures of the price tags while I was in the store for other things

I sit down on Sunday go through the online fliers, sort out where the best sales of stuff we need are, compare it to the coupons, make a up a weekly menu. Takes me an hour these days, maybe two if I feel the need to pantry stock. Then over the week shop at the stores I need to. I'm regularly by all 4 grocery stores on different days of the week so it's no hassle for me to buy specific things at specific stores for the best price. Though our newest one Martins, which has the double coupons, is coming up with the best prices for about 70% of the stuff these days, which does make it easy. The trick is remembering to update my price list when I get back if the regular price of an item has changed (Safeway has been slapping New Low Prices on random items for a few months now)
 
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Okay, There is a website called Hot Coupon World it is like a definitive resource on couponing, stockpiling and what not. It is alot of info and can be very overwhelming but it is a wonderful resource. I go through spells of couponing and not and once you get a good stockpile your bills will go down. Some great tips:

Buy only what it is on sale or if it is a great deal. Like I only buy meat if it is a smokin' deal and when it is I buy alot to have on hand.

Be Flexible with brand loyalty. If you really want to save big bucks you have to be willing to sacrifice your favorite brand of cookie for something different.

It takes awhile to see the savings but you will after you get started.

It takes alot of work to coupon, which is a reason why I don't do it as much.
 
I use Hot coupon world also. I use to use it a lot more, but it does take a lot of time to really follow all the sales and coupons and I'd rather use that time on something else. Also, in my area we only have 1 chain grocery store and Wal-Mart and the grocery store isn't offering as good sales as it used to.

I have done the best with just meal planning before I go to the store. When I'm planning, I look at that week's ad and plan my meals around what's on sale for even more savings. Then if you have a coupon also that great. Also, if your grocery store has a card, lots of times you can add coupons onto the store card and use those in addition to manu. coupons.
 
When my son was a baby, I got $60 worth of baby food for only $10 because of sales & coupons at Price Chopper. I love that they double the coupons!!!


I ALWAYS get my Colgate toothpaste for free at PC with double coupons when buying them on sale. Same with Skintimate shaving cream. I also got 2 12 packs of Scott TP (that lasts FOREVER) for only $2 each with sales & double coupons!!!!
 
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I have been shopping for my groceries online and having them delivered every other week. It costs $7 to have done, but I save the time and effort of doing it and I don't chuck a bunch of junk into my cart I shouldn't buy like if I was at the store. It has actually ended up saving me a good amount of money. I am also a meal planner. It does save.
 
I'm not a "die hard" couponer, but I save $35-50 every trip in coupons. I only purchase stuff I'd usually buy (unless it's free- free stuff I pick up even if we don't use/like it and donate it to our local food pantry). Meal planning is a big money saver- so is making double meals and freezing half for another time (this typically saves us tons of money because we have a quick meal on hand and don't have to resort to fast food as often).

Find a store that double coupons (our Kroger doubles up to $0.99 and about once a quarter they have tripple coupons and tripple coupons up to $1.50). Comparrision shop! I'm pretty sure all Walmarts do this (I know for sure ours does). If you have the sale ad for another store and the item is cheaper- Walmart will give you that item at that price (this saves a little money- but mostly gas from not running to 10 different stores).

You can look for couponing blogs for your area/region that will tell you what coupons to use for what sales, etc. I have a ton of "frugal" blogs I read, if you're interested let me know and I'll PM them to you.
 
I found a blog that does matchups for stores in my area, and then I just run off her list, saves me a ton of time.

I CVS more than I grocery store coupon though. CVS saves us tons of money.
 
I started couponing about two months ago and I'll never go back to not using them again. My fav fav fav blog is http://www.stretchingabuckblog.com/. She does all the work for me b/c I don't have time to go searching all the ads. Just this past weekend I got $225 worth of groceries for $145 by using coupons at Kroger.
 
good luck meeeegan! i have so much respect and admiration for you girls who are so strict and disciplined about this stuff.

I'm way to lazy to coupon. DH and I have been discussing things to do so we aren't stuck in this "what's for dinner" rut every night! We're going to start doing a weekly meal plan just for this reason.
 
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