For years, I was not what you would call a coupon cutter. I just didn't want to bother with the hassle of it. So, I shopped at Wal-mart and felt generally good about things. A few months ago, my sister introduced me to grocerysmarts.com. (It's only available in a few Western states so far.)
It works like this: You purchase the Sunday paper with all the coupons. You're supposed to purchase as many copies as there are people in your house. I was a little daunted by the thought of buying seven copies of the paper, so right now I buy four. (The idea being that when you find a really good deal on items you use frequently, you stock up so you don't have to buy the item when it's full price.)
Every Sunday, I separate the coupons from the paper and date them. Then I file them away. The night before I go grocery shopping, I visit grocerysmarts.com. The fabulous people who run this site (I don't know who they are, but I love them) post all of the sales for local stores. They tell you which sale items are really good deals. Then, they post coupons for each sale item and in which paper it was featured. You go back to your file of coupons, cut only the ones you need, and you're off to the store. I'm learning to plan our dinner menus around what's on sale, and purchase staple items when they are on sale so I'll have them when I need them. It really is genius.
The one hitch is that Wal-mart doesn't really do sales. They have low prices and they will usually accept coupons, but they never have doorbuster sales on groceries. So, I decided to abandon my beloved Wal-mart for the most part (and I really do love it there, so please don't post comments about how evil you think Wal-mart is) and start shopping at another local store.
This week, one of our local stores is having a huge sale. When you buy 10 of the participating sale items (doesn't have to be 10 of the same thing), you get $5 back. I spent a ton of time cutting coupons (more than I ever have before, actually) and saved even more on top of the sale. I got a lot of stuff for $63.39, with a total savings of $63.10.
I'm sure a lot of people have spent less and saved more, but I was pretty proud of myself. It's a strange kind of high... this coupon stuff. I love handing my coupons over to the cashier and watching the total go down, down, down as she scans them. Plus, But it's a great feeling to save money on our monthly grocery bill and know that I'm also stocking up on things we'll use in the future.
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5 comments:
Tennille continues the transformation into Mom... :)
I have a friend here who got so into it that for weeks she would take a picture of all the stuff she'd bought, and post on her blog about what the total should have been, what it was on sale and what she paid with her coupons.
My problem is that we've been told we can't just buy the sunday paper, we have to buy the whole week and while many multiples of the Sunday paper is bad enough, that many every day might just kill me. So, for now, I just watch the sales and try to cook accordingly. Yeah for you!
They need to send that to the East!
I have friends like Angie that put their savings on the their blogs. I know K would love it if I could figure the coupon thing out and be able to say I bought 300$ worth of stuff for 45 cents.....just haven't gotten there yet! ...maybe a new year's resolution!
I love putting my food in our food storage these days. It's nerdy I know, but I love seeing how much more we have than before I started this whole coupon thing. It's comforting. And to be doing it for less money... Ahh, it's the greatest!!
Once again you never cease to amaze me! You also take me back to when the only thing that motivated me enough to do the coupon thing was when a store close to us had "double coupon day." They would actually give you double the amount on the coupon. I can't remember their name. Obviously they went out of business :(
Great job. That's a lot of savings! I want to cut and paste what you said and send to my home ward.
P.S. Hey everybody, ask Tennille to give you a copy of hers and Adam's Church talks. They were outstanding!
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