I've mentioned Kelli before (the one with the beautiful garden). And I alluded to the fact that she taught me everything I know about saving money through the magic of coupons. Now, before we go too far here, it's important to note that I am NOT an expert and I really don't save a ton of money through using coupons alone. I have so much room for improvement in that area. But I've been able to use Kelli's advice to make some changes and most importantly to be a million times more mindful of how much I'm spending when I stock up on groceries. So, disclaimer over. Here we go!
This is my couponing binder, modeled after Kelli's of course. The front left cover is a bit of a mess right now, but it has an envelope containing "eating out" coupons. I am pretty good about finding these deals and clipping them, but not so good about remembering I have them and taking them with me when I go someplace. I'll work on that. I also have my rebate stuff over there - right now I need to send in my receipt and UPC to get a free bag of cat food. And other "general" coupons like the Food Lion one there which will give me $4.50 off my next $45 purchase at the Lion. Not a huge savings, but they add up!
On the right side is where the fun happens. The binder is stuffed with baseball card holders, and I made color-coded tabs for each section to make finding coupons easy.
Blue is for food items, and I have it divided into the categories like fruits and veggies (these will usually be frozen if I have a coupon for them - very rare to find a coupon for fresh), boxed/dry food, canned food, cereal, etc. I kinda just made up the categories, so you could really split it up however you wanted.
The red section in my binder is for personal care items like toothpaste (which I've learned should pretty much always be almost free between coupons and store deals), shampoo, body wash, deodorant, etc.
Then in green I have household and cleaning stuff. I have a section for laundry detergent, one for dishwasher detergent, dish soap, cleaning supplies, etc.
After that, which you can't really see in the picture, I have an orange section for baby stuff. One tag for diapers, one for wipes, feeding paraphernalia (bottles, forks, sippy cups, etc.), clothes, toys, baby care stuff, etc.
So that's the setup. Now, here's how I go about shopping.
We get the paper twice a week (Wednesday and Sunday). I think it's free or something... or we just got a good deal because we've never paid and we still get it. So on those days, I go through any inserts that are in the paper and I clip any coupons I think we'll use. I also go through junk mail to clip coupons there too. I add it to the binder. This looking and clipping takes maybe 20 minutes, tops, as there aren't a ton of inserts in the papers.
When it's time to go grocery shopping, I start by looking at the store's specials. I typically do this online because it's super easy and I can just click on stuff, update the quantity, and print a list there. (For now, I'm really only doing our big shopping trips at Harris Teeter because I like shopping there, they have our milk, they double coupons up to 99 cents (not just 50 like other places), and they have fun carts that Evelyn enjoys for approximately 2 minutes longer than the standard shopping cart.)
Anyway, that's step one and really where I save the bulk of my money: shop the specials. Build your meal plans around what's on sale. This is almost the only way I've found to save on the perimeter items of the store like fresh produce and meat, and you can save some serious cash this way. For example, check out how much I saved on pork tenderloin and shrimp here:
Two-pound bags of raw frozen shrimp were on special for buy 2, get 3 free. That took the total price per bag from $28 to about $11. And since it keeps for a long time and it's a pretty easy, quick, healthy source of protein, I was all in for the deal this week. Pork tenderloin was buy 1, get 1 free and scanned at half price as a result. Not too shabby.
But you might be wondering where the coupons come in, right? Well, I make my list around the store specials and then I sift through my coupon binder to see if I have any coupons that align with those specials. This overlap is where people who are super skilled can get stuff for free. I generally have only one or two coupons that overlap with a store sale, but that's better than nothing! As I'm looking through the coupon binder, I also look for any other things we might need that I have a coupon for but weren't on sale this week just in case I want to use that coupon now. I put all of the coupons I'm going to use in this grocery store trip into one envelope that I take with me to the store, so I actually leave my binder at home.
That's the basic run-through of everything. Like I said, I'm still learning. I'm learning to clip coupons that are for $1 off or more and to hang onto them for when the store does "super doubles" where they'll double higher-value coupons. Every now and then, they have triple coupons as well, and you can get some great deals then. Kelli also explained that things go on sale in cycles, so sometimes you can stock up a little bit if something is a really good deal. I don't have a stockpile anything like you'll see on Extreme Couponing - just a few extra boxes of cereal in the garage (for lack of a pantry), in fact.
But with these modest changes in how I go about shopping, I typically save about 50% when I go shopping. I still spend a lot - more than I'd like - at the store. But I really only go on big runs once a month so I guess it's all relative.
I've learned some things about couponing, for sure. First, the most common response I hear from anyone when the topic comes up is about how "coupons are just for junk food that you don't need" or something along those lines. I really don't think that's true. I don't clip coupons for pure junk that we do not need to keep around (let alone, in large quantities) in our house. And if you put in some extra effort and look online for coupons, you can find them for the items you want and definitely not for just junk. However, if you are rigid in what you eat and what you use to wash your home and self, then you will not be saving as much by couponing or by shopping the store specials. You just won't. And that's okay. I have odd brand loyalties to some things but not others so I just resign myself to spending the big bucks on my favorite shampoo and body wash for me and Evelyn, but I'll take whatever brand of toothpaste or bread is pretty much free. How you do it is totally up to you.
If you're still reading, I'm impressed. Feel free to ask me any questions! I can't guarantee that I'll know the answer, but I can try! If you have any additional advice or tricks that have worked for you with couponing or saving money on groceries, please let me know! And here's a little shot of adorableness to reward you for sticking it out til the end of this monster post.
All lathered up with her California Baby Lavender Calming Shampoo and Body Wash. Good thing we haven't even gotten halfway through this expensive bottle in her first 15 months of life. I promise I do bathe her... I just must not use much soap!
This is my couponing binder, modeled after Kelli's of course. The front left cover is a bit of a mess right now, but it has an envelope containing "eating out" coupons. I am pretty good about finding these deals and clipping them, but not so good about remembering I have them and taking them with me when I go someplace. I'll work on that. I also have my rebate stuff over there - right now I need to send in my receipt and UPC to get a free bag of cat food. And other "general" coupons like the Food Lion one there which will give me $4.50 off my next $45 purchase at the Lion. Not a huge savings, but they add up!
On the right side is where the fun happens. The binder is stuffed with baseball card holders, and I made color-coded tabs for each section to make finding coupons easy.
Blue is for food items, and I have it divided into the categories like fruits and veggies (these will usually be frozen if I have a coupon for them - very rare to find a coupon for fresh), boxed/dry food, canned food, cereal, etc. I kinda just made up the categories, so you could really split it up however you wanted.
The red section in my binder is for personal care items like toothpaste (which I've learned should pretty much always be almost free between coupons and store deals), shampoo, body wash, deodorant, etc.
Then in green I have household and cleaning stuff. I have a section for laundry detergent, one for dishwasher detergent, dish soap, cleaning supplies, etc.
After that, which you can't really see in the picture, I have an orange section for baby stuff. One tag for diapers, one for wipes, feeding paraphernalia (bottles, forks, sippy cups, etc.), clothes, toys, baby care stuff, etc.
So that's the setup. Now, here's how I go about shopping.
We get the paper twice a week (Wednesday and Sunday). I think it's free or something... or we just got a good deal because we've never paid and we still get it. So on those days, I go through any inserts that are in the paper and I clip any coupons I think we'll use. I also go through junk mail to clip coupons there too. I add it to the binder. This looking and clipping takes maybe 20 minutes, tops, as there aren't a ton of inserts in the papers.
When it's time to go grocery shopping, I start by looking at the store's specials. I typically do this online because it's super easy and I can just click on stuff, update the quantity, and print a list there. (For now, I'm really only doing our big shopping trips at Harris Teeter because I like shopping there, they have our milk, they double coupons up to 99 cents (not just 50 like other places), and they have fun carts that Evelyn enjoys for approximately 2 minutes longer than the standard shopping cart.)
Anyway, that's step one and really where I save the bulk of my money: shop the specials. Build your meal plans around what's on sale. This is almost the only way I've found to save on the perimeter items of the store like fresh produce and meat, and you can save some serious cash this way. For example, check out how much I saved on pork tenderloin and shrimp here:
Two-pound bags of raw frozen shrimp were on special for buy 2, get 3 free. That took the total price per bag from $28 to about $11. And since it keeps for a long time and it's a pretty easy, quick, healthy source of protein, I was all in for the deal this week. Pork tenderloin was buy 1, get 1 free and scanned at half price as a result. Not too shabby.
But you might be wondering where the coupons come in, right? Well, I make my list around the store specials and then I sift through my coupon binder to see if I have any coupons that align with those specials. This overlap is where people who are super skilled can get stuff for free. I generally have only one or two coupons that overlap with a store sale, but that's better than nothing! As I'm looking through the coupon binder, I also look for any other things we might need that I have a coupon for but weren't on sale this week just in case I want to use that coupon now. I put all of the coupons I'm going to use in this grocery store trip into one envelope that I take with me to the store, so I actually leave my binder at home.
That's the basic run-through of everything. Like I said, I'm still learning. I'm learning to clip coupons that are for $1 off or more and to hang onto them for when the store does "super doubles" where they'll double higher-value coupons. Every now and then, they have triple coupons as well, and you can get some great deals then. Kelli also explained that things go on sale in cycles, so sometimes you can stock up a little bit if something is a really good deal. I don't have a stockpile anything like you'll see on Extreme Couponing - just a few extra boxes of cereal in the garage (for lack of a pantry), in fact.
But with these modest changes in how I go about shopping, I typically save about 50% when I go shopping. I still spend a lot - more than I'd like - at the store. But I really only go on big runs once a month so I guess it's all relative.
I've learned some things about couponing, for sure. First, the most common response I hear from anyone when the topic comes up is about how "coupons are just for junk food that you don't need" or something along those lines. I really don't think that's true. I don't clip coupons for pure junk that we do not need to keep around (let alone, in large quantities) in our house. And if you put in some extra effort and look online for coupons, you can find them for the items you want and definitely not for just junk. However, if you are rigid in what you eat and what you use to wash your home and self, then you will not be saving as much by couponing or by shopping the store specials. You just won't. And that's okay. I have odd brand loyalties to some things but not others so I just resign myself to spending the big bucks on my favorite shampoo and body wash for me and Evelyn, but I'll take whatever brand of toothpaste or bread is pretty much free. How you do it is totally up to you.
If you're still reading, I'm impressed. Feel free to ask me any questions! I can't guarantee that I'll know the answer, but I can try! If you have any additional advice or tricks that have worked for you with couponing or saving money on groceries, please let me know! And here's a little shot of adorableness to reward you for sticking it out til the end of this monster post.
All lathered up with her California Baby Lavender Calming Shampoo and Body Wash. Good thing we haven't even gotten halfway through this expensive bottle in her first 15 months of life. I promise I do bathe her... I just must not use much soap!
Comments
Oh and some coupons you'll find say "do not double" on them but if their little bar code starts with a 5, they will get doubled automatically. If it starts with a 9, it won't get doubled. At least that's what I've heard...