The Art of Couponing, Part 1

The company I work for has had to cut back due to low enrollment, most likely due to the current economic situation.  Even though my hours are being restricted, we’re not in danger (yet), but our plans to buy a house are certainly tabled until we have a better feel for what might happen.  Since we’re trying to be more careful about money, I’m trying not to panic not to panic not to panic my hand once again at couponing.

First of all, I suck at couponing.  At least I think I do.  In past attempts I rarely seemed to find coupons for things we typically bought, and had trouble using coupons to actually save money.  I mean, if you buy something extra just because it’s what you have a coupon for, then you’ve sort of defeated yourself when it comes to saving money, right?  And I was always discouraged by the time it took to gather and organize coupons as well.  Now with all the online sources for coupons, I’m hoping I can spend a small amount of time but still have it work for me somehow.  Also, I have new incentive to give it a go.

From what I can tell to start, to really make couponing work for you, it means you need to let go of brand loyalty.  And to really rack up the most bang for your coupon, you want to hit a sort of couponing trifecta:

1)  Store sale

2) + Store coupon

3) + Manufacturer’s coupon

It seems most stores will let you use both a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon on an item, which makes sense since a manufacturer’s coupon will be reimbursed to the store, so they’re not really out any money for letting you use it.  However many registers won’t allow the use of more coupons than there are items, so at some stores you may need to purchase “filler” items in order to pull this off.  Also, some cashiers will balk at you using two coupons on one item, so you either need to be willing to call over a manager when necessary and explain what you’re doing clearly (often with a good knowledge or even a copy of the store policy), or plan to just let it go.  (I haven’t tried this at all yet, so I can’t say where I’ll stand.  Why does it feel sort of embarrassing to argue with a cashier over a coupon even if you happen to be right?)

Now the trifecta is not a requirement for great savings, but it’s something to keep in mind – in some cases, the store coupon might even be a rebate of sorts which can give you more money (or store credit) than you spent (usually this seems to happen at places like CVS and Walgreens, which I will attempt tackling in the future but not immediately).  To start out, I’m going to look at the weekly deals on Giant Eagle and Kroger online, and try to make some meals based around the loss leaders (the things in the store that are a good enough deal to lure you in).  Kroger has started mailing coupons to its card holders based on things they tend to buy, so using those will definitely help.

Last week I used the Kroger weekly specials, and managed to find coupons at Smartsource.com and Coupons.com to match some of the specials, so I feel like I’m off to a good start.  Since I don’t get the Sunday paper, the online coupon sources are my best bet.  I’ve also used Shortcuts.com, P&G esaver, and Upromise to load coupons right onto my store discount card.  The only downside to coupons loaded to the card is that they are not doubled at stores that double coupons.

I think my first step will be to keep track of the usual prices of items I tend to buy, so I know how much of a deal a sale is, and know whether a sale at one of the stores I shop at is really better than the price at another store.  Then I’ll know where I can most effectively use my coupons.  Also, comparing the sale price, even plus coupon, to the generic item (if it’s an item where you don’t mind using the generic) can show that some deals aren’t really deals.

As I dive more into this process I’ll be sharing what I’ve figured out, and what works for me and what doesn’t.  What tricks do you use to save money on groceries?

Moving

I think moving always sucks, no matter what.  It’s amazing how many little things accumulate.  Also, I’m a pack-rat, so it’s hard to let go of stuff, even if it’s stuff I haven’t bothered with for a year or more – after all, I’ll need it someday, right?

Update Gratification

Do you find that if you are contemplating a site redesign, you don’t do much with your site?

I had been wanting to do a little something to reorganize some of the information on this blog.  Sort of rework it so the look would be the same or similar as it was before, but that more than one post would show up at a time, and reworking the sidebars a bit, especially in the single post view.  (As you can see, that redesign is mostly implemented, minus a few additions I’ll have to make at a later date.)

And while seriously contemplating this update, all other journal updates essentially stopped.  I would think of something to write, and think: Aw, that won’t look quite the way I’d like it to until I work on the site redesign, and I don’t have time for that right now.  Which is funny, since the redesign is (and was intended to be) so very similar to the old design that it almost doesn’t make sense (though it does, and it pleases me to have it done).

So, now, after a great deal of css frustration (it’s so simple what I want this should so work why doesn’t it work arghhh let’s go find a theme where it works and see what they did) here’s that bit of update gratification I’ve been looking forward to.  Whee!

Saw Star Trek

I enjoyed it.  Really.

I’m not sure that the plot fully holds up, but I’m willing to suspend disbelief.  And as an alternate version goes, I like many of the changes and additions that were made, and I’m curious to see how they play out.

I found Quinto’s Spock to be impressive.  And as others have said, Pine does a great job of being Kirk without mimicking William Shatner.  I like what they did with McCoy, and with Uhura, and I got a kick out of Scotty.  There’s plenty I’m sure could be picked on, but much of it folds to the idea of “reboot.”  This movie is an introduction to the reimagining of these characters, and I’ll be interested to see where they go with it next.