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?
May 29th, 2009 on 7:28 am
OK, I get the idea of coupons in theory, but…
Every time I hear an interview with someone who spends $20 a week on groceries for their family of four, they
1) seem to spend hours reading newspapers and looking for coupons and what stores have what deals
2) shop at multiple stores
3) buy multiple items
So I have neither the time to shop at multiple stores and peruse the papers for hours, nor do I have the storage space for five bottles of ketchup and a decades worth of shampoo.
Thus, every interview with a couponer I’ve heard/read won’t work for me, because I don’t have any storage space at all and am not willing to spend my entire Sat going to every grocery store in town.
Essentially, I’m wondering how much you really save if you take into consideration how much you spend in gas driving all over town, and how much your *time* is worth versus how much you’re spending at the store.
Those are my thoughts anyway. I’m not against couponing, I just don’t see it working for me at all, at least as I’ve seen/heard it done.
May 29th, 2009 on 12:30 pm
I agree with you. I tried to add Aldi into my grocery rotation, but it didn’t work out, especially if you took the value of my time into account. (The store is inconveniently placed for me, and it’s hours are a bit too restricted, with no night hours after 7pm.) And I too had limited storage, though we may have a bit more room for that now than we did, but I think that stocking up when you find a deal *is* probably another key to making it work.
I already shop at Kroger, Giant Eagle, and Target, though. So if I can use that rotation to make it work at all, it would be great.
So yeah, we’ll see if it seems to take a whole lot of my time, and what the payoff really is. I figure there’s going to at least be a learning curve, so I might as well blog about it, heh.
May 29th, 2009 on 3:29 pm
God we’re terrible at this. We tend to shop every day for the food we’re going to eat each night. Which, I know, is one of the worst ways to get any kind of value.
But back when I was feeding more people on an extremely limited budget, I found a few tricks that worked really well. For me it was more about what I bought than using coupons. Firstly, I bought all strore brand all the time. That’s easy, and usually there’s not much of a difference. And I stocked up on basic staples when they were on sale even if they were a pain in the neck to store. I bought a lot of stuff in bulk at the co-op (which is tricky, cause so many things there really are not a bargain). Also, no pre-packaged convience food. None. Nada. That was a much bigger thing than I thought it would be. And other little things like instead of buying boneless chicken breasts, I bought a whole chicken and cut it up. It’s easy, the parts freeze well, and you’ve got bones for soup.
Anyhow, good luck!
May 30th, 2009 on 12:56 am
Thanks, Ivy! Yeah, those are lots of good suggestions: We definitely do a lot of convenience foods. There has to be a balance there though, because sometimes time is harder to come by, so I’ll have to figure out which things are easier one way or another (though if I’m working less that makes more time to cook). Regardless some things will definitely be better to do from scratch (or close to scratch).
Making whole chicken is a good tip, and it’s pretty easy to do too, just get it ready (I oil it and rub it with salt/pepper/garlic) and throw it in the oven – probably a lot easier than some people think.
June 11th, 2009 on 7:12 am
I would always clip them and forget them. Many times I have bought things at the store only to get home and see that I had a really good coupon for it.