Notes From My Coupon Class

Saving Money With Coupons

How I Got Started

I was about to have our 2^nd baby and we had made the decision for me to stay home and no longer work. Obviously, this meant that we would not have as much money and so I asked the Lord to show me how I could manage our money better and to show me ways that I could stretch the money we had. A couple of days after that prayer, I came across some very helpful websites and my money saving adventures began! It didn’t happen over night, but slowly and surely the savings increased…kind of like a coupon snowball. J

Take A Deep Breath

Begin with the attitude that you will gradually save more each week. It will take practice to perfect your shopping trips. Don’t overwhelm yourself by expecting to save 90% off your bill the first week. Gradually decrease your budget over the next few months.

Be Prepared---It Takes WORK

Take inventory of your pantry and fridge. Know what you have and what you need. When you find a good deal on items that you use, STOCK UP! On the flip side, don’t buy items that you will not use. Just because something is a good price does not mean that you have to buy it. If it just sits in your pantry, you have wasted money, not saved it. However….you can buy items that you know you can donate to charity, like we did recently for Pleasant Hills Children’s Home.

Look through your sales ads before you go to the store, so you can match up your coupons and find the best deals. You can look at your store’s ad online if you don’t receive a copy it in your paper. I look at my couponing as a type of part time job. So the more time I invest, the more I am able to save. At this point, after I have clipped my coupons, I spend an hour to an hour and a half preparing for my shopping trip (that includes all my stores that I am stopping by). A well planned shopping trip and meal plan for the week is key to saving money. I plan my meal plans around the weekly deals, not my shopping based on my meal plans.

Be aware that it will take you longer to shop once you are in the store. You need to make sure you get the right size item that the coupon indicates. I am getting faster, but I usually end up spending a couple hours in the store for a “stock up trip” which is a full basket of groceries. If I am only getting a few items, I still know that I need to budget at least 30 minutes.

Try not to be brand loyal. There are a few items, such as make up, that I am brand loyal to. However, if you are not brand loyal, you will be able to save much more.

Take your coupons with you to the store. You never know what deals you will find at the store that were not listed in the sales ad.

Know what a good deal is. Be aware of what the regular prices are for items. Just because something is listed in the ad as “on sale,” does not mean that it is. I have seen items “on sale” that are actually higher than the regular price. This comes with a little practice and experience of being watchful of prices.

Also, look out for marketing scams, such as 10 for $10. Most of the time, you don’t have to purchase 10 items because the items are priced individually for $1 each. So just buy the amount that you need.

Shop weekly. I have tried to only shop once a month, because it is difficult for me to shop with my kids in tow, so I try to go when my husband is available to watch them. By shopping once a month, however, I found that I was not able to save nearly as much money because I was limited on what deals I could take advantage of. I now shop once a week, occasionally stretching it 2 weeks. Many times, I shop late in the evening because that is the only time I am able to leave the kids.

However, sometimes, the sale for the week is not worth driving into town for, so I do sometimes stretch my shopping trips to every other week.

Make the system work for YOU. What works for me and my family, may not be feasible for you. Don’t feel guilty if you don’t have the time or energy to work the system exactly the way that I or anyone else does. Your time is also valuable. So don’t stress if you don’t have a lot of time to invest. You are not a bad steward of your money if you are not able to use the coupon system to its full potential. Use the resources I am giving you, and then do what works for you and your household. A lot of the tools I am giving you, do a lot of the leg work for you, so for those of you who have less time, the sites listed should be beneficial.

　

Tips and Tricks

Tip #1

Buy what you need, BEFORE you need it. The key to saving money with coupons is to buy the items you need from the store when they are on sale and you have coupons for the item. Most stores have rotate the items that they have on sale on a 6-8 week rotation, meaning that the item will be on sale every 6-8 weeks.

So, when you get your coupons, don’t use them immediately just because you have them. Watch your sale ads and see when it goes on sale.

Tip #2

Shop the stores with the best coupon policy. I personally shop at Kroger and CVS primarily, unless I see a really good deal elsewhere. However, these are my 2 store that I focus on. Try to find a store that has a DOUBLE and TRIPLE coupon policy. Our Kroger stores have this policy and so I am able to save the most money there. More on Kroger and CVS in a minute.

NOTE: I have found it helpful to focus on only 2 stores. If you shop every grocery store in town, then you are taking a lot of time and will be stressed out with no energy by the time you finish. If you have time to shop each store, then you will most definitely get the best deals, but most of us do not have a lifestyle that accommodates that much shopping.

There are other good deals available at other stores, but your time is also valuable. I do look at other store ads to see if there is a SUPER deal (such as low cost meat) and will make an extra stop for items such as that, but as a general rule, I limit my shopping to those 2 stores. You may enjoy shopping at other stores, but these are the stores that I have had the most success with.

Obviously, I keep an eye out for great sales at the mall for holiday and birthday gifts as well. I have had great success at JC Penney and Kohl’s with their sales and newspaper coupons.

Tip #3

Use more than 1 coupon on the same item. Depending on the store’s coupon policy, many times you will be able to use more than one coupon on the same item. I call this “stacking.”

EXAMPLES:

1. You can use a manufacturer coupon AND a store coupon on the same item.

2. Load electronic coupons on your Kroger card. You can go to shortcuts.com or cellfire.com and load electronic coupons on your card. These e-coupons will deduct on top of any coupons used for the same item that you bring to the store with you. If there is more than one e-coupon for the same item on the different sites, my understanding is that Kroger will take 2 of them in addition to your paper coupons.

3. BOGO: When you have a BOGO coupon, most of the time you can use additional coupons with the item. The store reads the BOGO coupon and deducts the price of the second item because it sees that you purchased two items. You can then use additional $off coupons for one or both of the items. Many times the store computer calculates the BOGO coupon separately, enabling you to use a coupon per item in addition to the BOGO.

Using this method, a couple of weeks ago, I bought 2 Steamfresh Meals for Two, priced at $5.49. I had a BOGO coupon and then two $1.50/1 coupons. So I got both of the Steamfresh Meals for $2.49. This deal could have been better if the store had also had the item on sale BOGO. J

This week, there was a special on Tide for $5.88. I had a BOGO, plus a $3/1 and a .35 (tripled to $1.05) so I was able to get to full size bottles of Tide for $1.89!!!

*Also, be on the look out when you are the store for items that have a coupon sticker on them. A lot of times, the store will accept the sticker coupon in addition to the coupon you already brought with you. I was able to get some Nestle Toll House cookies very cheap this way.

Tip #4

Check the clearance bins. I get almost all of my meat at Kroger from the discount section and save 50%-75% routinely. I have also found good deals in the clearance bins that I have had coupons for, so I always make sure that I take all of my coupons with me to the store.

Tip #5

Stock up! When you find a great deal, stock up on it! If you need to do separate transactions according to the store’s coupon policy, then do it. Take advantage of the sales. We have done this many times with our local Market Basket when they put their chicken on sale for .30/lb. or less. Brad and I will both go so that we can get double the limit.

Tip #6

Go for the younger checkers. This is kind of sneaky, but my experience has been, as has also been indicated on many blogs that I have read, that if when you check out you go to a teenage (preferably male) checker, they are not as likely to question you about your coupons. They usually just scan them so you will hurry up and be out of their line. Also, I make an effort to go to the same checker every time I visit the store. He know that I am honest and am not trying to scam the store by using expired coupons. By making an effort to have a friendly relationship with the checkers, they are less likely to hassle you and most of the time will go the extra mile to make the coupon work if there is a problem.

In saying that, I am always nice to the store employees. If there is a coupon that they refuse to take, for whatever reason, I don’t argue with them. I shop there all the time and I don’t want to get the reputation as the mean lady with all the coupons who holds up the line. I also try to shop at a time when the store is not as busy and if I can, I will let other customers go in front of me so they are not frustrated by how long I take. Most of the time, the customers behind me are very nice and are impressed by how much money I saved.

Why I Love My Kroger Store!!

The primary reason that I shop at Kroger is because of their coupon policy. They triple up to .39 and double up from .40 to .50. Everything over .50 is face value. They also have Mega Sale Events where they mark their items down CHEAP and I usually have coupons for a lot of the items on sale.

I also love them because they mail me coupons about once a week that are based on my purchases. My Kroger card keeps track of what I buy and then the store sends me coupons that they know I will use.

I can also load electronic coupons on my Kroger Plus card that can be bundled with other coupons.

Although I don’t meet the requirement yet, if you are 55 or older, you get a 5% discount every Tuesday…maybe I should start using my mom’s card….

The manager at my Kroger told me that the coupon limit was 10 per item type. So if I have 10 boxes of Cheerios, I can use 10 coupons. He did tell me that the cash register will automatically stop accepting the coupons if you try to use more than that. However, this is a big limit and there are not a lot of items that I would need to use more than 10 coupons on.

I have had nothing but positive experiences with this store. They are very helpful and never hassle me over my coupons. They are usually excited to see how much money I save.

Getting Paid to Shop at CVS

I get a lot of questions about how I save so much money with CVS. So here is the scoop on how the system works. The following links explain it in detail. But I will give you an overview of how I use it.



http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/03/cvs-101.html




http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/03/qa-making-cvs-w.html

Basically, the store offers Extra Care Bucks (ECB’s) on certain items each week. ECB’s are store credit. So you buy items that generate ECB’s and then use the ECB’s to purchase items the next visit that will generate MORE ECB’s and the process continues. Once you start the process, you just continue to buy items with your ECB’s and when combined with strategically chosen coupons, you save money. I very rarely spend more than $5 out of pocket at CVS. Most of the time, after the ECB’s that I make on my shopping trip, CVS had more or less paid me to shop there.

SOY JOY BAR Example

Buy 4 Soy Joy Bars, get 4 ECB’s (limit 5) This means I can get 20 bars

I had 3 BOGO coupons and 15 ECB’s.

My out of pocket expense was $2 and they paid me $20 in ECB’s.

So I made a profit of $18 in store credit.

CVS accepts coupons at face value, however you can “stack” the coupons on a single item, like I explained earlier. When I spoke with the manager, she said that they don’t have a coupon on the amount of coupons that you use in your visit. They do reserve the right to limit you, however, the sale itself will usually set a limit on how many deals you can take advantage of to get the ECB’s, even if you still use coupons for items that are not on sale.

Obviously, the first time that you shop at CVS, you will not have any ECB’s to get items for free, so you will have to spend some money out of pocket. However, once you start the process, it works very well.

They also have a green bag tag that you can keep and scan each time you shop there for using a bag you bring from home. Every 4^th visit, you get 1 ECB.

You can also join the CVS advisory panel and they will reward you with ECB’s for providing input for them.

Walgreens

Although, I don’t use the Walgreens system, it pretty much works the same way. The link explains their system.




http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2008/01/walgreens-101.html

I should add here that stores are not losing money when you use coupons. The manufacturer reimburses them for the coupons. The managers at Kroger and CVS both said that they encourage customers to bring their coupons.

How Do I Get a Coupon Stash?

My experience has been that once you start looking for coupons, they are really easy to find!! Here are a few ways that I get mine.

Sunday newspaper

Online sites (coupons.com)

Electronic coupons (shortcuts.com, cellfire.com, Kroger.com)

Ordering from websites (The Coupon Clippers, Coupons N Things)

Looking inside or on boxes of products I have purchased

Blinkie machines

Joining product and restaurant websites email lists (They send you coupons and links, email and regular mail) (vocalpoint.com)

Call or email companies and ask for them

Checking my blogs (they always post links)

Magazines (All You is a great one! This month’s issue had about $50 worth)

Ebay

Catalinas

Electronic coupons (shortcuts.com and cellfire.com) also Kroger has some on their site

Swapping with friends

Coupon trains

Coupon Organization

There are several different ways to organize your coupons. I have tried a couple. I have used the method used by coupon mom, which is where the site tells you what is on sale and what coupons are in each flyer from the newspaper. You don’t clip coupons. You write the date on the coupon flyer and then you reference the site to see which coupons match up with what is on sale. This method was a great starting method for me and it helped train me how to work the coupon system with my stores. I still use the site some.

I outgrew that method because I had many more coupons than just my Sunday coupons, so I was not able to use the system as effectively. Currently, I am using a card box with my coupons clipped and organized by category. The card box is small enough to carry with me into the store and I am able to get to the coupons that I need quickly if I find additional items on sale.

However, I am told that this method is yet another stepping stone and that I will soon outgrow it as well and have to step up to another method. J

Here a link that describes some of the organizational methods that are used.




http://moneysavingmom.typepad.com/money_saving_mom/2008/03/organizational.html

　

Helpful Websites and Blogs



www.moneysavingmom.com



www.couponmom.com



www.myfrugaladventures.com



http://thekrazycouponlady.com/



www.afullcup.com



http://www.frugalfreebiesanddeals.com/



http://savingandgiving.blogspot.com/



http://discountqueens.blogspot.com/



www.southernsavers.com

Electronic Coupon Sites




www.shortcuts.com



www.cellfire.com



www.kroger.com

Sign up for free samples and coupons




www.vocalpoint.com



www.buzzagent.com

Find out what next weeks coupons are




http://www.sundaycouponpreview.com/

Order extra coupons and flyers.




www.thecouponclippers.com



www.couponsthingsbydede.com

　

On Facebook, you can find our group under Deal Finding Divas.