I recently posted on Facebook about some amazing grocery savings I had and received lots of questions about it. A light went off in my head, after my epic response disappeared, that I should format it into a blog post! Tada! Not only am I sharing my experience I have simultaneously roped you unsuspecting readers into navigating to my brand new baby blog for some cursory oohs and ahhhs. . .muahahahaha. Ahem. . .So now on to why you're really here. . .a couponing best practice sharing!
So I have always suffered from sever buyers remorse, even at the grocery store. When I was newly married I would come home crying because I felt like I had spent too much money at the grocery store...poor Jasen. Probably about 2 years ago, I was shopping at Kroger and saw a lady with this HUGE binder checking out and she handed the cashier a stack of coupons, and I watched in awe as her enormous total (that had made me break out in hives) dwindle to hardly anything. I checked out as quickly as I could, and I'm not ashamed to say, I stalked that lady down in the parking lot! I gave her my information and asked her to contact me because I would like to learn more; I felt like in light of the whole parking lot stalking she might feel safer in control of that exchange, because at this point I wanted to follow her home and make her my guru). Thankfully she emailed me and shared some of her secrets. Shortly after, I saw a friend's FB post on her couponing and I was hooked. I'm a TOTAL sucker for a deal and for saving money. If there was a sash and some badges I could put on there and wear around, I totally would.
You don't have to invest in anything super crazy to get started, because you can quickly over complicate a very easy thing (I have an amazing talent for doing just that). I started with a binder and some baseball card holder things (clear plastic page protectors)...there are several other methods of organization, and I'm currently on to a different one, but we can talk about that later. I would say the BEST first stop is www.southernsavers.com. She is amazing. On the top of her page she has a tab that is labeled "Learn to Coupon". She walks you through step by step what to do. The REALLY beauty of her site, to me, is that she takes the circulars and sales for the grocery stores each week (Publix, Kroger, Walmart, and Target are the main ones) and lists everything out, tells you what coupons are available from the paper and what the date was and which circular, then she also links you to the ones available online, and THEN gives you a rough estimate of how much your item will be after coupons. Then it gets even better, she has little boxes you can check and make your grocery list right from her page, and print out all the coupon link ups too!
My favorite and most beneficial store is Publix. I know that many women I was talking to on FB only have Kroger and Walmart available for grocery shopping. I have a friend who feels she does WAY better on deals at Kroger than at Publix, and I feel the opposite. I really think it comes down to how you process the sales and the savings etc. . .
Strategy is important. Here is what I do to maximize my savings. I pull the sales each week for my grocery store of choice and make my list of things that are on sale that I need or will need. I generally ONLY shop for the items that are on sale with minimal items that are not on sale on my list. Once I have my list and all my coupons printed and cut, I go through and determine how many of each item I will be purchasing based on my coupon number. I do my best to max out my purchase with the number of coupons I have each week. I really like a stock pile and based on my experience if they are listed on the lists, and she has lots of coupons listed, and the end result is cheap...I'm going to buy as much as I can because if I have the coupons chances are those items aren't going to be going back on sale before those coupons run out. . .at least I haven't reached the level of mania to track that part.
I have read lots of comments from people on couponing blogs about how they don't want to alter their buying habits just because it is on sale or not buy junk etc etc...I really haven't altered anything other than the money I spent. Do I sometimes buy brands I wouldn't normally or items I wouldn't because it IS on sale and next to nothing yes...but if I'm not going to use it, I donate it. For example, Publix had a sale this week on Totinos Pizzas, they ended up being like $.25 each...I try not to feed my family those kinds of things with frequency, but for that price, I bought like 20 to stock up in the freezer for a another time (like the next year)...yeah, sometimes you get funny looks with your buggy piled high with frozen pizzas, covering up all the healthy food beneath, and your 3 year old practicing his evil laugh at all the people you pass...but those funny looks turn into parking lot stalkers after they have seen your grocery bill.
.....to be continued......
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