Ok, so I have no desire to be on Extreme Couponing! Seriously, the college student who had 12 years worth of laundry detergent is strange! And I have serious health issue with having 10 years of toothpaste sitting around, because doesn't toothpaste expire before that???
But I would like to save some money and if couponing can do that, then I'm willing to give it a try. But I'm doing it "my" way...not sure if this blog will be helpful to anyone, but it's mostly for me to get my thoughts out and sort them for myself.
I have a binder and page protectors, which I sort the coupons and put them in as I collect and cut them. Jacob loves to cut the coupons, so that's an added plus. I found a place called "Coups For Troops" where I can send my expired coupons, so that military families overseas will get the coupons and can use them up to 6months after they have expired. I keep an envelope addressed in the back of my binder, so that as soon as I find an expired coupon or I just decide this isn't a product our family would want/need, I put the coupon there. At the first of the month, I seal the envelope and mail it off. I do the first of the month, because a lot of coupons expire at the end of a month. I love this, because I love helping military families and this cost me nothing but a stamp! Plus, I print a lot of mfg coupons, and this way I feel like my ink and paper isn't going to waste. Speaking of ink and paper, I print my printable coupons on scrap paper. Lucky for me as a teacher, I have tons of pieces of paper that were printed on one side. So I just flip them over and print on the other side. :) When I have a piece that is too small to print another coupon, I have a cute little basket on my desk that the scrap pieces goes in when I need to jot a note or calculate something.
I signed up for daily email summary from Couponing 101, which gives me heads up for coupon matching for the various sale ads. I also found Coupon Divas, which is a great place for printable coupons, coupon policy for various stores, and tips and pointers. Coupon Divas has a Facebook page that I use a lot to find deals.
I am determined not to buy something that we will never use, just because it's free or cheap. But I am willing to try new products or a different brand. For example, we had a coupon for Ice Mountain Sparking Water. I love Ice Mountain water; in fact, I am a bottled water snub, I admit it. So Kroger had Sparking Water on sale for $1.00 with my Kroger card, and I had a coupon for $1.00 a Sparking Water, so guess what, we tried it. I had 2 coupons, so I brought 2 bottles....Well, that case, we decided we won't be buying Sparking Water again. Now, on the other hand, we have tried different brands of other items and liked them, I just can't think of an example off top of my head. :)
I also learned that the coupons you print from online sites normally expire within 14- to 30-days, but the coupons you get from the paper normally doesn't expire for 60- to 90-days. Unfortunately we don't get the Sunday paper, so I just get the coupons that are in the free inserts on Wednesdays here.
One of the biggest change I have made in this couponing thing is breaking the "norm" of my shopping. I have always shopped at either Kroger or Marsh for our groceries. Every once in a while I will go to Wal-mart, if I need a lot of non-grocery things. But mostly it's Kroger or Marsh for us. But with Coupon Divas, I see CVS deals and Target deals, I have never brought groceries at either place. Frankly, I go to CVS for my prescriptions and if I need to talk to the Pharmacist because I need an over-the-counter medicine and I want to know what's best. So, today I went to Target, armed with my Target web coupons (did you know Target had special coupons for each week on their website? I didn't until about 2 weeks ago!) plus my mfg coupon binder. I knew what they had advertised as sale prices, I knew what store coupons they had, and I knew what other mfg coupons I had...and guess what! I saved over $46 with in store sale prices and coupons. Of that $46, eighteen ($18) was from clipped coupons. Now, before I started this, I used my Kroger and Marsh cards, so I would get in store deals, but I never bothered to do coupons, because most of the time I would cut them out from the paper then forget to take them with me or forget to use them when I was in the store. Today, I got cleaning supplies, groceries, light bulbs, heath & beauty items, and paper products. The only item we got that wasn't either on sale or I had a coupon (most were both!) was David's compressed air to clean the laptops! That means, that $18 was savings I would not have made before I started doing coupons. Yay! Oh and on top of that $46 of savings, I also got a $5 gift card for my next purchase, a rain check for K's favorite shampoo/conditioner since it is on sale this week, and more COUPONS! :) So really, if you consider the $5 gift card, I really saved $51, and I can park in the garage, because I don't have a "stock pile" LOL
So, my goal for 2012 is to save $100 per month or a total of $1,200 over the course of the year, since I figure they might be some months that we get better deals and others not so much. To make it "fair" (even though I'm competing with myself), in-store savings received on Kroger or Marsh cards will not be part of this. I'm doing that because I would have gotten those savings just by watching sale ads and not using coupons. I will only count savings received by clipped coupons or coupons loaded onto my card, because it requires me to go do that via the Kroger/Marsh/CVS website. By the way, Kroger has stopped mailing coupons out from their Kroger card, you have to go to the website and load the coupons onto your cards. I figure Kroger did this because they know most people are too lazy or forgetful to do this step, plus it saves the postage of mailing out the personalized coupons.
Unfortunately, today didn't cut though the 2012 goal...because if it did, I would already be at $51.
By the way, if you use coupon, let me know because I would gladly send you the ones I have from the paper for products we would never use. If you don't coupon, I would gladly take your coupons from the paper if you get any. :)
Anything you learned from couponing? Tips for a beginner? Thoughts?
Check out http://www.couponmom.com, they help match up coupons with store sales and tell you how much you'll save.
ReplyDeletehttps://savingstar.com/. Savingstar links to your loyalty cards so you can add digital coupons. It stacks with store coupons and mfg coupons. The money doesn't come off at the register, it goes into your savingstar account, which you can then transfer to paypal, your bank, or get an amazon card.
http://extreme-coupons.blogspot.com/. They sometimes have matchups that CouponMom misses, and they sometimes have links to coupons that I have difficulty finding in other places.
http://www.mypoints.com. You could also try MyPoints. They give points for coupons you print from their site if you use them. Personally, I don't buy enough groceries to make it worthwhile, but your family might. Be aware that they will send you a ton of emails with special offers and asking you to fill out surveys.
The Sunday Star is worth buying, you should easily be able to save more than it costs. At the very least, you should buy it on the first Sunday of the month; the Proctor and Gamble coupons can save you a bundle.
A final note: be aware of the digital Kroger coupons you have loaded on your card. Many times you can find a better coupon for the same thing, but if you have the digital coupon loaded it will use that automatically and you won't be able to use the better one from your binder. And, the Kroger digitals don't double.
This sunday would be a great weekend to pick up the paper there will be three or four inserts (general mills and proctor gamble and I am not sure how many Smart source we will get)
ReplyDeleteI don't even bother with the Kroger E coupons any more, I have been "cheated" out of using a paper coupon too many times.
Good morning Brent & Nicholle! Ok, I'm so glad to hear you guys talking about the E-coupons from Kroger, because I suspected that was the case. I have only really looked at my Kroger receipt once since I started this and I thought the E-coupon had messed up my bottom line, but I doubted myself. Glad to have this confirmed. I'm going to remove the E-coupons from my card. :)
ReplyDeleteBrent, I did discover SavingStar.com, but I forgot to mention it. I have also tried to check out the Upromise.com which is the same kind of site, but geared toward saving for college. I'm going to check out the other sites you mentioned today, while my carpets are being cleaned. Expect a blog later today about my awesome carpet cleaning! :)
I read Brent's comment last night over David's shoulder because I had already shut down my laptop for the night, and we made a plan then to buy the Sunday paper this week. Thanks for the tip about Proctor & Gamble, General Mills, etc.
By the way, Nicholle being as you live so far away (I think I could throw a rock at your house, but I would most likely need a coupon to repair the window if I did, knowing my luck!), let me know if you're still using baby items, because those coupons I wouldn't need.
Yes, I am aware of Upromise; I probably should have mentioned it. Upromise and SavingStar are mutually exclusive, so if you use a coupon on one service you can't use it on the other.
ReplyDeleteMy friend, Jamie, also does a bit of couponing, and often has tips and recipes on her blog. http://littlebishopchronicles.blogspot.com/