I found this site the other day (
http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2011/04/06/extreme-couponing-101/) that basically teaches the beginning steps to "extreme coupon" yourself. Note that the lady that writes this blog lives in FL which doesn't allow double-coupons, yet she says she still saves 70%+ on her grocery bills. I think the key is having a different mindset than how most people use coupons, as well as the patience and hard work to make the most of the coupons.
In her lessons, she talks about the mindset that most of the general public has when it comes to shopping: They make a grocery list of what they want to use for the week, look through coupons that match any items on that list, and then go shopping. However for extreme couponers, the key seems to be to look through the sales going on that week at the stores, match sale items with coupons, make a list of anything that saves you 60%+ (and is something that you can use), and then go shopping trying to purchase as many of those items as possible. Then after the shopping trip, store all of those items in your stock pile. When it comes to thinking of meal plans for the week, you then use what you have stored in your stockpile rather than going to the store.
She does admit that some people won't save as much as she does... For some people, they are much more concerned with what they eat (ie they are Vegan, eat only organic foods, or have religious food policies (eg Kosher foods)) and as such won't have coupons for most of the food they purchase. However, even for those people, they may still be able to save money on non-food items. Many health and beauty products have great coupons and specials, as well as paper products, cleaning / freshening products, and pet foods. Even if you only focus on those items, she claims you can still reduce your grocery bills over time.
There are several good web-sites that have databases that list the weekly specials going on at different stores around the country along with coupons to use to get the best deals: CouponMom.com, the above blogger's sister site Saving Well Spending Less, etc. This definitely helps cut down on the time it takes to search for specials and getting the best bargains. I also like how the 101 guides talks about storing coupons; instead of spending tons of time clipping and organizing coupons, she just takes all of the Sunday inserts for that week and put them in a folder. Then when you go out to the database sites, they will tell you which insert from which week has the coupon you need to clip. You can then go to that week's folder and clip the correct coupon.
Although double couponing is great, many stores nowadays don't offer that. Yet even still, there are other ways to "stack" the savings to reach that high level of savings. Usually you are able to use both a manufacturer's coupon as well as a store coupon together on the same item. Also some stores will price match so that if the store doesn't currently have a special going on, they may price-match a different store's sale price. There are also loyalty cards at some stores as well as cards like UPromise and SavingStar that don't take off any money from the receipt, but rather put money into an account that you can then cash-out at a later time. Finally there may be mail-in rebates which will also give you money back after the purchase is made.
I'm just starting to try out this 101 guide, but I know I probably won't be saving as much as she does... I tend to purchase more fresh produce and make my food from scratch, so again most of my savings will be through heath / beauty, paper products, etc. Also, no stores double coupons in my area and the main grocery store is more of a smaller regional store than the Krogers, WinDixies, etc. that most of the databases are geared for.
Still, I did go on a first shopping trip and saved over 70%! Ok, so I only bought one item, but I figured out the best way to match up all of the different savings, so I was successful in my technique which was the main goal of that trip. I bought a box of Aleve 40 count gel-caps. Normal price at the grocery store was $7.79 for the box; the store did not have a sale going on that day. However a neighboring Walgreens had a sale for them at $5.99 which the grocery store price-matched $1.50 in savings (so just 30-cents shy of a true price-match). I then used a $2-off manufacturer's coupon, printable through InboxDollars (which gives you an additional 10-cents in your InboxDollars' account each time you print and redeem a coupon). And I also used the store's SavingStar card for another $2 in that account. So altogether, I spent only $2.19 saving $5.60 or about 71.9% in savings (had I received the additional 30-cents in a true price-match (which was my expectation) my savings would've been over 75%
). It also didn't take that much time planning for the trip; from the database I found that Walgreens had the sale price and to use the $2 coupon from Coupons.com and the $2 from SavingStar. However, as I signed up for SavingStar, I realized that Walgreens was not a member, but that the grocery store in my area was. And that the grocery store usually price-matches, which was why I had to go to that store instead.
I'm looking forward to see how well I do in the future. I know that my saving won't be huge, esp. at first. Then again, I didn't think I'd make much money on FC, yet as most experienced members will confirm, an extra $25+ bucks every few months is better than nothing.
Community Forum
Topic: coupons!!! (Read 2845 times)
January 23, 2010, 03:56:11 pm
