Coupon Love!

I know you will probably think I am weird but…

I LOVE LOVE LOVE grocery shopping.

I don’t know what it is exactly, but I could go to the grocery store every single day if I had the money to do so.   And since I discovered the magical wonderful world of couponing I love it even more.

 

To me, couponing  is about the challenge of getting a good deal, making my grocery budget go farther and beating my own personal best savings percentage. 

As of yesterday, my personal best is 61%. Boo-yah. 🙂

I spent $52 on $130 worth of groceries.  I bought 57 items… that means I averaged $.90 per item. And considering those 57 items included:

8 boxes of cereal, 15 cans of frozen juice concentrate, 4 boxes of fruit snacks,  dishwasher detergent, 12 pk of Toilet paper, 6 pk of paper towels, 2 lbs bananas and 2.5 lbs of oranges…

I think I did pretty darn good.

I’m not quite an “extreme couponer” like the Coupon Mom or the Krazy Coupon Lady.. But I think I do pretty well.  And if you have ever seen the “Extreme Couponing” show on TLC you know what I mean. Those folks are hard-core, and one guy they highlighted, spent $240 on $5000 worth of stuff.

Honestly, I’m not really sure how they do that.. especially with a lot of stores having limits on how many coupons you can use. I know that at Vons (where I shop most often) they will only accept 4 of the same coupon at one time. And they only double the first one. Oh well.. more power to them if they can do it.

Anyway- there are actually (A LOT of) books out there to help you start on your couponing quest. I got the Coupon Mom’s book. It has a lot of helpful hints.  When I first got the book, I found that I was already doing some of the things she suggests. (I just discovered the Krazy Coupon Lady a couple of days ago on Facebook. She seems to post good deals all throughout the day!)

Good couponing is really all about planning.  If you just take a little time and check out the grocery store ads, meal plan with what you already have at home and  buy whats on sale and you have coupons for you will save big bucks!

Something a lot of people don’t know… you can use a STORE COUPON and a MANUFACTURERS COUPON at the same time on the same item!  That can help add up to big savings!

I have 4 different grocery stores within about 5 miles of my home. Vons, Stater Brothers, Albertsons and Ralphs.  Two double coupons, two don’t. Of course the two closest are the ones that don’t.

I shop mostly at VONS. Every week they have a selection of store coupons in their sales flier.  And these deals are usually pretty good. But when you add manufacturers coupons to them, they are even better!

For Example- last week they had a coupon for Ken’s Salad Dressing, which regular price is around $3.99. It was on sale for the “Club Price” of 2/$5.

The coupon in the sales ad was $1.19 each with a limit of 2.  Throw in a Save $1.00 on two bottles and you have 2 bottles of salad dressing for $1.38! That’s $.69 each!

Shall I go on?   Cereal.

Cereal is crazy expensive. I won’t pay more than $1.00 a box anymore.

Vons was having a buy 4 save $4 sale They were at the “Club Price” $2.49 a box. Save $4 makes it $1.49 a box.  Throw in a Save $.55 on Cinnamon Toast Crunch Coupon (Doubled to $1.00), Save $1.00 on Cinnamon Cheerios, Save $1.00 on 2 boxes, and a $.55 ecoupon (that I forgot was on my card) and you end up with:     4 boxes of cereal regular price $15.56 for drumroll please….

 $2.41! That’s $.61 a box!  Ta Da!

I could go on all day… the trash bags… the fruit snacks… toothpaste….  lysol wipes…  I got some laundry soap today for $1.99 and fabric softener for $1.69 at Target. 

One thing I find very helpful.. I print coupons from the internet, and you can add ecoupons to your store savings cards in a lot of places.

I go to the following websites on a regular basis to print coupons:

coupons.com, shortcuts.com. albertsons.com. vons.com. The vons and albertsons unless otherwise specified are manufacturer coupons so they can be used anywhere.

I’ve also joined Vocalpoint.com. you can sign up for samples and coupons… and when they send out coupons they are usually pretty good. They are mostly for new products they want you to try. But I got like $2.50 a bottle of Downey fabric softener, and then 3 or 4 other $1.00 off coupons to share. (or keep!)  They are also fun to follow in Facebook. They get a lot of interesting conversation going, and helpful hints!

Then there is Upromise.com… where you can earn savings to send your kid to college. I  don’t really use this one as much as I probably should..

Anyway- one of the other tricks is to make sure you have more than one coupon so you can stock up! I have a subscription to the Sunday Paper.  (Which I pay $1 a week for.) Some of the Coupon Queens out there suggest getting 6-8. That seems like a huge waste of newspaper to me. So, if I find a weeks coupons were especially good, I will buy extra copies of the inserts from a clipping service. I go to CollectableCoupons.com. They have them individually or by the insert for a small handling fee. I have some that should be arriving within a couple of days actually!

 I could just go on and on and on about my couponing adventures….

If you want to know more, just ask! 🙂 Or check out any of the links I’ve provided for your shopping nd saving pleasure!

Happy Couponing! 😀