Thursday, July 23, 2009

Couponing

Right now it seems like couponing and saving money is all the craze. My ward has a "frugal living" enrichment group. I was invited to a grocery smarts class. Everyone wants to save money.

So, I thought I'd do a post on my take on all of this stuff. I am not willing to drive to tons of stores and the only stores close to me are Walmart Market, Harmon's and Smith's. I tend to like to buy a lot of things that don't have coupons... produce, meat, bread, milk, etc. So what I do, is I go to Walmart Market and I PRICE MATCH. Walmart will meet anyone's sell prices. So, I go to The Obsessive Shopper. She taught the Grocery Smarts class that I went to. Click on UTAH... that is where I live anyway. Then I click on the list that says "all in one." This gives me a list of the sales at all the stores in Utah in a table format. The first column is starts... 4 & 5 stars are good deals. Then it tells you the item, regular price, if there is a coupon and what the final cost will be. The list is in order of store. So I click on start... that turns my whole list gray. I click on the things that I think I would want to buy and it turns them white. I go through the whole list looking for the best deals. Then I click "shrink." It shrinks the list down to just the items I'm going to buy. I print that list and take it to the store with me. I will write on the back the items that I need that aren't on the list. Then I go and cut my coupons. I just file them by type (smart source, red plum and P&G) and I put them in date order... I write the date on the front so I can see it better, but the date is also really small on the binding. I don't cut out the coupons until I know that I need them. When I go to the store I also take my ads in case they want to see it in the ad... they rarely do, but it depends on your checker. I load up my cart and I try to keep the things that don't need to be price matched separated so I can give them to the checker first. I tell her that I'm going to price match everything else and she will ask me how much it costs and I look at my list and tell her. Then I give her my coupons at the end. It is a bit time consuming, but I feel like I'm getting what we need and building up my food storage. The other thing that I do is I always check the MEAT dept. to see if they have anything that they have marked down because it is about to expire. I buy it and put it in the freezer when I get home.

So, here's my last trip. I'm not as good as those ladies that get a whole cart for $25, but I got a lot of stuff and here's what I spent...

$87 .... I have a $10 rebate for the cereal that I can send off which will make the final cost $77

I got...
  • 3 capri suns
  • 10 boxes of cereal
  • 2 milk
  • 2 sodas
  • 2 fruit cups
  • a chicken
  • boneless pork ribs
  • 2 listerines
  • 4 packages of shredded cheese
  • 6 boxes of kleenes
  • 2 pkgs stay free
  • 2 toothpaste
  • 2 boxes of pasta
  • 2 boxes of band aids
  • 2 pkgs cookies
  • marshmellos
  • brown sugar
  • yogos
  • tp
  • nectarines
  • bread
  • dishwasher detergent
  • various canned stuff
  • etc.
You can look at the picture. I think I got a lot of stuff for a pretty good price. I had over $20 just in the coupons and I also price matched everything. After rebate, my cereal will be 25cents a box.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know in case you want to join all of the crazy couponers out there.

8 comments:

The York's said...

I'm a big coupon and sales shopper!! Thanks for the post:)

Cami said...

Look at you go!

Lib-Dawg said...

Thanks for the post and instructions...I try to coupon cut, but it's hard for a single gal.

The Britton Clan said...

Were all do you get your coupons girl? I love saving money. I have always priced matched. It is the Best!

Ashlee said...

Way to go!!

Logan and Sydney said...

I cut the coupons...but that's as far as I get most of the time. I'll have to check out that site and see if it helps me:)

Christina said...

I like your take on the whole process. I am a random couponer, when someone tells me about a sale with a coupon I jump on it, but like you I really don't have time to drive all over town. I might try it your way. Thanks for the info!

Jessica said...

That is the BEST description of couponing I have ever seen. I totally need to start doing that...I wonder if that website works in WA??