Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Coupon or not to coupon?

So as of a lot of people going through rough financial times, I have to cut back on certain things to save a few pennies. One of our biggest spending problems is grocery shopping. First we make the mistake of shopping when we are hungry, hence buying items that we really don't need. Second we don't shop the ads and the deals. So me and my mom have made every Saturday our crazy shopping day. The beginning of the week I will search for coupons that takes about 2-3 hours, which includes looking through the ads in the mail, Internet, and actually cutting the coupons. But it is well worth it! I have become very organized and we shop about 4-5 stores to get all of our shopping done, it really takes about 3-5 hours just to get all done. So I have learned to see what is on sale, search for coupons for the sale items, and compare prices of other stores. For example I stock up on a lot of toiletries because I can get them on a good deal, right now at Walgreens they have Nivea body wash on sale and I found a $3 off coupon which makes it 79 cents! and I think Walmart has it under $3 so that would make it FREE!!! I have done that with toothbrushes and toothpaste. I will always try and see if I can get the store coupon and the manufactures coupon and combine them. I found a deal on Folgers coffee $1.00 off manufactures and $2.00 off store coupon, I didn't think that was to bad. Now if you don't like to cut out coupons and you shop at Smith's or Albertson's you can download the coupons to your value card which is really cool.
For all of those who don't coupon shop, take it from me it really helps save money and I wish I would have done this a long time ago. I am now saving a couple hundred dollars a month :) 

2 comments:

tmjrathgeber said...

I really need to start doing that too I just don't know when I will find the time to search through all the coupons and sales ads.

Alicia Seeley said...

As a stay home mother it is our job to save as much money as we can. I ad match at walmart every pay period. Subsctibe to the newspaper and print off coupons. For me I have to plan my weekly dinners and then shop for those things unless we would be buying junk all the time. Totally worth takin that extra time to do!!