Couponing. this can seem overwhelming to those who don't know how to make it an efficient task or those who haven't done it well. There are also a lot of people with different ways they do this, so it's hard to say what will work for you. So all I can say is how I do it and then you can decide what works for you :)
There are coupons all over the place. You can get them in the Sunday ads, the mail, magazines, in stores, off products, or printable on the computer.
Newspapers - Just because you don't take the newspaper doesn't mean you can't coupon. There is a big collection in the Sunday ads, so here's the shameless plug for the Sunday newspaper... (you're welcome, Pam). The newspaper offers more than just the Sunday grocery coupons if you are looking to save $$. They publish restaurant coupons all week, so don't just settle for the Sunday paper if you can fit it in the budget. The price you pay can be repaid to you in the ads and coupons that are in the newspaper all days of the week. I don't follow others who tout buying multiple subscriptions to coupon just because the cost of the multiple subscriptions and the time I invest in handling that many papers and coupons isn't worth it to me, but it may be to you. If you don't have the newspaper and don't want it, you can sometimes find a neighbor or friend who gets the paper but doesn't use the coupons and they may save them for you. If you are brave, you can also go to the newspaper recycle bins a day or two after Sunday and retrieve some there...
Some people go through the coupons ads they get in the Sunday paper and cut out all the coupons they want to use. I don't do this. I find that there are coupons in there that I may use if the items are on sale and the coupon adds to the good deal, but I was spending a lot of time going through them and cutting them out and organizing them just to find I would throw them away expired. Now I just use the weekly mail store ads and locate coupons for name brand items. (I'll explain this under "organizing coupons")
Mail Store Ads - I take 5 minutes a week and flip through all these store ads and with a pen or marker circle any of the ads that either are good deals or are things I need to get that week. once I've don't that, it's pretty easy to see where the deals are and which store would be your best for that week. (see "price matching"). If I circle something in one ad and find a better deal at another store, just X out the more expensive deal so you know you found it cheaper somewhere else. If the item I've circled is a name brand, I will check the coupon organizer for a coupon to use on the item in addition to the sale price. (See "organizing coupons")
Storage - In order to effectively save large amounts of money grocery shopping, you need to establish a food storage of staple items that you use. If you don't already have food storage of these items, you may have to start slow and build that up with your budget so that you can take advantage of buying when things are on sale rather than when you are out of things.
Freezer - If you have an extra freezer, great. If not, you'll want to work into a position you can get one. The large amount of grocery budgets are spent on meats and cheeses. If you can buy when they are cheap and freeze them for times when they are expensive, you will more than save the cost of the freezer in the long run. Watch the classified ads for a used one if you can't afford a new one. ksl.com may list them in their classified as well.
Price Matching - The only store I know of that does this near us is Walmart. They haven't ever asked me to see the ads, but others say they have been asked. So just take your pre-circled ads in with you just in case. If you are price matching a lot, it may help to make a list of the "must have" items with their price and store so you have an easy reference list to speed up the checkout process. Walmart will price match store brands or "off-brands" with their brand. So if milk is on sale at Smith's and it's the Kroger brand, you can price match that at Walmart for their GV brand. Price matching can be intimidating, but honestly I've never had a checker be rude or act like they were bothered by doing it unless I had a zillion and wasn't organized enough so it took a long time. People behind you may be annoyed, but who cares. It's my money and I can spend it how I like and utilize the options available. Generally when the people behind me are annoyed they change their tune when they see you saved 75% of the order. If not, ignore them. It's none of their business. If they are in that big of a hurry they can go to another line. This being said, I do try to be considerate and if I have a lot and they have a few items I'll let them go ahead. It also helps to organize the stuff you are buying on the counter so the price match stuff is either first and all together or last and all together. Put like items together so they can do the one price for all at once.
No Storage - If you are just beginning and don't have much in storage, a good way to maximize your budget so you can begin stocking up is the plan your meals around what is on sale that week. If chicken is on sale, cook more chicken meals that week. If eggs are on a good sale, make a few breakfast meals for dinner that week. Utilize what is cheap and on sale so you can free up some of your grocery budget for stocking up and building a storage so you can save more on future trips to the store. Just because you saved money doesn't mean you blow that money elsewhere. Save that money for buying when caselots or bulk sales go on. In time, that money will come back to you because you will be stocked up and spend very little. I spend about $40-50 a month regularly on grocery shopping for the five of us. That is for the perishables and replacing used storage items when they go on sale. Of course there are months I spend more, but this is a good estimate of what you can spend if you have planned ahead. We do eat out as a family 1-3 meals a week and that isn't factored into that cost. When we eat out, we use coupons if available and can eat out almost as cheaply as I grocery shop. I'll plan a future blog about eating out tips/ideas.
Printing Coupons - There are several sites where you can do this and sometimes they can be finicky. Here's the lowdown... you can generally print 2 of the same coupon from each site. If you have multiple computers, you can print 2 of each item from each computer and most of the time 2 from each site from each computer. So, it's rather easy to get a lot of printed coupons for buying in bulk. Keep in mind that there are rules and laws governing coupons and we don't want to be dishonest in our dealings, so stick within the guidelines. There are ways to reset sites and computer settings to allow more, but that may be illegal. You can get accounts at the coupon sites in the names of every member of your household if they have their own email address, thus printing more for use in the family. Most coupons cannot be scanned or duplicated by copying. Each has an individual bar code/number and needs to have that to be valid.
Kent's has posted signs they won't take printed coupons if they won't scan on their terminals to prevent the multiple copies that people were taking in, I guess. They do take printed coupons if they are valid and scan their terminals.
www.coupons.com and
www.smartsource.com are the ones I use the most. Smith's has also started a coupon program on their site where you can add a coupon to your shopping card online then when you go to the store it automatically uses the coupon. I've used this a coupon of times and it's a nice feature, but the coupons seem to be very restrictive and not many of them.
http://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/in_store/Pages/coupon_landing.aspxOrganizing Coupons - I used to cut out coupons and carry them with me in my purse in an envelope, but I don't do that any more since I have so much storage I don't shop very often. Now I circle the weekly store ads and then look in a coupon organizer for matching coupons. The coupon organizer will only tell you what coupons are available in the Sunday ad coupons and the one that comes with the junk mail on Tuesdays. (SmartSource, RedPlum, and P&G). It lists the coupons alphabetically and removes them when they expire. I just stack up the coupon booklets so they stay in reverse date order in the stack so I can find them quickly. I have organized these better with folders or papers with the date on them so I can find them quickly, but now I just stack them. When the stack gets big, I throw out the bottom ones (which are the older ones). One disadvantage to doing couponing this way is, you won't have all the coupons you want at the store when you run into a deal you didn't know was there until you got to the store and now your coupons are at home in the "stack". So, if you are just getting started, you may want to go through the coupons and cut out any that you may use, organize them in an envelope and take that with you to the store every time you go. The coupon organizer for looking up what is available in those coupons is located at:
http://www.savvyshopperdeals.com/component/option,com_shoppingwizard/do,coupons/
