Living on Less – Week 2 – Part 2

Grocery ad

In yesterday’s article I discussed how I have started to use coupons, after not using coupons much in the past.   Today we will finish our discussion.  There are several sources for coupons. Here are a few.

Sources for Coupons

I started collecting coupons from the Sunday newspaper. We have had a Des Moines Register subscription for years as we love to read the paper on Sunday morning over coffee prior to going to church.  I found out one day that a local convenience store, Kum n Go on South Market here in Oskaloosa, gives a free copy of the Sunday paper to customers if they fill up their car on Sundays.  Now I get two sets of Sunday coupons.

Besides the newspaper, I get my coupons online at the Coupon Mom.  The grocery stores in Oskaloosa accept online coupons.  I simply go through the lists of coupons at the coupon mom website and check off what I want to print off.

Coupon mom also offers lists of deals at area stores and teams them up with coupons, similar to the Grocery Game.   I prefer the Grocery Game as takes it one step further by telling me when a sale is the best time to buy and not just a regular sale.  I use the Coupon Mom as my second resource for information as it doesn’t just list coupons from newspapers but it also teams the deals up with any online coupons available.

Next I registered at manufacturer’s sites.  Examples are ConAgra Foods, Kraft, Betty Crocker, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Proctor and Gamble and so on.  I receive e-mails when coupons and promotions are available on their sites.

There are other sources for coupons such as purchasing coupons online from reputable sites.  I have never done this as I find that I get plenty of coupons from the newspaper, the coupon mom website and manufacturers.

There are also coupons throughout a grocery store near certain products in which you will see a little dispenser with a blinking light.  The dispenser distributes coupons for a specific product. This is called a “Blinky”.  I never take more than two of these coupons at a time.  Never hoard, always leave some for others.

Sometimes when you check out, the Clerk will hand you a receipt and also hand you a coupon that has printed out with the receipt.  This coupon is called a “Catalina”.

Organizing Coupons

I used to put my coupons into several envelopes and each envelope represented a category such as “cereal.”  I would then put the envelopes in a Ziploc container.  The container was a little larger than an index box and it had a snap lid.  The lid was great in case I dropped the box in the store.

Over time I found it a little cumbersome to leaf through the envelopes looking for a coupon so I bought some plastic sheets that you put baseball cards in, got a heavy duty binder and some index pages.

My coupons are stored in these plastic sheets and are divided by the index pages into various categories.  I have a big clip attached to the front of the binder. Instead of sifting through a bunch of envelopes, I easily flip through the plastic sheets and pull coupons from the pockets (where a baseball card would have been displayed).  I attach my grocery list to the clip on the outside of the binder and I take the entire binder with me into the store.

Why do I take my coupon binder to the store with me?  Because I may run into an unadvertised store special that I know I have a coupon for.  When this happens, I am set.  In July I was in a grocery store and I noticed an unadvertised store special for  Finish Dishwasher 32 count Gel Pacs for $3.69.  I had two coupons for $2.50.  That is why I carry my coupons with me.

Stretch your Donation Dollar

One additional benefit to couponing is that I have been able to buy items and donate them to our local Ecumenical Food Cupboard to help those in need.  I look at it as a way to stretch my donation dollar.  I have been able to purchase deodorant for 25 cents and shampoo for 50 cents a bottle.  Many times I have purchased a 4 roll brand of toilet paper on sale for $1.00 a package and I will have $1.00 off coupons.  I donated these packages.

Planning a Shopping Trip

As soon as I receive the Shopper with all of the grocery ads in it, I go through and review it.  The list for the Grocery Game is usually up and running by Thursday morning of each week.  I go through the Grocery Game list and check off items I will purchase.  I print out the list.  Remember, Hy-Vee is the only area store that is listed on the Grocery Game so I then review the ad for Fareway. Through experience it becomes easy to see when a sale is a good sale.  Finally I look through the list on the coupon mom’s website to see if there are any online coupons to be used with any deals I have highlighted.

I go through my coupon binder and online coupons and pull/print all the coupons I will use and put them in an envelope that I then clip behind my grocery list on my coupon binder.

Couponing does take some time but I feel it is worth the effort.  I spend about 1 hour per week clipping, sorting, storing my coupons along with planning the shopping trip itself.  It is worth my time for any coupon savings as I am not bringing in an income so my goal right now is to be cautious how I spend money and save as much as I can.

My goal with using coupons and the Grocery Game subscription is to buy only items my family will use with a goal of saving $20.00 on average per week.  I started to track my grocery spending and coupon savings in November 2009.  I have saved as much as $163.00 one month in coupon savings and as little as $32.00 another month.  Over the past 10 months I have saved a total of $848.00 from using coupons.

No, I have never gone to a grocery store and handed them a bunch of coupons and walked out of the store by spending $1.50 on groceries originally priced at $100.00.  That will not happen, but I have received several free items over the past year by using coupons.  I have received free light bulbs, Chinet plates and cups, cereal and toilet paper, to name a few.  I feel I do a great job in saving money with using what I do have.  I also feel that although area stores do not offer double coupons or store loyalty cards, they do a great job of offering wonderful sales and good deals that help lower my grocery bill.

I may not be a coupon queen, but I’ll settle for being a coupon duchess for now.