I've been couponing now for just over a year and while I have taken breaks now and then, I have still saved my family hundreds of dollars. This past Monday and Tuesday, I made two trips to our local grocery store, Fry's, and saved a total of $129.70 while only spending $70.99!
Those trips included name brand products such as Hebrew National beef franks, Oscar Meyer hot dogs, Ragu, Kraft cheese slices, Welch's juice, Mission Tortilla chips, Hunt's tomatoes (free), Ken's Dressing, Brawny paper towels (free), Skintimate and Edge shaving cream, Wolfgang Puck coffee (free), Post cereals, Eddy's ice cream, milk, and produce. I already have enough meat and chicken, so none was needed this week.
A few of those things were needed and others were to increase my stockpile. I proudly have a 6 month - one year supply of many items and I credit it all to coupons. See?
Let me give you an example... You can go to CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, or wherever you shop and get a can of name brand shaving cream for $3-4 (YIKES!). With coupons, you wait until it goes on sale and then buy. I got two cans of Skintimate and two cans of Edge shaving cream this week. They were on sale from $2.99 down to $1.49. I had a .55 cent coupon for them. Our grocery store makes all coupons equal to $1. So that .55 cent coupon was upped to $1 and I got each can for just .49 cents. So for what I paid for all four cans, a non couponer would have only gotten one at regular price.
And it's not just health and beauty products. You can easily find coupons for MANY food/drink items that you regularly consume.
Let's do some math. (I know, what am I doing making you think?!) I'll do the math for you so just follow along. If you save $100 every week on your grocery bill, in one month, you would have already saved $400! Multiply that by 12 months and you will have saved $4800.00!!! Um, that's big. Like you should be running out and finding yourself some coupons... NOW!
Getting started seems like a giant, daunting task. And it kind of is if you're doing it alone. Lucky for you, there are nice people out there who do most of the work for you. :) Awesome, huh? Using the help of Google, you can easily look up and find bloggers in your area who will find deals, match coupons to sales, and post them to their site so you can go on it, get the coupon, and shop.
For those of you in Arizona, I HIGHLY recommend Cents'able Shoppin. She lives in Phoenix and does the grocery match ups for us and is always posting new deals and coupons for us. I have met her and she is such a good person. Once military herself, her husband still active duty, and with three kids, she still manages to find all kinds of good deals for us.
I encourage all of you to just give coupons a try. It will seem pointless and hard for the first month, but I guarantee if you push through, you will see the benefits! And of course, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Happy couponing!
ok, wOwzas! this is SO cool! I've been recently looking into doing coupons, but like you said, so hesitant because of not knowing how to begin!
ReplyDeleteThis made me want to look a little further. That stockpile is awesome! Quick question though: are you ever like me and get overwhelmed with having too much? Like, 3 bottles of Lysol- do you just use it all up and then buy when needed or do you keep adding as a coupon comes?
I have a hard time even having 2 (1) gallon of milks in my fridge {maybe I have other issues}
Thanks for sharing!
(Colleen) @ PaRtY of 5! :)
Thank you for your interest! When I first started, I wanted to get EVERY deal I could and it got too overwhelming. I was stressed about trying to get all the deals. As a result of my "over achieving", I got too much of some items. I then gave to a food drive or tried to use it. Having multiples of the same item is a good thing. I don't have to go to the store every time I run out of something. Once I have at least a six month (or more if you have the room) supply of a non perishable item, I stop buying it until it gets down to a 2-3 month supply. Then I keep my eye out for a good sale on that item. As you can see, I'm set on all our hygiene products for at least a year, and will not buy more until it is used.
ReplyDeleteHope that helped to answer your question and thanks for stopping by!