Tuesday, February 9, 2010

My Coupon World

First, we're sorry for the lack of blogging. There's no excuse, really, except not a whole lot to write about! The Haiti blog was important we thought, and with some recent developments since then, Michael and I might be going to Haiti on a missions trip in June...but more to come on that later.

I titled this blog "My Coupon World" because that is what I feel like I have been in. In the beginning of January I attended a coupon workshop (yes, there are such things!) put on by Cathedral of Praise Church here in North Charleston. I went with the encouragement of my friend, Rhea, who exclaimed she had saved $60 on her first visit after a workshop in November. Those words were like music to my ears and I just couldn't pass up this opportunity to save money. For how thrifty I am, I am actually pretty surprised that I haven't gotten into couponing before now. And what I was shocked to learn from the workshop is that couponing is way more than clipping from Sunday's paper and storing them in a coupon container...

The whole goal behind extreme couponing is stockpiling coupons to therefore stockpile groceries. I am not too keen on having a pantry stacked with groceries, but it's nice to have a few extras lying around. It takes a while to stock up on the coupons, but after just four weeks I am feeling pretty good about what I've collected. It was suggested to buy 2 Sunday papers to get 2 copies of each coupon, but I've been fine with getting one Sunday paper and 2 on "full" weeks (weeks with more than 2 coupon inserts). The way to save the most money is to buy mainly (or even only) what is on sale and use coupons to make that discount steeper. I would say about 60% of my coupons come online, too, from the following websites: http://www.southernsavers.com/, http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ and http://www.coupons.com/. The first website, Southern Savers, will pair the weekly ads each week with non-expired coupons that have come out in the last few weeks...it virtually does the matching for you! If you are interested in couponing, you'll probably want to start here.

Heres an example: if a box of Cheerios is on sale for Buy One Get One Free, you can use two coupons with the purchase of both items (essentially using 2 coupons for the item you are buying). Also, for many grocery stores they double coupons up to a certain amount. Publix doubles coupons $.50 and below, and Harris Teeter doubles coupons $.99 and below (but only allow 20 coupons per visit). So if you have 2 coupons for Cheerios that are $.50 each, you are actually getting $1 off per coupon ($2 off) and with B1G1 free for a box of Cheerios that is normally $3.40, you are getting 2 boxes and only paying $1.40. Pretty good!

I organize the coupons in a trapper keeper-like binder with baseball card sleeves where each coupon goes. The pages are filed by category which makes them easy to find. I then make my grocery list based on what's on sale, NOT on what I feel like cooking that week. This was a hard transition (for Michael too!), but it's been fun coming home with what I bought and THEN figuring out how to get creative with cooking. Lastly, I put the coupons I am going to use in an envelope and take them to the store with me. I am a little tainted though; I can hardly buy anything now unless I have a coupon!

After 4 weeks worth of grocery shopping, we've saved $221.33 and not sacrificed health or taste...it can be done! I think we could do even better than this, but for just starting to stockpile the coupons and groceries, I am pretty pleased with this amount.

Here are some snapshots of the craziness:

Day 1 of couponing:Michael's been in on the clipping and using of the coupons too: This past Saturday's trip...we saved $72 on all of this!The receipts of savings from this week:
If you are seriously interested in couponing, please call me and I can walk you through it some more!

-LB

5 comments:

  1. Wow! That is awesome Lynn....I am sure Mom would love to know how to do this. I will have to get more details from you because I use coupons too...but just not as effectively! So proud of you!

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  2. That's great, Lynn! I haven't gotten to a workshop (they've had some here too) and don't always get the paper, but we pass around a bag or envelope of coupons at school because a few of us are getting better at couponing with sales (and generally with several of us having different tastes, family sizes, etc. we end up using different coupons so we still get what we want out of the bag/envelope of coupons). I love seeing that savings at the bottom of the receipt!!! I know I could do better if I got the paper (to stockpile more) and if I organized them in a binder (I have a coupon file that I'm constantly flipping through), but I am getting there... comparing sales with my coupons each week and such! We definitely need to get together and chat when we see each other again! :)

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  3. Wow, way to go Lynn! I'll have to get a tutorial from you before we come back to the US for our big visit this fall/winter!

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  4. Alex laughed at me when I showed him your post b/c the first thing I pointed out to him in those photos was the 3 bottles of coffeemate liquid creamer...sigh...that is impossible to get here...yummmmm!

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  5. excited that there is another crazy couponer out there! :) i have the binder and baseball card method started and have been clipping for a few months. it's so so awesome when the amount saved and paid are almost the same! i'm excited to look at the website you posted. keep offering good ideas when you've got them. happy couponing. :)

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