Frugal Coupon Mom et al: Anyone else feel like this isn't really shopping?

You're getting some good advice here but I don't know if you're following all the pointers. I just looked at the afullcup.com site and there is a ton of stuff listed for Giant Eagle. Did you check there?
Hmm... not sure. I used the link posted on page 2, the one that said your local grocery stores, or something like that. I must have looked in the wrong place. I'm planning to go to Giant Eagle tomorrow anyway so I'll go look again. I'll just go to afullcup's website and navigate from there. Thanks!!

I did see a post about Target, the Huggies baby wipes normally 5.99 with a 5.00 coupon. I picked up two packages of those today. I don't use many wipes now that my baby is 6, just in the car and on vacation mostly. I'll give one package to my SIL though for my niece who is only 6 months old. :goodvibes
 
Tracey here is a link to the GE page on afullcup.com

http://www.afullcup.com/forums/giant-eagle/

When you go to afullcup.com, you will land on the home page. In the upper left of the page under where it says "A Full Cup" it says "home" "forum" "user cp", etc. Click on forum and you will see all of the different threads you can go to. Scroll down to the second grouping called "Its a Deal" and you'll see grocery stores. That is where you'll find GE and any other grocery, the big boxes, walmart, target, drug stores, etc.

Have fun! It's an amazing site and I have made great friends in there and saved thousands on the deals. If you register as a user, tell them mskayjay sent ya! lol
 
Oh, and if I have a coupon for a free product, I always write the purchase price on the coupon. The cashiers always seem to appreciate this. And I try to put the free w/ coupon items on the belt last. That way the cashier just has to look at the last couple items on the receipt to find the price.

I always keep the "free with coupon" items last too so the cashier can write the price on the coupon immediately after she scans it.

I also try to group all like items together that I have coupons for in case they need to go back and do a quick count to make sure I have the right number of coupons for those items.

Couponing does take time but it is worth it when you see the savings at the checkout. We are a family of 5 (and DH is a BIG eater!) and last week I saved over $90 on our grocery bill bringing it from $240 to $150. I still want to get it much lower but I was quite pleased with an overflowing cart for that much. I could get the total lower if DH and the kids weren't so brand specific about certain things.
 
I love to coupon - it is free money.

I have all of my inserts in a hanging file organized by insert/date. I go to couponmom.com and pull up the weekly Publix list. I check off the items that are on sale that I want to get, print out the list, and then write any additional items I need on it. I also frequent hotcouponworld.com and afullcup.com for additional coupon matchups and to find free deals.

It only takes me 20 minutes to cut out the coupons I need because she tells you what insert/date to pull it from.

Just this week I got 8 cans of Muir Glen Organic Crushed Tomatoes, 8 cans of Del Monte Diced Tomatoes, and 12 packs of Mentos gum for free. Today I am picking up 3 bottles of coffee-mate creamer for .16 a bottle. A few weeks ago, Publix paid me .11 a bag for Green Giant frozen veggies and I got 8 boxes of Mueller's pasta for less than .20 a box.

We plan our meals around what is on sale and stock up on fresh meat when it is really marked down.

I have been doing this for 2 years and until this February I worked full time out of the home. I also have a 4 year old. It is possible, if you stay organized.

so on average what do you spend over the course of a month shopping like that? I am really going to try to pay better attention to the sales and what I have coupons for when it goes on sale.
 

Then I got there. The prices were SO high that even after my doubled coupons I still didn't want most of the stuff.


I had a similar experience last weekend. Went to CVS, realized the price for Olay Pro-x was $1 more expensive than Target even with the 5 dollars back. The Secret deodorant on sale was not the kind that my picky allergic 12 yo wanted AND the kind she wanted was .50 more expensive than A & P. Then I go to the A & P and Secret is on sale $2.50 less than CVS!

I just buy what we need and like trying for sales and coupons as much as I can.
 
I had a similar experience last weekend. Went to CVS, realized the price for Olay Pro-x was $1 more expensive than Target even with the 5 dollars back. The Secret deodorant on sale was not the kind that my picky allergic 12 yo wanted AND the kind she wanted was .50 more expensive than A & P. Then I go to the A & P and Secret is on sale $2.50 less than CVS!

I just buy what we need and like trying for sales and coupons as much as I can.

I'm with you! CVS can have some good deals, but it's also a 25-30 minute trip from home. For the time and gas it takes, it needs to be an incredible deal.

I did sign up for afullcup, but they don't have a forum for my favorite grocery store (Market Basket)

Usually, i just read the sales fliers, get a list of what I really need this week, what I need but can wait a week or so, and what I'll need eventually so if it's on sale I'll buy it.

Jen
 
I want to point out a deal this week. Rite Aid has a sale on GARNIER FRUCTIS Shampoo, Conditioner or Stylers: with their "Free after Rebate" deal, it's 2 for $3.
http://www.riteaid.com/stores/weekly_ad

If people have TWO of the $1 off GARNIER FRUCTIS Shampoo, Conditioner or Stylers coupon that came out in the 1-4-09 SMART SOURCE insert, their final price on two full size bottles of shampoo/conditioner is 50¢ per bottle.

I'm not talking about generic shampoo or trial size. :cool1: I mentioned earlier, Soap is soap. Doesn't matter if it's liquid "shampoo." Shampoo is actually a great degreaser and is designed to remove extra "product" on hair, so it's a good cleaner. It can be put in a cheap pump bottle, diluted a little and used as liquid hand soap, hand washing clothes or even to clean the scum off the bathtub. Just because you don't use that brand on your hair doesn't mean it can't be used as soap. The ones with conditioner added are actually good for the hands.
 
I think it all depends on the region of the country that you live in. Here in New England the deals are never as good, I read on hot coupon world and am jealous of the deals I see at some other markets.
also our stores that do double will only double up to $1, if the coupon is $1 off that is all you get, I am envious of the ones that can get $2 off!!!

<snip>

so for the people that get multiple copies, how do you do that? because buying multiple sunday papers at $2.50 a pop kind of defeats the purpose, so how do you get multiple coupons without paying for them?

Well I'm in New England (in CT) and I'm doing just fine with deals! Just 2 days ago I got 5 full size bottles of Lysol 4 in 1 spray cleaner and a package of maxi pads for FREE. I also got a free reusable grocery bag and an additional $1.20 off my order for using reusable/recycled plastic bags. (ETA: I just remembered I also got a small bottle of Frank's Red Hot Sauce and a pack of Wrigley's gum...for FREE.)

Stop and Shop in this week's ad also has 8 $1 doubler coupons...and our other local stores will accept those as well. I have 8 $1 coupons that I will be using this week to take advantage of those doublers. I will be able to get Kotex Maxis for $.50 a package of 24 and a container or Sorrento Ricotta cheese for $.50 also. (Haven't had a chance to go through the ads completely to decide on what else I will be getting.)

On Saturday I also got a FREE Gilette Fusion razor at CVS.

I get multiple copies of coupons out of the recycle bin at work. Ours is a 24/7 building so all the leftover Sunday papers are chucked in the newspaper bin. I run through it quickly on Monday morning and take out the extra inserts. A family member works at Town Hall and she goes through their bin as well. She cuts out what she wants and brings me the rest. I also exchange coupons with a friend; what she doesn't use (like Chef Boyardee which my dh likes to take to work for lunch in the winter) she gives me. What I don't use (like Fiber One bars for example) I give her. I always have LOTS of coupons.
 
I want to thank the folks who posted about afullcup.
I am in the Boston area and studied the forum Sunday morning about Shaw's supermarket. I purchased $25 worth of Kraft's products that we use all the time and received a $10 catalina back. Then I saw a reference (already!) to a Shaw's sale starting March 13th in which the purchase of a corned beef will get you a free 5 pound bag of potatoes and a bag of carrots. By applying my $10 catalina to the smallest corned beef I can find, I could technically get a free meal. I can see how people get addicted to this kind of shopping! At the same store, I bought 4 boxes of Cheerios, received one of them for 97 cents with a store coupon and also received a catalina good for $4.50 off a gallon of milk. I also bought a $5.99 roasted chicken and received a free container of potato salad. I headed to the freezer section thanks to a tip on a fullcup and picked up the in-store coupon book. I picked up a free bag of frozen "steamers" vegetables, a free pack of frozen corn on the cob, a free pink lemonade and a free Hood frozen yogurt half gallon - no purchases necessary, BTW, to get the free items.
 
Hi everyone. I know you haven't seen me posting around here much, I guess you'd call me a "lurker." LOL Anyway, my 2008 goal was learning to live within a budget. (Thus, my lurking. I'm still getting a complete grip on the budgeting...but, it's working!) My 2009 goal is learning to live with coupons. I've been floundering around with very little success so far. But, I persevere because, as has been said many times here, it's free $ and even a little $ is $ in my pocket! This morning I stumbled upon this thread and I am SO excited to put your tips in to action! Thank you for all the info here. I can't wait to get this figured out.

(Note to self...make sure there is an "a" in front of fullcup, not just fullcup! :rotfl2: )
 
I want to thank the folks who posted about afullcup.
I am in the Boston area and studied the forum Sunday morning about Shaw's supermarket. I purchased $25 worth of Kraft's products that we use all the time and received a $10 catalina back. Then I saw a reference (already!) to a Shaw's sale starting March 13th in which the purchase of a corned beef will get you a free 5 pound bag of potatoes and a bag of carrots. By applying my $10 catalina to the smallest corned beef I can find, I could technically get a free meal. I can see how people get addicted to this kind of shopping! At the same store, I bought 4 boxes of Cheerios, received one of them for 97 cents with a store coupon and also received a catalina good for $4.50 off a gallon of milk. I also bought a $5.99 roasted chicken and received a free container of potato salad. I headed to the freezer section thanks to a tip on a fullcup and picked up the in-store coupon book. I picked up a free bag of frozen "steamers" vegetables, a free pack of frozen corn on the cob, a free pink lemonade and a free Hood frozen yogurt half gallon - no purchases necessary, BTW, to get the free items.
Great job on Shaws deals:thumbsup2 I don't have a shaws close by
Well I'm in New England (in CT) and I'm doing just fine with deals! Just 2 days ago I got 5 full size bottles of Lysol 4 in 1 spray cleaner and a package of maxi pads for FREE. I also got a free reusable grocery bag and an additional $1.20 off my order for using reusable/recycled plastic bags. (ETA: I just remembered I also got a small bottle of Frank's Red Hot Sauce and a pack of Wrigley's gum...for FREE.)

Stop and Shop in this week's ad also has 8 $1 doubler coupons...and our other local stores will accept those as well. I have 8 $1 coupons that I will be using this week to take advantage of those doublers. I will be able to get Kotex Maxis for $.50 a package of 24 and a container or Sorrento Ricotta cheese for $.50 also. (Haven't had a chance to go through the ads completely to decide on what else I will be getting.)

On Saturday I also got a FREE Gilette Fusion razor at CVS.

I get multiple copies of coupons out of the recycle bin at work. Ours is a 24/7 building so all the leftover Sunday papers are chucked in the newspaper bin. I run through it quickly on Monday morning and take out the extra inserts. A family member works at Town Hall and she goes through their bin as well. She cuts out what she wants and brings me the rest. I also exchange coupons with a friend; what she doesn't use (like Chef Boyardee which my dh likes to take to work for lunch in the winter) she gives me. What I don't use (like Fiber One bars for example) I give her. I always have LOTS of coupons.

Do you always shop at Stop and Shop?? because although they have some good deals lately, I don't find them to be that overwhelming.
where do you mostly shop?
Big Y has some good buy 1 get 2 free sales.
 
No, I only shop at Stop & Shop occasionally. The deals I posted in the earlier past of my thread were from Shoprite; that's where I do the majority of my shopping now. Big Y used to be my first choice but I stopped doing regular shopping there because of their coupon policies. Mine no longer doubles and won't take any internet coupons. They also tend to jack up the price of the Buy 1 when they do the get 2 free deal. I will run over there when there is a Buy 1 Get 2 or Buy 2 Get 3 if I have $1 coupons especially, but will always carefully check the prices before checking out.

If you have a Walgreens near you that's another place to consider for deals. Got my friend 2 large packages of Huggies and a large pack of wipes yesterday...after my 2 $5 coupons and my $3 coupon and the $10 catalina the total for all 3 was $3 plus tax. :cool1:
 
Thanks to a link on a thread I posted, I found this thread! :goodvibes I'm fairly new to coupons - I've done it off and on for years but am now really looking to become more proficient at it! I was in line at Kroger a couple of weeks ago and the lady behind me commented that I should have my own show because of the amount of coupons and money saved. I personally don't think I'm that good (yet!!) but I would love to get to that point. When I was really getting good deals at CVS the cashiers would recognize me coming in the door and say hello to the "coupon girl" :goodvibes I'm looking forward to learning so much more about this.

To get my coupons, we go and buy a Sunday paper. I always look to see if there are "good" coupons - if I deem that there are, we buy multiple papers. If not, I stick with the one and go from there. I also get the Sunday coupons in our local paper that was delivered this morning for FREE! We have an empty house (two now actually) next to us so instead of letting the papers sit out, I gladly take them (with their permission of course!). I also belong to a coupon train here on the DIS and have a great sender who sends all kinds of coupons!! She is amazing! I also learned from my sender that I should grab those coupons on the shelves in the store - just because I might not use them doesn't mean that someone else can't or their store doesn't have the machines!

As for how long it takes to check out, it's ususally a little while just because of the amount of stuff that I have! :goodvibes The coupons don't add too much time to the routine. I also don't swipe my debit card until the VERY end as I've had the total go through before the cashier took coupons off...:headache:

For the first time this week I'm trying to shop with paper and e coupons. I've loaded some coupons onto my Kroger card and am going to give it a shot while I'm shopping to see if they come off the receipt or not. I have the print outs of what "should be" on my cards so I'll go to Customer Service if it doesn't look like the right number of coupons came off.

Thanks to a tip on the thread I started (here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=30753889&posted=1#post30753889) I'm also keeping track of how many coupons I'm using and the amounts to be sure each coupon was scanned and applied to the order. I'd never thought of this until this week.

Overall, this is super adicting for me. I LOVE having a Kroger receipt literally as tall as my 4 year old with the bottom half being the coupon part!! :cool1: It's amazing what you can save when you're really trying to.

My plan for this week's shopping is to spend about $140 (I'd planned on about $70 but found a more complete listing with more deals!!) and saving just over $100 on just over $230 worth of stuff (if my math's all right!!). Granted, it's not that great to some, but to me, heck yeah it is. I'm also just starting to stock pile so I'm thinking it won't be this much every week. I'd probably spend a bit more if we had more freezer space but we just don't right now.

Thanks for such a great thread!!:goodvibes
 
I've not been very good about purchasing a paper every Sunday, but I'm going to try harder. Not having all the paper inserts makes it difficult, following the threads and advice on the coupon forums, because I often don't have the coupons I need for the good deals. I'm going to work on that though.

Kmart had the double coupon event again starting today. I went this morning and got some stuff. There still were a lot of items I had coupons for that they didn't have in stock. Strange since the sale started this morning, I was there before 8:00 am, and there weren't many people in the store. I'm suspicious that they pulled certain items off the shelves rather than giving them away for free. It was annoying.

I did get $40 worth of stuff after coupons, a lot of stuff I didn't need but couldn't pass up for free or nearly free, a few things I really did need anyway, and a few things I just wanted to try and thought this would be a good time to do it. My total before coupons was $107 but with Kmart's inflated prices I can't really say I got $107 worth of stuff. The same items would have cost less anywhere else.

Still, I got two large bottles of Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner, with a free container of deep conditioner attached, Dove go-fresh shampoo, Dove deodorant, Secret Flawless deodorant, a package of razors, Tampax, four boxes of rice a roni, success rice, three cans and two 3lb bags of cat food, six packages of cat treats, six different packages of dog treats for my sister's dogs, a mini first aid kit, a box of diego bandaids, two 8 packs of the larger size juicy juice boxes, Ocean Spray cranberry juice, refrigerated tollhouse cookie dough, Quaker rice cakes, toilet cleaner, and three rolls of sparkle paper towels. To me, that seems pretty good for $40 and change. :goodvibes

ETA: I also got catalinas at the checkout for $2 off $5 any meat or deli, $2 off $5 any bakery, and $2 off $5 any produce.
 
I have a question - are any of you FT employees out of the home? I work about 50 hours a week and am a FT mom so I'm having difficulty getting the time to do these deals. If you are, can you tell me how you still have time to do them? I do CVS and any groceries I can (and Kmart when they double and target sporadically) but had to give up Rite Aid, don't do walgreen bc it's too far away and I haven't made it to CVS in the past couple of weeks b/c I just run out of time. any suggestions/advice would be appreciate.

I work 40+ hours, have 2 kids under 5 and am working on my dissertation for my PhD, so I feel your pain. I use www.thegrocerygame.com. Its a subscription, but she tells you what to buy, stockpile and use each week. We save between 30% and 70% each week. I spend about an hour a week and have saved hundreds. So, I look at it as I'm getting paid by the hour. I avoid the junk and go for the good stuff...my husband is on south beach, so we look for protein deals. Shampoos etc are basically free...and I have stockpiled those.
 




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