Grocery Couponers I need your help.

[Figment's Girl]

I've always thought I did well with our grocery budget but after reading various threads here, I find I have so much to learn. I've never had more than $10 worth of coupons at a time unless I'm doing our shopping with our tax check.

I clip coupons a lot but I find that buying generic or whenever it's on sale is cheaper than using the coupons I find.

We have a relatively well rounded diet. I buy fresh produce, red meat, pork & poultry, canned or fresh tomatoes to make sauces and salsa, and make a lot of stuff from scratch. Can anyone help me out with some tips?

 

[vicki_c]

In your situation, you will be able to save the most on health/beauty products, cleaning products, etc. The key is to combine a coupon with a good sale price, or multiple coupons with buy one/get one free offers, combine store & mfr. coupons, etc. I find the best deals like this at Walgreen's & CVS.

When you're buying mainly from scratch fixings and produce, those same type of coupon deals are not to be found.

 

[21yankees]

Start following some coupon blogs through Google Reader. A lot of them put a great deal of time and effort into doing all of the matching (coupons to weekly sales ads) so you just have to look for what you want.

Here's one to start you off:

www.couponingtodisney.com


Steph

 

[Figment's Girl]

In your situation, you will be able to save the most on health/beauty products, cleaning products, etc. The key is to combine a coupon with a good sale price, or multiple coupons with buy one/get one free offers, combine store & mfr. coupons, etc. I find the best deals like this at Walgreen's & CVS.

When you're buying mainly from scratch fixings and produce, those same type of coupon deals are not to be found.

I have recently discovered the CVS deals thanks to this board. Which is wonderful!

Start following some coupon blogs through Google Reader. A lot of them put a great deal of time and effort into doing all of the matching (coupons to weekly sales ads) so you just have to look for what you want.

Here's one to start you off:

www.couponingtodisney.com


Steph

Thank you so much. I follow CouponMom.com but it's rare that it's got stuff I want.

 

[KrisM]

I'm new here, but not to couponing. When I started using coupons a lot, I had to change how I shop. I no longer shop for what I need now. I shop for what I'll eventually need by shopping what's on sale and what I have a coupon for. My kids like Kraft Mac N Cheese. A couple months ago, our grocery store had the 5 packs on sale for $2.50 and had a store coupon for $1 off. Plus, there was a free Capri Sun 10 pack coupon on the mac n cheese. So, I stocked up. For $22.50, I ended up with 75 boxes of mac n cheese and 150 pouches of Capri Sun. Considering the normal price of the mac n cheese is $.79/box, I did well. The mac n cheese would have cost $59.25 and the Capri Sun would be another $24.30. We don't drink much of the juice, so much of it got donated.

Anyhow, it took me a while to revamp how I shopped and stored things and I save a lot more now than ever before.

 

[Piecey]

You have to coupon to sales for grocery.

For example... I went to Krogers today. They have Barilla pasta 10/$10. There is a $1/2 Barilla Whole Grain pasta coupon on their website. So .50c for a pound of pasta vs. the $1.43 regular price.
If your store doubles and it's an item you'll use, it's generally worth printing or saving the coupon and watching for a sale to come up to use it.

 

[stazmatic]

Another thing to start working on is buying items that you don't need at all, but which give overage so you can use it to offset the items you do need.

For example, I may not need salad dressing, but if it's on sale for $1 and I have a $2 coupon the other $1 goes towards something else I do need. So I buy 15 salad dressings and get $15 off the rest of my purchase. At this point you can stockpile the salad dressing or give it away and you are still coming out way ahead.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I see the OP is in Indianapolis, Meijer mealbox is a great source for additional coupons, plus those are stackable with a manufacturer coupon.

A few weeks back for example:
Lysol wipes were 1.27, there were $1 off coupons in the Sunday insert, making each canister .27. Mealbox had a coupon for another $1 off 5 making each .07. I can't make wipes cheaper than that, 5 canisters for .35 total.

Search for printables, slickdeals has a thread linking most printables out there. I'm not sure if Indiana is a non alcohol purchase rebate state, but I get hundreds of dollars a year in rebates from beer companies. I can't stand beer and never purchase it.

I agree with stockpile-if roast is on sale, I'll buy 2-3. The next week is a chicken sale, I'll buy 2-3. By the time I need it again, it will be on sale again. CVS has a great program, Walgreen is a little more difficult to figure out and our Walgreen never has anything in stock.

It takes a little work but saving $10s of dollars each week adds up to hundreds a month and thousands a year.

 

[DawnM]

I find a website that matches coupons to sales. For me it is SouthernSavers.com but for IN you would have to find it for your area. I know The Grocery Game will for $5/mo but you may be able to find a free one.

Here is how I found the one I use. Go to HotCouponWorld.com. There is a forum there with the BEST ladies on there who really know their stuff and are more than happy to share!

I have learned so much!

Dawn

 

[Virgderon]

Since meat is the budget killer, and you can't coupon for it, I have been buying it when it is on sale or BOGO. I wish I had a 2nd freezer so I could stockpile, but we live in a condo and I would have no place to put it.

The cashier at Winn Dixie complimented me yesterday. I only had one thing in my cart that wasn't BOGO, a couple tomatoes. We also buy our fruit and veggies at the farmers market at the flea market. I keep a couple bags of 97 cent frozen veggies in the freezer in case we can't get it fresh for some reason.

 

[brenalexacamp]

Try Grocerygame.com I have been doing it for about 3 years now- you can work it however you want- some of the stuff I will never use- but the health an beauty aids- cleaners-dogfood- I save for other stuff I do use. And I am fine with eating fresh produce that is on sale that week. Try it- if you dont like it, it is really easy to cancel and no one will hound you to stay. But if stockpiling interests you-and that's how the savings really adds up, giv it a chance. Yo ned to get your head around the fact that if you buy from the wekly list, it is not going to be everything you NEED for that week. Everything goes in cycles- so now bbq season, think condiments, salad dressing, paper products- then will be back to school, snacks, school products, lunch bags, then baking stuff for holidays.

 

[Anjelica]

One of the things I picked up on pretty quickly as I shop through Target quite a bit was the doubling of coupons. Target puts out their own coupons and you can use the manufacturer coupons on top of targets own coupons. On my last shopping trip for Groceries, household items and other miscellaneous items I saved over $24.00 by doubling up on the coupons.

 

[Figment's Girl]

I'll be checking all of these recommended sites tonight! Thanks for all of your suggestions!

 

[Figment's Girl]

Search for printables, slickdeals has a thread linking most printables out there. I'm not sure if Indiana is a non alcohol purchase rebate state, but I get hundreds of dollars a year in rebates from beer companies. I can't stand beer and never purchase it.

Is there a website where I can find out the information about the rebates?