How much do you save using grocery coupons? Update! I saved 72% last week!

[ohlas]

I subscribed to GG awhile back and saved money...the thing I DON"T get is if you go and are supposed to focus on stockpiling, how do you get what you need for actual meals, stockpile and still save money? If cereal is on sale, you buy enough to last until the next sale comes (6-8 wks), I get that, but if I spend all my budget grocery money that way, when I leave, I will have saved a bunch but also only have cereal, tp, toothpaste, etc. I could not figure this out for the life of me and that's why I stopped the GG. I'm just starting out again so any help would be appreciated.
TIA

well stock pile is nice if it is stuff your family will eat, i find it makes me happier to have a meal list and buy only what we need for meals in 2 weeks and anything that is steal price that i will use,, you can get crazy with the stock pile. one time i had 8 bottles of ground mustard because i got them for the price of one, well i ended up giving away half to family and parties...

We eat 85 percent of our meals at home but we also dont eat alot of canned or boxed things... so non canned or frozen meals cost more..plus my husband eats like 3-4 times the normal portions so i have to double most recipes to make him happy... and make sure the kids dont starve... so im trying to stay in a budget of 300-350 for food and paper for the house every 2 weeks its really hard with alot of the prices going up.

yes i say icebox all the time werido im just around 40 too not super old lol

 

[vicki_c]

Do you include the sale price in that savings? If they have roast at BOGOF do you call that a ~50% savings?

Yes, that would be included in the savings. You sound like you wouldn't include it, but I'm not sure why -- if I had purchased it at full price it would cost me 2x as much, so it's a legitimate savings (not counting the fact that of course some stores mark things up so they can then mark them down -- but other than knowing what a fair price really is, you can't really avoid that anywhere).

 

[vicki_c]

I subscribed to GG awhile back and saved money...the thing I DON"T get is if you go and are supposed to focus on stockpiling, how do you get what you need for actual meals, stockpile and still save money? If cereal is on sale, you buy enough to last until the next sale comes (6-8 wks), I get that, but if I spend all my budget grocery money that way, when I leave, I will have saved a bunch but also only have cereal, tp, toothpaste, etc. I could not figure this out for the life of me and that's why I stopped the GG. I'm just starting out again so any help would be appreciated.
TIA

I think others said this already, but you still need to have a weekly budget for groceries. Then you need to account for the items you really need that week (and try to buy even those that are blue colored on the GG lists or even listed in black which is "only buy if you need" because those are on sale to some extent as well). Then do your stockpiling out of the money that you have left. If you try to buy everything that's blue on the list just because it's a good deal, you will end up spending more money than you were previously.

At the beginning we were spending exactly the same as we had been prior, but we were getting approximately 2x as many groceries as we had been before.

edited: You should check out the GG forums as well - I don't go there much, but the moderators there were SUPER helpful in answering questions when I was first starting out.

 

[deerhart]

I

I wish we had double coupons but its not done on this side of the state.

two of our grocery stores only double coupons to $0.45 and only a max of 15. Hence why getting a named brand box of cereal for under $1.50 is a REALLY good deal here. The cheapest sale price will be $2.00 a box or very rarely like $1.80 and coupons for a single box will run $.50 or $0.75 and very rarely I can snag a $1.00 off.

 

[maleficentmom]

Oh, and then at CVS today, retail was $62 and I paid $16. This was for 6 Digorno pizzas and 6 pounds of chocolate.

The chocolate will go in their Easter Baskets even though it is shaped like hearts!

The pizzas will be our pizza night Friday pizzas for $2 each instead of Pappa John's $10 and up pizzas, and we don't have to go pick them up!

Dawn

We were picking up Little Ceasars Pizza (used Entertainment Book Coupons to get free bread and bought 2, $5 pizzas). Then I stockpiled when they had Tombstone pizzas for $2.50 each at Kroger......now we say we're having "Little Freezers" pizza for dinner. think this is really saving money

 

[andrews_dad]

Well, let's see....today the retail cost was $102 and I paid $24. This included veggies and milk that I didn't use coupons for.

YOu have to match current sales with coupons for best value and take advantage of super double (double up to $1.99) and triples (triple up to .99) that happen every few months. I go to the grocery store DAILY during these weeks because it saves me so much. It is all about stock piling.

Dawn

I never heard of grocery stores doing this super doubles and triples, even. That is amazing. Around me you have to look for a special just to get doubled up to .49. Nothing above that has ever been seen around here.

 

[bettymae1121]

I've tried to coupon to save money, I really have. But I'm switching us to all "whole foods", meaning little to no processed foods at all. Most of the coupons are for processed foods in my area, it's a rare day to see coupons for fresh fruits and veggies, organic meats, organic dairy, etc. I do get coupons from Mambo Sprouts, but those are few and far between, and I certainly can't get them in high enough numbers to stock pile.

But, I've made peace with that and have resigned myself to slightly higher food costs as a result. To my mind, a pizza I make at home from scratch with organic, high quality ingrediants may be more than the cost of buying a frozen pizza, but it also tastes a heck of a lot better!

 

[3boymthr]

I've tried to coupon to save money, I really have. But I'm switching us to all "whole foods", meaning little to no processed foods at all. Most of the coupons are for processed foods in my area, it's a rare day to see coupons for fresh fruits and veggies, organic meats, organic dairy, etc. I do get coupons from Mambo Sprouts, but those are few and far between, and I certainly can't get them in high enough numbers to stock pile.

But, I've made peace with that and have resigned myself to slightly higher food costs as a result. To my mind, a pizza I make at home from scratch with organic, high quality ingrediants may be more than the cost of buying a frozen pizza, but it also tastes a heck of a lot better!

Yes, but you can still save money using coupons - use them for your H&BA, TP, cleaners, etc. I've saved over $500 on these items since January 1 - yes I'm stockpiling, but let's face it TP and dish soap don't go bad.

Look at it this way even if you're only saving $1/week using coupons - if you took that $1 and put it in a jar then at the end of the year you've saved enough to buy your kid a pair of shoes.

I do the whole matching thing for my coupons at CVS and Rite-aid (no wags near me). But for my groceries, in order to prevent the whole impulse buying thing on foods we don't normally eat or buying too much of foods we eat but wouldn't normally eat in that quantity before they go bad, I buy my groceries as I normally would then when I get home I check the receipt against the coupons I have in my stockpile - then take the coupons to the store on my next trip with my receipt to get my money back. I take the attitude of $1 coupon for tortellini great got that. $1 coupon for 4 packages of granola and I only bought three oh, well, too bad, so sad, maybe next time. Yesterday, I went to the store and got back $18.45 on a $150 bill with this attitude.

 

[bettymae1121]

Yes, but you can still save money using coupons - use them for your H&BA, TP, cleaners, etc. I've saved over $500 on these items since January 1 - yes I'm stockpiling, but let's face it TP and dish soap don't go bad.

Look at it this way even if you're only saving $1/week using coupons - if you took that $1 and put it in a jar then at the end of the year you've saved enough to buy your kid a pair of shoes.

In addition to changing our eating habbits to be all natural (or as close to it as I can get) I also no longer use most traditional H&B, cleaning, or paper items. I only have a roll or two of paper towels on hand for emergencies, I use washable cloths instead. I use baking soda and vineager for all my cleaning needs. I use paraben/phosphate free all natuaral soaps and shampoos (actually I used baking soda and vineager for my hair for about six months with great success, with the exception of spit ends, so I'm trying some of the all natural store bought kinds to see if that helps).

So coupons for those things wouldn't help me either (unless of course a coupon for vinager or my special soaps comes out). But thanks for the suggestion! I figure my savings in not buying paper towels or Windex makes up for not being able to use coupons, though I've never done a side-by-side comparison.

 

[deerhart]

I never heard of grocery stores doing this super doubles and triples, even. That is amazing. Around me you have to look for a special just to get doubled up to .49. Nothing above that has ever been seen around here.

Its really only done in usually bigger markets with lots and lots of grocery stores.

We have 3 grocery stores here in our area. 2 of them double to $0.45 max 15, one does a $10 off $50 purchase on Thursdays (but they are always out of stock on their items by the time I can get to the store).

We have like 1-2 super walmarts in a 30 mile area (the unions fight against them)

 

[ali2000]

I have been doing the coupon game for a while now and am also part of a club (thecuttinedge.org) that has saved me TONS of money. The lady goes to Kroger and Publix each week and makes a comprehensive list of all the items that are on sale and what coupons you should have to go along with them and the final cost to you if u use the coupons (the coupons she mentions are coupons that are found in the Sunday newspapers). Of course, there are other coupons you can get in the mail if you are members of the store's club (Kroger advantage), so you would get personalized coupons in the mail and can be combined with the manufacturer coupons as well. If you really know how to combine your coupons you can save tons. Also, if you shop at Publix and don't know this, they double coupons and accept competitor's coupons (I use my personalized Kroger coupons there all the time). That is one reason why I like Publux over Kroger sometimes, but Kroger often times is much cheaper than Publix.
So, with that said, I went to Kroger today and total before all savings was $116; total after all savings (coupons, advantage buys, etc.) was $66. I have saved as much as 93% before and ended up only having to pay tax. If you know what you are doing (which doesn't take very long), it is definitely worth the time.

 

[PaulaSue]

I save about 15-20 a week with coupons. I am actually going to a class to learn more/find others who use coupons.

Love Target clearence! I get so much there 50-75% off.

I started stockpiling when i find deals. Boy do I miss Kmart doubles but I am glad I stockpiled the deals when I could.

I get 2-3 sets of coupons a week (Mom and MIL most weeks). Many places around here don't take internet coupons (grocery stores mostly but we do have doubles) but I am just getting into print out coupons from the web sites to try to strech the budget more.

 

[Ka' eo]

Good job ali2000!
Well since I started asked this question, I have followed a lot of your advice in this thread and around the budget board. THANK YOU wise people!!!!!!!! I decided to sign up for the 4 week free trial of the GroceryGame. I saved 43% this past Sunday on my first week. I was thrilled!!!!!!!!!! I followed the list and bought mostly what was on sale, and had $78 dollars of savings at the grocery store and $60 at CVS. I spent a total of $189 instead of $329! That's $140! The $189 is a little less than what I typically spend each week, but it was twice the food. I started stockpiling and have every belief that I can improve the percentage as I collect more coupons, and am able to buy more things on sale. My goal is to save $4,000 this year. I am pretty sure that is doable, but I'd like to even do better. My hope is to average no more than $125 a week. If I can do it for less, great. I am also planning meals ahead better, and we will not be eating out much. I am much more organized which helps.

I am not a homemaker type of mom, I work full time at a school (so I do have school vacation), and have 3 very needy children and lots of animals. If I can do this, anyone can.

 

[MyDizneyBoyz]

... I am much more organized which helps.

I think being organized is a HUGE part of saving money with anything so good job!

With me and DH working full time and 3 little ones and a few dogs, I don't have a lot of time for multiple trips to the store so out of necessity we've become much more organized. Less stress, more time for the fun stuff and a little more money for the fun stuff. It's all good.

 

[vicki_c]

Good job ali2000!
Well since I started asked this question, I have followed a lot of your advice in this thread and around the budget board. THANK YOU wise people!!!!!!!! I decided to sign up for the 4 week free trial of the GroceryGame. I saved 43% this past Sunday on my first week. I was thrilled!!!!!!!!!! I followed the list and bought mostly what was on sale, and had $78 dollars of savings at the grocery store and $60 at CVS. I spent a total of $189 instead of $329! That's $140! The $189 is a little less than what I typically spend each week, but it was twice the food. I started stockpiling and have every belief that I can improve the percentage as I collect more coupons, and am able to buy more things on sale. My goal is to save $4,000 this year. I am pretty sure that is doable, but I'd like to even do better. My hope is to average no more than $125 a week. If I can do it for less, great. I am also planning meals ahead better, and we will not be eating out much. I am much more organized which helps.

Great news - I know exactly how you feel! I did find that it got a little less "fun" after a while - spending Sundays reviewing lists, cutting out the coupons, etc. But the end result is still worth it - totally!

 

[ali2000]

Good job Ka'eo!
It is definitely worth it. One thing I have noticed is that I try to plan my meals according to the protein (mainly because it's the most expensive) that is on sale that week and then eat other sides that are also on sale. I actually find that we eat a bigger variety of meat and meals than if we were not using coupons.

 

[beansmom]

i use www.afullcup.com rather than GG. First, GG didn't have many stores in my are but full cup does. Second, fullcup is free.

 

[Ka' eo]

i use www.afullcup.com rather than GG. First, GG didn't have many stores in my are but full cup does. Second, fullcup is free.

Beansmom, does afullcup do a list also? That really helps me and what I like about GG. Having them figure out the best buys, linking the coupons and all really helps me.

 

[jodifla]

Beansmom, does afullcup do a list also? That really helps me and what I like about GG. Having them figure out the best buys, linking the coupons and all really helps me.

Congrats, Ka'eo. Great job!

 

[deerhart]

www.couponmom.com also does the lists from the weekly flyers and connects coupons to them. Plus the site also has a coupon organizer that lists all the non-expired coupons out there. It is also free

This is where I started a few years ago to figure out what I was doing!