Now that I am a stay at home mom, I want to stretch our income. The only way I'm seeing how is to coupon. It's this crazy scheme of how to save on groceries but I can't seem to get into it.
It has people running all over town (CVS, Walgreens, Target, Giant Eagle) to purchase things that are almost free. I'm just wondering how they use their grocery money on items they don't use every week.
I would love to get into it but can't seem to organize my brain to do it. Or figure out how...any tips?
6 comments:
I use to do a lot of couponing, but quite honestly, I have realized that it was not worth the time, (running all over the place to get this here and that there). Instead, I use coupons for the things I buy on a regular basis at the stores I go to, and am conscious of what sales are going on that week. I also shop at the stores where I save the most money over all. What saves me the most money is getting discount gift cards for stores I already shop at through giftcardgranny.com
Anyway, good luck and let me know how it goes!
In the perfect world the version that I think would work best is if you stock up on manufacturer's coupons and use them at the store you frequent. Then you stock up on those items when they're on sale. I saw this on a TLC special (http://press.discovery.com/us/tlc/programs/extreme-couponing/)
The only problem is the methods these people use to actually stock up on coupons. I don't think I could go through trash or walk door to door to get leftover coupons from the Sunday paper. So if there was an easier/more realistic way to actually stock up on the coupons, I think this would be a totally doable way to maximize savings.
Right now the easiest way for me to save is to do the majority of shopping at the commissary on-base, which is up to 30% cheaper than most grocery stores. Gotta love military life ;)
In reply to the last comment: I once new some women that did coupon swapping which was a quick way for all of them to stock up on the coupons they needed. You all bring a bunch of coupons you don't want to use - already cut out. Lay them out, grouped together by like coupons (for the same exact thing) near others for like products and then everyone takes the ones they want. It works really well if you have enough women willing to do it and it is a really fast easy way to stock up and a good excuse to get together with friends. I think if I knew some people that did that now, then I would definitely coupon more.
I have tried the coupon thing and it is just to challenging for me :) However I have found that I meal plan and get the most out of what I purchase. This saves us a decent about of money. Although I am not a stay at home Mom I am a grad student so we live on Joe's income. I make a menu for 2 weeks worth of dinners -this allows me to purchase larger blocks of cheese and other items that I'll use in multiple meals. If I have a coupon for something that I need I use it. I also watch for great deals on meat and stock up! We paid $50 for a free range antibiotic free turkey - it was 20 some pounds we still have 2 ibs left!!!! Also I purchase a whole pork tenderloin 14ibs and cut it into pork chops and other things when we bring it home-Joe loves to do this. It last for a while and I save tons!!!! I also have a cheap dinner cook book that we make several meals form lots of yummy things. Let me know if you get any wonderful tips on money saving things.
I meal plan and use items a few times. IE: A stalk of celery, I'll find 2 or 3 recipes that need celery so that none of it goes to waste. I also shop at Aldi, and really, that's the best $ saver for us.
Aldi is our best money saver as well. I saw that extreme couponing show and to me they saved so much money but it seemed wasteful. They had garages full of stuff there was no way they could use all up before expiring. In that case, if you are going to get it for free, why not donate it to people in need either through church or red cross or something. I agree with the other ladies, the meal planning has been revolutionary for saving us money, and aldis and marc's for the majority of my shopping.
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