There seems to be a Coupon Movement occurring amongst savvy shoppers right now. And since I'm all for saving money, and not one to be left behind, I am grabbing my scissors and my ads and hopping on.
Cept here's the problem. I am quickly finding that couponing can be extremely time-consuming, annoying, and leave you with a pantry full of bargain-priced noodles and nothing to go on them.
There are classes, websites, blogs, all dedicated to teaching people how to get the most out of coupons. There are store coupons, manufacture coupons, double coupons, register reward deals, catalina coupon machines, and on and on. Enough to make my head spin. And close to enough to make me forget about the whole thing.
But I don't want to give up. I want to save money on products that I would normally buy. Yet here I sit, needing to go to the store, and not sure where to go or what coupon to use.
I miss the days when we were newlyweds and I would order all my groceries online, and they would show up at my door and get delivered into my kitchen. I didn't care that I was paying a premium. Apparently the price of convenience was worth it since I was so busy with my one job and no kids. Man, I didn't know anything back then.
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6 comments:
Shana,
I have tried my darndest to love coupons, but over and over again they have disillusioned me, for all the reasons you've mentioned. Maybe I'm just impatient, I don't know...
In any case, don't feel bad. It is perfectly possible to save lots of money on food without using a single coupon.
Mary
If you find a way to navigate it AND feel positive about the experience WHILE gaining value (remembering that time is money, energy, time otherwise spent with your kids and loved ones), PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I'd love a tutorial in such a case! ; )
*I have a girlfriend who carries a mini-accordian with her. She receives all mailings, emails, etc. She plans a month at a time for all of her shopping so she can get the best deals at the best places for the best price. It has taken her two years to get her system down. She swears it works and that they save over $500 a month and still get all the same products/brands they used to get. I've been asking her for a tutorial too ... the one opportunity she had, I was spinning after about 7 minutes and needed a drink. She hadn't accounted for that, and we didn't have a coupon for it. So I had water.
Oh Jen, that part about the drink cracks me up!
I forgot to mention this in my post, but I am currently working on my "price book" which Mary (Owlhaven - above) writes about in her book. I will probably do a separate post on that. And I'm already convinced that is going to save me a ton of money.
Friend of mine regularly brags on FB of the deals he and his wife get with coupons. Whole shopping carts full for $1.68 or even episodes where they go to a store and get paid to take the merchandise away. His wife puts on a class at their church and they get so much free stuff they give away food at the classes she puts on. I tried to follow some of his tips here but you can't do really well unless you have a grocer who does doubleing or tripling with out limits imposed. Some stores do that a few days a month, combine those with sales, store coupons and stack a manufacture coupon on top and you have a ridiculous bargain. We've found that shopping at Walmart nets us the most savings here plus it provides for awesome entertainment.
I have NO idea how to shop with coupons . If you know the website for classes or help please let me know :)
oh man i feel ya..tried it, i continue to try but ya if it wud work on veggies/fruit that wud b amazing! i'm trying to do so much from scratch lately and it's quite hard to find coupons on organics & impossible on bulk items... but i've found some. anyhow i agree when it takes over my life that's when i'll say enough :)
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