Couponing

We've been getting into using coupons in the last few months. I had never been one to use coupons, I always forgot them and the paper never seemed to have very many. But living up here the local paper has tons of good coupons. Paul sent me this article last night about a woman that by using coupons is feeding her family of 5 for $10 a week. http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=115698 WOW!! I am no where near able to do what she is doing.

But today I did get some great deals by using coupons. I think my best one today was toothpaste, it was 2 for $4 , I had one coupon for $1.50 off and another for $0.50 off, then the stores doubles coupons so I got the toothpaste for free. Toothpaste seems to be one of those easy things to get for free or next to nothing. There are tons of coupons out there for toothpaste and seems like every week the store has one type of toothpaste on sale. I think we have about 5 tubes of toothpaste in the pantry right now and I haven't paid full price for any of them. Stock up, it's not like you won't use it! My other good deal today was shampoo, it was $6.59, I had 3 - $1.00 off coupons, which when doubled I got the shampoo for $0.59. Awesome!! I' m not sure if all stores will let you use more than one coupon for items, but mine will, so multiple coupons along with double the amounts, really adds up.

It does take time to pull this off, I usually take about an hour on sunday to go through the new coupons and the store ads mentally planning what I want to buy. Now I don't do like alot of people do and go to all the different grocery stores in the area. I have 3 stores I will shop at for groceries and toiletries, Kroger, Walgreens and CVS. I actually only go to walmart about once a month now because they don't double coupons and don't have great sales, but a few of the items we need are always cheaper there. I go through the ads and see what is on sale, because we have a well stocked pantry, I only buy things when they are on sale or if my coupons make the item a great price. Then before I go to the store, I check my grocery list, and go through the sales ad again and through the coupons pulling out the coupons I want to use. I tend to go on Saturdays to shop which is working well because we get the Kroger ad for the next week on Saturday and if something is a better price next week than this week, I know to wait and get it then. For example today Pepsi products are on sale but only if you buy $10 worth of other specific items. But starting Monday Pepsi products are on sale for the same prices but without the restriction of purchasing the specific items.

I don't think we'll ever be at $10 a week for groceries, alot of that is because we cook mostly from scratch and use fresh vegetables as much as possible. Lots of coupons seem to be for prepackaged meals and boxed food. But it's definitely a help. Let's face it folks food prices aren't going to go down, gas prices are rising, you've got to save every penny you can.