I've recently started doing something I never, ever thought I'd be doing. But the economy sucks, the price of everything is going up and my girls have suddenly become ravenous eating pits. For those of you that know me, you might say I'm a bit...obsessive. And I mean that in the best way possible. When I get involved with something I jump in with both feet. My enthusiasm might not last very long, but while I'm in the middle of it, I'm 110%.
So, what have I started doing? Couponing. I mean I even have the binder. Yep, the one where I've got all my little pieces of paper categorized by aisle and department in pretty plastic sheets. I used to sneer at the women I passed in the grocery store with their binders open, staring at the little tags on the shelf. My MIL used to give me coupons for diapers and wipes when the girls were little...I threw them away. I was one of those people who couldn't be bothered. I have enough to do in my life and couponing was just more time I didn't have.
However, I've decided I was wrong. Last night I spent $98 and saved $92 with coupons and sales. I bought what we needed, what we actually use. I refuse to purchase something simply because it's on sale. I will not be one of those people who spent $4.00 for a week of groceries but they're things no one will actually eat.
So, yeah, I've become one of those people. I now proudly tool around the grocery store with my binder open, flipping pages to see if I have a coupon for that. My pantry is busting at the seams. I had to promise Zilla I wouldn't buy another box of cereal for a couple weeks. But, when you can get the one that the girls love for $.50 each...you kinda gotta stock up.
So, anyone else coupon? It might be interesting to see just how long my obsession lasts. It does take me at least an hour to prepare to shop...although, that might not be a bad thing. I used to come home with tons of junk that I really didn't need. Now, at least when I come home with junk it's the junk that was on sale.
Instigator
10 comments:
I generally use a few each week. I'm not going to buy something I don't need simply because I have a coupon for it. I do try to stack coupons on top of sale prices. If you shop at CVS, you can stack a coupon on top of a sale and use your Extra Bucks to pay for it. It gets really complicated and not as beneficial for a single person as for a family.
Just don't turn into one of those people who has enough toilet paper to wipe the fannies of everyone east of the Mississippi River for the next decade. ;-)
That's one of those things I always say I'm going to do and then never do it. I used to cut the coupons and file them, and then six months later dump them because they'd expired. It became something to feel guilty about.
Not getting the Sunday paper helps with the guilt though! If I don't see the coupons and sales fliers, I don't feel as guilty about it.
I need to do better with this. I cancelled the paper because they always wanted to give me the paper every day, and half the time, it was soaken wet, not delivered or had been stolen. But I'm too lazy to get up on Sundays and go buy one.
I coupon, but I've learned to buy only the stuff that I normally use. Otherwise, it backfires.
The obsession comes and goes :-).
Last year I saved over $175 dollars on coupons alone. This was only for 10 months (I was recuperating from surgery in January 2010 and again in July 2010and someone else did my shopping.) Like you I use coupons only for those items I need. Remember, I purchase food for only one person.
I can have a lot of guilt-free fun on the $175 I saved.
PS: I deliberately tracked the amount of coupon savings just to satisfy my curiosity. I'm not penny-pinching, I'm just thrifty.
;-)
Ages ago I spent hours every day doing tons of refunds. But now it's different. I still clip coupons but there aren't the refunds much any more. A few here and there. I use to have bags and bags of UPC's. Glad to get rid of them lol.
I forgot to mention that the store where I shop for groceries doubles coupon redemtion value up to $1 and sometimes it even triples the value.
word verif -- bilionsc --as in I'll never save a billion dollars this way!
That doubling and tripling can really make a difference. Unfortunately, none of the places I shop do that.
Where I go will double up to $.50 so that's nice. The website I visit to get my info (Southernsavers.com) lists other stores and I'm always jealous of the deals I can't get - including doubling up to $1.00 and competitor coupons that my store won't take.
Instigator
hotcouponworld.com is good too. They have forums for individual stores and manage to get the stores flyers a week or so ahead of time. Then they'll tell you how to stack coupons and take advantage of various deals. I usually check the CVS and Publix forums.
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