I am able to double coupons at our grocery stores and clip coupons for products I use. If I find an especially good coupon and sale on something I do not use, I will buy it for the Food Pantry. It makes my dollars go much farther, whether for myself or charity.
Awareness is all, once more. We do spend on what is important TO us. Other stuff, I see as a revolving door. My son is packing for Europe and he's taking a number of things that will be left behind--books (always appreciated in hostels), some clothing, towels, etc. I buy those things in thrift stores and then pass them to the next person.
Yes, I try to use coupons whenever I can. I don't spend a lot of time at it but I usually find any time spent is more than worthwhile, whether it's grocery shopping or shopping online. We have a BJ's Warehouse Club near us & they provide store coupons to members, plus you can use manufacturer's coupons at the same time. Most of our groceries are meats, fresh produce, etc, but I use a lot of coupons for household items. I will still buy off-brand items if it's cheaper, so it just depends. I have to say that it gives me a little rush when I get a really good deal! To make it even more fun, when I get home from running errands I always add up how much I saved with coupons & immediately transfer that amount into our savings. It's very rewarding to see how much progress you can make towards a goal with just little bits at a time.
Week after week I look at the coupons available in the newspaper and can't find a single thing that I usually buy. (Produce comes from a CSA, meat 1/8 of a cow at a time and bulk grains and staples) Last week, I saw a coupon for Kraft cheese - finally! When I got to the store, the store brand was cheaper than the Kraft - even with the coupon!
I live in an area that doesn't offer double coupons, which is a total bummer!
We're getting a dog soon, so hopefully I'll be able to use coupons for food and treats.
I am an avid clipper...and now my husband is too. We purchase multiple papers on Sundays and have friends and family share their unused coupons. I also participate in a Coupon Train by mail. I stockpile any item we use regularly and free items that I won't use are donated. With two teenage boys at home, we can't save enough for college, school activities, etc. Couponing takes alot of time and commitment, but it helps pay for so many other things!
I take it as a compliment that my personal, non-exhaustive list seems to be from a female perspective, and, as I mentioned, welcome tips from other perspectives. We went through the job loss during our engagement, following extended job searches during the 80s recession alone. Our pre-marital counselor seemed to think that a sense of humor could be valuable to our life together and others recommend it as well.
I'm an avid coupon clipper and it works well for me. I combine deals with sales and rarely have to pay for personal care products. I get snack foods, which I eat in moderation when life gets crazy, for around 25% or less of the regular grocery store price. It takes me a bit of time, but not a lot. I've developed a system that balances usability with ease of maintainability. It's not the prettiest of systems and I don't get all the deals, but it does save me a significant amount of money. And, by stockpiling things when I can, it also saves me time and hassle. I don't run out of personal care or paper products and rarely out of most food items. When I get extras of things I can't or won't use before they go bad, I donate them or pass them on to friends.
Couponing isn't for everyone, but it does work well for me.
Debt collectors can be very nasty and rude. With the economy in shambles my business went belly up. My husband and I are both out of work. As you can immagine our finances are a mess. My car got repossesed by Chrystler in the middle of the night, and no they will not negotiate. Prior to the repossetion, I asked them to please lower the payments. Thier answer was always no. Yet the banks cry thier blues to congress and recieve billions in bail outs. I got sued by a creditor, they won because I didn't go to court. They have a jugment, Now my minor son is being sent qustionairs from the creditors lawyer asking for my personal information. The qustionair state if he does not answer he would be held in contempt of court, even though the document is from the lawyers office and not the court. My question is how did he get my sons name and can he even leagaly send him the questionair? I don't want my 17 year old to be stressed. I wonder who this lawyer will contact next, he has already sent my parents the questionair.
this program sucks! I was going to trade in my suv for a new corolla and the dumb corolla dealership jacked up their prices and will not allow haggling at all on the price all because they think i am getting a deal from my 4500.00 rebate! Not so! Who would pay full ticket price for a brand new car? I even asked for them to come down only 500.00 from the ticket price and they said "no we are not discounting these cars at all" since they are able to sell the cars at full price to all those idiots out there, us smart people cant even get a deal! I walked away and said they can keep their stupid car! I would NEVER pay full ticket price for a car no matter what I was getting for my trade!!!
I clip coupons for what I regularly buy. My main goal is to pay for the weekly subscription to the newspaper. My secondary goal is to save money on things were are already buying. I figure even if you get something for close to free but wouldn't have bought it without the coupons you are still spending money you wouldn't have spent.
From spending hours in front of I Love Lucy licking green stamps for my mom (that dates me, I know) to being a young, broke bride to working 60 hour weeks running a company, I've run the gammit from adoring to abhorring the inocuous cents-off coupon.
Standing at the checkout watching $20.00 disappear from the grocery total is a near spiritual experience but spending a good part of Sunday afternoon clipping and filing, then (1) forgetting the coupon folder at home for several weeks, only to have the coupons expire when I finally get my act together or (2) leaving the folder in the baby seat of the grocery cart after loading the 12 bags of groceries (self-bagged) and speeding off -- clipping has also been a heartbreak ;)
I'm still on the fence about the true worth -- time expended vs dollars saved and will be interested in further comments here on WiseBread. I'm still skeptical after all these years of people that say they load a cart full of $300.00 worth of groceries and end up with the store owing them money after the final tally.
I clip coupons too, but like many others have said, I generally keep it to a reasonable level. I won't buy something I don't need just because I have a coupon - but I prevent that by only clipping coupons for products we'd genuinely have a use for. But if I don't have an opinion between brands, a coupon could sway me to purchase one brand over another. It doesn't take too much effort, and the savings are great.
I vary between times of avid couponing to build the stockpile and taking a breather to use what we have. Currently, I'm not going gung-ho for every deay (we're pretty well stocked!), but am focusing on items that we really need and will use or are just too good to pass up (like the $25 in free Kraft groceries at Albertson's!).
My wife really enjoys clipping coupons, and puts them to use all the time. For the past few weeks Kmart has been doubling manufacturer coupons up to $2 (found on cover of weekly ad), and my wife has been racking up the savings. To take it up a notch, Kmart has a Smart Rewards program that allows you to earn points from your purchases, and even offers a chance to win a prize during check out (notification prints on receipt). Combine all this, and we get lots of useful items at a very low price. Kmart is not the only place my wife saves money. When grocery shopping, my wife saves anywhere between $25-$50/month, and also carries a folder in her car w/those full page ads for those spontaneous stops at a fast food restaurant.
To me coupons is another tool for impulsive shoppers. I know in the past I've thought to myself "oh this is on sale with this coupon, I'll buy it." It's actually not a great deal as stores already know in advance what coupons are coming out in circulation and price it in. A lot of times I'll clip the coupons I may need and just wait on using them. If I end up using them great, if not then it's not a big deal because a lot of these manufacture coupons will come around again. I know people get great deals like 20 free boxes of cereal, but I ask myself if I really need 20 boxes of free cereal.
I've recently started trying the clipping coupon route, but I just can't seem to get the same results as the pros that blog online about their free groceries. It almost has to be a full time job to see some major results. I can pretty much slash my bill by 25% just by purchasing the sale items, and for now, that's good enough for me :)
And she is a extreme couponer. Just this weekend she went to CVS, spent over $29.00 and after all the coupons were entered the bill came to 84 cents. Which she paid with the store gift card from the previous weekend shopping trip there getting those deals. She routinely gets products where they are paying us take it. She can sometimes make anywhere from .01 to 2 bucks per item depending on the deal. Sometimes if an item is a little too junk foodie for us we drop that in the Food Shelf box on our way out. And with school supplies being offered for free with deals lately, whatever our kid dosn't need or use we have donated that stuff as well. I remeber a few years ago a grocery store in our area foolishly offered a double coupon day. We went in there spent well over $90.00 and I think at the end the bill was like $3.21. We still have that reciept, it's longer than my arm! Now they only offer double coupons on Wednesdays, and only the first 5 coupons, and you have to spend a minimum of $25.00. To this day I still think she's to blame for that!
I mostly buy staples like beans, flour...and get produce at the market. So I usually can't find a lot of useful coupons, so I kind of gave up trying. I usually get a check-out coupon for my coffee, though -- buy 2 bags for $1 or $2 off. Since I brand loyal to my coffee, that helps a lot. I'll buy the biggest bags they have and stick 1 in the freezer.
I struggle with this too- often I find that items bought with coupons combined with a sale still cost more than the off brand. other times that isn't the case. so do I spend time, clipping and hoping to be able to use the deal? sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. More often I don't. Plus, I find that most coupons are for high sugar, high processed food and I am trying to avoid those things. There are very few coupons for produce.
No, I don't clip coupons. I shop primarily at Kroger, and occasionally I will be given coupons at the checkout counter, which I will then use in subsequent trips. But that is about the extent of my coupon-clipping. I buy mostly generics, and it's hard to get coupons for those items anyhow, which are still typically cheaper than brand name items with a coupon.
When coupons come to my house, I flip through them to see if there is anything that we regularly use, or any fantastic deals on stuff we don't use as often.
As a result, we don't use many coupons. Besides, the amount of savings on name-brand things compared to the store-brand things we buy is minimal if it exists at all.
Yes, I do! I get one newspaper,as a gift from my mom, but rarely does it have what I need, I don't buy stuff or get it unless it is almost free, unless it is what I need...I go online to get coupons for a handling fee, like Rebbecca's forms and coupons, The coupon clipper, or Coupon surfer and order from them, being a single mom with two kids on a very low income - plus I take my 80 something mom to shop, we save an average of %50 every week. You can find these sites by googling them and I check coupons against sales and expiration dates. Its a part time job, but I'd rather be here with my kids and did I say I have rescued a few animals, that eat on the cheap this way too. It stretches my income and there are room for treats too- sale+ double coupon = Free sometimes!
Why buy tooth paste when it goes on sale and there is .75 coupons doubled? Online you can get bunches and stockpile for when there are no sales.
These sites usually have the coupons to me within the week and have a vast array, you don't do the clipping they do! Easiest part time job in the world! They have everything! I have been doing it this way for years!
Because I don't have kids, pets, or eat much packaged food, I find that most coupons are for products I don't use.
If run across a coupon for something I use anyway, I'll grab it but I don't seek out or spend any time clipping. I shop at Costco and the saving on most all items they stock is better than going to my local grocery with coupons.
I love using coupons! I first started clipping coupons at the age of eleven.I wanted something from the store that wasn't on sale,so my mom didn't buy it....so, the next time we got a newspaper,I clipped and saved up coupons for our next grocery trip. I found many items on sale, that I wanted and had coupons for;I also had coupons for a lot of the items my mom had too. I have been couponing for 22 years now,and I've gotten my five kids into couponing too. I do buy a lot of organic fresh fruits and vegetables,but I clip and save many coupons because its just plain fun. I also like writing to many companies(especially organic)requesting coupons. Many times companies are glad to send you a booklet coupons. If couponing isn't for you,then I understand,but this Momma loves it and can't stop.
I am able to double coupons at our grocery stores and clip coupons for products I use. If I find an especially good coupon and sale on something I do not use, I will buy it for the Food Pantry. It makes my dollars go much farther, whether for myself or charity.
Awareness is all, once more. We do spend on what is important TO us. Other stuff, I see as a revolving door. My son is packing for Europe and he's taking a number of things that will be left behind--books (always appreciated in hostels), some clothing, towels, etc. I buy those things in thrift stores and then pass them to the next person.
Yes, I try to use coupons whenever I can. I don't spend a lot of time at it but I usually find any time spent is more than worthwhile, whether it's grocery shopping or shopping online. We have a BJ's Warehouse Club near us & they provide store coupons to members, plus you can use manufacturer's coupons at the same time. Most of our groceries are meats, fresh produce, etc, but I use a lot of coupons for household items. I will still buy off-brand items if it's cheaper, so it just depends. I have to say that it gives me a little rush when I get a really good deal! To make it even more fun, when I get home from running errands I always add up how much I saved with coupons & immediately transfer that amount into our savings. It's very rewarding to see how much progress you can make towards a goal with just little bits at a time.
Week after week I look at the coupons available in the newspaper and can't find a single thing that I usually buy. (Produce comes from a CSA, meat 1/8 of a cow at a time and bulk grains and staples) Last week, I saw a coupon for Kraft cheese - finally! When I got to the store, the store brand was cheaper than the Kraft - even with the coupon!
I live in an area that doesn't offer double coupons, which is a total bummer!
We're getting a dog soon, so hopefully I'll be able to use coupons for food and treats.
I am an avid clipper...and now my husband is too. We purchase multiple papers on Sundays and have friends and family share their unused coupons. I also participate in a Coupon Train by mail. I stockpile any item we use regularly and free items that I won't use are donated. With two teenage boys at home, we can't save enough for college, school activities, etc. Couponing takes alot of time and commitment, but it helps pay for so many other things!
I take it as a compliment that my personal, non-exhaustive list seems to be from a female perspective, and, as I mentioned, welcome tips from other perspectives. We went through the job loss during our engagement, following extended job searches during the 80s recession alone. Our pre-marital counselor seemed to think that a sense of humor could be valuable to our life together and others recommend it as well.
I'm an avid coupon clipper and it works well for me. I combine deals with sales and rarely have to pay for personal care products. I get snack foods, which I eat in moderation when life gets crazy, for around 25% or less of the regular grocery store price. It takes me a bit of time, but not a lot. I've developed a system that balances usability with ease of maintainability. It's not the prettiest of systems and I don't get all the deals, but it does save me a significant amount of money. And, by stockpiling things when I can, it also saves me time and hassle. I don't run out of personal care or paper products and rarely out of most food items. When I get extras of things I can't or won't use before they go bad, I donate them or pass them on to friends.
Couponing isn't for everyone, but it does work well for me.
Debt collectors can be very nasty and rude. With the economy in shambles my business went belly up. My husband and I are both out of work. As you can immagine our finances are a mess. My car got repossesed by Chrystler in the middle of the night, and no they will not negotiate. Prior to the repossetion, I asked them to please lower the payments. Thier answer was always no. Yet the banks cry thier blues to congress and recieve billions in bail outs. I got sued by a creditor, they won because I didn't go to court. They have a jugment, Now my minor son is being sent qustionairs from the creditors lawyer asking for my personal information. The qustionair state if he does not answer he would be held in contempt of court, even though the document is from the lawyers office and not the court. My question is how did he get my sons name and can he even leagaly send him the questionair? I don't want my 17 year old to be stressed. I wonder who this lawyer will contact next, he has already sent my parents the questionair.
this program sucks! I was going to trade in my suv for a new corolla and the dumb corolla dealership jacked up their prices and will not allow haggling at all on the price all because they think i am getting a deal from my 4500.00 rebate! Not so! Who would pay full ticket price for a brand new car? I even asked for them to come down only 500.00 from the ticket price and they said "no we are not discounting these cars at all" since they are able to sell the cars at full price to all those idiots out there, us smart people cant even get a deal! I walked away and said they can keep their stupid car! I would NEVER pay full ticket price for a car no matter what I was getting for my trade!!!
I clip coupons for what I regularly buy. My main goal is to pay for the weekly subscription to the newspaper. My secondary goal is to save money on things were are already buying. I figure even if you get something for close to free but wouldn't have bought it without the coupons you are still spending money you wouldn't have spent.
From spending hours in front of I Love Lucy licking green stamps for my mom (that dates me, I know) to being a young, broke bride to working 60 hour weeks running a company, I've run the gammit from adoring to abhorring the inocuous cents-off coupon.
Standing at the checkout watching $20.00 disappear from the grocery total is a near spiritual experience but spending a good part of Sunday afternoon clipping and filing, then (1) forgetting the coupon folder at home for several weeks, only to have the coupons expire when I finally get my act together or (2) leaving the folder in the baby seat of the grocery cart after loading the 12 bags of groceries (self-bagged) and speeding off -- clipping has also been a heartbreak ;)
I'm still on the fence about the true worth -- time expended vs dollars saved and will be interested in further comments here on WiseBread. I'm still skeptical after all these years of people that say they load a cart full of $300.00 worth of groceries and end up with the store owing them money after the final tally.
WiseBread keep up the good work!
I clip coupons too, but like many others have said, I generally keep it to a reasonable level. I won't buy something I don't need just because I have a coupon - but I prevent that by only clipping coupons for products we'd genuinely have a use for. But if I don't have an opinion between brands, a coupon could sway me to purchase one brand over another. It doesn't take too much effort, and the savings are great.
I vary between times of avid couponing to build the stockpile and taking a breather to use what we have. Currently, I'm not going gung-ho for every deay (we're pretty well stocked!), but am focusing on items that we really need and will use or are just too good to pass up (like the $25 in free Kraft groceries at Albertson's!).
My wife really enjoys clipping coupons, and puts them to use all the time. For the past few weeks Kmart has been doubling manufacturer coupons up to $2 (found on cover of weekly ad), and my wife has been racking up the savings. To take it up a notch, Kmart has a Smart Rewards program that allows you to earn points from your purchases, and even offers a chance to win a prize during check out (notification prints on receipt). Combine all this, and we get lots of useful items at a very low price. Kmart is not the only place my wife saves money. When grocery shopping, my wife saves anywhere between $25-$50/month, and also carries a folder in her car w/those full page ads for those spontaneous stops at a fast food restaurant.
To me coupons is another tool for impulsive shoppers. I know in the past I've thought to myself "oh this is on sale with this coupon, I'll buy it." It's actually not a great deal as stores already know in advance what coupons are coming out in circulation and price it in. A lot of times I'll clip the coupons I may need and just wait on using them. If I end up using them great, if not then it's not a big deal because a lot of these manufacture coupons will come around again. I know people get great deals like 20 free boxes of cereal, but I ask myself if I really need 20 boxes of free cereal.
I've recently started trying the clipping coupon route, but I just can't seem to get the same results as the pros that blog online about their free groceries. It almost has to be a full time job to see some major results. I can pretty much slash my bill by 25% just by purchasing the sale items, and for now, that's good enough for me :)
And she is a extreme couponer. Just this weekend she went to CVS, spent over $29.00 and after all the coupons were entered the bill came to 84 cents. Which she paid with the store gift card from the previous weekend shopping trip there getting those deals. She routinely gets products where they are paying us take it. She can sometimes make anywhere from .01 to 2 bucks per item depending on the deal. Sometimes if an item is a little too junk foodie for us we drop that in the Food Shelf box on our way out. And with school supplies being offered for free with deals lately, whatever our kid dosn't need or use we have donated that stuff as well. I remeber a few years ago a grocery store in our area foolishly offered a double coupon day. We went in there spent well over $90.00 and I think at the end the bill was like $3.21. We still have that reciept, it's longer than my arm! Now they only offer double coupons on Wednesdays, and only the first 5 coupons, and you have to spend a minimum of $25.00. To this day I still think she's to blame for that!
I mostly buy staples like beans, flour...and get produce at the market. So I usually can't find a lot of useful coupons, so I kind of gave up trying. I usually get a check-out coupon for my coffee, though -- buy 2 bags for $1 or $2 off. Since I brand loyal to my coffee, that helps a lot. I'll buy the biggest bags they have and stick 1 in the freezer.
I struggle with this too- often I find that items bought with coupons combined with a sale still cost more than the off brand. other times that isn't the case. so do I spend time, clipping and hoping to be able to use the deal? sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. More often I don't. Plus, I find that most coupons are for high sugar, high processed food and I am trying to avoid those things. There are very few coupons for produce.
No, I don't clip coupons. I shop primarily at Kroger, and occasionally I will be given coupons at the checkout counter, which I will then use in subsequent trips. But that is about the extent of my coupon-clipping. I buy mostly generics, and it's hard to get coupons for those items anyhow, which are still typically cheaper than brand name items with a coupon.
When coupons come to my house, I flip through them to see if there is anything that we regularly use, or any fantastic deals on stuff we don't use as often.
As a result, we don't use many coupons. Besides, the amount of savings on name-brand things compared to the store-brand things we buy is minimal if it exists at all.
Yes, I do! I get one newspaper,as a gift from my mom, but rarely does it have what I need, I don't buy stuff or get it unless it is almost free, unless it is what I need...I go online to get coupons for a handling fee, like Rebbecca's forms and coupons, The coupon clipper, or Coupon surfer and order from them, being a single mom with two kids on a very low income - plus I take my 80 something mom to shop, we save an average of %50 every week. You can find these sites by googling them and I check coupons against sales and expiration dates. Its a part time job, but I'd rather be here with my kids and did I say I have rescued a few animals, that eat on the cheap this way too. It stretches my income and there are room for treats too- sale+ double coupon = Free sometimes!
Why buy tooth paste when it goes on sale and there is .75 coupons doubled? Online you can get bunches and stockpile for when there are no sales.
These sites usually have the coupons to me within the week and have a vast array, you don't do the clipping they do! Easiest part time job in the world! They have everything! I have been doing it this way for years!
Because I don't have kids, pets, or eat much packaged food, I find that most coupons are for products I don't use.
If run across a coupon for something I use anyway, I'll grab it but I don't seek out or spend any time clipping. I shop at Costco and the saving on most all items they stock is better than going to my local grocery with coupons.
I love using coupons! I first started clipping coupons at the age of eleven.I wanted something from the store that wasn't on sale,so my mom didn't buy it....so, the next time we got a newspaper,I clipped and saved up coupons for our next grocery trip. I found many items on sale, that I wanted and had coupons for;I also had coupons for a lot of the items my mom had too. I have been couponing for 22 years now,and I've gotten my five kids into couponing too. I do buy a lot of organic fresh fruits and vegetables,but I clip and save many coupons because its just plain fun. I also like writing to many companies(especially organic)requesting coupons. Many times companies are glad to send you a booklet coupons. If couponing isn't for you,then I understand,but this Momma loves it and can't stop.
I'm not a very avid couponer. I try to use them when I can, but I buy a lot of store brand products, which are often cheaper than name brand + coupon.
For items where I refuse to buy store brand, like facial and bath tissue, I look for sales and/or coupons online.
Though I don't do much coupon-clipping now, I know that it's something extra I can do when times are tight.