I know this was suppose to be done on Monday, but seriously let's not get started on my Monday.... lets all just smile and move along to Tuesday....
ok I am down with that to! :)
So whats the big deal about coupons?? I CANNOT say enough about them... they are great and save my family tons of money every month! Yes, it does involve 2-3 hours per week, organization, a grocery list, motivation and determination however, if you can handle these 4 requirements then you are good to go! Let's get started
1.) Learning your grocery stores coupon policy.
The first item on the list for you to learn is your stores coupon policy. Many times you can simply type in a google search for it and come back with many sites that may give you what you need. You may also request a copy for your stores website or customer service counter inside the store. I will use Publix as my example since it is the store that I use.
Publix
1. You do not have to buy 2 of the B1G1 items to get the sale price
2. If you do buy 2 items that are B1G1 make sure you use 2 coupons to get the best deal
3. Publix accepts competitors coupons (you can stack with a manufacturers coupon and a Publix coupon too)
4. You can use a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon on the same item
5. Most Publix locations double manufacturer coupons that are.50¢ or less
** #1 and #5 do not apply in FL and coastal GA**
2.)
Time Commitment to find coupons (2-3 hours per week)My favorite sites for finding printable and manufacture coupons are
Southern SaversThrifty Flordia MamaThe local stores I
primarly shop at are
Publix and
CVS. I do shop at
Walmart for some items that are not on sale, but are needed for the week.
How Do I Start My Week
I start out at Hot Coupon World Grocery Store Section under the Publix forum on Monday mornings. {Depending on where you live you might use a different local grocery store forum.} Hot Coupon World usually provides an early release for the Buy1 Get1 (B1G1) deals for the week. Publix "sales" week runs Wednesday - Tuesday and most stores follow this schedule however, I recommend checking with you local grocery store.
I take a peak at the B1G1's for the week and see if anything catches my eye. I will then go on over to Ebay and search for coupons that match up to items that we can use. One item that caught my eye this week was pop-tarts:
Example:
Pop Tarts B1G1 @ $2.39 at Publix
Ebay coupons: 20 $.55/1 Pop Tart 8ct. @$3.00
2 - 8ct. Pop Tarts = $2.39
-$1.10 coupons
= 1.29 or $.65 each
After paying $3.00 for coupons and buying 20 boxes of pop tarts my
cost per box would be $.80each per box
Much cheaper than buying them at Walmart or buying generic brands!
After looking through the 15-20 B1G1 deals for the week, picking out which ones interest me and doing a quick search for possible coupon match ups I have spent about 30 minutes. I now wait and check back on Monday evening or Tuesday morning. By this time Hot Coupon World has placed the coupons that match up with each item. This includes manufacturer coupons and which week they were in the newspaper, printable coupons and their links and any competitor coupons that match up. It will look like this:
Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts, 8 ct, at $2.39
-.75/1 Pop-Tarts
printable (Target)
-.55/1 Pop-Tarts
printable (makes it .64¢ ea)
-$1/2 Pop-Tarts RP 8/02
Qualifies for
Fuel for School RebateNow lets all take a breath and re-read this a few times to make sure that we can all understand part 1. Please feel free to view the websites that I use and teach yourself as much as you can. I didn't attend any class or really go through a written tutorial to learn. It was basic trial and error and some time researching.
Stay tuned
tomorrow for part 2 of Addicted to coupons where we will add "stacking coupons", $5/$20 purchases and making your coupons work for you at the store....
HAPPY SAVVY SHOPPING!
