Ok - I have to say that my idea of couponing was that you spend a lot of time cutting one out and going into the store to get $.25 off an item that I could probably get much cheaper than the coupon price in Walmart's generic brand.
The last few days I've been doing quite a bit of reading and research and have been hugely surprised, shocked, amazed, at what has been out here for years without me knowing anything about this. Granted, I have been in no position the last couple of years to really figure this out. But now that I am, I am going to share this with you.
Two MUST SEE websites: The Krazy Coupon Lady - a free site and The Grocery Game - paid subscription site. The Grocery Game is a national site and is in all 50 states. You put your zip code in and it tells you the 'lists' they carry. For my area they have Kroger, Meijer, Walgreens, Rite-Aid and Walmart. The Krazy Coupon Lady has some national ads (target, for example).
Last week I signed up for three subscriptions to our Sunday paper. Sites I have read recommend 4 - 6 subscriptions. Maybe I'll see the value in that later on, but for now I'm going to start out with three. Our newspaper has a promo on right now - if you call up and give them the code: M-9F, you can get the Sunday paper for $4.30/month. The person I spoke with, because he had never done multiple subscriptions before, wasn't sure if I'll get this deal on all three, or just my first subscription, so we'll see.
The I googled couponing and my area. I found a local message board site that talked about The Grocery Game. There are some areas, like in Utah, where there are free sites that put together most of the info you pay for through The Grocery Game. But as near as I have been able to find out, that doesn't exist for my area.
One of my personal mantras is that I want to get the maximum results for the minimum effort! I value speed, time saved, efficiency. I value the time that I have as a mother. For those reasons, I am happy to pay for The Grocery Game because I am paying them to do work that I don't have the time or resources to do. Right now I am signed up for the four week FREE trial. Once that is over, it costs $10 for the first store list you get, $5 for each additional list - for eight weeks of the list. I am pretty sure I am going to get Kroger, Meijer, and either Rite-Aid or Walgreens. Or I might just pay for Kroger and Meijer, if Krazy Coupon lady is good enough for my local Rite-Aid or Walgreens.
So the costs I'll have per month: approximately $13 for newspapers, between $7 - 10 for the coupon data service, so at the maximum $22 a month. I am adding these costs into my grocery/household budgets. If I save more than $5.50 a week, it is worth it.
Last week I had NO CLUE what I was doing, i still am figuring this out, and I easily saved $45 off the regular price. As I get better at this, savings will grow. We'll have more food storage, more items on hand that we need when we need them, and we'll eliminate a lot of those running to the store for one item that turns into a $25 shopping trip!
Ok, so how the Grocery Game works: you can access each store list for which you have a subscription. The lists pair up weeks sales items with manufactures coupons and in-store coupons to get the best deal possible. There are six columns: the first lists the regular price, the second is the sales price, the third is where you can find the manufacturer's coupon (either online, or it will give you the date of the Sunday paper and the insert it is found in) the fourth lists if there is an in-store coupon or extra sale, the next is the final price you pay, and the last is the percent you've saved. The Grocery Game is color-coded. They tell you, based on their research, if this is a rock-bottom price that you should stock up on while you can, or if this is just an OK deal that you should buy only if you need the item.
For example: this week Kroger had Dan-o-nino 6 pack yogurt (regular price $2.29) on sale for 2 for $4. However, a lot of these stores give you the sale price even if you just purchase one item. You don't need to buy two, you just needed to buy one and you got it for $2. Then another column told me where to find a manufacturer's coupon for $1.50 off. I was able to get a hold of two of the manufacturer's coupons (from now on I'll have three from my Sunday papers), so I was able to buy 2 six-pack yogurts for $.50 each - and got MAJOR 'we love mom' points from my kids.
From the Krazy Koupon lady, I found out about a great deal. I LOVE dove deodorant - it's the only one I'll use. Target has a sale this week: the deodorant is on sale for $3.49, plus when you buy it, you get a free 3 oz body mist. Krazy Lady had a link to an on-line manufacturer's coupon for $2 off dove deodorant, and another manufacturer's for $1.50 off, and a target online coupon for $1 off dove. I'm not sure if Target is going to let me stack the manufacturer's coupons on top of each other, but if they do, I printed off two each, so i'll get two deodorant and two body sprays for free. If they won't let me stack them, I also printed off 2 of target's coupons, so I can get the two deodorants and two body sprays for a total of $1.
This is the thing about online coupons - they are limited in quantity, and you have to act fast. I just checked and the target online coupon for the dove deodorant is already gone. It was available for a few hours only.
Both Krazy Coupon Lady and The Grocery Game tell you where to find online coupons, so if you choose to use these types of coupons you should consider how much your printer ink costs. We don't have to pay too much for ours, and it lasts quite a while.
Another thing about the Grocery Game: as you go through the online list, you check the items you want to buy, then at the bottom you can 'select all marked,' and print it off. That way you can take your personalized list with you, and it tells you right on it how many items you need to buy and how many coupons to use for each sale.
This does take a little bit of time. It takes time to locate the manufacturer's coupon - but you can get organized so this is easier. I already had sheet protectors and a big binder at home (but you can buy 50 sheet protectors for $3.50 at Walmart). So, as of last week, I started collecting my newspaper coupons in a binder of sheet protectors and each weeks is labeled with the date. Because the list does refer to coupons from weeks past. I will easily be able to locate the coupons for 6/6 and so on and so forth.
It does take some time to get organized, to find the coupon you are looking for and then once you are in the store to find the product. But as I become more familiar with the stores and their layouts and the order of how the coupons appear in the inserts, this will become easier.
So what I did last week was: 1) sign up for three newspaper subscriptions 2) sign up for my four-week free trial of the Grocery Game 3) get my binder and sheet protector organized 4) look at each store list on the grocery game to see the deals I wanted to buy 5) locate the coupons, cut them out 6) put the coupons in a labeled envelope to take with me grocery shopping 7) as I went to the store, I had my list and my envelope of coupons.
This morning I checked Krazy Coupon Lady's site for national deals that apply to my area. The Grocery Game lists will be updated between now and Monday night. Then I'll take a look at the deals, cut out or print off coupons, and get menus planned around the specials.
A word about Walmart. I have been pretty much a strictly Walmart only shopper. There are a handful of things that I will still go there to get that I need every week that are cheaper. I like to buy quite a few high-fiber foods that I will buy no matter what is on sale. Walmart does price matching for advertised sales from other stores. But I have decided it is too much trouble to take in other store's ads to show a checker to try and get the same price or maybe a little cheaper than just going to Meijer or Kroger.
I thought using the coupons was going to be a huge pain and very time consuming. But if you make sure you get the right quantities of the right products that are on sale (and the grocery game's list tells you exactly what to buy), then all you need to do is scan the coupons in like you scan products and you are out of there. I did about seven coupons at Kroger at a self-scan station, and it was pretty easy. You enter the coupons in after you hit 'pay now.' Also, with Kroger, if you have a barcode membership keychain, you can go on-line, enter the info from you keychain and set up an online coupon account. They have digital coupon that once you are all set up, you log into your account, select the coupon you want, and within one hour, if you go to kroger and scan in your kroger membership card and the product that has a digital coupon - it automatically give you the coupon price. It really is digital - nothing to print out or cut out.
I am learning as I go with this - I really started looking into this Wednesday of last week, so I have only had about four days to try this out. This week is going to be a good one, because I'll have 3 sets of current ads, I'll have more time to plan out what I'm getting, and I know a little more than last week.
So - I've written this all out because I wish I would have know about this sooner! Good luck to you and your shopping!
