Couponing for Beginners--some info taken from Southern Savers

Supermarket Savings

Have you tried couponing, but felt that it was not helping?

First, couponing isn’t just clipping some coupons from Sunday's paper and handing over a few coupons every now and then. If that is what you think, then you will save $5 or $10 dollars and become discouraged that it is not worth your time.

True couponing is cutting those coupons from your paper and then saving them until the product you want to buy is on sale. Doing this you can get items for 50-100% off regular price (yes, that’s right – FREE).

How?

1. Product prices fluctuate on cycles normally 6-8 weeks long. When an item is at its lowest price in that cycle you want to buy enough of that item to get you through until it comes back on sale. An example: your family eats 1 box of cereal a week, so you buy 6 boxes when it is on sale to get you through the sale cycle.

2. When it is a rock bottom price, you use your coupons to reduce the price even lower. Grab some extra copies of coupons that you will use a lot of by purchasing more papers, getting friends' papers, or printing the individual coupons online.

If I don’t have you convinced, let me spell it out with money.

You can buy 1 box every week for 6 weeks, or buy all 6 boxes on sale.

1 box @ $4.50 x 6 weeks = $27

1 box @ $1 x 6 boxes = $6

That’s one product and you have saved $21. Now think of the other 200 products that the average family buys a month. Even if you didn’t have coupons for all of your items, if you wait until the product is on sale to purchase it, you are still saving. How many times have you heard someone say, "If only I had an extra $200 a month!" If they could save just one dollar per item on 200 items, there is the $200!!

Remember: You maximize your savings by combining the store's sale with coupons.

Want some more tips to save even more?

1. Cut ALL coupons or Save all inserts from the Sunday paper. If you save the entire insert to cut as needed, make sure you mark the date on insert so that you can find it when you see a coupon can be used.

2. Start to shop buying only the things that are on sale and using your coupons then. Also when an item is on sale you STOCKPILE. Some sites recommend 12 weeks worth because that is the common time it takes for an item to come back on sale. That's great if you have the space; if not get enough that if you shop at two different stores you can hold off until it goes on sale at the other store. Once you have a good stockpile, you will only be shopping for sale items and never having to pay non sale prices. Also, once you pay an amazing price for something like 50 cents for cereal you will not want to have to pay the regular price ever again.

3. Make a menu for the week based on what is on sale that week at the store. For example, don’t plan fish when no one has it on sale and you are paying top dollar.

4. If you know that you are going on a trip or having a special event in the future, start a separate stockpile early for those items so that you are not paying top dollar for your groceries just because you are on vacation . Paying $3 for 5 12pks of Coke at CVS a month before a trip is much better than paying $4.50 a 12pk once you get to the beach!!

5. The less brand loyal you can be, the more you can save . My husband prefers Kellogg's Raisin Bran, but if Total or Post are on sale and I have a coupon and can get a box for 25 cents whereas the Kellogg's is $4.59, well, you can just guess which I am going to buy. If you want to pay full price, go for it, but I’ll use my coupon. If Herbal Essences shampoo is 20 cents a bottle, it can’t hurt to give it a try.

6. Store brands are not the best deal. National brand items bought on sale with coupons become incredibly cheaper than store brand items. If you can buy store brand butter for $2.49 or get Land o Lakes butter for 80 cents… that's not hard math. Remember: A store wants you to buy their brand because they keep all the money. They will try to make it seem like a deal, but you can ALWAYS do better by combining a sale with a coupon. The only store brand items I buy are milk, flour, and sugar. Of course, if the store is offering their brand for FREE, I'll gladly take it. Harris Teeter does that from time to time. So far this year, I've gotten trail mix, soup, crackers, milk, and a few other items that are the HT brand for free.

7. Shopping at Costco and Sam's will become a thing of the past mostly. Milk is definitely cheaper at Costco. We eat a lot of fish and spinach so I buy those at Costco. There are a few other things that the grocery stores don't carry that I like to buy from Costco, but even then I know it isn't a deal; it's just something I want! Buying 4 boxes of cereal for $10 at Costco never compares to getting 4 boxes for 2.00 (the average price of cereal when bought correctly is $0.25-$1.00). Personal Care items that could be a good deal can’t even touch being FREE at CVS.

I hope you'll consider learning to save money using coupons. It is truly worth the effort!