Couponing

That’s right, I’ve joined the craze - I’ve started "couponing”. I must confess that I used to scoff at this ridiculous practice. I was a skeptical ridiculer when people whipped out their stack of $.50 off coupons. As a business major, my practical mind reasoned that my time was worth money too. I thought it was a waste and that it really didn’t end up saving any money…until I tried it for myself. And I started timing the coupons with the sales ads. I’ve since discovered that it is totally worth my time and it really is saving us cash.

To clarify, I mainly use coupons for drug store and baby and household products, not on weekly groceries. Because I use E-Mealz (see previous post), they already shop the sales ads for me. I still clip/print coupons for food items we use, but my major focus has been on other types of products.

My Typical Weekly Couponing Routine:

1. I go through and clip coupons from Sunday’s paper that we’ll use. We get a county paper for free that contains the same coupon circulars that the big Sunday paper does, so I don’t even have to factor in the subscription cost! I also log onto various coupon sites (see below for a list) on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to print online coupons. Most of them allow you to print multiples of each coupon, which is great if it doesn’t expire for awhile.

This week I clipped $13 worth of coupons. Even if I only end up using 2/3rds of them, that's still a savings of over $8 for 10 minutes worth of cutting!

I will caution that some of the drug stores may not take internet-printed coupons. There is one Walgreens near me that doesn’t, and one that does. So, I simply don’t shop at the one that doesn’t!

2. Once they’re clipped and printed, I immediately file these coupons into categories. As I’m doing so, I’m refreshing my memory as to what I have coupons for and what expires soon.

Here is my folder for manufacturer's coupons:

3. I pull out the circulars for Target, Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid. I clip any additional store coupons, match up the sales to my coupons, and make a list for each store.

This often takes some concentration, math, and some comparison between the circulars. (“If a pack of 40 Huggies diapers is $11.99 at CVS but a pack of 72 is $19.99 at Walgreens, which has a lower cost per unit?” etc.) It also means I have to keep a mental note of what we have, what we’re out of, what we have room to stock up on, etc. This isn’t too big of a job for me to remember yet, but it may require a list in the near future.

Of course I sometimes have to buy items that I don’t have a coupon for, so I just try to find the best price in the circulars for those. You’ll find over time that you learn who has the lowest regular price on certain things. If I do have a coupon for the item, I put an asterisk by it on my list so I remember to use it.

Here are this week's lists:

4. I file coupons for specific retailers in another, larger folder. As I make out my lists, I put coupons that I’m going to use at that store in the file under that store’s name.

This process usually takes me about 45 minutes to an hour a week. That’s not unreasonable for me right now, but it may change once the baby arrives. You have to decide what time you have available and weigh that against the savings to decide if it’s profitable for your family. I save about $10-$15 per store per week, or approx. $50 total. For an hour’s worth of work (plus one hour shopping time to hop around to each of those), it’s lucrative. That’s $25 dollars an hour, which is more than I made when working outside the home! Sometimes the savings are much greater (my record is spending $11 at Walgreens for $55 worth of stuff).

Other Guidelines I Follow:

1. ONLY clip/print coupons for items that you actually use. If you end up buying a product that you don’t need just because you have a coupon for it, it really isn’t saving money. Every once in a while I’ll cut one out for a new product I want to try, but I don’t bring stuff home that we won’t use.

2. Sign up for the store’s savings cards. I have a CVS card and a Kroger card. Yes, I know they’re tracking my spending habits and using me for free marketing research. To help cut down on solicitation, I didn’t put my birthday, phone number, or email on the applications. I’m sure I’ve increased my junk mail a bit, but it’s a calculated risk I took.

3. I do not drive all over creation to save a buck. Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid are literally all at one intersection about 2 miles from my house. And who doesn’t pass a Target at least once a week?! If you don’t have all of them so close to you, I recommend only stopping at the one or two you pass on your regular routes.

4. Shop with a list…and STICK TO YOUR LIST. This can be especially hard at Target! Just remember that it doesn’t count to save $10 if you spend an extra $25 you didn’t need to spend.

5. Stock up on stuff that you’ll use eventually IF you really need to and IF you have room for it.

Some examples of things I stock up on: diapers, batteries, coke products, paper towels, toiletries, and cleaning supplies. You have to be careful to draw the line somewhere though. I cut myself off once I run out of room to store it in its rightful place OR I have about a 8-12 week supply. There will be more coupons and sales. It’s not sensible to stock up if you’re stumbling over stuff everywhere or if it’s going to expire before you get to use it. I don’t want to have to start storing toothpaste in David’s sock drawer just because it was on sale and I had no where else to put it.

6. Another great alternative and/or addition to stocking up is to buy the products and donate them to a local food bank. This may also be worth clipping coupons for stuff you don’t use.

Here are this week's results:

That's $42.90 from three stores (I had to do two transactions at Walgreens to use all of my coupons.) It took me 45 minutes to clip and list and 45 minutes to shop this week, so that's $42.90 for 1.5 hours of work!

...So that’s my new hobby. David jokes that at least it’s a hobby that saves us money! Hopefully you’ll consider joining this new fad and it’ll become a money-saving habit for your family like it has for us!

Here are some online coupon sites that I use regularly:

Coupon Cabin – this one has a lot of retailers’ coupons. Not very many grocery/drug store coupons. http://www.couponcabin.com/printable-coupons/index.htm

Coupons.com – This one has a lot of grocery and drug store items. http://print.coupons.com/Couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13903&zid=xh20&nid=10

RedPlum.com – Same company as the coupon circulars, but they often offer different coupons than the paper. http://www.redplum.com/Default.aspx

The Coupon Mom – Mostly grocery and drug store items. http://couponmom.coupons.smartsource.com/WEB/index.aspx?Link=WOOX5QMOGEYUM

I’ll list some more money saving websites that I use in a later post. There are a several good ones out there that link you to valuable coupons and help match up the sales ads for you.