I have always wanted to be a couponer. I want to be one of those women who spend $50 bucks a month on groceries. But I don't want to be one of those women who spend 40+ hours a week, clipping coupons. I wanted to be a SAHM and I want to do really good at it. I'd love to be a better budgetter. I want us to have savings for whenever Hubs decides to get out of the Army, for emergency funds, to buy a house one day, to have wonderful vacations as a family or just as a couple. I realize that on a E6's paycheck and a SAHM this is a little out of reach, but its not totally impossible!
I decided to go grocery shopping this week and because my mom bought us a printer for my B-Day I was going to print off a ton of coupons and save me some major cash. $20 bucks or more would be great.....I found 1 coupon I could use! just 1!! So grocery shopping didn't happen. But I have to shop before I leave for Utah so the Hubs doesn't starve while I am gone. I am not in a need to buy meat. I wont be here and there is fish, chicken, steak and hamburger in the freezer, the Hubs is set on meat while I am away.
I plan on taking out my "spending cash" the day before I leave for Utah, I'll only be using my debit card for things such as diapers, formula and baby food. Everything else will come out of the cash in my wallet. Hopefully that will be a big budget change. And hopefully if that works I can finally talk the Hubs into having spending cash on him. (its annoying to have to have to budget his stupid once in a while Monsters and beers.)
But back to the coupons. I couldn't believe that I couldn't find any coupons that I would use. I get the post newspaper, and that has coupons in it which is about 10 or less coupons I'll actually use. I would love to always have toilet paper, paper towels, soap, shampoo & conditioner and various food coupons on me, but this isn't realistic apparently.
Does anyone have good couponing and budgeting ideas? I'd love to get better at doing this.
Also coupon sites would be fantastic!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
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I have never been able to use coupons effectively. I think it's because I've gotten so used to purchasing generic, that coupons don't have much pull on me when I'm looking at a name brand that costs twice as much regular price.
I'm a horrible couponer! I either forget I have them or I just don't see the point in using one to buy name brand stuff when I could save the save more by buying a different brand.
Try this gal she has a lot of good ideas and you might find someone in your area like her
http://moneysavingqueen.com/
I like to coupon, but I've never been extremely good at it. It also happens that every time I'm pregnant I completely stop using coupons. We get the local weekend (Sunday) paper and that is where I find most of my coupons. The best way I've found to use them is at my local grocery store (Kroger) matching them up with the sale ad. Plus Kroger doubles coupons up to .50 here. (so If you have a $0.35 coupon, they'll run it like $0.70 off.) and it does add up. But it is so important to match to the ongoing sales.
I never get good coupon deals paper towels or toilet paper, especially b/c my hubby is brand loyal on those items. Shampoo/Conditioner I've done pretty well with stocking up on that.
Oh a side note, it is so funny to watch my husband try to clip coupons. He NEVER reads the fine print (like where it says you have to buy 2) and he has no idea what constitutes a good coupon. I get a laugh out of it every weekend.
You can buy coupons from EBay or coupondede.com or Google coupon clipping services. The coupons are a few cents. This way you are only getting coupons you want and need. Also if you want multiple items you dont have to buy 6 papers. Then Google coupon match ups for your store and the websites tell you all the deals. Also.. (sorry this is a lot.. but I like coupons). You can log into commissary website and they tell you what's on sale. Find coupons to match sales. OK ill stop. Good luck.
You can buy coupons from EBay or coupondede.com or Google coupon clipping services. The coupons are a few cents. This way you are only getting coupons you want and need. Also if you want multiple items you dont have to buy 6 papers. Then Google coupon match ups for your store and the websites tell you all the deals. Also.. (sorry this is a lot.. but I like coupons). You can log into commissary website and they tell you what's on sale. Find coupons to match sales. OK ill stop. Good luck.
I first got started with couponing almost four years ago, and the key is to match up coupons with store sales. Also, the best time to get internet coupons is at the very beginning of each month. Towards the end of the month it is usually slim-pickens as far as any printables you'll find, however most manufacturers reset their coupon limits and issue new coupons at the start of each month. The site where I learned the most about how to get started is Southern Savers (http://www.southernsavers.com). On this site, she posts the weekly ads for pretty much any grocery store you'll find in the south along with coupons that match up with each item so you can get the best deal possible. Another site that will be of interest to you for any good Commissary deals is Military Wives Saving (http://www.militarywivessaving.com/).
I'm with Jessa. I feel like I save more when I buy generic!
I don't coupon. I buy mostly organic stuff and there aren't many coupons for those things! Though I did find some for the milk I buy.
I'm not huge into couponing, but I do buy the local sunday paper which usually has a p&g saver. I clip ones that I know we will use & toss the rest. Any other coupons I get, I find from the Krazy Coupon Lady Database. http://thekrazycouponlady.com/print-coupons/
Oh could I give you lessons. But to me its not worth it. I don't have the time nor do I buy the stuff. Plus thanks to all those crazy couponers that they've made tv shows about, most manufacturer coupons aren't what they used to be and stores have really tightened up on rules. If you don't buy a lot of the stuff they make coupons for you can really only save off of store ads or rebates. Not sure how things are in NC but pinchingyourpennies.com is a good site to learn about stuff. Here it UT the beer companies will send you gift cards and offer rebates if you buy stuff from their partners. Sometimes you can rack up negative amounts and use it as credit for like produce and those things that don't offer coupons. But usually that's if like Albertson's has doublers. But most companies are really cutting back and you can't get as good of deals as you used to be able to. You used to be able to get cereal for like less than a buck with some deals but you hardly see sales like that anymore. Freezer meals have helped me save money since I rarely find coupons that I can use. You can spend just one day cooking up so many meals then freeze them so all you have to do is defrost the meal the night before and cook it the next day. Super easy. I also buy a lot more at costco too because most of their produce is pretty cheap for what you get. As long as you use it all up. I'm in the process of creating a spreadsheet of all the prices of stuff I buy so I know before I ever shop what I'll spend. Its probably going to take a couple more months to compile a bigger list of food and prices but I'm working on it. Me and my crazy spreadsheets :)
I'm not a big coupon user because I find that I buy useless things I don't want or need just to get the coupon savings. I saved much more by buying what we actually use and eat.
I know this is way old, and you're in Utah visiting now... but I never have a chance to sit down and catch up on blogs any more. lol. When you are back here at Bragg, you can get on the food lion website & load coupons right to your food lion card, then you dont have to waste the ink to print them out. I ONLY buy things when they're on sale at food lion b/c otherwise there stuff is expensive... but if you watch the sales, you can get a lot of great things. I have their app on my iPhone. I pick out what I am going to buy every week from them, and everything else I need I get from Walmart or the Commissary.
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