Saturday, July 31, 2010

Savings Saturday - Couponing 101

In order to keep from randomly posting money saving tips, I'm going to post them on Saturdays. I thought maybe "Tip Tuesday" would be cute but then I didn't like it and well, after Monday, there is just no guarantee I will post on Tuesdays. ;) And of course I don't want anyone going around saying "Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays..." (Name that movie) Okay, so it's been a long week/day. Moving on...

Exhibit A


Amount Spent: $19
Almost $200 worth
That's 90% savings!

My best trip?
$0.39 for $65 worth of groceries and yes that includes tax!

It takes time. And sometimes a few headaches. But in the end... It's worth it for me.

I do most of my grocery shopping at Publix. They are generally an expensive place to shop, but they have tons of items BOGO every week. Pair BOGO with couponing and you have a great way to save! The items ring up half price, so you can use a coupon for each item or just get one!

You can also get tons of hygiene items for FREE or close to FREE at drugstores like Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and CVS.

Sometimes it's hard to know where to start. I honestly just started by getting the newspaper, clipping, and looking at the sales. I did an envelope system for a while and then switched over to a HUGE binder with clear business card inserts. There are other, much faster ways of doing it, but this is what works for me.

Once I started finding sales and adding on coupons, I was okay with the results. But they weren't stellar and they were taking FOREVER. So I started using various websites to help me. A lot of them spell out the deals and even have a checklist right on their site that you can print and include which coupons you need!

Here are a few that I like...
1. Hip2save
2. Southern Savers
3. I Heart Publix
4. Coupon Mom
5. Friend Family Savings
6. Totally Target or Attention Target Shoppers

There are hundreds out there so I'm sure someone will post deals in a way that makes the most sense to you!

I generally save around 90% at Publix. I usually save at least 50% on meat and produce too, but that is another topic for another day. :)

The great thing about couponing? It always saves you money as long as you're buying things you'll actually use. You can do as little or as much as you want. If you get the paper anyway, just clip 5 coupons of items you already buy and use them on a sale! You CAN totally use them on the clearance items at Target too! Just fyi! I'm always going down the insides of the isles to see what kinds of goodies I can find.

If you have questions or want more information, feel free to email me at beautyindistress at gmail dot com!

(Oh and p.s. Yes, there are 20 bottles of Ketchup in that picture, but I think it's important to note that I called ahead and ordered that many so that other people didn't miss out on the deal and the store was prepared. I think it's super important to give a heads up if you're planning on stocking up like that!)

3 comments:

Pamela said...

twenty bottles of ketchup?

Danae said...

Haha. Yeah. I had to get a bunch in order to get a rebate. A friend of mine is buying 10 of them from me. (at what I paid for them) And I'll keep 10 in my pantry and/or donate some to charity!

Anna M. said...

I think it's awesome you called ahead :) .