Back when we lived in Baltimore, I went through phases where I used coupons for things that we bought, but I wasn't very organized about it. There was that one shopping trip where I got my total from $400 down to $93. I thought recently, with trying to put money into my doula business and save for midwifery school, that it was time to stop reminiscing about when I used to coupon and get back into doing it.
Yesterday, I posted my shopping totals on facebook: Original total: $241.19. Sales & coupons: $117.67 off. Total spent: $123.52.
Here's how I did it:
- The past couple of weeks, I've been working on getting my coupons more organized. I bought a binder, tabs to separate the different sections and plastic sheets with 3, 4, 6 and 8 sections to hold coupons.
- I visited the websites for Tops and Price Chopper to match up the coupons I had on hand with their weekly sales:
http://www.pricechopper.com/
http://www.topsmarkets.com/
- I made up a shopping list based on things that were on sale that I thought we would eat and could make meals with.
- James and I started out at Tops, where we spent $34.03 on an order that was originally $80.96.
- We then went to Price Chopper and spent $89.49 on an order that would have been $160.23
We got some great deals at Price Chopper. For example, they had bread "Buy 1, Get 2 Free." I also decided to try the Emerald Nuts Breakfast to Go box. They were on sale for $2.99 and I had a $1 off coupon, that, combined with the dollar coupon doubler, made the box $0.99.
** A note: I often see people write online that they don't bother with coupons because "You can only buy crap with coupons" or "There aren't any coupons for healthy food." In the past couple of weeks, I have found and used coupons for organic eggs, organic yogurt, Greek yogurt, almond milk, Newman's Own cereal and pizza, popcorn, nuts, Seeds of Change organics, frozen vegetables, etc. You can feed your family healthy food at discounted prices:
Thanks for sharing this! Friends always ask how I save money without feeding my kids "bad" food. I also love coupons from the registers and have used Tops ones at Chopper and vice versa. It takes some planning but saves money in the long run!
ReplyDeleteI'm one that doesn't use coupons often, because we buy mostly in bulk and from Farmer's Market and CSA... We do a fair amount of grocery store shopping in the winter, though, and I could definitely be better about using them. Do you find, though, that the time you spend seeking coupons negates some of the monetary savings?
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