Coupons ?

Since we've been on cheap meals,saving money,and unemployment threads lately I thought I'd bring this up. I've seen a few spots on some news shows about all the money you can save by using coupons. Usually they have some coupon wizard showing how she can go to the grocery store and get $100 worth of food and actually only spend about $15 out of pocket. She does explain that she spends several hours a day on web sites,going through the newspapers,and going through the mail to get all these coupons. I'm just wondering if any of you (probably wives) have tried this and what have been the real results in your household. I have no better half in my house just my son and I so this chore would be up to me if it's realistic for just 2 people. Thanks for your input [Beer]

Tried...just end up with a bunch of expired coupons magented to the fridge

You know, I saw a show once where they did the same thing, I decided it would be interesting to see if we could duplicate the results. We don't typically use coupons around here but we made a concerted effort to really try it for two weeks and it made a big difference. Once place that I signed up for was called "The Grocery Game", where they tell you what the store specials are and how to pair those up with coupons to get the maximum savings. The results were pretty positive, we were able to save about 75% on our groceries during that two week period and were floored. Enough that I considered being a coupon clipper because I just couldn't ignore the savings - but it is a lot of work to get that steep of a savings so we ended up giving up when regular coupon clipping without the same level of work netted us maybe an average of 15% off.

Yeah the one thing I noticed while watching was that it was labor intensive.

The other thing is that to really get that kind of savings, you don't buy stuff you need TODAY, but rather stock up. For instance, Kings might be running a special selling paper towels for $1.29 instead of $2.99, then you have a coupon for $.50 off - you stock up on paper towels, but if you were wanting to make taco's then you'd be lucky to find the stuff you need RIGHT NOW at those kinds of prices.

Yeah it is, I know I always google for coupons when I'm getting ready to buy something online. I always get pretty good breaks on things like pizza's and such, generally save something on most internet purchases. Takes an extra few minutes to find a valid one for some places. As for the food stuff, well we shop at places like SAM's club and walmart for almost all of our food, so it's hard to really find anything there.

I imagine if we had the time it would be easier. Might be something that you could spread across all family members if they are old enough. Too bad my oldest daughter can't really be bothered to follow through with these kinds of things :(

My wife is a big coupon shopper for groceries. She typically saves 60-75% when she shops, and she's upset if she doesn't save 50%. Like others have mentioned it's a little work intensive, I think the first couple of weeks are the most work while you're building up your coupon stockpile and getting them organized, after that it takes less effort to just maintain your selection. I think my wife maybe spends an hour a week while we're watching tv getting her coupons in order. She's not very hardcore about it compared to some, her employee who showed her how is crazy with it and often gets credit from using coupons worth more than items costs to pay for meat- sometimes she ends up leaving with gift cards and not spending any out of pocket. My wife tried some of those methods and didn't feel right about it, but the system can be worked.
You also don't necessarily get what you want right now because the general rule is to not buy an item if you can't pair a coupon with a sale. We're no longer the "plan the meal then shop for ingredients" folks but rather "what can we make out of this stuff?" people.

We're not really "coupon" people, if we see something we'll grab it, but we've found that planning using the circulars is best. My wife and I shop for a family of 5. We've become experts at knowing which foods go on sale at what time and at what store. You must shop what we like to call "on season". You should not expect to buy fresh strawberries in the winter and don't be afraid of the "markdown aisle". We've found that you just can't shop at one market, you have to watch the weekly circulars, vacuum seal when you buy in bulk, and you must eat LEFTOVERS!!! Making sure you try your best to never throw food away is the #1 thing we do. Our 15 year old is a hair under 6'5" and eats about as much as 3 healthy adults. We actually have kept our grocery budget around $100/week, we eat out once a week that we consider a "nice" meal for the family, usually around $30-$40, and we usually "run out of time" once a week and have Wendy's for around $12. So our food budget is about $150/week give or take.

We shop at King Sooper for most of our groceries. We normally get our red meat and chicken from Safeway and always buy "super value packs" we vacuum seal and use later. We've found Costco to be the best place for bread, fruit especially bananas, fresh salmon (again, vacuum seal what you don't eat right away), butter, coffee, and certain large item frozen foods.

Again, you have to read all the weekly circulars and even if it means an extra trip, which in Boulder is no problem, you visit a 2nd or even a 3rd market to get the best deal.

Dave

For online purchases, I always check http://www.retailmenot.com/.

I use coupons whenever possible...
Especially at the grocery store...
Usually save 5-10 bucks - sometimes more with the coupons Soopers or Target sends out...
hey...
It's 5 or 10 bucks I didn't spend!