Back in August, we started a couponing habit to try and fill up our pantry with non-perishable foods. It didn't quite work out as we had planned, and instead became a savings strategy for groceries and other household items. Along the way though, we learned a few things that we'll apply in the second phase of couponing.
(1) We obtained all our coupons from the local Sunday paper in addition to what King Soopers offers (online). The next phase will see us diversifying our sources, going more online and utilizing couponing mobile apps.
(2) We realized that coupons were giving us ideas of what to buy, and causing us to routinely spend beyond our budget. Rather, we should go about our purchase decisions normally and only use coupons if they are available for what we need. In fact, we should either get more stuff or spend less without ever going over-budget.
(3) We saw some great savings nonetheless: over the 17 weeks that we couponed, we've saved an average of 26% off weekly groceries (about $392 total or $23/week). Not bad, considering we are not even that hardcore about the habit.
(4) Of the $392 in savings, $286 (or 73%) was from King Soopers discounts and offers alone. This means that manufacturer coupons really do not contribute much to the overall picture. It helps to shop at a store that offers regular rewards and discounts.
(5) Speaking of King Soopers and rewards, gasoline points are awarded based on the full pre-savings shopping amount. So to maximize savings on gasoline, we fill up both our cars at the same time (off the same pump) and have seen $0.25 off the price.
(6) We hate manufacturer coupons that require you to buy two or more items or that explicitly disallow doubling up. Too stingy, so we've been discarding these coupons unless we really need two of said items or there is sufficient long-term benefit to buy multiple stuff now.
(7) It seems to us that a majority of coupons are for beauty products. Other categories you might expect are snacks, supplements, household cleaning products, personal care products, OTC medications, and of course some non-perishable food items. Not much of what we were looking for in this experiment.
(8) We wish the prices of items were included on the coupons so you know about how much savings you are really getting. It's disappointing later find out you are only saving pennies on an expensive item. I suppose we ought to always be mindful of what things cost, a sort of "The Price Is Right", in order to discern which coupons are great deals.
(9) Couponing requires time, diligence, and organization. In the beginning, we had different ideas of how to organize and use the coupons. Eventually we settled on a simple system of keeping them sorted by expiration in a few specific categories. Sunday afternoon became coupon-clipping time, replacing the time we used for napping busy weekends away.
(10) We now know that the Sunday papers do not carry that many useful coupons. The two major papers (Denver Post and Gazette) in fact have the same coupons any given Sunday. The big differences are the deals and discounts offered by local businesses, useless for our experiment.
2 comments:
I have tried the couponing thing after watching the t.v. shows getting 7 baskets of grocerys for a few dollars. I discovered that it is like another part time job. I might has well go get a part time job that I like and spend the money on grocerys.
What we do now is look for the discounts at kung soopers and buy those as much as possible. For example: one might want to buy a box of frosted flakes cereal for $4.25, however Kroger has a brand called "frosted flakes" that actually tastes better (in my opinion) for $1.98.
Not all discount brands are better tasting or compare, but with an item that offers multiple discount brand companies, you are sure to find one you like.
The other key to saving is discipline. When you are wanting a certain "non essential" item in your pantry, you look for that "yellow sale tagged" item, if you find that none of the brands are at a discount, you walk away and get it the next go around. They rotate the sale items constantly.
Yes indeed. We will remain vigilant to sales. We didn't really watch out for that. Agreed that it is a part-time job doing couponing. I think I was spending about 3hrs on Sundays doing this.
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