Wednesday, November 19, 2008
WFMW (best coupon tips ever!)
Happy Wednesday to you! It's time once again to post another WFMW tip! I scored some really great deals this week and I thought it might be nice if I shared some of my best coupon tips to help you save money to. Here's what I do:
1) I collect as many Sunday papers as I can and save them for about 10 weeks in a large 3 ring binder using page protector sleeves. I only purchase 1 Sunday paper for the coupons. I get about 3-5 more coupon sets free from co-workers and neighbors that don't use coupons. Your real savings come when you have multiple coupons for one product!
2) I sit down every Wednesday to look through the grocery store weekly ads and I try to match up items that I'd normally buy with coupons that I have. I don't get the Wednesday paper, but I always seem to get those Wednesday grocery store weekly ads in my mailbox. I've even gone online to the grocery store's website and found their weekly ads in a digital form.
3) I use Coupon Mom Grocery Database to look up which coupons are available for the products I want.
5) I print out online coupons at Grocery Games and various other online locations. Some online coupons have print out limits, others do not.
6) If I can't find a coupon for a product that I use and like, I'll call or email the company that makes the product and ask them to mail me coupons. 90% of the time, they do!
7) I make a list before I go to the store and stick to it! I clip out only the coupons I want to use in advance and bring those to the store with the list. I try not to do impulse shopping.
8) I try to pay attention when the cashier is ringing up my purchases and scanning my coupons to catch mistakes. And I always review my receipt before leaving the store to look for mistakes. If I find one, and I have before, I go to customer service and make them correct the problem.
9) I stock pile. When items that I'll use are one sale, I find as many coupons as I can get my hands on and I purchase a lot of those products. That way I don't have to buy those products when they're not on sale! If I can get really good deals, I'll buy extra so that I can donate some food to my local food bank!
10) I ask for reinchecks. Yesterday I wanted to buy five 5 lb bags of C&H sugar because I was going to get them for .50/each with the store sale and my coupons combined. Unfortunately, too many people beat me to them and there was no sugar left in that grocery store! At the checkout aisle, I asked the cashier for a reincheck on the sugar so that I could still get the sale price when they restocked, even though the store sale would be over by that time. The great thing about this particular store is that their reinchecks have no expiration date so I could wait a month or longer to buy that sugar and still get the sale price, as long as I don't wait so long that my coupons expire!
Believe me when I tell you that if you're disciplined about using coupons, you will see a drastic reduction in your grocery bill!
Okay, now that you know all my couponing secrets, just for fun I'd like to pose a question to you all. How much do you think I spent on the groceries listed in the picture above? Go ahead, click on the image to enlarge.Let me make it easier by itemizing what I purchased yesterday:
* Dial liquid hand soap- quantity 5
* Betty Crocker specialty potatoes- quantity 9
* Colgate adult toothbrush- quantity 2
* Hunts tomatoes (28-29 oz cans)- quantity 2
* Quaker oatmeal (18 oz)- quantity 6
* Zatarain's rice mix- quantity 2
* Land O Lakes buter(15-16 oz)- quantity 4
* SuperPretzel snack- quantity 1
* Viva paper towels- quantity 3
* Quaker chewy granola bars (8 pack)- quantity 2
* International Delight creamer (32 oz)- quantity 2
* Hershey's extra dark chocolate bar (4.5 oz)- quantity 1
* Blistex chap stick- quantity 3
* French's French fried onions (6 oz)- quantity 3
* Kellogg's pop tarts (8 pack)- quantity 3
* Mrs. Smith pre-made pie crust (2 pack)- quantity 1
* Suave deodorant (2.6 oz)- quantity 2
Here's a hint, I used coupons so I got a pretty good deal.
So, take a guess and leave me your price amount in my comments section and I'll enter you in a drawing for 12 free holiday recipe cards (the winner will be chosen on Saturday).I'll come back on Saturday and post my grocery amount (I'll include a copy of my receipt) so that you can see how much using coupons saved me. Trust me, you'll be impressed!
Labels: groceries, shopping, Works-For-Me Wednesday
24 Comments:
$58.50...why did you buy so many of one item,...just curious.
37.50
I don't know whether or not you were able to double coupons or if you have to pay tax on food, but I know that there are some really good deals to be had if you use those coupons right....$27.45
My guess is $17.62 and I am guessing that amount because I bought many of these same items this week at our grocery store with some awsome coupons. I can't wait to hear how much you spent.
Have a great day,
Jen O.
I'm guessing $18.23 because there were some great coupons here in my area for some of those items.
I came up with $59.50..lol
I'd love to get that stuff for that or less. Show me please..
$14
Looks like you've been Kroger shopping!!!
$22.50- I loved shopping this week. However, I made the cashier mad today because it was not adding up right. I stood there and recounted everything. But, $5 is $5, right?!
I have NO IDEA! But I will guess, $46.64 -- Hugs!
$16. There were great coupons for those things!
12.57
Im going to guess around 24 dollars.
My guess is $13.27
That's a lot of items so I'll guess $40.00. Good for you if you got all this for less! :)
I'm going to guess $14.37. I love to get good deals. My best this week. $60 worth of Duracell rechargeables for $8.00! (CVS+Extra Care Bucks= Good Deals!)
I am going to go with $26.41
I use coupons too so I am "claiming" this is an educated guess :)
I live no where near you so I'm guessing based on my local sales and available coupons at $48.90.
I am sure you got a very good deal, but I won't be making any guesses, because the cards I won with your Christmas giveaway have just arrived!!! woo hoo!!! And I assure, they are really cute, anyone who gets them will be so pleased!!! Good luck everyone!
Haha. I got many of the same items over the last couple weeks, and I know what store. I was lucky that the one by my house was well stocked. I bought a ton of Land O' Lakes butter for baking, too, at 50 cents a pound. I'm hoping you're taking advantage of the CVS Duracell sale this week. I could probably figure your savings, since I shop the same chain store, but I am too lazy to look everything up. I know the SuperPretzels were 50 cents, the dial soap was free. I hope the toothbrushes were free, because there's no reason to buy toothbrushes if you coupon. I got free Hefty One Zip bags, too. I don't remember how much the Viva were; I bought them the weekend of the 8th. Suave deoderant was probably free. I think the Quaker oats were free too; I only bought 1 of those, b/c we don't use oats that much.
Well I have absolutely no idea, but I'll guess $12. You probably got everything for less than that though!
Toni
I'm gonna have to say $36.25.
I'm going to go with $17.95
Do you do the CVS shopping? I read a few other bloggers who buy in multiple quantities like that and get store coupons, manufacture coupons, sale items etc and always end up with free items, or cash back on their next shopping trip.
You can use more than one manufacturer's coupon on the same item? I always thought it was one coupon per item, but I know you can combine store and manfactured coupons, I just didn't realize you could use the same coupon on one item.
I'm not good at guessing things like this, but I'll throw out 23.75.
My guess is $19.40..! Great coupons for those things.
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