Coupons saved her $600.00 on 1 shopping trip. WOW!

[Fallen Leaf Farm]

I belong to a bargain hunting website where a lot of the members do purchase things with coupons for free or cheap and then donate them to local charities. When it's things they can use (non-perishable food or toiletries), I think that is equal to handing over cash. Unfortunately, some people stockpile things and then have a yard sale and sell them to make a profit. They feel it's okay because they are being paid for their time to shop and find the deals and are saving the "buyers" at their yard sales money. I don't necessarily agree with the yard sale philosophy, but to each their own. I do use my stockpiles of toothbrushes and deoderant and shampoos, but I do have a family of 6. On than thought, the toothpaste supply is getting depleted, better start paying attention to those coupons and sales.....

If only there were really good coupons for chicken feed, horse hay, and shavings!! (I even stockpile those for my critters, including dog and cats!)

 

[SallyF]

Quote:
I wish more teachers would do this. Teaching children how to function in real life situations is probably the single most important thing they can learn.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

It seems that in this life you either have to spend money or spend time. It's rare that you can save both at the same time.

I've got the same story as the ones posted above, I used to be able to save with coupons, especially when stores offered to double them. But now I buy mostly staples and store brands, and don't find enough worthwhile coupons to make it worth my time & effort to collect them.

It's certainly not worth it to make special trips to different stores to save small amounts on items, but I do pay attention to where the best prices are for the things I use the most, and try to buy them there. Most of the stores are in the same part of town, and I am usually somewhere in the area at some time during the week, so it's fairly easy to stop in more than one place if needed.

My 2 best tools for saving $ are a pocket memo book and a small calculator. The memo book is lettered A-Z and I can jot prices in there for items I use the most when I am in different stores. I don't make it a big research project, just make notes now & again, especially for higher priced things or things we use the most. I find that I can often remember "the price to beat" and keep it in mind. I do most of our shopping at our area grocery chain, Publix. They have fanTAStic weekly sales, a lot of BOGOs, and I stock up on the things we need when they go on sale like that. Walgreens also has great weekly sales and there is one in the same shopping strip as our Publix. Otherwise, a lot of the things we use are priced best at WalMart

This area has some good dollar stores where I buy certain things. We have a membership to Sam's Club because they stock a lot of their store brand of staples, such as big blocks of cheddar cheese & boxes of powdered milk.

I use the calculator to check & compare unit prices. Not everything is priced best at the warehouse clubs or dollar stores. Here's an easy way to compare prices -- take the price of Item A and divide it by its units -- the answer is the unit price of Item A. Now multiply Item A's unit price by the number of units of Item B. Compare the answer to the actual price of Item B. If that answer is lower than Item B's price, then A is the better deal. If it's higher, then buy B. This way you also see just how much the difference is in the two items, and if it's really worth it to buy the cheaper one. If you're only saving a few cents it may not be worth it to buy a larger container or a lesser quality of something.

Here in South Florida we have to stock up on non-perishables for hurricane season. I start in the spring, adding a few cans & boxes each shopping trip, and mark them with an H/year. They may not be used unless we've had a hurricane or until that year's season has officially ended.

 

[tcbfan5]

My grocery store "Dillons" Kroger Brands, sends coupons to me once a month. Plus, EVERYONE has a 'card' nowadays..So if i go to "Dillons" Web site, I can upload special web coupons onto my card from the website...That's the only coupons i'm usin..Cz like everyone else said, you'd drive yourself mad drivin all over town, therefore usin your gas (& who wants to do that nowadays?!?!) to save a few bucks somewhere else cz you have the coupon. ~ 6 of one; 1/2 dozen of the other in my opinion...

 

[Frosty]

My mother shops at a Giant Eagle where she is, and has a card that they scan in when she shops. Based on how much you spend, you get money off on gas. I guess you have a certain amount of time to use it before it expires? She lets it add up for a few months then gets .40 or so off per gallon for up to 30 gallons of gas at a local gas station (every time you use it it clears out until you build up the discount again). And I think when you buy gas at that gas station you get 'food perks' to put towards your grocery bill. I wish we had something like that!

Most grocery coupons are for items that I would never buy. The woman that my brother lives with sends him out every sunday to buy several different newspapers so that she can get the coupons to 'save' money. Then she brags about how much she 'saved'. But the money she 'saves' is on items that she doesn't need. The funny part is that she buys things like frozen vegetables and refuses to get them in the cheaper 'family sized' bags because the expensive little boxes stack better in the freezer. And she always says she is too tired to cook (and won't let my brother cook) so insists that they have to order out or eat out. Then she claims that it's actually cheaper to eat out than to stay home and cook.