I was wrong. Very wrong. So wrong that Chairman Meow is shocked at my wrongness.
Granted we don't have the "spend $15, get $5 back" deal going on, but a little creative thinking, judicious coupon use, and two transactions are adding up to a pretty impressive haul so far. This week, to make things easier, I'm waiting on Sunday's batch of coupons so I can get everything done at once. Tomorrow morning when we've got the newspapers I'll clip the ones I need, and we'll head off to the grocery in the afternoon to load up two carts' worth of stuff.
The highlights:
15lbs pasta: FREE
8 tubes toothpaste: FREE
8 packages Pillsbury Sweet Moments: FREE
2 cartons Greek yogurt: FREE
6 Speed Stick deodorants: FREE
2 36ct Playtex: FREE
1 bottle Advil: FREE
17 cans diced tomatoes: $.67ea
16 bags frozen veg: $.31ea
6 boxes pizza rolls: $.50ea (shush, guilty pleasure!)
5 multipacks yogurt parfaits: $.50ea
4lbs ground beef: $5
8 boxes sinus medication: $.50ea
4 Purex laundry detergent: $.99ea
1 Iams cat food: $.99
6 multipacks Ziploc storage containers: $1ea
There'll be some assorted other items, obviously, but that's the good stuff. The only things without coupons we're planning to buy are two gallons of milk, some diet Pepsi, and some produce.
Then we'll head to Walgreen's where we'll pick up:
6 bags Halls cough drops
4 Crest toothpaste
which we'll get not just for free, but for a profit of $1.04
Not too shabby, eh?
4 comments:
I need a couponing mentor, oh Great One. I just can't wrap my head around how these savings are even POSSIBLE. Then again, the local grocery stores don't double coupons OR have Catalinas. That probably makes a big difference, right there.
Also, how does that work, making a profit? Will they actually give you $1.04, or will it just cost you nothing?
The profit part:
Drug stores like Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid all give some sort of "reward" back on certain purchases. Let's say they have shampoo on sale for $2, and you'll get $1.50 back in rewards, but you also have a $1 off coupon. You pay your $1 cash for the shampoo after coupon, and you get a $1.50 rewards coupon back good on your next purchase. The rewards are used like money in the store, the same way I've talked about the OYNO Catalinas for grocery stores. You don't get the cash back, but in the shampoo example you've got $.50 more than the price of the item in the end which you can use like cash to purchase something else. As long as you use the things, it's like cash. :)
For the record, Walgreens is the biggest pain in the ass about these; Rite Aid is the best. If you've got a choice, do the rewards program at Rite Aid.
Now, as to your grocery situation....what do you have out there?? I looked online and it seems like the nearest big chains are like 15 miles away, is that right?
Without doubling it's a little more difficult, but not impossible by any means. You just need to look for high value coupons - in the $1 and up range.
Getting started is the hardest part - you'll want to save gajillions RIGHT NOW. What you have to do is train yourself to buy only what you have coupons for, and to buy multiples of them. I'm still retraining Andy on this one; we just got 5 tubes of toothpaste for free last week, and he absolutely cannot understand why I want to get so many more this week. Well, it's free. Toothpaste doesn't go bad. If I get 10 tubes for free today, that's $25 or so we don't have to spend over the course of the year.
If you start multiplying that out by all your shelf-stable items, the situation starts to make sense. I'm getting 15 boxes of pasta - cost to me is $0. It lasts on the shelf for a long time, and that's $15+ we don't have to spend later. Canned tomatoes - $10 spent tomorrow or $25 spent over the course of a few months if we bought them as needed. Frozen veggies - $5 now or $24 spread out. Coffee - $21 spent last week, or $63 if we bought as needed.
As new coupons and sales crop up, you just add to your stash of cheap food a bit at a time.
Multiple coupons are also a big part of it. We subscribe to the Sunday paper to get the coupon inserts, and if it's a good coupon week we buy extras. Each extra paper is $2 for us, and if there's at least $3 worth of coupons in each one, I've made a profit over what I paid for the paper.
View coupons as cash. Each $1 off of your brand of shampoo is one more dollar in your pocket, one dollar that you don't have to spend. If you find your brand of shampoo on sale AND you have a coupon, that's even more money in your pocket. My preferred hair dye is $9.99. I have a $3 coupon, which is $3 extra in my pocket, yes, but when that hair dye goes on sale for $5.99....that's $7 extra in my pocket right there. If I buy two, that's $7 I don't have to spend in 6 months.
Actually, the closest big chain stores - Schuck's, Dierberg's, Shop & Save, etc. - are at least 30 miles away. Sucks living in a rural area sometimes. We have a Walgreens and a Walmart, and that's about it, chain wise.
We do clip coupons out of my grandma's Sunday paper (she subscribes, so we don't have to), but generally only things we'll need right away. That's one thing we could do differently - start clipping anything we might need EVENTUALLY, if it's something that won't go bad if we buy it now.
It seems like this is a whole new mindset I have to wrap my brain around, which really shouldn't be too difficult.
That's one thing we could do differently - start clipping anything we might need EVENTUALLY, if it's something that won't go bad if we buy it now.
It seems like this is a whole new mindset I have to wrap my brain around, which really shouldn't be too difficult.
Yes, yes! That's exactly it, and it's probably one of the more difficult ideas to wrap one's brain around. Will you use toothpaste in 6 months? Of course you will, so if it's $.50 or free or otherwise super cheap now, buy it now! Buy 5 or 10 of them!
Use coupons in combination with a sale and buy extras if it's a great price (and shelf stable). That's really all there is to it!
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