Coupon is a noun. I looked it up. But the women in my neighborhood (and one man I know) coupon in a very verbish sort of way. To coupon means you take several Sunday papers, the idea is one for every member of your family, strictly so you can get the coupon inserts. If you happen to read the comics I guess that's just a bonus. Then you go to a website, www.grocerysmarts.com to be exact, where you see what's on sale at your local stores and have opportunity to print even more coupons. The idea is you're buying what's on sale and you're using a coupon as well. You're also buying several of each sale item, because you're saving so much money, which is why you need several coupons. Now if that's not a negotiation process I'm not sure what is.
I resisted the urge to coupon for months. I didn't want the Sunday papers piling up in my driveway, nor did I want to pay for them. But after hearing about the amount of saving that was going on, I broke down and said I'd give it the old college try. Still hesitant, I only ordered 3 papers instead of the 6 that was recommended.
Now it's almost 6 months later and I'm hooked. It's true there's a lot of savings to be had. I shop at Walmart and just this past weekend I saved almost $20! Admittedly I'm a little nervous about handing my stack of coupons to the cashier because I hate to hold up the line. Recently the man behind me was either rolling his eyes at me or seriously trying to avoid looking at the impulse items to purchase near the check out. But when I my savings totaled up I smiled contentedly and headed to my favorite smoothie shop where I bought the whole family smoothies with my savings. :0)
p.s. If you'd like to check out grocerysmarts.com you'll need a passport. Utah's code is: g84cjg. It looks like other states have other codes listed in the top left corner. I also think you can get some good coupon savings strictly from the website and think I'll not renew my newspaper subscriptions when they run out. Good luck and happy saving! I'm happy to answer questions about the process if you'd like to get on board.
I tried it and was soon very sad to find that there are never any coupons or sales on the items I buy :( And its not because of brand loyalty either, its because 50% of what I buy are produce and you just don't see coupons for 50% off of lettuce. What's a veggie girl to do :D
ReplyDeleteI think couponing is a full time job that I quit a year ago, I have little itty bitty kids and hauling them to the store with a bunch of little pieces of paper was miserable. I still save tons of money by doing the good sales and chalking it up to maybe someday I will be motivated to really save a lot. I will check out grocery smarts I haven't been there in a while I usually get my smarts from pinchingyourpennies.com have you checked that out?
ReplyDeleteon a funnier note read on:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=64692072-cab8-460c-880f-c2b0132bf012
I agree with "We Live in a Zoo!"
ReplyDeleteThe things we, as a family, need to eat to stay healthy are not the things that have coupons and sales to match!!
I choose to not coupon (v)...
Couponing scares me. Now it's just the two of us and Mom in the house, and we just bought a new home (to us) that is much smaller than our previous home which was 5000sqft, and this one is about 1200sqft. Perfect size for the two of us and the dogs--Our Cabin in the Big Woods on the Beach. So, the new kitchen doesn't have a lot of shace for storage. I like going to my neighborhood market, meat market and fish monger and I love Trader Joe's. All that means I don't coupon and it still scares me.
ReplyDeleteWe could all send you our Sunday paper ads.