Posted on 01/06/2010 10:48:24 AM PST by wrrock
The ‘Coupon Mom’ went on the Today Show this morning and showed the hosts how she was able to purchase $100 worth of groceries for only 25 cents. Her handy tips will help you save money every time you go to the supermarket.
(Excerpt) Read more at markdownmom.com ...
Thanks for the link!
I started couponing 2 years ago and cut my families ( 2 adults, 6 kids) grocery and toiletry budget from $1200 a month to only about $435 average a month. I teach coupon classes and write a blog to help others.
www.mylitter.com
Couponing is becoming more and more popular. There has been an increase of 195% on google of the work coupon in the past 9 months. Couponing today is not like your Mother’s or Grandmother’s couponing of years ago. The biggest reasons that people don’t is the time it takes and the misconception that coupons are only for junk food.
It is more difficult to find coupons for organic, meat and produce items no doubt. But you have to know that coupons go in cycles. Every three months the items rotate. The fall is the best time to start couponing, you get all the coupons for what I call “real food”. Because of the holiday’s all the coupons for the basics like flour, sugar, soup, spices, dairy etc. are all out right now.
When there is an item that I like to buy and don’t see coupons for it I always email the company and ask for coupons. I have never had a company not send me some. I do this with all the organic items that my family likes. Also, if you go to mambosprouts.com they have coupon books they send you.
Sure there a lot of coupons for junk food, just avoid them. There are good ones out there, and not just for food, but all your toiletries, paper products and general merchandise.
If anyone would like any help getting started or has any questions about couponing please feel free to email me!
Paging Mr. Gladnick.
Mr. Gladnick, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
You should talk to PJ
My wife does the “grocery game” thing. Supposedly works pretty well.
SnakeDoc
Ok, so let me ask you this: in all these coupon articles or videos, there’s always something like, “oh, I had 40 $.25 off coupons for Gold Medal flour, so I got ten packages for free!” or something of the sort. I haven’t watched this one, but I guess there’s something like it.
What I don’t get is how to the couponers end up with so many coupons of the same thing? Do you buy 10 sunday papers? I see how you could come out ahead, but it seems like a lot of trouble....
Thanks.
Sent to my wife.
.
I don’t see any video at the link. Do I need a coupon? ;)
My parents are dead now, but in the early 90s they had seven subscriptions to the Sunday paper for just that purpose.
At the extreme end of couponing that can happen—ending up with closets full of toilet paper, etc.
I’m a casual clipper and can do well between sales and coupons.... I buy the weekly local paper for coupons and also a national Sunday paper for coupons.
I watch two grocery store chains for the good deals (buy one get one, buy one get two, etc.) and use coupons in addition. I only stock up on things I know we’ll use and enjoy.
It isn’t hard or terribly time consuming to knock 50% off of a grocery bill just by doing that.
As another tip, anything I buy online I always do a search for coupon code for that company. I usually find something. Today I wanted to buy the full version of a computer game. My kids have been playing the free base version. I did a search and found a coupon code that saved $10 off the $40 game.
Thats a good question. Yes, most of the time to save the big money people buy many of one item at a time at the lowest possible price. Since store sales go in cycles you can expect that once about every 3 months everything in the store will have been on sale. That is when you buy as many as you can and combine the store sale with a coupon. Resulting many times in free items.
I buy anywhere from 6-10 papers a week. Our paper is normally $2 here in Houston. You can get it at the Dollar Store on Saturday’s for only $1. So I get most of mine there. Also, I use many printable coupons and e-coupons. My parents don’t use their coupons so they give them to me. I also have many older neighbors who love to hand out their coupons because they don’t use them. There are many places to get coupons. The stores themselves usually have tear pads around too.
When you first start it takes a good 3 months to get the hang of it and some work. But after that I am only spending about an additional hour to 2 hours a week shopping, cutting coupons and looking at deals. Saving $800 a month makes it worth it to me.
I haven’t seen what coupons she uses, but judging from the coupons I see in the mail, in order to save money I’d need to live on cereal, sugar drinks, and junk food.
One of our local grocery stores has been running an ad every few weeks, buy two Dole salads for 6 bucks, get free a 10 ounce pkg of grape tomatoes, and one coucumber, and one 16 oounce salad dressing and one package of shredded carrots. Those tomatoes are downright expensive.
The price for the salads is no more expensive and sometimes not as much, as I would pay anyway. I can pick up the coupons at the store as I walk in, and can do that off and on during the week as I want.
Since we use alot of salads with our meals it works well.
Interesting. Thanks for the replies. Saving $800 is a lot for sure, but I doubt my grocery bill is even that much for the month, so it seems like a lot of trouble for what it’s worth.
Maybe one day, when my grocery bill is bigger, I’ll try and do more.
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