Ok so I've been couponing for about 6 months now but some things still confuse me or I still have trouble finding certain deals on things. So I thought I'd ask YOU how you do things with your coupons! Here's a few questions I have!
Do you shop at one store every week or will you shop at several stores to get the best deals?
Are there certain things/brands that you will buy even if you don't have a coupon or do you only buy it if its a great price with a coupon?
How much do you typically spend a week on groceries, toiletries, household items, etc? Do you do this by a strict budget or just go in and get what you need? (you don't have to answer this if you don't want to)
What store do you usually find the best deals at?
Do you consider it a good shopping trip if you save more than you spend or if you just don't spend as much as you planned? OR What do you consider a great shopping trip??
You can answer these in a comment or email me if you like! I feel like sometimes I do great and sometimes I don't do so hot. Like at Kroger I can never seem to save more than I spend but I do get good deals and I get the 10 cents off per gallon of gas by shopping at Kroger. At Publix I can save way more than I spend but they don't always have what I need/want on sale. I am trying to budget $100 a week on groceries, toiletries, everything. Sometimes I do great, like last week. Sometimes I don't do so great. Idk I just feel like at this point I should be able to get better deals, more free stuff, etc. I want to start stockpiling if I can.But haven't really been able to stock up on that many items at a time. Any tips for that?! Any tips at all would be soooo appreciated!!
I am by NO MEANS a pro at this, but I have learned a few things since I began couponing "full-time" last year when my husband and I got married.
ReplyDelete1) I almost always shop at Food Lion because around here it has the best deals. HOWEVER! If Kroger is running something on special that we buy a lot, I'll go there. Same goes for CVS and Walgreens. (Usually you can check other blogs and they'll tell you what's on really good sale that week and it saves a LOT of time!)
2) Unfortunately my cats and dog will only eat one brand of dry food each so if I'm out, I have to buy it whether or not it's on sale or I have a coupon. I do try to get as many coupons as I can and when it's on sale I try to stack my coupons with the sale, but it never fails that I have to buy it once in a while at full price (My dogs food is made by Purina and is $7 for a small bag-and he's a big dog!)
3) We just recently moved back in with my parents and my grandmother because we're expecting a baby in July and thought it was a smart move. Our contribution to the household is the grocery shopping. For 5 adults, 4 cats and 1 dog we usually spend about $140 each week. However, last week they had hamburger on sale. Well knowing that we have a freezer and that warmer weather (grilling weather as my hubby calls it!) was coming up...I bought all 10 packages they had. I also bought cat and dog food since it was on sale. Our normal bill of $140 ended up being $207...I was sad because I went over $200 :(
4) For us, in our area, Food Lion has the very best deals.
5) I consider it a good shopping trip if I can save over $40 in coupons...we hardly ever (maybe 6-10 times a year?) save more than we spend. However, we do save on average $50+ a week at the grocery store and I consider that to be pretty good :) I also feel like as long as I can keep it under my $150 budget for each week that I'm doing good. However, like last week, sometimes there has to be an exception to the rule.
If you have any questions feel free to email me at kchening (at) gmail (dot) com. I probably can't help that much, but I can share all of my coupon websites with you! Hopefully this wasn't too long of a post and that you got something out of it :)
Katy
As a working mom, I only have time for one store per week. Usually I go to Schnucks (local) but sometimes I go to Aldi's because they have the best prices on the basics.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't really have a litmus test for a "great" shopping trip. I know what I consider "good" prices for most of the items I buy regularly and unless I absolutely need something, I don't buy it unless it's close to that price. And just by using that as a guide, I almost always spend around $40-$50/week.
I've also almost all but stopped playing the coupon game. It just wasn't worth the effort for me. I was buying things I didn't use and spending a lot of time running around looking for the right toothbrushes. I still use coupons on things I buy often, but I don't really think it's worth battling Wags to get an item "free." Because it isn't really free unless you use the RR on something that you really need. And I don't really need that much from Wags.
It's taken me a long time to stop beating myself up over not saving that extra $0.25. But I'm a lot happier now that I don't worry about it as much.