I never thought I would be a couponer. It's not that I have anything against coupons, or that I am embarrassed about using them. I just never really thought you could save all that much by clipping a 50 cent off coupon, I thought it was really time consuming for very little reward, and I thought that most coupons were for items that I didn't really want in the first place...I was wrong!
A good friend of mine introduced me to an amazing couponing site, www.couponmom.com. I won't go into all the details (she explains it way better than I can), but let me just tell you that her strategy is genius AND I had no idea you could use so many coupons at the same time so effectively on items you actually want.
I will give you one little example. Coupon Mom suggests that you hold onto your coupons until an item goes on sale. You can purchase an item, say a bottle of salad dressing, when it is on sale for $1. You can use the coupon you have saved for $1 off that dressing and you can get it for free. Better yet if you have multiple coupons, you can get multiple bottles for free. You can also use a store coupon, a manufacturer's coupon, and an e-coupon on the same item in the same transaction! And Coupon Mom's site spells it all out for you and does all the research, even adding up the saving for you so you don't spend hours clipping coupons you don't ever use. You follow her organization method and you only clip the few coupons you needs each week. You are done within 15 to 20 minutes.
My friend is saving close to $800 PER MONTH using this method. I have only been getting coupons for 2 weeks, so this was my first real week trying it out. I did have to go to a couple of extra stores, but I saved 20% at my first store, close to 50% at my second (see picture above), and 40% at my third store! And, I only used a handful of coupons (I think I used about 7). Most of my savings came from reading the weekly ads that come in the mail each week and planning my trips accordingly. Drug store sales begin Sunday, so I hit up our local CVS first thing Monday morning and got some killer deals. Grocery store sales begin Wednesday, so I am going to switch my grocery shopping days from Friday to Wednesday to capitalize on those sales.
Any way, it's exciting. I do the bulk of my shopping at the Farmer's Market and Trader Joes so my savings won't come near the $800 mark. However, I saved $80 just this week with minimum effort. Not too shabby. My hubby would be very pleased if I trimmed $300 or so off our grocery bill each month!
Okay, so here are the best sites if you want to give it a try:
August 31, 2011
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