Remember those coupon shows they had a few years ago where people would buy cartloads of groceries and end up only spending a couple of dollars? Those always fascinated me. It obviously took a lot of time and work. Really it was quite amazing!
These people would have stock piles of things in there homes and garages. Sometimes they would be doing a specific shop for a church or a food bank. I remember the years when some stores would double a coupon up to a dollar. Many of the coupons that come out now are not nearly as good as they were a few years ago.
I must say I tried really hard a few years ago to get into coupons and found that the time I needed to spend was prohibitive to the money I saved. Do I still used coupons? You bet! But on a very limited basis. We do not get many of the coupon inserts here in our small town that people get in larger areas. But I always peruse the ones that I do get in the Sunday papers. I am very selective.
For instance at Christmas, Libby veggies had a coupon 2/1. So I used that one several times. I would go pick up inserts from a gas station close by. There was also a $1.00 off of two dairy gold butters and dairy gold butter went on sale so with the coupon it was under $2.00 a pound. I also will use triscut cracker coupons because I always buy triscut. I used to use cereal coupons, but hubs is no longer eating cereal so I am not buying it and this is a big savings in my grocery budget.
I do use the Ibotta app, but again very carefully. When I first started I was not careful and got sucked into their bonus structure. You can earn bonuses by buying a certain # of items in a certain time. I found myself looking at the ibotts lists for things I could buy to get the bonus of say $3.00. I would buy maybe $25.00 worth of products, I could use but would not normally purchase because of the price just to qualify for the bonus. After seeing that this was causing my budget to over load I stopped. Right now Ibotta has a bonus if you buy 17 items. The only things I can see that I would use right now are tortilla chips, pacific foods broth, yogurt, canned whip cream, raisins. Now I could buy 5 of some of these items, but they only count as one on the bonus. So I would be looking for 12 other items to qualify. I don't need any other items. I would not really use them. I still have some very expensive mustard I bought a couple of years ago.
I really like Rite Aid and if you follow Sluggy at" Don't read this it is boring" you will see that she is the Queen of Rite Aid. I will watch their bonus cash and combine with coupons when I can for my shampoo, creme rinse, shavers,hair dye. But again only what I need with a few bottles of stock up. At one time I had what I called my Sluggy cupboard and it was full of so many products. It was great for the kids when they were in school, they did not have to buy these products. But I found again that I was spending sometimes $16-20.00 a week even with coupons and bonus cash and I decided that if I could not use it now I did not need to spend the money. I was trying to get out of debt. Even thought I was getting good deals, spending the money on debt was more important.
All in all coupons are great to save a buck or two here and there.But I won't spend major time trying to say buy75 razors at .25 a piece. It doesn't make sense.Now if there were coupons for flour, sugar, eggs, and basic ingredients that would be great! Most coupons and even Ibotta are for convenience items. How about coupons for Meat! Besides processed meats. That would be great.
My major way to save is just watching the grocer adds and buying only the loss leaders. Every 6 weeks groceries go on sale in a round. I just wait and buy then. Lunch today was left over taco meat and fixin's from yesterday. This evening I pulled out a pan of stuffed shells previously made and frozen. We have enough left over taco mixture and shells for tomorrow so I won't be cooking until Tuesday.
Save time no cooking, save money no waste, no utilities used to cook. It works for me.
DO you coupon? IF so how? WE would love to know your strategies.
Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.
Kim
I used to coupon and very rarely spent much money at all on groceries. That was in the good old days. There were great coupons and stores doubled and tripled. Now coupons stink - most are for things I would never buy (expensive brands) - still leaves things costly. NO stores here double any more.
ReplyDeleteI cut coupons for cat food and hair dye and that is about it. I am not brand loyal on other things - so can buy store brand cheaper than top brands with coupons.
I know lots of people play the 'game' at CVS and other stores - I don't do that either. Takes a lot of time and I'd rather spend mine doing other things.
i try and play the rite aid game but more often than not I get burned. It is just better to watch the sales and buy then.
DeleteI do the weekly digital deals at Kroger. They had kroger butter for 1.77/pound which is a good deal for here. So I mostly try to buy the loss leaders and digital deals. Otherwise Kroger is expensive.
ReplyDeleteThere are very few deals here so for me it is a loss leader.
DeleteI definitely am not a coupon person. We shop largely at Costco for groceries. We do, however, look for their sales. (It's like a coupon, but automatically applied when you check out.) If it's something we use a lot (say, Italian meatballs, which is one of my picky eater's staples), we will buy it & freeze. My husband does occasionally get sucked in to buying things we don't need as well, but it's pretty rare.
ReplyDeleteAt my grocery store, I look for meat markdowns or clearance, but it's rare for them to have anything these days.
And, with the grocery store & Rite Aid, I typically do the gift card promos for gift cards we need (Home Depot is the favorite).
I won't shop Costco as they are so expensive and I have a hard time not buying more than I need. Too much temptation.
DeleteLike you said, you can't save much on coupons anymore unless you're willing to put in a lot of time and buy in bulk. I occasionally get coupons for items I regularly buy, mainly health and beauty supplies. We do not eat much processed food and that is what the majority of coupons are for. We have a couple of private owned stores in our area that sell local meat and veggies. We mainly shop there.
ReplyDeleteYou are right processed food or food you really don't need to buy.
DeleteI used to watch that show too!
ReplyDeleteFascinating.
I actually use the online coupons as we do our shopping online now.
I am careful, as you say.
It is easy to get sucked into buying things with a coupon to save money that I actually wouldn't buy at all! Have a cozy day, my friend.
I have been sucked in too, so I am much more careful.
DeleteI have tried Ibotta a couple times, waste of my time. The Rite Aid here isn't very much, more medical than anything which is great when CVS doesn't have something. I used to do coupons at Krogers and Walgreens... do not have either store here.Quit buying papers as the coupons sucked and didn't cover the cost of the paper. I will click on them if I see them on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteMy sister in law and son focus on the buy 1 get 1 or buy 5 or 10 and get so much off. I am now pretty much generic.
Hubby last week had one person tell him after seeing what was in his shopping cart that he thought we were Amish at first until he saw the truck and then thought Mennonite. Hubby asked what in the cart said we weren't. Pointed to the eggs and butter... Hubby laughed because those were for our Amish neighbor. Her hens weren't laying enough and they needed butter for baking for a funeral.
Daughter told me to check out coupons.com and see if this area would accept them on the phone. I already know they don't anything printed off computer. Their "old" scanners don't recognize them.
I think my main thing with ibotta is the time and aggravation. Trying the fetch app.
DeleteOur newspaper is really lame so I cancelled my subscription and get very few coupons now. I only use the ones for things I would buy anyway so I am not a couponer.
ReplyDeleteWe only get a few coupons on Sunday, but they do have some good ones for Rite aid. However rite aid is making it much more difficult.
DeleteI don't anymore. I'm a basic cook and all those coupons tend to be for packaged food and high sodium products.
ReplyDeleteMy personal care products are all organic and those never have coupons so I watch for sales. Our homecare is vinegar/baking soda-nothing cheaper than that.
Don't get me wrong, I would most certainly use coupons if available for the products I use but the days of having to use the cheapest available are behind me.
I am a scratch cook also, so coupons are not made for me.
DeleteWe don't have coupons in Australia sadly. I love those shows & I think I'd be one of those obsessive coupon ladies if we had them here. I have been know to read sluggys ibota savings posts out loud to my family because I'm so impressed lol! I think it would take a lot of time though & a lot of the food products don't look too healthy, but I do love a bargain :)
ReplyDeleteI have some good friends who are in Australia serving a mission and Hubs folks served for 2 years in Alice Springs.
DeleteWill use a coupon if I have one for an item that I use. But it is much more difficult these days to find a good one to use. Miss having coupons doubled and sometimes tripled too. Always enjoyed watching coupon queens shopping trips and their strategys. Penny S.
ReplyDeleteI know those good old days of super coupons are gone.
DeleteI used them quite a bit when I had a houseful, but now I find I just shop differently. If there is a Health and beauty or household one, I sue those if timed with my needs.
ReplyDeleteI do more health and beauty than anything and usually at rite aid.
DeleteHere in my small Canadian city, we don't get a great many coupons. What we do get are more for cleaning supplies, beauty products and the occasional food item. Not a whole lot to choose from.
ReplyDeleteI do use them for what I can if the item is on my list.
God bless.
That is really what we get here also. We do get some food but always convenience food or sugar cereal.
DeleteI can't remember the last time I used a coupon. We mainly eat 'whole' foods and produce, so I hit several stores for their sales.
ReplyDeleteI do the same thing. Winco first and then Albertsons for loss leaders.
DeleteNo coupons here although i used to be pretty good at it many years ago. Like Sluggy, i played the CVS and rite-aid game. We don’t have those stores here, now. My son works at kroger so i get a percentage off when i use his card for their store brand. There’s no kroger here, either, so i can only use it when we visit. Have cooler will travel! And, i do!
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Boy I would take advantage of that also and I would travel to get the discount.!
DeleteI don't really use paper coupons anymore since we don't get the paper and most around here won't accept printed coupons off computer. I do load coupons from Kroger on my store card for items I would buy anyways. However those have been far and between. My shopping has changed to buy loss leaders to save money rather than rely on coupon savings.
ReplyDelete