Using coupons to cut your grocery bill...

Coupons aren't just for grandma anymore.  I'm sure you have seen or at least heard of the extreme couponers who hoard stockpile food and supplies.  Seeing those people with all that stuff makes me think of my poor, sweet grandma who was convinced she needed to take refuge in a storm shelter during Y2K, so she stocked it with non-perishable items.  BUT, I digress.  You don't need to be an extreme couponer to make coupons work for you.  I do not go crazy, and I am able to save $50-$100 off my grocery bill each time I go.  The most important thing to remember is to start slowly and do not get frustrated.  There is a lot of information floating around out there, and it's hard to keep track of all of it if it's not your full time job.

OK...here we go.

Some things to do in preparation:
1.  If you don't already have them, get a loyalty/club/rewards card from your local stores.  This will help reduce your grocery bill even if you don't have a coupon.  A lot of stores also offer other rewards in addition to money savings.
2.  Set up a separate email address for your couponing.  You will get a lot of emails for coupons.  You don't want this clogging up your regular inbox.
3.  Order 1 newspaper for each member of your household.  This will give you more coupons to cut.
4.  If you have an Iphone/Ipad or other smart phone, get the following apps.  They were all free!
          a.  Grocery Pal - this app allows you to view items on sale by different stores, make lists of items for
               purchase, compare price among different stores, etc.
          b.  Card Star - this allows you to put all your loyalty cards in one place.  No more carrying all those
               cards on your keychain.  All you need to do is pull this up on your phone and have it scanned.
          c.  Saving Star - this app is like magic.  You routinely open the app and click on the deals you want.
               The app will then link with your loyalty card.  Once you purchase the item you clicked, it will build
                an account for you.  Once your account reaches $5.00, you are eligible to receive a payment in
                the form of a bank deposit, Paypal deposit, Amazon.com gift card, etc.
           d.  Ibotta - This works very similarly to Saving star.  You pick the stores where you shop and the
                ecoupons for the items you plan to purchase.  Once you have purchased those items, you will take
                a picture of your receipt.  Ibotta will then confirm your purchases and create your
                "savings"account.
            e,  Endorse - This app, again, works a lot like Saving Star.  It works in conjunction with Facebook.
                 The offers here do not just apply to groceries.  I recently had an offer for 10% back on any
                 fast food.  Ca ching!
5.  Using your Facebook account, "like" the following pages:
            a.  We Use Coupons
            b.  Frugal Living and Having Fun
            c.  The Krazy Coupon Lady
            d.  Hip2Save
            e.  Stockpiling Moms
             f.  A lot of products have their own Facebook pages and will offer coupons after you "like" their
                 page.
6.  Go to www.lozo.com and sign up.  This website does most of the work for you.  You pick the coupons
      you want and then print them.  The first time I used this site, I got over 100 coupons.  In the interest of
      full disclosure, you will be asked to fill out our name and email address for a lot of these coupons.  This
      is where it will be handy to have your special couponing email address.
7.  Another website to use is coupons.com.


WHEW...time to take a breath!

OK, now that you've gotten yourself ready and started printing your coupons, it's time to start putting it together with sales at the stores.  Since you are getting at least 1 newspaper (BTW...I just get the Sunday paper, not through the week), you will get sales flyers for your local stores along with the national coupons.

Look through your sales flyers to see what things you normally purchase are on sale.  I circle these things with a sharpie.  You can also use your Grocery Pal app with these flyers to put things into a list.

Once you have all of your things circled and your lists made, it's time to tackle your big stack of coupons.

Bear in mind, I do not have the time, energy or patience to be an extreme couponer.  I do not look through all coupons and compare with all sales to see what would make money for me or what I could get for free just by using coupons.  If I know my family will not use it, I do not buy it.  My primary objective for couponing is to save money on my shopping bill.  The picture below is the stack I have accumulated for the past 2 weeks.
If you prefer, you can clip these and organize them as soon as you print them.  Waiting until you get a stack like this will take you a looooong time to cut and sort.

Most grocery stores have a map on their website so you can easily navigate through the store, but you can also use it to organize your coupons by aisle.  You can use whatever method of organization that works for you.  I tried the 3-ring binder with the baseball card clear plastic things.  That really did not work for me.  I now use envelopes, just plain white mailing envelopes with the name on the front (breakfast foods, frozen foods, canned goods, etc).  

This is what my ginormous stack of coupons looked like when I finally finished cutting and sorting.

Time for another breath.....

Now you are ready to tackle the shopping.  A few last things to remember before you do:

1.  Do not rule out places like CVS and Rite Aid for your shopping.  CVS takes coupons and they have ExtraBucks to go towards your next purchase.  RiteAid offers a similar program with their UP rewards.

2.  Pay special attention to Buy One Get One Free deals.  Yesterday, I saw Ballpark Franks were BOGO (buy 1 get 1) at my grocery store.  I had 2 coupons for $1 off Ballpark franks.  SOOO...I received 4 packs of hot dogs for $2 less than the price of 2 packs!  It's not quite grilling season where I live yet, so they will go in the freezer for the next few weeks.  

3.  Don't forget about your Ibotta and Endorse.  One of my Ibotta offers this week was for Ballpark franks, so on top of my huge savings listed in #2, I will now get money added to my Ibotta account for later withdrawal!  

That is a lot to take in...I know.  Take it 1 step at a time and you will be fine.  However, don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have along the way!  I'm here to help!