Not So Extreme, Semi-Normal Couponing

www.hip2save.com

I know I promised I would stop talking about couponing but the I just can't help myself. It is such a rich topic especially now that SSF and I have crossed over to the dark side, kinda. "Kinda" as in we haven't cleaned a store out of mustard or vitamin water because it was free.. yet.

Truth be told, SSF and I have been using coupons for awhile now in an attempt to lower our weekly groceries bills but never before have we put any kind of strategy behind it. It's always been more like..

 "Oh I want this."
 "Oh I have a coupon for that."
 "Nice."

The last couple weeks we've dedicated a little extra effort to planning our meals and our grocery trips and dare I say we've seen a real return on investment.

Case in point: Prior to watching (and learning from) TLC's "Extreme Couponing" we would spend an average of  $90/week on groceries and purchase anywhere from 30-40 items. Seems reasonable right? Well the last couple weeks we've been averaging $77/week and purchasing well over 40 items each time.

Sure it doesn't sound like much of anything, $13? big deal. Where is the 98% savings? When you think about it though we are spending less money and getting more for it but unlike some of the hoarders couponers on the show we aren't buying anything we don't need or won't use. That's the real key to couponing. Our savings aren't monumental, they are hovering around 43% of our total bill but  that is just the beginning.  At this point 43% is still $62, which is pretty damn good.  My goal now is to get our savings to around 50% and build a stockpile large enough (while still fitting in our pantry) to allow us to shop just twice a month. Perfectly normal.. right?

Have you thought about giving couponing a try?

PS. Don't forget to check out my review of JewelMint, after technical difficulties last week from blogger it is back up from running and slightly different if you checked it out last week when it first went up.