Coupon Sunday: The Art of the Stack

Source: wow-coupons.com via Barbara on Pinterest

Time out: is that worst graphic ever? Or is it just me?

Time in: Have you heard of the term "stacking" before? In couponing, it basically refers to the ability to use multiple coupons for one product (normally you can use just one coupon per item). Stores like Target, and most recently some grocery chains, offer their own set of coupons valid at only their stores. These "insert store here" only coupons can then be combined with a manufacturers coupon (valid at multiple stores) to increase, if not double your savings.

Pretty cool huh?

I didn't even know about stacking until I started couponing, but have since gotten some pretty good deals as a result. In my (limited) experience I've found that Target and my local Harris Teeters are the best places to land great deal via stacking. For example, I got a pack of  Olay Regenerist Cleaning Cloths for $0.99 (retail price $6.99) after stacking a $3.00 off 1 manufacturer's coupon and a $3.00 off 1 Harris Teeter "e-vic" coupon. In a separate trip to Target I was able to stack a target coupon for Energizer Lithium batteries with a manufacturer's coupon to save $4.00 off the sale price of $7.99. For all you ladies out there with battery sucking digital cameras you know that's a great deal.

Want to stack, but don't know where to start?

For stacking options at Target I would check out blogs like Totally Target or The Krazy Coupon Lady provide detailed posts of this weeks sales and corresponding coupons.

Grocery stores are a little different but once you confirm that they offer some kind of store coupon and that it can be stacked, the easiest way to reap the benefits is to keep an eye on the weekly specials and a list of the coupons available. That way it is easier to spot an stacking opportunities.

Have you stacked coupons before? Good ahead and brag, what was your best get with a stack?

Coupon Sunday: Avoiding the Trap with Unit Prices

Source: shirt.woot.com via Missy on Pinterest

There are a lot of people out there that are skeptical about coupons, my brother-in-law being one of them (hi Ron!). Ron believes that coupons just entice you to spend more money by purchasing something just because you have a coupon. Which is absolutely, 100% true. You see, marketers are smart people, and in essence coupons are marketing. Companies are giving you a discount on their product which in turn puts their product in the forefront of your mind while you are shopping. You see the product and recall the coupon. Maybe you don't buy the product that day, but I'm sure you will again recall it when you need it.  I'm no psycologist but they are using our brains against us.

So how do good couponers avoid falling into that trap? They use a little something called unit price. Thinking it terms of unit prices doesn't come naturally to some, or maybe most, but its the best way to figure out if you are getting a good deal. For example, SSF and I use unit prices most often when considering the purchase of items like paper towels and toilet paper. But it can be applied to almost anything.

Last week when my sister and I went grocery shopping together one of the items on her list were some cookies for the kids. She had a coupon for $1 off the purchase of 2 Pepperidge Farm cookies, which happen to be on sale for $2 each. However, the store brand cookies were also on sale for $1.43 each. Even after the coupon, the store brand cookies would be cheaper by $.07.

But wait there's more....

For fun, and because I love calculators, we broke it down to the cost per cookie. The store brand had a total of 39 cookies per package making the price per unit around $.04 The Pepperidge Farm package had about 16 cookies, bringing the cost per cookie to $.09.

Clearly, the store brand cookies were a better deal. That is unit price, granted it's not the most thrilling example of it, but imagine the savings you could reap just by considering the unit price on your purchases.

Do you consider unit price when grocery shopping? Do you buy stuff just because you have a coupon for it?

Coupon Sunday: Don't Judge Me

There are not many people that know I am a couponer outside of my family, a few close friends, and well anyone that reads this blog. I'm definitely not ashamed to say I kick ass and take names when it comes to saving money, it just gets old defending yourself against the assumptions people make based on shows like "Extreme Couponing".

Even though I don't feel like I need to defend myself to any of you (because you are all so supportive) I just feel like I need to put to rest those assumptions once and for all.

Assumption #1- All coupons are for junk food therefore, you eat poorly

Yes there are a lot of coupons out there for cookies, chips, candy, sports drinks etc. I get it. But there are also coupons out there for things like pasta, rice, granola, yogurt, and even fruit. Sometimes you just have to sort though the trash to get to the treasure. The truth is a bulk of our spending each week goes to things like fruits, vegetables, milk, yogurt, and meat. I wouldn't claim to be the healthiest people, since we both enjoy a treat for dessert, but we certainly aren't eating microwave noodles, sports drinks, and candy bars for every meal.

Assumption #2- You have to buy 50 of something to save any money

There is no way on earth SSF and I would buy 50 of anything. Maybe 4 or 5, but never 50. In fact that is my number one pet peeve about couponers of the extreme variety--clearing the shelf. SSF and I had our first run in with a an extreme shopper in our area. We had gone to buy 1 bottle of seasoning with our coupon (it would have been free) only to find the shelf had been cleared. I JUST WANTED ONE BOTTLE! Annoying. So no, I will not be clearing any shelves in the near future.


Assumption #3- You are greedy and/or a hoarder

Of course this was the perfect segue from the previous assumption,. If you've ever watched Extreme Couponing you've probably felt this way about the people featured. They stockpile mass amounts of food that makes you wonder how even a family of 4 could use it all before it goes to waste. Just because you can buy 35 mustards, should you? Thanks to the limited storage space in out home SSF and I will never pride ourselves on a large stockpile nor do we want to. We want to buy the things we need and can use within a reasonable time frame and pay (much) less for them. That's all.

Now to be fair, I had these assumptions about the people on "Extreme Couponing" when I first started watching it. I thought they were insane, but actually, most of them just know how to play the game (while others may just be crazy). As I've started becoming a more active couponer and getting into coupon blogs I've realized there are lot of people out there just trying to save money.

Thoughts?

Coupon Sunday: Retail Style

Source: None via M. on Pinterest

I don't' know about you but when I think about coupons I generally think about grocery coupons. After all they seem to be the most prevelant kind, but we both know there are plenty of other coupons out there to help us save money. My favorites are the ones that help me save money on clothes.

One brand you can always count on for coupons is Victoria's Secret. I always seem to be getting mailers for "a free panty" or "$10 off your purchase". Back in the beginning of May I got a mailer that had both of those coupons in there. Normally, I would just toss the thing in the recycling, but fresh on the couponing bandwagon I held on to it. Free undies are free undies, no?

So a couple weeks ago I ventured to the mall to retrieve my free undies. It's always a gamble with these coupons because who knows if you will actually like it but I had to see for myself. As I was saying, I went in and after some hardcore searching located my freebie. It turns out, I liked them a lot. It also turns out they were also on sale, 5 pairs for $25.50 and it just so happened I was in desperate need of new undies anyway ( is that tmi?) so I took advantage. I was able to use both coupons and score 6 pairs of VS undies for $16.43 after tax. That is $2.74 per pair! Not bad for an item that usually retails for $7.50-$8.50/per pair. That's a savings of $25.97 including tax.

Spending less than my savings =Winning.

What's been your best clothing coupon win?

Coupon Sunday: Organics

Source: couponing101.com via Ashlee on Pinterest

After my inaugural coupon post last week I got a lot of comments from readers that want to coupon but prefer to shop organic. I totally hear you. I personally would love to eat more organic foods, but since I share a household with SSF, who sees food as food, I often must compromise. Which means the only time I can buy organic is if I can get it at a lower price than it's non-organic counterpart. However, buying organic and couponing do not have to be mutually exclusive thanks to some great websites I've hunted down (accidentally found) just for you guys.

So without further adieu:

Mambo Sprouts: by far the best resource I've found. This site offers a variety of coupons, both printable and in a newsletter while also providing product reviews and recipes. (See also: HeathESavers)

Money Saving Mom: a coupon website I frequent, that has a great round-up of organic deals that is easy to find, and updated often. In addition, make sure you check out her coupon database.  With the coupon database you can search for any product you want and it will give you a list of current print and printable coupons.

Whole Foods: if you don't do your shopping there already, I would definitely start (if you have one locally). Whole Foods has their own dedicated coupons that you can pick-up in their monthly newsletter or print from their website.

Seventh Generation: the big player in organic cleaning has coupons available on their site if you join.
In addition, check the website or the facebook page of your favorite organic brands, most offer coupons when you sign-up for their newsletter. You can see a pretty comprehensive list of brands that do here.

And of course don't forget to check the good ol' Sunday paper for coupons, or online for their electronic counterparts. Sometimes they can be few and far between, but coupons for organic foods do exist! yay!

Coupon Sunday: Mtv Cribs Style

As you all know, I've recently become a couponer. Not an extreme couponer by any means, just you know an average couponer. With this recent development I thought it would be fun to start doing a Sunday blog post dedicated to the sport ( I think if I call it a sport it sounds less nutty.) for anyone who is interested. I figure it will be like the part in Mtv cribs were the celebrities show off the contents of their refrigerator, expect subtract the celebrity and their Cristal and add me and my Perdue chicken nuggets (dinosaur shaped, of course).

The above is our "haul"/ groceries from this past week. (Please note the absence of 80 containers of microwaveable noodles and 100 bottles of vitamin water. ) As you can see there is nothing crazy about what we bought, just mostly about what we saved. Our order retailed for about $152.16 while we paid only $75.38, or just under 50% of the retail total. Not bad right?

Some of the notable savings were:

Tortilla Chips: reg price: $3.49, on sale BOGO free + 2 $1 off 1 coupons
= price paid $1.49 for 2 bags.
Smart Balance Milk: reg price: $4.49, on sale 2/$5 +$1.50 off 1 coupon
= price paid $1.00 for half gallon.
Brownie Mix: reg price: $2.39, on sale 4 /$5 + $ .50 off 1 coupon (doubled)
 = price paid $.25 each box.
Toothpaste: reg price: $.99, $1 off one coupon
= price paid $0.00 Free!
Chicken Nuggets: reg price: $3.99, on sale 2/$5 + (2) $.50 off 1 coupons (doubled)
 = price paid: $1.50 each
Smoothie Mix: reg price: $3.99, on sale 2/$6 + $.75 off coupon (doubled)
= price paid: $1.50
Tide Stain Release Packs: reg price $7.49, on sale $5.99 +$3.00 off coupon
= price paid: $2.99

I like to think SSF and I have found a good balance between buying what we need for the week and great deals to stockpile.

Even with 55 items our total bill came in $17 under our average grocery bill for the month of April (the current baseline).

Thoughts?

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.