Ways to Save, Part 3: Coupons

So, coupons.

Seems like people fall into one of three camps when it comes to coupons: those who never touch the things, those who are coupon queens, cutting and even buying (yes, I said buying) coupons on ebay, or like me, those who would cut a few out every Sunday, put them in an envelope and then forget about them.

When I did use them, it was usually because they were going to expire which meant there probably was not a sale going on at the time.

So, what's the secret to all the savings that some can get using coupons? Well, I have done some researching since starting to coupon in order to work on my goal of lowering our food bill and I have found a couple of things:

1. There's not really a secret, but couponing does require some planning. It's not large amounts of time, but there is a little time involved (however, I found that when I started to see the savings, it has become kinda fun!).

2. It's true you can save the most if you buy a lot of packaged food (those are usually the stories you hear of the lady who bought $96.00 of food for $10.50 or something), BUT I have saved a significant amount on staples and wholesome foods like frozen vegetables or canned tomatoes and it does save some time because I'm not cutting all the coupons for things I don't buy (of which there are lots).

3. It's all about timing. ONLY use a coupon when there is a good sale on the item (unless it's something you have to have and would buy whether it was on sale or not) to get the best price.

4. It's also all about multiples, meaning: you need more than one of the same coupon in order to buy the most at that great price. Which leads to the next item that happens with good coupon usage:

5. You need to amass a stockpile of items your family uses. This is one of the most important aspects of saving on groceries. If you have a good supply of the items you use, there will be very few times you will need to buy something when it's not on sale and/or you don't have a coupon.

How much might you save? What I can tell you is this: in just the few months I've been actively using coupons, my grocery bill has already gone down significantly (see sidebar of monthly progress). Of course, that's in conjunction with changing my shopping habits, menu planning, and shopping the sales, but good coupon use will include these things anyway.

Start small by just looking through the Sunday paper coupon inserts and clipping the coupons you know you would use, but also clip the coupons you'd buy if there was a good deal or you'd like to try. You never know if there will be a good deal and you could score!

Also, start to look at your local stores and start looking at the sales - right away you'll notice that some of sales coordinate with the coupons from the Sunday inserts which is typical.

Just start small, combine a few coupons with sales the next time you shop and keep collecting your coupons. Next up is Ways to Save, Part 4: Step-by-Step to Grocery Savings.

Jami