Today’s post comes from Joyce of Saving My Cents. She shares good tips for maximizing your coupon savings, so read on!
About Joyce:
As a SAHM to 2 little boys, two little cats and one big golden retriever saving my SENSE will never happen, but saving my CENTS has to happen. Anyone who knows me knows my favorite saying is “I’m not cheap, I’m thrifty” and I hope with my website you can be too!
Recently, I had a friend tell me how using coupons did not help her and what was I talking about when I mention all the money I save? Well, after speaking with her for a just a few minutes I realized she was using coupons completely wrong. She wanted to get into couponing, she just did not know how! Here are some rules to remember when couponing! Using coupons the right way can save lots of money, help you build amazing stockpiles and save you endless emergency trips to the grocery store for items you could already have stockpiled in your closet.
1. Do not use coupons for the sake of using coupons. You know you are not a fan of some particular item, maybe granola bars, but you see them on sale for $1 in the store and you have a .50 cent off coupon. Don’t think “hey, it’s only 50 cents I might as well try it”, if you know you do not like it, then do not buy it. Instead, check around other stores and their sales, if you can get it free with coupons, you have nothing to lose, or maybe you can find a free sample of it to try on the manufacturers website, e-mail the manufacturer and ask for a sample, many times companies will send you samples or free coupons, or maybe they sell the bar individually to try instead of buying a whole box. At the end of every month when I clean out my coupon binder I have so many extra expired coupons I never used, if I used those coupons simply because I had them in my binder I would have a closet full of junk instead of a closet full of products we actually use and need.
2. Do not let one good coupon deal kill your wallet overall. This one is a big trap, I have a coupon for pasta, it is on sale for $1, with my coupon I get it free, so I think “hmm, what can I make with pasta, I know, lasagna”. Well I may have saved money on the pasta, but then I need to buy the cheeses, the meat and the seasonings, in the end I probably did not save any money. If you planned on making the lasagna anyway then you lose nothing, but if I already have my menu planned for the week (and I have and always will suggest the best way to save on groceries is through menu planning) and lasagna was not on there, then I do not need to buy the extra ingredients. Buy the pasta, take it home and stockpile it in your closet for when the other ingredients go on sale. On a side note, going along with stockpiles in your closet, always keep your closets and pantries organized. If you completely forget about the lasagna and go out and buy another box, then you really never saved anything, if you have a neat and organized pantry, when making your weekly meals, you take a peek in and see what you have and work from there instead of moving things around, watching things fall or trying to figure out if maybe you have this or maybe you have that.
3. Supplement your shopping with coupons if it benefits you. So you planned to make that lasagna, you have your pasta coupon, you go to the store and see that the cheese and seasonings are not on sale. So you say “eh, to much money, I am not going to bother”. You should bother, you planned on making it, next week you might finally say “ok, I am making the lasagna”, but the lasagna may not be on sale or your coupon may have expired, so now instead of at least getting a discount on your pasta, you pay full price for all the ingredients.
4. Again, don’t use coupons for the sake of using coupons! Just like you might buy a product you really do not like simply because you have a coupon, you may “buy up” because you have a coupon and it really is not worth it. Lets use the pasta example again, you normally buy the store brand pasta at half the price of the name brand, you use it, you like it. You see the name brand pasta on sale this week and since you have a coupon for it you buy it. But does the coupon make the name brand cheaper than the store brand, if it does, you got a deal, but if you are still paying more where is the deal? You like the store brand just fine, is there really a reason to spend extra just for a name?
5. If you see a good deal and you have coupons, buy, this is just like # 3, except describes the benefits of stockpiling more (but also buy carefully as I will mention in a second)! In my bathroom closet I have about 7 tubes of toothpaste and even more shampoo and band-aids. Do I really need 7 tubes of toothpaste, yes, I do. Eventually we will use it, none of it expires for another year. So when I saw that with my coupons I could get it free, I took advantage. Why not get it now free rather then pay for it later? If you see a great deal on something, an item you use regularly that you know may not go on sale often or something you really need, take advantage. Do not think that it is a waste to buy 5 toothpastes when all you need right now is one, after that tube runs out you will need another right? Why waste time going out to buy it again in another month when you can get it now? The only thing to pay attention to when shopping like this (and here is the buy carefully part), is to pay attention to details, what is the shelf life of the product, how well does it store? If the toothpaste expired next month of course I would not buy 7 tubes, if it needed to be frozen and I had no room in my freezer I would not buy it. If the product will last, if the product comes out free or cheap and you have the room for it, why not take advantage of the deal while you can?
Coupon shopping is definitely not as easy as just clipping a few coupons out of the Sunday paper and heading off to the store. It takes time and planning, but if you use your head and do it correctly you can save money!
This post originally appeared on Saving My Cents on April 8th.
