Where to find coupons?

This could turn into War and Peace, but I'll give it a shot! Obviously, this site is geared towards new couponers, or those who aren't interested in spending a ton of time couponing. There are many, many places to find coupons, and I want to help you find the ones that will save your family the most money! Here are my favorite sources, and of course I can't share facts without sharing my opinion too!

Truly free coupons (the best ones!)

• In-store coupons, like blinkies (the little widgets hanging off the shelves that spit out coupons), peelies (attached to packages), tear pads (again hanging on the shelves), and the occasional pamphlet that you see on display in the store. ALWAYS check these out, and if you are likely to use, take a couple! Be a considerate coupon user, and don't take all of them, please!
• Mailers that come to your home. I can't think of the names of any of these, but chances are you get some! This is a good place to look for unique coupons, like restaurants, hair cuts, more service related than product related. Don't just chuck them!
• The newspaper. These are only free if you would be getting the paper anyway, and frankly in our area, it's debatable whether they are worth it. Don't get me wrong, there are good coupons to be had in the Smart Source and Red Plum inserts, and I really like the Proctor and Gamble ones, but we don't get the same inserts that bigger markets get, and I'm jealous!
• In magazines that you already subscribe to. I have at least 6 coupons for $1 off Smart Taste pasta, most are from parenting related magazine. I make sure to clip and save these before I pass the mags on.
• Coupons that come directly from the company. On the occasion that I have been dissatisfied with a product, I have always gotten some sort of coupon from customer service. I have also received coupons when complimenting a product, which I try to do in equal measure!
• Look for truly free coupons wherever you go, they pop up in all sorts of places when you are mindful of them. On the rare occasion that my husband goes to the grocery store with me, he is awesome at spotting them. Get your kids in on it too!

Coupons that you pay for in some way.

• Internet printables (IP) are great. But keep in mind that you are paying for paper, ink, and ultimately your print and computer (and internet service, and electricity, and your nice computer desk, okay I'll stop there) when you hit print. Honestly, I've never taken the time to figure out how much it costs me to print an IP, but I have mentally assigned a price of 10 cents per sheet (which is probably high, but that's okay with me). So try not to go crazy with these, but do print the ones for products that you use, or high values that will make items free. Most IPs expire 30 days after you print them, that can vary a bit. Typically you can print 2 copies of any of these coupons. The first time you use any of these sites, you will have to install their coupon printing devices.
• coupons.com, usually the best selection
• smartsource.com, another good selection
• redplum.com, can be hard to print sometimes
• target.com, look for the coupon link towards the bottom of the page if you are on the homepage
• safeway.com, can be printed or loaded to your Safeway card, though there are currently a lot of issues with them not being credited if you do load them. This is powered by coupons.com, so there is some overlap in what coupons they list, but they also have Safeway specific coupons, so I always keep an eye on it.
• ourfamilycoupons.com for FTC store brand items
• There are so many others, seriously you could spend hours looking through all of the IPs that are out there. Lots of brands will also allow you to access a coupon from their homepage, you may have to register to do that. If you have a favorite brand, check out their website!
• Coupon clipping services. I'm no expert on these, because I almost never order from them. But if there are a few coupons or inserts that you want multiple copies of, there are lots of services that will package them up and send them to you. Coupons by DeDe is the only one I have ever used, and I found them to be very prompt, though there may be a cheaper service out there. You can also find coupons on e-bay, typically those are in lots of 20, but that would probably be the way to go if there is only one coupon you are looking for.

I'm sure I've missed some things, but that should give you plenty to get started! Questions?

E-Coupons

I was hoping to import my excel spreadsheet into a post, so that you all could see how I track e-coupons. But I'm not smart enough. Basically, all the e-coupons that I load from Cellfire and Shortcuts are added into my spreadsheet, so that I have a super easy visual for products that I have multiple e-coupons for. For example, I currently have 4 coupons loaded for Betty Crocker Supreme brownie mix;

• Cellfire, .75/2, exp. 7/12/10
• Cellfire, .75/2, exp 7/26/10
• Shortcuts, .75/2, exp 7/27/10
• Shortcuts, .75/2, exp 8/27/10

There are also paper coupons for this product, so considering all e-coupons and a doubled paper coupon, I can get $4 off 2 of these brownie mixes at Safeway, through 7/12. The supreme brownie mix is pricey if not on sale, so I'll check and see when I shop this weekend, and maybe I'll get lucky! My point is that e-coupons rock (have I mentioned that before?), and if you spend a few minutes studying them, you can get lots of free products! Yeah!

E-Coupons

This is a love letter. E-Coupons are the most wonderful thing that ever happened to coupons. Seriously, if you don't currently cut coupons and have no desire to, you can still hop on the e-coupon train and save money with minimal effort. And for anyone who has ever bothered to cut coupons, prance into the store, and end up arguing with some teenage cashier, e-coupons will change your life. So anyway, on to the details.

There is only one local store where you can use E-Coupons, my beloved Safeway. (I seem to be a bit melodramatic today, sorry about that). Of course you already have a Safeway club card, right? All you have to do is create an account at the 3 websites where you load e-coupons, enter in your Safeway club card info, and away you go.

Cellfire is my favorite site. Once you have created an account and entered your Safeway card info, you can load coupons to your card. I love Cellfire, because they are very consistent in how they make new coupons available; every other Tuesday, there is a new batch available to load, and the oldest batch that you have loaded expires the day before. So for example, right now I have a coupon for Nature Valley granola bars, $1 off 2 boxes, and it expires on 5/17/10. The coupon had to be saved by 5/3/10, so it is no longer available, but there's a good chance that the same coupon will be available to load on 5/18/10. I brought up the granola bars because they coincide with a sale at Safeway right now, but a better example might be Bisquick; I have 2 cellfire coupons for Bisquick right now, both for "Save $0.75 when you buy 20 OZ. OR LARGER Original Bisquick® OR Bisquick Heart Smart® Baking Mix, OR 10.6 OZ. Bisquick® Shake n Pour® Pancake Mix." One expires on 5/17, the other on 5/31. If I buy this product, BOTH of these coupons will come off when I enter my Safeway card at the store. Like magic! The cashier doesn't even know that you have e-coupons, they don't have to approve it or anything. So what follows is that you can use a paper coupon on this product too, and it will work without any problems. My disclaimer on this is that I can't imagine it will be like this forever, the savings are too ridculous, but for now I am using e-coupons like crazy! So now that you've set up a Cellfire account, move on to Shortcuts here, and then P&GeSaver here.

So here's how I keep the e-coupons straight; when I get the Wednesday grocery ads, I make sure to check Cellfire and Shortcuts to see that I have added all of the available coupons. Like I said, Cellfire makes new coupons available every other Tuesday, but Shortcuts does it randomly, and P&G coupons are good for a lot longer, maybe a quarter (they all expire at the same time, and then a whole new batch becomes available). Because I am a super organized couponer, I enter all my e-coupons into a spreadsheet, so that I can look accross the list and see what items I have multiple coupons for. There are plenty of e-coupons for things I don't buy, but I still record all of them, because when food items become free, even if I don't want them, I buy them and donate. I know people criticize coupons as being for only processed food, and there are definitely plenty of those available, but someone in our area is hungry and if you can help while saving money, I bet that you will. I keep a donation bag hanging in the garage, and when I bring something home for donation, it goes straight into the bag.

So here's an example of a transaction that I will be doing this weekend, based on the current Safeway add. They have a buy 4, save $4 deal on cereal and granola bars, and this is one they have pretty often. The prices I am listing are AFTER the promotional savings. I will buy 3 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars, which are $1.50/box, and use a paper coupon for $1 off 2 boxes that I got in a mailer, and another paper coupon for .40 off 1 box from here. Once that is doubled, I will have saved 1.80 off a $4.50 purchase, but then my e-coupons come off, and I currently have $1 from Cellfire, and .40 from Shortcuts. So, after that I end up spending 1.30 on 3 boxes of granola bars, or .43/box. I have to buy 4 (or more) items to get the promotional pricing, so I will also buy 2 boxes of Cheerios, also at $1.50 each. I have a Cellfire coupon for $1 off 2 boxes, and I will use 2 paper coupons for .55 off each from here, which will double to $1. So after that I end up spending only tax on 2 boxes of Cheerios, yeah! By the way, it's been confirmed that you don't have to buy in multiples of 4 to get the promotional pricing, as long as you have at least 4 you'll be fine, up to a limit of 20 items.

So, I know that all seems a bit complicated, but once you start doing it, it will get easy, I promise! Using coupons is a skill, and you have to develop it just like any other skill, so if you want to learn how to get 3 boxes of granola bars, and 2 boxes of Cheerios for $1.30, just stick with it, ask questions, and keep reading my blog! My other comment on using coupons is that I think it's fun, which may sound weird, but really makes it easier to approach, like a game. If you don't enjoy it, there are other ways to save money on groceries, and I definitely don't use a coupon for everything that I buy, so stay tuned and we'll cover other techniques too!

Making a Price Book

I am a huge believer in using a price book to help me remember and track prices on food items. When I started learning how to save money on groceries, I didn't think too much of this suggestion, even though every resource suggested it in some form or another. After a while, I realized that I may remember a good price on boneless chicken breasts and butter, but there's no way I can remember prices for everything that I may need or want.

My price book is really casual, basically I am just interested in recording the lowest price that I have seen or paid for an item. Some folks are really into figuring out the sale patterns at the stores they frequent, meaning how often will those chicken breasts be at the lowest price? Most stores have a sale pattern of 6-8 weeks, so I just buy whatever quantity I think I will need for that period of time, considering how much storage space I have. I don't worry too much about trying to guess when an item will go on sale again, because if I run out before it goes on sale, as a rule we just don't eat it. I'll talk more about menu planning in a later post, but my basic approach is buy what's on the best sale, add it to your stockpile, and "shop" what you have when you are deciding what to make for supper.

So, on to the numbers. Keep in mind that these are the prices I have found locally, and your prices will vary. Another thing to consider is that at times you find items for so ridiculously cheap that you think you're in frugal heaven, but those savings aren't sustainable, meaning, you're not going to see that item that cheap again for a long time. Stock up when you see the chance, but don't feel terrible if you have to pay a bit more next time. Just don't pay the regular price! I absolutely encourage you to develop your own price book, and if you know of a local price that's better than these, I really want to hear about it! I'll just cover some staples in this post, more to come!

Eggs; .06 cents or less per egg
Butter; less than 1.75/lb (best I've paid is 1.29, but that's rare)
Whole Wheat bread; 1/loaf (best I've paid is .25/loaf, but you gotta get lucky at the bakery thrift store, and then load up!)
Cheese; less than 2/lb, I don't care if it's shredded or block
Milk; 2/gallon, as low as 1.25 when near sell by, in which case freeze it!
Flour; 1/lb
Sugar; .40/lb

Flour and sugar are two items I am looking for better prices on.

To coupon or not to coupon....

One of the first steps in deciding to adjust your spending is to decide how much time and effort you are able and willing to commit to the agenda. If you want to spend most of your waking hours searching deals on the internet, you can. Not that I would ever waste my time that way....

Really though, shopping sales and using coupons is a great way to immediately shave your expenses, but the best approach to saving money is to look at your biggest expenses first, and see what you can do about them. I am definitely not a financial expert in any way, but anyone with a basic understanding of math knows that big numbers add up quicker than small numbers. You certainly spend more on housing than on shampoo, right? So free shampoo is fabulous, but not much help if you can't afford the mortgage.

This blog will be primarily focused on feeding your people for less, whether there are just a couple of you, or a bunch. But I would encourage you, whether you are in trouble financially or just trying to be more thrifty, to look at the big picture first. You get to decide how to spend your money, and I'm not interested in preaching to the uninterested, but I'd love to spark your interest in being more frugal, and I'm challenging myself by starting this blog to do the same.

If you decide to coupon, or if you are already doing it, how much time do you have to devote to it?