I have been awed by a few of my friends' homemaking skills which I do not posess. One of these is the successful organization and use of coupons. We have this one friend who has a special accordion type folder thingy where all of her coupons are organized by type (food, grocery, entertainment...). Then inside of each compartment they are organized by their date of expiration. She could rattle off to you at any time the cost of her last grocery bill and how much she saved. AWE!!! For years we did not receive the newspaper (much to the chagrin of our parents) and my coupon clipping was thereby limited to weekly fliers in the mail and maybe in a few local magazines. But about a month ago I was inspired to try my hand at the coupon game again by subscribing to the newspaper. Setting aside the fact that it drives me INSANE to get the paper EVERY DAY when I only desire to get it on Sunday therefore all I do with it every other day is transport it to the recycling bin. (Are there coupons in it every day? Does anyone know?) Anyway, I've gone through it cover to cover every Sunday for about 4 weeks now. I do enjoy the comics ("the sillies" as MaryEvyn calls them), I admit. I have clipped quite a few coupons and go through them to see which I want to use as I'm making my weekly grocery list. But here are my problems/gripes about this:
1. I am constantly having to check the stack of coupons as I go through the store to make sure I bought the right amount and brand to qualify for using the coupon AND
2. to see that I am buying all of the things I brought coupons for.
3. What if I don't want THREE six packs of applesauce? Where am I going to store three of them?
4. How often do I have to go through the stack of coupons at home and discover that the one that I really did want to use has now expired now that I need it. (Two weeks ago I didn't NEED new razors, I do now!) Do you just buy it ahead of time anyway?
5. With all of this buying MORE than I wanted and BEFORE I even wanted it....am I saving money at all???????
I wish I was scientifically minded enough to come up with some way to determine my average bill and how much I'm actually saving (if any!) - but my grocery runs are often too sporadic and I'm often buying different things....I don't know how to make a "control" run, y'know?
Sigh.
I guess I'll keep at it and let the budget do the talking.
Meanwhile, if anyone has any tips for how you do this and keep it all organized (Mel, I'm sure you're all over this!) - please let me know!
photo from flickr
I am the worst at keeping us stocked up on things (ask Kacey, who often gets the 8am "can I borrow a cup of" calls from me). I would say buying in bulk is a good thing if it's something you think you will truly use AND if the regular price is reasonable. Often they print coupons for stuff that is overpriced to being with and would be just as good if bought generic. :) Oh, and I think only sunday has good coupons, so you could buy the sunday paper at the quickie mart and ditch the subscription.
ReplyDeleteI love clipping coupons and using the ones that we actually need, but I definitely hear what you're saying. I'm not an organizational genius, so we only stock up on a few things we always need... toilet paper, paper towels, diapers, wipes...
ReplyDeleteYes...i have those same frustrations with coupons. I looked through one batch of them and decided my time is worth more than the $3 I might (or might not) save. ;)
ReplyDeleteI've tried the coupon route. My sister and I even did the Grocerygame.com trial run. We did save money, but our pantries were full of stuff we didn't need in the immediate future (and sometimes went bad) and we had to spend time going to the different stores to make a profitable difference. Now, I just buy generics of almost everything and our budget seems happy and we seriously can't taste/tell that much of a difference in things.
ReplyDeleteHere's my 2 cents:
ReplyDeletefirst, you are payin money to get the coupons.
second, if shopping at HEB you will find a.) that store brand is as good as name, and b.) that store brand is less expensive than name brand-even when using the aforementioned coupon.
I ditched coupon clipping many years ago.
I clip coupons and save lots of $$ but am very inconsistent about it. My mom works in a hospital as an aide and stock piles the Sunday inserts that get tossed, so I usually have 5 of each insert. I don't waste my time clipping something I KNOW I won't use or have never tried, then I typically go to Kroger where they double or triple coupons. I also buy fundraising coupon books from boy scouts and put those to good use!
ReplyDelete