I love coupons, for me it's like a little game to see what I saved at the end...BUT I don't base everything we eat or buy on coupons. I have dietary restrictions so I can't just buy "anything" that's on sale on with coupon. My hub is pretty particular with food so I know what he likes and what he doesn't and that's where I start from...what we like, what we need, what we use. If it's a really good coupon for something similar or something worth trying I'll clip that too....but I don't clip them all just to clip them. It's not saving anything if it's wasted time or wasted product in the end
I start by checking the fridge, checking the pantry, checking the freezer and make my shopping list while doing that...10 minutes tops. Then I sit down with my organzied "the coupon wallet" that I got online ages ago and I match up the coupons with the list...another 5 to 10 minutes. I use the coupons according to date..if I have 2 coupons for Green Giant veggies and one expires sooner I use that one first. While going through the coupon wallet I kinda make a mental note of what's in there so when I'm in the store if I see a sale item that we might not "need" right away, but might makes sense to buy now with that coupon I have. This isn't hard to do because in the end you know what you like, need or what you've probalby clipped anyway. You get use to what you're clipping and what coupons you have. KWIM?
It takes me mere minutes to cut coupons, in fact I did it last night while sitting up in bed watching the news. My parents don't use them so I get theirs from the paper too!
I use a bonus card, I register for extra coupons and emails from the supermarkets I use, I check the circulars for the coupons they hide inside...some have "$1 doubler coupons" where if you're using coupons already they essentially just take off another $1 for fun...and it adds up to $4 where I am right off the bat! AND I use those $5off your entire trip coupons when sent out. If there's a new organic product out there that I could use but have never tried I have zero problem shooting off a 1 line email to the company requesting a coupon & 99.9% of the time I get 1-2
freebie coupons in the mail within a week for doing that.
Last night we did a super fast run in to the supermarket before our "impending doom snowstorm" that (as always) turned out to be nothing but a dusting of snow
We were only in there for 15-20 minutes but I walked out saving $14.50 all together on a quick small order of only what we needed for the weekend. We play the "how much did we save" game while walking to the car where we both take a guess, it's fun in the end and never just pennies here or there...it's real $$$$!!
Doing basic Thanksgiving shopping (not including the free $25.00 bird I got with bonuscard) I saved $28.10, 2 weeks before was $24.58 and the major stock up before that (freezer, pantry stock up for all the winterish foods I make) was $80.81!!!! I could probably save more if I used the coupon game sites, but I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far.
Just try to have fun with it
PS....we use regular old manufacturer coupons at BJs too! Yup, they take them for everything. If the coupon says save $1.00 on two boxes of let's say Glad trash bags and BJs sells 3 boxes all wrapped together..the coupon works! You don't have to by "2" of the BJ packaging...it's the manufacturers single packaging
Cool, huh?