Couponing How-To

So many people always ask how I save so much money on groceries, so I'm going to tell you ALL my secrets!  (okay they aren't really secrets just things that some people don't know)

The Goal:  

Spend as little as possible on food and other household items.  My personal goal is to save 80%  OR MORE on each transaction.

Example:
 
This trip I bought:
3 bags of Gorton's Fish
4 Packages of Oscar Myers Lunch Meat
3 6 Packs Danoninos Drinkable Yogurt
3 Phillidelphia Cooking Cream
1 Greek Yoplait yogurt
3 Dole Fruit Crisp
4 24 Pack of Nestle Pure Life Bottled Water
3 boxes of Ritz crackers
1 Beechnut Rice Cereal
6 Cans Pedigre Dog Food
2 Dial Foaming Had Soap
1 Kroger Toilet Cleaner
3 Zone Bar
20 Boxes of Ronzoni Pasta
3 Sunny Delight
3 Boxes Lucky Charms Cereal
2 Butterfinger Snackers
2 Starburst
2 Powerade
2 Beechnut Baby Food
1 Kroger Cotton Squares

76 Items Total

I spent:

Out of Pocket:   $27.86
I received a $5 Catalina to use on my next transaction (more about that later)
I saved $172.30   86%

You should know there are several things on this list that we wouldn't normally buy: Butterfingers, Sunny D, canned dog food, Zone bars etc.  However they were free, so we buy them and then we put them in our pantry and instead of having a sweet tooth and going to the store, paying $0.50-$1.00 at the store, we go to our pantry and pick something that was free.

This is how you do it:
The way to make coupons work is to use coupons only when that item is on sale.  To make it even sweeter use that coupon at a store that will double, triple, or quadruple the coupon (usually up to $1)

 For example:

Cherrios regularly per box $3.00
on sale for $1.88  (Good deal but it could be better)
Coupon for Cheerios $0.55 off one box
**At Fry's right now all manufacturers coupons under $1 are worth $1.  So they give you an additional $0.45 off to make it $1.00. 

So here we go
  $1.88  Cheerios sale Price
 -$0.55  Original Coupon price
 -$0.45  Bonus Store Coupon

$0.88 Final Price for Cheerios:  A great price to buy a bunch and build your 3 month supply of food. 

A few things to know:

1. Most stores have a "3 Coupon Rule"  which states they will only accept 3 like coupons per transaction, or they will only double/quadruple 3 like coupons per transaction all others are accepted at face value (Fry's does the second).


2. A "Catalina" is a coupon that prints out at the register after you pay, perhaps you have gotten the $5 off your next Jiffy Lube Oil change or BOGO at Payless.  The valuable ones to look for are $1 off your next transaction.  You get these coupons by buying certain items (sometimes I will see small signs around the store telling about the deals but most of the time I see the deal on a blog or other coupon site) 
For example: 

This week there is one on Nestle Pure Life Bottled Water:

Buy Nestle Pure Life Purified Water
.5-Liter 20-, 24-, or 28-Packs;
or 8oz. 24-Packs
between 3/11 - 4/3/11 and get

Buy (2) and Get $1.00  or
Buy (3) and Get $2.00  or
Buy (4) or more and get $5.00  coupon off your next shopping order. 


With all Catalina deals all items must be purchased in one transaction. 




3.  To really save money with coupons you stock up (buy a lot) when it is really cheap and then use what you have.  This goes along nicely with having a 3 to 6 month supply of food  that our Prophet has counseled us to have.  For example, if you know canned soup is on sale and you know your family eats a lot of it through out the year, BUY A LOT!  Then you have it and you don't have to go buy it when it is expensive. 


4.  You can only use ONE manufactures coupon per item.  (Read the coupon, it will tell you if it is a "Safeway" coupon, for example,  or a manufactures coupon.)  However, you can use ONE manufactures coupon with ONE store coupon.  This is called stacking coupons.  

Where To Get Coupons:

1.  Cut them from the Sunday paper.  Here in AZ the AZ Republic has the most coupons in it, much more than the Tribune.  If you have a larger family or you want to stock up more and you find couponing is going well you may want to consider more than 1 Sunday paper.  The advantage to this is when something goes on sale instead of buying 1 at the lower price, you can buy 2 or 3 at the lower price.  We personally get 3 Sunday newspapers. 

There are a couple different insets:
Redplum  Abbreviated as  RP
SmartSource  Abbreviated as SS
Proctor and Gamble  Abbreviated as P&G



2. Print them off the internet.  There are several websites, here are a few:
Coupons.com
Smartsource.com
Target Coupons  (On Target.com there is a "coupon" link at the bottom of the page.)  Some of the coupons are manufactures coupons and others are Target Store coupons, usually you don't know which one for use until you print it. 

3. Load "e coupons" to your store card.  Go to the website fill out your info including your value card number (At Fry's that would be your "Fry's Card" that gives you their sale prices) and simply load coupons to the card.  No clipping necessary. You should know, they don't always come off, they don't double, your best bet to get them to come off scan your store card at the beginning of your transaction.  I consider them "bonus coupons" and don't plan on them. 
Cellfire.com
Shortcuts.com
Frysfood.com  


4.  Peelies, Blinkies, Mailers, Booklets
Peelies - coupons stuck to the product that you "peel" off and use.
Blinkies - coupons in the little boxes hanging on the shelf in front of the product. 
Mailers - coupons you get in the mail, you can sign up for them through different companies. 
Booklets - coupon books found around the stores, sometimes found on displays others near the registers.  


5.  Weekly ads.  In Wednesday's paper (or mailbox if you don't get the paper) you will find the store ads.  Some of them will put store coupons and manufacturers coupons in the ads.  The manufactures coupons can be used at any store, the store ads are usually only good at that store.  HOWEVER, Fry's periodically accepts competitor's store coupons such as Fresh and Easy $5 off $30 purchase, Target printable coupons and Safeway in ad coupons.  This can help you save even more when paired with a manufactures coupon. 


Two ways to organize your coupons:

Binder - Cut out ALL the coupons from all sources and file them in a HUGE binder. This method is time intensive however, you have the benefit of having ALL your coupons with you so if you find a non advertised sale or a clearance item you can get extra deals.

Bin - Organize coupons according to the week they came out of the newspaper.  Cut out the coupon once you need it.  This is the method I use, I feel it doesn't take as much time because I'm only cutting the coupons I am going to use. But I KNOW I miss out on deals because I don't have all my coupons with me and I don't go home to get the coupons.

How to begin:
If you want you could sit down with all the local store ads, all your coupons and match them all up. 

Or

Have some one else match up the deals for you.
There are a lot of coupon blogs and websites.  Here are the two I use:

This one is free. 
thecentsableshoppin.com
I like her "Weekly Matchups" for each store (found on the right side of her page), the shopping list feature (check the items and then print out your list), and she links the printable coupons and tells you which weeks to find the newspaper coupons. She also posts a lot of other good deals at other places.  She has a searchable coupons database, offers coupon classes, has "tutorials" on the basics of couponing and under the "basics" she has a link for the store policies (this can be useful to have on hand if you have a cashier who isn't aware of the rules) and she has a lot of other good stuff on her site. 


This one is not free.
Coupon Sense
I like the shopping list feature.  They do all advertised deals not just the good ones.  They have a great searching tool to search the advertised deals as well as searching for a coupon.  I really, really like the message board.  People can post great deals they found and I have gotten a lot of good deals from it. 


For now I like using both because the Coupon Sense message board will have deals that Centsable Shoppin doesn't have and Centsable Shoppin will have deals that Coupon Sense doesn't have. However, if I were just starting out I probably would just do one or the other to not get too overwhelmed. 

The Truth.

How long does it take to do coupons?
I spend probably 1 to 2 hours each week but each person is different. 

Do you go to all the different stores for the deals or just one?
Right now I only shop Fry's (unless there is a REALLY good deal elsewhere)  I used to shop them all but with the addition of Lilly I have found it is too stressful to go to more than just Fry's. 

How do I begin?
I usually go to www.thecentsableshoppin.com on the right hand side under "Weekly Matchups" I click on Fry's Food (because typically Fry's has the best deals) and begin down her list clicking on the items my family likes.  I then print out the shopping list, print out the needed coupons, cut the other coupons from the newspaper and then take it all to the store and see how much I DIDN'T spend.

If you have any questions please ask!

I have found that a lot of couponing is a learn by doing kind of thing.  So give it a try.  Good luck and let me know how it goes.