Realistic Couponing

Every time I watch extreme Couponing I feel like I should be clipping coupons. But I'm not sure if you have seen the show or really paid attention to what is happening. It shows people who have a huge stack of coupons, they go into a store and get $200-$800 worth of groceries for $0.85 or so. Sounds awesome right?!

But is it worth it? I think not. Absolute worst, most expensive week of groceries for my family of 7 is $200. These people say, on the show that they spend about 40 hours a week Couponing. What? That is a full time job. Some of them say they buy 20 papers, thats $40. I'm sure one of the ladies said she buys 200 papers. One goes dumpster diving with her children to get more inserts. Others have 4 computers so that they can print more coupons from online. And there is no way that every time they go to the store they get the same haul that they get on the show. Also I don't see a lot of fresh meat or fresh produce in those carts. I do see a lot of mustard, toothpaste and vitamin water. Pass. And $200 for 40 hours a week is $5.00 per hour. Get a job!!!

But there must be a balance. A way to make coupons work for you, and maximize your money. This is what you do....

Pick 5-10 things that you buy a lot, or spend the most money on, and minimize the cost, if possible. These things will be different for each person/ family. My items are:
Chicken, pasta, milk, laundry detergent, cheese, paper towels, coke, ground beef, butter, chips

Now I know that these items are not good for the health aspect of my life, but only one improvement at a time.

So the plan is to find the best possible prices on these items and to stock up when the price is at its lowest. Now unfortunately you will have to hit the pavement to find the lowest normal price at the stores you frequent. My common stores are Target, Meijer, Kroger and Sam's club. Yes I belong to a warehouse club. This is something you will have to decide for yourself, if the membership fee is worth it. For me it is because my dad pays for it. No question, free is great. But I also believe it would be worth it if I had to pay. The best values? Garbage bags, bacon, sponges, cocoa powder and vanilla extract. I refuse to buy any of these products any where else. Fresh meat is a pretty good value there as well, but usually a good sale at kroger beats their price. I don't want to get into the warehouse value at this time, I will revisit that later.

So back to the task at hand. Get a notebook, or a note app of some kind on your phone. Write down your list and hit the stores. You need to write down the price at each store. Not just the price, but the unit price. For laundry detergent, I use the price per the number of loads the bottle states. Unit price is the only real way to compare prices. We all know that if one papertowel roll costs $2.00 and a 4 pack is $4.00, the 4 pack is a better deal because each roll is $1.00.

Now paper towels can get confusing, because there are jumbo rolls and mega rolls. The package will usually say the regular roll equivalent. When noting the price you should consider the actual number and kind, 8 mega rolls, and the regular roll equivalent, 12 regular rolls.

So you write down the prices, and note the lowest, this will be the "compare price."  Anytime you notice the item on sale, make a note of the date, price and store.  You will keep track of the "compare Price" and the "lowest price."  I'm going to say, if you like or have time to go through the ads each week, make note if your items are on sale. If not, whenever you are at the store make a note if your items are on sale.

I am not a big purse kind of girl, so I don't plan on using a notebook. I want to use my iPhone. I am going to look for a good app to use.

So the coupons. For now, I will only clip coupons for my items any brand or store. I will also clip any coupon of items that I regularly buy. Not just any and every coupon like the extreme Couponers would have you do. How should you organize them, and keep track of what you have without wasting your time. I'm still working on that. I'll let you know when I find the best way to maximize coupons and minimize hassle and time. There must be a way.

I'm going to check my items today, and find a great way to track the prices. Stay tuned.

Update:
I have checked the prices at Sams. I try to keep things simple, so for me anything that is available at Sams, I use the SAMs price as my compare price. I will keep track of the Sam's price and the cheapest price I've seen. I have decided that I will keep track of the prices either in my MealBoard app, from the apple App Store, or in a tiny notebook, or a list.  I'm going to do all three, and see which one is the most convienent while shopping.