Jaime's Couponing Strategies

Today's guest post is by a sweet friend of mine, Jaime. Along with being a wife, mother, and MOPS leader is is also an amazing frugal shopper. I have learned a lot from her tips and resources over the years, she is a wealth of useful information. Thank you Jaime for sharing your tips with us mamas!

Today's tip:

C O U P O N S  by Jaime Silvernail

I was able to get a great deal on my local newspaper....$14.95 for the year's worth of Fri, Sat, Sun & Mon papers. Because I didn't want to miss out on my Wednesday paper that I had been getting a free copy of (La Tribuna) and they didn't know if it would continue, they threw in the Wednesday paper as well. Now I really only wanted the Sunday & Wednesday papers for the coupons and the grocery ads, but I'll take the others. Then I noticed I wasn't getting all the coupons mentioned on my couponing matching website, so when the Denver Post called to offer me a special, I snagged it knowing that with duplicates of coupons I already use plus those I was missing, I'd easily save enough money to more than cover the cost of the paper.

NOW one of the most important rules of couponing is to only use coupons for what you would normally buy. Think about it, if you start trying all these new products just because you have a coupon you won't really save any money! Of course there are those times when a coupon can be matched with a sale on a new item and can only cost you something crazy like $.20~when that happens snag them up. Even if it's something you may not use (like dog food when you have only cats) you can donate it to a charity or pass it along to a friend who uses that brand. Your friends just might start giving you their circulars to help out since you already "coupon"! Another rule to go by, try to hold onto your coupon and match it with a sale unless you need it right away. I've found that most items go on sale within a week or two of a coupon coming out. It's like a competition to me! Clip the coupon, wait till just the right time to match it to a great sale, print off duplicates and then STOCK UP! I use www.Couponmom.com regularly because I love the ease of couponing with it. www.Couponmom.com tells you which circular to clip it from by date and name, then shows the coupon amount, sale price, and % saved ( my favorite part). I go down the online list according to state & store and look at the % saved first. If it is at least 60% savings on a product I already use, I buy it that week. If the savings is 80% or more on a product I might be interested in trying, leaving a sale price of $1 or less, I snag it up. THEN, I use the search spot to look for items on my list. Now I typically do my major shopping 2x a month right after payday, but the trick is to leave about $20 or so left in my budget in case next week's ad has a superb special. Now I live by some fabulous stores that double my coupons up to a savings of $1. So my $.40 cent off coupon becomes $.80 off! That has changed my shopping habits in the past year. I used to be a Wal-Mart only shopper except for my produce and meat. BUT they don't double coupons and my grocery stores do. SO, I now do much more shopping at the grocery stores. My savings increase because most of these grocery stores also give $.10/gallon off at their gas stations. I also save a bit more with my reusable bags (which I either got free or for $.50 each) because some stores like King Soopers, Sprouts & Target, give you $.5 credit per bag! Safeway now only gives that discount if you buy certain products. I now save those bags for other stores instead of using them at Safeway. Did I mention most of these reusable bags can hold 2 gallons of milk, slip easily over your shoulder to make carrying heavier bags easy, don't rip when you least expect it and hold way more than those cheap plastic bags that the stores hand out. My kids' school doesn't get as much of a rebate from Wal-Mart on my behalf anymore, but it's worth it to me. I also love being able to run them through the wash if the juices get on them.

SO you're thinking, "great, you have lots of time on your hands!" WRONG! I just plan ahead. I spend a couple hours every other week, at the most to clip coupons, make my list of needs and THEN check the websites/ads. I then make my few stops in one day...most of the time with all four of my kids! I plan my route, bring a cooler or two, my reusable bags, coupon folder, and snacks/water bottles and head out. Snacks, you ask? Well, you're not saving money if you end up buying hush food for the kids, more food you don't need because you are hungry or stopping at a drive thru for a meal because you've overlapped a meal time. Cooler? Well, unless you live in Alaska or it's winter, there's a chance you might need to keep those lovely cool foods in the "safe temp zone" while you hit another store. Now you definitely want to bring those ads for your Wal-Mart trip because they PRICE MATCH on everything that is on sale at your area stores with the exception of By One Get One (bogo) and % off items. Wal-Mart is my go to place for things like cleaning products, some paper goods, diapers and personal items. I do have a Sam's Club card and use that store for items that are cheaper in mass quantity that they would be if I bought the same amount at another store. How do you figure this out? Those little tags on the shelf below the item tell you not only the cost of the item, but they break it down by oz, piece or pound. Use this tip next time you shop to see if buying generic will save you $$ over the name brand. I also keep a list (and after a while it is memorized) of regular price on items we buy all the time so that I know if something on "sale" really is a bargain. Now I was a generic label shopper, but the cut back of some generics by a certain unnamed discount store and the fact that the quality has gone DOWNHILL with the changeover/remodel has caused me to rethink my purchases. That knowledge coupled with the fact that sometimes name brand items are cheaper with coupons/sales, my thinking has changed. The mass-quantity items I usually get at Sam's Club are toilet paper & paper towels (Member's Mark works great for our family), Ziploc Bags (especially freezer bags), 6 ct Romaine ($3.50), bags of apples when they are less than $5 for 5 pounds on Gala or Fuji, 100% juice boxes in 6oz size for my kids' school lunchbox, powdered milk (you'd be amazed how much you can save using reconstituted powdered milk for baking, cooking, etc), spices that I use often enough to get through the bottle within 6 months, frozen vegetables (5 lbs of green beans for $5, 4lbs of broccoli for $4) and peanut butter filled crackers for lunch boxes. Oh...my bulk meat purchases typically come from here too, if a sale price at a grocery store doesn't beat the price. I love going in on Mondays and getting the "reduced for quick sale" items that didn't sell over the weekend. I always reprocess the items into smaller quantities, trimmed and sometimes cubed, sometimes cooked before freezing them anyway. More on that another time when I tell you how to save on meals.

Okay...I've rambled on long enough and my kids are hungry, so here's my go to list.

My favorite websites to find coupons, match ads to online and circular coupons and find deals for things online, at restaurants, etc:

CouponMom.com
-matches coupons from newspaper and printable coupons from websites with store ads.
-refers you to sites to print off coupons
-forum, emails, ask questions

Coupons.com
-printable & electronic coupons…my personal favorite & most used website outside of couponmom.com

Couponsurfer.com
- similar to the above mentioned, even duplicating some coupons for those really good bargains!

Redplum.com
-get many of the same coupons you get in your Sunday paper, plus other benefits

Smartsource.com
-get many of the same coupons you get in your Sunday paper, plus other benefits!

Shortcuts.com
–electronic coupons automatically deducted at checkout when swiping your store discount card

Coolsavings.com
-duplicates of some of the other printable coupons

PGbrandsavers.com
- coupons on brands like cascade, luvs, tide, crest, gilette, covergirl, charmin, etc
limited time offer: Get over $35 in coupons in the Home Made Simple “Organize in Style” Coupon Book by mail to save on household products from Procter & Gamble.


Tips for money saving:
DaveRamsey.com (even has sample budgets)
MommySavers.com
Stretcher.com The Dollar Stretcher… Living Better for Less
BetterBudgeting.com

Happy couponing :)