I started to look into it in Kansas but it looked very complicated. How do you organize that many pieces of paper with such a diversity of information on them? How do you scour stores for sales like they say you should? What if you never find a sale for the coupon you've clipped before it expires? What on earth is doubling, how do you know where to double, and how often are coupons doubled? I've even read about people hauling in tons of loot from playing CVS. It looks like a hobby as well as a necessity in these troubled times. One days says that she already saved over $700 this year and the year ain't over yet.
What what does it get you? CVS lady has tons of deodorant and toothpaste in whatever brand happened to work with her game, in addition to other items of a drug store nature. Other coupon deals involve junk food and other name brand items that I just don't often buy. Aldi usually covers my itch for a good deal especially when I compare those prices with mainstream grocery stores out here. You never realize how awesome the Commissary is until you stop by Giant just for one little thing and flee in a panic at $5 cereal or $2 bananas.
As you all know, I've signed up with this menu planning place called E-mealz. One of the money saving tips they have is to go to a website that sells coupons (just google "buy coupons") so you don't have to go to the expense of buying newspapers. In my coupon readings I found one tip that said you should buy 2 Sunday newspapers per person in your family. Is it worth buying coupons rather than buying Sunday newspapers? Let's take a look.
My local newspaper is the Baltimore Sun. There is no option to receive only the Sunday paper, so I'd have to subscribe to Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun at $1.50 a week. I don't really read the newspaper as all the comics and newsfeeds I want already hit my Google Reader. I would literally be buying this for the coupons and to maybe mulch my garden (if I had a garden). 2 papers per person in my family of 6 would amount to $18 per week.
I just got an order from TheCouponClippers.com . I browsed their coupon selections and picked precisely that which I wished to purchase, carefully selected for the best deals I could find on items that aren't typically available at my go-to cheap zones and for name brands I prefer. Examples include Bandaid brand products (Neosporin which we go through in quantity, Cortaid, and the bandaids themselves), and Ziploc brand for the bags. Also, you've heard it before but I'll say it again, it isn't a deal if you never would have bought it in the first place! I went through this big "I cook from SCRATCH!!" phase where I scoffed at coupons because they were never for the basic items I bought like flour and milk. But life is so busy now that I have no delusions about food preparation. There are frozen pizzas and make ahead meals and on Saturday I make pancakes for breakfast which ends up being the most time consuming meal I make all week.
So, between my carefully selected coupons, shipping and admin fees, I spent $7. I will use each one of these lovely little coupons. Total savings if I use these coupons amounts to $53.75 including the deduction for the coupon purchase.
(full disclosure: the only time I buy Nutella is when I find a great coupon which I use on the smallest jar because I have no restraint around that stuff. So I got one Nutella coupon, which doesn't technically qualify as something I'd normally buy.)
Bonus: I didn't have to go through 18 newspapers to get the coupons I wanted, only a very tiny tree was sacrificed for my small stack of coupons, I don't have to deal with recycling a stack of newspapers, and I can buy whenever I want in whatever quantity I choose. I can see myself doing this once every month or two, which is a far cry cheaper than $18 per week or $81 per month, or even 6.75 per month for one subscription which may or may not have one coupon I want.
I really enjoy adding another smooth move to my money saving efforts. If I find myself buying a frozen pizza, I may as well knock a dollar off that bad boy, eh?
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2 comments:
There are websites that have all the instructions on how to make the most of the CVS program, and the one Walgreens has as well. But it is too much stress for me, I can't handle it for some reason. I have too much stress in my life already, so here is one I avoid. There are some who find couponing a fun thing...good for them. In the mean time, I am doing the best I can and not beating myself up about not couponing. The end.
No worries. :) I'm just happy to find a way to actually save some money instead of buying newspapers. The only things you can really save money on are prepared foods or junk foods anyway, so you end up with a closet stuffed with Lipton sidedishes and mashed potato flakes and ketchup and salad dressing.
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