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This is an expired excel spreadsheet I use when shopping. Each Sunday I just run through and input the data and remove the expired coupons. I would say at least 50% of the Q's in the Sunday paper will go on sale before they expire. The tricky part is keeping Q's and storing them in a manner that you can easily retrieve them.
You have to really to comparison shopping too. HT had Bigelow tea on sale 2 for $5. I went to Target the next day and I still could have bought 2 boxes of tea for less than $5 at Target's regular price.
I've shopped with triple coupons once and Harris teeter actually gave me ~ $10 after it was said and done. They weren't suppose to, but they did anyways. I probably got around $60 worth of groceries for -$10. Its possible if you plan it out and stick to your plan. Bring a calculator too!
Yeah not suppose to pay you but you can always get other items. I would have used that $10 to buy milk and meat or eggs or bread or something that doesn't go on sale as much. This also happens on double Q's but it's a little harder to achieve.
If you stockpile correctly and shop correctly your bills drop tremendously and you end up with more stuff than you can ever use. I donate what I don't use if friends or family don't need food. I def. recommend a calculator unless you can do math accurately in your head.
I ask because I tried using coupons, but it's just myself and my husband and we don't eat so many of the things there are coupons for. General Mills cereal -- I prefer Kashi. Dough for cookies, bread, etc. - we just don't eat that. I see Success rice a lot, but I prefer to buy brown rice or Jasmine rice in bulk. Lots of jarred sauces, salsa and queso, etc.
Coupons always seem to be for prepared/highly processed food (i.e. Hamburger Helper, or Bisquick), which we don't tend to eat in our household. I imagine that for a family these foods are lifesavers, but not so much for us.
I would use coupons for dressings, mayonnaise, canned/frozen vegetables, high fiber bread (but not that Hawaiian bread I always see a coupon for), chicken, Diet Coke and the like, but I never see enough of those types of coupons to get into the couponing habit. I have really only checked out the Charlotte newspaper and online coupons. Is there a better place to find them?
Oh, and cleaning supply coupons. I love those, but I rarely find them either.
The main thing I buy are items that end up free or pay me. I use those items to fill in items that don't go on sale usually. Kashi goes on sale. Soaps, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant...name a toiletry it goes on sale at some point and time. CVS is also good for sale items but it's a little more difficult to follow but just as worth it.
Keep in mind the list I put up most items are expired on that one although the spreadsheet is already made for you if you want to input new Q's.
The main thing in using coupons is removing as many items from your shopping list as possible right? The way I shop is just different from the norm. I know the items I'm going to pickup and after I get those and pull the Q's out I figure how much it will be and if I'm in the neg I find something like the meat sale that just went away with HT where NY strips where 4.99 lb. Two steaks and 20 other items for not much more than the required tax to purchase them. $2, $3, $4....
I ask because I tried using coupons, but it's just myself and my husband and we don't eat so many of the things there are coupons for. General Mills cereal -- I prefer Kashi. Dough for cookies, bread, etc. - we just don't eat that. I see Success rice a lot, but I prefer to buy brown rice or Jasmine rice in bulk. Lots of jarred sauces, salsa and queso, etc.
Coupons always seem to be for prepared/highly processed food, which we don't tend to eat in our household. I imagine that for a family these foods are lifesavers, but not so much for us.
I would use coupons for dressings, mayonnaise, canned/frozen vegetables, high fiber bread (but not that Hawaiian bread I always see a coupon for), chicken, Diet Coke and the like, but I never see enough of those types of coupons to get into the couponing habit. I have really only checked out the Charlotte newspaper and online coupons. Is there a better place to find them?
Oh, and cleaning supply coupons. I love those, but I rarely find them either.
Go through that database. At the pull down menu at the top if you use the slide bar make sure you go to the very top of the pull down and you can sort them in ascending or descending. Alphabetical order or numerical. You'll see cleaning supplies, frozen foods like birds eye, dressings, mayo but cokes don't go on coupon sale much they do go on sale though through the stores.
You may have to find another brand but for instance this week at CVS. $9.99 deodorant clinical strength right guard was on sale for $7.99 and CVS would print out $7.99 CVS bucks basically making it free with the exception of only buying 5 per household.
I would sit down and write out a wish list of items you always get when shopping then go through that list. See if it would be worth it for you. If you only see 4 or 5 items on that whole list you would use then it's probably not. I adjusted my life a bit to start using other brands of items as opposed to the ones I was so used to. But I have easily removed 30+ items off of my wish list for a year or so. I don't use much stuff though so I donate to different places and help friends around me out with stuff. It turns into a game.
BigJon thank you for the step by step instructions on how to use the spreadsheet. I can't d/l it from where I am right now, so I don't know how to use it yet. I will check it tonight. Your idea of sitting down and writing out a wish list of items I always get is also an excellent one. I am only brand loyal on one or 2 items (peanut butter is all I can think of right now) so I will try that.
Now if I can just figure out how to use CVS bucks. I hear they're quite the deal but I have never understood them. Couponing is like rocket science to me, I just don't know where to begin.
In stands throughout the store they have the little fliers.
One will have only items that are on sale with CVS bucks. You browse through them and let's say you found some deodorant. It says you earn $x.xx CVS bucks and it will also say "it's like getting the item for $x.xx" They also take mfg coupons so in some instances let's say the item is $5.99 and pays you $5.99 in CVS bucks but you also have a $1.00 coupon for that item. Now they basically turned that coupon for $1 into 1 free $1 that you can only spend at CVS.
The trick is once you put the initial money up front for the CVS bucks you can continue to buy items that pay more CVS bucks with the CVS bucks you earned from the initial purpose. The catch is CVS bucks can only be spent in CVS....which does not bother me because they have all kinds of stuff if you ever have a bunch of CVS bucks built up you can always find something from milk to school supplies.
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