How Do I Coupon ?Save Money While Buying Healthy for You, Your Family, and the Planet!

Well it looks like for the first week of our new grocery budget our total is: $47.00! $3.00 under budget! I was able to stick to our meal plan and also able to get a few extras including pizza, dip, and chips. I ended up going to 5 stores total and the time spent was under 3 hours. Not too bad. I am hopeful next week will be just as good. I will make another menu (which I loathe) and look to see what can be used up around here to create healthy meals. I hope we do not get too bored with the meals but it will be worth it when we can throw the extra at our debt.

I have been doing a lot of organizing with coupons and our food storage. We completely reorganized the garage and it looks great. It is easier to see what we have in stock. I purchased some shelving from Lowe’s and my food storage is much more functional than before.I plan on adding bins and labels later but that will have to wait until we have some extra cash.

The biggest reorganization I have done is my coupons. If you use coupons you know what a pain in the a$$ they can be! I have vacillated between using a big filing system and only taking out coupons I need to clipping every single coupon and putting them in a small coupon holder. In all honesty, neither system seems to work very well! I am either at the store seeing an item on sale super cheap and not having the right coupon with me because it is stuck in my filing cab at home or I have so many in such a small space that I miss one or get so frustrated I say F it!!

So, I decided to use a coupon binder system instead. I will put together a tutorial of sorts so I can show how I organize my coupons, ad inserts, etc. I really like this system! I hope it helps with grocery shopping in the sense I will have all of my coupons with me and available should I see a great deal. I will post that soon!

Overall for this week I am optimistic with our new budget plan and organization!

One of the three major keys to saving money at the grocery store is coupons. The more coupons you have, the more you save. If you have multiple coupons of the same one you can really make a difference in your spending and stock. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, Downy softener was on sale for $2.99. If you had the $3/1 coupon you would get it for free. Now think about if you had multiples of that same coupon…you could stock up on fabric softener for free!

So, how do you get multiples of the same coupon? There are a few ways to do this. Obvious and first one is to get the Sunday paper which has coupons most Sundays of the year. Some couponers subscribe and get several duplicate papers delivered every Sunday. In Tucson, there are a couple of options to choose from. You can get the local paper and/or you can get the Phoenix paper delivered as well. The bonus to getting the Phoenix paper is that there are often more coupons available and at a higher value. One positive to living in a big city, huh? Often I am irritated because a coupon is advertised through various sites and after pilfering my ads I find I do not have it because I do not get the Phoenix paper. I digress . Anyways, getting the multiples of the Sunday paper is a great way to get more coupons whether it is the local paper or the one from a bigger city nearby.

**TIP: Here in Tucson on the NW side you can go to the Dollar Tree and get the Sunday paper for $1.00! I know some fellow couponers who do this especially when there are high value or popular coupons in that week’s paper. How cool is that?! You can stock up there if you want and  pay only $1.00 per paper (as opposed to $1.50). Check out the Dollar Tree near you to see if they offer this as I am not sure if every store does.

Another tip is to always check your local library and your local community paper. We get a community paper delivered every week called the Northwest Explorer and there are coupon inserts in it. How great is that?! I don’t have to pay for them and it is basically money in my pocket. Check to see if yours does too. Also, check your local library. The same paper is delivered to the library and you could pick up a couple copies there gratis!

Here are a couple of printable coupon sites. You can generally print two of each coupon and then you have to wait until it resets:

Coupons.com

RedPlum

Make sure to sign up for grocery cards. Not only will you get the sales the stores offer, there are two great sites that you use your grocery card number and you load coupons onto them to use:

Shortcuts.com

Cellfire.com

The sites above are great. They are easy to sign up to and once you register your card you can load savings with a click of your mouse . I hate clipping coupons so this is a nice bonus – Love it!

I am running on little sleep so I will try and post more as I remember. I will get the best deals up for the week soon too!

So this blog is new and I have not had a chance to explain coupons as well as I need to for the average person and newbie to drastically slashing your grocery budget. So, today I will post deals for one grocery store here in Arizona and explain as I go!

You will want to save your coupons from the Sunday paper. The best system is to NOT clip every coupon. Rather, as you get the inserts take a look on the side of the insert. It will give you the coupon source and the date. For example, Red Plum 11/01/09. Write this on the front of the insert. It will be easier for you to find what you need this way as opposed to constantly clipping coupons (which is time consuming and annoying!). Below in my list you will see the coupon you need for the item that is on sale. Along with the type of coupon you need will be an abbreviation and a date. This abbreviation will tell you which insert and which date to pull. For example, RP 11/15 (this means Red Plum 11/15). Make sense?

Get used to using printable coupons. Some stores do not accept these so make sure to check the stores’ policies and abide by them. The online printable coupons will save you so much money! Keep in mind that most online legitimate coupons will only let you print twice before they reset again. Do not be a tool and photocopy the coupon to get more. That is cheating and stealing. Just sayin’.

Today I went to Bashas’ and spent $11.32 for $48.82 worth of groceries! The key is to buy items that you need, that are on sale, and that you have a coupon for. That trifecta will earn you saved money and great deals on groceries. Stock up on items when they are cheap or free so even if you do not need them now you will have them later. There have been many times where I have bought an item and paid full price on impulse or at the last moment because I did not have a food supply in place.

Below is the list of free or super cheap at Bashas’ this week with sale items and coupons. These are the deals of the week for Bashas’:

Skippy Peanut Butter 15 – 16.3 oz.  $1.58 – Use Skippy Peanut Butter Products, any 15 oz. or larger .50/1 (exp. 1-10-10) RP 11/15. Final Price: .58 cents each!

Challenge Butter 16 oz. $1.99, Limit 4 – Challenge Dairy Product, any, .55/1 (exp. 09-30-2010) from HERE . Make sure to print it twice! Final Price: .99 cents each!

Milk Bashas’ 1 Gallon $1.58

Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta 12-14.5 oz., .88- Use Ronzoni Smart Taste, any two (2) boxes, $1/2 (12-31-2009) GroupA . Make sure to print it twice! Also go HERE, register and get 2 more printable coupons! Final Price: .38 cents each!!

Crystal Farms Cheese Chunks or Shreds, 8 oz. – $1.99- Use Crystal Farms Cheese chunks or shreds 8 oz $1/1 (12-27-09) The coupon is in the monthly ad for Bashas’. You can find the ad when you walk in the store right next to or below the weekly ads. Since it is a 1 per coupon and 1 per visit limit, snag extra copies of the monthly ad so you can take advantage of this great offer more than once. Final Price : .99 cents each!

Shamrock Farms Milk or Shamrockers, 12 oz., $1.00 – Use Shamrock Farms Products any .50/2 @ Group C . Make sure to print it twice! Also use Shamrock Farms Products any .50/2 (1-13-10) RP-11/15. Final Price: .50 cents each!

Idahoan Potatoes 4 to 4.1 oz, $1.00 each- Use Idahoan product, any 4 oz or larger, .40/1 (12-8-2009) GroupB-11/8 Make sure to print it twice! Final Price: FREE!!!

So, today I bought 3 Skippy, 6 Ronzoni Pastas, 3 Challenge Butters, 4 containers of Shamrock chocolate milk, and cooking oil (not on sale ::sigh::) for $11.32! Easily a $37 dollar savings! Just by using coupons, catching sales, and only buying what I will use can save me a ton!

I will post more deals for other stores as I go.