A few weeks ago, on Facebook, a friend posted a picture of a shopping trip where she had saved a bunch of money (about $80-$90) with coupons. I was excited for her and to check out the loot. I was also hopeful for tips and such.
I clicked on the picture with anticipation, and promptly sighed. Pictured were pads that I don't use (frequently, that could be another post) because I use a Diva Cup; shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel that I don't buy because the don't work for us and/or contain a bunch of stuff I avoid; dish detergent that I don't buy because of ingredients and it looks like the anti-bacterial stuff (again, could be another post); antiperspirant (we use deodorant only); and a few things that we might be able to use: allergy medicine and band aids. I was very happy for her, but the picture helped to crystallize something about coupons, sales and shopping for me.
A while back, I posted about a successful shopping trip I made with coupons. But since that trip, every time I've looked in the paper or the ads that are mailed to us, I get a vague sense of disappointment. There are very few, if any, coupons for products that I buy. Or even the types of products I buy. The majority of coupons I see have been for harsh cleaning agents, pre-packaged food (which we do rely on at times, but it is something we are trying to move away from, not run towards), and not-really-good-for-you food.
There are websites out there where you can look for coupons for products that you actually want, instead of simply scanning to see what was sent to you. These can be great. We did this for the successful coupon trip mentioned above. What was frustrating about that, though, was the fact that many of the coupons printed one to a page, in color ink, wasting paper and ink. (with fewer stores taking printed coupons due to counterfeiting coupons, color ink seems to be the way to go)
Plus, try as I might, I'm not that organized. Coupons were beginning to become more of a hindrance to me than a help.
I know that the idea of coupons is a good one. I know that they can be used to reduce shopping budgets, help stock a pantry and also create a cache of healthy food. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places or spending enough time searching...
All this leads me to think that couponing just isn't for me, and that a lot of the commercials and sales aren't geared towards me or my shopping habits. "They" probably love the fact that I'm still erratic, and shop without a list at times. But, what "they" don't love is how obsessive I am about reading labels, and putting back things that in the past I've loved because of the ingredient list. Yes, I know that yogurt is on a ridiculous sale of 10 for $4, but it has HFCS and aspartame (nothing against aspartame, I just don't like the way it tastes) and this one is more expensive, but the ingredients are milk, cultures, honey and one or two other things I can read and pronounce.
Ok, so this has gotten a bit more negative than I had intended. Basically, this is me giving up on coupons. I'll still look through the ads to see if there is anything useful for me, but don't plan on spending copious amounts of time combing the known universe for them and then cataloging them all. When I see someone in the grocery line with coupons, I'll think "good for them" and move on. I think we do a pretty good job just shopping the store, if I do say so myself.
What are your feelings on coupons? Are they the greatest thing since sliced bread? Or an evil trap to get you to buy something you don't need? Or something in the middle?
Showing posts with label coupons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coupons. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Adventures in Couponing!
On a recent grocery shopping trip, my husband and I tried to stick to our list and use coupons whenever possible. (The list was the general, "what do we need/use" list. I haven't quite graduated to full-week menu planning yet.)
This took a bit more planning than usual for our trip. Originally, we were thinking about going grocery shopping on Saturday, since we wouldn't have been to work in the morning. But, he suggested we wait till Sunday, and see what coupons we could use from the paper that day. This meant that we would have to go get a paper on Sunday morning.
So, between laundry, coupon-clipping, and actually enjoying time together, shopping got put off. We are lucky in that we are not about to starve by delaying a shopping trip by a day or two.
We opted to go to the Kroger near us, and set off! Even though we've lived here for close to a year now, between going to different stores and admittedly less than organized shopping trips before, I am still learning the layout of this Kroger, which did lead to some backtracking and scrambling to look for coupons. After doing this a couple of times, I stood off to the side of a main aisle, mouth open and squinting at the directional signs, putting the relevant coupons in order as best I could, saving produce/frozen/dairy for the end. (Yeah, I know this goes against the "shop the perimeter of the store for whole food/cheaper foods" method, but it is what it is).
Having the coupons in this order did make the rest of the trip go more smoothly. A coupon wallet or organizer of some kind would be very helpful in keeping track of the coupons by brand, product type, expiration date, or whatever organizational method you find convenient. I just had an envelope full of the things. I do know that within the last year or so, my mom gave me a coupon wallet, but I can't find it. I blame moving.
We moved through the store slowly, and all told, ended up spending an hour and a half in the store. That doesn't really bother me, but that amount of time in a grocery store is not my husband's idea of time-well-spent. Hopefully, as we get into the swing of this couponing thing (if it should stick), we'll get more efficient, too!
This shopping trip was a fairly routine weekly type of trip, with other things, like soap, medicine and TP, thrown in. In fact, this trip would probably suffice for 1.5-2 weeks, all things considered.
Even if we had a coupon for something, we didn't just blindly grab that item. We still shopped the store. Were we sticklers for that brand? What are the stipulations for that coupon (did we have to buy 2 to get the savings)? Did the coupon make the unit price lower than the store brand or another brand? All of this resulted in more than a few coupons being relegated to my back pocket, possibly to be used at a later date.
In total, we saved about 30% of our total bill (according to the handy little calculations at the bottom of our receipt). It was not all straight coupons. We used our Kroger Plus Card, which yielded by far the bulk of our savings - about three quarters of that 30% was thanks to the store club card. Kroger also doubles manufacturer's coupons, up to $1. So, any coupon that we had an used, that was less than $0.50, got doubled. This is, honestly, something that I forgot to take into consideration as we were shopping.
A few things that were on the list didn't make it into the cart, b/c they were more general, "it'd be nice to have X on hand" and not necessary items.
All in all, I think that it was a successful shopping trip, and a successful foray into the world of couponing. We both have a better idea of what is actually involved, and how we can work to make the coupons work for us.
I see coupons in our future!
This took a bit more planning than usual for our trip. Originally, we were thinking about going grocery shopping on Saturday, since we wouldn't have been to work in the morning. But, he suggested we wait till Sunday, and see what coupons we could use from the paper that day. This meant that we would have to go get a paper on Sunday morning.
So, between laundry, coupon-clipping, and actually enjoying time together, shopping got put off. We are lucky in that we are not about to starve by delaying a shopping trip by a day or two.
We opted to go to the Kroger near us, and set off! Even though we've lived here for close to a year now, between going to different stores and admittedly less than organized shopping trips before, I am still learning the layout of this Kroger, which did lead to some backtracking and scrambling to look for coupons. After doing this a couple of times, I stood off to the side of a main aisle, mouth open and squinting at the directional signs, putting the relevant coupons in order as best I could, saving produce/frozen/dairy for the end. (Yeah, I know this goes against the "shop the perimeter of the store for whole food/cheaper foods" method, but it is what it is).
Having the coupons in this order did make the rest of the trip go more smoothly. A coupon wallet or organizer of some kind would be very helpful in keeping track of the coupons by brand, product type, expiration date, or whatever organizational method you find convenient. I just had an envelope full of the things. I do know that within the last year or so, my mom gave me a coupon wallet, but I can't find it. I blame moving.
We moved through the store slowly, and all told, ended up spending an hour and a half in the store. That doesn't really bother me, but that amount of time in a grocery store is not my husband's idea of time-well-spent. Hopefully, as we get into the swing of this couponing thing (if it should stick), we'll get more efficient, too!
This shopping trip was a fairly routine weekly type of trip, with other things, like soap, medicine and TP, thrown in. In fact, this trip would probably suffice for 1.5-2 weeks, all things considered.
Even if we had a coupon for something, we didn't just blindly grab that item. We still shopped the store. Were we sticklers for that brand? What are the stipulations for that coupon (did we have to buy 2 to get the savings)? Did the coupon make the unit price lower than the store brand or another brand? All of this resulted in more than a few coupons being relegated to my back pocket, possibly to be used at a later date.
In total, we saved about 30% of our total bill (according to the handy little calculations at the bottom of our receipt). It was not all straight coupons. We used our Kroger Plus Card, which yielded by far the bulk of our savings - about three quarters of that 30% was thanks to the store club card. Kroger also doubles manufacturer's coupons, up to $1. So, any coupon that we had an used, that was less than $0.50, got doubled. This is, honestly, something that I forgot to take into consideration as we were shopping.
A few things that were on the list didn't make it into the cart, b/c they were more general, "it'd be nice to have X on hand" and not necessary items.
All in all, I think that it was a successful shopping trip, and a successful foray into the world of couponing. We both have a better idea of what is actually involved, and how we can work to make the coupons work for us.
I see coupons in our future!
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