I was very rarely a coupon shopper until now. My theory was always that the store generic is cheaper than an item you would use a coupon on. Well, I was WRONG! In some cases this is true, but if you watch the sales you can get a lot of items for less than the store generic and sometimes even free. I have a whole cabinet of toothpaste and toothbrushes that I have gotten for free or for less than .50 cents. I have also been paid by Kroger and Meijer to buy yoplait yogurt - these were on sale and I had a coupon.
If I did coupon shop, I used the coupon that came in the sale flyer right away. The problem with this was that the item that I bought was not at its cheapest price.
Through my online research and articles I have read online, grocery stores will put items on sale but it won't always be their cheapest sale price. An item will be the cheapest between 6-8 weeks from the last time it was on sale. The theory is that you buy the item when it is the cheapest and then apply the coupon to the item and get it for even CHEAPER!!!
I will help you with this. I have been exploring this process and I am trying to find the simplest and least time consuming way to save money.
Some of you may think that you don't have time to do this... You might not but you also need to think about how much your time is worth. I have been saving almost 50-70 dollars a week for about an hour or two a week of time invested organizing and researching this system. If you did this for a month you would save almost 200 - 280 a month. It is like you got a part time job for only 4-8 hours of work. I feel like the money I am saving is helping offset the cost of filling up my truck.
My goal is to save you the time and find the simplest and shortest method to this process. I am sure that we could spend hours and days looking for deals, but I do value my time with my family and I also have a job. I am hoping after I figure out how all of this works, I can fine tune this process to take about 30-45 minutes a week of coupon planning and still save the same amount or more... Each week I am getting faster and finding better deals. I will share my mistakes and what I learn as I venture into this world of couponing and saving money....
If you want to join me on this journey you have a homework assignment...
Homework:
Next time you go grocery shopping buy a 3 ring binder. Preferably one that zips (I wish mine did) and 20 or so sheet protectors. I will share the organization system with you at another post. I learned this system through my research online!
Get ready to start saving money!!
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