Power Couponing and Eating For Free

Power Couponing and Eating For Free
 Angie Mohr CA CMA
www.numbers101.com

I was never the type to clip coupons. Being an accountant, I figured out how much time I would need to spend at it versus what I would save. It wasn't worth my time. However, I always hated to pay full retail price for food when there were coupons out there, so, over time, I developed a method of coupon clipping that saves our family enormous amounts of money and takes very little time. Here are 5 tips to get the most out of your coupon-saving efforts.

Power Coupon Tip #1: BOGO is your friend. This will give you the "biggest bang for the buck". It's one thing to get $1 off a box of cereal but if the cereal is on sale at "buy one get one" or BOGO, as it's called, you will get the best deal. This is frequently where I end up getting something for free (or better). In a recent shopping week, for example, Zatarain's Rice Blends were on BOGO. They were regularly $1.29 a box, so the BOGO price was 65 cents. I had 20 coupons for 50 cents off the purchase of two boxes. Our local stores double coupons so this equated to 50 cents off each box. That meant that I could purchase 20 boxes of Zatarain's for 15 cents each. Not a bad deal. There are occasions when the coupon is worth more than the sale price of the item and I make money by buying the product. I do this frequently with Hamburger Helper.

Power Coupon Tip #2: Plan your weekly shopping with a flyer. On Sundays, take some time to gather the grocery flyers together to plan your shopping trip. It helps to keep a price book so that you can compare the sale price in the flyer to what you've paid for the item in the past. Sometimes, flyer sales aren't great deals and, if you are forewarned, you can pass over these and get to the real deals. Once you have a list of the deals, compare your list to the coupons you have on hand making sure that the coupon is for the correct flavor or size. Keep all of the coupons you will use attached to the shopping list so that they are handy as you get to the checkout.

Power Coupon Tip #3: Pay someone to clip coupons for you. This tip, combined with tip #1, has given me the absolute best, most efficient returns on the time I invest in my coupon adventures. Clipping coupons myself is time-consuming and only lets me purchase one or two of the items on sale. Having someone do it for me allows me to purchase as many as I want. The only caveat here is that buying coupons is illegal. These clipping services charge you for their time to clip, sort and mail you the coupons, not for the actual coupons themselves.

Here's how I do it: I check the grocery flyers online as soon as their available. At our local Kroger store, the flyer doesn't come until Sunday but the online version is available first thing Saturday morning. Once I list all of the deals, I check our pantry or freezer supply of the item. If we're low on the item, I estimate how much we need to last us a certain length of time. If it's frozen goods, that period will be no more than 6 months, but for things like dishwashing liquid, I can buy a year's worth if it's a really good sale. Then, I will go to a coupon clipping site, like eBay or Coupon Clippers (www.couponclippers.com) and purchase the number I need.

With eBay, I only select coupon offers that have a "Buy it Now" label. I don't want to have to wait for an auction to end. The coupons usually cost less than 10% of the face value of the coupon, plus postage. So, for example, I could get a 50 cent coupon for 5 cents each. I never bother with coupons less than 50 cents unless it means that I will get that item for free. Usually, these coupons are put in the mail on Monday and I will receive them no later than Thursday. As grocery sales usually last until Saturday, I still have time to take advantage. This way I don't have to hold coupons for the chance to be able to use them before they expire.

Power Coupon Tip #4: Buy groceries for the pantry and freezer. When you start power couponing, expect strange looks from cashiers and other shoppers as you ring in 20 boxes of macaroni and cheese, 10 packages of toilet paper and 30 cans of peas. You are not shopping for the dinner table, you are shopping to fill the pantry and freezer with things purchased for the absolutely lowest price. This means that your cart will not look like anyone else's cart in the store (unless you are shopping at the same time I am!). You will feel vindicated when the cashier is finished ringing up your purchases and running the coupons and you owe less than ten dollars. Quite often, the cashiers who have rung my purchases in go back and review the receipt because they think they have rung something in wrong.

Power Coupon Tip #5: Take advantage of unused storage space in your house. Storing these great deals takes space and you will have to get creative about where to find it. Look at it this way, if someone offered to give you $100 per month to rent the space under your bed, you would take it, wouldn't you? You'll save at least that much if you're following these tips so find all those nooks and crannies under beds, in closets, under the stairs, and behind the drapes.



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Copyright 2011 Angie Mohr