I was trying to find more examples of where someone had actually listed a breakdown of actual purchases vs. coupons over on HCW but I couldn’t find one. I’m sure that there is something like that on that site. I did find a thread where people were listing their total purchases, coupons and rebates, and out of pocket expenses for all of 2006. There were some pretty interesting numbers there. However, none gave an item by item breakdown of exactly what was purchased which is what you are looking for.
I do have issues with the way some people account for their ‘savings.’ If an item is $4.99 and then it is on sale for $3.49 and then someone uses a $1 store coupon and then a $1 manufacturer coupon for a final price of $1.49, people will say I ‘saved’ $3.50. I disagree with this type of accounting for me because I would never have paid $4.99 for the item in the first place.
Because you can’t get double coupons it may be difficult to ever get to the point of $30/week for food. I don’t benefit from the doubles either. Plus, it sounds like a lot of the food that you do eat isn’t the type of food that has coupons. I eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies and rice. We do eat meat but probably less than the average family. There just aren’t coupons for those items! At least not in my area. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t still try to find and use coupons whenever possible. Here’s an example. There was a brand of spaghetti sauce on sale for $1.28 (normally around $2.99). I used a $1.00 coupon on it. Next, the manufacturer was offering a deal to either get your money back or get a coupon for a free jar. I could have got the $1.28 back, but instead I chose to get the coupon for the free jar. So in the end, for $0.28 + tax, I received two jars of spag sauce.
You mentioned that you spend a lot on toiletries. Perhaps you may want to concentrate your efforts here. My DH is painfully loyal to certain brands/products. Because of this, I have to use coupons and stockpile whenever those particular items are on sale. Here is a recent example. The razors that he uses are normally $6.14. They almost never go on sale but for some reason Target had them on markdown for $4.99. This coincided with a $2.00 coupon insert! Yeah! I bought four additional newspapers that week at 50-cents each just so I could get those extra coupons. Granted, it cost me $2 in extra newspapers, but there was also a $3.00 coupon that week for the coffee that we drink so it was worth it for me to buy the extra papers.
If you are not brand loyal then you are at an advantage. Definitely start taking advantage of the drug store programs. I’m actually heading to both Walgreens and CVS today. You can get all sorts of things free by shopping at these places. Hot Coupon World is really good for help matching up the weekly sales and rebates with coupons at these places. You definitely need a price book though when deciding if something is worth it or not because the prices at the drug stores are high.
One other thing I have started doing is clipping ALL coupons. I used to only clip coupons for items that I used. Recently though, I have missed out on some freebies because I didn’t have the coupon. It may have been on something that I would not have normally purchased, but if it had been free there would have been no reason not to try it. Again, I found out about these deals over on HCW.
Find out if your stores accept Internet printables. Sign up for HCW and search the coupon database. Definitely clip coupons for New products. When a product is introduced there are usually several coupons for it and it usually is on sale during the rollout. Often new products can be purchased for free or very little money.
I have been tracking my coupon usage for 2007 and have posted the results in my blog. So far, January and February have both been just over $30 in coupons. I have not posted my rebates though. This is a matter of my confusion about the accounting of this ‘saving.’ For example, I had a rebate for $6.99 for shampoo. The shampoo was free after the rebate. I did get the shampoo free but I never would have paid $6.99 for that brand had it not been free. I don’t know how to account for this so I have been leaving it out of my numbers.
I find using coupons to be fun. I realize not everyone may agree. To get the most saving, it does take time but I enjoy it so for me, it is worth it. Even if you can’t get down to $30/week in groceries, you may still find that you are able to save. However, if you don’t enjoy doing it and you find it is not worth your time, then don’t do it. Everyone is different and everyone finds their own way to save.
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