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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Coupon Clipping-Economy
With the talk about the economy earlier I was wondering if anyone does this? Does it really work for you?
I tried and all of the coupons I cut in the end I realized were wants instead of necessities. For instance the better smelling laundry detergent and after the coupon it is the same price for the one I normally by. Yes I get better smelling laundry detergent, but it does not help me cut back. Does anyone else look at it this way? or do you have the secret to the inside world of coupon cutting? Please share.
Re: Coupon Clipping-Economy
I subscribe to the coupons.com emails. However, I find that even with the coupons the name brads are still more expensive. I end up buying the 'off' brand and tossing the coupon. But, when there is a sale on a name brand product and I have a coupon then it is a steal.
My 2 biggest money savers when shopping:
1. figuring out the price per unit and buying accordingly
2. asking myself as I reach for something on the shelf, can I go without (This resulted in my putting Mother's Circus Animals back on the shelf, but it saved my wallet and my waist.)
Most of the items I buy at the store are located around the perimeter (produce, meats, dairy) and I've yet to see a coupon for carrots and bok choy. lol ?Most of the coupons are for foods I don't eat, and I've found that when there is a coupon for something, the generic version is often cheaper. ?
I typically use them for health/beauty items, but then again, I'll buy a bottle of Dove Soap at Costco and save money that way.
Basically, I've decided that it's just not worth for me to clip coupons. ?I throw more expired coupons away than use them. ??
So now I just use the coupons for restaurants that come in the mail.
For me I try to shop around.
For example, I use all laundry detergent. ?I usually get the 32 load bottle $4. ?Target was always cheaper, but now they only carry the 64 load bottle which is $8.99. ?I skipped on purchasing it so I could shop around, when I was in the market I stopped in the detergent aisle, which I usually skip and found the 64 load bottle on sale for $5.99. ?I was very happy.
I bounce between Target, Walmart, and Ralph's.
Sometimes the coupons work for me but other times they don't. ?What I am looking forward to is my $16 in ralph's rewards that I am getting next month. ?Over here there is a monthly magazine that always has a $5 off coupon for Ralph's in it. ?
I use Ralph's a lot because it also counts against our scrip amount for Jacob's school. We need to spend $3000 over the school year.
My last shopping trip to Ralph's was $160. ?It was mostly food for Jacob for 2 weeks. ?I used to be able to do it for about $70. ?I hate this economy.
What generics does everyone buy?
I like stater bros generics. They have a cereal kind of like special K with the strawberries for 1.99 and the special k can stretch you almost 4.00
Another tip is Fresh and Easy has good sales when the product has been on the shelves for a few days, the fresh product. We got a seasoned pack of chicken thighs with 12 thighs in it for $5.00 and another pack had 6 turkey burgers and 6 turkey links for $5.00 as well. It has to be the stuff on special though, because their prices can be steep.
I haven't yet tried Fresh & Easy. There isn't one very close to me. I too try to shop around and bounce back and forth from Target, Ralph's and Smart & Final. I also have Von's and Albertson's by me, but don't actually compare them too closely to Ralph's. I figure grocery chains are all the same, right. Am I wrong?
Maybe I just need to pay closer attention to the weekly circulars. I always used to immediately toss those away.
We have an Albertson's, Vons, and Ralphs all close to our house. I've actually found Albertson's to be the best bet. (I tired all of them when we moved in and compared prices.) I like all their generic items and the way they cycle their sales I can keep our grocery bill down. For example, every few weeks boneless, skinless chicken will be $1.79lb, so I will buy enough to freeze and last until the next sale. This week Yoplait yogurt is on sale $10 for 20. That will last us until the next Yoplait sale.
I have a once a month Dollar Tree/WalMart trip. I make my list and go into Dollar Tree first to get what I can. Then I do WalMart (they are in the same center). If I couldn't find something at either, there is a Target on the way home. This saves me loads every month.
I found that I end up buying things that I don't need when I try to use coupons. I have kind of given up on them....not working for me.
Matt is such a health food freak that most of the stuff doesn't apply to us anyways. Nothing with high fructose corn syrup and whole wheat instead of white and stuff like that.
Places I have found good deals on things I always buy:
Bread (whole wheat) at costco. It is huge, but we freeze half and eat it at a later date
Pasta Sauce at Trader Joes
Ground beef (extra, extra lean 4% or less) Super Walmart
Eggs at Costco or Trader Joes
Water at Costco
Formula at Costco
I find that the coupons are usually for things I don't necessarily need, too, or that there is always a different brand that is less expensive even without the coupon.
My new thing is planning 2 weeks' of meals in advance, and shopping for those things I need. Having dinners planned cuts back on getting takeout (we had gotten really lazy about making dinner!) and I find I can manage my time around the baby better, too, if I know what I'm going to make.
I make a list of everything I need, check my cabinets to see if I need to stock up on things like canned tomatos or something and hit up three stores, usually: the 99 cents store, Vons and TJ/Fresh and Easy. I can usually get more than half the list at the 99 cents store: canned broth, tomatoes, pastas, tea, baking mix, etc.. and though the produce can sometimes be sketchy, it's great for picking up red and yellow bell peppers, which can be $3+/lb at the market. This week I also found half/half and heavy cream, which again saved $3+ each.
Then I pick up whatever else I need at Vons, then TJs or Fresh and Easy. (I like to get seafood at TJs and Fresh and Easy, I think the selection is better.) In the last two weeks I spent $200 on groceries, $60 of it at the 99 cents only store, but that comprised well over half my list! It's amazing that the rest was spent of fresh meats and specialty items.
I shop at Pavilions because it's probably like 100 feet away from my house, local farmer's markets, and Trader Joes. ?
Trader Joes is my favorite place for shopping (in terms of prices and quality). ?But lately I've been so busy, I haven't been cooking much. ?Lame.?
JULNMATT-I thought my DH was the only one who over purchases bread and freezes it. When he first did this I thought he was crazy and the bread was going to come out mushy and moist..lol
I ditto the 99 cent store I lover their baby bananas I don't have kids, but they would be good for them. They have peppers, cucumbers, lil melons and watermelon. We normally don't hit up the 99 cent store before we go to the grocery store, but we should. I found Langer's pomegrante juice there the other day and was excited! Pomegrante Martini's here i come was my first thought!
The only times I've used coupons is on the RARE occasion I find one for something I actually use. The other day Target gave me print out coupons for papertowels and Tide. Otherwise, it's always for a bunch of stuff that I never use. I shop off brand on most things. I've found that I need to hit 3 stores to get everything I need at a decent price. Thankfully, they're all pretty close by. One week I'll hit Costco (meat, bread, some veggies), Target (toiletries, cereal, juice) and Stater Bros (for whatever else I couldn't find). Next week, it will be Trader Joe's (dairy, easy to make), Sprouts (for produce) and sometimes the little Mexican market (produce, bolillos). I'm really in love with Sprouts at the moment. I got 3 huge pumpkins for $10, Pineapples 2 for $4 this week, lettuce for under a buck. Their produce is DIRT cheap and if you hit them on Wed. they have double ad days. Not to mention the staff is always really helpful. The butcher made me some chicken chorizo the other day when they were out on the shelf.
I hate that groceries are so goddamn expensive, a head of lettuce that will spoil in 2 days for over a buck!? Come on! It makes it really difficult to stick to a budget and eat relatively healthy. Too bad I can't just go back to the days of living off cereal and top ramen.
Thanks for also reminding me about the 99-cent store. My girls love the little bananas. I can find those but only sometimes at the Asian market. Gawd - you think they'd have them more consistantly.
DH seems to think it's just easier to get things all at once while on our Ralph's trip. I'll have to try and convince him to think a bit differently. Convenience over price is just too steep sometimes.
Yup, use them all the time. I play The Grocery Game weekly. If you haven't heard of it the way it works is you cut coupons weekly for ANY product you would use (and yes, I clip coupons for brands I don't normally buy). Then you log on and it combines coupons with weekly sales. I've gotten toothpaste, pasta, deoderant all for FREE (yes, FREE); cheerios for $0.50/box. You may hold coupons for awhile but what you end up doing is purchasing things when they are on sale and not necessarily when you need them. The idea is that when you do need it you aren't paying full price and that you will generally have a well stocked pantry.
I know people who save tons of money weekly doing this ... we save some, not tons, but enough to make it worthwile for us. I don't buy a lot of things at the grocery store that coupons are often used for (paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates, a lot of processed foods, etc) but I always clip them for beauty products, toiletries, canned goods (i.e. the canned tomatoes I use for pasta), dry pasta, tea, etc and have gotten some very good deals. My husband says frequently "are you seriously getting another thing of deoderant??" and my answer is always "yes! Why not, it's FREE and I won't have to buy it at full price when I do need it."
I've also found that on some things the coupon thing is better than Costco or Smart & Final (it all depends though on the item and cost per unit). We also watch the weekly sale ads from our stores (which we never used to do) and often times get great coupons that way or know when there's a good sale (like Ralph's had a buy one get one free sale on certain cuts of meat last week). We try and stock up when things are on sale so we have them when we need them.
Oh and we watch the ads (and Grocery Game) for both Vons and Stater Brothers ... we do the ads for Ralphs (not GG) as well so we may go to 2 different stores on our weekly shopping trip (fortunately they are close to each other).
We also do weekly meal planning. We try and use what's in our freezer first and buy the fresh things to complete the meals. If there's a good sale we'll buy more to freeze.
If anyone is interested in the grocery game email me and I'll send you an invite (I get credit for anyone I refer) ... kaligirl9 at cox dot net.
I cut coupons. Yeah, I end up throwing a lot of them away. I pretty much try to only cut things that I'm already buying. I especially look for diaper & pull up coupons and then watch for when they go on sale at the stores...
I wish I could do a better job with coupons but I'm not good at looking at the grocery store circulars and remember what things cost to know if I'm getting a deal.
I do keep all my cut coupons, store discount coupons, etc in a bag in my car because it never fails that I'm at a store and forget my coupon.