July 2009 Weddings
LauraR326
member
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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.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Do we have any Couponers?
lol is that even a word, "couponer"? Anyway, I'm interested in couponing. Maybe not extreme like the show, but I'm sure we could save a few bucks here or there. I'm looking up different things on google but I was wanting to know if anyone on here has coupon experience. I use the occasional coupon but am looking on advice to do it a little more. Can anyone help?? Thanks in advance! 
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Re: Do we have any Couponers?
I do! I just clip from the newspaper mostly. I will also go to the websites of the products I use and sign up for their emails. Most of the time they will send you coupons through email. Also, my grocery store will double coupons up to $1 (so if I had a $0.50 coupon for something my store would add $0.50 off too).
Couponing can be bad though. When I first started I would buy something that I normally wouldn't just because I had a coupon for it. You don't end up saving money that way. Now I don't cut out coupons for things that I wouldn't buy anyways.
Do you have any specific questions?
Yep. I regularly save about 30-50% off of our grocery bill.
We get the paper, I print off of online, and I plan before I go to the store.
Every week I shop at Target (you can stack coupons, 1 mfr and 1 target) and Whole Foods (they also stack). We do buy all organic produce and all natural/organic meats, so we don't tend to get coupons for those. We do buy what is on sale and freeze what we don't use.
I stock up on things I know we will use-paper goods and personal products-even when we have a lot of the items already-I think Sean has 9 bottles of shampoo, but I paid a grand total of about $0.30 each, and each bottle is about $6 retail.
What specifically are you looking to figure out?
Also, since we don't buy most processed foods, I cut those coupons and trade them on Swap Spot on here for organic/all natural coupons or IP's since most sites limit you to 2 IP coupons per ip address.
We get the newspaper on Sunday to get all the coupons and I keep an eye on a few coupon blogs. If you go to google blog search and type in the store you search "storename deals" you can find blogs that do all the matching up for you.
I generally pick up anything that's free, even if its not something we use. If we don't use it, it gets donated.
Kate's Recipe Box || Relatively Bookish
I second stocking up on household/personal products. I think Rusty has 15-20 deodorants right now. They are originally $4.50. They go on sale usually once a month buy one get one free. Gillette puts out buy one get one free coupons too and then when you add the $1.00 off coupons I actually make money on them. I do the same for shaving cream.
Also, most stores will accept coupons up to 2 weeks past the expiration date. You will have to call the store to find out what their policy is.
*Waves hand* Me!
I literally cut our grocery bill in half with coupons. I was spending 200-250 a month. I'm not even at 100 this month. That includes meat, dairy, and fresh produce purchases.
The #1 best way to use coupons is to match store sales and store coupons with manufacturer coupons. In other words, don't go use a manufacturer's coupon just to save a $1 on a product that sells for $3.00. Wait until it can be matched with XYZ store selling the product for $1.50 on a Buy One Get One sale... making your purchase $.50.
Your best starting point for collecting coupons is your local news paper. If possible, get the coupon inserts from your family & friends who don't use coupons (or at least not most of their coupons). I get my dad's and my grandparent's coupons each week, so I generally have at least 2 of the same coupon. The next coupon finding place is the internet. The blogs I list below will all occasionally post printable coupons. All major stores will take these. The third place to find coupons is Facebook. Keep your eye peeled for special offers and such on companies walls. Finally, there are Catalina coupons. These are the coupons that print out at the register. Watch for these and ask for them if the cashier doesn't hand them over.
I would caution you to start small. Pick 1 or 2 stores to coupon at for a couple weeks. Get used to seeing the coupons and matching them with sales. I started with Walgreen's and Target. Build gradually, and let yourself get used to the process. Add Rite Aid or CVS... then after you understand how the matchups and such work, you can add your grocery stores.
The way I got started was reading blogs. The absolute BEST for this is www.hip2save.com She promotes unextreme couponing and what I would call "ethical" couponing. Each week (normally on Saturdays) she will post the weekly ads with coupon matchups for Walgreens, CVS, and RiteAid. Around Monday she'll put up some Target deals. About every other week she does Walmart. She also explains how each store allows coupon usage (there's a tab at the top of her web page that says Stores). I HIGHLY recommend reading those, watching the attached videos, and printing out the coupon policies. (HUGE TIP: if you know a store's coupon policy, you can score better deals and be waaaaaay less nervous about saving 50% or more off the cost of you purchases).
A second great source is www.southernsaver.com. This is a (obviously) regional site where Hip2Save is national. This is the blog I use to get a loose idea of my grocery store discounts and such. I will say that all of her matchup and prices she lists are not 100% correct, but after you are accustomed to the whole process, you'll be able to use her info as a starting point for your own match ups.
Finally, don't think that this takes a long time to do each week. With the blogs that I've noted and others you may come across (Wild for Wags, and Totally Target are on my short list as well), you will basically spend 1-2 hours a week clipping, organizing, and writing your lists out. They really do most of the work for their readers.
EDIT: Sorry that got way long... hope the info isn't too overwhelming. I just get so excited about all the money I've saved (never mind the free products!) and I love sharing the info with people so they can do the same. Plus, once you kinda build a small stockpile, it's very rewarding to donate extra stuff to organizations and also to give it to family members!
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