A few of you are trying out The Grocery Game and have asked me for input. I personally have not tried The Grocery Game, mainly because with a bit more effort, you can find almost anything online without having to pay for it.
It can be a little overwhelming at first, but hang in there and you'll get the hang of it. Or, just try out The Grocery Game. I'm sure you'll more than break even if you do.
For national ads (CVS, Walgreens, Target, Walmart), I like to follow coupon blogs. Some of my favorites are Money Saving Mom and Mommy Snacks.
For Randalls ads, I like Coupon Mom. You want to check out "Grocery Deals By State."
HEB is not very coupon friendly. A lot of their sale items are on sale with the yellow coupons found in the store. These coupons are almost always manufacturer coupons. You can't use 2 manufacturer coupons on 1 item, so this means you can use any of your newspaper coupons (and the whole point is to combine sales with coupons to get really great deals). Also, HEB is very regionalized, so some people in Houston might have a certain deal, but we won't have it here. But HEB has good prices in general, so I do most of my shopping there and then just get the best deals at the other stores.
A good website with all deal information you could possibly want for any store out there is Hot Coupon World. It's a discussion forum, but there is a discussion for pretty much every store and online deals as well. HEB and Randalls are both on there under the grocery section.
So hopefully that will help teach you all to fish a little bit, especially right now while I'm in the newborn stage.
Showing posts with label Intro to Coupons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intro to Coupons. Show all posts
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Coupons - What You Need To Know
Some of my deals will include coupons and if you've never dealt with them before, you might want to read my introduction below.
I currently have a Sunday news subscription to the Austin American Statesman, purely to get the coupons each week. I pull out each insert, write the date on the front in large, black marker and file it away. When I find a deal, I look for the coupon and cut it out.
Some people clip every coupon right away, organize them, and carry them all to the grocery store. That's more work, but then you never miss a deal because you left a coupon at home.
There can be up to 3 inserts in each newspaper. They each have their own brand name: SmartSource (SS), Procter and Gamble (P&G), and Red Plum (RP). When I refer to a coupon, I'll identify it like this:
$1/1 Cheerios - SS 7/22
...which means the coupon is $1 off 1 box of Cheerios and came out in the July 22 Smart Source insert.
You can also find most coupons on eBay. Of course you have to make sure you can get the coupons fast enough to use them for the sale. There are a lot of printable coupons available and you can almost make do just using these. I haven't found a local store that won't accept them yet.
Coupons may or may not be worth it to you. We don't eat a lot of processed foods and at least half of coupons are for these foods. But there are a lot of coupons for cleaning products and toiletries. It helps if you are open-minded about the brands you use.
Don't forget Randall's doubles coupons up to 50 cents and triples coupons worth up to 39 cents. Although, if you have 5 of the same coupon, they only double or triple the first one.
Also, try not to fall into the trap of spending money just to save some money!
I currently have a Sunday news subscription to the Austin American Statesman, purely to get the coupons each week. I pull out each insert, write the date on the front in large, black marker and file it away. When I find a deal, I look for the coupon and cut it out.
Some people clip every coupon right away, organize them, and carry them all to the grocery store. That's more work, but then you never miss a deal because you left a coupon at home.
There can be up to 3 inserts in each newspaper. They each have their own brand name: SmartSource (SS), Procter and Gamble (P&G), and Red Plum (RP). When I refer to a coupon, I'll identify it like this:
$1/1 Cheerios - SS 7/22
...which means the coupon is $1 off 1 box of Cheerios and came out in the July 22 Smart Source insert.
You can also find most coupons on eBay. Of course you have to make sure you can get the coupons fast enough to use them for the sale. There are a lot of printable coupons available and you can almost make do just using these. I haven't found a local store that won't accept them yet.
Coupons may or may not be worth it to you. We don't eat a lot of processed foods and at least half of coupons are for these foods. But there are a lot of coupons for cleaning products and toiletries. It helps if you are open-minded about the brands you use.
Don't forget Randall's doubles coupons up to 50 cents and triples coupons worth up to 39 cents. Although, if you have 5 of the same coupon, they only double or triple the first one.
Also, try not to fall into the trap of spending money just to save some money!
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