Is it worth it?

Lately I have been hearing a lot of comments about couponing and other means of frugal shopping being a waste of time or that people just don't think they have the time to do it. It made me wonder how much time I really spend on couponing, ad matching, and meal planning and if it is worth it when I compare it to the money I save. I figured the only way to know would be to keep track so that is just what I have done for the past two weeks.

LOG:
Monday 8/8:
  *20 minutes cutting 4 MDA coupon booklets from Safeway
  *10 minutes planning a Walgreens run (matching sales ads to coupons)
  *10 minutes cutting 2 Smart Source inserts
Tuesday 8/9:
  *Walgreens: Spent $3.76, Saved $13.55, got back $4 in Register Rewards
Wednesday 8/10:
  *16 minutes cutting 2 Red Plum inserts and 1 Smart Source insert
  *10 minutes planning Walgreens run
  *25 minutes planning Albertsons run
  *13 minutes planning Safeway run
  *15 minutes meal planning for 7 days
  *5 minutes adding store coupons to my card through Just4U
Thursday 8/11:
  *Walgreens: Spent $10.11, Saved $25.24

  *Safeway: Spent $166.70, Saved $92.21

  *Albertsons: Spent $38.87, Saved $41.12, Got back $10 towards next trip
Sunday 8/14:
  *10 minutes cutting coupons from the Smart Source and Red Plum inserts
  *20 minutes planning Safeway and Albertsons run
Monday 8/15:
   *Safeway: Spent $12.12, Saved $12.02
   *Albertsons: Spent $1.02, Saved $17.52
Wednesday 8/17:
  *15 minutes planning a Safeway and Albertsons run
  *Safeway: Spent $14.30, Saved $19.00

  *Albertsons: Spent $7.73, Saved $9.72

TOTAL
-169 minutes or 2.82 hours spent cutting and putting away coupons, ad matching and meal planning
-$231.08 saved
  **That comes out to $81.94/hour when you compare hours spent to money saved**

As you can see I don't sit down for 3 hours at a time cutting coupons and planning shopping trips. It is broken up over several days usually for 10 or 20 minutes at a time while my youngest is napping or the kids are in bed. I would think a majority of people would be able to commit to 10 minutes a day. Especially if that 10 minutes is worth something like $13.66...that's more than you make in an hour at a minimum wage job!

For those of you thinking, how do I do that or how do I even get started let me share what I do. The very first thing you need to do is start collecting coupons. I recommend getting a subscription to your local newspaper. It usually comes out cheaper then buying a paper each week and it is delivered right to your door. I like to get the Wednesday paper for all of the grocery store ads and the Sunday paper for the coupon inserts and other store ads. There are also lots of places on the internet to get coupons, whether it be from company's themselves or from sites that allow you to download coupons right onto your store card. I recommend following a coupon blog that will give you constant updates on printable coupons and other great deals (I follow several on my Facebook page so they are all in one place).

Now that you have these coupons you need to find a way to organize them so you can maximize their use. There are dozens of ways people organize their coupons. If you are just starting out a simple accordion wallet size holder will do just fine. As time goes on you may find yourself upgrading to a binder or a shoe box or some other system that works for you. Play with it, there is no right way to keep your coupons. I organize mine by categories like canned goods, dairy, toiletries (this can get big so you probably want to break that down even further) and so on. As I sit down and cut out coupons each week I immediately tuck them all away in the proper place which saves me time in the long run. It is going to take you at least a month to get a stock of coupons going that will make a dent in your savings so don't get discouraged the first week when there isn't much you can use. The key is to store them up and use them when a good sale hits.

This brings me to ad matching. When I say that I just mean that I sit down and scan ads for sales and match them with coupons I already have. My 3 main shopping stores are Walgreens, Albertsons and Safeway. Mostly because that is what is closest to me. What I am looking for first are items that I can stock up on for cheap or free and items that I need for snacks and meals. The best way to stretch my coupon is to pair it with a sale. So if I see that canned veggies are marked down to $.59 a can and I have a $1/4 coupon for the same veggies I take advantage of that deal and end up paying $1.36 for 4 cans. I also look for deals that will give me money for my next shopping through Catalinas (the coupons that print out at the check stand).

I then take the list of groceries I have compiled so far and start to plan meals based on those items and what I already have on hand. I usually plan a weeks worth of meals at a time and write them on a menu planner like this:

If you want to see how I made this, click on the picture

I then add to my list any additional items needed to complete my meals or any staples like cat food, milk, diapers, etc that weren't already on the list.

We also try to stretch our dollar when it comes to produce and meat. In the summer months we are hitting the Farmer's Market to get locally grown in season produce at a great price. This not only saves us money on the produce itself but we count it as part of our weekly entertainment and family time. There are always fun people to meet, interesting stuff to look at and new things to try and our kids have a blast. In the other months we use Bountiful Baskets for our fresh low-priced produce.We don't typically buy our meat at the grocery store because we go in a cow with my in-laws and buy our chicken 40lbs at a time through Zaycon Foods. I occasionally buy ground turkey when it is buy 1 get 1 or on sale and we do buy most of our pork products at the grocery store, again usually when there are sales and coupons to match.

There you have it. That is the gist of how I use couponing, ad matching, and meal planning to stretch our dollar. Yes it does take some time and thought to execute it all. And some weeks are more fruitful then others. But for our family it is totally worth it. I am blessed to have the ability to stay home with my kids and tend to our home and so I take that job seriously. Part of my job is stretching the money my husband makes as much as possible and I have found the best way to do that is through saving on groceries. I would love to answer any further questions you have and have you weigh in on whether or not it is worth it in your house so feel free to leave comments with your questions or opinions.

My Safeway Run 5/25/11

Before I break down today's Safeway run I wanted to start by sharing a little about my grocery budget. I mentioned at the end of my last post (here) that I had already spent $126.94 and saved $155.11 since 5/20/11. You may be wondering how I have any grocery money left to spend. We actually sit down and do our budget every two weeks when my husband gets paid so we break our spending into two week periods. Right now our grocery budget is $300 for two weeks. That may seem high considering the fact that I coupon. But that covers all of our groceries, toiletries, cat supplies (we have 2) and kid stuff (1 in diapers and weaning off formula, two in night time Pull-Ups). And it also gives us wiggle room to go to Starbucks and eat out once or twice. This is actually the first month I have gave up on one big shopping trip every two weeks with small stops for necessities along the way. I finally made the jump to more frequent, smaller trips to maximize my ability to match-up sales and coupons. I am hoping to take advantage of that strategy for a few weeks/months to build up my stockpile and then live off of that for another few weeks/months while siphoning a majority of the grocery budget into paying off debt.

Hope I didn't lose you in all of that...just thought I would share for those of you who are interested. I know that all this coupon/match-up stuff can be overwhelming and confusing when you are first starting out so I want to share what I know and what I continue to learn along the way to make it easier for you. So here we go - my Safeway run for today:

- There are a few non-deal items that I had to get. Bananas to tide the little one over until we get more with our Bountiful Basket on Saturday. 2 tubs of icing (I did have a $.75/2 coupon), a pkg of large and mini cupcake wrappers, hamburger patties (2 10 count pkgs at $5.99 each) and hamburger buns (3 Safeway brand at $1.19 each) for Isaiah's birthday BBQ this weekend.These are INCLUDED in my total so I wanted to account for them.
- My BIG score was the Viva 6 count paper towels. Remember how I had to get a raincheck for these after going to Safeway twice to find the shelves empty? They finally had them in stock so I got them for the previously advertised price of $4.99 each. I also had 2 $1/1 coupons making them $3.99 each. For buying 2 I got a Catalina good for $4 towards my next trip making the total for 2=$3.99. They are normally $8.99 each so that was a great deal!
- The John Frieda hair dye was FREE with a coupon I had scored (I think a promotion they were having on Facebook). That is normally $13.99:)
- Pepsi 2 Liters are on sale for today only for $.69 a piece, limit of 2 so I got 2=$1.38
- Johnsonville Brats and Italian Sausage are on sale for $3.99 and I had a $1/1 coupon making 1=$2.99.
- Oscar Mayer hot dogs with in ad coupon are $.99 each (limit 5). I only had 1 $1/2 coupon left since I bought some at Walgreens over the weekend so I got 5 pkgs=$3.95
- Safeway hot dog buns with in ad coupon are $.78 so I got 3=$2.34
- Vlasic pickles are B1G1 at $2.99 each. I had 2 $1/2 coupons so I got 4 jars=$3.98
- Bush's baked beans are 3/$5 (wish I had a coupon!). I bought 3=$5
- Heinz ketchup with in ad coupon is $1.69 plus a $.25 coupon got me 1=$1.44
- Wishbone dressing with in ad coupon $1.19 (limit 3) plus a coupon for $1.25/3 got me 3=$2.32


Total=$51.60 and I saved $72.56 which is 60%. Plus I got a $4 coupon towards my next trip!

Putting those food stockpiles to use

Do you guys ever see these seasoned couponers getting dozens of the same product at a time for nearly nothing and think "That's cool, but what do you do with all of that?" I used to wonder the same thing so I thought I would fill you in on what I do with my little 'ol stockpile.

Let me start off by saying that I strongly support ethical couponing. I think practices like stealing inserts, copying coupons, clearing the shelves, taking more of something than you could ever possibly use just because you can are all wrong and in some of those cases illegal. What I am talking about here is building up a supply of stuff that your family can live off of for awhile. The reason I coupon is so that I can save money on the groceries we buy so that money can go towards paying off our debt and giving to others.

Now that we have that out of the way let's get back to how to use up those food stockpiles. What I look for when stocking up on cheap/free food is something that I already use and that can be used in various ways. Let's take Albertsons deal on pasta right now. Ronzoni is on sale for $1.00 and there are tons of $1.00 coupons floating around out there so there is the potential to really stock up. Since we LOVE pasta and can eat it multiple times a week, this is something I will take advantage of. I have also recently stocked up on Ragu (Amazon Subscribe and Save groceries) so that pairs up well. Of course my family would get tired of plain old spaghetti and sauce if that was all I served so I make it a point to not just build my food pile but also my recipe box. Luckily pasta is so versatile that I can do something as simple as take last nights leftover meat and veggies (we get ours cheap through Bountiful Baskets and Farmer's Markets are great this time of year) and have all new dishes.

Enough about pasta, there are other great ways to use your food stockpiles. Right now with memorial day around the corner there are great deals on pop (yes, we say pop!), chips, hot dogs and other seasonal goodies. Since we also have a birthday party this week (which means family BBQ) and are also planning to attend several potluck BBQs in upcoming week, I know that I can stock up on these kinds of foods and they will be put to good use. I will not only be feeding my family but also my friends and at a very low cost to us.

To wrap this up I guess there are two things that you should remember when stockpiling food. First - Just like building your coupon stash takes awhile, the same applies to building your food stash. At first you may just have jars of pasta sauce and nothing to put it on...that's okay, wait it out and you are bound to find some pasta on sale too. When I first started couponing I still spent a lot of my grocery budget on non-coupon items. I NEEDED stuff to fill in the gaps whether I had a coupon and a sale or not. But just recently, as my stockpile has grown, I am able to spend most of my budget on stock up items and much less on filler items. So stay the course, you too will get there! Second - Buy for you. By that I mean, look at the size of your family, your dietary needs, your lifestyle and buy according to that. Don't worry that Susie down the street is coming home with 26 bags of Doritoes for $3.00...if you don't want your kids eating Doritoes, it doesn't matter how cheap you an get them! If you are a retired couple you are going to go through a lot less food than a family of 5 so your stockpile should look a lot different then mine.

If you find yourself going overboard on an item (happens to the best of us from time to time!), especially something that expires fairly quickly, don't let it go to waste. I am sure you have neighbors who would love to be surprised with a basket of food for that nights dinner. And of course the food banks are always in need of extra food. There is a point when stockpiling becomes hoarding (which is why I think those shows are back to back on TLC:) so make sure you don't find yourself in that place! I would love to see us all get to a point where we are giving just as much as we are keeping for ourselves.Wouldn't that be cool?

I would love to hear how you use your food stockpiles so feel free to share. I also am in a place where we don't have much storage space for extra food so if you have ideas on how you have made the most of your little space, I would be excited to hear them.

If you found this post useful, I will be writing a similar one on how to use your non-food stockpile so stay tuned for that.

My first Walgreens run

I did it...I took the next step in my couponing journey. I have moved on from just hitting the two grocery stores in my neighborhood and am planning specific trips based on the deals I can get. Today I did my first Walgreens run and am happy with what I came out with. I am sure I could have done better but as I advised all of you in my last post, I did what I could where I am at right now and that is good enough for me!

Originally I had one small transaction planned but after some help from this post at The Krazy Coupon Lady and some time spent with my Walgreens ad this morning, I decided to be brave and plan out two transactions. Why two? The second one took advantage of all the register rewards I earned in the first transaction!

So let me break it all down for you:
Transaction #1 -

- 1 Gillette Body Wash and 2 Old Spice Body Wash on sale 3/$10. I had a B1G1 coupon for the Old Spice and a $2.00 off coupon on the Gillette making the total for all 3 = $4.67 (plus it printed a $3 Register Rewards)
- 1 Dove Men+Care Deodorant on sale $3.99. I had a $1.00 off coupon making it = $2.99 (this also printed $3 Register Rewards)
- Gillete ProGlide Fusion Razor on sale for $9.89 (at my store the sticker price still said $10.99 but it rang up on sale so watch for that at your store). I had a $4.00 off coupon making it = $5.89 (this printed  $5 Register Rewards)

Total = $15.63. I saved $15.90 AND got back $11 in Register Rewards*
*For those of you new to Walgreens Register Rewards are earned through special deals. They print out like manufacturers coupons to be used on a future purchase. If you go here you can read more on this and how they can be used. I will say that even after reading the policy, I had to try it first to understand. I thought they printed in single $1 coupons and that I had to have one item per coupon. While you do have to have one item per coupon, they print out in the amount they say they will. So in my first transaction I got two $3.00 coupons and one $5.00. I could have planned my second transaction differently had I known this before but hey, live and learn, right?

Okay, hopefully I haven't totally confused you with the Register Rewards talk. Let's move on to the next transaction:
Transaction #2 -

 - All Detergent and Snuggle Fabric Softener were B1G1 Free. The detergent cost $6.99 and I had a $1.00 off coupon. The fabric softener was $4.59 and I had a $0.75 off coupon for that. The fabric softener ended up being free (but the coupon for it is still applied) so the total for the two was = $5.24.
- The tuna was $0.99 each with a Walgreens coupon (from the ad) so I paid = $2.97
- Mars and Dove candies are on sale for $.039 so I got 3 for = $1.17
- Royal Gelatin was 5/$1.00 with a Walgreens coupon (from the ad) so I paid = $1.00.

This is where all those Register Rewards came in handy. Now I was trying to use filler items to attach to the Register Rewards thinking I was going to have 11 separate coupons to attach them to, this wasn't the case so some of the stuff was unnecessary. It was still a good deal nonetheless:
Total=$3.33. I saved $24.43 on this transaction (WOOHOO! I think this is my biggest savings to date:)

At the end of it all I spent $18.96 and saved $40.33 and got all of this:

 I am happy with that!

All the cool kids are doing it

I remember a time not all that long ago when couponing was kind of taboo. Those who toted their handful of coupons or gasp, coupon holders, to the store were looked at as if they were poor or in need. The thought was if you were well off why would you bother with coupons.

Boy has that thought changed! Sure, there are people out there that still have a negative view but couponing definitely has a new look and a new set of followers. Of course shows like Extreme Couponing have added to the phenomenon but even before that this practice of saving money was gaining recognition.

I remember a few years back when my mom gave me a little wallet-size accordion style coupon holder and I wondered if I would ever use such a thing. Now my coupon stash has outgrown that little holder and resides in a binder or box. I have fallen in love with couponing because it gives me a way to contribute financially without having to earn money. I am able to control the grocery part of our budget which gives us room to spend money in other areas. Not only that but I get a complete high from scoring great deals! It is fun to even see my husband get on board...he loves when I send him to the store on a coupon run because he always gets a positive reaction (and then he brags about me and my hard work:). 

For those of you who are just getting started in couponing or who have yet to jump on the bandwagon, let me address a few of your possible concerns:

1. I can't do what they do - It is intimidating when you sit down and watch Extreme Couponing or read some of the match ups that professional bloggers are able to come up with. The truth is...you could do that too. You could. But it takes time to learn it all. Remember to keep it in perspective and be proud of what you are able to do. It will get easier over time and before you know it you will be bragging to your friends.

2. I don't have that kind of time - It is true that couponing takes some time, especially in the beginning. You have to build a coupon stash, find your preferred method of organizing said coupons, browse through ads, match up sales with coupons. This will get faster and faster over time as you become more proficient. And you can make it whatever you want it to be. You don't have to run to 7 different stores 3 separate times in a week. The beauty of couponing is that it isn't all or nothing, everyone can play at their own level and adjust it to their lifestyle. (I recently logged the time I spent on couponing compared to what I saved and the results are pretty amazing! Check it out here: http://chrystal-lewis.blogspot.com/2011/08/is-it-worth-it.html)

3. I will never be able to learn all of this - No, not in one day. But the beauty of couponing in this day and age is that information is accessible to anyone who wants it. One option is a coupon class. I think this is a good idea for someone who doesn't have the time to learn it all on their own (or for the person who just doesn't want to spend the time). There are free classes out there as well as people who will put on paid classes in your home. Now if you have a little time and the will to learn you can also gather all of this information by yourself. My favorite way to not only obtain coupons but also to learn more about couponing is through blogs. There are SO MANY out there these days that focus solely on saving money. Some of my favorites are The Krazy Coupon Lady and Coupon Pro. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of others out there as well (for a list of the ones I follow check out my blog's Facebook page). Not only can you get these updated daily through your email or Facebook but this also cuts out most of the guess work and leg work. These are great places to access stores coupon policies and most of these ladies do all the matching up for you so it cuts down your time spent searching through ads.

I would love to hear your thoughts on couponing. Do you do it and to what extreme? What are your favorite ways to get coupons and learn how to save money?