Coupon Crazy

So a lot of folks have asked how I plan my shopping trips and whether or not I use The Grocery Game. I'm not a fan of paying for info I can get for free since I'm a super cheapo. So here's how I roll.

1) Check Hot Coupon World for a look at the upcoming coupons. If they look good, I'll tell Dave to pick up a paper or two or three.

2) If I miss the paper because we forgot to hit up or couldn't get out to the store, I hit up various online coupon printing sites. Sometimes I visit The Coupon Master and order what I need. On this site, you order coupons in multiples of three for eight or so cents a piece. Even if I spend, say, six or seven dollars on a stack of coupons, I easily save that on my shopping trips.

3) I scour the ads for my favorite stores online and match my coupons to sales. I also use sites like Money Saving Mom, Hip2 Save, and For The Mommas to plan my shopping lists now that I don't have as much free time to devote to deal scenarios.

4) I create two week menu plans consisting of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks based on the Insulin Resistance Diet or The Mediterranean diet built around the weekly sales on meat and produce. On very rare occasions, I'll pay full price for a specific cut of meat if Dave and I really want something specific. Dave brown bags his meals at work.*

Once I have my grocery list together, I take a look at our pantry and toiletry stockpiles. I then see what CVS, Walgreens or Kroger are offering on sale. When it comes to pantry or toiletry stockpiles, I have a few rules.

1) Never pay full price. Hell, most times I won't buy something unless I'm getting it for fifty cents or less. Yes, I buy toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, tooth brushes, and shaving cream for fifty cents or less--often for free. I'll spend up to three or so dollars on toilet paper, razors, deodorant and lotions. Most of the time, I get things for a buck fifty or less. And, no, this is not off brand or generic stuff.

2) I only buy convenience foods if they're free or almost free. For instance, my pantry is stocked with boxes of Kraft Mac n Cheese, Betty Crocker yummies of all varieties, Bisquick, Fruit Rollups, Campbells Soups, French's Mustard, Pace Picante, Knorr's Noodles (Alfredo and such) and other similar foods that I was able to stock up on with coupons and sales for free or a couple of dimes. No, really. How?

Say Kroger has French's Spicy or Honey Mustards on sale for 2/3. I have two fifty cent off of one coupons. My Kroger doubles coupons up to fifty cents. I just bought 2 full-size French's Mustards for a buck or fifty cents each. Woohoo!

3) CVS ECBs rock! Extra Care Bucks are the awesomeness. Seriously. So the other day I bought nearly $70 worth of toiletries, juice, light bulbs and more for $37 after coupons. On top of my thirty plus dollars of savings, I earned $14 worth of ECBs. I will combine those ECBs with sales in the upcoming weeks to create more ECBs and to buy Gillette razors or cartridges or Old Spice stuff Dave likes for nothing out of pocket.

No, really. Once you make that initial investment at CVS, you can roll over those ECBs when you buy products you need that also earn ECBs. Last year, I did this once and used, like, $20 worth of ECBs to fund my stockpiling for six or seven months. Only when the kiddo came and I got out of my couponing habits for a few months did I use up those ECBs without replacing them.

I'll be honest. This kind of committed couponing and home cooking takes some effort. In our case, though, we don't have much of a choice. Before Nyx, Dave and I were frugal because we chose to be. We liked paying off all of our debt and saving money. And thank God we did! If we hadn't saved three or so grand on top of paying for all the baby stuff, obstetrician fees and such, we would have been screwed when Nyx ended up in the NICU and then TCH because Dave wasn't working for a month.

But because we live like no one else (thank you, Dave Ramsey!) we were able to be at our baby's side night and day instead of worrying about how the hell we were going to pay the mortgage (we always keep one and half extra mortgage payments in the bank on top of our savings,) buy food or gas. We were able to eat out of our pantry in December to free up enough cash to pay off a shit load of the kiddo's bills. My royalties helped too. Not that much because contrary to what you might hear, authors don't earn a living wage. I'm not joking. Some kid sewing clothes in an Indonesian sweatshop makes more than me per hour.

But I digress.

Once you get started and figure out how to work your local sales to your advantage, it becomes a game of sorts. I guarantee you'll get a nifty little high every time you snag something for free or almost free! Give it a try for a month. You might get hooked!

In the coming week, I'm going to revamp this blog and include links and posts for great money saving deals. Stay tuned!


*We got out of this habit for a few weeks because of the kiddo's arrival and the craziness that followed but we've returned to our old ways now.