annieology

I have not yet reached the pinnacle of couponing, the $100 worth of items for less than $1.00. That takes a kind of commitment that I don’t have at this time. I being a brand snob loyalist and all. But here’s how we do it around here.

Determine what you buy.
This may seem like a duh, but being conscious about what you consume on a regular basis will help. Around here, we have things we cannot live without Coke things we consume weekly, monthly and things we’d like, but don’t often bother with.

Determine what it costs.
Again, really? Yes, find out where you can get it the cheapest. This is the most you should ever pay for it. You may find that where you shop something sells for $2.00 but across town in sells for $1.75. I’m not suggesting you make a special trip for one item, saving yourself a whopping quarter. But if you are there for something else, pick up a few.

Lists
I have a list of things, in my brain, of what we buy and what a normal price is. I then check the weekly sales against the imaginary list in my head. If it’s not on sale, I get what I need for the week. If it is on sale I stock up depending on the goodness of the sale. If it ever drops below 50% I get as much as I can afford to buy. Buying stuff on sale is like making money.

Coupons
I check the Sunday paper for coupons. If there is a particularly cool one, I make it my mission to find as many as I can. I go to Hot Coupon World and see what deals I can find there. There are people out there who have 50 copies of Sunday inserts. Instead of dealing with all of the clutter myself, I let them do it for me. They are all willing to share their knowledge. If you want many coupons, that’s the place to go. They have a database where you can make a wish list of coupons you would like and who has them.

Patience.
Don’t immediately use a coupon. You get a better deal if you use a coupon combined with a sale. If you can also get a rebate or other store incentive along with it, you get a GREAT deal.

I know you are not yet impressed. Bear with me. It doesn’t work until you put it all together. Here is my favorite recent real life example.

We go through about one jar of Pace Picante Sauce a week. We like the breakfast tacos, and quesadilla’s and there are about 1,000 of us. So, every week, I would pick up a jar. Over the years I have learned that it goes on sale around the Superbowl. Makes sense. Also, scouring the paper for the coupons each week, I learned that around Christmas the manufacturer starts putting out coupons. This year they were for $.75/1 and $1.00/1 – I stocked up on the $1.00/1 – If I came across a $.75/1 I didn’t turn it down, but preferred the $1.00 ones. Normally, the best price for Pace is $1.75 for a 16 oz jar. Hold on to your hats, it went on sale for $1.74. I know, impressive right, but there were yellow signs and arrows everywhere. They made their penny sale seem like a big deal. But, they offered a store coupon for $.75/1. I combined the store coupon for $.75 off with the manufacturers coupon for $1.00 off and they ended up paying me a penny to buy their product. The sad news was that I could only scrounge up 26 $1.00/1 coupons. I ended up getting 26 jars of Pace for free. I combined the $.75 coupons with the store coupons and got about 10 more for $.24 each and 10 more using just the in store coupon. I ended up getting 46 jars for about $12.00 or $.26 each. It should last us the better part of the year, but be careful when you open a cupboard around here.

I have also done this with Cascade Gelpaks. Love them!!!! But they are usually about $6.00 for 20, I think, I haven’t had to buy any for so long. But at the time, pairing the manufacturers coupon with a sale and rebate program, I ended up getting 42 packages for a little less than $18.00 or $.42 each. That’s huge. I won’t have to buy anymore for at least a year, but still look for coupons and sales to pick up some more when there is a great deal. Also note, this was around Christmas, and they had a Christmas cinnamon scent. I paid full price for them. Which was bad, and where most of the $18.00 went to, but I love the smell.

I have done this with all sorts of things we use regularly. I have not paid any money for toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, dish soap, and several other things since I became rabid committed to this process. I even get all the fun flavors the kids like. The Sensodyne the hubby likes. The kind I’m not allergic too.

The one mistake I made early on was wanting to hoard too much. There was a great deal on many different things at once. I traded for coupons and then realized, there is going to have to be some money spent, money I didn’t have to stock up on so much at once, a lot of coupons went to waste.

Another thing I’ve learned is that the manufacturers release a coupon a couple of weeks before a sale. My instinct was to go and use the coupon immediately and then kick myself three weeks later when I realized I could have gotten it for free or close to.

As for my Coke habit, my last stockpile was created when CVS had it on sale for 3/$11 – my rock bottom price. They then coupled it with an instore rebate they refer to as Extra Care Bucks, where they printed a coupon for $10 after you had spent $20. Which ends up being 6/$12. Which is a great deal. I also had several ECB’s stockpiled from other purchases. I have a card, Big Boy has a card and hubby has a card. Big Boy and hubby don’t really stockpile the ECB’s but I will use their cards when there is a deal. I ended up getting 18 twelve packs for about $9.00 after all was said and done. That’s less per 12 pack than you can get for one in a vending machine.

I’ve found that, for me, stockpiling works best. I really don’t have the 45 minutes a day that it takes to get everything I buy on sale and with a coupon. Just freeing up the money that would have been spent on the things I’ve begun to stock pile has freed up money for other things. This year I will not have to buy dishwasher detergent, dish soap, feminine hygiene products, hair care products, toothpaste, and of course Pace. As new deals come out I can begin new stockpiles, and can supplement the existing ones with free or close to free items.

So, know what you buy, know how much is a good price, stock up on coupons for things you use regularly and be ready to pounce when a sale comes along. And have fun. It’s a game, and it’s not cheating to get things for free, it’s winning.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under annieology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.