It's true. I love saving money! It started as a necessity, but it has become sort of a hobby. I am specifically going to talk about couponing/shopping today.
Lindsay and Rissa introduced me to couponing. I remember first hearing them talk about it, and I was definitely overwhelmed. The terms and lingo and sheer logistics of it all just sort of scared me. Rissa had me over to her house and just broke it down for me. Yay! Now it's the only way we are able to afford groceries!
As I've said before, I can't really take any credit for the coupons and such that I find. I follow a few websites that really make it easy. It's still time consuming, but the ladies who run the sites do all the really hard work for us. I still know the basics and how they find the deals they do, but it's so much easier to just use the deals they've already found!
I do about 90% of my shopping at Publix. They really are the best grocery store in FL, and they're just so easy to work with. I don't think I've set foot in a Winn Dixie in over a year. The basics for Publix are this: 1. Publix accepts competitor coupons. Each store has a different list of the competitors they will accept. 2. You can pair a manufacturer coupon (one put out by the product manufacturer) with a store coupon (this refers to Publix or any of their accepted competitors) for each item that you buy. 3. If an item is on a buy one get one free (BOGO) sale, you can use a coupon (or coupons if you have a store and a manufacturer) for the item you buy AND the one you get for free. 4. If the store is out of a sale item, you can get a rain check and come back later and still get the sale price, even if you come after the sale ends. 5. If you have $5 off of $30 (this is for example - it can be any amount off of any amount), the second amount is BEFORE coupons. And you can use a Publix AND a competitor coupon like this in the same transaction as long as the totals add up correctly. For instance, if you have a Publix $5 off of $30 purchase and a Winn Dixie $5 off of $25 purchase, your total purchase before coupons has to be $55. You can find the complete coupon policy here.
The two sites I follow most often are www.southernsavers.com and www.addictedtosaving.com. My friend Cilla has also started a site that helps with this, but she focuses more on organic and healthful items than the entire ad. Find her info at http://www.cillasdeals.com/. She did a great job explaining the lingo and jargon. You can find all of that here.
You can find coupons in the Sunday newspapers, online, and at the stores. The sites I mentioned above will also usually tell you if a special coupon happens to appear in a different day's paper or a magazine or whatever.
I have learned to use the sales and deals in the weekly ads and plan my meals around the stuff on sale, and not the other way around. If I do happen to want to make something special and want to try to get it on sale or find a coupon for it, I'll look at Southern Savers. She has a section called Best Deals This Week. Southern Savers and Addicted to Saving both have coupon databases on their sites. You can search the database for specific items. I usually use the search for diaper coupons. Every once in awhile I'll search for specific food items.
If I can offer you any advice about couponing, it would be to plan your shopping trips when you'll have little to no interruptions at first. When I was first starting out it would take me quite some time to get everything together - all the coupons printed and clipped and all that jazz. Now that I've done it a ton, I can do it pretty well with Nicolyn on my lap and Bryant talking incessantly in my ear (although it gets done much faster if they're not in the same room as me!).
In addition to shopping at Publix, I have a Sam's membership. I buy almost all of my paper products at Sam's. It's also the best place for cheese, milk, and eggs (unless I get them on sale at Publix). I buy almost all of my meats at Carroll's Meat Shoppe in Arlington. Their non-sale prices are lower than even Sam's everyday prices, and their sale prices are unbeatable anywhere. Check out their calendar to see what's on sale this month. As I've mentioned before, I get most of my produce from the co-op I work with. If you prefer organic produce, this is definitely the way to go. You save $10-$15 on average per bag of produce. Check them out here. If you're like me and not necessarily into the whole organic thing, the little produce store at the corner of Rogero and Merrill has an excellent selection and excellent prices.
The longer I've been only shopping sale items, the better I've learned what items should cost and what I'm willing to pay for them. It definitely PAYS to be a savvy shopper! (Threw that one in there for you, Dad!)
So on to my day:
Frustrating: Phew. This was a very frustrating day in several ways. First, Lynnie cried during most of the deliveries I had to make this afternoon. It's day 2 with no paci and she's developing a bad diaper rash, and she did not take a nap for the entire 4 hours we were in the van. Usually she would have slept from 3:00 or so til 4:00 or so, but she fought it tooth and nail and won. Guess who lost? My sanity! And I tried to go work out (i.e. shower) afterwards, but the child care ladies had to come get me because Lynnie's diaper rash was too bad and she wouldn't stop crying. Poor kid. She gets crazy bad diaper rashes so quickly. I'm talking within an hour's time. It's insane. And I really needed to try to get my house in some sort of order today, but I didn't get to even touch it. I'm praying I get a few minutes in the morning to work on it.
Awesome: Lynnie slept really well last night, despite not having her paci. She was also really good again while Samantha and I packed the produce bags this morning. That was a huge blessing. And my van was nearly out of gas by the time I got home tonight. We're talking below the E. Mike took it and put gas in it for me so I didn't have to stop on the way to take Bry to school in the morning. Such a good guy!
Is there anything I've written about tonight that you would like me to explain further? Where are your favorite shopping spots? How do you find good deals?
I am so proud of you!
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