Going to the supermarket doesn’t have to put a major dent in your budget. By employing several extreme couponing techniques, you can save a considerable amount on your grocery bills.
Follow the tips below and smile all the way to the bank as you see your monthly expenses continue to dip.
This is the first step to spending less on groceries. All of the other strategies spring from this basic task. Meal planning revolves around organizing your family’s groceries a week ahead of time. We suggest doing so on Sunday, since that is when the new circulars and manufactured coupons are usually released.
There are a wide variety of meal planning printable documents available online, so just find one that you’re comfortable with and get started. The key is to build your weekly meals around the items you have coupons for and what’s on sale. This allows you to maximize potential savings by matching needs with discounts.
Circular is a fancy term for the ads that grocery stores send out every week. They are found in the Sunday newspaper, but most major grocery store chains now post them on their web sites as well. Smaller local markets sometimes still send them via postal mail, especially if they don’t have an online presence.
As you go through all of the grocery store ads, highlight the best deals you can find and use this to start crafting your weekly meal plan. Don’t be afraid to pick out items from different stores. Extreme couponers often visit multiple stores in order to build their savings. Once you’ve found all of the best possible buys from the circulars, write them down in a list categorized by store.
Simply put, you just can’t expect to save on groceries like an extreme couponer if you don’t take the time to clip coupons. There are three primary sources for manufactured coupons and you’ll want to pay close attention to each one.
A good place to start is the Sunday newspaper. Smart Source and Red Plum remain the leading providers of printed manufactured coupons and almost all newspapers include them with their Sunday editions. There are also manufactured coupons available online, with Coupons.com being the leading source of these printable coupons. Obviously, you’ll need a functioning printer to take advantage of these coupons.
The third, but often the least reliable, source for manufactured coupons is old-fashioned postal mail. The quality and type of manufactured coupons sent by mail vary widely based on location, but keep your eye out for them as they might seem like junk mail at first glance.
Many couponing newbies make the mistake of clipping every coupon they see. This inevitably leads to failure, because it quickly causes them to become overwhelmed to the point they want to give up. If couponing makes you feel more stressed than satisfied, then you are doomed to quit.
As long as you stick to only clipping coupons that you think you’ll use, then the entire process will seem more manageable, and by extension, enjoyable.
Simply clipping coupons is nowhere near enough. Without proper organization, these coupons won’t make much of a difference. Ask any extreme couponer about why they are so successful at saving money and they will likely start by detailing their methods for coupon organization.
We recommend using your meal planning to guide your organizational philosophy. File your coupons by category (snacks, breakfast foods, frozen foods, etc.) and then create sub-categories by brand. This will enable you to easily find the coupons you need as you build out your weekly meal plan.
KEY REMINDER: Take the time to remove any expired coupons you have in your files.
This is an absolute must. Most grocery stores offer significant discounts if you sign up for one of their loyalty cards. They are almost always free and often include access to their mobile apps, which contain even more discounts. You should make sure to download all of those mobile apps.
There is no broad couponing standard in place for all stores. In fact, the couponing policies at many stores vary greatly from one another. Knowing policies inside and out for the stores where you shop is vital. Do they accept overages (cash-back for coupons that exceed purchase price)? Do they allow stacking (applying multiple coupons and discounts on one item)? Do they offer price-match guarantees? How strict are they with expired coupons? You’ll want to know all of the answers to these questions.
Here is where it really starts to get fun.
Go back to your list of the best deals you found in the circulars.
Search your files and find all of the coupons that match the best deals you found in the ciruclars.
Scan the relevant mobile apps to see if there are any rewards card offers you can layer on top of the coupons and sales for extra savings.
Create a list of the best overall prices you could find for the week by combining sales, coupons and reward card offers.
Compare the items for which you found the best overall prices to what you already have at home.
Complete your weekly meal plan by combining the ingredients you already have with the items that have the best overall price.
Most couponers like to use something called a coupon accordion for this purpose. Basically, it’s just a small plastic case with dividers that can easily fit in a purse or large pocket. Now that you know which coupons you’ll be using for your upcoming shopping trip, you can move them from your main file into your smaller coupon accordion (or whatever carrying case you choose). We recommend dividing the coupons by store to make it simpler to pull out the appropriate ones once you are in the checkout lane.
At this point, it’s time to plot out your shopping trip. Break down all of the items you’ve decided to purchase by store and build a shopping list for each store. Make sure to include an annotation if you need to open the app or use the rewards card for particular savings. Next, figure out the most efficient route to each store and be on your way. You don’t have to worry about the coupons, because you’ve already placed them in the accordion separated by store.
For any amazing deal you find, plan to buy the item in bulk. This will save you from having to buy that item in the future when the price has gone up. Just keep in mind that this doesn’t work so well for perishables (unless you have a freezer and can be frozen). Another important factor to keep in mind is how much home storage you have available.
No matter how much planning and organizing you do, there is no way to account for the random spontaneous clearance sales that grocery stores sometimes announce in the store. Don’t be so focused on your pre-planned shopping that you miss out on possible super deals that come up out of nowhere.
