The name of this section of my blog speaks to my favorite way to spend a Saturday. However, I’ve learned over the years that all play and no work results in an empty pantry, dirty dishes, and a pile of laundry. A couple of times a month, I must spend a Saturday on some necessities of life.
Some time ago, I noticed friends posting on social media about their successes with couponing. Coupons? I thought coupons went out with bell bottoms and big hair. I remember, as a child, my mother clipping coupons from the paper and studying sale circulars from the local grocery stores. Thursday was shopping day at our house, and we made the rounds like clockwork. I loved going shopping. Actually, I just loved going. As a kid, going anywhere beat staying at home, so shopping day was a happy day in my world.
Fast forward a few years (okay, a few decades if you must insist on accuracy) and, intrigued by what I heard from my friends, I did a little homework and decided to give couponing a try. Anyone who knows us knows my husband loves to eat and I love to cook, and with ever-increasing grocery costs I’m always looking for ways to stick to what I think should be a reasonable budget for two. I learned a lot along the way. Some folks are hesitant to share their money saving secrets, but I will freely relate my experience. (That and the occasional package of vegetables are all that have been free.) Here’s what I learned…
Apparently nobody reads Sunday papers anymore. They’re snatched up like a Black Friday blue-light special. You have to get up before the chickens if you want to actually find a Sunday paper on a Sunday, especially if there’s a P&G insert (that’s Procter and Gamble, for you non-couponers). If you don’t get up before the chickens and you’re lucky enough to find a Sunday paper after church, you have to check the paper to make sure the coupon inserts are still inserted. People actually pay $2.75 for a newspaper and take just the coupons. Maybe I’m a cheapskate, but if I’m going to pay that much for a Sunday paper, I’m at least going to read the comic section, the celebrity news, and Dear Abby!
To really save money, you have to shop sales that match your stash of coupons. I learned to check all the sales circulars and plan my route accordingly. Thankfully I didn’t try to pay myself a salary for the time I spent surfing store web sites, checking mail circulars, and clipping coupons, or I’d have gone broke saving money.
After six months, I had a fairly good coupon “stash” started. I had enough pantry staples to put together a meal any time, and frankly, we had enough paper goods to weather a major storm or survive a flu epidemic. But, in the process, I learned a few things about stash building, too.
- The week after you complete your stock-pile of sinus remedies, you will come down with a common cold.
- Big savings off multiple boxes of hair color can be a mixed blessing.
- You will have the most coupons for the brand of deodorant your husband likes the least.
- The rate of sales and coupon release for razors does not necessarily keep pace with the rate of hair growth.
- The batteries on sale this week will be the size you needed last week.
- You will open the mailbox to find a sheet of coupons for the restaurant you visited on the way home. Or, my personal favorite, you will order a meal only to remember that you have a sheet of coupons for that restaurant, and that sheet is at home on the kitchen counter.
- Coupons are like rabbits… they multiply and can be difficult to contain in one location. The coupon with the best deal of the week will be the one that expires today and fell off the table unnoticed as you were clipping.
The biggest lesson I learned is that couponing isn’t the best way for me to save money. I was spending two to three hours surfing online sales circulars and planning, every shopping day, before I ever stepped into a store. By the time I actually shopped, I had spent almost an entire day on the process. I still like going places, but after working all week, spending the bulk of my Saturday on grocery shopping doesn’t qualify as “happy” in my world. I like to do my primary shopping a couple of times a month, and supplement in-between with stops for perishable items like dairy products that won’t keep that long. My favored shopping cycle doesn’t always match the sales cycles, and my “type A” personality can’t stand the stress of expired coupons.
I still use coupons, but I don’t go out of my way to find them. I use what I find in a favorite magazine or printed on a shopping receipt, and I sometimes receive loyalty mail outs from a local supermarket. I can shop three or four good local sources on my schedule and save money. The store down the street from my office runs periodic sales on canned goods and our favorite brand of regular coffee. The supermarket that sends me loyalty coupons also runs great “manager’s specials” on produce, meat, and bakery goods that are near their “sell by” date. That market also has a free shopper’s card and runs good discounts for card holders. I round out my savings at my favorite local discount stores.
And now we resume our regularly scheduled programming…