need help finding coupons

[happy_wife_&_mama]

I finally really opened up my eyes to my financial situation and it's not pretty. At all. My situation is kind of another story though, which I might just start another thread with so that I can "let it all out" so to speak. : I know that all that happens in our life is for a reason though, so things had to happen this way so that I would open my eyes.

I finally finished my budget today and after all bills are paid, what is left over is pretty slim. So I need to make my $$$ stretch as much as possible. I looked at couponmom.com and am going to learn as much about it as I can so that I can get the most food for the money we have. Where other than the Sunday newspaper can I find coupons for groceries? I picked up a Sunday paper today (my first time ever buying a newpaper, especially for the coupons) but there isn't as many as I thought there would be. I also looked at coolsavings.com and see that I can print some. Is there any other place I can get good food item coupons? Primarily, I'm looking for non prepackaged/prepared foods. Stuff like sour cream, cream cheese, cheese, pickles, etc. yes, but things like chef boyardee, hamburger helper, and things like that no.

Also, from what you have seen, which ends up being cheaper? Buying stuff at Costco in bulk (which may be more at first but will last longer) or buying at the grocery store with coupons? I'm thinking I'm going to need to make one of those pricelist books huh? Thanks in advance mamas. I've been feeling bummed all day today after seeing how tight things are going to be around here. I'm trying to remember though that things will get better and that I'm making positive changes to get to a better place financially...

[lmonter]

I recently snagged some (Quaker) oatmeal coupons off ebay. I needed them yesterday so to speak, so I went with something quick (i.e. I needed to get them before the sale ended!). Our newspaper never had any coupons for anything I regularly bought, so it was pointless to even try a subscription for the sole purpose of coupons (we read news online).

As for bulk/vs sale... depends. Totally depends. When I run out of Tillamook cheddar and the grocery store doesn't have it on sale, I get the giant brick at Costco. Big canned things like applesauce (106oz/$2.39) and plain tomato sauce (106oz/$1.89) and such are almost always a better deal. But organic chicken stock, cereal, etc. depends. I've started making my own chicken stock, which is very yummy (I've gotten sucked into the vortex of canning).

But. Local grocery stuff.
I've gotten 2 pound bags of pasta for $.88 - which are handier to me for storing than bulk pasta.
Recently, whole chickens were buy-1-get-1-free so I got a raincheck (go the last night of the sale, they'll be out, and you can get a raincheck for however many you want, it's great - plus then you can find room in your fridge/freezer for things at your pace vs. getting it done before the sale ends). This week the per-pound price went down a bit, so I'm doing my BOGO raincheck with it before this sale ends.
Last week I went on an oatmeal spree. Check my blog to see the haul in photos. I got 20 42oz canisters of quick oats and at least 10 boxes of packaged/flavored instant oatmeal. I paid less than $18 for all of it, including the coupons I bought off ebay. And that total is *much* less than I would've paid at Costco for smaller amounts actually. I'm set with the canisters for the year, but not packets. My 4yo discovered he likes oatmeal again, so I bet those'll be gone before December.

Watch some of the sales though. It does take time to get the hang of it. Like here the best time to get baking stuff is before Thanksgiving. I also buy as many turkeys as my freezer and budget can handle. Costco has a chocolate chip coupon in the summer, so I used as many as I could and "forgot mine at home" many times to try and get enough to last me the year. Or that around here Albertson's is the only place that has Quaker stuff go on huge sale once in the fall.

But keep in mind I have a decent sized pantry and space to store bulk stuff like this. Not everybody has that luxury. I'm sure glad I do though - everybody else in the house is male and boy can they pack it away.

[lilgsmommy]

Do you have a local library? The town I used to live in had a basket there for coupons that people cut out and brought in and took what they needed.

I do alot of coupon printing online. If there is something we use alot of, I try to look a few times a month for coupons.

I also belong to a few online sites that trade coupons and post links to them too. There is one main one that is my fav, if you want to PM me, I can send you a link.

I also try and buy in bulk when possible. It saves me money most of the time. When I was able to eat scalloped potatoes it was cheaper to buy the dehydrated potatoes (which can be used in so many dishes) and the powdered cheese sauce in the bulk section, than it was to buy a box of them. I mainly buy my pastas and spices in bulk, but there are a few times I have bought my cereals that way when they are cheap.

We also shop at a few discount grocery places. Other than having to watch out for expired items, we get some pretty great deals on foods. We got boxes of instant oatmeal for 79cents each, 5lb os frozen boneless skinless chicken breast for $3, and frozen whole cooked rotissary style chickens for $1.50 each, 2lb boxes of pasta were 2 for $1, and we got some Kix cereal for $1 a box. Some of the stores arent the cleanest or nicest looking, but it doesnt bother me.

Our food budget is going from $500 a month next month down to $200..so I am gunna be stressing!

Also another thing we do is what we call "stretchy meals".

I buy ground beef when it is on sale for 99cents a lb. I will buy a 10lb package and fry it all up with just a little seasoning. Then I will portion it out for upwards of 5 dinners.

Just an example:
First night I season some of it for tacos and burritos
Next night I take what was left from the night before add a little more and do taco salads
Next night I take what was left from the night before and add a little more and use it in spaghetti sauce (with fresh veggies)
Next night take the leftover spaghetti sauce add more meat toss in blender to make the veggies from the sauce alot smaller, and do sloppy joes
After that it is a toss up between spaghetti pizza and lasagna for the leftovers...lol

So literally I can make $25 in food last us for 5 dinners (the twins cant have tomatoes so I do try and leave a little meat out for them on the nights we use tomatoe sauces and stuff). Of course you dont have to do it all in one week....the seasoned meat freezes well as does the spaghetti sauce...so you can spread it out more.

Finding deals isnt always hard, its finding something to do with them sometimes...lol

[SneakyPie]

Originally Posted by happy_wife_&_mama

Also, from what you have seen, which ends up being cheaper? Buying stuff at Costco in bulk (which may be more at first but will last longer) or buying at the grocery store with coupons?

Actually generally neither of these ends up being cheaper for us. Coupons are usually for "foods" that we don't eat -- prepared salad dressings, brand-name cold cereal, brand-name cake mixes. And although Costco foods do tend to have the full net weight in the package (a real problem at almost all other stores), I don't find their per-serving price to be much lower than regular prices at the regular grocery store.

We tend to save the most money by shopping the grocery-store sale flyers. Front and back page tend to have the most useful staple items, and at the lowest prices. We are very strict with ourselves about making an exact list of the biggest loss leader staples, and going in only for those items. (This weekend for instance we were really hoping for a good sale on tuna, peanut butter, oatmeal, and brown sugar, but there weren't any, so we are stretching those items and instead making use of the tomato sauce, bagged salad, bulk carrots, cream cheese, and chicken thighs we did find on deep sale.)

The price book is an excellent idea. I am still working on mine, and I mostly make it up from the grocery receipts. It is really helpful and encouraging. From the book we have already been able to come up with a few rules for the more expensive foods in our area:

* I will only pay less than 85 cents/lb. for whole chicken, chicken parts, or ground meats. No more than $1.69/lb. for any other cut of meat. This means buying whatever meat is on deep sale and learning to cook it, ration it, and use every bite of it!

* Cheese, no more than $1.99/lb. Preferably less, but it is very difficult to find it even for that here. And I am as yet unwilling to give up cheese!

* We are gluten-free, but I recommend this for any special diet on a budget -- get bold about asking companies for coupons, and ask for bulk-buy or frequent-buy discounts from the store for buying a case or half a case of anything you need.

* Call the store and speak to the managers of various departments. Find out when the things you buy will be going on sale -- especially organic staples. That way if it is a food your family eats a lot of, you will know when to stretch that last bit of it until it goes on sale again, instead of buying a bunch at regular price thinking it will never go on sale again. (I particularly recommend this for items that rarely go on deep sale -- hippie peanut butter, organic maple syrup, dolphin-free tuna).

* If we are going to use a coupon for a brand-name item, combine it with a sale. Otherwise for us it is usually still more expensive than a store brand or a homemade equivalent.

You can do it! It's very satisfying to make the food dollar stretch and still watch the family eat a nourishing meal. One key is to look at what's least expensive and then plan meals from that -- not plan meals and then look for deals. And if you find yourself stuck one week with a bunch of misfit ingredients, post them up in the Nutrition section with a request for menu ideas, and you'll get good ones!

[BetsyS]

I get the best results from coupons+sales, too.

For example, the same old oatmeal story.
Bulk-- 89 cents/lb for organic steel cut oats
Aldi's--$1.89/42 ounces, so 72 cents/lb
Regular price Quaker--$2.19/18 ounces, so $1.95/lb
Quaker, on sale for $1.10/18 ounces, plus 50 cent coupons doubled--$0.10/18 ounces, so 9 cents/lb. I had to buy coupons at 10 cents each, so that makes my final cost $0.20/18 oz, or 18 cents a pound.

We like steel cut oats for just everyday breakfasts, but at 9 cents a pound, we can learn to like regular oats in snacks, desserts, and for filler in meatloaf.

The oatmeal is a once a year sale price, but I had read on here to be on the lookout for it, so I was. When the coupon came out in the paper, I bought some from someone online, so I was prepared.

Also, like the pp, coupons help out some on my grocery budget, but a price book, buying the loss leader sales, and planning cheaper meals (casseroles with 1/4 cup cheese on top, instead of mixed throughout, for example) help me with my budget just as much.

[jackson'smama]

smartsource.com

but i agree with pp about coupons being for stuff we don't usually get. plus, i buy mostly generic and coupons can't generally touch generic everyday prices where i shop.

[normajean]

Originally Posted by SneakyPie

Actually generally neither of these ends up being cheaper for us. Coupons are usually for "foods" that we don't eat -- prepared salad dressings, brand-name cold cereal, brand-name cake mixes. And although Costco foods do tend to have the full net weight in the package (a real problem at almost all other stores), I don't find their per-serving price to be much lower than regular prices at the regular grocery store.

We tend to save the most money by shopping the grocery-store sale flyers. Front and back page tend to have the most useful staple items, and at the lowest prices. We are very strict with ourselves about making an exact list of the biggest loss leader staples, and going in only for those items. (This weekend for instance we were really hoping for a good sale on tuna, peanut butter, oatmeal, and brown sugar, but there weren't any, so we are stretching those items and instead making use of the tomato sauce, bagged salad, bulk carrots, cream cheese, and chicken thighs we did find on deep sale.)

The price book is an excellent idea. I am still working on mine, and I mostly make it up from the grocery receipts. It is really helpful and encouraging. From the book we have already been able to come up with a few rules for the more expensive foods in our area:

* I will only pay less than 85 cents/lb. for whole chicken, chicken parts, or ground meats. No more than $1.69/lb. for any other cut of meat. This means buying whatever meat is on deep sale and learning to cook it, ration it, and use every bite of it!

* Cheese, no more than $1.99/lb. Preferably less, but it is very difficult to find it even for that here. And I am as yet unwilling to give up cheese!

* We are gluten-free, but I recommend this for any special diet on a budget -- get bold about asking companies for coupons, and ask for bulk-buy or frequent-buy discounts from the store for buying a case or half a case of anything you need.

* Call the store and speak to the managers of various departments. Find out when the things you buy will be going on sale -- especially organic staples. That way if it is a food your family eats a lot of, you will know when to stretch that last bit of it until it goes on sale again, instead of buying a bunch at regular price thinking it will never go on sale again. (I particularly recommend this for items that rarely go on deep sale -- hippie peanut butter, organic maple syrup, dolphin-free tuna).

* If we are going to use a coupon for a brand-name item, combine it with a sale. Otherwise for us it is usually still more expensive than a store brand or a homemade equivalent.

You can do it! It's very satisfying to make the food dollar stretch and still watch the family eat a nourishing meal. One key is to look at what's least expensive and then plan meals from that -- not plan meals and then look for deals. And if you find yourself stuck one week with a bunch of misfit ingredients, post them up in the Nutrition section with a request for menu ideas, and you'll get good ones!

Took the words out of my mouth...

[phathui5]

Not coupons, but something like Angel Food or the SHARE program could help stretch your grocery budget.

[Treasuremapper]

There are several ways to proceed with coupons, depending on where you live. Please tell us what grocery stores are in your area and a bit more about the sorts of things you buy. I can then help direct you to coupons. In general, you can buy coupons on Ebay or http://www.thecouponclippers.com. You can find extra inserts of coupons at coffeehouses and places like that. But to really be helpful to you, I need to know a bit more about the kinds of things you need.

For me, I found that coupons worked best when I stocked up over time for products I used constantly, so that over time my grocery bill was whittled down. For example, I do not pay for razors, toothbrushes, laundry detergent, dishwasher soap, dh's shampoo, or bandaids any more, because I have so many of those items stockpiled. So my grocery bill each time is a bit lower, maybe by five or ten bucks each trip. I also use coupons for things I use on a regular basis, even though I don't stock them. I buy Organic Valley cheese and use $1 off coupons when it goes on sale. Things like that.

If you print coupons online, be sure to do so with a different email address (maybe a gmail account) and clean your computer after each use with ccleaner and adaware or spybot, otherwise the spam can get so out of control and the computer bogged down spyware. Some stores won't take printed coupons.

[happy_wife_&_mama]

I live in Central California and I usually buy whole type foods ( I think that is what they are referred to) I buy single ingredients so that I can make dishes from scratch. So many fresh veggies, fruits, meats, cheeses, dairy products, grains, beans, etc. Some canned veggies, but mainly limited to tomatoes. Thanks for your help

[Treasuremapper]

Hmmm... there are lots of coupon booklets outside of stores like WF and Wild Oats in southern California, but I don't know about central. Recent Mambo sprouts coupons included $2 off any Organic Valley products, which is a great coupon for a great product and means some things are actually going to be free. Sadly, I am not aware of any great whole foods coupons right now, but those coupons are hard to come by in my area.

What major grocery store chains do you have in central California?

[SashaBear]

hotcouponworld.com will teach you everything you need to know about coupons. Even how to make money at CVS! CVS pays me to buy items at their store! LOL Its great!

Also look into WIC, food stamps etc. If you need help, GET IT!

[xmysticprincessx]

Treasuremapper and Sashabear took the words out of my mouth!

I get the Sunday paper mainly to look at the sale ads and the coupons. (The coupons I don't use get clipped anyways because I send them to a friend in the military who can use them at the commissary for 6 months after they expire.) Yeah, most of the food coupons are for crap like others have mentioned. But every now and then, there will be something like a coupon for Silk soymilk, boca burgers, or something else we use on a regular basis. That's when I go to thecouponclippers.com, thecouponmaster.com, or ebay for 20+ of that coupon.

There's also coupons for things other than food. Laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, and so on are common coupons.

I also dont pay for stuff like razors, band aids, shampoo, soap, etc. And yes, sometimes i get paid to take it. (I go to Rite Aid since I have 5 really close to me. I wish i had a CVS near me, but I'd have to drive into the city, find a parking spot, parallel park, then either pay the meter or make sure i'm parked on the right side of the street for odd/even parking. not fun.)

Someone else mentioned a discount grocery store. We have one 5 minutes from us and i LOVE LOVE LOVE it. everything is cheaper than almost anywhere else. they dont always have the best selection, but boy, do they have some bargains. today they had tropicana orange juice for 75 cents a half gallon. i got back to nature organic saltines for 75 cents a box. the same thing through the united natural foods buying club were $3! you do have to look at expiration dates, but most things stay good for a little while.

[happy_wife_&_mama]

Oh! When I said "whole foods" I didn't mean the store! I meant whole food type items, in other words 'real' foods or single ingredients, like cheese, veggies, dry pasta, etc. Stuff that needs to be put into a recipe with other ingredients to make a dish, instead of for example "Just add water, and you have pancakes" type foods. I'll look into those couponsites that were mentioned. I used to live in So. Cal where I had Whole foods right next door, and loved those coupon books, but now, I would have to drive an hour to get to one, and that is too far.

[happy_wife_&_mama]

when you say "discount grocery store" do you mean something like Foodco, Food4less, Winco, etc? Or something else?

[xmysticprincessx]

Originally Posted by happy_wife_&_mama

when you say "discount grocery store" do you mean something like Foodco, Food4less, Winco, etc? Or something else?

i dont have those stores around me, but i can describe the one i go to. its a family owned store, and kinda small. this one has about 3 tables set up with produce, a frozen section with 2 really big ice cream coolers and about 10 freezers (with the glass doors) full of different things. they have a large walk in cooler, and 4 aisles full of various grocery items. stuff is really cheap. they have been getting more organic and natural foods in, but there's also some of the typical processed crap. half gallons of generic ice cream are $1, edy's are $1.50, and pints of ice cream (like hagen daaz, sorbet, tofutti, etc) are $1 each. (i was soooo excited to find soy delicious quarts for $1.50 each a couple months ago.) they had boca frozen lasagna $1.50, frozen cascadian farms edamame and broccoli with cheese sauce $1.25 each, 5 lb bags of (crap) chicken nuggets for $10, and lots more. packages of back to nature cookies (with 6 or 8 individual packages inside, like for school lunches) are $1.50 each. full circle organic lemonaide is either $1 or $1.25. cora white vinegar is $2/gal or $7 a case of 4. i got a case of 12 individual containers of silk chocolate milk for $5. (these would have normally been about $1.50 each in the grocery store!) pasta sauces are $1 a jar. candy bars are 3/$1. cereal is $1-$2 a box, depending on the brand and how quickly they want to get rid of it. (i got mother's naturals "cheerios" for less than $1 a box.) little debbie snacks are 75 cents a box, and all breads are $1 (pepperidge farms). on occasion, they've gotten the stonyfield farms yogurt in a tube (like go-gurt), horizon organic milk, organic cheese, and things like that.

they never know what they're going to get week to week. they get faxes all day long. i stop in at least once a week to see what they've gotten.

they dont have a scanner at the cash register. everything has a price tag on it, and you get discounts for buying by the case. so the cashier just adds everything up on a calculator and puts your total into the cash register. they just started taking credit cards and checks last year.

they dont take coupons. (i think its because their stock doesnt come from the manufacturers themselves, but warehouses that have overstock.) some of the stuff they sell is about to expire, just expired, is brand new, is discontinued, or overstocked. lots of off-brands. i keep an eye on expiration dates and go from previous experiences. i've found that silk yogurts are still good about a month after they expire. i get lots of orange juice when they have a type we like, freeze it, and defrost it when we need some.

[happy_wife_&_mama]

oh, that sounds different then from the stores I mentioned. The ones I named are chains, but they are known for having lower prices then the bigger chains. I used to go, but started shying away from them because I was not happy with their produce. To give an example, the bigger grocery stores like Vons will have their apples on sale for 99 cents a pound. I'm like wow! Time to stock up! And at Food4less, a good sale might be 3 lbs for $1 which is much better of course, but no good to me when I had to throw away most of them for being rotton inside, dry, and in general not tasty. Is this the norm? Or did I just have bad experiences? I see no savings in buying at a cheaper price but having to throw it away instead of paying a bit more, but knowing that it will be delicious and all eaten up.

[Benji'sMom]

Originally Posted by SneakyPie

Actually generally neither of these ends up being cheaper for us. Coupons are usually for "foods" that we don't eat -- prepared salad dressings, brand-name cold cereal, brand-name cake mixes. And although Costco foods do tend to have the full net weight in the package (a real problem at almost all other stores), I don't find their per-serving price to be much lower than regular prices at the regular grocery store.

We tend to save the most money by shopping the grocery-store sale flyers. Front and back page tend to have the most useful staple items, and at the lowest prices. We are very strict with ourselves about making an exact list of the biggest loss leader staples, and going in only for those items. (This weekend for instance we were really hoping for a good sale on tuna, peanut butter, oatmeal, and brown sugar, but there weren't any, so we are stretching those items and instead making use of the tomato sauce, bagged salad, bulk carrots, cream cheese, and chicken thighs we did find on deep sale.)

The price book is an excellent idea. I am still working on mine, and I mostly make it up from the grocery receipts. It is really helpful and encouraging. From the book we have already been able to come up with a few rules for the more expensive foods in our area:

* I will only pay less than 85 cents/lb. for whole chicken, chicken parts, or ground meats. No more than $1.69/lb. for any other cut of meat. This means buying whatever meat is on deep sale and learning to cook it, ration it, and use every bite of it!

<snip>

You can do it! It's very satisfying to make the food dollar stretch and still watch the family eat a nourishing meal. One key is to look at what's least expensive and then plan meals from that -- not plan meals and then look for deals. And if you find yourself stuck one week with a bunch of misfit ingredients, post them up in the Nutrition section with a request for menu ideas, and you'll get good ones!

Yeah, I agree with this. You first have to know what the prices are before you can figure out which price is cheaper. And food prices depend on where you live.

I don't use coupons a whole lot except for some places like Walgreens, they give their coupons out in the store, so I don't need to buy the paper for that, or CVS extra care card. (Saves on mostly non-food items, but some food items too.) I don't use name brand coupons from the paper because they are just designed to promote the brand, when generic or store sales would be cheaper anyway.

Anyway, I agree with the price book idea. Start out making a price book with the ingredients you'd use most regularly. In it put the cheapest non-sale price and the cheapest sale price you find. (It takes some time to get it filled out so start with only a few main items and work on it from there.)

So after doing the price book, I know, for example, that where I live, the store with the cheapest regular price for whole chicken sells it for 74c/lb, and the cheapest sale price (different store) is 69c/lb. I also know the cheapest regular price for chicken leg quarters is 69c/lb but the cheapest sale price (different store) is 37c/lb. I don't buy bonesless skinless breast because even at a sale price it's more expensive than whole or leg quarter, I don't care if it comes from a bulk store or whatever, it's not worth buying. I know the absolute cheapest meat (besides chicken) is the sale price on pork roast or pork neck bones, 88c/lb. So when this stuff is on sale I buy a lot of it at one time (which also keeps my shopping trips to a minimum, that's why it's not bad going to different stores, since I'm not going often.)

You can find the sales in the sales circulars, which you can look at for free at www.sundaysaver.com , you don't need to buy the newspaper, then you'll know who has the cheapest sales on which items. And FYI if you didn't know, the sales mostly come out on Wednesdays, so check the site on Wednesdays.

[Benji'sMom]

Originally Posted by happy_wife_&_mama

I see no savings in buying at a cheaper price but having to throw it away instead of paying a bit more, but knowing that it will be delicious and all eaten up.

It depends. The cheapest bananas I can find are like 4lb/$1 but they're over ripe. You wouldn't want to eat them, but they're perfect for homemade banana nut muffins-- which I freeze for a snack that can go with us in the car instead of buying prefab granola bars -- or for fruit smoothies. For bad apples I might chop up the good bits in oatmeal or in apple muffins, or of course, more smoothies!