[chinaKat]

As I've posted previously, I've been attempting to do the CVS thing as my first foray into the couponing world. And, after two months, I have come to the conclusion that it's a colossal pain in the tookus.

Everybody gets their kicks different ways, I'm sure, and I know there are people that adore coupon clipping... but man oh man, this is not my gig. I've been collecting coupons from the Sunday fliers, then going through the CVS weekly sales and matching sales/ECB offers to my existing coupons... and then, if there are other things there I need or think are a good sale, I search online (with *very* limited success) for printable coupons. THEN I go to CVS with two little kids in tow and trudge around the store to try to track all the stuff on my list down -- some of which is not in stock and some of which I decide not to buy when I see the price anyway.

All told, I'll bet it takes three hours out of my life that I'll never get back to engineer and execute each shopping trip, all told. Three really not fun hours.

Last time I got something like $41 worth of (way marked up IMO) merchandise for $14, so that sounds like a good deal... but spending 3 hours to make 27 bucks isn't so hot. Especially when you factor in gas and the trip to Friendly's for ice cream I had to make to bribe my kids to stop acting like monsters in the store, lol.

Any suggestions on getting a better return on my investment, or is this as good as it gets?

 

[mightymoo]

I know how you feel. This is why I tend to fall off the couponing / price booking wagon, it gets to be drudgery and doesn't in the end seem worth it.

For the CVS thing, I've decided I'm just going to go get the "free" thing each week. I go in with my carebucks or whatever and buy the free things (if they are in stock when I get there) and that's it.

 

[tryingforbaby]

I am way horriable at the coupon thing but when I do do it I go to couponmom.com she has everthing plain and simple... no cliping till you need it. she has a spread shet of the stores with the savings.

 

[Norasmomma]

Why don't you do it when you could have someone else watch the kids? I only enjoy doing it when I am alone. I don't CVS, but I do coupon and with my DD it can be a total PITA, when I am alone and can look for the things I want/need it is way fun to get them for close to nothing. I like the challenge and the feeling of saving money.

I mean I am really proud of my .49 bottles of shampoo, .25 deodorant and .68 tubes of mascara. It's stuff I'd get anyway, so it makes me happy.

For me it's a total game, but not everyone can do it. I fell off the couponing wagon for a few months, but that was due to being newly pregnant and the thought of looking through the fliers literally made me want to gag. I'm back on now with new missions.

 

[BetsyS]

I do use coupons, but I don't do the whole CVS and Walgreens game. Around here, they are small stores, add an additional stop to my errands (with unbuckling and buckling of small children), and it doesn't seem worth it. I have a nephew-in-law that runs a couponing website. He seems shocked that I find doing the CVS/Walgreens game cumbersome. But, then, he doesn't have 2 little kids, either.

Sometimes, I do come across a free deal on a blog, and I'll run up there when my dh is home to watch the kids. But, it has to be something I already use, for less than $0.25. LOL

Otherwise, I just use regular coupons from the paper (no internet printables), at the regular grocery store (that I'm going to anyway). If I don't have 15 coupons, no.big.deal. I just get however many I have coupons for/would normally get. Coupons take me an additional 15-30 minutes a week, but also included in that is reading the flyers and making my list. I do save money every week, and my "hourly wage" is pretty good from it. But, if those things changed, I would give up the coupons in a new york minute.

 

[Denvergirlie]

Are you matching the ad's up yourself? If so, I would recommed using Hot Coupon World to do that leg work for you.

Also on HCW they will tell you what insert the coupon came in, so you can skip cutting and sorting until you need to pull a specific coupon if you so desire. I personally clip Sunday morning and get rid of the rest of the insert, I don't need more paper in my life.

.

I don't have any other advice, I find that planning my shopping take maybe 30 minutes and that's for all 2-3 stores I go to on a weekly basis.

Can you go without the kids? Make a quick run out for 10 minutes when a second adult is with the kids?

As for your savings... $27 for 3 hours, that's $8 an hour hourly wage. I pick up pennies in the parking lot and certainly would be thrilled if I found $27.

 

[marimara]

Yeah, I kinda tried and it didn't work for me either. It seems with the CVS stuff it's always stuff I don't want. I'm not going to buy 10 bottles of .49 shampoo if it's the crap that tests on animals and makes my hair feel like straw, kwim? I only do it if I happen to find out about it and I actually use/want the stuff. Like I did the Huggies deals at Walgreens. I got big packs of Huggies for like 7.50 or something decent. It's still expensive though! (We did do cloth diapering but now she's potty training and the cloth was getting to be be a PITA with the intermittent wet diapers and what not.)

I also shop at Walmart (heinous I know

but I live in small town nowhere and not many other places to shop. I'll stock up when they do the rollbacks (like recently I got Kraft salad dressings for 1.35 a piece)-still expensive IMO since it's cheaper to make your own, which I mostly do, but want some as backup to keep in the pantry.

Anyways, long story short, I don't waste too much time on it, I just keep an eye out and see if I like the deals. Other than that, I just stock up when it's a good price to me (Big Lots has tons of cheap stuff where I get better deals, esp on organic stuff like Muir Glen and organic applesauce).

 

[rebeccalynn]

I don't do the CVS/Walgreens thing either b/c it does not really save me money and cost me a lot more time. I have worked hard to "simplify/declutter" our life over the last year and that includes the products that we buy and use. Unless some place has coupons for vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda & salt then I cannot use coupons for cleaning products. This has happened in many areas of our life. I usually find that I can get store brands and/or store specials at my wal mart, grocery store and bjs for less or the same price as I would doing the CVS/Walgreens.

 

[Jenelle]

Sorry the CVS thing is boring and seems to be wasting your time. I think for each person it is different. Depends on your financial situation, also.

I could blow three hours on the computer, in front of the TV, or whatever, after my kids go to bed. And make no money.

Or, I could spend three hours working on the ads, and make $27. (This is $9 an hour

).

FWIW, I save our family more than $27 with the time I spend on it each week. And I am a SAHM so I have no hourly rate to compare this to. If you are making more than $9 an hour at your job, and your time at home is precious, then I could see how this could be a mind-numbing way to spend your time.

I would recommend, at least, that you just keep an eye on the ad and look out for the "free" items. You certainly may not need to go every week.

Also, I began in October with CVS, and it seemed that leading up to Black Friday / Christmas, there were some really unbelievable deals. I think it is always worth keeping an eye on, but not stressing out about.

 

[mnnice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rebeccalynn Unless some place has coupons for vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda & salt then I cannot use coupons for cleaning products. This has happened in many areas of our life. I usually find that I can get store brands and/or store specials at my wal mart, grocery store and bjs for less or the same price as I would doing the CVS/Walgreens.

I actually end up getting baking soda and salt free at Walgreens. On many of the Walgreens deals because you need "filler" i.e cheap items so that you don't have more coupons than items.

I admit that I had a good situation for Walgreen's. I have a Walgreen's on my way home from work (it literally adds maybe 20 yards to my drive home). These are always kid free stops (they're home with DH) and my Walgreen's is realy good about having items in stock, coupon friendly, and having nice short lines.

 

[mtm]

I only clip the coupon if its something I need and I only shop two stores, one grocery, one drug store. I take 10 minutes with each of their flyers each week and then go through my envelope of coupons and pull out any matches. Its only a deal if you'll use it.

 

[velochic]

This may not go over well, but... simply put... I would not be comfortable with feeding my family from the foods that you can buy with coupons. I don't blame you for thinking it is boring... I would have to look for hours to find something I would use.

 

[p1gg1e]

I just coupon at Krogers here. For TP , paper towels. DH makes me buy cleaner

so no vinager and water LOL

I rarely buy food with coupons unless its for produce or GF/DF snacks...those coupons are rare.

 

[BetsyS]

Oh, and along with couponing being not that big of a deal for me (local stores double, get the paper anyway, live in a big city, eat regular food), I am on a budget that is really tight, for me. I have $300/month for us to eat. I wish it was more, and believe me, when things get a little more flush around here, it'll be the first category to go up. But, in the meantime, coupons help me stay within that $300.

 

[chinaKat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by velochic This may not go over well, but... simply put... I would not be comfortable with feeding my family from the foods that you can buy with coupons. I don't blame you for thinking it is boring... I would have to look for hours to find something I would use.

Oh, that's totally part of it. I'm trying to do the CVS thing because I figure that I can always use stuff from there (advil, tampons, toothpaste, shampoo, etc.). I hardly ever see a coupon for a food item I'd buy, occasionally there's one for sour cream or snyder's pretzels or something, but it's very rare.

Unfortunately, buying all these bath and beauty items is sort of at odds with my personal journey toward simplicity as well (as mentioned by a PP). Do I need an eight dollar bottle of shampoo? Hell, no -- not even if I'm getting it for two bucks. I used to love all that girly stuff you could buy at CVS, but now I'm much more into simple castille soap.

It also kills me to see the insane markup on things at CVS. I'm still not at all convinced that I can't do better buying in bulk at BJ's or the like... and then I could just go, throw the stuff in the cart, and be done with it.

I guess the crux of it is, I would never step foot in a CVS, other than to fill a prescription, if not for this couponing thing. People claim they are saving hundreds of dollars a year by doing it faithfully... but I can't even fathom *spending* hundreds of dollars a year on this stuff. So it doesn't "feel" like a very worthwhile pursuit.

 

[rebeccalynn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mnnice I actually end up getting baking soda and salt free at Walgreens. On many of the Walgreens deals because you need "filler" i.e cheap items so that you don't have more coupons than items. I admit that I had a good situation for Walgreen's. I have a Walgreen's on my way home from work (it literally adds maybe 20 yards to my drive home). These are always kid free stops (they're home with DH) and my Walgreen's is realy good about having items in stock, coupon friendly, and having nice short lines.

The baking soda and salt are not free though unless you buy the other items and indeed have an overage. If you use their "deal" products then I can see where CVS and Walgreens can save you money big time. However, if there is only occasionally one or two items a month that are "deal" items that you actually use then it is most likely going to cost you more money and/or time to shop CVS and Walgreens in the long run. I am on month 3 of a "virtual" test with CVS & Walgreens savings b/c the deals that people were talking about were so tempting but my gut was telling me that it would not really save my family money. I am finding out that I can get the same sale prices at the other stores that I am currently shopping at for the items that I would actually have bought and I save time by compiling list and shopping at 2 less stores.

 

[enkmom]

I don't do food coupons, but I do have success at CVS. I understand the boredom part though. I am gung-ho for a while, crowing about my success, and then I will wake up one Sunday morning and decide, "eh, I'll just go later this week". The next thing I know it's 2 months since I stepped foot in CVS. I didn't go at all this winter because it seemed like too much of a hassle to go out in the cold. If I had young children, I most likely wouldn't do it at all.

There are things my family will always use - razor blades, shampoo, make-up, toothpaste... I can usually get them free or at a significant savings, so why not? I also give a lot of my deals to Catholic Charities and the local shelter for battered women, so I think that is a worthwhile investment of my time.

 

[Jenelle]

Velochic, I "get" what you're saying. Just wanted to share that I recently found coupons for Tazo tea, R. W. Knudsen organic juice, Eden Organic products, and a few others I can't remember right now... But anyway, they were in a free pamphlet at my local grocery store. I picked up five copies -- one for each of us, lol. There also are coupons online for organic / health food store items, or if you email the company they will send them to you sometimes.

 

[Norasmomma]

Yeah I actually find good coupons all the time. I use them to buy WW pasta, og tomatoes and sauce, tea, dairy and lots of other things. I agree there is a ton of crap ones out there, but there are lots of good ones.

 

[velochic]

Oh, I get free things and coupons every once in a while from the actual companies. I've had to give them my personal info, which is not a problem to me, but I've never found anything in the usual coupon places (newpaper, for example). If you use coupons, you have USE COUPONS to really get a good deal! But they are almost always for processed foods and we just don't eat that. I don't consider it a good deal to get 5 boxes of Hot Pockets for the price of one. For the same price I can buy some organic flour and ingredients to make my own calzones... but they don't have coupons for those, unfortunately.