Save Money With Coupons – Money Saving Monday
By glblguy
Personally, I haven’t been a huge fan of coupons. It’s not that they won’t save you money, they definitely will. We just don’t like taking the time to sift through them, clip them out, file them, and then try to use them when grocery shopping. In particular I just haven’t found a good method of organizing and finding them when we need them. Now that isn’t to say we don’t use them at all, just to say that we don’t use them very frequently.
Lately though, there has either been a huge resurgence in the use of coupons. I would suspect this is a result of the current economy and the rise in cost of food products at the grocery store. Having 6 kids, food is one of our primary expenses each month and we are always on the lookout for ways to save money. So recently, I’ve been spending time reading about various ways of finding and using coupons on the internet and looking for opportunities where we can save on our monthly grocery bill. Kacie from Sense to Save and Lynnae from Being Frugal.Net have both been the primary drivers for me in this area. Both were also recently linked in this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a result of their coupon and money saving efforts when it comes to grocery shopping.
I thought I’d share the current list of resources I am using. When used wisely, I am hoping we start really start seeing some savings:
- My Grocery Deals – This is an awesome site that allows you to enter your zip code and will find all of the deals at your local food stores.
- Cool Savings – Site for finding online and off-line store coupons
- Coupons.com – Delivers print at home coupons
- Fat Wallet – One of the largest online “deal” sites on the web. Provides online coupons, price comparison, and special offer information.
- The Grocery Game – I personally haven’t tried this yet, but seriously considering it. Lynnae over at BringFrugal.net uses and recommends it. It’s a paid service, but Lynnae says it’s worth every penny.
- Coupon Mom – Lots of great deals and coupons on this site, but the website is NOT very user friendly. But if you can get past that, you can find some great saves.
- Coupon Clippers – A full-service coupon clipping service, providing manufacturer’s coupons and rebate forms for a small handling fee. While I haven’t used this service yet, it seems like a great idea.
- Coupon Cabin – Source for current online coupons
Of course these are just a few of the literally hundreds if not thousands of sites on the internet offering online coupons and deals. Which sites do you use? Have a recommendation for a site that saves you lots of money or that has great coupons? I’ll keep you posted on my progress and findings. Don’t be shy, add a comment!
February 11th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Thanks for the mention! If you decide to try the Grocery Game, save 4 weeks worth of coupon inserts first. That way you’ll get the best use of the 4 week, $1 trial.
I like the Grocery Game, because it not only tells you about the sales, it matches coupons to the sales, giving you a double discount.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Hey there!
I didn’t realize you have six children–wowie! I totally understand how coupons can take awhile to do. Maybe you could have your older children help out. By age 5 or so, using scissors is a doable skill for many (though I still struggle at times, lol).
They could help organize coupon by type, and even participate in how they are used. Might be fun (and educational) for the whole family!
You could also try just using coupons for certain items, for example, using them for toothpastes, medicines, soaps, detergent, etc.
By focusing your couponing goal, you could cut out some time. Ultimately, coupining has to work for you, not against ya.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:36 am
We use coupons on a regular basis, and it has become somewhat of a family event to spend thirty minutes or so on the Sunday paper and get the ones we can use. I also read somewhere that if you save them for three or four weeks (providing they will not expire by then), due to natural sale rotation you can get even more savings.
I will say that we only probably average $10-$12 dollars a month in savings, but every little bit helps. For most of our items, the Kroger, or Aldi brand are cheaper and just as good. I agree with you about the user friendliness of Coupon Mom and the fact that you can find good deals by sifting through the material.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I have had good luck with eBates as a primary over Fatwallet. I do compare rebates at both sites before purchasing.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I totally agree with you about Coupon Mom not being very user-friendly. I checked it out after reading about it on Lynnae’s website. It kind of turned me off of the coupon websites. I’ll have to check the other ones out – maybe I just picked the wrong one as my first try :)
February 11th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I like using the Grocery Guide. It’s much easier to use than Coupon Mom.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I admit I use coupon sites occassionally. I have to work on this, since it could save us some cash.
I usually use coupons.com and I like the set up.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Good advice. Coupons can be used to save money while grocery shopping. It should be remembered that small savings will add up to bigger savings when figured out for the whole year.
February 12th, 2008 at 10:39 am
I have issues with using coupons myself. The ones for things I would buy are all for name brand stuff, and even with the coupon the store brand is usually still cheaper. I also shop at Aldi’s a lot, and they don’t even carry name brand stuff! I did hear that if you save the coupon book for four weeks, there should be a sale on most of the stuff and you can save a lot of money, but I haven’t tried it since we’ve been going to food pantries a lot lately.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I’ve used DealTaker.com with great success. They normally have coupons for most any online retail purchase I’ve planned on making.
February 19th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Good list of resources. I will go ahead and throw my coupon site in the ring: http://www.rather-be-shopping.com – I have online coupons to over 500 popular online retailers. I keep it updated with new offers on a daily basis. Thanks!