Clippin' Coupons - Part 1

So, my challenge to myself this year is saving money at the grocery store by utilizing coupons. This week was my first outing trying to use coupons in a significant way. Did I suceed? Depends on what you consider success. I did save some money and while I didn't get $1000 worth of groceries for $50, I am encouraged to keep up with this challenge. I saved most signifcantly at Target racking up a total of almost $20 in savings.

The days prior to my shopping excursion I sat down with my coupons, the Sunday paper and the Pocket Your Dollars website. I started by going through all the Sunday ads looking for items we needed. As I located one I would look to see if I had a coupon for the item. I made a list for Target and one for Walgreen's. I found that what worked for me this time around was to make my grocery lists on envelopes. That way I had something to put the coupons in for that particular store.

The Walgreen's ad in particular is great as it shows right on some of the sale or store coupons that there are coupons available in the Sunday paper. As I was working on each ad I also had Pocket Your Dollars site up on the computer. Carrie Rocha, the coupon queen, in my opinion, takes a lot of the guess work out of utilizing coupons. On her site she will provide shopping lists for each store and walk through them, giving ideas for maximizing your savings.

For example:

Huggies Jumbo Packs $8.99

***Deal idea***
Buy 3 Huggies Little Snugglers or Movers Jumbo Packs for $8.99 each
Use three $2/1 from 1/23 Smart Source insert (or buy Snug & Dry and use $1.50/1 Huggies Snug & Dry printable instead)
Spend as little as $20.99, get $5 gift card back
Final price: As low as $5.33 each after coupons and gift card

Source: Pocket Your Dollars, Target shopping list for 1/23-1/29.

 Joe and I used this deal, we had two $2 off coupons and one $1.50 off coupon, once you factored in the sale price, coupons and the $5 gift card we received in return it came to $5.49 per pack of diapers or about .20 per diaper.

While we were at Target we realized that some of the grocery items on our list we could get for less at Wal-Mart, so being that the Target and Wal-Mart are so close to each other we shopped both stores. I prefer Wal-Mart for pricing, we find significant savings with out coupons. I will continue to do my main shopping there.

Multiple store shopping is not for everyone. Looking at the main players in the grocery game, Rainbow, Cub, Wal-Mart and Target as well as CVS and Walgreen's, I found that I drive by or can drive by each store. For us it wouldn't be too difficult to hit all stores as needed. With lists in hand, and no toddler in tow, I could get in and out of some stores within 30 minutes. We will be looking at the ads the next few weeks and may attempt a larger scale multiple store shopping adventure soon!

I was talking with my Mom about coupon shopping and watching ads for sales, she managed to get $108 worth of meat for $54 today! Stocking up, if you have the pantry and freezer space can pay off in the long run. This is another one of my goals with this process.

We also picked up an inexpensive printer this week so I can start taking advantage of printable coupons from store sites and manufacturer's. Again the Pocket Your Dollars site is a good resource for this. When planning your next shopping trip keep in mind that Target, Walgreen's and other sites have additional coupons online to print!

I will keep you updated after my next excursion!