Couponing for preppers

[littletommy]

So, who else does this? My wife started out a few months ago, and it was kind of annoying to me at first, but then, we found some really good deals on canned goods, like 0.20 each, and I watched as my storage area became full of non perishable, or long shelf life stuff, as well as tooth paste, deodorant, feminine products, you name it.

We spent almost 3 hours at Meijer today, and got a truck load of stuff for less than we used to spend on a few days of groceries!

 

[SHAUN_BAUER]

Yes my sister is urging us to do it as well said she gets ridiculous deals on things

 

[HandyAndy]

My wife does this often. We usually keep what we need and donate the rest as sometimes she pays nothing for it and she works for the rescue mission. If anybody has questions she could give pointers or possibly point you towards a group or class.

 

[WC Deer Hunter]

The wife and I started about 3 months ago. We went from no preps to at least 2-4 weeks supply of food, water, feminine hygiene products and toiletries and have also cut our grocery bill in half. If only we had discovered this a few years ago. It's never too late though. We spend on average 5-10 hours a week researching, finding "deals" and cutting coupons. It has helped us get back on track from when I lost my job and we got way behind on bills to getting caught up and stocked up. I'd be happy to give some insight for anybody interested also.

 

[Caldad]

I get the news paper, with some coupons... where are you finding the great hoards of really good coupons, and wonderful deals? I'm not seeing it here in Evansville with the Courier & Press.

Thanks!

 

[GlockPaperScissors]

I get the news paper, with some coupons... where are you finding the great hoards of really good coupons, and wonderful deals? I'm not seeing it here in Evansville with the Courier & Press.

Thanks!

My suggestion is to look online. There are many sites out there that have a one free daily item and the most you have to do is put in your address and wait a couple of weeks.

Also I found this yesterday:

Contact These 173 Manufacturers for High Value Coupons!

Coupons only for emailing? I'll take that deal!

 

[Caldad]

My suggestion is to look online. There are many sites out there that have a one free daily item and the most you have to do is put in your address and wait a couple of weeks.

Also I found this yesterday:

Contact These 173 Manufacturers for High Value Coupons!

Coupons only for emailing? I'll take that deal!

Cool! Thanks!!

 

[littletommy]

Yep, online, a lot of manufacturers have coupons on their site, as well as numerous other sites that you can register on and print out stuff from. We have several friends and family members who bring us their coupon sections out of the sunday paper. If you have paper delivery, you may speak with the paper boy and ask if you could have a stack of the sunday coupons every now and then, they do get extra stuff occasionally.

 

[GlockPaperScissors]

Cool! Thanks!!

You're welcome, I'm glad to help!

 

[littletommy]

Also, if you have a smart phone, there are apps available that compare prices on items you scan at different stores. For instance, if you have coupons for campbells soup, and happen to be at Kroger, you can scan the barcode on the can, and it will show what the prices are at all the other grocery stores in your area. Shopsavvy is one, and I know there are several others.

 

[WC Deer Hunter]

Yep most of the good coupons are online. Go through the sales ads and then go online and find coupons that match the sales and you'd be surprised how quick it adds up to some major savings.

FYI Krogers and Meijer automatically double any coupon that is $.50 or less and they usually have the best sales too.

Here is a couple sites you can find good info from too.

Printable coupon deals and extreme couponing tips by The Krazy Coupon Lady
Printable Coupons,Grocery Coupons, Coupon Codes, Free Coupons,Coupon Mom

 

[WC Deer Hunter]

My suggestion is to look online. There are many sites out there that have a one free daily item and the most you have to do is put in your address and wait a couple of weeks.

Also I found this yesterday:

Contact These 173 Manufacturers for High Value Coupons!

Coupons only for emailing? I'll take that deal!

Didn't know about that one. Thanks

 

[GlockPaperScissors]

Thank you... Thanks for sharing this info

Didn't know about that one. Thanks

You're welcome! Anytime I find new online freebies, I'll remember to post them on the board.

 

[88GT]

Food on the Table (has both an app and a website) provides the weekly deals for most major grocery stores (except Walmart and Target). I use them to plan menus based on the food items that are on sale that week.

Couponmom.com is an aggregating service for the main online coupon providers. She also compares current, non-expired coupons with the weekly deals. You can sign up for her email service (it's free). She also has tutorials on how her system works.

Also, the four big coupon website are:
1. Coupon.com
2. SmartSource
3. Red Plum
4. PG&E Brandsaver

The first is also an aggregating service, I believe. The others also have inserts in the Sunday paper for those that don't want to install the coupon printer driver on their computer.

A couple of things to note based on my experience. The above-mentioned sources cover about 90-95% of the coupons available (not counting store coupons or promotional advertising coupons); there isn't one website out there with a secret stash of coupons. Manufacturer coupons also cycle every 6-8 weeks. Many times the generics are still cheaper than the brand + coupon.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Food on the Table (has both an app and a website) provides the weekly deals for most major grocery stores (except Walmart and Target). I use them to plan menus based on the food items that are on sale that week.

Couponmom.com is an aggregating service for the main online coupon providers. She also compares current, non-expired coupons with the weekly deals. You can sign up for her email service (it's free). She also has tutorials on how her system works.

Also, the four big coupon website are:
1. Coupon.com
2. SmartSource
3. Red Plum
4. PG&E Brandsaver

The first is also an aggregating service, I believe. The others also have inserts in the Sunday paper for those that don't want to install the coupon printer driver on their computer.

A couple of things to note based on my experience. The above-mentioned sources cover about 90-95% of the coupons available (not counting store coupons or promotional advertising coupons); there isn't one website out there with a secret stash of coupons. Manufacturer coupons also cycle every 6-8 weeks. Many times the generics are still cheaper than the brand + coupon.

This is what keeps me from bothering. I WANT to get into the coupon thing so bad every time my wife tells me about the person in her checkout line that gets 2 carts full of food for $20 but it just doesn't seem possible without dedicating 8-10 hrs a day to it. At what point does it just stop being worth it? This thread has motivated me to give it another shot or at least look a little closer. OMG, my wife just told me about one lady that comes through her line regularly and sometimes even gets money BACK! Buys a cart or two of groceries, uses price matching and coupons and even gets cash taken out of the register and handed to her!!! WTF?

 

[XDLover]

We have done this for years. When we stared it was because we had to but now we just always look. It's a smart way to do things!

 

[WC Deer Hunter]

Food on the Table (has both an app and a website) provides the weekly deals for most major grocery stores (except Walmart and Target). I use them to plan menus based on the food items that are on sale that week.

Couponmom.com is an aggregating service for the main online coupon providers. She also compares current, non-expired coupons with the weekly deals. You can sign up for her email service (it's free). She also has tutorials on how her system works.

Also, the four big coupon website are:
1. Coupon.com
2. SmartSource
3. Red Plum
4. PG&E Brandsaver

The first is also an aggregating service, I believe. The others also have inserts in the Sunday paper for those that don't want to install the coupon printer driver on their computer.

A couple of things to note based on my experience. The above-mentioned sources cover about 90-95% of the coupons available (not counting store coupons or promotional advertising coupons); there isn't one website out there with a secret stash of coupons. Manufacturer coupons also cycle every 6-8 weeks. Many times the generics are still cheaper than the brand + coupon.

We have found that to NOT be true most of the time but YMMV. Most of the time with coupons and sales we can buy the name brand much cheaper than the generic. we always thought the same thing that even with coupons the generic would be cheaper. We used to do our grocery shopping at Walmart exclusively. We tried other places but would spend way more money for the same items. Then we discovered couponing. After learning how things really worked we spend half of what we used to at walmart and we buy name brands instead of generics now. Nothing wrong with generic, we buy them too if we find a good deal on them but like I said YMMV. If it's not on sale we don't buy it anymore brand name or generic either one.

Walmart has the lowest regular price on almost all things and they will price match anybody price, but, they don't run anything on sale as far as groceries go. Kroger and Meijer have great sales and they double any coupon of $.50 or less so that item that was ten cents cheaper at walmart now just became 90 cents cheaper at kroger or meijer. You add that to the sale price and it becomes way cheaper than any generic, but again we don't buy it if it's not on sale, and we try not to buy it if we don't have a coupon too go with the sale.

This is what keeps me from bothering. I WANT to get into the coupon thing so bad every time my wife tells me about the person in her checkout line that gets 2 carts full of food for $20 but it just doesn't seem possible without dedicating 8-10 hrs a day to it. At what point does it just stop being worth it? This thread has motivated me to give it another shot or at least look a little closer. OMG, my wife just told me about one lady that comes through her line regularly and sometimes even gets money BACK! Buys a cart or two of groceries, uses price matching and coupons and even gets cash taken out of the register and handed to her!!! WTF?

It does take a lot of time to do the leg work, but, it's like anything else the reward is worth it at least it is for us. It actually is as good as having a second job IMO. We spend probably 10 hours a week between my wife and I doing it and it has saved us $400-$600 per month on our grocery bill for a family of 6. We started out of necessity when I lost my good paying job and we suddenly were down to my wife's part time income only. I really wish we had figured it out years ago but late is better than never. The only time we've gotten stuff for free was we had some really good coupons for shampoo and conditioner. We ended up getting 26 bottles of name brand shampoo and conditioner for free from CVS and only had to pay the tax which was less than a dollar. It is possible to do but takes time. Some of the above mentioned sites have tutorials that will help you and some of them even spell it out for you how to do it each week. People find the deals and then post what you need to do to get them. It's really very simple once you decide to just do it and dedicate a little time to it.

 

[88GT]

This is what keeps me from bothering. I WANT to get into the coupon thing so bad every time my wife tells me about the person in her checkout line that gets 2 carts full of food for $20 but it just doesn't seem possible without dedicating 8-10 hrs a day to it. At what point does it just stop being worth it? This thread has motivated me to give it another shot or at least look a little closer. OMG, my wife just told me about one lady that comes through her line regularly and sometimes even gets money BACK! Buys a cart or two of groceries, uses price matching and coupons and even gets cash taken out of the register and handed to her!!! WTF?

It takes a ridiculous amount of dedication and time. My time is worth more than I save because I lose more when I spend it on couponing. It's all about trade-offs. What matters to you? It's personal.

We have found that to NOT be true most of the time but YMMV. Most of the time with coupons and sales we can buy the name brand much cheaper than the generic. we always thought the same thing that even with coupons the generic would be cheaper. We used to do our grocery shopping at Walmart exclusively. We tried other places but would spend way more money for the same items. Then we discovered couponing. After learning how things really worked we spend half of what we used to at walmart and we buy name brands instead of generics now. Nothing wrong with generic, we buy them too if we find a good deal on them but like I said YMMV. If it's not on sale we don't buy it anymore brand name or generic either one.

Walmart has the lowest regular price on almost all things and they will price match anybody price, but, they don't run anything on sale as far as groceries go. Kroger and Meijer have great sales and they double any coupon of $.50 or less so that item that was ten cents cheaper at walmart now just became 90 cents cheaper at kroger or meijer. You add that to the sale price and it becomes way cheaper than any generic, but again we don't buy it if it's not on sale, and we try not to buy it if we don't have a coupon too go with the sale.

Brand name is only cheaper IF you can buy the item on sale with the coupon, or IF you can double the coupon and the price differential between the brand name and the generic is less than $1.00.

Change the parameters, change the results. FWIW, my Meijer doesn't double every week.

 

[Butros17]

I get the news paper, with some coupons... where are you finding the great hoards of really good coupons, and wonderful deals? I'm not seeing it here in Evansville with the Courier & Press.

Thanks!

Evansville apparently is horrible for this. My gf and a friend of hers are trying to get into this, and have had a couple of successful small trips, but there just doesn't seem to be the deals you hear about elsewhere.

 

[WC Deer Hunter]

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