I save at least $100 a week on consumable products using coupons and shopping sale, and only spend a few extra hours a week. Unless someone is bringing home $50 an hour from their job, I feel like they can't afford not to coupon.
If people have watched Extreme Couponing, I understand how they might think they don't have the time. That show isn't reality. The couponers I know don't spend 40 hours a week chasing deals. Or at least they shouldn't, if they want to keep their and their family's sanity.
Couponers have jobs, kids, and busy family lives. They know it's well worth the time they spend to save their family money. They don't chase every deal, but pick and choose what works for them. It's not an all or nothing activity.
My suggestions on how to get started:
- Change your thought process. You can make couponing work for you, even if you have a busy life.
- Follow a few blogs and let them do the work of finding the deals and matching sales with coupons.
- Buy a Sunday newspaper for the coupon insert. One per family member is a good place to start.
- Don't think you'll save big the first week you use coupons. It takes awhile to acquire the coupons and learn the ropes.
- Ask questions. The couponing community is the most helpful group of people I've ever been associated with.
Experienced couponers - how much time to you spend couponing?
Follow Coupon STL by email newsletter, RSS feed, Facebook or Twitter.
Posts
I am starting to hold on to my inserts and not clip unless I have time to or need to use the coupon. Between college and a full time job..I have very little time.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this! I've been couponing on and off for many years, but only really got into it after my daughter was born (she just turned 2). To save the biggest bucks, I need to spend about an hour reading the blogs, making my list, and finding and clipping my coupons. For the money saved, that's a great hour spent. I usually only do one trip a week.
ReplyDeleteI would add another tip to the list. Pick ONE store in the beginning. It's easy to get overwhelmed by running all over town, trying to score as much cheap/free stuff as possible, but start with only one store that is convenient for you. Learn the methods and policies there first before expanding to other stores.
And most of all, I couldn't do it without Jeri! (and couponmom.com) Thank you!
I've been couponing about 10 months now, and it does take time to fall into a rhythm that works for you. I spend probably 2-3 hours a week now, but the key is to get organized and prioritize what you need/want. For example, I never pass up a diaper deal, but I won't waste gas running after more cheap toothpaste when I already have 12 boxes in the closet. I'd rather save 50% on things I use than 90% on junk I don't.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate this website (the best around, imho) because Jeri has a common sense approach that saves me lots of money on things I use everyday for a family of 5. Thanks, Jeri! :)
We don't eat processed foods and there are not a ton of coupons for fresh foods, organic meats, etc. So I don't save a ton of money on food expenses. I choose to go shopping with coupons for mostly personal care/household items. I don't shop every week but when I do I spend about a hour to save a ton of money.
ReplyDeleteI still manage to spend between 50-75 for our weekly budget on food and household products. Shopping loss leaders, buying our meat in bulk, etc keeps me in budget.
I do my couponing a bit at a time mostly while I'm watching TV or just hanging around the house, and I have lots of free time to surf the blogs. I would never hear about most of the deals I get if not for the blogs, especially this one! Now that I have an ample stockpile I skip a lot of the toiletry deals and since I only shop for myself I dont do a lot of the large grocery deals, so I mostly just cherry pick the best deals every week.
ReplyDeleteEfficiency wasn't my strong suit when I first started couponing, but once I got the hang of it the time investment shrank to about an hour or two a week. Now it's all on autopilot and I'm able to do most of my printing, clipping and organizing while engaged in other tasks. Keeping tabs on deal blogs via an RSS feed and labeling the dates of inserts with permanent marker for easy reference are two of my biggest time-savers.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Jeri! It takes A LOT more time to start. When I first started, I only did non-grocery items...I'm still benefitting from my entirely over-enthusiastic stock-up on toothpaste, razors and bodywash. Now I know that you can get great deals on these all the time. I also don't clip all my coupons..it took too much time. The only time I really spend a lot of time couponing (more than 2 a week) is when I do a big SNS trip when they're running great cats along with $10 off. Then the savings are well worth the investment. I save time by mainly couponing at SNS, sometimes Wags and LOVE Aldi for my produce and dairy and NO coupons! Eve
ReplyDeleteHi all - Thanks for chiming in on how you make couponing work and the time you spend.
ReplyDelete