Hi lovelies!
If you were like me, I knew nothing about couponing and I paid full price on almost everything! I used to go grocery shopping and cringe at the checkout counter once I saw how much I spent. Now that I have a family I was determined to cut costs wherever I could. One of my coworkers suggested couponing. I ran with it and have been able to consistently save 45% off of my grocery bill. I also want to add, even though I'm able to save a lot I'm still buying great products not junk. It's also important to buy in bulk if something you need is on sale. If you do this you end up saving money down the line too. I wanted to share some tips with you all. Right now I'm going to focus on two stores that I shop at the most. Those would be Pick N Save (formerly known as Copps) and Target.
Pick N Save (formerly known as Copps):
You should sign up for their rewards card (don't worry it's free) you can either do it online or in the store. Since I have an active 9 month old baby I decided to do it online! I signed up for the online card in minutes. A perk of the online card is that at the check out you just need to type in your phone number and your card will pop up. Also if you do the online card they have eclips which is store coupons that you can clip to your card. That way you have the coupons already on your card before you even get to the store! After you sign up for the card they will start sending you their weekly ads and monthly paper coupons. Now you're ready to shop the ads!
On Wednesday, I usually receive the ads. Wednesday and Saturday are the best days to save. I should also mention that Saturday is double coupon day ( for manufacturer coupons). I look through the ads and see what the deals are for the week and what I need to buy or what I plan to buy in bulk. I then look to see if there are eclips coupons I can use on products. I clip all the coupons I think I might use. In part of the ad they also have paper store coupons you can use. On Pick n Save's website they also have a tab that says manufacturer coupons that you can print. Please note you can use a manufacturer coupon and a store coupon on one item. I then start my list. I'm going to give some examples:
They had a sale on Starbucks Coffee! Originally it is 8.99 each bag. It was on sale $5.99 each. I then eclipped a coupon that said $2 off Starbucks coffee when you buy two. In addition I printed a $1 off coupon that they had on their website. I ended up paying $8.98 for two bags! Basically buy one get one free. This is also an example of buying in bulk.
Here's another example that is still going on if your children are still in diapers. In the weekly ads there was a coupon buy Huggies Snug N Dry Diapers Box (60-112 count diapers) for $18.99. It's originally $25.99. I cut out the coupon and then if you go on their website you can eclip a $2 off Huggies coupon. My daughter is a size 2 so it ended up being 104 count. I ended up paying $16.99 for a box of diapers! That means I saved $7! Make sure to read the fine print, it says limit one with card. Make sure to take advantage of this deal before it expires!
One last example! There was a sale on Giovanni Rana Pasta and Sauce 2/$7. There was a eclips coupon for $1 off. I then took it one step further and went to Giovanni Rana's website and printed their coupons. They had a $1 off their pasta and $1 off their pasta sauce. I ended up paying 2/$4. I saved $3.98! I also may add it was delicious!
Pick N Save also has Friday Downloads! One item absolutely free! Making Fridays even more awesome! On Friday you go on their website and download the item from eclips. They usually have this item in the front that says Free Friday Download. This week it was a bag of Smartfoods Popcorn.
They also mail coupons to your house. Usually specific coupons each week you can use. They send about a months worth at a time. There are two items per week. One item is free if you spend more than $35 dollars and the other is discounted if you spend $35 or more. This week it was a free roll of Kroger's paper towels and 9 cents for a can of Del Monte veggies. The best one I've seen so far was a free 12 pack of Big K soda if you spend $35 or more.
And there you go! You might think geez that's really time consuming! But once you do it a few times it becomes quicker and easier. I really only spend 30 minutes making my list and clipping coupons. Not bad for a result of almost cutting your grocery bill in half! Feel free to comment with any questions and I'll help ya out! Look out for my next post I'll focus on Target.
~baninners~
