Grocery Store Cycles

Until I started couponing, I did not know that stores had their sales in 12-week cycles.  For those of you who are new to couponing, or are thinking about couponing, your best deals occur when you can combine a great sales price with a coupon.  Let me give you an example.  Giant Eagle currently has Ken's Salad Dressing on sale for 3 for $5.00, which comes to $1.66/bottle.  Before January, I would have thought that was the best deal ever!  Well, it can get better!  I was able to get coupons that allowed me to deduct $1.00 off each bottle of salad dressing.  Yep!  At the register, I paid only $.66 a bottle (I also had to use my store loyalty card)!

In case you are wondering where I managed to score the coupons, I got them from Ebay.  All total, the coupons cost me about $.25 each.  Even with that cost factored in, I spent only $.91 on a bottle Ken's!  In my book, that is still awesome!

Okay, so what does this all mean?  It means record keeping!  Hiss!  Boo!  Yeah, I know.  I am not crazy about that either, but if it means that I can get my food for a great price, so be it. 

Start by figuring out what things you really want to save on, which means do an inventory of your buying and eating habits.  Also, don't be store loyal, and if possible, don't be brand loyal either.  Next, start a spreadsheet with each spreadsheet page devoted to one item or kind of item.  Make labels for the following columns (You can adapt these as needed, of course):

• Store
• date
• Brand name of item
• Size
• Sale price
• Quantity required for price
• Coupon value (if one used)
• Price (after coupon used)

Each week, enter the information for each item for a couple of different stores.  After a couple of store cycles, you should be able to figure out when a store will have a sale on the targeted item.  It may be different times at different stores.  If you are able to always use a coupon when something goes on sale, then you will know that a coupon may be available for the next sale.  Another thing that I have learned is a coupon tends to come out a couple of weeks before the associated item goes on sale.  That is why it is important to keep those coupon inserts.  Happy record keeping!

Extreme Couponing - The TV Show - Revisited

*** Gripe Session Alert! ***

When TLC started it's Extreme Couponing (EC) show, I was excited, and I hoped that I might learn a few things since I am still relatively new to couponing.  Wow, was I wrong! 

If my impression about couponers came only from the EC show, I would think that couponers were a greedy, sneaky bunch who, overall, are crazy!  One of the couponers said that her addicition to couponing was like an addiction to crack or crystal meth!  Oh my!  I wondered how a supposedly sane person could make a stupid comment like that!  Another couponer told her almost adult son that she was buying cereal that she knows he doesn't like but she is buying it because she has a coupon for it.  On top of that another one of TLC's ECers is being investigated for coupon faud.

In the real world, the majority of couponers are honest.  They take their couponing seriously, but  they care about people.  The honest couponers also do not clear the shelves, and they give a lot of their free items to those in need.

Because of the crap that some of the EC couponers are doing (like cleaning shelves and causing problems at the check-out) and getting so many things for free, stores have begun to change their coupon-related policies which are starting to hurt the honest couponers who have no intentions of buying $1000+ of food at one time, and spending just a few hundred dollars.

I am now boycotting that EC show.  Additionally, I have emailed TLC and told them that in my opinion, their situations are false.  Apparently, since stores get some publicity, the stores suspend their coupon policies for the extreme couponers appearing on the show.  Sorry, but that is not fair. 

Okay, sorry for ranting, but I am upset that TLC has made couponers look like wackos.  My next posting will be back to normal!  :-)

All You Magazine



Image of May issue.



In my last posting, I mentioned All You magazine.  If you have not seen this publication, it is a couponer's dream come true!  The magazine is available through limited sources.  The first is Wal-Mart, and the price is somewhere between $2.30 and $2.50 an issue.  Inside each issue are subscription cards (the irritating ones that fall out when you open the magazine) that allow a person to order the magazine for a year for $1.69 an issue (plus $ .30 for postage and handling).  However, if  you go to Amazon.com, you can get a two-year subscription to All You for $1.42 an issue. 



Index showing coupon product,
value, and location.



Each issue of All You is packed with coupons!  The May issue contains coupons valuing a total of $85.32!  What's more is that this magazine provides an index of the coupons which provides the product name, the value of the coupon, and the page of the magazine where the coupon is located!  How great is that?!?!?!?!



By the way, these coupons are good ones.  Some of the ones this month include $1.00 coupon for Advil or Thermacare, $1.00 coupon for Colgate MaxClean toothpaste, $1.00 coupon for Marie Callender's Bakes, and $1.00 coupon for White cloud Ultra Bathroom Tissue.

There are also coupons for clothing stores.  For example, the May issue contains a coupon for Catherines for $10 off on a purchase of $25 or more.  That's a 40% savings with just that coupon!!!!! 

Next time you go to Wal-Mart, take a look at the magazine.  You can easily find a copy on the racks close to the registers.  If you coupon, this magazine is a great tool!

Maximum Prices Paid for Products

After I started couponing this last January, I noticed that I mentally started developing price points that I would not exceed for certain products.  For example, I use Colgate toothpaste.  During my first coupon deal, I managed to get a tube of toothpaste for free!  I thought that was just one of the most amazing things that I had ever done!  Okay, so now you know that it does not take much to make me happy these days!  :-)  Anyway, little did I know at the time, that getting a free tube of toothpaste was something that I could do quite often.  Since January, I have "purchased" five tubes of toothpaste (none are travel size), and I have paid nothing for them. This week, I will get two more tubes (6 oz) for free.  In fact, I think I will actually be paid $1.00 for each tube to buy them.  Now that is amazing - being paid to buy something for free!  If you are wondering how I will manage this common feat, it is simple.  For example, this coming week (5/1/2011), CVS has Colgate toothpaste on sale (using one's Extra Care card) for $2.77 with a limit of two tubes per person.  For each tube, I will use a $1.00 coupon that I will clip from the May 2011 issue of All You magazine, which is told at Wal-Mart and Amazon.com (I'll do a posting about that magazine in a few days).  That coupon brings the price down to $1.77 per tube.  Since I will have the cashier scan my Extra Care card, I will end up getting back $2.77 in Extra Care Bucks (ECBs).  That brings the price down to $0, and gives me $1.00 of extra buying power at CVS.  When you coupon, you have to re-arrange your thinking when it comes to calculations for free things.  When I purchase these tubes of toothpaste this coming week, I will actually pay $1.77 per tube plus tax, but I will get back the ECB for $2.77, which I can use on a future purchase at CVS.  Of course, by using your Extra Care card without the $1.00 coupon, you can get the toothpaste for free; you just will not get the overage.

With that explanation out of the way, below are just a few products with the maximum prices that I will ultimately pay:

Toothpaste:  $0
Men's body wash: $0 (I donate this to a senior citizen's group)
Manual toothbrush: $0
Dental Floss: $0
Shampoo (full size): $ .50
Conditioner (full size): $ .50
Hair Color: $2.99
Sprite (2 litre bottle): $1.00
Blood glucose monitor: $0 (I donate this to a senior citizen's group)

As I said, these are just a few things.  Gas prices continue to rise, and that will impact the price of products.  Therefore, my maximum prices may have to be adjusted slightly, but not much.  :-)

Gang Cutting of Coupons

I just read an article about "gang cutting", which is a term that I had not heard before today.  Gang cutting occurs when many coupons are stacked and cut out at once.  Many times, people will purchase several copies of the Sunday paper in order to get multiple copies of the coupon inserts.  Some coupons gurus recommend the purchase of a Sunday paper for each member of the family.  Let's say there are five members in your family, so you have five papers that results in five copies of each coupon insert.  To save time in cutting out the coupons, people will separate the pages of the inserts and stack the like pages so that when one cuts out a particular coupon, the person is actually cutting out all copies of that coupon.  That process is considered to be gang cutting.


I have put the link to the article below, but the end result, according to the article, is that gang cutting of coupons that you then use at the store may result in the store not being reimbursed by the manufacturer for the cost of the coupons.  To still be able to use coupons and still have the store be reimbursed, coupons simply have to be cut individually.  Since reading that article, I have gone to some of the websites of coupon gurus.  Needless to say, there is a lot of debate as to whether or not the gang cutting issue is real.  I definitely do not have the answer

For most people, it will not be too much of a problem to cut coupons individually.  It will just take a little longer to get the coupons ready.  Please keep one thing in mind.  The stores where we use coupons are in our neighborhoods.  The people who work there may be our friends, neighbors, or relatives, and they work to make a living just like you and I do.  Thus, if cutting coupons individually instead of gang cutting them means that we are being supportive of the local stores, then do it.  Be generous.

Gang Cutting Article

Know the Comparison Prices!

Today I bought toilet paper.  For those individuals who know me, I know you are laughing right now!  Okay, so I like stockpiling toilet paper!  Hey, at least I have a lot of it, and I am a definite source of entertainment for my friends because of it!  LOL!!

I digress.  :-)  In the past, I would have just driven to Sam's Club and purchased the 36 roll packages of the stuff. That is not always the best way to go, especially if you have a coupon.  I buy Scott bath tissue because I have a septic tank, and that particular kind of toilet paper is septic tank friendly.  With that said, the 36 roll package of Scott bath tissue is currently $21.98 at Sam's, which is $ 0.61 a roll.  At Rite Aid, the price this week for a 12 roll package is $7.99, which amounts to $ 0.66 a roll.  Stopping there, it looks like Sam's has the better price.  By using a manufacturer's $1.00 coupon (which you can find on the Internet), the Rite Aid price drops to $6.99 for those 12 rolls, which makes it $0.58 a roll, a savings of $0.03 cents a roll.  However, by also using a $1.00 Rite Aid Video Value coupon for the Scott bath tissue, the price now goes down to $5.99 for the 12 rolls, making the price per roll about $0.50!  If you want to get down to square feet, the Sam's Club price for 3772.8 square feet is $0.0058/square foot, and the Rite Aid price after the two coupons have been deducted amounts to $0.0047/square foot!  To make the Rite Aid deal even sweeter, the $7.99 price counts toward this week's special of buy $30 dollars of specified products and get back $10 UP, which is the Rite Aid cash equivalent certificate that prints out on the register receipt.

For those who are wondering about the video value coupons, these are coupons that are available on Rite Aid's website.  You watch a video, and after it is over, you have a a very limited time span to key in the given code in order to claim the coupon associated with the video.  If you watch all of the videos in a given series, you get a bonus coupon.

This Week's Purchases (Week of April 10, 2011)

Today, I completed my shopping at CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens.  Below is the complete list of the things that I ended up with.  I thought about separating the items according to store, but decided against it since in the whole scheme of things, it only matters that I saved money.  In front of each item is the quantity that I purchased of that particular item.

1 - Gatorade G-Fit Series

4 - Finish Gelpacs (20 count box)

2 - Finish Jet Dry

2 - Lysol Neutra Air Sanitizing Spray

4 - Air Wick Freshmatic  Ultra Automatic Spray Refill

2 - Wet and Wild Lipstick

2 - Garnier Nutrisse Nourishing Color Creme Hair Color

2 - Garnier Fructis Style Body Boost Volumizing Gel

2 - Old Spice Body Wash

1 - L'oreal Vive Pro Shampoo

1 - L'oreal Vive Pro Conditioner

1 - Essence of Beauty Antibacterial Hand Sanitizer

1 - Visine Original (with bonus of 30% more)

3 - Betty Crocker Cornbread and Muffin Mix

6 - Nestle Butterfinger Eggs

1 - Russell Stover Caramel Egg

The total cost of these items were $94.65 (without sales tax), but I did not pay that much.  Based on rebates, coupons, store rewards cards, and cash-equivalent register certificates, I ended up paying only $28.95 (without sales tax).  That is a savings of 69%!  Granted, it is a far cry from the individuals on the Extreme Couponing show, but I am very happy with the savings that I managed to snag this week.  The one thing that I really need to emphasize is that the 69% savings is based on the sale prices of the items.  If I looked at the regular price, the savings would be so very much greater!

One of the other great things about this week's haul is that I am going to put the two containers of Old Spice Body Wash (which ended up being free) into the donate box that will soon go to the local organization that assists area senior citizens.  Always be generous!