Nope, not me. I do use coupons, and my grocery store has double coupon days every Wednesday, up to 60 cents. So, I managed to get the kids a couple of frozen Tony's pouches free because I had 50 cent coupons that they doubled. I also got a bag of brown rice free and had a "buy one get one free" coupon for Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, which I use to clean my stove. I also used a $1.00 coupon for a half gallon of milk.

I save $20 or $30 on a week's grocery bill, if I'm lucky. l My daughter, Amanda, can save more than that but she buys more stuff like breakfast cereal, frozen pizza for the kids, lunch meat and snacks for school lunches. Still, she's never gotten a free grocery bill, I think the best she ever did was about $60 on a $150 bill. Still pretty good, but not close to free.

Annie

Fine, but what did that woman and her family eat? No fresh fruit or vegetables, only packaged stuff. Any decent meat or fish, or just sausage and breaded, frozen fish? She spent cash on the good stuff, we just don't know about it.

Sorry, but I don't feed my family like that. Yes, I use coupons for cereal, but I even feel guilty about that, as I don't think there is much genuine nutrition in cereal and it is ridiculously expensive. I use coupons for yogurt, too, and am glad about it.

It's much more important to me to feed my family nutritious food than make a game of couponing. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that my total food budget for a week is not much more than hers, because I cook from scratch. If it's time she's saving with packaged food, I think she'd be better off spending her time cooking than clipping and couponing.

OK, got that off my chest! I'm happy again.

My step sister has really been into couponing lately. She buys a lot of things to donate to shelters and such. A few emails ago I asked her what types of products she was buying. Here is the list of her latest purchases:

18 rolls of Quilted Northern Toilet Paper, 1 roll of paper towels, 1 pkg hot dog buns, 1 pkg (12 pak) of hamburger buns, 4 cans of pringles, 4 starbucks coffee drinks, 3 Sheer Infusion Lotion by Vaseline (normal price is $7 each), 2 bottles Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, 2 Hall's refresh hard candy, 3 cans bumblebee tuna, 3 boxes Theraflu, 4 hershey bars, 8 Glade Candle tins with candles, 2 boxes Zantax (normal price is $9 each), 12 Yardley Lavender Soaps, 1 box of Puffs Kleenx, and 1 bottle of Dawn Dishwashing Liquid. For about $16 total.

She loves Walgreens coupons - they do have some good ones and you can look at the weekly ads, etc. on their website. So, the trick may be to use coupons at all the different stores in your area. Not just the main grocery store where you usually shop. That said, I have yet to go to that trouble but now that I found Walgreen's website, I just may have to, lol.

I used to really use coupons, but that is when the stores here were doubling coupons up to $1.00, & when the item was less than the double amount off, you still got credit for the extra cents. On my coupon day I could get out of the store with $50 of items for $5 or so, but I bought almost only coupon items, none of that was fresh meat or vegetables. Now they only double to .50, & not all coupons are subject to doubling. I can get "maybe" 25% off my food bill, and that is matching the coupons to the sales. They must get special store coupons in her area they don't get here. If it was the same program I watched, she was getting meat, fish & some vegetables. I only use the coupons on stuff I normally use, or would like to try.
I've used Walgreen's rebates before, but now instead of giving rebated in the form of a gift card, they give the refund in store coupons which have a 2 week period to be used. I may not need anything in particular before they expire, or forget to use them.

I do watch the flyers and but the weekly specials but I don't do coupons very often.

I find the coupons are for things I never buy. I'm not a goodie two shoes foodie but I never buy prepared foods, frozen foods, or packaged treats. Seems that's what the coupons are always for.

How come there are never any coupons for broccoli, pickerel, sweet potatoes, flour, yeast and roast pork! LOL

Do not think you're saving by buying stuff with coupons -- stuff that you don't want or need, is NOT cheaper purchased with a coupon!?! The center isles of the grocery store are designed specifically to pull us into whatever is not economical nor is it healthy for us to consume! Don't buy into it! A bit in the pantry to help us through disorganized or unplanned dinners are great, however!

I want to know what they're buying, because I seldom see coupons for anything I use. I'm with Chase in that a coupon for flour, butter or vegetables, I would use, but I don't use frozen Texas toast and pre-cooked bacon.

Today's paper had a thicker-than-usual coupons section. Just out of curiosity, I counted. Here's the breakdown:
4 pages ads with no coupons
6 pages with ads for "collectible" plates, statues and other tchotchkies.
6 for restaurants we never eat at (all fast food)
7 coupons for air fresheners or vairous kinds
6 coupons for pet food (brands that my cat won't touch)
4 for sugary breakfast food (frozen pancakes, sugary cereal, etc.)
4 for "frozen things with breading" snacks
5 for various OTC medications for indigestion, cold sores, etc.
6 for cleaning products (all heavily scented, I note)
2 for "enhanced" eggs
2 for candy
3 for convenience foods (Skillet lasagne, Rice-a-roni, and some kind of ramen noodle thing)
1 for Klennex
1 for pepperoni
1 for hearing aid batteries
1 for Polygrip
1 for pre-cooked bacon
2 for pre-packaged cake mixes

52 coupons, if I count the restaurant ones. Out of all of them, I "might" use the Klennex one, except that it's only 50 cents off THREE boxes, and maybe the pepperoni one since I do like that on pizza. The rest of that stuff, I don't buy.

My grocery bill/coupons are in line with Annie1992, and my store always doubles. I saved $9.50 this week with coupons for McCormick spices, Domino Sugar, Hefty garbage bags, Bounty paper towels, Opti-Free contact solution, etc. Oh, and I bought some brownie mixes so when my son tells me at 8:00 at night he has snack for chess club tomorrow I can hand him the box:) I have coupons for Fleischmann's yeast, Zip-loc bags/containers, vitamins, Quaker oats for homemade granola, etc. I like those brands, so why not?

I spend a lot of $$$$ on fresh produce, but when there's a coupon for Philadelphia Cream Cheese and we use it, I'll coupon.

Cathy in SWPA

Ok, so I am not the odd one out after seeing the program, lol.
Here our local grocery stores double coupons everyday up to a .99cent coupon. It's tough to find a coupon for .50 for one item anymore that can be doubled. The grocery stores have a gas program for evry 100.00 spent .10 off gas. One store you have to buy 100.00 at one time, the other you can accumulate to 100.00
We have no Walgreens around here and being rural the stores are scattered.
I find deals no doubt, use the buy one get one free, 10 for 10.00 program. I can get 2 GE compact flourescent lights for .49 each this week, getting .20 off gas this week.
But still no way to even get over 250.00 of junk food for 1.00. The closest I even came was when I found a wood piece in Campbells Soup in the soup to go. I washed and sent the piece back with the UPC code letting them know they may have a batch problem and they sent me 20 coupons for free cans of soup, no expiration date.
I have noticed that when the Sunday paper coupons come out to wait for 1 or 2 weeks and the items are less than when they come out with coupons.

BTDT, Thanks for your recap! That really validates for me why I can't seem to get on the coupon band wagon. I feel compelled to scan the coupon section each Sunday only to come away with 1 or 2 that are of use to me, saving a total of maybe .50, then trying to keep up with those two coupons until shopping day, then remembering to take them to the store. It just doesn't work for me either.

I don't understand this myth about the center aisles which I read frequently.
Exactly where do you people think the flour, beans, and oatmeal are stacked? It's ridiculous.
High fat unnutritious food is easily found in the perimeters of the store too!

Bumblebeez, my store is like yours. The outside perimeter has the sugared cereal, jelly, catsup, mayo on the west side, donuts, breads, buns and cookies on the East side. Dairy is on the back south wall and produce on the front north wall. I'm told that they put the bread in the last aisle so people won't put it on the bottom of the cart and get it squished.

The center aisles contain the beans, flour, baking supplies, canned fruit and vegetables, oatmeal, cornmeal, juice and cleaning supplies.

However, as has been mentioned, if you buy things you don't need or don't use, you aren't saving money. I raise my own beef and pork, can my own fruits and vegetables and bake my own bread. Starting in May and running through November I get my other produce at a local farm stand. I do have to buy things like milk, butter, flour, laundry soap, cleaning supplies and I am not brand loyal so I'll buy whatever is cheapest, whether I have a coupon or not.

I do have a coupon for Quaker Oats and another for Raisin Bran, both cereals I do eat, and I just got one for $1 off McCann's steel cut oats, another thing I like and use. Laundry soap is a place where I am not brand loyal, again, I buy whatever is cheapest, with or without a coupon.

Heck, I even got a coupon for $2 off a case of canning jars!

Annie

I agree with what others have said. I love the thought of super cheap groceries, but it's always products I don't want. I think the couponmom system involves cross-referencing the store circular (for things on sale that week) with the manufacturer's coupons from the paper/online, and probably going on double coupon day as well if possible. I guess every once in a while that results in some really cheap stuff, and you can stock up. I get frustrated though-- it's time consuming to look through papers and pages of online coupons. I wish there were more coupons for produce and meat. Meat coupons always seem ether like such a small discount/ expensive product that I don't want it, or it's an obscure brand that I can't find.

It kinda seems to me that couponing is similar to gambling. Have you ever met anyone who went to Las Vegas or an Indian gaming casino and lost money? Nope. Everyone always wins, or at least breaks even. It's amazing! Yet, the casinos manage to stay in business, even though everybody wins!

Coupons are like that...if you think you're saving money, I guess you think you're saving money!

Busylizzy:
Take the woman who was on Good Morning America , shopping with you !!!
Tell her you are from Mo zur ah !!! Show ME !!!!!!!!

I've heard that Canned and Frozen foods have the same or more Vitamins than our Fresh Veggies ???
Lou

I think the "shop the perimeter" tactic was valid at one time, but the stores know about those articles, too, and have started shaking up their placements. It started innocently enough with placing cocktail sauce and bay seasoning in the seafood dept and now it's completely out of control -- caramel next to the apples, vanilla wafers with the bananas, "salad topper mixes" EVERYWHERE. Last week I saw cans of refried beans in the refrigerator case next to the Mexican cheeses. More and more stores are putting their "ingredients" in small sections flanked by higher-profit packaged stuff. And manufacturers vie for placement -- which is getting interesting now that stores want to push the house brands because THOSE are the high profit products for the grocery. Most of the items at eye level are there for a reason. $$.

I've heard that inclusion of coupons in newspapers is determined by market region. Clearly I live in a region where people like heavily perfumed everything, eat a lot of frozen breaded snacks, wear a lot of mascara, and have legendary indigestion and constipation. (Probably from the huge amounts of breaded snacks.) Oh, and drink a lot because there are usually a couple of coupons for scotch and rum. And, apparently, they do not bake, do laundry, or eat pasta or beans.

Lou, yes, frozen vegetables are said to be as nutritios as fresh -- partly because they are picked and processed when ripe whereas fresh are usually picked underripe. Probably partly because most fresh has been bred for transport and not nutrition or taste. The information I've seen said canned is a mixed bag because the canning process destroys some nutrients and because of the added ingredients (salts, sugars, etc).

I could never turn into the "Coupon Queen" because we eat simple whole foods for which you find precious few coupons. So I don't pay for expensive packaging and advertisement for my food choices, and find less-expensive alternatives for as many other things as possible.

In order to keep the food budget to $50/week for 2 adults (which is the FIRST and most successful way to save money on groceries- set a spending budget, and THEN make wise choices) -- maintain a large amount of food in storage, as well as following a well-balanced diet using a large variety of food -- I purchase INGREDIENTS, with which I make foods from scratch, and avoid highly-processed convenience foods. I also take advantage of a home garden and all the free food I can gather (end-of-the season gardens friends share with me, free-for-the-picking fruit and nut trees, free berries, free grain....). FREE beats a coupon any day!

I looked at a container of Bisquick Shake & Pour Pancakes ($2 for 12-15 pancakes) at the store recently (it seems to often have a coupon for it in the newspaper). There must be all of 12-cents worth of ingredients in the throw-away plastic container.... (tsk, tsk) I was thinking of all the things I can make BESIDES pancakes from those same few ingredients: flour, eggs, milk, vegetable oil, salt, sugar and baking powder. So the pancake mix isn't very versatile compared to ingredients.

There appear to be more food-related coupons that contribute to the "over-fed and under-nourished" in this country. Even the so-called "healthy" selections are simply over-priced, feel-good items which are ALSO highly-processed.

It's important to remember for every 50-cents saved using a coupon, it's estimated that you also need to spend $2.00. And as my husband likes to point out, the only way to SAVE money is NOT to spend it (but I digress - LOL).

I've seen them called IMPULSE COUPONS. These are the coupons people use to try some new items they may not normally try; things children see advertised on TV and come under the heading of KID IMPULSE COUPONS; and MOMMY IMPULSE COUPONS for makeup, hair-care products, unnecessary laundry add-ins, etc...

That being said, I use coupons, but I normally stack the savings - get double value, purchasing an item that is also a loss leader or otherwise reduced or discounted, and see if I can also take advantage of a rebate.

I purchase groceries from Dillons, Aldi, and Wal-Mart, and bulk items from a number of sources.

To date:
$2,200 total in food budget for the year.
Spent at Dillons: $934.20
Saved: (according to the bottom of the last receipt) $505.78 this year. This is the only store I use coupons.

-Grainlady

Clarified, I have read the "shop the perimeter to get the healthy food" -and I see this over and over in diet and nutrition articles particularly.
In my stores the perimeters contain the deli, produce, dairy, meat and bakeries. So I could buy pork chops, cheese and doughnuts based on this philosophy.
Done venting!

I started couponing about 14 months ago. I use an on-line service that matches grocery and drug store sales with current coupons. I buy three newspapers every Sunday so I have lots of Qs (coupons) to stock up with when things are on sale.

I estimate I'm saving about 40% of what I used to spend on groceries, cleaning products, health & beauty, etc. I could save more but I am pretty brand-loyal on some items (Then again, does it really matter which brand of shaving cream we buy?). Meat is one place where I don't save money - I only will buy from Costco or two or three independent markets in town.

Is it all junk? Some of it is junk, but we have lots of neighborhood kids stopping by, and I'm happy to give them all the Cheeze-Its they want at $.24 a box. However, I routinely find Qs for butter, real eggs, milk, yogurt, plain rice, noodles and pasta, pickles, and occasionally even produce.

The place where I really see saving from Qs is on non-food items. TP - or all paper products for that matter - soaps (laundry, dish, bath and dishwasher), cleaning supplies, light bulbs, deodorant, shampoo and other haircare, dental care (I literally have more free toothpaste and toothbrushes than I can count, so they are going to the shelter in a few weeks), razors, garbage bags and plastic baggies, feminine hygiene, vitamins and OTC medications.

Again, a lot of it IS junk, you just have to wade through it. (I always wonder who really buys all of that Glade air freshener stuff?) Just because those junky impulse Qs are out there doesn't mean you have to use them. Most people who use Qs because they are serious about saving money realize that if you don't want or need an item, it isn't a bargain - no matter how cheap it is (except free, and then you can give it away!).

I had tried using Qs in the past and I was never very successful because keeping things organized was challenging. Now my service tells me what is on sale, what items have corresponding Qs and in which Q insert I can find the Q I need. There is no clipping until shopping day! It takes me about 1.5 to 2 hours to prepare my 3 or 4 shopping lists and clip the needed Qs. I am easily saving over $100 a week. Not bad for a few hours worth of work!

Nicole

I don't even spend $100 a week on groceies. Maybe that's why I don't save anything with coupons. I'm not buying enough stuff! :D

I use coupons regularly (the checkout lady doesn't ask IF I have coupons, she asks HOW MANY I have!) and whittle about $10-15 off my bill. We don't eat junk foods, except potato chips, and I don't use prepared food or mixes since I love to cook. However, I do buy only what we need, have no brand loyalty, and watch for sales so I can stock up. Organizing the coupons is easy--I have a little recipe box with tabbed dividers, and since I use coupons so often, they don't accumulate.

I am easily saving over $100 a week.

I should clarify this. I am saving that much by using the Qs on items that are already on sale. Q usage alone wouldn't save me that amount. Qs probably account for about 30-40% of my overall savings.

Nicole

If I spent $100 dollars a week on food, etc.
My home would look like Walmart's.

I like down home cooking and not too much of the fancy stuff.
If I cooked and ate like some of the cooking here, I would probably be 500 lbs.
Of course some of you have large families to feed ???
Lou

I think it is also a regional/area sort of thing. Where I live, I have no less than 8 supermarkets within a 10 mile radius of my house. So there's LOTS of competition amongst the grocery stores which means a lot of coupons in our Sunday and weekly grocery flyers.

DH and I average 20%-30% in coupon saving on our grocery bill each week, which to date just for this year, we have saved around $1,300 !!!! Hey, that's vacation money in my book!

We don't buy a lot of prepacked food, but we do use and need things like toilet paper, paper towels, toothpaste, trash bags, aluminum foil, dental floss, shampoo/conditioner, aspirin, vitamins, etc...so it does add up! Also, food items like sour cream, butter, milk, eggs, cheese, plain pasta etc.,...it would be nice to make those from scratch but the average person doesn't. I sure don't.

So, when we need to buy those kind of food/household staples, we do use coupons. We make grocery lists and stick to them, and we're only "brand loyal" to certain things.