What's A Coupon? (Part 2 of 2)

Alright I am going to talk about part 2. If you missed my part one on my couponing look here: What’s A Coupon?

So moving right along. The real question is HOW. The real trick is to get the items that you want to purchase when they are at their lowest price point. So each store item has a 12 week cycle where the product will hit its highest price and its lowest price. The key is to buy the items at their lowest point with coupons, and not to just buy one item… purchase MANY at one time. That way when you run out of something you can go ‘shopping’ at your own home. Makes sense right? Because who wants to run out of something and head to store to buy that ONE item when it’s at its highest price point? Not me! Also if an item goes on sale and I have a coupon I will buy it if I don’t really need the item at the moment, but I know I will in the next few weeks. Still making sense?

So how do I figure out what items are going to be great deals?

Well I take the ads I get from Tuesday and Wednesday’s mail and figure out what coupons match with what items. And I only get what I need, unless it’s free then I’ll take it home and put it in my bin for the food pantry.

Example: So lets just say Boxed Cake Mix is usually $3.99, but this week it’s on sale for $1.99.

So you find your coupon that is $1.00 off a cake box and now the cake is only $.99. Ok so you paid $.99 vs. the usual $3.99, wow 3 dollars saved! Well it can get better my friends.

(This is the confusing part but I promise once you do this a few times it will be easy breezy).

Lets say Jewel is running a Catalina deal at the same time (Catalina’s are the coupons you get after your recipe prints out at checkout) and this deal is: purchase 4 boxes of Cake Mix and get a custom coupon for $3.00 off your next order.
Oh how awesome this deal just got.

So…. you purchase 4 mixes at the sale price of $1.99 because that meets the CAT requirement = $7.96




BUT you have a $1.00 off coupon for EACH box =$3.96. (yes you got a coupon from your paper and printed out 2 coupons from coupons.com, and your mom gave you her paper 2). :)

So now you check out and you get a coupon for $3.00 back which makes the total deal $0.96 for ALL 4 boxes, that makes it $.24 for each box.

Breakdown:
1.99 x 4 = 7.96
(-1.00) (-1.00)(-1.00)(-1.00) = 3.96
PAY 3.96 and get $3.00 back = .96 for FOUR boxes of Cake Mix

Now think about it…. If you were to only buy that ONE box because it went on sale you would pay .99. BUT since you use coupons and ‘stocked up’ on this low price, you get FOUR boxes for $.96! Now when you go to bake a cake, you don’t need to run to the store because you already have a supply at home. Brilliant? I think so.

Now who wants cake?!

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Alright so you don’t want to figure out the deals on your own. No problem! There are sites out there that TELL you the upcoming deals. Remember when I mentioned Jill Cataldo? She posts all the deals on Monday morning on her blog. However, the deals she posts are only good for Monday-Wednesday. Well I shop at Meijer/Jewel and those deals run from Thursday to Wednesday. So I followed Jill’s deals I would only have 3 days to shop. So what I’ve been trying to do is figure out the deals on Wednesday night and shop on Thursday when the deals start (so that the items are in stock and ready to be purchased!). Jill has a HUGE following and if you see a ‘free’ deal on her blog, forget about getting that deal unless you go to the store on Monday morning when the doors open. (Or at least around McHenry County that’s what I have noticed). So for ME trying to do the deals on my own is better, and then on Monday I can check and see if I missed any deals.

Confused yet?

The world of couponing can be very overwhelming. I remember when I first started out. I had my coupons in hand, my scenarios ready and I was so excited! Then I went to pay and nothing lined up as I planned and that deal cost me more time and money than I had wanted. I've come a long way since then but I still make mistakes. The idea behind these past 2 blog posts is to help make it easier on you! There will be frustrations along the way but if you stick to it, you'll be amazed at the deals that you can get! Pay for floss or toothpaste.....never again! :)

If you have ANY questions please feel free to ask, I am more than willing to try and help out. Or if you need help to get going, like I said, just ask!

Happy Couponing! And if you score a great deal, be sure to let me know!! One of my best friends just jumped on the coupon train and she called me after her first coupon use... she saved over 50%!!!

xox m.