Coupons 102: Taking it to the next level

                                            

I bought all this for $23.14! ($26.39 savings)

Some of you have asked how to “do coupons". I recently saw a show on TLC where someone bought more than $600 in groceries and actually paid about $2.60. There was another who bought $5,000 in groceries (in one day) and spent  about $250.00! They each have enormous 3 ring binders to house their coupons and  spend hours combing the Internet for coupons and deals.

This is NOT what we are going to talk about.

You can spend about 15-20 minutes planning your trip and typically save at least  1/3 on your grocery bill. This picture of food resulted in a 53% savings.  Below I will tell you how I do it but I welcome your comments if you have different/better ideas.

Getting Started (at Kroger): Things you only have to do one time

1.  Make sure you have a Kroger card.

2.  Stash or coupons in some sort of container or buy a coupon organizer like this one.

3.  Go to kroger.com and create an account.  (From there, you can load coupons onto your Kroger card automatically….no cutting involved! Just click and load.)

4.  Subscribe to the Sunday paper or ask a neighbor who already gets the paper but doesn't use coupons to set them aside for you.

Before every shopping trip:

1. Go to Kroger.com and click "coupons".
2. “Add coupons” of things you might buy, then “load coupons to card”. Next, “View Coupons” and lastly “Print List".  Click away! You don’t have to use the coupons. Eventually they expire and “leave” your card. No sweat.
3. Now that your “Your Kroger Coupon List” is printed you will notice how nice Kroger separates those items into categories for easy shopping.
4. Look at the circular (online and/or in the newspaper) and write “S” or “Sale” next to any items on "Your Kroger Coupon List".  Highlight the items you plan on buying.
5. Jot down any additional items on your "Your Kroger Coupon List” that you want to buy and are on sale, according to the circular. This is your grocery list!
6. Look in your coupon organizer and see if you have additional coupons for the items.  Kroger lets you “stack” coupons. You you could conceivably have an online coupon, a manufacturer’s coupon, and a store coupon for the same item. That’s really fun because then most things end up being free. Kroger doubles manufacturers coupons up to 50 cent, so a 50 cent coupon is actually $1.00 savings!
7. Paper clip your manufacturer’s coupons to “Your Kroger Coupon List” and go shopping!