Life in the Farm

Free Stuff Friday

It is a common assumption that couponers only get great deals on junky, processed food.  And yes, many coupons are geared to crappy food, but there are lots of ways to save money that don't involve the junk.  I steer clear of a lot of free food or cheap food because it is something that I really don't want my family eating.  (However, sometimes when you can get a Warm Delight for free, you're just going to do it, right?)  But the free/cheap stuff we couponers get doesn't stop at food.  A smart couponer can get just about all of her makeup/toiletries/paper goods/cleaning supplies for free or close to it.  And that brings us to this week's Free Stuff Friday. 

I like to travel.  I like to have a travel sized deodorant.  I don't like to pay for them.  Last summer Nate and I went to an overnight wedding and I forgot my deodorant.  I had to buy one (travel sized) for about 5 bucks at the hotel.  Oh, I was not pleased.  But I digress.  This week Walgreens paid me about $3 to walk out of their store with these...

I used four coupons and there was a Register Reward deal that made them a money-maker.  Sadly they only had the men's version, so these are for Nate.  Or for the next friend or family member who goes shopping in my stockpile!

Free Stuff Friday

This may be my favorite Free Stuff Friday edition, because what I got was not just free, but the store paid ME for it!  :)  Yep, Meijer gave me 52 cents for walking out with a gallon of milk and three kids meals. 

I realize there are only 2 meals pictured, but we ate one right away!  (It wasn't good, btw).  This deal is the perfect example of why I don't try to do couponing on my own...I rely on the bloggers to figure out the deals for me.  First of all, they can put the time in so I don't have to, but secondly, they know about lots of funny little deals that I might not be aware of.  In this case, if you bought three of the kids meals, you got a gallon of milk for free.  I used three manufacturer coupons on the kids meals, and stacked it with a meijer store coupon, and came out earning a little money!  I did this deal twice and gave three of the meals away to a friend who's kids wanted to try them.  I love to share my free stuff!  :)

Sunday night musings

Massive sickness has hit the fam in the Farm.  Bronchitis, to be exact.  Nate and Lexi have been coughing and generally feeling miserable all week, and I finally got a clue and had Nate take the girls to our new pediatrician, who also will see the adults in the family.  (Have I mentioned that I FINALLY ditched our terrible pediatrician and now have one I love???)  They came home with a diagnosis of bronchitis, and I had a feeling I wasn't too far behind.  The next day I too got the diagnosis and some beloved medicine, so I no longer feel like my chest is caving in.  

How Sasha has escaped this is beyond me!  Good thing for her though, because today she got to go to yet another birthday party.  This time, Chuck E. Cheese for a new school friend.  Yesterday she spent a good amount of time writing out on paper and typing into Nate's iPod the names of her friends that she thought might be there.  A  little side note on the whole learning letters/writing thing...  Last winter some of my friends and I did a little preschool one day a week for our kids.  I remember having the kids work on learning letters and practice tracing and writing them, and I clearly remember Sasha having absolutely zero interest in this.  I won't say that this concerned me a ton, but I definitely took note of it, because I have a whole lot of friends who have told me that their kids knew their letters by age two and were writing by age three and are basically geniuses.  Sasha, not so much.  My strategy was to not push it, and lo and behold, she now does letter tracing for fun...Anyway, just a thought for those parents who have kids who are not into letters when the other kids are!

During this name writing activity, I heard Nate explaining to Sasha that the game she likes to play on his iPod, ski-ball, is actually a real life game and she will get to play it at the birthday party.  That struck me as really funny for some reason.  Technologly is already playing such a different role her in life than it did in mine at that age.  Something else that struck me as funny this week was when I was pouring some syrup on Sasha's pancakes for her and she said "Did you get that for free?"  I had to admit that, no, it cost me a dollar for the bottle of syrup.  Sometimes even with a sale and a coupon, a dollar is the best you can get for name brand syrup!   But of course, Sasha was like "Why didn't you get that for free???"  I think I may have set the bar too high in this house for free stuff.

Anyway, even in a not so fun week, there are always good things hidden in there.  Sometimes they are hidden very deep, but they are there if you look!  :)

Free Stuff Friday

Can't go wrong with free coffee creamer!  And free milk is pretty rare, so I must photograph it when it happens!  :)

Coupons - Find a good store

The coupon series continues, because I had a bothersome week in couponing.  (There will be some venting in this post!)  It should have been a good week, because there were some great deals at Meijer and I even had a shopping date with a friend while Sasha was in preschool.  But here is the sad truth about couponing...some cashiers and customer service people don't know their own store's coupon policies AND they think that because we get such good deals that we are somehow scamming the store.  Sorry, no need to scam, because we get amazing deals honestly!  :) 

My friend and I knew that there was a certain store coupon that we wanted to use that was having problems scanning.  At many stores, including the one we were at, "coupon friendly" cashiers were manually adjusting the coupon.  But we happened to run into a cashier who honestly didn't know that you can use both a manufacturer coupon (MFC) and a store coupon on the same item.  And she wasn't nice about it.  It is so hard when this happens, because I could explain the policy until I was blue in the face, but I could tell there was no way that she was going to listen to me, and I had no proof.  I also knew that because I had to pick Sasha up at school, I wasn't going to have time for a lengthy customer service battle.  So I caved and didn't even purchase the items.  My friend is more brave, so she went ahead and did it, with the plan to go to customer service and have them give her the money she was owed for the store coupons.  I ended up having time to stick around and observe the customer service interaction, and the representative there also didn't know the correct policy.  But in the end, just to make us go away, she gave my friend some cash and a whole lot of bad attitude.  It is so frustrating to be treated poorly, when we haven't done a thing wrong.  And it is also maddening because neither the cashier nor the customer service rep learned their own coupon policy and I could go in there the next week and have the very same issues.

Soooo...when I got home, I immediately went online and printed Meijer's coupon policy, which states that you can indeed use both a MFC and a store coupon on the same item.  (It's right here, scroll down the page).  Of course, it also says "unless prohibited" which I knew a cashier who wasn't knowledgeable would point out if I presented the policy to them in the moment.  So I emailed their corporate office, hoping to get something in writing explaining what the potential "prohibitions" were.  No response after a couple days, so I called just before I was ready to go out and try again with the same coupons.  I talked to a few people at corporate and while they all confirmed you can use a MFC and a store coupon on the same item, they said it is totally up the store's discretion in the end.  So any store manager can tell me they don't follow the corporate policy any time they want.  Arrrggghhh! 

I figured the next step would be to actually call one of the stores I shop at and have a manager confirm the policy for their specific store.  I could then write their name down and use it if needed.  I got someone (a team leader, not a manager) who confirmed it, but also left himself a whole lot of room by saying that you can't ALWAYS use a store coupon with a MFC.  I asked what situations that would be and he said "If an item is on sale or something.  Then you couldn't use both."  Once he said that I knew I was talking to someone who was not very knowledgeable and my heart sank.  I ended up shopping anyway and things went relatively smoothly, so there was no need to whip out the store policy.  But in the future, I will have it on hand, and it should help to a degree, as long as the cashier is somewhat reasonable. 

I will continue calling the three Meijer stores I shop at to get confirmation on their policies and I will continue to attempt to use coupons at their stores.  When I decide which store is the most "coupon friendly" I will spend most of my time at that store, although I'm annoyed at all of them right now, so the jury is still out!  But I would encourage all of you couponers to do your homework on your stores.  At the very least have the coupon policies with you, but you might even need to make a few phone calls like I did.  Couponing is not for the weak!  :)  On another note, I don't think I will be posting an example of a receipt.  I was trying to figure out how to explain it in a blog post and I don't feel like I can do it effectively.  Grocery store receipts in particular are confusing to me, even when it is my own shopping bill!  So I'll leave that challenge to Laura!

Coupons - Organization

Anonymous asked how I organize my coupons and I am happy to share!  First: The old way I did it.  I used to get my inserts each week and clip the coupons I thought I would use.  (An important thing to note is that when you are clipping your coupons, make sure you have lined up each page of your inserts so you only have to cut ONCE, rather than individually clipping each insert.  You will save a lot of time that way.)  Anyway, back when I used to clip each week, I spent a lot of time not only actually clipping, but hemming and hawing over which coupons to clip.  Was there going to be a sale soon enough so I could use the $2 Revlon coupon before it expired?  Would I really use the 50 cent Wholly Guacamole coupon?  I took this very seriously and I didn't want to miss a coupon I might need!  Then I would throw out the rest of the insert and file my coupons in my special little box, which went with me on all shopping trips.

Then I decided this took up too much time.  And I also realized that since I didn't clip every coupon, there were many times that something I wouldn't have thought to clip went on sale and I didn't have it because I had thrown it out a month previously.  And so, that brought me to the way I do it now.  Now the first thing I do is take a big black marker and label the date on the front cover of the insert.  (The date is written really tiny on the side, but it is much easier to see it if I re-write it on the cover).  Then I line up my inserts so they are in order for when I want to clip.  Then I flip through it quickly, checking out which coupons are there.  If I see one that ABSOLUTELY for SURE I will use, I clip it and file it in my coupon box.  But most of the time, I just put the labeled inserts in a nice little (okay, big) pile in a drawer in my kitchen.  Then as I am reading the blogs and planning what I will buy that week, I go to my drawer, pull out whatever insert I will find the coupon in I need, and clip it then.  I find that this saves me a lot of time and allows me get more deals than before because I have saved all the coupons, not just the ones I thought I might use.  (An example of this might be a frozen meal.  I don't normally buy frozen meals, so I never would have clipped a coupon for one.  But every now and then, an amazing deal comes around and I can take advantage of buying a frozen, convenient meal for a really low price, and that makes me happy!)

One of the biggest time savers has been no longer doing a ton of filing or searching through the box to find coupons.  In fact, there aren't nearly as many coupons in my box anymore and it isn't necessary for me to bring the box to the store like it used to be, because I usually just paperclip the coupons to my list now.  The downside to this strategy is that I no longer have a massive supply of clipped coupons to take with me everywhere for every possible deal, or for special occasions like a trip to a store that is doubling coupons up to a higher value than I usually get.  But the time saved is worth it for me.

So that is how I do it!  Go to Laura's blog and read a little more on organizing coupons.  She has pictures and everything!  I will answer Anon's second question about posting a grocery store receipt soon.  I had a SWEET purchase at Meijer this morning!  :)

Coupons - How do I Start?

If you are ready to get serious about couponing, you need a mentor!  Laura, from Sharpen Your Scissors, was the first to teach me how to do it.  (And I am still VERY grateful to her!)  I went to one of her classes, and she happens to be my neighbor and friend, so I am a lucky girl.  But I also have a handful of other friends who either already were couponing or were learning along with me, and that was huge.  You need someone to talk to about this stuff!  And it is always good to have someone to shop with and to share coupons with.  Also, try to get your spouse on board if possible.  It will help you save money and I have mentioned many times that Nate is a great shopping and couponing partner!

People always say "How do you do you find time?" and I have to honestly reply that it is a commitment.  I subscribe to a few coupon blogs that I read regularly, I look over the weekly ads, I clip and print coupons, and I plan ahead.  All of this is intertwined into my day to day life, so I can't say exactly how long it takes me, but for me it is fun and it is a challenge, and I would have to meal plan and grocery shop anyway, so I don't think it is too bad.  But once you take the time to seek out the blogs, they will do most of the hard work for you.  For example, Jolynn at Bargains to Bounty does the coupon match ups for my favorite grocery stores.  I don't have to figure out what is on sale and which coupons go with it - she does that for me, in a super easy way to follow.  So each week I go to her blog and as I read her post on the stores I shop, I cut and paste the deals I want to do that week onto a Word document.  I also try to print and clip all of the coupons that I will be using at that time too, since it saves time if you just do it right away.  I might add to it as the week goes on, and then when I am ready to shop, I just print it and take it to the store with me.  Easy peasy.

There are a ton of couponing blogs out there, and when I first started, I was reading WAY too many of them.  I realized it was taking up too much time, so I narrowed it down to three.  I read Bargains to Bounty for the grocery stores, I read Hip 2 Save for drug stores and online deals, and I read Sharpen Your Scissors as well.  The trick is to find blogs that do the stores in your area and where you like the style of how they present it.  Some are more confusing than others to read, so always check out the posts for new couponers which explain the lingo for you.  Oh yes, we couponers have our very own language!  There is a learning curve for new couponers, so don't get discouraged if it takes you a long time to figure it out.  It is well worth it in the end.

Once you find a coupon mentor/buddy and figure out which blogs to follow, it's time to get some coupons!  I only buy one Sunday paper, but to get the best savings, you need several copies of each coupon.  I rely on friends and family members to give me the coupons they don't need, and I use a lot of internet printables.  There are actually a lot of creative ways to get coupons, like looking for the coupon inserts in coffee shops or recycling centers, to name a couple.  Most couponers have friends and family members who don't use their coupons, and they are happy to give them inserts that would otherwise end up in the recycling bin.  People don't know they are throwing away hundreds of dollars!  :)

So, my coupon wisdom in a nutshell - You can save a lot of money, you can do it wisely and find plenty of products you use for cheap or free, and there is a whole world of coupon bloggers to help you do it.  Hopefully I have inspired you start saving some major cash!

Coupons - Too good to be true?

I, like most people, had a few questions about the whole couponing thing before I started.  The first question I had was if one could REALLY save more money using coupons.  Isn't buying generic cheaper?  Aren't you getting sucked into buying more stuff just because you have a coupon?  Those were probably the two biggest issues that I was skeptical about. 

I personally have never had any problem buying a lot of generic or store brand stuff, and I thought that kept our costs down.  I was pretty sure that by buying generic, especially when combined with a sale, I was already paying the lowest amount possible.  I was proven wrong quickly!   I was a little on the arrogant side actually.  I was so sure that by buying generic I was showing that I wasn't so snooty that I had to have brand names, and I was POSITIVE that it was cheaper.  It didn't take more than a week or two for me to realize that combining a sale on a brand name item with a coupon will very often give me better savings.  An example from this week's grocery shopping:  Ziplock bags (yes, I admit I still use these sparingly Hazel!) are on sale for $2.  Doesn't sound all that great, since you could probably get a store brand for $1 on sale.  BUT...this week you can use a store coupon (Meijer) and a manufacturer coupon and they will cost between 45 to 75 cents, depending on which manufacturer coupons you have.  There you go...a better deal on a name brand! 

I have also heard of a few coupon skeptics who claim that they have priced out using coupons vs. buying at a warehouse store like Costo or Sam's Club, and that the warehouse store is a better deal.  I haven't done this myself, but I'll just go out on a limb and say that they are probably wrong for the most part, and that they might not fully understand the great deals you can get with coupons at regular grocery and drug stores.  There are some things that are cheaper at warehouse stores, but most aren't, even though they might SEEM to be.

The second question about getting sucked into buying more stuff is a little trickier.  It IS easy to get pulled into buying more.  In fact, when you first start, you WILL be buying more, because you are stockpiling for the future.  (However, in the end it will save you money if you do it smartly.)  I am constantly asking myself "Is the store or manufacturer outsmarting me?"  And then I make sure they don't.  My first line of defense is to be pretty strict about not paying for things that I wouldn't normally buy and sticking to it.  There are plenty of deals that I pass up because they are on things I don't want or need.  (Can you say break and bake cookies?)  My second line of defense is if I see a great deal on something I wouldn't normally buy, but really want, if I decide to get it, I make sure that it takes the place of something similar on my grocery list.  For example, sometimes you can get great deals on cans of Pringles.  I love Pringles dearly, but never buy them because I would eat the entire can in about 5 minutes and they aren't the best bang for your buck.  But sometimes I can get a can of Pringles for 25 or 50 cents and I decide to treat myself.  That would be a time when I wouldn't get any other type of chips or crackers.  I would have the Pringles replace what I might have normally gotten and then I didn't spend any extra.  

It is hard to have restraint when you are seeing amazing deals on so many products.  You want to go out and get the deal just because it is fun!  Ten air fresheners for a dollar!!!  The good news is that as you become more of an expert couponer, you will get better and better at not getting pulled into buying things you don't want or need.  The exception to this is of course if you can get it free or make money on it.  I am all for getting yummy food I wouldn't normally buy for free or "buying" something that I don't normally use if it actually makes me money in the end.  This happens more often at the drug stores, and again, you have to be careful that the store isn't outsmarting you in the end!

A third question people have is if there truly are coupons on the actual stuff they need, not just junk, in particular, healthier food.  I think there are.  I have found great deals on yogurt, pasta, cheese, meat, cereal, frozen veggies, milk, and produce.  If you look for it, you'll probably find it.  And who doesn't use shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, deodorant, toilet paper, razors, paper towels, etc?  You can get all of that stuff FREE!  My suggestion for seeing all the amazing deals you can get on stuff you need is to find a good coupon blog (I'll give my faves in the next post) that does match ups and see what the deals are each week.  If you have very specific things you are looking for, you might only find a few things each week, but you will slowly build your stockpile. The other thing to consider is that once you start using coupons strategically with groceries and personal care items, it kind of snowballs.  Pretty soon you start learning about and getting the best prices on back to school supplies, clothes, toys, and restaurants.  I have started planning ahead and stockpiling birthday gifts, something I never would have even considered before.  Now I don't do anything without a coupon and a sale!  :)

Next up (and lastly) in the series, how do you get started?

Coupons - The Series!

I've been inspired by anonymous' comment on my last post about couponing, and I'm happy to give more of an explanation of how the wonder of coupons have been a miracle in my life!  I'm thinking it's time for a series!  When I first started couponing, I needed some major hand-holding.  (Some may argue I still need a little help!)  One thing you definitely need when you start couponing is someone who will explain exactly how to do it until you catch on.  Some of us take longer and need a little more help than others!  :)  So hopefully this info will help other people on their couponing journey.  Part one - I will answer anonymous' questions, which were how much do I save using coupons and is my grocery bill lower. 

Since I don't actually pay a huge amount of attention to the financial details in our family, I had to ask Nate what the impact has been.  He said that we save about $200 a month since I started couponing.  Using coupons has lowered both our grocery bill as well as the money that we spend on household and personal care items.  But there is some strategy to it.  I've seen a few people attempt couponing, but never truly get the strategy and it doesn't work out so well.  Then they just give up and say couponing doesn't work.

In my opinion, one of the biggest keys to couponing is the stockpile method.  The stockpile method means that you wait for the item you want to be at rock-bottom price, and then you buy as many as you can to hold you over till the next sale.  This is a completely different mindset than what the typical shopper has.  As far as groceries go, I was never an extravagant shopper before coupons. I would make a meal plan for the week and then buy what we needed, just for that week.  Maybe every now and then we would buy a little something fancy or fun that cost a little more, but I was pretty frugal.  It was such a change when I learned about stockpiling!  When you stockpile the items you use on a regular basis, it is so convenient.  Most importantly, you can be sure that you got the item for the lowest cost possible and you aren't at the mercy of the store's pricing.  When you think about it, isn't it kind of crazy that one day an item you like can be several dollars more than it is the next?  What is up with that? 

The other huge benefit of the stockpile is that you always have items on hand that you use regularly.  I had no idea what I was making for dinner tonight, and one of my friends posted a recipe on FB.  I looked it up, decided it sounded good, and was able to find all of the ingredients in my pantry.  I never could have done that before...it would have required a trip to the store.  Even Sasha has caught on to the stockpile method.  She always knows that when we run out of something in the kitchen, that there will be more downstairs in the pantry (and laundry room, which has turned into stockpile central!)  The other day we used up all our blueberries.  Sasha was sure that it was no problem, because I could just go downstairs and get more!  I had to explain that not EVERYTHING is kept down there!

So to sum up, YES, we save a lot of money using coupons, but there is a strategy to it!  If you don't combine coupons with a sale and stockpile the items, you aren't going to get the best savings.  Part two of my series will answer some of the other questions that people frequently ask about using coupons.

Free Stuff Friday

Mmmmm....another good week for free stuff!  I don't have pictures of everything I got for free this week (or made money on!) but we had a nice little trip to Rite Aid tonight that I have documented.  I am loving Rite Aid these days.  They have this program where you watch commercials (yuck, I know) on their website to print coupons.  I turn the volume down and have the commercials run while I do other stuff.  And then I get store coupons to stack with manufacture coupons as well as a $5/$20 coupon.  Anyway, tonight we got all this for 22 cents!

It's a good thing too, because my stockpile was getting low on hair products and paper towels.  I have never used Tresseme or Infusium before, probably because they are normally 6-7 bucks each!  But for free, I will give them a try!