Coupons

[happy2bg33k]

I find that I'm not very good about bringing the right coupons to the store with me and sometimes end up spending more than I wanted becuase I had a coupon for something I wasn't going to buy anway. Sooo, I bring a portable coupon sorter with all my coupons in it with me whenever I shop.

[barbszy]

Happy, I think we all fall into that trap. I try to only keep coupons that are for things we would use (if I can get them at the right price). I give away coupons that aren't for things I use. My neighbor and I exchange coupons after cutting them out and that has worked well for both of us.

I always regret it when I go to the store without my coupon box.

[mamab]

I used to use coupons, but find that I can save much more money buying the generic brands. We have a Save-A-Lot near us where we buy ALL of our canned goods. You can get them for $0.29-0.35 each as opposed to $0.54 or more.

[cat lover]

I don't use coupons as much has I used to, but that is mainly because I don't have access to them much any longer. I buy generic mostly also and then we grow so much of our own food that we eat. And then I buy things on sale(I hardly EVER pay full price for anything). So I end up not missing the coupons as much as I first did once my access dried up. The few I do get I usually give to my DS's. They can be a great thing if you have access to them and can use them. In our old house friends and I in the neighborhood would get together every couple weeks and clip and exchange. Did very well then because that is when the first "double couponing" started and by exchanging we usually ended up with several really good coupons to double!

[happy2bg33k]

I recently discoverd something kind of interesting about coupons and sales. One of the supermarkets near us seems to have the same items on sale that have coupons in that weekend's paper. I don't know how they manage to do that, they must get a coupon preview or something. But with double coupons it workd out quite nicely if I'm on top of it!

[cat lover]

That is great! I know P&G do that a lot. In fact they will advertise some items on sale and tell you to watch the weekend paper to receive the coupons! Great if your paper carries them. Our problem is that we live in a very rural area and our paper is maybe 4 pages long and comes out twice a week and no inserts because we only have one grocery, and one pharmacy without going almost 40 miles to get to a few more and further to get to what is normally in a regular size city.

[Stephanie2377]

I haven't yet figured out how to properly use coupons. I need to keep tally of what sorts of things would be good to have in the pantry. This way, when they go on sale, I can stock up. I get overwhelmed and end up not using the coupons at all!

[katharina]

I find that I'm not very good about bringing the right coupons to the store with me and sometimes end up spending more than I wanted becuase I had a coupon for something I wasn't going to buy anway. Sooo, I bring a portable coupon sorter with all my coupons in it with me whenever I shop.

I used to have one of those dividers to take to the store with me but not recently. I use coupons once in a while, but most of the time I don't mess with them. That's not a good choice... in the past I did great with coupons but then I just stopped dealing with them.

Matching my coupons with what's on sale was always a great money saver for me. One thing that has become different is that years ago, coupons didn't expire as soon as they do now and you had to buy ONE of most products. Many of them force us to buy more than one now, I've noticed.