Anyone live in the Central Ohio area

[Saving_Grace]

Hello, fellow couponers!

I have used coupons from time to time, but never seriously. Then, well, you know, life happens. I was looking at my budget in disbelief then, voila, I looked at my grocery budget and determined that I would get it down and eat healthy and put money towards my debt!

I have read all the newbie articles on here 5 times, clipped and sorted my coupons (I am still trying to figure out the binder thing) and scoured my local ads. I have been doing this for a few weeks now, but haven't found any great 'deals' yet. I did pay $1.25 a box for cereal, which sounds great until I read over and over again about people not paying for cereal at all.

So here is my question (finally ): could it just be that there aren't many great deals in my area (Columbus OH) or that I'm just new and not seeing them yet? The problem is- I need to get my costs down now! I am almost living on cereal and scrambled eggs now trying to keep my budget down in the meantime.

If anyone has any advice, I would be grateful to hear it! OR (better yet) if anyone lives in the Central Ohio area and would share any deals they've spotted, that would be great!

Bless your heart!

Arianna

[mycouponhunter]

Welcome Arianna!
I am glad you joined and can give you some advice from being a coupon clipper for a little while now. I'm sure others have a lot of advice as well. My advice is when you do find a good sale buy as much as you can so that you have enough to last until the next great sale. Figure out which stores in your area have the best deals. I'm original from OH so I would say your best stores to watch are Kroger, CVS, and Walgreens. Go to these boards look at the advance ads and plan. When there is going to be a great sale they will be talking about it on the boards. For right now be happy with getting cereal for $1 something. Make sure you are getting enough papers or trading coupons so you have enough when that big sale does happen. It takes awhile to learn the ropes to get things near free.

My sister has been doing coupons for about a year now and won't listen to me about couponing and she tells me the other day she's not saving as much as she should be with coupons. Her problem in my opinion is she buys every sale. So she has a pantry fully stocked with food but a lot is food she would never have bought before. For me I don't do this I only buy mostly food I would normally buy.

Feel free to pm me if you have any questions. I can help you if I know the answer.

Virginia

[queenofthehivemomof5]

Paying a $1.25 is better than paying $4.00 for cereal. You just need to have patience, get multiple coupons and stockpile. It does take about 6 months or so to really start saving big time. That gives you time to see the sales cycles and the coupon cycles and build up a stockpile. After a year even better. Just remember that some savings is better than none. The free cereal deals will come along. Just keep at it. And also feel free to PM me anytime if you have any questions.

[manders13]

OP you have a pm :)