How do you decide when to just use the coupon?

[cpnmaniac44]

How do you decide when to just go ahead and use your coupons and be satisfied with the deal you get at the time? Am I making sense?

try to look through all your grocers weekly ads, get in the habit of doing it. Slowly you will remember and recognize which items seem to be on sale often at one store or another. If certain items are not on sale very often then when a sale does come you want to use your coupon. Items on sale alot you can wait, depending on when your coupons expire.
Here is an example for me.
I had 5 coupons for .75/1 Hot Pockets.
Bi-Lo had them on sale for $2.00 and the sale ends March 3rd.
They've been "locked in" at that price for some weeks.
Since I knew I had 3-4 weeks to get that $2 price I was in no hurry to use that coupon. My freezer was pretty full as it was. I used all of them the other day because I was needing other items too. Since we double .75/1 these cost me only 50 cents a box. That is not a sale to be laughed at. Sure we all want it free, and if a $2.00 sale matched up with a triple coupon promotion, they'd be free. But, triples are a rare event around here and as far as I know there were no $1/1 to be saved for a $2 hot pocket sale and super doubles. So bingo, 50 cents a box was a deal and no hesitation using the coupons "now." HT had the same item for $1.99 but no need to use gas to save a penny an item.

Once you get in the habit of looking through all your weekly ads and all your inserts, you'll slowly remember which coupons come out frequently and which items are on sale frequently and you then know whether to use your coupon now, or later.

[SFShopper]

As a PP advised, when u get a good stockpile going, the thinking drastically changes. Recently, we were running low on toothpaste (yeah, 10 tubes is low ) & given that I know that toothpaste hasn't been on cheap/free lately (past 6 months), I jumped at the chance for Crest @ .13/per when Walgreens had there Friends&Family. A MM might come along if I waited, but then at .13 per, I wasn't going to complain & no RRs needed to be involved - I loved it, I was able to purchase to my hearts content on one transaction w/ no worries on limits.

Either way, when you're using a Q, you're saving money it's become a matter of lowest OOP for me now...

[cpnmaniac44]

As a PP advised, when u get a good stockpile going, the thinking drastically changes. Recently, we were running low on toothpaste (yeah, 10 tubes is low ) & given that I know that toothpaste hasn't been on cheap/free lately (past 6 months), I jumped at the chance for Crest @ .13/per when Walgreens had there Friends&Family. A MM might come along if I waited, but then at .13 per, I wasn't going to complain & no RRs needed to be involved - I loved it, I was able to purchase to my hearts content on one transaction w/ no worries on limits.

Either way, when you're using a Q, you're saving money it's become a matter of lowest OOP for me now...

toothpaste in a good example. There is always a .75/1 Colgate coupon out there (or maybe a $1/) or "soon to be in an insert near you". Our grocery stores regularly have it for 2 for $3 and we can double the .75/1. So, toothpaste is an example of something, that for my area any way, you would not need to stock pile, because the coupon and the sale occur often.
You and others may find that toothpaste is something you want to go ahead and get all you can. We like oop of 0.00 for toothpaste but passing up .13 per item may end up being a mistake if you gamble on some last minute sale before the coupon expires. Take all the tubes you can get for 13 cents each (within the rules of each store and coupon etiquette like leaving some on the shelf for others) and run like a rabbit. I find that the only ones where the coupons matches the sale is Colgate and sometimes Crest. The others very rarely do, at least in my area. You'll slowly learn what coupons are frequent and what sales are frequent and you'll be doing it with your eyes closed.

[SFShopper]

toothpaste in a good example. There is always a .75/1 Colgate coupon out there (or maybe a $1/) or "soon to be in an insert near you". Our grocery stores regularly have it for 2 for $3 and we can double the .75/1. So, toothpaste is an example of something, that for my area any way, you would not need to stock pile, because the coupon and the sale occur often.
You and others may find that toothpaste is something you want to go ahead and get all you can. We like oop of 0.00 for toothpaste but passing up .13 per item may end up being a mistake if you gamble on some last minute sale before the coupon expires. Take all the tubes you can get for 13 cents each (within the rules of each store and coupon etiquette like leaving some on the shelf for others) and run like a rabbit. I find that the only ones where the coupons matches the sale is Colgate and sometimes Crest. The others very rarely do, at least in my area. You'll slowly learn what coupons are frequent and what sales are frequent and you'll be doing it with your eyes closed.

I love that "you'll be doing it with your eyes closed" . For me, I don't get double or triple on my Q's -and the last time I'd bought toothpaste, it was .25/per but that was after Q and RRs. At the time, I didn't know about rolling my RRs & that was a lot of OOP. This time, I'd like to think that I bought a reasonable amt on my (1) transaction (only 12) & there was still some left on the shelves AND I was able to pay for my buy with RRs. So, my transaction was pretty much sales tax - yeap, it was crazy, .13 per + .22 tax per - I paid more in sales tax then I did for toothpaste .

And yeah, I've been couponing for about 6+ months now, so... I'd like to think that I have a general idea of what Q's will be coming out, i.e. P&G will always have something every month (meaning Tide, Crest, Charmin, et al...)

[cpnmaniac44]

[quote=SFShopper;2308995]I love that "you'll be doing it with your eyes closed" . For me, I don't get double or triple on my Q's -and the last time I'd bought toothpaste, it was .25/per but that was after Q and RRs. At the time, I didn't know about rolling my RRs & that was a lot of OOP. This time, I'd like to think that I bought a reasonable amt on my (1) transaction (only 12) & there was still some left on the shelves AND I was able to pay for my buy with RRs. So, my transaction was pretty much sales tax - yeap, it was crazy, .13 per + .22 tax per - I paid more in sales tax then I did for toothpaste .
quote]

oooooooooo, our food tax is only 1% so if yours is too, you must have gotten 169.23 tubes of toothpaste
at 13 cents = $22.00 for tax to be 22 cents.

If you can not double, then the $1/1 coupons on Colgate are best for you, and with a 2 for $3 sale = 50 cents.
And using coupons on top of CVS or Walgreen sales and on top of their store coupons, can get you cheap toothpaste. I always get mine at the grocers because I can double the .75/1.

[SFShopper]

[quote=cpnmaniac44;2309702]

I love that "you'll be doing it with your eyes closed" . For me, I don't get double or triple on my Q's -and the last time I'd bought toothpaste, it was .25/per but that was after Q and RRs. At the time, I didn't know about rolling my RRs & that was a lot of OOP. This time, I'd like to think that I bought a reasonable amt on my (1) transaction (only 12) & there was still some left on the shelves AND I was able to pay for my buy with RRs. So, my transaction was pretty much sales tax - yeap, it was crazy, .13 per + .22 tax per - I paid more in sales tax then I did for toothpaste .
quote]

oooooooooo, our food tax is only 1% so if yours is too, you must have gotten 169.23 tubes of toothpaste
at 13 cents = $22.00 for tax to be 22 cents.

If you can not double, then the $1/1 coupons on Colgate are best for you, and with a 2 for $3 sale = 50 cents.
And using coupons on top of CVS or Walgreen sales and on top of their store coupons, can get you cheap toothpaste. I always get mine at the grocers because I can double the .75/1.

I wish toothpaste was taxed as food for me , toothpaste is taxed at a 9.5% for me. I'm so used to all my buys being tax at Walgreens - it's pretty funny after a while...