Feel Like I'm Paying More

[my3monkees]

Wondering if someone can give me some insight. I'm new to couponing, but a long time cheapskate!

I've never had patience for coupons, but thought maybe I was missing something. So I'm trying. I usually do all my shopping at Walmart, but am trying to venture out to other stores for deals. I have discovered I love Walgreens. This week, I went to Tops I had a list and was all planned out. I am trying to build a small stockpile, I don't have room for much. I also bought a few things that are special treat things like Laughing Cow Cheese, since I had 3/ .55 coupons that would double. My total before savings was 251. I paid 167. Most of that was sell items, coupons were only $24 of it. I tried to be careful only to buy things I would use. Not buy just because something was cheap. Only 1 package of meat. Maybe I'm expecting miracles! LOL I want something for nothing!

Does this seem like a reasonable savings for someone just starting out??
Thanks!!

[everprincess]

Take it one day at time. You will notice over time that your bill will go down. I'm so spoiled that I hate paying anything but I know one thing I'm not paying full price anymore. I know I will never pay $4.xx for another box of cereal in my life. Keep up the good work.

[meggers]

Even if you saved a dollar, it was more than you saved before coupons.

It will take you time to build a stockpile. In the meantime, you still have to buy all those things you need. As you find them on sale & stock them at a cheaper price, then you'll start seeing the BIG difference. You did great! You really did.

You might want to consider keeping books on just what you're doing & how much you're saving so that you have something to compare it to in a couple of months. And then you'll see.

And be sure & consider joining the Trader in Training group so you can get the coupons you'll be needing to get that stockpile built. The link is in my siggy, at the very bottom left.

[thecouponclippa]

I know just how you feel.

When I started couponing three years ago, I wanted to pay 0 monies and get TONS of food! I KNEW it had to be possible and I HAD to be doing something wrong.

As it turns out, *I* was wrong. What I did notice, is that I was spending more. Not intentionally, but because I was stocking up on things I knew we could use.

However, because I chose to do it that way, of just stocking up right then instead of slowly, I notice a VERY sharp decrease in my fund output pretty quickly. However, this is NOT the way to do it. Particularly if you're already used to a budget.

To be honest, you should be buying what you generally buy each week, and then using your coupons to grab what is free or super cheap each week. That way you can stockpile slowly and still stick to a budget.

Remember, it's not a race. Just stick with it, and you'll get to a nice stockpile very soon ( most say it takes about three months for a well rounded stockpile.)

BTW: Welcome to Hot Coupon World!

[434Teresa]

My walmart trips use to be $150 every week and that was my cut off point.
Try to hunt down coupons for items you know you are going to buy then you take that money you save and more coupons to stockpile something that you know you will use over the next few weeks. Onice you do this week after week you will soon have a stockpile and you wont have to spend near as much each week. Now I spend $150 every two or three weeks.
I shop at walgreens from time to time but for the most part I stick with walmart and just price match all my other store ads there so I dont put out extra gas money going from store to store.

If you have a krogers you may want to watch for mega sales for I have found that I can stockpile things from there on mega sale pretty cheap and some things free..but you need to learn about your stores mega sale rules so you can save the most. I dont shop at kroger all the time for i have to drive to another town and I think their regular prices are to high.

[amylynne01]

This is one way I've heard stockpiling being explained. I don't follow this rule, but maybe it will help you.

Calculate your weekly grocery budget (or monthly or however much you go shopping).
First, spend your grocery money on necessities for that week (milk, bread, meat, produce, etc - i.e., things that are harder to stockpile).
Then spend the rest of your budget on stockpile items (pasta, sauce, ketchup, peanut butter, rice, etc.).

Let's pretend your budget is $100 a week. The first month, you might spend $80 a week on necessities and $20 on stockpile. The second month, your necessities should go down leaving you more to spend on stockpile. As your necessities cost goes down and you spend more on your stockpile, your overall grocery bill will go down because you're spending less on necessities and you'll find you need to spend less on a stockpile because it's growing nicely.

By doing it this way, you know that you don't overspend your budget and that you make sure you get what you NEED first and then start filling in the holes in your stockpile.

[my3monkees]

Thanks everybody!!!

I like the idea explained by amylynne01. That will help me keep my budget under control. I wish I could afford to stockpile all at once, but I know I can't. I also have to learn to use my coupons more effectively. I had purchased some coupons, and didn't watch the dates close enough. So I had to use several on non sale items as they were all expiring Fri.

I wish I had some of the stores you all talk about. But I only have Walmart, Tops and Wegmans. So I will have to learn to work around them. At least they are all close to me.

Thank you!

[Mama Stu]

Also, keep in mind that it is ok to let coupons expire, even ones that you have purchased. We all have those moments where we traded/bought/begged for some coupon we thought we just had to have and then let some of them go to waste. Sometimes it is better to let a coupn expire than to have to use it when it isn't a good deal.

You don't have to use a coupon just because you have a coupon for something. It took me a long time to convince my Mom of that but I think I finally have her trained

Most coupons come back around. There are very few that I haven't seen again. So, if you have to let one expire, just wait awhile, it will probably be back out again.

None of us stockpiled everything all at once. It started out slowly, with a free or dirt cheap item of some kind and then built from there.

Hang in there, you will get there, it just takes some time.

Welcome to the board, if anyone can teach you how to save money with coupons and build a stockpile, it is these wonderful women and men on this board.

[TiggerToo]

You can also keep track of the sales. Generally stores will have a "revolving door" on sale items. So for instance if the, and I am just throwing this out there, Hunts Tomato sauce is on sale this week for really cheap, maybe a couple/few months down the road it will go on sale again. Depending on your coupons and the expirations dates, if you missed the chance to use them all this time around, hold on to them and wait for the sale to hit again. Keep a log of the items YOU use the most and a listing of when they go onsale/and what the sale is. This will give you an idea of how often the sales come around for that particular item. So you can get a pretty good idea if (when you become a trader on the board) you need to begin stocking up on a specific Q again for a certain grocery product you want or need to get.

[MrsPinecone]

You might want to read this over:

Building Your Stockpile