How long do you prepare for your shopping trips?

[margiejohnson]

I am trying to prepare for my trip to Target for routine grocery shopping, and feel like I'm spending FOREVER preparing. How long do you prepare for your routine shopping trips?

(I guess it could feel like it's taking forever because I can't help but refresh HCW... LOL! )

[motherofmolly]

it seems alot longer in the beginning. once you get use to things and have your list...it wont take as long.

since i dont have a binder, i organize my coupons via envies marked with store names. that way when i go in the store, i pull the envie and my list to jog my memory.

it will not take long before you can look at a coupon and know what store you will use it at.

[434Teresa]

It dose take longer when you frist start out..now I spend about .30 to a hour on HCW and looking for coupons that I know I could use.

I get my coupons out and make a list most of the time now the night before i go shopping and it takes about 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on how big of a tip I need to make. Most of the time now days its about 30 mintues

[JulieDB]

Depends on the week, where we are going and how much I am buying. Maybe about an hour each week.

I make one list for each store we are going to. Exception would be if I have short lists and am going to more than one place in a day. Example, tomorrow I am going to Costco and then Target. So I have one list with the Costco items at the top and the target items at the bottom. I did not list the Costco coupon items and just put the coupons in the front of my coupon caddy. None of those items are things I need right away and I am not sure how good those prices are. So I will check them before I buy. I may or may not buy those depending on the price.

Normally if I am going to use a coupon I will write (coupon) next to the item on my shopping list so I will remember to buy it.

I tend not to look at the store ads unless I am super bored. I will look at the Target ad tomorrow before we leave. But for the grocery stores I usually do not unless I need a specific item and want to see if I can get a better price than Winco. Winco generally does not put out ads. Exception being new store openings. I now do the bulk of my grocery and some health and beauty things there because they have the best prices. I tend not to use a lot of coupons there because I can usually find better prices on other brands of the same item than I could get with a coupon.

Target is my next favorite store for groceries and for cat litter. They have a better price on cat litter than Winco. Also better prices for the specific cereals that we eat, most of the time. My husband is not picky about cereal so I just get him something cheap. But I will mainly only eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Once in a while I will eat Cap'n Crunch, Frosted Flakes or Corn Flakes if I can get them for a very good price. Since my daughter has a wheat allergy, that really limits her cereal choices.

Our Walmart is adding a grocery section. I am not sure how big the end result will be. They were putting the counters in last weekend. I may take to shopping there, depending on the prices. I have heard that the prices are in fact good and I know they are good on our cereal. They also give overage which none of the other stores we shop at do.

I tend to go to Albertsons out of boredom. There is one in the strip mall where my daughter's dance studio is. I generally don't buy a lot there. I just walk up and down the aisles for some exercise. If I really need something or if I see a good price on something I will need soon I will buy it.

I do not go to the other stores unless they have something that I need and can only buy there, I have specific coupons just for that store, I happened to notice something on ad there or I just happen to be in the area and I need something.

Now that I have a good stock pile, I do not have to buy a lot each week. Now I may buy a lot at Costco tomorrow only because they have a lot of coupons I might use. But usually I buy four or less things there at a time. Mainly my weekly buys are a package or three of meat, bread, produce and soda pop.

I used to do quite a bit of shopping at drug stores. But I rarely go there now. I can get some good buys at Bartells. But I find I don't get such good prices at Walgreens or Rite Aid for most things. I see people posting about Walgreens here a lot. But they must be buying things that we don't.

[farmergirl]

I'd say it takes me about 1/2 to 1 hour per store for prepping. It used to be alot less but I swear pregnancy brain is an actual disease!

[cpaige]

It depends on where my head is. When it's not attached to my neck then it can take forever! BUT, since I'm a mod for the ShopRite forum, I start looking very early on and can start pulling the coupons I'm going to need as soon as I get a glimpse of an ad. When I have to do a big shop (which is once every few months), it can take me a bit longer, so about an hour, if not more since I have a 2 year old always asking me questions or needing something. He just doesn't get it. lol

I generally have all the coupons I know I"m going to use at some point, clipped and in my binder. I'll make a list out, search the db for where some of them are, and then pull them from my accordion folders and clip then to get them in my little notebook that I bring w/ me to the store.

It's rare that I can get everything ready within a half hour though. Usually about an hour or so.

[$Saving!]

You're in the stocking up phase it sounds like And weekly shopping is a huge list and it does take time to do it well.

But once you've stockpiled a lot of the commonly used items, your list gets shorter and shorter and your trips to the store(s) are quick in and out runs.

It's been a long time since I had to start fresh with no stockpile, since we moved here in '93.

So now I'm just a short list shopper, which is wonderful!! I pick off the best deals and I'm done

[thickbluebug]

Preparing as in hunting the deals?
Or making lists and ordering/pulling coupons?

As far as the shopping - I can go into Publix, grab my stuff and ck out and be back in my car in about 20 minutes.

It only takes me a few minutes to pull or order coupons for my deals.
I am pretty efficient at searching my favorite blogs and the threads on here.
Yeah, I get side tracked sometimes.I do hunt online for rebates and coupons too - so it takes me a while when I get side tracked but setting a time limit helps with that.

Found out the hard way that when stuff like coupons and rebates are in tubs, totes, boxes, the kitchen table, the dinning room table and the car - it's too hard for me to work with. I was going through the same stuff over and over just spinning my wheels and wasting my time.

Best thing I ever did was to take a few hours and organize my mess.
Plus I try to stick with my regular threads and blogs when I am prepping, so that saves me from wandering or getting distracted too much.

Thread tools is a wonderful thing.

[ladyeeyore7]

I think it depends on your variables. How much time you have available, what your budget is and how many inserts you have. Since I am unemployed (my hubby says I'm retired, lol) we are on a very strict budget of about $25 per week. There are 2 of us, 2 dogs and a cat. I average about 10-50 inserts a week. So clipping coupons, internet searches for deals and shopping take me about 30-40 hours a week. When I was working and had a bigger grocery budget I would spend about 5-10 hours a week.

[belinda2]

I've been seriously stockpiling for about 6 months and started with a small stockpile. I'm at the stage $Saving has described. I check the ads, do matching using a few websites and couponbase, pull coupons and put into envies per store. It is probably about an hour per store and I am slow. I'm in the land of no doubles and shop 1 to 4 different stores per week depending on their lose leaders. More and more of what I buy is for stockpiling. This doesn't count the time I spend organizing q in my binder, messing around on this website or trading.

There is a pretty serious learning curve depending on the number of different stores in your area. It takes time learning prices and products. Every week there are q for products I am clueless about which is why I've learned not to throw out inserts. It takes time in the beginning finding those products and a specific size. It is surprising the variety of sizes. There is a tiny liquid downy, 15.1 oz and a $1q makes it free. Different stores have different prices, different products, different locations for those products, different sizes and different q rules.

I'm getting faster with deeper savings so don't get discouraged. It gets easier.