Couponing in the sticks

[USlawdisp]

After doing a tad of reading through the forums, I can't help but wondering one thing. How well does this work when you live in a relatively small town with a very slim selection of stores? I can totally see how the saving can/will really pile up living in a bigger city/metro area.

For example, here where I live, the two biggest "big box" stores we have are Dollar General and Wal-Mart. Many of our smaller stores do take coupons, but as for double and triple coupons, that's non existent in my parts. I wouldn't have any problem traveling to the city once a month (maybe 2X a month at the most), but I would have to see a substantial savings to make it worth my while as I live approx an hour and a half from the city. Also, it would be an all day excursion for me as I'd have a whole lotta shopping to do LOL.

I'm sure I'm not the only one here at HCW that lives in a rural area and has ran into this. Any hints, tips, and suggestions would sure be appreciated.

[hotcouponmama]

I live in a big city, so I can't help much, however, the other HCW owner lives in a rural Wyoming community with an Albertons and a Walmart. And she does very well for herself with coupons. Her userID is queenofthehivemomof5 so you should search for some of her posts and check it out. She's got a family of 7 and does her shopping for something less than $400 a month.

[orchidofpurple]

I live in a town with WalMart, Safeway and RiteAid we should be getting a Walgreens early next year.

What I do is work the best deals I can with those stores. I do make a lot of trips for good sales and I tend to do multiple transaction. I also will make a trip to a town with more stores if there is a great deal that I have to get (like diapers).

The best part of being in a small town is that there isn't as much coupon competition so you are don't have to fight for the deals that are available to you.

[crouton]

Originally Posted by USlawdisp After doing a tad of reading through the forums, I can't help but wondering one thing. How well does this work when you live in a relatively small town with a very slim selection of stores? I can totally see how the saving can/will really pile up living in a bigger city/metro area. For example, here where I live, the two biggest "big box" stores we have are Dollar General and Wal-Mart. Many of our smaller stores do take coupons, but as for double and triple coupons, that's non existent in my parts. I wouldn't have any problem traveling to the city once a month (maybe 2X a month at the most), but I would have to see a substantial savings to make it worth my while as I live approx an hour and a half from the city. Also, it would be an all day excursion for me as I'd have a whole lotta shopping to do LOL. I'm sure I'm not the only one here at HCW that lives in a rural area and has ran into this. Any hints, tips, and suggestions would sure be appreciated.

I'm in between 2 small towns with an average population of 10,000. We have a Piggly Wiggly, Pic N Save, Freds, Dollar General, Family Dollar and Rite Aid. My dh works out of town so he hits the CVS and Walgreens for me and Walmart if we need it.

I didn't think anyone in my town doubled either, but I found out Freds doubles on Saturday and the Pig doubles up to .50 every day. That was a surprise. Just check out your local stores and see what the policies are. You may be surprised.

I may not get to the level some of these ladies are with the limit on stores and the gas and time to travel to other stores, but I do know that just shopping sales and using the few coupons I have has made a difference in just 2 shopping trips!

I would say for the local stores, find out their policies on coupons. Get their sales flyers and shop the sales. Build up some savings based on those sales and use that money to plan a big all day trip to the city maybe every 2-3 months. That's what I hope to do, but right now the savings are getting fed back into the food money envelope.

[secros]

Do you have any of the drugstores like CVS, Walgreens, or Riteaid? I live in the sticks, too. In the nearest town, 8 miles from us, I have a CVS, an IGA, a Savealot and a new Super Walmart. In the next larger town, 20 miles from home, I have a JayC (affiliate of Kroger and runs some of the same sales a week later), a Super Walmart, a CVS and a Walgreens. My best savings are at CVS, followed by Walgreens. About three or four times a year, I get a really good deal at the JayC or IGA. (This week, the IGA is running the $5 wyb 10 Kraft items and I have a couple of the free Kraft singles coupons from Parade a couple of weeks ago.) No double coupons here. I get frustrated sometimes because my savings are not what others on the board are. Then, a great deal will come along and I get excited again. I was visiting family in a city nearby when the great Crest Pro-Health deal happened at Walgreens last month and I was able to do the deal 5 or 6 times. That motivated me and got me going again.

With the price of gasoline so high, I combine trips to the farther town as it is rarely worth the price of gas to drive there for just the coupon savings. I run to Walgreens or JayC when I'm already over there for church, doctor's appointments, etc. Dh works in that town, but I don't have the heart to ask him to run coupon-savings errands for me. (He works long hours and I am SAHM so I hate to ask him to make another stop when his long day is over.)

Short answer, yes it is worth it to coupon in the sticks. Oh, one more thing, o get the best coupons, find a coupon clipping service or buy a big city newspaper. I get the Chicago Trib at our IGA store and the coupons are very good in it.

HTH,

Sandy

[lmsandt]

i was actually just wondering about this myself as i just started to look at using coupons heavily today... getting the newspapers are what i was wondering about i try really hard not to spend money on sunday and was worried i wouldn't be able to get a paper any other day.... anyone have any experience w. getting the sunday paper the day after or anything

[biggins]

I live in a small town (about 300 people) & have to drive 1 hour to 1.5 hours to hit the bigger stores. I think it's definitely worth the trip as all the small stores nearby are very overpriced. One day I go in one direction, next time I go in another. I hit almost every store I pass.

[derketchup]

if you are limited in both the number of store and the number of trips you can make each week, a price book will probably help a lot -- that way if you have a need item, you know what the true regular price is, and whose regular price is better.

[CoveredinGrace]

I live in a moderately-sized town (20,000), but even I drive 45 minutes to Pittsburgh to get good deals a couple time a month-the larger the town, the better the doubles and triples are b/c there is more competition amongst the stores.

I remember living in a small town and I can assure you that if you plan your deals well (read the forums here to know what works and what doesn't at the stores you're planning on hitting), it can totally be worth the gas to make a trip to the city! In small towns, they tend to price gouge more than others b/c they can. Sad, but true.

Also, I wanted to add that even though I don't live in a big city, I think it's totally worth it to buy the big city's newspapers. I buy Columbus and Pittsburgh, b/c they are the best coupons for our area. The local paper had "Save $50 in coupons" on the front of their paper this week, the Pittsburgh one (.50 more) had over $500 in savings in it!
So I think just as important as travelling to get deals is to buy the bigger city's newspapers each week.

[lmsandt]

my problem is i can't get the city papers here... we are a decent size town but no big city papers come out here... any ideas beside the gas station