A shout out to the people I love!!!!!!!!

[tranquilmama]

I'm so glad I found this forum. You ALL have helped me save on groceries and I'm so grateful!

I paid 11.01 today for:

6 swanson stock cartons (not the broth)
8 muir glen organic soups
2 california pizza for one
2 cascadian farms spud puppies
4 glade oil warmers
6 v8 sweet red pepper soup cartons
1 family pack of western cut pork ribs
1 pkg of chicken breasts
(the meat alone totaled almost $15!)

I could have paid a couple $$ less but I messed up with rolling my cats. As my husband says, it's okay to make mistakes. My savings have more than made up for it.

My dh is so thankful for all the money we've been able to save in the past 2 1/2 months. It's amazing because I'm paying literally pennies on the dollar and our pantry is FULL!!! I've used all my cats up but have a bunch of free and bogo glade q's left to start up again. My freezer is full of stuff (a little room left in the upright freezer) and like I said our pantry is full.

I love GE and I love couponing. I DON'T CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK WHEN I SHOW UP WITH A TON OF Q'S!!!!!!! I am paying 10% at most of shelf price!!!!!!

[trendylittleangels]

I totally agree with you, I love this website!!! I was doing my couponing before, but now I often save 95% + on my orders. I think it's wonderful that we can all share deals we have found that most of us would have missed. I know without ya'll I wouldn't have ever known about the glade MM that we've been doing!

[sagesonamabuster]

That is amazing. I am still new at this and my OOP is very high.

[pittsburgh24]

That is amazing. I am still new at this and my OOP is very high.

most of us only buy what's on sale LOL (and what we have coupons for)

[neekyme]

I noticed my OOP was high when I first started couponing, because I didn't have a stockpile yet. So not only was I stocking up on items that had a good sale/coupon, I was still buying my normal groceries. But now, over the past few months, I'm seeing my food budget spending get lower and lower. Because now it's mainly just buying needs (milk and bread, or produce) and then buying whatever is super cheap that week, or that Giant Eagle is paying me to take out of the store LOL

I'm probably still spending more than I 'need' to, but it's all to build that stockpile. So next time my kids want soup or pasta, I don't have to worry about paying full price, because I have a cupboard full of it that I got at a good price :-) Same with Eggos, the entire bottom of my chest freezer is Eggos lol

But at least now I know that when my DH gets laid off for the winter, we won't have to worry about our food bill. Other than milk, bread, and eggs, we probably could go several weeks without having to actually buy any food if something would happen and money wasn't there for groceries. Maybe longer after thinking about what all I have stashed everywhere! And who knows what kind of winter we'll have...if it's a bad one, I won't have to worry about taking the kids out in the snow since we have almost everything we need here.

And I'll never have to worry about having a stinky house with all these darn Glade plugins....Is reverse shoplifting illegal?? lol

[CrazyforYeshua]

That is amazing. I am still new at this and my OOP is very high.

The best way to get started: Make sure you have a few weeks worth of coupons before you even start. That way, you should have pretty much all categories covered.
If you have a food budget, this works better, but as long as you know the amount you have to spend on groceries, it will work.
We have all been raised in the mindset of when you go shopping, make a menu and buy what you need. That is actually wrong. You look in the flyer, see what's on sale, and make your menu based on that. When you buy your "needs", which you are only going to buy based on what's on sale, and you have coupons for, you will find you will probably have money left.
With that leftover money, you are going to start your stockpile. If cereal is on sale, and you can get it cheap, buy what you have the coupons for. If it turns out to be 8 boxes, then you're good on cereal for awhile. Then you go on to the next sale item, and do the same thing. As you build your stockpile, you have to buy less every week, and that's how you start saving more money.
As your stockpile goes down, you just have to replace what you have used.

[pittsburgh24]

I noticed my OOP was high when I first started couponing, because I didn't have a stockpile yet. So not only was I stocking up on items that had a good sale/coupon, I was still buying my normal groceries. But now, over the past few months, I'm seeing my food budget spending get lower and lower. Because now it's mainly just buying needs (milk and bread, or produce) and then buying whatever is super cheap that week, or that Giant Eagle is paying me to take out of the store LOL

I'm probably still spending more than I 'need' to, but it's all to build that stockpile. So next time my kids want soup or pasta, I don't have to worry about paying full price, because I have a cupboard full of it that I got at a good price :-) Same with Eggos, the entire bottom of my chest freezer is Eggos lol

But at least now I know that when my DH gets laid off for the winter, we won't have to worry about our food bill. Other than milk, bread, and eggs, we probably could go several weeks without having to actually buy any food if something would happen and money wasn't there for groceries. Maybe longer after thinking about what all I have stashed everywhere! And who knows what kind of winter we'll have...if it's a bad one, I won't have to worry about taking the kids out in the snow since we have almost everything we need here.

And I'll never have to worry about having a stinky house with all these darn Glade plugins....Is reverse shoplifting illegal?? lol

LMAO "reverse shoplifting" - gotta love it!

That's true, as the months pass since I started couponing the HCW way, I spend hardly anything for groceries.

I actually was able to prepare food for over 100 people using my coupons and stockpile and my sister only had to put out a little oop for the graduation party. A friend at another site saw my menu and laughed - she coupons a lot in CA and knew exactly which coupons I had used to buy the food and soda.

The economy is really getting bad - I was at Shop N Save today for a 2 day sale (was also there yesterday) and couldn't get over how many people were there shopping - the cashier in the parking lot was ringing up full orders LOL. Usually, there's only a line at the lunchmeat counter - yesterday and today, there were lines everywhere and it was hard to find a parking spot.

[neekyme]

I actually was able to prepare food for over 100 people using my coupons and stockpile and my sister only had to put out a little oop for the graduation party. A friend at another site saw my menu and laughed - she coupons a lot in CA and knew exactly which coupons I had used to buy the food and soda.

We did the same thing for my DD's 2nd bday, it's Memorial Day weekend, so with all the M-day sales, we had a great cookout for about 15-20 people, and hardly spent anything OOP. We saved enough that we could afford to go out and buy a new grill for the party even! We had frozen burgers and hot dogs for months afterwards, and I still have leftover pop! I even gave away a ton of vlasic pickles and salad dressing to everyone lol

And I'm seriously thinking of taking a shopping bag of glade plugins back...but telling them to keep their money LOL Just put them back on the shelf for me to buy again and I'll be happy :-) Ok...not serioulsy...but I wish I could!

[pittsburgh24]

We did the same thing for my DD's 2nd bday, it's Memorial Day weekend, so with all the M-day sales, we had a great cookout for about 15-20 people, and hardly spent anything OOP. We saved enough that we could afford to go out and buy a new grill for the party even! We had frozen burgers and hot dogs for months afterwards, and I still have leftover pop! I even gave away a ton of vlasic pickles and salad dressing to everyone lol

And I'm seriously thinking of taking a shopping bag of glade plugins back...but telling them to keep their money LOL Just put them back on the shelf for me to buy again and I'll be happy :-) Ok...not serioulsy...but I wish I could!

Normally, we'd be broke for weeks after buying food for a party - now, it's a breeze.

I wish they would stock more of these - I've been finding 2 or 4 at a time every couple of days. The one good thing is that we know the deal will be going on until 11/9.

[sagesonamabuster]

Thanks for the advice guys. Every little bit helps!