Can I complain about another grocery site?

[faeryedark]

Okay.. I have to admit... I am a member of the other site. I found it first and then a friends told me about HCW. The thing that I like about it is it gives you a list with coupons matched up to it... it makes things really simple. My lists from the other site are pretty accurate... I pay $20 for two months for three stores....

I've been looking at HCW and I think it would take me hours to search through the posts and find all the deals for my stores.... I'm in Nebraska and have HyVee, Walgreens and Bakers ( a Kroger store) ... I sooo wish we had a CVS... there is one 45 minutes away.. but seldom get there.... anyway

Maybe I'm missing something with HCW... some ease to the site and getting the deals? Yes, I've seen lists of the stores with everything from their sale ad... but the other site color codes for which are great deals and which aren't... and then a column with the coupon match ups next to them... It makes it quick and simple.... Any suggestions to get HCW easier for me?

Now, their message boards are awful... you can't talk about anything specific for fear that people with "steal" the information... It is just a cheerleading group for the game... so people with say they got 20 pink elephants for $1.50. SO stupid!

I usually check store forums for my fav. stores. Then hit my use Cp to check on any threads I've been watching and then I hit new posts to see what 's going on in the time I've been away. Forme, I find that people who frequent my stores (here's to BBgirl , gettinrevvin, and all the others whose names escape me) keep things pretty upto date on what's free or a really hot deal and where they've Qs (tearpads, blinkies etc.)

[faeryedark]

Forgive me, my typing's bad this AM just getting my caffiene and I can't edit in this forum :(

[MaryMary]

You have to understand -- most of the people who do the trial there have never done any methods to reduce the cost of their grocery bill. I was one of them. I had seen coupons, and I had accidentally stumbled on a bag of free oreos after coupons once in ten years, but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me!

The problem with that site is it leaves you in a state of ignorance.... I was trying to figure out a deal at Walgreens when I found HCW and realized there were other options out there!

So someone who become determined to reduce their grocery bill found THAT site. I'd ask myself: anything else is out there even before signing up for their $1 trial? SD, FW, more? In this aspect I'm more American then someone who was born and raised here () I have insatiable taste in choices, cannot settle for 1-st available, need to find the best or even 'cherry picking' from a few... even if the same deal discussed different sites may have new info not available anywhere else.

[derketchup]

So someone who become determined to reduce their grocery bill found THAT site. I'd ask myself: anything else is out there even before signing up for their $1 trial? SD, FW, more? In this aspect I'm more American then someone who was born and raised here () I have insatiable taste in choices, cannot settle for 1-st available, need to find the best or even 'cherry picking' from a few... even if the same deal discussed different sites may have new info not available anywhere else.

But I didn't know any other sites existed when I found them... seriously. I didn't even think to do a google search until I had been doing it for a few weeks.

[buddysmom]

But I didn't know any other sites existed when I found them... seriously. I didn't even think to do a google search until I had been doing it for a few weeks.

Same here - I didn't know there was so much info to be found. It wasn't until I became disgusted with the regional differences in the lists I was paying for - that didnt match up to my store, and the canned replies when I did question things, that I started looking elsewhere. One thing that really turned me off was the fact that I can pick up a Shoprite ad in my store on a Thursday for the next sale that begins on Sunday. Their lists weren't available until late Monday afternoon. I love it here where we can share deals with each other & help each other out.

[MaryMary]

But I didn't know any other sites existed when I found them... seriously. I didn't even think to do a google search until I had been doing it for a few weeks.

Why not?

[hotcouponmama]

Why not?

There's nothing wrong with finding one spot and sticking to it. Truthfully, when I started with online couponing 10 years ago, I was a member at lots of sites. They were all fledgling then. And it became too much to be posting everywhere, trying to maintain everyone's TOS because everyone did it differently, babysitting posts and my trade requests, etc. The list kind of went on and on.

It took me a few years to get that all the deal info I needed and could handle from a a shopping perspective could really be done in one spot, and if I had to maximize my time online vs. my time in the store with my time in my FT job, that finding a site with the most concise info was critical. So I stopped visiting other sites and settled on one. It's just what worked for me since I didn't have all day to surf 20 different websites where most of the info was being rehashed from one site.

I do from an owner's perspective, find it ironic that now at all the sites I used to frequent, that we're the site where they are getting info from that's being rehashed.

Lastly, sticking to one site, having tracked my savings over 6 years, I found a correlation in the % saved over % spent went higher not racing all over the net and working up a dedicated network of trusted traders whom I could quickly make trades from. It the difference of trading in a spot where you have no reputation vs. PMing someone here and it's like talking to your sister and having her hook you up with something you need quickly. And it's been like that for me for the last 5 years, not just since HCW, by being focused on one site.

Just my 2c!

[MaryMary]

'Nothing wrong with sticking w/1 spot' depends of your personality. As I said, I need to have a variety, often more complete and precise picture gathered by bits from different sites.

[neesie03]

Why does it take so long for the lists to be made available there?:shrug7: Here, the new ads go up and the match ups are done very quickly for the stores that get the most traffic.

[neglectarino]

Okay.. I have to admit... I am a member of the other site. I found it first and then a friends told me about HCW. The thing that I like about it is it gives you a list with coupons matched up to it... it makes things really simple. My lists from the other site are pretty accurate... I pay $20 for two months for three stores....

I've been looking at HCW and I think it would take me hours to search through the posts and find all the deals for my stores.... I'm in Nebraska and have HyVee, Walgreens and Bakers ( a Kroger store) ... I sooo wish we had a CVS... there is one 45 minutes away.. but seldom get there.... anyway

Maybe I'm missing something with HCW... some ease to the site and getting the deals? Yes, I've seen lists of the stores with everything from their sale ad... but the other site color codes for which are great deals and which aren't... and then a column with the coupon match ups next to them... It makes it quick and simple.... Any suggestions to get HCW easier for me?

Now, their message boards are awful... you can't talk about anything specific for fear that people with "steal" the information... It is just a cheerleading group for the game... so people with say they got 20 pink elephants for $1.50. SO stupid!

I understand what you mean because when I first came here, it seemed very overwhelming. But now I do a few things that make sorting through all this info much easier.

Top of the list is I subscribe to the forum for the stores I shop at (Forum tools drop down menu) & a close second is I subscribe to the threads for the weekly circular's deals (Thread tools drop down menu). This way, they are right on my User CP & I can see what has been updated with new posts--I bookmarked to the User CP instead of HCW's homepage so I go right to what's new. It's great with the CVS forum because you can subscribe to individual threads for the weekly sales weeks far in advance & plan accordingly.

Then I just kind of rely on my own coupon filing system & my memory. I file coupons for things I want to use for myself alphabetically by company/product, so it's easy to check the section A for an Arm & Hammer coupon. But if I need to dig through my trades box for something out of the ordinary (filed by category), if I'm behind in my clipping, or if I want to trade for something, I check out the database here (Coupon Resources drop down menu) & see if something exists before I spin my wheels searching for it.

The other thing to remember is you will get better with this with practice & will learn to recognize a great price or deal without anyone else telling you.

And when I first started, I used to rely on a free site's list that matched the coupons to the deals & they would assign a savings percentage (like this was an 80% off & therefore excellent deal versus what looks like a good deal but is only 45% off; & some brands never really get beyond that 45% so you need to recognize when that is the bottom line price even without a huge percentage off). But they often matched coupons that didn't exist in my area or wasted a coupon on a so-so deal when another product in the brand was also on sale at a much better price at the same time. That's where you have to get good at deciding where your own bottom price is & buy then.

It was helpful for a newbie, no denying it, but since there are many free sites that provide that info, I couldn't justify paying for it. I relied on them for a few months, but eventually used them less & less since I was doing better on my own. And I really would recommend using them in conjunction with HCW because they missed a lot of deals that even a newbie like me could spot a mile off & that are often caught & posted in the stores' forums.