A question to all you braggers

[mgji2009]

Hey Everyone,

I am fairly new to this website, but not new to using coupons. I use a few every time I shop, but only end up with a savings of between $1.00 & $10.00 at the most per time. Our grocery bill every two weeks can be near $400-500.00!!! This includes diapers, picking up odd things throughout the weeks, etc. but it is still WAY too much. I want to know how you "braggers" do it. I have looked at some of the posts where you are spending nearly nothing on things that would normally cost an arm and a leg. I just don't get it. Most coupons stay limit of one per product, or family, and I am just in shock how you all save so much. I am dying to know all your secrets. Please share any helpful hints!

I know this may be in the "wrong" area, and if it is, I'm sorry. I wasn't sure where else to put it.

[momofkali]

Do you have a London Drugs near you.
They allow you to use more than one coupon per item as long as each coupon has a diff UPC.

Also keep all your flyers and price match at stores.

I am working on lowering my grocery bills too.

[carlyincanada]

If your in the East, we can't stack here like in the Western provinces! Sigh! (except RCSS with in-store coupons & manufacture coupon you can!)

Takes awhile to build up your coupon stash, but worth it! I do smaller shops & use $10-30 worth of coupons & PM at WM or Zellers.

I also try to stock up on the sale items such as this weeks NF deals! Egg creations $1-1coupon! =free! Catelli garden select pasta sauce $1-50cent coupon, Tetley Tea $1-$1coupon on bottle!
Same for laundry soap, RCSS had Sunlight Green Clean on sale for $3 (awhile back) & I had $2 coupons! so $1 each & bought 6-7 & now I'm set for a few months until the next great deal!
Just a couple examples for you I don't buy it unless it has a coupon is my other trick! LOL

[mgji2009]

Thanks!

I live in Alberta. The stores that I normally shop at(because they are really the only ones in my town) are Sobeys, Extra Foods, WalMart, and Canadian Tire sometimes when they have really good deals on paper towel or toilet paper and stuff. The only drug stores we have here are Value Drug Mart, and Guardian. They send out coupon books every so often. Do some stores allow you to stack coupons regardless of what the coupon actually says? (ie. one coupon per product)

I try to use a coupon whenever possible, and I am trying to build my stash up as well. I try to always buy the types of products that I have coupons for, but I find that sometimes it can be difficult when I need to do a total grocery trip. I try to look through the sale flyers and meal plan based on what is on sale and what I have coupons for, and if there are in-store coupons it's a bonus. (I hate that Extra Foods no longer shoes what coupons they have each week on their website!) but I find it hard to always base healthy meals on sales, ya know?

[thecountess]

The biggest thing for me has been to think ahead and buy what I need before I need it.

When we buy things because we need it (we're right out of it) we are at the mercy of the stores and end up paying what they feel like charging us. I always buy non-perishable items when they are on sale cheap and I have a coupon, often times you can get it free or a quarter of the regular price.

It's pretty hard to justify going back to paying full price for everything when you're used to getting deals like that.

[Woofy]

The biggest thing for me has been to think ahead and buy what I need before I need it.

When we buy things because we need it (we're right out of it) we are at the mercy of the stores and end up paying what they feel like charging us. I always buy non-perishable items when they are on sale cheap and I have a coupon, often times you can get it free or a quarter of the regular price.

It's pretty hard to justify going back to paying full price for everything when you're used to getting deals like that.

I do the same. I always buy non-perishable items when they are on sale cheap, with coupons.

The only downside with that is I now have a year's supply of toilet paper, kitchen towels, and all kinds of household goods. So, storage can become an issue!

I also have close to 3 to 4 month's worth of diapers for my baby, and he is not even out yet!

Stockpiling can get addictive, so gotta watch it!

[thecountess]

I also have close to 3 to 4 month's worth of diapers for my baby, and he is not even out yet!

[julyprincess]

I also have close to 3 to 4 month's worth of diapers for my baby, and he is not even out yet!

..you are funny!

And yes, I too have baby lotions/shampoos that I found on sale and saved them for my SIL who probably won't need it until 6 months from now.

mgji2009 - It can be tough in the beginning as I too saved $1-$10 every bill and thought that was a lot!!! Overtime you will realize that you end up buying only those brands that you have coupons for...do trades, build your collection of coupons and pretty soon you will cut down your bill each week.

[blondiemib]

I am still relatively new as I started last year in December. I was spending between $200-$250 per week for a family of 6 before I started on this website!! The first few months I didn't know if I was actually making a difference because it felt like I was spending more and not getting my essentials because I used all my funds to stockpile. So I started keeping track of my savings ($$ I used in coupons). NOW, I've got a huge coupons stash, proof to myself that I'm saving about $100 in coupons alone each month, and I have 1 chest freezer, 1 apartment sized freezer, the freezer above my fridge, my fridge, ALL my cupboard space and I've started shelves in the basement, all FULL!!!! I LOVE it! It is all stuff I will use and BEST OF ALL - my weekly grocery bill is now $75-$100 OR LESS!!! (except for this week cause I stocked up at NF and spent $170 this week which is still LESS then I was spending before!)
Keep at it and listen to the fantastic tips! It is totally worth it!!

[patiofurniture1f]

save.ca
gocoupons.ca
cash for kids coupons on shelfs now, save for later,
ask paperboy if you can buy extra smartsave coupon books...
check out the great posts here, whats on sale where and what coupons to use
Wow $500 every two weeks...you need to spend more time here reading posts, depending on what you eat, this week catelli pasta sauce is on sale for $1 at no frill, add a bad of healthy harvest pasta that was on sale for $1 awhile ago, with save $1 off coupons attached, so free....add a salad on sale for $1.00 , Hamburger, mushrooms or cheese and a little more money and you have dinner for less then $5 for 4 people,

[camera_mom]

I've noticed my savings more in the diapers/wipes area. I've just started collecting the grocery store coupons so the grocery sales will start.

Before I would wait til I was almost put of baby products and buy from the local store if it was on sale or not because well I kinda had to. Now I keep collecting baby coupons and when I see a sale I buy huge.

A couple of weeks ago SDM had pamper wipe containers on sale 2 for $6. I used 2 $1 coupons from www.save.ca and got them for $2 each. I bought 6. The same week SDM had the refills pkgs from Huggies on sale from $10.99 to $5.77 and I had 3 save $0.75. So I bought 3. In Diapers they had a sale from $27 for a box to $21..I had save $3 coupon and used the special promo of save $10 (because I spent over $40 in baby stuff total).

So in one trip I used all of my diaper/wipe coupons, spent $55 (taxes in) and got over $125 worth of stuff. I wont have to buy wipes for a few months and hopefully I will be able to find another diaper sale in the meantime to get another box.

I know you don't have a SDM near you but I bet yours stores have baby sales and if you stock up just once or twice..yes it can still be a dent in the wallet my $55 purchase as opposed to $15 every week but it's so much better in the long run.

[kerrylj]

I have to say that my tricks include buying on sale with a coupon, staying ahead of what I need and in some cases switching my 'preferences' if I can get the similar thing cheap.

I know that I generally stay ahead of the stuff I need in many areas, not just the food. If I see a good deal on socks or shoes and I know my kids will likely need then I will buy ahead and usually off season. A perfect example of this is I got a bunch of shoes and sandles at the end of the season at walmart on for $3-5 each. (my kids are teens so these are men's shoes). They were all regular $30-$50 each. I bought 10 pairs of various ones and I paired for all 10 pairs what I would have for one had I needed it right then. I have a bin of new summer clothing for my guys in the attic I got the same way end of season.

The stockpiling thing works if you have the space to do it and can keep it organized so that you don't later find stuff that is a year past date and growing legs. I know for me keeping a balance between stocking up and having way more than I can use is an ongoing struggle. Mind you I then donate or give stuff away if I know I have went overboard and I make my donation $$$ stretch too.

For me one of the other big savers is to look at what we are eating and if I can revamp out diet so that I am making more things from scratch and using up things as they are in season. Like I would not likely plan to serve a fresh fruit tray in the winter since the fruits are pretty expensive now and/or shipped from who knows were. Instead I would make something that is bakes and warm using up the frozen fruit I put in the freezer when it was on sale in the fall (I got apples for $1 for 4lbs in the fall and put some down in the freezer for winter. It was a great deal and this way I was able to extend it)

I know I have found that using the various points programs has also helped me. I have airmiles, HBC, SDM, Sobeys points, PC financial and aeroplan and all of them have gotten me rewards I can use to make a bigger dent in my budget. It takes time to get the rewards and I may only redeem each once a year but it is easily an extra $100-150. yr just from using the programs and shopping for the normal stuff. It all adds up if you can avoid the temptation to spend more to get points that are not worth the extra cost.

If possible use price matching and coupons and then shop at a few stores. Walmart and zellers both will price match (PM) but if I can get the item at zellers I will because they give me points for shopping there as well. With Zellers they have a card called SPC. It is offered once a year in june/july for buying a subscription to Lou Lou magazine. It gives you 10% off most things at various stores including zellers. It is awesome because then I can PM and get an extra 10% off and points. I get many thing free or close to it if I can PM then there.

Also start collecting and trading coupons. Collecting them for you own use and trading them so you can get some coupons that you do need and will use. That can give you access to coupons that you may not be able to get on your own.

As for the time it takes to do this. It can take some time but I know for me the time I spend doing it pay dividends in the savings. Lots of people cite that it takes too much time. IMHO if it takes too much time to use a coupon you have to much money anyways. LOL

[amandamck]

It's true you might not see the difference the first month or so but once you start stockpiling it makes a huge difference. I'm set now for the year in detergeant, pasta sauce, pasta and meat. I'm pretty good for the next few months in cereal. I used to spend about 120.00 a week for 4, now it's about $80.00. If i could send my teenage son somewhere else to live i'd be laughing. Just don't get trapped buying things you normally wouldn't. Do you need 20 glade candles, not unless your gifting them. A coupon is only good if you use their product. Keep at it, it will pay off.

[daisybear]

I agree with above posters, get ahead on the items you need every week when they are on sale and trade for the coupons you know your going to be needing.
I always buy Busy Bones for my dog, she gets about 2 per weeek. They are 3.99 each I have traded like a mad man and only use 3.00 off coupons so I get them for 1.00 each which would have saved me $208.00 per year on dog bones... for most of them I bought them when they were on sale for 2.79 saving me $312.00 per year plus in most cases the cashier actually credited me the difference with a potential $21.84 in profit!!!

For diapers I would suggest stocking up on diaper coupons and take a trip to a town with a london drug and stock up. One of the 'out west folks' should be able to help you with this.

[SmackUTwice]

GREAT question, GREAT thread, GREAT answers.

I can't even think of anything I can add, lol!! Everyone has had awesome answers and seems to cover everything I'd say, lol.

This coupon thing takes a bit of practise and time... no one is "grading" you tho, haha... and it is SO SO worth it.