Hello! What's YOUR Plan of Attack?

[Diddley]

Hello! I'm not exactly 'new' here. I've been lurking on these boards for a while. You all have such great tips and tricks, I often feel like I don't have much to offer being a newbie and a bit of a 'slow learner' in these sorts of things.

So I've just been 'absorbing'. *Grins*

But I've noticed a lot of similar threads from newbies. And the standard answers are great. Checking out local forums, getting started with websaver, gocoupon, save.ca etc....

I have a question regarding 'personal finesse'. The next step if you will. So I've got the coupons, and I need the groceries. What are your 'fine tuning' tricks? How do you plan your trip?

I see some sort of Master grocery list. Preferably in Excel. A column for standard prices, another for sale prices (You could enter them from the circulars) and then one for coupons you have. Something that would auto-total all that you've selected/entered. But.. I'm no good at excel, and I can't make that work.

Of course I could do that manually. Seems like it would be a good hour of work, but worth it if the savings were decent.

Am I over thinking? What do you do in prep for your grocery shopping? I'm not referring to Extreme Couponing mind you. I'm not expecting the 'I have a room in a wall with a city's worth of coupons inside'. I mean, great if you do! But, I have a 15 month old. Momma's got no time for hidden wall-rooms.

Would you be willing to share your secrets?

Whats your plan of attack?

[tommygunn]

Welcome to the board!

[aoffman]

Hi! My '2nd' step that I've been working on is a spreadsheet. Items listed down and stores listed across the top. I fill in the prices. Hi-light items I have a coupon for. That is as far as I've gotten.

As I mentioned in my welcome post, I'm a programmer. I've started a 'pet project for my coupons. In the end it will be a place to input my coupons, then flyer deals and have it auto-match the two up.

[vibrantflame]

Welcome! I am nowhere as organized as that. I just write out my shopping list of what I need and where it is on sale (if it is), then I look through my coupons to see what matches up. When looking through the flyers, I also take note of anything that is on sale for a really good price that I think I might have coupons for, and then check.

[user-id]

Welcome to SmartCanucks!

........................

[Diddley]

Aoffman: I love the idea of a spreadsheet. I'm trying to do that.. but it's slow going, since I'm terrible at those sorts of things. Yours sounds cool though!

Vibrant Flame: This is sort of what Im muddling with now. I need to get more organised! Ive started my coupon binder, and am faithfully looking at flyers now. I just have to figure out when the inserts come in the paper.

Tommygun and User-id: Thanks! :D

[batata]

welcome!

[MercuryBlue]

I basically just go through the flyers and see what's on sale, and if I have a coupon for it. If it's a good sale, I buy multiples.

When it comes to stacking (whether items are on sale or if I just need to use up coupons before they expire) I check the LD website for prices, then I put together all my stackable coupons. I put the coupons in an envelope and on the outside of the envelope I do the math (Item price x number of items purchased. Figure out tax on item. Subtract coupons from total item price before tax, add the tax to the total). I take the envelopes to LD with me, and hand them to the cashiers... makes things go much faster and I know if they've made a mistake.

[kimzcouponz]

I start by writing out my list of what we need for the week. I then turn to my flyers and look to see what is on sale and make a note of that. I price match most of my groceries so I am not driving all over. I will then turn to my coupons and pull any ones out that I can use.

I am also needed to make a spread sheet to get more organized as I would actually like to see how much money I am actually saving.