The Beginning

My friend suggested I start a blog. I think she just wanted me to stop spamming her with emails. :)

Here's the back story to this blog. In January 2011, TLC aired a show called "Extreme Couponing."  My sister and I texted each other throughout the episode, commenting on how ridiculous these people are, and how they are only buying processed junk. Seriously, no one actually needs 800 chocolate bars or 100 toothbrushes. They all seemed crazy (and not particularly healthy).

But then one hoarder couponer said he was donating some of his bargain finds to a local food bank. Something inside me clicked. What a great idea. I had recently started making weekly donating to a self-serve food bank called Person To Person (Darien, CT) and thought that couponing could maybe help me make larger contributions of their mega high-demand items (i.e. peanut butter, jelly, coffee, and oatmeal).

So I started reading up on how to get started in this couponing business: where to find coupons, when to use them, when NOT to use them, why buying in bulk at warehouse stores doesn't save you nearly as much money as very strategic couponing.

The key is to to use your coupons during a sale. My two local grocery stores, Stop & Shop and Shop Rite/Grade A both *double* the value of coupons that are under a dollar. (Even the ones that say "Do Not Double" if the bar code on the bottom left starts with a '5'!) That meals a $0.50 coupon is really $1.00 off, $0.75 is $1.50 off, and $1 off is, well, $1.00 off.

Two coupons for "$0.50 off ONE item" are worth more than one "$1.00 off TWO items" because in the former, the coupons will be doubled for a total value of $2. Cool, eh?

So my basic strategy was to:

1) Stop throwing away weekly circulars.  Once I started looking through them, I noticed how many of the products I used actually went on sale. Suddenly, my focus changed from couponing for the food bank, into using my newfound couponing skills for ALL my grocery shopping. I am now officially on my mission to cut my family's grocery bill in half.  Since I don't even know what I used to spend on groceries, (I'm guessing it was about $1200 per month or more.) my goal is to spend $600 per month. We are a family of four - two adults, a toddler and a preschooler. I think this is reasonable. We shall see....

2) Started clipping coupons from the Sunday newspaper inserts. I also found several websites where I could print internet coupons. (Never photocopy printable coupons; they each have a unique bar code or PIN and you'd look like a real loser for getting busted for coupon fraud!)
3) Get organized. I quickly realized that sifting though an envelope full of coupons caused me major anxiety at checkout, so I bought a binder and those plastic sheets that are used for collecting baseball cards. Do I take my binder to the grocery store? Yes. Do I look ridicuous? Yes. Do I care? No! In the 8 weeks that I've been couponing, I've already saved about $800!

So that's basically it.  In this blog I will include my grocery lists, track my spending, and share some deals I've spotted.

So welcome, and I hope you enjoy my posts!