Coupon madness

Part of my job, as I see it, being a homemaker is to do everything possible to watch our budget, spend money wisely and make the house run as efficient as possible.  T makes the money and I make sure his money is well spent and saved.  That is why I have become very aware of coupons and the benefits (and challenges) they present.

It may seem easy.  You get the Sunday paper and cut out coupons from the ads.  No problems, right?  Well, not necessarily.  It is a bit more of a science project than that.  There is small print, mandatory quantities, hard to find products and other challenging issues that tend to follow most coupons you will find.  Here are some that I have encountered recently.

Mandatory quantities
It looks like a great deal - $.55 off of a jar of Pace Picante Sauce.  We use this salsa so much it is now a staple in our pantry.  I cut the coupon and look forward the savings.  After a full grocery trip and a full cart, I head to the register with my items and coupons.  The polite, toothless Walmart cashier tells me, "this coupon is for TWO jars of Pace."  Well, what am I going to do?  Hold up the other 20 people in line to go get another jar of Pace so I can use my coupon?  No.  I decide I will hold on to the coupon and use it on my next trip.  In this case, I wouldn't have minded getting two jars since it is a staple in our house.  But I am not going to get cussed out by Jim Bob in line to go get another jar in order to use my coupon that day.  So much for that savings.

Other mandatory quantity coupons 'makes' you buy more of a product than you actually need or will be able to use before it expires.  Be sure to read the fine print thoroughly and make a note on your shopping list of the quantities the coupon requires. 

Even more fine print
I found a coupon for a 'buy one, get one free' Reese Peanut Butter Cup bar.  These are T's faves and I thought I would surprise him with, not just one, but TWO Reese's bars.  While standing in line, I picked up two small packages (the ones with 2 cups in each).  I, then, put those down and picked up the larger bars that have four in each.  Might as well get the larger one for $1 with the second free.  I smiled at my resourcefulness and my thoughtfulness for T. 

Well, no go.  She rings it up and it turns out it is for the smaller packages.  Not only does she not ring up the bars anyway (which is fine), she doesn't offer to grab me a couple of the smaller ones which was much easier for her to reach than for me to reach since I was already past the rack and was having my personal space encroached on by the shopper behind me.  No Reese Cups this trip and no coupon used.

Watch those expiration dates
I am pretty good about this because I go through all my coupons each week I go to the store.  But there are times where I get a little red faced when the cashier graciously tells me that 'this coupon is expired - do you still want the item?'

Sometimes coupons can't beat the generic brand
There are some items that I just can NOT do generic such as Heinz ketchup...it must be Heinz.  But there are some items that I can do generic and can't even tell the difference.  When I put my grocery list together (which I do in order of the aisles at the store),  I note the items that I have coupons for so that I can pull them when I am looking at the product.  Many times I will find that it is less expensive to scrap the coupon for a certain name brand and just go with the generic version.  Coupons aren't ALWAYS good deals.  Coupons are more of a marketing campaign for companies to get you to try their product.  So it doesn't always mean it is the best deal.

Place coupons on the little shelf next to the card machine so that you don't forget to present them to the cashier
And, if you have a buy one, get one free - place it with the product it applies to on the belt for easy collection by the cashier.  It saves them from having to look back on the receipt to find the price to enter for the free one.

Check out coupons.com and other online coupon resources
There are many of them out there and they work just as well as newspaper coupons.  I use coupons.com and eversave.com.  I am in the process of finding more resources as well. 

Don't skimp too much
I am really trying to be very efficient and keep our food budget low.  This means coupons for restaurants and other activities that we can do together or as a family with Tay.  But don't skimp on things where high quality is very important.  In my mind, this would be produce.  I have been so frustrated shopping at Walmart for our groceries.  On the one hand, the prices for our staple grocery items are a lot better than other grocery stores plus I can buy other things for the house, garden, electronics, etc while I am there.  But their produce has NEVER impressed me.  I am changing the way I do my shopping.  I am doing all of my groceries other than produce at Walmart on Thursdays and then doing produce shopping at Sunflower Farmers Market on Fridays.  I am actually taking my first trip their today and will let you know how it pans out.

If you have any coupon suggestions or tips, please leave comments.  I am always interested in money saving ideas!!