How to Save a Ton of Money Using Coupons

US News interviews Ashley Nuzzo, creator of Frugal Coupon Mom. Ashley says she saves around $1,500 a month by using coupons (FYI, she doesn't use all the food she buys -- she donates much of it to charity.) In the piece, she gives her thoughts on how to save the most money using coupons:

What a lot of people don’t know is that you can combine store and MFR coupons. The big savings occurs when you combine the two (especially if they are combined with a sale). If your store takes competitors’ coupons (store coupons from another location, i.e. Home Depot and Publix), you can save even more. I save an average of 70 percent. Last month I saved $1,071.15 and spent $321.27 – a savings of 77 percent for the month. This included my family’s groceries, beauty supplies, cleaning, entertainment, going out to eat, etc. December looked a little different – we spent $711.06, and saved 1,499.07 – a savings of 68% for the month.

My wife does this all the time. The best times are when she gets an item on sale, uses a store coupon, uses a manufacturer's coupon and has a rebate for the item. In these cases, we end up MAKING money on the item. Do that enough times, and you can see how someone saves 70% on their grocery shopping.

Later in the article, Ashley talks about how to use coupons to help charities. A summary:

As you can see in the month of December (where I spent $711 and saved $1,500), I ended up with over $2,200 in products. Can you imagine brining into your home $2,200 worth of groceries each month? My husband and I would not longer FIT in our home due to the abundance of items I bring home. I have no other choice/desire than to donate. I personally donate to our church’s pantry closet. The church meets the needs of less fortunate members of our community and all over the city/county. One example of why I have a need to donate – I estimate in the past six months I have purchased (received for free) 30 regular size tubes of toothpaste. No family needs this many tubes of toothpaste – so we give them away.

Another example is that in recent months, I was able to obtain about 10 free diabetes monitors (each a $60 value) free. Since neither my husband nor I have diabetes, we gave them to others. Some friends of mine use the extra money they save to buy McDonald’s gift cards for the homeless. Another friend uses her “extra” groceries to make care bags, also for the homeless. When they run into an individual they feel could use this gift, they are able to give back.

What a great idea. If you're already taking the time and effort to save money for your own shopping, the incremental time to save on other items is probably very, very small. As a result, it has to be pretty easy to save a TON of money on things you can then give away.

At the very end of the piece, Ashley gives some more general tips on saving money with coupons:

• You can decide how much or how little you would like to invest (time-wise) in your savings. I go to the store and look at shampoo and toothpaste (two things I no longer pay for since I get them free couponing) and I think about how much money I wasted over the course of my life time paying for these. No one should be paying full price for anything.

• Another rule of thumb is you cannot be loyal to a brand. If you are brand loyal you will miss out on many deals.

• You will also not find yourself buying store brand items anymore. With couponing you are able to get the expensive Proctor and Gamble, Kellogg’s, etc. items. All the big money brands you find yourself getting cheaper than the store brand items. Don’t get me wrong, when I am in need of cooking spray and I cannot wait until the next sale, I do go ahead and get the store brand cooking spray.

• The most important thing I want you to take away is to shop the sales and if you can, shop the sales with a manufacturer coupon combined with a store coupon. This way you get items cheap, free, or even make money!

My wife is an avid coupon shopper, though she doesn't take it to an extreme. She takes about an hour or so every weekend to go through the coupons in the Sunday paper, look at the sales flyers from the stores, and plan her weekly shopping. She organizes her coupons in a small file she keeps in her purse and them notes the couponed items on her list. She probably misses out on a lot of deals (we're saving maybe 25% per trip, not 70%), but then again she's not spending 10 hours a week doing this (and we're not buying more than we need which helps Ashley drive up her savings percent.) We spend about $400 a month for a family of four on food using this method, so that's not bad at all.

How about you? Are there any avid coupon users out there? What tricks of the trade do you have for the rest of us?

Comments

[Millionaire Teacher]

I'm pretty new to the couponing thing (about a month now), but I am hooked! I tell everyone I know about it.

The two big things to do if you want to really save on couponing:

1. Start at couponmom.com and follow her lists of deals. It requires registration, but is completely free. Even if your state is not on her drop-down list, CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid, Walmart, and Target are listed every week. You can organize the list in order of price and only pick up the things that are free, etc. After learning what you can there, do a websearch for 'couponing' and whatever state or store you like. Bloggers everywhere have their deals posted.

2. Start shopping at CVS and Walgreens for free. You can use one store coupon and one manufacturer's coupon for each item (even if they are BOGO). Walgreens has a rebate program that is now available online. You can purchase a product with a coupon and still recieve the retail price back in rebates. They will send you a check or a Wags GC (the GC also gets a 10% bonus). CVS and Wags also have cash 'rebates' that print at the bottom of the recipt if you fulfill the requirements on the ad. Be careful of those as they expire.

I've kept up with FMF since I accidentally discovered it in my.yahoo. Keep it up-- you're an inspiration to all of us PF bloggers!

I better go now... Wags is about to pay me to take toothpaste out of their store :)

[Dotty]

Sure - this is a great idea, and I try to do it as often as I can. But my biggest roadblock is the manufacturer's coupons. Where on earth do people find them (aside from in the isles of the grocery store)?

[Millionaire Teacher]

Dotty--

Coupons can be found at many online sites, but the biggest source is the Sunday paper. The $1.50 investment is well worth it.

[It's Frugal Being Green]

I also spend about an hour a week going through the Sunday paper, checking deal blogs, and checking thegrocerygame.com

This saves me about 50% on my average grocery bill and I get almost all my drugstore items totally free.

[Amy]

I love CVS and Walgreens. I have a HUGE stockpile of items that I give to my stepdaughters and sister, and then every other month I donate to a homeless shelter. I've gotten toothpaste, mouthwash, razors, shampoo, conditioner, hair stylers, OTC cold remedies, ibuprofen, hair color, feminine stuff and cleaning supplies for free. I have made CVSing and couponing my hobby.

[MB]

I am still trying to get the coupon thing to work for us. We buy a lot of organics, so it's a big harder. Not impossible, mind you. I often email companies that I buy from and ask for coupons and they usually will mail me some.

A lot of the coupons in the paper simply don't work for what I purchase. Occasionally there will be a coupon for a cereal I buy, but since we have stopped buying foods with High Fructose Corn Syrup, it rules out many things that coupons will help cut the cost of (ie Kellogs, etc).

Also, we don't use mouthwash or paper towels or very many OTC meds or many of the things that you can get the deal on at CVS or Walgreens. Our dentist advised both my husband and I to switch to a toothpaste without silica as it's eroding the enamel on our teeth. So, that leaves us with Toms of Maine or similar. I did find a deal on Toms of Maine toothpaste on www.drugstore.com, but hardly free.

So, although I love to clip coupons and look through the CVS and Walgreens flyers...I have yet to be able to find a significant savings for us. Instead, I have tried to find simple, yet nutritions whole food meals that are include basic, inexpensive ingredients.

Kudos to those who get it to work for them though!
MB

[Ms]

I coupon only for the things we use and do not stockpile beyond a yr's worth. What gets me mad about these people who buy more and then donate is that they are not thinking about other people who may also have wanted the deal. It is hard to visit a store and then see that these vultures have picked the shelves clean. Great, you want to donate more power to you! But what is so neighborly about not considering the trouble it causes to regular shoppers?

If you go to a drug store on a weekday you will see grandma and grandpa roaming the aisles searching for the missing stuff. Shame on these couponers who are pretending to do good when it is not costing them anything but a few hrs a week at minimum wage rate.

[Rick]

Can't help but think of the ethics involved in 10 diabetes monitors being "given away" since they don't NEED them. Wonder if they are taking a $600USD tax deduction for their "charity". The Obama Administration needs this type input.

[Emily]

I tried this for a month and it was way too overwhelming and I just didn't have the time. I work a full time job and have a photography business, but I wish I could do it. It was always a rush to get the freebies. The only problem I have with this mentality is that if everyone got toothpaste and tooth brushes for free, these places would go out of business, so someone needs to pay full price.

[Dotty]

Thanks Millionaire!