Coupon Hacks: Combo-Moves for Cheaper Carts
Crissy Thompson of Gainesville, Georgia has turned saving on household and grocery shopping into something of an art form, often buying a week's worth of groceries for her family of five for. . . $10. Crissy's biggest score to date was at Target. Her total bill was over $380 and she paid 2 cents. Yes, 2 cents. How does she do it? Crissy's basic tips are after the jump. To really maximize savings, you'll want to apply these in combination for a combo-move. And I think it goes without saying, if you are saving on items you aren't going to use, you aren't really saving at all.
The best deals on produce are often to be found at the local farmers' market.
Match coupons with store circulars to maximize savings.
Understand the lingo. One coupon "per item" or "per purchase" is not the same as "per transaction."
Crissy's combo-move: "Most local grocery stores will let you buy only one item and get it 50% off. If you pair a coupon with that (most grocery stores double coupons up to 50 cents) you can sometimes get the item for free or next to nothing."
Don't hesitate to break out your store purchase into multiple transactions if it'll save you more.
Take advantage of in-store reward programs, like the CVS Extra Bucks program.
Crissy's combo-move: This one combines coupons, CVS Extra Bucks, and multiple transactions. "By following her directions, looking for items marked with the extra bucks sign, and using my own coupons I make my purchases. I also have $9 in extra bucks already in my wallet. My first purchase is $4 after my extra care bucks and coupons. I receive back $19 in extra bucks. On my second transaction, the cleanser I buy is free with the purchase of the eye cream, an in store deal. My bill is zero. I've just purchased $50 worth of products for $4."
Related
How to Reduce Your Food Costs in 60 Minutes a Week
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11 Comments:
I just wanted to correct something you said (and Crissy says in the article), that buying something you don't need always wastes money. At CVS (and the other drugstores to some extent), I'm discovering that this isn't true. I've actually written about it several times because it's so counter-intuitive. But I've come to accept that to get the very best deals at CVS, I have to buy things I don't need. (See Mommy Making Money's explanation for why this works here.)
ChiefFamilyOfficer at 4:25PM on 05/17/08
Wow, I feel like you live on an different planet that I do.
simon at 6:45PM on 05/17/08
Well, none of the grocery stores here double coupons, we don't have CVS here, and the drug stores here don't have programs like that . . . I also think that this kind of shopping has hidden costs that aren't considered when you just look at register receipts. For example, how many newspapers do you have to subscribe to in order to get that many coupons? How much gas do you have to use in order to run from store to store? And how much time do you have to put in to organize all this? I'm not saying that these costs do away with the savings, but the amount you save probably isn't as much as is claimed.
stillSTH at 1:57AM on 05/18/08
I used to be a coupon-phile a number of years ago and was able to get orders down from 100 bucks to under 5.
In my opinion it's more than an hour a week you need to put into it. First off you need to know the normal prices on the items in the store(s), to identify the weeks "loss leaders" or any real deals. This means either going to the store several times a week, or writing down the prices. (Which I can tell you from personal experience store management frowns on)
You need to know your stores policies as well. Up where I am places may in fact double manufacturers coupons, but they sure as hell aren't advertising it the way they used to (or even having those special triple coupon days)
And while once coupon per purchase should mean that you can use multiple coupons on multiples on the same item, a lot of store managers will not see it that way, so be prepared for some debating and letters to the district managers.
It helps if you can get a hold of the coupon insert before Sunday that way you can compare the current sale with the upcoming sale.
Coupons themselves have also changed. It's very hard to find a coupon for over 40 cents that doesn't require buying a multiple of the item. The coupons with the best savings are often for new products of the ultra convenience / stretching credulity health claim variety. A coupons main purpose is to convince you to buy a specific product, and I am sure there is a reason why each and every product is selected for a coupon, and I highly doubt it is to give something back to the consumer.
The article says that if something is BOGO or 5 for $5 then the single items will ring up as half price or a dollar. I can attest that this is not often true. At many of the stores in my area that use the bonus cards, the items ring up at the regular price and the bonus card will take off a percentage of the second or last item needed to make the sale price . But these are stores with highly computerized checkout systems.
Then add in the online coupon code sites and such and you can easily spend over an hour a day doing this.
I ended up with a lot of useless products, that I didn't really need or like. Plus it was like a battle every time I went to the store.
I just burned out on it, now I only clip coupons for things I already buy. Plus they never have coupons for the things you should be eating like fresh produce, meats/proteins, and certain staples which end up being cheaper to buy generic than any coupons save you on the name brands.
Kudos to Crissy, but to me it's more of a hobby or a challenging game that an effort that enriches her children's lives.
stonechiper at 9:24AM on 05/18/08
Boy, this brings back memories. When I was a kid they had a tv show that featured this same "art" form. Some of the happy shoppers would load up a couple of over flowing carts and only pay pennies on the dollar. It was a lot of fun to watch, but didn't have too many people running around looking for their scissors.
Boscompb at 11:39AM on 05/18/08
@Boscompb: Are you thinking of Supermarket Sweep?
Alaina Browne at 1:33PM on 05/18/08
I agree with you on the coupon thing, stonechiper; most coupons I see are for nutrition-free junk, like the latest trans-fat-laden cookie (each one individually packaged for maximum resource consumption). Or they're for overpriced name brands like Tide. Sorry, but even if you double the coupon and buy the product on sale, it's still more expensive than the cheaper detergents.
stillSTH at 2:38PM on 05/18/08
Where I am there is no such thing as "double coupon" stores or days. While I am currently on a coupon hiatus (I can't find my coupon file!) but every time I shop I think, "I could have saved a few cents on that item."
The real tricks are to only clip coupons for things you might actually use and try to find the items on sale. This may mean buying different brands than you are used to, or in larger or smaller packages than is the norm for you. If another brand that you like is cheaper, buy that one! If my coupon is about to expire, and I don't intend to use it, I often leave the coupon with the item so that someone else can use it. It has to be good karma.
I've saved hundreds of dollars over the years, and on weekly shopping trips my savings were usually around five dollars per week. I love it when I'm able to get something for just a few cents or even free. It really makes my shopping trip fun when I have, say, a dollar off coupon for something that's on sale for 98 cents and the checker has to ask the manager what to do because the computer won't do negative numbers.
Calichef at 6:43PM on 05/18/08
Where I live, I receive monthly "$5.00 off when you spend $40.00," for the local grocery store. When you use the coupon and spend more than $50.00, the store issues you another coupon for the same value as the original. The catch is that the coupons can only be used at some of the stores in the chain- generally the smaller/ older stores. Still worthwhile, though.
Kerosena at 7:57PM on 05/18/08
Most of the things I buy don't have coupons, like meat, produce, flour, milk... Sometimes there will be in-store sales, and I do take advantage of those, but it's not like my grocery bill is down to nothing. I look at the coupons every week, and sometimes I'll clip a few, but some weeks there isn't a single coupon for anything I'd want, need, or buy on a whim.
dbcurrie at 2:02AM on 05/19/08
Alaina
I think you might be right. In any event, the show was a hoot and had me thinking about all the insane fun you could have running around a supermarket shopping at hyperspeed.
Boscompb at 9:38AM on 05/19/08