Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

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.

I miss Planters cheese balls too, I remember when they were discontinued and someone called to let us know they had them at Big Lots, and I think we bought every can they had...

I think they still sell the Frankenstuffs with the cheese filling, but I miss the chili ones. My parents thought they were absolutely disgusting, but my sister and I loved them. You had to cook them very carefully so that the sides didn't split resulting in a chili leak, because our favorite way to eat them was to bite the very tip and suck the chili out.

I miss the McDLT, it was such a thrill to have crispy lettuce and cool tomato as opposed to the normal slimy warm mess that happens with fast food burgers.

I also loved Croonchy Stars Swedish chef cereal, but I knew it was too good to last!

Yes Aldi has fewer cashiers, but I think that saves on overhead in the long run and the fact that the cashiers don't also bag/pack the items makes the check out process much faster. I've stood in lines that went almost to the back of the store and maybe it was 15- 20 minutes. So yes, not a good call if you need to be in and out fast. So I guess once you figure out what each minute of your time is worth monetarily and how much you save on certain items you will figure out if it's worth it or not.

I really don't know why they don't open TJ here, if you could see the cult like following and the huge sizes of Wegmans supermarkets out here and most of our Aldis are out in the Buffalo suburbs.

Mayonnaise, it used to make me gag now it's hard to have a sandwich or burger without it (I've even dipped my fries in it)

Sauerkraut - in fact most of the traditional German fare my Oma made I found so gross I lied and claimed to be a vegetarian to avoid eating it. Which may be more because my Oma wasn't much of a cook she was infamous for making bizarre substitutions and never measuring anything (ie if the recipe called for cream of tartar she'd use tartar sauce) A trip a few years ago to Germany proved this to me as I ate way too much of everything.

Am I the only person who doesn't have cable TV and therefore knows next to nothing about the current food network line up? I've depended on PBS for my cooking shows for ages. America's test kitchen is my favorite, Julia Collin Davison and Bridget Lancaster are a perfect foil to Christopher Kimball's pompous tendencies and many of the recipes featured on the show have become staples in my household. For me they explain why things work better without turning it into a chemistry lesson as Alton Brown tends to do.

Julia Child's master series as well as her show with Pepin were favorites as well, I always learned something that was actually doable. Michael Chiarello could be a bit uppity and he had this persistent nasal inhale that made me cringe but I learned good Italian food with real ingredients. Lydia Bastianich was really hit or miss as she assumes you have all day to make a single meal.

Joanne Weir really annoyed me as will any show that brings the specialty ingredients especially when they begin with a "q"

Steve Raichlen's BBQ U , the only show that can get this Buffalo gal to cook outside on the grill in the middle of a blizzard

Graham Kerr - "The Galloping Gourmet"? his personality overpowered anything he made , totally unwatchable to me

Yan Can Cook - same problem, he spends way too much time and energy with his Shtick

Andreas Viestad - there are few things on that show that I could imagine eating let alone cooking, but I admired his passion and his outdoor cooking set up, plus I now know and love the word bacalao. New Scandinavian Cooking was such a great show. And I will eat none of it.

Rachel Ray - her personality to me is off putting but her recipes are pretty sound and workable for the overworked who just want to make something with some kind of wow factor that doesn't involve slaving away. (she has a chili recipe that adds sliced hot dogs and cheese making it chili cheese dog chili, which is church pot lunch genius, but doesn't really make her a chef, but still damned good IMHO)

FYI: HYDROX!
I manage a grocery store in Florida, and I just found out today that Keebler is bringing back the Sunshine Hydrox cookies for the 100th anniversary. In their original package. I guess if they do good they'll keep them around, if not, they'll disappear again. We're supposed to get them in on Friday.

I just found some cookies that are a lot like Magic Middles at a truck stop in Italy. They're called Grisbi. Google them online.

Mayo. And seriously, if you haven't tried Saffola, do it.

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.

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.