There are a lot of stereotypes out there about couponers, and certainly supercouponers. I pick up my inserts (free!) on Mondays, so come to my house any Monday and you’ll see a huge stack of coupon inserts on my kitchen table. Monday is clipping day for me. After the boys go to bed, I clip. It takes me about 30 mins to get through a week’s worth of inserts. Certainly I don’t go through each insert individually, I spread them out page by page, stack them up, then clip several pages at a time.

And I’ve been doing this long enough, that I pretty much know which ones will get used and which ones won’t. The “won’t/maybe” stack gets put in the drawer, just in case of a future moneymaking deal. (Like the Keebler snack crackers! No, I won’t eat them. But if you’re going to pay me $5 to buy them, I’ll do it and donate crackers to food bank.)

I remember several years ago, on a moms board that I used to be a part of, someone posted a link about a mom whose husband was upset because she was just clipping coupons all the time–all her free time, in the car, at the dinner table, during…wait, no, she didn’t post that.

But overall, that’s a misnomer. I don’t spend all my free time doing this. I pick up my coupon inserts on Mondays and clip. Takes me 30-45 minutes, tops.

I peruse the various coupon message boards daily. 20 minutes, if I don’t do the social stuff.

Shopping–1 regular weekly trip. If it’s a good week, another trip or two to get freebies. I did my regular weekly trip at Superfresh on Friday. Yes, I had been to Giant a few times, but a rolling-catalina-freebie deal like that isn’t common. When it happens, if you use those products, you do it!

It’s a pretty slow week this week as far as deals, so my only plans are the swimming pool. I’ll clip everything I need to clip today while baby is napping and older child isn’t home from school yet. Then, other than checking message boards daily or every other, that’s it.
This is just a small part of who I am and what I do for fun. You do have to enjoy this (supercouponing) to make it work. If you view it as a chore like cleaning the bathroom, then you probably won’t be successful at it. I love the thrill of finding freebies. Of purchasing dozens of items and having the customer behind you in line drop their jaw at your final total. I love saving my family money. I love not paying for things. It’s just a part of me–I blame my Nan. And if you knew her, you knew she was the original bargain hunter.

Until you learn it, it does take more time, I won’t lie. But after a while, your brain starts to think in deals. Seriously. I can walk in to any store, and I see a deal posted, and immediately my brain goes into “How can I get this cheaper?” drive. It’s just about adjusting your thinking with your purchases. Think of it like exercising. All the health experts tell us now, that it’s not necessary to exercise for hours on end every day. It’s about the little changes here & there, that eventually become a part of your lifestyle.

Same here. Little changes here & there, that eventually become a part of your frugal lifestyle. You re-evaluate the big, fatty donut before you put it into your mouth, and choose a bagel instead. Same goes with spending–before you take a bite, think if there is a cheaper way to do it. And I’ll show you some tips along the way.

And not everyone has to become a supercouponer, nor is it my goal to change everyone into one. But simple changes can reduce your weekly shopping trip by 10% or more–for most families today easily means $50-$100 monthly in savings.

Why would you pay the grocery store an extra $100 a month if you didn’t have to?

I don’t usually shop quite this often! I usually do one main trip for our weekly needs. Then if there are freebies or good deals to be had some place, I do that too. But there are just so many freebies (Giant!) and good deals, I’ve been at a store almost every day this week. And I have so many catalinas to roll at SF, I will definitely be headed there this weekend at some point.

Ok, good deals and some coupon matchups that I see from this week’s ad:

Beef Tenderloin-6.99/lb. Great price for this, but you will have to purchase the whole thing. They will cut it for you. Or you can look at Food Network or Food TV for instructions on how to do it yourself, if you’d like to reach your inner celebrity chef.

Grapes-0.79lb, through Sunday only. I recently saw grapes at Acme for 5.99/lb!

Pepsi products-0.79 a 2 liter. I’ve become addicted to the Tropicana Orangeade, ever since I was in CC Hospital having our second child. Afterwards, it was just so cold and sweet, it really hit the spot. I water it down though, too syrupy otherwise. Tropicana is a Pepsi product and usually included in Pepsi deals.

Blue Bunny Ice Cream novelties- on sale for 1.99. Buy $12, get $3 catalina promo. Shelf price for most of these is 4.19. So buy 3 to get to the $12 threshhold. Pay 5.97, get $3 back. Even better yet, I spotted peelies on some of them recently for $1.25! If you can find those, you’ll pay $2.25, get $3 back.

Dannon yogurts-10 for $4 or $0.40 each. I refuse to pay more than $0.60 each for a cup of yogurt. I see it for $1.05, $1.15….that’s just ridiculous. Pick cups with long expiration dates, figure out how many you need, and stock up. $0.40 a cup is a great price, if you have the $1 off 10 cups coupon that was in the paper recently, even better!

There’s a Unilever buy 20 get 5 deal. I checked the shelf vs sale prices when I went in to get Scrubbing Bubbles.
Lipton teas-shelf 4.19, sale 2.99; 0.50 coupon in last week’s paper that will double
Popsicle novelties-3.27, sale 1.99–I’ve seen $1 off 2 coupons on freezer doors for these
Ben & Jerry’s! shelf 4.39, sale 2.50. I’m very excited about this one. I don’t know of any corresponding coupons to go with this, unfortunately.
Unilever also encompasses Ragu, Wishbone and Hellmann’s. Remember–use the shelf price to get to your $20 mark, but only pay the sale price. And there was a big Unilever coupon insert in last week’s paper.

Kellogg’s-Ack! You’d really think that with all the free Kelloggs I hauled away from Giant this week, that I wouldn’t be interested. But I am! Their deal is the same–buy 10 participating Kellogg’s items, get a $10 catalina. What’s different here though, is that I don’t know that Superfresh will also do the $10 instant savings. That’s a significant price difference, but I’m tempted to try it anyway. Because……..they are including all the Keebler fudge shoppe cookies, and I’m completely addicted to the fudge sticks. What could be better than a chocolate covered sugar wafer? Not sure I want 10 packs of them though. They also are including the Special K line, but it doesn’t list any cereal or Eggos as being included.

A catalina on Greenworks cleaning products–get $3 when you spend $30. Very lukewarm about that return on investment! But remember, it should work on the whole shelf/sale price concept and you can use coupons.

Speed Stick and Edge Skintimate are all $2. There were $0.75 coupons in last week’s paper that will double. Though on the Skintimate/Edge, you may want to wait it out, Acme often sells them for $1.50.

Skippy and Welch’s are 1.50. I have $1 off 2 coupons for both of these items, I think it was from last week. $1 each!

That’s all I see for now, if I see more, I’ll add updates. Don’t forget to check online with your Superfresh card to see if you can piggyback more savings on to these sales!