We had a Relief Society (formerly Enrichment) night last week when my ward combined with another to host Salt Lake's Grocery Guru. He is known throughout the valley for his expertise on combining grocery store sales with manufacturer coupons for major savings. On his website, he posts a menu for the week based on sales, then gives you a shopping list and tells you which coupons to cut out. You can view his website by clicking here.
Immediately following his presentation to the Relief Society, he passed around a sign-up sheet to go shopping with him. My sister and I, who had come with me to the meeting even though she's not in my ward, stepped out of our comfort zone and went shopping with him.
I bought all this:
It cost me $23.74. I saved $62.13--meaning 73% savings. Now, of course, this was me following the Guru guy around the store, him telling us what to put into the cart, and him handing us each a stack of coupons when we got to the checkout line. Which, by the way, was very long, as there were about 10 of us trailing behind him through the store...
I do know that coupons can save you money. I've never been too interested before, because I didn't want to buy a subscription to the newspaper to get the coupons and the things I usually bought did not often go on sale when I wanted them. So, pretty much not worth the effort to me.
Now that I am home all day, without the rigors of teaching occupying my time, I thought I'd give it another shot. His presentation was fairly convincing, enough that I was willing to try. And he gave me the piece I had missed in the process--planning the menu based on what's on sale. I would always plan my menu first, then see if anything I needed happened to be on sale at the same time.
Lisa and I made our menus together, planned the shopping lists, and hunted for coupons. Last night I ventured out on my own, coupons in hand.
I was, oddly, rather nervous for this trip. I just knew I would mess up something and end up buying something really stupid and spending tons of money on something I didn't want. Don't worry--it wasn't all that bad. In the end, I spent $41.96 and saved $28.83--41%. Not quite as amazing, but that's not surprising considering I did it myself without the Grocery Guru by my side with his oodles of know-how and coupons.
Verdict? I don't know yet. I'm not 100% convinced about it all at the moment. I believe that it can be done, it is possible to save lots of money by using coupons and shopping the sales. We'll just have to see how long I last...
5 comments:
I just tried out couponing last week too. I didn't do as well as you though. I did save a lot percent wise, but rather than have food for a weeks worth of meals, I got 5 boxes of Cheerios because the were $0.50 a piece. Oh well, maybe I will try again another day.
I used to be the biggest coupon fanatic but in the past 6 months I've totally stopped cutting coupons because I just didn't have the time. The trick is getting your hands on multiple coupons. I used to ask other teachers at school for their coupon inserts from the newspaper if they weren't going to use them. That way I had LOTS of coupons. I really need to get back into it again!
I've never actually seen coupons for items that I use regularly. Even when using coupons, I find that I can typically buy the store brand for cheaper than I can the other brand with coupon. Maybe I should check out this guy's website- although not being in the area would be a disadvantage...
Here's my thing about coupons. I believe 100% that you can save a ton of money clipping coupons. I know that I spend WAY too much on groceries. However, I don't do it because most of the time you have to sacrifice nutrition and taste. Many of the things you buy will be bottled, boxed, or forzen and that simply is not my style. I admit it, I cook more expensively than I should, but nutrition and eating well is important to me, so when the grocery bill is ridiculous, then I remind myself that I hardly ever buy myself anything and I can spend more on food. :) I like this post!
I LOVE the Grocery Guru! He's on my show every week! Some weeks are better than others...it really depends what coupons are in the paper that week.
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