So now that you are able to find, sort, and organize your coupons, let’s talk about how to whittle your budget down.
You will NOT slash your grocery bill by a lot if you are just starting out. Why?
1. You are still in “need” mode. This means you need to buy things on a weekly/monthly basis. Things like laundry detergent, paper towels, bathroom tissue, and other things that you notice you are running low on. When you buy out of necessity you often will spend full price.
2. You haven’t started your stockpile yet. I am not saying you need to go out and but a bunch of everything. For me, I simply don’t have the space to do that! I wish I did have a garage and a big freezer to fill but the fact is I live in a 2 bedroom townhouse that is already full of the twins’ things. You might be in the same boat. More on stockpiling in a bit..
3. You need to get into a “groove” with organization and shopping.
Before I began couponing, I would go the the grocery store weekly and spend an average of $180. And that was before I had my twins! The reason for this was because I wasn’t waiting for sales and bought as I needed. I would spend full price on things like shampoo, toothpaste, dishwashing detergent, etc. those things add up. I always dreaded grocery shopping when I needed a lot of cleaning supplies, those totals were insane…
So back to budgeting. Here’s what I did:
1. I saved my receipts from grocery/drug store shopping for a month. If you use a credit/debit card you can also track your spending through statements.
2. I totaled those receipts. YIKES. I had NO IDEA I was spending as much as I was. it was over $700. That was crazy. BUT I needed to know what that total was.
3. I figured out a new achievable goal. I cut my current spending by 25% and made that my goal for the next month. So $720 went to $540. $135 a week. That seemed totally achievable.
But I still needed the things I bought. Things like toothpaste.
So I needed to figure out how to pay less for the things I needed rather than not buy them at all. Which meant learning how to effectively use coupons in conjunction with sales to get the best bang for my buck.
Once I got down to $135 a week, I cut it down a little more. The next month I was down to $110 a week. Then $90, then $80. Within 6 months I was spending less than half of what I used to because I started stockpiling when I found a great deal.
On average a tube of toothpaste costs $3.50 and a toothbrush roughly the same, so between my husband and I we were spending about $150 a year on these items. I have stockpiled because I found sales and matched them with coupons. I have that year’s supply and have spent a total of $10 on it all. Less than 10%!
When you discover a great sale on something, either through store circulars or heard it from a friend or website, JUMP on it. If you see that Walgreens has a sale on Reach toothbrushes for 99 cents (they just did last month!) and you have 5 -50 cent off coupons it’s a good time to get 5 of those toothbrushes. Even if you don’t have a coupon, if you come across a good sale – STOCK UP!
I did this just last week at Walgreens. They had a sale on Purex detergent $1.99 (normally $7.99). I bought 10. Spending $20 on 10 bottles of laundry soap was so worth it even without a coupon. I average 15-20 loads of laundry a week, so those bottles should last me about a year. For $20.
I bet you think I live in a huge house and have a nice big garage to put my stockpile. This couldn’t be further from the truth! I live in a 2 bedroom townhome with a husband, 2 dogs, a cat, and of course 2 babies. Who happen to have more stuff than my husband and I combined (it seems)! I make do with the space I have. I put cereal boxes on the ledge about my kitchen cabinets, I have 3 shelves in my closet dedicated to toiletries and personal care items, and my dryer is lined with laundry items on top. Things like diapers get stashed under my bed and out of sight. Because my freezer is so full I had to forego a great sale on entrees last week.
The things I do buy weekly are perishables – fresh fruit/veggies, dairy, eggs. BUT I buy what’s on sale and if I can freeze it, it gets frozen. Things like grapes, carrots, green beans, broccoli, and berries freeze well. Sales for produce go in waves – usually every other week to a month you will find that fruit you love will go down to 50%. Packaged produce (salad mixes, cherry tomatoes, avocados, etc) will often have coupons somewhere to go with them. Just yesterday I go Nature Sweet Cherry Tomatoes for FREE – They went on sale for 99 cents, I had a 55 cent off coupon that my grocery store doubled. They are normally $2.99 a bag!
So, get those receipts together (or take a look at your statements). Add it up. Have a mini-freak-out and then go from there. But make sure to be realistic with the budget or else you could get discouraged. Do what is best for your family!
It’s not about buying less, it’s about paying less!
