This post dated Feb. 6, 2008, is on Monroe on a Budget "Do you have any cereal coupons?"http://www.blogsmonroe.com/budget/2008/02/do-you-have-any-cereal-coupons/One of the myths of grocery coupon shopping is that coupons are useful only for products one would LIKE to purchase on a discount.
Most moms, for example, are interested in coupons for brand-name cereals from Kellogg’s, General Mills, Post and Quaker Oats. My daughter is away to college and I still clip those coupons - because my husband and I also like to eat Froot Loops, oatmeal and raisin bran for breakfast!
Depending on the age of your children, you may also be frequently in search of coupons for diapers, baby wipes and fruit snacks.
So I’m not surprised when grocery shoppers who trade coupons or pick through a pile of another customer’s leftover coupons ask, “Do you have any cereal coupons?”
Here’s the concept you need to remember: coupons are meant to reduce your overall grocery bill.
If the only time you use coupons is for your favorite products, then you are missing out on savings that can be found elsewhere in your grocery budget.
Every Sunday afternoon, I read through the pile of grocery and drug store fliers that have arrived with my weekend newspapers. I make a list of every sale item that I can match up with a coupon from my coupon box. And I look for bargains at all the local stores on every grocery, medical, cleaning and personal care product that is used in my home.
By the time I’m done, I’ve picked out two stores to shop at during the week and what I plan to get at each location.
Now, if you are trying to match a Froot Loops coupon to a Froot Loops sale at your favorite grocery store during a week when the only cereal left in your pantry is a can of oatmeal, well, you’ve probably figured out the sales cycle doesn’t work out that way. So it’s easy to get frustrated with the details of coupon shopping.
What you need to to is expand your focus: buy what is on sale + coupon (and / or rebate) that particular week. Then you stock up with as many of those items as you can manage around your other grocery needs that week while staying within the store’s discount policies.
There will be different sales next week, and then you stock up on those items.
Along the way, you are building up an inventory of pantry items that will help feed your family during those weeks when you don’t like the sales promotions - or during those weeks when there are more bills than paycheck and you have limited funds for groceries.
For example, I came home from a shopping trip to Meijer in mid-January with four boxes of Cap’n Crunch, four boxes of pancake mix and four bottles of pancake syrup. Why four of each of those products? I was using coupons on top of two-for-one sales. My husband was amused at what was in my grocery bags, but he knew we would use those products before they expired.
My other stock-up purchases in recent weeks have included facial tissue, toilet paper, 12-packs of pop, spaghetti sauce and protein bars. The only purchases on that list that coincided with an immediate need on the day I purchased them were the pop and toilet paper!
There are occasions when an immediate grocery need doesn’t match up with the bargains of the week. That’s when I buy only what I need that week on the best available option - one gallon of milk instead of two, a generic can of oatmeal instead of the brand name, or a different brand of margarine than I usually get.
So, in the long run, it doesn’t matter too much if I can buy Froot Loops with a coupon + sale on the week I’d like to buy some.
I’ve probably got raisin bran on the pantry shelf anyway.
Author
Topic: Coupons (Read 417 times)