I know some of you out there may be extreme couponers but I’ve never really gotten into it. With the exception of clothing or JoAnn fabrics, I rarely keep coupons. Partially because when I do keep coupons, there are usually only two outcomes:
But after some more blog posts and facebook comments be friends and connections, I decided to look into it a little more. I started by checking out the following websites:
- Either the coupons expire before I get to use them…
- Or I end up buying something I didn’t really need just so I could use the coupon.
But after some more blog posts and facebook comments be friends and connections, I decided to look into it a little more. I started by checking out the following websites:
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Both websites are great but Southern Savers is a little more user-friendly in my opinion. The website is geared towards people living in the south and the stores that are available to us. The other website, IHeartPublix is obviously geared towards Publix grocery stores only. Southern Savers basically shows you the Publix Weekly Ad (also available on the Publix website and in store) but they also show which items have a manufacturer coupon available that could be combined with the sale to make the items REALLY cheap. Each manufacturer coupon has a code next to it indicating where to get it (typically either Smart Source, Red Plum or Coupons.com).
You can click the checkbox next to items you want to purchase to make a shopping list and then when your list is complete go through the list and find the manufacturer coupons to go along with it. Then just head to the store and get all your great savings!
I was getting ready to do a Once-A-Month freezer cooking session so I figured this would be a good opportunity to start using coupons (since I purchase so much food at one time). I knew I wouldn’t get the best deals on everything since I wasn’t planning my shopping around the sales and the major meats I needed weren’t on sale right now. Southern Savers has a great chart that shows how most items are on a 6-week sale schedule. So since the chicken isn’t on sale now, it will be on sale again sometime in the next 4 – 5 weeks and then I can start timing my chicken purchases to always line up with the sale week.
Even though I wasn’t completely planning my shopping around the sales, I figured it would be a good idea to try and start taking advantage of whatever is on sale that is on my list (and could add a manufacturer coupon) or that I would need soon.
Positives: I saved around $10 based on manufacturer’s coupons for things that were already on my list. I got $10 for free basically because they had a coupon where if you bought $50 worth of groceries you could get a $50 gas card for $40. So Ryan and I each did that since our freezer cooking shopping bill is always well over $100.
Neutral: The coupons from Smart Source, Red Plum and Coupons.com overlap quite a bit. This is good if you want to buy numerous quantities of a sale item (so you have a coupon for each), but it makes it take a lot longer looking through the coupons and I kept ending up with multiples of coupons that I really only needed/wanted one of.
Negatives: We did end up buying a few things just because we had a coupon and when I looked later – they weren’t at the lowest price I’d paid for them. I would have been better off waiting for a better sale even if the manufacturer coupon expired. Also, Publix now has an online coupon thing where it collects your coupons for you and then at the register you just enter your phone number and it is supposed to apply any valid coupons to your bill. Well I have no way to see if it applied any coupons or which ones and if you don’t print it out ahead of time, you can’t see if you have any overlapping with the ones already printed from other sources.
For the future: I’m going to continue to watch the Southern Saver blog through BlogLovin and watch for good sales/deals on items that I use frequently and high price items. For the manufacturer coupons, I think I will only search for and print coupons for items that are already on my grocery list unless it is shown on Southern Savers as an amazing deal I just can’t miss. Next month, I’m hoping to do a little breakdown.
For anyone else interested, click the links below to see more information from Southern Savers:
Positives: I saved around $10 based on manufacturer’s coupons for things that were already on my list. I got $10 for free basically because they had a coupon where if you bought $50 worth of groceries you could get a $50 gas card for $40. So Ryan and I each did that since our freezer cooking shopping bill is always well over $100.
Neutral: The coupons from Smart Source, Red Plum and Coupons.com overlap quite a bit. This is good if you want to buy numerous quantities of a sale item (so you have a coupon for each), but it makes it take a lot longer looking through the coupons and I kept ending up with multiples of coupons that I really only needed/wanted one of.
Negatives: We did end up buying a few things just because we had a coupon and when I looked later – they weren’t at the lowest price I’d paid for them. I would have been better off waiting for a better sale even if the manufacturer coupon expired. Also, Publix now has an online coupon thing where it collects your coupons for you and then at the register you just enter your phone number and it is supposed to apply any valid coupons to your bill. Well I have no way to see if it applied any coupons or which ones and if you don’t print it out ahead of time, you can’t see if you have any overlapping with the ones already printed from other sources.
For the future: I’m going to continue to watch the Southern Saver blog through BlogLovin and watch for good sales/deals on items that I use frequently and high price items. For the manufacturer coupons, I think I will only search for and print coupons for items that are already on my grocery list unless it is shown on Southern Savers as an amazing deal I just can’t miss. Next month, I’m hoping to do a little breakdown.
For anyone else interested, click the links below to see more information from Southern Savers:
