The Great Coupon Experiment – How I Saved 50 Percent on Groceries
Confessions from a wasteful spender
I have a confession to make: I am nowhere near as frugal as I should be. However with a large family like mine (wife and 4 
kids), the grocery bills were getting out of hand! Feeding a family of 6 is daunting enough just trying to keep food in the house never mind thinking about clipping coupons. Or so I thought…
This past weekend, our family tried a little experiment. Spend 30 mins, save money!
Here’s what we did:
1. Karen, my high school sweetheart of a wife, started with where we were shopping: Harris Teeter and pulled up their sales flyer to see what the specials of the week were.
2. She made the grocery list of stuff we normally buy but noted items and brands that had “buy one get one free” or low prices.
3. Next she went to a couple of coupon sites and looked for coupons for the brands we were planning to buy. She used Coupons.com and couponmom.com
4. We printed the coupons, cut them out, and off to the store I went
Total investment: 30 minutes of time
How did we do?
Normally, we spend at least $200 a week on groceries. This week was no exception! The total bill was $216! Wow…what a waste of time, right? Wait a minute…I forgot one important detail. At the register I gave them my VIC card (Harris Teeters Free Reward Program) and Karen did well: we saved $43 by taking advantage of the weekly specials. Next came the coupons: At Harris Teeter, they double manufacturer coupons up to $0.99. I used approximately 30 coupons and saved another $65. Now let’s do the math:
We spent 30 mins.
We normally pay $200+ per month
This week the total bill was $216
Minus $43 (in store savings)
Minus $65 (in manufacturer coupons)
Total savings $108
Final Bill: $108
Not only do I have an incredible wife and Mom to our 4 children, we now have a prudent shopper! This literally saved us $108 or 50% off our normal weekly bill. If we did this every week, we’d save over $5,600!!! Wow! Think of all the things you could do with an extra $5k…maybe being more frugal is the way to go? You think?
What are some good coupon sites you use?
Any extra frugal tips you want to share?
4 Comments
Great frugal tip! I love retailmenot.com – before I place any order online, I use google to enter the name of the place I’m ordering from, followed by “coupon code” and typically find a savings of 10-15%! I also like froogle.com (google’s shopping site), which publishes various retailers’ prices for particular items searched for.
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I still remember clipping coupons like crazy when I was a starving college student. I had to make the meager amount of money I had go as far as it could. One of my goals was to get the cash register receipt to touch the floor with 50% being coupons. I can’t tell you how many free 2 liters of Dr. Pepper I bought, or how many times the store paid me to buy Rice-a-Roni.
My wife hates to cut coupons, but she’s started using some online shopping sites that let you print out the coupons and it’s made a real difference. She even gets a color-coded list telling her what to stock up on, what to buy only what she needs, and what she will get for free. These sites take a lot of the hassle out of coupon cutting, and as you pointed out the savings add up.
I have recently gotten into coupons and have been able to save up to 100% on my CVS orders (ShopRite has only gotten in the 40s). Like you, I began blogging about some of my trips because I feel that anyone can do it with just a small investment of time.