Girl Talk and Get-Togethers

Well ladies we just did a get together on couponing. In this post I'll just give you a basic over view of couponing, terms, store cycles, etc. I'll post again on each drug store and how their rebate program works because you can get some great stuff for cheap to free from drug stores!!!

To start, you probably all have done this, but get a Kroger Rewards card, a VIC card (Harris Teeter), Food Lion card, a Lowes Rewards Card, and a CVS Extracare card. This is going to get you the deals, no card no deals.

Then some terms...

Blinkies- they are the In-Store dispensers that are attached to shelves and usually have a blinking red light on them. When you pass one take some coupons (even if your not buying any of that product that trip), their expiration date is usually months for now and you can use them later.

Catalina- These are the coupons that print up at the register after you checkout.

Manufacturer's Coupon- Coupons issued by the maker of the product (They usually come in the Sunday paper, but can also be found online, at the store, basically anywhere).

Rebates- You must purchase an item by a certain date, mail in the receipt and/or proof of purchase by a certain date and you'll get a check or gift card or store credit.

BOGO- Buy one Get one free

Store Cycles:
Wed. - Tues. = Harris Teeter, Lowes Food, Food Lion
Sun. - Sat.= Kroger, Target, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid

Where to get coupons:
*Sunday paper (News & Observer) is by far the biggest place. You can order and have it dropped at the end of your drive way. Walgreens and Dollar Tree has it for 0.99 cents a Sunday.
*At the bottom of your receipt or catalina's.
*In boxes of the products you buy
*Online (Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, P & G, Pssst, Right at Home)
*Magazines
*In-Store
*In you e-mail inbox (It is a good idea to create a separate e-mail address and sign up for all the coupon places you can find on the web as well as free samples(most come with coupons). You'll have coupons at your finger tips and get free things!)
*You can load coupons on to your Kroger card (Shortcuts, P&G - however these will not double) (I have two cards for Kroger one for Ross and one for me so I can have two sets of loaded coupons)

Store Fliers:
With your extra e-mail account get all of the store fliers sent to your. This way you're not running around trying to pick them up and not all of them come in the paper. This way you can look at the sales and even have sales tailored to what you buy most. Moreover, a perk to this is some of them give away gift cards every week in this e-mail!!

How to use coupons...
You want to take your coupons and match them to when the item goes on sale and buy the product then. Even if you don't need it, if there's money in your budget get it, because you're going to be using it so you might as well pay the least amount for it.

There are many ways to find the best time to buy I use the Grocery Game (www.thegrocerygame.com). It's a game that matches the coupons you have to the sales of the stores and tells you when the price is the lowest. So you know when to buy it. This game gets you to stockpile the things you buy on a regular basis so you spend the least for it. Stores run on a 12 week cycle, meaning for 90% of your products they go on sale every 12 weeks. The game it trying to get you to stockpile enough to get you through 12 weeks and to the next sale. Basically all the work you do is print the list and get the coupons out you need and go shopping. The list is even color coded for you, blues mean buy as many as your budget lets you, greens are things that a free after coupons and sales, and black is buy it ONLY if you need it. The first couple of weeks you will spend about the same amount you did before the game and then it drops off as you stockpile more and have less needs. This game gives you the advertised sales, unadvertised sales, meats, and produce. So basically anything you'll buy in the grocery store it'll tell you when it hits its rock bottom price. The stores you can get a list for in our area are Harris Teeter, Lowes Food, Food Lion, Kroger, Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens, or Rite Aid. You do have to pay for the game, it's $1 for the first 4 weeks, and then $10 for every 8 weeks after that. If you get more then one store it's and extra $5 for every store. But, you can get referrals which will get you free weeks (3 referrals = 12 weeks totally free no matter how many stores you have)!! I have three stores (Harris Teeter, Kroger, and Walgreens) and pay $20 every 8 weeks, but I regularly save $40-$300 every week so it is worth it to me! Because in one week I pay for the game and the newspapers I get. Plus, I don't have to do any work. I spend about 2-3 hours a week between cutting coupons and shopping at my three stores.

A second way sales can be matched with coupons is though blog sites like Taking Stock (projects.newsobserver.com/taking_stock). Sue, the writer, matches the advertised sales with your coupons and tells you what's a good deal. This is a great blog because she is local, the News & Observer, hosts her blog which means all the sales are correct. However, she does not have what meats or produce is at rock bottom price. But it is free to get to and the sales are usually up on Wednesday's. With this choice, you should get the fliers (as mentioned above) and surf the meat and produce sales figuring out what is at rock bottom.

So to sum this all up...
1) Know what your spending for things you buy most often, and don't pay over that rock bottom price if you can wait!
2) Know your budget and try your best to stay within that budget.
3) Get your coupons organized (binders, accordions, envelopes, whatever you do).
4) Review the fliers and/or website you get the coupon-sale match from (The Grocery Game, Blogs, etc)
5) Go shopping, whether multiple stores on one store.
6) Build a stockpile
7) Plan your meals (This can be the most important, take the Grocery Game for example: when I first started I planned meals around what meat and other dinner things were blue on the list. As I built my stockpile I could plan them around what was in the freezer/pantry. Now I'm looking at my list buying to stock pile and looking at my freezer for meals. Same thing can go when your using blogs or doing it yourself, plan around the sales.)

I know this is long but one last things is the coupon policies for stores:
As we found out between Leah and I these can very manager to manager and cashier to cashier. But, here are the basic policies...

Harris Teeter
*You must use your VIC card
*They do not accept expired coupons
*They will double coupons 0.99 cents or less
*They will only double 20 per order
*They will only accept 3 like coupons per trip
*You cannot separate orders, so make more than one trip if you have more than 20 coupons that will double
*The accept internet printed coupons (They say they will not be doubled but every time I've done it they have doubled, with Leah they haven't)
*Any competitors coupons that are $XX amount off the total order they accept (Leah has had them accept every competitor coupon)
*All the same rules apply when triples come around
*You can get a rain check for things that are out stocked and on sale, they will never expire

Kroger
*You must your your Rewards or Plus card
*They will double coupons 0.50 cents of less
*They will take internet coupons and double them under the same .50 cents rule
*They do not accept competitor coupons
*They have no cap on how many coupons will double in one shop (I've used 10 like coupons and never had a problem)
*You can separate your order, however you have to use self-check out

Lowes Food
*You must use your Rewards card
*They will double coupons 0.99 cents or less
*They will only double 20 per order
*They will only accept 4 like coupons per trip
*The accept internet printed coupons
*All the same rules apply when triples come around
*You can get a rain check for things that are out stocked and on sale, they will never expire
*I don't know if you can separate orders at the register

Walgreens
*They do not double coupons
*You can use both a Walgreens coupon and a manufactor coupon for the same item
*You can only use the number of non-Walgreens coupons that you have items
*You can only use 1 RR per transaction (I'll talk about RR in the Walgreens post to come)
*You can separate your order at the register

CVS
*They do not double coupons
*You can use both a CVS coupon with a manufactor coupon for the same item
*I don't know of any coupon limit or Extra Bucks limit per transaction (I'll talk about Extra Bucks in the CVS post to come)
*You can separate your order at the register

If yall have any questions feel free to leave a note, e-mail me, facebook me, or however you want to contact me. I'll be glad to answer questions. I love saving money and so hope I can help save yall some!!!

So, I'm not sure how much this blog is helping anyone, but I figured I'd give it another month and see if it catches on. No one's commenting, so I'm not sure if people are actually reading this :) So comment if you think I should keep this blog going! Or, better yet, comment if you want to leave a post on the blog! Ok, so this is what we've got going on in November:

Saturday, November 8th: Mistletoe Market at Wakefield High School. I think a group is going to meet there at 8:30. I think another group may be meeting at 10:00.

Thursday, November 13th: Coupon Get Together @ Jenn's house around 6:15/6:30ish to learn more about how to get the best deals and save the most money at the grocery store!

Thursday, November 20th: Girls Night Out 80's Style! at the Melting Pot @5:00. Reservations have already been made, so if you weren't in the count or can't make it, you'll have to check with Erin to see if there's still any spots open.

If I've forgotten anything or if you've got something else to add, let me know!