Coup-oning

I admit it. I'm a convert.


On Wednesday, I brought home

• 6 Betty Crocker cookie mixes



• 1 Betty Crocker blueberry muffin mix



• 4 boxes of instant mashed potatoes (the good kind)



• 2 boxes of Fiber One bars



• 1 package of Reynold's foil



• 16 10-oz boxes of cereal

for a grand total of $31.85. (Technically $28.86, since Mom sent off for a $2.99 rebate on the foil.)

Thanks to a good sale at Albertson's (on select merchandise, save $4 on every $10 you spend) and some carefully clipped/saved coupons, I was able to get a ton of bang for my buck. For example, the cereal was on sale 4/$10. But, by spending $10, you save $4. So it was really 4/$6. Then I had a $2-off-5 coupon, a $1.50-off-3 coupon, and two $1-off-3 coupons. In all, the 16 boxes were $18.50, or $1.16 each.

Granted, I'm still learning my way. But I think that's not bad for an amateur. Especially since I used to scoff at coupons. Okay, well not scoff at them, per se. More like, I had given up on the idea of my being able to consistently use them.



I always had every intention of using them. Then I would find myself at the store, coupons still at home, under a magnet on the fridge. Mocking me. I'd swear that next time I would remember. Most coupons would be long past their expiration date by the time I finally cleared them off the fridge. It seemed hopeless.



So, while many of you frugal folks out there are probably old hands as the couponing biz, I'm offering up this post to any of you who think coupons and you will simply never work out. Don't give up just yet!





Get organized


This is the essential step. It's what finally turned things around for me. My mom made me a coupon organizer for Christmas. She just grabbed a bag (with a zipper, that's vital!) and some tabbed index cards. She typed out some label names, printed them, cut them up and glued them onto the tabs. Voila!


You can use just about any kind of bag that closes. Be creative! Go to the thrift store and look around, or just dig through your closet.


I wish I had saved the link, but I read a great post by a PF blogger who had made herself a coupon binder:

• In front, a plastic, card-organizer sheet to keep all of her store loyalty cards.


• A calculator in the front pocket, to better compare per-unit prices


• Her price book for quick reference


• Of course, her coupons. I can't remember how she stored these in a binder. I want to say clear pencil pouches? One for each grocery section? It was probably something better and more orderly than that. But you get the general idea.


• I would add one other item to this list: conversions. Other than 16 oz = 1 lb, I can never remember how many of X are in Y. So I would write up a list and stick that in the binder. It will make price comparisons a lot faster.

Other folks use boxes, binders -- one even uses a briefcase. Get some ideas here, at Hot Coupon World. Though I am willing to bet that if you did a search for "organizer" on A Full Cup or Coupon Mom, they would have good suggestions as well!

If you are dreading the hassle of creating your own system, eBay has some good deals on organizers (ie, under $7). Just be careful. Some lunatics are, for reasons entirely beyond me, trying to charge $30 for coupon organizers. I think the rationalization is that they come with tons of coupons in them. But I hardly see the point in paying for coupons that other folks thought were worthwhile. Especially with those three couponing sites so accessible.

Pay attention to prices

You probably already have a vague idea as to what constitutes a sale. There are certainly a lot of promotions wherein the savings are almost insulting. I have seen "sales" taking a whopping 20 cents off. And these are the items that no one considers a necessity.

Sure, you can combine that with coupons for better savings. But it makes more sense (cents?) to save those for the better sale prices, to really get a deal.

To do that, you need to get a feel for the cycle of sales. Every grocery store has one. Most are every 3-4 weeks. It's one of the major reasons frugal folks stockpile during sales: It gets us through until the best prices come around again.

I like Coupon Mom's ebook for a good explanation of how to create a price book. There are actually three different ebooks, so check out each one!

Plan it out

I hope that it goes without saying that you should be planning your meals/grocery shopping based on weekly sales. If it doesn't, well, then I just said it. Works out, either way.

Each Tuesday, when the food ads come out, I sit down and circle the items of interest. Based on how many each store has, I decide which I'll actually visit during the week. Because of my energy situation, I also prioritize them. Usually, there are at least a couple items at each of the three stores. But I rarely get to more than two. Some weeks, I only get to one.

Then I pull out a small notebook and list the item, the sale price (so I can find the right one/request a rain check if it's out) and any other notes I need. For Wednesday's little success, I had grouped each set of items into the $10 amounts, figured out the end price, then noted which coupons I'd use, so that I could determine the price I'd actually pay. It can be helpful to do this for complicated sales. Grocery stores are awfully good at making prices sound more impressive than they actually are. So I usually check the math (and usually, at the store, I check the usual price, to find how much I'm "saving.")

Once I know what items we're buying that week, I get online. My first stop is Coupons.com (via MyPoints, since each redeemed coupon gets you 10 points). I print out the ones relevant to our purchases. It's actually worth noting that you can print out a coupon twice at any given IP address.

If I still haven't found as many coupons as I'd like, I do web searches. Usually, there are a few dead ends, such as expired coupons. But I have had success, too. I've found $1-off coupons for Bertolli Oven Bake Meals. I found out that, by signing up at Betty Crocker, you can print out even more copies of coupons. (Which is how I came to have 6 50-cent-off coupons for cookie mixes.)

I need to start making better use of the coupon sites, too. I'm working on it, slowly. If you're just starting out, I would start with Coupon Mom. Her site matches various sales up with the best coupons. You don't have to sit down and do the math. It's done for you. Some of the coupons are printable, others simply reference the day/source. In that case, you need to start saving all of your Red Plum/Smart Source coupons. Yet another good reason to get an organization system going.

When it comes to coupons, though, there are a couple of extra tricks that you may or may not know. The easiest is to make friends with non-coupon-using newspaper subscribers. My aunt gives my mom a second set of Sunday coupons. Most people who consider coupons a nuisance are actually happy to give them out. They seem to feel better knowing that, this way, the coupons will actually see some use.

Another trick is to visit coffeeshops, IHOPs and other leisurely Sunday places. These sites tend to have Sunday papers lying around. And, generally, the coupons are more of a mess and hassle for customers. If you ask, you can usually walk away with free coupons. (I've never heard of anyone doing this at libraries, but I suppose that's an option, as well.)

Often, store circulars will have coupons, but these tend to have limits: 2 lb cheese $4.99, limit 3. Early in the week, most stores will have extra circulars. So go up to the service counter while you're there and ask if there are any. This way, you can buy the limit, drop the items off in the car, and go back in for more. (It's usually best to use a different teller, for discretion.)

If you live in an apartment building like me, you can usually find plenty of extra circulars in the front lobby's trash/recycling bin. This is how Mom loads up on double coupons, when Albertson's offers them.

I think that's about it, as far as my knowledge goes. But I'm sure there are more hints out there. What are your top couponing/sale-searching tips?

Convenience tax

The other day, I paid a $1 premium for a gallon of milk.





It's not that I particularly like overpaying. I could have driven to Fred Meyer's and gotten the gallon for 99 cents. Instead, I got it from Albertson's for a much steeper $1.99. I actually paid more than twice the cheapest rate. Not something I'm proud of.





Given the circumstances of that day, though, the premium was worth it.







The closest Fred Meyer to us is just over 3 miles (and copious traffic lights) away. The streets I'd take would all have been heavy with traffic. It would have taken me an absolute minimum of 20 minutes to just get there. Comparatively, Albertson's is just over a mile away, with just three lights in between.

Add to that supreme fatigue that day, as well as the depression that has been reasserting itself lately, and you have an understandable reason for overpaying. I was so worn down that even just going across the street to Grocery Outlet for 50-70 cents savings was simply not an option.



So the extra money was worth it, even though I usually try to avoid paying for an item when I know it's cheaper elsewhere. But sometimes I have to.



You don't even need to have health issues to appreciate the difficulty of all this. You're tired, work was hell, the kids are screaming in the back, and you still have to get home and cook. Who wouldn't be tempted to pay a little bit more -- or even stop by McDonald's?



So when is it acceptable?



The answer to this will vary from person to person. It depends on the value you place on your free time. Or time spent with your family. Or simply not in grocery stores.



I think one of the best ways to avoid this is to change the way we think about price differences. Rather than think of it as a 50 cent difference, which we often can rationalize through gas and time spent getting to multiple stores, think of it as a tax. A convenience tax, if you will.



After all, that's essentially what it is. You ever actually look at prices as you go through a convenience store? They're astronomical. Why? Because the store is banking on your unwillingness to seek out a better price. These stores profit from our desire for instant gratification.



So it's not too much of a stretch to think about grocery store price differences in the same way. When you pay 50 cents more for a can of green beans, to avoid a second store, you're paying for convenience. And if there are multiple instances of this convenience tax, it can quickly make you rethink your process.



Of course, this won't deter everyone in every situation. And it shouldn't. There is something to be said for valuing your free time and energy. You wouldn't expect a sick person to visit several stores looking for the best price on Nyquil. It's a special situation, where we decide to value our physical needs over our frugal ones.



In a less extreme example, we've all orderered delivery food from time to time. It may be to celebrate; more likely, it's because we just can't bring ourselves to cook. We don't do it frequently, because in better times, we prioritize money over our desire for prepared food. But from time to time, it's worthwhile to take it easy on ourselves.



So framing it as a convenience tax won't always stop you from paying more for products. But it does give you a more realistic look at the situation. You can't claim that your real concern is gas. At $2.30 a gallon, the stores would have to be pretty far apart to make that rationalization work. You can, though, decide just how much convenience you're willing to pay for.



Convenience tax of 50 cents? You might or might not bother. It depends if you need it right away, whether you'll be in the other store soon enough anyway, and how valuable your time and energy is to you. But as those "taxes" add up? To $2 or $3... or more? You may just start to rethink your shopping practices.

Do you watch the register?

I saw this article today: Turns out Target has to pay California customers $1.7 million from scanned items that rang up too high.


It made me wonder... Don't people pay attention to register prices?


My mom taught me to always keep a close eye on the register readout. Of course, she used so many coupons and sales, it was pretty much in her best interest to make sure it all went through. (She often uses coupons, rebates, and store sales to let her donate items to shelters. They always need toothbrushes, deodorant, tampons, etc.)


But I grew up watching her often (politely) point out when something didn't seem to be discounted. So I always keep a keen eye out, as items are being scanned.


A few months ago, Tim and I actually saved ourselves quite a bit of money this way. We had gone in to get some on-sale cereal. We bought about 15 boxes of the stuff. But when it rang up, the cereal was at its normal price. Turns out, the smaller size was on sale. (There was only space for that larger-sized box. Apparently, this store didn't carry the smaller version.)


Tim insisted that, since it was the only size available, the store should honor the sale. I was shocked when the manager amiably agreed -- although she specified that, in the future, we should remember that some stores' inventories are different. In other words, we wouldn't get to use that argument on her indefinitely.


If we had just accepted the total, we would have overpaid by about $30-40. (Though I can't really imagine anyone not noticing that big a discrepancy.) But between my vigilance and Tim's stubbornness, we also got the sale price on the bigger size of cereal. Talk about win-win!


Of course, the point is that you should watch all prices -- sale or not. I often choose items based on price. It isn't just sales where this can happen. If a tag has been pushed too far over to one side, you can pretty easily pick up a $7 item, thinking it's significantly cheaper.


The tags at most of our local stores are often not even close to aligned with the products. So it has taught me to look carefully at the tag before putting something in my cart. I compare the brand name, item name and weight. (And, of course, we should all always be comparing items' prices by weight, not just the overall price. I hope that's second nature to everyone already.)


Perhaps this is when the self-checkout lane is the most useful. As you ring up items, you get to verify the price. It also keeps you honest: You have to handle the item while you see its cost. I know there are a few times that I winced at the price of a treat Tim or I picked up. It usually made me much more conservative on future grocery buys.


So what about you? Do you keep your eye on the register's readout?

A question everyone must ask one day....

And that is: Just how many 2 liters of Mountain Dew can a Chevrolet Cavalier's trunk hold?


As this picture proves, more than 62!


Safeway had a three-day sale on Mountain Dew. A 2-liter bottle was only 59 cents.


I suppose it goes without saying that we took advantage of the plentiful bottles that were still there.


And it reinforces the point that you should always ask. There was a limit of 10 bottles, but Tim approached a cashier and asked if she'd be willing to ring up each group of 10 separately. And sure enough...


Thankfully, the Safeway is less than 3 miles away, so the very low-riding trunk (and probably horrible gas mileage) wasn't much of an issue.


Just a tidbit that made us giggle.

Quick frugal tip: Meal substitution

We're all stressed out and many of us are upset and fearful about the economy. Which means, like me, you're probably extra tired.


There's no problem with that, but I can tell you (and I think we can all agree I'm an expert) that fatigue and depression make it hard to do day-to-day chores. For me, one of the first things to go is food.


When you're upset and feeling powerless, it's easy to give in to convenience. You know you shouldn't -- that you could quickly fix yourself something cheaply. But it suddenly seems like too much work.


About 6 years ago, I was at my lowest point, physically. I left the house maybe twice a week. Everything exhausted me and I spent a lot of the day sleeping. Getting to the grocery store a mile away (without a car) was miraculous.


So I invested in Slim-Fast shakes. Not the greatest tasting, but it meant I didn't have to worry about two of my three meals for the day. When I have to figure all meals out, I get anxious and that tires me out further.


I have since abandoned the practice in favor of a healthy cereal, Kashi Go Lean Crunch. But, upon hearing about Tim's sugary cereal, our trainer Elston recently recommended a healthy meal substitution.


GNC Pro Performance has a whey protein shake. The chocolate is actually pretty tasty. If you use chilled water, it tastes kind of like a thin chocolate shake. Otherwise, it just tastes like hot chocolate that's cooled off.


I like it because it's fast and easy. I was running late for my training session. So I opted for it instead of my cereal. It took me about a minute to make and about 40 seconds to drink. Great for when you're pressed for time. And I got 20 grams of protein from that drink, with almost no sugar.


If I were going to substitute it for an entree, I would probably use two scoops, since there's only 130 calories in each serving. (Don't forget: Calories are units of energy, not just things to avoid.) Then I'd have some fruit or something else to round out the meal.


Obviously, the GNC stuff is just one of many brands you can try. I like it because it's low in sugar, so I don't crash an hour later. I have also tried Glucerna, though I wasn't crazy about the taste.


Most of meal-replacement shakes (at least the ones I've tried) have tastes you have to get used to. By the third or fourth time, you're usually pretty accustomed to their version of chocolate. The GNC stuff probably would have been good on the first try, but we were using too much water, which dilutes the taste.


My (sugar-conscious) favorites are the Zone bars, followed by Cliff. Zone makes a mean mint chocolate bar. It's almost like candy, but with a good balance on sugar. There are also protein bars, as well. My favorite (that don't have a ton of sugar, anyway) are the Zone bars, particularly the mint chocolate.


For some of you, a 260-calorie breakfast is too small. That's fine. The 130-calorie one I had only lasted me around 90 minutes -- long enough to get to the training session, through it and back home. Just because I mention calories doesn't mean I'm advocating you strip your diet down.


In fact, I really loathe programs like Jenny Craig, though a couple of friends have seen terrific results from it. They'd have to. Why? Because if you follow the program instructions, you live on 1200 calories a day.


Think that doesn't sound so bad? The average 160 lb person burns that lying in bed all day.


So, yeah... Not healthy! Most regular-sized people who want to lose a little weight should, as far as I can tell from my dealings with those-in-the-know, shoot for no fewer than 1500 calories.


If you're one of those normal-sized people who eats like a normal person, you might not be crazy about replacing a meal. But these things can still be useful from a frugal standpoint. That's because these make good snacks.


Most of the time, when you're considering what to eat, you're already hungry. If it's dinner, you're probably tired from the day. Like shopping when you're hungry, it's a no-no to try to decide meals while you're stomach's rumbling.


Instead, have a shake or bar or whatever. This will stop the immediacy of the hunger and probably up your energy a bit. Then you can do a more realistic assessment of plausible homemade food.


And starting with a shake or bar means you won't be fainting from hunger when the meal's ready. This will help you eat a more sensibly sized portion, which will leave leftovers. That helps you stretch your food dollar, meaning you can spend less at the grocery store.

What are your budget busters?

Budget busters are your weak spots. It might be a shoe sale; or a bookstore’s clearance section; maybe that video game you’ve read so much about. Whatever it is, it hits – and it hits hard.

At our house, it’s food.

It seems like such a simple idea: Just don’t eat at restaurants, don’t get fast food. But a lack of food makes it harder to think of alternatives. You just want to stop being hungry.

And so you go for whatever is easiest, not whatever is cheapest.

But, like most frugality issues, it seems to come down to thinking ahead.

Visiting

Every two or three weeks, we visit Tim’s family in Sumner – about an hour’s drive from Seattle. We also go see Tim’s friends in Tacoma, about 20 minutes’ drive from Sumner.

Running around means we find ourselves stranded for at least two meals. When two combos run $12-$15, we’re out around $30 – more if there’s a third meal in there. Add to that an inevitable snack run to Wal-Mart, and you’re up to $40 or more.

What can we do?

1. Start bringing food

• Bring four meals’ worth, so we can eat before we leave his parents and when we’re out visiting in Tacoma.

2. Stop snacking

• I’m the major instigator for snack runs. When I eat less sugar, we don’t go to the grocery store and spend money. Pretty simple.

3. Make lists

• I never think of snack runs as actual grocery shopping. For groceries, I make lists. But from now on, we won't be going anywhere without a list. This means we’ll roam less, which means fewer impulse purchases.

4. Choose carefully

• Instead of combo meals at Wendy's, we can order from the Super Value Menu. Get small fries or a baked potato. A 5-piece Chicken Nuggets instead of a chicken sandwich. 2 Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers instead of a Baconator.

Too few cooks

There are days when Tim isn’t feeling well and when I’m exhausted from helping take care of him. We have simple meals like hot dogs, soup and frozen entrees. Sometimes I just eat a PBJ, Tim has cereal. It’s a good plan B, for a day or two.

But an eczema flare-up or other health problem can last longer than that. Then, we’re sick of the basics and too tired to think straight.

That’s when we order pizza. The bill is usually $25-$30 for two pizzas and cinnamon sticks (very tasty, very addictive). The pizza lasts usually 3-4 meals each. But that’s still a good chunk of change.

What can we do?

1. Half & half

• When we first met, Tim could inhale a 14” pizza. Now, his appetite has mellowed. But we kept ordering two pizzas. What we should do is share a pizza: half with my toppings, half with his. This’ll save $10, minimum.

2. Nix the sticks.

• I love these things. But I need to get back to my low-sugar diet. This includes avoiding the cinnamon sticks, however tasty. Plus, the price was raised from $2.99 to $3.99. Extra incentive.

3. Frozen pizza

• We’ll have to be careful about freezer space but we’ll save a ton. With a pizza in the freezer, you really can’t rationalize paying for delivered pizza.

4. Breathe & eat

• When I can’t think of what I want, I stress out, which makes it worse. I should just grab a small snack (crackers & cheese, yogurt, fruit) and try to get my blood sugar back up. Then, I’ll be more likely to think clearly and come up with a frugal answer.
  

What are your budget busters? And, other than avoidance, how can you cope with them?


Don't forget, this week's giveaway ends Sunday at 11:59 P.M. So enter now! And next week look for my review of "Pay It Down" by Jean Chatzky

Cutting back

The next few days are going to be intense: Tim is quitting smoking.

He was a smoker when we met, but since he has asthma he wanted to stop. Fall of 2006 he quit and stayed a non-smoker until right before the wedding. The stress of being unemployed and getting married apparently combined to form a new smoking habit. Then, at the end of the honeymoon, we found out his grandmother had died. So I didn't push the quitting issue when we first got back.

He's been trying off and on again for about a month, to increasing frustration on my part. When he started lying about smoking, it was the last straw and we had it out. I told him that if he was going to be a smoker, be a smoker. But that he needed to decide and the excuse that it's too hard and "now's not a good time" wouldn't work any more. There never will be a good time, I told him.

So he started again on the cold-turkey plan... and smoked a cigarette around 11 p.m. that same night. But, in his defense, he did the adult thing and made a doctor's appointment to see about medications.

Turns out there are two, besides the patch (which wouldn't stick to Tim's skin because of all the lotion he uses for his eczema): Wellbutrin and Chantix.

Wellbutrin is actually an anti-depressant that targets anxiety, and obviously there's plenty of anxiety when you're quitting any bad habit. Interestingly, though, the stop-smoking program is called "Zyban." It's exactly the same as Wellbutrin used for depression, except that it's often not covered by insurance companies (or barely covered). So the doctor told us to be quite sure we didn't so much as breathe a word about nicotine. Otherwise, pharmacists literally have to give you Zyban instead of Wellbutrin.

Chantix, the doctor warned us, was far more expensive and barely covered by most insurance plans. This drug takes away the actual nicotine cravings but not the anxiety.

The third option, the doctor said, was to take some mild tranquilizers for three days -- which is how long it takes nicotine to work its way out of your system.

Miser that I am, I prayed Tim would want the Wellbutrin; but I told him whichever he thought would help him better was worth any amount. Luckily, he chose Wellbutrin (yay!)

I've agreed to give up candy/desserts in solidarity. He said part of the problem is he feels alone when he quits. I offered to give up sugar altogether, but since he's the cook he really didn't want that hassle. So, I'm okay to eat fruit and drink juices. But anything that can be construed as a dessert -- even sugar-free stuff -- is nixed. I've been trying to wean myself off junk food more anyway. So, as I pointed out to him, we're both doing something we don't like in order to help our health. My only caveat is that I get sugar on my birthday, no matter what. But as that's 18 days away, I'm none too worried.

So why am I posting this on a frugal blog? Well, firstly because I sometimes forget that others don't find minutae of my life as fascinating as I do.

But more because I think this is a good time to stop and think about how much vices cost. For me, it's junk food. That's expensive stuff. Yes, it can cost a lot to eat healthily, and fruit is often not cheap. But when it comes to desserts, the prices are getting ludicrous. Relatively small bags of mini-Snickers cost upwards of $5 in the grocery store. I don't care how badly I'm craving chocolate/peanut/nougat goodness, I'm not paying that for a fix! Combine that with the shrinking product packaging (and no corresponding price-shrinkage) and it's just too expensive to be a junk-foodie.

My hope is that after a few weeks of no sugary snacks, I'll realize that I can be perfectly satisfied without them, and so can buy less. So assuming I spend, say, $10 a week on junk food (and I'm sure it's often been significantly more), if I can cut down to junk food just once or twice a week I can spend probably just $5. Over the course of a year, that's $260 that I've saved -- and countless calories!

And Tim's cigarettes? A $5 pack every two days means more than $900 a year! So these changes could have a huge impact on our debt. Granted, we have to figure out a way to save the money, and not fritter it away on other things...

What luxury or vice do you spend too much on? How much could you stand to cut back and how much would it save?