Can You Really Save Money Using Coupons? or How I Save $150 a Month on Groceries!

One thing that I hear a lot from people when they find out that I use coupons goes something like this: "I think that is just a lot of work and I don't think you really save that much doing it". My response to this is two-fold:

1. Couponing does not take a great deal of time

2. You really can save a lot of money

Now keep in mind when I talk about the time that you spend couponing I mean couponing like a normal person. The people that you see on Extreme Couponing are insane, say that with me "insane". They talk about spending 50 hours per week couponing. There is no need for that. I would estimate that I spend about 15 minutes a day just checking my usual couponing sites for updates and for each shopping trip (generally one to Publix and one to Kroger per week) I probably spend 30-45 minutes doing that, 5 hours per week would be pretty much a maximum for me. I find that in general I spend less time actually at the store shopping because I go in with a plan and know exactly what I am looking for as opposed to wandering around aimlessly thinking, "hmm...what did I come here for again?".

I can also tell you that YES you really can save so much money! I think when people who don't coupon look at coupons they see, "oh, well that coupon is for 50 cents, why would I waste my time clipping for 50 cents". What they don't see is that coupon doubling or using that coupon for an item that is on a great sale. Plus, little amounts add up! If you buy 20 items and save 50 cents on each item you have just saved $10!
Now, let's talk about saving $150 per month. Husband and I sat down tonight and went through our online bank account statements to see what we actually spend each month. We did this as a part of making a budget for ourselves. We have had something that we called a budget, but really it was just a list of all of the bills we have to pay each month. So we decided to do a real budget. We looked at our expenses for food other than groceries (ie. fast food or eating out), bills, groceries, gas, and entertainment. What we found was shocking and really made us think about what we spend each month. But while we spent more than either of us would have liked on the other categories, our grocery expenses were actually really good. We compared our grocery expenses for this past October ($270) and last October before we had started using coupons ($420), that is a $150/month difference! In addition to saving money we also get more for our money. Before coupons we would go to the store and buy things as needed, never really being able to get things on sale because I had to buy it at whatever price it was because I needed it. We have also been able to try a lot of different foods that we would not have before because they were too expensive. So, if you haven't tried couponing yet, just give it a shot. Even a saving of $20 a week is still savings that you can put toward something else:)