Help

[kdicicco]

I have tried to coupon for almost 6 months now, and I can not figure out how to shop for free. I use coupon mom data base. I collect all the coupon books, I search the internet. I have read books on how to do it, and I can not seem to get more than $20 off my final bill when I expect to get more off. I am not sure what I am doing wrong, if I am shopping at the right place, any of it. I think I have a great deal and I'll only pay cents on an item, and it seems like I pay full price. Any assistance on this would be great. I live in lower MI if anybody lives around that is a pro, that I can see how it is actually done. Thanks so much!

[Bear]

If you figure out how to shop for free, let all of us know too. No one around here shops for free either. Shopping for free is only available in the imaginary land of TLC. Most of us feel good to save 50% off full retail prices. The best of us save around 70% after a large stockpile has already been built. Saving $20 off your bill with coupons is great! Most of our savings are from store sales; coupons only make up a small part of it. You have to wait for the best sale and combine it with the best coupon to see the best savings.

[dp38587]

Any money you save is money in your wallet......$20 is a good start!!!

If you check the weekly deals on this site, you often find an item or 2 that is free after coupons. If these free or nearly free items are something you can use grab them if you can find them.
In order to get the best savings, you have to stockpile staple items at least to some extent. Example....if your family uses 1 box of cereal a week and you find it on sale with a coupon for $1 a box, buy 8. You will have 2 months worth of cereal for the price of 2 weeks worth.
Pasta, sauce, drink mix, condiments, seasoning packets are examples of items that are occasionally free, often very cheap......stock up when price is low/free and you have more money to spend on other things that are rarely discounted....like produce and meat.
Health and beauty items are usually the easiest to stock up.....they have the best coupons and the best sale matches. If you can find a few cheap/free razors, shampoo, soap, styling products, deodorants etc as you shop, you'll soon have a very nice supply of these items. You'll only need to get them when they are free/cheap again to keep stocked up.
Before I started coupon shopping, I made one epic shopping trip a week, spent a ton of money and struggled to carry everything in and put it away. These days I rarely spend over $20 at a time.
There just are no $1000 shopping trips for $2.49 out of pocket.....I wish! When you find a good deal, jump on it........that's what most of us do.

Good luck and Welcome to the Forum!!!!!

Deb

[tmnick]

Waiting was the hardest thing for me to learn. Just because you have a q doesn't mean you have to use it. Wait for the right sale and jump on it. You will find that an item will cycle through and be on sale every 6 or 8 weeks. Time it right and your 20% will go to 40% pretty easily. Getting to 65-70% consistently is tough even for the pros on here. It is certainly doable but going from 20% to 40% is very doable and will save you TONS of money. Keep reading...keep watching and before you know it you will be the one answering questions around here!

[Kameelyon]

Hey,

Welcome. Learning to coupon is very confusing. Don't let it get to you. Move at your speed and learn as you go. When you see the shopping trips described in posts around here where they list their saving percentage 59%, 79%, etc, you must keep in mind that savings is based on comparing what they paid for the item to it's regular retail price. I.E. A can of corn could be priced regularly at $1.89 and then goes on "sale" for 10 for $10 (or $1 each). If you had a Q (coupon) that saved you $1 off 2 cans then you would be paying $0.50 per can, this represents roughly a 74% savings (.50 vs 1.89) but when you are looking at your receipt the item was "on sale" for $1 and you paid .50 after coupon so it looks like only 50%.
Pay attention to the numbers but don't get bogged down in them. The big secret to all this is to keep track of what regular prices are on things you buy and you want to combine coupons with real sales for maximum savings. This is more art than science, stick with it and good luck.

[momofsix]

I routinely save 40-60%. I have been couponing for 30 years and have only once gotten my bill to $0. That was on 11 bottles of body wash and that was the only thing I bought. If I save 50 cents on something, that's 50 cents more in my pocket!

[rolla]

Any kind of savings makes me happy - not paying full retail for an item that my family uses is great. What they don't tell you on the TLC program is that it isn't all through the use of coupons that you print or clip from newspapers - the people use other techniques such as getting $125.00 credit for transferring 5 prescriptions to that store's pharmacy, using ONYO catalinas that they have saved from previous shopping trips or received from family and friends, using reward points, using vouchers from store credit cards (I have a Kroger credit card and get $5.00 and $10.00 vouchers that I use just like a coupon).

Keep with it, read this forum and heed the advice of the expert shoppers on here, match coupons with sales listed on couponmom, build your stockpile and you'll see the savings.

[Marie5656]

Yep..free is great, but not common. Getting a huge % off is more realistic. I watch for things like BOGO sales on items I have coupons for..as it makes for an even bigger savings. Same with 10 for $10 sales plus coupons.
For HBA, go to places like Rite Aid with the Up rewards and CVS. I mainly use Rite Aid, simply as store is moreconvenient for me to get to. I have gotten $50 worth of stuff for about $20 or less coupling Up Reward savings and coupons.

[nunyabizz]

I'm new here so can't say what is or isn't good couponing yet . here is what i have did by coming here and coupon moms site. granted they were little sale nothing like the tlc show. Couponmom said target had a sale on comit for 1.99 and target coupon for 1.00 off making it .99 that is a 50% saving. I had from the Sunday paper a dollar off comit using the store coupon and target will stake or use two coupons on the same item if one is mf and one is store. So i got the comit free while kinda i had to pay tax. wish i had more of the Sunday paper ones but didn't so i only got four for free. and 12cents tax.
Next one is a a gas station we have here that take coupons they had sk shots for 1.89. i have three bogo cps and three .75 off. now here is a strange one i get all 6 free not even tax. not sure how or why but i'm not looking that gift horse in the mouth. I did say something to her about tax and that i thought she was cheating herself, she said its was OK that the code made up the difference. See these were not your 1000.00 for 5.00 but it was grate to me. before when i shopped i would think that oh coupons were nothing but store draws i'm learning the right way to use them and saving money. That to me is a WIN WIN.

[savingdee]

Listen to all the advice you were given.Its experience talking..its so hard to get anything free anymore. That tlc show doesnt show you all things..like wheres the meat,bread,milk and eggs? You cant live on snacks,soda,mustard and ketchup..coupon mom is reality. Even the hundred boxes of cereal they have stored have to have milk.