My Good Friend Is Learning, And Wanted to Share

I have a very good friend named Ruby, whom I've known since way back at summer camp in middle school.  I had totally lost touch with her until I found her on facebook.  She has been reading my posts and decided to give coupons a try.  She sent me a picture of one of her first coupon shopping trips during the Kroger Mega Sale that is going on now.

By stacking coupons and sale prices, she paid just $72.25 for over $113 worth of groceries, including some meat and produce.  She's also got some cleaning supplies and 5 boxes of cereal in there!  Plus, she said she got back a $1.50 Catalina coupon for buying the Hamburger Helper.

I think Ruby is doing a great job for just starting out, and she wanted to help encourage others who are just getting started as well.

She also emailed me the very next day about another unexpected deal she found.  She was purchasing some Levi's jeans for herself at Academy.  The signs said $14.88, which she thought was a good price already.  When she went to pay for them, they actually rang up $0.88!  I think Ruby has had a great savings week!

She and I would both like to encourage anyone who is just getting started with couponing to stick with it.  You most likely will not see 90% savings on your very first outing.  That rarely happens for those that have been doing this for decades!  The longer you stick with it, the more savings you will see in the long run.

I think the idea here is to not look at the percentage you are saving on the receipt, but the amount less you are spending as a whole on your groceries over time.  That's what we are truly in need of decreasing.  Try picking up as many of the freebies and items that are at their lowest price as you have coupons for each week *before* you actually need them, and over time you will have a small stockpile of items that you did not pay full price for.  Then when you need it again, you don't have to run out and pay full price, you can just walk right over to your pantry.

Once you build up a pantry full of items in this way, you will really start seeing savings in your grocery spending.  To do this, you will likely need more coupons than come in a single Sunday newspaper.  Many can be printed online, but you, like Ruby, may not have a printer.  Some of the coupon print links have an option to have them mailed to you!  Also,many of your friends and family may not use their coupons and would gladly give them to you, so ask around.  The longer you save coupons, the more coupons you will have in your stash also, and this will increase the number of items that you are able to get great deals on!

If you are also just getting started, keep at it.  You will see savings.  If you would like to share a trip to encourage others, too, email me at savingmyselfsilly at gmail dot com.