The Not-So-Super-Couponer

I must admit that I was intrigued. When I read all of Melinda’s posts in her super-couponing series, I jumped right on the wagon. Newspaper subscription: check. Good pair of scissors: check. Read store policies: check. I was ready to super-coupon my way to super-savings…

However, I ran into a few not-so-super problems in my couponing attempt, and I would like to share my experiences with you. So here it goes: my foray into the savings-from-squares world.

The First Attempt

My first couponing experience went...pretty well. I had clipped all of the coupons for items that I would consider purchasing if the deal was right. This was simply a different brand of yogurt than I was used to or a name-brand cereal (rather than my usual generic brand).

The issue here in this first try was that I was super-unorganized. I mean, I had coupons stacked in weird piles all over my grocery cart, and at one point, I was leaving a trail of coupons behind me. One grocery clerk laughed and asked if it was my bread-crumb trail back to the good stuff. Oy!

Coupon savings: $9.95. Sales savings: about $20.

The Second Attempt

My second try went much better. I stocked up on pet supplies at our local pet store, and I really only needed multiples of five different items; so I only needed one coupon for each cat food tin and jumbo-sized bag of dog food. Organization was still nil but thankfully unnecessary.

The one (awesome!) tip I picked up was to buy a gift card on Cardpool first. This purchase automatically saved me $8. Add my coupons and sales savings on top of that, and I saved a total of $35.93!

Cardpool savings: $8.00. Coupon and sales savings: $27.93.

The Latest Attempt

Most recently, I couponed again at the grocery store. This time I was more prepared. I brought a list of all the groceries I absolutely needed and a list of the coupons that I had available. With this cross-reference, I was able to determine which price was the best: a cheaper product on sale without a coupon or a product with a coupon. I was much more organized and much less stressed.

Coupon savings: $5.90. Sales savings: about $10.

Overall, couponing can be pretty super. I was very impressed with my pet store savings, and I will definitely continue to stock up every few months like this to save $36.00. My grocery store savings, though, may need just a little tweaking. I need to put a tiny bit more work into my organization to find the best deals (and I need to keep reading Melinda's advice!). I can turn myself, a not-so-super-couponer, into a savings machine!

How about you: do you have any super-couponing experiences you would like to share?

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