Are coupons worth it?

[Kaplin261]

Do any of you clip coupons to save money? Is this a efficient way to use ones time to save money? And what if you dont want to buy processed foods or name brand products?

[Insanity]

My wife does couponing.  We save 40-50% on shopping regularly. Yes, some of that is processed food.  But we aren't health nuts.  We do eat well.  The two things we do -  store cards and shop at places that will triple coupons.   She also is good at finding deals on things where she will be able to use coupons to get something for free + a gift card to the store.

[Bucksandreds]

Yes, depending on store.  If you have a Kroger in your area then definitely.  Kroger has digital coupons that link to your loyalty card and take about 5 minutes to look through hundreds of them on Kroger.com. These combine with sale prices. Also Kroger sends us $5 off $50 every week and that combines as well. Kroger will also accept manufacturers coupons as well as periodically sending out other product coupons to Kroger plus card (free loyalty card) holders.  Kroger is without a doubt the best price on name brand products (Aldi beats everyone on generic) when you do all of the above.  We buy about half organic and Kroger does all of the above on organic products.  Today we spent $75 on over $125 in regular priced items and only buy things we actually eat but buy more of them when they're on sale.

[Kaplin261]

Yes, depending on store.  If you have a Kroger in your area then definitely.  Kroger has digital coupons that link to your loyalty card and take about 5 minutes to look through hundreds of them on Kroger.com. These combine with sale prices. Also Kroger sends us $5 off $50 every week and that combines as well. Kroger will also accept manufacturers coupons as well as periodically sending out other product coupons to Kroger plus card (free loyalty card) holders.  Kroger is without a doubt the best price on name brand products (Aldi beats everyone on generic) when you do all of the above.  We buy about half organic and Kroger does all of the above on organic products.  Today we spent $75 on over $125 in regular priced items and only buy things we actually eat but buy more of them when they're on sale.

Yeah we have a Kroger ill have to check into there store coupons. A while back we were reading a forum where people would share those combo deals Manufacture Coupon,Store Coupon,On Sale and combined together it would make the item almost free. We stocked the pantry but never really used any of the stuff.

[Bucksandreds]

Yes, depending on store.  If you have a Kroger in your area then definitely.  Kroger has digital coupons that link to your loyalty card and take about 5 minutes to look through hundreds of them on Kroger.com. These combine with sale prices. Also Kroger sends us $5 off $50 every week and that combines as well. Kroger will also accept manufacturers coupons as well as periodically sending out other product coupons to Kroger plus card (free loyalty card) holders.  Kroger is without a doubt the best price on name brand products (Aldi beats everyone on generic) when you do all of the above.  We buy about half organic and Kroger does all of the above on organic products.  Today we spent $75 on over $125 in regular priced items and only buy things we actually eat but buy more of them when they're on sale.

Yeah we have a Kroger ill have to check into there store coupons. A while back we were reading a forum where people would share those combo deals Manufacture Coupon,Store Coupon,On Sale and combined together it would make the item almost free. We stocked the pantry but never really used any of the stuff.

Some examples today are boneless skinless, antibiotic free, free range chicken is regularly $5.99 per pound at Kroger. It was on sale for $4.79 per pound. Using a $1.40 off digital coupon and a $1.50 off in the mail coupon plus $5 off $50 we ended up getting a pound and a half of it for around $2.50 per pound. Walmart has the best sale price I've ever seen on antibiotic free, free range, boneless chicken breast and that sale price is $3.49 per pound with no possibility of coupononing.  By couponing at Kroger I beat that by about $1 per pound for some of the best quality chicken available anywhere.

Another example is a 10 ounce package of organic frozen mixed berries.  Regularly $3.99 were on sale for $2.99 by combing the same 3 coupon strategy above, I was able to get a bag of this for around $1.50.

Obviously Im Not getting 60% off of everything as that would require buying only the extreme deals.  We also buy free range eggs and organic milk at Kroger but there are never the examples above type of deals on that.

I highly recommend Kroger and they are rapidly expanding their organic offerings, if that's your thing.

[patrat]

They are until you are cooking completly from scratch. I never see coupons for fresh food, just prepared or shelf stable.

[Prepube]

Yes, depending on store.  If you have a Kroger in your area then definitely.  Kroger has digital coupons that link to your loyalty card and take about 5 minutes to look through hundreds of them on Kroger.com. These combine with sale prices. Also Kroger sends us $5 off $50 every week and that combines as well. Kroger will also accept manufacturers coupons as well as periodically sending out other product coupons to Kroger plus card (free loyalty card) holders.  Kroger is without a doubt the best price on name brand products (Aldi beats everyone on generic) when you do all of the above.  We buy about half organic and Kroger does all of the above on organic products.  Today we spent $75 on over $125 in regular priced items and only buy things we actually eat but buy more of them when they're on sale.

All the major store chains do this.  And yes, it is worth ten minutes of your time to check the websites for product coupons you are about to buy anyway.  They add up across the years or decades... Every dollar saved now can be put to work earning more dollars for your FIRE.  Not sure what the other poster meant why they said coupons are good except for when you are cooking from scratch.  Fresh ingredients are often on sale with a coupon at my Kroger equivalent, and I recently got ten pounds of flour for only 75 cents (multiple coupons plus in-store incentives on the customer card).

[Jakejake]

I do a combination of coupons, rebates, biking for store dollars, shopping at small ethnic markets, and not being squeamish about buying manager's markdowns. I've tracked groceries for over a year now, logging every receipt. This includes food, beverages except booze, all cleaning supplies, toilet paper, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, and OTC meds, including stupid pricey prevacid or the generic version. For the last 15 months, I've spent a total of $1389, or an average of $92.43 per month for two adults ($1.54 per day per person).

So yes, I think it's worth it!

Today is a pretty typical diet-wise. Breakfast was coffee with a splash of a vanilla protein smoothie instead of cream, a peanut butter and date syrup sandwich, and oatmeal. Lunch was a smoothie made from a cantaloupe (yes, I ate the whole melon!), fresh kale, coconut milk, and flax seeds. I had a snack of peanuts, then another of cereal, then another of biscuits (yikes!) but in my defense, I've biked over 2000 miles this year so far, I eat a lot and don't gain weight because of that. :)

Dinner is going to be pasta with an herb dressing with leftover onion/sausage stuff that I cooked when I made pizza last night, and a side salad with lettuce (not the iceberg shit, real lettuce), goat cheese, a chopped apple and pecans.

My breakout for June:

Out of pocket costs (what I paid at the register): $140.24
What I saved from coupons: $76.50
What I saved from markdowns: $75.65 (an estimate - it's hard to tell if you get a case of loose produce what the full cost would have been)
What I saved from biking: 32.29
Rebates: $44.13

final cost: $91.11

You be surprised at the deals you can get for real food. Everything from milk (cow, almond, coconut), eggs, chia seeds, fresh produce, etc. Also once I found $20 on the ground while biking to the store to get a free (after coupons and rebates) $30 bottle of vodka, that was an exciting day!

The government figures that for a couple our age, we should be spending between about $4500 - $8500 per year, depending if we are thrifty or liberal. We spent $1100 in the last year. Saving $3-7k seems worth a fair amount of time to me.