Supermarket shocker: Coupons

[Conan The Librarian]

I was at the supermarket checkout the other day and the guy in front of me had a lot of groceries. The cashier scanned a bunch of coupons, then told the man the total bill before and after the coupons. The guy saved about forty bucks off of what was originally about $130. How did he do it? That's amazing.
 
We usually don't buy stuff that has coupons applied, like fresh fruits and vegetables and meats, flour, cheese, etc. The coupons seemed to apply most to brand name things like pizzas and cereals and bottled drinks.
 
I was impressed you could knock that much off a grocery bill, though.

[kennyd]

The catch is the name brand.  Even free is too much for something we don't use or like.  A lot of times the store brand is just as good or better for a price that is still less than the discounted one.  We watch the loss leaders everey week and buy a reasonable amount if it is something we use.  This evening we had Kroger green beans that taste better than the Del Monte and were a lot less per can.


Most of our meat is the stuff they have to sell on the last day, usually from Target.   Cheese can freeze, as can meat.  Groceries are getting to be a burden for those of us on a budget.  A lot of the produce is not that good and doesn't keep well.


 

[powderman]

The catch is the name brand.  Even free is too much for something we don't use or like.  A lot of times the store brand is just as good or better for a price that is still less than the discounted one.  We watch the loss leaders everey week and buy a reasonable amount if it is something we use.  This evening we had Kroger green beans that taste better than the Del Monte and were a lot less per can.


Most of our meat is the stuff they have to sell on the last day, usually from Target.   Cheese can freeze, as can meat.  Groceries are getting to be a burden for those of us on a budget.  A lot of the produce is not that good and doesn't keep well.

 
KENNYD. We too buy reduced meats, except for burger,  or we don't eat it. We rarely buy name brand anything from foods to meds, can't afford it anymore. Even with coupons most name brands are still higher than store brands or generic. If folks feel the need for name brands then coupons are the way to go.
 
There are exceptions. Haven't found any store brand smoked sausage as good a quality as Hillshire farms or Echrich. Name brand hot dogs are better too. Most soups are pretty well the same with the exception of chkn noodle soup, I definitely prefer the Campbells. POWDERMAN. 

[Conan The Librarian]

You guys shop like I do, which seems to mean that we get the savings without having to clip coupons.

[Graybeard]

It isn't uncommon for us to save over $100 on our grocery shopping. We normally spend $450 to $600 plus or did when we were buying for a full month at a time. These days neither of us can stay on our feet long enough to do that so we've now changed to taking two or three trips per month rather than one.

We always had to go back for things like milk and bread or some other items anyway so now when we go we buy less per trip but still wind up spending about the same amount.

Winn Dixie has a card that when used with purchases gives you savings on most store brand items in addition to any coupons we might have. They also have numerous items marked buy one get one free and we do take advantage of those for things we normally buy anyway. The new card also gives me savings off on gas. I've only used that once so far but got $1.60 per gallon off when I filled my tank. I rarely buy our meats at full price but do stock up on the meats when they are BOGO and also those that are marked down. All told we pretty much always get around $100 or more off our months groceries.

[powderman]

We used to shop winn dixie a lot but they closed them all down in our area. POWDERMAN. 

[Empty Quiver]

There was a time when I / we did the coupon and b1g1 free things. We did save money, I think. I found we had a more varied diet and the pantry was stocked better.
 
We only bought things on sale and we got plenty of that item. It took a few months for a shopping cycle, to run it's course. At which time we were out of the super sale item.
 
As time moved on our sched got more hectic, and the girls got pretty opinionated about what they would and would not eat. They have pretty well moved on now and I have started to go with the sale buying more as of late.