I have never cared to use these things, and it annoyed me that the person in front of me was using so many, but then I saw his total...

He had over $100 of groceries and paid 10 cents. Thats it. The person at the checkout counter said that she had one person get $100+ in groceries, and they had to pay him money. So, are there any of you out there that actually do this?

8/23/2007 4:37:04 PM

like... once a month my mom goes "coupon shopping" Its never that extreme, but she usually pays like.. 50 bucks for about 200 dollars worth of grocerys. Fills up the cupboards nicely.

8/23/2007 4:40:30 PM

Quote :

"The person at the checkout counter said that she had one person get $100+ in groceries, and they had to pay him money."

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

that would be awesome...

8/23/2007 4:41:40 PM

You can get a lot of stuff for free or really cheap, especially at stores that double them, but it will be mostly refrigerated biscuits, rice, peanut butter, etc. Very little that you can really make into a meal.

8/23/2007 4:44:39 PM

obviously you've never had my peanut butter and rice biscuits.

8/23/2007 4:48:08 PM

I signed up for Sunday only with the local newpaper solely for the coupons. It more than pays for itself in a few weeks.

As for actual coupon use, my wife cuts them out and uses them. We use them at Wal-Mart and they do everything in their power to not accept coupons.

These people who can somehow not pay anything for groceries amaze me. I assume they are using them at grocery stores that do double and triple coupons. There are no grocery stores near me that do that.




[Edited on August 23, 2007 at 4:53 PM. Reason : l]

8/23/2007 4:53:00 PM

So I just called Harris Teeter and asked when their double coupon day was. he said that double coupon days are every day, and that they offer triple coupon day every now and then.

For those who understand coupon parlance, does this mean the value of the coupon is automatically doubled, or that you can buy the same thing twice with one coupon.

its kinda silly. I love spending money, but the i think I might make this a game for a month or two and see how it turns out.

[Edited on August 23, 2007 at 4:55 PM. Reason : .]

8/23/2007 4:54:58 PM

^ Some coupons say "do not double" on them so check it out first.

Man I wish Harris Teeter was in my area. I live in butt-fucking Kansas.

[Edited on August 23, 2007 at 4:58 PM. Reason : Also it means a $0.50 coupon is worth a $1.]

8/23/2007 4:58:06 PM

Where do these people who get $100 worth of groceries for free get said coupons?

also,

Quote :

"obviously you've never had my peanut butter and rice biscuits."

made me lawl

8/23/2007 4:59:09 PM

HT doubles the value of all coupons up to 99 cents, as long as they don't say "do not double" on them. I think their triple coupon day is twice a year or so, but it might be a little more often. That means you buy one, and get twice the value of the coupon taken off.

[Edited on August 23, 2007 at 5:00 PM. Reason : yeah what they said]

8/23/2007 5:00:12 PM

^ Are they accepting other people's coupons, or just their own?

8/23/2007 5:11:32 PM

Ha ha Carzin. This sounds more like something I would do than something you would do.

[Edited on August 23, 2007 at 5:15 PM. Reason : l]

8/23/2007 5:15:19 PM

I used to clip coupons/print online coupons all the time

I would even buy coupons from Ebay

I would save a shit load of money but it is really time consuming and school got in the way

I think Lowes Food triples coupons every day. The coupons you can print online (from CoolSavings or whatever) says "Do Not Double" on them so you have to be aware of that.

8/23/2007 5:22:41 PM

I worked at Harris Teeter way back in high school. They used to run this promotion where you had a chance of getting your load of groceries for free. While I had a few people get a good ammount for free, the funniest thing was this grandma came in to buy a thing of poptarts. She had a coupon that brought the price down to like $.80 and then she won the free grocery thing.

8/23/2007 5:47:45 PM

I use coupons. It is a Sunday morning ritual now for me to clip them. I mean, if you are going to buy the stuff anyway, why not take the time and save some money?

8/23/2007 6:10:07 PM

Most places won't double coupons that are over $0.50

8/23/2007 6:26:35 PM

Yeh I know Harris Teeter and Lowes Foods do Triple coupons from time to time. That is when the store has to pay you back.

8/23/2007 7:22:42 PM

http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

Quote :

"What is The Grocery Game? The Grocery Game is a fun, easy way to save hundreds of dollars on groceries each month. TERI'S LIST reveals the "rock bottom" prices on hundreds of products each week and matches them up with manufacturers' coupons for the best possible savings at your local supermarket. The Grocery Game has exclusive databases that track manufacturers' coupons along with weekly sales and specials, both advertised and UN-advertised. With TERI'S LIST, the days of time consuming work required for effective coupon-ing are over. The Grocery Game does all the hard work and research, presented in a quick reference format on the internet each week, as TERI'S LIST. Members log in, spend a few minutes with a pair of scissors, and they're off to win The Grocery Game! back to top Why can't I just do this on my own? People who are great at coupon-ing typically spend hours each week preparing for their shopping trip. These "coupon pros" research sales in the ads, matching up their coupons to those sales. Once at the supermarket they soon discover there may be twice as many more un-advertised sales. So, after spending many hours at home with the sales ad, they spend even more hours standing in the supermarket aisles sifting through their coupon files once again, searching for even more coupons to match those sales. This is what we call making a career out of coupon-ing. Unfortunately, most of us don't have the time for this type of shopping. In contrast, members of The Grocery Game eliminate all of those time consuming hours and usually save even more time and money than most "coupon pros". Even "coupon pros" can make costly mistakes. Just because an item is on sale doesn't mean its time to play your coupon. The Grocery Game databases track the sales history on nearly every item in the supermarket, waiting to use a coupon on "rock bottom" sales, saving members even more money. Now, the best possible savings are quickly accessible to "coupon pros", busy professionals, overworked moms, single adults and anyone who wants to cut their grocery bill by as much as half or even more."

8/23/2007 7:30:56 PM

I generally save 30-40 bucks per shopping trip ($150 average pre-coupon bill) from coupons, but ^ is a bit ridiculous.

Lowe's foods also doubles up to 99c (damn my $1 coupons) every day, and is generally cheaper than harris teeter to begin with.

8/24/2007 8:05:32 AM

i just shop at the commissary

8/24/2007 9:11:55 AM

Quote :

"I generally save 30-40 bucks per shopping trip"

from sunday morning coupons?

8/24/2007 9:18:08 AM

Quote :

"Quote : "I generally save 30-40 bucks per shopping trip" from sunday morning coupons?"

Yeah, that is about what we save each time and we only check the Sunday paper. There are usually always 2 magazine style coupon packs in the Sunday paper (I know SmartSource os the name of one) and sometimes you get an extra one from a specific brand, like Proctor&Gamble. I know that $30 sounds like a lot but when you start doubling a few 75-99 cent coupons it really adds up fast.

Quote :

"Lowe's foods also doubles up to 99c (damn my $1 coupons) every day, and is generally cheaper than harris teeter to begin with."

THere is no such thing as a grocery store that is NOT cheaper than Harris Teeter. You basically can't buy anything that is not on Bonus Buy unless you want to get raped. I mean even the Fresh Market is cheaper than HT and its generally considered to be a premium grocery store.

8/24/2007 9:46:03 AM

^ Valassis is the other common one.

Keep in mind that most stores that double (or triple) coupons will only do it to a certain number. I know at Harris Teeter it's 20 coupons per day, and any over that are taken at face value.

8/24/2007 9:53:42 AM

so if i want to get the most for my coupons....whos the best store? lowes?

8/24/2007 7:02:16 PM

Quote :

"The person at the checkout counter said that she had one person get $100+ in groceries, and they had to pay him money. So, are there any of you out there that actually do this?"

This is my mom, no freaking joke.

8/24/2007 7:15:57 PM

yeah there was some girl in one of my ece classes that did this as a hobby...she would take pics of her hauls of stuff, which she normally got for free or close to it. theres websites for people that want to spend the time doing it. i think the key is having a steady supply of the coupons (aka know someone who distributes/stuffs newspapers or buy coupons in bulk off of ebay).

theres a bunch of sites that can help like this one: http://www.couponmom.com/ go to the proper state and it'll show you how to get stuff for freeish

8/24/2007 7:18:31 PM

anyone know if Food Lion is doing double or triple coupon?

8/27/2007 4:34:06 PM

My wife and I do the Sunday paper coupon thing.

On a scale from 1 (Never use coupons) to 10 (Use so many coupons they never pay for groceries) we are probably a 5. Our bill averages $75 a week and we usually have about $10 in coupons.

I think the key is being rational about what you are buying. When we first started consistently using coupons our grocery bill wasn't any smaller because we bought a bunch of crap we didn't need.

Now there are plenty of coupons we pass on because the product isn't a good buy or a brand we don't care for.

My dad is a 9 on the scale but he's retired and has nothing better to do.

-- Dave

8/27/2007 5:09:24 PM

i don't use coupons, b/c the things i buy aren't on sale.

8/27/2007 8:56:17 PM

the single biggest reason i dont use coupons is because none of the things i usually buy have coupons

8/27/2007 9:02:15 PM

If you actually look through the coupons you'll find smthg good. That plus in store deals are good.

8/27/2007 9:04:25 PM

i live on a pretty strict diet

i never seen any coupons for pears, bananas, kiwis, bread(i only buy one kind), milk, cottage cheese, chicken breast(i buy when the bags are buy one get one free and those are usually the grocery store brand)

i guess if i looked i could find some for breyers yogurt, brown rice and possibly some bags of broccoli or baby carrots, but the miniscule gain from that would not be worth the time spent searching for the coupons

8/27/2007 9:11:45 PM

i usually make 2 trips a week to the store. one to HT and one to food dog, just depending on the specials at each. just went to the teeter and got enough bread and soda to last a year!!!1

they should email me coupons, oh wait thats called spam isnt it!!1

8/27/2007 9:14:51 PM

bread lasts a year?

8/27/2007 10:28:43 PM

^for those modern folks with a freezer

8/28/2007 12:34:12 AM

frozen bread is fucking nasty.

8/28/2007 6:20:37 AM

Quote :

"For those who understand coupon parlance, does this mean the value of the coupon is automatically doubled..."

Yes, doubled coupons are worth 2/100¢.

8/28/2007 7:20:40 AM

^^i dont think its that bad...i only put mine in the freezer for a week or 2 at most

8/28/2007 7:33:50 AM

I dont freeze my bread but the difference in kind of bread makes a world of difference. Some breads if you freeze them well (packaged right for freezing) and keep them in 2 weeks about- it makes no difference once you thaw them out. Other kinds it ruins them. There's not a general "rule" that says bread will be good or bad frozen
Least not one that *i* know of.


That said i never use cupons but i wish i had the time to bother.

8/28/2007 8:28:18 AM

http://www.thegrocerygame.com/

My girlfriend uses this site and it is awesome. After the trial, she bought the access to Harris Teeter and Food Lion. It basically has a list of things, tells you what it will cost with the coupon from that paper, and how much you saved. On a $70 pre-coupon bill, we usually pay about $37-40. It is definately worth it if you don't mind clipping and presenting coupons at the grocery store.

8/28/2007 9:32:11 AM

^what does it cost after the trial?

8/28/2007 9:48:16 AM

since i'm basically near poverty now...i'm going to start using coupons. i decided last night. i used to make fun of my bf for going into the store and picking up the paper of what's on sale and strictly shop by that paper...like i said, now living near poverty--coupons and that paper are my friends.

8/28/2007 9:51:32 AM

i want to think it is $10 for the first one and $5 for the second and that is either every other month or 6 weeks or something. it takes about 4 weeks to collect enough coupons and get going. also, i heard some places still accept expired coupons, so don't toss em.

8/28/2007 10:50:47 AM

im all about some coupons.

8/28/2007 10:54:49 AM

Quote :

"obviously you've never had my peanut butter and rice biscuits."

lololol

8/28/2007 10:54:57 AM

The lowe's foods that I go to doesn't check that the coupons are something that I actually bought. Their scanning system has so many false negatives, that they just manually enter the coupon in when the system complains.

So, i abuse this.

8/28/2007 11:14:59 AM

Quote :

"i want to think it is $10 for the first one and $5 for the second and that is either every other month or 6 weeks or something."

that's the cost, but it's every 8 weeks

8/28/2007 11:30:25 AM

Its a $1 trail for somethng like 4-6 weeks. I am trying mine now. I just clipped Sundays coupons. Went to Harris Teeter to pick up only the 'must buy and stockpile' items and saved 60% off the list. Its going to take a month or two to get the coupons built up. proctor and gamble coupons are in wednesday paper.

8/28/2007 12:20:37 PM

By the way, the grocery store never pays you. My roommate is a coupon guy and he has been for years. In his heyday he would make small purchases at specific places (like about 20-30 bucks max) to get his best value, and there were times when he was supposed to get money back after it was all said and done and he just got out free.

8/28/2007 7:29:23 PM

My mom loves coupons. She regularly goes to the grocery store and spends $70 while the total pre-coupon was $150+.

8/28/2007 7:41:27 PM