The Dollar Stretcher : Coupons

Food Savings Can Be BIG Savings

Gary — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:47:00 GMT

Often I'm asked where is the best place to try to reduce spending. And, my answer is always the same. You'll probably spend the most on housing and transportation. But, the best opportunity to affect your expenses is in the area of food and groceries.

That's true for 2 reasons. First, because most families spend a lot on food. Generally between 15 and 20%. So, if you're able to save, it's enough to make a difference.

Second, because you're making purchasing decisions often. Not just the trips to the grocery store, but decisions on using restraurants and daily snacks and workplace food purchases. So there's many opportunities to save.

Finally, the savings doesn't have to negatively impact your lifestyle. Skipping the takeout window could actually make your life better.

To help you reduce your food/grocery bills we've accumulated a variety of resources (and we're working on more). The "Groceries and Food" section of the library contains dozens of helpful articles.

You'll find free downloadable price book pages that you can print out at home. Or if you prefer to use something fancier there's a nice little iPhone price book app.

And don't forget to use your coupons. We have printable coupons available from Smart Source and from MySavings.

Using a variety of techniques we hear of readers who have reduce their grocery bill by 20%. That would be the equivalent of reducing your overall expenses by 4%. And, that's a major savings!

Keep on Stretching those Dollars!

Gary

Grocery Pricebooks and Coupon Use

Gary — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:16:00 GMT

First of all let me say that I read your articles and enjoy each and every one. But I have a couple questions about the price book. I started my own version which is very much like the example I copied from your site yesterday. One of the questions is: do I get prices for EVERYTHING that I purchase or just the items that are on sale in the paper. Also, do I consider in the price any coupons that I may have for that item. Does each page represent one particular item? These are a couple questions my daughter and I were trying to figure out. Nancy B.

Nancy,

Good questions. Glad you asked them.

Let's start by remembering our goal. We're trying to find out when the price that we see in the store today is a good deal and we should stock up. So we want create a tool that will help us make that decision.

I never have listed every purchase. Just don't see how that helps me. I'm looking to see what the LOWEST prices are so I'll recognize them when I'm in the store. So there's no real need to list every purchase. However, you may want to add advertised prices (from sales fliers) even if you don't buy that day.

As to coupons, I leave them out. Two reasons for that. First, I'd use the coupon no matter when I bought the item. So it doesn't help me make a decision whether to buy or not. Second, I'd really be misleading myself by including it in the pricebook (especially if I didn't leave a note for myself that I had used a coupon). Suppose you did include that savings in the price you listed in the pricebook. Six months later you're expecting to be able to find the item for that price again. But you never will without the coupon. It could lead you to pass up a good sale waiting for a lower price that will not happen. If you really do want to include coupons, I'd add an extra column for coupons.

One final thought about coupons. A pricebook will help you to decide whether you want to buy today to avoid letting a coupon expire unused. If you face that choice you can look at the store price and subtract the coupon savings. Then compare that 'after-coupon price' to your pricebook to see whether you can beat the price later even without using a coupon.

Thanks again for some great questions!

Gary

Interesting Blogs

Gary — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:34:00 GMT

Just heard about a blog that might interest you. We've often recommended that you contact the companies that you do business with. Not just to complain, but also to praise them when they do a good job. I received an email from Vanessa Marie Primavera-Sybrandy letting me know about a blog entry she did listing how different companies responded to consumer contacts. You'll find it here. Interesting results. It seems like the most popular response was to send her coupons. Vanessa even has links for most of the companies (which might make it easy for you to contact them if you wanted to). It's part of her blog "Saving Money". You might want to check it out.

Keep on Stretching those Dollars!

Gary