living in the dark ages with coupons Help !
 

The food thread got me interested.

I love couponing but my paper had absolutely junk! Yet I hear people have coupons for fruits and veggies and good food.

How do you do it?

I live in a small town, small grocery stores but the local price cutter is now doubling coupons up to I think .80. But one store won't even take internet coupons at all.

I know I am missing something,,,,,what is it?

thanks in advance

yeah, i wanna know this too!! i don't ever have coupons unless they come in something and its usually for some other thing that requires me to buy 4 name brand carp items to get a bag of carrots or something. so, tell us you coupon queens!!

That makes 2 of us because all we seem to get is coupons for junk.

Ladycat? What do you say? Where would we find coupons for whole grains, fruits and veggies? Better yet, how about coupons for organic whole foods?
I would dearly love to lower my food bill without lowering my standards....

I have a blog called Cheapskate Cafe . You're welcome to check it out. I live in Michigan. Some of the samples and freebies I post, you might be interested in. Grocery Deals are mostly Michigan based.

A few site you might want to try are:

A Full Cup - You can search for store deals. On the right hand side of the screen look for store deals and click on view all stores.

Becentsable - Here you can search by state for grocery stores near you, click on Store Deals. For instance if you go Missouri Grocery Deals and find Price Chopper and then click on Penny Pinchin Mom, she list what's on sale and tells you where to find the coupon to go with the sale.

As for coupons, there are a lot of internet coupons, if your store will take them. I live in a very small/rural city in Michigan. Our local paper rarely has coupons. I have learned over time that the biggest newspaper in the state has the most coupons. Here in Michigan that Newspaper is The Detroit Free Press. I normally buy 2-6 Sunday papers each week. Depending on which coupons will be in the newspaper. To find out what coupons will be in the Sunday Paper check out this site: Sunday Coupon Preview.

There is a magazine that only Walmart sells called All You. That magazine has quite a few coupons in it. For a list of coupons in the August Issue, check out August Coupons at the All You website.

Hopefully this helps you out a little. If not let me know. I am more than happy to help you out.

Sharon

Organic Food Coupons can be found at:

Organic Deals and Coupons

Your Green Helper

I'm sure Ladycat can share a few more site with you.

Sjens, Thank you!

Also check out www.dealseekingmom.com where you will find a database of coupons and coupon sites.

I quit seraching for coupons long ago. My local store also doesn't take internet coupons, so the sites suggested - though I am grateful for those who spent the time to post them - aren't useful to me. The only ones I use are for bathroom supplies..and even then, I can usually find better deals at the stores on the off brands. Most of the coupons I see now are for prepared foods that we don't use. I know they are out there, but honestly, they just take too much time to worry about. I can't afford to spend an hour to save 45 cents. Now when the Farmer's Markets start taking coupons.....then I will think about them again.

Number #1 BEST couponing forum for newbies:

http://www.weusecoupons.com/upload/

(Put ladycat in the referral box!)

There's an organic board there, too, to get you started if you're inclined that direction.

I am trying to do the pritable coupons, so I can get more with my $20 a month I am spending to donate to the local food bank. But I seem to be getting sent in circles.
I did use the $5 off when I spent $25 at the food ware house last week.
I also shop at winco. I am looking for high value cold cereal coupons. any help appreciated.

Ask a million questions at We Use Coupons, and study the tutorials and scenarios.

You can get all your cereal FREE with low value coupons once you learn how to stack the deals.

That's what I want to do. all I can for the $20 dh said I could afford.
And if I get good enough at it, some for us and even more for the food bank.
I am sure you know the food banks are hurting right now.
I used to be a coupon and rebater back in the 80's. Like you and I did the $300 dollars worth of groceries for $50 thing. i bought Savings bonds with my profits from the rebates. Some times it was several hundred dollars a month in rebates. I just reciently cashed in all those savings bonds (during the crash of 08). That sure came in handy.

Yes, I'm hyper-aware of that fact. :(

do you know of a way to have the forms filled out automatically when you are doing the samples?
I feel like there should be a way.

and I could have used 2 copies of the ware house foods $5 coupon but after I printed it , it disappered off the web site I got it from. Can you get around stuff like that?

As many times as I have shopped at the local M&P supermarket I don't recall seeing anyone use a coupon. I recently asked if they accepted them and was told yes, it's just few folks use them there. I also asked if someone could use coupons when buying on Food Stamps and was told yes again.

Relatives use to have a supermarket in Chillocothe, OH. She said it wasn't unusual for her to spend 1-3 hours in the evenings sorting out coupons from where they were redeemed. As I call for a $.50 couple they might receive back $.525 from the company. She wished they didn't accept them, but they had to stay competitive with other supermarkets.

I use roboform for filling forms with a click. There's also a plugin for firefox, but I don't remember what it's called.

If the coupon is a coupons.com coupon, you can almost always print a second copy by hitting the back button as soon as the first one prints.

I also live in a small town...not many coupons in the paper (Sunday)...the store will not double any coupons, will not accept internet coupons....but once in awhile, I find one I can use.

Here's another angle: if you only manage to save $$ buying non-food items like toiletries, medicine cabinet supplies, cleaners, etc. using coupons, you're still ahead of the budget game. IOW, by getting those items for FREE or pennies, I can afford to buy the better quality food items, like organic produce, etc.

Personally, I use just as many printable coupons as I do newspaper coupons. For example, on the first page of Coupons.com right now, there are coupons for Welch's 100% grape juice and any carton of Smart Balance milk. So, there are coupons for non-junk food, you just have to keep checking for them.

Now, I'm off to print that Welch's coupon. Got the 64 oz. bottles for $1 @ Family Dollar last time. :)

You can also go to ebay and plug in "grocery coupons" in the search engine. You can get specific coupons, usually 20, or a 100 potluck deal for a few bucks. I have done this when say my favorite pickels went on sale and there was a high value coupon out there. I got each jar for $1.00.

oh my goodness, this is good information. I am going to get busy. I have a question about roboform. My computer virus software says that it may hut my computer. Ladycat, how did you get yours? And did you have to pay for it?

I say coupons aren't all that. I do cut coupons but rearely do i use them as the things I buy are usually not covered by coupons. I don't buy most of the junk they want you to spend money on. I would actually spend MORE if i used them. Once in a while I can find something that I can stack on top of a sale item but rarely. I never buy cerial (I eat old fashioned oats most mornings or leftovers like rice in rice pudding) though there ws one exception where I spluged for the 4th of july. DH wanted some hot dogs so I used a coupon for oscar mayer on top of a sale and got to packages of nitrates/preservative free hot dogs for a buck fifty.

I downloaded it for free years ago, been moving it from computer to computer.

Ummm... see http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sho...33#post4538233

If your local paper has lousy coupons, get in the habit of contacting the manufacturers (via Contact Us on their websites) of the items that you do like to purchase. Manufacturers send out some really good coupons for $1 off items or sometimes you can try an item for free.

For the food bank I buy a stack of all the same thing from the dented food store, or a 50 pound bag of flour from the resturant store.
This week at the whare house foods they had 15 oz. cans of tomatoes for 25 cents. each and a large box of cereal for 79 cents.
I had a coupon for $5 off if I spent $25.
This is the kind of things they ask for, and they can pretty much use them no limit.
We like the B!G! resturant coupons too, for when we go to the VA for my DH.
I don't see where if it's out there it hurts to look for the savings.

I gave up on coupons years ago. Like others, those I see are usually for items/brands I never use and I also usually can find better deals on store/generic brands.

do these threads always turn into a coupon bashing?
I understand they are not for every one, but for those of us that do use a few of the items offered, what the heck.

what squashnut said. and as mentioned before, even if you save a little bit it is something.

as for the time it takes, I am going to consider it my relaxing time.

I am pumped and excited to try this computer coupon thing, I had never heard of roboform before. That alone is a great hint.

We spent 10 minutes on the computer the other day and were able to use $6.55 worth of the coupons we printed. Some of the products the store didn't carry the product. And some of the things we decided we didn't want to use after all. Those we left on the shelf next to the product in case some one else wanted to use them. They would expire soon any way.
$6.55 would buy alot of bananas.

I'm not bashing the use of coupons at all. I merely said that "I" rarely can find any for products that "I" use, therefore "I" gave up on them years ago.

Believe me, I truly WISH I could find all these great usable (for me) coupons that a lot of people do. If I could, I'd be a coupon-ing FOOL!

I do some of the samples too.
It costs nothing to do those and if I get going I can do 10 or so in an hour.
I have found any we havent found a use for.

Back in the heyday, I used to spend about 70-80% on our total grocery bill with coupons. Sadly, the store with constant doubles and occasional triples closed and it's nowhere near as good as it was.
Yes, people with Food Stamps can use coupons, but they're taxed on the coupon value and have to pay that in cash. I asked my friend about it (she recieves them ) and she thought the concept stupid- you'd think the state would WANT you to stretch those dollars as far as possible, not penalize you for trying to do so.

If you have google , you can down load their tool bar and it has a auto fill.

Not just bashing, but even after you say over and over and over that you can get healthy foods with coupons, every other post will be, you can't get anything but unhealthy processed foods with coupons. :doh:

That's too bad. I know I used to do pretty good at it. And I got cash using the upc codes as qualifiers on rebates. They had to be mailed in though and a stamp was 15 cents when I started. By the time I quit it was 25 cents. You could buy any thing you wanted with the checks you got.
There was a magazine called Refunding Makes CEnts and you could run ads for a couple of bucks, buying and selling coupons and qualifiers, or trading your extra freebie coupons.
I don't expect to get rich, but as long as all you have to do is look this stuff up on the computer. It's hard to turn down. Wheather it's to help our grocery supply or the food bank.
And now that I have a way to fill out the forms, I will be doing more samples.
Any way I am one that knows couponing can pay if you want it to.

In view of the current coupon bashing topics, I got pretty tickled when I stumbled across this receipt today.

I don't know why it says RED MEAT. That's 1# chubs of ground turkey on sale for .99 each. I had 7 .55 coupons so I got 7 of them. That's .44/# for ground turkey. 1# of ground turkey lasts for 2 or 3 or 4 meals depending on what I do with it.

2 bags of salad for .29 each after coupons.

2 bottles of BBQ sauce free after coupons.

2 8oz bags of cheese for .99 after coupons (1# for $1.98)

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...g/diamond1.jpg

Now I'm trying to get enough energy to scan some more produce and meat coupons. Been a long 2 days, I'm sooooooo tired.

In the meantime, for those who think the only coupons there are, are those from the newspaper or printed off the internet, here is my trade list of coupons which did not come from the newspaper and were not printed out from the 'net. And that's only a portion of what I have. It's taking me a long time to complete that list. Also keep in mind those aren't the GOOD coupons. I use those myself.

http://www.weusecoupons.com/upload/f...21-10-ned.html

The truth is they aren't interested for what ever reason. There are plenty of people who are interested and you know how much you help your family and others.
I wouldn't let it get to you. Their loss.

It's hard for me to take it when people don't believe me. :(

I know what you mean, i have posted things on here and they gang up on you.
It's funny cause there are other things people do on here and they don't act that way with those things. Like they don't all run to the gardening thread and bash gardening. I don't get it.
As hard as it may seem I wouldn't let it get to you.
For what it's worth I beleive you.