I’m an avid Grocery Gamer…. I know you all know that, but my mom has recently gotten me into A Full Cup, a FREE site that looks to be an excellent and user-friendly source for finding the super-fabulous deals available combining coupons with great sales.
Mom is the amazing Guru of Extreme Couponing. Her HT triples totals -at last count- were Shelf $295 and OOP $9! She uses GG, AFC and also checks Hot Coupon World (which I don’t happen to prefer, but maybe you will!) and the round of Coupon Blogs that are out there. (You can see a few I’ve linked to in my sidebar.)
I know a lot of people I talk to about GG aren’t willing to fork over the investment costs for getting the lists. AFC is a great solution for those of you!
Now, this is for all of you that are always saying things like “How do you do it?” or “Tell me how I can get these deals.”
Here is what you do.
STEP ONE: Buy a Sunday paper EVERY week. You can choose your preferred method of filing. There are mainly two popular methods…. “Clipping and filing each Q” (see here and here and here) and “Filing by inserts” (see here.)
STEP TWO: Go to AFC and click on the grocery stores in your area and see what things you want to purchase that week.
STEP THREE: Start stockpiling. It will take a while, but eventually you should get to the point where you are ONLY BUYING THE SUPER FAB DEALS every week.
This is key… You should not shop with a list of what you need, but with a list of what’s on sale.
Of course, you will still need to pick up your perishable staples like milk, bread, eggs, and produce, but often you can see at least which store has those items on the best sale that week.
It takes work, but you can do it. Yes, you. Even you. You can do it. I promise. Wouldn’t you rather spend say $50 a week on groceries and have the surplus of what you used to spend for other things??? Wouldn’t we all like to have as much “extra” $$ as possible?
So, no more excuses. I’m talking to you. You right there sitting there at your computer thinking, “Nah, it’s too much work or effort, and I can’t get the deals that others get.” You know who you are, and YES, you can do it!!!
Let’s start with baby steps. Start by getting the paper tomorrow and saving the coupon inserts!
Nay, I love your enthusiasm. You sound like a preacher that just found a book in the Bible about coupons. it has been on my list of things to try this summer, but my summer has gotten rather busy all of a sudden. I am working on it. Thanks a lot for you encouragement and advice in this area for coupon dummies like me.
Ok FINE! I know you are talking to ME! I am going to try this crazy thing see what I can do. Desperate times call for desperate measures…and boy are we desperate!! It is that tip “don’t get what you need, get what’s on sale” that I have trouble swallowing…and convincing Mr. Breadwinner. I need a stellar, mind-blowing money-saving experience to get him onboard! I am going to try.
Got me under conviction! I’m getting my paper tomorrow and start clipping with more enthusiasm. lol Thank your mom for the new AFC site. Hope you have a good day!
~Amy
I was definitely a skeptic… Not that it couldn’t be done, but that I would be either too lazy or too embarrassed to do it!
After the ridiculous amount of money I’ve saved the last couple of months, I cannot imagine going back to life before coupons! ;)
I still have to tabulate my savings, but I did pretty good considering I only got in on the tail end of the sale!
You’re such a hoot! Good for you to share your genius!
(I don’t usually use coupons that often, because even with the coupons the generic is still cheaper. We’re not blessed with triple or even double coupon grocery stores up here. Stingy Yankee grocery store owners :(.)
I’m in the same boat as Rachel — unfortunately, there is just Shaw’s that doubles a coupon and it’s only 1 day a week (!!!!) — and not convenient for me to shop at. I do appreciate your enthusiasm for sure, and I would CERTAINLY be willing to give it a go if I had the choices of stores you had. -Who knows, … maybe someday I’ll be further South?
[…] of all, here’s a quick rundown of the Coupon Basics for you if you are just getting started… STEP ONE: Buy a Sunday paper EVERY week. You can […]