Saving Money with Coupons: a Hassle?

I have many people tell me they don't use coupons because it's too much work or it's a hassle to find sales. I know that feeling. There have been times in the past I have felt like that; during a family emergency or a move across the country. But I've always started using coupons again.

Why?

Because the money I can save is well worth the small amount of time I spend cutting coupons.

I spend about 15 minutes on Sundays cutting the coupons that come in the weekend paper. I log in to www.thegrocerygame.com , print out my grocery list (which already has the good sales matched up to the coupons for me), and spend a few minutes pulling the coupons I'm going to use. Then I'm ready for my grocery trip on Monday or Tuesday.

The Grocery Game is a service that members are able to log into and have access to shopping lists for their local grocery stores. The lists contain both advertised and unadvertised sale prices and matches up the available coupons to those items. The important thing about the Grocery Game is that an item won't show up on the list unless it's a "rock bottom" price; which means an item is priced as low as it will go. A "rock bottom" price also tells you that you should stock up on that item.

I'm a stay at home mom and I do not work outside the home. One of the ways I can contribute to the household is by saving money and watching what we spend as a family. One of the largest expenses (besides the mortgage) that we have is our food budget. More information can be found at www.sharingmytwocents.blogspot.com/

I could save 30 minutes of time a week and spend $900 a month on food and toiletries for our family of five. Or, with a little meal planning and coupon cutting I could spend $400.

Here's a copy of a receipt from a recent trip to Target. I spent $61.08. The entire receipt wouldn't fit on my scanner, so I shortened it to show you parts of it and the total.

For $61.08 I got:
11 packages of Pampers diapers
14 tubs of Pampers wipes
6 small packages of Pampers wipes
1/2 watermelon
1/2 gallon organic milk
2 pkgs hot dogs
2 cans frozen lemonade
hot dog buns
toothbrush
salsa con queso

Yeah, I think I'll deal with the hassle of coupons.